Sodium & Hearing Loss?

Hubby's ear has been bothering him for a while. He was finally able to see an ENT last week who explained to him that he basically has Meniere's Disease. Nothing too horrible. As the doc said, "It's a $5 disease with a $10 name." The gist of the conversation? If you want your hearing back you're going to have to go on a very low sodium diet and keep it that way.

WOW!

What a shock! Sodium & hearing loss? Seriously?

Apparently So.

And so the journey begins. A low sodium diet.

Do you have ANY idea how hard this really is? Seriously. Go take a peek in your pantry and you'll DIE when you realize how much sodium is in all this processed food, especially in relation to what we should be consuming. The removal of salt from cooking and at the table doesn't go far enough to get someone onto a low sodium diet. You know what that means? I get to learn to cook from scratch. I don't mean partly from scratch, I mean TOTALLY from scratch.

My first meal, from scratch? Spaghetti. We can use store bought noodles but can't go near the spaghetti sauces in a jar or can. I started with 15 Roma tomatoes and it really was pretty good.

I have lost 7 pounds since we started this on Sunday. Hubby has lost at least 6. We are consuming more fresh fruits & veggies than ever before and we're not over eating.

We're planning on purchasing a salt-free salt flavored replacement this weekend. Hopefully that will at least put some flavor back in our food, lol. So far, so good. But truly crazy.

Christmas

This Christmas is going to be filled with lots of great things. For the first time Little Man grasps the concept (that we know of) of Santa and he's SO excited about it. When you ask him if Santa is at the North Pole, he says, "No he's at the store." LOL. Peanut is going to enjoy going into destruction mode and ripping open gifts. We don't call him destruct-o baby for nothin'!

There are also going to be some truly sad moments. Well it's the lack of moments that will be sad. I think sad is the appropriate adjective anyway. I've been working diligently on a project for someone special that may never see it and that SUCKS. Unfortunately my children (really just Little Man) don't understand it and I hate the toll it takes on them.

But mostly this holiday is going to be filled with lots of great times and we'll have lots of memories to create. I'm so excited to see the boys faces on Christmas morning!

Our Little Snowflake

This week Little Man's school had their Christmas Program. This one was the PK-1 children and it was cute. "Santa has Amnesia" was the title. The preschoolers were snowflakes & sang a song called, "The Snow is Falling Today" followed by using their 'drums' to another song. Again, SO CUTE. :)

Baby It's Cold Outside...

Brrrrr.....

I forgot how much I do not like the cold. It just makes everything hurt. I can barely use my hands when it's this cold outside.

It's 8:30 in the morning and it's all of 23 degrees outside. That's just ridiculous and insane for here. So of course everything outside is ice. It's hard to tell in this picture but it's ice.

Snow? Not so much.

This is southeast Texas. It doesn't snow here. And when it does it's the tiniest flurries that you struggle to see in the air. Not this year. Or last year.

Actually, last year it snowed and it tied for the earliest snowfall ever here. However, we were at the hospital with Peanut and completely missed it. Little Man got to play in it with Diva but doesn't remember it.

So anyways, onto 2009. It's snowing. It started snowing here shortly before 8am and nothing is sticking. By the time all is said and done some areas (about 45 min south of us) got as much as 4 inches of the white stuff and they have enough to make nice sized snowmen! We were jipped. But the boys didn't mind. They liked playing in the stuff falling from the sky and didn't know they were missing white stuff on the ground, lol. Little Man has no recollection of us living in Michigan.

Enjoy.

O' Christmas Tree....

Little Man had a project sent home to do with us over the Thanksgiving holiday. Decorate the tree. And decorate his tree, he did! :)

He drew ornaments & candy canes. We made candy canes from paper & pipe cleaners. He found some stickers and ribbon too. I just love kiddie crafts, lol. :)

Speaking of Thanksgiving Holidays ours was great. It was small & peaceful and the food was oh so yummy.

