Cheerio Confessions

Lisa just left a few minutes ago. It was a nice little visit to break up my week. :) I can't say it enough, I just love her. Today was a nother painless injection. Although I'm sure it will hurt later. Tiny was sound asleep when Lisa tried to get his heartrate. We tried shaking my belly and poking but Tiny wasn't having any of it. Here are the stats for the week:

I can't believe it's only Tuesday. I feel like it should be Thursday or Friday.

I'm grumpy today...for a lot of reasons. Some of those reasons are valid and a big deal. Some of those reasons are more of annoyances and the "icing on the cake". I guess this is my way of warning you. I'm going to do some updating but it will likely be heavily sprinkled with whining and pity parties. You have been warned. ;)

I'm still having the contractions/major irritablities every 20 minutes or so. I called Dr. D's office yesterday to make sure that I shouldn't be doing anything differently. The first nurse I talked to tried to reassure me but I persisted because I didn't feel comfortable with the answers I was getting. She finally said she'd talk to Dr. D and then she'd call me back. A few hours later Lori, one of my favorite of all Dr. D's nurses, called me back. She must have talked to me for 5-10 minutes. Answering my questions and just generally reassuring me. I felt so much better after talking to her. She didn't "poo-poo" me or blow me off at all. When I asked her if I should be doing anything differently at home or if there's anything more medically we can do. She said that we are doing everything medically we can right now. She said that there's a chance I may stay dilated to 1 cm for the rest of the pregnancy and I should try not to worry about it but she understands why I would. She said at home I should stay down more than I have been. She said to lay on my left side, push the fluids and only get up to use the bathroom. *sigh* At this point if staying down all day and only getting up to use the bathroom will keep Tiny inside, then that's what I'll do.

I also talked to her about the disaster that was PT last week. She confirmed that Dr. D had intended for them to just do heat and massage, however, she also agrees that going back at this point would be a horrible idea. So the only option I have for my back pain at this point are my pain meds. And while I hate the idea of taking those, the idea of my preterm labor getting worse from the stress caused by the pain is a bigger concern. So I'll take them.

It's only 8:26am and I already had to take my meds for my back. For some unknown reason (at least it's unknown to me) Elliott Richard decided that 3:00am was a good time to wake up. After a half an hour I was finally able to get him back to sleep. Only to have him wake up again at 4:30am and refuse to go back to sleep. Finally at 5:45am I gave up. I woke Rob up and told him that I was done. At some point last night while I was trying desperately to get Elliott Richard back to sleep, I feel asleep with my head at an odd angle on his bed. He didn't sleep. But for the briefest of moments, I did. Unfortunately, that tiny nap gave me a massive crick in my neck. Then I went and took a nice long hot shower.

I love hot showers. For that brief period, I couldn't feel the cramping and contractions. My back didn't hurt quite as bad. And I wasn't completely exhausted and overwhelmed. Sometimes I just wish I could hide in the shower and not worry about anything.

57 down ~ 78 to go
8 weeks down ~ 11 to go

I tried to write this last night but I was just too exhausted. It wasn't happening, sorry.

The good news first: We're home! :) We got home last night at about 11:00pm. I was discharged from L&D at about 10:30pm but we had to go pick Elliott Richard up from Grandma and Grandpa G's. By the time I was discharged, I was exhausted, sore and had a migraine forming.

Now the run down...

We got there at about 8:00-ish, I think. Apparently there was some freak, "full-moon effect" going on last night because triage in L&D was packed! Lucky me, I ended up in one of the antepartum rooms (which are super nice by the way). I asked the nurse if I was in an actual L&D room and she said those were actually a little bigger than the room I was in, which was pretty big all on it's own. (I think Rob may have taken pictures but I'm not sure.)

They hooked me up to the monitors. Well, at least the nurse tried to hook us up. The monitor for my contractions was a piece of cake. However, Tiny was not in the mood to be monitored and kept "running" away. Shawn, my nurse, tried for 15-20 minutes before she gave up and asked another nurse to try. The second nurse tried for another 15-20 minutes before she gave up. They finally just opted to leave the monitor on my belly and catch Tiny's heartrate whenever they could. After they gave up, I shifted to get more comfortable and I was finally able to catch Tiny! (hahaha)

