It's a New Year!

I don't usually make New Years resolutions, but this year I've decided I'd like to get better at blogging.
I always say I'm going to write more, but then I never do.  But a lot happens in life and it's a shame to not record it!  I was so great about keeping a journal in high school, but that's fallen by the wayside.
Seeing that things are going to get a lot more interesting here in about two months, what better way to get in the habit of blogging than to resolve to blog at least twice a week?

Anywho.  The holidays are over I guess as of today.  I was really having a blast getting into the holiday spirit up until about a week before Christmas, and then Lucy and I both got colds.
Before that I made sugar cookies for the first time!  I used this recipe for the cookies, and this recipe for the sugar cookie icing.  I was specifically looking for a way to make icing without using egg whites, because the whole salmonella thing freaks me out.
I had a blast cutting out the cookies once I realized you need to use a metric ton of flour to roll them out and cut them.
Andy helped me ice the cookies, and it was really a two man job!  I mixed the icing and piped it onto the cookies and he spread it out.  Lucy just wandered around the kitchen.

Maybe it's because I was pregnant and getting over a cold during Christmas week, but I was definitely relieved when all of our Christmas festivities were over.  The Saturday before Christmas was the annual Dumm family Christmas party, and Lucy and I were both at critical mass with our colds.  Sunday we did nothing!  But then Monday we were at his mom's place, Tuesday his dad's, Christmas was in Vacaville with my grandparents and family, and Thursday we went to Lodi to have lunch with my stepmom, sister and her husband since my sister was in town from Arizona. 

 

Friday it was back to normal.  I had my infusion that day, but luckily Andy was off and he was able to watch Lucy.  Which was all good until he texted me about an hour before my infusion was done, letting me know he thought he had the stomach flu.

Poor guy was down for the count by the time I got home, but Lucy seemed normal.  Or so I thought.  We were snuggling on the couch together while Andy was resting in the other room, and I had just given Lucy a banana to snack on not half hour before.  She coughed a little bit (normal, since she was at the tail end of a cold), and then proceeded to puke all over my shirt.  Luckily it all ended up on me and not a drop of it ended up on the couch!   I thought it was related to her cough, and thought it was a one-off.  She and I had chicken pot pie for dinner, Andy had nothing, and seriously 30 minutes after dinner I saw her dinner again (and the couch was not so lucky this time).

I had been feeling smug the week before that my child had never vomited on me before after talking to my sister-in-law about her kids having the stomach flu.  Guess that's what I get!  After some Pedialyte for Lucy, Gatorade for Andy and a bland diet for the both of them, they were both fully recovered by Sunday.

She slept with me Friday night and rolled off our bed, making it a week full of firsts!  Poor kid was so tired on Saturday she passed out watching Cake Boss on the couch.  That almost never happens!

15 months

We officially have a toddler on our hands.  Well, we have since she turned one, but she's doing all sorts of new fun things since September.

 She was a Ghostbuster for Halloween this year, and her costume was made by hand by Andy's mom.  We didn't go Trick or Treating this year that night, but I did take her to our town's annual downtown Trick or Treating that afternoon.  They also had a costume contest, and can you believe that she didn't win?  I mean, look at her?

 

 

 

Part of our latest shenanigans involve climbing everything and anything she can.  Last week, Lucy learned to climb on the couch, so now we get to teach her how to sit on the couch like a lady (and not go flailing over the back or the side of the couch).  Proud moment in parenting: we were in the kitchen trying to figure out the whole Obamacare thing and heard a thump.  Miss Thang had decided to crawl over the side of the dog couch and fall over the side, smacking the end table with her head on the way down.  She cried for maybe a minute and was back to running around and playing.  Although she did wake up about four times that night.

 

 

 Going to the library weekly and having a bunch of board books on hand seems to have paid off.  She loves to look at books, and she also loves to demand to be read to.  I really never thought I'd have to teach my child that mommy does not read books while in the bathroom.  But I guess that's what I get for thinking it's cute that she likes to hand me books while I'm, um, on the crapper.  Because we all know that I truly can't do anything alone anymore unless another adult is present.  ; )

We're also working on having her politely ask to be read to, by saying "read book?" instead of screeching and shoving a book in our faces.

 

 

 

 

 She's still one of very few words, but she does say mama, dada, ball, and "I see that," which means a few things: I see that, can you give me that, and what is that.

 

 

 We're slowly working our way through all of the playgrounds in our city, figuring out the best ones.  The one I found on Saturday is a keeper, because it's two feet off of the ground and means prego mommy doesn't have to chase Lucy up some of the taller play structures.  Because she's now very proficient at climbing the big kid play structures, which is awesome yet terrifying, because of the gaps she can fall out of.  It works great when Andy and I take her to the big kid playgrounds together, because I cover the ground and he follows her up top.

