I spent last night at my L&D triage for upper right quadrant pain and contractions. on Wednesday I had this “episode” where i started getting contractions and then out of no where I had one that lasted about 30 minutes and was accompanied by a knifing stabbing pain on my upper right. the only way to help the pain was to drop on all fours. After it subsided I felt the baby moving so I decided to wait and see if it would happen again. The rest of the night was utterly uneventful except for a lingering tenderness on the upper right.

Thursday I had 2 of the same types of “episodes” after the first one I called my docs office and it took them over 2 hours to get back to me. At one point the pain was so bad that had I had someone to pick up Tess from Preschool I would have immediately gone to the ER. The pain once again subsided, the docs office called me back and said if it happened again I need to be seen at the L&D triage immediately.

My parents came by for an unexpected visit (hooray! they live four hours away so this was a nice treat). I was able to rest a bit while they played with the kids. Not long after they left it started again and DH came home to find me on all fours sobbing because of the pain. We would have left right then and there for triage but it was rush hour. During rush hour it can take up to 2 hours to get to my hospital and there was no way I could ride sitting down for that long in the pain I was in. We waited it out and after rush hour I went in to get checked

I did not have an episode while there but I described the pain. 1st they told me that the location was “not baby pain” Well, thank you that is great but something is wrong and it is affecting my baby because I’m contracting and i’m only 22 weeks! they found I was having irregular contractions and gave me a smooth muscle relaxer to calm it down. they took blood and urine but looked no further- I did not even see my doctor. the hospital was so overwhelmed it took 2 hours before I even was able to speak to a nurse. They even sent me home before all my labs were back!! Now I feel like i have to just sit here and hope it doesnt happen again until Monday when i go see my high risk specialist.

Did anyone have this during pregnancy? maybe you had something similar while not pregnant? What should I try to do to dissipate the pain if it returns? I want to know what i might be dealing with so I can be proactive at my appointment on Monday and get the care that i may need

I was mistaken when I said we were totally screwed when he started walking. We are NOW totally screwed

yes that IS a rocking chair he is standing on and yes he fell off and yes he stood on it again. And here he is showing off his two new teeth which he’s already working on knocking out.

I have a lot that I want to talk about but The Beast is currently dominating our domestic scene. Mira is really struggling. It began a few weeks ago, around the time they switched her to eating lunch with the mainstream kindergarten class, and has rolled down hill from there mowing every single one of us down.

It started with complaints of stomach aches, back pains and her telling us “my body feels like something is wrong!” Given her predisposition towards obsessing on the unpleasant, we figured that it was fall out from Levi’s illness and hospital trip, but it raged on. Soon she was stepping off the afternoon bus so jacked up on her tiptoes that she had the appearance of a ballerina up on pointe. Friendly greetings were replaced by beastly snarls, her speech began sinking back into repetitive phrases, and there was much flapping of the hands. Crying became a full time sport and I caught her biting her nails- something she rarely does. ENOUGH! Nothing we were doing was diffusing the situation and the rest of us were rolling headlong down that hill into bad-mood-ville.

Friday I went in to make adjustments to her IEP and had the opportunity to speak with her teacher about how things are going. Amazingly, while falling apart at home, Mira is simultaneously opening up in her mainstream class. Last week she actually started speaking in class without prodding- a definite sign of comfort- and she nearly had a melt down in her mainstream class- another huge sign of feeling relaxed. But even with these positive growth steps, she’s regressing as soon as she is at home in her safest zone so the autism teacher and I brain stormed about what exactly is going on.

We came to several conclusions and are going to work through the list hoping that one will be the solution to our problem. First we are adding an afternoon snack. When she switched from eating lunch in her autism classroom to going into mainstream lunch, her meal time was bumped up an hour. This leaves her going over 4 hours with anything to eat and considering her metabolism, 4 hours can seem like 3 days to her. If the problem persists, we will try cutting down the number of days she is going to regular lunch to 1-3 days instead of all 5. It IS extremely noisy and overwhelming in the cafeteria. Not being able to eat in peace and being overly stimulated for 30 minutes a day then being expected to learn after that may just be too much. If the issues still persist we will take mainstream lunch completely off of the table and instead opt to send her to her regular classroom’s snack time and allow her to eat lunch in her autism classroom.

I was just starting to feel accomplished and hopeful that we could start working past this bump when Friday afternoon happened. On the school bus home, Mira witnessed a pretty nasty traffic accident. A car plowed into a motorcyclist who was thrown form him bike onto the pavement- he was not wearing a helmet. Mira saw every bit of what happened and came home totally pale and shaking. Her greeting to me was “Something HORRIBLE happened on the bus today mama. We go home and go in my room for some privacy so I can tell you about it please”

She did her level best expressing to met what had happened. There were some parts where words completely failed her and she could only jerkily gesture while making weird noises- it was entirely too intense for her to articulate. Near the end of her tale, she broke into tears begging me to reassure her that no one would hit her Papaw, Uncle, or Aunt when they ride their motorcycle and to tell them to wear their helmets so “their brains don’t burst.”

Poor kid. I really wish she had not seen that.

Friday night, everything proved to be simply too much. At bed time Mira had a full blown panic attack. It took 2 hours to get her calm and to sleep. It was very hard to see her like that. I know every single sensation she felt while it raged on. I know how she felt off kilter, her hearing was wrong and her breath felt caught in her chest. I know how her head swam, her body shook and her stomach knotted… Anxiety is one hell of a nasty beast. I hope we can rein it in before it rears it’s ugly head again.

