20 weeks and all's... ok
Well, had another visit to the midwife today. The baby is fine, heart rate is quite strong. Me, I'm still feeling off. The acupuncturist mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I had a heart arrhythmia, which I had never heard before. The midwife was surprised, because when she listened to my heart at the beginning of the pregnancy, it was fine. But there is definitely something there now. She said it can happen in pregnancy, probably not a big deal, but ordered an EKG just in case. We should hear the results of that tomorrow. Then she said the most awful thing - no more Zofran, because it can also cause or exacerbate arrhythmias,a rare event but we had to play it safe. Boo! She gave me a phenergan prescription that I can take at night, and honestly it is much worse to barf up dinner than first thing in the morning, so I am relieved to have something to fall back on.
Also due to the barfing, I've not gained any weight this month. The midwife said that was fine. I've only lost 0.5 lbs, and the baby's doing fine, so just keep eating as healthfully as I can. At least the vegetable aversion has gone away!
Jimmy is doing fine, if still a bit desperate for my attention. He flipped out the other night when I had to run out from putting him to bed to go barf. Took forever to calm him down, he didn't want daddy at all. I just keep telling him this is normal for pregnant mamas and I will feel better when the baby is born. Last night he said, "my brother?" It was so cute. Right before dinner yesterday we got jimmy to talk to the baby, and he told the baby, "baby, I want to watch a movie right NOW. I don't want to eat dinner! We got Spider-Man on CD!" Tom and I were trying so hard not to laugh out loud. I told him the baby was so excited I could feel him kicking! Then he wanted to know why the baby was kicking me, if he wasn't allowed to. I just told him he was just trying to jump, but it was really crowded in my belly, so it felt like kicking!
We are doing a sleep training program with Jimmy now. He used to sleep ok, but the past four months or so, ever since he started sleeping later than 5, he has been waking up one or two times a night. So we took him to pick out a prize, and each night that he sleeps through the night and lets mommy and daddy sleep, he gets a sticker. When he gets four stickers, he wins the prize! So far he has gone from waking up every night to only every other night. So, 50% improvement. I'll take it! He has also been falling asleep quicker at night, and is less disturbed if we leave the room after 5 or 10 minutes (most nights). So I hope the improvement continues! The doctor said we were on the right track, but if the rewards charts don't work all the way, he gave us a referral to a sleep study center in Boston. I forgot to ask at what age Melatonin is safe. Hopefully the chart will work! I tell you, though, it didn't work at all until we physically took him to the store and let him pick out a really awesome prize on his own. The promise of a prize or a little toy simply wasn't enough inspiration! So far he has one a matchbox police station and an RC car.
Let's see. Jimmy's getting much better at being gentle with me, but he is still pretty aggressive with anyone who even hints at playing rough. Poor Sam got tackled to the ground during chase at least three times on Monday. Instead of doing "time out", I am now doing, "lets talk" for two minutes, where I ask him all these questions about how he feels when people push him, and how did he feel when he got bit in preschool, and do you think it's good to hurt people. I think he likes that even less than time out, given all the squirming, so hopefully it will work better as a deterrent than just ignoring him. I'm also hoping my attention and my touch will help him calm down some. That is one high-intensity boy!!!!
We are also trying to do tickle fights and pillow fights with him to give him a "safe" outlet for his aggressive play. We also try and do more imaginary play, like we're on my bed, and the ground is water full of crocodiles, and he has to jump to make the boat go! But if he jumps on mommy, game's over! He likes that one a lot. He keeps pretending like he's falling in, and I have to save him, or him me. I'm so glad he has a good imagination!!!
His imagination has also come in handy when we eat out - "No, Jimmy, you can't get down, the ground is HOT HOT LAVA! And if you stand up in your seat, the sniper plane will get you! Here it comes now!" I now spend a ridiculous amount of time talking about planes at meals, but it's better than repeating, "no, Jimmy, sit down" and threatening him with punishments all the time. Slightly less annoying and exhausting, too.
Well, time to go pick up the house so the cleaning lady can actually get to the floors! Thank goodness we are finally getting some help around here! I can't tell you how much less revolting it is to barf into a clean toilet!!! And hooray for full day preschool, so I can actually do some folding and cleaning, and not have undone by a toddler just as fast as I can do it!
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