Cookie monster!

I had an intense craving today for no-bake chocolate cookies.  So intense that I fought the urge to leave work and go home to make them.  I fought the urge ALL AFTERNOON LONG!

After I picked Tatum up and before we went to meet our Sunday school dinner group, this is what our kitchen counter looked like.

Tatum and I both sampled the chocolatey goodness and were very pleased with the results.  She was a great helper, even if I was paranoid that she was going to burn herself on the stove while I was cooking them (and yes, I kept her away from the hot stove very well).

A few (ahem...) additional cookies after getting home from Chic-fil-A and my craving is satisfied.  I think.  Now, if only I could put them away for good and stop eating them.

Weekend Fun

So indulge me while I backtrack just a bit to this weekend.  We were able to get some things done around the house on Saturday, and Matt was kind enough to let me sleep away most of Sunday to rest.

In the midst of my nap, he must have fallen asleep as well.

As you can see, it's probably not a good idea for both adults to be asleep at the same time in our house.  Apparently the kids, Tatum specifically, felt like Daddy needed some doctoring.

Monday's Mission Accomplished

My home to-do list consisted of:

• Laundry
• Dishes
• Kitchen Counters
• Sweep and Mop Kitchen Floor
• Vacuum (the entire house)
• Soak in the bath with some bath goodies

I managed to complete all tasks (well, you and I both know that laundry is NEVER actually finished) except for the vacuuming last night and rewarded myself (and my aching back) with a soak in the tub.

It was so nice and relaxing that I actually fell asleep in the tub.  I'm not sure that had the desired effect on my aching back!

This morning, I finished off the list by putting in another load of laundry and vacuuming the house (all rooms except Kellen's).  Pretty good job on my to-do list, if I say so myself!

Let the countdown begin!

Had another ultrasound and non-stress today and both turned out fine.  She's hanging in there on the low end of the 'normal' range for AFI.  And she gained a whopping half a pound in three days!

Yup.  You read that correctly.  She went from 6 lb, 6 oz on Friday to 6 lb, 14 oz today (give or take 7 oz to each of those).

The doc popped his head in to say hi and I took advantage of the opportunity to ask about induction.  And we're now scheduled to go into the hospital THIS Friday at 10 PM to begin the process.

As you can see, my maniac-ness is continuing.  I thought about it, bugged Matt, then asked both Aunt Boo and Kellen what they thought about holding off on the birthday party for a week and having Jacey this weekend instead.  To be fair, I actually asked Kellen if he wanted Jacey to come before his birthday and/or birthday party.  He said yes.  He wanted her to come before his birthday and birthday party so that she could come to the party, too.  And let's be realistic...there's no way Aunt Boo is going to come down here so close to his birthday and NOT celebrate it.

So he'll end up getting a family birthday celebration and his 'real' birthday party out of the deal (although he doesn't know that) and we're good!

By my calculations, I have 4 nights to finish up the projects around the house.  And tonight Tatum and I went to the pool so that she could have a swim lesson and I could float.  I'm so glad that I went ahead and mustered up the energy to do that!  She and I had fun playing before her lesson, she had fun with Cymon during her lesson, I was able to float in water that was amazingly cool, and even swam some (slow) laps while she was having her lesson.  And I actually feel a little refreshed!

Praise the Lord!

We got home, I bathed her, we had dinner, got ready for bed, read and she's tucked in all tuckered out.  Nice!

Now on to my maniac ways.  I've been having contractions since about 3:30 or so this afternoon.  For about 2 hours they were 3-9 minutes apart.  A little more sporadic than what would be considered 'real' labor, if I remember correctly, but strong ones nonetheless.  They stopped while we were at the pool (for the most part), and started back up when we got back home.  I'm thinking they're nothing, other than a nusiance.

So, to continue with mustering energy, I have unloaded and loaded the dishwasher and the dishes are washing right now.  I've done 3 loads of laundry (so far) tonight, and have a stack of clean laundry to fold and put away.  I've swept and mopped the kitchen floor and cleaned off the counters.  I've picked up quite a bit in the living room, and wanted to vacuum the house, but since Tatum is already in bed and asleep, I'll try to do that in the morning before we leave for the day.

And I'm determined to soak in the tub tonight and use some more of my rediscovered 'goodies' from the bathroom cleaning spree.