So they monitored me for about 2 and a half hours. Turns out that what I'm having aren't full blown contractions, however, they are bigger irritablities. (Irritablities are like muscle spasms in my uterus.) Then in between the stronger irritablities I was having a lot of tiny irritablities. They ran a few tests. I think they reran my fFN test, which was negative again. And I think they may have checked to make sure I'm not leaking fluid. I'm not. (Yay!) Then they checked to be sure that I'm not dilating. I didn't exactly fail but these irritablities are definitely doing something. Up to this point I've been "long, thick and closed", which is exactly what we want at 28 weeks pregnant. As of last night, I'm now a "fingertip dilated", which is more or less a centimeter dilated. While that's honestly not much and I could very well stay here for the rest of the pregnancy, it's scary for me because it means that while I'm not having full-blown contractions what I am having are actually slowly accomplishing something. (sigh)

In the end, they sent me home to continue what I've been doing. Take my Procardia. Stay off my feet. Rest as much as possible. And now I'm supposed to take my Darvocet as needed for the really painful contractions and general soreness.

Honestly, what getting to me at this point is the exhaustion and soreness. My whole stomach feels like I spent the past few days doing nothing but stomach crunches. It hurts to touch it. It hurts to leave it alone. It's just plain sore. And having a muscle (or a few muscles) constantly contracting is just physically exhausting.


55 down ~ 80 to go

I called Dr. D's on-call nurse. Answered about a zillion questions. And now I'm waiting for Grandma and Grandpa G to come and pick up the boys. Off we go again. On the bright side, she did not poo-poo me. And if anything super bad should happen, at least we made it to 28 weeks.

Prayers much appreciated.

It's been a rocky weekend and it's only Saturday...that can't be good.

I've been having a lot of contractions over the past few days. I'm consistantly having at least 3/hr. Some of them aren't too bad but others HURT. I'm still torn between going in and being the "girl who cried labor" and not going in. At this point, I think I'll just wait it out. My biggest concern is that I'm absolutely exhausted. Not all of the contractions hurt but the act of having them round the clock like this, is physically exhausting. I'm not sleeping very well because of them. So I'm just exhausted.

I know more has happened. I can't remember it. I think I may just go take a nap and let Rob update you on everything later.

I will be sure to post if we decided to call/go in.

54 down ~ 81 to go

I haven't blogged today. I haven't even been online today. I've been having a lot of pain and contractions today. My back is slightly better but not much. I just generally feel "off". I've been told to go in to L&D by friends. Rob is leaning that way. I'm concerned that I'm going to be dubbed the "girl who cried labor".

52 down ~ 83 to go

It's official! We've made it to 28 weeks! Tiny's survival rate has just gone up to 90% if birth were to take place today. Yay!!! I am also now officially in the 3rd Trimester!!! I feel as if we are in the home stretch now.

What Tiny is up to this week: You know how you’ve been feeling a bit like a barn with legs? Well, that feeling won’t subside before… well, you know, when you finally give birth. For the time being, you’ve got yourself a baby in the business of collecting fat and lots of it! In spite of the dubious joys of being a human-barn, this baby fat business is very serious and you’ve got to put up with it because it’s going to keep your little porker warm and healthy after birth. Other good stuff from inside: their eyes are doing lots of blinking this week because they’re now able to respond to light and dark. Also, their industrious little bone marrow is now a major construction site for developing red blood cells, while their super-cute adrenal glands are actually producing androgen and estrogen—which will stimulate your hormones to begin milk production. Can you say, “Moo?”

Tiny has been moving up a storm lately. Especially since I've been recovering from pneumonia. I think the change in my voice (it was super deep and wraspy) scared Tiny. When I would talk movements would stop, almost as if Tiny was confused by this new voice. lol I don't have any belly pictures for 26 or 27 weeks. I was just too sick and out of it. I kept trying to get them done but it was more effort than I had the energy for. I'm sure Tiny will understand someday. :)

Today started out so nicely. Granted I had to literally drag myself out of bed because I've been so exhausted lately but other than that, a good morning.

I had my first (and last) physical therapy appointment today at 12:45pm. There is no way I will be doing that again. Even if I wanted to, I don't Rob would go for it. I thought I was going for heat and massage therapy...wrong! She did a basic exam (bend this way, stretch that way sort of thing), which I know she needed to do to get a baseline and whatnot. What I didn't expect was for it to hurt so badly. All I did was bend and touch my toes a few times, lean back a few times and a stretch 3x for 30 seconds. After I did the stretches she wanted me to get up and try this belt thing. I couldn't do it. I literally could not get off the table.

