This is test number five, taken this morning:

I think we’re convinced I’m really pregnant now

After 4 seemingly positive tests, I finally called my OB-GYN yesterday to make my first appointment. After talking to Lex (who is currently in CA) on Tuesday night, we decided that if the test still came up positive Wednesday morning, I should call. I’ve had two weird symptoms that we wanted to ask about, the first being the cramps I had last week while we were in Houston. I was convinced they were menstrual cramps and that I was just going to get my period earlier than I had expected. They lasted about 5 days and then subsided. Apparently this isn’t actually that unusual. The other symptom was really bizarre looking, to say the least. On Tuesday night I was shocked when I looked in the mirror and saw that my stomach looked like I was about 5 months pregnant. I showed Lex via video chat, and his eyes practically fell out of his head. We were pretty concerned at first - and there was no way we were going to be able to keep Baby Friedman 2 to ourselves for now if I looked like that - but I believe the technical term for the problem is bloating. It seems to have resolved itself.

After vomiting and explosive diarrhea in the beginning of the week, fevers and an ear infection at the end of the week, little to no appetite the whole week, and three trips to the pediatrician in four days, it looks like Anya is finally on her way to being healthy again…well, except for a cough she doesn’t seem to be quite past yet. We had a couple of scary moments, like when our least favorite doctor at our practice told me that Anya’s tears, color, wet diapers, and alertness were good signs that she wasn’t getting dehydrated even though she had constant diarrhea and wasn’t drinking, and then in the next breath said I needed to take her to the hospital for IV fluids (We didn’t - I nursed her more often instead). It was also less than ideal when she kept refusing to eat anything - even blueberries! - and didn’t pee for more than 6 hours on Friday night. When we saw our favorite doctor on Saturday morning, he discovered she had her 5th ear infection since her birthday and put her on another round of Augmentin. While we weren’t thrilled to have her on antibiotics again, the medication is definitely what got her starting to feel better again.

It wasn’t our best week ever with Anya - I’ve never seen her so miserable, not even when her bottom molars were cutting through her gums. Thankfully, though, there were a few good times. She started playing a fun game this week. She “hides” something behind her back and asks “Go?” (as in, where did it go?). Then she pulls it back out with a big grin and says “Theah-tis” (There it is!). This is a source of seemingly never-ending amusement. My favorite moment of the week occurred on Wednesday, which was the BIG diarrhea day. Having to go so often gave Anya many chances to practice telling us when she had to poop, something that has been a potty-training challenge for her. That morning she was sitting in her high chair, when she suddenly turns to me and says “Poop! Potty? Diaper. All done!” The whole thing took place in a span of about 6 seconds. It was so funny, especially since her eyes got very wide just before she said “diaper” and when she said “all done” her little arms were stretched out as far as they could go. You could practically hear her saying, “Mommy, I have to poop!!! Will you take me to the potty? Uh-oh, I went in my diaper. Oh, well, all done!”

If anyone who reads this is sick or has sick kids, I feel for you, and I hope everyone is feeling better soon. I’ve had enough of Anya being sick. I usually don’t mind the winter, but this year I can’t wait for it to be “all done!”

#1 - I am going back to work in September! A fantastic part-time teaching position in the Manalapan school district (where I attended elementary and middle school) more or less fell into my lap. It’s a resource position in a 6th grade classroom, teaching only two periods in the afternoon. I wouldn’t need to be at work until noon, and I’ll be able to leave by 2:30. I’ll get to spend the whole morning and most of the afternoon with Anya, but I’ll still be able to teach. My mom is going to watch her two days a week, and we enrolled her in one of the local Goddard Schools for the other three. A lot of what I’ll take home from my salary is going to end up paying for day care, but that’s okay. I don’t consider the real benefit of this job the money; it’s more about getting my foot in the door so that when I’m ready to go back full-time, I already have experience with the district. The job doesn’t provide any insurance benefits since it’s considered a .372 position, but it is on a tenure track and it applies towards a pension. I’m very excited about this, and I think day care is going to be a positive experience for Anya.

