All about Riley

I haven't posted a lot about my little man lately, but I've been wanting to. He is at an age where I find myself saying "I'm going to miss the way he says...." Eventually his grammar and pronunciation will become correct. And it will hurt me a little when that happens. Perhaps I could home school and keep all of his cute words the way he says them now? ;)

And so...a little about Mr. Riley:

Coming is: Come-meem.

Sleeping is: Seeping.

He screams barking! at the dogs when they are barking. Telling them to be quiet, as I so often do. :)

Pizza is pronounced: Fot-see. We don't know why...I have gotten in the habit of calling it fotsee myself. :)

My husband loves cars, and his love has rubbed off on our son. Riley adores cars. Plays with them all the time (along with his trains) and pays attention to any car driving or parked that he sees. He can identify a BMW, Volkswagen, or Audi. He can pick out a van as something that his Grandma drives. He knows his favorite cousin, Connor, often rides in a Yukon (he picks them out regardless of color, by pointing at one and saying "Connor?"). But, by far, his favorite car is a BMW, which he calls simply W. I drive a Volkswagen, and for some time my husband has been driving BMW's. Mr. Riley will often get upset if we are taking my car. He would prefer to ride in a W any day  Doesn't matter the condition, or year. If it has a BMW emblem on it, he's a fan. Today my husband traded the BMW for an Audi, and he (my husband) dreaded telling Riley. Last night, he said "Riley isn't going to be happy." We have a little car snob. :) Riley and I went for a walk the other day, and we passed by 3 different BMWs. I know this because somebody pointed them out to me as we went by. ;)

He really doesn't want Mommy to take pictures of him. He will put his hands up in front of his face, or whatever is in his hands at the moment to prevent me from getting a good shot. 

But I take a lot of pictures so I sometimes get a decent one of the kid. :) This was at a mini park by our house. He spent most of the visit running and yelling "Go! Go! Go!"

I know there are a lot of other things he does that are cute. But I can't think of them at the moment.

14 weeks

This photo was taken 14 weeks and 1 day. :) (added after posting...)

On Thursday I had an appointment with my midwife. It wasn't anything too exciting. Just a physical exam, ahem, of my lady parts. It is always a bit uncomfortable, but I really like my midwife so it wasn't so bad. She is going to be perfect for me and Jamaal. I had remembered her telling me at my last appointment that I would need to do a 1 hour glucose tolerance test at this appointment. But I wasn't 100% sure. So I had a bar with only 9 carbohydrates and some water as I was leaving in the morning.

Turns out I had the opportunity to take the lab slip and do it at my convenience, but I decided to get it over with. Since I had prepared myself, and had a babysitter for the booger. I chose fruit punch this time and it really wasn't that bad. Though I did get terrible heartburn. I took zofran beforehand, but didn't even think about heartburn. Next time I'll remember. ;)

Since I have issues with my thyroid she also wanted the lab to draw my thyroid levels. Just to be sure all was fine. The person who drew my blood used a very large needle and it really really hurt. I was a bit annoyed. It hurt the rest of the day, and that has never happened to me before. He could have used a smaller needle.

I celebrated with some sushi followed by a trip to Costco afterwards. :) It was lovely.

Friday afternoon I got a phone call from my midwife I passed the glucose test. Very exciting. Of course I will have to repeat the test again later on, but I'm glad to know I can eat some carbs right now. Unfortunately it wasn't all good news. My TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) was low. It was 0.24 and the normal range starts at 0.45. So it is quite a bit low. But the nurse that filled out my requisition did not check the box to also check the T3 and T4 levels. These are the free hormones, the TSH stimulates their release. So, in theory, a person could have low TSH but still have adequate hormones  However, we will have to have a redraw to make sure the levels are okay. Otherwise I will have to take some thyroid medication. (And that means some more testing of my levels I'm sure.) So fingers crossed they are normal. I've never had a problem with my levels before. At least that I remember. I feel like my TSH was on the low side with Riley, but we didn't need to do anything. We'll see. I'll go get my levels drawn next week. She said she would call me with the results once she had them.

I've decided to be more active. Because I have been gaining weight a bit too fast for my taste. I only want to gain 25 pounds total and I've already gained 8. Blech. I really wish food wasn't so good!

