Procrastination

Ok so I have a 5 page paper and activity due online at 5pm. There are only 30 minutes left of nap time...and I am blogging. What is even worse is that it took me a good 5-10 min googling procrastination images. If it makes you feel better I have 4 pages written and I found a website that I can use to model my lesson plan after. All plans to finish the project on Monday failed after I just couldn't get the energy up to do it and all I wanted to do was cry.

 

Maybe now I can get back to this stupid paper. I really do not enjoy online classes. By working at your own pace that means tuesday night and wednesday during down times I frantically work to get everything done.

My girl loves blueberries

I took my little one to pick blueberries and blackberries today. She was in a great mood when I arrived in the morning so I knew it was going to be a good day. We sang and danced in the car on the way to the farm. We applied our sunscreen and had our water bottles. I don't like blueberries but it was fun to pick them. She didn't want to leave and I kept finding her sneaking a few into her mouth in between picking.

My day ended early and I headed over to another friends house to work on a school project. Her 6 year old put up with me asking her question after question and finally I think I got what I needed. Even though I was off early today I didn't really use my time wisely. I got home took the dogs out and fed them and then I laid in bed and cried. My mom called and it was good to talk to her. I think I have made the decision that I don't want dh to come this weekend. I think it would be good for us to be apart.

We saw Toy Story 3 at the Imax. It was really good and had I of not been in a crying mood I don't think I would've cried but I am glad I didn't take the 3 year old to see it. It has a few intense moments and I noticed I wasn't the only one to cry.

She's only happy in the Sun

I took this about a week ago on my way to dinner. If it was always sunny then there wouldn't be rainbows.

I had an uneventful week last week yet I feel like I was run over by a truck. Being off birth control has left me looking like a 13 year old that doesn't wash her face...I swear I do though. I feel like a fat cow. I feel like I do everything yet nothing is getting done. Most days I am invisible trying to even be translucent. I feel like I am just going through the motions and the only way people see me is if they accidentally step on me. Dh lately has seemed to have lost his filter on his mouth and on more than one occasion this week one comment has brought me to tears.

I was able to get away for the weekend to see one of my best friends. I met her online through the knot and I am sad she lives 3 hours away. I miss the days of the knot when we had gtg's and hung out and I felt like I had a life. When I was feeling less invisible. I had friends. We try to e-mail and facebook and text but both of us have husbands and furry kids and school and sometimes it is hard. We finally picked a weekend and decided to stick with it. Being in the car alone on the drive was nice. No one complained how fast I was driving or how loud the music was. We had a great time talking and shopping and eating. I was able to check a few things off my 101 in 1001 days list too. I did open my mouth and say something stupid which just added to the weight of things I hate about myself this week. I thought about it the entire drive home about what an idiot I am. When I got home dh was complaining about something and made another comment that I cried about.

This is Neko. He was checking out all the cool stuff we got while shopping.

This is Jewel and Knight. They are greyhound rescue's and they are the sweetest and softest doggies. I wanted to take them home with me.

Nanny =/= baby-sitter

I find that a lot of people think my job is all fun and games and I never actually work. Last night I was at work till 11ish and I will tell you my body sure did feel like it was working hard all day.

While I do enjoy downtime during naps, we swim, go to the library, play at the park...and numerous other activities my children learn. I will brag about my amazing 3 year old for a second and compare her to another 3 year old that is 6 months older than her. My child spends her time with a nanny- me and the other child is watched by her grandmother. I am sure the little girl still has tons of fun and gets lots of love and hugs but so does my child.

Example- Lets say A is my child and B is the playdate girl. A is 3 and B is 3.5 approximately. We decided to play the lady bug game. (a great game for little ones and I don't hate it after playing it 4 times a day 5 days in a row. So A knows that green means go and red means backwards. Red does confuse her a little bit because at stop lights she knows green means go, red means stop, and yellow means slow down...in the game red means go backwards. They have little yellow squares to help the child count how many squares to go forward or backward. A knows her numbers up to 9 by sight so when she sees 4 she doesn't have to count the squares. She shows me 4 fingers and says go, 4 spaces, move ahead. Cuteness. B looked at me like I had 3 heads. I had her count the squares. B can count but the concept of counting squares was lost on her. She also could not tell me which way was forward or backward and even had trouble when I said move that way and pointed.

