I'm coming back! And oh, the things we have to catch up on.

And time plugs along...

I went and had 2 fills with my surgeon, and felt absolutely nothing. 2cc was once too tight, now at 3cc it's like I have no band. I went last week and they did a fluro, the good (no, great) news is it is NOT slipped, and the pouch is NOT stretched. Thank God for that, I was so sad just knowing that had to be the case. The bad news is, same thing. Why am I not feeling it? What could possibly have changed.. when I was originally banded, he put the smallest one and said it should be a little tight without any fill (and it was-just a little) so it took hardly anything to get me rocking and rolling... but now.. ugh. Unfortunately, I didn't get to ask "Why would it be so different now??". Physically makes no sense. But he filled me .25cc more, did another barium swallow and he said it got stuck for a moment, so I may be too tight. Tested with crackers (which isn't a good indication for me anyway, never was), and it's fine. So a week later, I finally feel the band again; so I know it's there... but still no restriction. Only .75cc room left in my band, how sad. I am going back next month for yet another fill.

Carson is growing and doing great! He just started sleeping through the night (relatively) June 30th. We have bad nights here or there, but for the most part I am just ecstatic that I get longer bursts of sleep. He still has some cradle cap... and we've slowly eased back to a normal formula (Enfamil Premium). We went from Similac Advanced, to Nutramagen (YUCK), to Enfamil Gentlease (YUCK), to Premium. It's been 1 week and he's not breaking out and his tummy doesn't seem bad, so hopefully he can tolerate milk proteins now.

I am still upset about not being able to breast feed. For our next baby, my doc is going to help me in the hospital with rx for milk producing something, so that this doesn't happen again. I feel he wouldn't have gone through all the allergies and pains if I had been able to BF.

What else..... Russ & I celebrated our 2 year anniversary(7/7). We got a cake made by the lady who made our wedding cake (faaaaantastic), and went to dinner at Conor's (some fancy steak house).

I don't keep my blog updated like I should, but if you want Carson pics, I DO keep his picture album current...

http://babycarson.aboutmybaby.com/

Wastin' away again in...

Good Music

So with all this spare time (har har), I found some new songs lately that I really like. Actually, I just have the radio on quite a bit since I can't focus on the TV anymore. Thought I'd share.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF6VQ91P_rc Keith Urban, Love Somebody Like You

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXbqRkwjcbo Pop Evil, 100 in a 55

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flAvh1o-s5E Matt Nathanson, Come on Get Higher

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBBRhmH4S8A Pink Floyd, Us and Them

Woops, he's here!

Yes, very busy and forgot to blog about it.
April 16 (my 2 year bandiversary!!) at 4am, they induced me. By 7pm I stopped progressing and his heart rate was dropping, so I had a c-section. He was born at 7:51pm, 7lb 5oz, 19".. healthy and happy!
It ends up the cord was around his neck, so he would never have come along on his own; I was begging the doc to give me just one more hour to try to progress. Anyway, unlike everything I've read, I never actually felt contractions. I had an emergency epidural at only like 1 hour into it because my blood pressure dropped to something like 70/30..I don't really understand why the epidural had to happen, they ended up having to do an intra-uterine catheter (sp all over the place) to monitor contractions, and the little head screw to monitor his heartbeat, so I don't know if that had something to do with it. The worst part of the whole thing was the epidural; I cried and it hurt like HELL.. I guess if you're not in the throws of labor, it's pretty bad.
Then when they told me I HAD to do c-section, I cried and panicked.. I was really scared of that, because I was having weird pains in my cervix so I know the epidural didn't completely numb me.. but it all worked out, and Carson is here.
He's overall a good baby this far, he just is a lil' piggy.. eats more than the 'books' say he should be eating, and my ped said to go ahead and let him.
Originally his jaundice got bad and he lost too much weight the first week, so I had to supplement formula and he had to go in the bilibed (the glowing blue bed in my pics--and he loooooved that thing). In a couple days he was back to good.. now he's growing on schedule and no yellow tint!
Here's the pics... (I update this almost daily, I'm his personal paparazzi)

http://babycarson.aboutmybaby.com/photoalbum/220684


I was 282lb when I checked into the hospital, 285lb (though I thought more, I was swollen for the first time, my face and legs were huge) when I left the hospital.. and I'm 255lb as of 2 days ago. Gotta get back down to pre-pregnancy weight (212lb).. but I am able to wear my pre-pregnancy jeans;hooray!

