My new best friend

I think I had about 1 minute of morning sickness when I was pregnant with the girls and that one minute was probably created in my mind because I wanted to feel something to know that I was still pregnant and everything was okay.  I even told my friend Nina that I wanted morning sickness because I was just so worried all the time and if I was sick, then I knew my hormones were being all crazy.

I'm trying to be a little bit more relaxed this time around because I know if something is going to happen, then well its going to happen whether or not I just sit and worry.  I didn't wish for any nausea this time, but it is definitely here in full force.  I haven't thrown up at all yet (thank goodness) and have been eating a ton of saltine crackers, gummy bears, and ginger ale.  At my appointment on Tuesday the Nurse Practitioner I saw asked how I was feeling and I said not good.  She asked if I wanted a prescription for something (which at the time I didn't really need) and I said that it might be a good idea to have some anti nausea meds just in case.  I thought for sure I didn't want to be caught in a situation at work where I was puking my guts out and not be able to do my job.

So anyways, I filled the Zofran and I'm pretty glad that I did.  I couldn't really eat much today and I think that was part of what was making me feel so sick as well.  So, I took some zofran and was able to eat some yogurt and an apple for dinner.  Brian's not home to cook me something so I guess I'm just stuck digging in the frig for what I can find :)  (Ok, yes, I could cook something myself, but its 9pm and I just don't feel like it.)

The girls are doing great.... Charlotte is just getting over some type of stomach bug that had her sick for just about a week.  I was worried about her for a while as she wouldn't hardly drink or eat anything at all.  But, today she woke up, drank her bottle and decided to feel much better.  So glad!  I didn't want to have to take her to the doctor again... I think the ped's office thinks I'm a hypochondriac... or whatever you would call it when you think your kids are sick all the time :)

One sick family

This past week every single one of us has been sick.  I think I may have even heard the dog sneeze. 

It pretty much started with Brian last Saturday.... He felt awful! His throat hurt, he had the chills, body ache, all of it.  He felt so crappy he even went to Urgent Care so that they could tell him to rest and drink lots of fluids.  I really hoped that the girls wouldn't catch whatever it was, but they did.  Tuesday, Charlotte's eye looked pretty bad and her nose was like a faucet!  When she woke up she had boogies just all over her face.... I felt so bad for her!  She kept getting progressively worse so when I got home on Tuesday we called the ped's office and they said to bring her in on Wednesday.  I got a sub Wednesday afternoon so that Brian and I could take them to the doctor.  This was their first "sick" visit instead of their usual well checks every couple of months. 

When the girls woke up on Wednesday, Charlotte's eye looked okay but Evy's was super crusted shut and swollen.  It looked terrible!  The doctor confirmed our suspicions that she had pink eye and gave her some drops for it.  She also had a double ear infection and go antibiotics for that.  I thought she would resist drinking the meds, but they probably tasted as good as they smelled! I think it was strawberry.... or something fruity anyways.  Charlotte just had a cold so she didn't have to take any meds.... we just had to watch her eyes and make sure she didn't get the pink eye from her sister. 

Its now Sunday and the girls are feeling much better!  They were definitely off when they were sick and pretty much slept all day then.  They even missed one of their feedings because they slept right though it!  But, I can't say I have much of an appetite when I'm sick either.  They still have runny noses but are back to being their happy little baby selves.  Brian said that Evy cried all day one of the days and just wanted to be held all day.  Can't say I blame her for that either!  Daddy gives some pretty nice hugs :)

I thought I was going to get missed with all of this since I was a little under the weather last week.... boy was I wrong!  Friday night I started coming down with a sore throat and Saturday I just didn't rest enough.  I had to go to the mall and pick up my bridesmaid's dress for my brother's wedding and I ended up spending all day at the mall with a friend.  I had a lot of fun... but really paid for it today.  I have been super tired all day long and really didn't get very much done around the house.  I managed to do a couple of loads of laundry and clean up the kitchen but that's pretty much it. 

Tomorrow the whole school is going to a movie in celebration of Earth Day so I thought about calling in sick because I won't have to really make any sub plans, but I think I should probably save my day (especially because I only have 1 left) in case the girls are sick again and I have to take them to the doc.   I am so ready for summer.  Only 15 more school days left... and 14 with students!  Six of those 14 will be spent doing Cinco de Mayo activities, the last day of school is full of assemblies, yearbook signing, etc., the movie will take all day tomorrow, and I will be having a sub one day at one of my schools to go to the 6th grade IB exhibition all day at the other school so that leaves me with about 5 days left to actually teach!  Those days are also full of field trips and other random things so I will be lucky to see each of my 22 classes 1-2 more times after their "fiestas" are finished with.  Things really get nutty towards the end of the year.  My boss has also said that I can bring the girls in to school on the last day!  That will be so fun!!  I think Brian is going to come too.... should be a nice day.

