Just a few more pictures

Frieda had a bath tonight and woke up for quite a while afterward. Here are some open eyes shots.

Slowly but progressing

Who doesn't love a girl in blue? It compliments her lightening eyes beautifully. Thank you again, E! She already has that lighter burst in the middle of her iris that Tag and Pebbles also manifested so early.

Little Frieda continues to improve, and I'm daily grateful for modern technology. Her light machine that looks like a futuristic hernia belt continues to help her biliburbin count descend albeit slowly. She was awake for about an hour this morning, her longest awake period since she was born. She's finally waking up on her own to eat, showing how much better she's getting and also showing in the shadows under my eyes. She had put on three ounces as of yesterday, bringing her up to 8 pounds 6 ounces. She took quite a plunge that first week, clocking in at 8 pounds 3 ounces on her sixth day of life, down from 8'11. This poor child... every time we take her in for another blood draw the person doing the draw comments on how many lancings have yet to heal in her poor feet. It'll be nice to overcome this episode so we can ease up on insisting she eat every two hours and quit darkening the doors of the hospital out patient lab. Every time we take her light belt off she looks so tiny and once again feels so light.

Thank heaven my mother is visiting, something Man and I are infinitely grateful for. The kids renewed their adoration of Oma from the very moment they saw her again. I don't know what I would have done, with the every two hour feedings and still a household to run, every other day runs to F's pediatrician in the next city over (yes, this practice is worth driving for), daily hospital visits, and my own healing to tend to.

And yet in and among all of these busy doings we laugh, play, tickle, chat, take meals as a family, Man, kids and Oma have gone to the aquarium, and we just enjoy the heck out of each other. Man needed this break so very badly, and I have needed the help so very badly.

While typing, I got a phone call from the dr on call this weekend who just got her latest lab back. She's almost in the clear, with maybe one more blood draw and no more than two days of the light belt. Woohoo!

bonus pic: This is Pebbles at the same age Frieda is now. Are they sisters or what?

Now with karate chop action!

New this year, we present our 2008 version of Baby.

We know that before our models have surpassed even our expectations in cuteness, cleverness, and just general "thingness" (quote: Birdie Wooster), but this year we have a very exciting new technology to offer.

We've given you the Scream of Piercing (we just don't understand the level of negative feedback we've gotten for this amazing, superlative feature), Projectile Vomiting, Gaze of Paralyzing Cuteness, Bottomless Questioning, and Wardrobe Concocting Fantastique, but prepare to be amazed at our latest, most innovative offering.

Glow in the Dark Baby!!

For those midnight feedings when a harsh lamp is just too much and you know that with all you've had to deal with the day before the floor is certain to be cluttered with Dubiously Benign Objects, Glow in the Dark Baby provides a gentle, soothing glow sure to relax all your cares away, leaving you free to enjoy your tiny one for the fifth time that night.

The above is a bilirubin light. Her first pediatric appt revealed that she's lost a lot of weight and that she has some jaundice. A quick trip to the hospital for a blood draw revealed her need to be on a light machine for a little while, which necessitates daily blood draws and every other day weigh ins. Poor little dear is so sleepy she can barely eat every few hours, so we're pumping and feeding her as much as she can handle while she serenely glows her way through the day.

Other than that nothing cool is happening. Just the normal kid moments.

Oma is here to visit and is getting used to explaining things to Tag, who is recently very fascinated by aliens.

O: But aliens aren't big scary monsters. They're just people who don't live where you live. So, angels are aliens, Jesus is an alien, I'm and alien.

T: So Jesus turns into a big scary monster!?!

O: No, remember I'm an alien, too, since I'm just visiting and I don't live here. Did I turn into a big scary monster?

How am I going to explain this to his Sunday School teacher?

Freida

Email if you want her real name. :)

First, the only belly shot I've gotten from any one of my pregnancies:

I kept the image small since it's blurry. I was already hooked up to everything and had just gotten back from the bathroom. The angle of the shot is kind of strange, but my ankles were so swollen.

