bekahcubed

Categories Homemaking

I’ve lost my Homemaking Mojo

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Usually when Daniel asks me if he has any more underwear, I tell him that yes, they’re in the basket in such and such a place-I’m just behind with folding.

But when he asked several weeks back, I had to report that he had none. None. I’d fallen behind such that he had no clean underwear. Now, thanks to our packratrish tendencies (actually, my tendency to think that any clothing can be reused or repurposed), we were still able to find something he could wear, albeit not the most comfortable fit. (TMI? So sorry.)

I’ve lost my Homemaking Mojo, you see.

I had such a wonderful laundry system set up. Every morning, I threw in the load of laundry prescribed for the day (Sheets on Monday, Darks on Tuesday, Underwear and other things washed on Hot on Wednesday, etc.). Every lunchtime I switched the laundry from washer to dryer or hung it to dry. And after work, I folded and put away (some of the time.) It worked so well, I was never behind except on folding (which isn’t quite as desperate as being behind on washing and drying, you have to admit.)

But I got behind and tried to catch on a Saturday and that blew my Homemaking Mojo clear away. I spent the entire day handling a mountain of laundry, resulting in extreme laundry exhaustion – which means I didn’t do laundry again for a week and ended up with another mountain. And then my husband didn’t have underwear.

So now every ten days or so I freak out, realizing that my husband will soon run out of underwear, and I quick throw in a load of underwear – leaving the rest of the laundry to pile into a higher and higher and higher mess as our closets gradually empty.

There’s an easy fix, you know. All I need to do is throw in a load of laundry every morning and switch it every noon.

The problem is that laundry isn’t the only area in which I’ve lost my Homemaking Mojo. In a frenzy of preparation for guests, I spent a day doing dishes and cooking. And I’ve barely cooked or done dishes since. In a cleaning frenzy (for guests again), I spent myself on housework and can’t even be bothered to move my cereal bowl from the sofa-side table to the sink these days. In a fit of organizing (trying to get my craft room up and running-which it now is!), I wore myself out and am now letting all my organizational systems decay.

The house seems insurmountable. It’s not just the laundry I need to pick back up. It’s the dishes, the cooking, the cleaning, the garden, the grocery shopping. Even just picking up those wonderful one-thing-at-a-time systems I had going seems overwhelming, because it’s reestablishing a half dozen patterns I’ve let slide.

But really, Rebekah, you don’t have to pick them all up at once to make progress.

Just take one step at a time.

Transfer the load of laundry from washer to dryer at lunch today.

You’ll find your mojo one small step at a time.

Categories Everyday Life, Health

How to take “as needed” painkillers

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Typically, when you get a bottle of painkillers after some sort of operation, the instructions will read something like “Take 1 to 2 every 4 to 6 hours as needed for pain.”

If you’re anything like me, you don’t like to take more meds than necessary, especially not painkillers – so you struggle with figuring out how exactly to take “as needed” meds.

Your temptation may be to go as long as absolutely possible between taking meds – resulting in excrutiating, hard to control pain. I’ve been there and done that. It’s not good – and it actually doesn’t help you take less, because you have to take more at that point to control the now-out-of-control pain.

I’ve had a couple of surgeries – a septoplasty and a wisdom tooth extraction – where I tried holding out longer than I should have and ended up with more pain than I should have. My sister, the Physician Assistant, told me to NOT wait until the pain was bad to take my painkillers. “That’s less effective,” she told me, “You need to keep your blood levels of the painkiller high enough to control the pain.” Foolishly, I didn’t listen.

After my second wisdom tooth extraction a couple months ago (they’re all out now!), I finally figured out how to take those “as needed” painkillers.

The instructions on my pill bottle were to take one or two every 4-6 hours as needed for pain.

I took one pill as soon as I got home from the oral surgeon’s office, and jotted down the time and the number of pills I took. As soon as I felt pain returning (4 hours later), I took another and jotted it down. 4 hours later, I felt the pain returning, so I took another and jotted down the time. So far, I was taking one every 4 hours.

