Things I Don't Like Thursday

I can't find the balance between not drinking enough water and drowning my insides with it.

I'm either dehydrated and having pains, or I'm drinking so much I'm in the bathroom every 30 minutes. Neither one is great for teaching.

Size of Your Baby

For you mothers-to-be-again, you'll find this interesting.

My doctor told me today that there are 3 ways to estimate the size of the baby towards the end of your pregnancy.

1. Measuring your belly - the inches correspond with how many weeks you are. So if you're 34 weeks, if you measure 34 inches, then the baby is average size. This is what they do at your appointments each time.

2. Ultrasound - can be off by at least a pound (one way or the other). My doctor said this usually causes panic when you might have a 10 lb baby according to the ultrasound.

3. Mom's feeling - compared to your other babies, how does this one feel? Smaller or larger?

Apparently, studies have shown that the best way to estimate size is #3. That's right, mama's feeling.

So what's my feeling?

I think this kid is not necessarily any larger in terms of weight, but I think he's longer than Case was. Case would stretch out and roll around, but this baby stretches out way further than Case ever did. This one also doesn't really roll around - I don't think he has any room. All he can do is kick and punch me. Up into a week or so ago, his favorite punching bag were my upper ribs.

So we'll see if my prediction is correct. Case was 21.5 inches long.

Chemistry Explanation

On Sunday, I was having contractions (not real ones) along with just pains. After it going on for several hours, the on-call doctor told me to go to the hospital to make sure I wasn't in labor. I wasn't - just dehydrated. Today my doctor told me why pregnant women who get dehydrated (even if its just a bit) can have contractions.

Apparently, the hormone oxytocin that causes you to have contractions is very similar to the hormone that signals your kidneys to hold water when you get a bit dehydrated (I can't remember the hormone name). These two hormones are almost identical - they only have one molecule that is different. As a result, pregnant women's bodies will mistake the dehydration hormone for oxytocin starting contractions. That's why if pregnant women just get a little dehydrated, they can have contractions. So my doctor told me the next time that happens, drink a whole bunch of water and wait to see if they stop.

Oh, I love chemistry!

And don't worry, I've been resting more and downing the water. I'm feeling much better today!

Why I Love My Doctor...

Since we have moved since my last pregnancy, I had to get a new OB. I'm thankful I got a good one - she's great and always spends lots of time with me. She's also hilarious - which I appreciate.

1. She shared her dreams with me one time. All her patients came down with the swine flu was one of them. The other time, her house was burning down, and she ran inside to save her dog, putting him in a suitcase. Her hand motions during the house burning down dream were great.

2. She explained today why you can't wear crocs in the hospital. Besides that fact that they are unsanitary, you also will get blood spots on your white socks. Makes sense.

3. Apparently, its difficult to deliver in heels. She had someone in labor today so she was wearing tennis shoes. That is why. Understandable.

4. She shared some chemistry explanation with me today (I'll blog about that next). Totally appreciated that.

Give Me My Pancakes!

So lately, I've been craving pancakes. Why? Who knows? But all I do know is that I when I want them, I want them now!

Last Saturday, I took Case to McDonalds for breakfast. I got his usual (a breakfast burrito) for him, and some yummy pancakes. He didn't want his usual that day. He saw my yummy pancakes and wanted some. Good thing he's my son, or I probably wouldn't have shared.

This morning after my doctor's appointment, I knew I needed a big breakfast since I wouldn't get lunch (I had a lab from 11:30-2:30). So I headed to McDonalds for their big breakfast that has pretty much everything including pancakes. The pancakes were calling my name that morning. When I ordered (I went inside), I was on the phone. That was my fault right there - I didn't double check my receipt to make sure they got the order right.

Imagine my surprise when I got back to school, sat down in my office, and lifted the lid up to find NO PANCAKES! I was devastated. Did I let it go? Eat what I paid for (I checked the receipt, and the girl had punched my order in wrong)? Nope. Not this pregnant lady. I put a sign on my door saying I would be back soon to my office hours, told my colleague to tell any students looking for me that I left to get my pancakes and I would be right back, got back into my car, drove back to McDonalds, and went inside explaining I ordered pancakes and I didn't get them. They were very nice to me - gave me everything fresh again and didn't even charge me the difference! (Those are the perks of being big and pregnant!) I drove back to campus and sat down in my office to a yummy breakfast of pancakes and more. Thankfully, no students had come looking for me that morning, or I would have been embarrassed to tell them I was off demanding my food.

