Wow, I'm Getting Old!

Another birthday. This will make me 32 years old when I have my last child. I have to say this side of thirty does look different than the other side.

At least I am young enough that my oldest child doesn't think it is "gross" to be having another baby. Yet I am old enough to have a built in babysitter. Hey wait, this may be a pretty good gig!

We have been so focused on baby things and pregnancy problems that we haven't really thought much about birthdays. But last week Wendell asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I said, " I want my bedroom painted." He said, "anything but that!" "Sorry, that is really all I want. And a clean house." (full on nesting setting in.)

Wendell doesn't like to paint. I kind of like to redo things in our house often. When I was pregnant with Brenley, We painted the trim on the outside of our house(which was a lovely grey/purple color), Mitchell's room and the girls' room. These are always my projects. He wants nothing to with them. Why does Mitchell need tiny stripes painted on his wall? Why does the girls' room have to be plaid? Sorry, blame it on Pottery Barn catalogues.

But he always gets sucked into it somehow, poor guy! He always ends up helping me out. Usually because he is a bit of a perfectionist, and wants the lines just right. And he is better at figuring out how to do what I want done than I am.

This time it is even worse. I have never started a project while I was this huge. Most of the work has to be done by him. Our bedroom and bathroom have super high vaulted ceilings. And I can't really do a ladder right now. Especially in our bathroom. I can't really balance on the sink, or the edge of the bathtub. I can't climb a ladder precariously placed inside the shower. It's all him.

I am happy to report that the bathroom is mostly done. I bought the paint on Thursday ( I have to pick it out) and he got it mostly finished by Saturday. While I was at a baby shower and the Relief Society Broadcast.

Now for the bedroom. The bedroom has been a sore spot for me for many years. It is the dumping ground for clutter, laundry, homework, toys, and just general mess. Whenever anyone comes over, including the kids' friends, the bedroom door gets shut. The children are forbidden to come inside with friends. Well, I have been chipping away at little hot spots for a while. And my mother, who has tremendous organizational skills, has taken pity on me and has come over to help me a little every week. So it is shaping up pretty well, and I am hopeful that it will be painted in the next couple of weeks.

This is my gift from my husband, who will have to do almost all of the work. I can't wait. I can't imagine a better birthday gift.

I'll keep you posted...

Brenley is three!

(yes, my "big girl" is sitting in the infant bumbo. She has baby issues;)
It is official. My little toddler is a preschooler! When did this happen? A few months ago we were still calling her "the baby". We would probably still be calling her that if she weren't expecting a baby sister soon.


We even cut off her baby curls today. It may have been way overdue. The child hasn't had a hair cut in three years. But she had these cute little curls at the end that I just didn't want to get rid of! My hair is naturally thin and fine and straight as a board. So when I had a child with even minuscule curls, I just had to keep them as long as I could! But I let her hair get so long that the weight was pulling the curl out anyhow. As you can see!


(not a very good after shot. She was not cooperating. I actually took off about 3 inches)

I am hoping her hair will not be so painful to comb out now.


She even finished potty training herself a while ago. I am a hands off potty tainer. I would rather deal with dirty diapers than potty training accidents any day. So I just wait until my kids decide on their own that they want to use the toilet from now on, then they pretty much do it on their own.

It had been obvious for months that Bren was ready, but I was too sick to want to deal with it. When I couldn't ignore her anymore, we bought her some big girl undies, and showed her to her little toilet. That is all it took. She even uses the big toilet half the time, especially when she needs to go #2. This way I have nothing to clean up. And no sticker charts, no bribery, no accidents. These are the perks of waiting until your child wants to potty train themselves. We are very proud of her. And very grateful that we will not have two children in diapers;)



Happy Birthday Big Girl!

Crafty Nesting!