But my situation changed overnight and it took 6 hours to start feeling more pain. I took one pill and jotted down the time. It was another 6 hours before I needed more. Then ten hours. Then 13 hours. Then 4. Then 6. And so on and so forth.

I took 13 pain pills in a total of 112 hours. That’s one every 8.5 hours on average. I never experienced any side effects of the painkillers, I never felt excrutiating pain, and I had no problem at all not taking them once my pain was gone.

Success.

Moral of the story: Take your painkillers when you have pain. Write down the time you take them and the amount you take so that you don’t exceed the maximum dose (in my case, 2 every 4 hours-which I didn’t even get close to reaching, much less exceeding.)

There you go.

Categories Marriage

Married…Unbelievable

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After 14 months of marriage, I still pinch myself on a weekly basis.

Is this real? Am I really married? It’s hard to believe that after 14+ years of hoping and dreaming, I’m now married.

Marriage if everything I’d hoped for and not at all what I expected. Or maybe the other way around. Or maybe neither and both.

All my dreams of marriage couldn’t come close to the reality of sharing life with my husband – sharing our minds, our hearts, our bodies. I couldn’t have grasped the wonderful mundane of sharing our days, discussing the news, reading his papers, laughing at Facebook videos of our nephews and nieces.

There are certainly some things that are better than I expected, some things that are worse – and some that are just different.

I (foolishly) expected that being married would make me content. I learned that my heart is an idol factory. It moves quickly from marriage to babies to quitting my job to be a full-time homemaker as potential saviors. Contentment continues to require work.

I expected marriage would include fighting. Everyone tells us that. When they hear that we haven’t yet fought, they tell us to just wait – that first one will be a doozy. I begin to not believe them. Daniel and I argue, we disagree, we both get emotional and hurt one another. But we haven’t fought. At least not the way people describe marital fights. Instead we talk through things, we learn to forgive, we keep short accounts by the grace of God. Maybe it’s our personalities, maybe (probably) it’s purely grace – but I pray this will always be true of our marriage.

I expected Daniel would be the stereotypical man: he wouldn’t really care what I got him for Christmas (’cause all he really wants is sex anyway), he wouldn’t care how I decorated the house, he wouldn’t really want to know every detail of my day and my thoughts. These and dozens of other stereotypes, I internalized without realizing it – and discovered that I was dead wrong. Daniel is picky about gifts and aesthetics. He wants to know every detail of my thoughts and feelings. He doesn’t have an “empty place” in his head where he retreats such that he honestly answers “Nothing” when I ask him what he’s thinking.

I thought having a husband for a head would mean that my only struggle would be submitting. Things would be easy because I could let my husband make decisions and he could be strong for me when I was falling apart. This turned out to be only partially true. Yes, Daniel is frequently strong for me when I am falling apart, reminding me of truth when my head is clouded. Yes, some decisions Daniel makes easily, which means I don’t have to make them. But I also have to be strong – I am my husband’s helper when he is confused or overwhelmed or anxious. Decision making is more often a joint venture, in which I need to help Daniel research and clarify issues – in which I need to learn how to communicate both my thoughts and my feelings, as well as how strongly or not strongly I think/feel them. Yes, marriage has lightened the load in some ways – but in other ways, it has made strength and good decision making more necessary rather than less.

I’m sure if I were to think more, I could come up with dozens of ways marriage has been different than I expected – but, for now, the biggest one is the crazy weird weekly wonder that I’m actually married. It really is unbelievable.

What surprised you about marriage?

Categories B3RD, Everyday Life

Trying times

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Warning: This post is about trying to conceive and I do refer to sex in my treatment of the topic. If this is something you’re uncomfortable with or that will be unhealthy for you, feel free to skip it.

At my preconception visit, both the medical assistant and the doctor gave a decent bit of advice for the trying time.

