Heartbreak

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Have you ever had your heart broken so poignantly you could hear it? Today, at 1:41 PM, I experienced that pain first hand.

I had my mouth set for a pile of delicious southern fried goodness and a slice of coconut cake with a sweet tea served in a Mason jar on the side so I decided to go to JackSons, a local buffet. I knew lunch ended at 2:30 so time was of the essence.  As I drove, I planned my first & second plates.  I like to come prepared.  I could almost smell that amazing fried fish as I wove through the traffic on 378. Cars, everywhere-why?  Don't these people have jobs? Didn't these fools understand? I was on a mission!

When I got there, the parking lot was eerily empty and I noticed a sad faced elderly couple in a late model Caddy backing out. "Better parking spot for me," I mused gleefully yet something nagged at me.  Where was the crowd?  It should be thinning by this time but today it was literally nonexistant. I was so confused.  I got out and strode warily up to the door and there it was. A sign. An odious message.  The most woeful words that could be printed on a sheet of 8 1/2 by 11 :

CLOSED
 ON VACATION UNTIL 7/22

Y'all,  I almost fell out.   I don't even want to eat anymore.  Ever.  For the rest of my life.

The moral of the story? Eat at JackSon's.  After July 22.

#imnotbeingdramatic
#okaymaybealittle
#atleastididntcry
#stillhungry
#wheretoforlunch

Back on the sauce

My iron is chronically low but this pregnancy caused it to plummet.  A little background: complications with my previous birth control decimated my iron levels.  They never fully recovered over the past 2 years.  It appears that I don't absorb iron efficiently through my stomach. Additionally,  iron supplements both nauseated and constipate me.  No fun.

I'd been able to keep my iron at the lower end of respectable for the others but this little bugger had me below 8 which concerned my docs and left me achy, cranky, and exhausted. We're talking waking up ready for a nap. Taking a nap before bed.  Barely able to cook or fold laundry.   Being a crappy mom.

So today, I'm having my 4th iron infusion
 At last check, my iron was a smidgen over 9 but they want it higher so here we are.

Looks like soy sauce...I am hungry.

Needles in,  time to begin.

This is NOT my favorite thing.  I hate needles.  And it feels so weird going into my vein, cold.  Plus, what if I had a run in with Magneto-he could use this extra iron as a weapon against me! That's a valid concern, right? 

But to paraphrase Tommy Pickles, "A mommy's gotta do what a mommy's gotta do!"

The plus side is 2 quiet hours! I usually watch "Arrested Development" until I fall asleep (the process takes a couple of hours) but my son wants me to read this book.

He read it while in Germany last month.  I'm a quick reader and I have 2 more infusions after this so that is what I'll do. As I keep watch for errant mutants. By the way, which mutant do you most worry about encountering?

Target Registry Bag

In my last post was about the Walmart Baby Box , I mentioned my Target Registry Bag.  I recieved it free at my local Target after creating my registry online.  I wanted to share the contents .

First, the bag itself. It is a cute little gray and white patterned tote. I am gifting it to Popcorn as it's the perfect size for a 6 year old.

 Here are the contents of the bag:

Not too shabby!

 Samples I recieved were Palmers Stretch Mark Cream, Aquaphor Baby Healing Ointment, and babyganics moisturizing daily lotion. Being an eczema family, we love Aquaphor so I'll be tucking that into my diaper bag.  Good samples, but no coupons for the products.

 BUT there are coupons! There is a whole booklet of coupons for products for mama and baby...AND A STARBUCKS COUPON!!! 50% off a beverage.  I went with passion tea lemonade. There are some nice Seventh Generation coupons,  too.  This bambino will be in sposies so they will come in quite handy.

 There was some breast pump info and a pair of nursing pads and a couple of breastmilk storage bags from Lansinoh.

And, my favorite, the trial sizes!  There are 2 up&up (Target's house brand) size 1 diapers, a 10 pack of honest co wipes (woot woot!), a travel size Baby Dove Tip to Toe wash,  and an 8 oz Dr Brown Natural Flow bottle.

