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Thursday, March 29, 2012

It's A Crime

To have a pregnant woman suffer from food poisoning. True story. 

Late Tuesday afternoon I started to feel ill. I chalked it up to a long day due to our play date. I took a bath and designated that night an early bed time night. A little before 10:30 I woke up in intense pain.  I pooped, I puked, then tried to lay back down only to realize I was having contractions and was shaking uncontrollably and there was no way I could lay in bed. Was I was dying? I woke an incoherent Sam up and asked him to fill my water up while I pooped and puked some more and tried hard not to panic. UGH. I debated going to the hospital as I simply felt AWFUL and the fact that I was having contractions freaked me out, but ultimately I decided I would wait it out to see if things got worse. The hospital is an hour away and with having to wake the neighbor to come over and watch the kids, you better make damn sure you really are dying before you make the trip, lol. I decided to lay myself up on the couch and that's where I remained the rest of the night, suffering. Poop, puke, contractions. I did not sleep. Not one wink. It was a loooooooong night. 

Morning came and a call to my midwife placed her sitting on my couch telling me I looked awful. At least she came over with my remedies. She told she was fairly certain I had food poisoning. I ran through a list of things I had eaten on Tuesday and not properly washed veggies or dirty kiddo hands after going potty and touching my food seemed to be the culprit. And because I'm pregnant, I'm more susceptible to getting ill. As for my contractions, being so sick and dehydrated was causing and fueling them on. She gave me some Oregano Oil capsules to take every 3 hours to help with the food poisoning and then an herbal tincture (a little dropper bottle filled with a concoction of different herbs) to stop the contractions. She said this tincture stopped 7 past clients from going into labor preterm. Good news because no home birth for me before 37 weeks. I'm only 32 and Timothy is NOT ready to come now and I'd be crushed if he came this early and we couldn't follow through with my home birth and even more crushed because he'd wind up being in the NICU from coming too early. I'm a bit fearful of delivering early. I really need to sit back and relax....but easier said than done with two other kiddos running around. 

Anyway, since my Midwife was over, we did my regular appointment. Timothy was fine. He's head down and has appeared to have dropped. Even Sam commented later that night how my belly looked lower and not as "wide." I think some of it might be due to the fact that I'm dehydrated and not overstuffed with food anymore, but I can feel the difference in my ability to breathe better, so I know he has turned and dropped at least a bit. Timothy's heart beat was great and he was still very active, so apparently I'm the only one suffering, lol. She left and told me if things didn't start to get better to call again and of course I knew if these contractions didn't stop or got worse it was really time to head to the hospital for some not so natural preterm labor intervention.

Thankfully the Oregano Oil worked like a charm. I was able to keep some food and water down shortly after taking my first capsule. I took one drop of the herbal tincture on my tongue every 20 minutes or so and the number and intensity of my contractions started to decrease. I layed on the couch and tried to relax and sleep as best I could the rest of the day and was more than happy when Sam got home from work. I took an Epsom salt bath and napped on the couch while Sammy took the kids outside to play for a while and give me some peace and quiet. By the time bedtime rolled around I had no more contractions and I had the best nights sleep I've had since becoming pregnant. I slept like a rock. Maybe because I can finally breathe and am more comfortable with a non food and water bloated belly? I'm feeling significantly better today, though still very tired and worn out. I plan to relax as much as I can today so I'm able to take Anthony to school tomorrow. He was so upset when I couldn't take him yesterday, poor boy. 

Lessons learned: Wash your veggies well, wash your hands....and everyone else's, and natural remedies can work! 

I'm glad that nightmare is over with.

With love,
Mama Hauck


Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Mama Time

Yesterday Sam was kind enough to get off work a bit early so I could make it to a 5:30 hair appointment. I was really looking forward to this time to myself! I got my blond highlights freshened up, red highlights put in, and a little trim all around. I mentioned how I was having my hair done in preparation for maternity photos (hopefully soon!!) and was thinking about purchasing a curling iron to experiment with different hair styles. The hair dresser was nice enough to show me how to curl my hair and then got me hooked up with a top of the line curling iron for a really decent price. It was fun to see myself with a different hair do and it seemed easy enough. But I'm soooo incredibly unskilled with hair (Sam has to put Molly's hair in a pony tail because I simply can't....FAIL!) I'm not sure I can recreate the look even with the right tools, lol. We'll see. 


