Kaitlyn stuff

Ok - here is my attempt to make a list of words Kaitlyn has said.

Mama/mommy, dada/daddy, kitty, puppy, bunny, bird, bubble, book, shoe, sock, milk, daycare, grandpa, hi, bye, ball, eat, be-bo (belly button), eye, green, two, three, juice, cheese, cup, no, poop, uh-oh, pee pee, beep, wow, whoa, nana (for both banana and for her Nana Ganoe), baby.

I am getting a blank now. I know there is more, so I will edit as they come to me.

She is good at pointing out her body parts too. She knows her hands, feet, toes, fingers, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, belly button, hair, head...and probably more I am forgetting or don't realize yet.

I also have some exciting news about her clothing size....she is finally progressing into 18 month stuff! Slowly, but surely. It's a little big on her, but a lot of 12 month stuff is getting to be a little small. We need new pajamas really badly actually - but everything I find is either too big (2T) or too little (12 month). I will keep looking. Today she is wearing a new 18 month outfit I bought her yesterday. It is a little large but looks pretty good - daddy likes it because the shirt says "daddy's little cutie".

It's funny though - she still has 2 pairs of 6-9 month pants (yes, seriously) that fit her. My 17 month old actually still wears some 6-9 month pants...crazy isn't it?! Obviously those pants were sized a little on the big side, but still. It is weird to think about.

34 week appointment and other baby stuff

Everything is looking good. Still measuring ahead (37 weeks in fact, and that was a second measurement she took because the first one she thought it seemed almost like 38 weeks!!) Obviously the way they measure leaves lots of room for error and is not necessarily that accurate...but this is consistent growth with what I measured the last time, too. Only last time, I think I was 31 weeks measuring 34. This time I was 34 weeks measuring 37. They are not concerned because I had the ultrasound which showed everything is fine.

Otherwise she sympathized with me about my sciatica problems and asked about my past back problems/surgery. My blood pressure was fine, weight gain fine (2 lbs in 2 weeks for a grand total of around 10 lbs from pre-pregnancy weight - or 25 lbs if you are counting from the low I was when I finally stopped losing in the first half. Even 25 lbs at this point is not bad though...I am very happy with it. Last time I was up more than 40 lbs by now!)

Heart rate in the 130's, still extremely active (as always, baby made sure to say hi. This time she did it by bulging out against the nurse practitioner's hand when she was measuring me. She was surprised and said "Oh! Well hello baby!"). Although for once, she didn't have to chase the baby around to get the heart rate so that was nice.

In other baby news - we are getting closer to finishing the room. Still nothing more is done besides most of the painting, but we finally have chosen our blinds/curtains and rug and it will be ordered in the next couple of days. The mattresses that Andy had brought in for his Grandma to sleep on when she was visiting are finally back out. And it sounds like Andy and my dad will put together the furniture not this weekend but the next. I can't believe how close this is getting - it seems so crazy to think that soon, I will be mommy to TWO beautiful little girls. Wow.

Newest word

This morning when I was ready to bring her to daycare, I said "Are you ready to go to daycare?" She yelled "Day-ca" and ran to the door. It was pretty darn cute. I couldn't get her to say it again though! Once again, I am so glad that she likes her daycare. I think she mostly loves being around all the other kids (there are usually 5-10 kids when I drop her off in the morning). Having a little sister will be hard for her to get used to at first, but I think in the long run she is going to love it.

I am hoping to sit down and write a post some day soon with a list of many of Kaitlyn's words. Obviously I could never think of them all, but I will try to do my best. She is a chatterbox!

Daycare blues

We have been very lucky in that Kaitlyn loves daycare. We have not once had a problem with her throwing a fit when we drop her off - in fact she always seems quite happy when we get there. There have been a few times where she didn't want to leave when we picked her up, though! (That made me sad, but at the same time so happy that she likes it there because I would not want to be leaving her somewhere that she is miserable of course).