Wish me luck!

My maniac ways continue.....

Tatum and I went grocery shopping after I picked her up today, and before putting the groceries away, I decided that, despite being exhausted from work and the simple excursion to the store, that it was the PERFECT time to deep clean the refrigerator.

Maniac!

But, it does look much better, even though I didn't completely finish due to a finger injury.  Apparently the corner portion of the microwave is incredibly sharp, and when you clean next to it without paying complete attention (or have an incredibly pins-n-needles, carpel-tunnel-like hand), you can rip quite a bit of skin away from underneath your fingernail.  OUCH!

Project done, at least for now...that's my cue to sit down, relax, put my feet up, and watch a movie with Tatum.

Maniac...

That's what I've felt like almost all day...beginning at shortly after 4 AM when Tatum burst into my room, poked me, and asked me if it was wake up time.  When I told her no, she asked if she could snuggle with me, got into bed, snuggled, and promptly fell back asleep.

I didn't.

Not that it would have mattered too much, because my brain was doing crazy things to me in my sleep last night.  Note to self: do NOT look up diagnoses on the internet before bedtime.  And by the way, 'oligohydramnios' is the fancy word for the condition of low amniotic fluid.  AFI is the acronym for amniotic fluid index.  A normal AFI is between 8-18 cm, 5-6 cm classifies you as oligohydramnios, and they use measurements from the four quadrants during the ultrasound to get the number.  You know, in case you were wondering.

Crazy me, I dreamed about various scenarios related to Jacey and her AFI all night last night and was virtually convinced that I was going to go in for my ultrasound today and then head straight to the hospital.

Maniac, I tell you.  Maniac.

So immediately prior to going to sleep, I started writing all of the things that I could think of that I needed to get done at work, and some home-related items, before having Jacey.  And I worked from that to-do list quite a bit today, but it still isn't all completed.

Maniac.

However, I went to the doctors for my check-up, passed my non-stress test with flying colors, and had a great ultrasound.  Jacey was even trying to talk to us.  Or swallow.  Or something, while we watched her.  And she's even lower now than she was earlier in the week, and without her starting to actually come out, I didn't realize that was even possible!  (In case you're wondering, her AFI was a little over 9 cm...so we're in the clear for her fluid levels right now!)  She's measuring a whopping 6 pounds, 6 ounces at this point, and with three weeks and 2 days left to go (officially), she may end up being the biggest of our kiddos yet!  If she decides to wait that long.  Or if I decide to let her wait that long.  The doc said he would be ok with inducing me late next week, but we're looking at quite a few conflicting logistics for that to actually occur next weekend....an ABS reunion Saturday, Aunt Boo coming (I think it would be nice if she got to meet Jacey while she were here, but...), then we're ALSO planning Kellen's birthday party for Sunday afternoon (and we probably wouldn't be able to guarantee that we would be out of the hospital in time to actually make it to Kellen's birthday party, and I'm not really ok with that).  In a perfect world, my plan would be to go in to get induced Thursday night, have her Friday morning, get released from the hospital on Saturday, then have Kellen's party on Sunday.

Did I mention that I'm in maniac mode over here??

Anyway, the weather wasn't really cooperating for Tatum to have her swim lesson tonight, so we headed to Target to pick up some odds and ends for Jacey instead.  I had forgotten how quickly things add up when you're dealing with baby gear!  Breastmilk storage bags, cream, pads, a bottle, extra nipples, etc....Craziness!

Tatum was being her usual chatterbox self, and I finally asked her to be quiet for just 5 minutes as we were checking out.  How did the little toot respond, "How about 2 minutes, Mommy?"

The lady checking us out laughed, then (in all seriousness), looked at me, pointed to my belly, and asked if I was having another one.  On the outside, I smiled, shook my head and said "Yes, another girl." On the inside I wanted so badly to look at her with the same level of seriousness on my face and say, "I'm sorry, what do you mean? Why do you ask?"  People, I'm way past the point of trying to ask in a nonchalant way.  And if she really didn't know I was pregnant, whoa buddy.....I look like I have a watermelon sticking straight out in front of me!  She completely cracked me up!

Progress....