From the medical assistant: “I got one of those ovulation kits and took it for a month so I knew what day I ovulated. Then we saved it up for when I ovulated the next month – we had a baby on our first try.”

From the doctor: “Relax. Have fun. Call me if you don’t conceive after six months of trying.”

Now, it might appear that these are contradictory messages. Yet, I think both contain wisdom.

It’s worthwhile to get to know your body before you conceive. Knowledge is power – and making sure that you’re trying when you’re capable of conceiving can certainly help the process along.

That said, I think there are tons better ways than using an ovulation kit from the drugstore. If you have used either natural family planning (NFP) or fertility awareness methods (FAM) of birth control, you’re already familiar with your times of peak fertility based on signals like basal body temperature or cervical mucous. All you need to do is look over your past charts and figure out on what day of your cycle your peak fertility is at. Easy peasy.

If you haven’t been using NFP or FAM, do a little research and start logging your fertility signs now. Even if all you’re doing is checking your cervical mucous (a zero-cost activity), you can get a pretty good idea of when you’re fertile. Just swipe your vagina with a clean piece of tissue before going to the bathroom and then stretch that mucous between your two fingers. Is it stretchy and egg-whitey? There’s a good chance you’re approaching or at peak fertility. Is it nonexistant or just a little creamy? You’re unlikely to conceive just now.

Does that mean you should follow the medical assistant’s advice and “save it up” for when you’re fertile? I don’t necessarily think so. You should try to have sex during your fertile window – but it’s valuable to remember that sex isn’t JUST for procreation (even if that’s what you’re focusing on at the moment.) Here’s where my doctor’s sage advice comes in. Relax. Have fun.

Don’t turn sex into a baby-making exercise. Yeah, be sure you aren’t choosing your fertile week of the month to abstain; but otherwise choose to let sex be about loving and enjoying your spouse.

So, what’s the six month thing?

My doctor advised me to give him a call if Daniel and I haven’t conceived within six months of starting to try. Having difficulty conceiving after a prolonged period of “unprotected” sex can be a sign of infertility – and it’s always worthwhile, if one is having difficulty conceiving, to check out possible causes. Because I am nearing my 30th birthday (and therefore have only 5 years in which to get pregnant before I enter my gynecologically “elderly” years), my doctor recommended looking into things after six months of trying without conceiving. It is important to note that I will not be considered to be infertile at this point. Infertility is defined as not conceiving after 12 months of regular unprotected sex. For the younger woman, doctors will probably recommend trying for the full year before investigating for possible causes of infertility.

If you’ve been tracking your fertility with NFP or FAM, you’ve been collecting valuable data that can be used by your doctor to evaluate possible causes for difficulties conceiving – which is just another reason to NOT abandon your careful tracking during the trying times (and another reason to start tracking if you haven’t been already.)

In summary: Find out when you’re fertile. Relax. Have Fun. Call your doctor if you don’t conceive within six months to a year of trying.

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: My Man Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse

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Last month’s read for the Reading to Know Classics Bookclub was My Man Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse, selected by Cassandra of Adventist Homemaker.

I’d already read everything my old local library had by Wodehouse (therefore closing him out in my “Read through the Library” challenge), so I wasn’t entirely certain if I’d be reading along here in April.

But when I looked through the list of what I had already read, I didn’t find My Man Jeeves within it – and it so happened that my new local library had an audio version (but not a printed copy.) Considering that the audio was only 4-6 hours long (I don’t remember how long exactly), I figured I might as well play along.

Once I started listening, my first thought was that I had heard this story before. Did I read it in the past and just not log it? I let the CD continue to play and paid it no more mind, listening as the stories became increasingly unfamiliar.

And yes, they are stories with an -ES. I expected this to be somewhat like the other Jeeves and Wooster tales I’ve read, quick-to-read novels with a defined story arc that carries through the entirety. This was not that.

Instead, My Man Jeeves is a collection of short stories about Jeeves and Wooster – and also about Reggie Pepper and his man. The stories were originally written for magazines and then compiled into this volume – and Reggie Pepper was an early incarnation of the man who would be Wooster, the not-so-smart-but-friendly chap who narrates the Jeeves books.

