Today's The Day!!!

I've been so excited about today that I didn't sleep as soundly as usual last night. Today we get to see the baby via ultrasound!!! We will be posting if it's a boy or girl later today. Hmmmm, but which blog to post on? Technically this is my blog and the other blog is the "baby" blog. You'll all just have to keep checking. I'm sure the suspense is killing you. :p I know it's killing me.

Any guesses as to if it's a boy or girl?

As for now, I'll leave you with this picture my brother received at 2 am from my wild and crazy father in Las Vegas. (He's at a conference for work as you can see, he's still wearing his badge work badge.)

I Love my Dad. :) (My Mom's name is Janis.)

Baby Beal Number 2

BOY or GIRL
April 21st is the day we find out if the baby is a boy or a girl. I'm so excited. I already told you my prediction. Jason doesn't have a specific feeling on if it's a boy or a girl. But, either way, we're super excited to finally find out if Abby will have a little brother or a little sister.

HOW I'M FEELING
Having to do my job is very different from a desk job. Don't get me wrong, I sit down during the day and do desk work too but my job is pretty physical. The last few weeks of March Accel and Be Well was really busy and since I have to do all the adjusting, I was coming home from work REALLY sore. Specifically my inner left leg and left glut muscles. I would come home and have Jason stick his elbow in my butt. I have Dr. Desiree' adjust me but when you're pregnant, you produce a huge amount of hormone called relaxin which allows your muscles to stretch out and joints to become loose. Thus, the adjustments hold for a few days at the most. Bummer.

Another thing I've noticed is that my mind is having a REALLY difficult time focusing. When I'm at work, it's fine, I can write a list and check stuff off as I go but, for instance, I had to take Abby to get her haircut today and I wasn't 100% sure where I was going, it was raining, AND I had to take a detour to get where I was going, I kept having to tell Abby to be quite so I could concentrate (how do you explain concentrate to a 2.5 year old) and I got REALLY lost going home. Ugh. It's really frustrating because there's nothing I can do about it but blame it on the pregnancy.

On an up-note, I haven't puked in a few weeks but I definitely feel nauseous several nights a week.

WEIRD THINGS ...
Some weird things that I've noticed would be ... my eye sight has been terrible. I was reading in our book that pregnancy can make your eye sight worse while you're pregnant. ALSO, my tongue is all patchy. Yes, PATCHY. I'm pretty sure it's a vitamin B deficiency. Obviously I'm sending all my B vitamins (the vitamins that come from protein) to the baby.

CRAVINGS
I have a huge crush on fruit pies these days. When I'm not pregnant, I don't usually crave fruit pies or any pies for that matter. But, if I was going to have a pie, I'd have a chocolate-y french silk pie but these days that doesn't even sound appetizing.

Speaking of appetizing, these days I have a really hard time finding foods that both I and the baby want to eat. For instance, I LOVE LOVE LOVE sweets and Easter candy. But, this candy doesn't sound appetizing to my stomach. My head says "eat the candy" my stomach says "don't do it!"Same with Milk. I know I'm supposed to drink milk while I'm pregnant but every time I drink it, my stomach hurts afterward. Ugh, I just can't win. (well, maybe I win with the fruit pies.)

Before I forget, I am doing a new pregnancy diet which calls for me to eat a lot of eggs. Unfortunately I have never liked eggs and am having a hard time figuring out how to eat them. If anyone has any recipes or ideas as to how I could eat them, I'd love suggestions. I'm supposed to eat 2 a day. Here's my stipulations. I can't stand hard boiled eggs. I even tried them in an egg salad sandwich (I tried really hard) but I just couldn't do it. I don't mind eggs scrambled or in an omelet but I'd prefer some type of Egg bake. Any suggestions would be helpful. I can' only stand scrambled eggs for so long.

So, that's enough for now. I'll leave you with an updated picture of my tummy. Looks bigger than last time. (Boy, I still haven't washed that mirror. I better get on that. Just ignore the dirt.)