Complete Chaos

Things have been totally insane around here lately with no shortage of drama and stress. Thanks to all of these crazy/ridiculous things going on I'm finding it really tough to get into the holiday spirit. That's unusual for me because this is my favorite time of year.

Probably the worst of all of these events going on is having $1200 stolen right out of our checking account. Someone, somewhere stole Hubby's card number, made a card & went on a shopping spree.

He had to file a police report, we had to take that info to the bank (like an hour & a half drive from here) & fill out all of their paperwork. We actually got our money back pretty quickly but it was still such a PIA. It was also a huge violation made worse by the fact that it wasn't like Hubby lost his card or something.

So that's why I'm MIA these days. Just been really busy.

I have to say we really figured our little police department wouldn't even bother investigating the case but they are. One of the officers came to the house today to get some more information. They have the video tape from one of these dudes shopping adventures and they have 2 other stores left to get tapes from. That would be AWESOME if they actually caught these jerks!

Peanut Loves Munchkin

Peanut just laughs & laughs with the biggest smiles EVER when he gets to go anywhere near his baby brother. It's adorable. Here he is "holding" Munchkin for the first time.

How Cute Is He?

Our Munchkin. He's sooooo cute!!! :) Sorry about the lighting but it doesn't change how cute he is. I promise. :)

My Poor Baby!!

As the teacher walked Little Man out to me today all I could think the moment I saw him was, "HOLY COW...WHAT THE CRAP HAPPENED?!" Although admittedly the language in my head was probably a little more colorful than that, lol.

Apparently

one should NEVER

turn around

into

a park bench!

My poor baby!

Yes as he was turning around to say hello to someone else he whacked the corner of a bench outside. OUCH! These pictures really don't do it justice. So puffy!

My poor baby!

So much to say...

& yet I can't say a thing. It's driving me NUTS.

I am SO angry about the situation with Hubby's company right now. I always knew when we moved from here it'd be a big move but I always thought it would be on our terms. That WE would decide it was time to move on. I hate feeling forced into this situation.

I HATE that there is no accountability.

It does appear as though the contract that keeps Hubby's facility open is going to be given to 'that other company' after all. SEVENTEEN years of making this type of thing for the military and the contract is gone in a flash with NO accountability.

Anyone with half a brain can look at the facts and walk away asking "whose pockets were lined by this decision?" Nobody will ever know because the names of those involved in the decision will be kept secret. So much for transparency.

I could go on but won't.

I'm just frustrated.

Report Card

Little Man got his first report card today. Ready for me to brag?

Seriously though, he's doing great!!!!! Teacher's comment sums it up perfectly, "Little Man (No...she didn't really call him that) is doing fine! As we knew his weakness is fine motor and speech."

The only two areas he needs improvement on are 'Speaks in complete sentences' and 'able to draw with pencil/crayon' That first one is a DUH thing. He's doing SO well but DUH on the speech. That whole pesky drawing thing is fine motor and he has struggled with fine motor for a long time.

He knows all of the colors, Numbers, shapes, body parts & upper/lower case letters that are listed as needing to know. He probably knew all of those before the school year started though, so no real surprise but it does make me happy.

One of the biggest reasons it makes me happy is because one of our biggest concerns was making sure OTHERS (like the teacher) could figure out what he does & doesn't know. So apparently that is going well.

The other concern we had was how would Little Man do socially? First of all he is the YOUNGEST in the classroom. He is in a 4yo classroom and he missed the cut off to be in the 4yo classroom by a month (even though that's where they placed him). The other disadvantage he has is that every other child in his class (there's only 8 total kids) are in daycare. That is a setting in which Little Man has never been.

However, he's doing great socially. I have no doubt that you could probably tell he's the youngest but he's doing well. Everything from following the classroom rules to controls talking to raises hand and participates appropriately (etc) got an S (Satisfactory which is the best it could be).

Yay!

Sweet Joys

I can't believe he's a month old today. Tomorrow is/was my due date. He is so precious.

