results.

evidently the blood draw came out lower, so i don't have the gestational diabetes, and don't need to do the 3 hour test, thank goodness!

insomnia again.

i can't sleep - too sore, and probably just the same pregnancy insomnia that i got with z.

i had the first glucose screen today for gestational diabetes. at my monthly ob appointment. my doctor is on vacation, so i saw one of her partners. i had to drink 50 ml of the glucose solution after fasting for at least 2 hours, and they checked my blood sugars an hour later. i brought along my glucometer, so i had an immediate result, but i still have to wait for the official result from the lab. the glucometer said 141, and it was supposed to be 140 or below, so i'm totally unsure as to whether i'll have to do the 3 hour glucose test. i think it has to be done after fasting at night, and since it takes at least 3 hours to do, i can't do it until thursday because i teach or have physical therapy. i wish i knew if it was necessary. i definitely feel lightheaded & get a racing pulse after eating some carbs, but i'm not sure if that's a sign of the gd.

my main concern today, among others, was pain from exercising. walking the hills around here, especially with z in the stroller, is painful while i'm doing it, and the pain is exacerbated at night when i'm trying to sleep. the physical therapy has not helped much, nor has the support they gave me that i'm to wear while standing for long periods of time.

the doctor recommended getting child care and swimming instead of walking. really? i can barely handle the logistics of a summer teaching schedule & child care & doctor & physical therapy appointments... how am i supposed to add one more activity to the mix and keep my sanity? i'm already losing it! i totally had a meltdown today because i realized we had no more packages of diapers, and i had just gone to costco yesterday. i just couldn't handle going back, with all the huge carts & packages. thankfully j had no business dinners or climbing & was willing to go for me after work.

j, by the way, has walking pneumonia. i hope to not catch it. he's on a 5 day dose of zpacks, with 5 days off, and then another 5 day dose of the zpacks, along with codeine cough syrup. he was coughing before he left for his trip, and the altitude probably exacerbated it, and was coughing even more when he returned. he says he feels normal, except for the coughing. he slept in the basement for 2 nights, but is now able to sleep through the night (i'm jealous) without coughing.

visiting the cousins

z's cousins (& aunt & uncle) were in canby on monday afternoon, and i was free from teaching, so z & i travelled down to see them & abuelo/a again. of course, z wanted to take his violin along again!

z in playing position, with cousin j at the piano.

z is in his pajamas, because i got him up from a nap early & wanted him to continue sleeping in the car.

pizzicato, aka plucking.

little cousin j & me

j is clearly very excited about the real violin...

j was very cute (and SO light compared to z)- he was very smiley & was climbing all over me.

j at the piano & z with the trains. j LOVES playing the piano!

j holding the violin.

j's first rest position & bow!

j & z, playing abuelo's guitar

the older cousins - they're almost the same height! they're on their way to the blueberries.

uncle b is helping z swing the big boy way. thanks for giving me a break! i was wearing jeans, and it was much warmer and sunnier in canby than in portland, and the heat was getting to me.

fun to see everyone... we'll see them next at labor day weekend in sunriver.

abuelo's b'day

j returned from his vacation last saturday night, and on sunday afternoon we went to canby to help celebrate abuelo's birthday. z & i had just picked up a REAL 1/16th size violin for z on saturday, and he was excited to share his mad violining skillz with everyone.

z & us, doing playing position.

z taking a bow.

i'm trying to not let him play with the bow yet. he needs to be a lot more comfortable with just holding the violin before adding the bowing. it's also very tempting to treat the bow as a stick or sword, so i'm going to wait to start bow exercises. it's added to the list of things he might get to do once he's potty trained.

speaking of, his motivation to start using the toilet is pretty low. he has happily peed in his bath water for quite a while - and announced "i just peed," or "i'm peeing" each time - so i've started having him stand in the bath water, but pee into a cup. he gets m&m's the next morning if he does this successfully. once j got him to stand on the toilet & pee (the stools we have are too low), but he has shown no interest in this again.