~Mama Beal

THE BOOK!

In the process of Jason and I taking control of the reigns in the birth of our next child, YOU guys are going to be an educated bunch by the end of our pregnancy. (Lucky You!)

This blog is going to be about the Bradley book that Jason and I are reading called "Husband Coached Child Birth". The basis of the book is about how humans are Mammals, physiologically stemming from the Animal Kingdom. BUT, what this Doctor Bradley has insightfully pointed out, is the way humans give birth and the way all other mammals give birth are completely different. Doctor Bradley decided to ask, why are we so different if we are so similar physically?

GREAT question. Not many people my age have grown up on a farm these days but Dr. Bradley talks about how his experience growing up on the farm was that the animals giving birth on the farm did NOT have complications, they did NOT need medication to give birth, they do NOT have a doctor or ANYone attending their birth, giving birth was peaceful, quiet and unhindered. Our "Human" idea of giving birth is ... hospital, medication, doctors, screaming, painful, recovery, complications, C-SECTIONS!!!

Dr. Bradley goes on to explain that the difference between Animals and Humans is that Animals have a huge instinct as to how to live and give birth. Humans are not instinctual but God differentiated humans from the mammal world by giving them their ability to learn. A perfect example of this, besides child birth, is swimming. When you put an animal in water, it instinctually knows what to do in order to swim. If you put a human in water that has never learned how to swim, they WILL drown. But, the good news and key point to this blog and book is that hunmans can be taught how to swim and give birth.

I like this theory. It makes a lot of sense. With my first birth, I had no idea what to expect, we saw maybe 3 birthing videos but besides that, we never were taught how to have a baby. We were even taught how to raise the baby and care for it AFTER you give birth but we learned nothing about birthing the baby. With this birth, I am going into it more informed and educated than I ever was with the first. If this theory is correct, I KNOW I can do this better the second time around.

With that, I'll leave you with a little intresting fact I learned.

A 9 month pregnant uterus (without including the baby's weight) weighs 15 lbs!!! No wonder women get low back pain with pregnancy. :)

~Mama Beal

Alright, Alright!!! I'm gettin' a lot of Guff from certain people from certain states (Montana, you know who you are) to update my blog. Nobody else seems to care too much so this one's for you Ash. :)

So, I'm still pregnant. Yep, still puking on occasion. Still feeling nauseous every morning but at least not puking every morning (have I mentioned that I HATE puking??) I've been getting a lot of headaches, my hips hurt, and my hands fall asleep at night ... I am more uncomfortable with this pregnancy than I was with Abby. Maybe that will make the birth easier. (Fingers Crossed)

Speaking of birth. Not only do I have a great mid-wife that I like but I've taken it upon myself to be more proactive with this birth. I DO NOT want what happened last time to be what happens this time around. Here's what I've been doing to prepare myself for a different experience.

A few weeks ago, Jason and I watched a documentary on Natural Childbirth called it "The Business of Being Born" produced by Ricki Lake (yep, the same lady that had the famous 90's talk show.) Jason was a trooper and watched it with me. If you ever have kids, I think it's a MUST WATCH before you give birth. (A warning: you see a lot of "bush" and they are very blunt leaving nothing to the imagination. Mom, if you don't know what "bush" is, don't look it up.) Although it seems kind of crude, it was actually very touching and done very well.

The other thing I've been doing is research on the Bradley Birthing Technique. It's a natural birthing technique that really incorporates the help of the husband through the whole process. With Abby's birth, I felt like Jason was helpless and he didn't really have any tools to help me through the process. This time around we're going to work as a team. There's also Bradley classes that start in April which several of my friends who have had natural child birth have strongly recommended and I am pretty sure we're going to sign up for them as well.

Lastly, Jason and I are both reading a book written by the "Dr. Bradley" of the Bradley Birthing technique called "Husband Coached Childbirth." I think doing a lot of these activities together as a team will really make a difference when it comes to actually having the baby. I'm so grateful that Jason is willing to go through all of this to show his support and help me achieve the type of birth that I truly want.