So Matt and I really made some progress on the house this weekend....we're getting there, but still have much to do.  You know when you really go through things that you end up making more of a mess before it all becomes clean, orderly and tidy, right?  Well, that's where we are.

Tatum's bed got moved from "their" room to the "girls" room late yesterday afternoon, and that room is shaping up quite nicely (apologies in advance for the poor picture quality...photo taken with my phone).

As you can see, both beds are in there, and other than the cradle (the odd looking thing up on its side), things are pretty well in place.  I still need to assemble the changing table and organize it, but it's certainly getting there!  There is the other bookshelf in there as well (against the wall you can't see) and it looks really nice.

The unintended outcome of our progress were the reactions the kids had last night to bedtime.  They were non-too-happy to no longer be sharing a room with each other.  Tatum bawled.  And bawled.  And bawled some more...even with Daddy AND Mommy trying to comfort her.  Kellen was a little better, but sad, and tried to comfort Tatum in the meantime.  And the odd thing is that Tatum wants to share a room with Jacey (but in her defense, there is no Jacey outside of Mommy's tummy yet, soo......)

And in the living room, the computer desk and computer are all set up, and Matt spent much of yesterday afternoon and evening getting things organized in there.

Next up on the list, assemble and organize the changing table in the girls room, clean up Kellen's room, and finalize the living/dining room transformation.

Whew!

We're getting there....

So Matt and I have managed to swap bookshelves (taking the one from the "play" room into the living room and the one from the living room into the "play" room), purged items from said bookshelves, and have gone through toys in bins and books (both ours and the kids).

I also inventoried all of the girl 0-3 month clothes, washed, folded them, and they're now put away in the former "play", soon to be girls, room on the newly inserted bookshelf.

Next up, moving the computer desk and computer into the living room, rearranging the furniture in there, bringing Tatum's bed back into the girls room, and then setting up the changing table.  I'm hoping we'll get all of this done by the end of the day tomorrow (it would be wonderful if it was all done today, but I know that I'm certainly running out of steam!).

Just can't take it anymore!

Those are the words Kellen said to me as he walked back out of his room and into the bathroom, determined to pull the loose tooth.  And so he did.

So, he's lost both middle bottom teeth and now the top right side tooth (you know, the right one of the front pair).

He just yanked that sucker right outta there!

When did he get so big?  I remember marking down in his baby book and on our calendar when he first got those teeth.....

To back the story up, he and I had a date night tonight...just us.  It's been the first time in ages that he and I have gotten to spend time together, so I picked him up, we went and got pizza and a milkshake (and used two more of the coupons that expired today, thank you very much) then headed home, where he got to select the movie of his choosing.  We hung out, then read a book about dolphins (he chose, not me...although I adore dolphins!) and he read it to me.  He's such a good reader!  Then he got all ready for bed and was putting himself to bed when he decided that he was done with the loose tooth.

Hangin' in there....

If folks ask me how I'm doing, that's the response they're most likely to get.  Is it sad that I officially have over 4 weeks left and I'm already to the 'hangin' in there' point?

"give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." - 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NIV)

• I don't feel like giving thanks right now because my body is a human humidity reader, swelling larger and larger the higher the humidity levels go.
• I don't feel like giving thanks right now because it takes me longer than I think it should to actually be able to move once I get up from sitting down.
• I don't feel like giving thanks right now because the face I see in the mirror no longer resembles the image of me that I have in my head.
• I don't feel like giving thanks right now because I am seeing way too many numbers on the clock throughout the night.
• I don't feel like giving thanks right now because I'm having to trek to the bathroom every half hour.

BUT, this verse, and many others with the same overall theme, don't tell me to give thanks when I think my circumstances warrant it.

"give thanks in ALL CIRCUMSTANCES..."

Pretty straight-forward, isn't it?

How do you give thanks when you feel blah?  If you have the answer, let me know, but I'm guessing you adopt a Nike attitude and JUST DO IT.

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." - Romans 8:28 (NIV)

In all things.