Today, we experienced something new. When we first arrived, I gave her a kiss and put her down. She just stood there, until our wonderful daycare woman came over. Kaitlyn then turned around and attached herself to my legs. I picked her up to say goodbye once more, and as soon as I handed her over to our daycare woman, she started crying. Screaming. The famous pout she was known for when she was younger (see picture - Kaitlyn at 4 months old) even showed up. She was sniffling and crying and screaming and she had huge tears coming out - all the while reaching back out for me. It was so sad :-( but I knew that if she is going to throw a fit when I drop her off, the best thing for me to do was probably leave right then rather than putting it off. So I gave her another quick kiss, said I love you and good bye, and walked out the door. NOT the easiest thing to do but I know it was probably the best.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

Especially in Duluth, MN?!

I was driving to daycare this morning and saw up ahead three birds crossing the street. As I got closer, I realized that they were chickens. A dark colored one, a light brown colored one, and another darker colored one. I slowed down and watched as they waddled across the road. I was pretty surprised, as I have never seen chickens so randomly out and about in Duluth. I felt like I was in Key West again! There were chickens everywhere in Key West, so it really took me back to that fun vacation we had in 2005. Now if only Duluth had an ocean, some palm trees, and beautiful weather 12 months a year...

Crane Lake Vacation

The whole family, including Grandma Ganoe, except for Anthony came to Crane Lake for a few days (because he was in Jersey City doing some training for his new job). The weather on the weekend kinda sucked, well not kinda, it did suck. I thought it was opening of fishing or something not the middle of July.

On Monday, Kandi and I had to come back to Duluth for Baby G #2S 3rd ultrasound. She is good and everything is looking good. Just a big head. That is for all the brain storage like daddy :-). When we were down here, Kaitlyn decided she wanted to spike a 103.5 temp again. As last time, just went away on its own. No idea what is going on with that.

Anyways, Tuesday, we took a houseboat from Voyagaire. We cruised up through Crane Lake, Sand Point, and into the Blind Pig area of Namakan. We enjoyed swimming, playing in the sand, a little fishing (only got 1 hour cause otherwise the women were going to be mad, i.e. the year before) and some brats. We came back that night, so we had about 5 hours of drive time, but did spend a few hours playing on the lake. With young kids, this is the only way to go.


View More Crane Lake Vacation Photos


View More Crane Lake/Sand Point Lake/Namakan Lake Photos

Zoo and Blue Angels

Today, we went to go to the zoo, but first daddy wanted to see what was going on at the airshow. Since he is too cheap to pay, we just did a drive by of he airport and saw the F-16s were flying. So we cruised on over to the zoo.

For the first time, Kaitlyn fed the goats and the donkey too. She tried to feed herself a couple times too, but she did a good job. Below is a video.




After the zoo, I thought we should go for a ride and see what was happening at the airshow. We pulled into the place across from this fish market I have always heard has really good fresh fish. I think it is called the Park Bench. When we got there, the Blue Angels were just taking too the air. I tried to take some pictures, but the batteries went dead. I started dismantling Kaitlyn's toys to get some batteries, but all of those use those crappy green cell ones. But I did get a few before the camera was completely dead.

Empty Nest Syndrome

I forgot to update about our baby birds...they grew up and flew the coop!
It has been a few days now and I miss watching them.

I also never mentioned that although there were 3 babies that hatched out of 5 eggs...we believe that 1 of the 3 did not make it for whatever reason...so in the end, only 2 baby birds survived. I hope they are out there having fun and making good lives for themselves :-)

C-section is scheduled...

So I have previously mentioned that our c-section was being scheduled for September 2nd. That was the plan but it didn't work out. I got the call today and it is officially, 100% scheduled for Wednesday, September 3rd at 8:00 am. We have to be at the hospital at 5:00 am though - that will be a treat. And so, unless Baby G decides to arrive earlier, that will be her birthday!

Speaking of arriving earlier, congrats to my friend Crynessa on the birth of her baby girl. Her due date was just a week before mine, but the baby apparently had plans of her own. It just goes to show that you truly NEVER KNOW when things are going to happen!

