Thankful Thursday

I am thankful for:

1. My Family: They help me stay strong in my moments of weakness. Forgave me when I was being stupid. They spoil my kid(s) rotten (and occasionally myself and Jeremy too) and they help provide for my family even when I don't "need" the help. They (at least 90% of them) love me unconditionally and I love all of them.

2. My Friends: They're always there when I need a shoulder to cry on or to share in an adventure that's too "stupid" for my husband to join.

3. My Husband: Mr Fix It. He breaks his back (literally) to provide for our family. He loves me the way I am (even when I'm being an unruly bitch). And he is doing everything within his power to give our children the childhood every child deserves.

4. My Girls: Ashtyn- She is teaching me to be a good Mommy and reminding me what an asshole child I was. Taylor- She is teaching me to be thankful and not take things for granted. I hope I will be an even stronger person by learning from them. I am also very thankful that I am able to have children. My heart breaks for those who want them and cannot have them.

5. Our current finances: I am beyond grateful that I have more than most. I don't know how some weeks but we can afford all of our obnoxious toys as well as life's necessities.

6. I am able to stay home with my kid(s): I couldn't do it without NHCCRR.org and the families that allow me the privilege to watch their children. I am very thankful for all of them.

7. DHMC: They diagnosed our issue and are now doing anything they can to help with it.

8. My Home: Keeps my family warm and dry. I absolutely love my porch and backyard. I am very thankful that the 4 of us have a house and are not crammed into an efficiency apartment.

9. My Garden: I'm sooooo excited it is producing fruits and veggies. I have an incredible brown thumb and was very scared of the outcome...but now, I am psyched!

10: The Rest: My Harley and its stress relieving properties. Parents as Teachers for all their help and ideas. 21C and Easter Seals of Keene for the workshops to better educate me and help me provide better care for my kids and other people's children. Disposable diapers,XX (Dos Equis), Yard sales, Hand me downs, digital cameras, camcorders, WIC....need no explanation.

Wanna Cookie?

I'm still in complete shock. This little child, who came from my body, actually shared her cookie. It was so awesome and sweet and completely shocking. She was hanging out with me in the living room while the other kids were napping and I gave her a cookie. So she's sitting there nibbling it contently. One of the kids wakes from his nap and joins her on the floor. She looks at him and breaks her cookie in half and hands it to him "Donnie cookie?" He happily takes it. I'm beside myself with the thought that my child could be the sharing type. I reminded him to say "thank you" which he did and then out comes "you're welcome Donnie. Mommy I shared." oooohhhhh. I wish I had it on video. It was likely a moment I will never get to witness again.

Random Info

Birth defects happen all the time. I, like most others out there, just kind of assumed as long as you took your vitamins, were "healthy" and not a crack head, your child would be born "normal". GUESS WHAT!? Not so much. Birth defects are shockingly common. I snagged the info below from a bunch of different sites. The addresses for each bit of info are listed below. Anyone pregnant or thinking about having a kid should definatly check up on the scariness and reality of babies being born with birth defects.


Limb defects occur in about 1 in 2,560 births, with defects of the arms/hands being much more common than those of the legs/feet (0.36 per 1000 and 0.14 per 1000 births, respectively).

http://www.cbdmp.org/bd_limb.htm



Physical Restraint on Limb Development
Examples
Amniotic Bands
These can appear on ultrasound as a band of membranes lying within the uterine
cavity. ( Figure 1) Why they should form is not clear. One theory is that bands are
formed as a reaction to rupture of the amniotic sac in early pregnancy. The
pregnancy carries on but this band of tissue becomes attached to the developing
fetus and affects subsequent growth in that area.
Various anomalies can be caused by amniotic bands ranging from minor
constrictions of digits to cleft lip and palate.
The recurrence risk in subsequent pregnancies is negligible.

www.wales.nhs.uk/sites3/documents/416/Limb reduction defects.pdf




Limb reduction defects that were associated with known hereditary disorders (15%), chromosome abnormalities (6%), specific malformation syndromes (5%), and unclassified but familial phenotypes (4%) accounted for 30% of the limb defects identified (Table 4). In addition, 3.9% of the infants had been exposed to recognized teratogens, either misoprostol22 or maternal diabetes. Therefore, the balance (66%) had other causes, divided almost equally between vascular disruption (34%) and no recognized cause (32%), such as absent fibula.

pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/108/4/e64 - 99k




Birth defects affect about 120,000 babies born in the United States each year. Birth defects account for more than 20% of infant deaths and contribute substantially to life-long disabilities.

The causes of about 70% of all birth defects are unknown. Various occupational hazards, dietary factors, medications, personal habits, and environmental exposures may contribute to birth defects, but many questions remain about the exact nature of their influence.

www.peacehealth.org/kbase/cam/hn-1168007.htm



http://embryology.med.unsw.edu.au/Notes/skmus72.htm

Camp Trip Slideshow

It's time to potty!

"Go away Mommy! My potty" I'm just glad she doesn't know how to use the computer yet, cuz I'm sure she'd do this right back to me if she could.

