I love giveaways!

Dee at Two of a Kind, Working on a Full House has quite a few giveaways ending today. Go check them out. I'm sure you'll see something you'd love to win. I want the Slanket. It would be perfect for when I'm on the computer, because I'm always cold with a blanket over my lap.

So sad...I just don't understand

I know that times are tough. Many people are struggling, and as a social worker I see it often. I just for the life of me cannot understanding being so desperate that a parent could take the lives of their entire family. I heard about the man in California who killed the entire family, and it just broke my heart. Now, I'm reading about a family a lot closer to home. A father in Columbus, OH killed his wife, 8 year old daughter, and 5 year old son. You can read the story here. How do you look at your precious child and take his or her life? I hated to go to work today just because my sweet girl isn't feeling well and so hasn't been quite her cheerful self. God knows I love her more than anything in this entire world. I would die for her in a heartbeat. I'm just so sad over this. Maybe it's the pregnancy hormones. Our kids are so dependent on us. We are their protectors, and they trust us unconditionally. I've seen abused and mistreated children who would still choose that parent over anyone else. I just don't know what else to say. Not only did his wife lose her life, but she lost the opportunity to raise her children...to be a mommy. I feel anger towards this man and then I wonder how utterly desperate he must have been. Ultimately though, I think it was a cowardly and selfish thing he did. I'm just a mess with all these different emotions. It's gotta be the pregnancy hormones.

Pretty but not fun

Well as expected the ice rolled in last night. Our power went out at about 3am and then Abby woke up about 6am with this deep chest cough that you can tell is painful. We went back to sleep on the couch for awhile and thank God the power guys got us back on at about 8:30am. Shortly after that the next round of snow started and we got about 4 more inches on top of the ice. I'm wishing I hadn't cleared the snow off my car yesterday because it probably would have been better as far as the ice. I just went out and had to tap a hammer around my door to break the ice so I could get in it to get my pager for work. I'm just going to take calls from home because there's no way to get to work. There's a level 3 snow emergency, meaning no one is allowed on the roads except emergency personnel. I took some pictures this morning before the snow started again and then during and after the snow. I also took a picture of the ice on my car windshield. My hubby was laughing at me taking all the pictures.

First decent snow of the year

We haven't had much snow this year, but it finally caught up with us. We got a few inches last night and tonight we're supposed to get a few more plus some ice mixed in for good measure. Abby wanted to go out as soon as she woke up, but I made her wait for a couple of hours. She totally wore herself out. I just pray that the ice doesn't knock out our power tonight.

That girl has a sassy mouth!

Something is up with Abby. I don't know if it's the pregnancy, or it's just a phase that happens to coincide with the pregnancy. It's seems like this child wants to challenge me on everything. Her favorite word is "no". We had some unexpected house guests this past weekend. Abby and I were on our way out to the store and she decided she wasn't going with me. Normally, she always wants to go with me, but she was afraid she was going to miss something at the house I guess. Usually, she would have a choice but Tony was working on this guy's computer and preferred that she go with me. I told her she had to go with me, but she just said "No, I'm not going". Excuse me, I didn't give you a choice. She stood her ground and wouldn't budge. Tony actually had to get stern with her and then, of course, she did what she was told. This has become a daily thing in the last week and it's totally new behavior for her. It seems like lately she's doing this just with me, not Tony. I'll have a conversation with her about it and why it's not acceptable, and not 30 minutes later she'll be doing it again. I give her choices all the time, but obviously there are just some things she doesn't have a choice on whether to do or not. I'm just going to try to give her lots of attention and praise for positive things because I hate to be constantly arguing with her. I don't want her to be always in trouble, but I refuse to raise a child that thinks she can refuse to do things and be disrespectful.

We have a heartbeat

I had another OB appointment today. I'm now 10 weeks along and he was able to find the heartbeat after a minute or so of trying. Even though I've been through this before, the miracle of it all still amazes me. My blood pressure was not as high as last week, but still a little high. He didn't mention it during the appointment and told me to come back in four weeks. By the time I got to work, the nurse had left me a message that the doc wants me to come in again next week to get it checked. I appreciate that he's being thorough, but I sure hope this blood pressure thing doesn't become an issue. I guess we'll see. I've been really sick to my stomach since this morning, but I'm happy that I got the hear the peanut's heartbeat. Maybe I can relax now.

