Period Math, Conception and Preparation

My husband and I have will just be starting four months of trying to have child #2. Before this I never really knew "period math." This post may seem too personal but what is a blog if not personal? I first started menstrating at age 8, yes that is no joke, and to me, there was no reason to count. I only marked the start and end of each period so I could know how long I would have to worry about pads and tampons, and that was good enough for me.

With Evelyn, we tried one time and it worked but this time it's not as easy. I didn't realize how much work some people have to put in to getting pregnant. So I have been trying to map out my ovulation time but I found that I have a very long cycle. I knew it was long but with my cycle being an average of 36 days, and it being irregular, makes it hard to know exactly when I will ovulate. I really didn't realize how blessed we were last time.


The Way Period Math Works:

Day 1 is the first day you start bleeding. You continue that count until the day before you start to bleed again. Example: You begin to bleed on July 1st. July 1st is Day 1 of your menstration. You finish bleeding July 5th, Day 5. The next time you start to bleed, if your menstral cycle is average, you should start to bleed again on July 29th. Ovulation is about half way from start to finish, on Day 14 if you have the average womans cycle, 28 days and it is regular, meaning every cycle is exactly or with in a day of being 28 days long. The actual ovulation process lasts a max of 24 hours. That leaves a very small window to concieve. Luckily, sperm can live for 3-5 days waiting for the egg to drop. Having sex every day can lower sperm count in each ejaculation. Doing it spearingly can do the same thing. I am not an expert in any of this, but from the research I have done online for the past three months, researching almost everyday, I would say, the best thing to do to concieve, is to have sex every three days and be sure that you have sex the day before, the day of and the day after you calcutated your ovulation in case you are off on your numbers. The absolutly easiest way to make sure you know when you are ovulating is to use ovulation detection. You can get them at any drugstore and places like Target and Wal-Mart. It gets expensive if you still aren't getting pregnant for months, but if you have been trying and you're unsure about your ovulation period...I would say spend the money, it may work that first time you use them.

My example is based on the cycle of the average, young, healthy woman. It is very important to mark on a calender the days you start to bleed. If you are not trying to concieve it is still a very important thing to do. A change in your menstral cycle could be the sign of different medical conditions that you could not be aware of or that are beginning to arise. It will take several months to really know the average days of your menstral cycle and if you are young, in your teens, it will change with time giving you another reason to keep track of your cycle. As well as if you are in your 50s reaching menopause age, the cycle will lengthen and eventually end entirely. Some women are very regular and are the same every cycle. Some women, like me, are very irregular. My cycle,this year has ranged from 30 days to 41 days. That makes it very hard in my situation as we try to have another baby. I knew that my cycle was long because I started about the same time each month growing up. When I hit about age 18, my cycle got a bit shorter. I have gained a lot of weight in the past five years, and now my cycle is very irregular because of it.

Usual factors that can cause irregularity in a womans menstral cycle:

-excessive weight gain or loss -being overweight or underweight

-hormonal changes, example: hitting milestone years, 18, 25, 30 etc.

-stress

-sudden lifestyle change; becoming sexually active can throw your period off at the start or change it permenatly, starting an intense exercise program especially if you don't normally exercise or even just suddenly starting to exercise can change your cycle

If You are Trying to Concieve

When trying to concieve you need to treat yourself as if you are already pregnant.
 

1) Keep yourself as stress free as you can. I know that can be difficult having a family, home and all that implies but learning breathing exercises can help enough to ready your body for a baby

2) Take your pre-natal vitamin with DHA in it or supplement with a DHA pill

3) Do low impact exercise such as yoga or walking, keeping heathly helps keep away stress also

4) Eating healthy

5) Getting plenty of sleep

6) Don't carry very heavy things. The fetus is very sensitive and putting too much strain on you body can cause damage.

7) Do not at-home-test until you have a missed period. I say this because I get very excited and in doing so I waste home pregnancy tests and it started to get expensive because I get too excited about baby #2

Preparation is key to having a child. If you prepare your body, your baby will have a safe environment to grow. If you prepare the nursery, your baby will have a safe place that is their own or one they share with a sibling to grow in. If you prepare yourself to teach your child about what is right and what is wrong they will have a strong will to be able to grow in this world that we live in. Preparation is key.


What I need to Do to Prepare for Baby #2

1) cut majority of fatty foods

2) get Evelyn on regular sleeping schedule

3) get myself on a regular sleeping schedule

4) remember to take prenatal pill

5) have patience, remember that the best things in life are worth waiting a lifetime for!