Ultrasound results and vacation

We had our ultrasound yesterday (I was 31 weeks, 6 days) and everything is fine. The fluid levels are fine, all the other important "stuff" is fine, and baby is fine. She is just a little bigger than average. Her measurements ranged from 32 to 34 weeks, and I am 32 weeks. So big, but not massive or anything. And it is most definitely still a girl, we got an excellent view of that. As always, Baby G was moving all around. The ultrasound tech laughed a little when she first got a kick on her hand. Then a bit later she was taken by surprise when Baby G did enough to actually move the tech's whole arm. She said "That's never happened to me before!". Granted this was a younger tech so it's not like she has 20 years behind her and it has never happened. But still I had to laugh. That's my girl!!!

I just got home from vacation in Crane Lake. Andy's whole family including his Grandma from West Virginia (who I had never met before) was up and we had a good time. Today we went on a houseboat. Nothing new but always fun! There were 13 of us so it made for a lot of noise and sand and what not. It was a beautiful day to do it though...it was perfect until we were almost back, and then it rained. Nice timing! I came home tonight and Andy is coming home tomorrow night with Kaitlyn. I only came home because I need to sleep tomorrow for work, which means I want to try and stay up really late tonight...and it is much easier to do that here. It would have been impossible there, as every room has people sleeping in it right now. Anyhow Andy has our camera and computer (I am on an old computer we have plugged in only so we can go through the stuff on it before getting rid of it and I am very proud I figured out how to get the internet working by the way), so I can't post any pics of our vacation yet. But I will!

31 Week appointment

This appointment was an interesting one. As usual, Baby G gave the doctor a hard time in finding the heartbeat. Every time the doc would find it, baby would move and the doctor had to "chase" her around (which happens every single appointment). This time, Baby G even gave a couple of good firm kicks to the doppler and doctor's hand. It was a struggle to not be giggling (which would cause my stomach to move around more and make the process even harder). But even the doctor had to a laugh a little. I told her I think Baby G is going to come out with a black belt in karate and she laughed.

She measured me and thought I seemed to be measuring big - 3 weeks ahead in fact. So, at 31 weeks, I am measuring like I am 34. Yikes! Obviously there is room for error, but the estimate of 3 weeks ahead was enough that she wants me to have an ultrasound. It is scheduled for Monday and it is basically to check why I measured so big. It could have been the position of the baby, it could just be a big baby, I could have too much amniotic fluid, etc. It could be a lot of things, but they need to find out what. And so, we will be seeing Baby G once again through the amazing technology that is Ultrasound! I am very excited, and of course hoping everything goes okay.

The timing could have been better, as Andy's grandma from West Virginia will be visiting for a week starting tomorrow night, and the whole family is spending time at the cabin. Monday is right in the middle of our Crane Lake mini vacation - so we will be driving back to Duluth from Crane Lake (then back again) just for this ultrasound. Obviously it is worth it, but it is just depressing thinking about the gas prices...yuck.

Otherwise all is well. My blood pressure was fine as always, my weight gain was only 1 lb since last time but she wasn't worried. I told her about my main concerns - sciatica, not sleeping, and swelling. She asked if she should take me out of work, but I declined. I just don't have the time to do that, unless it is truly medically necessary. And at this point, it is not - which I am grateful for!

The fuzzy face of an angel...

Ok, so angel is not the right word. At first glance, Cole looks like a cute little fuzzball and you would never imagine he could be anything but sweet and innocent...but believe it or not he can turn into a little terror. (You'd never know it from being a guest here - he is a scaredy cat when people are here). He has come into a crazy night owl phase. I realize cats are nocturnal, but this is something that he has just started recently. Meowing, scratching on walls, rattling doorknobs...So now we are on a mission to try and retrain his behavior again. Last night I was at work and Andy had to deal with him, and he was not happy. Cole woke Kaitlyn up rattling on her doorknob, and then Kaitlyn proceeded to cry off and on for awhile afterwards. Usually if am home, I would be up trying to take care of Cole and shut him up so that he doesn't wake Kaitlyn. But...I was at work.
It has been starting around 1 am every night...like an alarm goes off inside him and tells him it's time to be a pain. Hopefully we can reset his alarm!

So hard to keep a straight face!

Last blog, I mentioned Kaitlyn's newest adventures of getting up on the couch. We are always telling her to sit down, and sometimes she listens. I have caught her on the couch a few times just sitting, looking at a book or drinking out of her sippy - basically being a little angel. However more often than not she decides it would be much more fun to run back and forth, to bounce up and down, or to try and climb over the side of the couch. A typical exchange goes something like this:

Kaitlyn: Climbs up onto couch and sits. For about 10 seconds. Then proceeds to stand up/bounce/climb/run.