vacation

j & his friend c got to take a vacation & travel to tuolomne meadows in yosemite last week to do some rock climbing. as camping isn't much of an option anymore, z & i stayed home & carried on as usual. z spent a night with each set of grandparents to help make it easier for me, & to take care of childcare while i taught.

sunrise on the drive there - the guys left portland around 5pm & drove straight to the tuolomne campgrounds & arrived around 7:30am. they waited an hour & a half to get a site.

some lake in yosemite

fairview dome

cathedral peak

at the summit of cathedral peak?

of course i'm impressed by my husband's ability to climb such massive natural formations and the planning that went into such a trip, but i'm super jealous that he got a vacation. i want my own vacation! however, i can barely keep life together as it is, with all the logistical challenges...

walking

i was told by the physical therapists that i should aim to walk 30 min each day, regardless of the amount of pain it causes me. on my free mornings, i've started walking with z to the closest grocery store which has a starbucks (poffee shop, as z says). on sunday, z & i went on the walk, but the nice bob stroller had a flat tire that i couldn't fix, so i took him in the small umbrella stroller. my back was killing me later that day!

we went again this morning, this time using the nice stroller, but i was in so much pain when i got back, after taking a shower, that i was almost crying. i had to lie on my bed (while z tore the room apart) for awhile because i just couldn't stand doing anything else. the pain of standing & walking usually gets a bit less as the day goes on, but it always increases again at night when lying in bed. i usually curse out loud every time i turn over. pregnancy & i don't get along well. i have the glucose tolerance test this thursday... i'm at 26 weeks, with 14 weeks to go.

playdate pdx

i had to take the computer back to the store to get the r key fixed. it was too bad to not have it fixed, especially since i didn't do it. i finally got it back last night, and now everything seems to be working. it's been a busy week. lots of meetings, lessons, logistics to remember regarding z. he spent tuesday night with abuelo & abuela in canby, and then spent last night here, and is spending tonight with grandma & grandpa in tigard. i took him to playdate pdx this morning, as we were meeting a friend & her almost 3 month old baby there. it left me pretty sore! z isn't old enough for me to just let him go & play, so i had to follow him through lots of tunnels, up big steps, and pick him up to shoot balls through these vacuum gun thingies. i barely fit through some parts with my belly, so i won't be going back there until after baby sister is born. fun place for kids, though.

toddler 2's.

i finally have my computer back. z was trying to drink water from a cup and just poured it all out over the table, so it got the computer wet. it had to be in the shop thurs-today. i was using j's old computer, which has a broken keyboard. i had to cut & paste all 1's, !'s, q's, a's, & z's when typing. i got to borrow a different keyboard from the neighbors, which helped, but the computer had to be shut down every other time i used it or else the web pages didn't load.

there seems to be something wrong with the r on my computer now, and it didn't used to be that way, but i don't want to be without my computer again - argh!

j is off on vacation in yosemite this week. i'm home with z. he'll spend tomorrow night with abuela/o, and thursday night with grandma & grandpa, otherwise he's with me.

he drove me crazy today. when he woke up from his nap, i needed to get him into the car quickly so we could get my computer & go grocery shopping before j left, so i offered him a cookie. he was excited about that, but then wanted his "blue" water, which could not be found. none of the other waters would do. i looked around the whole house but couldn't find it. he kept crying "blue water" & wouldn't stop, so i just put him in the car with a cookie & a different water. and THEN he freaked out about the cookie & was mad that he didn't pick it himself, and started crying "not my tootie" (can't say the K sound sometimes) the WHOLE way to the computer store. he was still whining & saying it inside while i got the computer, but eventually he stopped. there was silence while we drove to new seasons, but then his cookie (which he finally started eating) broke into two pieces, and then he started crying "put back" (or something similar - i can't really recall), and did this throughout most of the trip to the store. eventually he settled down, but it was exhausting & wearing. there were a couple more fun outbursts during the evening before bedtime was finished, but he was a little calmer at home.

new pjs

i got z some summer pajamas that fit (3T). the little short sleeves & shorts are so cute!!! these ones glow in the dark.