Random Pregnancy Symptom

Has any other woman experienced this symptom before?

This past summer I discovered Matt Nathanson's music and loved all of it. I listened to it over and over.

The bad thing was I was extremely sick this summer with my pregnancy - it was 1st trimester, and I hadn't discovered a medicine yet that helped.

Apparently, it was a bad mixture. Now whenever I hear his music, I immediately begin to feel nauseated. I have to turn the song off or turn it to something else before I get sick. I hate it, but the music just brings back that awful memory of being so sick.

So, Mr. Nathanson, it's nothing against you and your music, but I sure hope I forget that association. I miss your music.

*I did discover We The Kings around the same time. Though their music can make me nauseated as well, it's not to the same degree. I think because I was on medicine by the time I started listening to them that helped with the sickness.

*And yes, just writing this entry and thinking about the music makes me a bit queasy.

Marathon Weekend

Back in October, we drove up to Kansas City for the marathon. When I checked into our hotel, the receptionist asked if I was running. I told her I wasn't that ambitious. ha!

Josh ran on a team with my cousins; there were two teams.

We met up with the fam at the Marathon Expo and mall area. It was a fun night. Case started running a fever Friday night in the hotel room. I think now he was just overtired and had a cold - he's ran a fever when he's really tired before. Case and I stayed in the hotel room then while Josh ran the next morning. All the race pictures are stolen from Jacqueline : )

It worked out because it was very cold that early in the morning, and there's no way I could have stood and walked outside all morning. Case and I spent the morning in the hotel doing several different activities:

1. Going up and down the elevator.

2. Jumping on the bed.

3. Coloring. Wait, no he just stuck his markers together and played "drums."

4. Drinking water out of a medicine cup (you know the little plastic ones that come on top of Nyquil?) This entertained him for several minutes.

5. Walking around the hallways. Saying hi to the maids.

6. Going to breakfast twice...ok, maybe three times.

7. Sitting on the furniture in the lobby.

After the race, Josh came back and the three of us went to my cousins' house. We had a good time spending the afternoon with family and catching up. Case was busy, busy. He thought he needed to lay on a blanket like Baby Chloe was.

The next morning when we left, Case rode the luggage cart downstairs.

I took some pictures of the scenery - KC was beautiful. Very hilly and lots of trees. It reminded me of Nashville. I really would like to go back to KC and enjoy it more!

Josh and I were pretty tired going home on Sunday. The pictures of Josh and Case in Long John Silver's is from our way home. After driving through Emporia, we finally found the strip with places to eat. The pregnant lady won out and got to pic where to eat. Fried clams were calling my name. Just like they were last time I was pregnant.

We had a fun, busy weekend!

Casen and Heidi

Casen and Heidi have gotten to hang out a bit lately. April and I enjoy watching them - they are about a week apart in age.

I think Heidi's red hair made Casen's hair look more red.

Daddy's Boy

Case sat on Josh's lap to watch a football game. He listened to Josh's explanations. He also exclaimed, "Oh!" and "Uh-oh!" at appropriate times. I never thought I'd have a child that watches sports on TV this young.

Things You Shouldn't Tell a Pregnant Woman

Based upon my past and current experience....(and yes, these are actual comments I have been told)

Most of these I've mentioned before....

1. When are you due again?....Oh, my!

2. You think you are going to make it to December? (look of incredulous)

3. You're going to have to get a new shirt - that one is getting tight.

4. Eating are you? Is it healthy?

5. It's like you have a cat in there.

I'm so glad I can laugh at this later.

Things I Don't Like Thursday

When lab plans go awry....

Today in lab, my students needed to use the atomic absorption spectroscopy. Did it work? Nope. I tried what I could do. I called the analytical chemist - he couldn't get it work.

