We still really want 10/10/10 for Baby O to arrive because that’s 39 weeks and she should be safe and healthy and it’s a fun date. But as these contractions are forcing me to stop and take notice I decided I’m okay revising my request and maybe if I tell O I want her to arrive on a different day she’ll surprise us and stay in there even longer?

So I’m thinking we could shoot for 10/1/10. It’s still a fun number and by ultrasound dates she would be 38 weeks along that day (though I think a wee bit before 38 weeks by my calculations) but I’m willing to compromise. If she does want out early, we can do October 1st. It’s a Friday. We have swim lessons that morning at 8am on campus and the birth center is literally on the edge of campus, their front porch faces the little forest area so we could do swim lessons then pop over to the birth center. I already have an appointment scheduled! And that’s four weeks from tomorrow.

Or even that Saturday, 10/2/2010. That’s fun! General Conference weekend, always nice memories since Kit proposed after the spring general conference April 2nd of 2000… See, I’m being flexible! Friday or Saturday, 1st or 2nd. Or the 10th! That still works!

I just need her to stay in there at least another 22 days. Give me twenty two more days and I’ll be beyond thrilled. Give me 37 more days for our 10/10 goal and I’ll throw a party.

Okay, but realization that I could in theory have her in 22 days and she would be 37 weeks and probably she would be okay? GRINNING EAR TO EAR to consider we are that close to the safety zone. Not the ideal, we would really like her to keep baking to full term but 37 weeks is fantastic. I would do a happy dance if I wasn’t contracting.

E is 29 pounds and 37 1/4″ tall and J is 24 pounds and 32″ tall. Five pounds and five inches apart over two years. Funny!

Kit took them and they each got a shot (DTaP/Hib for J, DTaP for E since whooping cough is an issue around here and we’ve got a baby on the way.) We’ll get each of them one more shot pre-O arrival and our doctor gave us the line up of priority for which shots in which order she advises. Kit says the kids did great for the exams and only peeled the paint off the walls with their screams for the shot (one each, J’s was a combo shot.) And I appreciate that our doctor said two of the shots are only necessary for kids under 5 – E is 4 so we need to decide if we are going to bother with those or not, especially since we’ll be in new baby hibernation mode this winter anyway.

So good visit! Kit started laughing when they asked if there was a television in our TWO YEAR OLD’S bedroom until he realized they were serious and asked if that actually is an issue and they assured him yes. Some toddlers have TVs in their room. Wow! We have one tv in the house, when it’s not hidden in the garage, and actually our two year old is co-sleeping with us and we don’t have a tv in our room so not an issue either way.

While Kit was at that visit I had my first visit with the chiropractor (the preliminary medical exam/insurance assessment) and I visited her home office so between her kids, the assistant’s child and my older three it was quite the gathering. The kids were delightful, it was fine and then knowing we would beat Kit back we hit Sonic for a non-allergy safe treat and the library to restock our greek addict’s book stash.

I’m contracting a lot more – a lot and that means I’m taking it a lot more easy (in theory, as the kids allow) and trying to not be anxious. I know contractions are normal for me but they weren’t like this with Joseph’s pregnancy (granted, he was our longest pregnancy) and this is our sixth baby so it makes me nervous that I’m having them hit like this. Yesterday every time I stood up I would have one but even laying down I’m having them. And I’m having a lot more pelvic aches and pains and round ligament pain and hopefully the chiropractor will help with that. I’m not frustrated by the discomfort/pain, I don’t mean to sound like I’m complaining – I’m scared that these are all combing to make me contract more and I’m scared of going into labor too early. I HOPE to be in pain for another month! Well, not in pain, but I hope to be enormously pregnant for another month so the contracting & aches are making me concerned. I’m 33.5 weeks right now.

Healthy kids, Heidi seeing chiropractor, taking it easy to try and buy us another month of pregnancy. Doing okay.

I signed all the kids up for the Sonic Birthday Club so they each get a coupon for a free Wacky Pack meal. Grilled cheese, apple slices and dip, kid size drink (mmm, cherry limeade?) and a toy, a free and fun date with Daddy.