this was a semi busy weekend. i organized a ladies night out for my friend s for friday night... something long overdue. it was celebrating her achievement of her phD in psych & establishing her practice here in pdx. saturday morning z & i went to his friend m's birthday party at sweet peas kidzone. z cried for 10 min when we first got there, because i think he thought i was going to just leave him there for some reason, but he eventually relaxed his grip on me & started to have fun. we had dinner at grandma & grandpa's with cousin d on saturday night. sunday morning z slept past 8:15!!! it was the first night in a long time that he didn't wake j up. of course i woke up around 6 & couldn't sleep any longer (too painful), but it gave me time to get some things picked up & laundry sorted & relax. we all went out for breakfast at meriwether's to celebrate our anniversary, and then j went for a bike ride with friends using his new mountain bike while z & i went to church. z slept for almost 3 hours this afternoon, so i hope he's able to sleep through the night tonight.

no sleep

couldn't sleep last night. kept thinking about this story

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/07/family_gathering_in_nehalem_en.html

and how unbelievably awful it is. the grandfather is a member of my oregon symphony family. my heart goes out to him & his family.

also couldn't sleep because of this stupid cold i have. i'm exhausted. i hope i can nap while z sleeps today (and hope z naps). they let him go to school this morning despite the diarrhea he has due to the strong antibiotics. he didn't want to go this morning, saying he was going to cry at school, but he didn't when i dropped him off. i hope he has fun.

girls names

perfect name for baby sister - jane antoinette.

and more sick...

this morning j went climbing, so z & i went grocery shopping & then met up with grandma & grandpa & pepper (the dog) to go play in the park. i had wanted to go to church, but was afraid that z might still be contagious & too sick to leave at sunday school, so we skipped. z had his tricycle along, which made it easy to not have to carry him when he got tired of walking. he ran and ran and ran, and fell asleep right before we got home. he woke up when i got him out of the car & had some lunch, and then i tried putting him down for a nap. he kept calling for me, though, saying his ears hurt. i didn't know whether or not to believe him, because he's been saying he has headaches a lot, wanting medicine - he likes how it tastes. however, he kept holding his ear & saying it so many times that i took him into the pediatric urgent care to be seen. it turns out he has an ear infection in the right ear (although no fever or temperature), and some mild pneumonia, as his breathing sounded a bit crackly. the dr prescribed the highest dose possible of antibiotics - the pharmacist had to double check with the dr & get authorization from the insurance company. we're to feed him as much yogurt as possible the next 10 days, and he'll probably get diarrhea due to the medicine. we're also supposed to do albuterol treatments with the nebulizer. i didn't sleep well last night - pain in my ribcage woke me up - and then z woke up with a wet bed, so it has been a loooooong day. this whole weekend has been long, and the week preceding it was long. i'll be glad to see it go. j & i did get away for a dinner at clarklewis last night, while grandma & grandpa watched z, which was nice. i was down yesterday because not only did we have to cancel the camping/bend trip (which turned out to be the right decision), but because i was missing my friend j's wedding on cape cod. sigh. i really hope tonight & tomorrow will be uneventful.

croup again.

z has croup again. it began late wednesday night, so luckily we had steroids on hand to give to him. however, we had to cancel plans to go camping at paulina lake today, as he's still not feeling good enough. i'm so disappointed. our neighbors were planning on going too, so it would've been so much fun. this is the only weekend we are able to go, and now i'll have to wait until baby #2 is old enough to camp there. we enjoyed some of z's fun steroid rages today. i did take him to the local neighborhood park with his bike, since there's usually nobody there. it was nice to get out of the house. sigh. if he's feeling well enough tomorrow morning, we might take him to go see cars 2. other than that, we're just at home, getting through the weekend.

i was busy this week observing teaching at the local suzuki institute at george fox university, which is good for my teaching, but draining for me. z spent full days at pasitos mon-wed. it was a stressful week. i'm not surprised he's sick, since he's been around other children so much. i'm sure he'll go through a period of getting sick frequently, until his immune system is built up. still not fun for us. :(

week 23

23 weeks with z

23 weeks with baby sister

22 weeks with baby sister