Each story follows a similar plot: Wooster (or Reggie) or one of his friends gets into some sort of scrape, often a love affair or a threat from a wealthy relative to cut off his allowance, which Jeeves (or Reggie’s man) helps extricate him from. Generally, things get worse before they get better, in a comedy of errors that Jeeves almost always anticipates.

But what makes these simple tales shine is Wodehouse’s characteristic wit. He writes in a down to earth style, full of slang (which is sometimes not that comprehensible since it’s from the 1910-1930s and possibly British in origin) but completely delightful. I never fail to laugh at Wodehouse’s descriptions and narratives.

Another delightful aspect of Wodehouse’s style, which appears liberally in My Man Jeeves is his attention to style – that is, to men’s clothing. In almost every one of Wooster’s escapades, Wooster happens upon an article of clothing (or sometimes a way of wearing his facial hair) which he considers all that but of which his dignified valet disapproves. When Jeeves expresses his opinion (always subtley, of course), Wooster bristles and tries to assert his authority – only to find that he’s now getting the cold shoulder. Jeeves still does his job, of course, but Wooster relies on him for much more, such that the cold shoulder is unbearable. Often, once a predicament is resolved through the brilliant ministrations of Jeeves, Wooster rewards him by discarding the offending article.

Listening to my review, I realize you could easily feel that Wodehouse is a tiresomely repetitive writer. And honestly, there is rather a lot of repetition in this particular volume. But, if you’d rather do short stories instead of a full novel, this is a good intro to Wodehouse. (I ended up enjoying the short stories because it meant I didn’t have to remember much of a plot line between ten minute segments of listening!) On the other hand, if you’re up for a little longer read (although still short compared to most novels), you might jump right in with some of the later books about Jeeves and Wooster. Carry on, Jeeves is a more fleshed out version of one of the early stories from My Man Jeeves (the reason it had seemed so familiar when I first started listening) – and that would be a good start for someone who’s wanting to try some Wodehouse.

I’m awfully glad, though, that I read (er, listened) along this month – and am grateful to Cassandra (and her late father-in-law) for suggesting the title. Check out what other readers are saying about Wodehouse at the Reading to Know Classics Bookclub round-up post.

Rating: 3 stars
Category: Comedic short stories
Synopsis: Bertie Wooster (and his literary progenitor Reggie Pepper) gets into a series of scrapes from which his loyal manservant saves him.
Recommendation: If you’re looking for an introduction to Wodehouse that you can easily read in small chunks, check out this collection of short stories. Otherwise, you might as well go for one of Wodehouse’s excellent novels starring the same characters (well, Wooster and his man Jeeves, anyway.)

Categories Everyday Life

Our patriotic neighbor

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We have a neighbor who is very patriotic.

I’ve never met him but there’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that he’s committed to the USA.

It’s the red, white, and blue you see.

Yes, a flag flies proudly from the flagpole in his yard – but plenty of people have a flag flying in their yards.

The Stars and Stripes hangs beside no ordinary house. This is a red, white, and blue house.

And in front of this house lies a flower bed planted with red, white, and blue flowers.

A few days ago, I drove home from work and saw my patriotic neighbor doing some yard work dressed (you guessed it) in red, white, and blue.

Now that’s patriotism.

Categories Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday: With

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Thankful Thursday banner

Activities are great, but it’s the ones we do them with that really make them wonderful.

This week I’m thankful…

…for Sewing with Ruth
Ruth has been out of town traveling for what seems like forever, but she was free Easter evening so she and I got together for some sewing in my newly cleaned/organized craft room.

…for Dancing with the girls
My sister-in-laws’ brother got married this past weekend and Daniel and I went up to Lincoln for the wedding (as much to see the Little Misses as to celebrate with Johnny, but nobody’s telling, right?) They had a dance and I had a great time dancing like old times with all my Lincoln girls. How many times have Anna and Grace and Joanna and Casandra and I danced together at weddings? I couldn’t say, but it’s got to be at least a half a dozen.

