Mary mary quite contrary how does your baby grow?

So today we finally were able to get all of the pictures that were needed of this stubborn child that I am carrying. Try number three and finally all heart, kidney, brain, spine, and face pictures for the anatomy profile are done. But it wasn't easy. Christy , the ultrasound tech, kept laughing because the child wiggled continuously through the scan. In other scans we couldn't get her to move for the life of us she was so snuggled into sleep and in this one she wiggled the whole time. The part that was funny was that she would give Christy the view that she needed only to squirm out of said position as soon as Christy tried to capture the image. She was doing these half rolls... and she did it four or five times. By the end Christy and I both agreed that I may just have my hands very very full when this child is born.
By the way.... she is still a girl. Like I told Christy, I don't care one way or the other really.... I just want a little bit of warning so that I don't decide that I can rely on the old stores of clothes only to find out that we will need to go shopping pronto for boys clothes on the day the kid is born. That would NOT be cool. Healthy is all I ask for... that and prior warning so that I don't have a boy in pink for the rest of his life. Because due to the info that we have received that this is a girl... there has been very little shopping done, as we have a lot of clothes... they are slightly off season... but we are hoping that there will be some overlap.
Also babe has moved from being transverse and is now frank breach. Frank Breach means that her little butt is down and her head is up. If they are breach this is the best position. Aidan was a footling breach and that is NOT a good position.. that means that one little foot is dangling ( double footling means that both are dangling) and that is a bad position to be in... though the worst of all is of course transverse which is ALWAYS a c-section. Not that it matters one little bit this babe will be delivered by c-section and I am not given any sort of option on that. Some docs do give you a choice... mine does not. But even the more liberal docs would probably have a few issues with me trying to have a VBAC as a diabetic so we will be scheduling a c-section and so be it.
We did a growth scan too today and we are currently at 1 lb 9 ounces. That is bigger than A was at this age but still well with in the parameters that they want to see for this child. Not too big not too small. My doc is very happy with how she is growing and her anatomy all looks totally normal and healthy. So over all we are VERY HAPPY!
The office has referred me for physical therapy for my back and it looks as if we might be able to get me in before the end of the week. That will be a much needed relief if it can take care of some of the pain that I have been having. I got a massage from my cousin on Monday and that helped considerably. How lucky am I to have a cousin who is a massage therapist? She couldn't do the full body work up because of pressure points that can cause labor in the legs and feet... but what she did do was pure Heaven. I am hoping that the combo of massage and physical therapy will get this back in better shape. Although I have been warned by several people that most likely I will not get relief until I deliver the baby. I am not looking for miracles but even a small amount of relief would be wonderful. I can hear all of you moms who suffered through back aches during pregnancy saying " whatever" as you roll your eyes... but the pinched nerve that we are talking about here is a pretty serious thing. My legs go numb or pins and needles all night long. I am having trouble lifting my legs in the evening high enough to walk on sometimes flat ground. I am having trouble getting myself into and out of chairs, and a walk across the floor in the late evening and night time sometimes seems impossible. We have a series of supports for me that will hold my weight from the bed to the bathroom so that I do not fall at night because my legs and hips literally cannot be trusted to keep me upright and support me. I have never felt so crippled in all my life. Carrying Ash is not a great help... but she is still so young and I have little choice in the matter. We can all just be grateful that the job of carrying her from my parents house back home is the last straw that (forgive the pun) breaks the camels back... and I am not required to do too much lifting of her once we get home.
I am gaining weight faster than I did with Ash... though I am still well with in the parameters the doc and dietitian set for me. The difference I think is that I am already retaining water with this one... I didn't start swelling with Ash until I was firmly into my third trimester. I have taken my wedding ring off already this time, after it got good and stuck. Dave helped me to get it off and has put it in a safe place. I was warned repeatedly with Ash that I was going to have to take that ring off but never actually did, and in fact wore it into the delivery room. My mind is continually boggled by how different these pregnancies are from each other. You would think if you have been pregnant once that you would have a good baseline for how your body deals with the hormones and such that wreak such complete havoc on your body. Instead in many ways this pregnancy seems as if it is a complete opposite. It would almost make sense if this were a boy instead of a girl. Then you could say yes well this is how it was with the girl now you are carrying a boy. But as we see this child more and more frequently we are reassured that we will be having another daughter and it seems so strange that it has such a drastically different effect on my body. Lets just be grateful that this is my last, as I have already signed the paperwork for my tubes to be tied.
Alright it is late and as I seem to be sleeping in shifts these days... I had better go and get a little bit of rest. Ash gets up awfully early and we are entering the allergy days.... That should make sleeping somewhat easier at least.

