Life...

Been a while since I updated.  In my defense, besides me feeling terrible from morning sickness, the whole house seems to have spent much of the winter sick.  Morning sickness hit hard this time, like it did with Jessica, all day, everyday, for 15 or 16 weeks.  Then around Thanksgiving the kids and James all got sick.  Christmas had us all sick, over the entire Christmas break.  That was the longest two weeks of my life.

In January I started feeling the baby move regularly and became noticeably pregnant. James and I went to our ultrasound where the baby looked great, but we did NOT find out the sex.  No more planned ultrasounds so no more chances for me to sneak a peek.

I am getting more and more excited about June 17, although I know this baby will probably come sooner. I am excited about labor and finding out if this is a little boy or girl.  If My plans for a water birth will actually happen this time. I am excited about having a sweet, cuddly, newborn in the house again.

Soon we have a big trip!  We are taking the kids back to Disney World. This is a trip I am looking forward to as a true re-do of our trip last year. So many things went wrong that trip. Most of it I did not enjoy. I want a nice, relaxing, enjoyable trip and am determined to have it.  If nothing else I a hoping for a lot of time to sit on the covered porch at our time share and just do nothing.  On days we are not at a park, I will prob send James and the kids to the heated pool frequently so I can have own time by myself. I am in desperate need of this.  It has been a long, stressful school year and winter season.

Pregnancy ups and downs

So far we have only told a handful of people, the kids and most of the family not being part of them. after three early pregnancy losses I am a bit superstitious.  But oh I still feel like crap. Super sick. Wondering when it will improve. I will be 9 weeks tomorrow.  That means 4 more weeks of first trimester. The weeks are honestly flying by. I seem to feel sicker more this pregnancy than ever before, but maybe not. Every pregnancy has seemed to get worse.  If I don't eat I feel sick. Immediately after eating I feel better, but once the food settles I start to feel stuffed which makes me, once again feel sick. It is a never ending cycle.

Besides feeling sick I am starting to get excited. I can't believe I am already 9 weeks. I met with the midwife I am going to use this time. I am very sad that it is not the one I had before. I loved Sarah but she is pregnant herself which means she won't be delivering babies next June. So instead of Sarah, I am using Gina, the midwife Sarah is using.  I met her a couple of weeks ago and I really like her.  I am very excited about it.

I plan on doing just about everything the way I did before. Home birth, but this time I would like to do the water birth. I plan on renting a birthing tub vs trying to do it in my tub. Also, this time we are going to have the "surprise" when the baby is born.  We have always found out if we are having a boy or girl, I can't wait for that moment, after nine months, when I get to look and see if we are going to have four boys or three of each.

The other bummer is that my birth photographer is also pregnant, due about the same time I am. I am on the fence about whether or not I will hire someone else.  With Jessica I was determined because I had no pics of John and I. We will see this time.

Last week I had an early ultrasound done. We wanted to make sure the baby was viable and that there was only one. I was thrilled that the baby was measuring right on track and had a good strong heartbeat of 168 bpm. The best part, is that there was just one!  I won't have another scan until around 20 weeks.

As for what sex I think this baby is?  I am going with another little girl.

Big news!

10/24/12

I am the woman many women hate.  For any of those who reads this, I apologize in advance.  I have a lot of friends who have problems getting pregnant, I have never been one of them.  After two years of being on various types of birth control, and being very careful, timing was a little bit off last month and my cycle ended up becoming very late this month.

Being late is not new for me.  Sometimes my body has a mind of its' own so at first I was not worried about it.  Then I started feeling like crap.  Tired all the time, nauseous.  Finally when I was a week late, and there was no sign of Aunt Flo, I told James that I thought I might be pregnant.  I think he was more in denial than I was.  I told him that I had not tested since I already had an appointment for a physical on Wednesday, I would just have them test me then.  Wednesday came, they gave me a test, and I was not surprised by the results.

However, I was a little bummed.  I fully believe that God is in control.  If he did not want me to be pregnant I wouldn't be.  If he does not want me to have this baby I will miscarry.  If he has a plan for this baby I am the one who has been commissioned with seeing that the plan is carried out.  I am okay with that.  However, the big bummer was the weekend "sleep over" James and I were having in Dallas for his brother's wedding.  Because I was pregnant I knew I would be very tired early that night, and I couldn't drink!  But I made it still till midnight, so I was proud of myself.  I did feel awful however and was more than ready to go to bed when it was time.

So begins a new phase in life and 8 months of anticipation. 

Swanky!