While A and I do a lot of "play" during the day there is not a moment I am not thinking how can I teach her something during this. Learning should be fun.

A can write her name, knows the alphabet song and can identify at least 10 letters, can count to 20, can count to 10 on her fingers, does simple math, can follow rules in a game with help, she knows how to move the mouse and click on a button on the computer, she dresses herself, can go potty herself, has been known to get her own food from the counter/fridge when mommy is in the other room. She is also a no fear swimmer. I practiced swimming with her yesterday and took off her life jacket. She is finally tall enough to touch the bottom and ready for swim lessons. She was jumping off the second step swimming under the water after 5 minutes of practicing. I had my arms out every time to catch her but she knew to come up she had to put her feet down. I am so proud of my little one!

Her mom and I joke that when she starts a pre-school program in the fall she will just be going for the social aspect of it.

Id Label giveaway over at I.D. Me labels

Visit here

I would love to win these for my kids I work with. We have a few for water bottles but recently we have been going to swim team and the 6 yr old ends up being on his own. We are forever trying to match up which blue croc goes with which child and he is always losing/leaving items at school. I think it is a 6 year old brain thing. The child cannot even remember to close the door when he walks into the house after school. If I say "name" He looks at me with a blank stare and goes " Oh yea door...I forgot" How does one forget the door is open when you just walked through it?

Does light drinking in pregnancy have benefits?

This article is from reuters.com

(Reuters Health) - Could a glass of wine a day early in pregnancy yield better behaved kids? Maybe, according to results of a new study.

HEALTH

Researchers found that the children of women who were light or moderate drinkers (2 to 6 drinks per week or one per day) early in pregnancy tended to have "more positive" behavior than the children of mothers who did not drink at all early in pregnancy.

"This positive behavior meant that the children of light and moderate drinkers had less emotional and behavioral problems through childhood and adolescence," Dr. Monique Robinson, from Telethon Institute for Child Health Research in West Perth, Western Australia, told Reuters Health by email.

The new findings, published in the obstetrics and gynecology journal BJOG, are based on 14 years' worth of data in the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study.

The women provided information on their weekly drinking habits during early pregnancy: 59 percent of women reported no drinking; 20 percent reported occasional drinking (up to one standard drink per week); 15 percent reported light drinking (2-6 drinks per week); 3 percent moderate drinking (7-10 per week); and 2 percent reported heavy drinking (11 or more per week).

The behavior of 2,370 children was assessed every 2-3 years between the ages of 2 and 14.

Compared with mothers who did not drink in the first 3 months of pregnancy, those who were light drinkers during this time had better behaved children over 14 years, as indicated by better scores on a standard checklist used by psychologists.

Children of light to moderate drinkers early in pregnancy had a "clinically meaningful" lower risk of internalizing behavior (in which negativity is directed inwards, for example depression) and externalizing behavior (such as aggression), than children of nondrinkers.

As an example, at the age of 14, 127 children of nondrinkers had internalizing problems (14 percent) and 159 (18 percent) had externalizing problems. By comparison, among light drinkers, only 32 children (10 percent) had internalizing problems and 45 (13 percent) had externalizing problems.

Research has shown that moderate drinkers are mentally healthier than both abstainers and addicts, which could help explain these findings, the researchers say. There may biological reasons as well; namely, low doses of alcohol in pregnancy may help calm the mother-to-be, perhaps yielding calming kids.

"Given what we know about the dangers of frequent heavy consumption of alcohol in pregnancy, these results may initially appear surprising," Robinson admitted. For example, fetal alcohol syndrome is a well-described condition. "However, we need to be cautious about generalizing the effects of a heavy alcohol intake to a light consumption of alcohol -- they are not equal."

Robinson also noted that some studies have found a light consumption of alcohol in pregnancy to be associated with positive cognitive outcomes for children. "But the light-to-moderate intake results tend to be overshadowed by the focus on harm at the excessive intake end of the scale," she said.

With about half of all pregnancies in Australia being unplanned (with similar figures for the US and UK), the current findings should be reassuring to women, Robinson said.

