This post is of the FEMALE nature. Although it is not graphic, some may prefer not to read this topic. When I had Little Miss the delivery was less than traditional. A scheduled Cesarean 7 days before my due date with 3 core circumstances; she was breech, I hadn't dropped, and I had been involved in a 3 car accident only 2 months before I was full term. I also ended under general anesthetic for there was difficulty administering the spinal injection. [A Spinal needle is a tad longer, giving the numbing from the chest area down rather than waist down.] My recovery went as expected and I thought I'd be on my way to enjoying Motherhood and getting my life back on my feet as a young Mum. My first responsibility, take care of myself. I researched the Birth Control options available. I opted for the DepoVera shot, I knew I wouldn't remember to take a pill every day. Nearing 3 months of having my first shot my period became irregular. I went to my doctor and we figured I was due for my next dose. Then 2 months went by and it was irregular again. We found it odd and decided for a 3rd. There was no lift of my cycle at all. We went for the daily pill.. for a year and a half. Letting each (of multiple) brands run it's course with zero relief. I had returned to my O.B. and a DNC with Scope was booked. After finding my uterine lining and uterus didn't exactly go back to 'Pre-Baby' we tried the I.U.D with successful results. 5 blissful years of NO periods. I had got my weight down by 115 pounds. I was eating healthy, active, singing/performing, sexual. I was loving life! Towards the end of the 5 year I.U.D rein, a cycle started to return. Then it was time for a new one. While needing it surgically removed another DNC was performed for a routine check with oddly no change with my ever failing baby producer. With a new I.U.D in place a few months passed with me anxiously waiting for normalcy to return, for my hormones to fall back in place, for me to love myself again. It never came. My O.B and I had talked about other options that could arise in the future (before the I.U.D). Ablation and then a Hysterectomy. Most O.B's(OBGYN) will not perform a Hysterectomy or Ablation unless absolute necessary, even in some cases, they will wait until at minimum age 35 to be certain the patient is one hundred percent sure of the decision. My O.B in particular is one of the highest rated, sought after doctors/surgeons in the city. He also needs a MASSIVE amount of convincing and time for him to agree to doing a permanent procedure like this, let alone just turning 30 with only one child. He also knew by now, I had suffered for the better part of 10 years. In the Summer of 2016 the time had come to make the decision. Though he kind of made it for me. In my circumstance the Hysterectomy was the only solution at this point and he wouldn't fight against me. With female cancer in my immediate family history, the health problems and medications I already have and am on. When it came to my situation, the ablation would be pointless; useless. So, the date for the hysterectomy was booked. The time came! 10 years of fluctuating hormone levels, different medications, the cramping and money spent on feminine hygiene products. The sheets and laundry saved.. the amount of times filling my hot water bottle and spending days on the couch.. that I'll never have to worry or think about again. 1 full day after recovery. The first night was horrendous. I cannot fathom why they suggest rest when your checked on every 2 hours. Blood pressure, medication administration, heart rate. I had pity from my own roommate, who needn't any waking, but was woken from my check ins. Hospital food has defo upgraded since I had been admitted last. A full blown menu. Impressive. I was massively lucky to have a sweet roommate close to my age with quite similar interests. Between visitors stopping in and passing time sharing stories with my roommate it kept me distracted from the worst pain through all of this; the end of my time bringing more tiny humans into the world. With being pregnant at 19 I didn't have my life figured out, heck I still don't!, but the possibility of having another child was still an idea in my heart. My health for my daughter is much more important. It doesn't change how much it hurts my heart though. Family is crucial in my life. As each close loved one passes, that love for what I have left intensifies and it's crushing that little bit more because I can longer contribute to that emptiness. Chairs at family gatherings are meant to be filled with younger generations. Not whither to nothingness. I feel I failed my family name. Needless to say being placed on the Labour and Delivery floor for my recovery didn't play kindly on my emotions and mental state. This step will be something I won't ever regret doing, but a piece will always wonder.. what if? I had the traditional style procedure. My O.B followed the Cesarean incision he made with Little Miss. Pretty straight forward recovery. No lifting, no bending, no vacuuming, no making your bed, no showering alone, no dressing alone, no transportation for 4 weeks minimum.