When I found out what I was having I listed a few of the benefits of having yet another girl. Well I have been working on one of them. Cute bows! My kids tend to come out with large heads, so headbands are a very cute necessity. With Rachael and Kindyl I made most of them myself. With Brenley I had my very talented sister Jannalee make them for me. She just has the knack for bows. With the trend of using flowers these days, I thought I would give it a shot myself this time.

Here are my first attempts. I am not shying away from the big flowers that you see out there, but these are smaller ones that I can use right when she is born.


I love being able to use the flat backed crystals on them. Back when my older kids were little, we didn't bling up our bows up like we do now. I think it adds a nice little flair.



Of course I still had Jannalee make me some staples. She has to have some good old fashioned bows! I love the Halloween one! It is like a little costume in and of itself. Black shirt and pants, and you're done. So cute!




This is the wipes case I made at Super Saturday. My kids are very impressed, and they each want one of their own! It is a cute idea that I never would have come up with on my own. All I did was a little cutting and pasting (the extent of my talent;). All babies need a little bling when they get a diaper change, right?;)

Yeah! My Child Has a Speech Problem!

Brenley finished her second round of testing today and I really feel like things are falling into place!

On Wednesday I took her to her initial screening. It took me 6 weeks to get that appointment, so we have been waiting impatiently to begin the process. She tested well above average in social, cognitive, physical etc. but a little low on intelligibility. This basically means that her family can understand a lot of what she says, but others can't.

We did this same process with Kindyl when she was three. She was well above average on the other scores as well, but was borderline on intelligibility. ( Brenley is not quite as borderline, as you would know if she ever tried to explain anything complicated to you;) So Kindyl got to go to speech preschool, and it was fabulous. She had fantastic teachers, and a great program. By Kindergarten she didn't need any extra help at all, and she has done great ever since.



Brenley has been so sad since all of her siblings started going to school. She wants to go to school too. I don't usually put my kids in preschool until they are 4. But I was pretty confident that she could get into speech preschool.

On Wednesday's screening she qualified for a more extensive review. This can sometimes take over a month to schedule. But we were lucky enough to get the place of a cancellation two days later! (That means today, if you are counting;)

She had an appointment for 8:30 this morning. Unfortunately, I had to be at the hospital between 7-8 to get my second steroid shot to develop the babies lungs.(my doctor ordered it after another lovely hospital scare, and fun adventures with magnesium, the medication they have previously only threatened me with. Evil stuff. Don't worry, she and I are both fine, and now her lungs will be O.K no matter when she comes. Woo hoo!)

Luckily wendell was able to take her to her appointment and I met them there. One of the two screeners was Kindyl's old preschool teacher. She was fabulous, and we loved her. After additional lengthy screening, she made it into a speech only preschool with other students who only have a problem with intelligibility. There is one close to our house with only one slot left. Luckily, they have a meeting on Monday with our screeners who will try their best to get her in. Then we have a meeting with her new teacher to set goals on the 29th, a week from Monday.




This is a lot quicker than usual, and I really feel like things are falling into place for us. It is important to me to get her started before I have this baby, and it looks like that could really be any time now. I think it will help her to be comfortable if I am with her at first.

So everybody wish us luck! Hooray! My kid rides the short bus!;)

I'll Take my Good Husband Any Day

My older brother e mailed me this. Because of all the books all of us blog mommies admit to reading, I thought it was fitting. Really, can you see Edward changing a diaper?;)

Fantasy Men vs Good Husbands

Fantasy Men are dark, dangerous and mysterious.
Good Husbands don't have secrets. They tell you anything you want to know, sometimes more than you want to know. They're SAFE.

Fantasy Men are arrogant and controlling. They have a sense of entitlement (per one publisher's guidelines)
Good Husbands are nice. They're flexible, accommodating and quietly confident. They don't expect to be given anything they haven't earned.

Fantasy Men are powerful and command respect. They never ask for help and never make the wrong decision.
Good Husbands share power and authority, and they earn respect. They make mistakes all the time but they aren't afraid to admit them and learn from them, or ask for help if needed. (However, they won't ask for directions!)

