Well, it really seems that I can't catch a freakin' break. *sigh*

So, after my last post, everything went even more sideways. I woke up Friday morning to what I can only describe as a catastrophic decrease in milk supply. Utterly confused and frustrated, the boy and I fumbled through the weekend feeding and sleeping, feeding and sleeping, and me doing everything I could to boost my supply, including starting Fenugreek and Blessed Thistle in combination, and continuing my rigorous pumping schedule (man do I feel like a dairy cow!).

Monday morning, the reason for the decrease became glaringly obvious when I awoke with brutal menstrual cramps. Then a few hours later, cue one of the worst migraines I've had in ages. The good news is that my supply has rebounded quickly (it's too early for the herbs to be making much of a difference, so I don't think that they are the reason) now that I've actually started my period.

So, this morning we trotted off to the Health Unit (after a wonderfully relaxing Mom and Baby Yoga class) for a weigh in, but I knew it wasn't going to be the improvement I was hoping for given the weekend's issues.

LB gained 2 ounces in 5 days, which while low is still a heck of a lot better than a loss and not too too far off the mark considering how challenged my supply was this weekend (stupid hormones!).

So, the nurse took my feeding/peeing/pooping diary, and she's going to fax that off to my doctor along with their notes from my last two visits so that I won't have to go over it all again on Friday at LB's four month checkup. Hopefully, he will have started to gain better by Friday. If not, hopefully this doctor will listen to me and start looking for other reasons other than low supply.

In other news, I think LB might have a bit of a stomach bug, because over the weekend his poops turned from the lovely yellowish orange they usually are to this brown and green toxic sludge. I asked the nurse this morning if that might be due to my low supply over the weekend, and she felt it was more likely an intestinal bug. Hopefully that will clear up quickly as well!!!

I just really really want this all to be resolved. I'm so nervous all the time that there is something seriously wrong with LB. He's technically in the 'failure to thrive' category now, having dropped below the third percentile for weight and length.

Another poster on another blog (sorry that I can't remember who - I have a lot of blogs in my reader! - let me know if it was you or if you know who it was) asked recently if moms who have gone through IF worry more about their children than fertile moms, and having been on both sides I can say that we certainly do! I mean, I worried about M too, but it wasn't this same gut wrenching terror I feel every time something is not going well with LB. Everything feels much more precarious with him, for some reason.

Okay, he's going to be waking up for another feed soon, so I better end this here. Thanks for 'listening'!

I'm am so flustered right now that I doubt that half of this post is going to make any sense, but I need to vent so here it is anyway!

I mentioned before that I had some milk supply issues, but they are under control. It had been a bit of a problem off and on, but for the last month and a half things have been a lot better. I've been doing all of the 'tricks' to ensure a good supply, including pumping between feeds, drinking (horrible tasting) milk boosting teas, 'super-switch' nursing, etc. all to make sure that my supply stays good. And it's worked very well.

The bad news is that LB isn't gaining well. And not only isn't he gaining well, but after a few weeks of 1-2 ounce gains, this week he lost 4 ounces. He's dropped from the 31st percentile for weight at birth to the 25th percentile at 2 1/2 months to the 5th percentile today. That's a huge drop!

So off to the doc we went. Not my regular doc, as she is on maternity leave, but another (apparently VERY old school) doctor in her clinic. Who despite my insistence that he is eating plenty and peeing and pooping like a champion, said that it sounds like a supply issue and that I should start him on rice cereal (!) and come back for another consult in two weeks. Now, I know there are a lot of people who start rice cereal early, but I am one of those people that goes with the recommendation of WHO, and the AAP, and Health Canada when they say solids should be delayed to at least six months. One of the nurses suggested another doc (a certified lactation consultant) for me to see, who happened to be working a walk-in clinic, so they called ahead and I rushed on over.

Only by the time I got there, the doc they had sent me to see had to leave, so I ended up seeing someone else. Who then told me that even though I *think* I have a good supply, I'm probably wrong (!), and I should supplement with formula and come back in a few days and see if that's helped.

So, then I headed off to the Health Unit, where I had a great little chat with a public health nurse who agreed with me that I seem to have a perfectly adequate supply and there is probably something else going on. She gave me a log to fill out - feeds, wet diapers, dirty diapers, behaviour - so that if he continues to lose/not gain I can take that to the doctor as 'proof' (based on his output) that his intake is in fact sufficient.