More to come, busy day!

Okay, I lied. I fell asleep on the couch around 6pm. We ended up canceling our lake plans due to a storm but we stayed home and made E a peanut butter chip chocolate chip M&M cookie cake and sang happy birthday and ate a yummy falafel and homemade pita and tzatziki sauce dinner (E ate the sauce and olives in her pita, it was funny – normally she likes falafel. They all do.) Anyway, yummy dinner after her lunch date with Daddy and for FHE we all told E why we love her. She thought that was fantastic and later came up and said, “Can we do that thing again where you say what you love me about?”

We’ve had a lot going on the last couple days and I think it’s physically and emotionally worn us out. It’s been good and crazy and we’re still sorting it all out and I want to sit down when I’m more coherent and write up E’s birthday letter. Just not until I can do it justice.

We’re reinstating naps after a certain someone tried to give them up and kept doing this at the dinner table:

And doing this during lesson time when he wanted someone to cuddle with him:

It’s been a challenge because he does NOT want to nap, he knows the other kids are awake and he wants to be with them so after lunch we do quiet time for everyone and if I can persuade J that no one is doing anything interesting and he’s not missing anything then he might fall asleep. Maybe. If we’re lucky. He’s also got two teeth on top and four teeth on bottom still cutting through and one spot in particular he’s crying over and saying, “Owie, owie, my tee her ear,” (translation – my teeth hurt here.)

So, he’s not so happy and he’s awfully tired and kinda cranky but wow, he’s cute.

I thought I had explained the patching thing but after getting asked a few times about it I went back and looked and NOPE, didn’t explain. I gave updates but no background, silly me. So long medical sounding explanation that may or may not make any sense because it’s nap time and I’m not digging up our old paperwork so this is all from my faulty memory.
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I’ve been sleeping with my hospital bag by the side of the bed. So if my water breaks I don’t have to stumble around in the dark freaking out and trying to think of what I need to take to the hospital with me. I can just grab my pre-packed bag and get to the hospital and then freak out there.

I’m 32 weeks pregnant. I packed the bag in my first trimester, back when my progesterone wasn’t looking so hot but before I went on bedrest but still scared enough to worry that I was going to need to head into the hospital… When B was little we had a hospital bag always packed for him and for me, which we learned was wise after a few too many ER trips when they tried to admit us because he liked to make life exciting like that. I forgot about that until recently when I realized I was doing it again, expecting the worst and being prepared. (Hospital bags are packed with different things than birth center bags, in case you wondered. But I’m too tired to explain the difference.)

So, fear of waking up in a puddle of water much too, too soon has me sleeping with my bag ready. Does that mean I’m neurotic? Or just very prepared?

But for the record, I am still planning and hoping and anticipating and preparing for a beautiful, full term healthy baby and peaceful birth.

You know how some days you just want to rip your hair out and scream and run away? And some days all the stars aligned and things are lovely? Let’s hope our day continues with the stars aligning because I’m feeling so thankful this morning…

- B’s feeding clinic coordinator called to verify (for the third time, at my request) that his assessment really, truly is approved out of network and we’ll be seen next Thursday. Somehow they got us in and got approval within a week vs. the three month wait and anticipated rejection for being an out of network specialist.
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This is for you, Abby!

Forces of Nature – that’s what Kit titled it when he posted this photo last March:

That’s how E managed to get down the scissors we hid after she did this to her hair, several times:

(That was a self portrait she took on my laptop, one of her many expressive faces.) She chopped her hair more than once, and she also got two of her brother’s hair (the ones young enough to cooperate with her without thinking better of it) and she also let one of her brother’s cut her hair so when we caught them she could exclaim, “I not cut it! I not allowed cut my own hair!” (And his defense was that she asked him to do it.)