While we're at it, how cute is our tank baby? hehe. He's in the 75th percentile for height and just above the 50th for weight. I can't believe he is already 18 months old. :)

Oh Heck, since we're here...When Little Man saw me taking pics of Munchkin he decided I needed to be snapping pictures of him instead. Enjoy :)

Halloween 2009

I survived yet another Halloween. Little Man was so excited to go trick or treating so that is exactly what we did.

Little Man was Thomas the Tank Engine (again).

Peanut was a tourist (cheesy AND cheap FREE!)

and Munchkin was just cute! His booties say "Baby's 1st" and "Halloween" :)

The big boys had such a great time! Fun, fun! Cuties!

DIY

I have a sewing machine. I hardly know how to use it. But I'm trying to learn!!!

I decided to make a simple trick-or-treat bag for Little Man this year. It can be used year after year (assuming I can remember where we put it, lol).

Don't laugh!!!! I'm really trying!

Costumes are slim pickin' here this year. Of course there will be pictures!! :) Unfortunately for my children, I think Halloween is a STUPID holiday and I get irritated every year when we have to spend money on it, lol.

3 kids and a doctor

Thankfully hubby was able to take off work a little early today to help me tote all three boys to the doctor's office. Peanut is a handful. Things were surprisingly calm and the boys did surprisingly well, lol.

Little Man had his 4yr well visit. He was 31 lbs and 49" tall. Honestly I don't know if the 49" is right or not but that's a whole other story. I was really concerned about where he was going to be on the growth charts because he's small. He just HATES eating. Surprisingly he's staying steady on the growth chart. *phew*

I wish Peanut would have had his 18mo check up today but it just didn't work out for all three to get appointments. That means one more trip back to the doctor soon. :(

Munchkin is just teeny tiny and he has the scrawniest limbs. But he sure is cute and snuggly! He weighed in at 5lbs 15oz and 18 3/4" long. He's grown well in the past couple of weeks and with it only being an ounce away we might as well call him, back up to birth weight (6lbs).

One of his face.

And one of the scrawny cuteness!

It's been a while...

Shame on me for having this child home for more than a week and not updating on here. I know, I know.

But things are going well. We're finally starting to settle into a routine with 3 kids and I must admit, the transition so far has been much easier than I assumed it would be. I figured we'd be in trouble since we'd be out numbered but this baby is SUCH a good baby! He eats every 3-4 hours with at least one 5 hour stretch in there somewhere. He loves the swing and still loves to be swaddled for the time being.

I honestly still cannot get over the fact of his brown hair. If he didn't have the exact same nose as his oldest brother & the same toes as both his brothers I'd wonder if they sent the right child home with us. He's still teeny tiny, wearing preemie clothes. He can't wear the preemie sleepers because of his length but I could probably fit 2 of him in the newborn sleepers, lol.

The big boys are adjusting just fine. Neither one of them care too much that he's here at this point even though they do seem to like him. My assumption is that baby brother just isn't "fun" yet since if they get too close they're told to back off, lol. Actually, we have the Super Yard around the swing to make sure Peanut can't take the baby for an extra ride, haha!!

He Lives In S Carolina

Truly a great story. About 2 weeks ago we really started talking up the arrival of the boys new brother. Obviously Peanut was oblivious but Little Man understood what was going on.

His latest obsession is maps. He receieved a 50 states puzzle for his birthday and we've been talking a lot about where people live on the map, etc. The conversation went something like this.

Me: "Can your new baby brother come live with us?"
Little Man: "No."
Me: "Well then where is he going to live?"
Little Man: "Here!" (While pointing to S Carolina on his puzzle.) "Me live here" (pointing to TX) "Brother live here." (again pointing to SC)

Man that was great!

An Early Release?

