It’s the end of the day on Aug 14th. It’s Pickles first birthday. I’ve spent all day trying to decide what I wanted to write to sum up an entire year. The most amazing year of my life. I couldn’t formulate many words, only sentimental tears. All I kept thinking was how I didn’t know it was going to be this amazing. How in love I am. I don’t need to reiterate my “The Other Side” blog post I wrote after he was born, so I thought sharing the slideshow I made and showed at his birthday says so much. Enjoy
To end this post, I want to say this. Levi, thank you for making us a family of 3, for filling our hearts with even more love when it seemed full already. I feel so humble to be your mama, and I’m grateful for your forgiving and unconditional love. Happy Birthday, Pickle.
Love, Mama (Leasa)
PS. here is a gallery of photos from his birthday party this past Saturday
Hey all! I thought maybe its a good time to update everyone on how the different therapies are going.
Physical therapy (PT) is going well! Pickle goes 2x per week for 30 mins each at the PT office. Miss Joleen usually starts him with the platform swing which he is really starting to like! She said pushing babies in a swing often is great for them to learn spacial relationship and where their body is in the environment. And, I have noticed when we are at the park he can look at me now when swinging. He used to only look at the ground. Up until this week, we were working on crawling on hands and knees, sitting up, and core strengthening. I’m happy to say, about a week ago, he crawled on hands and knees! I cried. He is still weak in his arms and legs… when he crawls he sits back on his heels mostly.
This week we have moved on to standing, cruising, walking as well as still strengthening the core and left side. We did meet with the senior PT this week because they thought Pickle might have a leg length issue of and inch difference! I was dreading and dreading.. knowing that would send us to an Orthopedic doctor and be another concerns. I’m happy to report that there is no leg length issues! Whats happening is that his whole left side is much weaker to he doesn’t want to bear weight on the left, causing him to lean to the right. Now, though, he is over-leaning to the right and causing that leg to bow and ankle to roll out. We want to correct this right away so it doesn’t further hinder his progress nor become a habit. The PT’s told us its time for “early walker” shoes! The more structured shoe and harder sole will help keep him from rolling the foot out. I tried to ask her when she thinks he would walk. She said we are shooting for the normal range which is up to 14 months, but even up to 18 months is ok. My interpretation: the end is not that near. In the mean time, keeping at it.
Pickle just started back up with developmental therapy. His therapist got into a car accident and was out for a few weeks. She is feeling better now so it resumed this past week. This therapy is with Miss Rosa every Monday morning at 8am at my house. I LOVE that she comes to me. 1 hour is a little long for him, but he does well. Toward the end of the session, he starts whining and looking for me, so I join their instructional play. She has mostly been working with him on putting things into and taking things out. He struggles with this concept. I’m trying not to worry about his adaptive, fine motor, and cognitive skills. I hope its like the physical therapy and will start to show progress soon. Its weird when I see other babies around 1 so in tune with their environment. I can see it in their faces. They are concentrating. I don’t see that in Pickle yet. I feel like he only surface plays. He doesn’t spend much time at all investigating the environment or toys. He only bangs or throws them. I have been going crazy trying to find resources and readings on how to help him progress through play. So far, I haven’t been very successful. I’m unsure what he is ready to learn versus what is out of reach. I don’t want to push something that is way too advanced and frustrate both of us. Then, of course I also realize, we don’t have any time together to work on that anyway. 2 hrs a night to bathe, breastfeed 2 times, and have dinner…. oh and some physical therapy work too… I don’t even have time to read him a book each night. Its hard to keep the mama guilt at bay sometimes. Parenting the way you want is a full time job.. but parenting a developmentally delayed baby? So difficult you guys. And working.
I have been trying to cut myself some slack though. I had my own moment of therapy earlier this week. I was feeling guilty about not being able to parent my own child more~ feeling green.. then a voice in my head told me to knock it off and cut myself some slack. I’m doing the best I can. I only hope its good enough.
~Leasa <3 (starting to feel like bearing my soul means wearing my name and I’m ok with that)
Whooo… time for some serious catch up! I guess Ive been so busy nesting and what not that time has really started to run away from me! I cant believe I’m already 24 weeks! Anyway, here goes the updates..
First, if you haven’t heard, Pickle has a pickle . Thats right folks, it’s a BOY! If you would like to see the video of the ultrasound, click HERE. Its about 2.5 mins. We really enjoyed telling our family and friends. Our families live out of town so we called and skyped each of them individually and all of them were on the edge of their seats wanting to know! It was fun dragging it out. For our friends, we had a small gathering that night and I baked a cake that was food colored inside to the gender. I loved watching everyone’s reactions to the blue cake peeking through the first slice, and the roar of cheer afterwards. I must say how totally awesome it is to KNOW what we are having! Since we found out, I have really enjoyed shopping and thinking of names for our son (squeeeee ). BTW, the name will be a surprise so don’t even ask
I also had my Gestational Diabetes test about 2 weeks ago. I was able to ween off of the Metformin for about 5 days, despite the stomach ache, to have an accurate result. Surprisingly, it was only 97! Which is perfect! In fact, its super perfect! I was definitely pleased… but then confused too. What did this mean? Did I not have to be on the Metformin all this time? Was my PCOS gone? What about going forward? Those questions were going to have to wait for the Endocrinologist a few days later. He’s the specialist in all this. My OB pretty much said that obviously I don’t need the metformin. I protested a little and she said I could wait to decide until after my visit to the Endocrinologist.
