Death by tiny razor claws

So I've decided, if I ever get to choose the way I die, death by a million tiny paper cuts will NOT be it. Why you ask? While nursing, baby has taken to lovingly scratching the tar out of whatever tender flesh she can sink her claws into. My breasts are obviously favorites and easy targets, but she also likes the back of my arms and on occasion my face. It doesn't matter what I do. I've cut her nails, given her things to hold (which she then hits me with), covered her in a blanket with hands outside the blanket (so she can't reach my skin), held her hands. Nothing makes her stop. I'm already at that point where I feel like "OK kid, you've been calling the shots with my body for 18 months. I'm ready to take it back for myself." This doesn't help me want to continue nursing. And she will take a bottle from me now, so I have no real reason to keep nursing. (Other than the obvious benefits: no bottles to wash, no formula to buy, no worrying about if I have enough water or formula or a bottle when I leave the house, no formula to run out of, or if we get caught out of the house for longer than I am expecting I can just feed her again without a problem). And a million tiny scratches don't give me any incentive. She also likes to pinch. I can't decide which is worse. 

Alex weaned around now because he just lost interest so supply quickly declined. I though Elizabeth was starting to do that too, but she seems to have rebounded, and is sleeping through the night without a bottle of formula. So onward we go. One more month and she will be my longest nurser.

Elizabeth is 6 months old

Time sure has flown by. Our baby girl is getting so big. She turned 6 months told on Dec 23. In the last week or so, she has exploded in things she wants to do. She has started eating food. She won't eat baby food. She prefers chunks please. So that's been interesting. I have had to relearn how to prepare food with a baby in mind. She also has decided that a sippy cup is cool. I think we have overcome the "won't take a bottle" problem.
She has started rolling from her stomach to her back. She's been going back to tummy for a long time, but just barely figured out the other way. On Thursday, we were at the church and I looked over at her and she was sitting. And I had definitely seen her on her tummy just moments before. Yep, she can sit herself up now. And she is working on pulling up. As soon as she figured out the sit and the new roll, it was crawling time. She is still pretty slow, but if she is motivated enough, away she goes.
At her checkup, she weighed 18 pounds and was 27" long. That's the 90% for both. Doctor told me again that she will likely be taller than me. That's OK. Marrying a guy almost a foot taller than myself, I kind of expect to be the shorty.
We have also noticed lately that her hair and eyes are changing. When she was born, she had Claire's hair and Alex's eyes. Well her eyes are definitely brown now. And her hair gets lighter and lighter every day. She may end up blonde and brown eyed.
Overall, she is a very happy baby and we sure love her. She loves her siblings and is very curious and interested in life.

6 months

"I love some mashed potatoes!"

"Do I have something on my face? Why is it so hard to breathe?"

I just love this picture of her photobombing her sister.

And now she is 8 months old! (I ran into a snag with my sentence a day idea. I was using my tablet to write my posts, but instead of publishing them, it eats them. I can write and save in that format, but I need to use the computer to post. So this one got pushed aside.)She is finally crawling like a little monster. She zooms anywhere. And she is standing very well. She is taking some tentative steps, but mostly brother or sister push  her down. She loves to play chase. She crawls a few paces, turns and looks at you, then crawls again, laughing all the way. She thinks it is hilarious. She has started babbling some, with some mamas and dadas and nanas in there. I think she is starting to figure out mama and dada. She definitely loves her dada. She looks around for him whenever I get her up for a nap or if we go somewhere new in the house.  She is always on the look out for him. When she wants something at meal time, she looks straight at him and says "ah". Sometimes she looks at him, says "ah" to get his attention, and then "hides" from him. I love it.

