Goodbye Old Friend

Baby B helping me wash the old car circa 2002. She always was a good helper.

Daniel finally did it yesterday. He got rid of our old 1998 Ford Escort. We brought B & J home from the hospital in that car. It was a little hard to leave it behind, especially knowing that we pimped it out to the state of TX and it will be dismantled and destroyed. We knew we would never get 3k for that old hunk of junk again if we didn't take them up on the Clean Air Voucher Program. Also, we were just skating in under the income limit by the skin of our teeth so we needed to apply ASAP if we were going to do it.

And we are now a 2 Toyota family. I love my Sienna. I'll probably replace it with another Sienna when it dies eventually. Daniel is excited about getting good gas mileage, and while this little Corolla is nothing fancy...it looks a lot better in the driveway than my old girl with the side mirror duct taped on. He went out on Saturday night to buy a Scion, but ended up changing his mind. Also, I needed to sign over the old car, since it was in my name only.

Well, that's the story. It was a bittersweet parting. I bought that car VERY soon after Daniel left on his mission to Panama. I remember driving it back up to college and listening to Fleetwood Mac loudly while crying my way up the Florida Turnpike. The fact that it lasted all the way through a 2 year mission, an almost 8 year marriage, and 4 children with no mechanical problems whatsoever was a miracle. Goodbye old friend, you served us well.

Daniel's first new car. I'm happy for him.

Trash Picking

Someone on our street had this perfectly good little slide out on the curb for trash pickup this morning. There is nothing wrong with it, so I assume their child outgrew it. I noticed it on my way to drop B at school. I tried to resist, but ended up stopping the van and tossing it in on my way home. I figured why let a perfectly good little slide go to the landfill, when all it needs is a little cleanup. L is enjoying it. It is a nice addition to the little playhouse. It also helps the peas climb onto the trampoline more easily. The facts are in...I'm a trash picker.

Little Mama

L is really working this baby care gig. She is all over J's Bitty Baby. She only likes J's which has brown hair. B's has blond hair. She burps the baby, kisses the baby, wraps the baby in blankets, and pushes the baby around in a stroller. It's her new favorite thing to do.

Men are needy

I love my son. My son loves me. So what is the problem? He only loves me. He wants to be held 24/7...by me. He wants to sleep on top of my chest at night. Not next to me, not in his bassinet...ON me. He wants to nurse every 2 hours around the clock. This does not jive well with getting kids to soccer practice, accomplishing housework, or doing any type of shopping or necessary outings. I am keeping my cool by reminding myself to savor his babyhood because I won't have grandchildren for a long time.

Boy diapers are more complicated to change than girl diapers. There is so much more area to clean. I'm accustomed to a quick and easy front to back swipe. Now, it's like a military operation to get everything clean without getting urine in one or both of our faces.

So is it just X or are boy babies more needy in general?

Movie Reviews

Rather than bore you with the details of my endless days and nights of laundry, dishes, and breastfeeding...I thought that I would post about the 3 movies that I've watched this week.

Enchanted: The big girls and I watched Enchanted on Saturday night. B loved it. J and I enjoyed it. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I had been able to pay more attention, but I was also managing L who didn't want to stay in bed and X who wanted to be held non stop. It was better than I expected it to be judging by the commercials.




Juno: I've been wanting to see this movie since it came out. I really enjoyed it. I cried at the end. I would recommend it. However, I would probably only recommend it to the 16-35 year old crowd. I don't know if my parents would like it.





The River (1984): I watched this on TV. I'm a sucker for Sissy Spacek. It was about a farming community. Basically Mel Gibson and Sissy Spacek have to try to save their farm from flooding, while a big shot tries to destroy the levee and run the farms out of business so that he can flood the valley and build a dam. It was pretty good.

Patch A****d

I know this blog is becoming a journal of disasters lately. I apologize. Here is J wearing her eye patch.

When you have your 4th baby, you assume you've seen it all. I had a new experience today. X ate too much and projectile vomited onto my face. Exciting, I know. It was like a horror movie. Maybe if I close my eyes this day will magically disappear.