Me: "Kaitlyn Rose, you sit down!"

Kaitlyn: Pauses and then stands there and smiles at me.

Me: "You need to sit, or you can't be on the couch".

Kaitlyn: Smiles, blinks her eyes, and bats her eyelashes at me (seriously, she does this).

Me: Gets up to either sit Kaitlyn down or put her back on the floor.

Kaitlyn: Proceeds to run back and forth across the length of the couch, giggling, as I am coming towards her.

Me: Arrives at the couch and reaches towards her to sit her down or pick her up.

Kaitlyn: Giggles like it is the funniest thing on the planet.

So... this whole time I am trying to keep a straight face. I really am frustrated, because she does this often and I don't want her to fall off the couch and get hurt. However as frustrated and concerned as I am, it is SO hard to keep a straight face when she is giggling, blinking her eyes and batting her eyelashes at me. And the thing is, you know she knows that she is being cute. She does it completely on purpose, hoping it will get her off the hook.

We'll just keep working on it..and trying to keep a straight face.

Baby bird's internet debut

Here they are - the adorable little bird family that has taken up residence on our front porch. In this pic you can see two of the three babies clearly, and if you look close you can see the beak of the 3rd hiding back there as well. Their eyes are open, and they have no hair or feathers other than a white-fuzz mohawk on top of their heads. And of course how could you not note the crap - literally - that is all over as well. Ah, mother nature! In any case, they are darn cute and I am so glad we have gotten to be a part of their childhood. Er, birdhood. Chickhood?

I have a video to post of them as well, which I will do as soon as I can get Andy to figure out what is wrong with our most recent videos to make them not play on our computer. He is super smart so I am sure he can do it quickly :-)

And finally, I apologize for the delay in posting a picture of our little bird family. It has been a rough couple of days - I have been getting very little sleep, I got an awful sunburn on my leg that made it hard to walk for a couple of days, and Andy and I have both been sick. It isn't easy being sick when you have a toddler to care for, and when there are things to get done in the house. Andy has spent a lot of time in Baby G's room getting stuff done. It is now painted though, so we are getting close! While Andy has spent time in there being miserable painting in the heat, I have spent that time chasing after Kaitlyn downstairs. Trying to teach her that standing, bouncing, and running on the couch is NOT a good idea. That might be a blog for another day....

Making it Prettier... Maybe

I was trying to make it prettier by adding some styles. I think I made it uglier though. Now I know why I write code.

Hello, blogspot!

Andy has been suggesting I move my blog to blogspot for quite awhile. He had the idea that we would start a Ganoe family blog. Well, we're finally doing it and this is my first official post at blogspot - though Andy did bring over several of my old myspace blog posts.

Yesterday I posted about our 4th of July and how I got sun burned. You know how sunburns just get worse over the following hours - this one is no exception. It is probably the most painful burn I can remember, but I would take it any day if it meant keeping Kaitlyn from being burned :-) Luckily sunscreen does that job. Now next time I just need to be smart and remember to use sunscreen on myself - especially while pregnant since that makes you more sensitive to the sun.

Here's a little teaser for a future post. I am working on getting video/picture of the mama bird feeding the babies. I did get a video today, although I was too late on the feeding part. I did manage to get a short time of mama sitting there with the birds still sticking their heads up, chirping and begging for more food. Soon I will try to post so you can see just how cute it is!

4th of July

We took Kaitlyn to the 4th of July parade in Superior today (since Duluth oddly doesn't have one). It was actually her first parade. Every time we have planned or hoped to bring her to another (like the Christmas City of the North parade, or the Timberdays parade in Cook), something has come up. We had fun. I got a lot of pics, which I will post sometime in the next few days. Kaitlyn really liked the planes that fly over to start things off. She also enjoyed any type of music going by, and horses caught her attention pretty quickly too. It was a long parade - almost 2 hours - but Kaitlyn was such a good girl right up until the end. She started getting a little antsy eventually but it was okay timing since the end was in sight anyways. We got lots of candy considering she is pretty young to handle most of the candy we got. But she did enjoy a sucker while we were there, and some freeze pops every now and then too. That is probably what got her through so happy lol. There was a little boy next to us that was about Kaitlyn's age and he came up to her once and looked at her so interested. She's already attracting the male attention! lol

But when she is older, those guys better watch out for her daddy :-)

While we were at the parade Andy smothered Kaitlyn in sunscreen - but of course I forgot about myself and my even more sensitive than usual pregnant skin. SO - I got a nice burn down the side of my left leg and above the knee on top of my right leg. I was apparantly sitting goofy much of the time. It looks so wacked out.