When I sat down with my notepad to write my list of things to pack I knew I wanted to be comfortable. I knew with my sensitivity to the elements I'd be cold, I knew I'd want to go outside, I knew I'd be swollen and need a bigger waist in panties. Expect the nurses to be in and out of your room multiple times the first night at the least. What I Recommend ::
Although a common symptom after surgery is feeling the need for a bowel movement, and it's not common to have a movement the first 2 days, say something to your nurse if your experiencing an extreme amount of discomfort. After having my Cesarean, I hadn't had the relief of a bowel movement until 10 full days after having Little Miss. I was in the washroom forever, and the most painful movement. On my second day in the hospital, I requested Stool Softeners, later that evening I requested an Oral Laxative. The next day the release of pain and pressure felt incredible, I couldn't imagine suffering longer than what I did with those 24 hours. Prepare your body, listen to your body, you know your body better than any other. Trust your instincts.
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Helloo! It's been a while!! Things have been extremely chaotic around the homestead! Doc's appts, events, busy busy! I received my Cortisone back injection on the 9th this month and man I hope this works out my wonked up back. 'Kay, so if you've been living under a rock like apparently I have the last however many years, Little Miss & I have been informed about this activity called Geocaching. There's something like over 2 million Geocaches placed across the world with 6 million Geocach'ers searching for them daily. In my neighbourhood, within a 20 minute walking radius in each direction there's a good handful. Certain areas will be more highly dense with ''Caches''. If you live in the county, you'll be surprised with the number of caches placed, but it'll be the walking trails that are covered. Edit : This post originally created June, 2015. Published July 2016. .... Here we are a year later and we're still Geocachers! We've recruited quite a few friends near and far. I even have a Geocache en route from England just for me! Between my injections out of town last year, (which gave no relief) and appointments all over the city, switching on my phone's GPS and opening the App is always a must. The rules are easy. If you find a Geocache with Swag in it and you want to take something, leave an item to replace it for the next finder and don't forget to sign the paper (The Log!). It doesn't count if it's not signed. If the log or the Geocache is damaged, make a note on the Geocache webpage for the owner to fix it, they make that promise when they place it!.. and remember if you EVER come across a Geocache and you could care less about it, please put it back where it was found. Let us enjoy our hobby and our fun. Truth be told though, the more participating the better! :)
There comes a time in every parent's life where we say ''Santa won't come if.. '', ''The Easter Bunny isn't going to visit!'', but deep down we know we could never follow through. The time came for me this year, 2015, my 8 year old did not get a visit from the Easter Bunny. When I ran the idea by my Mum I didn't exactly receive positive feedback. Talking to my Mister really helped ease my anxiety about shattering my daughter's childhood. I was torn on the decision, knowing I only have maybe a year left of the innocence and belief. She's had the Bunny's prints around the house, the jelly bean bunny poop, cotton stuck to tape on Christmas gifts (Santa PERSONALLY wrapped this one Mama!). I get friends to write out her gift labels 'from Santa' to not recognize my handwriting. I love the magic of the holidays, to take this from her devastated me. He reassured me. ''He's coming tomorrow, this won't be the end of her. She takes advantage of you and it's only gotten worse, this could be the tactic needed'' .. And indeed it was, even if for only one day; I had a little girl again. A little girl who didn't ask questions not suitable for a child, she asked before grabbing anything from the snack bin, she asked if she could go and play. If she wanted something out of reach, I wasn't demanded and expected to grab it. Your child needs to understand that you are a person too. Although your sole purpose is to provide them with love, nurturing, full belly, clean clothes, and a warm bed.. You have feelings too and a child should be expected to respect your feelings. I REALLY wish I had a printer.. But, I did an okay job disguising my penmanship. Even though the Easter Bunny didn't bring goodies along with him, we did have a fantastic holiday. My assistant chef helped with a themed breakfast. A couple of neighbours and myself threw an impromptu - egg hunt Then some arts & crafts! We dyed our eggs! We had a delicious dinner followed by a yummy dessert. .. We spent a beautiful day together. We hadn't a single argument. Noodle holds no resentment towards the Easter Bunny.. It truly worked! In the end, the Easter Bunny has visited again as he promised. :) Following through with this was a lot harder than I expected. The Swede was my boulder to keep me up and I'm really glad he did. We are incredibly quick to give into our children's wants and commonly forget the difference between wants and needs. My Daughter survived without a gift from the Bunny, and it made going through the house with jelly beans & chocolate eggs much more gratifying knowing how much she'd truly appreciate the visit. Tough love is hard to do, I've never had a problem with giving it, this was a whole new level to experience, it was absolutely rewarding on both of our behalf.