The local reporter and photographer both stopped by Friday and we tidied up the nursery work zone for the occasion- Hung some art, pushed the dresser to where it will be living once we are done with it, tossed down the rug and hung some curtains. What do you think so far?

I made the artwork hanging over the dresser. Here’s a closer picture of it in poor lighting because you know I aim to please

Here’s our HUGE NASA rocket piece

and a little snippet of the curtains.

have I mentioned how much I adore iron on patches? I may hate to iron but my sewing skillz blow pretty hard right now so ironing is less daunting.

Don’t forget to vote vote vote HERE for Erin in Oviedo, and especially don’t forget to enter yourself to win that spa vacation (after you vote for me about 90 bazillion times in a row of course).

and other times you should pay for quality and craftsmanship. Today I paid for that and I don’t feel ill or panicky like I normally do when I pay full price for a shirt or god forbid buy a friggin throw pillow. I happily plunked down some cash-o-lah so that this could come live in my nursery and make my babies smile

This wondrous and beautiful mobile came from here and I CAN NOT WAIT until it arrives!! I may even need to get one or two to hang over MY bed.

Today I also picked up some supplies to make artwork for the walls and poo’d my pants after finding out a local newspaper wants to do a story about me and the Clean Start Challenge which means they will be in my house and my house.. well you SAW the laundry pile!! *gulp*.

Dear woman in the orange striped shirt who walked into the candy isle after me at Target last night,

I’m SO sorry. I really really really am. I know how bad that smelled. Heck, it burned escaping my rear and I’m pretty sure I lost a few nose hairs when the odor hit me. I wanted to warn you but I was gasping for air. I’m not sure what I ate to cause this phenomenon but it’s been going on for 3 days now. I hope for your sake, and the sake of many other innocent shoppers in the future, that it ends quickly. Once again, I’m really sorry and hope I did not permanently damage your olfactory senses in any way.

Remorsefully yours,

Fidget

Oh man, what have I gotten myself in to??

These are both shots of the clean laundry

that all needs to go away. I refuse to show you pictures of my bedroom- it looks like my closet barfed all over the place. Let’s just say it’s a similar situation

Smooth talking to avoid getting in trouble:

Why does it sound like someone is blowing bubbles in their milk and splashing it all over the kitchen?

That’s just the noise my butt makes mama!!

~*~*~**~~*

Short entry today. You all keep harassing me about my laundry so I’m going to go take care of it. You hear that? YOU WIN !

Oh man that looks good, huh? PSSST! It’s gluten free! I adapted a cupcake recipe from the Whimsical Bakehouse; then I slathered it with buttercream frosting and candy hearts. I’m delivering 24 of them to Tessie’s class today and hoping that the teachers can’t notice the difference- they are all rather freaked out by the idea of eating gluten free.

I road tested the recipe on The Hubster who declared them a successes, a delicious sweet with a taste reminiscent of a sugar cookie success. I, of course, could not take his word for it and had to try one (or three) myself- YUM!!

Want to make your own?

2 C gluten free flour mix (I used 1 C white rice flour per 1/3 tapioca flour and 1/3 potato starch)
3/4 tsp salt
1 C white sugar
1/2 C + 2 1/2 tsp milk, warmed to 110 degrees
2 large eggs
1 stick (4oz) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 tsp gluten free vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp xanthan gum

Preheat oven to 350, my oven is a little wonky so I preheated mine to 345. Grease the top of a 12 slot muffin tin and line cups with paper.

Sift gluten free flour mix into mixing bowl (I used my Kitchenaid mixer with the paddle attachment for this recipe). Add salt and sugar; mix lightly until just combined. Add warmed milk to mixture at a low speed. Continue on a low speed while you add eggs, butter and vanilla and then allow to continue mixing for a minute (be careful not to over mix as GF goodies can get chewy if over mixed). Add baking powder and xanthan gum while beating mixture on medium low speed and continue mixing for 30 seconds.

Fill each liner 3/4 full and bake for approximately 18 minutes. A toothpick should come out clean and the tops will lightly spring back if pressed. Cool in pan for 2 minutes then remove to a wire rack. Once completely cooled, frost. I used a basic buttercream but anything will do! I hope you have a fantastic Valentines day.

Nameless baby boy at 20 weeks and 1 day

Levi at 1 yr old with anchorman hair

Dear Baby Bruddah,

You are not even here yet and already trying to steal my thunder. Stop it. If we are going to harmoniously share a room, you’re going to have to let me be the cute one, oh and let me be the boss of everything all the time. You see dear Bruddah, I’m a pretty laid back dude until you cross me, then I’m heck in Luvs to deal with. I’ve been practicing my hitting skillz and my screeching has reached an all time high decibel. Now that I’ve got this walking thing down and have been demonstrating freakish strength, I’ll be ready to pick you up and put you outside for the UPS man if you will not comply. In closing, I offer this advice as an olive branch of friendship - stop getting cuter.Ii will not play second fiddle, nor will I share first one with the likes of you! Nahnee Nahnee boo boo.

Your Big Bruddah,

Levi

ps Even though you are cute, I still love you. Check out the room Mim mim and Daddy are making for us. Dude, it’s yellow and is going to have a huge rocket on the wall! Mim mim’s new weekly video went live today. If you”ve got internet in there you should spend all day voting for her.