It's Baaaaack

Well so much for positive thinking. I began my third trimester with the well know itching in full swing. Looks like the doctor saying that my ICP could go away as I have more babies was not so correct.

So yes, Cholestasis of pregnancy is a condition in which the normal flow of bile in the gallbladder is affected by the high amounts of pregnancy hormones. The fact that I do not have a gallbladder could also be a factor in all of this. This causes my bile to basically go into bloodstream. Bile in bloodstream causes my itching and later my jaundice. The baby needs my liver to remove it's bile too, so that is a little stress for "Sparkle" too. That is why I will begin weekly blood panels and probably fetal monitoring. Good news is that there is a medication that I can take that might help absorb the bile so itching won't be so bad. Plus based on research (google) an increase in Vit.K can also help. So I will be eating a lot of green veggies now.

Best news it that a side effect of all this is a decrease in appetite. Bad news is that I should try to eat a more low fat diet. How does that work with the holidays and my sweet foods cravings? Not so sure.

Another interesting factor could be the early arrival of "Sparkle". Most doctors like to deliver at about 38ish weeks. I am 29 weeks now. B was 2 weeks early (on her own doing) but A was pulled out at 40 weeks. So who knows what will happen with this one. It will all depend on the readiness of "Sparkle" and my health. I think I might go with early delivery if all looks good for the baby. I mean what pregnant mom wants to go the full 40 weeks anyway?

So not going nuts yet and happy that it is cold for that helps lessen the itch, but ready to ask the doctor to try the meds when I go to my appointment Wed. Still in a good mood, and positive that it won't get much worse. Also thinking who needs 4 kids? 3 might be a good number to really stop at this time :)

Pumpkin Day

A found her pumpkin right away and was super proud that she could pick it up all by herself

B looked and looked until she found her "perfect" pumpkin. There was no talking her out of this one. She actually rolled it quite a distance before Daddy caved and got a wheel barrel.


Even Aunt R got some love from the girls.



I took this a sibling photo in this exact tree many years ago (like 20). I thought it was a perfect place to take another photo with my daughters.

Serious Player

Hubby and I had a short meeting to attend to the other night. It was about B's upcoming sacraments that she will be receiving this year so I wanted both of us there. This meant that Aunt V had to babysit. The girls were super excited because Aunt V the babysitter is way different than just regular Aunt V.

Her go to idea is always a few games of hide and seek. The girls are really getting good at this game and it can now go on for more than it used to. When A first started playing she would go to hide in whatever spot the last person was in. Then when she heard you in the room where she was hiding she would jump out and say "Here I am!"

Well times have changed. During this round A was hiding in the coat closet, which is a perfect place for the little bugger. After some time, B found her. This is when Aunt V was told that A had wet jammies. "What?" Aunt V said. A replied with," Oh I peed my jammies while I was hiding." "Why would you do that A?" Aunt V questioned her.

Because if I got out to go potty B would have found me!!!

Makes for a good reason to pee in the closet than. Glad to see her taking the game so seriously.

New Lessons

Look at that posture!

Getting ready to begin trotting.

Looks rather happy.

This is no pony ride.

Yes, we have decided to let B begin horseback riding lessons. 2 of her best friends have been taking lessons for years and B really wanted to try. I could not believe that on our visit to the stable they actually had her riding a horse. I thought we were just going to watch her friends and gather information. Not so much. She took the offer to ride that day quickly. Now mind you these are actual horses, not ponies! As you can see in the last photo it is a tall horse. So I was a tad worried and totally nervous for B, but she did great.

She had a great first lesson and we decided that do to my nutty schedule and the cost of each 30 minute lesson she could ride twice a month. She was super happy. These photos were taken at her second lesson. This horse and B did not connect so much. So she did like riding, she just was not as comfortable on this horse as she was last time on a different horse.

I really like the instructor too. She is all about having fun and giving the girls responsibility. They lead the horses in the arena and back out to their stall, they also learn other horse care things too. She teaches them without making them feel bad. B has already been trotting!

The stable started as a therapy only stable, but has branched out over the years. During our time slot there are always kids there for therapy. I like the kids seeing different abilities on horses. Plus due to the therapy part there are lots of volunteers there.

We will see how long this lasts, but for now I get to live my "I always wanted to take riding lessons" through my kid. After all that is one of the main reason we have kids right?

Can't Stop Making...

FELT FOOD!

I began this project with the intention of making some cookies for one of my best friend's little 2 year old. Her birthday is in a few days. I had time Friday to begin this endeavor while the girls were at school and I was on "rest" time. Well, after I finished the cookies I decided pancakes with butter would be cute. Everyone knows you can't have pancakes without an egg, right? Then came the sandwich. For this I looked online for a few ideas if not tutorials and was overwhelmed. There are so many creative and skilled people out there! After I figured out how to do the bread I decided peanut butter and jelly were the way to go. Since cheese and bologna were easy I made them too. The popsicle is a fun color, but not the best looking. After looking at all the items I thought I was a little heavy on the sweets so I decided to try a carrot and watermelon.

Now, Sunday night, I am officially finished. I might have kept going, but I need to get this in the mail so I have to stop and get it wrapped and ready to ship. Also, I hand stitched them all this time and my fingers are tired. It is more time consuming than with the machine, but I think I like the end result better. I will say I am now a pro at the blanket stitch.

It was funny how each piece I made would somehow disappear only to be found in the girls possession later. They had such fun with all of this. I kept telling them to leave it alone since it is a gift and because they have tons of play food downstairs. They told me that the felt food I made is way better than the plastic stuff they have downstairs. Nice to hear, but did not grant them play time with my food.

I now need to find another little one to continue my new fun. I don't need orders right away since my hands are still a little sore from all the stitching, but I will start a list :)

So Gifted

I know B has demonstrated advanced skills in verbal language and problem solving, but this one I didn't see coming. B brought a reading test home yesterday that had to be signed. Don't freak out! She only had one wrong. B asked me as I was looking at it if I would go over the wrong one with her because she didn't think it was wrong. As any good parent, I went right to the one marked wrong and read it over. I did not believe that it was wrong. I figured after correcting a class set of these tests a mistake was made.

Then as B was changing out of her uniform, I noticed that there was an eraser mark on the answer choice above the "wrong one". My teacher wheels came into play now. I asked B if by chance she actually erased her wrong answer and changed it so it looked correct. She DID! My brainy kid is cheating at the age of 7! I then proceeded to remind her that one wrong answer is no big deal and we are proud of her, but what she did is called cheating and not good.

Really? Second grade? My kid has figured out how to cheat just to get a 100%. I feel that I really have to keep an eye on this one. It is going to be a L-O-N-G academic career for us both.

Saturday Outing

When hubby is not here on a Saturday the girls and I tend to move SLOWLY. We stay in jammies for most of the day, they go back and forth from watching tv to playing or doing arts and crafts, I putter around the house getting odds and ends finished...you get the idea.

BUT, when hubby is home it is get up and go time. He does not like to hang around and putter. So needless to say since the sun was out and his plans changed for the day we had to do something. We decided to venture out to the Morton Arboretum. I called our library and was able to get 4 free passes so that we would save on admission fees (about $40) and off we went.

Our goal was to find the large animal houses that we could go through, but never got there. By the time we arrived we had enough time to hit up the kids garden area before the rain came from out of nowhere. We also walked around a large pond to view about 50 scarecrows that were on display. The girls had fun looking at all the scarecrows and I had fun eating my sliced apple with carmel and other candy toppings. One of the perks to being pregnant, Hubby does not deny me food. By the time we got back to the car we were rather wet and a bit cold but over all glad we got out of the house.