Pregnancy and Pills

    If you're like me then you're weary of popping anything into your mouth without knowing exactly what it is, what the possible side effects could be, and having a very good reason to take it. Modern medicine is a wondrous thing that saves lives, no doubt, but I don't think I'm taking a big leap when I say all good things in moderation . . . especially medicine.

Duh, that's why they have a thing called dosage. Dosage sounds reaaaaally weird if you say it about 10 times in a row. Sounds creepy and strange.

   I think going through three pregnancies now and breastfeeding two babies so far has led me to be far more aware of the effects many drugs may have on you. I think a lot of us get used to the idea of using meds from the time we were little tiny generous things spreading our germs to every other living being, wiping our noses on our sleeves, and smearing hand sanitizer all over.

     Now, it should be noted that I'd be in a hellish pit if it weren't for drugs. Zofran for my terrible morning sickness and gallbladder problems with N, morphine post-surgery, vicodin for a raging tooth infection, claritin for my raging allergies, and zoloft for PPD after little E.

  But sometimes I think we can get so wound up in our trusty prescriptions and over-the-counter wonders that we forget there are alternatives. We forget there is risk. We forget that sometimes they really just don't know what something is going to do to our bodies as it hasn't been on the market long enough yet to make more than a very (hopefully) well-studied, educated guess.

  I'm sitting up at almost 5 am now. Unable to sleep (this has been getting worse for several weeks anyway). I most certainly have a sinus infection (ugh) and a toothache that may or may not be related to the sinus pressure trying to make my face explode. I have my handy-dandy list of approved medications from the OBGYN but I like to double up with my own research. Before my first, it never would've occurred to me that some OTC drugs (like ibuprofen) aren't recommended during pregnancy. Since I've had time to burn tonight between pinterest, candy crush, and messing around with the blog template I figured I'd collect all the helpful things I've found or read before right here on this post for anyone that wants a quick reference:

Taking Medicine During Pregnancy - WebMD

Pregnancy and Medicines Fact Sheet - Women'sHealth.gov

Safe Pregnancy Remedies - Fit Pregnancy

Medication and Pregnancy - CDC

Herbs and Pregnancy - American Pregnancy Association

Breastfeeding and Medications: What's Safe?- Mayo Clinic

Selected List of Medications: AAP Approval, PRC, and LRC - Kellymom.com
     *PRC(Pregnancy Risk Category)
      *LRC(Lactation Risk Category)

LactMed: A Database on Drugs and Lactation

      Disclaimer: Your midwife and/or OB is always your best initial resource for this information. God and Jesus know that I have no clue what kind of mutations, diseases, or health history you might have. Don't doubt that. If you're not sure about what they are telling you then your second best resource is going to be the second opinion of another medical professional (yes, that means midwife and/or OB) and that's probably still your best bet before the generalities of the interwebz for a good while. 

     I just saved you a whole 10 minutes of googling.

     I'm off to see if a nice warm bath, a dose of tylenol, a smidgen of saline solution, and some lavender smells might finally do it for me before the sun (and the little humans) get up for the day.


Goodnight??

SAHM + College + iPad?

OK, I remember being in elementary and middle school. I wasn't allowed to use a pen until highschool for the most part. Pencils. I like pencils.

But things are seriously changing.

After looking at all my options I'm going (primarily) the etextbook route this semester. My macbook needs several upgrades that are more than I can afford right now so I'm also getting an iPad.

I did MUCHOS research for my classes, future courses, and what other tools I could use or would need to see how cost sensible this was. Basically, hardbacks from the bookstore would've been 800ish depending on if I could get them used or new (closer to 900 new). So. Wrong. Through some finagling on half.com it was going to be down to 600. I decided to look into the ereader route to see if I couldn't save a penny and make my life easier (keeping up with books, notebooks, and pens, and other crap with the toddler . . . ohlawd). I found out pretty fast that nookstudy, which is what my school's bookstore offers the etextbooks through, does NOT even work on the freakin' nook! What??

So, I love Mac anyway and decided to google the possibilities with the iPad. Initially, it was all very contrary. Slowly I found a couple links and blogs with great information. Basically, the whole ereader for college thing is still a work in progress but this semester all but one of my classes has the etextbooks available. Each of the programs I found allows you to use an iPad, PC, or a regular Mac. Perfect!!

So now, with one hardback, one paperback, and 5 etextbooks (6 month "rental") my cost is down to just under 400!

Now some say the iPad is pricey sure. Right now I'm kind of bummed just because I know the iPad 3 is on it's way and I can't wait for it or for the lower prices on the iPad 2 since it may not come out until just before my midterms. Oh well. The total cost to repair my Macbook Pro is something like 800 dollars right now. I had relinquished myself to getting a basic, cheap, but decent PC notebook (ewwie ewwie ewwww) and I was going to end up spending around 600 for that plus money for a new printer plus some other software I needed for the Windows computer to meet my needs.


Then I found all of this:

Kno

Coursesmart

Amazon/Kindle for iPad

Pages

Things

Articles

iHomework

Flashcards


List of FREE Apps

So, literally, I've eliminated half the crap I bought my freshman year.

I'm not the typical student. I'm taking online classes and I'm a SAHM (stay at home mom). 

iPad = textbooks, flashcards, notebooks, pens, highlighters, research (via newspapers, articles, or the web), calendar, planner, organizer, alarm/reminders, sticky notes, calculator, dictionary, blackboard

Not to mention the non-school stuff . . . social networking, blogging, games and entertainment for me. learning games and entertainment for the toddler, a cookbook, workout planner, ebay, news, music, misc. reading . . .

All in one spot?? I'll take it.


Really, the only downside for me is being able to have all my pictures to update, edit, share, and store all in one place. Oh wait! They have adobe photoshop express, shutterfly for ipad, photobucket for ipad, and dropbox. It's not perfect using my husband's PC desktop but once we get a Mac desktop (the plan!) and my macbook pro is fixed up I will be workin' it for REALZ.

In the end, I think I'd rather spend the 800+ on the ipad, ebooks, and a few greats apps and accessories (they keyboard and smart cover, anyone?) instead of a load of giant textbooks and a slew of supplies from walmart!

It definitely can't hurt to try it.