Are we Viable yet?

Why yes dear we have reached viability!!! That is to say newest baby H can live outside the womb if born now. And for the record our nephew Ethan proved it only a few short years ago. He will be two years old next week and he was born at 25 weeks and that is only a week further into pregnancy than we are. Now don't go getting all up in arms we are intending to much further... read much much much further... but I love having this milestone behind us.... I would no longer have to fight tooth and nail to get care if she is born... instead they will fight as hard as they can to save this baby should she make an unscheduled appearance. THAT is a relief, because as some of you know and many of you may not know... we had to fight like wildcats for the care that was offered to our little Aislynn. Several doctors tried to talk us out of the fight and only one neonatalogist in the entire hospital would take it on. Now that is not to say that the fight was entirely hopeless. As a matter of fact a baby that was several days younger than Aislynn's gestation actually survived about a year later. And is still doing fine as far as we all know. We had to struggle to keep a positive attitude while our oldest daughter struggled to live. Dave and I got to the point where we crept in and out of the NICU to see our daughter hoping not to see a doctor because they would come and dump a load of crap on us and we would be left shell shocked. I always countered by asking for the battles that she had won and digging into the numbers that were heading in the right direction. You see they were there and we would then get a list of accomplishments and victories... but we had to search them out and cling to the hope that they offered. On nurse turned to my mother in law after we had walked away and told her " They really are going to have to start being realistic about this" And I will forever be grateful for her response to him which was " They are being realistic... but they are looking for the good in the pile of bad that you offer them so that they can keep being hopeful also!" We knew that we were fighting an uphill battle and that it wouldn't be fun... but we also knew that as her parents we couldn't walk away with out giving our little girl a fighting chance. That is all here nor there however... because we don't have that fight anymore. This little girl has earned the right to a good fight!
Now that I am done bragging about how long I have been pregnant I have to say that my last blog entry was filled with a lot of activity... but none of it was really an update on the stinker that so many of you really want to hear about. And mind you that is not to say that she hasn't been busy making strides in becoming a person more than a baby. As a matter of fact I would go so far as to say that she is now officially all toddler and very little baby. She is a wonder and a marvel all rolled into one.
This weekend her cousin R came over and we spent all day on Sat shopping for shoes. Her gramps and gran got each girl a pair of sandals and a pair of Easter dress shoes to go with the dresses that Gran is making for each girl. ( I had to laugh when I mentioned that she would have to make three next year. Ha ha ha Another girl WOW) and Dave and I got each girl a pair of tennis shoes. At any rate so we were off and shopping and A worked so hard to keep up a conversation with R like a person does. Basically it consisted of A repeatedly saying R's name and then pointing at the things she knows the word for and saying it for R. I think that this was the first time that R really saw that A is a little person as opposed to this baby thing that everyone thinks is so cute. Though there is obviously a little bit more to go as later in the evening she wanted to dress A like she does her dolls... and when A was not so obliging as to sit still she kept asking me or Gran to " make her stay still so I can get this outfit on her" I had to laugh as I often myself wonder how to make her sit still so that I can get an outfit on her.
A has added to her vocabulary in leaps and bounds. Her new favorite is " Oh Well" Daddy thought that it was just hysterical the first time that he heard it out of her because it is such a mommy phrase. Oh well is my catch for everything. I get upset at Dave and there is no point in talking about it " Oh well" Juice gets spilled on the floor and A says "Uh Oh" Mom says " Oh well" It is my " whatever" though to be frank I use whatever also... I heard that one out of my niece a few weeks ago and it cracked me up. She sounded like a little adult, though I also realized that it isn't very nice to hear! At any rate A hears "Oh well" a lot because at her age there are a lot of " Uh Oh"s! It is my attempt to let her know that those little "uh Oh"s are never anything that she will be in trouble for. She picks up words so quickly that you have to be careful what you say around her because I expect that very soon now she will start picking up the words we don't want her to know. Dave and I are both potty mouths who let loose with those words with out much thought and in common every day conversation so we are trying to change that trend. The thing is that when A repeats a word she is so proud of it and we make over her like crazy. So we really don't want her to let loose with a big ole " S@*T" only to beam at us with expectation of praise. And Dave and I have a bad tendency of being so inappropriate at those moments that we really make things worse. We would probably laugh hysterically thus making it a really cool word to say again and again. OH WELL!