When it rains it pours

We were at the Dr's office again today.

I went grocery shopping at 6:30am. When I got home Daniel and B left for work/school. I put the cold stuff away and fed the baby. J&L were still asleep. I was feeling pretty good about the way the day was going. Then, I heard hysterical crying coming from upstairs. J was in inexplicable and excruciating eye pain. She couldn't open her left eye. Long story short, she seems to have a scratch on her eye from who knows where. We spent half the day at the Dr's office and pharmacy. Groceries are everywhere, laundry is everywhere, dishes are everywhere. The day started out so promising. Sigh.

*I forgot to mention the part of the story where the Dr prodded my child's eye for 20 minutes, including putting some kind of florescent stuff in it. I have a major phobia about people touching my eyes. I was so traumatized for her that I was silently swooning and almost vomited. I managed to hold it together so that the Dr didn't think I was a complete wimp.

Dr. Appointment

X had his 2 week check-up today. He weighed in at 7lbs 1.5oz. When we left the hospital he was at 6lbs, 8oz. So he has regained and surpassed his birth weight since we left the hospital. He got some eye drops for his goopy eye. I don't really think he needs them, but oh well. The Dr felt that he was behaving a bit immaturely for a 2 week old born at 39 weeks. I guess that's not too uncommon for boys. She said he probably just developed a little bit more slowly, which would partially explain his breathing problems.

J had a short day of preschool today. This involved being at school from 9am-11am. What exactly is the point of a 2 hour school day? I don't know. So, I just went and picked her up right after the Dr. appointment. B has her 1st grade field trip to the children's museum today. I hate to not be going with on a field trip (I'm kind of weird about always volunteering for things). I don't have much choice though as X can't be separated from his food supply yet.

It was another rough night in our house. L did not want to go to bed last night, and X didn't want to go back to sleep after his 2am feeding. I am drowning in laundry, so I had better get cracking.

Blue Steel?

I thought of a name for the first picture that I posted earlier today. How about "blue steel"? I see the connection. Then again...I was awake from 2am-6:30am, so my opinions must be taken with a grain of salt. If you didn't catch the reference, you have clearly never seen the dumbest movie of all time...Zoolander.

Miami Vice?

2 weeks old (4/22/2008)

I snapped a couple of pictures of X yesterday after he had an epic diaper blowout which required us both to change our clothes. He is wearing a pair of white knit pants that belonged to L, because he is so skinny, they are one of the few newborn items that fit.

I call this picture, "Look out Crockett and Tubbs". All he needs to go with his white pants are some miniature wicker shoes. I suppose we could also call the picture "jazz hands".

CVS doesn't want to make money.

*This is a cross post from my bargain blog because it was funny and equally applicable to both blogs.

That is the only thing I can figure. I mean, I get so many things there for so little that there can't be any profit. Today was the kicker. Remember how I transferred my $3 prescription to Walgreens and got a $25 gift card on Friday? Well, today CVS called. I thought maybe they were going to bust me for bargain hunting. It turned out that they were "distressed" to find out that I had transferred a prescription to Walgreens. They wanted to transfer it back to CVS and give me another $30 gift card for returning it to CVS. It's a $3-$4 prescription!!! Why are they so obsessed with it? I suppose any prescription regardless of value must trigger this type of response. Crazy. Why don't they just hand out cash at the door?

I'm not feeling very interesting today

I'm sure you are wondering when I do feel interesting. I'm doing a lot of cleaning and reading. I will have to rediscover my inner Flybaby if I want to pull off this whole "mother of 4 children" craziness. I was so much more organized when I had 2 children. I've been slowly falling apart since L was born 21 months ago. I'm sure my friend Emily W would be shocked at my lack of functional routines. She always knew which days were my sheet washing days, and which days were my vacuum/mopping days. Boy do I miss her. Note to self... must rediscover socializing skills. Back to the topic at hand...I need to come up with a new plan to organize my newly complicated life. I'll be working on that today, as soon as I wrestle the tube of Lansinoh away from L, who is sitting next to me liberally applying it to her doll. I use Lansinoh for everything from rashes to chapped lips, it's a wonderfully versatile invention. Now I'm really straying off topic. So, L already spent time burping the doll, and I suppose coating it with lanolin was the next logical step. Here are some links to interesting places I've stumbled upon recently...you know, in case you want to read something that is actually interesting.

