i don't have the five hours to type out an update of the past year or two, let's just say it's been interesting...

but what i was looking for is suggestions for restaurants and cool off the beaten path places to go in chicago. we're going for three days and are pretty sick of the magnificent mile, the cheesecake factory, and crate and barrel.

thanks ladies and i promise an update soon! and pictures.

so we determined that isabel's rash was an allergy from a skirt and top that she put on without me washing first. i'm glad that issue is resolved. sometimes i could kick myself for being such an alarmist.

now i have another issue. the baby(5 and a half weeks old) will not stop fussing in the morning. she gets up about 8 am(after her 5:30ish feeding), gets changed, eats, burps, etc. but then she just will not let me put her down. i've tried putting her in the sling so i can keep some order in the house, but she won't go in it unless she's asleep, which defeats the purpose of me having her in the sling during the day. she only cat naps when she does fall asleep. i get 15 minutes here and there until about 2:30 when she does a marathon three or four hour nap provided isabel doesn't wake her up. i check and double check the diaper, i check for tummy bubbles, i try and nurse her but she just screams louder and whips her head back and forth. isabel was such an easy baby that i think i am suffering from culture shock. i can't get errands done because she won't sleep in the car seat either, she screamed all through trader joe's the other morning. --read more >>

so i called the pediatrician about it and thet said sylvie is safe since she has my antibodies. phew.

the thing is, in my haste i'm not altogether sure if it is chicken pox. it's not in her armpits or back of the neck, but we gave her benadryl last night thinking that if it was an allergy that would lessen the breakout. i swear she has more now.

does it look like chicken pox to you?

so today, my brother came over and was looking at DD, 5, and said, "does she have chicken pox?". i brought her over to me and pulled up her shirt and sure enough, i am 99% sure she's got chicken pox. what a wonderful mother i am that i hadn't noticed.
my major concern however is that the new baby may have contracted them as well. she's been fussy as all get out the past few days, but she had her one month checkup on wednesday, no fever and nothing unusual. i haven't noticed anything on her and i gave her a bath this morning.
i am flipping out that she is going to get them and everything i have read says that it is life threatening in infants.--read more >>

this is my sylvie the day she was born...my grandma is holding her.

and then this is me and my girls the first day home from the hospital

i was wondering. how many of you stuck to the no sex post partum for 6 weeks instructions?
i delivered vaginally. no tears, no episiotomy...i'm thinking everything is intact. my post partum ob check isn't until august(due to scheduling conflicts).
i was just curious.

thank you for your input on the sling. i have purchased one off of ebay and hopefully it will work out.

now, onto important matters. as in breastfeeding. in my clothing. when i had isabel, i dressed like my 40-something mother(a suburban WASP type) for awhile and not much of my clothing was nursing friendly. i have about one button up shirt which is maternity and is already gigantic on me. i have one actual nursing top from majamas which is adorable and a spaghetti tank. but...everything else i own is a t-shirt of some kind and isn't conducive to just pulling it down over my ginormous breasts. i hate pulling my shirt up from the bottom, i feel so exposed. --read more >>

where is a good place to get or order a babysling that has the rings for adjusting? i got an infantino from target for my shower, but i didn't like it very much at all.

thanks!

sylvie at home chilling out!

it has been craziness! i went into labor at 1:22 am sunday morning with absolutely no warning whatsoever. i had a contraction at 1:22 and then another one at 1:46 and my water broke. my contractions were immediately 3 minutes apart so we took off for the hospital.
the birth went the way we wanted it to for the most part. they wouldn't budge on the electronic monitoring, but i did it sans an IV and no pain meds.
sylvie kehl luther was born at 6:15 am june 18th. she weighed 6 pounds and was 20 inches long.
i'll post a photo tomorrow, i can't get the image hosting to work.