We have determined that our child has a mind of her own and will not be led in any direction that she does not want to go. She has definite likes and dislikes and she has a one tracked mind that drives an adult to distraction. Take for example she LOVES to brush her teeth. And now when we go into the bathroom she wants to brush her teeth. Pointing at her toothbrush and repeatedly saying "teeth". Now that doesn't seem like a bad thing... in fact even a good thing... except that she now goes to the bathroom with me every time that I have to go ( and i am pregnant I pee A LOT!!!) Even that isn't a bad thing, I mean some kids you can't even get to brush their teeth and ours wants to ten times a day. Well mom does have some control and we do it two or three times a day, the issue comes in that there is no off button to let her know that it is time to STOP brushing her teeth. If we allow it 15 minutes later she would still be brushing... and once she has started it causes a slight fit to stop. We have gotten REALLY good at distraction. As a matter of fact we often tag team. " Go show daddy how clean your teeth are" while from the living room " A come show me how clean your teeth are. Are they white." Or dad will come in with her coat to go bye bye a couple of minutes after we start. Distraction is our greatest tool.
She has begun noticing and being distraught about changes in the house too. When Dad put up the screen for the projector for movie night that caused her distress.... and when it came down that distress came back. We got a new shower curtain this week and that was a new and distressing change all over again. And while she has noticed changes of this nature for several months she is just now starting to realize that she can use words to verbalize these issues. "Uh Oh" she says in a worried tone pointing until we explain that it is okay.
We got a Sesame street video for her on Friday and she is entranced. As I write she is watching said DVD ( the second time today, twice yesterday, and once on Friday) She has learned the words grouch and poof and points out kitty and elmo and abby. She is CRAZY about it. Dave and I haven't really used TV much in her life and we both feel strongly about using it sparingly.... but both of us LOVE watching her watch this thing. She is so into it... and she keeps a running commentary on who is on the screen and what is going on.
Alright I have to go.... my little one is looking for Mommy to cuddle her on the chair while she watches her show.... She was a bit spoiled when she was sick... and mommy sat on the couch with her ALL day long.... And well being as I am not allowed to do too much, and in a few short months mommy will have to be shared I am not in any rush to unspoil her. Besides as I was telling Dave earlier today when two hours into her nap you are getting excited that she will be waking up soon and you can spend more time with her.... you know you are addicted to your child. I would say that I am an addict and all I can say to that state of affairs is "OH WELL"

Our not so uneventful week

Holy Moly has this been a busy week. Last week this time I told you about my little one who had a touch of the flu.... oh how innocent I was complaining about the slightly fussy little girl with a bit of stomach upset... because the Fates decided to show me just what a sick baby is. At four thirty Sunday morning Dave and I awoke to our pretty little princess puking all over us... followed shortly by her puking all over us again. It was upsetting to her and she cried afterward which prompted mommy to comfort rather than focus on cleaning as Daddy had somehow fallen back asleep. ( I know right) In all fairness Daddy had injured himself the night before in a stupid wrestling match with his friend and had unknown to him at that point separated his shoulder so we have to give him a break. Once the babe was sufficiently comforted I had to focus on getting us cleaned up. Unfortunately my dear child had had a meal of salmon the night before and let me just say it was not the most pleasant of messes I have ever had to deal with. So fifteen or so minutes later Mom and A were cleaned up and in the living room. I was about to focus on getting Dad up and cleaning the bed room when there was an ominous sound from the direction of A's diaper. He he he she giggles "stinker" Yeah I just bet... and sure enough the mess in that diaper was colossal and guess what... she needed another change in clothes... even though I caught it as soon as it had happened. So off come the clothes and soiled diaper and on goes another diaper and another set clothes. I then got into the bedroom where Dad needed full an awful lot of help to get off of the bed. After the ten minutes of work to get Dad off of the bed I realized that there was another change of both diaper and clothes needed. Damn. With that done I stripped the bed while Dad helped her out with some pedialyte and toast as she was asking for juice and eat. I came into the room and sat down just in time to realize that she was once again puking and in a desperate and perhaps misguided attempt to keep her outfit clean I tried to catch it with my hands. I did a pretty good job, but seriously, GROSS. The outfit had to be changed anyways. So I changed the outfit... and then the diaper again... and it was quiet for about 15 minutes. When I got to go through the entire cycle again. Although eventually out of sheer lack of clothing I no longer changed the outfit just the diaper. Finally around ten in the morning there was a bit of a lull... and she fell into a fitfull sleep on me on the couch. We had been sitting on the couch reading book after book after book and then doing it all over again for several hours when she finally thought about nursing and asked for it. That put her out like a light. And why wouldn't it: a warm lap, her blanky, her bear, and mom's breast sound like the perfect comfort combo. So out she went for about and hour while Dave ran to the laundromat to clean the sheets, and then to the store to get the needed sick items like Popsicles and jello. She woke up as he came in and we tentatively tried some of the items Daddy had gotten for her. Alleluia she kept it down.. but the every fifteen minute cycle on the diapers kept up as did the activity of lap sitting cuddling and reading. Later at about 2:30 Mom, Dad, and baby all went and laid down on the freshly laundered sheets and took a two or three hour nap. THAT was blissful as we had all been up since 4:30 and needed it! When we got up at five that fifteen minute cycle kept up ( and indeed did so through Monday) But the real crisis seemed like it was past. The lap sitting and reading was the activity all through the night... until Dad went to a friends house and got his projector and screen... at which point the activity turned to lap sitting and watching movies and continued until she went to sleep at nine. By Monday she seemed mostly better. However on Friday night I opened a 57 pack of diapers and on Monday they were replaced because we were out. She also blew ( Pun intended) through two full packs of diaper wipes. By Tuesday mom was willing to throw a party for a normal poopy diaper... though we did not see it happen really until Thursday.