I'm still loving the Pioneer Woman
Attention Target Shoppers
The Nesting Place
I'm an Organizing Junkie

New Culinary Lows

I reached a new culinary low today. I made Hamburger Helper for dinner. I don't think that's ever happened before. Worst of all, my family loved it. Daniel says they are simple people with simple tastes. Embarrassing. I certainly hope they don't expect a repeat performance of Hamburger Helper and frozen peas anytime soon. Sometimes I think I live with cave people.


On a more delicious note, though also technically cheating in the baking department, I made some Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies. I really like this cookie mix. They are delicious, and I generally don't like any baked goods that come from a mix, with the exception of triple chocolate Ghirardelli brownies (which can only be purchased at Costco). But I digress, just try them. Look how delicious they are --->

L finished eating her cookie, then picked up a trusty breast pad and wiped her chocolaty mouth with it. Now I feel like an old lady who keeps Kleenex in her undergarments.

How do you remember to eat?

If you are a mother of 4 or more children, how do you remember to eat? Remember how proud I was of putting my regular jeans back on? Well, now the weight loss is starting to spiral. I officially lost 6 pounds this week and am down to 110 lbs. That's all fine and good, but I'm a little worried that the weight loss is not slowing down. Also, I'm forgetting to eat...often. I don't like to drop below 105, because I feel too skinny and stop being shaped like an adult woman. So, since I forgot/didn't feel like eating dinner last night, I forced myself to eat my least favorite food (eggs) for breakfast, with hash browns, toast, and orange juice. Man do I hate eggs. Blech!

Daniel returned to work today. I was a smidge ticked off because he spent the whole first weekend of his paternity leave, and several days of our hospital stay working on things for work. I feel like I was robbed of at least 3 full days of paternity leave and I want them back. We compromised on him coming home from work early on Tuesday and Thursday, to pick up J at preschool on his way home (2pm). That means I don't have to interrupt L's naps this week. I will be glad when preschool is over on May 15. Maybe I'll ask my mom to do the preschool pick up for the last few weeks of school. It's only 2 days a week, but it's a pain to wake up a sleeping toddler from her nap when you are already up half the night nursing a newborn.

Well, I'm off to hold down the fort on my first official day ALONE with all 4 of my offspring. I must be nuts!

My Sunday

I get to spend my day at home with these two glorious little people. Boy are they a handful though. Miss L still has a cough and I don't want any new germs coming home from Nursery either. Here she is modeling her favorite thing...princess shoes. She especially enjoys the sound they make on tile floors. My new boyfriend X has, what I have decided is indeed a blocked tear duct that we are working on clearing up today too.

Goopy Eye

X has "goopy eye". Don't ask me how he got it. I have no idea. I was planning on trying to take him to church tomorrow. Now I get to stay home and wipe yellow crap out of his eye every 10 minutes because he keeps rubbing them and I don't want the other eye to get infected. I guess goopy eye is better than getting a real cold. I assume he gave it to himself by rubbing his fists all over his face all the time.

Mint Crisp M&M's

Have you tried the new mint crisp M&M's? I got 10 of the 14oz bags of M&M's for 87 cents total yesterday. Don't ask me what I'm going to do with 10 big bags of M&M's. I'm sure they'll get eaten eventually. So, I grabbed 2 bags of the mint crisp to try them. They are stinking delicious. If you are a mint and chocolate fan...you should try them.

We survived 2 soccer games with 4 children today. Now, I'm tired. Also, my back is killing me where my spinal/epidural was located. I've never had residual epidural pain before. I hope it goes away soon. It's starting to worry me. It feels like the tube is still in my back...but it's not. My other 3 epidurals did not hurt nearly as much when they placed them either. I think this guy hit something that he wasn't supposed to.

