Castor oil or no castor oil?
Sep 7, 2010 Family life
I have been drinking this tea with verbena oil that is supposed to encourage labor for two days now, and tomorrow was supposed to be the faithful day when I took a concoction made of apricot juice, water, almond butter, verbena oil and castor oil. I was kinda looking forward to it (despite hearing it was gross) because the midwives swear it is super effective. But now I am having major second thoughts.
From our Internet research, the medical community seems to be anti castor oil. It seems like it is effective because it induces diarrhea cramps, which in turn induce uterine cramps, and often labor. But it sounds like the diarrhea (and occasional vomiting) can bring on dehydration, which can make labor harder and more dangerous. Since I am prone to dehydration to start with, it makes me wonder if it’s such a good idea. The midwives were supposed to call me today, or else I was supposed to call them before taking the concoction. But I am starting to think that if they don’t call I will wait at least another day. I mean, I really want this baby to come out, but not at any price. I suspect the midwives will tell me that there is not enough castor oil in the concoction to induce diarrhea, but I have read on the Internet several accounts of women that took the same mix and regretted it. Of course, some others say it worked like a charm with no side effect at all.
So I’m still on the fence. To take or not to take castor oil? That is the question…
Preschool mission accomplished!
Sep 7, 2010 Family life
We took our son to preschool this morning. It was only for an hour and we were told we could stay for about 20 minutes if need be. We sat in the corner of the classroom and our son went to play with the other kids. At first he came to see us several times to ask for help with the toys, but we tried to encourage him to do it by himself or ask the teachers. Then he sat at a table with Mr. Potato Head and the teacher sat with him for a while, and he seemed so happy that we left after about 15 minutes. We only had enough time to run an errand before we had to come back, but everything went perfectly well in our absence. Our son went to get water from his backpack when he was thirsty, found his teddy bear and took it to circle time, which was fine, and he was happy to tell us about the songs they sang and the story they read when we came back. But there was no tears and no anxiety. Yeah!
They are only 6 in his class for now, which is really nice. I suspect it may still increase, but for integration purposes, one adult per three kids is certainly a welcome luxury. All in all, we’re really happy with our choice of preschool. The teachers seemed really nice and they had obviously read the paperwork just before class – hence the “I thought you were due at the end of August” one teacher said to me… One of the children seems like he has special needs: he was completely non-verbal and was wearing diapers, which is not supposed to be allowed at all in preschool. From his actions, it seemed to me like he might be autistic. So our son will get used to diversity and different ability levels, and with only 6 kids it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. A new preschool opened nearby this year and we heard that this was the reason behind the small class. Well, we visited the other one and we are really happy with our decision to go with this preschool instead.
Now we’ll see what Thursday brings. But so far, so good!
41 weeks and counting…
Sep 6, 2010 Uncategorized
Today I am officially one week overdue, which won me a visit to the hospital to do a non-stress test. Essentially, they hooked my belly up to a monitor so they can check the baby’s heart beat for 20 minutes while I’m supposed to click a button every time the baby moves. Apparently, everything was normal and the baby was active, which is good. Then the midwives gave me the recipe for a special tea that is supposed to help get me into labor. Yeah, right. I mean, my brain kinda knows that at some point the baby WILL be born, but my gut is telling me I’ll be pregnant forever. Anyway, Zak made the tea for me and I drank a liter of it in half an hour, and I sure was bloated, but I haven’t seen a contraction yet.
On the bright side, seeing the midwife today means I don’t have to go to my scheduled appointment tomorrow, so unless I’m in labor, I can take my son to his first day of preschool tomorrow with Zak. To be continued…
Sleep, sleep, it’s always about sleep…
Sep 4, 2010 Family life
How do you get your preschooler to sleep? By the way, I can’t believe he’s now a preschooler, but he’s starting preschool on Tuesday, so I guess he has to be. Anyway, he won’t sleep. Well, he does go to sleep easily in the evening, usually around 7:30. Sometimes 8 when we can’t get him to bed early enough. But then he wakes up at 6:45 in the morning. Sounds like a good night when you have a baby that won’t sleep through the night, but the problem is, he doesn’t nap. So in order to be happy, he would need at least 12 hours of sleep. And he used to sleep in until 7:30 most mornings when I worked, which was enough for him to function. But he doesn’t seem to want to anymore.