On Monday Dave went to work and said he had injured himself and could not lift... they said uh no and sent him to the doc... where x-rays were done and it was determined that he had separated his shoulder. So they sent him home with a prescription of pain relievers and muscle relaxers and had him off work until they looked at him again on Thursday. The pain relievers and muscle relaxers did a lot for toning down his language and made him less of a bear to live with... and I have survived him quitting smoking twenty times so you know it was bad! On Thursday they gave him Friday off and said that he could return to work on Monday. Not a great situation as he does not get any paid time off or sick leave. So we will suck it up and deal with it... I guess that Peanut butter and Jelly is on the menu for the month of April.
I was very very glad to have him home on Tuesday night because during a time when he is normally gone a really bad storm hit us. The wind sounded like a train and though it was not a tornado it was a little scary... especially as we do not have a basement. There was a terrible crash sound that shook our whole house... and knocked things off of shelves in the kitchen. At first we had no idea what it was and as that was the only sound we went on our merry way... until about an hour and a half later I started hearing sounds that made me think the shower was on... only Dave had run to the grocery store... and the baby was sleeping. It seemed to be coming from the bedroom so I toddled off to the bedroom to discover that the shower was in our bedroom... and it was in several different places at once. SHIT. So I called Dave and told him to get his ass home fast because our entire bedroom was leaking and it was doing so on our fairly new bed! Dave and my dad investigated and realized that the boom and crash that we had heard was our roof being lifted off by the wind... YES LIFTED OFF. And all of the rain that had happened and was still happening was coming into our BEDROOM... and worse yet ONTO our NEW BED the one our daughter was currently sleeping on!( oh and all over our clothes in the closet and all over the floor and all over the well you get the point) Even worse this was not a drip, this was not even a drizzle, this was a stream and it wasn't getting any smaller it was getting bigger and worse it was happening in a new place by the second. So Dave and my Dad muscled the roof back into place and put sandbags and a few heavy objects on it to keep it down until something more permanent could be done as it was at this point midnight. Dave came in and put the bed on its side so that the least amount of damage could continue to be done... and Ash and I packed up to go sleep on my parents couch while Dave slept on our couch. It was the least restful night of sleep I have had since I brought Ash back home from the hospital, but at least then I had a beautiful new daughter to console me. Dave has spent the last three days running to the laundromat with loads of clothes... and we have been trying to clean up the mess. But there is a rather funky fish gone bad smell that is taking over the bedroom... so we still have some work cut out for us. The bed dried up... and we are hoping that we will not have to replace it as we don't have renters insurance. So we are keeping an eagle eye on the areas that were really damp... and hoping that no mildew pops up. I am hoping that the sandpaper throat that I have is not a result of the mildew... and I am also hoping that I am the only one feeling it!
So you wonder why the hell was Dave doing all of this injured as he is... and the thing is that not only am I pregnant... but that I myself am dealing with a back issue that has me gritting my teeth and losing sleep at night. I have a pinched nerve in my back and this last week the doc gave me Tylenol with codeine for the pain and is looking for a place to send me for physical therapy. By the end of an uneventful day I am swollen from the hips down... but also I get to the point where I can hardly lift my leg and often end up tripping over flat ground due to my toes dragging when I walk. The right leg also gets either numb or pins and needles depending on the night and how active I have been. So I have been on the injured list myself this week. In fact the only one of us who doesn't seem to be is the baby that I am carrying right now. Oddly enough even with losing the pay from Dave being out of work... this has been a week where having him home has been a blessing. Thank God he had pain pills is all I can say... because I think that with the roof and the laundry he has worked harder at home than he would have at work. And one thing is certain around here ... when it rains it pours! in our case literally and onto our bed.