We started pitocin at 9 am after the usual battery of paper work. It wasn't doing much at all, getting me dilated to about a 4 after 6 hours (having come in at a 3). The dr came in to break my water. 30 mins later, I was at a 5-6, had barely gotten the epidural, and the dr decided to not go back to his office after all. 30 mins after that she was born. It was the lightest epidural I've had and therefore the most dramatic birth. The very worst of the pain was gone but I could still feel people touching my feet and temperature changes. I went from "holy cow, that pressure is intense...." to "I'm pushing and can't stop!" in about 10 hard contractions. It's the first time I havn't been able to control the pushing at all and hollered at the top of my lungs. She was crowning just as the dr ran in. They barely had time to take their places before her head was halfway out. The bed didn't even get taken apart before she was born. My nurse had just barely stepped out to use the bathroom and missed the whole thing.

Frieda was born at 4:06 weighing in at 8 pounds, 11 ounces and 21 inches long. She came out squalling and looking totally bewildered. She already has eyebrows and eyelashes and black fuzzy hair.

By the window. It wasn't direct light but those new eyes didn't like it.

One of my fav things about new borns: The faces they make.

Attempting to open the eyes and look outside.

Her hands are slightly foreground in these shots but they really are that large. She has fingers just like her dad and brother. I call them Gollum fingers, since they're so long and skinny.

Good news!

The nurse just called to say my blood work came back negative for pre-eclampsia. I had no idea that that's what they were looking for. Why? Because I've never had to deal with it before. She said that since it's negative that they're going to go ahead with the Friday induction. I said wow, what if it were positive? She said that they'd get me in much sooner than that. Sooner than 2 days? Yep.

So, in between keeping house for a few mins at a time, I watch movies and play on the computer. And wait. And pop an antacid. lol

On another happy note, I've been able to find all the child care I need for Friday and beyond. Woohoo!! It was a bit of a stretch, but thank heaven for kind people who've had babies.

Also, I've been looking into weight allowances for overseas travel. So far all I can find is that they transport the same amount overseas as on land, and for our family and pay grade we can take 8,000 pounds worth of stuff. Sound like a lot? I think when we moved out here we had under 5,000, but have since acquired some storage shelves, a large desk, upgraded our washer to a high efficiency unit, and Tag needs a larger bed here soon. My little guy is not so little any more. What do you cull first? Food storage or the shelves it goes on?

We have a lot we need to get rid of just because we don't use it any more because of redundancy. For example, Grandpa, a long time ago you recommended a submersible blender. Well, we took you up on the recommendation. We LOVE it and it replaces 3 other small appliances and does a better job than all three. No more lumpy gravy, it makes fantastic smoothies, makes egg wash in 2 seconds, and dozens of other things that come up in the kitchen.

::sigh:: I'm bored but anxious. Uncle J, any new games? My rice vocabulary waxes scintillating, by the way. :)

The movies you remember of yore

Yesterday I was so anxious and fretful that I went to Target to see what I could find in their under $10 movie section that would take my mind off of recent and forthcoming events. (why do I have hypertension? let me count the reasons...) To my surprise, there was a movie I loved as a young person, a movie oft-quoted and giggled over: Airplane! The "Don't call me Shirley" edition. I brought that and a couple others home (I'm calling this my "congrats for making it to the end of pregnancy #4" gift) but Man said that he'd heard some sketchy things about this movie. Bah! I said. It's just Airplane! A little light fun, stupid running gags, puns, etc. Something to make me laugh. Alright, he said. But, erm, let me know how it goes. He went off to do his homework, I settled down for a nice dose of nostalgia.

Well, let's just say that I'm now positive that I saw a TV edited version of this movie and I'm very glad the kids were in bed when I popped it in. It was rated PG on the back but there was very foul language, overtly sexual references, massive drug references, and even a couple of brief moments of anterior female nudity. It wasn't even that funny, really. No belly laughs at all.

Bah. Just as disappointing as watching Zorro: The Gay Blade all over again, remembering how dang funny it was only to get annoyed with it.

What movies have done this for you? Any really major let downs out there?

Fortunately I did pick up The Princess Bride which I HAVE seen and loved as an adult, as well as an Adam Sandler two pack -- 50 First Dates (which I LOVED) and Mr. Deeds (also hilarious).

We still quote Mr Deeds around here: Man can walk very quietly in his socked feet and has been known to make me jump by unintentionally sneaking up on me and then asking a question full voice. I yelp, and he says "ah, you underestimate the sneakiness." I swear, that Man needs a bell around his neck.