Life with 3

I can't believe that Elizabeth is already 7 weeks old. Time has just flown by. So many changes have already come around in her. Her stomach is MUCH improved. She is still fussy and gassy. She gets 2-4 doses of gas medicine a day, and that usually makes her happy. On really bad days, she also gets Catnip and Fennel, which is an herbal remedy for digestion. I think she is really starting to like it because it calms her down very quickly. She doesn't complain about taking it. It tastes VERY strongly like black licorice. Specifically, those little black licorice log things that have that hard outer shell and are softer inside. I don't know what they are called. They come in red or black, and possibly more colors. I want to say good and plenty, but I'm pretty sure that's wrong. I HATE the black ones. I always avoided them like the plague. Luckily, my mom liked them, so we always gave them to her. The first few times I gave the Catnip and Fennel to Elizabeth, she balked. But now she licks it off and seems to enjoy it. Or at least she has to work for the next few minutes to get the taste out of her mouth, so she is quiet. I know that I can eat any kind of product containing milk, I can eat cheese, I can probably eat yogurt. I can drink small quantities of milk. I can eat some chocolate. I'm starting to think that I need to avoid caffeine. It seems the days that I have caffeine are the nights that she has problems. That makes sense. I usually have soda at lunch. I don't drink it later than that because then I can't sleep. I also know it takes roughly 12 hours to metabolize, and it's usually her 3am-ish feedings that go awry when I have soda. But nothing else seems to bother her now. I think her earlier problems must have been a combination of smaller things that avoiding dairy for a month really helped improve. I think I mentioned it in her birth story, but she swallowed a lot of fluid during birth and had to have her stomach suctioned twice. That may have injured her stomach valve. I know it has a name. I know I know it's name. I cannot think of it's name. The valve that keeps her tummy closed. Anyway, that injury, plus the dairy that obviously affects her despite the pediatrician assuring me that it makes no difference, plus caffeine, plus her obvious gas issues (as evidenced by her seriously explosive poops), all combined to make a cranky baby. (I swear, I clean more poop off this kid's stomach than I do her bum.) But we turned a corner at about a month. I reintroduced dairy and learned to limit my liquid milk consumption. I've learned to avoid the caffeine, which isn't really difficult since we are not keeping soda in the house and I only have it when we go out to eat, if then. I've learned to keep up with her gas medicine. She gets it first thing in the morning, usually at lunch and at dinner. And sometimes in between those feedings. Her stomach has also grown and matured and she spits less. She still spits more than the other two ever did, but it is noticeably less than before.
At her one month check up, she weighed in at a whopping 12 pounds, which puts her in the 100%. I just wish that for every pound she gained, I lost a pound. Or two. I think that would be fair. I'm tired of people (doctors, nurses, random strangers, magazines) telling me that breastfeeding would help me lose baby weight. Hasn't worked yet, doubt it will work this time. Alann and I are trying to eat better though. We need to get in shape for the zombie apocalypse. (Our 5k trail run we are doing in October.) She is a good eater and is becoming more tolerant of the other two constantly being in her face. She also has started not napping, which I know is actually a place problem, not a sleep problem. I've been putting her down for naps in the living room, which worked during her sleepy newborn phase when she would sleep through everything. But ever since she started "waking up" to the world around her, she will fall asleep for a nap and here comes one of the other two and they shake her bed or yell in her face and wake her up. They always seems so proud of themselves too. Like "mom, the baby was sleeping, but now she's awake! Aren't I helpful?" Yeah, not so much kids. So I need to find a new place for her. I can move her into the guest room, but then I would need a monitor, so I might as well just take her upstairs, where the monitor already is set up. I'm just worried that if she is upstairs during nap/quiet time, and Claire and Alex are upstairs, that they will go in and wake her up anyway. How can my house be so big and I still don't have a good place to nap a baby??
On her 5th Saturday with us, Ella definitely "woke up". She started noticing things. She started cooing. She started smiling. She definitely smiles now, specifically at people. Today we were eating dinner and she would coo, so I would look at her, and she would smile at me. It was pretty cute. She even smiles at her siblings, at least until they start shaking her swing or yelling at her. Then she cries. Or gets that horrified baby look on her face. That "are you going to eat me?" look. She's following things with her eyes now. I love this. Having a newborn is nice and all, especially since they sleep so much, but I much prefer the slightly older baby that actually interacts. At least until they turn 2 and start pulling all the books and toys off the shelves. Or 3 and start back-talking and telling their younger brother to do things that they will get in trouble for, or walking by and randomly hitting. Not that I have any of those problems. I guess my favorite age is about a month old to about 2 years old. That's when my kids usually start talking and getting demanding.
We are in a very difficult stage with Claire and Alex. Alex listens to Claire more than he listens to me. Claire listens to nobody but herself. They have lost almost all of their toys, I've moved their bedtime earlier, I've started taking away cups if they leave their bedroom after being tucked in. They have gone days without watching TV. Claire is specifically disregarding my rules. She really does walk by me and hit me when she is mad or she doesn't get her way. Alex just throws a major fit- screaming, crying, yelling, stomping. I'm really hoping this is just a phase. I knew it would get worse when Grandma left. I just didn't realize it would be so bad. There are days that I feel so utterly discouraged. I know part of that is postpartum hormones. I worry that I have postpartum depression. I wonder if the rhetoric is true- if you ask yourself if you are crazy, you aren't, because only sane people ask that. Is it the same with depression? I feel a lot like I felt the January after we moved here. Discouraged, upset, irritated a lot, tired all the time. Running seems to help. But I don't know if it's the physical punishment or the fact that I have 30 minutes ALONE- utterly alone. No one to bother me, except people walking dogs or driving by in cars. No incessant "mom, mom mom mom mooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom". No one tugging at me or yelling at me or crying at me. I get to do what I want without interruption. I do feel a lot worse when I don't get that. I've even been tempted to up my running to daily instead of every other. But I don't know. We will just have to wait and see how it goes. We are settling into a schedule. Things will get better, especially once bible study and storytime start up again. Right now, we have no where to go and no one to see. We get bored with each other I think. Anyway, off to bed I go. Can't lose too much time when the baby timer is already ticking.