Speaking of Brian, he has been trying to figure out all of his crazy schedules.  He finally got confirmation of when the classes he is taking are going to be so he can figure out the classes he will be teaching in the fall.  One of them is for 3 hours per week for 10 weeks.... on Saturdays.  Its great that we won't have to find childcare for that one but it also cuts into our family time since weekends are all we have once school starts up again.  Its only part of one day though so I think it will be okay.  Most of the classes he is taking are at night too so I can watch the girls instead of someone else.... but for the times we do need a nanny, we just found out that we might have to find someone else.  Brian is friends with the nanny's husband (that's how we found her in the first place) and I guess he is saying that she may have to get a full time job.  I really hope they change their mind so that she can keep watching the girls next fall, but I understand if she can't . I just know that she is great with kids, puts up with the dog, and really does care about taking good care of them.  Its hard to just let anyone in your house and trust them with your kids when you aren't home.  I feel guilty enough having to leave them home and if its with a stranger I am going to feel even worse about it.  I guess we will cross that bridge when we get there... and maybe we won't have to!

As a totally random side note, the pediatrician said we had to feed the girls some type of cereal every day so that they could get their iron, but the oatmeal we keep giving them is making them totally constipated.  Spinach has a lot of iron in it, right? Yup! We tried that today!  I thought I could mask the taste by combining a generous handful of fresh spinach with a small avocado and some formula to thin it out.  You should have seen the look on Charlotte's face when I tried to feed it to her.  It was priceless!  She was pushing it out with her tongue and pretty much gagging on it because she hated it so much!  I ended up mixing in some apple sauce with hers to mask the taste and she did eat a lot of it.... but by the end of the bowl she was like, "Are you kidding me?" LOL   Evy loved it (without the applesauce) and ate all of hers.  She pretty much likes everything that we make for her.  I think next time I will do the spinach with some mangoes or bananas or applesauce to sweeten it up a bit for Char.  Hopefully she will come around!

Time goes by so fast!

I realized today that I hadn't written anything in a while so here we are!  The girls are both sleeping and the boobie pumps are attached so I guess I have nothing better to do for the next few minutes. 

Last weekend our friends came to visit from Wisconsin!  Its really great that we have so many friends and family that have come to visit us out here.  They were only here for the weekend so we didn't have a lot of time to hang out but that was okay!  We ended up going to the mall where Brian and George got a professional shave.  Whats that you ask?  Its where you get to sit in an old fashioned barber chair and have an old fashioned looking dude shave you with a straight razor.  It was pretty amusing to watch!  I got a couple of good pictures on George's phone so I will have to get those uploaded here!  While we were at the mall we went into Williams Sonoma (the cooking gadget store.)  George and Sack asked us if we had this cool baby food steamer/blender and we said that we didn't have one but wanted to get one.... so they bought it for us!  It was so nice!!  We haven't tried it out yet because the girls don't eat solid food yet but it should be lots of fun to make food for them.  We even have these cool ice cube tray looking things  that my mom got for us when she was out here in October!  Hopefully we will save lots of money by making our own baby food... and it won't have lots of icky stuff in it that the packaged stuff probably has.

It was very fun to have company for that weekend but that meant we didn't get very much done around the house.  We even actually went a week and a half without grocery shopping which is pretty nutty in this house.  Usually Brian goes at least 2x/week because we run out of something before the weekend comes up again.

Fast forward to this past weekend (as in like two days ago) and we were both sicker than dogs.  On my way home from work on Friday I noticed that my throat was getting sore..... by about 7pm I had turned up the heat in the house and was shivering under two huge blankets.  I didn't sleep all night and took my temp in the middle of the night at 102!  I was totally miserable.  Saturday I felt a lot better but still not great.  One of Brian's friends from middle school was out here in CO so we got dinner with her on Sat. night.  It was good to get out of the house but we didn't get home until 10pm and by then I was completely exhausted.  When Sunday rolled around all I wanted to do was play with my girlies and nap so that's pretty much what I did.  At one point I fell asleep holding Charlotte and I guess Evy was screaming her head off.  Brian took care of her and was being loud but he said I didn't even stir.   I guess I must have really needed that nap.

In other news, I booked another trip to go back to Minnesota this spring!  My brother is getting married this summer so my sister and I are throwing his fiancee a bridal shower.  Brian has to work and such so he is not going with me.  Sooooo that means I am taking the girls on a plane all by myself!!  They did great on the trip home for Christmas so I am hoping this one goes just as smoothly.  My mom is flying back with me to come visit for a few days afterwards so I only have to fly by myself one way =)  I leave on March 2nd so its only about a month away! 

Sick

I have been terrified of going up to school to show off the babies because I didn't want them to get sick. I knew that everybody has been wanting to see them and my boss just happened to call and ask if I would come up for an informal meeting.  Since she called, I felt obligated to go.... but I was very careful.  I didn't let the students touch the kiddos and I had everybody that wanted to hold them wash their hands or use hand sanitizer.  I, however, was not careful with myself I guess.  A few days ago it started with a sore throat.  I felt pretty good with the exception of that.  Then my nose started running and and I was really tired.  I guess if I was going to get sick now is better than when I go back to work in a couple of weeks. 