Today we had a play date! We went to my friend Molly's house for lunch and hang out time. The kids like playing with Molly's daughter Joss and they all had a good time until it was time to leave. Anthony was super sad, poor boy. Since next week is spring break, I hope to take the kids to the library on Wednesday for the story time gathering I use to take the kids too all the time and hang out with Molly and Joss again. 

Oh! And if you look close in my photos, you can see we changed the color of the leaves on Molly's tree. I'll have to take a photo of it so you can see. I like the colors so much better than before as it lightens up the room. 

With love,
Mama Hauck

Friday, March 23, 2012

My Handsome Little Man

I'm sick. :( Boo. So is Anthony and Molly. Though I think I'm worse off. That darn Papa. I KNEW he was going to get us sick. Shortly after doing my post yesterday I fell into a whole body ache, stuffed up, headache coma on the couch. That's pretty much where all of us stayed the rest of the day. Papa missed work yesterday, but is back to feeling better and returned to work today. That gives me hope this is only a 24-48 hour thing. Sadly, Anthony had to miss school today because of his cough and honestly there was no way I was getting out the door to take him even if he were well. We just downed a whole box of mac and cheese between the three of us and are now relaxing on the couch. Nap time soon I'm thinking.....please.

Anyway, onto the point of this post!

Last Wednesday I had one of those "I'm soooo proud of you" moments. I was dropping Anthony off at school and the second we walked into the classroom a group of 3 boys who were playing legos in the corner yelled, "Anthony!!! You're here!!" Then the teacher said, "See, I told you he would be here soon. Anthony, everyone has been waiting for you!" 

Anthony took his coat off, hung his name up on the wall and then walked over to the boys who were already bombarding him with their lego spaceships and airplanes. One of the boys had a lego airplane built with a lego that had "police" written on it. He goes, "Anthony! Look at this one, what does this say?" Anthony replied, "Police!" and then started playing legos. 

I seriously had to choke back tears. Watching the excitement in the classroom when Anthony walked in warmed my heart. To know that all those boys were waiting for Anthony to get there and were so excited when he finally showed up just made me so proud of him. He is obviously loved by his peers and teacher and it reaffirms to me that Sammy and I must be doing something right. On top of that, I had no idea he could read the word police! Definitely surprised me.

Little things, such little things. But I walked out of the school beaming.


With love,
Mama Hauck

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Molly and Timothy's Room

The Columbia River Gorge area didn't get the memo that it's now SPRING! This was yesterday.


And there is MORE snow this morning. :( Don't you feel sorry for me? Everyone and their brother I feel is talking about 70* and sunny and here I am still cold and scraping snow off my car. Boo. Ahh well. I keep crossing my fingers that spring and warm weather is just riiiiight around the corner! 

Papa came home from work sick last night. Like flu like sick. He's currently still sleeping and taking the day off from work so today I have 3 children to take care of. ;) Now I wake up this morning and don't feel so grand myself. I hope it's just from sleeping worth crap last night and not that I'm getting sick too. I can't really afford to get sick. And I really hope the kids don't get sick. Between snow and sickness, I might just collapse into a puddle of tears.  

However, to make myself feel better I can just go to Molly and Timothy's room. It's ALL DONE and I am loving the woodland and beachy feel to it!! It's exciting to see things come together. And super exciting to have Timothy's newborn-3 month clothing hanging up in the closet next to his newborn diapers. :)


With love,
Mama Hauck

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Week 31

9 more weeks to go if I go close to my due date of May 20th!

Your Baby in Week 31 of Pregnancy

As far as growth goes, your baby's still on a roll, measuring an impressive 18 inches and weighing in at more than three pounds. At 31 weeks pregnant, you can still expect your baby to gain at least three to five pounds, possibly more, before you two meet.
 
Your baby's brain is working overtime these days, developing faster than ever. Connections between individual nerve cells are growing at a frenetic clip, and your baby can now perceive information from all five senses. Sure, your baby can't smell anything right now, but that's only because he is still submerged in amniotic fluid and needs to be breathing air to get a whiff of anything. Lucky for you — and your baby — yours will be one of the very first scents your baby breathes in, a scent that will quickly become his very favorite.