Introducing Miss Elizabeth

Nickname: still in the works. We bounce back and forth between Ella and just plain old Elizabeth. I think she may grow into Ella. Alex was Bubba as a baby for a little bit, but I dropped that. Later when he got older and his personality started to shine through, Bubba has come back as a (very personal and family use only) nickname. I would never put that down on his school form as his nickname.

True to form, Miss Ella was a bit tardy. When I last wrote, I was still pregnant and very discouraged about the fact. Little did I know how much would change in a few short hours. In the middle of the night, about 3am, on the Friday Alex got his cast, I heard him cry out in his sleep. I got up to check on him and felt a gush. He was fine, just crying in his sleep. Having gone through a similar experience with Claire, I knew what to expect. I cleaned up and laid back down in bed for a while. I figured I would wait until contractions started or at least the sun came up. I could not sleep because I was suddenly STARVING. I tried to ignore it for a while, but finally gave up and came downstairs. I made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and ate some banana and had some milk. Then I laid down on the couch. I didn't know if I would fall asleep or not and I didn't want to wake Alann if I was tossing and turning. I dozed fitfully until about 645 when I heard the kids through the monitor. Or thought I did. Either way, I got up and went back upstairs and laid back in bed until the kids came into the room. We did our normal morning thing and I made some breakfast. I woke Alann up and told him we were going to the hospital at some point. I called the doctor's office exchange and told them to expect me. I also learned that scary old man doctor was on call. Sigh. More on him later. We finally left for the hospital around 930 or so. I still was not having contractions. We got put into labor triage so they could check if my water really had broken. The nurse was telling Alann that "ladies come in all the time thinking their water broke when they really are just peeing". Um yeah, I totally knew it was not that. Like I said- been there, done that. I knew what was going on. After a while, they decided to keep me and we did the check in stuff and went to a real room.
Scary old man came in. He isn't really scary, just really old. As in, he was retiring the next week. Quite possibly, mine was the last delivery he attended. He didn't have a really good bedside manner. I couldn't talk to him as well I would have been able to with either of the other doctors that I liked. Anyway, we chatted a bit about the course we wanted to take. At this point, I was still only dilated to a 3. We talked about Alex and Claire's deliveries and how we could get things going. We got an IV done and started pitocin and antibiotics because (not a surprise) I was group b strep positive. They wanted to get two rounds of drugs in before the delivery so they started the pitocin really slowly and ramped it up over time. By this time, it was lunch and I was STARVING again. This hospital had different rules than my last one, so I was allowed "clear liquids"- including water, juice, jello, and strangely enough slushies (provided in the snack room). Alann ate lunch and I had jello. By the end of the night, I was so tired of jello. I think I ate 8 of them throughout the course of the day. We walked around the halls some, we watched TV. I tried to forget that I wasn't having contractions. My nurse Megan was pretty awesome and was totally supportive of everything I wanted. I got an awesome wireless baby monitor so we could walk around. One interesting thing did happen. At about 2pm, they brought in the delivery table with all the tools and stuff. I was contracting some, but not a lot. While we were out walking the halls, we heard the nurses talking about someone coming in by ambulance and then they showed up- poor lady on the stretcher looked awful. We headed back to our room to give them some space. A minute later on of the nurses ran in, grabbed the table, and ran out. Apparently the poor lady had her baby.
During the afternoon, I was checked again and still hadn't budged. The doctor increased my pitocin increase rate so I started getting more drug more often. Finally contractions started really going. I dealt with them for a while and then decided I wanted an epidural. That's when we met Brad, the anesthesiologist. He was pretty cool. I talked to him about my previous epidurals and he tried to help me out and keep me comfortable. The epidural was great for a while. Alann went to get some dinner and I rolled over and laid down some. Apparently that was a mistake. My contractions started getting really bad again. The medicine had pooled in my butt cheek. Megan called Brad back and he helped me adjust my position, and then the medicine all flowed out of my butt cheek. It was a really strange sensation. Kind of cold as it traveled into my legs. I was happy again for a while. Shift change happened at 7. We were very sad to see Megan go. She had been very helpful. When Brad was in to check on me the second time, I was joking with Megan and she was telling me that she could tell when I was really happy and when I was just faking it. It was interesting feeling like someone knew me so well in such a short period of time. When Rita came in, Megan told her all about Alex and Claire and how Alex broke his leg and of course the pertinent details about my labor.