Now I have a high tolerance for pain but this was un-Godly. On that lovely scale of 1-10, my pain was way past 10. I just laid there and cried. She (the PT) wanted to get heat on it but it was a struggle for me to move. After rolling me on my side (at that point you could have ripped my arms off and I'm not sure I would have noticed), she was able to get the heat on my back. Then after a few minutes (I have no idea how long it was.), I was able to sit up. Then after sitting with the heat for a few minutes, I was finally able to get up.

That was 3 hours ago and I'm still in gobs of pain. I caved in and took a Darvocet and it's not even touching it. I have muscle relaxers but I'm hesitant to take them right now. Mainly because I've been having a lot of cramping with some contractions since the whole ordeal. I'm afraid if I take the muscle relaxer on top of the Darvocet that I'll be so out of it, I wouldn't be able to keep up with the contractions/cramping.

So no more PT for me. I'll have to find another way to cope with the pain for the rest of the pregnancy. *sigh* I have no idea what that other way to cope is, unless it's pain meds and muscle relaxers. Hopefully, Dr. D's office will call with some ideas.

51 down ~ 84 to go

Ah...50 days down. Slowly but surely we're getting there. We'll be 28 weeks tomorrow. The "golden number"...I'm completely thrilled! I already told Rob that I want to celebrate tomorrow. :)

I had my bi-weekly appointment with Dr. D this morning. It was scheduled at 10:30 a.m. and I thought it would be an in-and-out kind of appointment. I was wrong. We didn't have to wait very long to be seen. Although it felt like ages because I had to pee so bad. (lol) The we went back and got the BP, measurements and whatnot out of the way. Chrissy, the nurse, asked if the new Nurse Practitioner, Rhonda, could come in and see me as well as Dr. D. I said that was fine. I really like her. She's very nice and friendly. I felt really comfortable talking to her, which is unusual for me. It usually takes me a while to get comfortable with medical professionals. (Trust issues and all that jazz.)

So we talked about my contractions and the bruised/sore feeling I've had the past few days. So we talked for a while and at first she was talking about how I wasn't having "true contractions". At that point Rob got a confused expression on his face and asked why they weren't "true contractions". So then we had the whole "preterm labor history" discussion blah blah blah. So she went and spoke with Dr. D and they decided to perform and NST just in case. While we were waiting for the NST machine to become available, Lori came in because she had realized that I was due for my fFN test. (Fun fun) So we did that. Dr. D checked to make sure I'm not dilating, which I'm not. (Yippee) Then it was time for the NST.

It took nearly 45 minutes to get the number of good movements we needed. Tiny has been sleeping all day (even after the graduation cake for breakfast!) and was not in the mood to play along and move. We tried poking my belly, shaking my belly and drinking lots of ice water. Nothing. In the end, we got enough movements and only a few contractions. So we were able to come home. We're just waiting on the results of the fFN test.

Yet another 17P injection down. (Yippee!) Lisa just left a little bit a ago. It was nice to actually get to visit with her for a few minutes without having to worry about infecting her. :) All in all, it was a pretty painless visit. Seriously. The shot didn't hurt during or after, I fully expect that to change over time but for now I'm pain-free. The only hiccup was the fact that Tiny was sleeping, apparently very deeply, and unwilling to wake-up so long as we were trying. As soon as we gave up, he kicked a few times very strongly and then went back to sleep. Of course, I just ate a piece of graduation cake so it's only a matter of time before the conga line starts up. lol

BP: 100/70
Tiny's Heartrate: 120 bpm

Current shots in my arms: Freak-out factor of 5 (I hate it. It sucks. But I can turn away and close my eyes and "find my happy place".)
Current shots in my stomach: Freak-out factor of 15 (It terrifies me more than I can say.)
Current shots in my thighs: Freak-out factor of 8.5 (I was so freaked out and terrified that I almost puked. That is how bad my needle phobia is.)

On the list of Ultra-Mega-Super Crappy Things
We just learned that the new dose of Heparin (10,000 units in 1cc of fluid = 1 shot BID) that I need is persona-non-grata. Poof. Gone. None to be had. However, they do have 5,000 units in 1cc of fluid per vial, which means 2 shots to get what I should be getting in 1 shot. That means 4 shots per day!