I think just 5 goals at a time will be the best way to go. I bought a dry erase word bubble from Crate and Barrel that I had kept in the kitchen with notes on it. I put that into the bathroom with a reminder and check list of taking my prenatal and I have #5 up there too. I get too excited about the possibility of becoming pregnant again that I test too early and end up just wasting a test. They get expensive when you jump the gun too much. So I remind myself with the word bubble.

Remember, the best things in life
are worth waiting a lifetime for.

Updates of Goals

Well, let me say first that I'm sorry that I am a horrible blogger! I don't know if anyone out there has read my blog but I am back!

Updates on what I have done with my house. My goal was to simplify. I rid myself of the entertainment unit we had that was no longer needed and I rearranged, again, to help the living room feel cozier. Before, it was too open for the amount of things we have.

I rearranged the master bedroom and I think I prefer it the new way. When we get our little girl out of our room, along with her toddler bed, we can buy a nice chaise or a chair and ottoman for a reading/sitting corner which is something that I have always wanted in a master bedroom.

We also took the bed out of the guest room, wrapped them and stood them up in the one car garage. So now the office is only an office, only it has become the room that we put things in so Evelyn and the cat won't get them. So that needs to be worked on.

The kitchen is mostly the same. I took an extra cabinet from when my husband and his father put in the kitchen before we met, it had been sitting in the masterbath not being used, and put it in the kitchen. It is now my "can cabinet." Other than that the kitchen is still the way I want it and like it to be.

With part of our tax return we did a micro remodel on the house bath; new curtain rod (the curved type to give us elbow room), new hooks and new curtain. Just a couple of days ago I added a few new touches to the bathroom to complete it. When we moved in, two of the walls in the bathroom were painted brown. Yeah, brown? The family that was renting before us had the theme as whales and bubbles taken from a hand towel and it had brown circles so they painted two walls brown and had brown vinyl circles on the other two white walls. We took down the circles right away and intended to paint the whole room white with a little yellow duckies scene because that was the theme we had. The new shower curtain is fabric, white backdrop with a large brown tree and two blue birds. Since we had a ducky theme we had blue towels and a blue rug. It worked out so perfectly I was suprised. I alao traded a yellow cup we kept our teeth cleaning supplies and put them in a Mason jar. I also put Yardley lavender bar soap on a larger Mason jar with the lid on to keep them feesh. Also the lid is a stainless steel look which is the finish on most of the fixtures. Another neat occurance. I cleared out the top of the counter leaving only mouth wash, vitamins and a large pump bottle of lotion.

Evelyn's room needed some totes and boxes to organize the ever growing amount of toys she has. A few years ago, my husbands family went to Disneyland. We didn't get to because I was due with Evelyn that week of the trip. It had been planned just when we found out, before we told anyone. At Disneyland they bought a big Mr. Potato Head and filled it with all kinds of pieces. The boys didn't play with it much, it only made a mess so that was pasted down to Evelyn. She loves Mr. Potato Head. My mother bought some "school boxes" and that helped to contain the chaos.

The livingroom, that is a story. I rearranged it four times in one day to get it where it is now. We have one of those old big screen tvs that my uncle and aunt gave us when the bought a giant flatscreen. I put it into a corner next to our large window and put our section back together. I had seperated it to give us more space but that eneded up only making the livingroom look as if it was empty. We bought a cheap black tall shelf from Wal-Mart and put all our movies and some books, albums and family binders on it. After rearraging the tv and sectional, I grabbed a drifter piano bench and made it the coffee table. It worked nicely, had space for a medium basket with books and two lap blankets under it. I bought a wooden sign with glass style nobs on it from Hobby Lobby, was only $22 on sale from I think $60. Love those sales. I hung that up in the foyer, we have a distictive foyer now instead of empty space! I hung large tags I made and wrote our names on each one. I have been wanting to buy a "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster. It's red and that is the accent color in the livingroom. Wal-Mart had one, with their "I'm a cool college dorm room poster" section with frams to accent them with. I got a black frame and the red Carry On poster. The frame wasn't big enough so I had to use black Duck Tape to "reframe." It still has that sheen to it and you can only tell something is different if you really look at the poster.

A long post to make up for taking so long to post again. I hope I get better at this. I will add a few pictures soon to show my work of the house.

New Year Goals

So it's the new year and at the start of every year the world seems to set goals all at once.  I always thought that was a fun thing to think about.  Even stores that primarially sell food bring out all kinds of "goal setting" products.  One very obvious thing is "being more organized."  I worked at HEB (a grocery store like A&P or Krogers) and at the New Year we would tear down an endcap and put up things to organize and simplify; large totes, office supplies that weren't usually on the shelves and other such things.  This is also the time when stores push the "lose weight" goal.  It's the best time to sell dieting helpers and excersize equipment.  Why am I telling you about what's selling hot right now?  Well, if you didn't guess already I want to talk about New Year's goals!

