Monthly Archives: March 2006

Stanley Steamers is here today cleaning the carpet (house goes on the market Monday). So I have been banished to the basement. Luckily we are completely set up down here with the computer, toys, swing, food, and diapers.
Feels a little strange though! I can’t wait to see if they can get out some of the nasty stains.
Troy is coming home at 2 today to help with Annabelle. I had a mild breakdown last night and he is coming home early to relieve me so I can go get some time to myself.
Tomorrow we get to go see a lactation consultant at Rose Medical Center. If she can’t help us I have a few other things I am going to try, including renting a pump to pump and bottle feed her. If none of that works, we’re going to have to try solids or formula. I am so frustrated with this that I am just ready to be done and to quit. I never thought nursing would SUCK so badly. Sorry to have a downer attitude, but I just need to vent a little.
Wish us luck!!

As I creep up on 6 months post pardem I have started to do some reading on blood disorders and post pardem hemorrhage (PPH). I had a PPH soon after Annabelle was delivered. My uterus had trouble clamping down and I lost 1 liter of blood, which is about 1/4 to 1/7 of my total blood supply at the time. This very much scared my midwife and the OB on call was brought in to help control the bleeding. I had my baby in my arms so I didn’t understand the gravity of the situation. Eventually the uterus clamped, after they administered many drugs and did other things that I would rather not mention. I was very weak for several hours afterwards, needed lots of IV fluids and was iron deficient for awhile, but all in all I bounced back quickly.
My midwife, Jessica would like for me to see a hematologist at 6 months post delivery to make sure that I don’t have a bleeding disorder. I seem to bleed very easily. When I used to give blood, I could give a pint in under 3 minutes, and when I was getting prepped for my IV while in labor, I “blew up” and spurted blood everywhere (so they say, I wasn’t going to look). So there are some signs that my body has trouble shutting off my blood flow. My gut tells me that there is something wrong.
Doing research on PPH has really depressed me. Many of the women out there who have had a PPH are very scared to have more children. Fear and childbirth are two things that I don’t think go together well. The risk of having a PPH with subsequent children is increased if you have had it with the first. This may transfer me into a higher risk category, which means I wouldn’t be able to deliver at Fitzsimmons again, and wouldn’t be able to have my midwives. I don’t feel good about this at all and I am pretty saddened. So, I will start the laborious process of searching for a good hematologist and will set up an appointment soon.
After reading others stories I am lucky that I had such a competent midwife. If a PPH is not controlled quickly enough, things can go downhill fast and can become life threatening. Often times they must perform an emergency hysterectomy, so I feel lucky that they were able to get my bleeding under control without any long term consequences.

Whew! We just finished a huge push of housework here. We are trying to get the house ready to put on the market on April 1st. Last year when I was pregnant we “threw” the house on the market to see if it would sell and it didn’t. This time we are coming at it much more prepared. We have put thousands into it trying to make it look and smell great. We had the air conditioning (and heating) vents cleaned. We had the upstairs bathroom carpet replaced with a nice linoleum (who puts carpet in a bathroom??). We then had to remove, repaint, and recaulk the bathroom baseboards. We painted the upstairs bedroom back to white…from blue…no one liked the blue…except us . We then took the carpet from the bathroom and had all the spots where the cats had ripped up the carpet replaced. We had a whole step, three spots on the side of the stairs, and two doorways replaced. I have dejunked every room of the house, including the garage. We have simplified the objects that we own and use. We also bought a new vacuum, which I LOVE. It sucks really well and is bagless! I have been vacuuming every day so that I can get as much dirt up as possible before we have someone clean the carpets.
So what’s left…whew. We have to get the carpets cleaned, tidy and straighten the yards, do the final organizing of the furniture and stuff, get the photos of the house taken, meet with the realtor, and list it. We have priced it to sell, about 20K under our previous listing price.
Troy and I are both so ready for a change. We are ready to get into a very small apartment where we can spend less time (and money) cleaning and taking care of our house and more time doing the things we love to do, like being outdoors! Our house is definitely one thing in our lives that isn’t aligned with our values. We are spending gobs of $$ on something that doesn’t add significant value to our lives. We have learned an important lesson owning this house. You have to tread very lightly with large purchases. We didn’t think we would have a baby this soon, and never in a million years did I think I would want to be a stay at home mama. Things can change so drastically so quickly. It’s important that large purchases have a lot of wiggle room, so that your life can expand and contract. Troy and I have decided not to purchase another home. We will wait until Troys income has ramped up. We have even tossed around the thought of purchasing a weekend home in the mountains before we purchase a home in Denver. I don’t feel that the market is solid in Denver, and I don’t think it currently has the ability to give a good return on your investment. Also, Troy is still young in his career and he may have a job change or two before he is settled, so we need to be mobile within the Denver area.
So, you live and you learn. We really have our fingers crossed that the house will sell quickly. There are three houses in the neighborhood that are for sale right now, and we will be priced 10K under them, so we hope that will be enough for a quick sell!