I cannot believe how easy this recovery has been so far. Normally the worst part of the c-section recovery for me is standing up the first time. Not this time. Yesterday I stood right up & walked right into the shower. Man that was nice. For whatever reason, this one has been the easiest. Since I'm doing so well, he's doing well & they have this bloody rule about no kids on the floor we're hoping & praying we can be discharged today/tonight instead of tomorrow morning.

Then Little Man can still go to school tomorrow and nobody has to take off to watch the boys so we can be discharged. Just Crazy.

Look how tiny he is.

Look at the hair!!!!

We had to wait for what seemed like forever to finally have our new guy in our room last night. He was having trouble maintaining his own temp & until he did that he couldn't come see us. He did finally come visit shortly before 11pm and OMG what a sweet, precious child! Not that they aren't all sweet & precious but wow. If I had to guess I'd say this little one's temperament is going to be more like his oldest brothers, which is a welcome relief for us, lol. He is just SO precious!!! Okay I know, he was only six hours old when I made that assessment, lol.






Truly our children have been baldies. Have you seen Peanut lately? He still seems bald but I think that's mostly because it's so blonde. Anyways, not this one! This kid has got a full head of hair (for being one of ours!)

I've gotten a new album up for him over at the online photo album. If you need the link, please email me.

The bad news....the older 2 boys cannot come on the floor so they won't be able to meet their baby brother until we leave. Thanks CDC! (& yes the thx is dripping with sarcasm).

So much for Tuesday

My body decided today was a much better day for a baby delivery. So this afternoon at 4:49PM we welcomed our third baby boy into the world. He weighed in at exactly 6lbs and was 18" long. He made it to 35w 3d & is doing well. He is in the regular nursery struggling to maintain his body temp but other than that's he's doing perfectly.

And now here are the couple of pictures we've got of him. He's not where we can see him yet and until he warms up and stays there they can't bring him to me. I can't get out of bed until tomorrow sometime but am doing just fine.

The reason he came early? My BP was up & the fluid level was low. So glad he's here safe & sound.

Tuesday, Oct 13, 2009

Unless something changes, this will likely be our third born's birthday.

I've been seeing the doctor twice a week for a few weeks now and it's getting REALLY old. She's almost an hour away, one way.

I saw her yesterday and I'm progressing so incredibly slowly it's driving me nuts! Don't get me wrong, it's good news because it means the little guy gets to bake longer and there's nothing wrong with that.

With yesterday's ultrasound my amniotic fluid was found to be low, but not low enough to have to whisk me away to an operating room for delivery. Hopefully we'll all make it through the weekend so that we can enjoy this cool weather and see the doc again on Mon.

Then again, I'm finally ready to get this show on the road! lol.

As of right now, my c-section is scheduled for Tues.

Party Pictures!!

It has taken me literally forever to get this up but here it is.

He wanted to go outside too, hehehe.

Any Day Now...

This week has been interesting in regards to my pregnancy. On Mon (regular appt) everything seemed to be fine and we were really just monitoring my amniotic fluid level. We even went ahead and "scheduled" my c-section for 37 weeks as a "just in case" I actually get there.

Then Tuesday there was bleeding and cramping so of course I had to go in. It was discovered that the length of my cervix was disappearing quickly, which probably caused the bleeding and a UTI was the culprit of the bulk of the contractions.

Wed, short of crowning I don't think I'd of been willing to call her office, lol.

Yesterday I had my next regular appointment. My fluid was higher (Thank Heavens) but there was nothing left of my cervix to measure. The doc & I discussed my concerns about how far away we live from the hospital and how scared to death I was of having that cerclage rip my cervix on its way out. YUCK!

So she removed the cerclage. Let me just say, "OUCH!" Oh that was some kind of painful. I'd been hoping to get to a scheduled c-section so they could take it out in the OR when I wouldn't feel it, lol. The moment she removed it I was dilated to 3 & 80% effaced.

She had me go over to L&D for monitoring to make sure I wasn't having any contractions before I could go home. Thankfully none and home we went.

So now we wait. I take it easy & stay on all my meds...and wait.

