What Happened on Wednesday

I had my 36 week OB appointment on Wednesday and things seem fine. The doctor thinks maybe the baby is head down. Neither one of us could feel anything that felt like a head near the top of my abdomen, and after he said he thought maybe the baby was head down, I remembered that the night before, on Tuesday, I had felt this incredibly strong pressure/pain in my lower abdomen and pelvic area for several minutes. It had occurred to me at the time that maybe what I was feeling was the baby “dropping” — but I have no idea what that feels like because Emrick, who was breech, never did that. The idea of the baby being head down means that I may consider a VBAC more seriously, but I am not totally convinced that she is head down, or if she is, that she will stay that way. Once again last night I thought I felt her head at the top of my abdomen, and the girl moves like crazy — way more than Emrick did. So I think she changes position a lot. I often feel simultaneous movements on each side of my torso — strong, determined movements, like she is trying to poke her way out of there. I think she’s going to be a feisty one!

Anyway, they are going to perform another ultrasound on Thursday of next week, to check on the baby’s size and position. I will be 37 weeks and 2 days by that point. I also plan to ask them about the location of my placenta. When you’ve had a previous c-section, there is a danger of the placenta lying over your old scar, which can cause complications. At my 18-week ultrasound, I was told that the placenta was well clear of my old scar, but the position of the placenta can change during a pregnancy. It usually moves upward, not downward, so there shouldn’t be a problem with it covering my c-section incision. Still, a little reassurance would be nice!

But Marcus has different concerns. Whereas I want to make sure that everything is okay with the baby and placenta, Marcus just wants to “make sure she has hair.” He’s joking, of course, but we both agree that Emrick sort of made us feel like babies should have hair. It’s not rational, but still. Look at this baby boy:

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I just have a feeling, however, that this baby is going to be blond with sparse hair, like your typical baby. I could be totally wrong, but when I think about the fact that  had a mess of dark hair when I was born, I also remember that none of my three siblings had the same. They weren’t completely bald, but none of them had anything like my crazy mop. So in other words, just because our first baby had a lot of hair, it doesn’t necessarily mean that subsequent babies would. And of course, we will treasure our darling baby girl no matter what. She won’t have a name, but she will be treasured. 🙂

After my OB appointment Emrick and I stopped at Target, and then we headed down to Orem, where we had planned to meet Marcus at his work and then go to lunch with him. But while driving down the freeway, I heard a gush of fluid from the back seat. I turned around for just a second and saw that Emrick had thrown up a little on his shirt. He looked a little startled, and I said something reassuring to him. I then heard two more gushes of fluid, turned around and saw that vomit was now everywhere. Fun. I called Marcus and told him we’d not be having lunch with him after all. I wasn’t sure if Emrick had a stomach bug, or if he was just car sick. I became car/motion sick pretty easily when I was a kid, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Emrick turned out to have the same problem.

When we got home, I changed his clothes and put him in a Hanes undershirt. His spirits were up, his body temperature was normal, and other than being a little less energetic than usual, he seemed fine. A little while later, he asked for something to eat. I cut up an apple and split it with him. He ate about half of his half, and then asked me to remove the skin from the rest. So I took his plate to the counter and started to cut the skins off of his remaining apple sections, when I suddenly heard two big gushes of fluid followed by crying. I rushed to the table to find apple vomit all over the table, Emrick’s shirt, his booster seat, the chair, and the floor.

So I cleaned up the whole mess, including Emrick, after which he promptly requested something more to eat! I told him that we should wait until his tummy settled before eating anything more. I filled up a sippy cup with ice water and took him upstairs for his nap. Then I went to the van and cleaned up his car seat. I removed the car seat cover and then did my best to wipe down all the nooks and crannies in all of the buckle pieces, etc. This isn’t easy or fast (or pleasant).

About an hour after putting him down for his nap, I heard him crying. I went upstairs and found that he had vomited in his crib — the mattress, the railing, the floor, and his stuffed bunny which I’d gotten him for Easter. I cleaned him up again and took him downstairs. We cuddled on the sofa for a good hour and a half. Suddenly he became agitated and threw up while I was holding him. I was prepared this time with a towel, though, so it didn’t get anywhere else. It was a very small amount, too, because at that point there was nothing in his belly.