 

 

We usually spend part of the day coloring, which really means actually coloring a small percentage of the time, and taking all of the crayons out of the box and throwing them the rest of the time. : )

I've already had to rescue crayons out of Brody's mouth a few times.

I think the biggest challenge we've got going on right now is teaching her to be polite and figuring out what to do about discipline.  Lucy's latest favorite things to do are turning the PlayStation on and off, ejecting discs out of it, throwing food to the dogs, throwing her sippy cup, yanking on the curtain tie-backs, jumping on the couch and nabbing diapers out of her trash, to name a few.  She doesn't know these things aren't favorable, but she knows they get a reaction out of us, which causes her to keep doing them and squealing in delight when she's been caught.  She's too young for time-outs, and spanking is definitely not an option, so right now it's just redirecting and hoping for the best.  

 

Thanksgiving 2012 vs. 2013

This year was wayyyyy different than last year.  
We actually got to have Thanksgiving dinner with family instead of home as a family of three, which was great.
Last year Lucy's white blood cell count wasn't quite high enough for the doctor to be comfortable with having her around a large group of people in a different home, due to risk of coming into contact with bacteria not normally present in her home environment.
The irony is that the very next day the doctor e-mailed me and said Lucy was clear to visit other people's homes.  D'oh!
We did enjoy a very nice roast chicken dinner complete with the trimmings last year, which Andy was hoping to repeat.  He really liked having it as just a family of three.
But I was really depressed last year about not being able to be with family, so we spent Thanksgiving afternoon and evening at his mom's house, and the whole gang was there. 
Bad mom, I didn't take any pictures that day!  But here's my little buddy picking out pumpkins for making pumpkin pie from scratch.

      Thanksgiving morning, Andy worked on sealing our new cement countertops, while Lucy and I watched the Macy's Day parade.  Well, she ran around the house like a madwoman and would momentarily watch the parade, while I enjoyed a cup of coffee.
We of course watched the dog show, as is tradition.
We capped off the four day weekend by making gingerbread houses at my mother-in-law's with Andy's brother and his family.
Most year's I'm pretty disappointed with how my house turns out, because I usually try to glue the graham crackers together with icing and my structure usually ends up folding like a house of cards.
This year, we had five huge sheets of crispy marshmallow squares, so I used that as the foundation of my house.

    




















I'm happy to say that my house never folded and I didn't want to flip my plate and say f*&% this at any point in time.  Because gingerbread making is a very serious activity in our family.

 

It's been a tradition of mine for the past three years to build a fire engine in honor of my Uncle Tony.
Mahalo, Uncle Tony.

Two down, 17 more to go

I now have two infusions under my belt, and I've learned a few things so far.
I still get myself way worked up over stuff than I need to.  Nothing like a panic attack in the waiting room to teach you that.  My experiences with IV's have not been that great, since I've got small, hard to work with veins.  The tears started flowing as I was waiting to make the left turn into the hospital parking lot, and my heart started racing after I registered in the waiting room.  I explained to the medical assistant taking my blood pressure that I was mid panic attack so if my numbers were nuts that's why.  My heart rate was 185!  Alas, the IV they use is not the catheter that has to be threaded into your vein, it was just like a blood draw needle that they tape down.  Not bad at all.

Disgruntled nurses leave bruises.  Talk about unprofessional.  The one guy who wasn't helping me, well, it was his last day and he couldn't stop gloating.  The nurse who was in charge of my care kept saying how he was leaving but hadn't found a place to go yet.  He was nice enough, but he somehow left a golf ball sized bruise on my arm where the IV went in.  Last week's nurse left no bruise because she actually cared about what she was doing.  Ugh.

I was giving my editor crap since I was writing in the chair (by choice) so she asked me a to send her a picture she could use to "motivate" other writers. ; )

 I should really take a nap during one of the four hours.  Since there's always a chance Lucy could nap during the time I'm in the chair, I should take the opportunity to get some rest.   I used a great portion of my time Friday finishing a story just in case I felt like death the following day, which I'm glad I did, but Lucy slept while she was being babysat so I didn't get a nap that day!!

Holy crap, I have four hours to myself!!  I know I should nap, but I get overloaded with fun things I could be doing baby free.  I watched six episodes of Gilmore Girls and read five magazines the first day.  Perhaps I should bring in my yarn and crochet needles and actually hand make Christmas presents this year.

All in all, I've tolerated the infusions pretty well so far.  I got a nasty all-day headache the day after the first session, but at my dad's suggestion I drank Gatorade the day of and after this week and felt fine the next day.  This whole situation isn't actually as bad as I built it up in my head to be.  Just 17 more to go!!

