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Week 16
~ The Flu and Getting Organized
As you may have noticed I missed a week. This last week has been pretty interesting. Tommy had a stomach bug and woke vomiting. He went right back to sleep just to wake vomiting again a few hours later. The poor boy was very sick and confused. He's never thrown up before. By the afternoon the diarrhea had started which you can imagine was great on my morning sickness. He couldn't tolerate any food or drink that first day, not even pedialyte. I was so happy I was still nursing. Without my milk I believe he probably would have dehydrated! As for the rest of us, I can't figure out if I got this too or if it was just my IBS and nausea acting up. I seemed to have a low grade fever the day after Tommy was the sickest. Tom stayed home from work one day when Tommy seemed better. Tom didn't have the nausea or vomiting, but he had a fever and aches and the diarrhea. Tommy's fever was gone by that point at least, but then two days after he started throwing up again. I guess he gave it to Tom and Tom gave it back to him. Today we are all feeling better and there has been no vomiting or diarrhea for a change! I don't think I've ever done that much laundry or spot cleaning the carpet so much in my life! At least by the end of this Tommy had learned to use a bowl!
Not long after my last entry I saw my OB. What an amazing difference from the midwife! I lost another three and a half pounds so I have officially lost nine pounds in the first fifteen weeks. I was two pounds lighter on the midwife's scale the week before, but I think it was just a difference in the scales since I still seem to be on the losing trend and not gaining yet. My blood pressure was nice and low this appointment. Often when they take it its still high from me moving around and chasing or lifting Tommy, but by the end of the appointment when they take it again it has always been fine. There was also no sugar or protein in my urine. I've never had an issue with that. The doctor came in and was very matter of fact. He started looking for the heartbeat with the Doppler and couldn't find it. He tried all of about thirty seconds before bringing in the ultrasound machine. I was laughing a little bit inside because if he had some patience I'm sure he would have found it. The midwife had found it a week before! It was neat to see the baby again, but at the same time I've had a lot of ultrasounds so far and while they have never been shown to cause problems they have never been proven to be safe without a doubt. I'd rather not subject my child to all these ultrasounds! The Doppler itself uses ultrasound waves, but they are not as strong as the picture machine. The baby was positioned just how I thought. The kicks I have been getting are low and to the right, and the baby is positioned with head in the middle and body angling down a little and toward my right hip so the kicks are just where the feet are. My placenta is on the left side toward the back and high which is good!
It seemed like the doctor was being overly nice to me. When I was trying to figure out the baby's position from the ultrasound he seemed impressed that I could convert what I was seeing sideways to actual positions on my belly. He, at a few points during our conversation, called me intelligent. It was very interesting considering the past we have! Overall it was a very short appointment, which is just fine with me. I also refused the AFP test and I was surprised he didn't yet again lecture me on that like he has in the past. I will see the OB again on March 30 and I have a radiology appointment for my mid-pregnancy ultrasound on April 4. I think I will be in my nineteenth week then.
In more exciting news I hired a doula! I went with the first one, or was it the second! I can't remember which I have called which. I guess I should have made up names for them. The one I hired is the one who has attended more births, charges a little more, doesn't have the live in nanny and isn't the massage therapist. I really don't know exactly why I chose her over the other. It was basically a gut instinct I suppose. I did really enjoy the banter back and forth between her and Tom. Tom says he liked each one equally well, but I got the feeling that with this doula he will be there and active. With the personality of the other doula I think he could have slipped into a corner and then he wouldn't be at my side when I needed him. I liked it when this doula said that she likes to give everyone jobs to do! I love her energy and enthusiasm. She seemed excited that I had chosen her and of course asked why! She said she will try to get the other doula to be her back-up. She's never needed a back-up, but I feel really comfortable knowing that if for some reason she can't be there I will at least know the person who is coming to help me. I will still go to the other doula for massages, in fact I need to call for another appointment and also to tell her I didn't choose her. I'm not looking forward to that. I know she'll be fine, but I feel a little bad because I really did like her a lot.
I guess the only other thing going on in my life isn't really baby related. I'm on this huge organization and cleaning mission! It's not the nesting phase come early or anything like that, but the realistic side of me knows that my apartment is a disaster and since we have to be moving out by May 31st, I figured packing and cleaning in my third trimester would be really tough so I'm getting a head start. I've used some of the FlyLady's ideas, but some didn't seem like they would work for me. She was a recent guest interview here on StorkNet. I divided my house up into 10 "rooms" or different areas that need attention (the front hall closet counts as a room since there is a ton of junk and filing just thrown in there). There were ten weeks until May when I started so I vowed to completely organize and clean one "room" per week. The catch was I had to keep that room clutter free and do daily spot cleaning and weekly thorough cleaning after it was complete. It's been two and a half weeks so far and despite our flu of last week I have kept my vow. It feels so nice to have a really truly clean and organized kitchen and bathroom. And I'm most of the way through our second bedroom, just waiting for carpets to dry before I steam clean the second half! At this pace I will be able to devote the first part of May to finding a new rental, hopefully a house with a yard, and I will have a full month to do packing as well. The packing itself should be easier too if I am able to keep organized!
I am writing this a little earlier in the evening than usual so I have a little one tugging at me. He's been waiting very patiently for a bath so we are going to hop in together now. He loves his bath and plays with his toys at my feet while I sit up in the back of the tub and read. I've finished The Birth Book and am more than half way through the other book I mentioned last time, A Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth. I'll probably go with a specific VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) next, but I have yet to decide which one!
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