we were a bit worried about the insurance mess, but lo and behold while we were still at the hospital, the billing department called us and let us know i had active state medical coverage! the relief we felt was enormous.--read more >>

i know what the mucus plug looks like. there is no mistaking it. i had no problem identifying it when i went into labor with isabel 5 years ago. however...i don't remember having so much mucus-ish discharge the last time. not to gross you out, but it took three or four swipes with toilet paper to get it all this morning and it was quite a bit. and it was whitish-yellow, not pink. is that normal or should i be finishing packing the hospital bag?
**by the way, whatever wonderful mama vibes you were sending my way yesterday worked wonders. i felt so much better after all of your feedback yesterday and was so much calmer the rest of the day and night!--read more >>

grrr. i am so disgusted with the way that government assistance programs work. how does anyone cope with this? i called this morning to see if i could set up an appointment with a worker to go ever the application for the healthy kids or group 2 pregnant mothers medical assistance programs. nope. i have to wait for them to call me. so i ask the woman if there is someone who can tell me what the income cutoffs are for these programs. nope. she's just an operator. but is there someone who can tell me? nope. i need to fill out an application. i did that already. well you need to wait for someone to call you and it could take up to 45 days to process everything. well, when i was in friday and there were no workers available, i was told someone would call me monday. someone should call you this week, but there is an in-service tomorrow for the workers so there are no appointments. i will have delivered this baby by the time someone calls me. --read more >>

so with this insurance debacle and me due to give birth at any moment, the home birth option is looking so much better to DH. he was so against it when we were discussing birth options months and months ago, but now for purely financial reasons, i can't tell if he's seriously considering it. my MIL is friends with mother-daughter midwives(which had she told me this months ago, i would have been working on this angle then), is it too late to change my mind? is it bad form to switch now and for what are mainly financial reasons? and how does the midwife situation work with birth certificates, etc.? i am kicking myself for not pushing the home birth option months ago.--read more >>

so we got our approval letter from blue cross the other day that stated that we wouldn't be covered until june 20th. huh. the woman i spoke with when i took the app in said the policy should be retroactive to the requested coverage date, which was june 1st, a few days after i sent the application in. i called them and asked if there was any way we could have the effective date moved up by just ten days and they said nope. so i called my insurance i had through work to see how much conversion coverage for the time i was terminated until the 20th would be. (oh and my employer cancelled my insurance as of the day i was fired...so that was retroactive) $4,000.00 for a month. and that would be just me, not DD or DH. there's something with michigan's private health insurance laws that doesn't make them have to provide affordable conversion coverage and as COBRA isn't an option, i was peeved. all of this wouldn't be bad. i am not due until the 30th of this month and with the me not working the braxton-hicks contractions have lessened and i have been feeling alot better. --read more >>

i know it has been awhile, but i've been just "lurking" around and reading your blogs. i've been down in the dumps a little and lately it's been so hot and humid, i have no energy. i lost my job a couple weeks ago(it was my fault and they weren't being awful employers and i should have lost my job for what happened) and at 36 weeks not to know if you still have your health insurance is a scary thing. our company wasn't eligible for COBRA and i'm waiting to hear if we are eligible for conversion coverage and whether or not that will cover the baby's labor and delivery. but the premium is $700.00. i applied for an individual policy through BCBS which will cover the labor and delivery, but not postnatal care or well baby. the premium on that is a little over $300.00, but we won't hear on that for a few weeks. they assured me that it should go through and retroactively cover any expenses, but i am still nervous. --read more >>

especially since this is a major decision. i just got off the phone from scheduling DH's vasectomy. we're still young, but after many long conversations we decided 2 is enough and we want to be able to live our lives while we're still young. not to mention the thought of having to deal with birth control after we have the baby is just enough to make us cringe.

i feel so much better.

on another decision making note, i have decided that when i leave work to have the baby, i will not be going back. we're just going to tighten the money belt a little bit and i am researching stay at home data entry jobs that i can do without leaving the girls.--read more >>

let me warn you that this is about sex. well lack thereof actually. i don't know what the heck i am doing. maybe it's because i was 5 years younger during my first pregnancy and wasn't taking care of a child already while working, but i don't remember it being this uncomfortable. and by uncomfortable, i don't mean painful...maybe awkward is a better word. i am a little bigger than i was the first time and i am not a big person to begin with, but everytime i climb on top of DH i feel like i am smothering him and i get embarassed. i can actually feel my face burning. there is no good position i can come up with for our very limited foreplay that doesn't result in my reflux acting up other than me just laying there on my side. it gets pretty old pretty quick.
--read more >>

seriously. i don't want to give birth in one of those ridiculous hospital gowns this time. and i'm a little too self conscious to go the naked route. so since i told them i want to wear my own gosh darn clothes when i deliver, what the hell am i supposed to wear?