Rita was also pretty cool. She was an older lady, somewhat maternal. Rita checked me and I was joking with her that I would be happy to be at a 5. Surprise- it was a 9! We were all shocked. Apparently, once my labor starts, it just goes. Rita was even able to tell Megan that I was about to deliver, because she was still there doing paperwork. About this time, my epidural stopped working again. I hadn't changed positions. I had pushed the button too much and locked myself out and couldn't self administer anymore. The doctor had come in and told us he was going to go do a quick surgery and Brad was there also. We kept calling Brad and he finally was able to come back up. That was honestly the most painful hour of my life. If it wasn't totally natural childbirth, it was pretty dang close. He gave me another big dose. Problem was, labor was moving too fast for the epidural to keep up. It definitely got better, but was no where near comfortable like with Alex.Around 9pm, the vomiting started. Rita and Alann were both there, holding my hands and wiping my face. I definitely tried to break Alann's hands during the contractions. After I quit throwing up (and never wanting to eat jello again), Rita helpfully suggested that I was probably ready to push now. After checking, we were a go. But the doctor was still in surgery. A few more nurses came in to get ready for the delivery. Finally I just yelled "he isn't my regular doctor. I don't care if he's here or not! Call the house doctor!" which they promptly did. I knew that the only way to stop the pain was to get the kid out, and get the kid out was what was going to happen whether the doctor was there or not. The house doc was there almost immediately and after a few pushes (maybe 3, but I wasn't anywhere near able to count), baby Elizabeth was born. With Claire, I remember feeling almost nothing after she was born. I was so tired and just out of it. With Alex, I felt utter relief to not be pregnant anymore. With Ella, I was amazed that the second she was born, the pain stopped. And I just laid back and enjoyed the fact that I didn't hurt anymore. The doctor walked in just as Ella was being born. He stood back and let the house doctor finish. Alann cut the cord and they put her on my tummy. I rubbed her with the blanket and did a good job not being totally grossed out.  Alann and I had been talking earlier and I said she would be born 9 pounds at 10 pm. I was a bit off. She was born at 9:28 pm and was 10 pounds 2 oz. I knew she was big when the nurse who put her on my tummy said "oh she's a big one!" The house doctor let scary old man doctor clean me up and he started asking me about how much weight I had gained. His tone was kind of blaming me for having such a big baby. I had been telling the doctors that she felt big. No one believed me. I didn't gain any more weight with her than I did with the others. (This may have been when he started stitching me and I could feel it because the epidural wasn't really working and I was mad at him anyway for hurting me, so I may have been reading more into his tone than was really there...)
Alann had been planning on heading home after the baby was born, but by the time everything was cleaned up, it was very late, close to midnight. He slept on the couch/bed and I napped on and off between caring for the newborn. Rita and I were joking about how dads sleep through everything. In the morning, he asked if the nurse had been in at all. He's a heavy sleeper, so I was not surprised by his ability to sleep through everything.
The kids and Grandma came and visited Sunday after church. The kids were quite happy to meet their new sister. Alann finally left with them and I was alone. I watched a mythbusters marathon until they started repeating the shows and finally went to bed.
Since Ella was so big, the nurses had to check her blood sugar before each meal. And she apparently "drank too much of the swimming pool" before getting out. She kept spitting up brown gunk. Rita finally took her to the nursery to suction out her tummy early Sunday morning. On the way there, she threw up a bunch of gunk. After that and the suctioning, she felt better and quit choking so much.
She's a pretty healthy baby. Her main problem has been fussiness/spitting up after meals. We aren't sure if it's acid reflux or a dairy problem. I've been off dairy for 4 days and giving her mylanta and that seems to help. Today she got worse again though, so I am going to call the doctor tomorrow and see what they suggest. It will be VERY difficult for me to go dairy free, but I would do it for my baby. She's still gaining weight and she doesn't throw up every meal, so it's a bit of a quandary for us.
But anyway, that's my story. We are quite glad to have Ella/Elizabeth here with us. She's a good sweet baby with beautiful "Sholly" blue eyes and brown hair. So far, she looks a lot like Claire. She seems to have Claire's skin coloring but Alex's skin sensitivity. It will be fun to see what she grows into.