"Women may be drinking alcohol in small amounts prior to recognition of the pregnancy and we feel these data highlight that it is unlikely that this has harmed their unborn child's mental health," she said.

"Women should not feel guilty or anxious about low-level drinking effects prior to recognition of the pregnancy. However, binge and large alcohol intake should still be avoided as this does have potential for harm," Robinson emphasized.

Nonetheless, Robinson does not advise women who are pregnant or trying to become pregnant to head to the local pub. She also emphasized that child behavior is "just one of many outcomes that might be assessed with regards to alcohol consumption during pregnancy. While our study found light drinking during pregnancy was not associated with increased risk for the child, national guidelines recommend the safest choice is to avoid alcohol once the pregnancy is known."

"The best option," Robinson said, "is for women to ask their obstetric care provider (obstetrician, midwife, family doctor, etc) and work with that person on their decision regarding alcohol."

SOURCE: link.reuters.com/mek29k BJOG, online May 28, 2010.

Thoughts or comments?

I have cut back on how much wine I intake now that I am trying and I also plan to avoid alcohol in the first trimester. However I do plan to have an occasional glass of wine throughout the rest of my pregnancy should I have no other complications. I can see this article being taken out of hand in women who get knocked up and are semi or full blown alcoholics. A drink is good for the baby. I would be interested in seeing the rates of fetal alcohol syndrome also in the women of the study.

It is amazing to see the show I didn't know I was pregnant and the women that have no prenatal care and continued to drink and smoke and still end up having healthy babies.

Wasn't it 40 years ago doctors encouraged women to smoke to gain less pregnancy weight? It was also when women were knocked out and handed a baby the next morning.

Fresh Blackberry Cobbler from cooks.com

1 stick butter

1 c. milk

1 c. sifted flour

1 c. sugar

1 qt. blackberries

In bottom of baking pan or large baking dish, melt butter. Add milk; do not stir. Sift flour and sugar; add to dish. DO NOT STIR. Add blackberries. Bake at 325 to 350 degrees until crust rises to top and browns.

If you are like me you do not have time to sit and watch your cobbler bake until it browns. I found another recipe that said bake for 30-40 minutes so I used that. In the last 10 minutes though I realized that it also said 375... so I upped the temp and cooked it about 10 minutes longer. I had issues with being told not to stir and I will admit I didn't stir the milk and butter but I did pour the sugar/flour mixture over the blackberries and coated them before adding them to the mixture.

It was super easy to make and I let a 3 year old help me. It turned out great and everyone loved it.

The best laid plans of mice and men...

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge him,

and he will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6

This verse is one of my favorites and often I find myself not following it. Isn't there a joke that says if you want to make God laugh then tell him your plans? I think God laughs at me a lot. I like to plan. I think most people have some idea of a plan they would like. Go to school, get married, win the lottery, have no debt, make millions, own an island... you know the small things in life. For most women it is that they can choose when to get pregnant. Spend x amount of years on birth control and then toss them and throw caution to the wind and 9 months later a baby is born. Boy has society given the wrong impression about being in control of oneself and making your own decisions in regards to birth control. I wish I had known what I know now when I first started taking birth control. I was given birth control around age 16 for my PCOS. I did not know it was PCOS then but just that I had irregular cycles and that birth control regulated them... or so I thought. I highly recommend Taking Charge of your Fertility for any woman who wants to know more about her body and how it works. It is not only for women just trying to conceive.

In other news I had an upper GI on Monday. (see rant below) My Dr. finally called with the results. " He saw the same thing the other Dr. saw in the endoscopy findings" Oh Gee thanks! But I guess that is good that an ulcer isn't what caused the blood when I puked. I guess I am just odd and occasionally throw up blood? The other day my husband said to me " You are just like your mom. There is always something wrong with you and they can never find out what it is and eventually it goes away" They do say the apple does not fall far from the tree and I guess I inherited all my moms odd medical happenings. I would post about her but you would still be reading about her medical issues 72 hours from now. Let's just say that she is that 1% that the Dr. warns you about. Like this procedure blah blah blah has these possible side effects but that only happens in 1% of patients. My mom is that unlucky 1% every time. EVERY time.