So what did some my students do today in lab? Mainly stand around and talk and watch us trying to get the instrument to work.

I hate when that happens.

That's probably why I didn't do analytical chemistry in grad school - instruments are frustrating.

His Own Space

Case is really developing into that stage where he wants his own space. Or probably, he's just growing up. I remember that's one of the key points in a book (and parenting sytle) Josh and I really like called Screamfree Parenting: that kids need their own space. It began awhile back when he started wanting to just go to sleep on his own in his bed. Now at bedtime, sometimes he wants to rock a bit, sometimes he just wants to lay down in his bed. He's been going into his room and shutting the door telling us bye-bye. He'll play in there for a bit. He also will leave our room and do the same thing. He has been rocking on the glider by himself and reading books. Many times, Josh or I can get him set up with a bunch of books and take care of whatever we need to (shower, clean, etc.). It gives us a small window of time. Last night though was a first. He asked me to go play with him in his room. So he led me to his room by the hand. He wanted to rock he said. I soon found out he wanted me to get him situated with his books on the glider. I thought he wanted me to sit on the footstool and read with him like we do a lot.

Nope.

He told me, "Leave." He wanted to read alone in his room by himself!

So I went to the livingroom, enjoyed talking to Josh without any interruptions, but got up myself (interrupting the conversation) to peek around the corner to spy on the little boy. He's getting so grown-up!

Things I Don't Like Thursday

So in keeping with the blog trend of having special blog days....I've created "Things I Don't Like Thursday" where I will share one thing that annoys me.

(I was going to put "Things I Hate Thursday", but that seems a bit strong. You can thank my mom for that one - we weren't allowed to say, "I hate..." when I was little. That rule is still stuck in my head.)

Today's subject is how I came up with this idea: Smokehouses. There's like 3 right by our neighborhood. They are drive-thru cigarette stores where people can get their smokes without having to get out of their car. What annoys me? They block traffic on the main road going into our neighborhood. The line will be so long at the drive-thru that people are lined up on the main road blocking the flow of traffic! I guess it wouldn't bother me so much if the store had a better parking lot system and were faster at the window. Sigh. So maybe my subject should be "Blocking Traffic." I just want to get home with my baby after work in a timely manner. Is that too much to ask?

Another difference....

My feet are swollen this time - sometimes really bad.

I never really swelled up with Case until right after I had him, and I got to stay in a hospital bed for a few days so it didn't matter. Maybe I'm on my feet more this time around.

It's a Bit Different This Time Around...

1. I definitely feel bigger this time than I was with Case. But my mom-in-law told me she thought I was smaller this time (God bless awesome mom-in-laws!).

2. This baby is longer I think than Case was ever in my womb. Case would stretch across my stomach and kick my ribs. This baby though is kicking up way higher on my ribs than Case ever did. I can feel him on my hips all the way up towards the top of my ribs. He must like to stretch all the way out!

3. My belly button is halfway an outie now. If I wear a snug T-shirt, you can see my belly button. I bet it totally gets turned out before I have this baby.

4. I'm having stronger Braxton-Hicks contractions than I ever had the first pregnancy - and way more often and earlier. Tuesdays seem to be the day for them. Wierd. Maybe that means I'll have my baby on a Tuesday. Bets, anyone?

Leg Cramps and Pchem Dreams

I'll blame it on pregnancy: awful leg cramps and crazy dreams.

About a month ago, I woke up with a start when I had a horrific leg cramp shoot through my calf. This time I was prepared though. During my last pregnancy, most of the times that I would get a leg cramp, I couldn't get awake all the way so I just screamed while Josh tried to figure out what was wrong with me. Not this time - I jumped out of bed and started walking around. Of course, I'm crying and yelling about it because it took forever to get it to stop cramping. Josh also is a pro this time around. He rolls over, looks at me, and says, "And so it begins..."

So I've increased my potassium intake and it's helped most nights.

But about a week ago, I started having an awful leg cramp while I was asleep dreaming about pchem. I was dreaming about what I had taught that day in lecture - the Carnot cycle. I couldn't get myself awake all the way to realize I need to get out of bed and walk. Nor could I tell Josh why I was moaning and crying. All I could think about what how I needed to calculate the amount of energy that was put into the system to do a certain amount of work. I kept thinking, If I figure that out - this pain will stop. Ultimately, Josh got me awake enough and pushed me out of bed (which is definitely needed by this time) so I could walk around.