So what's your little dove doing all day while you're busy feathering your nest for his arrival? Making faces, hiccuping, swallowing, breathing, pedaling with little hands and feet along your uterine wall, and even sucking his thumb. In fact, some babies suck their thumbs so vigorously while in the womb that they're born with a callus on their thumb.


My Belly info:

Week: 31
Starting weight: 98
Weight now: 120
Fundal height (measurement, in centimeters, of uterus.....usually round abouts equivalent to your gestational week): Oh hell, I don't know. I'm due for my midwife appointment. At my last appointment, the 18th of February, I measured small.  However, I was told it was probably the position of Baby distorting my belly a bit.

Things of note:

I CAN NOT BREATHE. Timothy has not only squished the life out of my lungs, but his feet have taken up residence underneath my ribcage. At times I feel like a dying fish flapping around gasping for air. I felt so miserable last night it took me forever to fall asleep because I really felt like I was suffocating. Hopefully this wont go on for too much longer....should get better whenever Timothy "drops" within the next few weeks (I hope!). 

Over the past 3 weeks the Braxton Hicks (practice contractions....for all those that didn't know what they were) have been pretty regular. I get them every day just about and some times they can be painful, even though they're not suppose to be.

I'm moody. Like SUPER moody. You probably shouldn't look at me the wrong way or come into my house with dirt and mud on your shoes because I'm likely to want to punch you. I can go from calm to blood boiling in a matter of seconds. Sorry dear family. And you probably shouldn't let me listen to a sad song or watch a sad show or say or do anything you think would even remotely hurt my feelings even a little bit because I'm likely to cry buckets. Yesterday we had a horrifically windy day and our $$$ trampoline was blowing away getting all torn and battered. It took all I had to not cry like a baby over it. Luckily Sam rushed home with a friend to rescue it, but we've got to replace the net and a few of the metal legs. Blah.  

Hopefully soon I'll get some maternity photos done. I was on the fence about doing them myself or having them professionally done by my friend's friend. But ultimately I think I'll just wind up doing them. They might not come out exactly like I've been envisioning, but my photos aren't too shabby so I think I'll be satisfied. Sam's a good helper too. If I don't set up my tripod and take and edit them myself, I'll have Sam take them and I'll just edit. I want to make a hair appointment to get my highlights freshened up and I actually have a friend in town who offered to do up my hair the day I take my photos. Maybe she'll help me with makeup too. I'm shooting for the first or second week of April. The weather better be nice! Don't even get me started on how sucky our weather has been recently.

You all know I'm having a home birth with a midwife, right? If you didn't, then obviously you need to read my blog more. :) Recently I've been working on my "birth plan" and starting to prepare myself for having a natural birth at home. I hope to do a whole post on why I chose to use a midwife and have a home birth this time around and tell ya'll about my birth plan.

Here's my 31 week pics! 

With love,
Mama Hauck


Monday, March 19, 2012

Pool Fun

We went to the town pool on St. Patrick's Day. It was crowded because it was opening day, but the kids had a great time regardless. They got to show off their new swimsuits and then dry off of in their new towels. :)  


With love,
Mama Hauck

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Our 1st Little Leprechaun

Yesterday was simply fantastic. Anthony had his preschool St. Patty's Day parade down Main Street in town and all the kids....I mean Leprechauns....were just adorable! I may be biased, but my little man is just the most handsome little Leprechaun there is! 

We dropped him off at school at 9, then ran to get some coffee before heading to Main Street to wait for the kids. It was super fun watching them all parade down the road and get huge grins on their faces when they saw all the Mamas, Papas, and friends waiting for them! 

The kids sang a few sweet songs for us (Anthony ACTUALLY sang! Hooray!) before we were allowed to walk with them the rest of the way down Main Street and loop back towards the school. I held Anthony and Molly's hand and proudly marched with my cuties down the road.


After the parade we drove around town, got Molly a french fry, then went to the park to play for a while to kill time before picking Anth back up from school. Sweet little Mols enjoyed her one on one time with myself, Papa, and Uncle Nick.