Don't Judge Me...

I had to document this moment. Yes, I know it's a silly thing to blog about. 10 days post-partum. The scale told me that I lost another 3 pounds yesterday. So, I decided to break out my regular size 2 jeans today. And, drumroll please.............they fit. Woo hoo! That'll cheer a girl up on a rainy day. Let's not discuss the muffin top of stretched out tummy skin. That's a challenge for another day.

4 hours of sleep

and 11 pounds of baby weight...totally worth it!

Ode to Brusters

When I was a little girl, I remember getting ice cream in the summer from the cutest little ice cream shop. It had a carousel horse in it, and other than that I can't remember much else about it. What ever happened to cute little ice cream shops like that? Now kids are growing up with ice cream chains, and that's all.

Daniel and I had ice cream at a cute little place called the Purple Cow a couple of years ago. We had gone for an overnight getaway right before L was born to Callaway Gardens. It was fun. I look forward to going somewhere alone again someday. Not someday soon, but someday.

My favorite ice cream, though still technically a chain is Brusters. LOVE it! Unfortunately, despite the fact that they have locations in TX, and they tempt me with their advertisements in my weekly coupon inserts...we do NOT have any locations anywhere near us.

When we first moved to GA, a nice couple in the ward invited us to go out to Brusters for ice cream. At that time, the nearest location was a good 35 minutes away from where we were living in Smyrna, GA. They were big fans though, so we went. It was really good, and a bonus...really reasonably priced. They eventually built a location in the suburb that we built our house in, west of Atlanta. It was only 5-10 minutes away, and that was great. The little kids (under 40 inches I think) get free kids cones. They are so cute and they put little eyes and sprinkles for hair on them. J's favorite kind was called Purple Dragon or something like that.

If I was a rich (wo)man (you have to sing that in your head with the tune of Fiddler on the Roof, or it won't read right)...I would totally open a location here in our little community. I think this would be a perfect location for it. Who really wants another place like Cold Stone where getting ice cream for your family costs you $30? Not me. Bring on the Brusters, better ice cream, better prices. So who wants to start a business with me? Just kidding...I've got my hands full already.

Chillin'

Quarantine

The morning that I left for the hospital B woke up with a fever and cough. This is par for the course as someone always comes down with the plague the day that I have a baby (it has happened all 4 times). By the time I was finally released from the hospital, B was mostly better, but J&L were both sick. Now, J is finally better. L on the other hand is still sick. I've disinfected my bedroom, washed the sheets again, etc. I've put the bassinet and rocking chair on my side (the far side) of the room. I have a bottle of sanitizer on the dresser, and I've religiously sanitized my hands every time I come back in the room from being in the rest of the house. Sadly, L is not allowed in my bedroom right now. I do not think X could tolerate a bad cough right now, when his lungs are still weak. I've considered kicking Daniel out of the bedroom too, because I am not entirely sure that what he is suffering from is allergies, and not THE COLD. If I can just make it a couple more days until L is healthy, everything will be a-ok. Wish me luck.

A quiz...

I stole this from my brother-in-law's blog. I would just link to his blog, but he uses his whole name, which of course would ruin the confidentiality I attempt to maintain online. So, here is a fun quiz regarding US citizenship. I got a 95%. I count it as 100% though because what does knowing what form number you need to fill out to become a U.S. citizen have to do with anything?

7 things I learned while spending a week in the hospital...

1. I'm done procreating. I feel totally at peace with the size of my family, and my uterus did not hold up as well after the third surgery as it did after the first two. It would be nice if you could find that out without being cut open a 4th time. My Dr. "reinforced" it again, and said that I "could" still have another if I really wanted to do so. I suppose that is good info to know, just in case of a surprise baby.

2. When they tell you that having staples doesn't hurt more than stitches or glue (Dermabond), they are LYING! I could feel each individual staple until they removed them 4 days later. The glue was by far the least painful, but made the worst scar. I've been told that the staples will make the best scar, and so far...that appears to be true.