My Sweet Man

Poor Man. After night time false labor, he always wakes up a bit when I get up to make a bathroom run at night so he's getting about as much sleep as I am. He mentioned yesterday that today and tomorrow would be kind of bummer days to go into labor since they were basically going to play in class and enjoy the earnings of the store he started so many months ago. He's done taking care of the store for the rest of the time he's here but, even after buying gifts for their teachers, they still have a few hundred dollars leftover of pure profit with which they are going to throw themselves a nice class party.

I told him I'd keep that in mind. You know, so I could experience guilt if my water broke during his class party. ;) Just kidding.

So this morning he woke me up by kissing me all over my face (my all time fav way to greet the day, I must say) and then asked if I was in labor at all or if my water had broken, and was my cell phone charged. No, no, and yes, dear. Will I call if any of the above happens? Yes, dear, if any "hospitalness" happens I will call right away.

He was just so sweet and excited and in a good mood, looking forward to a new day and a new baby. It made it so much easier and enjoyable to crawl out of my warm covers and actually shower and dress before rousing kids for the school run.

Sooner than we thought

So I went to a dr appt today. Turns out even though I'm not dilating very much beyond what I've already done, I am experiencing gestational hypertension. So, we're inducing Friday. :)

Administrative garbage

There have been a lot of changes of command around post the past several months and as a result, things have stirred up a bit as all the different new commanders have each tried to make their numbers look good and to become popular. Some of their individual tactics have collided or otherwise backfired leaving the soldiers exhausted and angry. There's a massive tug of war between the actual Army aspect of things (PT scores, briefings, volunteer hours, ad infinitum) and the teachers who are also required to get results from these, our best and brightest minds.

Everyone is feeling stretched thin as punitive action after slap on the wrist get piled up on people just struggling to meet everyone's minimums, forget about exceeding any of them.

So Man's platoon sergeant ordered everyone to quit complaining. He said that sitting around talking badly about what's going on will only make everyone more angry and will spend what emotional energy they have left in pointless ways. Yes, things need to change and quickly before they have more than the average number of nervous breakdowns around post, but as Soldiers they have to be able to deal with a certain amount of pressure without it tearing them down.

So Man came home that day and said "you know, I'm so sorry I've been so negative about everything."

[double take] Eh? What brought that on?

He related the above order and said it got him thinking about the way he's expressed himself about every other job he's ever had, every college or U he's attended, every course of his life that hasn't gone as expected.

I've tried pointing it out before, you know, after I started to realize that my own frothing negativity was having less than happy effects on my poor family and friends. It took living this way, hearing that order, and whatever combination of events he couldn't possibly tell me about (you know the lovely subtleties of life we could never apprise our spouses of perfectly) to jog his understanding and realize what exactly attitude can do to a person.

Which is also a good refresher course for me, as well. I love talking to friend M and friend K who help me put things into positive, loving, practical perspective. Sister in law C also called the other day which was refreshing and delightful and positive.

I have actually typed up some very bitter posts lately but, thanks to their influence, had the perspective to say "is this really necessary?", give it up, and move on to funny kid stories instead.

Speaking of which, I was chatting with Tag yesterday. I don't even remember the topic but I asked him if he could pronounce a word correctly. He said "hmmmm, not necessarily."

lol Wow.

Then he asked "what does not necessarily mean?"

And having the kids question things like this tests my ability to define language, life, and perspective. "It means, it doesn't have to be that way."

"Oh, right, right, I got it." He's such a confident young man.

Button?

Miss Pebbles is experiencing a boom in her vocabulary. Just yesterday she started hollering about the "bacuum" that Princess was using in the living room (because, as every knows, "bacuuming" is a privilege, not a chore).

Before heading out to church I was doing the final kid roundup and found Pebbles laying down on her back on the rug in my room with an orange-sized ball stuffed under her shirt. She looked so peaceful and when she noticed me, her face took on an urgency that made me laugh and she softly but intently said "button!!", pointing to her stomach. Which is, of course, short for belly button. I just about fell over laughing at my little pretender.

Watching Pinky and the Brain the other day we caught Brain's Brain song (parts of the brain) and when he got to the dendrites Princess asked "are those synapses?" [double take] Erm, what? Grunt of protest from the girl, complete with eye roll. "Synapses, mom." What are they teaching you at kindergarten, child?