Happy Easter! Any and every parent has Disney DVDs laying around. .. Did you know there are codes there? I let our codes build up for a while and keep them in mind when a holiday comes around as a special 'not many have this' kind of gift. DisneyMovieRewards offers a plethora of unknown goodies varying from POP vinyl figurines, posters, clothing & accessories, collectibles, electronics, magnets, phone accessories, DVDs, stationary, plushies, even gift cards from Delta Vacations. The best incentive about this gem, shipping & handling is NOT needed for your Rewards choices. .. My absolute all time favourite from the selection are these classic style tv trays! We've been collecting codes for a while! DVDs, Winnie The Pooh growth chart. There's also offers for specific items in the movie booklets. For her birthday two years ago Noodle received Cinderella & Tinkerbell and the Pirate Fairy which both had offers for a bracelet and charm. I simply logged into my DMR account, redeemed the offer after putting the code in. I paid $3.99 shipping & handling and by Christmas she had a new bracelet and two adorable silver charms under the tree. (A Tinkerbell charm & Cinderella's slipper charm, there was also a charm offer for Beauty and the Beast with a rose for the charm selection.) Let me tell you how it works! Go to the disneymovierewards website, make an account (it's free!) and enter those codes. There are 3 primary ways to find codes and receive points.
Movie stub submission page. Music CD submission page. Follow DisneyMovieRewards on Pinterest - http://www.pinterest.com/dmrofficial/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/disneymovierewards You will find codes posted every so often on Facebook and Pinterest from the Official DMR pages. They also like to collaborate with ABC Family during the holidays with their 25DaysofChristmas. You can find other codes on various blogs by searching DMR Rewards Points on Google, but those aren't usually active for very long. Happy Disney Reward Shopping! Baby fever has struck my circle of friends and family! When it comes to attending a Baby Shower. The reaction to a person's gift speaks volumes. I've discovered another darling idea to gift the Mommy-To-Be. You'll Need: 23 size 1 Diapers, Sleeper, (3 mos), hat, pacifier, baby blanket, and rubber bands. You'll find a fab tutorial by SillyChely at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeJZ6wwV8OY .. I had found myself with 12 diapers sitting in the pack. I went back to YouTube in search of another small, cute diaper gift idea. That's when I found this perfect tutorial for the flowers from PartyTimeBabyCom. You'll Need: 5 diapers, clear elastics, Styrofoam balls, acrylic paint, stems and some ribbon! For the tutorial on the flowers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOeq3rYUKmw (From making Noodle's headband holder http://mumwithapurpose.weebly.com/just-the-two-of-us/category/gift-for-girl I had the stems from the flowers tucked away for use at a later time. This was the PERFECT time!)
It's always a joy to watch the Mum to be's reaction, all of the guests get ecstatic. A huge conversation piece.
BABY BABY BABY BABYYY! (Forbidden word at most baby showers. Feels good to say itt! :p) I'd love to see other creations! Please share! The day of St. Valentine is coming up quick! The past couple years I have posted photos of my little traditions I do with Noodle on my personal Facebook and my friends go crazy for it. I figured, why not share it here? The heart shaped portions of her school lunches. (The heart shaped cheesies were a junk treat brought home from Sweden that I tucked a little baggie of away for V-Day celebrations. Keep an eye out. Bakeries, grocery stores, even convenience stores for heart shaped goodies!)
We like to dress up all Valentinesy for the occasion. :p Hearts, pinks, purples, and reds galore! (Check out your local Wal-Mart, Target, Mejers, K-Mart, Claire's, Ardene, Old Navy, Giant Tiger & secondhand shops for holiday related clothing and hair accessories. Christmas, Halloween, Valentine's Day, St Patty's Day. There's always a shirt for a holiday occasion.) Tee hee.. I love to spoil my Valentine. : )) Let me see yours! It would be fantastic to see what others do for their special lil Valentine!
When a holiday approaches, Pinterest floods with cute themed hairstyles for little ones and it's posted on my Facebook wall by multiple people. Now that it's the week building to Christmas Break for Noodle, it's CHRISTMAS HAIR TIME! It's quite simple and only requires a few minutes prior to that morning in order to make the hair accessories. I couldn't really be bothered relocating to my craft area in my basement so here I am in my living room, in my flannels. :p .. Like my big cuppa? I <3 tea! With your glue gun at the ready, and a pack of bobby-pins. Have fun! 10 minutes later and I have 4 days of Christmas hair ready to go!
The school staff looked forward to seeing Noodle's hair every day, and while assisting the preparations and serving of the school Christmas lunch this week I saw camera phones pointing at her all over. Although I had to twist her arm to have Cindy Lou today, she adored the extra attention. The baubles and glue all stayed in tact, we opted with earmuffs to keep her ears warmed. The hair was a hit!