Could be today, tomorrow, a week from now or even 2 weeks from now. It's anybody's guess.

Although I do feel incredibly lucky and I really practically love my doctor. She has assured me that even if she's not on call, she'll come in for me. YAY!

An Eventful Day

First I had to make an appt for Little Man for the doctor. He woke up yesterday with fever and a cough. Since I'm pregnant I felt it was best that we ruled out the flu and that we did today. Definitely not the flu. 5 days of antibiotics and life will go on.

Then I saw my doc today. Fluid is a little lower. I go back on Thurs to have it checked. I'm a little concerned that Thurs could end up being the big day. I'm literally one cm of fluid away from being considered 'low' on fluid, which isn't good for baby. My contractions have actually eased up some and the protein in my urine is gone...all great news.

I've finally uploaded pics of Little Man's birthday party from Sat and will be uploading those hopefully tomorrow. That really depends on how much cuddling he wants though. :)

Pre-Birthday Party

The past 2 years we've not been able to give Little Man much of a party for reasons beyond our control. Such as last year I was in the hospital and it was cancelled last minute.

This year we decided we'd be extra cautious and plan his birthday party early in hopes of their new brother's arrival not throwing a wrench into any of our plans. So far so good.

We've rented a bouncer for the day along with a sno-cone machine (which is really for me & the hubby, hahahaha) and invited lots of little friends.

At this point I have no idea what the turn out will be. Between the flu & another stomach virus going around kids are dropping like flies, lol.

But today I realized, it's okay. Even if NONE of the kids showed up (I know that won't happen because I do know of at least 3 kids coming) it wouldn't matter. They are outside setting up the pirate themed bouncer. I told him to go look out his window and he came running back in here screaming, "A pirate ship! a pirate ship!!!" And now my heart is content. It doesn't matter how many kids show up because he's going to have an awesome day no matter what.

Of course there will be pictures later!

One of THOSE mornings...

Today was one of those mornings.

I could not, for the life of me remember what time my doc's appt was. For most people that's not a huge problem, but we live a solid 45 min away...WITHOUT rain.

I called at 8:30 when they opened and found out the appt was at 9:30 so it was out the door we went. Rainy and chilly. Only about 58 or 59 degrees out here this morning.

Let me give you the quick version...

The umbrella I had turned out to be broken.
My hair got completely tangled in said umbrella.
Little Man picked 3 very inconvenient times to need to potty.
One of those times turned into poop which meant I had to strip him down & take his underwear off. (While the doctor was waiting on me)
I was nearly 10 min late for my appt.

On the plus side: Peanut was calmer and quieter than I think he's ever been up there. Once you put him in a stroller he just gets MAD.

As far as the appt goes, the good news is that my cervix is still closed. The 'eh' news is that my fluid is borderline low. So not really low just yet & I'm hoping it doesn't get there. The protein is a little higher than it should be so I get to do another wonderful 24hr urine next week. YAY ME. *sigh*

I'm concerned that once that cerclage (stitch) starts to slip I'm going to dilate very quickly. I can totally feel my body trying to do something but so far the cerclage is holding strong. Thank goodness!

I have no idea how much longer this is all going to last but she did mention hope for at least a couple of more weeks today. While it's not ideal, it'd be SO much better than now!!

Mac N Cheese Delight

Oh how I love this child. I love them both obviously. They both crack me up. Today was Peanut's turn.

Lunch time can be a little chaotic around here. I like to have Little Man ready to get on the bus about 12:15 so there is no scurrying around at the last minute. He can play in his room and come running down the hall all excited, "The bus is here! The bus is here!" to let me know, lol. Once he's on the bus I can come back in and put Peanut down for his nap with a full belly, leaving me to get things done or more likely these days...rest.