Both of the doctors did give him a fairly thorough physical checkup, and didn't find anything out of the ordinary, so that is good news but still not terribly reassuring.

I'm really really hoping that this is just a little hiccough in his growth, and that everything will sort out soon. He doesn't 'seem' ill at all. He's happy and active and just an all around wonderful little guy. But I'm scared. This whole thing just doesn't seem right, and I'm not sure what to do next. I'm of course going to fill out the feeding/peeing/pooping log, and go back to the Health Unit on Tuesday for a follow-up. I just don't know if there is something more I should do in the mean time.

To end this post on a happier note, here's my happy little guy!

P.S. to lisalou - I think we were at baby group together this morning. I didn't want to say anything, just in case it wasn't you, but I'm sure it was as Ruby is pretty unmistakable! She's even more of a darling in real life!

I wish I was coming here to say I have more smooshable pictures to post, but somehow my battery charger for the camera has been lost since the move and therefore not only can I not take pictures but even the ones I already had on the camera are irretrievable for the time being. I have one of those itty bitty tiny memory cards that doesn't fit in a card reader without a special adaptor - which is of course also MIA.

LB is almost eight weeks old now, and I cannot believe how fast the days are flying. Between snuggling the little guy and keeping up with the laundry (I love my cloth diapers, but they are definitely more work!) I have little time for anything else - which is both great and unfortunate, being that my house is still only half unpacked.

LB is growing well, despite some minor milk supply issues likely related to the PCOS. I'm back on Metformin now, and that seems to have fixed the problem.

He's still got his nights and days backwards, which is great fun. It's a small miracle that I'm here posting right now, as he went down tonight two hours earlier than normal (although I hear him stirring, so it could be short lived). I've been told that trying to alter sleep patterns is futile until at least three months, so we're going to tough it out another month and if he doesn't get it figured out by then we're going to have to help him with it. Not really looking forward to that, because it basically involves keeping him awake when he wants to be sleeping, which sounds like a sure fire recipe for a cranky infant!

We're also dog sitting for some friends right now, and while I love their dog to bits I could have strangled him last night after I was up four times to tell him to cut out the whining. As if having an infant wasn't enough sleep deprivation, in between feeds I had the darn dog waking me up! Last night was his first night here, so hopefully tonight he'll be more comfortable. As I type this, he's snoring away in his kennel a few feet away from me, so maybe that's a good sign.

Ugh. I'm sure this post is painfully boring, but I'm too brain dead for anything more. Maybe in another two months I'll be getting enough sleep to be coherent, if not witty!

Take care all!

I am so so sorry that I've disappeared for the last little while. Everyone is fine, and healthy, and wonderful - I've just been so busy with finishing work, bringing home a newborn, and getting ready for the big move... It's been insane!

Our latest addition - I'm going to call him LB on the blog (for 'little buddy', the nickname his big sister has given him) - arrived June 10th at 12:45pm. He was 7lbs 12oz and 20 inches long. He is an absolute delight and we are so blessed to have him here safe and sound and healthy. His birth was very intense, but went absolutely perfectly. We couldn't have asked for a better experience, or a better doctor, or better nurses. It was fantastic.


Isn't he just so smooshable?!? I feel like kissing the computer screen every time I look at this picture!

We're all settling in well, despite a head cold that has worked its way through the house starting with R and ending with me - the only one spared so far is LB, which will hopefully continue!

But... now I need to get back to packing - moving day is coming up so fast!

Thanks for checking in on us everyone!

Can't believe this baby is considered term as of tomorrow! How did we get to 37 weeks already?

To update from my last post, we ended up buying a house and we move in at the end of June. Junior should be about 3 weeks old then, so I imagine moving is going to be a nightmare but we've rounded up tons of helpers so hopefully it won't be too bad. We're only moving about 2 minutes away, so at least it's not super far. I've pretty much told R that I'll be spending the day tending to Junior, and the rest is up to him.

I'm frantically trying to wrap up everything at work so I can be off as soon as possible. My blood pressure is starting to be a problem, so I need to finish up at work before my doctors tell me I have to be finished. Hopefully only a few more days.

Everything is pretty much ready now - bassinet is set up and ready, baby clothes are washed, diapers are washed and ready, and my hospital bag is in progress. Now all we have to do is wait!