A few minutes later, he asked for something to eat. My first instinct was to say no, but then I thought that making him go hungry might just make him feel worse. So I gave him a couple of saltines. He wanted more, but I told him that we should hold off and see how his tummy handles the couple of crackers he’d already had. I was surrounded by towels at that point, just in case. Sure enough, about fifteen minutes later, those crackers came back up!

The second time he vomited, I concluded that he obviously had a stomach bug, not car sickness. And the saltine vomit was the fifth time he’d thrown up in five hours. I began to mentally prepare myself for the likelihood that the next couple of days were going to be rough. But guess what? He never vomited again. The saltine vomit was the last time. Marcus stopped at the store on the way home and bought some Gatorade and easy-to-digest carbs, and that’s what Emrick nibbled on for the rest of the night. By bedtime he was registering a low-grade fever — not high enough to warrant any medicine — but he slept through the night just fine, and by Thursday morning he seemed totally normal. His appetite was slightly diminished, but he still ate enough.

So not too bad, considering. Is that everything you’ve ever wanted to know about toddler vomit?

Here are some pics of Emrick in happier times (i.e. last weekend):

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Sweet Baby Doll

It is August 10th, and my due date is exactly one month away. I will be 36 weeks on Tuesday, and I have my next OB appointment on Wednesday. After that, I am supposed to see my doctor weekly until delivery.

As many of you may recall, I had a c-section with Emrick because he was in a breech position. I have gone back and forth on whether I wanted to just schedule a repeat c-section for this new baby, or if I wanted to attempt a VBAC (vaginal birth after Cesarean). As close as I am to my due date, I STILL don’t know for sure what I want to do. But it probably won’t matter because if I am not mistaken, this baby is breech as well. That has not been confirmed by ultrasound, but I am pretty sure I can feel her firm, round head at the top of my abdomen, just like I could with Emrick. I guess it’s possible that what I am feeling are her buns of steel, and not her head, but I doubt it. Anyway, if she is breech, and is still breech in a few weeks, then a c-section it is.

Either way, we are in the home stretch. We have a new crib (Emrick is still in his, and it converts into a toddler bed anyway, so he will probably be using it for a few more years) and a new mattress, and I have dug out Emrick’s newborn onesies and washed them and put them away in the baby dresser. I also may have caved and bought a five-pack of girly-looking onesies to go along with Emrick’s old gender-neutral ones, and I may have bought a little dress last weekend at the Carters outlet store. But other than that I have been very restrained, which is easy when you already have everything you need. In short, we’re ready. I think.

And by “we” I mean me and Marcus. As for Emrick, well, we’re working on it! He’s known (or rather, he’s been told) since Janurary that Mommy has a baby in her belly, and for a few months now, he has been able to feel and sometimes see, her moving, So it seems like it should be real enough to him, but of course, the only way to know for sure is when the baby actually gets here. In preparation for that, I bought Emrick a baby doll from Target a few weeks ago. I thought it would be a fun and easy way to show him how to hold and be gentle with a baby, and how to get used to having a “baby” around. We’ve just been calling her “baby doll” (I can’t even come up with a name for the real baby, never mind a fake one!), and she is by far Emrick’s current favorite toy.

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Isn’t that sweet? And isn’t he doing such a good job supporting her head and being gentle and affectionate? He was smitten from the start, and when it came to teaching him the proper way to hold a baby, Emrick was a quick study.

But the next day, when I asked him to show me the right way to hold Baby Doll, he was a little rusty…

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… but still affectionate.

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Awwwwwwwwwww.

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He hangs out with her, cuddles and snuggles her, and even “tucks her in” at nap time and bed time. He puts a blanket over her, kisses her on the face, and says, “Sa-weet Baby Doll.”

 

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Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

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Don’t they look like a brother and sister posing for sibling portraits?