Worst June ever

Not going to lie- I will be glad when this month is OVER! It has been just one thing after another it seems. On top of being 9 months pregnant, which I of course expected and anticipated, it's been ridiculously hot and humid. That makes it so much harder to do anything.
The month started with a bang. Or more like a slow leak. The bang came later. On the way out to St Louis one day, the "tire pressure warning light" thingie came on. Basically it tells me my tires aren't even. My tires are relatively new, and filled with nitrogen. Since I was going past the tire shop anyway, I thought I would stop and get them filled/checked. Well, it was Saturday and they weren't open.  I tried to stop at a gas station and fill them, but they didn't have an air compressor. Why don't gas stations have those anymore? So I kind of forgot and went on my merry way. We got home and all seemed well. Sunday, we start to leave for church, and hear this weird noise. The tire is utterly flat. We didn't even get to the end of the street and then back to the house, but by the time we got back, the damage was done. The tire was destroyed. That one was my fault. After a lot of drama, including ordering a tire from the east coast and trying to find a substitute, we got a new tire on Tuesday.
After that, I have just been rather irritable. Claire has been playing tee-ball, which she liked, but it was slightly tough on me. Just another random scheduled thing to throw in the mix. And it's been hot. Did I mention that I don't do heat well on a regular basis, let alone when pregnant? Claire has been exceedingly trying lately as well. She has just been pushing the boundaries often. And usually dragging Alex along with her.
And then last Friday, driving on the freeway, we hit some random junk and blew yet another tire! (That was the bang.) I just sat there and cried while Alann changed the tire to the spare. Again. At least we had some practice in the driveway from a few weeks ago. Then I called and they were able to get a new tire relatively quickly this time for some reason. I took the car in Monday to get the new tire and the poor guy was so confused. He kept looking for the tire and asking for some verification that I had called. Apparently, in the confusion of calling form the car on the side of the freeway, I had called the other shop, not the one I had used the first time. It wasn't too big of a deal, I just drove down to the other shop, and they changed my tire. And checked out the car. The power steering is leaking, probably from the belts blowing up a few months ago. Yay. Another repair. Ugh. So frustrating.
My OB appointments have been going well. She made it sound like she would induce me this last week- on the 18th. So we talked to Grandma and got her to come out a bit earlier so we would be covered. And then, I went in, and she had changed her mind. I was so distraught. Tuesday the 19th I had contractions starting at 3pm until about 10am the next day. And then they stopped. And haven't started again. Baby will likely be born on the 27th, when I go in for induction, or at the latest on the 28th when they give me a c-section. I'm okay with that, because I REFUSE to have a July baby. Nothing against July babies. I just refuse to still be pregnant come July.
And then there is Alex. My poor boy. I always thought Claire would be my emergency medicine kid. Nope. The score is currently Alex:3, Claire: 1. Thursday evening, Alex and Claire were jumping on the trampoline with Grandma and the neighbor girl. Grandma was sitting and the kids were running around and the neighbor girl got a little overly excited. She is 15, but often makes me think she is 5. She bounced very high and Alex got caught in the rebound. He flew about 2' in the air, landed on his feet and immediately fell onto his stomach. When he got up, he was crying and I thought he had bonked his nose. But he kept saying his leg hurt, his knee hurt. So I held him and got him some ice and figured he would be fine. But he refused to walk on it and just wanted me to hold him for about an hour. Then he started using it a little bit, but was still favoring it. This morning (Friday), he got up and was still not using it. I called the doctor and described the problem and she wanted us to come in. We made the trek out to the doctor. She said it was probably a toddler's fracture and referred us to an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in kids. Only problem: appointment was at 3pm, about 15 minutes away from where we were, and it was only 11am. So we came home and ate lunch and headed out yet again. It was a lot of driving! Alex did pretty well at the appointment. At the pediatrician's, he wanted me to hold his hand and wouldn't let me leave him. But at the orthopedist's, he let me leave the room while they did the x-ray. He was pretty interested in what the guy was doing anyway. After the x-ray, we talked to the nurse and then the doctor. He laid still and let them look at his leg. They couldn't see a fracture on the x-ray, but the bones are pretty soft so they tend to break and then line back up so you can't see them until they start healing. He recommended a cast, because these kinds of fractures are common in kids. So we let them put him in a cast. He will be in a cast for 3 weeks. The doc said that if it is a fracture, than just having the cast should make him feel better because it won't hurt anymore. And after the cast was put on, he did seem a bit happier. He's been understandably cranky today. He even came down the stairs without help (or asking, because he had already been put to bed). On the way home, we stopped for dinner since it was such a LONG day. We had Chick Fil-A and they played in the play place a bit. He is being really really needy too. He wants me to carry him and help him with everything. It's only the first day, but I am encouraging him to do things for himself. Sometimes, I have to just set him down and give him a toy and walk away. If he wants something else, he finds a way to get it. As far as his cast goes, we got the waterproof cast, so he can bathe and get wet. He will have it for 3 weeks, then they will x-ray again and take it off. We will know then if he had a fracture or just a sprain. The healing bone will show on the x-ray where the new fracture didn't. Alann is teasing me that I won't get to hold Elizabeth for the first few weeks of her life, because I will constantly be holding Alex. It's probably true. I'm trying not to be upset about the whole situation. Honestly, this week has not gone the way I planned. I wanted to have a baby, not a toddler in a full leg cast. It's been nice having Grandma around, but I always feel guilty about having her around without having the baby. Why can't my babies cooperate, just once in their lives?
Anyway, it's been a long day. I'm going to go to bed, and hope and pray that the baby will come soon.