But lunch time usually consists of me trying to keep Peanut calm until his is ready and me practically begging Little Man to eat something. Today Little Man reluctantly picked a PB & Honey sandwich. He chose triangles instead of squares and wanted there to be 4 of them instead of 2. No Problem. I was going to make grilled cheese for all of us but since Little Man preferred PB&H I made myself & Peanut some mac n cheese.

With lunch I usually find myself providing something for Peanut that he can feed to himself. First of all, he prefers to feed himself. He's not interested in using utensils for anything but chew toys and drumsticks for now so it's often times messy. And I am usually so busy trying to get Little Man to eat that it's distracting.

Today was no exception. He was so proud of himself, shoveling it in one fistful at a time. Too cute not to share. Clean up was awful. I forgot to put his bib on him which meant a total strip down. I pulled the tray off of him and of course his lap was also covered in mac n cheese, lol.

And these two pics, just for fun. It's been a while since I've gotten a picture of them together. Peanut doesn't ever stand still long enough!

Ever since Little Man found this in his closet the other day, I think he wants to be Thomas again for Halloween this year.

Home again, home again, Jiggity Jig

We got home about 9:30 last night from the hospital.

Wouldn't you know that at the 11th hour something else came up that could have kept me there. Although this time it would have been my pleasure to hang around. So why did I even end up going to the hospital?

I've been on the medication Procardia for the contractions. Over the weekend I noticed that my contractions were getting considerably stronger & more frequent long before it was time for my next pill (3x/day). Sunday I spent the whole day in bed, SICK to my stomach. Nauseated and in a ton of pain. Reflux has been a major issue for me this pregnancy, in spite of being on more meds for it than I should, lol. I'm still having oodles of pressure down there and the 'cervix pain' is getting more frequent. Ugh.

By Monday midday, nothing was better so I finally called. Of course I got the typical, "Come on in so we can check you."

Freakin' Guh-Reat!

I was in triage for an hour or more and I'm thinking I'm getting ready to head home when I hear them talk about the protein in my urine and that I have a UTI. No contractions though. Well DUH McFly...I'd had a Procardia less than 3 hours ago...I'd better not be having any!"

Freakin' Guh-Reat!

So now I need to stay for more labwork (to rule out toxemia/eclampsia) do a 24 hour urine for the same reason and to get IV antibiotics to get rid of this UTI once and for all. I swear I frequently get them while pregnant. I had one when I went into labor with Peanut.

At this point I'm feeling like nobody is hearing me. I'm thinkin, "Hey you goobs...all I even wanted was to discuss whether or not the Procardia should be adjusted and can I please get something to make the nausea go away so I can function and is there anything else I can take to keep from choking on stomach acid 3 times a night?" And instead I'm spending the night in the hospital.

At least I knew my doc would come by and see me before going over to the office the next morning and I knew that SHE would listen to me!!! And she did. Unfortunately the pain I described meant now it was time to do an ultrasound of the pancreas, liver & right kidney & some more labwork.

Freakin' Guh-Reat!

Thank Heavens, everything came back normal. She had a GI doc come consult with me and he has now prescribed something else for the reflux. Now that I am super excited about!!!

The nurse I had yesterday was not a great multi-tasker. There was a pretty sick patient in the room next to me on Ante-Partum but she wasn't very good at remember things that I still needed...like my freakin' procardia!

Almost an hour after I was supposed to of had it I realized my stomach was a rock. I called her and said, "I'm pretty sure I was supposed to of had my procardia almost an hour ago." To which she said she'd check on that.

Then she comes in the room and I tell her, "Yeah I noticed my stomach is a rock and realized I should have had it already." Her response, "Oh you're on this for pre-term labor?"

Freakin' Guh-Reat!

Okay now I realize that Procardia is a beta blocker. I realize it would be easy to assume I was on it for my blood pressure but considering I'm already on another medication that is exclusively for blood pressure and she had already discussed my history (meaning 2 premature births) that it'd be pretty easy to figure out WHY I was on the procardia.

Then she informed me she'd be right back to hook me up to the monitor because they still need to do that too today. She came back and hour an 15 min later.