A New Year goal I have is to get to my "ideal weight."  Now this is not "I need to drop a size or two."  No.  This is "I need to cut myself in half."  Yup.  To reach my ideal weight (and this is a weight that doctors say I should be at) I need to drop half of what I weigh now.  I used to work out and do sports in high school but when university came, it was much more than a "freshman fifteen."  This was also when I got my first cavity.  I ate fast food as if I could burn the calories by breathing.  Sad?  Yes it was.  It made having a baby harder and the things you do to have a baby harder.  It just made everything harder.  I don't like how I feel in this fat suit and this year I am taking it off.  Luckily, in South Texas, we don't really have much of a winter, which makes still going outside to exersize easier.  I hope to make it by the end of the year.  I had a dream last night that I was doing it right.  It was summer and I was on track.  For some reason [in my dream] I was volunteering at an event of my alma mater (high school) that included high schools from out of state, all the kids thought I was a senior in high school.  I do look young for my age as many tell me, so my imagination went with it I suppose.  I look young but I don't think I look that young.

When I was in high school, I thought I looked as big as I do now.  I look at pictures of myself now and I think, "I remember looking in the mirror and seeing this when I was in high school."  I know I didn't look that way because I wore a size 12/14 in high school.  I am Hispanic, I have a nice hour glass shape (I'm not bragging) so I varied in sizes.  I couldn't wear some styles or brands because my C/D cups weren't going to fit into certain clothes.  When I am fit, my thighs are just about solid, and they aren't little.  Again, I couldn't fit into certain brands.  With this and guys at school telling me I was fat and my mom, with good intentions but not in the best way, telling me that I need a different size, you can see how a teenage girl might think that she looks over 200lbs.  Now grown, I don't see myself as I really am still.  I don't see myself as big as I actually am, but some days I sure do feel it.  When we get pregnant again, I don't want a doctor to look at me and automaticlly lable me as a high risk pregnancy because of my weight.  I want to run like I used to.  When I run after my daughter or my nephews, I wonder what they see; this giant blubbery woman coming at them?  I really hope not.  I also don't want my kids thinking that my weight is just something that happens when you "get old."

 

This year's goal is to lose 10lbs a month.

 

My husband, daughter and I have been living in our house for about a year and a half.  The carpet in the house was horrible; old (not shag carpet old but still, old), moldy and just all around eck!  We moved into my in law's rent house.  So before we moved in, Tom and his dad ripped it all out and started to lay down hardwood flooring.  Since the floor was finished, I had been slowly making each room liveable.  One night, Evelyn had been so scared by my sister in law's dog that she wouldn't sleep in her crib and has been sleeping in our bed ever since.  That was before we moved into the house, so setting up Evelyn's room wasn't a rush.  That was actually the last room we did.  It only took two days with a bit of stop and go.  Every room in our house (not including the master bath, that's another story for another time) is now very livable.  Been for a while, but that is backround to what my goal is for this year.

 

This year's goal is to simplify our home.

 

We have so many things and I am really not sure why.  Some things in the garage are my in laws that we are holding and are of others.  I can explain that garage, but I can't explain all of our house.

We also have our office as our guest bedroom.  That can't be helped because we only have three bedrooms what is bad is that our desk is a fold out banquet table that we are borrowing from my mother in law.  Still.  This same table I mean desk, is also where I do my sewing.  I like to sew.  I made Evelyn her Christmas dress this year.  She was a gingerbread girl.  Her first Christmas she wore a Santa dress, second was an Elf dress and this year was a Gingerbread Girl dress.  Our desk doesn't have enough storage space for all the documents we have plus printing paper and office supplies.  We have two--three drawer Rubbermaid filing helpers but it's not enough.  Plus need for space when cutting fabric which I often end up doing in the middle of the living room on the floor.  So all this, I will be working on!  I am going to rid us of the things that we do not use or need and organize the desk again.  Maybe even get a real desk.  How 'bout that huh?  I like it!

The livingroom was something I recently had a break through with, then we got the really big TV and now we can't use the entertainment unit that we had before and now we have it behind the couch.  Sadly, it's the first thing you see when you walk in.  So I need to rid the livingroom of that!

Our bedroom needs a major do over on our dresser and in our smaller closet.  The tenents previous to us took off all the doors (they used curtains instead) from the closets and left them in the garage.  The detatched garage that is drafty.  They have mold all over them.  So we need to do something about that.  Curtains!  Perhaps.