Share your creations or alterations! I've been quite the busy bee this past month or so with more DIY, homemade gifts for this holiday season. Pinterest has been my saviour for a lot of inspiration. I generally add or go with different options using the base steps from whichever tutorial I find. For my Mum, I made a rice microwavable heating bag. There's different remedies for different herbs. I chose lavender which helps alleviate headaches. My Mum is always commuting long distances for doctors appointments due to spurs in her feet and needing a knee replacement. She's always suffering from stress headaches. I grabbed an old plain black t-shirt from the scrap bin in my craft cupboard, the pair of pajama pants from my daughters outgrown Tinkerbell set (and it's purple velour, a PERFECT colour for the scent.), brown rice and my sewing kit. I did a basic rectangular shaped bag, fill, then finish the stitch on the outside. The slip cover went the same way. Except of course leaving on side untouched and snipped slightly at the sides to create the fold. Add a button and voila! .. .. Just make sure you flip your rice bag right side in BEFORE filling with rice. A 1 in the morning task may leave you.. um.. stupid and leave you doing what I did. :p You'll find it at this link here >> http://tipnut.com/make-your-own-microwave-heating-pad/ The next is a Headband Holder, I found that tutorial here at baubles... >> https://baublesnbabbles.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/diy-headband-holder/ Now, I found a durable, adorable wall mounted hook at the dollar store. (I bought EVERYTHING for this at the dollar store) It'll give Noodle extra display for cute bows, flowers or holiday hair ties. It's as simple as 2 rolls of paper towels, fabric; I bought a plain t-shirt at the dollar store and used that for fabric, oversized flowers or whichever embellishment you prefer, some ribbon and your hot glue gun. Easy peasy! I'd like to see your renditions and fabric choices! If you've got some great DIY gifts share them below. :)
I thought I'd share a playlist of mine. A mix of the classic Christmas songs we love redone by more current artists and original Christmas tunes. :)) Leave your favourites in the comments below. Share which Christmas songs you fill your house with!
November is always so chaotic in the homestead. Christmas decorations go up, shopping is entirely done by now, and my little miss celebrates her birthday! We don't live an extravagant lifestyle, we don't live a very comfortable lifestyle, we live on the bare minimum so I'm always looking for inexpensive ways for my offspring to still feel extra special on her day. This will require a door that opens inward for the balloons to rest against. Tape your garbage bag 'blanket' along the door frame. Don't forget to tape the bottom along the door (or floor) to keep them from slipping out. Fill it with the balloons and voila! .. A cascading 'balloonfall' I've been doing this for 3 years now and she's starting to expect it.. This year, I got her with silly string as she broke through the garbage bag blanket. :p Now, you HAVE to make sure your lil one has done their middle of the night piddle, the worst is to be caught. .. and set a double alarm on the furthermost corner of your bedroom to try to dim the sound from their ears, but to still be able to wake from it yourself. You do NOT want to miss their priceless reaction! After cleaning up we headed downstairs. I made her a special little birthday breaky. I set everything up on the counter the night before for more of an easy going morning instead of scrambling to get everything on the go with the birthday excitement in full force. I premixed the whipped cream with my Wilton gel icing. She's ALL about PURPLEEEE!!! Confetti sprinkles and a little morning birthday wish to start her day. A weaved PURPLEEE boa bun topped with a My Little Pony tiara. I wish I'd of taken a before, before photo.. with so much going on that afternoon lead to a LOT of absent mindedness. Purchase any figurine of your child's liking. Cute cake + a bonus extra birthday goodie for them. For Noodle's I purchased the My Little Pony figurine and two blind bag toys that thankfully she didn't already have in her collection.I found the MLP candle set at PartyCity, you can find relatively any popular character in a candle set there. If not in-store, most definitely online. I bought the generic white icing, dark PURPLE trim & bow cake (Wal-Mart, Costco, grocery stores & bakeries are infamous for basic design cakes and because PURPLE is Noodle's favourite colour, luck was on our side.) Pick up a tub of Betty Crocker white icing (or make your own! www.kidspot.<< I used this recipe for our gingerbread cookies and Christmas Eve sugar cookies.) Whip up your icing and some colour. Wilton's gel colour dye will give you your best result. Noodle's other gift was her ear piercings. I highly recommend Claire's. The employees are exceptional with explaining the procedure, after care routine and importance. They are mindful and courteous to little one's fears. Noodle insisted I get mine done before hers (she had a little spout of fear) so I got my 3rd holes and she got her first after watching Mum.
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