Now I am just waiting for my current insurance to end so I can get new insurance with maternity. :-) We also have to schedule DH's urologist appointment. How do you convince a man to see a Dr.? Well the other day I noticed swelling on DH's side and asked him what was going on. He had a previous hernia when he was younger and the swelling was near his scar. I told him he should call the Dr. and have it checked out just to make sure it wasn't a hernia. Dh freaked out and went first thing the next morning convinced he was dying. It really did not help that the Dr. told him to watch for signs of appendicitis just in case. She said she figured it was just a pulled muscle but in the tiniest chance it wasn't to watch it. I had to listen to him whine and complain about dying until I talked him off the ledge and told him he would be fine.

Word Verification

I was reading a discussion on blogfrog yesterday about blogging pet peeves.

I will have to say word verification on any website gets me every time. I do better when they at least give me real words but other than that I think it takes at least 3 tries every time just to get through. When the n looks like an h and you have them all scrunched together...how am I supposed to figure out maldarthy...is that even a word? I feel totally dumb when it comes to them and if I click the handicap button to hear the numbers I think I usually get 3 out of 8? If you are not getting comments it is because I am too dumb to get past your word verification.

I also want to apologize because I did not realize word verification was enabled on my blog. It has since been disabled so feel free to comment away!

This may seem like common sense to most but apparently I am lacking this time in that department. People like comments...so if you are complaining or upset at your lack of comments you should look to see how many comments you have left on other people's blogs. Is that number 3? Then that explains why you only have 2 comments.

I vow to be better at posting comments. :-)

I also learned that people love pictures. I love taking pictures so I will work on getting more on this blog. I like to make people happy.

10 Things Tuesdays

10 Things Tuesdays! Ten things made you happy this week? Blog about 'em! Ten things you want to do before the week's over? Blog 'em! Any ten things, any theme you wish, every Tuesday over at Magnolia Queen.

I have had blogs before but I have never been that social and so I end up slacking off because no one ever reads my post. In my effort to become more social and have more followers I have joined a few social blog sites. I hope I am doing this right. 1

10 things for this week

1. I have an amazing job that I wouldn't trade for anything and it gives me free time and time at the pool

2. This weekend I will visit my friend in Charlotte for the first time. I am super excited and I have never been to Charlotte. She is also an amazing cook/baker so I look forward to that.

3. I get to see kids that I used to baby-sit for that I haven't seen since before Thanksgiving on Friday.

4. I get to keep my BCBS insurance and ad maternity instead of switching to Dh's horrible horrible insurance

5. Chili in a can. It might be a simple thing but it has totally made my week. We had chili cheese Nathan's hot dogs last night and it was heaven.

6. Vacation. Dh and I recently planned a vacation to the mountains for our anniversary and I am starting the countdown. I have a few things lined up that I am excited to try for the first time.

7. My 101 in 1001 days challenge. I never follow through with New Year's resolutions and by blogging it I have been more motivated to complete tasks and blog about it. Check out Day Zero Project for more details.

8. The post below. Free stuff and coupons.

9. Blackberry Cobbler. I am making it for the first time today and I can't wait to taste its sweet crumbly goodness

10. The Bump - I have found so much knowledge, advice, and support that I couldn't have found elsewhere. It is also nice to have someone to talk to about ttc without my whole entire family/friends knowing.

Free Stuff

I love free stuff and coupons. Sunday we went to Sam's club to get a few things and they had all of their samples set out. I am that person. I tried almost everyone and we did end up buying the General Tso's chicken we tasted. Free lunch. I also had a coupon for Mcd's so we headed there and I got my free small Carmel Frappe. I cut coupons every week, I use Mypoints when I shop online, and I generally try to shop when something is on sale and use a coupon. Harris Teeter which is down south is great for this. I won't shop there full price stuff but when they have a Buy 2 get 3 free I am on it.

You should check out Deal Wise Mommy She has become my new favorite website for coupons, freebies, and giveaways. Just the other day I bought a canvas for my mom. She has been asking since our wedding in Aug 08 for a 11x14 of one of our prints. I did not really want to pay $60 and since I am cheap I have been waiting for a good deal. I bought it from Canvas People for only $9.99. The 8x10 was free. Shipping was around $14 but they ship it either Fed Ex or UPS.