So, God is working for the good in:

• the fact that my body is a human humidity reader
• the fact that it takes me longer than I think it should to actually be able to move once I get up from sitting down
• the fact that the face I see in the mirror no longer resembles the image of me that I have in my head
• the fact that I'm seeing lots of numbers on the clock throughout the night
• the fact that I'm having to go to the bathroom every half hour

He has a plan for all of this.  (And you're probably thinking, 'Well, duh, Rebecca....the plan is for you to be able to deliver a little baby girl!')  Well yes, but considering that some lucky folks go through their pregnancy with very little 'unpleasant' symptoms, I think there might be more to the plan than just delivering.

We'll see.  And I'll trust.

But if you ask me how I'm doing and I'll still probably answer, "I'm hangin' in there!"

Interesting facts....

• My kids are apparently so competitive that challenging them to a race -- one to determine who can fall asleep the fastest -- actually works.  Yeah, I'm cool like that.  (Don't you wish you would have thought of it? - Go ahead, steal the idea...it works!)
• In the time it takes to cook ramen noodles (cut me some slack, they looked really good to me at the store tonight! And I didn't buy the oreos that I really wanted), I can unload the dishwasher. (The kids ate a much healthier dinner, in case you're wondering)
• In the time it takes for said noodles to cool, I can reload the dishwasher and clean off the kitchen counters. (Who knew?)
• I apparently have no "off" button for popcicles right now.

Like a weed.....

growing, that is.  According to the ultrasound today, Jacey is measuring 5 lb 12 oz, and we officially have 4 weeks and 5 days to go.

Just for comparison sake, Tatum weighed in at 6 lb, 8.8 oz when she was born at 38 weeks.  Kellen was 7 lb, 2 oz full-term.

After the scariness that was Friday at the doctors office, today went much smoother.  Nevermind the fact that we had technical difficulties during the non-stress test - at least they were technical, not problems with Jacey!  After being hooked up for probably 10 minutes, when the nurse came in to check on me she realized that the machine had run out of paper and we hadn't actually recorded anything.  So they restocked the machine and started over. 

And not only could I hear her movements, I could feel them, too!  YAY!

And the ultrasound looked good.  Good fluid levels, still no appearance of the cord around her neck, and great growth.

So stay tuned for Friday's installment....

Cleaning

So for those of you who know me, you know I aspire to have a clean house but my wishes and reality don't always line up.

Today Matt is at a Sunday school golf tourney with the guys, and I'm going to see just how much I can get accomplished (with periodic breaks - I AM in the about-to-pop-pregnant mode, here) before he gets home.

Note: I'm going to work on the post in pieces as I take breaks, so I apologize in advance if it's somewhat disjointed.

First on the list, hit the "hot spots" (thank you FlyLady for the terminology).  For those of you not in the know, "hot spots" are the flat surfaces around your house where you dump things.  In my house, there are many of them, including the butcher block in the kitchen, the dining room table, the cabinet in the dining room, our love seat (which is currently covered in Matt's clean and folded clothes that he assures me he'll put away later on today), the desk, and our night stands.  I've tacked the butcher block and moved to our bedroom to tackle the night stands.  Matt's didn't take very long, but mine has taken more than a half hour because I'm actually going through things and getting rid of junk.

And apparently I feel the need to harbor all of this JUNK right next to my bed on my night stand.  Ug.  Must. stop. the. pattern.  I want my bedroom to feel like a retreat....not something we need to retreat FROM!  So I'm actually taking an aside from the hot spots and have decided to focus on our bedroom.....I have cleaned off our nightstands, GONE THROUGH the STUFF that was on (and around) my nightstand (and shockingly, this took the l-o-n-g-e-s-t amount of time), pulled the miscellaneous stuff from underneath the bed, and cleaned the TV stand (which also functions nicely as a hot spot).  I now have magazines and papers from way too long ago thrown away, coupons clipped and organized in their rightful place, and clean floors (and by clean I mean uncluttered, not vacuumed - I haven't made it that far yet).

Nice!

And here is question for the masses (or the 3 people that actually read this blog) - what do you do with the kiddo keepsakes?  I mean what do you really DO with them?  The mother's day cards, the cute notes and drawings, etc.  Do you put them in a box, do you take a picture of them, what???  Please tell me your secrets, because my kids are incredibly loving and make things for me that I truly do not know what to do with.  Help!

