SAFETY WARNING

I am all about free stuff, hand-me-downs, whatever, especially for baby stuff that only gets used for a short period of time.  What can I say, I am cheap like that!

So, a friend gave me a used baby crib, and it occurred to me as I was cleaning it up that I should check to make sure it was not effected by a product recall.  GOOD CALL.  I went to http://www.cpsc.gov/ (consumer product safety commission - bookmark this page!) and sure enough, this crib has a 'repair recall' issued.....it just needs special locking pegs installed at the bottom of the drop-sides, and the company sends them out free upon request.

Contacted the company, ordered the parts, finished cleaning up the crib....then started thinking about other baby products.  I have the swing that my last baby used (he is now ten years old!) and it is in good shape, even though it has been passed around and used by several other babies.  But still, in 10 years, safety issues can pop up, right?  So I checked that one on the website too, and YES it also has a recall.....needs a new safety harness.

Oh and while I am on the subject, STAY AWAY from any used car seat or other 'safety' equipment - this is where it is always worth buying new, no matter how cheap (er, I mean frugal) you are.

I love freecycle.com (through yahoo) and expect to get lots more cool free stuff for this baby, but you can bet that everything I use will first be checked for recalls!

Keep those little munchkins SAFE!

Seriously, does this baby make me look fat?

I got some 'fan mail' yesterday....a distant friend who read my blog ordered me a maternity shirt that says "Does this baby make me look fat?"  and it arrived in the mail yesterday.  TOO CUTE!  :)

I will post pictures of me in the shirt as soon as I can.

I'm trying on clothes out of my closet, stuff I haven't worn in years, and finding about a 5% success rate - the other 95% is piling up, waiting to be re-hung, and I have no clue when I will get around to actually hanging them back up.  Over the past 5 or 6 years I have been almost every size between a 16 and a 28, but most of my wardrobe is 18-20.  Right now my thighs and my huge knockers keep me in size 22-24, and my growing belly will soon demand at least a 24. 

Time to go shopping, right?  NOT.  Time to blog about how pissed I am, once again, at the fashion industry as a whole for discriminating against 'real women'.

I'm really trying to figure out, WHY are there no maternity clothes in any store above a size "1x"?  1x translates into a size 16-18 in most things.  I found some maternity jeans online in a 3x, ordered them, and they finally arrived - turns out they are "3x Petite" and I am 5'6" tall - NOT petite. 

This is why it is so important to be able to TRY STUFF ON in the stores.

Plus size stores like Lane Bryant don't sell maternity clothes, and maternity stores like Motherhood don't sell Plus Size clothes...

Seriously, it is bad enough in the fashion world that people seem to think large women only want to wear loud floral prints, etc.  But now the fashion world has decided that fat women don't get pregnant, or pregnant women don't get fat?!?!

COME ON, PEOPLE!

crazy dreams

I remember having crazy dreams with the first three prgnancies, but nothing quite like these!  Maybe I am getting crazier as I age?

A bizarre one the other night had me sifting through some ancient remains, and there were drawers containing bones of children - except when I opened the drawers, the 'bones' were like pieces of giant lego people (and when I say giant I mean they were like the size of a human toddler, instead of the half-inch-tall lego guys I usually step on in our playroom).  Strange.

And there were a couple of dreams this week about a friend I haven't even SEEN in a decade.  Why now?

Best one had me choosing to name this baby 'Martha' because of a necklace I found - and in the dream I was all excited to finally have a NAME picked out.  The most ridiculous part about this dream is not 'martha' as a name (although that did make me laugh) but rather is the fact that hubby and I have had names picked out for a LONG time - just waiting to find out in 2 weeks whether its a boy or a girl.

I'm just starting to LIKE being awake, even though I am still crazy when conscious.  Just less crazy than I am in sleep.

my baby bump

Here's a picture of my baby bump as it looks TODAY (at 13 weeks).

My OB checkup went well today, didn't get to see a sonogram but heard baby's heartbeat and everything is going GREAT.

In 2 more weeks, I get to find out baby's gender......so excited!

Keep moving forward

Doula update - an organization called "Operation Special Delivery" provides a free (volunteer) Doula to military wives whose husband is deployed during the birth. Depends on availability, of course, but I applied today, should know in a week or so if I will get a Doula. If they can't help, I did find one who only charges $500 for births at my local hospital, and she offered me a military discount to bring it down to $450.

*sigh* one hurdle down, only a few hundred left to go.

I think my morning-sickness is subsiding - crazy because I've barely thrown up at all with this one (compared to the first three pregnancies). Today I actually felt really GOOD all day, aside from really needing a nap. Yes, I took a nap. You got problem with that? ha ha ha

Tomorrow, OB checkup, and MAYBE another sonogram? For sure get to hear the heartbeat, at least.

