Our (Neurodiverse) Family

So, fellow Itchy Mom Hilary Boyer  did a hilarious post on Top Ten "Signs" You Have ICP  and I decided to do my own. Of course, having ICP is no joking matter, but it's important to have a sense of humor during hard times, otherwise you go insane. I give you "...you might be an Itchy Mom" in the style of Jeff Foxworthy. If you know what Sarna is and have been tempted to name a child after it...you might be an Itchy Mom. If you have difficulty relating to women who go past their due date because you were never allowed past 37 weeks....you might be an Itchy Mom. If the most romantic thing your husband can do for you is scratch the itchy spots and/or give you a Sarna rubdown....you might be an Itchy Mom. If the OB office staff knows you by name, face, and ferocious scratching...you might be an Itchy Mom. If you have scared medical professionals with the scabbed scratches on your extremities...you might be an Itchy Mom. When you get your inducti...

Thank you everyone for reading and sharing my last post! It means so much to me and our efforts are paying off! I was interviewed to be on Good4Utah and hopefully my segment will air tonight either at six or ten p.m. Check me out then! Well, mostly check out the Kate footage because she's so darn cute. She actually cooperated for the most part during the interview, thank goodness. 

Update: I was contacted by Good4Utah and they interviewed me on 5/27 for their show. Stay tuned for more info :) I am frustrated. So, you know how I'm organizing an event for ICP Awareness Day here in Utah? Well, I have been writing to media outlets (newspapers, news channels, etc.) to tell them about my event and asking if they can do a story on Intrahepatic Cholestasis of Pregnancy (symptoms, risks, treatment, etc.) to help spread awareness. Now, if you don't know what ICP is, it's a liver disorder where bile production is slowed down and stopped, causing bile salts to form, which causes severe itching. Other symptoms include: upper right quadrant pain, fatigue, jaundice, dark urine, pale stools, etc. It can cause premature labor, fetal distress, meconium passage, maternal hemmhoraging, and stillbirth. You would think that the media here in Utah would snatch on to this story, considering how we are pretty much the birthing capitol of the United Stat...

Check it out! A video of me! This is my first video where I'm actually...talking to people. My husband took this, and forgive my poor eye contact...I'm a little shy. Enjoy :) I make really weird faces.

Kate's maternal instincts have been growing recently. She will feed her toys. Chocolate milk, if you were wondering. But remembers to feed herself too Put them in the stroller. Snuggle her baby in bed. Don't strangle Baby, please! Have her dolly on her lap in the swing. Push her kitty in the swing. She'll even push real babies in the swing. Have them in her lap. She BEGGED to hold him.  I suppose she is mimicking me, which is further confirmation that I'm doing right by her. Or maybe she's telling me that she wants me to give her a baby to play with. True story: when my brother was born, I thought my mom had him so he could be MY baby. And Mom was worried that I would be jealous of him. These acts of nurturing are not limited to toys and real babies. They also extend....to tomatoes. Observe: Tucking the tomato in...with an exercise band. She even made sure Tomato was buckled in! Let's take ...

Apparently this is from a Newsweek cover What's the perfect mother? Well, according to the internet, the perfect mother... Has a natural birth because epidurals are EVIL!!! Breastfeeds with no trouble at all. She is not poisoning her baby with formula Her baby sleeps through the night right away. Makes EVERYTHING from scratch, including baby food. Oh, and it's organic because NO CHEMICALS FOR THE BABY!!! Uses cloth diapers exclusively. Disposables EVIL! NO SCREEN TIME!  This is by no means comprehensive, but this is a taste of what you will find in the mommy blogging world. News flash: the perfect mother does not exist. But good mothers exist in all shapes and forms :) I was totally going to have a natural birth, and I did everything "right" to have one. I was like Wendy in What to Expect When You're Expecting , did I look like someone who wanted to drug my baby?! Of course, then I had to be induced early. After a few hours on pitoc...

Apparently, today was Mental Illness Day...whatever that means. I hate saying that I have a mental illness. There's the stigma of course: "But you seem so happy! How can you possibly have depression?"; "If you really had (insert diagnosis here) then why do you seem so normal?"; "You just need to have more faith!"....and so on and so forth. Of course, my various diagnoses certainly classify me as mentally ill--depression, anxiety, and PTSD. Geez, I sound like I should be in a room with padded walls, not a happily married stay-at-home mom! Truth of the matter is, mental health issues are much more common than most people realize. Everyday, you will walk by someone who is struggling with them to varying degrees. Are they over-diagnosed? Possibly, but I think that we're just more aware of it now than we were fifty years ago. Do I have a mental illness? *cringes* Yes, but I am doing everything in my power to not let it define me while trying to ...

Today was allergy testing day! It was supposed to be last Wednesday, but they had a scheduling mix-up. Yeah, didn't find out about the mix-up until I got there...never mind that I had to drive in the rain and get lost a few times finding the place, but they were apologetic about the whole thing and scheduled Kate for this morning. Waiting, waiting Luckily we didn't have to wait very long at all for Kate to be seen. Kate did not like getting her weight and height checked--it was different than how it's done at her pediatrician's office. After getting checked in, again, we didn't have to wait long for the allergist to see Kate. The nice thing was I know the allergist--he was in one of my old wards in Houston when he was in medical school, and then we were in the same ward as his parents. He was on the referral list from Kate's pediatrician, and since I already knew he trained at one of the best medical schools around and that he's very nice, why no...

I am not pregnant, but it's related! You know that liver disorder I got when I was pregnant with Kate? The one that my mom, grandma, and aunt had too? It's official name is Intrahepatic Cholestasis of Pregnancy, but mostly we call it ICP (no, not Insane Clown Posse) or cholestasis. The main symptom is intense itching (believe me, that's an understatement) and can cause things like premature labor, fetal distress, meconium passage, maternal hemorrhaging, and stillbirth. Not much is known about it, other than it runs in families and is bad news, and there are still health care providers who don't know much about it. If you're friends with me on facebook, you have probably seen me post about it constantly and you're tired of me posting it.  But speaking of facebook, there's a group of us--it's called ICP Care/Itchy Moms. ICP Awareness Day is coming up next month (June 10, to be exact) and I have been asked to organize an event for ICP Awareness ...

Stephan and I came up with this parody to the chorus of "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" from The Sound of Music . This is dedicated to exhausted parents everywhere. Enjoy Climb over mommy Spill your sippy Give up afternoon naps Fine! Just watch TV! If you don't remember the tune....

Oh Kate, where do I begin? Will Grandma finally have her pianist? Her intelligence never ceases to amaze me. It seems like she's learning at least one new word a day. Here's some of the things she can do and say: --recognizing letters (A, X, M, V to name a few) --Sing most of the alphabet song --Sings "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" --Recognizes shapes (circle, square, diamond, heart, rectangle) --Colors --She sometimes refers to her ball as "ballon" (French word for ball) --repeats almost everything we say (have to be careful *laughs*) --Pats my cheek and says, "S'okay Mom." --Pretends. One day, she got my folding music stand out, put a blanket over it, and called it a Christmas tree. --Likes tucking stuffed animals/toys in and kissing them good-night --Can say "Good night!" --Requests The Piano Guys when we're in the car --Can pray with assistance from us. --Can't reach it? She'll jus...