In other news I got a phone call last night from the fraud department at my credit union. Someone had stolen my card (or card number) and had made purchases on my behalf. I still had my card (it is now shredded) so it leads me to believe they had stolen my information from some online account. I'm really annoyed that people do this. I feel violated. But I'm glad my credit union has a fraud division, and they realized it wasn't me. They were able to charge $1400 to my debit card. $1000 at Macy's and $400 at Victoria Secret. They apparently attempted a few other places like Best Buy but were declined. They have a $2000 limit (or is it $2500?) set on our debit card purchases per day so that is probably why it was declined. And also why the fraud division was alerted. So on Tuesday after work I will have to stop by my credit union to get it all straightened out. And to get a new debit card. I'm a little sad, because I have had the same pin for the life of my debit account and should probably change it now. I have no idea how they were able to use my card without physically having it. Because it appears it wasn't an online purchase. Who knows. It will all work itself out in the end.

13 weeks

Today I am 13 weeks. I have officially begun the 2nd trimester. It is surreal, because it seems to have flown by (although I remember thinking it was taking forever around week 6 or so). I am finally getting some of my energy back, which is a wonderful feeling. But it also helps that Riley has been waking up at 0930 or 1000 some days. I definitely appreciate it when that happens. :)

I have some fears for the future, especially once the babe is born, because Riley never slept. And I just don't know how I would be able to function with two tots to look after. I just keep hoping that this baby will know how to sleep. We'll see though.

Some gripes:

- I got the bill for the lab draw they did at the start of my pregnancy and I am floored by it. $696.30 for the labs alone. (Thankfully we have insurance so it only cost us $211, but still. It is frustrating.) It is even more irritating that $300 worth of the tests were for a tox screen. Ahem. I could have told them the results of that one. Absolutely zilch. I don't even think I've had Tylenol in the recent past. (Oddly enough Tylenol is often included in toxicology screens.) Even testing for Hepatitis C was a little uncalled for. However, I could have been exposed to it at work, so I would have let that one slide. Needless to say I'll be paying closer attention to what they draw from me in the future. If there is a baby #3, I need to remember this.

- Today some sciatica pain has started up for me. I'm not thrilled that it has started this soon. But I know women out there will sympathize with me. I need to find a chiropractor, I've been saying this for years now, but I just don't know who to trust.

- I have nothing to wear. Nothing, that looks appealing on me anyway. I feel frumpy in my maternity clothes, and uncomfortable in my normal person clothes. I'm a little sad that most of my maternity clothes are too big, even the jeans, because I was smaller when I got pregnant this time than I was when I got pregnant with Riley. Right now I'm wearing a skirt and shirt, and feel okay, but it is freezing out there! What I need to get are some leggings/tights, I'm going to go on Amazon after this to search for some.

- I'm hungry again. I mean, eat what is in sight, if food isn't in sight, find food and put it in my sight, all day long, hungry. This happened with Riley and I gained way too much way too fast, and ended up with gestational diabetes. I need to get better at being careful. Today I bought some foods at Trader Joe's that will hopefully help me. (Like fruits and vegetables and Greek yogurt. Fage is my favorite. And some frozen foods for Riley and I to have for dinners instead of thinking about fast food.) I'm not perfect, but I'm trying to be better.

- Heartburn is starting yet again. So far it has only been at night, but I'm sure very soon it will be a 24-7 issue as it was with Riley.

Some positives:

- The nausea is nearly gone. Okay so it wasn't as bad as other women's experiences with morning sickness. I never lost my cookies. I was able to eat through it (though many times it was cheese and crackers or something bland). But it was incredibly uncomfortable to be gagging and dry heaving out of nowhere. (Not to mention making people around me uncomfortable.) Sometimes I wished that I could puke, just to make it stop, and to have some relief. But instead, Zofran saved the day. Around week 9 was the worst, and I took Zofran nearly every day. Smells can still trigger it, but it is nothing like it used to be.

- I've already mentioned that my energy is coming back. But it is a positive. I finally feel like doing something else other than sleep or sit.

-Since week 8 I've been showing. Now it is quite prominent, not necessarily something a stranger might point out, but my family and friends can see it for sure. It is definitely the best part about being pregnant, looking pregnant, feeling pregnant. I have to be honest, there have been times where I've forgotten that I am pregnant. :) Pretty soon that will be a little bit tough. I swear I've been feeling the bean doing flips, but I'm pretty sure it is just peristalsis. ;) I can't wait to have boxing matches with the little booger.