Evelyn's room needs a better way to store toys.  She has it neat, but the toys are in buckets and are easily seen.  I like it better when things are put away in a bin where the only thing you see is a lable.

The house bath, I just did it!  Before I started this post I finished re-organizing the hall closet and the house bath.  My father in law alway said, "Re-organized doesn't mean it's better."  Trust me this time it is BETTER!

The front closet needs work.  I'm not sure what is on the top shelf.  I usually just toss things to the top if I can't find a place for it.

The kitchen?  Well, that is organized the way I want it to be.  I need to get a step ladder so I don't have to wait until Tom gets home to put away some things.  I told myself as the year was ending, "I will strive this coming year to throw away old food out of our containers before I need to have Tom dump the food while I am across the house in our room with the door closed to keep away from the stench."  I can do it!  So far so good.  Food from, Christmas...already gone!  Candy from Halloween?  Tom ate most of it but the rest it gone!  Woo Hoo!

The dinning table.  Once I get the "office" organized better, the dinning table problem will be solved!

 

I think that is every room (exluding the master bath, again, another story another time)!  So I will keep you posted.  I'm hoping that the pressure I will put on myself to make updates that show progress will get me to stick with my goals.  Maybe I should set aside a day I do this and make that a goal?  Hmm...I will have to think about; when is best, when does it not conflict with family and other responsibilities?  Hmm...another thing to get back to you on!

 

I do have other goals, but somethings are just too special to put on a blog.  Hint; it involes loving my husband better!

 

With thoughts of who you might be! -The Curly Texan!

Baby Doll Wipe Set Tutorial

When I was little, I had a Cabbage Patch Newborn that I have now passed onto my daughter.  It used to have little diapers but they are now hard to find.  So I made little "cloth diapers" out of white felt and small, round Velcro.  I didn't think about making a tutorial on that until now.  So that one will come later.

 

Evelyn loves to play Mommy.  She really, really does.  She tries to be sneaky and get some of her own wipes to "wipe baby's poo poo."  So, one day before heading to my parents, I decided to make her her own wipes.  Evelyn made a mess again by using too many wipes on her baby, so I said, "That's it!  I am making you your own!"  I thought this would be an easy tutorial and a good one so close to Christmas.

 

Supplies:

• 1-white fat quaters (mine was left over from a wipes travel container I covered)
• 1-8x11 felt sheet in your child's favorite color (you will see that I used material from a gutted pillow.  I know I had red felt but I couldn't find it, so I had so make do)
• white thread
• color cordinating thread to go with felt (try using opposites, if you use pink felt, use lime green thread for example)

First:

Cut white fabric into 4.5x4.5 inch squares. 

 

I made only six.  You don't want to be trying to find a dozen little baby doll wipes all over your house.  I thought six was a good number to make and remember.

 

Second:

Straight stitch all the way around to keep from fraying. 

(Not stitched)(Stitched)

 

You can make actual seams, I didn't because of time and with cloth wipes, you don't usually see that, they are usually Singered.

 

 

Next is the wipes holder!

 

Third:

Cut the felt to be 8x4 inches.  At about two inches from the short bottom, cut an oblong hole about 2.5 inches wide.

It's best to check and make sure you made the hole big enough.

 

 

Fourth:

Because you are working with felt, and that doesn't fray, you don't need to stich a seam around the hole. Yay!  If you are not using felt, but you are using a fabric that will fray (like I did), you will need to make a seam or you can use a short cut and just make a stitch all around the hole to keep from fray just like the wipes.

 

Fifth:

Fold over the felt, hamburger style, and stitch it closed. 

 (Remember, if your are using some thing other than felt (like me),

be sure to sew it closed with the inside out.) 

If you like that "inside out look," you are done with this step, it you don't like that look, then turn your wipes holder right side out.

 

 

Next is how to put in your wipes so that another will come out after pulling one out for use.

 

Sixth:

Fold all the wipes in half and press the folds.  Open them.  Take your first and lay it down flat, the next wipe will be place only half way on top of the first.  Fold the bottom wipe onto the top.

 

Get your third wipe, place that half way on top of the second, hanging off of the opposite side. 

 

 

Fold the second wipe on top of the third. 

Do that until you run out of wipes.

 

I hope that all made sense to you.  I was afraid of how that part would all come out.

 

Seventh:

Stuff your wipes into your wipes holder.

 Make sure to leave a little sticking out to make grabbing for little hands easier.

 

 

Tada!  You should now have a sweet little stocking stuffer, or a piece to your child's homemade Dolly Diaper Bag gift!