Alright alright this may be a bit overdue... as I did have an ultrasound on TUESDAY. This however is only Friday. It could be worse. Trust me it could be a lot worse. We are still dealing with the daylights savings induced sleep shake-up here in this household. Not to mention both myself and Ash had the flu all day today. Not one of our best days... although in all fairness, A is dealing with her issues with remarkable aplomb, it is MOMMY who has had the worst day ever. But then it is mommy who stays up to make sure that someone greets Daddy at the end of a long evening at work... and mommy who stays up with him for a little bit of adult time while he is winding down from work. It is also however mommy who wakes up with the baby in the morning. So I stayed up until 1:30 with my husband and got up at 6:30 with my daughter. My husband however slept until 10:15 AM and my daughter went down at 9:30 PM. This is the standard course for my days and I am starting to think as we progress further into this pregnancy that Dave my just have to deal with the household being asleep when he gets home. He doesn't like coming home to a quiet house... but as he is not willing to let me be the parent who sleeps in EVER, he may just have to deal with it.
So as I was saying A and I have both been struck with the flu and that makes for a somewhat miserable household. Especially as mom doesn't have the patience for just about anything and A is somewhat fussy because she feels bad too. Dave who wasn't sick left early for work... and I guess you can't blame him really... and because he was little help around the house and kept making comments as to my ability of surviving this illness in tones that I found offensive, I was frankly happy to see him go. At least with him gone I was just sick and dealing with a sick child... as opposed to sick and dealing with a sick child while also dealing with attitude. Honestly I don't know if it is all men or just mine, but there are days.
Ash has been steadily picking up new and different words. Today she used the word pinky. Yeah where did that one come from right... but I have been singing the " where is Thumbkin" song with her for a couple of weeks and apparently she has a liking for that particular finger. She also has mastered the use of Me and Mine. She really does use them correctly too. I don't know if it is because we always talk to her like she is an adult... and as I am home with her we talk to each other all day long. Or if she really is just the smartest kid ever. She has an alarming tendency of getting into the refrigerator when you open the door. This can be a bit of a pain as she is not so willing to move once she situates herself inside the door and starts pulling out that condiments. ( we currently are still looking for the cocktail sauce... it disappeared a couple of days ago) Apparently she has been ushered away from the refrigerator with "no no no" enough times that it has made a bit of an impression because the other day as I was drawing up my insulin she saw that I had left the door ajar and she toddled over saying " no no no" and closed the refrigerator door. All I could do was laugh. Now if we can just get the point across that SHE is the one that shouldn't be in the refrigerator. She also has decided that she likes to be chased. So she will take something that she knows that she shouldn't have and wait until I notice and then start running with a squeal. If I do not immediately start the chase she will stop and look at me for a moment and start off again. If she looses you from her line of sight she will come back until she sees you again and off she will go with a squeal. She is quite persistent and will continue until you do actually chase her. As I get bigger this seems like a less and less agreeable pass time for me... but it doesn't matter The Child Wants To Be Chased! and will stand for nothing less than a good chase. Luckily she is 1. easily tired out ( though not as easily as mom ) and 2. Easily distracted. As the weather has been so nice this week I have taken her outside to play several times. Which has made quite an impression because now every time that Dave goes out for a smoke she wants to go "side" with him. She does not take nicely to him turning her down! She has also spent the last few weeks perfecting the art of feeding herself. I don't know whose idea it was that a child younger than the age of six should feed themselves... but it is a bad idea. We are talking food in the hair and eyebrows floor to ceiling and everything in between. She has been intermittently feeding herself along the way, but it has only been the last few weeks that the idea of being fed by myself is truly offensive. The same is starting to happen with baby food. She sees what we are eating and wonders if we are crazy when we offer her the mush. So we offer it every now and then when the food we are eating is entirely inappropriate and the rest of the time she chows down on what we have. She LOVES asparagus, Brussels sprouts and cabbage. Yeah who would have thought? She also is a serious fan of salami and bologna. As a matter of fact bologna is one of her new words this week. She also has found that she can do two things that seriously alarm mommy. The first of which... she managed to stand up in her high chair despite the belt and the tray. We haven't been using the five point harness that ours comes equipt with... but it about time to start. Also her new way of telling us that she is hungry is to ummmm climb into the highchair and sit down she then looks at you and says "Eat" She has also climbed over the arm of the rocking chair into the rocking chair ( with out falling) and has taken to trying to climb up the book shelf from the couch. As this puts her significantly higher than any other climbing feat that she has attempted it takes my breath away. She is a climbing fool. When I pull her down Dave will say " you can't change the kid's nature just let her climb." I however don't want to visit the ER for a tumble so I am constantly chasing and saving the child from herself. Lord only knows what she will come up with next.