After picking Anthony up from school we all went to the pizza place and enjoyed a delicious pizza, salad, fruit, pie, and bread stick lunch buffet. Once we got home we changed into our dirty clothes and spent the remainder of the day outside, which turned out to be GORGEOUS even though the weather man said it would rain. WIN! We set our trampoline back up and watched the kids jump around, got a ton of hay and stocked the tack room, and brushed and rode Nik before ending the night with a ham sandwich and Transformers 3. LOL, that's some great random fun right there!


With love,
Mama Hauck

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Proof....

Here's some proof that Molly is no longer disgusted by my belly and is starting to come around to the idea of a baby joining our family.


Sweet, huh? Both kids get a kick out of feeling Timothy kick and move around. They'll sit next to me while relaxing on the couch with their sweet little hands on my belly and get all excited when they feel a jab! It makes my heart swell. And they both talk about him now. It use to just be Anthony, but I have a feeling Molly is getting excited. 

Soon I'll be giving you another "Belly" update. :)

With love,
Mama Hauck

Monday, March 12, 2012

Just Another Sweet Photo

Of my adorable little gal napping. ;)


Guess what we woke up to this morning? Starts with "s" and rhymes with "makes me want to cry each time I see it...." Ugh. I knew the weather was going to be cold and rainy and not nice this whole week, but snow just makes me shake my head with grave disappointment in Mother Nature. I took Anthony to school this morning and am hoping the snow stops soon. There's always much more here at my place than in town.

In other news, this weekend I definitely kicked butt in the cleaning department. Being slightly OCD and having that pregnancy "nesting" urge can make for a heck of a combination. My microwave has never looked more clean. The same goes for....my whole house. There's not a room or surface that wasn't touched by my cleaning frenzy. We were watching that show, "My Strange Addiction" last night on TLC and Sam says to me, "I'm lucky that your only addiction is cleanliness." HAHA! Very true. The weather held out for us on Saturday so Sam likewise kicked butt with yard work and tidying up outside. The kids were a big help to from what I hear. I'd say it was a very successful weekend indeed. Though going at it for 5 + hours on Saturday meant I refused to move form the couch yesterday....unless it was to get myself some food. Haha  

Our friend Nic from Sacramento should be getting here tomorrow night instead of Wednesday night.  So that's cool! As I mentioned before, he'll be staying with us for about a week to visit and help me out a bit. I told him that I put painting Molly's room on his list of things "to do" while here. Sammy primed the room already so now the guys just have to paint it the purdy shade of baby blue I picked out. I'll be sure to take photos once it's all done. Wednesday or Thursday I think we'll go shopping at Home Depot and Fred Meyers while Sammy is at work. I'm looking forward to not having to push the shopping cart, lol. I've got to get the kids new bathing suits because our town pool opens (it's covered in the cooler months, yay!) this Saturday on St. Patty's day and it's in our plans to take the kids for a swim.  And lets not forget this Friday is Anthony's special preschool Leprechaun parade in town. Sam is taking Friday off from work so he'll be able to come with us and cheer Anthony on from the sidewalk. Excited! This week should be a swell one, despite the unpleasant weather. 

Sorry for making this post soooo long.....but I also wanted to mention that my best friend's Grandmother, whom I mentioned was ill and in hospital a few posts back, passed away last Thursday. She called to tell me Thursday afternoon and I tried my best to comfort her a bit while we cried on the phone together. It's incredibly frustrating to be 3,000 miles apart and not to be able to be by my friend's side. You can only do and say so much over the phone. *sigh* Her Grandmother's service was today. Please keep my friend and her family in your prayers. I know her Grandmother was very much loved and while all loss is painful, this one in particular stings and the family could use all the good thoughts they can get.



With love,
Mama Hauck

Friday, March 9, 2012

A Little Country Fun

Sam wanted to ride Nik again and I thought since he has been mellow and minding extremely well, we should give in to the kids' begging and let them ride. They took turns while Sam led them around and their smiles couldn't have been bigger! I even got on for a bit too....after I just got done saying I wouldn't while pregnant....lol. I just couldn't help myself! I felt so left out watching everyone ride and a little ride myself wouldn't hurt if I kept him at a walk. It was a pain in the ass to get up on him....I'm sure I looked hilarious trying to climb my way up into the saddle!....but I managed without killing myself and it felt great to ride for a bit after such a long while.


Happy Friday everyone!

With love,
Mama Hauck