Afterwards we went to Superior Meats which is one of those places where local people rave about it. We have had stuff from there before and we picked up some bratwurst for supper tonight - Andy is going to grill them. I am excited because lately when I am very hot, I can't eat a lot so I haven't eaten since this morning. By the time we got home it was way past Kaitlyn's lunch time and afternoon nap time, so she had lunch and went straight to bed. Andy and I took the opportunity to nap as well.

Now it is 5 pm and the day is winding down. Kaitlyn will go to bed tonight, Andy and I will probably play Mario Kart on the Wii for awhile, then watch the fireworks (we have a fairly decent view from our 2nd story back deck thing), and then head to bed ourselves. I feel so old....lol

Oh- and the baby birds have been providing me with lots of entertainment. You know when mama is feeding them because you suddenly hear a bunch of frantic chirping coming from out there. And she feeds them a lot. It has been fun to watch. From what we can tell, there are 3 baby birds. I guess a couple of the eggs didn't make it, but at least 3 did!

I SAW THEM!!

So I was on my way upstairs to take a nap and thought I should check the mail first. The mail box is right below the bird nest, and so when I went out of course momma flew away (she always does when we go in and out). Well as I turned around to head back inside, I heard tiny little chirps. I looked up at the nest and saw baby birdie beaks bobbing up and down! I went back inside and shut the door so mama can come back. I kept watching through the window for a minute and could see a few wing flaps now and then too.

I am SO excited!!!

Update a few hours later: I just heard a bunch of loud chirping commotion so I peeked out the window saw mama bird feeding the babies! It was the coolest thing ever :-) Mama was sitting on the edge feeding each bird from her beak. The babies were poking their little heads and beaks way up to get the food. SO CUTE!

Night and Day

I was just thinking about how my two pregnancies have been like night and day so far. It is so funny how one person's individual pregnancies can differ SO much!

1st time:
1. No morning sickness
2. In the beginning I broke out horribly on my face
3. Not many other issues except heart burn and typical aches and pains at the end
4. At 30 weeks, had gained probably 35-40 lbs from pre-pregnancy weight (for an eventual total of 54 lbs).
5. Kaitlyn was born at just 6 lbs, 4 oz the day after her due date. Despite my huge weight gain, she was tiny!

2nd time:
1. Morning sickness to about week 22
2. Never broke out! Yay!
3. Pretty much anything else...you name it....I have had it. Including heartburn again, so that is one similarity.
4. At 30 weeks I am 2-4 lbs up from pre-pregnancy weight.
5. Despite my weight loss in the beginning, and minimal overall gain...this baby is looking to be more "average" sized rather than tiny like Kaitlyn.

Oh but there is one more similarity. Both babies are girls! Which proves wrong the myths about certain symptoms = certain gender. Not so - my pregnancies were night and day but it was a girl both times :-)

That is all for now. I am going to go to bed - looking forward to sleeping in the nice, cool air-conditioned bedroom. Aaaaaah!

Tape shows woman dying on waiting room floor

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/01/waiting.room.deat...

A 49-year-old woman collapsed and died on the floor of a waiting room at a Brooklyn psychiatric hospital and lay there for more than an hour as employees ignored her, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union, which on Tuesday released surveillance camera video of the incident.

-Isn't this just awful? Click the news link above for the full story. Ugh - makes me sick. And to think that crap like this happens probably more than we realize!

Phone calls

I got two exciting phone calls yesterday.

1. I passed my 3 hour Glucose test - I knew I would -)

2. My c-section is being scheduled for Tuesday, September 2nd. SO...unless Baby G decides to come early (which she very well could), then that will be her birthday!