Fantasy Men are tortured souls with bad, bad things in their pasts.
Good Husbands might have sad or tragic pasts, but they've gotten past the bad stuff and haven't let it taint their entire lives.

Fantasy Men consider falling in love with the heroine a weakness, because it's the one thing in their lives they can't control.
Good Husbands think falling in love with their wives is the best thing that ever happened to them. They don't consider emotion a personality flaw.

Fantasy Men are reduced to total incompetence by a crying baby.
Good Husbands can change a stinky diaper in their sleep.




Fantasy Men ride Harleys.
Good Husbands drive a safe car with a baby car seat in back.

Fantasy Men are so dang good-looking that beautiful supermodels fall all over them, but of course they're never tempted by anyone but the heroine.
Good Husbands might be handsome, but most of us aren't going to see our husbands in a Calvin Klein ad. And they don't have that supermodel problem.

Fantasy Men never, but never belch.
Good Husbands … okay, maybe this isn't the most endearing feature of a real man. But let's face it. They can't help themselves.

I vote for the good husband, belches and all. :)

Another Name Post

I am still at a loss as to what to name this baby. I need some advice.

I don't want a name that is super popular. I don't want my child to have to use her last initial her whole life. I am still a little miffed that Brenley is as common as it is. When I named her, I couldn't find it in any of the name books.

Anyhow- the name I like best is off limits to me. And Wendell didn't like it anyway for a girl. He won't let me use any of those cute names that may have ever belonged to a boy. ALL of them, and anything that ends in "son".

I have to admit I feel severely limited by this! I am wondering how he ever agreed to Kindyl. Oh yeah, he knew a girl Kendall growing up, and never knew a boy by the name.

A lot of names that I like are also too similar to Brenley. We can't really use another "ley" name at all. Shoot!

I have always felt a litttle limited by our last name as well. Obviously all "Mc" names are out. And Macnab is so Scottish that you can't really use any exotic sounding names with it. Although.. I was watching reruns the other day,(Angel) and noticed one of the actor's name was "Mercedes Mcnab". Even though it is obviously French, it seemed to work! I may be biased because I am reading "The Count of Monte Cristo" right now. (Kindyl narrowly escaped being named "Scarlet". You have to watch what you read while pregnant;)

So here is a really really small list of names I am still contemplating:

Camdyn (LOVE Cam as a nick name)
Brecklyn (Love Brekyn, but know too many)
Cambry (too similar to Brenley?)

Um...that is it. Way too small, I know! So if you have any ideas, I am open. You have an idea what kind of narrow criteria I am working with.

Thanks for the help!

O.K. O.K, I'm HUGE, I know already!

It has been apparent lately that I am larger than your average pregnant girl. At bunco last week, we had a sub that was just so cute and tiny and pregnant. She was DAYS from delivering. ( I think she has had her by now.) You know the kind. She was wearing her regular, non maternity shorts, and she just looked fantastic.

Then there is my cute friend Rhonda who is due 4 weeks before me. We are the same age, so I can't just say the usual,"well, she isn't over thirty yet." Even her belly is smaller than mine!

I would post a belly picture of us all so you could see, but the cute tiny girl specifically said,"no blogs!" when we took it. Since I just met her, I'd better respect her wishes.(You can just ignore your best friends, you know;)

But there are other signs that I am ginormous:

Wendell has been laughing at the sight of me walking around the house with my belly sticking out. This is a habit of mine while it has been so stinkin hot. I kind of look like a fat man whose shirt and shorts are too small to come together all the way. You know you have seen these guys. Not pretty.



Brenley has always referred to the baby as, "tiny baby" Today in the shower, she pokes my belly and says, " Tiny Baby is BIG, Mom! Look how big Tiny Baby is!"

Complete strangers have been telling me I must be due any day now. You know the comments, "You look like you are ready to pop!" Thanks, I have over a month to go.I didn't know I was so huge!(did you catch the sarcasm there?)