She hooked me up and boy I was still contracting like crazy. Then my doc came in a few min later. We discussed the contractions and where to go from here. She agreed that if they spaced out in the next 20-30 min that I'd still be able to go home that night.

Once the nurse finally returned I found out that I got what I consider to be such a great compliment from my doctor. She told the nurses that as long as I was comfortable with going home it was okay. (of course assuming I wasn't contracting every 3 min and still asking to go home, lol) That she fully trusted me and my judgement on the contractions. Her words, "She's not a complainer or a whiner & she hit the nail on the head with the last baby, her instincts have been right on all along & I do believe that if she's concerned about it she's going to say so." That's what the nurse told me anyway.

Man that made me feel good, lol.

I was concerned for a little while though because I was still having frequent (not hard) contractions even 2 hours after I took the Procardia. But eventually they slowed down and all was well. That was my 11th hour scare that would have kept me overnight again!

BUT...then the shift change happened.

Okay you gotta understand that at this point, I'm the only patient on the unit because the other mom was taken to a different floor. Hubby is now up there with both of our children in anticipation of me leaving and Peanut goes to bed around 7 & Little Man about 8. So we're on borrowed time anyway. We KNOW that my 24 hour urine ends at 8pm. About 7:30 the day nurse asks if I need to go one more time and then we'll call it quits because obviously I'm not going to go yet again in 30 minutes. No problem. She tells me once I've done that we can go ahead and get the IV out so that at 8 all I needed to do was sign paperwork to leave.

Enter crabby night nurse.

No, she just cannot handle ANY of that.

She decides that at 8 she will come get urine and then pull the IV. Seems like no big deal, we get everything else ready to go. 7:50 the IV starts beeping because it's done. Day nurse comes in, turns it off and says, "There is no way I'm hooking up another bag now." lol. 8 comes and ol' Crabby calls someone to come take it to the lab. Then says she'll be right back.

8:05, 8:10....I'm getting PISSED. Lady you are not doing ANYTHING else, I already have the ONE prescription I need and all I need to do is sign on ONE dotted line. So I decide it's time to get nasty since I'd only be annoying the nurse and not another patient.

Hubby opens the door and Peanut bolts right out of there down the hall giggling his silly head off all the way as Hubby chases him down to bring him back. We did this over and over again knowing that he was going to be MAD and vocal about it every time we brought him back into the room. I no longer told Little Man to leave his sleepy brother alone...no...they were welcome to make as much noise as they felt like.

I was ranting about how rude it was that she was having us wait for no apparent reason (b/c she never EVER gave us one) when she knew we had two young children that are up past bedtime and we're just wasting time now. She stuck her head in and said, "just a couple more minutes."

WTF? Control happy crazy crabby lady?

Then we encouraged them to make noise, lol. I started pulling all the tape off my IV and contemplated just pulling it out. I mean seriously, who needs a nurse to pull it out?

She FINALLY came in about 8:30 and pulled the last piece of tape and the IV while going over discharge instructions. She said something about, "you may have some bleeding still due to having your cervix checked when you first got here."

I told her, "Nobody touched my cervix and if I have blood you'll see me back here because I've been warned that can mean big bad things since I've got a cerclage!" HAHAHA!

I'm so thankful I didn't have to spend the night with nurse Crabby.

Here I Sit...

In the hospital. Was coaxed in for one thing and held captive for another.

Just being watched for 24 hours and receiving IV antibiotics. Waiting for some more lab results before I have more answers. We do at least know that it's not eclampsia right now. That's always a plus.

More to come, once I have more answers. I'm just ready to go home but that will have to wait until probably 8-9 tonight at the earliest. Joy.

Taking Bets

Okay, I'm taking bets now on how much longer I'll be pregnant. Don't get me wrong, I really hope & pray that it's still several more weeks. I'm only 32 weeks now (Peanut was a 32 weeker) but I can feel my body working against me. I'm on medication for contractions and I can tell when it's time to take the next pill because I can feel the contractions intensify.