Although I wish I didn't have to have a c-section, I feel it is the safest option for me - and it is nice to know I definitely won't be going past September 2nd! That is exactly 2 months from today....yikes. I will be 39 weeks pregnant - so compared with my actual due date I get a whole week shaved off - that's okay with me as long as baby is healthy!

Baby G - Your daddy, your sister, and of course I can't wait to meet you!!!

Babbling

On the way home from daycare today I encountered yet another genius-behind-the-wheel. She was right on my butt for a long time as we were passing a string of cars in the other lane. Eventually we got stuck behind someone in our lane who was going slower than we had been - but we were still passing the cars in the other lane. Yet this woman feels the need to pointlessly weave back and forth. Umm, hello lady, nobody will go any faster with you doing that. And if you open your eyes, you will see that your original lane is still going significantly faster than the other! She was just mad that we slowed down a few mph. So finally she gets what she feels is enough of a clearance to go around me and cut back in front of me. I HATE it when people do that. Specifically when really, there wasn't enough room for them to do that but they do it anyways. She just sort of came back into my lane in front of me, and I could either A.) Hit her or B.) Slow for her. Since I really am not in the mood for a car accident (and who ever is), I just slowed for her and gave her the finger. I am sure she didn't see it but I still did it anyways. I just get so frustrated by people like that. She went through all that to get 1 whole car ahead. I eventually had to exit but as I watched her go on, I could see she was still in the exact situation she was before, and still weaving in and out of lanes. Dumb!

Ok, and so last night I finally had to take the plunge and take off my rings. With the heat lately and my pregnancy swelling, I knew it was coming. I think I did it just in time, because even with slippery soap all over my hands it took a lot to get my wedding ring off. And even now, 11 hours later I still have marks from trying to get it off. Ouch! So yeah now my poor fingers feel naked. And I might get dirty looks from old ladies for being a seemingly young, unmarried mother (because let's face it, I look the same now as I did when I was 16. At least I think so. I mean, I don't want to age too fast but I would like to at least not look like a teenager). That's okay, they can give me dirty looks if they want to. Anyways I am hoping to get a temporary cheapie ring at Target or something to wear until my regular one fits again. It's a good thing we don't wear jewelry (in general) on our feet! My feet and ankles have been very swollen lately. Oh the joys!

What is cool though is that we have been making good progress on baby's room. Andy took up the carpet and has gotten most of the junk out. All that is left are a few bookshelves and some garbage to take away. I got the closet cleaned out and it is filled with baby stuff now (not organized yet - just stuff thrown in lol). This weekend Andy is hoping to get it painted. YAY!

Last night I was brushing my teeth and I got what I assume was a kick - it was either so hard, or just perfectly placed (or both) that it made me say out loud "OOOW!". It only lasted a second so I assume it was a kick. And baby was quite active at that time. If it had lasted more than a second or so I would have been scared sh*tless because it was very, very painful. Yikes. I love knowing she is okay, but man sometimes I wish she'd take a little break! After that little incident we were laying in bed and Andy felt her moving all around, he was like holy cow. I'm not lying, this child is nuts! :-)

Ok it is bedtime. I work the next 2 nights only, and then have 4 off. I took a couple extra off for 4th of July so that will be nice. We will take Kaitlyn to the parade in Superior on Friday I think. And this weekend we will work on baby's room and who knows, maybe go to the Zoo again. We went this past weekend and Kaitlyn got a kick out of petting the goats. (I will try and get the pics up soon). She also loves the bats...go figure. We got the annual membership so we can come and go whenever we want now - will be especially nice for Andy if he wants to take Kaitlyn after work on Fridays (he gets off early on Fridays in the summer) to let me sleep a little longer. The Zoo is just a few blocks from daycare so that would work perfectly. I am babbling - good night!

Check out this video: 30 week belly

I took this today when baby was moving around a lot. Usually she is camera shy and when I try to get it on video she stops but today I got it. The thing is that it is hard to capture. I moved the camera around too much which throws it off... In the beginning it is more to the left. By the end the movement is more on the right. Do you see it? Andy has a hard time seeing it, I don't have a problem seeing it but maybe that's because I was there in person (obviously, lol) and know first hand what was going on.