And, last but not least, my scale has been reaching numbers it has never before seen. We are talking uncharted territory here. I weigh a lot more than I did when I gave birth to Brenley, and I had preeclampsia with her! (For those that don't know, this means I had some irregular swelling and water weight along with high blood pressure, extra protein, etc.) If I manage to get preeclampsia with this one, you can just imagine the numbers I will be seeing then.

Do I seriously care? Not really. It is not so bad being fat when you have an obviously pregnant belly. I know I will have to deal with it after the baby comes, but right now it is not so embarrassing. For all anyone else knows, I COULD just be swollen all over from water weight. Go ahead, try to prove I'm not.;)

Besides, I will take being huge over being on bedrest any day. A little perspective always helps:)

9-11

(Warning- this could be considered part of my journaling, and is probably going to be boring to the rest of you.)




Do you remember where you were? I was reading someone else's 9-11 post this morning (blog stalking) and it made me think about that time.

I am not a very patriotic person on a day to day basis. I realize how lucky we are to live in this country, and am more and more grateful when I learn what living conditions are like in other places. And I don't mean third world countries either. I mean Canada. And Europe. I realize how much better we have it here than the rest of the world. But I am still much too selfish to ever send my husband or son off to war voluntarily, althoughI understand the necessity of the war in general.

I digress. I am remembering that morning. Rachael was 4, Kindyl had just turned 3, and Mitchell was crawling around the house. Wendell called me from work just after 8. He said, "Are you watching T.V? " My response:"Of course I am watching T.V. Sesame Street is on." "change the channel" "to what?" "Anything". And I saw the first tower go down. An airplane crashed into it.


Of course it had happened in New York. Which means it happened 3 hours earlier. SO they immediately showed the second tower go down. My response?


"What are the chances of THAT?"

I didn't get it. I was thinking some airplane had made a terrible mistake. And then ANOTHER one did! I couldn't believe it.

Did I think, terrorist attack? No! I lived in America. No one would dare attack America. My mind didn't even go there.

So Wendell had to explain it to me. It took a while for me to wrap my mind around it. So my mind was racing as I finished getting Rachael ready for pre school. I dropped her off a 1/2 hour late. Her teacher expected it. Everyone was late that day.

I remember driving home, thinking about the big building down town that Wendell was working in, looking toward the skies. I wanted him to come home. Was it logical to think that someone would fly into a random building in downtown Phoenix? No, but it didn't stop me from worrying.

I am a bit of a history buff, and will read just about anything historical. fiction, non fiction. I have read A LOT about WW2. SO I started thinking about rations. I pictured myself pushing the stroller to the grocery store in 115 degree heat, because we were on gas rations. I thought about stock piling things like sugar. I thought about getting a bike with a babyseat and a little trailer to ride Rachael to school. All of these selfish things went through my mind first.

As the days passed I remember driving on the freeway, counting all of the flags on the cars. They were everywhere. My favorite was the flag bandanna on the wild motorcyclist.

People were nicer to each other. We were all on the same side, facing a terrifying enemy. It was a whole different feeling, I think.

I remember when the fear started to rub off on the kids. It was the ONLY thing on T.V for weeks.(I let out a little whoop when Law and Order finally started playing again. Shallow? Maybe) We tried to shelter the kids, and not let them see any of it. But they could feel it. They could tell the adults were tense. They saw glimpses of the tower while trying to find PBS (the only network that continued normally)on T.V. Rachael had a hard time sleeping.

That is when I taught the girls about The Sound of Music. We taught them the song These Are a Few of My Favorite Things. Obvious choice, really. It is the most fitting song to sing when things are troubling us. They picked up on it quickly, and got a big kick out of it.




We have forgotten a lot in 7 years. There are no more flags on cars, or tough bikers. I don't worry about rationing anymore, or random anthrax attacks. We aren't as nice to strangers. We are a little complacent.

