Signs

Signs of a good weekend:

Smiles:

Face painting, half rubbed off from a long nap, and Oreo crumbs around the mouth:
Face painting, meticulously maintained even with a long nap, and more smiles:
No pictures of Asher. That's a sign of a good weekend for him. He was far too busy to pause for a photo.

It's Not There!

Asher has taken to telling me, "It's not there!" at times. Daily recently. What he means is "It's not fair!" It never fails to crack me up.

Isaiah can count five objects out loud. He says, "Wa, Two, Fee, Foe, Fi!" The first thing he counted was fruit snacks and he was very pleased to learn that counting his fruit snacks earned him a second bag of them (an unheard of treat). He tried the trick again today and was sad to see that it didn't work again.

Naomi threw an hour long fit yesterday including many tears and self-inflicted solitude because I wouldn't let her keep all 20 of the papers she brought home from school. I made her pick five of them to keep. It was a sad, sad day. I can't wait until next week when her teachers send home another pack of papers.

I am feeling a little more normal these day (well, normal for pregnant anyway). I ate an egg salad sandwich the other day - which I would normally hate, and I really enjoyed the smell of the raw ground beef I was browning. So I'm definitely pregnant.

Richard is working like mad, but it's so nice to have him working from home. Sometimes a little too nice - it's hard to leave him alone and let him work.

Ballerinas and Birdies

Here's some of the latest art from Naomi. This piece is actually she and I. I am wearing green and she is wearing purple. We both have pink hair. Note that she even drew little blue pieces of tape on each of the corners. "Because it's a picture of a picture taped to a piece of paper."

The Worth Grand Prix

Today we needed a good, free, hyper activity for the kids. And those are hard to come by.

A little (well, actually, a lot) of cardboard + tape + the dining room table + a bin of toy cars + 3 crazy kids = FUN





Once the cars really started flying, we realized that we needed a crash pad at the bottom to protect the poor wall.

Naomi with her "trophy" and prize winning car.

Fun, fun, fun!

Too Much Law & Order

Yesterday morning I woke up feeling pretty good. I think I've got a handle on this morning sickness finally (now that's it's down to only being *morning* sickness). I got the kids all dressed and ready to go since everybody has school on Thursday's - which means almost non-stop drop-offs and pick-ups for me until noon. Then I ran up to shower and actually get myself dressed for the first time in about two weeks.

While I was in the shower, Isaiah came into my room and sat by the bathroom door (which was open). He whined "Mama" at me a couple of times, but for the most part I ignored him. Shower time is sacred! But pretty soon I noticed that Isaiah was kind of whimpering. I figured Asher had done something mean to him and that he'd get over it soon. But as I got out of the shower I realized that he was pretty upset. He wouldn't stop whining and whimpering and almost crying. He wanted me to pick him up. It was so uncharacteristic that I went ahead and picked him up and cuddled him for a second (buck naked), figuring that would solve the problem. But it didn't. He started full on crying. He wouldn't let me set him down. I started to worry. Was he sick again? He had just been pretty sick four or five days ago. I went looking for throw-up. None to be found upstairs. Was he physically hurt? I tried to ask him but every time I asked him, "Does your foot hurt?", or "Does your head hurt?" the answer was "yes" to it all. Finally I started worrying that he was emotionally traumatized by something. What if something happened downstairs that Isaiah had witnessed? Maybe a serial killer was downstairs slowly massacring my family and saving me for last! (This is the too much Law & Order part)

I braved going downstairs. Shockingly, all was fine. I asked Asher if he knew of anything that had happened to Isaiah, he said no. I asked Richard (who was working in the basement) if he knew of anything that had happened. No.

Anyway, on and on. He really was completely inconsolable. Snacks, cuddles, treats ... nothing could stop the crying. Finally I called our pediatricians office expecting that I'd really have to sell this to the nurse on call as a valid reason for an immediate visit. When I told her he had been crying for an hour and it was unusual, to her credit, she told me to come right in to the office.


So off Isaiah and I went, him crying all the way, to the pediatricians office. (Reason #486 Why It's Great To Have A Husband That Works From Home: leaving not-sick kids at home when taking sick kids to the doctor) It took a whopping 5 seconds with the doctor for her to see that Isaiah had a raging double ear infection. The poor, poor little guy. He was in so much pain!

So now he's highly medicated with antibiotics and Tylenol. And he feels much better - except for the 30 minutes before it's time for more Tylenol. And I feel like a terrible Mom for not having taken him to the doctor sooner when he had that "cold" last week. And I know that he might not have had anything wrong with his ears if I had taken him in earlier - ear infections apparently come on fast - but I still feel like a crap Mom. How can you not when your baby is in pain?