Other than that, this week has been filled with holiday parties!  Since I work at two schools, I got to go to both parties.  Thursday was fun.... we all went to a Mexican restaurant that one of my student's parents run.  The food was sooo good!  I brought the girls along and they were the life of the party!  They got passed around all night and really enjoyed snuggling with all of my coworkers.  The party was only supposed to go from 4-6 but I didn't end up leaving until almost 8:00.  It was really nice to catch up and have some adult conversations!

I fed the girls around 7:30 and they fell asleep on the car trip home.  I took them inside and left them in their carseats expecting them to wake up around 10:30 to eat again.  Much to my surprise, they didn't wake up until 4:30a.m.!  I got horrible sleep that night since I kept waking up every couple hours to see if they were okay since they were sleeping in their carseats.  It was nice they both slept at the same time but it was too bad that I couldn't take advantage of it. 

My mom was coming to visit from Minnesota and her flight came in at around 8:30.   I fell back asleep from 6:30-7:00 but almost felt worse for taking such a short nap. After I picked my mom up, we pretty much just hung out all day.  I must say it was really nice to have some extra help with the babies.  We had another holiday party to go to that night.  Brian couldn't go since the place wasn't handicap accessible so my mom went with me.  The dinner was pretty expensive so that was pretty disappointing but the company was good so I guess that's all that matters.  When we got home we fed the girls and went to bed... or tried I should say.  Charlotte usually goes to bed pretty well (but not as well as Evy) but last night she was just not having it.  The only way she would sleep was if it was in my arms.  I put her down unsuccessfully a couple times and finally got her to sleep around 2a.m. after she ate again and at that point I had pretty much been awake for 24 hours.  I got up at 7:30 or so, fed the girls, and then took a nap until almost noon.  My mom was watching the babies and I think I slept extra hard since I wasn't listening for crying or baby noises. 

What a day!  It felt like the longest day ever but it was a good one =)

Back to School!

Yesterday was out "official" day to go back to school.  We had a district wide meeting and then some time to work in our classrooms.  It was really nice to see everybody that I haven't seen since the last school year!! And there was lots of oogling over my belly which I actually kinda liked =) 

On the downside, I haven't really been sleeping well.  I've been struggling with Restless Leg Syndrome at night ..... Yes, I  know it sounds like something silly but it really is no fun at all. 

Yesterday I had to leave work a little early to go to a doctor's appointment.  Baby A is still breech and Baby B is head down.  He said it would be a race to see which one is going to "drop" if Baby A still doesn't turn.  If Baby B comes out first a vaginal delivery is no problem, but if Baby A's little feet decide they want to come first, then its going to be a C-Section.  Also, I told the doc I wasn't feeling the best and he said he'd do a strep test super quick and give me some antibiotics so that if I don't feel better in a few days then I can take them.  Well, I left there forgetting to get my throat culture done and without the script for the antibiotics.  I seriously blame it on the pregnancy brain.  I am forgetting everything lately! So, I think I am going to call and get some antibiotics because I woke up today feeling even worse than I have been and I don't actually think I want to know if I have strep.  If I do, that would mean that I would potentially have to miss the first day of school and writing sub plans for that would be an absolute nightmare! 

And to top it all off......

Lately I have been really trying to think of things to do to take my mind off infertility.  However, I feel that I have been pretty unsuccessful.  I mean seriously, there has to be something out there to do that doesn't cost loads of money to do......  I am trying to save up for my next IVF cycle which will cost about $16,000! On a teacher's salary! I know, its funny, right?

Ok, moving on.... So yesterday I was at work and it was a pretty normal day.  I hadn't been feeling the greatest since Monday morning, but mostly becasue I had been going to bed super late.  The day was going fine until about 2:00. All of the sudden, it was like the classroom was on fire! I was so hot that I thought I was going to pass out.  But of course, what can I do about this? I have to just keep on teaching because the classes aren't going to teach themselves.  I made it to the end of the day and headed down to the nurse's office.  The nurse was gone, so the secretary took my temperature using this cool thermometer that you just swipe across the forehead.  Neat! She looks at it and goes, "Uh oh!" and told me that I had a temperature of 100.2.  Great, I thought, just great.  I went back up to my classroom and made some sub plans so that if I felt crappy later that I could call in and get a sub. (BTW- thats one hard thing about being a teacher- you can't just call in sick when you are sick because school still goes on when you aren't there.) 

By the time I was done making my sub plans I was freezing cold when just hours before I was roasting. It was then I knew that this "illness" was not getting better any time soon.  I got home, fell asleep for a while, woke up and took my temp again.  It was 102.3! This was getting bad, and fast! Thats when I decided that it was NOT a good idea to go to work and risk A.) getting sicker and B.) getting everyone else sick.

While it was nice to be able to stay home and rest, the looming thought in my mind was, "Will I have enough sick time left to do IVF again this spring?" IVF requires a lot of appointments which in turn means time off of work. This is my 3rd year at my job and this is the "critical" year because if I get renewed again, I will have tenure or non-probationary status.  So, I really don't want to do anything to not get renewed.  I have talked with both principals (I teach at two schools) and they are both very supportive of my decision to start a family.  However, I still don't want to do anything to make them question hiring me on for the long haul.