3. No one loves your kids like you do, and they will not treat them the way that you would like them to be treated. Part of the reason I had the emotional breakdown when X was in the NICU... There was another baby with some inflamed lung problem across from X in the NICU. I had seen her parents in there, worrying, feeding her pumped milk, hovering over her etc. You know, the same as us. Fortunately, X had young cheerful nurses while this poor baby had one of the older, grouchier variety. Every time I was in with X and that poor baby's parents were not present, she was crying. She cried a lot. I didn't see what the big deal was, but that baby's nurse did nothing except mumble about how annoyed she was by the baby's crying. She generally displayed a disdainful attitude about that baby the entire time the parents were not there. It was very disturbing. It is people like her that have rendered me completely incapable of using daycare of any kind. I would rather chew my own arm off than leave my baby with a non family member. For the moms reading this who do the daycare thing...you are a stronger woman than I, and I admire you for that ability. I trust no one with my kids, except for the person whose uterus I was cut out of almost 30 years ago.

4. Hospital food is making strides forward. My hospital has "on demand room service" instead of the traditional food delivery system. There is a full menu available at all times, and you just call in your food order 45 minutes before you want it delivered. I can't say that everything I tried during those 5 days was particularly great, but quite a few things were actually good. For those delivering at the same hospital in the near future...I would recommend the chicken caesar salad, the cheeseburger & fries, roast turkey, whipped potatoes, green beans, carrot cake, and the oatmeal raisin cookies. Those were the best of the things that I tried.

5. CNN should really only be on 1 hour per day. The other 23 hours are just a repeat of the 1 hour of original material. When you are spending 24 hours a day being awake, you spend a large portion of the 12am-6am block watching things like CNN.

6. It's not just the people of Panama who think that I am "Latina". In other words, my baby and I were judged by the food delivery woman to be Hispanic. She started speaking Spanish to us and did not hesitate to continue until half way through the conversation when she realized that I was only speaking English to her. Then, she switched right over to speaking English. So, I am what you might call an "ethnic shifter". I wonder what other ethnicities I might be able to pull off. Note to self...this skill would be much more impressive if I could actually speak Spanish.

7. If I was a prescription drug addict, Percoset would be my drug of choice. After 4 c-sections in less than 7 years, I've taken quite a few drugs. With L, I took Percoset. It was great. It is not natural to feel that good. The only problem is that I metabolize things very quickly, and it wore off after 2-3 hours. So, after taking it for a few days this time, my Dr switched me to Vicoden. It certainly lasts a lot longer, but doesn't work quite as well. Instead of making me feel like everything is wonderful and I am invincible, it just makes me feel mostly pain free, and blurs my vision. It also makes me have dreams that are more like hallucinations...not fun. Even if I only fall asleep for 10 minutes, I will have a full on hallucinatory dream complete with full body sweating.

*Highlight of my day...Daniel telling me I look skinny.

More Misc Pictures

This blog is going to be picture heavy for awhile, with the new baby and what not. Here are a few, in reverse chronological order.

Today, eyes open.L snuggling with me and "li-tow bee-bee" after her bath last night. She made up that name for him all by herself, and obsessively points at him all day saying "li-tow bee-bee".The sisters who showed up to take us home yesterday looking like they had been living in the forest for a week. Daddy can't operate a hairspray can. In his defense, doing J's hair is like taming a wolf. I had to dig a pony holder out of my bag because L's was straight down in her eyes and she couldn't see where she was going. B just doesn't comb hers unless I remind her every morning. And even when she does, she doesn't comb the back. Out of sight, out of mind.The "sibling cake" courtesy of the hospital the day of our release.A bad picture of me and X a few minutes after they released him from the NICU on Friday. You can see I'm not thrilled about having my picture taken after 5 days of not sleeping.

Going Home Today

X this morning. We're just waiting to go home in a couple of hours.

Daniel and his son, a few minutes after getting released from the NICU yesterday. He's having a bit of trouble with calling him, "her".