Tag moment... every moment is a Tag moment. He's so darn creative and perceptive and sweet. Nothing specific today, but we sure enjoy this child.

Makes me wonder how different, amazing, and enjoyable our littlest will be.

To do list:

1. Teach a class. (last class before maternity leave!)
2. Stop by post office.
3. Go do preregistration at the hospital.
4. Stop by Costco.
5. Take Tag to dentist.
6. Another 4 loads of laundry to fold.
7. Dinner?
8. Keep counting contractions (which have stopped being painful, but never actually stopped since yesterday afternoon)
9. Take a nap some time. Last night we were headed to bed at 9:30 (I know, super early but that's just what happens nowadays) when we heard a really loud beeping from our neighbor's house. They had just loaded the moving van yesterday and were staying in a hotel, so knocking on the door wasn't helping. Man called maint. who would "send someone out right away" but by 10:45 I was elbowing him to go crawl through that open window he found. 5 mins later, the batteries had been gutted from the offending smoke detector and we finally went to sleep. Today, am tired.

Dinner: chicken wings in crockpot, baked potatoes, breadmaker bread, salad.

More false labor

Another three hours of false labor and it's tapering off again. ::sigh:: Oh, well. 11 days until induction.

That means 9 days until Christmas!! Are you ready?

Today during the children's sharing time at church, the lady in charge was asking Christmas trivia questions and everyone was just giving her a huge hard time.

She asked us how many wise men there were. Someone said three, another kid said "actually, the Bible never said there were three... they just mentioned three kinds of gifts..."

Later she asked "what was Mary riding?" But the way she said it made it sound like "writing" and I, being a huge stinker and in the middle of my false labor, said "a novel?" (We just barely had NaNoWriMo, folks) Gosh, that's the most irreverent I've been in church since adolescence.

"Who turned them away at the inn?" Someone guessed "innkeeper?" and another kid said "but wait, don't you have to say his name?" I asked him if he knew the innkeeper's name. He said no but looked bothered that no one bothered to write down that innkeeper's name.

This same kid also struggled with the idea of immaculate conception and an older girl argued that Joseph shouldn't be called Jesus' father because he didn't contribute any genetic material -- he was just a father figure. Most of you know that my family has had some exposure to adoption, so I turned to her and kindly said "you know, an adoptive father is still a father, plain and simple." I'm no scholar, but Jesus may have been known for a time as Jesus bar Joseph, after his father. He took up his father's trade as carpenter until his ministry began. It's a very touching idea that he would have knowledge of his own destiny as Christ and yet he learned carpentry and respected his father and mother. Another interesting perspective is from the Forgotten Carols, a song wherein Joseph is said to have expressed his feelings thus: "I was not his father... he was mine."

So now it's safe to talk about....

All of the urban legends concerning labor induction at home!

Today we're term. So, yesterday, I did yard work and ran a bunch of errands. Then there was the Christmas party which woke Freida up and made her do the Foxtrot, upside down, on my tender stomach. We left early after I got sick of being in massive pain.

Today my friend reminded me that primrose oil has prostglandins in it and either ingested or applied directly to the area of concern can induce labor. Hmmmm.... one of Man's sergeants joked last night that if I happened to go into labor or deliver some time on Monday that Man could avoid a test and take a very extended Christmas break. No pressure.

Anyone hear of the Prego Pizza?

We tried a bunch of stuff when Princess had a hard time coming, including donuts in the stake center parking lot, swing dancing, long walks on uneven ground, Chinese food, Mexican food, driving over speed bumps, etc. Maybe we just had too much time on our hands.

The only sure way I've experienced induction was through pitocin which shall not be denied.

Man wants to rearrange the living room, too, so I'm thinking of helping him with that this weekend (being careful not to hurt myself, of course!!) and we're already thinking of ways to trim down our possessions for our puddle jump next year. So, I'm going to be doing some lifting to take care of a few things before postpartum recovery puts me in a chair for a month in earnest.

Now, before the comments section fills with helpful tips (which I'm looking forward to) remember that some of my lovely, more proper relatives read this blog, too, so keep it clean. ;)

Oh, by the way...

