Katelyn, Conner and Caleb! » July 2004 Journal Entries » AboutMyBaby - online baby scrapbooks, photo albums, videos, birth and pregnancy announcements

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Thu, Jul 15, 2004 9:37 AM
This was the Aquarium of the Pacific day. We dropped Eric off bright and early and then I headed back to the hotel to quickly pick up a coupon for my admission and the stroller and stuff. Then off Katelyn and I went. Katelyn was getting pretty used to the pace by now... run, run, run then get in the car and grab some sleep real quick because you never know when you'll get some more. She loved it though.

At the hotel, she headed right for the concierge lounge to grab some bottled water. She'd figured out that they always had some right at her level... along with some chocolates in a bowl... so she headed there as soon as we got off the elevator.

A quick stop and we were off again.

The Aquarium of the Pacific was well worth the $15 or so that I paid for admission.

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Wed, Jul 14, 2004 2:36 AM
After dropping Eric off at class, Katelyn and I took off to visit Downtown Disney. It was only a 25 minute ride away. I arrived at about 8:30 with no clue as to when shops opened. We had an amazing parking place though! Boy was I surprised to find that most shops opened at 10 but a few opened at 9:30. And I didn't have a stroller along with me that day...

Katelyn enjoyed it though. We watched a couple of fountains, admired lots of flower beds and Katelyn decided to help out the gardners by picking up mulch from one end of a flower bed and then rescattering it at the other end. She loved the time to just explore in her toddler manner. I could just sit and watch for the most part.

At 9:30, the first store to open was the Disney store. Boy did Katelyn have fun in there... I did too! She picked out a hat that read "Grumpy" but she won't wear hats so I didn't get that for her. She also liked this one Mickey Mouse that was dressed in silverish clothing... she kept walking back to him to give him a kiss. I found her an adorable Pooh Bear fanny pack that she enjoys wearing as well as a matching scrunchie (which is currently on the fanny pack holding the belt part tight enough to fit her waist). Then Katelyn found the mugs and pens... And one by one, the mugs were taken off the shelf to be filled with pens... She was absorbed by this activity and didn't even mind when I followed behind her replacing mugs and pens to their rightful spots. :)

We left there and then headed back toward the Make a Bear shop. I'd been in one before and wanted to take a look around. Katelyn was fascinated by the bear stuffing machines and wanted a heart for herself. With permission, we put one into her new fanny pack and then took off to meet Eric for lunch.

Once again... as soon as we got on the road, Katelyn was sound asleep.

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Mon, Jul 12, 2004 10:00 PM
The only bad thing about being on a business trip with Eric is that in order to do anything during the day, I have to get up and drive him to his class. Which means early mornings. And those aren't very easy when you've been up late the night before and had very little sleep before that!

We discovered one of the nice parts of being on the concierge floor... breakfast served just down the hall in the concierge lounge in the morning. Scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, cereal, fresh fruit, bagels and english toast, milk, juice... it all adds up to yummy! We did that every day of the week while we were there. It made it so much eaiser then trying to get out of the hotel in time to go find someplace to eat breakfast. Katelyn got so she knew right where to go as we left our hotel room. And she was quite the hit among the other guests as she walked in pulling her Dora the Explorer backpack. Everybody commented on how adorable and cute she was!

Monday morning, I did some exploring after I dropped Eric off. We found a "Wild Oats" store... very cool! I envy you CA people to have a natural foods store like that around! And Trader Joe's... that'd be nice too! Then I saw a sign for Seal Beach so I thought I'd drive there since it was only 4 miles away.

Katelyn enjoyed the beach but I could only get her 10 feet into the sand and even that was an effort. She was too interested in picking up the sand and rubbing it all over her. We spent the morning sitting in the shade of a pier while Katelyn rubbed herself with sand. I suppose it's a good exfoliator...

Lunch was chinese with Eric. We slit a meal and then ate at Baskin Robbins... it's a good thing I passed my gd screen so well because we did this everytime that Katelyn and I met Eric for lunch.

Back to the hotel for a "nap". I took the nap, Katelyn played with the unplugged hotel phone.

I drove to downtown Long Beach in the afternoon and checked out what was there... then back to pick up Eric from class.

When we got back to the hotel, we noticed that the concierge lounge had more food there. Eric was interested in relaxing and cross stitching to Katelyn and I checked out the selection... chicken strips, mozz sticks (fried), a veggie tray and a cheese and craker tray. By the time Katelyn and I finished up, we didn't need supper. :) Apple pie was served as dessert later in the evening so Eric ate that. We all crashed that night even though we'd not been very busy.

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Mon, Jul 12, 2004 12:22 AM
I'm actually writing this on the 18th but I figured that this way I could tell about my trip in some easier chunks and it'd give me some structure as I type so I'm not going off on so many rabbit trails and telling things in a weird order. And this way I can update just a little at a time too!

I didn't sleep much at all the night before we flew out. Combination of getting things ready, Katelyn not wanting to sleep and my just simply not being tired. I finally laid down and forced myself to lay there in the dark and just rest for 45 minutes until I had to get up to make final preparations for leaving.

My parents called at 2:30 as planned to make sure we were all up and they arrived at 3:00 to leave. I am soo thankful that they were willing to get up so early to get to the airport! Everything was ready to go, the dishwasher was running and I'd cleaned the hedgehog pools and had the blankets in the washer. The plan was to e-mail the girl who was caring for the critters and ask her to put them in the dryer. The house was a bit messy but I'd been super busy so that was understandable.

