My Little Gymnast

My soon-to-be-born baby seems to have aspirations to be a professional gymnast, swimmer, or fish.

At 39 weeks in-utero, you would think that he would be in a nice, snug, head-down position in preparation for birth, right?

Or at least in a snug breech position. Or even in a snug transverse position. Snug in position somewhere, right?

Not this little guy. He continues to change his positions several times a day.

My Ob/Gyn has been monitoring his apparent comfort in the transverse (side-to-side) position for my last several visits. Last Friday (at 38 weeks), they recommended that in order to avoid a c-section, I schedule a date to have a version done to turn the baby head down, then induce afterward. I was sent for an ultrasound to check on the size of baby, amount of fluid, etc., to see how do-able this would be.

The ultrasound proved quite interesting. First of all, our baby was estimated to be 8 pounds 5 ounces. This was a week ago, so at an average of 1/2 a pound a week, he’s likely pushing 9 pounds by now.

Secondly, at the onset of the ultrasound, our little gymnast-boy had his head solidly on my right side while his bottom was solidly on my left side, a textbook transverse position.

By the conclusion of the ultrasound, he was head down and in perfect position for birth. Go figure.

Did he stay that way? Why, of course not! Our little guy has far too much energy for that. Iron Man is quite good at determining his position and checks my belly frequently. Gym-Baby switches positions a  few times a day. He has been head-down, head-up, head-right, head-left, and everything in between. Last night my chiropractor believed baby to be head-right. Today, my ob/gyn believed him to be head-left. I am amazed that he has the space to continue moving like this.

My ob/gyn has been practicing for 20-some years and said he’s never seen a baby quite like this before. I believe “obstinate” was the word he used. Could this be any indication of our boy’s yet-to-be-seen personality? Or does he just have ambitions of being an Olympic medalist someday, and can’t start preparing too young?

In any event, we are scheduled for the version and induction on Monday morning, unless we don’t make it that long. If Gym-Baby happens to already be head-down at that time, we will have the option to stay and induce, or go home. I am more of the mindset that I’d like to stay and induce while he is head-down, rather than risking him turning again before labor. If I go into labor while he is in a transverse, or even breech position, it would mean a c-section. While I will, of course, do whatever is safest for the baby, I really do not want a c-section. I have never had one and absolutely do not want one with my seventh baby… if can avoid it (while being safe), I will!

 

Mystery Rash Revealed

I took Fred and Princess to the pediatrician this morning. Fred, as a follow-up to his “Knex through the eardrum” episode, and Princess, in the hope to reveal the cause of the mystery rash.

Fred’s eardrum has grown back over, but it is still baby-tender and we need to continue to be careful with his ear. He can not immerse in water, and we need to be cautious in rinsing his hair when he takes a bath or shower. No infection, and he’ll be fine.

Princess’ rash turned out to be something called “Pityriasis Rosea,” and it is caused by a virus. What gave it away? Well, Princess had one patch on her leg which was larger than the others and looked a bit different. That larger patch is called a “Herald Patch” and it is a distinguishing aspect of this type of rash. The other spots have a chickenpox-y, measle-y appearance, but typically don’t itch.  It’s usually seen in people between ages 10 to adult, but it can occur in children. It is not dangerous and requires no treatment. The rash can affect any part of the body, but typically doesn’t go on the face. It lasts about four weeks.

In the event that you are interested in reading more about this, I found the following pages to be helpful:

• Web MD info on Pityriasis Rosea
• Good picture that shows the herald patch along with other spots
• More pictures

Such a relief to know that there is no danger to the baby or anyone else! Thank you to those who have been praying for us!

 

More on the Chicken Pox

Update: The Mystery Rash has been revealed! It’s actually something called “Pityriasis Rosea.” For more on this, read this post.

This chicken pox thing is very baffling to me. I’m now not sure whether they have the chicken pox after all. Princess’ rash did look like the beginnings of chicken pox, and she started with 30-40 spots. However, they never advanced through all the stages. They never turned yellow, never crusted over, never spread, and she never had any fever or lethargy. They barely even itched.

It’s been five days since we noticed the spots, and the spots have have simply reduced in number and become lighter. Here’s what Princess’ spots now look like:

George’s rash never did spread beyond his arm. He only has four small, pimply bumps. He has also had no other typical symptoms.