Saturday night was a big night out for James and I that had literally be planned all year.  It was his brother's wedding and we booked a hotel in Dallas to stay at for the night, so that we wouldn't have to worry about staying out late, drinking, or whatever we decided to do.  I was SO excited.

Of course that morning started off very badly.  Jessica woke us up at 430 in the morning, also waking up Josh and John, and she had gotten sick.  I saw my plans go down the drain.  Just my luck too.  About 11am Jessica seemed okay, had not gotten sick again, and finally went down for a nap.  She never was running a fever so we really were not sure what was going on.  My mother who had been planning on coming to stay, graciously still came, and we all kind of crossed our fingers.



I was so excited to get to the hotel because I had planned this great, retro, 80's idea for James and I.  I had an option when I booked the room.  A regular king bed, or a round king bed.  How cool would it be to have a round bed?  Well this is honestly one of those situations where I can now say, "Been there, done that!"

The hotel was very nice.  I described it to my cousin as "swanky" and it was.  It had a wonderful restaurant in it, you had to use your key to access your floor, it had a rooftop pool and bar.  However, the rooms were very small, and that round "king" bed looked tiny!  The showers were huge though, so that was a plus.  I remember thinking when I laid down that night and wondering if it was really a mattress we were laying on or just a padded round board as it was not the most mattressy feeling in the world.



So I honestly forgot my perfume.  But I couldn't have planned it better had I tried!  There is a Neiman Marcus right next to the hotel which has my favorite line of perfumes, a rose collection, and there had been one I had gotten a sample of that I loved and wanted to buy.  So I got to buy me new perfume!  We then walked back to the hotel, at some jalapeno stuffed quail legs which are really yummy, and went upstairs to finish getting ready.

The wedding actually started on time and went off without a hitch!  After taking a few pictures we went to The Venue, which is really an old Post Office/Courthouse turned into an event venue.  It was gorgeous.  The ground floor still has the Post Office but the rest of the building has been turned into a party spot with the added security that became necessary after 9/11.  There was a rooftop garden and open bar.  Then you go down three levels to what had to have been one of the biggest courtrooms which was transformed into the reception hall.  It was a finger food buffet accompanied by music, dancing and of course wedding cake!

James and I danced and had a lot of fun together.  We did not stay terribly late though.  We decided to return to the hotel and go to the rooftop pool and bar, not that we were going to swim but we were going to spend some quality time together.  I also was not feeling very well and was very tired.

After being on the roof for a while we decided to go downstairs and try a little Mexican restaurant across the street.  Definitely another "BTDT" moment.  It was not good and we will not be going there again.  We went back upstairs James had another drink and I finally told him I was ready to go to bed, so off we went, to our round bed.

The good thing I can say about that round bed is that it forces you to cuddle.  If you don't cuddle then your feet hang off.  And who doesn't like to cuddle?  Over all the evening was great and it was a much needed break for James and I.  Sometimes, with five kids, we forget to make time for each other, which is very necessary.  Not sure when our next "vacation" will be but we are both looking forward to it already.

Getting sick!

Sadly, we have all been sick this week.  Except James so far...knock on wood.  Last Thursday I took Jessica to a drop in daycare and Thursday morning she was puking.  While I can't 100% say she caught something there, I can say it with about 99% assurance.  James and I had plans on Saturday night so my mom came and watched the kids for us.  The rest of the day Jessica was fine so we were all hopeful.

On Sunday morning I got a text from my mom saying that Jessica had puked again and that Isaac had puked.  Great.  James and I packed up and hurried home.  The rest of the day we spent nursing sick kids.

Monday morning Isaac and Jim both got sick.  A little while later it was Jessica's turn again.  I also was feeling absolutely miserable.  Jessica fell asleep at 930am so I put her in bed and went to lay down.  At almost 12 I woke up running to the bathroom sick and Jim ran in to see if I was okay.  He then told me that Isaac was asleep as well.  Good!  Hopefully the little ones would all be feeling better.  Jim seemed to be ok.

Tuesday morning came along and I sent Jim to school and took Isaac back to school.  Isaac had some diarrhea and was sent home early but Jim did fine.  However, JJ woke up Tuesday morning sick, and spent the day in bed.  I was still very weak, but feeling better.

To make it all worse my mom also got sick.  Not surprising I guess since Isaac got sick on Sunday morning, but still sad.  I feel terrible about that.  Glad however that she got a couple of days off work since she works her butt off and deserves it.

Today, Wednesday morning JJ still stayed home and because he has to be home for 24 hours after being "sick" Isaac stayed home as well.  Michelle woke up feeling sick so I let her stay in bed.  She has not gotten sick however so I am really just giving her the benefit of the doubt.  If she is faking it today then she will probably really be sick tomorrow and her "reward" will be spending two very boring days in bed.  Tomorrow I plan on sending both JJ and Isaac back to school.  If Michelle is not sick she will be going too and it will finally be a quiet day at the house.