All in all, it is a nice bag.  It being free is icing.  And if you want to send a little love this way, feel free to visit our registry.

Walmart baby Box

I love getting things and the mail, so I order the #WalmartBabyBox. It was only $5 that seems like a steal. As a lover of samples, I have to say that I was patently underwhelmed. The Box took so long to arrive that I had forgot I even ordered it. Additionally  and likely through no fault of Walmart, the Box look like it had been kicked around the mail room before it was delivered.

Luckily, there was nothing that great inside.

This is a sample box, in the purest sense of the word.   You get a few samples and coupons.  Dassit. Let's go over the contents

 Let's start with the trial size items.

There is a pack of Huggies wipes, which is probably the most useful thing in the entire box. I stashed them in my glove compartment. additionally there's a trial size bottle of baby Dove body wash, an adorable Nuk pacifier, a sample of All Free & Clear (my preferred baby detergent), a 4 pack of Stayfree pads and the single dose of Tum's.

Now the samples:

An Olay cream and a Burts Bees foundation. Or concealer? BB cream, maybe? I legit don't know because it nowhere near matches my skin.

I wish they'd put a coupon for me to go get my own at Walmart.

Finally, the coupons:

The $5 Huggies coupon means I essentially broke even, so that's a plus. I may try the Slow Fe as my iron levels are fairly low.

The final item was a Bio-Oil informational pamphlet.  Not a sample, not a coupon.  A tiny booklet that looked like it came out of the box.  Super disappointing because I really want to try Bio-Oil.

Overall, this box isn't great.  Compared to  other sample boxes, like Target's registry bag or Amazon's Welcome box-both of which contain MUCH better items-it wouldn't matter. But it definitely wasn't worth the $5 and I wouldn't recommend ordering it. Sorry, WallyWorld. This was a miss.
Here's a belly shot to make up for this disappointing sample box!

Poly?

[It's a twofer!  I haven't blogged as much as I meant to due to some tech issues.]

I went to my 32ish week appointment. My funeral measurement (pelvic bone to top of uterus) has been 4 cm/weeks greater than expected so a growth scan was ordered.  Turns out I have a lot of fluid.   (Baby is **estimated** to weigh 4lbs 6oz right now.  It's within a pound of it's papa's birth weight. ) This is called  polyhydramnios.  The main concern is early labor. It makes me wonder if this is why the Mechanic was a touch early.   Anywho, enjoy this sweet baby face and make a guess on what it will be!

It was hard to catch this pic as baby was waving its arms about. It's a busy bee.  On another positive note, the wee one has already wriggled to head position.

Enjoy the moments

So I'm abt 33 weeks now. I'm not a big believer in due dates. The doctors said August 14 based on an early ultrasound. To me, that means August 10-24, based on how I birth. This really is the last baby for me. I'm 36 now.  That's twice as old as I was for my first.  I'm trying to savor every moment.


Last weekend, I did a thing.  I took maternity pics.  When  I was pregnant for the first time,  I don't know if maternity pics even existed. [Was Facebook even a thing? I I didn't have that until 2007.] I have so few pics of that pregnancy.  This one,  there will be lots.  These are a few shots Princess took on her iPhone 8 and my S9.  They look so amazing-I can't wait to see the professional ones!

Little Fish

So we're having a baby.

A real baby.

In about 11-13 weeks (ya'll know I don't believe in due dates), The Mechanic and I are adding a little person to our brood, and I do mean brood.

There are seven children in this picture.  SEVEN!

I know this is a late announcement but it took me some time to reconcile this whole adult child/newborn thing I'm going to be doing.  Yep, the Astronaut is turning 18 in October.    My kiddo will literally be the age I was when I had him. It's wild.

In my coming  posts, I'm going to compare being a pregnant teen to being of "advanced maternal age,"  being a primapara to being a grandmultipara, and raising kids at literally every stage. In the meantime, go head and make a guess of what Baby Fish will be.