If anyone can shed some light for me, I would be very grateful! I have looked up every single rash in my medical guide book and on the internet, and I can’t find anything else that it could be. It just seems like an exceptionally mild case of chicken pox.

I just wish I knew for certain what it was, for two reasons.

1. If they have the chicken pox, then I need to keep other kids away from the baby when he’s born. If not, I’d rather let them all just enjoy their new little brother when we bring him home.
2. If they don’t have them, then we don’t want a false sense of security that they’ve developed immunity. We’ve always planned to get the kids the vaccination when they are 10-12 years old if they haven’t had the illness by then, so they can avoid the complications that can arise from chicken pox in adulthood.

The nurse did say that there’s a blood test that we can get, to find out whether or not they’ve had chicken pox. If we have no tell-tale signs that this is indeed chicken pox, we’ll probably have to get them the test at some point.

So what do you think? Any idea what this rash could be?

 

Back Pain in Pregnancy

I often use my blog as a place to share tips that I have learned. Every so often, though, I use it as a way to seek advice from you. This is one of those posts.

I have a history of a bad back. From the time I was nine or ten years old, I had a lot of pain in my lower back. I had surgery shortly after the birth of my fourth baby, and that pretty much took care of that problem. I still get a twinge there every so often, especially during pregnancy, but it is very tolerable. I just need to mention that for the sake of my family and friends whose alarm is raised when I mention “back pain.” Don’t worry, guys, it’s not that this time.

The problem I am having presently is in the middle of my back, just around the bra line, on the left side. It’s a feeling that my muscles are being pulled, which I’m sure they are, due to the supporting the excess baby weight. I get this in every pregnancy, and I know it will go away after our little boy is born. However, it is more intense this time, and if there is something I can do to make it easier to deal with for the next two months, I want to do it!

It is particularly bad while I’m trying to sleep. When I lay on my left side, the pain becomes intense in my back. When I lay on my right side, the pain moves around to the front of my ribs. When I lay on my back, the pain goes away, but that creates a host of other problems. On my back, my already low blood pressure plummets even further, giving me a dizzy/faint feeling. I do use a body pillow, as well as four other pillows which I arrange in various ways.

I generally wake up every 20-30 minutes at night to change position – all night, every night. I alternate between my side and my back, switching when the pain or the dizziness become too severe. Of course, I fall asleep quickly between each change of position, but it’s been about 2 weeks since I’ve had more than a half hour of consecutive sleep, and it’s wearing on me.

I have not been able to find any helpful suggestions on the internet or in any of my books, so I thought I’d reach out and see if any of my wise readers have had experience in dealing with this.

If you don’t have any tips for me, I’d appreciate a little mention in your prayers!

 

A birthday fit for a princess

Princess celebrated her 4th birthday this week! In true princess style, our daughters all dressed as princesses during the birthday dinner. You see before you: Belle, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella. It was quite an event.

Of course, the cake had to be pink.

In honor of Princess’ four years, each of us would like to share four special things that we love about her.

From Polly:

1. She loves dolls
2. Her voice is so cute
3. She likes princesses
4. She shares her toys

From Gameboy:

1. She calls me “Buddy”
2. She cares about everybody
3. She is nice to me
4. She is my sister

From Bubbles:

1. She helps me
2. She cries if she thinks someone is getting left behind when we go in the van
3. She is very talkative
4. She is very cute

From Fred:

1. She always plays with me
2. She loves me
3. She plays house with me in the treehouse
4. She’s my sister

From Mommy:

1. She loves to cuddle
2. She lets me do her hair
3. She sings so prettily
4. The sound of princess shoes clicking through the halls

From Daddy:

1. Pink Princesses
2. Hugs & Cuddles
3. Big Laughs!
4. Did I mention Pink Princesses?

Happy Birthday to our little Princess!

 

Resting for a few days

For the past several days, I have had a strange pain in my chest. Not a severe or sharp pain, but dull and constant. The “constant” part was what began to concern me, so I mentioned it to Iron Man. He reminded me that on Thursday, just before the onset of these pains, I made my monthly trip to the dairy farm to buy raw milk. He suggested that perhaps I strained or pulled a muscle while lifting the milk coolers. Bingo! I imitated the lifting movement to tense the muscles, and the pain immediately became more severe.