Last night, as Man and I snatched our 5 minutes of personal chat time before bed, he mentioned to me that induction is only 2 weeks away. As soon as he said that, it felt like my head imploded.

A: What???

M: Didn't you realize that?

A: Erm, no, um, yes but, wait, two weeks??? From tomorrow??

M: Yep. So, don't worry about her coming early or anything. Just take it easy the next couple of days and whatever happens, happens, and in two weeks she'll definitely be coming.

A: [head still imploding] But, I have stuff I need to get done, errands to run, shelves to clean off, what am I going to do??

M: [patting his crazy wife's shoulder] Put your feet up.

A: [going off on rant about no one else is going to do the dirty work for me, with school taking up so much of his time, etc, etc,]

M: You know, it's really ok. I'll help out where I can and we just won't worry about the rest.

A: [touched at his kind concern, but thinking he's out of his mind]

We finally said goodnight, falling asleep back to back since between his shoulder and my large stomach, cuddling has become increasingly difficult. He always falls asleep within one minute of his head hitting the pillow. I lay there, trying to mentally punch my head out back into place after that messy implosion.

Two weeks... why the heck is that so dang hard to process??

No baby yet

K has called to my attention the fact that, now that I've done the whole "I'm having false labor!" thing that it's a good idea to let y'all know whether or not baby has, in fact, been born.

Nope! Contractions every day, all of the associated crud of being in my final couple of weeks, but no baby. Tomorrow she'll be term. Tonight we have a Christmas party. Tomorrow we have another Christmas party. Today I have an appt, and I must make a dental appt for Tag whose trauma tooth is in fact changing color a few months after its one really rotten week. (anyone remember that? He creamed it twice within just a few days) Man told me to take it easy until baby comes and then I listed off all of the imperatives that absolutely must be accomplished over the next while until I do have the excuse of a newborn to keep me off my feet.

I'm thinking of treating myself to another season of Mythbusters that I can open when I come home from the hospital. Gotta do something with all of that getting-used-to-nursing-again time.

I'm getting into the really grumpy phase of things. I have boundless energy within this extremely tired, weighed-down, pain-ridden body of mine. I want to go crazy nesty all the while shouting "help! I'm bein' repressed!"

hm.... funny phrase to teach kids... sounds like a fun project. ;)

Animanaics

Having taken it easy today, we watched some Animaniacs (which my mom didn't let us watch as kids... oh, well. We can't all be as good as our parents) and I just adore this song.

Yakko's Universe.

Lyrics:

Yakko: Everybody lives on a street in a city

Or a village or a town for what it's worth.

And they're all inside a country which is part of a continent

That sits upon a planet known as Earth.

And the Earth is a ball full of oceans and some mountains

Which is out there spinning silently in space.

And living on that Earth are the plants and the animals

And also the entire human race.

It's a great big universe

And we're all really puny

We're just tiny little specks

About the size of Mickey Rooney.

It's big and black and inky

And we are small and dinky

It's a big universe and we're not.

And we're part of a vast interplanetary system

Stretching seven hundred billion miles long.

With nine planets and a sun; we think the Earth's the only one

That has life on it, although we could be wrong.

Across the interstellar voids are a billion asteroids

Including meteors and Halley's Comet too.

And there's over fifty moons floating out there like balloons

In a panoramic trillion-mile view.

And still it's all a speck amid a hundred billion stars

In a galaxy we call the Milky Way.

It's sixty thousand trillion miles from one end to the other

And still that's just a fraction of the way.

'Cause there's a hundred billion galaxies that stretch across the sky

Filled with constellations, planets, moons and stars.

And still the universe extends to a place that never ends

Which is maybe just inside a little jar!

Then there's The Parts of the Brain. Orson Welles singing a children's folk song? Hilarious.

And for persons like myself who are just absolutely terrible at geography, Wakko's State Song.

False labor

Ah, the joys of false labor. The dr says it thinned me out a bit but no more dilation. He doesn't want his patients walking around at more than a 4 though (I'm still @ 3). The good news is, we're one day closer to term.

And heck, something has to motivate me to shave my legs nowadays...

Insomnia

Have you ever gone to sleep, knowing something sigificant might happen tomorrow? You know, something inevidable but largely unscheduled?

