Thursday, April 29, 2010

Interview With a Four Year Old

Inspired by the pregnancy and birth of my first son, I started this company. I have pictures with him in the cradle swing surrounded by tons of Prego Planners and store shipments…same with my second son. And since the beginning, I have always imagined in the back of my mind, being able to pass the company on to my children. Well, that was with the expectation that we would have a girl. And since it looks like there will be strictly frogs and snails and puppy-dogs’ tails running around this house, I had decided that there would just come a point when I would have to sell the business. That is until I discovered the incredible talent of my four year old.

Though he doesn’t know squat about pregnancy, his interview skills are through the roof! If you can answer his questions, then by all means…you’re hired! Donald Trump has nothing on my little B-man. With him as my company recruiter, we will be equipped with the best of the best to run this enterprise! However, now that I think about it, if that is the means in which we are hiring…then I’m fired!

You may know this interview process that I speak of. It’s something that my son puts me through daily to test my knowledge …and my patience. I often wonder if he is laughing inside. It goes something like this:

B: “Mommy, can I have some apple juice?”
Me: “I’m sorry Sweets, but we are out of apple juice.”

B: “Why?”
Me: “Because you drank all of it.”
B: “Why?”

Me: “Because you were thirsty.”

B: “Why?”

Me: “Because you must have played hard.”

B: “Why?”

Me: “Because you like to play hard.”

B: “Why?”

Me: “Because God made little boys that way.”

B: “Why?”
Me: “Because God is a creative God.

B: “What does ‘creative’ mean?”

Me (sifting through my “mommy dictionary): “It means being able to make neat things.”

B: “Why?”

Me (losing my patience): “Son, I’m sorry, but I don’t know why.”

B: “Why?”

Me (lost my patience): “I JUST DON’T KNOW. I’M SORRY. OKAY?!”

B: “Why are you sorry?”

Me (to distract him from the current conversation): “Would you like a cookie?”

B: “Yes! I want a cookie with some apple juice!”

And here we go again….

Now, take and implement that type of interview system in large corporations and in our government and that puts a much higher standard on qualifications!

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Walking a "Faint Line"


I remember lying in bed one afternoon after arriving back home from a week-long vacation in San Diego. Suddenly, I had the "feeling" that I might be pregnant. Since we had been trying for some time, I jumped out of bed, ran to my supply of pregnancy tests (as I took them often) and immediately went through the "pregnancy potty procedure". Within seconds, the test showed positive!

My second pregnancy was a different story. While we had been talking about having a second child, we were anticipating the wait of becoming pregnant to be just the same as it was the first time. For weeks, I awaited the arrival of darling Mother Nature. After being two weeks late, I took a pregnancy test which showed negative. At three weeks late, I took another pregnancy test which also delivered a negative pregnancy sign. Finally, at four weeks late, I took yet another pregnancy test and it slowly showed a positive. When I arrived at my first doctor's visit, I was seven weeks pregnant and the home pregnancy tests almost never admitted to it.

So what happens when you are in that type of situation or when you receive a "faint line" on your home pregnancy test? Dr. Tracey Telles, obstetrician and fertility specialist, explains:

That depends. For a home pregnancy test to give you a positive result, your body has to be making a detectable level of the hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). But not all pregnancy tests can detect the same amount of hCG; a sensitive test is one that turns positive even if a low amount of the hormone is present. The more sensitive a pregnancy test is, the earlier it will show a positive result.

If the test you're using is only faintly positive, it may not be very sensitive. If you still have the box, it should say somewhere what the test's sensitivity is — the lower the number, the better the test. For example, a test with a sensitivity of 20 IU/L (milliInternational Units per Liter) will tell if you're pregnant sooner than a test with a sensitivity of 50 IU/L. A good rule of thumb is that the more expensive a pregnancy test is, the more sensitive it's likely to be. But you should still read the side of the box to see what the kit says.

Many women get a faintly positive result if they're not as far along as they expected. If this turns out to be the case for you, taking another test in two or three days should give you more exact results. Most home urine tests should be positive by the time your period is due if your body is making the normal amount of hCG.

If your test is faintly positive for a few days and then turns completely negative, you may have had a very early miscarriage. Experts estimate that about 20 to 30 percent of all pregnancies end in miscarriage, so unfortunately this is very common.