This is another one of those times when nothing really horrible happened, but it was a totally traumatic experience for me anyway. Trying to get dressed while holding a screaming two year old, a frantic call to the school to cancel speech therapy, driving to the doctor with a screaming two year old, sitting in a waiting room with a screaming two year old - all these experiences are traumatic for a Mom.

Man! This is a tough job!

Progesterone ... No thanks!

So here's the whole story. Because 1) Maybe it'll help someone else and 2) If I don't write it down I'll block it out completely and forget it ever happened.

I had a miscarriage about 8 months ago. It was my second miscarriage. Two miscarriages out of five pregnancies is actually not terrible odds. I think the latest statistic I heard was that one in four pregnancies end in miscarriage. So I'm really within the average, but it still worries us. (Us being my doctor and I) So as soon as I learned I was pregnant again, my doctor and I decided to put me on Progesterone just to be extra safe. Progesterone is basically the hormone that makes the babies. My levels of Progesterone were already normal, but "on the low side of normal". So I went ahead and started taking it.

At first as soon as I took the pill (twice a day) I would get super dizzy. I had to lay down for a solid hour after I took each pill. But after about 5 days that faded away, much to my relief. But then I noticed that I was nauseated all day every day. Not terrible or anything, but there was no relief. I've never been nauseated all day before when I was pregnant. Sure there's plenty of nausea, but there's always some time during the day where I'd get some relief. Usually between 11am and 4pm or so. After a few days of that the nausea got worse and worse. Pretty soon I was in bed all day. And not able to keep anything down. And here I am a week later having not eaten anything more than rice and Saltine's (in very, very small doses) all week. I have no energy since I've eaten basically nothing and I still feel amazingly nauseated.

I even spoke with my doctor about half way through this week. He recommended I not quite but perhaps take the pills both at night right before bed. It didn't help. He said I have 10 days left that he wants me to take these pills and that if I can't give him 10 days, at least give him 5.

I made it 2 more days. And then I quite. Because not eating and quickly loosing weight can't be good for the baby (I lost 6 pounds in the last week). Because I prayed about it and strongly feel that my baby will be fine. Because I am a mother - and I can't be a mother if I can't move. And, I admit it, I'm tired of feeling like crap. I was hoping that I'd feel much better today since I didn't take the pills last night, but unfortunately I only feel a little bit better. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

If I've learned anything from this experience, it's that I am a lucky woman. My pregnancies are normally not so bad. Sure, I'm always tired and sometimes nauseated - but not this bad. I can't imagine if I had to live like this for a solid 3 months or more. I sure wouldn't have plans for as many children as I do if it was always this hard.

I'm not saying that nobody should ever take Progesterone. I'm sure there are times when it is absolutely a miracle drug. And times when all these side effects are totally worth it because it's the only way to make a baby. But I was taking it "just to be safe". So, for me, the awful side effects weren't equal to the possible benefits.

So, that's the story. Now, assuming I start feeling better tomorrow, I'm going to start blocking this all out. I'm really pretty good at that. I'll have forgotten all the details in just a few months. It's one of the good parts of not having a good memory.

And More Snow

Yeah - those are icicles. Three foot long icicles. Which we thought were cool until we started hearing stories about roof collapses. Then we went outside and knocked those suckers down.


See how the road behind the kids is actually kinda clear? That was before it snowed another foot yesterday. It's not clear anymore. But the high tomorrow is suppose to be a whopping 36 - so there's hope.

Buried

I'm buried under mounds of snow and upset stomach. Today was a true blizzard. At times we could hardly see the houses across the street. The Government is closed for the 4th day in a row - that's some kind of record. The backyard is so deep in snow that instead of stepping down two steps out the backdoor, you'd have to step UP (if you were brave enough to go that way). The natives (children), who have done so well up till now, have finally become restless. And every time I move it upsets my stomach even more. I'm actually hoping that it's the flu. At least if it's the flu there's an end in site.

We told the kids about the baby this evening since I've been so sick. We figured they have a right to know why Mom has kind of checked out of life lately. It was so fun to see the looks on Asher and Naomi's faces. We were all sitting on my bed and when we told them Naomi's jaw dropped and Asher started bouncing up and down. Naomi asked if it was coming out right now and Asher asked if the baby was Poochy. It was adorable. Isaiah just happily sat on my lap, having no idea that he'll be slowly kicked out of that prime real estate over the next 7 months.

When September Comes

I had a doctor's appointment today and he told me that my official due date is September 18. I had been thinking it was October sometime. And then as I was driving home I heard Green Day singing their song When September Ends.

Funny, eh?


Not so funny is the fact that they just canceled school for the rest of this week. :( And Monday is a holiday. So the kids don't go back to school until a week after tomorrow.