…for Skyping with my family
While we were in Lincoln, we decided to do a whole-family Skype session with Okinawa. Little Master Menter is almost one – and Mommy has an oh-so-adorable baby bump. It took a bit of prodding to get her to show us, but she gave us an exclusive at last (too shy to post on Facebook). Daddy is never shy, and was glad to pull up his shirt and show us HIS belly.

…for Cooking with friends
Rachel was out of town with school, so her husband was cooking for our Tuesday night meal at their house. Cooking for a crowd (ten, in this case) is always a bit of a stress, and everything takes longer than you expect – I was glad to be able to roll up my sleeves and pitch in in the kitchen.

…for Singing with the Living Word
I love going through the Psalms and reading verses that I know as songs – and I’ve long wanted to create a Scripture song database of sorts to catalog those wonderful Scripture songs. While the database idea ended up being too involved (I worked on it a few afternoons, but seem to have lost my knack with Microsoft Access – it was so much easier when I was a teen), I have been going ahead and creating a list of Scripture songs (eventually, I plan to compile them on bekahcubed, along with embedded youtube videos so we can hear the songs in action). It’s been wonderful singing my way through the Psalms, worshipping the Faithful God who is worthy of all praises.

Categories B3RD

Planning for a Healthy Pregnancy (Part 4)

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We’re in the home stretch now, almost ready to start trying for a baby. You’ve quit the bad stuff and attained a healthy weight. You’ve gotten pre-existing conditions under control. And you’ve gotten immunizations and dental care out of the way. Now, all you need to do is head down to the supplement aisle of your nearest drugstore and…

…and stare blankly at the thousands of options that meet your eye.

What on earth should you be taking before you try to conceive?

6. Start taking a vitamin

There are lots of opinions on the value of vitamin supplementation or the lack thereof. The standard professional response to the question of “should I be taking a vitamin?” is that “the best source of vitamins and minerals is a healthy diet.” And that’s absolutely right.

Unfortunately, a lot of us don’t eat a healthy diet. Which is why a whole spate of other professionals respond with “a good multivitamin is good nutritional insurance.”

So what’s a hoping-to-become-pregnant woman to do?

Well, there is one nutrient for which we know supplementation is absolutely beneficial. All women who are capable of becoming pregnant (whether they’re actively trying or not) should ensure that they are getting 400 mcg of folic acid, either from fortified foods or from supplements.

Folic acid is essential for a baby’s brain or spinal cord development, but the most important weeks for this development are before you miss your first period – which means you need to make sure you’re getting enough folic acid BEFORE you get pregnant.

It’s possible that you don’t need a supplement to get even this – if you religiously eat breakfast cereal or a sandwich daily and your daily intake from fortified foods equals 100% of the Daily Value (check the nutrition facts panel on your cereal and bread), you can breathe a sigh of relief. But if you don’t currently eat 100% every single day, you should be taking a supplement that contains 400-800 mcg of folic acid.

That’s all you really need for the prepregnancy period, unless you have reason to suspect that you have a nutritional deficiency. (For my part, I knew that I should probably take my known Vitamin D deficiency more seriously since I’d be hurting not just myself but potentially a growing baby by staying deficient.)

But it might be worthwhile to also look into what your increasing needs will be during pregnancy and incorporate those supplements in now.

The three nutrients that are worth looking at are 1) iodine, 2) iron, and 3) calcium.