One week ago today, we received word from our property management company (through which we have rented our lovely home for the last three years) that the owner had decided it was time to sell, and the house would be on the market in a week if we didn't come to an agreement to buy it ourselves.

Cue much crying and stressing and general freaking out on my part. With my maternity leave rapidly approaching, finding somewhere new to live (bought or rented, depending) and then moving is a very daunting task.

So, we tried to come to an agreement with the owner, but as of this moment they are asking $13k over the absolute maximum we are willing to pay for this house. As much as we love it, it's just not worth as much to us as they want to get for it...

Which is too bad, but such is life.

So, tomorrow, R and I start looking at other houses in the area. Yay! for finally buying a house, but not so Yay! that it's right now. Luckily, we have lots of family and friends that have already offered to help us not only move, but also to pack (which is the really daunting part for me... Third trimester hormones are kicking my already exhausted butt!).

In other news, despite all predictions to the contrary I somehow miraculously passed the three hour GTT! I failed the one hour so badly both my doctor and I figured the three hour was only a formality, but surprisingly all values were within normal range! Yay! I just wish I could get those two days of my life back, where I was so sick from just doing the test that I hardly got out of bed!

Other than the house stress, and the waiting for the GTT results stress, everything else is going as good as can be expected. It's tax season, which means I'm ridiculously busy at work, and the two night classes I'm taking are keeping me very busy as well, but I'm getting by. Only a couple more weeks till exams, less than a month until tax season is over, and less than two months until I'm off work for about nine months!

New pics to the right if you're interested!

We had a lovely two days away in Ucluelet this past weekend, and I have some amazing pictures to share from our trip - yes, we did find the camera cord finally! It wasn't where I thought it was at all - R put it away in a place that he felt made sense, and then forgot where that was until yesterday!

We're down to the double digits on our countdown - completely unbelievable!

Must get back to work, so more soon!

I can't believe it's been a whole freakin' month since I last posted! I keep meaning to... And I am still trying my best to keep up with all of the blogs on my list, just not keeping up with my own blog!

I've got lots of belly pics to update, but I've somehow misplaced my camera cord, and though both my printer and laptop have card readers I lost the adaptor that makes my super tiny memory card fit into the right slot. I have an idea which room the cable is hidden in - the soon to be new-person room, formerly my home office/random stuff storage room - but I haven't been able to pull together the motivation to actually look for it.

Things are progressing normally. I've had a few minor meltdowns over things that turn out to be nothing - things that at the time scare the crap out of me, like extremely painful Braxton Hicks contractions coming every five minutes for hours on end, exposure to Fifth Disease, and more. According to my doc, the severity of the BH is normal as long as I show no other signs of early labour. And the Fifth Disease exposure turned out to be a non-issue because I have the right antibodies to show that I have already had it earlier in life. And there's been other stuff... stuff I almost ran to the computer to blog about but then decided to wait until I'd been checked out so that I didn't unnecessarily worry any of you...

Work goes on as usual, with 101 days until my expected departure for my maternity leave. No, I'm not really counting the days like it seems - I just know that I have 111 days til my due date, and I'm scheduled to start my time off 10 days prior to that.

So yeah, nothing new to report. GD test will be booked at my next appt on the 28th, and I am so not looking forward to that. I get migraines when I have too much sugar, and that test is guaranteed to exceed my 'safe' level of glucose consumption.

But... back to work for me! Read you all later!

I have a migraine, so this is going to be a very short post, but I promised myself I would get our u/s picture up before the end of the weekend.

I still have yet to pull my 16 week pic up from my camera, so it'll probably go up sometime this week with my 20 week pic I'll be taking Tuesday(ish).

Hope everyone is doing okay!

I officially have the attention span and memory of a goldfish.

And at the moment, that is totally bumming me out, because it means that I'm going to miss the first class of prenatal yoga that I was supposed to be going to tonight... Hopefully I'll remember next week or I'm going to be really bummed.

We had our 19 week ultrasound yesterday, and all is well. It was absolutely amazing, and wonderful, and beautiful. Stay tuned for a picture sometime soon...

I know I had more to write about... but I've lost everything to this case of goldfish brain I've got going on... so I'll have to try again later if I remember anything. *sigh*