So presented with the evidence of our son’s lack of sleep – the eye rubbing, the lack of listening, the uncontrollable giggling which turns into tantrums in the blink of an eye, the continual banging of his head or other body parts in every piece of furniture – we decided to try and make him nap again. He hasn’t napped much since Christmas, because it made him impossible to put to bed in the evening. The first time, he napped, and then was happy again and went to bed normally. But the trouble continued.
We bought the “Ok to Wake Alarm Clock”, which turns green at a predetermined time to tell a child he has to remain in bed until that time. He does respect it, but he doesn’t sleep any more. He just gets up at 6:45 to go pee, then he plays in bed for a while, then he gets up again to poo, then waits until the clock turns green at 7:30. So we get to stay in bed a bit longer, but he’s not any more rested. When we tried to make him nap again another day, he just played for 20 minutes and then claimed he was done. Next time, we tried the nap feature of the alarm clock, so he would have to stay in bed for at least an hour at nap time. But as soon as the clock lit up, he jumped out of his bedroom and admitted he hadn’t slept at all, just played watching the clock.
We did manage to get him to nap today, but that was after 2 hours of him refusing to. It’s quite draining for everyone. Of course, we could try to put him to bed earlier, but it’s hard to do. So we’re quite worried about how preschool will go if our preschooler is so sleep-deprived.
You know, I thought the sleep issue would end when our child would sleep through the night. Boy, was I wrong! It just never ends! And then we’ll start the cycle again when the baby is born. If it is ever born. I’m starting to wonder. Or despair. Or worry. Or all of the above…
The One where I don’t have a Baby…
Sep 3, 2010 Uncategorized
Yesterday morning, around 11, I started having cramps on my side. Although I was 40 weeks and 3 days pregnant, I didn’t think it was labor. We still went out, but it got worse. When we came back around 1, I could barely walk. It didn’t feel like contractions, but then, when I had my first, it didn’t feel like contractions for a long, long while. So when I could barely move anymore, Zak convinced me to call the midwife. She said she would be here in about an hour.
By the time she showed up, I was feeling much better. She checked the baby’s heart, palpated my tummy, took my blood pressure (which was much, much higher than usual, but she figured I just got really stressed from the ordeal). She was great: she didn’t make me feel guilty about calling her for no reason. I mean, I guess there was a reason at the time I called her. She decided to go for a walk on the beach and come back in two hours, see if things had started. It was, after all, a beautiful day. When she came back, nothing had changed, so she went home, advising us to go to bed really early in case it started again at 2 in the morning.
I had a bit of a cramp all evening, but not as bad as earlier, and then by the time I went to bed I was feeling normal again. Nothing at night (except for our son who woke up twice and a lot of trouble sleeping for both Zak and I). And I’m completely back to normal this morning.
I hate false alarms. I’m 4 days late. Can’t the baby come out already? Now we need two things: better sleep, and a name. Quick.
Find the differences…
Aug 28, 2010 Family life
On the left, me on the morning my son was born three years ago, at 39 weeks and 3 days gestation. On the right, me on August 18 of this year, at 38 weeks and 2 days gestation.
The background has changed, but not much else. I thought I was a lot bigger this time around, but the difference is not that huge after all.
Now if only the baby could come out so I can post my two babies side by side 
39 weeks and 3 days
Aug 26, 2010 Family life
I have reached this milestone in my pregnancy: that is how long I was pregnant with my son. Now I was really hoping this baby would be out faster than that, so I’m starting to think he/she is taking their sweet time. Is it that comfy inside that he doesn’t want to come out? Today we told our son that he should talk the baby into coming out already, so he’s been talking to my belly saying “Come out, baby!” It’s really cute, but still not working.
The big thing now is that Zak and our son have tickets to go see a really cool show on Saturday morning. We bought only two tickets thinking that chances were I wouldn’t be in any shape to go, whether because I’d be 40 weeks pregnant or because we’d have a newborn. But what would suck is if the baby decided to come that same day. Because then Zak couldn’t go, and I’m not sure if we would find someone to take our boy. It would be a lot of money wasted if we cannot go. But there’s still hope. There’s time for the baby to be born tonight or tomorrow. Or he can stay inside until Saturday afternoon. But I vote for tomorrow. I’m ready.