Man and I crashed into bed around 10:15. It took me over an hour to go to sleep because of a feeling of anticipation, but by 1 I woke up with regular, painful contractions that hurt enough to keep this tired pregnant lady awake. So, I've had a bath, shaved my legs, pumiced my feet, made up the call list and child care instructions paper, all the while sipping water and am considering trying to sleep once more. Contractions are once again irregular but painful. Thank heaven for Tylenol and sheer exhaustion.

This baby is coming soon.

To do

My life has become one big to do list, "just in case". Yes, nesting again. I spent the morning picking up some misc errands only to come home to a neglected house. Of course that means it's nap time for everyone who takes naps. lol

Left to do: mail one small package, fold 4 large loads of laundry, clean up the kitchen, assemble and freeze garlic bread, run to the thrift store for a drop off, pack my own hospital bag (the baby's coming home bag is all ready to go), change everyone's sheets, sweep the whole house (which, of course, needs to happen every day anyway), and I'm sure a few other things I'm not recalling off the top of my head.

And, here I sit. Why? Because at Costco this morning I was almost certain I was going into labor. The contractions are getting pretty painful if no sitting happens for very long.

Anyone want to take bets on whether she'll be born this week or next? I'd prefer to wait until next week, since there are two Christmas parties I'd like to go to this Thursday and Friday. But then, I'm teaching a class on Monday the 17th, and I wouldn't mind having to call in a sub for that. It's a pretty fun class though -- acronyms and terms. Also, she'll be officially term this coming Friday which is sort of the goal. Thanks to K, though, for reassurances that nowadays 36 weeks isn't so unusual or anxious-making.

Dr's appt is tomorrow morning. I'm excited!

36 and counting

Yesterday marked 36 weeks gestation for little Freida. Just one more week until we have a full term little one. My Braxton Hicks contractions (fake, "practice" contractions) are getting more serious, I can feel her little head engaging, and now I'm washing little blankets and a small mountain of burp cloths in earnest. Thanks to friend E, I have a stash of newborn clothes for her to come home in. We're all getting the feeling that we need to wrap of various items of business pretty quickly, like getting registered at the hospital. In my defence, I just barely hit 36 weeks which is about the earliest they want you to get that stuff done.

I went to the dr this week to have my eye looked at again and part of the "since you were here and you happened to be pregnant" routine they wanted to do a Doppler of her heart. Two different nurses tried for 45 mins to find her heartbeat. They finally called someone up to get a better Doppler (no, this wasn't my OB's office) when the dr basically said "forget this", grabbed an ultrasound machine from the other room, found the heart in 1 second, and declared everyone safe and sound.

So my question is, why is it so dang easy for them to "just grab" an ultrasound machine from the next room rather than wait for a superior Doppler, but it takes weeks to schedule an ultrasound otherwise? I know, I know, the system has procedures it has to go through, protocols, formalities, proper channels. ::sigh:: Now I know why Tom Cruise bought his own darn ultrasound machine.

According to a previous ultrasound, if Freida kept up her track record of being about 3-4 weeks ahead of her due date, then I'm now waddling around with a 40 week-sized little person. A lady in the ward gave birth recently to a baby who was 10 pounds, 10 ounces and had a 16" circumference head. She blames junk food. Thank goodness for C-sections.

Anyway, I've gotten up to 45 on Free Rice. And yet I am well (quoth Benedic from Much Ado About Nothing).

Click to donate!

It's a phenomenon. I've seen these around for a few years, where you daily visit a website and click a button and some mysterious force will donate a penny or so to any given cause (pets, breast cancer, etc).

Wikipedia has an article on Click to Donate sites.

Google Click to Donate and you'll find many opportunities to do so.

The only problem is, it's boring to open a bookmark full of sites every day, click through them, making sure to get each and every one with the morning comics. And then, if you forget to do so, you feel bad, like you've cheated someone out of all of your little pennies that might have made a difference. What if you have slow internet? I don't want to load 100 sites a day just to donate pennies.

My Uncle J sent the perfect solution. FreeRice.com. It's a vocabulary game that increases vocabulary awareness and donates 20 grains of rice every time you get a word right. This gives you incentive to get a word right, since your score is basically how much rice you give away.