This and that (edited to add it may be TMI but it's what I felt like writing)

I went to the doctor on Friday. I was really anxious and hoping he would do a vaginal ultrasound, since it's too early to hear a heartbeat with the doppler. I'm 9 weeks along. I don't know why, but I've been anxious to get the reassurance that everything is ok with this baby. I read the message boards over at Babycenter and there have been several people also due in August who have gone in to the doctor only to find out that the baby had died. My doc said not to worry about it. I told him about shocking myself and he didn't seem the least bit worried about it. He didn't think the vaginal ultrasound was necessary but did tell me to schedule an appointment for next week and we'd try to find the heartbeat. I wonder if he wants me back next week because my blood pressure was high...it was 150/100. Maybe it was high because of my anxiety. I don't know.

On to a cute story. My 5 year old daughter, Abby, has pooping problems. She has since she was tiny. She takes Mirulax, which really helps, but still has the occasional difficulty moving things along. She's been having trouble this week (I can actually hear her in there grunting as I type this). Anyway, yesterday she told me she thinks she has a baby in there. I asked her shy she thinks this and she says..."Babies are made out of love and I love you and daddy". It was too cute. She also later asked me, "will I be able to feed the baby from my boobie". She seemed disappointed when I told her she wouldn't be able to do that. She's going to be such a good big sister.

Awesome giveaway!

Jolly Mom is giving away an Ergo baby carrier. I'm going to try to get as many entries as possible, because I would really love to get one of these. So, if you're expecting a baby, already have a little one, or know someone who does, head over and enter this giveaway.

Rough week

I've barely even looked at my blog this week. This pregnancy is kicking my booty. It's so different from my first pregnancy. I've been so tired all week. I'm having some strange pain in my ass...yes, a real pain in my ass. I think it may be sciatica. I'm also still having nausea, but also stay hungry...very strange. Let's not forget about the leg cramps at night. I still really shouldn't complain, because it could be a lot worse. I've really let the house go, so I had some energy yesterday and got some things done. The Christmas tree is down, and I did some major cleaning of Abby's room. I was feeling it by the end of the day. Then, Abby decides to wake me up at 2:30 this morning because she can't sleep. My OB appt is this Friday, so I'm anxious to hopefully hear a heartbeat or even see the little bean. Because I shocked myself, I just want the reassurance that everything is fine. That's it for my exciting life right now.

I shocked myself...literally!

So, I did a dumb thing. I got tired of waiting for my husband to change out the light fixture in our closet that quit working. I decided to do it myself. It's a pain to try to find clothes in a dark closet. I think part of it is now that I'm pregnant, I have this list of things I want to get done around the house so I don't have to worry about it after the baby gets here. I turned off the breaker to our bedroom, got up on a chair, and went about taking down the light fixture. In the process, I touched a black wire and got a good zap. I felt it go down my arm and I had to sit down for a minute. It totally freaked me out. Of course, I immediately began wondering if I could have hurt my baby. Right at that second, some friends of my husband appeared without calling first. My husband had no idea this had happened because he was in another room. He otherwise would not have let me do that. So I'm in agony while these people are here because I'm dying to get online and start looking up any info on getting shocked while pregnant. I was very distracted. After they left, I tell my husband. He totally blows it off and says not to worry. Well, that wasn't reassuring. He was more upset that I was up on the chair trying to do this. The information I found online wasn't very helpful and scared me more. So, I just had one of the doctors in my OB office paged. He asked me if I had any burns on my skin where I touched the wire, which I don't. He then told me not to worry and that it would take quite a bit of juice to cause a problem. I'm still worried. I'm sure part of it was hormones, but I started crying last night at the thought that I could have hurt or killed my baby. I could never forgive myself. My next OB appt is in 2 weeks and I'll be almost 10 weeks at that point. I'm anxious to hear a heartbeat.

It turns out the closet light was on a different breaker than our bedroom lights. After this happened I heard the air purifier in our room running. It's plugged into the other side of the wall where our closet is. Why didn't I notice this before I got shocked?