Burt's Bees Mama Bee Belly Butter

I don't get exceptionally large when I get pregnant - rather than going out, I tend to carry really long in my torso.  That keeps me from getting all-over stretch marks, but I did get a couple near the end of my pregnancy with Pickle where her head was sitting (I was pretty lopsided and carried all to the left).

Those two stretch marks had gone away by the time I got pregnant this time, so I wanted to try and keep them away.  I invested about $11 in Burt's Bees Mama Bee Belly Butter (LINK). 

I started using this around 26 weeks or so, when I popped.  It's got a great smell (as Burt's Bees is so great at doing!), and isn't super-greasy.  It's mostly just like a thick hand lotion.

It worked great for the first three weeks or so, but I've still developed a couple of small stretch marks in the same area where I had them with Pickle, as well as new one.  I don't know that there was much the belly butter could have done to prevent the ones in the area that I had before, but the new ones are a little less encouraging.

All in all, this is one of the cheaper belly butters on the market, and it may be doing SOME good, but I don't know that I'd purchase it again.

Baby Bump Kick Counter App

So, I’m sort of nuts.  This has been well-established.  I’m a worrier, particularly during the pregnancy stages when there’s almost nothing I can do to control what’s happening.  To try and balance that out a little bit, I track as much as I can.

Kick counts are something that I track pretty religiously.  When I was pregnant with the Pickle, I had an early Android phone, which had no apps available at the time for kick counts.  I purchased and downloaded an app for my iPod Touch, however – the Baby Bump app.  (LINK)  

At the time, it was about $5.  It looks to be free currently – I’m not 100% sure, as I just re-downloaded the already-purchased app onto my iPhone.  The app is currently more robust than it was when I originally had used it – it’s got a kick counter, contraction counter, links to a pregnancy forum and daily updates about your baby’s development, info on names, and more.

I have used the kick counter extensively.  It’s pretty simple – you just go into the application, and you select to do the kick counter.  You start a new session, and this screen comes up:

You simply tap the button at the top whenever you feel a kick.  It will keep that session active until you reach ten kicks – or, I believe, two hours, whichever is first.  We’ve never gone beyond about four minutes, so I’m not 100% sure on that, but I believe that the app explains that you have not hit the expectation of ten kicks in two hours.  

You can then go out to the screen where it has recorded all of your previous kick counts for this pregnancy.

You can then, in this screen, use the pencil icon in the lower right to send all of your recorded kick counts via email.  This is nice if you want to keep track of this info, or if your OB maybe requests it.  

OR, if you’re extra insane, you can create a spreadsheet into which you can copy all of this info, such as the one shown below, and then graph the results.  I will not verify whether or not this is our little dude’s info from last week:

Since we had a scheduled C-section with Pickle, and I had contractions from 16 weeks on,  I didn’t use the contraction counter.  It seems to work similarly, however, you simply click start whenever you’re having one, and then it calculates your frequency.  It seems like it’s about as handy as a stopwatch, but you’re much more likely to have a phone on-hand than a stopwatch (unless you’re a track coach or something).

I really have enjoyed using this application.  It’s an easy way to do kick counts without losing track of how many times he’s kicked, when I started, and so on.  I also love that it keeps the log for additional security.  And, assuming it actually is free, you will definitely get more out of it than you put in.

Pregnancy Items I'd Love to Review

There are lots and lots of items on the market that are designed for use by pregnant women.  But some of the biggest day-to-day problems still aren't addressed.  I would love if someone would invent these products, I would review them in a second:

1.  Belly protection - Being pregnant while having an older child in the house is wonderful and magical.  That older child really gets to interact with your growing belly.  However, toddlers/preschoolers are accidentally dangerous.  They don't mean to kick/punch/headbutt your belly, but it happens - and you fear every time that a little tiny person is going to fall out of your uterus.  Pregnancy Kevlar vests or something would be a great idea to wear around the house.

2.  Extend-o arms - I know that there's no way to really make your arms longer, but it would be nice if there were some sort of hook or something that could help you put on socks in the morning, or clip/paint your toenails.  There's a certain point in pregnancy at which you just sort of think, "Eh, flip flops are fine, even if my toenails look like a wild animal's."  