3 hour glucose test

It wasn't as bad as I was thinking it would be. Time went by fairly fast...I read magazines, people watched and brought a Sudoku puzzle with. The only thing that sucked was that their timer got messed up and my 3rd blood draw (out of 4) was about 20 minutes late. I would have been later if I had not spoke up and been like, Umm, you guys are late you know. The timer was screwed up for both me and another girl, but she wasn't affected because I spoke up before it would have affected her. So yeah, I got there about 7:45 and did not get home until after 11:30. It was a long morning! The glucose drink tasted just like before, only this time it was way sweeter (who knew that was possible)...sweet enough to be downright icky. I mean before it wasn't good or anything but at least it was...I don't know, somewhat tolerable. Tasted much like orange soda. This was just disgusting. Like drinking orange flavored sugar, kind of.

I got to see a few interesting characters. Like this big meat head type guy who came and sat down in the lab waiting area with a buzzer that was meant for some other department, probably Internal Med since all that is on that floor of that building besides Lab and Internal Med is Pediatrics and Ob/Gyn. So his buzzer went off, and he sat there for like a minute with it going off. He sort of looked at it for awhile. Turned it around in his hand and looked some more. Finally he gets up, and goes to wait in line at the lab window. He comments while waiting that they could not make the buzzers much more annoying. Another lady in line asks if he was supposed to be seeing a doctor somewhere? He says yeah. She says, well that buzzer means that they are calling you. He said "Like what, on the phone?" !!!! DUH! She says "No, it is your turn for your appointment and they are probably looking for you". He says "Oh..." and walks away. He must have made it to the correct destination eventually, because 1/2 hour later he was back at lab but this time he was actually supposed to be there. lol.

So anyhow I got through it and hopefully they get back to me with results sooner than last time!

Movie night

So 2 of my 3 clients were gone tonight, which only happens once in blue moon. Their absence made for a boring night. So - I watched a couple of movies. (Yeah, it was SUCH a hard night....lol).

First, I watched "Juno". I have been dying to see Juno forever. I really liked it, although I cried when she gave birth because it reminded me of my crappy experience. Obviously the end result is amazing (and the only thing that really matters in the end) but I still have sadness about the way things went. Not that it was anyone's fault or that I am mad about it...I just wish things had gone different. So anyways yeah....I did enjoy the movie a lot. I was not disappointed.

Next, I watched "Reservation Road". It was okay. Not amazing, but not bad either. Although I have to say, it probably wasn't the best choice for a hormonal pregnant woman to watch....I ended up shedding quite a few tears, mostly in the beginning. The movie is about a hit and run which kills a 10 year old boy, and his father becomes determined to find the person who hit him. The movie shows the father on his mission (which leads him to kind of abandon his family), it shows how mom and sister are trying to move on, and it also follows the life of the man who was driving and how he copes with all the guilt and what not. I won't go into any more details so I don't spoil it in case you want to see it. It was good but like I said, it was a real tear jerker for pregnant ol' me.

Yep, it was a productive night at work. No, really actually it kind of was. The movies only took up 3 hours or so...out of 10. I also finally got some things done for work that I have been meaning to do for 2 months (annual refreshers we are required to do on various training topics like blood borne pathogens and medication administration). So I do actually feel accomplished. Go me!

And now I am wasting time blogging....but I better get going as I still have a few things to wrap up before the end of my shift. Next time I blog it will probably be all about how my stupid 3 hour glucose tolerance test goes. I won't know results but I will be able to complain about how bored I was the whole time :-)

Long take on birthing controversy!

The home birth vs. birth in a hospital debate is very interesting to say the least. But like most "controversies", I hate how each side argues for itself. I wish more people were able to successfully argue for BOTH sides of things and include facts supporting both sides...because in almost any "controversy", each side has at least some sort of valid point/points.