Now, how much is 20 grains? About 1/4 of a teaspoon. I havn't counted. But based on that assumption it'd take 192 right answers to make one cup of of rice, or approximately 3840 grains. In about 10 mins I've racked up 1060 grains of rice or just slightly more than 1/4 of a cup. I think I've gained more than 1/4 cup worth of vocab though. I'd say that this is worth a daily click just to get the brain juices going.

It also has a slight competitive aspect to it: different words are assigned to different levels, based on how many people get any given word right. On a scale of 1-50, people very rarely get higher than 48.

My highest level so far: 42. Which is, of course, the answer to life, the universe, and everything. I am content.

And no cheating. >:-( I've been tempted, but have yet to look anything up before making a semi-educated guess. Thanks, Mom, for all of that Latin and Greek! And Shakespeare!

Ack!

Just got back from the Dr appt. I'm 50% effaced and 3 cm dilated. He looked me in the eye and said he's pretty sure I won't be pregnant for 4 more weeks. I've been coughing like crazy, fighting this nasty cold, and I finally asked for an antibiotic today since it's so stubborn and I'm so sick of fighting it. And it's giving me a nice sinus infection to boot.

But ACK!!! Our due date was just some sort of nebulous "some day" event that I was carefully not thinking about so I wouldn't get all nesty and crazy. Forget about that sort of calm. I still need her to stay in there another week and a half so she's full term but after that... anything goes. My dr said if I get too dilated without any real action that it would be safer to induce so I don't give birth where I don't want to. Man has very strong feelings about making sure we're at the hospital with pain medicine, and a sterile environment and all that jazz.

Anyway, sorry if I alarmed anyone by posting the title and nothing else at first. I accidentally hit the "enter" button instead of tab.

Weekly update.

It seems like weekly updates lately! Oh, well, here's how the week went. (grumpy post)

Lil' Miss Pebbles got some shots a couple of weeks ago so last week her general irritation and fevers just seemed to be residual nastiness from those. The poor child hadn't had a well-child check up since she was 4 months old but I didn't remember the aftershock of immunizations being so difficult to deal with. Come to find out that, after teething so nicely for all of her other little pearly whites, her second year molars were playing merry heck with her ability to deal with life. She basically either cried or slept from last Wednesday until last night. I poured pain meds down her throat as I could since she refused to take them but we still managed to lose more sleep than we found. Last night she threw herself on the floor and just wailed for the 12 dozenth time so I left my almost-untouched dinner and went to the store to get some chewable pain meds. When I came home I told her I had some candy for her which she eagerly ate. 30 mins later she was tentatively smiling and showing interest in her own dinner. Relief! And now I will never go without a variety of pain-killing mediums ever again.

Looking forward to sleeping through the night, I lay my tired head down only to find myself groggily kissing Tag's ear because "a spider crawled into it and bit" him. Huh? Go back to bed kid. He's such a good boy and went back to bed but a few mins later I woke up to his pained wailing. He's usually pretty good about pain so I got up to see what was going on. His ear still hurt. Packed with wax. We went through about a quart of water trying to get anything out and did manage to get some results, but not before he was done with the whole operation. Great. More pain meds, sent him back to bed, but he was still up every 30-60 mins with pain or nightmares or being scared. This morning we get to wash it out until I'm satisfied that it's clean.

We had some friends over Saturday and they were kind enough to tolerate our crazy kids and we still managed to have some good fun and conversation. They're fellow Whose Line Is It Anyway fans, Man grilled, and I mostly stayed on the couch after enduring a lot of standing time at a community Christmas party earlier that same day, the redeeming coolness of said party being the three large bouncy structures they managed to fit into the community center ball room. It kept the kids busy while we caught up with friends and wore Tag down enough for a good nap.

Last night I tried ginger bread again with slightly better results. I used normal molasses this time but foolishly used a recipe that didn't call for salt and had too much baking soda in it. Oh, well. Third time's a charm and this last attempt was worlds better than the blackstrap nastiness from last time.

The only thing that has gotten me through this week has been a couple of phone conversations, especially my dear friend M who happened to phone right in the middle of a Pebbles melt down. Thank you, M! You were the high light of my week.

Now, off to clean out a Tag ear. Too bad I can't just take it off and send it in for a factory refurbishing. Or turn it inside out like a belly button.