Iodine is a mineral that is very important for thyroid function – and thyroid controls our rate of metabolism and therefore baby’s rate of growth. Iodine needs are increased during pregnancy from 150 mcg to 220 mcg per day. The majority of the iodine in our diets (especially for those of us who live far from the sea and don’t eat seaweed :-P) comes from iodized salt. During pregnancy, you would need to be eating 3/4 tsp of iodized salt daily to get enough. If you’re a really liberal salter, you might be okay – but if, like me, you use little salt in your cooking and don’t usually salt at the table, you’re probably not getting enough. While I do recommend making sure that the salt you DO use is iodized (I had to switch mine since Daniel and I somehow managed to end up with some non-iodized salt that I’d been trying fruitlessly to use up), I don’t recommend that you start salting things more. While a small portion of the population could handle additional salt, the majority of us get way too much sodium from the processed foods we eat – but this salt generally doesn’t contain any iodine. So, to make sure you’ll be getting enough iodine during pregnancy, I recommend looking for a multivitamin that contains both that 400-800 mcg of folic acid AND 100% of the daily value for iodine (that’ll be 150 mcg).

Iron is a tricky one. The research is mixed regarding the benefits or drawbacks of iron supplementation during pregnancy – and the evidence is currently insufficient to recommend that all pregnant women take an iron supplement. On the other hand, iron-deficiency during pregnancy is one of the most common preventable pregnancy complications. If you have been diagnosed with anemia in the past, it might be a good idea to ask your doctor about checking your hemoglobin before you conceive and treating anemia now. If you suspect that your iron intake is low, you could do a three day food diary and check out how close your current intake comes to the daily value. Check labels to see if your daily intake comes up to 100% of the Daily Value. If you’re usually getting 100%, don’t fret unless your doctor tells you otherwise. But if you’re generally getting less than 75% of the Daily Value, it might be worthwhile to include iron in your supplement.

Calcium is the third nutrient that some women may not get quite enough of during pregnancy. If you’re a milk drinker who currently drinks 3 cups (24 oz, not 3 glasses) of milk a day, you probably don’t need to worry. But if you only have milk in your cereal, you may not be getting enough calcium. Like iron and folic acid, though, calcium values are listed on the nutrition facts labels. So, do that three day food diary, count up your calcium intake. If you’re usually getting less than 75% of the daily value, you might want to consider supplementing some calcium as well.

Now that you know what your supplement should contain, it’s time to choose your supplements.

I generally recommend starting with a multivitamin that contains at least 400 mcg folic acid and 150 mcg iodine. If your daily intake of iron and calcium is less than 75% of the daily value, go ahead and look for a supplement that contains 100% of the daily value for iron and at least 20% of the daily value for calcium. If you already have anemia or if your calcium intake is less than 50% of the daily value, it’s probably better than you choose a multivitamin without extra calcium and iron and choose to supplement those separately instead. It’s also important to note what the multivitamin should NOT contain. It should NOT have any more than 100% of Vitamins A, D, E, and K (the four fat soluble vitamins can build up in your body and lead to toxicity – and Vitamin A, in particular, can be very dangerous for a growing baby) and it should NOT have any herbal additives.

If you’re most women, that one multivitamin should be all you need for the preconception period and during pregnancy. You should NOT take any additional vitamin, mineral, or herbal supplements unless they are prescribed by your doctor.

If you were anemic before pregnancy, your doctor will likely give you directions for how to supplement. Generally, iron-deficiency anemia is treated with a ferrous sulfate supplement containing 65 mg iron once or twice a day. You should take these as the doctor recommends, keeping in mind that “twice a day” does not mean “two pills a day.” Your body can only absorb a certain amount of iron at a time, so taking two pills at a time means one will probably just go right through. Take the iron pill with a little bit of 100% fruit juice (which contains extra vitamin C) to help you absorb the iron better.

If your intake of calcium is very low (less than 50%), you should probably be taking a separate calcium supplement. Choose calcium carbonate or calcium citrate (NOT oyster shell calcium, which can be contaminated) in a dose that will bring you up to 100% of the daily value for calcium. The calcium in the supplement will be best absorbed if it contains no more than 500 mg of calcium in each dose, and if it is accompanied by some vitamin D. I do recommend trying to keep your daily intake of Vitamin D from supplements below 2000 IU daily unless you have a documented Vitamin D deficiency and are taking Vitamin D under the supervision of a doctor – so check the labels of both the multivitamin and the calcium and make sure your daily intake will be less than 2000 IU.