I'm done at this point. Seriously. Stick a fork in me. I'm done. I want out. I want it to stop. I want to just be left alone with the rest of my pregnancy. No more shots. No more bed rest. No more meds. No more contractions. That's it. I can't take anymore. I've spend the morning crying and trying not to puke because of all of it. If the pharmacy calls and says that there is absolutely nothing that can be done to get around 4 shots per day, I will burst into tears. I was finally starting to get my appetite back. It's gone again. I don't even know that anything sounds good to eat at this point.

I just need a break. Why can't I catch a break? Just a tiny, little break.

Life is slowly returning to "normal". Meaning basically that I am slowly getting over my pneumonia. (But I'm still struggling a bit so please forgive the disjointed thought process of this blog. lol) Gavin is in school and will probably be returning to my mother's this evening. Rob is trying to fight off something similar to what I had. So far he appears to be winning the battle. (Prayers that he beats it quickly would be much appreciated because we really can't afford for Rob to get sick right now.) Other than that it's just life as usual here.

We are trying to find a rhythm and groove for our day-to-day lives. Obviously this is a struggle with Gavin involved to begin with. Then you throw in the bed rest, high risk pregnancy, Elliott Richard, my health, Rob's sanity and the new Spring season. Spring and fall are my favorite seasons because they are so beautiful. They are my least favorite seasons because they mean more housework. We are struggling to stay above water as it is and now we've got yard work to be done. Boys itching to go outside and play. A lilac bush that causes me horrible migraines right outside my window. The list just goes on and on.

Our neighbors have these beautiful landscaped yards that they keep up with meticulous efficiency. And I would love to have those yards but honestly, our lives simply do not afford us that luxury. I told Rob last night that we need to consider scaling down the flowers and whatnot that we do have to the simplest and most attractive option available and leave it at that. The easier the yard and yard work are for Rob...well, it's just one less thing he has to worry about.

In a few hours we have a company coming out to give us an estimate on 6x6ft white vinyl fencing for our yard. Gavin's MRDD SSA, Andrea, thinks she has found funding to get the fence paid for since Gavin is a runner. As soon as the door opens, he off for the car or into the street. Trying to get him to wait on the sidewalk is a complete impossibility at this point because when he grows bored he'll just take off. If one of our neighbors (the few he knows and we are friends with) happen to be outside, off he goes. Too bad she can't find funding to cover "The Leak". :(

Yesterday, was our sister Kate's college graduation. (Technically she's Rob's sister but I don't call them my sisters-in-law too often.) We didn't get to attend the graduation because of the bed rest. :( Kate said it was best that I didn't come though because apparently it was really hot! So while I'm sad and disappointed that I missed the ceremony, it's good that I didn't go. And I feel better knowing that Kate understands. After the ceremony we had a big family party for her at Mom & Dad G's. Rob and I went because I just transplanted myself onto their furniture for a few hours. :) It was so nice to get out of the house. Even if I was sitting in someone else's house. lol The food was delicious! (Fried chicken and pizza - yum!) The cake was even better! (Tiny definitely approved. lol) Overall, it was a pretty good day. (Minus the meltdowns from Gavin and whatnot - but I'm just not in the mood to focus on that at the moment.)

I think I may have overdone things though. Because I started to get this nagging "sore and bruised" feeling in my belly yesterday. Then last night I was having some pretty strong contractions with a lot of cervical pain even though they weren't consistent. Some of them woke me up clutching my belly. I have to call Dr. D in 15 minutes to find out my new Heparin dose anyway so I think I'll mention it then. I haven't had too many since I woke up but I woke up nauseous too, which is unusual. So who knows. Odds are they are going to want me to come in, which will throw Rob's whole day off. :(

49 down ~ 86 to go

I am completely overwhelmed. I now have what Lizze and Elliott have/had (I feel like crap) and Gavin is driving me crazy.... He will not stop talking and repeating himself. He is picking on Elliott and not listening at all.
I made the mistake of getting a game for the 360 that Gavin and I could play together. The first time he was playing it he was doing fine with the game but then Elliott touched him. Gavin completely lost it and started screaming at him and swinging his elbows around in an attempt to make Elliott go away.
All Gavin will talk about is how he wants to play the game again. I told him he doesn't get to play games when he does things like that. He could have really hurt Elliott. Gavin is just not ready for video games, even the very simple ones...
I don't know what we are supposed do. Someone out there has to know what we are supposed to do.. All of our doctors and case workers keep telling us that we have already done so much more then most parents would have done so good advice is hard to come by. We need new ideas..