They even take baths together!

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Of course, we’ve only captured the cute stuff. In addition to hugging and kissing and saying sweet things to her, Emrick also does plenty of dropping, squeezing, banging, sitting on, etc. All in the name of love! I try to get him to be gentle with her always, but I don’t make too big a deal about it because I don’t want him to get confused and think she’s a real baby or that he’s done something terrible when he drops her on her head. So whenever he is really rough, I just remind him that he needs to treat his toys with care or have them taken away.

“If I am rough with Baby Doll, Mommy will put her back to Target.”

“Well, I think it’s too late for that and I don’t have the receipt anymore, so I would just take her away and put her in my room.”

“Mommy will take Baby Doll away to Target if I am rough with Baby Doll.”

“Yes.”

Whatever. 🙂

 

For I love You True

I’m logged in under Marcus’ name, but this is Shona writing.

We’ve been trying to get more videos of Emrick singing songs so that we can post them on the blog for Grandma Cinda to enjoy. But Emrick is two, which means that he cannot always be compelled to turn on the cute on command. When my dad commented to me recently that they were waiting for some new videos to be posted, I explained to him that Emrick had not been cooperating with my efforts. My dad then responded, “Really? I never had ANY trouble getting any of YOU kids to cooperate with anything I wanted you to do,” (or words to that effect) and then he proceeded to chuckle for like five hours. 🙂

Emrick loves to sing and perform, but only on his own spontaneous whim, almost never by request. But on Monday, while rocking on his rocking moose in the playroom, Emrick launched into his adorable version of “After Dark.” That’s a song that Marcus used to sing in his high school singing group, and he recently taught it to Emrick. It has a cute little melody (not too recognizable in Pookie’s rendition) with lyrics made cuter by Emrick’s pronunciations. Listen for the word “promenade.”

The beginning of the video shows the END of the song, but Emrick was uncharacteristically obliging when I asked him to sing it again from the top.

The original song, a recording of Marcus’ high school a capella group:

This next video contains no singing. It’s just Emrick eating a granola bar and making himself dizzy, but it’s kind of funny.

I Want To Ride My Tricycle

Emrick loves riding the tricycle he got for Christmas. It took him a few tries to figure out the pedals, but now he’s a pro. He rips around the track, going from kitchen to foyer and back…

Right-click or ctrl-click this link to download.

Emrick Sings Again

Here are a few random videos of Emrick singing a few songs, just to hold people over! He’s still at it with the popper guitar, but he does a few acapella numbers as well 😉

Right-click or ctrl-click this link to download.

Right-click or ctrl-click this link to download.

Right-click or ctrl-click this link to download.

Right-click or ctrl-click this link to download.

Right-click or ctrl-click this link to download.

Emrick’s First Professional Haircut, aka Long Time No Post

Emrick was born with a full head of hair:

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I know they say that babies who are born with lots of hair usually have it all fall out within a couple of months, but Emrick’s never did. Well, not most of it anyway. It thinned out on the sides quite a bit when he was a few months old, but otherwise, it has held strong. It grows pretty fast, too, which is why Emrick got his first haircut, courtesy of Mom and Dad, when he was just four months old.

Emrick, after his first haircut and gel job.

Emrick, after his first haircut and gel job.

We continued to cut it pretty often. It was so fine and stringy, that it tended to get super greasy-looking within two days of a bath, so keeping it short helped that problem.

Emrick, with long greasy hair.

Emrick, with long greasy hair.

Anyway, cutting his hair was always kind of a struggle. He wouldn’t hold still, which meant that his haircuts were often of the quick and sloppy variety. When he got old enough for clippers, we buzzed him all over a few times, which was quick and easy, but nearly always produced tears…

October 2012

October 2012

Emrick, calmer but still uneasy during his October haircut.

Emrick, calmer but still uneasy during his October haircut.

Wet eyelashes.

Wet eyelashes.

We often thought about taking him in for a professional cut, but Emrick’s shyness around strangers (which a few times came in the form of full-blown meltdowns) made us pretty sure that that idea was a no go. I really thought he would be four years old before we could even attempt to take him to a pro.