Ah, gotta love that last trimester of pregnancy!

Pchem Lore

So this year I'm getting to teach PChem this year. Physical Chemistry is the subject that (usually) only pchemists want to teach. As an undergrad, I ended up liking pchem - even after miserably failing the first exam. As a grad student, pchem was okay - I appreciated the complexity, but decided against majoring in that field. I liked it well enough to take some classes in that area in grad school. Pchem is the subject that people will share their horror stories about. It's the class that give chemists and biochemists bragging rights for surviving. Of course, I'm sure these statements get further exaggerated as the years go by:

"My pchem exams took 3 hours."

"Well, my pchem exams would take all day. And we could leave and come back and it wouldn't matter to the teacher - its not like we could go look something up and figure it out."

As one of my students wrote, "My cousin took this class recently and told me it’s a class that while you’re in it you don’t really know what’s going on and once you’re out you don’t really know what happened, but it was cool…"

For the most part, I'm enjoying this class. It's challenging, but my calculus skills have been renewed.

We Stayed Too Long

So the picture of Case in the TRex's head was the last time we saw him happy at the zoo. We stayed too long. I do that sometimes at the store. Case is doing awesome - so I decide, I can slow down. I can go look at a few things that I don't need, just interested in looking at. But then - watch out! Tired Toddler Alert! I've put him through too much store-time, or in this case, too much zoo-time. After having a meltdown about not being able to push his stroller into the grass and that Mama couldn't carry him any further, we high-tailed it out of there! He promptly fell asleep in the car and stayed asleep for a LONG nap inside the house. We had had a good day...we just should've went home a little earlier.

Maybe the Dingo Ate Your Baby

If you aren't a Seinfeld fan, that title probably sounds very inappropriate.

We never did see any dingos, but we did find these dingo-look-a-likes: African Pack Dogs. And guess what? These are now Case's official favorite animal at the zoo. He was calling to them, clapping for them, babbling out about them. That's right, we went to the zoo to see dogs.

Tall like a Giraffe

Driving Those Crazy Animals Around

Check out Case's cool turning ability. (He gets it from me - in the car now when I turn he usually shouts, "Wheeeee!" I'm assuming he just likes to say Whee! Not that I'm a crazy driver or anything.)

Walking on a Path

Case loves to walk on a path. At the zoo, it was these drainage vents that encircled the birthday party entry way. On our walks, it's on the curbs so he can practice his balancing.

Happy Birthday Pistol Pete!

Aren't these cakes beautiful?! They were yummy too!

That old picture is of Casen with Pistol Pete when he was 3 months old. It was the first time he met Pistol Pete. They go way back.

The Best Animal to Be...

If you had to live in a zoo as an animal, I think the best choice would be as these white peacocks. They roam around freely. What a life!

Of Course We Had to See the Lions

I think these lions love the limelight. Today they mosied on down to the big rock to lay out with all the people next to them. Last time, they were laying right by the glass while kids banged on the glass. That same female lion that last time was swiping at people through the glass - this time, anytime a kid was nearby she would sniff in their direction. I promise she would like to taste them.

Case loved the lions though - he was roaring at them!

The Zoo is a Great Place to Pose

The zoo has a bunch of statues (and a ride) that little ones (or big ones - see my pictures) can pose by standing next to them or sitting on them. Case liked to pose on the little animals....the giant gorilla? Not so much - it scared him I think.

Pre-Zoo: Picnic after Church

A few weekends ago, the zoo was hosting Pistol Pete's birthday. We took a picnic lunch to eat after church. Picnics in the back of your car are always fun!

Preacher Man

Last Sunday, after we got home, Casen would stand on top of his train, hold the church bulletin, and "read" it outloud to Josh's mom and me. He was a'preach'in it seemed...or at least making announcements.

Today he "preached" from his books while standing on top of the baby wipes box. He just needs a platform to stand upon, and he's ready!