X is getting out of the NICU

Well, they are letting him out of the NICU. I was there for 2 hours this morning, so I was able to talk to the Dr. while I was there. He's still having some spit up/vomit issues. Personally, I think it's because he's being fed too much. If he was nursing he would not be getting that much milk/formula all at the same time. But anyway, they are currently moving him to the regular nursery. He is getting a couple of things done there, and then he will be in my room. We will still stay one more night to make sure his eating/vomiting gets resolved.

Emotional Breakdowns

I'm a mess. I was doing fine for 3 straight days. Having already been through this NICU routine with L, I was having a positive attitude. I know that X is perfectly fine, and they will let him out soon. Somehow after 3 days and nights of practically no sleep and still not having him out of the NICU, I started to fall apart this morning. It doesn't help that my metabolism is so fast, that my pain medications work instantly, but wear off an hour before they should.

After Daniel went home yesterday to take care of the girls, I went down and held X for about 30 min. Then, I went back and spent another hour with him from 8:30-9:30, and fed him his 9pm feeding. I also changed his diaper, during which he started making a load of "tar poop". Two diapers later, after squirting down me and all of his blankets, I managed to get the job done. He has been doing fine and eating all of his feedings. Their only complaint is that he has been spitting up a tiny bit after each feeding. I don't know why that is a problem, but oh well.

So, I went down this morning at 6:15am and unfortunately they were about to start their shift change. Daniel keeps track of when they close for shift change, so I haven't paid attention to the times. I just dropped off his milk to his nurse and walked over to his crib, and he was so alert. He stared right at me the whole time I was talking to him. I couldn't pick him up because they were about to do their shift change. Then, it happened...I told him I would be back as soon as they were done with their shift change, and as soon as I started to leave his view, he started to cry. I tried to pat him and get him to stop, but every time I got out of view he started to cry again. This, in combination with extreme hormonal imbalance made me cry. I hate crying. Unfortunately, I couldn't stop. I hate when this happens. So, I had to waddle all the way back to my room fighting with the stupid tears. Then of course my nurse comes in to do something, and she has to see me crying. I think she felt badly, because she started being nicer to me (they've been asking me when I'm going home for the past 2 days, which I don't appreciate...I'm not the Dr., let him decide).

I thought I had the stupid outburst under control, when my Dr came in to check on me. If he was a normal Dr, I would have been fine. However, he's a coddler. He could see that I had been crying and did the whole hand holding, dramatic thing. This started me back to crying. I told him that I was totally fine and was just having a hormonal episode that I couldn't control. He seemed to understand. So, he's coming back later to see if they've let X go. Otherwise, he's just leaving me in here another night. I appreciate that he is trying to keep me in as long as the baby is in. Hopefully, the nurses will stop asking me when I'm leaving (it makes me feel like they are trying to get rid of me). I am SO ready to get out of here (and get more than 1 hour of sleep without being woken up), but if I have to leave without the baby I'm going to be a complete disaster area.

Baby Update

Baby X is improving. He is off of oxygen and breathing normally. He did great on his first feeding, and we were able to hold him. Will update again later.

Still Struggling

X is still struggling with his Oxygen level/breathing rate. He was off oxygen at 2pm yesterday, then had to be put back on it during the night. He is back on a low rate now at 23% (normal room air is 21%). Best guess at this point is that he is suffering from a little bit of fluid in his lungs, and possibly slight lung immaturity. Will update when something changes.

Dr. said my old incision was very thin. It's a good thing my last Dr. double stitched it after L was born. I'd hate to know what could have happened if he hadn't . Now, if they would just give me my darn baby, everything would be fine. I HATE waiting.

Baby X

Help us welcome Baby X to our family.

Vital statistics:
Weight - 6 lbs. 15.4 oz.
Height - 19.5 inches
Time - 8:57 AM on Tuesday 08-Apr-2008

Pictures:



He had little trouble keeping his O2 levels up, so he's spending a some time in the NICU, but he has already improved quite a bit, so we don't anticipate him being there much longer.

Just for Fun (a picture)

Weekend Highlights

Off the top of my head...
*Attended baby shower.
*2 soccer games.
*Watched a lot of General Conference.
*Daniel and peas worked on painting B's furniture.