#2 - Anya is finally back to nursing 100% of the time! No more formula! I’m still taking the medication that had been upsetting her stomach, but it doesn’t seem to be bothering her anymore. We decided awhile ago to try introducing breastmilk on post-medication days very slowly, one breast, one feeding at a time. We started with the last feeding of the day and worked back to the morning feeding. Well, as of last weekend, we finally cut out the last bottle of formula, and Anya has been doing wonderfully. Poop Watch 2007 is officially over - and I hope I never need to see my breast pump again!

Actually, Anya has a fever - her first - and the cure was Tylenol and lots of rest.  She was fairly cranky today, understandably, of course.  We learned that taking her temperature under her arm is significantly inaccurate - 97.4 vs. 101.5 done the old-fashioned (read: rectal) way, at least with our thermometer.  We also discovered that one of the nurses at our pediatrician’s office is a moron who could not figure out what the proper dose of Tylenol for an 8 month old is.

Anya probably caught whatever I’ve been battling since Thursday even though I haven’t had a fever (but boy, does my throat HURT.  It is hard to sing “Itsy Bitsy Spider” over and over again when it feels like your tonsils have been replaced with rocks.)   The old wives out there would have you believe that she’s running a fever because her top two teeth are starting to come in, but our doctor says teething can’t cause a fever.  Whatever the reason, I hope she’s back to her usual sunny self tomorrow.

I started nursing Anya again on Friday.  It seemed to be going well, although at night we had a questionable diaper.  She also started coughing, but we weren’t too concerned.  Saturday morning I nursed her, and she proceeded to throw up all over my chest and the bed.  Not spit up, THROW UP.  We joked about her growling making her look possessed, but this was a total scene out of The Exorcist.  It seemed like whatever she had eaten had quadrupled before coming back up.  After cleaning the both of us up, we gave her a break and then I finished nursing her.  Not too soon after we were done, she did it again, and when I yelled to Lex to come in she did it some more.  Lex said he was afraid she was going to drown in the ever deepening puddle that was building around us.

As I changed into my third pair of pajamas of the morning, Lex called the doctor.  He said to get her some Pedialyte (by the way, there’s no need to buy the flavored kind; Anya had no problem with plain stuff) and bring her in later that day.  Aside from the coughing and vomiting, Anya was fine - she had no fever and was laughing and giggling.  The doctor said keep her on Pedialyte for a few hours, and if she kept it down we could try the soy formula again (in case it was the meds or the lactose).  We gave her a little that afternoon, no problems, and she took about 5 oz. before bedtime.  After she had been asleep for an hour, she woke up crying.  She coughed, and when I checked the monitor it became obvious that she had vomited again.  We ran up to check on her and just could not believe how much she had thrown up.  She was covered from her head to her stomach.  I scooped her up and consoled her, then got her into a bath while Lex cleaned up the crib and phoned the doctor on call.  She said start with the Pedialyte again in about an hour, but if she threw up again we should take her to the ER.  While on the phone with Lex’s parents, Anya started retching again, and though not too much came out, since her stomach was already pretty empty, we chose to play it safe and take her to the hospital.

At the ER, they gave us more Pedialyte and took some blood.  They eventually let us go home with instructions to only give her Pedialyte until we spoke with our doctor in the morning.  That process took about 5 hours, bringing us home again around 3 am.  Anya woke up at 5 am (she had been sleeping in the car seat in our room, since her crib was not yet ready for use again).  We gave her about 2 oz. of Pedialyte in small amounts over the course of the next hour an half, with her falling asleep on my shoulder in between.  At 7:30 she woke up for the morning, and we gave her another 2 oz.  When we spoke with the doctor, he said it sounded like she was doing well, and that we should continue with the Pedialyte every 3 hours and call him at 1.  Since Anya still was keeping everything down at 1, he said we could try breast milk again at her next feeding.  I suppose the one positive thing about her throwing up the soy formula was that we couldn’t blame her being sick on the breast milk alone.

To be safe, we started by giving her milk I had pumped from before I started taking the meds.  She took 2 oz. with no problems, aside from being pretty annoyed that we weren’t giving her more than that (we supplemented with Pedialyte).  She got 3 oz. more a few hours later, and since none of that milk came back to visit, I nursed her before bedtime.