I know this birth is going to be different than the last. At this point, we have done so much extra research and we intend to do so much more that it would be impossible for us to have the exact same birth. I'm glad we're on a different track than we were with my first birth.

Well, that's all for now. I'll try to be more vigilant with my blog-up-keep. :p Enjoy this picture of my belly. (just ignore the fact that I haven't washed the mirror for a long time.)



PS, we find out the gender of the baby in about 6 weeks. My prediction is that it's a boy. Here's why I think that; I've been more sick with this one, my acne is terrible (got better with Abby), the hair on my legs is growing like weeds, I'm easily irritated recently. (Maybe the later is not pregnancy related, for Jason's sake, I hope it is.) I'll keep you posted as to the gender when we find out. :)

A List of Pregnancy Updates

Since I've been pregnant, I can't remember a dang thing so I've taken to making lists. So here's a list of things that have happened, things I've experienced and just other items I may have forgotten to tell you earlier.

1. With the mid-wife I've been seeing, I've also been looking into my options of having a VBAC (vaginal birth after cecearean). It's a scary thought but these days, anythings possible. I haven't decided officially on what I'm going to do but it's an options still. All this thinking has made me realize how terrifying, horrifying, scary and unnatural my first birth was. I'm dealing with a lot of anger and frustration with having a c-section the first time that I DON'T want to deal with again. On a lighter note, I got to hear the heartbeat while I met with her for the first time ... there's definitely a baby in there, 150 bpm. :)

2. If you remember, when I started writing this blog, one of the things I was going to update you was on my weight. Recently I haven't done that because I've been at a stand still with my weight at about 155. But, since I've been pregnant I've lost about 10 more pounds. Ugh! I'm kind of embarassed to say it because of the way I've lost it. I haven't been working out because I'm sick. I'm not eating and I throw up almost daily. I'm not recommending this type of weight loss but, I haven't weighed 145 since I graduated from UMD. Hopefully once I stop puking and can start having an appetite again I'll be able to maintain a health pregnancy weight.

3. Speaking of puking ... I'm not a pukey type of person. Some people barf at the thought of giving a public speech, I have never had that problem and I will suppress the feeling as LONG as possible. So, this puking thing is really annoying. The first time I puked I was taking Abby to daycare and we pulled up to Susie's house and I couldn't hold it in any longer. I didn't even throw the car in park, I just had my foot on the breaks, I opened the car door with my seatbelt still fastened and puked on the road. Luckily it was a side road with barely any traffic. I've started carrying a glass jar in the car with me just incase this happens again.

4. Speaking of nausea ... the only thing I've found to keep the nausea at bay is Apple Juice. It's like the miracle juice. I will literally take a swig, and it gets rid of my nausea immediately. Unfortunately it only lasts 3-5 minutes before I have to take another swig.

5. When you're pregnant, you do weird things. Here's a wierd thing I've done ... Maybe you've done this too ... but I am constantly COLD. I just can't get warm enough especially in the shower. Recently when I take a shower I've cranked the hot water up, sat in the bottom of the tup and let the water fill up in the tub. I know, I know, it's wierd but it feels incredibly comforting to be so warm. It's the next best thing to a hot tub. :)

6. Abby is really excited to be a big sister these days. She's convinced it's going to be a girl ... I hope I don't disappoint her. :) I know she's going to be a great big sister, there's a few babies at daycare and she just adores them. She's always giving them toys and explaining things to them and helping them work the toys. It's going to be amazing to see her interact with her own brother or sister.

7. Lastly, my husband has been such a trooper through this whole pregnancy. He's always doing little things to make me feel better. He'll do the dishes, take out the garbage, make me and Abby dinner (attempt to make something that might please my tummy, these days that's a REALLY difficult task). He's so great, every day he does things for me that remind me why he's the perfecxt husband. I love you My Jay

OMGosh, it's been a LONG time since I've updated the blog. There's been tons happening and I just haven't been quite able to keep up with it all AND blog at the same time.