This morning I remember it like it was yesterday.

As Crafty as I Get These Days!

I stole this from someone else's blog. It seemed fitting;)

Doctor Update

My Doc appointment went well today, and I am officially off of bed rest! Kind of. At least I don't have to rely on others to watch Brenley for me, and even sometimes bring dinner. Jannalee, Rebecca and my mom have been great about taking care of her, and others have offered, but having an extra kid tends to get really old really fast. And we have had three dinners brought by as well. My friend Cassie went above and beyond and brought us one fabulous dinner (not exaggerating)that lasted two days! One week of bedrest is doable,(and over, thankfully!) and I don't feel like I am putting everyone out any more. Hallelujah!

My doctor was able to get a better look at my placental abruption, and is at least certain about what he is looking at. Although it is definitely an abruption (and not something less sinister) it still hasn't gotten any worse. And the pain in my side is gone, which is a great sign.

I am still having contractions two minutes apart unless I am medicated around the clock, but I can live with that as long as I can get out of bed. Since I have gotten out of the hospital, I am dilated an extra centimeter(from 0 to 1;) and effaced an extra 50% (from 0 to 50), so these contractions are actually doing something. But those small numbers are still more than manageable, so we are O.K.

Tomorrow I will be at 32 weeks, (my doctor pushed my due date back to Nov. 5 a long time ago, but I still say I am due the end of Oct. and haven't changed my counter. I have never gone past 38 weeks and I have problems facing reality;) and 32 weeks is a big milestone. My doctor isn't really worried about her coming after tomorrow, and neither am I.

I just have to make sure she is still moving, keep my contractions under control, and watch for any bleeding. If I have problems with any of those things, I go straight to the hospital. If not, I can live normally as long as I take it easy(which I have been doing this whole pregnancy)and try not to pick up Brenley. We'll see how well I do with that.

I have a whole list of things I need to do. Some fun (including making up a lunch date I had to miss today) and countless other things that are not so fun. I will get them done 1 thing at a time.

It turns out that I will be on bedrest less with this pregnancy than any other. Go figure. Even if I have to go back on after my next ultrasound in two weeks, I will have to go on for two more weeks at most.

Woohoo!

Kindyl's birthday with the cousins

(I am pretty sure Kylee has always been her favorite cousin.)


Kindyl's birthday is August 26th and Kylee's birthday is Sept. 3rd. So they have shared family birthday cakes since she was born. They are 5 years apart, but I am pretty sure Kindyl has always loved Kylee best.

Here are some pics of cousins and birthday cakes!

12:30 church

You know I have only been to church sporadically lately. We have had 8:00 church, and I have been way too sick in the morning to attend often. They frown on hurling in the chapel, you know.

I have been so looking forward to our church moving to 12:30. I figured I could finally get off of the inactive list. Unfortunately the first week of our new church time is (hopefully) the only Sunday I am actually on bed rest.

But we had at least one advantage. I was able to do the girls' hair. Don't get me wrong, I did it before. Between trips to the toilet, I would do a couple of ponies with ribbon, or maybe a french braid. But it is really nice to be able to sit in bed and have the time and inclination to do something fun. And I even made a few flower clips. Now at least my children may not look like orphans;)


(Side braids and loops. I tried to get a pic from the side but my camera ran out of batteries.)

Why Brenley is spoiled

O.K- Not entirely. She has always been spoiled. But we do have our limits, as parents, and stand up to the toddler. Like when she refuses to go to bed for no good reason, we sometimes just leave her in there. This is what happened last night. When she suddenly stopped crying, we didn't question it. We just assumed she had given up. We should have known better. Of course Rachael had gotten her out of her bed, and rocked her to sleep.

Rachael has always had a tendency to subvert our best intentions. She can't bare to hear the "baby" cry. So she gives her whatever she wants, and gets her out of her bed if she can get away with it. We thought she was asleep. But she was busy, "saving the baby". Typical;)

Crazy Drugs- Clarification

No, I am not taking some fun painkiller that is making my brain foggy. The crazy drug I am taking is terbutaline for my contractions.