So we had another chance to see babe number two this week. Dave and the babe stayed home so it was just mommy. This was the heart study and there were also parts of the anatomy that couldn't be seen because of her positioning last time. Well we once again were in that room for an hour trying to get her to move... and once again we walked out with half of the pictures. I have to go back again in two weeks to see if we can get a better view. This kid is STUBBORN! She was obliging enough to show us again that she is indeed a girl. The ultrasound tech said that their group had not been wrong in the entire time that she had worked there... and that is a considerable amount of time... so I am betting that this is indeed a girl. She is still laying transverse on her left side. She is also a serious snuggler. She burrows into me when they try to look and everyone has remarked on what a cuddler this one is bound to be because of it. She is REALLY active right now. I guess it is the way that she is laying but I would swear that there are two in there. I have NEVER said that with any of my other children. I have gotten to the point of feeling the kicks and pushes with 4 of them and this one is BY FAR the most active. That scares me just a little. Because A was no where NEAR this active... and she is really hard to keep up with at the best of times. I guess we will just have to wait and see what this one will be like. That is not such an easy task. She is growing just the way that we want her too and over all the docs are extremely happy with how she is doing. I have developed an allergy to the Evil shot. It is very necessary so I am just taking Benedryl and we are watching it closely for right now. You may remember from the last pregnancy that it is a very viscous liquid and that it is put in over a long period of time. Now I end up with a huge itchy welt that lasts for about a week and a half. Doc has said that it would probably be best if this were my last. Dave and I had already decided to get my tubes tied... but as I am having problems with the shot this time... we don't want to push it.
Over all this has been an uneventful pregnancy. I have come to terms with the fact that I am not so very fond of pregnancy that it breaks my heart that this will be my last. As a matter of fact as I move through this pregnancy I am aware that I am ambivalent about the pregnancy. With A I was so excited about every little thing... even the discomforts. This time however I am not charmed by those discomforts. Instead I am put out by them and tired of them already. The other thing is that those discomforts seem to be showing up earlier in this pregnancy. My feet already swell to Grapefruit size. I didn't see that happen until 28 or 29 weeks with A. My back is constantly hurting and there is a nerve in my back that gets pinched constantly. And while I am not at that point where I just want it over yet I am certainly not singing through the pain like I was last time. But hey we have less time to go than we have already gone... so bring it on!!!

Daylights Savings SCREW YOU!

Jeez it has been a bit I guess... but in my defense the other mom blogs that I follow are just as lax in updates as I am. Is that an excuse, not really, although it may be a bit of validation. It is difficult sometimes to steal a minute... and Daylights savings did a number on this household. It is still extremely questionable how our bedtime routine is going to work out. Sunday night we had screaming for an hour, followed by a fairly peaceful slumber. Monday night we had an easy down at about a half an hour after "Normal" time and then she woke up at three o'clock in the morning and was up for a half an hour screeching followed by another hour or so playing next to me in bed. As long as I didn't try to make her lay down I was safe. Tuesday night I gave up trying to get her to bed and let her get up to play after I had been at it for an hour and a half... She was then up until 12:30 and slept until after 10. Last night she must have been exhausted from the nights before because she asked to go night night at 9:15 and was soundly asleep by 9:30. ( I know, but I wasn't going to ask questions I snatched that up with a smile!) She did however wake up this morning before 8. But as this is the schedule that we had before the stupid time change I wasn't complaining too loudly. My only fear is that last night was too good to be true and there is some evil plan in the works for tonight.