My huge concerns right now are:
1)Should we let Gavin and Elliott even play together (supervised of course).
2)How do we get through to Gavin???
3) How do we do any of this without feeling guilty.
4) Do we continue to fight Lizze's ex- mother and law to protect Gavin at the expense of the entire family???
5) If we don't let Gavin and Elliott play together how do we keep them separated?
6) How do we secure ourselves financially with all we have going on?????
7) How do we protect Gavin??
8) How do we protect Elliott and Tiny???
9) When do Lizze and myself get to take care of ourselves???
10) Are we trying hard enough, if not, what can we be doing better???

These are just s few of the things I worry about everyday...There probably isn't an answer to these questions....Gavin is melting down right now because he was digging in a hole in the wall with his fingers and Lizze told him to stop. Instead of stopping he just hid around the corner and did it again. She asked him a total of 4 times and finally sent him to his room... Now he is screaming and crying in his room... I am completely lost.....

And this being my blog I am about to subject you to my theories. :) Don't you feel lucky?

Theory #1: Procreation and Fertilization
We need to evolve so that the second there is a fertilized egg that successfully implants, there is a warning. I don't care what this warning is. It could be a literal glow, like our whole belly just *lights up*. Or a light within our belly button. Heck, in keeping with the "pee on a stick" tradition, something could change with our urine. Whatever it is, it needs to be obvious. It needs to scream, "Hey you, lady! You're pregnant!" Perhaps if the pregnancy results in twins (or more) the light within the belly button could be...flashing. Something to say, "Oh and by the way, there's more than one."

Yes, I'm taking the "fun" out of finding out your pregnant. Yes, I'm making it impersonal. But you know what, if you've never struggled with the Hell that is known as "The 2ww" (The 2 Week Wait) then you don't know how much those two weeks hurt. And just how much all of those pee sticks cost! Besides, this is my crazy, messed up list of theories. :) lol

Theory #2: Notification of Sex

No. No. No. I do not mean a notification that you are going to have sex or have had sex. Hopefully you already picked up on those signals and they resulted in Theory #1.

I mean that the sex of the child (fetus/embryo - whatever) is determined at fertilization. Therefore it's perfectly reasonable to want to be notified as soon as possible as to the sex. (For those of you who wish to be "surprised" - sorry surprises have no room in my theories.)

Oh, I know! The light! (Or the urine, whichever option you went with. If you went with urine and you have boy/girl twins then your urine would be purple.) The light will be blue or pink depending upon the sex of the child. And if it does happen to be boy/girl twins it would flash pink and blue, alternating of course. Yes, that's perfect. The light is directly tied to the sex. (And for those of you who don't like "blue for boys and pink for girls" - again I'm sorry. These are my theories and it's just easier to have blue = boys and pink= girls. Nothing sexist about it. It's all about convenience.)

There now we have it established that not only am I pregnant, but the sex and number of fetus(es). The next problem to arise with pregnancy, is naming the child.

Theory #3: The Naming

As some of you know, naming a child can be HELL! Sure, sometimes it works out all nice and neat...You open that baby name book to exactly the right page at that exactly right, cosmic moment and the stars align, the angels sing and the name literally jumps up off the page and does a little jig for while screaming "ME! ME! ME! I'm the perfect name!"

Well, to those of you who are lucky enough to have those moments...pfth on you! :p

The rest of us spend hours upon hours, reading every baby name book ever written (no matter how obscure), searching websites, checking meanings, popularity, spellings...the list goes on and on. We find a name and it feels "sort of right" but not quite there. Kind of like your second favorite pair of jeans. The pair that are your first choice only when your favorite pair is dirty and in the wash. They fit. They feel okay. But they just aren't perfect! So we keep looking. We re-read the baby name books, the websites. We ask friends, family, the telemarketer that dared to call, and the cashier at the grocery store what names they like. We consider every name ever known to man. Literally. No name is too off-the-wall for a brief period...

Cosmo, Tallulah, Nevaeh...the list goes on and on. Just look at the celebrities! Do you think they wanted to name their children "Pilot Inspector" or "Fifi-Trixiebelle"?! No! Of course they didn't. But they couldn't decide. It came down to the wire. Their children were going to have blank birth certificates and go through life as "Baby Boy" or "Baby Girl", which honestly may have been preferable to the chosen names but that's neither here nor there. Now those poor children are saddled with horrible names! That's a lot of pressure on a parent!