*Made snow cones for the first time this season. L is now obsessed with them.
*Played outside. Found a fun use for Easter chalk.

*Washed all laundry and bedding, approx 10 loads.
*Finished packing hospital bag.
*Spied my first tomato of the season.

Panic Sets In

I woke up this morning to the realization of exactly how far behind I am on things that I have no hope of accomplishing in 2 days. For example, I make each of my peas 3 things, ideally during their reasonably early childhood: 1. a baby book, 2. a quilt (machine quilted), 3. a stocking (all cross-stitched so far). Those are things that I've committed to, because you can't do it for one kid and not the others. I did all 3 for B, and now I'm stuck. Here's where I am at with them...
B...baby book, quilt, and stocking (her stocking took years, and I had to switch to simpler designs for the remaining kids)
J...baby book, quilt, stocking in progress (I've been slacking on it so badly)
L...baby book (in progress), and that is it!!! Yikes

My plan to finish? Time to get cracking on the 2 projects in progress. J's stocking, and L's baby book (I've switched to digital scrapbooking for the last 2 peas, and will need to have bound copies printed when I finish). Then, photograph the pages of B&J's baby books and store in digital format.

Next, make L&X both quilts simultaneously (that's how I did B&J's it's much faster to do at the same time). Lastly, the remaining 2 stockings. I know that will be the longest portion of this whole thing. This process will probably take several years, but I need to stop avoiding the 2 projects that I am on, or it will never get done.

*One thing that I wish each of them had? A stained glass lamp. I had a blue and white stained glass lampshade when I was a little girl. My mom made it. She's got stained glass skills. She still has my old lampshade, which needs some repairs. I don't know how to do stained glass, and I have already bitten off enough projects to last me years. I do however, wish that she would make them each a little stained glass lampshade. I think it would be a nice "grandma project". Hint, hint.

Quadruple Baby Shower

I have had MANY baby showers. Ever since the first baby shower, I have vehemently objected to more baby showers, to no avail. I don't want to be an ingrate, but I also don't want people to spend money buying me baby gifts, when I am having my umpteenth baby (at least it feels like that many), and I don't really "need" anything. I was yet again unsuccessful at arguing my lack of need to the church ladies. Fortunately, there is a baby boom going on right now. So, instead of having an unnecessary amount of attention focused on just me, we are being thrown a quadruple baby shower this evening. The funny thing is that the woman throwing the shower is also quite pregnant herself. I hope someone has got a baby shower in the works for her, especially since she is crazy enough to throw a quadruple shower at her house. She's nice like that.

Here is a rundown of my past baby showers:

Baby B had 2 showers: A shower thrown by my co-workers at school, and a shower thrown by my friend (who was also the maid-of-honor at my wedding 10 months prior). They were lovely showers, and I still had things with tags on them from those showers when I had J. You can only use so much stuff.

Baby J had a very large shower thrown by my friend Aude in our old ward in GA. She was my visiting teacher, and we had just moved into the ward a few weeks before, so EVERYONE came. It was crazy. Especially crazy since I had just had a baby girl 20 months before, and needed nothing.

Baby L: This time I really held my ground insisting under no circumstances did I need another shower. I argued against it for weeks. I was having my 3rd daughter for goodness sake! Still, my dear friend Pam (I was the Relief Society Secretary and she was the President) beat me down. I finally relented to a small luncheon with just 4-5 friends from the ward.

Almost Done

One more day until Daniel's paternity leave begins. I went to my last appointment today, and guess what, still at "ZERO". I registered at the hospital. They also found out that I have Group B strep, which I did not have when they did my Group B strep test 3 weeks ago. They caught it during a urinalysis last week when they were checking to find out why my standard in office test showed protein in my "sample". So, I had to immediately start on antibiotics. I'm not sure why since I'm having a c-section anyway. I thought Group B strep was only a problem for "normal" deliveries.

We've got a million things to do, and one weekend left to do them. So, I better keep moving! Have a good weekend.

Identity Crisis

L can't decide whether she wants to be a baby or a big girl today. Tough decision.