It truly puts me out when she is so unwilling to go to bed at night. You see as a full-time mom my whole day revolves around my child and I am willing to go with that. After all I have made this choice and we have made a lot of sacrifices so that I can live this way. But as this is my "job" I get little help from Dave. I have given up on asking for it... and I have come to realize that when he does help we are usually at odds about that help. For some of those things I can afford to be laid back... some things I cannot. When he hands the child a baby carrot and turns back to his computer I have to intercede. When he puts diapers on so that they nearly fall off and leak I have to intercede. Perhaps it is done on purpose so that I will quit asking for help. Whether or not that is the case, that has been the outcome. Now before you go thinking that is a conspiracy theory on my part, let me just say that I actually read that diaper bit on a blog written by a daddy the other day as a suggestion to daddies who wanted to get out of diaper duty. I was shocked appalled and dismayed to put it lightly. I would never have dreamed that the loose leaky diapers might be ON PURPOSE. Blame it on my naivete I suppose. At any rate, that time after my daughter goes to bed and before I do has come to mean the world to me. Especially since nap time usually is nap time for mommy too. This pregnancy wipes me out and I cannot be the mommy that my daughter needs me to be in the afternoon if I don't take a snooze with her. So when A stubbornly refuses to go to sleep at night and infringes on my time I get cranky. Before too much longer it will go back to mommy not having ANY time again and I want to enjoy what I can while I can. Combine that with lack of sleep on the part of many parties in the household and um... well lets just say we have been testy around here.
Please don't think that it has all been crankiness and sleepless nights around here. Quite the contrary our days are still filled with laughs and love, they just have to share space with crankiness this week. I guess it isn't all daylights savings either.... A is teething. Bringing in four at a time again. Teething always disrupts our schedule so you add that and the full moon this week.... any body think of anything else that I can blame it on... oh yeah and I seem to have stomach flu that won't let me go so you do the math on all that and it becomes a bit of a mess here.
Still in and amongst all of these troubling issues in the house.... Ash learns a new word every single day... sometimes several and uses them. She now adds "see ya later" to her bye bye and she says "bouncy bouncy" while she bounces on the couch. She also will freely call anybody a stinker. She is a stinker of the highest degree. She will tell you if she needs her butt changed and will lay herself down for it. She will also tell you if she wants to go Night night if I am not moving in that direction fast enough. She has been saying drink forever but now has added a few things to that, now she will tell you if she wants water or juice. And if I tell her the glass is empty she will point to the kitchen and say " More"
She also now will pull out clothes ( clean, dirty, it doesn't matter to her) and dress herself. She doesn't care if she already has clothes on and she is not terribly concerned with whether they are on correctly. She walked around all day yesterday with a Pajama top around her waist like a skirt. The day before she had a dress on over her outfit she couldn't get her arms in so it hung around her neck and shoulders (inside out) like a preppy wears an oxford sweater. I am not allowed to correct the clothing issue. And really who wants to. It is really cute and we aren't going anywhere. Today for a good half of the day she wore one sock over the footie of her sleeper nightie. Add all that to the fact that she will wear any loose shoe she finds around the house and you have quite a little card. I will say that for all of that cuteness I have yet to get a good picture of it and I apologize profusely for that failing. I have no excuse...
She also has become quite the computer expert. We got a computer program for her for Valentines that plays with her and shows colors and numbers and other concepts. It rewards her everytime that she touches the key board or clicks the mouse. It took a bit for her to warm up to it but now that she has we are constantly being nagged about her playing with Bear Bear ( the program has a bear to help narrate and navigate) As it was only downloaded to my computer ( daddy is no dummy) I am the one who has to make way for the kiddo to share my computer. On tuesday she played Bear bear the entire time that I was gone for my doctors appointment and a trip to the grocery store after. Dave swears that every time he tried to take her away from it she had a tantrum...
Which brings us to a new and constantly interesting development. She has tantrums. As of yet they are not the kicking and screaming variety but they are something to see none the less. Still Mommy is not a whining or tantrum fan so we are real big on ignoring and not giving in to said tantrums. She has a beaut of a temper though... and it will be something to watch that progress with time. I won't lie to you the challenge of fostering that budding independence while still nurturing and ensuring that constant knowledge of mommy's love is tougher everyday. She gets frustrated easily and while I want to be sure that I make everything okay for her... but I know that part of being a good mommy is to let her figure it out for herself. The funny thing is that three or four months ago she had a lot more patience. When she was a little younger she would sit with a puzzle of some sort for as long as it took to figure it out. Now after a minute or two she will look at me and scream with frustration. She has also taken on this fake cry that is enough to make you laugh outloud at her. Which is what most of us tend to do... and for the record that does not amuse her highness. Nor for that matter does waiting for anything that she has asked for. When she wants, she wants it NOW!
Speaking of now... I have been stealing the time to write and my time is up... someone wants me to read a story and I think I had better get going... or I will be sorry. I don't have time to post photos with this one... but I will be sure to post double with the next. I Promise... yeah yeah yeah you have all heard it all before... but I am doing the best that I can!!!! Really though there is a nuclear explosion that I need to avert! If I haven't blogged in two weeks someone please send a team in to look for me.