A Tall Girls Rant on Maternity Clothes

When I first purchased maternity clothes from Motherhood, I believe I gave it stellar props.
That was before they were washed. First off, the button up tops aren't meant for boobs. Really? Pregnant women don't have boobs? They have lines for your boobs to be up top, but boobs don't fit in them, so the top doesn't fit. So all of those were wasted. The normal shirts (cotton,etc.) fit great the first time. One wash later, they are 3x sizes smaller. Really. I even tried stretching and pulling, and they are SO SHORT.. shorter than my non-maternity clothes. Argh. Trash.
Their pants, I initially started in a medium. They were barely long enough. One wash later, all are not only too short (flooding ick), but the secret fit belly and all that crap roll down and do not hold the pants up.
With less than a month to go I just got 2 more pants in XL just because I am desperate for pants, and they are too big and instead of the secret fit rolling down, it just falls off.

Then there's Burlington Coat Factory. I got a couple pairs of their pants. First time wearing, were awesome. They seem longer than Motherhood. One wash later, 2 of them turned into spandex. How--I don't know. They came to my CALF and were skin tight.
Their shirts don't fit very well, and again are short. Pre-wash their shirts are pretty short.

Wal-Mart has a small selection here for maternity clothes (less than 8 shirts and no pants), the shirts are way too slutty for maternity. They are low-cut and my boobs hang out, but they do stay long after 1 wash. They also had a button down shirt I bought that was very cute, but the buttons broke off of them after a couple wears, so it ended up in the trash too.

I tried Gap & Old Navy, with the best success. Gap pants didn't shrink up, and they fit.. but I had the hidden panel, and as my belly got bigger--they don't go on my belly anymore and they're too big for my hips, so they won't stay up. Old Navy in town doesn't carry maternity in store, so I had to order their pants. I can't find a size that fits, they are either too big or too small. They both had the best options for maternity shirts though, very long.. border line sleeping shirt looking shirts.. but I wear them.

I wore a dress for the first time yesterday. I'm really not a dress person, but I'm so tired of fighting with pants. The dress worked great, it's just a normal XL sundress I bought this winter on sale, and it happened to fit for pregnancy (it was babydoll cut). But, it had noodle straps so I had to wear a sweater with it. It's not easy trying to sit lady-like while 8 months pregnant.

A couple weeks ago, out of frustration with all my maternity shirts shrinking up to not only not cover my belly, but any 'panels' on maternity pants.. I went to Cato's and bought some shirts that are just larger size (22/24). This has seemed to work for the most part, I got many that have some sort of elastic at the bottom, so I can pull it past the belly and it stays in place. It doesn't look real cute, since they're big baggy shirts (and sleeves are way too big), but I don't have to fight with my shirts. I just have to fight with the maternity pants.

I am very ready to be done with maternity clothes, they just don't do it for me!!
I know I'm not the first person to complain about maternity clothes, but I wish I'd realized how crappy some of the quality was on these items. I am anti-Motherhood & Burlington Coat Factory for maternity clothes.. I would not recommend them to anyone.


So on to fun news, my doc told me I am dilated and she will induce me April 16th+ if I want her to (I will be 39 weeks). I am debating it. She said she won't let me go past 41 weeks..not that I would dispute that. Earlier the better, I may regret saying that later.. but I can't wait to meet Carson!!!!!

Just another Thursday!

Not a lot has been happening as you can tell from my lack of blogging.

Although this morning I put on pants & shirt (both maternity) and for the first time in a while, they didn't feel too tight. They actually were (GASP) baggy? I don't know what happened. I think maybe I wore these and stretched them out and forgot and put them back in the drawers? I don't know. But it's a nice change, I hate getting dressed these days.

I saw an allergist on Tuesday to find out why I'm always congested and sickly.. ends up I'm really allergic to dust mites and somewhat allergic to cats. So, I ordered encasings for all our bed stuff, and the cats are out of the bedroom now. Poor kitties. It's been 2 days, they actually are taking it better than I thought, it's pathetic to see them outside our door in the morning waiting for us.. but only one of them scratches at the door and when we make a PSSS noise to her she stops after a minute or two.

Ok so that's it.. here's some funnies for you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Nn9dd6FfE8

Carson Loves The Uterus!

Har har.
We went to Tunica this past weekend, my last trip for a LONG time.. and it was for my birthday trip. Today's my birthday, I'm 25! Woo. We had a lot of fun, and watched a lot of payperview. We came home with the money we took--can't complain about that.

Yesterday I went to my 28 week 4-d Ultrasound. Carson kept snuggling his head in my uterus, so the lady couldn't get a good picture.. she said she needs fluid between his head & the uterus for a good shot, so we tried me rolling, bouncing, she shook my belly some.. he would just turn his head and wave his hands/legs--but wouldn't slide down even an inch! Oh well.. so this is what we got. They also got a clear shot of his turtle. Look for the 'snail' (she called it turtle, but it looks like a snail to me) just above where it says 'boy'. That's the side view of his scrotum and weewee.

My BP is still fine, and I'm still hungry all the time (argh). That's about it!

Tonight we are getting some fancy dinner to-go and going home to dinner & a movie (Ghost Town). Yay birthdays!