The Zany Zukowski Weblog

I turned 34 today, but we condensed and celebrated with the family on Friday, after Turkey. My 3 sweet boys went shopping for me and bought me the best gifts! They bought me a bouquet of purple, all purple flowers! I am not sure I’ve ever seen a whole bouquet of just purple flowers. I even took a picture of my perfect flowers. Stephen has noticed that Michael randomly buys me flowers, and all morning I heard Stephen asking Michael “Daddy are we going to buy Mommy flowers?” I love it! They are just perfect and smell wonderful. Michael surprised me with an amethyst ring that I had been eyeing, and it’s beautiful. There’s a definite purple theme here. 

The boys also ‘bought’ me a toaster which was sorely needed due to the fact that ours was cheap, and if you read our earlier blog about fire alarms, the elements would stay on, even after the carriage came up. We now have a silver toaster that looks sturdy and will match my purple walls. Truth be told I could’ve lived with the old toaster, but it drove Michael nuts, so he had the boys buy me a new one for my birthday.

My parents got me another kitchen appliance, a Kitchen Aide mixer!!! I can’t wait to use it. It looks awesome and has a great motor. It’s black and looks sleek. Michael’s family got me some accessories for the mixer so basically I am set to have a really great feast in my lovely lavender kitchen. I can whip up a bread, then toast it and enjoy it while gazing at my beautiful purple flowers. I am spoiled.

Michael was scheduled on shift this year for Thanksgiving. He, not so secretly, hoped that I would spontaneously, miraculously go into labor, thus requiring him to come home OR meet me in labor & delivery. But alas, baby didn’t cooperate and Michael worked his shift. Our family is very flexible and understanding, so everyone came over on Friday instead. It worked out well all the way around. I got to lay around the house on Thursday and relax, putting my feet up and obeying doctor’s orders. I sewed on, you guessed it, another quilting project. 

Friday, we had a whirlwind day of cleaning, cooking, shopping, and organizing. Organizing? you say?  well evidently I have hit the nesting phase of pregnancy, something that wasn’t quite as strong with the boys, but then I didn’t have nearly as many clothes, toys, and books to organize. So my dear husband did the cooking, cleaning, and several cupboard clean outs. Part of me feels guilty for not doing more to contribute to the dinner, but that wouldn’t go with doctors orders of putting my feet up, so I left the cooking to the chef. I did dust the house and clean some windows. 

By the time family and friends arrived the house smelled delicious, and sparkled in the late day sun. We were joined by my parents, Michael’s sister and brother-in-law that live locally. We missed Michael’s sister, Lea, who traditionally joins us on Thanksgiving, but stayed home in New Mexico.  We even had our friends Christina and Garrett join us for our feast, so there was lots of running around, screaming, and generally hullabaloo. (In case you don’t know Garrett is the same age as Freddy) Everyone brought side dishes to share, and the boys were electrically charged.  The food was good and the company great. I think it was a great day with lots to be thankful for. (oh and don’t worry Freddy is drinking sparkling apple cider, we just put it in a fancy glass) 

If you haven’t read our earlier blogs, (um what’s up, read them they are funny and cute!) we had a trip to Albuquerque, stayed in a hotel and endured 4 false fire alarms. One at 1:30 am. We survived and had to laugh when we returned home and Stephen would yell out, “get out of the house it’s a fire alarm!”  at any random noise in the night. But it’s getting to be a problem. I am the first to say I’m not a great cook, but a crumb got stuck on an element of the toaster and burned. I smelled a waft of smoke and ignored it, and wouldn’t you now the smoke detector went off. Stephen was out the back door, on the deck on the verge of tears, yelling at me to get out of the house. All this while the smoke detector is wailing! I waved a pillow in front of the detector and got it to turn off and tried to explain, I’m just a bad cook, but the damn detector went off again. More crying and wailing. I did convince Stephen the house wouldn’t burn down, but now what? Therapy? 

