Category: Groftzoo Updates

Just a Normal Wednesday

Day three with no car. The only thing good about that is that DH took the need for Air Conditioning very seriously and got it right in to get fixed. But I am stuck still.

We got the security system last night and installed it. Ahhhh, I cannot tell you the relief. Now I just have to figure out how to use it.

Max is being really cute right now. He is pushing his step stool up to each light switch and turning them on and off. Then he turns it off and moves on to the next one. He won’t let me change his diaper (not that I am trying very hard) because he doesn’t want me to take his feet pajamas off. He cries and throws a fit every day when I take those off him to get him dressed.

Yesterday was Tessa’s birthday, we gave her a princess bike and a princess helmet. I would have taken a nice picture of her yesterday but I never got around to brushing her hair.

I feel nauseated. It toned down quite a bit for a week or so but I am having a bit of a relapse. What really stinks is that my body can’t tell when I just need to burp, it thinks I am going to throw up. So I get this HUGE wave of nausea that has me dizzy and sweating, when all I need to do it release a tiny little burp and then I am fine.

So today I will just sit tight here in the house, maybe I will feel good enough to tackle the laundry a bit, and the kitchen. And if we get the car back (Please, God!) then we will go to the church soup supper and I won’t have to make dinner.

5w 2d

Yesterday I had to give up on my black pants. They are my tightest fitting ones, but STILL…

Nausea has been hitting me from about 8am to 11am. Strangely it is not there when I first wake up, just about an hour and a half later. Go figure.

Tonight we have a wedding to go to – IF I can stay awake. 😉

Bionic Nose? Check.

I got home from a meeting at church last night and when I got to the top of the stairs something smelled… odd. I walked into my room and it was much stronger. Gave jay a kiss and asked him what the smell was. He couldn’t smell it at all.

So I stood in the middle of the room trying to discern what it might be and finally gave up (even though it smelled yucky) and went to brush my teeth and wash my face. When I opened the cabinet under the sink I realized what the smell was:

A closed bottle of Listerine.

Avoiding Morning Sickness

Big announcement: #7!

A friend asked me to write what I did to minimize my morning sickness last time – Here it is.

From the very start I did all these things:

1. drink 100oz of water per day outside of meals

2. lots of rest (ha ha ha!)

3. mega B6 – I am taking a 300mg extended release tablet every morning plus I am taking prenatals as long as I can, those have another 20 mg in them. The prenatals I have are a food based formula too, so they are not supposed to be any harder to digest than regular food. Even when not pregnant, I have trouble taking vitamins, and these I could take even without eating something with them. (Sprouts brand prenatals)

4. as soon as the nausea began (and since my stupid Dr at the time last time wouldn’t let me start out on Zofran right away) I started taking a half tablet of unisom every 2-4 hours, up to three tablets a day. I was super tired the first four days, but then that side effect wore off. This time I am seeing my doc next week (right at 5 weeks) and will beg on hands and knees if necessary to get on the Zofran right away. I am taking in a study I found that supports pre-emptive use of Zofran for severe morning sickness – I mean, I think I have enough history to support it, right? Oh and Zofran recently went generic so I am hoping htat helps my case too.

5. Ginger – it is wimpy for real heavy duty morning sickness, but sometimes it could get me out of bed so I could eat. I got ginger Altoids and kept them by my bed and in my purse. There are also ginger chews and ginger hard candy. I got it at Cost Plus World market but they have a website www.gingerpeople.com

6. I ate when I could, what I could.

7. I avoided all stress. Seriously, even intense TV shows made me more likely to get sick.

8. Because pregnancy means congestion (and gagging on drainage!) for me (I think I get pregnant in my sinuses or something!) I started on Claritin, and I also started on Pepcid every night to begin with, I will probably have to add the morning one soon. Yes, I feel guilty about all these : claritin, pepcid, zofran, unisom, etc. But it really takes all that just to get by (and stay off of IV fluids) for me.

So there you have it, my simple *8* step plan for only staying green-faced on the couch and not becoming a medical marvel yet again. 🙂

Away in a Groft House (Our Christmas Card to You)

Away in a Groft house the littles are in bed.
The family’s all home and the kitten’s been fed.
The older kids fight over internet time
But all must be turned off by the ten o’clock chime.

Jay loves to sing and can be seen on TV,
Cantoring masses for homebound to see.
Testing underground tanks, he works hard outside,
We think he’s the best dad to be found worldwide!

Jenni makes rosaries and sells them online
Check out her website when you have the time!
She drives back and forth, lots of time in the van,
But she’ll snuggle down with a book when she can.

Paisley’s a junior and now she can drive
We pray every day that she gets home alive.
She’s super involved both at church and at school
She directs a kids’ choir, they all think she’s a jewel!

James is a freshman and doing so well,
Always wants to arrive long before the first bell.
He works on his music most every day,
Piano bass and guitar he is learning to play.

Posy’s in sixth grade; she’s getting so tall,
Childcare and housework – she helps with it all!
She loves shopping and movies and fashion and crafts,
Her quick wit and smile always bring us all laughs.

Ben is in third and he’s always outside
He walks and he skates or goes for a bike ride.
He likes to play game boy but still loves to read,
His mind and his body are growing like weeds!

Tessa is four and she sings in the choir,
She loves to dress up in her princess attire.
She talks all the time or at least so it seems,
She fills up our days with her bright, warm sunbeams.

Max will turn two on this Christmas Eve
‘tween tempers and climbing he may not see three.
His blue eyes, they twinkle, his pink cheeks, they shine,
Climbs in bed with a passy with nary a whine.

Our hope is that Christmas brings with it much cheer,
Our prayer is for good health and happiness next year.
Remember the season’s about Jesus’ birth,
And we are the reason he came down to earth.

This is *SO* cool!

This weekend our parish had a ministry fair. Both Jay and I worked our different ministries and had a great time hanging around and getting to know a few people better.

At one point, Jay was talking to a couple that we are barely acquainted with who were working at the NFP booth. It turns out that they are instructors. So Jay asked, “I didn’t know you were instructors! How long have you been doing that?”

The husband replied with, “Ever since we heard you tell your story at the Theology of the Body class.”

Whoa!

About 4 years ago, we were asked to tell out our vasectomy reversal story during one session of a 4 week Theology of the Body class at our parish. We were totally unprepared; we just got up and told it off the cuff. But it turns out that this couple left that class and went home, threw out their birth control pills, and decided to try NFP!

When they contacted the local NFP chapter in our diocese, they were told that the next class was two months away. So they abstained during that entire two months while waiting for the class, and eventually decided to become instructors!

This has just made my year. To know that something *WE* said brought someone closer to the Church and impacted their lives like that – it’s just very humbling and exciting!

Tessa’s Aspirations

A conversation Jay had with Tessa:

Tessa: I wish I could just die.

Jay: Why, Tessa?

T: So I can go to heaven of course, don’t you want to go to heaven?

J: Yes, I want to go to heaven, but I want to do what God had planned for me here first. Plus if you die you can’t do things like grow up and be a mommy.

T: Yeah. I think I want to be an [ant].

J: You could be an aunt in a few years when paisley has kids, you will be their aunt.

T: No dad, I want to be an ant, a BUG.