We piled into the van, Katelyn was still in pj's since I'd let her sleep until the last minute and off we went to the airport. We ended up flying out of an airport that was about 45 minutes away since the tickets were so much cheaper there. But the downside was that the tickets had us leaving at 6:25am.

I turned out to be a really good thing that we'd left extra time to do everything because the road that we'd planned to entre the airport on had a road closed sign on it. We knew there had to be other entrances but we didn't know where they were. I got checked in well and my parents said goodbye at the security point. I must have been quite a site... stroller, carseat turned upside down (fit better) and bungied to the stroller, carry-on's underneath and my daughter in my arms. It was interesting going through security since everything had to be put through the x-ray machine. We beeped and finally figured out that it was my barrette. So I had to go through holding Katelyn in one arm and my hair with my other hand.

We made the flight fine. But as I was getting on the plane, the check at gate people decided that I could only take my purse and Katelyn's small bag of toys with me. So there I am standing in the door to the plane trying to get the bare necessities out of the larger backpack so that I have what I'll need for Katelyn for a 2 hour plane trip. I don't know what the people behind me thought!

Katelyn did well. There were no extra seats so she was on my lap. She loved watching the ground go away as we climbed altitude. Once we were above the clouds she decided that she preferred to stand between my legs. She liked the snacks I'd brought along but wasn't interested in ready. Mostly she just wanted to stand and look around and kept trying to get past the guy next to us to go cruise up and down the isle.

About half way through that leg of the trip I smelled poop. Yep... she'd pooped. And guess where all the diapers were... in the other bag! No way to change her so I just let her keep standing there and prayed the disposable would hold everything in. Apparently God answered that prayer with a "no" because as I put her in my lap for the decent, I noticed that her pants were damp in exactly the spot where a leak would be. Drat!

So there we were in the airport, only 50 minutes layover knowing that this airport wasn't real friendly to layovers, and trying to get Katelyn changed. As soon as I found floor space I changed her diaper hoping that the wetness was just wetness and not poop... nope... poop all over her pants and shirt. Another mom of a young child came off after me and loaned me some wipes since my were a little buried. I changed the diaper then to try to avoid any worse mess and headed off to my gate. We got there with about a very little time to spare, I explained my situation and they told me to take about 20 minutes max and go change her so off we went.

We found a plastic bag (didn't think to bring one along since we were using disposables for the trip) and went to the bathroom. I stripped her down, threw the clothes in the bag and assessed the "damage". This diaper didn't hold anything in! There was poop down both legs and up her back. Amazing.

I left her on the counter playing with a mirror while I turned around to get some wet paper towels for a sponge bath. Easier then using the few wipes I'd packed in my carry-on. As I was getting the paper towels, I heard this water fountain sound behind me. I turned around and there she was letting out a huge stream of water. I couldn't believe how much was coming out of her bladder! She managed to get the sling and was standing in the puddle.

I quickly moved her down the counter, stuffed the sling in the bag with her clothes and dried off the bottom of her shoes. A new diaper went on and I started cleaning up the mess. As I packed back up, I made sure there were diapers in both bags (almost put one in my purse too) and generally planned for the "what if" of only being able to take one bag on with me. The only clean clothes I had along in the carry-on stuff was a larger fleece jacket so Katelyn wore that and her diaper on the second flight.

We made it back to the gate as they were announcing that they were now boarding all rows. I rushed on, got settled, looked around and noticed half the seats were empty. It was 20 more minutes of waiting while those people slowly trickled in. And then another 20 minutes or so as the cargo people rearranged the cargo since we were such a full flight. Katelyn and I both fell asleep during that time.

The flight went well. Katelyn slept most of the time and the rest of the time did laps around the airplane as I followed her. She was really cute about it and waved at people as she passed. A bunch of japanese ladies fell in love with her and played with her as she went past so we stopped by them for a while to play peek-a-boo and stuff. Katelyn didn't like having to go back to our seat to land but that wasn't too bad. Just a little frustrated crying because I wouldn't let her run around.

Eric met us at the baggage claim and helped me with everything. It was so good to see him again and get help with Katelyn.

We all went to the hotel (very nice) and then took off to explore the town and find a place to eat. We found a good sized mall and walked around there for a bit. Katelyn fell asleep again (3 hour time difference caught up with her) but woke up for dinner at Outback.

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Sun, Jul 11, 2004 2:13 AM
I'm headed to CA this week! Katelyn and I are flying out and hope to meet some online friends while we're out there. It's been a busy time preparing to go though.

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Thu, Jul 8, 2004 2:11 AM
My midwife called and said that she thought the sugar in my urine was an error. Apparently her next appointment (who has never had sugar either) also had sugar and so she really suspects that the sticks were contaminated. Especially since my blood sugar was so low. She said it just didn't make since that my blood sugar would be that low and yet still be spilling sugar in my urine. Hurrah!

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Tue, Jul 6, 2004 3:54 PM
I had my July prenatal appointment today. This was the day we tested my blood sugar. An hour after eating it was 84. Anything below 170 was acceptable for one hour after. But, in reviewing my meal, I didn't really have a lot of carbohydrates in it... I thought I'd added enough toast and veggies to my omlet but apparently it wasn't enough. I'm thinking that I'll repeat the test on my own using my mom's blood glucose monitor and see what I get and let my midwife know.

BP was great (104/60), fundal height was 24 cm, and we were able to measure baby's heartbeat for the first time (160 bpm). We heard it last time but didn't get a good count because my tummy was so noisy. Baby appears to be slightly posterior which would account for the quieter heartbeat. But... baby appears to be head down so far. That's great news!

Overall, everything went very well and I'm happy. My next appointment is scheduled for August 2.

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