30 Weeks!

It feels so good to be in the 30’s!  I knew I was getting close to the end, but finally reaching that 30 week mark brings confirmation that this ride is almost over!  Here is what Alpha Mom says about this week:

Your Baby:

• Weighs about three pounds and is 17 inches long. Since most full-term babies are between 20 and 22 inches long at 40 weeks’ gestation, your baby will pack on more pounds than inches in the 10 weeks or so.
• Is starting to get a little crowded in there, but still has room to wiggle and roll and punch and kick.
• Despite all the movement, it’s still damn near impossible to tell what position your baby is in for sure (head down, breech, transverse, etc.), but it’s also still too early to be worrying about it. MOST babies settle into a head-down position around 36 weeks, and some still manage to flip themselves around after that.

You:

• May feel like you’re gestating a pissed-off housecat rather than a chubby wittle baby at this point, with some movement and kicks causing ACTUAL PHYSICAL PAIN. Some women experience kicks so sharp and unnerving they mistake them for uterine contractions, even if they’ve already been through pregnancy and labor and should really know better.
• Some of these women may even write pregnancy guides on the Internet.

Luckily I haven’t had many painful kicks from Maisy, but wow have I been getting a lot of them!  Pretty much anyone that has wanted to feel her move has been able to because she is just constantly rolling around and kicking or punching or hiccupping or shaking or whatever else she does in there. 

When I was pregnant with Ryder I had this horrible pain in the lowest rib on the right side of my rib cage…and it has returned!  It seems like once the baby starts taking up so much room there is none left for all of my organs so all my insides get shoved up into my ribcage which is just painful!  On a less painful note though, my back is feeling 100 times better!!  I still have a very faint pain going down my leg and the only numbness left in my foot is in my middle toe.  So weird…but much better than what it was, so I’ll take it!

Here we are at 30 weeks, the first one is Me with Maisy and the second is Me with Ryder – still carrying the same! (Don’t be surprised if next week you see a tattoo across my forehead that says “YES I’M SURE IT’S ONLY ONE!”)

 

Easter Eggs

This was our first experience dying Easter eggs since Mommy & Daddy were little, it’s so fun getting to do all of these activities all over again! 

First we put the tablets in:

Then we dipped our eggs:

 

Then we decorated them with stickers:

 

And Voila!  Beautiful (don’t judge!) Elmo Easter Eggs!

 

“Happy Easter!!!”

 

Daddy made a Rooster egg, since Rooster’s can’t lay eggs…?

Then we showed off the dye on our hands that probably won’t come out for a week:

And that brought our Easter egg dying festivities to an end because immediately after this picture was taken:

The eggs went flying!  So we now have 6 smashed eggs in the trash.  I know buddy, I always thought this activity was kind of pointless too! I mean what do you do with the eggs when you’re done?  Eat them?  Hide them?  Leave them for the Easter Bunny?  Well either way, all good things must come to an end :)

And the Verdict Is…

We’ve decided not to do another round of casting right now.  I’m not sure how long we’ll wait to do it again, but we think that Ryder gained enough strength from this first 3 weeks of Constraint Therapy that we’ll let him build on that for a while and see how he does.  His left arm is so much stronger now from constantly using it and he is a lot more confident when it comes to trying things with Lefty so we’ve seen enough progress to feel like the time wouldn’t be wasted if we decided not to follow up with a second round right away. 

He has such a good understanding now that he has two hands and needs to try to use them, that all we have to do is mention Lefty and he immediately takes it out of a fist, or joins Lefty in on whatever he is doing.  I think that in itself is so huge because now we can help remind him to use 2 hands when he doesn’t think of it himself. 

He does think and talk about Lefty a lot though, he gets so proud and will tell us that Lefty helped or that he used two hands.  He has definitely resorted back to using one hand often, initiating things with his right hand, and fisting when he is concentrating on doing something with Righty.  But there are so many more things that he IS doing with Lefty now like closing doors/pushing doors open, holding his cups with 2 hands, feeding himself if he has one piece of food in each hand, just a lot of things that he never would have been able to accomplish before the casting.

We’re very proud of Ryder and think we’re making the right decision in letting him have some time with both hands free to work on using them both.  Here are some pics of him using 2 hands:

 

 

And here’s a video to show that he actually misses having sword fight on!

Ryder as a 2 Year Old

Ever since Ryder’s Birthday we have been so consumed with all of this Constraint Therapy and casting.  So much has gone on aside from all of that, I feel like I need to do a major update just about Ryder as a big TWO year old now!