And tonight, undoubtedly, more INSANE dreams. They're crazy enough when I am not pregnant, but add some hormones and the usual pregnancy fears, etc. and you've got a recipe for disaster in my subconscious mind.

to Doula, or not to Doula? That is the question...

Since hubby will be 6,000 miles away when this baby is born, I am looking at my options to have a labor coach or maybe even a doula there to support me through labor and delivery.
My sister lives about 15 minutes away from me, and was my birth coach with baby #2, so she was the obvious first choice to step in again for #4...until we found out that she is ALSO pregnant, due about a week and a half ahead of me (so, obviously unavailabe, right?) Life is just funny like that sometimes. I'm totally excited to be going through the whole pregnancy thing with her, and we will both find out the gender of our babies within a day of each other. These cousins will grow up together, so it will be kind of cool if we are both having the same thing.
Anyway, my next choice for a labor coach or birth partner would be my best friend, but she has a 2 year old at home and a husband who works crazy hours, so the odds of her having someone available to stay home with her toddler when I go into labor are slim.
As far as hiring a Doula, I am kind of trying to get past the idea of PAYING someone to do what family/friends would normally do - it just kind of leaves a bad taste in my mouth, like the idea of buying love or affection. I know, it sounds ridiculous, but it still bothers me. Birth is a really intimate thing - and all I really want is to share it with my husband. *sigh*
In addition to me getting past my own weird block about hiring a Doula, I have to figure it into the budget somehow. It looks like it will cost between $600 and $1000

I know I am going to cry at the hospital, missing my hubby. I expect to feel very alone at that point - but I can't imagine doing the whole labor/delivery thing ALONE.

Of course, writing all this down, I am thinking more and more about the first three births, and how grateful I was to the L & D nurses at the hospital for all their patience and care. Those nurses were far more valuable to me during the process than my actual labor coaches were - should I just go to the hospital and hope they are well staffed enough to have a nurse checking in on me more frequently?
I don't know. I have to talk over the Doula idea with Hubby and with my OB - we'll see.

dance all night....

WOW, felt the baby move last night! A LOT. It's just a slight tickle kind of feeling, and if I had not been holding still (trying to sleep, of course) I never even would have noticed it, but it went on for most of the night.

I was so elated feeling this, and then started crying almost uncontrollably when I realized that my hubby won't be here to feel the harder kicks and hiccups that I know are coming soon. He is deploying in a few weeks, and will miss the whole last half of the pregnancy, the birth, etc.

I know some of the tears are obviously justified, but most of this whole crying jag can be chalked up to good ole hormones. I've been so moody the past few days, it's just crazy. I mean CRAZY. Like, when I realize how quickly I bounce back and forth between laughter and tears, I really think I need my head examined.

As much as I hate feeling crazy, I am LOVING being pregnant, mood swings and all. I feel bad for my hubby and especially for my sons, who have to deal with the big bundle of hormones that I am right now, but they are all going to dote on this little one anyway. Even if he or she wants to stay up and dance all night.

**(kind of hoping it's a girl so I won't be so outnumbered here! we get to find out April 10th)

Laughs

Got this in a pregnancy newsletter, had to pass on the giggles!

The five best prenatal yoga postures

• The Pringle. Lie on your back with a can of chips balanced on your stomach. See if you can eat them all before you fall asleep.
• The Sneeze. As the sneeze approaches, squeeze your knees together, breathe in and out, and try to remember what it used to feel like to "hold it in." Keep this pose while you hobble to the bathroom to change your underwear.
• The Calf Cramp. Try to stretch around your belly and rub your leg while simultaneously screaming loudly enough to wake everyone in your zip code.
• The Pesto Burp. Bring your chin to your chest and exhale as silently as you can through your closed mouth. Reward yourself with a nice, meditative Fudgesicle.
• The Sleeping Hip. Lie on your side until you lose all feeling. Roll onto your other side and repeat. Namaste!

Second trimester (woo hoo!)

So, I am officially in my second trimester!
The highlight of my week was a sonogram in which my baby finally LOOKS like a baby. The pictures are incredibly blurry, because the baby was moving constantly, but in motion it was - beautiful!

Of course I was also vastly relieved to see everything going OK with the baby's development, as the sonogram came minutes after my meeting with a genetic counselor who scared the CRAP out of me with all the risk statistics.....my age, my weight, etc making this pregnancy so 'high risk'

So bizarre to even say that, because I associate the term 'high risk' with things like bedrest, c-section, etc and it does not look like I will have to experience anything so drastic as that. Rather, the 'risk' refers to the chances that something will go wrong with the baby (ranging from birth defects to DEATH). And 'high' is like a 1% chance in most of these fields, where I am used to a .001% or even .0001% chance for specific abnormalities.

Just one more major difference between having a kid at 20, vs. having a kid at 36!

Anyway, back to the sonogram - the baby was WAVING the whole time, cracked me up! Really wish hubby could have been there to see it, but at least I got to talk to him on the phone for a few minutes that day. Miss you babe!