A few days of rest are all that are needed.

I am relieved that there is nothing serious going on, and thankful that Iron Man pinpointed the problem, thus alleviating my worries. At the same time, I am a little put out by this. I know that it will not be easy to simply rest. This is not due a lack of opportunity to get the rest I need. I have several sets of sweet little hands willing to help me, no big pressing jobs that I absolutely must attend to, and a few weeks left until homeschooling resumes. The problem is me. I just don’t want to slow down. I have this pressing feeling that since my 2nd trimester of pregnancy is almost over, I need to do as much as possible while I still have some energy left. Silly, huh? Yeah, I guess it does sound really silly now that I type it out.

So, I’m going to take a few days to rest, and attend only to the essentials. If you happen to stop by, you’ll just have to forgive me if the house isn’t up to par!

 

It was bound to happen sooner or later

I’m a firm believer in sandwiching bad news in between good news. With that in mind, here’s a good/bad/good news sandwich:

Good: We are getting a new furnace and AC unit!

Bad: Our air conditioner died yesterday.

Good: Both our AC and furnace are 27 years old, which is a nice, long life span!

Bad: We expect the furnace to die in the near-future as well.

Good: By buying both an AC and furnace together, we will spend significantly less than buying separately!

Bad: We will be at least a few days without AC.

Good: We have a hose, a baby pool, and a slip-n-slide to help us cool off!

Bad: It’s going to be quite hot in the next few days.

Good: A little discomfort will build “character!”

Bad: Heating and cooling units are expensive.

Good: Heating and cooling systems are much more efficient now-a-days, and we should see a significant savings in our energy bills!

(and for good measure, one more) Good: We have been expecting this to happen, have been budgeting for it for a while, and are prepared to pay for our new system – Gotta love YNAB!

FYI: Unrelated to our AC/Furnace situation, yet related to that final “Good” news, yesterday I got an email from YNAB (as in “You Need A Budget”) which may be of interest. For those who don’t know, YNAB is absolutely the best budgeting software that I have ever seen. They are currently offering a 10% discount on YNAB Pro! We already use their software, but if any of you have been teetering on the prospect of buying it,  you might appreciate this news. They are doing this in light of Microsoft discontinuing MSMoney. To get the discount, simply enter the discount coupon code “msmoney” (minus the quotes) any time between now and July 15th. In the several years that we have used YNAB, I’ve never seen it discounted until now, so if you have been considering it, this would be a great deal! To hear about our experience with YNAB, click here.

 

Just for Fun: Typing Speed Test

58 words

Typing Test

 

I want chocolate

Really, really good chocolate. It’s calling my name.

We have a few Tootsie Rolls in the candy jar, but that just won’t do. There is some chocolate ice cream in the freezer, but that’s not quite going to suffice either. I don’t even think a Hershey bar would cut it right now.

What I crave is rich, creamy, melt-in-your mouth, fine chocolate.

Something like this:

or this:

or this:

Yep, that third one would do it for sure. Is anyone having a craving now?

 

A Brain Teaser

This morning, I needed to take Polly and Gameboy to the optometrist. These are the events that unfolded as we were leaving the house:

• As we walk out the front door, I push the “unlock” button on our keypad.
• Polly easily opens her door and gets in the car.
• Gameboy tugs and pulls at his door handle, but can not open the door.
• I push the “unlock” button again.
• Gameboy continues to tug at the handle.
• I scold poor Gameboy, “Gameboy, it’s unlocked. Just pull harder.”
• Gameboy continues to struggle.
• I push the “unlock” button again.
• Gameboy opens his door and gets in the car.
• Our trunk pops open.
• I close the trunk and walk to the driver’s door.
• I tug at the handle and find that it is locked.
• I push the “unlock” button again.
• The door unlocks, and immediately locks again before I have a chance to open the door.
• I unlock the door again, and open the door.
• I set my purse onto the chair.
• The car alarm sounds.
• I use my keypad to turn off the alarm.
• At this point, I go back into the house and ask my husband a question.

What question did I ask, and what is going on?

Read the comments to find the answer!