There has to be a way to find out what our children are destined to be named without the hours of reading and stressing. Let's see...for the religious (or non-sci-fi inclined) we could go with a dream. A divine intervention if you will. You go to sleep (having already had your pink and/or blue light warning) and the child comes to you and tells you, "My name is..." There you go, problem solved. In the time span of a week tops, you have managed to not only discover that you are pregnant but also learn the pre-destined name for your child(ren). At this point you breathe deep sigh of relief and focus on enjoying your pregnancy. (Ah, life is good.)

But...wait...what's that? You aren't the religious type and don't really believe in "divine intervention dreams"? Okay, fine then. Let's see...we could go sci-fi? Something along the lines of "Battlestar Galactica". I mean we have colored lights in our belly buttons so why not run with that, right? So, you've had you light experience. You now know you are pregnant. You also know the number of fetus(es) and the sex(es). At that point, your body is kind enough to spit out a print out. I'll allow you to use your imagination as to where this print out comes from. (Get your mind out of the gutter! Shame on you. Honestly, this is a family blog!) I was thinking along the lines of mouth, ear, or slit from behind your ear. Whatever. with the name destined for your child.

Either way, you now have the fact that you are definitely pregnant, the sex of the child(ren), and the name(s). Life is good. Life is peaceful. And that's one less thing to stress out over for the next 9 months. Besides think of all the shopping you could get done from the get-go! (Ah, shopping, I miss you so.)

Theory #4: The Warning System

For those of us prone to high risk pregnancies and even for those prone but blissfully unaware of what's looming on the horizon, there should be an advanced warning system. I honestly don't care what it is. A letter from God in the mail would work. Another divine intervention dream. Or in keeping with the light theory, the light could change to RED. Bright, nearly blinding red that simply screams "WARNING". This light would also activate if at any point something goes "wrong" allowing the mother-to-be to know that, "Hey, we need to book it to L&D!" (I can't tell you how many times I've begged for this warning system over the past 6 months.) This warning system would also serve double duty, it would also serve as warning for the OB as well. That way there's no question. It's not the mother-to-be being over-protective or worrying too much. It means there is something off that needs to be explored.

Theory #5: Labor & Delivery

When it comes time for "the big day", again there should be warning. Some of us are lucky enough to have our water obviously break in the very beginning. Thereby forcing us to stop and say, "Uh oh, it's time." However, most of us never get that warning. So we spend hours and days and sleepless nights trying to time contractions and judge on a ridiculous scale of 1-10 what our pain is. (I hate that stupid scale.) When we should be resting. Or not worrying because it's false labor. Or hauling booty to L&D because "it's time" was actually 12 hours ago, which means you are rapidly approaching the land of no return. Other wise known as, "the land of NO EPIDURAL"! (AH! The horror! And for those of you who prefer natural childbirth, bravo for you. However, if God had intended for me to go naturally he would have seen fit to have me born before epidurals were discovered. As I was not born then - at least not that I can recall - I choose to go with the beloved epidural.)

So there needs to be a warning system here as well. Let's see...it can't be the same as Theory #4's warning system. That would be entirely too confusing. So let's just make it completely obvious, shall we?

On the religious/non-sci-fi front, we could yet another divine intervention dream. It's a simple dream. A timer is all we need. So you close your eyes. Go to sleep. And all you dream is a rapidly counting down timer telling you that you have X days, X hours, X minutes, X seconds before "it's time" becomes "Happy Birthday".

For the sci-fi inclined, rather than a dream we still get the timer. (X days, X hours, X minutes, X seconds) Only it shows across our belly. No denying that warning now is there. Either way you have an idea of how long before the end, which gives you plenty of time to haul booty to L&D and get that beloved epidural (if you so choose). Or to wait it out at home before calling your midwife and having a baby.

There we have it. Pregnancy from start to finish. No muss. No fuss. No questioning. No second-guessing. Just in and out, "Pregnancy in a Can" if you will. All the convenience of fast food without the calories! ;) lol

Ah, if only life were so simple...

It worked! I finally got my MP4 videos to upload! Yippee! :)

So here's Elliott Richard washing his feet...

That's right! I said it!

WE'VE GOT SNUGGLING!

As y'all read in Rob's post yesterday Elliott Richard nearly got an elbow to the head for simply touching Gavin and sort of trying to snuggle with him then.