First of all, is it written somewhere that they turn two and the Terrible Two’s kick in immediately?!  I thought that at some points within this year we might be faced with some testing and tantrums that we would figure out when we got to that point, totally not expecting it to be literally the day he turned 2!  All of a sudden, we are fighting a battle over getting dressed and diaper changes.  It is not a logical battle where he has a legitimate reason to be fighting for his side.  His side is just “I dont want to” and ours is “well you have to” and this brings on a war that ends in spankings and tears and time-outs.  It is so unnecessary, but we are determined to win this battle because if he is testing us just in these 2 areas and we haven’t even gotten through the first month of the 2’s, then I don’t even want to know what would lie ahead if we lose this battle.  Part of this might be resulting from the fact that it’s not easy to get dressed/undressed with the cast on, but it’s ridiculous none-the-less.

Once he transforms back into his old Ryder self, he is still such a super sweetie to his Mommy & Daddy.  He has a new thing with wanting us to feel stuff all the time “Momma, feel dis!  Feel my big blankie, feel how soffy it is!”  He thinks that the greatest thing I could ever do for him is wash his blanket, he tells me numerous times throughout the day “Momma, stanks for washin’ my big blank! Momma, smell it, it smells sooooo good!”  He is very affectionate and will come find us just because “Daddy needs a kiss!”  He always cuddles up to us and just says “awww hey Mommy, hey Daddy, Ryder luzzz you”.  Sweet boy.

We’ve had our first few encounters with bad words and it is SO hard not to laugh when they come out of his cute little mouth, but we’re doing our best to teach him when things are not nice to say.  When you ask where he heard the bad words he always says “Uncle G”!  Throws him right under the bus!  So Mommy’s famous line now is “watch your mouth” when I realize that things are coming out that Ryder is obviously picking up on.  The first one was “Bullsh*t”.  He hasn’t said it again in a few days though so hopefully he forgot about that word.  But the other day he was walking across the door ledge and kept losing his balance and said “Dis Damn Stang!”  Stang = Thing.  We can’t blame it all on Uncle G though, we’re all guilty.  He has picked up “shut up” from Mommy, and the other day Alan ran in a gas station to use the bathroom, and while he was gone Ryder told me “Daddy’s in da bafroom takin’ a piss”.  Like I said, it’s so hard not to laugh because you don’t even realize the way you word things until they come out of an innocent mouth.  Oops!

His vocabulary grows every day and there really isn’t any situation where he can’t explain to you what is going on.  I’ve heard some pretty big words come out of his mouth though that shocked me…like orthotics, comfortable, delicious, excited, hasta minana!  He has such a good memory and uses it to memorize songs that he hears.  He now knows all the words to Jesus Loves the Little Children, Nick Nack Patty Whack, Happy Birthday, and I have seriously heard him sing his whole entire ABC’s song.  Of course singing songs is never one of those things I can get him to do on cue, I always just over hear him doing it, but one day I’ll catch him on video. 

He was doing SO well with potty training, but that has come to a complete stop!  I knew that as soon as he realized it was something we wanted him to do and wasn’t his idea all by himself that he would start to second guess the whole thing.  I don’t think having the cast on helped at all either, it was probably just way too much going on at once.  Actually, the night that he got the cast off he was in the bathtub and told me that he needed to go potty, so I took him out and put him on the potty, he went and then got back in the tub.  So hopefully that’s a sign that since the cast is off maybe he’ll start showing interest again.

I could go on and on, but I just wanted to update on some of the major things he is doing during this stage so that I never forget them.  He is so entertaining and I’m always asking him questions just to hear what answers he’ll come up with, or listening to him talking to himself over the monitor just to hear his little mind at work.  This is such a fun stage (trying at times!) that I wish I could just wrap his personality up in a box and open it whenever I need a good laugh for the rest of my life! 

29 Weeks!

Only 10 weeks left!  Here is what Alpha Mom says about this week:

Your Baby:

• Is big and strong enough to resemble a sinister alien thrashing around your abdomen, as my husband kindly pointed out recently, upon noticing a rouge pointy elbow jabbing up and down around my belly button.
• Is sucking up every drop of calcium you can provide as his or her bones continue to harden and become more…uh…bone-like.
• DID I MENTION THE POINTY JABBING? WITH THE SHARP LITTLE BONES?

You:

• Might start noticing a resurgence of first-trimester-type symptoms like heartburn and other gastrointestinal issues. Things are getting a BIT crowded in there, and the lack of room means slower digestion and more gas and constipation and woe.
• Are gaining weight. I don’t know or care to look up what the “recommended” amount is at this stage, but most likely you are starting to notice a steady upward movement of that little thingie on your doctor’s scale. If you’ve been using pregnancy as a dietary sweet tooth free-for-all, now might be a good time to start reining it in and focusing on healthy foods and portions instead of “BABY NEEDS CAKE AND A TUB OF FROSTING ON THE SIDE.”