It doesn’t matter where we hide the scissors. She finds them or she asks a partner in crime to find them or she builds towers of chairs to find them. We’ve not had an incident like this in about six months, I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

We’ve not had a nail polish incident yet, but I’m going to hide the bottles now…

(Therapy explanation for those that ask about this stuff. )

B doesn’t handle certain foods well, all the same texture – cream of wheat, mashed/refried beans, thicker soups, mashed potatoes, pudding, etc. We didn’t know how much of it was just taste and how much was a possible oral motor issue and we had some testing done but just very preliminary stuff that showed no apparent mouth problem. Then we learned the mouth could be fine but the throat was another set of muscles and tone issues there could be a problem.
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Kit’s 36 years old today and to celebrate he took the day off work and we finally cashed in our membership coupon to the Dallas Nature & Science Museum (which is within sight of the towers of Baylor, where B was born. We’ll have to go by there and say hi to our NICU sometime.) We ran an errand on the way, got there as they opened and gave them our coupon (which worked, I’m always skeptical when we get these fantastic deals – in this case it was half price for an annual family membership!! Amazing deal.) We explored barely half of the museum and called it when we simultaneously needed to deal with Heidi contracting, everyone needing snacks, someone needing a diaper change, etc. But we’ll be back for sure, hopefully before I deliver. And we only visited the science building, there’s a whole different building for the nature stuff and we didn’t even visit the water play area or the dinosaur dig! Lots left to explore. We ate lunch on the back patio overlooking the pond with giant swan paddle boats that the kids really want to try.

The body exhibit part (not that body exhibit) grossed me out – explanations about things with cross sections of people to show you vomiting and mucous. Bleh, not good for pregnant lady.

School started yesterday so there were a lot of small children in the extensive downstairs kids’ play area but it was almost empty upstairs. The downstairs area is for kids 6 and under or older siblings with a special area just for 0 to 2 year olds, too. I can’t even begin to describe it – big, tons of cool stuff! Next time we go we’ll get better pictures of the mini-zoo area with turtles and snakes and hissing cockroaches and the crazy mirrors and farm area and sand pit and on and on…

And there were fun heat screens, too. Apparently my belly is HOT!

So we left there and survived the drive home (how thankful I am that we don’t have to drive into downtown Dallas several times a day to get to the NICU? OH, oh, so very thankful.) On the way back we hit the church cannery to restock on our staples (rice, oats, wheat, etc.) Hit home, I rested a bit (this child is getting big, and I’m getting contracty.) Then we ambitiously decided to go out for an early dinner. The kids all earned coupons to Jason’s Deli from the summer reading program & they have a great allergy safe & vegetarian menu. I guess we were feeling wild and crazy, taking all five kids out to eat?? To a place we know has some allergy triggers?

First sign that all was going to work out well, they let me get creative with the menu and make a vegetarian croissant with avocado instead of meat, etc. (And they let me do it for a great price.) Then as I paid they had the mints and toothpicks dish? And YUMMY EARTH lollipops!! Those are allergy safe! We eat those, the corn syrup and artificial dye free organic lollipops? Good sign. Kit got the veggeletta (he loves the muffaletta and they now offer a vegetarian version, though E attacked him for the olives and said they were “great!” She’s by far our most adventurous eater at the moment.) We got the older four cheese pizzas and so everyone got lovely vegetarian options and we shared bites with J but he was mostly distracted by his lollipops and our chips. Which unfortunately used corn oil, we realized after we let him eat a couple and his chin broke out in hives. Sigh…

But the manager came out when we asked about the frozen yogurt and he gave us the entire ingredient list for that and made us copies of their three pages of allergy listings for the entire menu. He was great, he also gave us their new gluten free menu (which we took for friends.) The entire staff was super helpful and kind and we were very impressed. Lunch was yummy, our kids were fantastic, it was a lovely birthday celebration.

THEN we went by the library and everyone again was behaved. It was kinda eery… you know what this means, when we manage to leave the house with all five kids and they act like angels? It means it’s time to have another baby, liven things up again. Learn to juggle five just in time for six to arrive and humble us.

But this also made me realize that in so many ways our kids are getting easier, they listen more, they cooperate, they help each other, they were so well behaved at the restaurant! I’m really, really impressed with them. We still have our moments, of course, but I have hope.