Hell week

I'll try to keep in short and sweet. Its starts: I'm completely psyched for Monday. I've been waiting, not very patiently, to learn the sex of my baby. I finally got squeezed in at Dartmouth and I was just about bouncing off the walls all weekend awaiting my appointment. So I get to the hospital, with two kids and no assistance mind you, I get to the ultrasound department and get taken in almost right away. Yippee yippee. So I get in the room and lay on the bed. She starts gooping me and rolling the wand thing over my little bump of a tummy. The kids were being awesome. I hope all of you hear the vast amounts of sarcasm that I put into "awesome". So I get to spend most of my appointment not seeing my little new one's face and whatnot but telling 2 two year olds to stop lowering and raising the bed I'm on and stop trying to rip out the oxygen line from the wall, etc, etc. At this point it seems like I've been in there for hours. I'm starting to just want to know and go. She finally tells me its a girl. Ha ha ha. I win. My husband is going to cry! She finally tells me she should be about done she just has to show her pics to the radiologist. Okay see ya in a minute. So I lay there and wipe off the pounds of slimy gel. And she comes back in. I need to do some more. Okay whatever. She re-goops me and goes to town on my tummy with the 3D ultrasound. I am starting to think the 3D machine sucks cuz I can't even tell what she's looking at. Everything ok? I ask. As far as I can tell. Is the response. Bullshit.......I will soon learn the truth. So she leaves again with her newer info for the doc and before she leaves the room she tells me my daughter weighs 1 lb 13 oz and I'm 25 weeks and 5 days.....not 21 weeks 6 days like my "normal" OB thinks. WTF?!?! Whatever. So she leaves again. This time she's gone for a while. Ashtyn, my 2 year old daughter, has at this point crapped her diaper. I'm still stuck in this room. Diapers and wipes are waaaaaaayyyyy outside in the parking lot. She stinks to say the least and I'm starting to feel nauseous and embarrassed. The tech finally returns and this time with a guy. I'm going to take just a couple more pics. Super. So the guy starts rolling to wand over me and tells me he doesn't even know how to use this machine. I calm myself a bit assuming he just wants to practice and I'm the lucky sap who's on the table. So he makes small talk for a minute or two and then all of a sudden asks if my husband or anyone is with me. Uh don't you think this someone would be entertaining the kids who are trying to unplug the ultrasound machine as we speak. DUH! Oh, yeah, well I hate to tell you this but your baby doesn't seem to have a left hand. SAY FUCKING WHAT?! No I didn't say that......but that's what I was thinking. So as I slip away into the silence of shock. I only hear faint echos of the adults from Charlie Brown "waahh whha wah". After a minute or two of him showing me pics that make no sense to me they look like a yellow blob with a skinny yellow blob attached......no clue......I finally start to cry. Ashtyn looks up at me and starts to panic. She asks to come up with me so I grab her and hug her. Baby boo boo? She asks. Yeah honey, sister's gotta boo boo. And she kisses me and my belly and gives me another big squeeze. And we just lay there as the Charlie Brown noises continue. When they finally let me leave I am a total zombie. I just looked at the floor as I escorted both kids out to my car. I buckled them in and broke down bawling on the grass. This was only the beinging of my week from hell. That afternoon I received a two-week notice from one of the families I provide daycare for. I had to tell my husband the scary news of our baby girl, who by the way took it about as well as I did. I received another two-week notice from a different family on Wednesday. I also found out that day, a girl I used to hang out with went for her ultrasound and found out her daughter didn't have a brain so she had the "joy" of delivering a dead baby. I can't handle this! I just wanted to crawl into bed and die. Then the hospital called me to arrange an all-day apointment for me Monday full of High risk OB, genetic counceling, another ultrsound, possible amniosenticis. Some one shoot me please. For the rest of the week I researched online to find any info what so ever on this issue and did eventually find some relief. But then some more fear. I had to then wait until the following Monday to have my questions answered. Monday finally came and all went ok. My mother and sister went with me and Ashtyn to the hospital for round two. Luckily all else is ok with little Taylor (that's going to be her name). She definatly doesn't have her left hand and half of the fore arm is gone too but as far as we know everything else is good. So at least I can be happy about that. Can I have a nervous break down now?

Wordless Wednesday

Week Twenty-Five

• The structures of the spine begin to form -- joints, ligaments and rings. These will protect the all important spinal cord which serves as the information transmitter for your child's body.


• Blood vessels of the lungs develop.


• Your baby's nostrils begin to open. There is a study out of Belfast that suggests babies at this stage have the capability of scent preferences!


• The nerves around the mouth and lip area are showing more sensitivity now. When baby is rooting for food later on, these will be valuable!


• His swallowing reflexes are developing.


• Dexterity is improving. Your baby can make a fist and would clasp objects placed in palm.


• Your child has now obtained an approximate length of 13.6 inches (34.6cm) and weighs 1.46 pound (660gm).

Courtesty of Pregnancy.org