Another ultrasound and car failure

So yesterday was an interesting day. It started out fairly normally. I had my 28 week doctor's appointment. the doctor ordered another ultrasound after the first one because the technician was rather rushed and didn't get a good picture of the ductal arch (artery where it comes up and over the heart). I was actually rather frustrated with the first ultrasound. The tech really was rushed. A nurse came in and told her in the middle of our ultrasound that she had another person waiting and you could just tell she was pretty stressed. It was definitely different than any of the other ultrasounds I've had. The other techs I've had with the other kids were really talkative and would describe everything we were looking at. This tech was just quiet and just kept printing pictures and didn't even try to really explain or talk to us. She also didn't try to do any of the 3D stuff, which I've never actually had with the other kids. I was excited to see that, but it didn't happen. So that was the first ultrasound. After all that, she missed the heart picture so the doctor ordered a second ultrasound. This time it was just me and the tech. Alann stayed home and watched the kids. She was still pretty quiet, but was a little more talkative. She didn't really tell me what was going on, but we talked a little bit. She did say a few things which I thought were funny. "Oh, she's an active little thing isn't she?" "Were your other babies big too?" (She's measuring almost 2 weeks bigger than she "should".) And most importantly "Did I say girl last time? Still a girl." She did try to get a 3D picture of her face, but Ella was being uncooperative and kept her hand in front of her face the whole time. We did get a somewhat decent picture of half of her face. Alex LOVED the picture so much I had to make him a copy because he wouldn't give it up and Claire wanted one. It was getting all wrinkled. If he gave me the picture or set it down, within minutes he would come back saying "baby? Baby?" So we have several baby face pictures now floating around.
The tech also told me that the baby has hair. I'm not surprised. I just want to know what color. Alann and I think it would be really funny if baby had red hair and green eyes. We might just need to stop having kids after that, because I wouldn't want to ruin the utter mismatched nature of our kids. Claire is brown hair brown eyes. Alex is blond hair blue eyes. If Ella has red hair and green eyes, that would just be hilarious. I can just imagine as they grow up people wondering- obviously Alex is ours. He looks so much like Daddy. But what about the girls? Are they adopted? I wish I could pop forward in time 20 years and see what they all look like.
Anyway, so the ultrasound went fine. Everything still looks good. Afterward, I got to drink the glucose drink for the diabetes test. Am I strange that the drink doesn't really bother me? All the nurses and other pregnant women I've talked to about it always are sympathetic about how gross it is. But it really doesn't bother me at all. I met with the doctor and it was a really quick visit. I really don't have any complaints. My ankles/feet swell on and off. Ella's starting to get so big that she hurts me when she kicks. It's funny how similar this pregnancy is to Claire's. I haven't had as much heartburn or bloating as I did with Alex. But I do get an upset stomach a lot. She seems to be way high and kicking my ribs a lot. Like I said, my feet are swelling a lot more than they did with Alex. But she does seem to have gotten a LOT bigger lately. I feel huge. I'm a little scared since I still have 11 weeks to go.  I've been trying to explain to Claire lately that I can't do things I've always done with her lately. She wanted me to sit on the floor with her this morning, but she was back in the cave formed between the two recliners in the living room. They like it because it's pretty small. Anyway, she wanted me to sit on the floor with her in the cave. I tried to tell her I couldn't because I wouldn't have enough space to get back up. She really didn't understand and wanted me to sit. She kept telling me she would show me how to stand back up. I also can't really carry her too much anymore. She's 35 pounds. I definitely can't carry Alex and Claire together anymore. They are almost 70 pounds together.
 Then I waited a few minutes and had my blood drawn. I went over and pre-registered at the hospital. The doctor told me that if I mailed in the form, it probably wouldn't get put into the system in time. So I just headed over and gave them the form while I was there. Then I headed home.