3.  Belly rearview mirror - I'm not sure how else to say it, so I'll just go for it.  After a certain point in pregnancy, personal grooming becomes a guessing game.  Please take this poorly-illustrated cartoon as an example of a pregnant woman's field of vision.  

 

So clearly drawing hands and faces aren't my thing.

 

 

That grey area is the area that a woman can see effectively when she's looking downward.  Anywhere from the belly down pretty much becomes a mystery.  You could be growing a goiter on your upper thigh and have no clue (I know that's not medically possible, but stay with me here).  If there were some way to attach a rearview mirror to a belly belt or something so that you can see what you're shaving, it would certainly make things easier.  I don't know many people who love going to weekly OB appointments with unruly body hair all over their lower half.

4.  Food-o-meter - I think I'm fairly well on-top of what you're not supposed to eat when pregnant.  Anything lunch meat-y, fish with mercury, soft cheeses, caffeine.  Wait, there's also herbal tea, alcohol, raw vegetable sprouts, sushi, and more, you say?  Wouldn't it be nice if there were some little sort of food-tasting device that you could put a little bit of the food in question into, and it would tell you if some sort of baby-harming bacteria or chemical is in it?  I suppose a phone app is probably more practical, but sometimes you are really craving that roast beef sandwich and want to know if "just this once" will hurt things or not.

There are lots and lots more, but these were just the ones that came to my mind based off of my last 24 hours of pregnant existence.  I would give any of these the most positive review ever.

Maternity clothes on a budget

There are something like 4 million babies born in the US each year.  I’d guess that would mean there are something like 3.25 to 3.5 million pregnant women, after accommodating for multiples (does that sound reasonable?).  WHERE ARE THEY ALL FINDING THEIR MATERNITY CLOTHES?  I ask this in super-serious all caps because I have scoured most of the state I live in, and I can barely find anything.  What I do find feels like it’s ridiculously expensive for something I’ll wear four or five months at most per pregnancy.

Target does have a maternity section (our local Wal-Mart and K-Marts do not, so I’ll skip mentioning them).  We have a pretty decent-sized Target, and yet there are maybe only three small racks of maternity clothes, and even fewer styles.  Despite the fact that this is a discount store, even the most basic V-neck tees generally run $20 or so.  Their online offering is more robust, and using their Cartwheel app can sometimes score you some discounts that makes it worth asking fellow mamas where the Target is with the biggest maternity section.

Old Navy and Gap both have online selections that are really pretty good.  Their in-store selection definitely varies based off of the location.  Our Gap’s maternity section is at the back of the babyGAP, and it’s about seven or eight racks’ worth.  I’ve found that they generally carry the more expensive items in store, which can be a little annoying, but their pants are probably the most comfortable on the market.  The key is to try and hit at the end of a season and score on the sales (both in-store and online).  Old Navy’s in-store selection is a little more haphazard, in my experience.  It seems less organized, and all of the items are sort of just thrown in a little corner.  I have been able to find a few sale items that I liked, but prefer to shop their selection online, and then return in-store if something doesn’t fit.

Motherhood is our local store that clearly has the biggest selection, as it’s entirely dedicated to maternity and nursing garb.  I will admit – I will usually go to their store to try something on, and then order it online.  The reason for this is that they seem to run more sales online than in the store (a common sale is to buy two clearance items and get the third free).  I also find a bigger selection of petite pants online than I generally do in-store.  

JC Penney and Kohls have a very, very limited section for us locally – two or three racks in each store.  Their selections online are definitely more complete, but a little pricier than most of the above options (other than the Gap).

These next two places don’t have any stores local to me, so I don’t have any experience with them in-store, but they’re both great choices for cheap, cute items.

Asos is a site that I believe originates out of the UK, but they have a US site.  They have lots of options that are inexpensive and trendy.  They have a lot of casual stuff, maybe less in the way of work gear if you work in a formal or business casual office.

H&M has probably the best maternity selection I’ve seen as far as looking remotely modern, and the prices are incredibly reasonable.  What’s great is that you can also pick up some kids’ items at the same time for a low shipping price.

Black Breeze Baby K'Tan - a first peek

This pregnant lady is very happy.  I was lucky enough that Baby K’tan sent me a Black Breeze Baby K’tan carrier to try out (LINK)!  We’ve still got about 4.5 months left to bake our little one, so I can’t give you a full review yet, but wanted to share my first impressions.