A lot of you understand this drug, but I'll explain for the others. Terbutaline is like speed for pregnant women. My hands shake, and my brain doesn't function well. I can't really finish a thought. My mind goes to three different things before I am able to finish a sentence.

I seriously debated whether or not to take it. Without it, I have contractions every two minutes. At first I thought this may be preferable to being crazy. The contractions are not strong enough to put me into preterm labor. But they make me really crampy, and make me have to pee, and make it hard/impossible for my placenta to heal. SO for at least the next week I will be crazier than usual.

Speaking of crazy drugs, they made me take stadol in the hospital. Stadol is the craziest drug ever invented. It is what I imagine a really bad acid trip would be like. You can still feel most of the pain, but you don't care as much, and can't do anything about it. In your head, you are doing all sorts of weird things. You can't move, or talk, or open your eyes. I remember hearing the nurses, and not being able to talk to them. When I came out of it, I told them I would never take that crazy drug again as long as I lived.

It may not have been as bad if I knew what I was getting into. I should have known by the nurses' strange reaction to the order. I was expecting something to take the edge off, or at least leave me coherant. I had my phone in my hand ready to call my sister,(dropped it) and had a list of things I needed to do in my head. I had no idea I would be totally incapacitated.

It is apparently the safest pain killer for pregnant women. (Pregnant women who enjoy a good hallucination every now and again). This is the drug they give to women in labor if they are not opposed to drugs, but don't want an epidural. My doc wouldn't give me anything else, so I had the choice between crazy hallucinations and pain. I chose pain.

Placental Abruption.

(warning...boring and probably TMI;)

Some of you know that I have been a little more useless than usual since about Friday. I developed a really strong pain in my left side, and have been having a hard time standing up straight. Or laying down. Or sitting, really.

At first I thought it was just my ovary pain again. I have had a cyst on my left ovary from the beginning of this pregnancy, and it causes some serious pain at times.

I wasn't sure, but this seemed a little different. More muscular, and absolutely unbearable. So I spent part of Saturday and part of Monday in the hospital with pain and contractions coming two minutes apart. Contractions are pretty normal for me in my third trimester, but they don't usually come 2 minutes apart. I tried to stay out of the hospital by taking terbutaline and vicodin at home, but that only works to a certain point. Neither of the doctors in my doctor's office were in town, so some strange doctor I have never heard of was on call. He just wanted to stop my contractions,(multiple terbutaline shots) shoot me with Demerol (which was lovely, I admit) and send me on my way until my doctor got back.

When my doctor finally came back yesterday, they found a small placental abruption on my left side that was causing all my pain and contractions. He decided to admit me, because these abruptions can cause major problems. They kept me overnight so they could compare ultrasounds and see if it was getting any better or worse. They also needed to monitor the babies heartbeat for a while, since a major complication can be fetal distress and death. The baby kind of needs your placenta to live, apparently;)

I had never had a placental abruption, so I needed to do some reading on the subject. It seems they can kill both mother and child, or do nothing at all;)

So I kept my reading to SMALL placental abruptions. It tends to cause contractions one right after another that don't cause you to dilate. That explains my constant contractions. SO I get to take terbutaline, which seems to make me a little crazy.

Anyhow, it can heal itself, stay the same, or tear further. My second ultrasound showed that it had stayed the same size. SO I am on strict bedrest(bathroom privileges) for a week, then we will check it again.

I am really optimistic that my body has the ability to heal itself, and it will get better instead of worse. I have a lot of things to do before this baby comes, so bedrest or a hospital stay aren't really going to work for me. In the meantime, keep in mind that I am taking my crazy drugs and I may not make a heck of a lot of sense. I may go back and look at this post and wonder what on earth I could have been talking about;)