We were in a store and the phone was ‘ringing’ but it was more of a buzzing sound and of course no one was at the counter with the phone, Stephen started saying we needed to leave the store it wasn’t safe. So now I wonder if I can get money back from that hotel in Albuquerque…. Oh and thanks to the local firefighters who told Stephen, during fire safety at school, (I know who you are!) that leaving lights on can cause a fire. I’ll be sure to call you at 5 am, at home on an off day, the next time I am told by my 5 year old to go down stairs and turn off a light or else a fire will start at 5 am on my off day!

So the neighbor kids have a toy called Hulk Hands or Hulk Smash Em. They are basically, big green gloves that make sound effects. The boys love playing with the neighbor’s set, so we asked for a couple of sets for the boys. We knew it wouldn’t be smooth sailing but figured if they are going to sock at each other at least they could have some padding on their hands. Michael’s sister in New Mexico got the Hulk Hands for them and I thought I’d take a picture of a couple of hulks showing off their muscles and send her a cute picture of my boys. I got a little dramatic rivalry told in 4 pictures! Enjoy!

So I got another check up on Friday and the fluid level was up! Yippee! I now have ‘non stress tests’ every Monday and fluid checks every Thursday. The doctors are being cautious in doing all this monitoring. My doctor even apologized for all this saying she knows it’s a lot. Of course we want our baby to be healthy and that’s why I’m following my prescription of soaking in the tub, putting my feet up and drinking water like it’s going out of style! I even wake up during the night and drink water. (Usually on the way to the bathroom, but it’s good practice for after baby is born, they tend to wake up at night!) Michael and I wonder if this is just they way my body works. Low fluid was mentioned with Stephen’s pregnancy  and it was the reason for induction with Freddy, perhaps my fluid has always been on the low side. For some reason I’ve had more ultrasounds this time, so more time to ‘catch something wrong’. I feel good and we hope to make it through Thanksgiving and into December with this pregnancy. I really feel as long as it’s safe, baby needs to bake in the oven, so to speak. Another random thought, given my  history of delivering at the end of November, perhaps my body thinks that’s just what is supposed to happen!

Our pregnancy is cruising right along, we are at 32 weeks and a couple of days. I was found to have some low amniotic fluid and asked to come back for a recheck a month later, then again two weeks later.  The doctors are keeping a close eye on Baby Z since I seem to be low on amniotic fluid. It’s time consuming and a little frustrating to see the doctor weekly for ultrasounds, but we all want baby to be healthy and delivered safely. Amniotic fluid seems to be the only issue, all the major organs look great, placenta, movement, cord flow are all just great! The docs ask if I’m leaking, well no I think I’d notice. The ultrasound tech even said most often we don’t know why amniotic fluid is low. The measuring of amniotic fluid is a relatively new medical technique, and I think there’s more to be learned.  We found a study out of John’s Hopkins that followed 262 women half with low fluid and half with normal fluid, and the low fluid babies were born just as healthy  as the normal fluid babies. The ultrasound measurements tell us that Baby Z is a full two weeks ahead in size, maybe we’ll get to see Baby Z around mid December instead of Christmas or New Years. We’ll just keep watching.  

The prescription isn’t too bad, soak in the tub or pool everyday, drink lots of water, and put my feet up 4 hours a day. I sit down 3 times a day and count kicks, the doctor and nurse were impressed with baby’s activity level. Now at naptime, I’m not quilting or cleaning.  I’m sitting with my feet up and reading or emailing or catching up on TV watching. My dear husband has taken up vacuuming daily and mopping for me. So score again, I get out of chores and am required to relax in the tub. 

From what I can tell our baby is very active and doing well. I get poked and kicked a lot! And with all the water I’m drinking, my toddler and I make restroom stops at about the same rate! I’m learning to overlook some of the kid clutter or direct them to clean up after themselves a little more as ‘Mommy’s big helpers’. It’s an opportunity to revaluate my cleaning and decluttering OCD tendencies. And as for the big question, we don’t know baby’s gender. No one has slipped up and told us anything and the pictures are so grainy we can’t tell. We are still hoping to hold out for a great surprise at delivery. We can’t agree on names anyway. We’ll keep you posted on our progress!