In my case, I ended up with a generic men’s over 60 one-a-day multivitamin (which contains 400 mcg folic acid and 150 mcg iodine), a iron supplement (65 mg iron), and a calcium supplement (600 mg calcium and 500 IU vitamin D-yep, I know I’m losing 100 mg worth of calcium, but it’s actually cheaper for me to flush that extra 100 mg than to buy a smaller dose). I’m taking the iron primarily because the men’s one-a-day doesn’t contain iron, not because I have preexisting anemia. If I were having constipation with the iron supplement (as many women do, but I am not so far), I would take it only every other day (since it contains a little over double the daily requirement.) I take the multivitamin with breakfast, the calcium at lunch, the iron at supper, and a second calcium (actually used to correct my vitamin D deficiency, not so much for the extra calcium) right before bed.

Most of you should be able to get away with just a multivitamin – so you can breathe a sigh of relief!

And now, at last we’re done planning and ready to START TRYING!!!

Categories B3RD

Planning for a Healthy Pregnancy (Part 3)

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Even if you’ve done the three steps in Part 1 and Part 2, you’ve still got more you can do before you conceive to improve your pregnancy’s health.

4. Get immunized

Did you get all your shots as a child? Are you up-to-date on all your boosters? If you haven’t gotten or aren’t sure if you’ve gotten the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine and the Hepatitis B vaccine, now’s the time to get it done. If you didn’t get chickenpox as a child, you need the varicella vaccine too. And if you haven’t gotten a tetanus booster in the past ten years, you need one of those.

Play it safe and take your shot records along with you to your preconception appointment with your doctor and have him make sure you’re up-to-date. He may want to do some blood tests to make sure you’ve still got immunity to some of the things you were vaccinated against as a child.

Additionally, if it’s flu season when you’re thinking of trying, go ahead and get the flu vaccine. If it’s not yet flu season, don’t freak out yet, you can (and should) get your flu shot while you’re pregnant if you happen to be pregnant when the next flu shot becomes available.

I got all my shots as a child (including the MMR) and got the Hepatitis B vaccine when I first started working in healthcare. I had chickenpox three times, the last time of which rendered me immune (and allows me to experience shingles as an adult). I get a flu shot every year, this one no exception… and I cut myself badly enough that I got a Tdap (Tetanus, Diphtheria, and acellular pertusis) booster earlier this year. So no shots for me until next flu season (and another Tdap in my third trimester, since pertussis or “whooping cough” is not something I want to mess with and getting a shot myself is the best way to protect my newborn).

5. Take care of your teeth

Does this seem a weird one to you? It kinda does to me.

But it’s true. Having healthy teeth and gums can make a big difference in your pregnancy. Gum disease prior to pregnancy increases adverse pregnancy outcomes. It’s wild but true. And while you can try to get your teeth healthy during pregnancy, there isn’t really much evidence that this helps prevent those adverse pregnancy outcomes. You’ve got to get to it beforehand. So, if you haven’t had a dental cleaning in the past 6 months, get one scheduled. If you don’t already brush your teeth twice a day with fluoride toothpaste, get started. And if you aren’t flossing every single day? Find a floss or an interdental cleaner that you will use and start using it. (Flossing is the single best way to prevent or solve the gum disease that increases pregnancy risk.)

And if you’ve been putting off some dental work that needs to be done? Get it done before you start trying to get pregnant. If you have teeth that need extracted (like my wisdom teeth!), it’s tons nicer to be able to be OUT for the procedure – and they won’t do that if you’re pregnant. Maybe you just need a cavity filled? While you can get that done during pregnancy, it’s best to avoid silver-amalgam (aka mercury amalgam) fillings during pregnancy – and it’s also a good idea to avoid doing anything in the mouth that might release some of the mercury from your existing fillings into your bloodstream. So get that dental work done now!