While we were eating lunch, Alann told us he had to go to St. Louis but didn't have anything to do that we couldn't go with him. So we loaded up the car and started to head out. That's when things got interesting. The air conditioner wasn't cooling off at all. And Alann says "the battery light is on". Then the rest of the engine lights started flashing on and off. We hadn't even made it to town. Since it was 85 degrees, and the kids were already flushed, I told him to turn around. There was no way I was going to make them stay in the hot car all afternoon. So we came home and the kids were very upset. Claire was especially vocal about not going with Daddy. She didn't really understand that the car wasn't working right. They both had major breakdowns when I put them down for nap / quiet time. Alex laid on the floor and cried "no no no" for a good long time and Claire threw a fit. Then Alex finally fell asleep and Claire actually took a nap too. (Big mistake. She didn't got to bed until almost 1030.) I called the mechanic and he said it was probably an electrical issue of some sort. After naps, we went outside to water the garden and I checked on the car. It started fine, but the battery light was still on and the ac was still not working. After dinner, I did some more research on the car. All signs pointed to battery or alternator. After talking to Alann, I decided to take the kids with me and go to AutoZone in town. As we were turning onto the road with the AutoZone on it, the car almost died. But we made it to the parking lot. The AutoZone guy came out and tested the battery and alternator. He had to jump it, but it started right away. He said together they were putting out 8 volts, but the car shouldn't be running with that low of volts. But the battery seemed to be working right. So we decided to take the car and drop it at the mechanic's. I called my visiting teacher to come get us since we don't fit in the truck. She called her companion and Sherry was kind enough to come pick us all up. As we tried to move the car to the mechanic's, I barely made it two parking spaces and barely pulled back into the spot. I went in to get a tow truck number from the AutoZone guy and he came back out. He ended up changing out the battery for us and that worked. He said that probably meant the alternator was bad. With a lot of dread, we headed over to the mechanic's. After switching the kids to Sherry's van, we left our van and came home.
This morning, I talked to the mechanic. Thankfully, it was NOT the alternator. The mechanic said and I quote "the belts blew apart". So they just replaced the power steering belt and the alternator belt (and changed the oil since it was there anyway) and voila, all is working just fine. I have to say, I am so grateful. I know, it's easy to say "why me, why did the car have to break? why couldn't it just keep working." But I know it could have been much much worse. We've put new alternators in Alann's truck. It's not cheap. This was relatively cheap. Funnily, I pulled out $150 when we went to AutoZone Monday night and our bill at the mechanic this morning was $149.83. So I am totally thankful and recognize the blessings of the Lord in this situation. I just kept praying that whatever it was would be cheap and easy to fix and it was. Definite answer. So this afternoon, Alann went to get the van and left the truck at the mechanic's. We went back all together and when we started the van to leave, there was no squeaking! The air conditioner has squeaked when starting the car for...ever. It was getting worse lately. It would squeal for a lot longer. And the heater even started doing it towards the end of winter. I thought it was the air compressor. (That's what the mechanic told me last year when the overheating issue erupted.) But now, no more squeaking! Apparently, the a/c is powered by the alternator, so when the belt went out, the air went out too. New belt, no squeaking. I am in heaven. That squeal honestly was annoying, but it was also embarrassing. It always made me feel like a bad car mom, like I was neglecting some sort of maintenance issue that it had. But the mechanic had said before that he didn't know what was causing it. He had tried adjusting the S-belt last year but that didn't fix it. So I just lived with it. But no more. It is a great weight off my shoulders. Like I said before, I am so grateful that this didn't turn out any worse than it did. It could have. But thanks to wonderful people who will leave their homes and families and come rescue me, and a simple fix, we are back to business as usual.

Developments

Last week, Claire had her three year old check-up. A little late, but it snowed the day we were supposed to go. The ONLY day it snowed. Anyway, it was a really good doctor's visit. The doctor said she was really healthy. She talked to her a lot about different things and really evaluated her. Her weight is 34 pounds (75%) and her height is 38 3/4" (80%). So I guess she eats enough, even though it seems like she doesn't eat anything most days. She knows her shapes really well but doesn't recognize letters yet. She also got three shots. Poor kid. They really hurt her legs. She limped for the next few days. We've got her signed up for tee-ball this spring. It's only 6 weeks with one or two games depending on weather. But I think she is excited for it. Definitely signing her up for soccer in the fall. Also this week, she has discovered music. It started with her humming a tune- repeatedly, for about an hour. It was the theme song to one of her shows. Then later she started singing a song but changed the words. I was so proud. It had the right tune, but different words. I wish I remembered what it was she was singing about. Since then, she's been singing and humming and writing little ditties quite a bit. It's been a musical few days.

Alex this week has learned how to say "no". He's been able to indicate no for a long time. Usually it's a nnnnn sound and sometimes he shakes his head. But he has just learned how to say the actual word. Unfortunately, it's really hard to take him seriously because he says it in such a cute way. He has a little lilt to it and usually sounds like he is teasing more than he means actual no. It's a momentous day, since no was Claire's first word, it was really strange for me to go so long without hearing it from him. This morning he also lined up all of his cars and then told me what sound each one made. Usually it was a fire truck sound. He does a really good fire truck sound.

As for me, I've finally felt well enough to get back to running/walking. I can only run for about 2 minutes before I'm way out of breath, but that's ok. I know I will get better again once the baby is born. I've started taking Tanner with me because Alann commented that he is REALLY fat. He is so out of shape that the first day I took him, he couldn't keep up with me. I thought he was going to just lay down and wait for me at one point. But he's been a trooper and has gotten better about it in the few days I've taken him out. He's really excited when we first go out and then slows down as we go. We did almost two miles this morning. We walked a lot though. I was hurting from gardening yesterday so it wasn't one of my better runs. Now I'm wondering if I should alternate taking Nicki. Tanner is nice because I can let him off leash and I don't have to worry about it. Nicki isn't so well behaved. Plus she has an annoying tendency to go the wrong way around poles and trees, which there are a lot of on the way. So I don't know. Maybe I will walk one day and run the next. We'll see.

I had another doctor's appointment this week. The doctor commented that I gained a lot of weight this last month. I'm not too worried though. I've hit 200 with both the kids, so I figure that's my number. (I'm not there yet.) Otherwise, she measured my uterus at 27, and I'm only at 25 weeks, but she didn't really mention it. I just noticed the discrepancy. (Usually the measurement equals the week number.)  I have another ultrasound scheduled for next month and the glucose test. The doctor wanted more heart pictures, so that's why we are doing another ultrasound. And even though I did the glucose test early on for symptoms, I get to do it again just in case.
I had a really good day earlier this week. I got a lot of projects done, a lot of work done. I made my own tinted moisturizer which I am really liking and was a lot less expensive than buying tinted moisturizer. It's really easy. You basically mix equal parts foundation and moisturizer. Or less foundation. I think mine is closer to a 60-40 mix. I had a little jar left from a face lotion so I just mixed it in there. I love that I can look put together without trying hard, and it lasts all day. I wish I could remember what else I did that day, but I just ended up feeling like a genius when I went to bed. I haven't had a good day like that in a long time.

I've gotten my office cleaned up pretty well. It's nowhere near done, but it's done enough to be encouraging. I've also started working on my garden. I planted some starts for tomatoes and peppers last week. Friday, I hand-dug my tiny garden plot from last fall and planted some kale, radishes, green onions and peas. And strawberry plants. After my failed attempt at strawberry plants (where there were no plants in the package), I was at a better walmart and they had actual plants in a pot with green leaves. So I bought 6 pots. After we planted them, it ended up being 9 plants. Some had two in them. Okay, I specifically looked for the pots with two. I'm a savvy shopper, what can I say? I am way excited and hope they actually grow and produce. The label said they should produce 60 days after transplant. And today (Saturday), Alann decided to till my 'garden for me. We enlarged it quite a bit. I've got 2 more 3'x4' and 2 3'x6' plots now. I'm way excited. I always thought that gardening, like puppies and kitties, was just a way to put off the desire to have kids. But now I know that I really just enjoy it. Come spring, I just get antsy to get something green going. I love to look through and pick new things to try to grow. This year I am trying leeks. It was a lot of hard work, mostly on Alann's part, but it looks good. I'm so proud. I can't wait until Monday until I can plant some cool-weather things. Maybe some lettuce, definitely need to get beets and turnips and carrots going. And I won't have any trouble keeping it watered, as long as I remember to let the kids do it. They LOVE to water. I'm surprised they didn't drown our poor strawberry plants.

Early pregnancy musings

12/3- Now that I've announced my pregnancy, I can post about it. These are thoughts I had about my pregnancy early on. Right now, I feel mostly okay.  I'm still having pretty consistent "afternoon sickness" which includes nausea, extreme tiredness, and lately anyway, a raging headache. The headache is relentless. Nothing seems to help it. Water, tylenol, food, sleeping- nothing helps. But otherwise decent enough. My stomach is definitely sticking out now. And I'm pretty sure I'm feeling the baby move, which seems early, but is also pretty normal. I've been running again and feeling pretty good about it.

10/19- really starting to feel nauseous now. I'm hoping it only lasts a week or so. It seems like it cut in half from Claire to Alex. With Claire it was about 4 weeks, with Alex about 2. So one week? I hope so. I've also been so ridiculously TIRED! And I can't sleep.
10/27- nausea is still on and off. Right now, I'm fighting the cold that never ends and can't take any medicine for it. And I'm starving.
10/31- So far I haven't gained any weight but my belly is starting to stick out. My pants don't fit as well. The doctor says its normal for the third to show sooner. I have to admit its a little depressing to see all my hard work of losing weight going away. I've worked so hard this year to lose the 15 pounds. But I know its for a good cause. And it's not like I didn't know I was planning on having another kid. I know being lower to start will be easier to lose after. And its health not just weight that's an issue. I wasn't really happy at my higher weight. When I started running in May, I couldn't run more than a few steps without being winded. At church last month (not on a Sunday), I needed something on the other side of the building very quickly. So I jogged from one end to the other and wasn't winded when I got back. That was a major accomplishment for me. Now I just wish I could run again. It's been two weeks thanks to this darn cold/cough.
11/5- I just want one afternoon where I don't feel like I got hit by a truck. I don't know if it's the baby or the cold or both. But from about 1pm to about 4pm or whenever Alex gets up from his nap, I am just useless. I'm nauseous and tired. But when the boy gets up, it's time for me to get going. Claire can be fairly independent while I nap on the couch. I usually get woken up every 15 minutes or so with "mom?" and then help her with whatever and go back to sleep. She has been very understanding that mommy doesn't feel good.