So, fast forward a few days to the apt with him. When I asked my questions, he explained it like this…. in a nutshell. I need the metformin before pregnancy and I will need it after. My PCOS is not gone, just dormant. My ovaries are in hibernation cause I’m pregnant… which means they cant screw up my hormones and my body is more than capable of functioning normally ie: maintaining my blood sugar and insulin properly, and not storing food as fat. Amazing huh? Of course, I could help but feel some disdain for my ovaries, causing so much trouble, but of course they are my baby makers. Then I got to thinking… maybe I should just be pregnant all the time…
Lastly, we had our hospital tour at UCLA this past week. It was really cool! Here is just some of the info I got:
Surprisingly, they only have 5 L&D rooms. What? When you get there, first you go to Triage while they prepare a L&D room for you. Then you have your baby in L&D, then they move you to one of the 13 postpartum rooms. Ok, whatev. You cant have everything.
They give 1 hr of skin-to-skin immediately after the baby is born before they go totally clean him up and stuff, which is awesome!
The Dr from your group who is on call will deliver you. This was a bummer to hear. But the cool thing is that I can ask for the on call midwife instead if I want, even though I have been seeing the OB. They are all in the same office.
They have a breastfeeding group everyday at 4pm with the Lactation consultant that you attend the day after you give birth to help you!
Anything you, the mom, wants goes! There is room service for meals and you can call for someone to come clean your room if its dirty!
You can have as many and whomever you want in your labor room, except children.
They have birthing bars and you can bring a birthing ball for alternative delivery options.
All in all, I’m pleased. And the things I’m not so in love with are pretty standard for a hospital. Thats the route I chose and I’m comfortable with it. Im sure everything will be fine and in the end all I care about is delivering my baby boy safely and healthily.
~Piece BTW, poll results for “What am I having?” was 67% Girl and 33% Boy! AND there is another poll waiting!
Click HERE for the video of Pickle! Baby is now the size of a lemon!
This was our… actually, I’m having a hard time remembering what apt number we are on. So, whatever. It was an apt. The first half of my apt was with my OB, Dr. Petite. It was great seeing her again. We listened for the baby’s heart beat on the doppler and we heard it for the first time! We have heard it on the ultra sounds but never on the doppler before. I was 13 weeks 5 days. It sounded like galloping horses! So fast and wonderful! I look forward to hearing that every time
After that business, I broke out my 3×5 card of questions I wrote down since my last apt. First, I asked about the Metformin. A few days before this apt, I had sen my nutritionist and PCOS specialist. She expressed that she felt it was important for me to stay on the class D medication for the whole term. Dr. Petite is certainly open to what I want and feels its really important for doctors and patients to make decisions like this together. She does think that if I can get off of it without issue, I should try. Its best to be free of all that I can be at this time. She did say to ask the maternal-fetal specialist doctor about it. I was seeing her during the ultrasound half of my apt downstairs. Dr. Petite assured me that she would know more and to value her opinion.
I went on to ask her about 2nd trimester weight gain. She said 1 lb per week is good. So far I’ve gained 7 lbs so not bad I think. In the 2nd trimester, over 10 weeks, I should gain 10 lbs. I think that’s reasonable but I cant help but cringe at the thought of pushing 200 lbs. I was about 182 when I got pregnant so its not like I was skinny to begin with. Just hoping I can keep it under control and work it off afterwards. I also wanted to know about the sex of the baby and when I would feel it. Dr. Petite said next apt we should be able to tell the sex and I should start feeling the baby move any week now! That will be exciting! We said goodbyes and I was headed down to the ultra sound.
Everything went great down there! Got another video of the baby! So much more developed in 4 weeks and it was exciting to see it moving around so much! Dr. Sweety, the maternal-fetal specialist, is awesome! This is the 2nd time I have seen her and I love her! We got right down to business measuring all the bits of the baby. She said the baby was measuring big! Almost a week bigger! She had to poke around to try and get the baby to curl up some because that test is supposed to be done between 11 and 14 weeks. The baby was measuring just over 14 weeks so the system wouldn’t accept the measurements! Ha! Other than that, she said everything looked good and complimented the baby’s nasal ridge. Craigery immediately equated that to the baby having his nose… which is a little large. Dont get me wrong, I think he is handsome of course… but I hope if its a girl she has my nose (for her sake).
Lastly, I asked Dr. Sweety about the Metformin. We talked for a minute and she said she thought it was best to get off it and see how its goes. The glucose tolerance test they give every preggo is at week 24. She said lets not be on the medication when that comes around. If my sugar doesn’t look so good, I can get back on the Metformin instead of taking the customary, and weight gain inducing, insulin. I had also heard Metformin helps bring in milk for women with PCOS. She said she agreed and that I can always get back on it right after the baby is born. I still have things to decide but for now I’m still on it.
My next apt is right after the Babymoon! (thats a different post a little later). I have 2 apts actually: April 7th and April 12th. The 7th is with Dr. Petite only and I’m not sure if she is gonna give me an ultra sound in the office. The 12th is with Dr. Sweety downstairs and its specifically an anatomy scan for the baby’s sex. So April 12th at the latest for the baby’s sex. We are going to do a gender reveal… have the doctor write down the sex and then announce it with friends and family at a small celebration a few days later. Sounds fun but we will see how anxious we are about wanting to know right then!
~Piece. PS. New poll! Ring in what sex you think we are having!!
. Thats right folks, it’s a BOY! If you would like to see the video of the ultrasound, click 
). BTW, the name will be a surprise so don’t even ask 
