Iron. It's not just for pumping anymore. (Get it? Pumping iron... like a body builder? Okay, I tried to spruce up the title a little... stretch with me here.)

So, this pregnancy has been going pretty well.  I'm not in (much) discomfort, I'm still pretty active, and I don't have perpetual morning sickness.  Win, win... WIN.

However.  I do seem to have low hemoglobin.  About 4 months ago, my doctor told me that I would need to take more iron for this. 

So after about a month of procrastination, I started to take more iron.

Two pills a day.  Followed by a pill each time that will take care of any *ahem* side effects of the two iron pills a day.

Now.  I'm also on thyroid medicine.  I take this each day.  Two (yes two) separate doses, alternate days.  Not confusing at all.

I have to take the thyroid meds one hour before or after eating and I have to take the iron at least four hours after taking the thyroid and I have two iron pills that I don't want to down at one time...  SO, I take my thyroid pill in the morning (and alternate between two different measurements) when I wake up, my iron and "other" pill during lunch, and the other iron and "other" pill at night with my pregnancy vitamin.  (You can only imagine the hijinks that ensue when I forget to take my thyroid in the morning.  It throws off my whole day.)

Also, between all of the bottles I would sometimes get a little confused as to which pill was taken when and one day I ended up taking my thyroid pill twice in one day and my iron not at all... and that's the first time I actually noticed I had taken the wrong pill.  Has it happened before?  I don't know.  So, now I have them all neatly stored in one of those days-of-the-week pill cases...

It's been working out okay.

But today I got this note from my doctor...

Kristina,
You passed your 1 hour glucose test. (YAY!  I was worried I would have to take the 3 hour test)
Your thyroid is normal. (Yay again!  That's great news!)
Your antibody screen was negative. (Woo hoo!  I don't remember what this was for, but negative usually means "good")
Your hemoglobin is slightly low, so you should take an extra iron pill daily. These are available over the counter. Wait, what?

Did you read that last part?  Yeah.  I did too.  I read it about 12 times... before I was able pick my jaw up off of the floor and resume normal breathing patterns.  My little days-of-the-week pill holder is starting to get a little bit crowded.

Oh, and when I called John to give him the exciting news (about my glucose and thyroid) he gave me some exciting news too.

Jake's been throwing up. 

He threw up on John, the carpet, the rug, the kitchen floor, and my red couch pillow (no, not the red couch pillow Katie cut open and spilled all of the little styrofoam beads out of... the other red pillow).  Poor baby.

I'm thinking we may need to borrow the carpet cleaner again.

I'm still around just busy, busy, busy!

Yes.  I'm still here. It's been a busy month for me.  Wait, I'll just say that maybe it seems busy because I'm growing a baby and pretty tired much of the time.  And the times I'm not tired I'm spending organizing gift bags and blankets and shoes and closets (you know, those things that absolutely MUST be organized right that minute or else...).  Which makes me tired.  As a matter of fact, I'm pretty tired right now just thinking about being tired.

But I'm still here!

We've had a fun week so far.  Katie went to cubbies with Grandpa as usual (who I heard was getting off of work 30 minutes earlier so Katie could play at McDonalds a little longer before church), I took both kids to dinner with a friend who also brought her two kids who are about the same ages as Katie and Jake.  We tipped a bit more heavily after we realized the chaos we brought.  Our server was excellent (and patient with our multiple requests for more bread.  Who knew the kids *ahem* could eat so much of it!).  I also have a suspicion that maybe we were the reason that the table next to us stayed empty during our entire (noisy) visit even though the restuarant was totally full the entire night.  Now tonight we're going to Cole's birthday party.

Then it's the WEEKEND.  Maybe I'll find a closet to organize or something.  Or take a nap.

The kids are as super, wonderful, and a mix of sweet and sour so not much different there and my pregnancy is going really well.  The baby loves to kick and wiggle and, yes, kick.  A lot.  Usually for most of the day and part of the night.  He does calm down when I go to sleep - is this a good sign?

I had my OB visit (with the glucose screen - can I just say bleck?  That stuff tastes awful) yesterday and everything is going smoothly.  The CNP tried to listen for the heartbeat and usually she's right on with the machine in the right spot and the goop kept to one area but wouldn't you know it...

By the time she felt for the baby, turned to get the goop, put it on my stomach, got the machine ready and in place to listen (this didn't take as long to do as it did to type), the baby had moved.  I ended up with goop all over my whole stomach as a result of our extensive search to find him again (not that he could go far) and finally found him. 

In the same spot we started looking. 

I'll bet he was laughing at us. 

I wonder if he'll have Jake's "I'm so cute how could you possibly be upset with my behaviour?" grin...

Katie doesn't use the "I'm so cute" grin too much anymore.  Either we get the attitude like, "how can I be expected to know that?" as she looks down her cute nose at us OR she just looks back at us with an expression as puzzled as ours ... and very convincingly blames it on Jacob.  This doesn't always work although she is very convincing. 

It usually backfires when we know Jake couldn't be the culprit.  Like when I find the word "NO" written on our fridge, on the cupboards, on the wall... (this last time I was happy it was done with whiteboard marker).  It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to deduce who could be responsible for anything legibly written on surfaces.  I do know, on the other hand, that Jacob was probably responsible for the whiteboard marker scribbles found in his bedroom closet.

Katie is also very creative... with insults.  She was at the lake this weekend and I guess she wanted a THIRD popsicle and Grandma said no.  Katie told Grandma, "You're like a flower... in the ground with no water."  My kid.

Oh, and Jake is still dumping out glasses.  Glasses of juice, water, milk... whatever beverage someone happens to leave out.  Last time he even made me think I had a chance at getting to the glass before he could dump it out.  Waiting till I started my "NNNNnnnoooooooo!" run toward him (pregnancy+running isn't funny) before he grinned, reached over, pulled it off of the table, held it out from him (so he wouldn't get messy) and dump it out.  I almost made it but he's just. too. fast.  This hasn't happened in awhile, mostly because I'm on to him and I remember to push everything back a safe distance from the edge... but he's getting taller so that distance is changing!

The other day, I noticed that he's tall enough to comfortably see over the ledge of our front window.  I remember when Katie was just at around that height.  I love to see these "milestones" reached, but I'm a little sad too.  He's getting older...

And this week when he heard Grandpa coming home, he said, "Bappa just got home!" and I was doing something and not focusing on the COMPLETE SENTENCE he had just SPOKEN till I was like, "Did he just say what I think he said?"  Unbelievable.  He's spoken like this before but it's not often.  It's usually one or two words and usually shoe, or choo choo (for train) so I was blown away.


And something else exciting is coming up!

I put a "wanted" ad up at work for a twin bed for Jake (because we'll need the crib for the baby in... oh, 6 months or so.  Just call me a planner) and someone I work with has furniture they haven't really used from a house they've sold!  A brass twin headboard, a mattress, a box spring AND a dresser with a mirror that we'll use in Katie's room (but don't tell her, I'm keeping it a surprise!) and the bed that she was using will go into Jake's room for him since it's a little more "boy-ish".  I am very excited for Monday when we should be able to get the furniture.  Did I mention that this will be free?  And that there's a big possibility that they will deliver it to... our house?  Just a big pile of awesome to look forward to!

So good things.

Now I just hope my glucose screening went well because when I was pregnant with Jake I had to go back for the 3 hour test.  (It was a nice little vacation - reading magazines, relaxing, nothing to do but wait... to have blood drawn each hour.  Ick.)  I would rather not repeat that experience, and the worry that went along with it.