I'm now putting away the lingering clean clothes from the room...then I believe I WILL vacuum to complete the transformation.  I am resisting the urge to pull EVERYTHING out of the closet floor (isn't it amazing how much stuff happens to fall to the floor of your closet and goes unnoticed???) because I don't know if I will have enough time to go through it all before Matt gets home, and I would like him to see what appears to be a finalized project.  Resist I must.

But perhaps later....

And the stuff under the sink in our bathroom is calling me to go through it as well.....

Baby update

Well, she's still baking, but sure did scare me yesterday.

I went in for my non-stress and doctor appointment, and had ingested my Dr. Pepper immediately prior to like advised.  When I went in, they gave me yet another Dr. Pepper, just to be on the safe side.  Well, after getting hooked up to the machine for the non-stress, I realized that I still couldn't feel her (much).  A few minutes later, the doctor comes in to check on me and I inform him that in general, her movements have diminished dramatically over the last week and that I'm just not feeling her move nearly as often as I had. 

He had apparently already gone through my files looking for any patterns of this, and had found none.  So he was paying attention.  His response was that we were going to get to the bottom of it. TODAY. If he didn't like the way the non-stress looked, he was going to do another ultrasound to check on her, and depending on that, possibly send me to L&D for a contraction stress test (using pitocin to cause contractions and monitor how she responded to those).  And despite the fact that we want her to 'bake' for two more weeks to be considered full-term, if he didn't like that, she was coming outta there.

After I finished the 2nd Dr. Pepper, they moved me to my left side to see if that would get her going even more, and he stayed in the room with me listening and monitoring.

Funny thing was, we realized we could hear her movements on the machine, but I couldn't feel them.  At all. So we started 'ticking' the movements as we heard them, rather than as I felt them.  When we did that, she passed the non-stress test.

So my big question - Why am I not feeling her move when it's apparent that she is?  He didn't have a definitive answer to that one...

Still concerned, he has the ultrasound machine pulled into the room and does an ultrasound on her.  After he searched for a while, I finally asked him what he was looking for - and he was checking her fluid levels as well as trying to see if she had the cord wrapped around her neck.  Well, because she's head down - and VERY head down, he actually had to move her out of my pelvis with one hand and try to get a picture of her head and neck with the u/s using the other.

Ouch.

With her head momentarily out of my pelvis, we're able to clearly see her head and her spine, and do NOT see evidence that the umbilical cord is wrapped around her neck.  And her fluid levels look good.

Praise God!

So we're still left with my big question.  And no definitive answer.  We discuss adjusting my positions if it has been a while since I've felt her, and I practiced supporting myself with my arms and laying on my stomach (yep, you read that correctly) in order to put pressure on her and force her to really kick and move. That worked, by the way.  So if she goes too long without me feeling her movements, that is the plan.

As for the potential (and most probable) reason for why I'm not feeling her....she is so low and positioned in such a way that all of her arm and leg movements aren't noticeable to me.  When she's rotating herself - I can feel (and see) that.  I see something resembling a bottom rolling across my belly.  And after she does that, I frequently feel what I'm guessing are her knees or feet on the sides of my belly.

So, reassured that she was in fact moving, and armed with some techniques to use if I became nervous about my lack of feeling her move, we decided to call it a day.  Same ole, same ole for next week....ultrasound and non-stress on Monday and another non-stress and doctor visit on Friday!

Vote for Tatum

Well, if you saw my post on voting for Kellen, you know what I'm talking about.  I JUST found out that Tatum is in the running as well!

So....click here to vote for Tatum.  And while you're at it, remember that you can vote daily!!

2nd verse,

same as the first.

Dealing with cellulitis again with Tatum.  She had her swim lesson last night at the pool, we made it home, ate, bathed, and I didn't notice anything (but also didn't closely inspect her feet for bites, either).

I guess I need to add that to our daily routine, because when we got up this morning and I was helping her get dressed, I noticed that the area around her ankle was red, hot and VERY swollen.  I drew the outline, gave her Benadryl, and we headed on with our day.  Once I got in the office, I gave her doctors office a call and scheduled an appointment for her for mid-day and he confirmed my mommy-diagnosis - cellulitis.  Again.