ABOUT THE BIG NEWS!!!

So, if you haven't heard through FaceBook or from a friend or relative yet, Jason and I are expecting another baby sometime at the end of August. YEAH!!! Baby's are fun! The second time around things have been different though. For instance, Jason and I don't feel the need for him to come to EVERY appointment like he did last time, we don't really need to purchase anything big since we have it all from when Abby was little (although a 2 kid stroller would be nice), which brings me to the next difference that Jason was SUPER bummed to find out that on the second kid you don't have a baby shower, there will be no upgrade in the houseing situation due to the economy etc, and THIS time around the experiences are remembering what it was like to be pregnant last time. Recently I've done a lot of ... "oh yeah, I forgot that's what happens when you're pregnant."

BUT there are a few new things that go along with baby number 2. First of all, I feel more prepared in the fact that I know exactly what I DON'T want to do as far as having the baby goes. We're actually planning on going to Waconia for the birth because the birthing center out there is just like a medical hotel. I know, Waconia ... seems far away, right. Yes, you are correct, it's in the middle of no where but, if you come and visit me at the hospital out there, you'll know exactly why we're willing to drive that far for comfort, espeically if I have another C-section and I have to be hospitalized for a long period of time. Second of all, we have a different dynamic of having a child already that needs to be preped about the upcoming new arrival. Abby knows she's going to be a big sister but, it really took some convincing. For a few weeks, we tried to tell her but she didn't believe Jason or me. She's also convinced it's going to be a girl so if it comes out a boy, I hope she's not to disoppointed. :)

ABOUT ACCEL AND BE WELL!

To make matters more intense, recently my business partner has had to go into the hospital for pregnancy related issues as well. She's actually several months ahead of me in her pregnancy and went to the hospital with some issues Thursday night through Sunday. She now has to be on bedrest for a week and that means that I am now taking on all her patients as well as managing my own patients. At this point, I only work 3 days a week MWF and Desiree works T,Th,F and it works out really well for us because we don't have to both be at the clinic all the time, plus I get 2 days a week with Abby which makes me feel not as guilty as a mom for sending her to daycare. But, with all the recent events, Abby is going to go back to daycare full time and I'll be running the show for a while.

It's kind of a bummer, but ... at the same time, this is exactly why we decided to partner. We knew we wanted to be partners with someone who'd be able to step in for us when these situations happen so we can have a family life as well as be working professionals.

TO SAY THE LEAST I'VE BEEN A LITTLE STRESSED

With the baby scenario and the business scenario, it's kind of an understatement of the kind of stress I've been under and THUS ... we haven't blogged recently. But, as I go through these challenges, I hope to take things in stride and I'll keep you updated about the new challenges I encounter.

Thanks for reading.
~Mama Beal

Results

The food challenge was definitely a challenge. Here's the results.

We did not eat out for a total of 12 days. (oye) Honestly, I'm actually really proud of us for doing it for 12 days. We didn't do it the full 21 days but the 12 days was hard enough. Here was the breaking point.

It was a hard day of work for both Jason and I. I treated 6 patients that day and virtually received no money for treating them that day. Jason had come home from work after having an entire day full of meetings and not getting much of his regular work done from the day. It's no excuse but ... the days had definitely drained us. The last thing either of us wanted to do was cook. So we broke and went to Culver's for supper. (Double oye).

Oh well. All in all, we noticed a change in the amount of money we spent and we know we want to try to do it again. We'll just have to have a different game plan for those days that are really hard.

We'll keep you posted on this.

As for other things going on, recently I've started to receive checks in the mail from insurance patients. SWEET!!! I can't tell you how exciting it was to get the first check in the mail. Unfortunately it's for work that I've done 2-3 months ago. Jeez. I can't start to emphasize how ridiculous health care is from my perspective. Over the past 6 months, we've been either profiting (a little) or breaking even so any additional income is just a bonus!

That's all for now.

Mama Beal