18 weeks

How far along:  18 weeks
Gender:  We don't know yet, but hopefully we'll know by the end of the month.  I have a feeling it's a boy, but we'll see.
Weight gain:  Only about two pounds so far, which is right where I was last pregnancy at this time.
Maternity clothes:  Most days I can get away with wearing my normal pants with a hair tie to keep the button closed, but by the end of the day I always have to change into comfy pants (sweats/leggings).
Stretch marks: Nope.
Belly button in/out:  In, and I'm predicting it stays that way.  It never popped last time.
Sleep:  Well, I only sleep as long as Lucy does.  She's been sleeping from 8 p.m. to 5/6p.m., but I'm getting up two or three times to pee, sooooo...
Miss anything:  I really miss beer, especially since 'tis the season for parties.  I also miss having energy.
Movement:  I get little nudges here and there, but I have to be in a really quiet environment and usually laying down.  
Cravings:  I've pretty much been craving anything that's bad for me.  With Lucy, it was fruit.  This time, it's donuts, burgers, pizza, etc.  Luckily we have a pretty tight grocery budget, which prevents me from running out and going through drive-throughs.
Queasy or sick:  Thankfully, that ship has sailed!!!  I was feeling really gross for awhile, especially right in the beginning.  We took a trip to Tahoe about two weeks after I found out, but since we weren't telling anyone I had to have a pretty good poker face. The one thing that is still bothering me is leftover food in the fridge and Lucy's poo diapers.  It's a good thing we still have old hospital masks!
Looking forward to:  Feeling more movement.  I still worry a ton about the well-being of our baby, so I remember that last time after I could feel kicks I calmed down a bunch.

Pregnant...on steroids

No, seriously!  
It's not just an expression.  In addition to the fun I wrote about last week, we now get to add a daily steroid pill to my routine.
My high-risk prego doctor to go over some techical stuff, basically a blood test they performed confirmed my condition even more and reinforced my treatment plan.
But now I get steroids!
They are supposed to inhibit the growth of the troublemaking antibody, which cold made my neutropenia better.  The idea is to also lower the number of them that could transfer to the baby.
But here's the kicker.
"Okay, so there are some side effects.  One of them is irritability and another is weight gain," said the doctor.
"Well, I'm already dealing with that, now aren't I," I joked.
The doctor giggled a bit and added sleeplessness and possible gestational diabetes to the roster.
I really hope the diabetes doesn't happen.  I have no problem following the diet, but I don't feel like stabbing my fingers on a daily basis.
The best part was telling Andy about the steroid side effects.  
I could hear slight panic in his voice as he realized I'm going to be pregnant...on steroids. 
Ha.
Buckle up kids.

I hate needles.

But I'm going to have to learn to love tolerate them starting in November up until Baby #2 arrives.
I have to back up just a bit.  I have a condition called neutropenia, which means I've been basically walking around with very little white blood cells in my body for about a year.  Doctors discovered I had it during my sixth month of pregnancy with Lucy when a blood test I had came back showing a dangerously low level of white cells.
Most of the time, as my doctor puts it, neutropenics are "created" during chemotherapy, because chemo tends to kill white blood cells in the process.
Since I'm so special (not) after a bone marrow biopsy (which suuuucked), various other tests and having my blood sent off to the Mayo Clinic, it was discovered that I have an antibody that takes my white blood cells out of commission.  My immunologist described it as police only pulling over all of the white cars on the highway, and ignoring all of the other cells.
There isn't really much they can do to treat me for it, and I'm pretty healthy despite this.  I rarely get sick.  
The problem is, I passed the antibody on to Lucy before she was born, and it not only attacked her white cells, but her platelets, too.  This left her at a high risk for bleeding out, so at two hours old she had one of two platelet transfusions, as well as other medications to help flush the antibody out of her system.
Well, I'm pregnant again, and I still have the lovely antibody hanging out in my system.
In order to prevent Baby #2 from having all of his/her platelets and white blood cells depleted before he/she is born, a treatment plan has been in the works since I let the doctor know I'm pregnant.
There's a medication called intravenous immunoglobulin that will essentially put a shield around the antibodies, preventing them from doing any harm to our unborn child.
Which means I get to go hang out at the infusion clinic at Kaiser once a week, receiving the medication through an IV.
Honestly, I'm thrilled.  Can't you tell?!  I'm accepting visitors, since each treatment is going to be up to four hours long.
I friggin' hate IV's.  I've come to accept blood draws.  But IV's?  Ugh.
There's also a chance that if they have a hard time sticking me each week, I'll get something called a PICC line, which is just a friendly way to saying long friggin' tube that goes from my wrist, snaked up a vein until it gets close to my heart, and stays there for a few weeks.  Dear God, Lucy, just don't rip mommy's PICC line out.