I’ve mentioned before that I have short little T-rex arms, and couldn’t quite get the hang of wrapping the Pickle in a Moby.  I would either need my husband’s help, or I wouldn’t get it quite loose enough.  As such, I wasn’t as effective at it as I wanted to be.

What’s great about the K’Tan Breeze is that it’s easy to use for even the wrap-challenged.  It is essentially two hoops hooked in the back.  I couldn’t get a good enough picture of this, so this is available on Baby K’Tan’s website:

The two loops are crossed over your body and brought under your arms.  There are much more thorough instructions on their website, and it can be used in a variety of positions as baby grows.  I’m really excited about that, because it’s not limiting in its use like some carriers are.  Much the same as how you can get wraps in different sizes, the K’Tan has sizing that is appropriate based off of your dress and bra sizes to ensure that it fits comfortably.

The Breeze is especially exciting to me since Little is due in August – the Breeze is 50% mesh and 50% cotton, so it’s cooler and more breathable if I want to take a walk around the neighborhood while babywearing.  We can essentially use this from birth until toddlerhood, since it supports children from 8 to 35 lbs.

In short, I’m really, really excited to use this on something other than a pregnant belly.  There are a bunch of colors available, and you can even purchase carriers gently-used on their website.  I’ve been coveting the K’Tans since long before we were pregnant, so I’m pumped!  Keep an eye out here in late August/early September for a full report on how it works.

Anti-Nausea Cocktail

I again apologize for the lateness of my blogging.  Perhaps the subject will enlighten upon why it’s been a hard winter.  Also, if any of the terms for “vomit” make you uncomfortable or queasy, you should probably stop now.

So, we got pregnant.  Which is awesomely cool and all, except that my body hates being pregnant with a fiery vengeance.  Doesn’t like to get pregnant, doesn’t like to stay pregnant, DOES seem to like to get every symptom known to womankind for the past few thousand years of recorded history.  Awesome, right?

Around 5 weeks or so, I started barfing.  At first it was usual-morning-sickness-barfing, then it got a little worse.  And a little worse.  My IVF doctor put me on the 4 mg of Zofran, an anti-emetic.  They worked for a few weeks, and then I hit 8 weeks.  All hell broke loose.  I started puking every five minutes.  On 1/16, I started vomiting around 5:00 at night, and couldn’t hold down water all night long.  By morning on 1/17, I got Pickle ready for school and sent her and my husband on their way, knowing I wasn’t going to work that day (at the very least).  I just lied on the bathroom floor for a while, then called my mom… only to puke in her ear for about five minutes because another wave of nausea hit right as soon as she picked up the phone.  I was too weak to drive myself to the doctor, so she rushed right over and got me to the doctor.

The view of a woman with hyperemesis gravidarum for several months.

The doctor spent a few minutes examining me, and decided to send me to the hospital without even taking the time to test my blood, as it had been hours and hours since I had last peed or been able to hold anything down (dehydration was pretty obvious).  The OB unit was full, so they got me checked in on the Peds unit.  I was so dehydrated that they had trouble getting that first IV in, but there I stayed for the next six days with hyperemesis gravidarum.  They first got me rehydrated, then hung IV bags with multivitamins, then got me on a fluids + IV Dramamine mixture, also taking Reglan half an hour before every meal, 8 mg of Zofran twice a day, Prilosec, Benadryl, and a few other things.  Minus the IV form of the Dramamine (still taking it orally), that is the cocktail they still have me on to try and keep the puke level at least controlled (not gone, but controlled).  All of the meds are safe for pregnancy, which is a huge relief, and are able to get me through the day.  We were also doing the regular B6, B12, Seabands, ½ of a Unisom, etc., but those things aren’t doing anything to help, so they have been discontinued.

So, what’s the point of this review?  My review of anti-nausea meds is that they are a godsend if you really need them (so, sort of a public service announcement).  So many people will cast judgment on those who have uncontrolled vomiting as “just some morning sickness,” and will preach that meds shouldn’t be used at all in pregnancy.  And in ideal circumstances, obviously we would avoid medication – but there is a point at which the mother and the unborn baby are put at risk by severe dehydration, and the rest of the family also suffers.  At that point, all of the preaching about “just eat crackers” and “you’re overreacting” are harmful.  A woman with HG has already tried crackers and everything else natural under the sun, and is at a point of desperation.