What is your favorite website for deals or coupons?

What is the most you have saved on a grocery shopping trip? I think mine is somewhere around $150 off $300.

Drink this

I had my upper GI today and it was nasty. I was hoping I could just drink it as fast as I could but the Dr. had me hold it in my mouth and then swallow. On top of the awful tasting barium I had to also take fizzy crystals. I am so glad that is over and hopefully I will get the results from my Dr. in a few days. Why the Dr. that just did it couldn't share the information I don't know. I find it annoying I will waste another $25 copay for something that could've been taken care of when I had the GI done. Hours later and I can still taste it.

Happy Father's Day!

My husband's dad came to visit us today for the night on his way to a conference in Myrtle Beach. It was nice to see him again and we took him to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. To combat large crowds and get more people in and out they took out the waiting for table section and put picnic tables in its place. I do believe this was a fire hazard. I felt bad for the wait staff that had to push through the large crowd at the door to get to the people sitting in the area. The large amount of people waiting for tables were crowded at the entry so it was hard to even move around. It was not good for my claustrophobic self. I do not like other people touching me either. I had to get out my hand sanitizer when we got to the table.

I am glad this holiday is over because that now means we are through Mother's and Father's day and I won't have to think about them till next year and by then hopefully I will be pregnant with baby C. On Mother's Day our church had all the mother's congregate at the front of church while we prayed. I think I was one of 10 women who were still seated...I felt awesome. They did the same thing for Father's Day today but they also played a slideshow of pictures of all the father's at our church.

Tomorrow I have an Upper GI scheduled to find out the source of blood. I think I puke more than the average person but that was the first time blood ever came up.

Last year around this time I was having my Upper Endoscopy because I had puked EVERYTHING I ate for almost a whole month. Zofran became my new best friend halfway into the month. It was a great weight loss plan but not so good for having any energy at all or being able to work efficiently. Thankfully I was one of two women at my job and I was really close to my coworker. Anyways they told me they couldn't really figure out what was wrong with me.

They did however run a biopsy and print out a sheet of pictures and a description of what they found. I took this information and plugged it into Dr. Google and came up with my own diagnosis. The sad thing is I then went to my Dr. and he agreed that was probably what was wrong...Go ahead and give me my M.D. thank you very much. I have a hiatal hernia. I have a schatzki's ring. They told me this on my picture sheet. This shows I have had acid reflux that has gone untreated for years and finally it got so bad I had a allergic reaction in my throat. The biopsy found Eosinophilic esophagitis. Go ahead and try to say that three times. I dare you to try and say it once.

The only thing they started treating me for was the EE. I had to spray flonase into my THROAT 2 times a day and I couldn't eat or drink anything for 4 hours after that. NASTY stuff. Yea so I kind of suck at taking medication. It lasted about 2 weeks until I could eat again. I was also put on Omeprazole. I take 2 tablets twice a day. Well I am supposed to...I try to. I have to take it 30 minutes before a meal. Do you always know when you will eat 30 minutes later? Neither do I.

So wish me luck for tomorrow that this time I won't have to diagnose myself.

Welcome

Welcome to my TTC blog. The title of the blog comes from our life. We have 4 out of 6 pets with names that start with B. It wasn't really planned, it just kind of happened. No I don't think we were trying to be like the Duggars. We did switch on the last two. :-) Our favorite boy and girl name for a baby starts with C...so we hope to be adding a little C to our family sometime in the next year.

Our journey starts in 2005 when I met my husband. I knew from the beginning that he was different and that he was the one. We married in 2008 on the beach with a very unique reception. We have 3 dogs and 2 cats. Sadly we lost one of our cats this year. I was diagnosed with PCOS before I met my husband in 2003. I knew this was why I had always had irregular cycles and that trying for a baby may not be as easy as I had hoped. Recently my husband had a semen analysis and it came back with low morphology. We are waiting to see a RE urologist to take the next step.

Between scheduling the RE urologist appointment and changing my insurance we are on a tiny break until after July 15th. Hopefully this means we can try again for a anniversary baby in August.