Up-to-date on your cleanings and don’t have any work that needs done? Don’t worry about it. Keep practicing good oral hygiene; you can keep your next 6-month check up even if you’re pregnant when that comes around.

We’re on the home stretch now – I’ll be talking next about how to choose the right vitamin(s) to start taking to prepare your body for pregnancy and then we’ll be READY TO START TRYING!

Categories What's on Your Nightstand?

Nightstand (April 2014)

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It’s been a beautiful and busy month here in Wichita, what with setting out seedlings and preparing a Seder and getting close to the end of Daniel’s semester (one more month until he’s got his MBA!)

And I’m not even going to estimate how my reading has been compared to previous months. It is what it is.

This month, I read:

  • Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis with Beth Clark
    I read this with my church’s book club and was… disappointed. The writing is poor, the story told without soul. And the worst part of all was that Katie is a missionary, but I saw nothing in the book to suggest that Katie understands or shares the gospel (not that she doesn’t use the word the gospel…) I might review this in more depth later. Or I might not.
  • To Do List by Sasha Cagen
    A very fun look into the lives of dozens of people, all through the to-do lists they submitted to the author. Majorly interesting, mostly fun, occasionally crude. Let the reader be warned.
  • Charity Girl by Georgette Heyer
    Yes, I like Heyer. This one had very little romance but plenty of little laughs. Perfect.
  • Catalog Living at its most absurd by Molly Erdman
    The author pokes fun at stock photographs by writing blurbs by a fictional couple to go along with the photos. A great light read with lots of laughs-out-loud.
  • The Prenatal Prescription by P.W. Nathanielsz
    A dry but not awful look at the science behind prenatal programming. A terrible prenatal program (not because the science wasn’t sound but because the author didn’t communicate clear ways to implement the science into real life). I guess you’ll just have to wait until I write my own prenatal nutrition program :-P
  • One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp
    I finally finished this one and reviewed it. It was beautiful and frustrating. I can’t summarize it better than in my review, so you might have to check that out.
  • My Man Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
    I listened to this one (my library only had an audio version) in conjunction with this month’s Reading to Know Classics Bookclub. As usual, Wodehouse is a delight. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was a collection of short stories (not all including Jeeves and Wooster). It was nice not to have to keep track of a long story line since I was listening in the car and rarely drive for more than ten minutes at a time.

In Progress:

  • I got pregnant, you can too! by Katie Boland
    Because I’m reading the library and figured I might as well do more of the preconception books (since I’ve already read several). I will *not* be recommending this one. The author’s life is a soap opera and it’s only going to get worse. I’m considering just calling it done, even though I haven’t yet gotten to where she meets her spirit guide. Yep. Blech!
  • Paranoid Parenting: Why ignoring the experts may be best for your child by Frank Furedi
    Just started this last night, but I’m already liking it. At the same time, I’m wondering if I won’t have some issues if he starts talking nutrition. I’m fine with ignoring the experts until you start ignoring me.
  • The Gift of Health : the complete pregnancy diet for your baby’s wellness by Karin Michels
    I think this is the last book my library has on prenatal programming, for which I am glad. All the books I’ve read on it so far were published around the same time period (2003) and review the same information. Some are better written than others, but it’s still all review. This one might be the best so far, but I’m not sure I’d recommend even it.
  • The Atonement: It’s meaning and significance by Leon Morris
    Lisa wrote about this book on her last month’s nightstand and I picked it up right away. I’m moving slowly, but this is a great look at what God accomplished in salvation.
  • The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
    I’ve already read and reviewed this book – but I’m rereading because I’ll be leading a discussion on it for my church’s book club next month! Yay! I love this book and am just speeding through it.
  • Naked Economics by Charles Wheelan
    My little brother read this in his high school economics class and really liked it. And I’m reading the economics section at my library, so I picked it up. A couple chapters in, it’s a very readable and enjoyable intro to economic principles (without the math).

Don’t forget to drop by 5 Minutes 4 Books to see what others are reading this month!

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