So far, so good.  She’s still got a significant cough and she’s starting to sneeze up some clear mucus, but on the vomiting front, things are much improved.  We’ll see what today’s diapers bring.

I took Anya back to the doctor yesterday because it had been 2 full weeks of diarrhea. He no longer felt we could suspect a harmless stomach bug, since 14 days is a long time, even for a baby. Also, she hadn’t gained any weight in the last two weeks, which was a little concerning.

He suggested four possible culprits: transient lactose intolerance (best case scenario), the medication I am taking for my ulcerative colitis, a more serious infection (such as salmonella or E. coli), or a gastrointestinal problem. We’re not going to worry about a GI issue unless we rule everything else out, and the chance of it being a serious infection is slim, since she has no other symptoms. The doctor has put her on a soy, lactose-free formula temporarily but indefinitely. If she has transient lactose intolerance, this will give her digestive tract the break it needs to get itself back together. He gave me 4 cans of the Similac Soy Anti-Diarrheal formula and said I could use the soy powder I have at home once she finishes the cans.

Well, I’m happy to report that after less than 24 hours, she is diarrhea-free. Her poops look like, well, poop (formula poops are much thicker and stinkier than breast milk poops, in case anyone was wondering). Not one diaper leaked today, hooray! The doctor is very pleased, and said that I may be able to resume nursing again as early as Friday, as long as she stays healthy. Of course, if I start nursing again and she goes back to having diarrhea, then we have a problem, since I’m having a tough time shaking this colitis flare up and I’ll probably need to be on meds for a few more weeks. Keep your fingers crossed that it was transient lactose intolerance after all and we are now in the clear!

Yesterday I had my 6 weeks (actually 5 weeks, 5 days) postpartum checkup, and all is well.  My incision is healing nicely and should fade from a red to a skin colored scar in about a year.  All of my insides seem to be back to normal, though I still have to wait 2 more weeks until I can begin any kind of abdominal work out; by then the internal stitches should have fully dissolved.  My weight has actually dropped below my pre-pregnancy weight by about 3 lbs., though I certainly don’t have my pre-pregnancy body back - I’ve still got a poochy tummy and my hips are simply wider than they had been.  I can fit into most of my pants and skirts, many of my jeans being the main exception.  Some of my shirts fit, though many don’t because nursing keeps my breasts rather voluptuous.  I have a road map of stretch marks all over my stomach, and my skin there sort of resembles lacy Swiss cheese, but supposedly if I make an effort that can be fixed.  Overall, I’m pretty surprised about how quickly I’ve gotten back to near normal, since many of the books say that it can take a year to get back to your pre-pregnancy weight and to fit into your clothes again.  A message to all mothers-to-be:  Breastfeeding is the ultimate weight loss plan!

The good news is that after 45 minutes of fussing, Anya slept for 4 straight hours this evening. The bad news is that when she woke up to eat, she was too sleepy to eat as much as was available, so now I’m here at 4 in the morning pumping what’s left out of my enormously swollen breast.

Yesterday we hit 37 weeks, which means the baby is officially considered full term. Naturally, Lex and I are extremely eager and anxious to get this whole labor thing going at this point. I have truly enjoyed being pregnant, and I will miss the amazing sensation of having this baby so close to me at all times

BUT

I am tired of having my pants constantly fall down because no pants can possibly stay on such a steep slope with the aid of suspenders, being accosted by strangers who feel it is necessary to make comments such as “You look ready to pop” which is slang for “Gee, you’re huge,” hitting myself in the stomach with my knees when I walk up the stairs, needing help getting out of bed because I’m too top heavy to sit up by myself, and countless other “side effects” of pregnancy that need no mention here.

I can’t stay grumpy for long, though, not when my precious baby keeps wiggling and jiggling to remind me she’s there. She’s probably just as uncomfortable as I feel these days; there’s no room for her anymore! For both of our sakes, baby girl, I hope you’re ready to make your appearance soon.

I had to officially give up on wearing my engagement and wedding rings as of two days ago.  My fingers are just puffy enough that it hurts to put them on and it is nearly impossible to take them off again.