Not funny, eh?

The Blizzard of 2010

I've been mockingly calling it "The Blizzard of 2010" for two days, and then today I turned on the TV and there was the bold headline. It's officially "The Blizzard of 2010". And, no, it's not over yet.

Richard has been religiously clearing our sidewalk every hour on the hour in the hopes that he can stay ahead of the storm. But it's been snowing at an average of an inch per hour for about 24 hours now. Nobody can keep up with that!
The kids love it, of course. Richard changed his plan from building an igloo to building a snow ramp for the kids to slide on. And it wasn't too hard a task since there was already a huge snow drift in front of the house.
In the picture below Naomi is about on ground level, and Asher is only about half way up the hill Daddy nicely packed down for them.

Here's Naomi at the top of the hill, with Richard at the bottom - you can see that it's nearly up to his shoulders. And Asher is stuck in the snow.
And here's a fun video of Naomi sliding down. You can see that Asher is totally stuck in the snow. Shortly after I turned off the camera Richard pulled him out. But poor Asher's boots stayed buried in the snow. And that began the series of sock changes. He went through three pairs of socks because the snow kept sucking his boots off no matter how tight I strapped them. Richard suggested that I duct tape them on. Maybe we'll try that tomorrow. Also in this video you can hear Isaiah saying, "In, Mama." repeatedly and me ignoring him.



I'm not sure what the latest total snowfall is, but they've been saying that this storm is even worse than they expected. Just when they thought it would start calming down, it kicked up a notch. School is already canceled for Monday and Tuesday.

Time at home with the kids is nice, but if we can't make it out of the house until Wednesday that'll make 4 straight days of being inside together. That's a lot.

The News

20 inches of snow are expected here in the next 24 hours. They're calling it a "Top 5 storm", meaning it will be among the 5 biggest storms on record here. The grocery store was a total zoo yesterday. School was canceled for Friday by Thursday afternoon - and it isn't going to start snowing until this afternoon (Friday). People are kinda acting like the end of the world is coming.

I had a "nickel auction" last night - guests each bring $5 worth of nickels and 3 things to auction off. Only 4 people came which was a big bummer. But it was still fun to sit around and chat with girlfriends. The biggest buzz was created by a pair of earrings that went for 45 nickels.

Our family has big plans for building an igloo tomorrow.

And lastly, I am finally with child. The latest Worth should arrive late September to early October. I am flat out admitting that I hope this is a girl. Because, one, my family goes girl, boy, boy, girl (and I'm that #4 girl!) so it would be fun to repeat that, and two, because this baby is sleeping in Naomi's purple princess castle room whether it's a boy or girl. We are so excited. I've only been to the Dr. once yet, but things look good. I actually managed to keep this a secret from most of my friends and family for a whopping three weeks. That's a new record for me. I'm not very good at keeping this kind of thing to myself. It's too exciting! Plus, I feel like poo and I want people to know why I'm suddenly a total party pooper. The Dr. has me on progesterone (just to be safe) twice a day and each time I take that little round pill it makes me so dizzy that I have to lay down for an hour. But I'm not complaining (much) because I'm so happy that this baby is finally on his/her way.

And that's the news.

Perspective

The forecast today said that it would start snowing in the afternoon, that the snow would start sticking after dark, and that there would be accumulation of 1 to 3 inches.

I was feeling pretty stressed about that since I have Young Women's tonight - putting me out of the house until 9:00 or later. It was on my mind all day - how scary that drive home late at night could be. I don't have 4WD or even anti-lock brakes on the van. Maybe I should take Richard's car? Maybe I should claim to be sick?

But around 3:00 today it was decided that our Young Women's activity was canceled. By 4:00ish when it started snowing I was feeling very cozy. No more stress. I looked out my kitchen window at the beautiful snow falling gently and felt warm and protected. I felt safe and even comforted by the snow. I felt loved by a Heavenly Father who sent such beautiful weather.

Then I remembered that Richard is still at work and is planning on staying late. So he'll have to drive home after dark. And the snow lost all it's beauty. It didn't feel safe and comforting - it felt harsh and menacing. Is it starting to stick? What if the wet spots from the previous weekends snow melting freeze over and then there's ice with snow on top of that? Maybe Richard should come home right now? Maybe it's too late.

I'm sure when Richard gets home the snow will go back to being soft and cozy and beautiful. It's amazing to me though how my feelings for the same thing can change just depending on my state of mind. I know I'm kind of a worry-er. But do I do this to myself very often without even realizing?

How often do I loose sleep (or peaceful daytime) over what are really insignificant things when if I just chilled out for a bit things would be fine?