But that leaves the question, when will James get sick and why hasn't he gotten sick yet?  James, Isaac and I all had flu shots...if this is not the flu then there is no reason why James is not sick.  Either way, I hope he doesn't get sick.  Whoever left this illness at our door can take it away now.

Ants and painting

We have been overcome by ants again.  Ack!  We have spent most of the last three days killing ants, then mopping to make sure we get up all the ant spray, and trying to figure out where they were coming from and where they were going too.

The picture above I took and posted on Facebook, just because I thought Jessica was so cute.  My friends all immediately thought she was showing of her artwork.  Artwork that I have been considering painting over this week.  I have been thinking hard about doing it everyday this week...but always decide there is something better to do.

So this morning Jessica started to do her new favorite activity which consists of climbing from the big rocking recliner in the living room onto the counter and then jumping back onto the recliner, more like diving, head first.  So I decided to rearrange the living room a little bit.  While moving furniture I saw them.  ANTS!  Not a million, as we had already cleaned up the million yesterday, but a few dozen, coming in a crack in the caulking between the floor and baseboard and munching on three or four little pieces of food.  Food that our maids should have seen and swept up on Monday, before all of our ant problems started.  But that is another story.

So I then proceed to spray and kill the ants, wipe it all up, and get the mop to mop the floor.  Then I proceeded to finish rearranging the furniture, only to discover that the wall behind the chair was filthy.  While I was cleaning it I decided it would really be much easier to paint over the pencil and pen, then it was to get it off.

This way of thinking is my norm.  I would rather paint the walls then clean it.  But I never stick with just one wall.  I end up doing several walls.  I did the two pieces of wall leading into the breakfast nook that were really dirty, the wall by the door leading outside, the wall behind that chair, the wall that holds up our main kitchen counter, and three walls that had blue marker all over them.  The good news is my walls now look clean.  There is only a small amount of blue marker you can still see peeking out.  Jessica also can not jump from the chair to the counter and back again.  And hopefully I have gotten rid of the ants.

With any luck the teachers found Isaac, who thought he was "helping", cute when he showed up to school today with paint on his clothes.

Exhausted

I am exhausted.  Really, it is for several different reasons.  Just being a mom of five kids, no matter how much I adore them, is very tiring.  The stress I go through on a daily basis with Jim is enough to drive anyone crazy.  Just waiting and wondering if he is going to make it to school without having a meltdown, if he will go to karate, if he will come home yelling at us, if he will have a successful day at school.  Always being on guard, never being able to relax.  It gets very stressful.

Then there are the health issues going on with Isaac.  Last spring he got really sick, and even after surgery, it didn't get better.  End of summer comes and he started getting green drainage from his eyes so I take him to another doctor who wants to redo his blood tests and do the CF test the previous doctor suggested.

A couple of weeks ago we did the CF test and did all the blood testing.  Today we went in and the CF test was negative and the blood testing was fine, except for one area of the blood count, the eosinophils.  It was elevated.  It was elevated before, and elevated more now.  Since Isaac's immune system looks fine, and he has tested negative for all of the allergins, the doctor thinks it could be a parasite!  A what? That doesn't sound good.  I guess it is more common than we think, but it still doesn't make me relax.  He is starting today on a treatment for it that will last 10 days.  In a month we will redo his blood tests.  If that number has gone down then we will know we figured out that part, if it doesn't we will have to look into more possibilities.  However, a parasite does not account for the sinus drainage he is having.  We may end up doing another CT scan.

JJ has started basketball now and last night was his first practice.  I think that was by far the most boring thing I have ever sat through!  Good thing he is so cute and tries so hard.  Hopefully his team will do better this week than they did last week, when they got all of one point.  It was sweet though, the point came in a last minute penalty free throw and all the parents, from both teams, stood up and cheered.  That is how a recreational basketball league should be.

Next week starts Michelle's volleyball practice.  Two hours a week for a 30 minute game.  As long as she learns something I don't care.  She really wants to try out for and get on the volleyball team at school next year.  But gosh, one more thing to add to my week.

I always dread fall and spring because of all the activities, but then welcome them at the same time.    It makes the evenings go by fast, keeps the kids from getting bored, limits the fights.  But just absolutely exhausts me.  One day though I know, I will miss these days.  My babies will be grown and gone.  I will wish that we had one more day to run around like crazy and be too busy.

A friend just posted this on FB.  It is so true and so meaningful right now.