But a couple of things have happened in the past few months. One is that Emrick actually noticed and expressed an interest in a haircutting shop in Lehi that specializes in children’s haircuts. There is a sandwich place right next door, and one evening the three of us stopped there for a quick dinner after running some errands. From the sidewalk outside, Emrick could see a child inside the barber shop getting his hair cut. “What’s that baby doing?” he asked. “What’s that baby doing?” is what Emrick asks any time he sees any kid doing anything, even if that “baby” is twelve. “He’s getting his hair cut,” Marcus answered. “That’s right,” I added, “and maybe some day we can take you here to get your hair cut.” And with that, Emrick marched to the barber shop door, opened it, and tried to walk in. Marcus and I laughed and then stopped him. For one thing, we were heading to dinner, and for another, we were pretty sure that Emrick had NO IDEA what he was getting himself into when he pulled open that door as casually as if it were one of the kitchen cabinets at home.

The other thing that has happened in the past couple of months is that Emrick’s stranger anxiety has calmed down a bit. He is still a little shy, and probably always will be, but it’s better now. He can now be coaxed into saying “Hi” and “Bye” and “Thank you” to complete strangers when these things were unthinkable six months ago. When cashiers at the store try to talk to him, for example, he now consistently responds with a tentative grin rather than turning the back of his head to them. Of course, he has always warmed up to people he sees repeatedly, but the strangers he encounters for a few minutes and whom he is unlikely to see again (e.g. a cashier or a barber)? Such people used to make him very uncomfortable or even upset, but now he takes this whole stranger business with a lot of stride. My boy is growing up!

So given these developments, we decided a couple of weeks ago that it was time to give the professional haircutting thing a shot. Of course, we went to the same shop that Emrick had tried to enter a few months earlier. We took him last Saturday, the 20th. I had mentioned it to him a couple of days before to get him used to the idea, and so by Saturday afternoon, he was actually kind of excited about it. He talked about it during the entire drive to “Cookie Cutters” (the name of the shop). When we got there we saw they had a selection of playful seats from which children could choose to have their haircut. One was shaped like an airplane. Since Emrick likes airplanes, that’s the one we decided to try. Marcus tried to set him in the airplane, but Emrick clung to him. His chin was on Marcus’ shoulder and his blue eyes looked especially round and worried. “Don’t like it,” he said with a quiver. He was supposedly saying he didn’t like the airplane, but of course what he really meant was that he wanted to stay in his dad’s arms.

The girl who was going to be cutting his hair was about to suggest another seat, but I asked her first what her name was because I thought that if I could talk about her to Emrick like she is someone we knew, he would relax a little. She said her name was “Demri”. So I said to Emrick, “Emrick, Demri is going to cut your hair today. Can you say hi to her?” Emrick grinned, waved, and said “Hi.” She came around to Marcus’ back so she could see Emrick’s face over his shoulder. She smiled and said “Hi” back, and just as I had hoped, Emrick eased a bit. Demri suggested the seat that was a blue car; it had a horn that beeped. Emrick let Marcus put him in the blue car, though he still looked a bit worried. Right away the girl offered him an orange-flavored sucker, and let me tell you, that sucker is what made this haircut possible. Truly. In the same way that the flux capacitor makes time travel possible. It was THAT necessary. For his entire haircut, Emrick focused more intently on that sucker than he has focused on anything ever. On the few occasions where he moved his head around, the girl moved with him without so much as a blink. Clearly, bringing Emrick to a place that does children’s haircuts as a specialty was the way to go.

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The sucker, you can see, made Emrick virtually immune to the terrifying buzz and vibration of the clippers.

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The scissors portion of the haircut was equally smooth.

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Before leaving, he was given an orange helium balloon.

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Look at that kid.

By the time we got into the van, Emrick seemed to have decided that the whole haircut experience was pretty awesome. He forgot all about the blue car with a horn that beeped, but he talked about that orange sucker for days.

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MY BABY!!

 

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