Since I just updated about our doctor appointments, I don’t really have much to add about this week.  But here is our picture, Ryder wanted to be a part of this one, I didn’t realize that my belly is the perfect height to rest on his head!

CIT Week 3 Recap – And The Cast Is OFF!

Week 3 of the casting went great as it almost started to seem normal for Ryder to have a cast on his arm.  He was doing so much with Lefty that his limitations seemed less and less.  Towards the end of the week, the cast had loosened up some and his fingers were sticking out a little further than they probably should have been.  So we started noticing him trying things with Righty first, then moving on to Lefty when Ryder couldn’t do what he needed.  At first I was concerned, but since he almost always had to follow up by using and succeeding with Lefty I realized that was probably really good for his brain to send the same signals to each side of his body and have both arms trying the same thing.  Hopefully now that the cast is off he will remember that both hands are capable of doing things, not just righty!  Not many pictures from week 3, just a few of him playing basketball at therapy:

 

 

Challenges:

• Pincer grasp
• Using fingers independently
• Supination

Accomplishments:

• Reaching across his body with Lefty to grab something
• Aiming and picking things up on the first try
• Gaining strength and coordination
• Opening his hand flat
• Picking up round objects

So today he got the cast off!  This was very exciting, even Ryder said “I so essiiitteedd!!”  When Abby came to get him out of the waiting room he said in a very demanding tone “Abby, get your tool and take dis blue sword fight off!”  I was nervous how he would react to the sword cutting it off, but he thought the tool was pretty neat so he just sat and watched and when she was done he said “Stanks Miss Abby!”  Stanks = Thanks, but in this case I thought his word was pretty appropriate because his arm STANK!  For real! 

As soon as he got his cast off I handed him his drink, which he took from me with LEFTY and then held on with both hands to drink.  We were shocked, so this was a good way to start things off!

For the rest of the evening I’ve noticed him with something in each hand pretty often:

 

Other than that he has pretty much been walking around with his right arm raised high all night, for whatever reason, I think he’s just happy to have it back!

Some things have gone back to normal, his arm isn’t as loose as it was and he is definitely using righty as his dominant hand, but both of those were to be expected.  Some good things that have gone back to normal are long sleeved pajamas!  Being able to wear a jacket!  And a normal bath where we didn’t have to stress about the cast getting wet! 

Ryder is in the best mood ever tonight, I’m sure this whole ordeal was a little rough on him, but he’s just so resilient and always bounces back.  What a strong little boy he is.  We’ll see how the weekend progresses and make a final decision next week about doing another round or not.  For now, we’re just enjoying righty’s freedom!

Mommy & Maisy Check-ups

There’s our chubby little girl!  She has definitely put some meat on her bones since the last time we got to check in on her.  What a sweet little face, I just want to kiss all over it.  On the left side of her face is the umbilical cord which she finally decided to peek around for a second so we could get this picture.  The rest of the time she was hiding behind it, so this is the only one I have to share.

The good news is that baby girl looks “fabulous” and is showing no signs of anything wrong, Praise God!  She already weighs 3 pounds 1 ounce and her heartrate was 148.  All of her measurements came back perfect, her blood flow study was normal, and she was even already taking practice breaths.  Her score today on how well she’s thriving and developing was an 8/8!!  I did have a bit of a scare today though after the sonogram, the Perinatologist asked me to meet him in the conference room for a discussion.  An all too familiar feeling came over me and I panicked a little bit, but luckily he just wanted to talk about me, not the baby, I can handle that!  Turns out some of my bloodwork came back that I do have a blood clotting disorder and he just wanted to go over all that with me.  The scary thing about the disorder is that it is linked to a very high miscarriage rate (I can’t tell you how blessed I feel today to have been able to get pregnant so easily and hold onto my sweet babies!) and diabetes (go figure!)

On that note, our next stop was to see my OB where we got some more good news…I passed my diabetes test!!!  Hopefully for the last time!  We’ll see, but for now I’m good and I get to stop testing my sugars, Hallelujah!  Blood pressure was good, Iron was low so I have to start on a supplement for that, and I gained 5 pounds for a total of 13 pounds so far. 

I will now start seeing my OB every 2 weeks, and I go back to the Perinatologist (Maternal Fetal Medicine) in 3 weeks, then I start weekly appointments after that.  Let the craziness begin!