i went for a prenatal massage last night. i had gotten a gift certificate for christmas. does anyone know how long into the pregnancy i can get these? i am almost 29 weeks and let me tell you that massage made a WORLD of difference.

isabel is getting so excited for the new baby. we had my shower with my bio-family yesterday and she even got a few presents so she wasn't left out.
i wanted to have a "big sister" shower for her with her friends(she's 4 1/2) and i thought either her friends could pick out a present for the baby to give to isabel or a "big sister" oriented present.
however, when the baby is born, i wanted to give her something special, but i am at a loss. she honestly doesn't need any more dolls. in fact my mother in law wanted to give her an american girl doll and i told her that wouldn't be necessary since she already has a "bitty baby". --read more >>

my MIL may have solved my childcare dilemma, as much as the woman annoys me, she knows a crapload of people. she has a young girl she works in her church office with who is 19-20 years old and is looking for another part time job. when my MIL mentioned that we're looking for someone two days a week to watch our DD and the impending OD, she was begging her for my number. so this may be good, i can't imagine i would have to shell out the same ungodly amount of cash out for a professional nanny and if we feel comfortable with her then this may be perfect.
but how much is enough to pay or not enough? i know it;s going to be at least 5 times as much as when isabel was in daycare...so i am prepared to pay more. --read more >>

i'm at 25 weeks as of today. for the past week(it started the day after my last ob/gyn appointment), i've been getting this weird pressure that almost feels like the baby is pushing on my cervix, almost like she's kicking down there. it isn't persistent, it is usually when she's moving around. but sometimes, it feels uncomfortable. i couldn't remember if i had it with isabel, but i wasn't worried too much so i called the doctors office yesterday. the nurse calls me back when i'm getting my books from the library and tells me that the office is closing, there isn't really much they can do there, but i should probably go to the hospital labor and delivery and get checked out, i could be having preterm labor. i freaked. i thought they would just tell me to set up an appt for a pelvic exam in the next few days. isabel was still at daycare and DH was unreachable in an office building with no cell phone service in detroit. after having a small nervous breakdown in my car, i picked up DD and went home. i called the office back but they were closed so i called the Dr. on call. he told me if there were no other symptoms and i had no history of preterm labor to relax and call the office for an appt in the morning. he was much more reassuring than the nurse. he made me promise to go to the hospital if anything else happened. i felt better for about an hour.--read more >>

i decided that i am going to hire someone to watch isabel and the new baby when she is born, two days a week at the house. which means i have to start interviewing ASAP. i am a bit overwhelmed and intimidated by what i should be asking these people when i meet them. i joined a website, detroitnanny.com which has profiles of nannies which at least gives me a general idea of who these women are, but does anyone have any suggestions for must ask questions or a place i could find a general interview template?

i am 24 weeks pregnant and frankly my belly is getting larger by the day. i am already weighing as much as i did when i was about 8 months with DD. this has not halted my desire to have sex. i am thinking about it in the car, at the office, in dreams, and yet by the time DH gets home and we go to bed, i just don't have the energy or the creativity to instigate somthing. he has been working atrocious hours and has been exhausted, but now those are done. i am feeling ungainly and there are so few ways i can position myself for any sort of foreplay initiation without feeling laughable. i begin the evening with the intention of setting the mood, but when we get to the bedroom, i just feel ridiculous. we used to take showers together after DD would go to bed and would barely make it through the shower, but now we just get out of each others way once we're in the shower, dry off, put Pjs on and go to sleep. he has done absolutely nothing to imply that he finds me less attractive, there just seems to be no spark right now. --read more >>

i didn't want to wake up this morning, but when a 4 year old in a snow white nightgown is demanding honey nut cheerios, you don't say no. DH is working his third or fourth saturday in a row. he has been working until the wee hours of the night every week for the past three weeks and there is no end in sight. last night i was in tears at the thought of yet another dinner spent alone in my kitchen with DD watching "corpse bride". i have been so lonely lately. i thought the emotional rollercoaster portion of pregnancy was done. despite my woes, i am so glad it is saturday and that we had sex for the first time in over a week(although the last time was the first time we had in about three weeks). my libido is strong, but it seems like my desire to sleep is stronger and not much is keeping me awake these days. i was so grateful he woke me up that had he not already been kissing me, i would have kissed him. --read more >>