Two things that bug me about the home birth vs. hospital debate:
First of all, I hate when anti-home birth type people say that midwives shouldn't be used because they aren't medical doctors. My take is that this is a decision that should be left up to a woman. She should do research on local midwives before choosing one, and she should ensure that it is somebody she is comfortable with, has a good reputation, experience, etc. A certified nurse midwife may not be a doctor but they do have specialized training. If you are dealing with a experienced MW, they will have lots of, well, experience to go along with their special training as well. This is not something to be looked down on or dismissed. Like I said, it is up to the pregnant woman to do her research and what not in making her own decision, and if she is comfortable with a midwife, then that is great, and nobody should judge her for her decision. How great is it that women have the option of a home birth if that is what they desire! And how rewarding of a job would that be - bringing babies into this world in such a comfortable environment, knowing you are are fulfilling a woman's dream for a home birth...very cool!

Second, something that bugs me about anti-hospital types (or extreme home birth advocates):
You always read their quotes or statistics about how home births are safer than hospital births, and that their c-section rate is much lower than that of a hospital. But you never see them acknowledge that this is probably affected by:

(1. The fact that midwives generally only take on clients who are low-risk from the beginning - regular Ob-Gyns or even a Perinatologist receive the majority of high risk patients.

(2. There are socioeconomic factors. Women who choose a home birth are more likely educated, at least middle class, married, and have planned pregnancies. In contrast, a hospital receives all sorts of walk-ins and different characters in addition to regular patients. For example: low-income women who didn't have prenatal care, women who smoked during pregnancy, the crazy situation where she didn't know she was pregnant, women who had undiagnosed complications due to little to no prenatal care, etc. All of these things are not as likely to come into play for a midwife offering home births,.. because like I said, they generally take low-risk pregnancies, probably of married, stable, educated women who have planned their pregnancy and taken a lot into consideration when choosing a midwife and planning a home birth. So anyways it seems obvious to me that, since hospital statistics include many more high-risk pregnancies as well as the variety of other types of people and situations I mentioned, then yes, of course the statistics will be more negative than that of home birth! Home birth statistics don't have nearly as many "out of the ordinary" situations to skew them.

(3. When something does go wrong in a home birth and it can't be remedied at home, then the woman has to go to the hospital. And when the decision is made to transport the woman to a hospital, won't the birth then be included in that hospital's statistic? So if the complication ends up warranting a c-section, it is no longer a home birth statistic. It is a c-section in a hospital but failed to take into consideration that it didn't start in the hospital.

4.) What about situations where a women is in pre-term labor? More than likely, they go to the hospital and have their midwife go there, rather than calling the midwife to come to their home. Therefore, home births generally don't have deliveries at 26 weeks pregnant. Yet another complication that the hospital receives and in turn, is obviously going to change the stats.

It is true that unnecessary interventions are sometimes used probably due to doctors convenience, patient fear, or both. And interventions do sometimes lead to more interventions. But just like a woman should research and choose a midwife the are comfortable with, they should also choose a doctor and hospital they are comfortable with and trust.

One last thing: I am so glad that women have the ability to choose they way they want to do things, However no matter what statistics say, you won't change my mind after my own personal experience that a hospital birth is safer in the event of an emergency. I am not saying home birth is unsafe - because I don't think it is...UNLESS something goes wrong. People can argue until they turn blue but trust me, when Kaitlyn's heart rate dropped, and it wasn't resolved with changing of positions and oxygen, and what not...I am THANKFUL that I was right at the hospital and not 5 minutes away. And I bet some of the more extreme home birth advocates would be shocked to hear that yes, the doctors and nurses DID know of techniques to try and resolve the heart rate issue before declaring c-section. But it didn't work and I sure wouldn't have wanted them to sit and try for 10 minutes while my baby faded away. Also, my emergency happened after no interventions or even pain meds - so it can't be blamed on "interventions leading to interventions". Up until the c-section, I thought my hospital experience was great. Nobody pushed anything on me, I was allowed and even encouraged to get up and move around, etc. It wasn't like some anti-hospital people make it out to always be. It was not evil. Hospitals are not evil. Yes, there are aspects of health care that are just not right. We all know this. But I thank God that I had the medical staff I had when I needed them, I am also thankful that women are able to do their own research and make decisions on their labor and birth experience based on their own physical and emotional wants and needs. If you are a good candidate for a home birth, you do research based on what is important to you, and a home birth is what you dream of, then YOU GO GIRL! lol