I might just be overly nervous this time as I'd really REALLY like to make sure my (sewed up) cervix isn't ripped apart due to a quick dilation. I'm nervous that I'm not going to know when it's really time to be at the hospital. Obviously I see my doc weekly but I'm nervous.

I'm incredibly uncomfortable. Last week I started an antibiotic at the same time as the med for the contractions. One of those 2 meds is making me incredibly sick. I'm taking myself off the antibiotic long enough to figure out which one. Today I did nothing but lay around. I don't know how I'm going to function tomorrow once Hubby is back at work if I'm not feeling a ton better. This is just crazy....it's truly worse than any morning sickness I've ever had as it's combined with excessive reflux issues. Ugh.

I do love me some Sonic Ice though. Peanut really likes it too. He knows what a sonic cup is and comes running when he sees it, lol.

I'm supposed to be spending this week getting ready for Little Man's birthday party. I'm hopeful at least a couple of his school friends will show up but even if they don't we're all going to have a great time.

All I can say tonight is, "UGH!"

Just a tad chaotic...

Yes, things around here are just a tad chaotic right now.

Little Man is LOVING school. He's doing really well. He's behaving and interacting appropriately with his peers. Believe it or not, he actually sits still for circle time! lol. He does like to throw a bit of a fit when the speech therapist comes to pull him out for speech though. it's either he's afraid I'm there to take him home or he would rather stay with his friends! :) Cute. Although the ST isn't thinking it's quite that cute, hehe. He loves the ST, but loves his friends more.

Let's talk names for a moment. When we were picking out the name for our first born we picked the name Jacob. Long story short, we eventually decided to change it. Just one of the reasons was its popularity. We figured it was so popular that he'd likely end up being Jacob F amongst a sea of Jacob's. He ended up with a name that while, not necessarily common, it's not uncommon either. All that trouble and guess what...there is no Jacob in his class. But there is another Little Man. So now he knows he's Little Man F & the other boy is Little Man M, lol. He can even spell his last name thanks to this.

I bet you're wondering what we're going to name this latest little darling, huh? Too bad...my lips are sealed. We've settled on the first name and not 100% decided on the middle name. I can tell you this though, I will still be mom to my Killer B's. :)

I got my first steroid injection for his lungs today and have to go back to get the 2nd one tomorrow. This is just a 'rather be safe than sorry' scenario. I'm praying I get to keep him on the inside for at least several more weeks. However, I've been having some good contractions & plenty of pressure down there for a couple of weeks now. So we'd rather be safe than sorry. I got to see his precious little face on ultrasound again today too. He's been hiding from us for weeks now!

It's so quiet here...

Little Man started preschool today. Oh he was SO SO SO excited!!!

We first started off the day back at his old therapy place. He's officially back in OT for the feeding.

We are so excited about Little Man's preschool experience. It's at the public school but it's a new program. They have put 2 children with disabilities in a classroom with 8 'regular' kids. Don't quote me on that, it could be 3 & 7 but you get the idea. They are not only doing regular 4yo preschool curriculum but have built a gross motor lab (room) and a sensory lab. AWESOME STUFF.

A large chunk of the kiddos in his class attend a daycare down the street from the school so they all arrive together. When they walked in Little Man exclaimed, "MY FRIENDS!!!" and that was all she wrote. I tried to tell him bye but he really didn't care. He didn't even notice we left, lol.

As it should be. He's happy & we just know he's going to thrive there. I have to be there in an hour to pick him up & I just can't wait to hear all he's going to tell me about his day. Although I also imagine it could be difficult to remove him from the classroom. Oh boy.

A couple of pictures. Not great quality as he just flat out REFUSED to cooperate for me. Actually, he was acting like such a little stinker this morning that 12:30 wasn't coming quick enough, lol. I think he felt the same way.

One more from the cell phone: