Tuesday, April 28, 2009

We're Back!

I have officially never been that long at my in-laws house! Wow! By Monday morning we were all very ready to be home. As much as we enjoyed our stay, we were all a bit homesick for our house and schedule and food.

As a cumulative effect from our long vacation of late nights and different foods, including lots of fresh fruit, I managed an upset tummy on the way home yesterday and napped most of the way home so the stomach cramps wouldn't bug me so much. I didn't feel much like eating, so then all of a sudden I was feeling very yucky and knew I had to eat but nothing sounded good at all. That whole, empty stomach thing. And the emptier it got the worse I felt and by the time we stopped for dinner I could only manage a half dozen bites of my amazing Pizza Hut Tuscani chicken alfredo stuff. I did get it down for lunch today though. Hurray! It was quite a long morning though, wanting and needing to eat but not having the stomach for it. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be all better and back on track.

I did have to get up super early this morning to make it to my 8:30 appointment with the OB in Boise. I ended up in the wrong parking garage, and had to go across the street instead of being in the same building as the offices. Oops! Luckily I found a nice lady going to her car in an official looking shirt who told me where I needed to be and it wasn't that far. Really luckily, because I had to pee, since I remembered civilian OB's require the cup thingy every visit. I haven't had to do that for the last 2 pregnancies. Ugh. They let me do that before I checked in though, which was nice.

And I LOVE my new OB! He's awesome! First thing, I don't have to come in every week for a sugar check. I can just email my week's numbers to him every Monday and he'll call if I need to come in for a med adjustment between regular visits. I will also have ultrasounds every month to check growth. Fetal Medicine should call by Friday to set up my ultrasound, in about 3-4 weeks. I also get a small growth check one around mid-June. So lots of peeks at baby! He doesn't really care about the weight gain unless it gets out of control, and instead wants to focus on keeping my sugar levels stable. If those are stable the weight should take care of itself pretty well. Baby's heart sounded good, and I am measuring where I need to be. So everything looks good, and I look forward to working with my new doctor!

The only downside is that starting at 34 weeks I have to go to Boise at least once a week for Non-Stress Tests. Then it'll be twice a week as I get closer. That'll be fun! I'd better start saving for gas money now...... :-)

Monday, April 20, 2009

Just checking in.

We've just been chillin' here at Mom Willford's house. The boys keep disapearing down to the basement to play video games so it's been rather quiet.

Mark's sister got married on Saturday, and it was so neat to get to go see her and her new hubby get sealed in the temple. I haven't seen one since Mark and I, so it was nice to be there. We actually ended up in the room Mark and I were sealed in, which was pretty cool. He couldn't believe I remembered which room it was. It was the day I got married, how would I forget? :-)

We went for a great lunch at a pizza buffet thing, where I got yelled at for eating the pizza. Too many carbs..... but oh! It tasted good! Then there was his cousin's reception that night, so we were in Sunday clothes all day long. Ugh.

Sunday was pretty easy going. We enjoy going to his folk's ward, because that's where we went when we were married, so I know lots of the people there. They like seeing how many boys we have now and how big they are, because I had Oren while we were in this ward.

Mark went down to Utah with his sister Mindy today, who was taking her boyfriend to the airport. He's returning to Missouri to turn in his mission papers, and we didn't want her to drive back home alone late in the evening. They left early today and won't be back until about midnight, and I have missed him all day! It's one thing when I'm in Boise or something, but he's been in a whole 'nother state all day! His brother texted me that they decided to stay there in Provo with him and his wife, on Mindy's phone so it would seem like Mark and Mindy sent it. Being pregnant and very officially hormonal, I totally flipped out! I made him call me and chewed him out until he told me Kevin wrote it as a joke. Then I chewed him out for allowing that sort of joke in the first place! Poor guy felt so bad for upsetting me and apologized for the joke and assured me that they were on the way home. Apparently I start flipping out all hormonally about the second trimester, which is officially where I'm at right now. Oops... He reminded me I've done this every time, and I reminded him that every time I haven't appreciated practical jokes of any kind during this time period! Poor guy.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Another tooth gone!

Oren has been messing around with a loose tooth for a long time now, and it finally came out today!

The 1st graders had their musical program today and we went to the afternoon one so that Mark could see it before work. The whole time he was sitting there playing with his loose tooth. There was an evening performance and I wanted that tooth out so he wouldn't stand there with his hand in his mouth the whole time. It was time for it to come out anyway.....

We had to go to the BX to get him a new pair of black jeans because the pair he had managed to get humongous holes in them today, and while we were there a nice old gentleman noticed him playing with his tooth. By this point it was just barely hanging on, but he was scared to pull it and my stomach was rather sensitive to the idea. This very nice man procured a tissue from the checkout clerk and did it for me! Oren didn't even feel it! And now there is a tooth, wrapped in tissue, sitting in my purse. Of course, the thought of that had me gagging all the way through the food court to the bathroom, getting me very odd looks. Joy. (Just to wash my hands, not to get sick.... I managed to breath through it.)

Funny thing is, he still was playing with the new hole in his mouth throughout the performance! I took pictures, but don't have the energy to download them right now. I have to put new batteries in the camera too, but that involves work too. They all did very well, and it was a fun performance! Very loud and enthusiastic if nothing else.... but seriously cute!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Baby and tree both a'growin!

Mark got the tree planted today! And I ventured out with my gloves and hard pruned the rose bush. It was getting very overgrown and far too big, so now it's half it's size. Poor thing.... It'll look gorgeous this summer though! The tree is bigger than I thought, very tall, but that's fine. Mark did a great job prepping the ground, and now we just have to replace the weed barrier and bark, and keep it watered.

I had an appointment first thing this morning, a different doctor than the last 2 times. She tried to catch the heartbeat with the doppler. Kind of funny..... I had to hold my skin back, since it's rather loose from having 3 babies and being overweight. She had to push kind of hard and basically ended up chasing the baby all over the place. It would kick at the doppler and move away! In the end we got an echo of the heartbeat off the placenta, but by then it had moved around so much that we knew baby was doing just fine.

And although it's early, I did get to feel the baby move! She was pushing down really hard at one point and I felt the kick as I heard it on the doppler. It kept sounding like someone tapping a microphone, too funny. It'll be a bit longer before I can really start to feel it move around normally, but it was funny to feel that one little kick. Like I said, she was pushing hard enough that it hurt! But the doctor just had triplets at 27 weeks, so I'll excuse the pain. Her babies are still in the NICU.....

So this baby is definitely related to my other, also non-doppler-cooperative children. They liked to hide their heartbeats until they were simply too big to. At least our little one will fit it! :-) This is my last appointment here, I go see the other OB on the 28th and so the base clinic won't have any info on me. If anything happens I have to go to Boise, because they won't even have my file!

We'll be in Rigby all next week, we leave Friday afternoon. Mark's sister is getting married, so he's taking some leave and we'll go hang out there for a while. They haven't seen the kids since Thanksgiving, and can't wait to hear how well Nathan sounds now. We are so excited, all the siblings will be there except one, and all the grandkids except one. That's a lot of family crowded in together, it'll be soooo much fun!

Monday, April 13, 2009

I love clearance!

We bought a tree today. About 12 feet tall, a "flame maple" or something like that. Anyway, it's supposed to have reddish leaves in fall I think. A really nice tree, usually not cheap for the size we got. Price tag? $199.00

What did we pay?

$50, plus $30 for them to drag it on a truck to our house and unload it! Grand total of $87! It was 75% off because it was from last season and had been there too long. Decent size but won't get too big when fully mature and cause issues with the fence or sprinkler systems. We could have borrowed a truck from a friend but they live in town, so we would have paid for the gas down there, gas for his truck and our car to get back to base, gas for his truck and our car back to town, and our car back to base again. There's the $30 right there, and at least this way there's another guy to help Mark get it off the truck!

Makes me want to buy a house and plant a bunch of trees......

Now we just have to get the hole finished tomorrow, since they'll deliver the tree sometime before 3 pm. Once that's in we'll cross our fingers and hope it doesn't die! I kind of don't want to move, because I want to see what this tree looks like in a few years, but I really don't want to squish the kids in this house. The small room is too small for a toddler bed, 2 dressers, and a crib, plus my recliner. And no way am I putting William in the same room as a bunk bed yet! I don't need another concussion! Drat......

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Happy Official Easter!

Oh boy, did the kids sure have fun doing Easter eggs at Grandma's! Daddy was awesome and spearheaded the egg decorating effort. Keeping track of our three, plus Rheanna and Samuel, several things of permanent egg dye, glitter, glue, stickers, and 2 1/2 dozen eggs was no mean feat. What a guy! Unfortunately, preggo brain has kicked in and your's truly forgot the camera..... I know, sad itsn't it. They were all very colorful though, and the kids had lots of fun.

We didn't stay for dinner like normal, they had a baptism to head off too, so we took off for home around 3. We stopped by Winco to stock up on some cereals and chicken. And guess what! They had watermelons!!!!! My angel of a hubby tracked down an employee to find the corner they were hiding in, just for me. He is so thoughtful of my food cravings, even if it means packing up all the kids and hitting a chinese resaurant last minute. (William must have been born loving sweet and sour chicken.....)

The boys were very sad this morning that the Easter Bunny didn't come this morning. Then I remembered that the front door got locked last night, and had the boys check for me. Sure enough, Mr. Easter Bunny couldn't get in, so he left the treats outside by the door! Thanks Easter Bunny for not bringing anything red, and keeping the candy to a bare minimum.... :-) I think it was a funny suprise for them this year. The Easter Bunny even left a sugar-free Russel Stover's chocolate bunny for Mommy, who very much appreciates it and thought it tastes pretty darn good.

And I made the biggest meal today than I have made in the last 2 months. Hurray me! We had a honey glazed ham, roasted asparagus, deviled eggs, homemade mashed potatoes, homemade gravy, and bakery rolls. With a sugar-free chocolate creme pie for desert. Hey, I'm not crazy and know my cooking limits.... rolls would have been a bit much today. And a girl's gotta eat dessert! It was actually a really good pie, from Walmart. Sugar-free has gotten so much better since I was expecting Nathan. But then, it's been nearly 5 years!

Just hanging out for a nice, relaxing Easter Sunday!

Friday, April 10, 2009

Happy Almost Easter!

Okay, the inspector guy finally showed up at lunchtime on Thursday. He looked around a little, said it looked pretty good, and that was it! We have 7 days to replace the tree that started the whole thing, before housing comes and does it for us. Which would cost us a lot of money, so hopefully Mark can get it done before they try to. Either way we still have to pay for a tree at least a few years old, so the trunk is good and thick, and those don't come cheap. But if they do it we pay for the labor too, so we are hoping to find a tree and get it in. Poor Mark, he got most of the stump out, but can't dig any more hole today because it's cold and rainy outside! So that's all fine now.

We are planning to go to Mom and Dad's tomorrow to do easter eggs. The boys have been asking for weeks, "Is it Easter yet? Can we go to Grandma's house?" And are very sad when I have to tell them it isn't time yet. I got all the eggs today, hurray!

Mark was a sweetie and kept the boys at home so I could run to Walmart by myself this morning. I needed the eggs, plus the boys have ripped holes in more of their jeans so they needed a new pair each. I know patching them would be cheaper, but I just don't have the time or energy, plus patching pants that small is a nightmare! Walmart carries them for a low as $10, so it's not too bad. I got some easter candy, and a ton of light yogurt! Yummy! Plus a nice ham for Sunday dinner. Got to have ham on Easter Sunday, it's a requirement!

On Wednesday I went to the doctor's to check up on my blood sugar levels. She was very not happy with them, as was I. So I am now on Glyburide, which is an anti-diabetic medication that makes my body produce more insulin. I used it with William and responded very well to it. Problem is that because I am already having to start it so early, chances of me being on insulin by the end is a lot higher. And basically my body is now producing insulin whether I am eating sugar/carbs or not, so I am very prone to low sugar levels. I've had to figure out an eating schedule and carb amount that keeps everything stable all day, and found that mini-snickers in my purse is literally a life-saver. It is nice to eat a bowl of pasta though and know that I'm okay 2 hours later. As much of a hassle as this all is, it's all worth it. I haven't seen a nutritionist, but since this is my 3rd time I'm doing pretty well, and I don't mind doing my research on diabetic diet plans while pregnant. I go back next week to the doctor to see how my levels are responding and possibly put me on a nighttime dose to help my morning numbers too. I don't know how often the Boise ob will want to see me, but with William I was in every week. Yikes! That would make for a very long next 26-28 weeks!

It's a good thing I have cute kids, because they make it totally worth the work!

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Stupid Tree....

Vent post!

We have this tree in our backyard that tried to die on us last year. So Mark cut off the dead part, the top half, and voila! The bottom half started sprouting new branches! Now, for some reason he decided to call the tree in to housing maintenance who turned it over to the housing inspector to decide what he wanted done with it.

He showed up this morning and the first thing he said was that we had to clear the boxes off the porch. Fair enough, Amanda's husband dropped them off there and Mark hadn't dealt with them yet. We are collecting boxes to make packing easier when we get started. I then met him in the backyard where the next thing he said was, "What is up with your backyard!?!"

Note- it was a total mess, toys everywhere- a hamster cage from our hamster that died that I put out there until I could deal with it and kind of forgot it was there- two swingsets- dirt on the patio because the boys had fun with Mark's container garden that had squash in it next year- a few weeds in the landscaped bark- and some plants that had been left to winter without being trimmed so that the roots would survive. It needed attention badly, but it's been so cold and windy that we were waiting for a decent Saturday to go tackle it.

Then he was mad about the tree, which wasn't dead, and said we should have called it in to housing in the first place instead of chopping it down ourselves. We have to replace the tree because they can't accept it in that condition. Do we want to do it or do we want maintenance to take care of removal and planting a new tree? I guess maintenance.... because I don't know squat about planting trees and he wants a big one which will cost lots of money......

Next he goes to town about we have until close of business tomorrow- 4:00pm- to have both front and back yards cleaned up, plants trimmed, new bark covering the sprinkler systems, sprinkler system removed from our container garden which means somehow getting all the dirt out of them and moving them elsewhere so we can repair the tubing, house sprayed down to remove all the dust, and while we're at it.....

I also have to make sure the inside of the house is totally clean in case he wants to inspect that too. Because "in his experience if the outside looks like this then so does the inside." And he didn't care that my OB told me to take it easy and not do a bunch of heavy stuff, stay off my feet. Of course my house is a disaster right now! I have either been queasy, or tired, or gone! Not to mention depressed and really wanting back on my meds right now, so cleaning has kind of taken a backseat. I called Amanda in a panic, crying, because I was instantly completely stressed out. Luckily, she was hanging out on base and came to help. Mark tackled the outside, and we started in on the bathroom. Before she left we were able to get the boys bathroom, and both boys bedrooms completely cleaned, toys sorted, and 4 huge bags of stuff hauled out to the trash. After she left the living room and entry way got done, and the toys picked up in the backyard along with any trash that had blown over the fence over the winter. Mark got the front yard mostly done.

Tomorrow is the kitchen/ dining room, laundry room, my bedroom and bathroom, and what remains of the backyard. Which is trimming up the plants and getting new bark. Oh, and fixing the dumb sprinkler systems that we worked so hard looping to our box garden. We're hoping to borrow Amanda's truck to haul bark, and she is coming over tomorrow to help me some more. We figured this cancels out all those hours of babysitting I did while they moved! I have cried a couple times today, and got very crampy so had to sit down several times, and it's just been a long day for everyone. My poor children and husband got all sunburned because they were out all day.

AND!!!!!!!!!!! Oren got out of school early because of a gas leak at the school. They evacuated the school and surrounding housing areas, and Amanda was able to track him and her daughter down at the grocery store across the street where their classes were. Oren's teacher was.... um.... very grateful that she came to get him! :-) He gets excited easily and I'm sure was very interesting to handle the hour that Amanda spent trying to track him down. It was only supposed to take 30 minutes to clear everything, but took longer than an hour so they were releasing children to parents, since it was lunch time and there was no way to feed them.

What a day! Here's hoping I get some sleep tonight, and that tomorrow is a better day. I have an OB appointment, and luckily I haven't spotted in a week, so she should be happy. My glucose numbers will make her cringe, I'm sure. They do it to me!

I know that the yard and house are our own fault, but that doesn't make today any easier. We don't want a write-up, and we are hoping to be approved for a 4-bedroom, so we are going to suck it up and get it done. He's just a really OCD, nitpicky inspector, and I'm not sure how this is going to go..... Crossing fingers!

Friday, April 3, 2009

Holy Pimples Batman!

This week my face decided to revert that that of an average teenager. And may it be noted that I had great skin my teen years with maybe 3 zits total! So this isn't my average skin, but that of someone maybe less lucky in the complexion area..... I think I would remember if I had this with the boys, so I am taking it as very encouraging and possibly a girl? Laugh all you want Mom, I'm allowed to grasp at straws. :-) I still have about 8 weeks until we have a glance, but it's fun to dream. (And yes Mom, I am thinking about boy stuff too!)

We had Parent/Teacher conference this week for both boys. Oren is reading at a 3rd grade level, about the age of a 8 1/2 year old. He's in first grade, so this is awesome! His teacher is very pleased with his work, his handwriting, and his attitude. Her husband asks how Oren did at school when she comes home, which I find funny. We have been really lucky to have her as a teacher this year and I feel she has set the tone for his classroom skills. The afternoon Ritalin we have him on in addition to his regular morning meds that release all day has really helped his focus after lunch, and was a great choice for him.

Nathan is doing great too. They have a special summer preschool program for the kids that need it before Kindergarten, and I got the great news that Nathan doesn't qualify! Hurray! His cutting is amazing the teacher, he cuts around details instead of cutting though them. His drawing is getting much better too. And they have been working on their letters, he knows all the uppercase and is working on lowercase. He'll put crackers together at snack time, it's Scrabble cheeze-it's or something, and try to make words. He likes to sound out words and try to spell them. Like "soop" for "soup". We're pretty amazed, and feel that he should have no problems at all with Kindergarten.

His mouth is healing great too. Because his speech has improved, so has his confidence in speaking to others, especially at class. He still has a long way to go, but I am so grateful that he is on his way!