So this morning while Elliott Richard was watching "Finding Nemo" (for what I'm sure is the 100th time this week) and Gavin came downstairs for a bit, I was shocked to see this! :)

It started with Elliott coming up behind Gavin and hugging him. When Gavin didn't throw and elbow and sat on the floor, Elliott went for broke and curled up in his lap! :)

I just love this picture of them together! Okay so Gavin has a pained expression on his face but work with me here. I love how Elliott is snuggling him and looking up at him.

Heck, I just love the fact that it happened at all. Pained expression or not. :)

Today may actually turn out to be a pretty good day. *crosses fingers* God willing.

This is the "Throne".

We just got it out the other day and are still trying to get Elliott Richard used to seeing it, sitting on it etc.

As you can see, he currently thinks it's a really neat place to hide stuff. (lol) While we know we'll have to put a stop to that, for now, while he's "getting to know the potty" we figured it was ok. (I'm sure this will come back to bite me firmly on the butt very soon. lol)

We're pretty certain it's time because he's started hiding when he poops and then he'll tell us when he's done that he pooped. If he pees, he sometimes tells us right afterward and asks for a dry diaper. He's interested in others going potty (which is perfectly normal from what Dr. H (his ped) says). And some nights he stays dry. Some nights he doesn't. But he's definitely going for long periods of time during the day dry. So I'm relatively certain that it's either time now, or it will be very soon.

Now keeping in mind that we haven't had to potty train anyone in...what...nearly 5-6 years I'm very open to any and all tips, tricks and whatnot that y'all have figured out. I honestly don't even remember how we introduced Gavin to the potty. (lol)

Curls, waves and flips...oh my!
The bed highjacker returns to the scene of the crime...again!
He's now taken to scooting up and sitting in my pillow anytime I get up off the bed! (lol)
Elliott Richard washing his feet.
I love this one although you really can't see what's going on. He climbed up onto my bed, pointed to his feet and said "sticky". (He had spilt his juice and walked through it before we got it mopped up.) So I handed him a wipe and he went to town for a good five minutes, washing his feet. I have a really cute video of it...if I could get blogger or photobucket or someone to post it! Argh.

I love my job. I love being a stay-at-home mom, which then affords me the time I need for my other job as the President of the PTA at Gavin's school. It kills me that I can't be at the school everyday doing the simple things like checking my mailbox. (I have a mailbox, how cool is that?! lol) I love working with the staff. I love talking to them. Hearing what they need help with. What sort of things the PTA can do to make their jobs easier. I love the staff at his school. I've said it before and I'll say it again, they are all angels. No one else could do what they do with the style, flair and love that they do it.

It's funny though. Maybe it's because in high school, I wasn't the most popular or the prettiest or the most outgoing (I know, who would have thought! lol) and so I don't see myself as any of those things. I never had a lot of friends. Just one best friend and few acquaintances. Maybe a boyfriend. So when I think of the staff at Gavin's school, I think of them as my friends. All of them. The principal/director, Laura, the teachers, Sensei, each and every one of them have become my friends in my heart and mind. But I just kind of figured that they humored me. (Granted, I can be a humorous girl (haha) but that's not what I meant.) I guess I always figured they talked to me, they laughed with me and then when I was gone they either forgot I was there or were like "thank God, I thought she'd never leave". These are my issues not theirs. I know that. But for better or worse, it's how I feel. I would appear that I am wrong.

I email with a few of the staff every once in a while. It's nice. To "talk" to them outside of school. To hear about their lives. To honestly get to know them as people beyond my child's educators. Well, yesterday I was reminded and shown just how wrong I truly am.

Rob went to school to pick Gavin up and help his teachers with some techno-issue. When he returned home he had a surprise for me. :)

This picture was made and signed by Gavin and his classmates. The flowers are tracings of their hands that they cut out and rolled to make flowers. (How stinking adorable is that?!)

Between my flowers and the collage I was crying like a baby. It was all so sweet.

I feel truly blessed to have so many wonderful, caring people involved in our lives. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

Ice!
This was the only way I could get fluids down for a week straight. I had no idea I could cough my throat that raw.

Lip balm
My lips have been dry this entire pregnancy, no matter how much I drink. But that was nothing compared to how dry my lips were with all that hacking, which does not feel any better when your lips are cracked and bleeding. Just for the record.

And that my friends is how I managed to come out on the other side. :)

47 down ~ 88 to go