Armed with a prescription for the same two antibiotics she was on barely a month ago, I dropped her off at school for her nap, dropped the prescription off at the pharmacy, and went home to have lunch.  While I was home, I stripped her bedding, all of her loveys, and the numerous stuffed animals that accompany her to sleep and threw them in the washing machine on hot. Just in case. I also took all of her crocs, minus the ones she was wearing, and soaked them in clorox-water in the sink. Just in case. Then I went to pick up the prescription, headed back to day care, woke her up to take her meds, then stayed with her until she went back to sleep.

So now I'm on a mission to see how in the world we can avoid this from happening again.  Antibiotic ointment on anything resembling a bite or sting is apparently a must for her. Daily. So is insect repellent with high concentrations of DEET.  Note to self: I need to look at what they're using at day care when they go outside. One of her teachers did tell me that they put the insect repellent on them twice for each period of time that the kids are outside.  Not twice a day, twice per outing. You would think that would be sufficient, but apparently not.  Unless we go to the pool for swimming after school during the week, we aren't outside. It's not that I don't like the outdoors, I just can't handle the heat right now. So she isn't getting the bites from being outside after school (which is good, since the mosquitoes that vector the west nile virus are out at dusk). On the weekends we might go and do things, but it's different every weekend and again, I can't really handle being outside too terribly much right now.

So, I'm trying to clean and disinfect everything I can, even though that's probably not the cause of her infections.

I'm open to suggestions if anyone has them!

Vote for Kellen!

A week or two ago, I entered a few photos of Kellen in a contest Parents magazine was running.  They're looking for kiddos to grace the cover of their magazine....and will send some semi-finalists to a photo shoot in August to get the shots they'll make the final selections from for the contest.

Well, I received an email today indicated that Kellen is in the running to become one of the weekly reader's choice finalists!

('Cause my boy can be quite the ham, right?!)

Anywhoooo, follow the link to vote on Kellen and vote for him!  You can do this daily and through June 27th.

Whoo hoo!!

Fail....

I think I failed my non-stress test today.  Jacey was moving some during the ultrasound, kicked the nurse as she was putting the monitors onto the ever-expanding space that used to function as my abdominals, and then didn't move again for nearly 20 minutes. Apparently Matt and I breed stubborn and strong-willed children, a trait that is evident even in utero (shocking, huh?). I had 1 kick/movement during the entire non-stress test, despite drinking a Dr. Pepper prior to going into the doctors office and drinking a Barq's (with bite, mind you) during the test.  I had 3 other "marks" on the read-out that were contractions. That was it. Ug.

I say I think I failed because I don't actually know what the criteria is for passing a non-stress test in terms of number of movements in that amount of time and I am not scheduled to see the doctor until Friday, after my next non-stress test, when we'll go over all of the results from this week. Of course, that is unless I get a phone call first, which the nurse said was likely.

Jacey has actually been fairly inactive today, which is unlike her.  As my zombie-like demeanor might give away, she normally keeps me up quite a bit at night either kicking her legs causing knees and/or feet to attempt to escape my belly or by practicing her punches on my bladder.

However, as I type this now, she's practicing a few of her kicks.  Maybe she wants to come out and go straight into Tae Kwon Do with her brother?  Who knows.

So, since I'm feeling her move some, I'm trying not to stress about what I don't know about the results of the test today....'cause stressing about it certainly isn't going to help matters!

The end result

...of my neurotic behavior leading to the maternity shoot and Maleigh's awesome photographic talents can be found here.

I love the sneak peak and cannot wait to see the rest of them!

I just love how this one turned out....if you're gonna be round, you might as well have fun with it!

Chick-fil-A deals

A friend mentioned to me this weekend that the Chick-fil-A here in town was having 'deals' every day they are open during the summer.

So, for you College Station folks, here goes (in case you don't have this info yet, and I did the best I could to write down quickly, so be sure and double check this at CFA):
Monday - Milkshake Monday! Buy a 20 oz milkshake, get a spicy chicken sandwich free
Tuesday - 5-8 PM, Kids night - Kids eat free w/ purchase of an adult meal
Wednesday - Free refills on your waffle fries from 5 PM - close
Thursday - Free 3 pack mini OR breakfast chicken sandwich for breakfast (No purchase!)
Friday - If you purchase 4 meals, you get 4 desserts for free
Saturday - Get a free small nugget tray with the purchase of a large nugget tray

Cool, huh?  I think I have my Thursday breakfast lined up!