I guess that it has been about a week again since the last time I blogged for y'all. I would like to say that it is because I am busy with huge life altering issues that keeps me from writing... but the truth is that I am busy with Facebook and Mafia Wars, either that of reading. I have just finished the second book in a fantasy trilogy that is rocking my world. I am loving it!!! So much so that last night as I was finishing it I was saying things out loud like " I knew that Lemuel was Tris's Grandfather I just knew it... that is why he is so powerful." and Gasping " Oh NO!" with dismay as I was finishing up. At first Dave was concerned.... then he thought it was hilarious. It is taking me longer to devour books now that A keeps me busy, so that 600 page book took nearly four days.... but it was worth every second. It does however cut into the free time that I used to use for my blog. I apologize profusely... but as soon as I get the third book in that series I can guarantee that I will abandon you again.
Not to mention... there really isn't anything exciting with my pregnancy lately. I go see the Doc every week and I get the evil shot. The cerclage is holding and all is well. Having gone through it all with A's pregnancy it seems a little old hat and I am not sure that you really need a day to day blow by blow account of it all. Our newest little girl likes to party when I want to sleep and kicks her sister back when she elbows her. ( I am going to have to break the climb all over mommy's tummy habit soon I am afraid.) But baby and mom are fine. We have passed the point in Aidan's pregnancy where I went into the hospital. And in a few short days we will pass the point where he was born. The week after that we will pass the point when I went into the hospital with Aislynn and then a week after that the week that she was born... and 3 days after that we will hit VIABILITY. So we are chugging right along.
I am HUGE this time. If your first full term pregnancy has you feeling like a whale at the end... your second ( and I am sure subsequent ) pregnancy(ies) makes you feel like a whale at 5 months pregnant. The kiddo is laying Transverse which means that her head is at one hip and her feet and butt at the other... In other words she is lying sideways inside of me. Doc and midwife chuckled and said that is uncomfortable for mom because it hurts the hips. I have been complaining about my hips for weeks and they have just been saying that the second one is harder on those joints. But now there is a definitive reason why my hips feel like some one is pushing down with one hand on each hip... there is someone doing that. She is 9 ounces and that is bigger than any of the others at this point in pregnancy. Go ahead and say it " its only 9 ounces pushing on those hips for crying out loud!" I know I know.... sigh. I will stop complaining about it now I promise! But for the record MY HIPS HURT!!!! Her heartbeat stays in the 150s to 160s. Which is an extremely presentable heartbeat for a kiddo her age. As to names we have a good one... but we are still thinking it through. We will let you know closer to time.
A is a mile a minute. Her cousin R came over for the weekend... and they had a ton of fun. She LOVES her cousin. She has been talking endlessly about her since she left. I know this because in the babble of incoherent words ( Which I am certain have meaning) you can catch R's name pretty frequently. A's bum is better. Mom has been extremely vigilant about changing... and it has paid off. The best part is that now if I tell her that I am going to change her butt... she will say butt... and then say Lie down... and then she will do so. Easy as pie... of course every now and then she gets a mind to run off and i have to chase her down. All I can say is it is a good thing that my legs are longer because she moves faster than I do now. Combine her new speed with my slowing down with pregnancy and there is a problem. She also has started walking over to Gramps and Grans and out to the car by herself, rather than my carrying her. That is wonderful because she is considerably bigger than my weight restriction and we have just been making do. I still carry her when it is dark or there is snow or ice on the ground. She loves the freedom of walking by herself... and gets pissed at me when I stop her from wondering away from the plotted course... but that is what mommies are for! Speaking of that Independence ummmm she is taking it to a new level. She also is taking frustration to a new level when things don't work out quite right. She is a little firecracker right now. Keeps everyone on their toes. She also has a mind of her own... what gave her the idea that that was okay I don't know. So the day moves forward with little explosions that break up the monotony every now and then. Who would have though that it could get more fun.
She also has made up her mind that she wants what we are eating ALWAYS. So Dave and I are having to dairy free our diet. It feels cruel to say no no no you can't have this. It is probably for the best. She has taken to walking around in other peoples shoes. She is always wearing daddy's or mommy's shoes around. Though we have to be careful with Daddy's boots... they are REALLY big and they are a little dangerous because of how big they are. But she loves it. She also plays like she is going bye bye all the time now. She will pull on a discarded sweater of mine or a tee-shirt of dads sling a "purse" over her shoulder and wave bye bye. She gets to the door but then doesn't really know what to do from there. So she comes back and goes bye bye again. If she is really lucky she can complete her ensemble with my sunglasses and looks tres chic.
I am still nursing her. I was told that I needed to wean by now... but it means a lot to both A and myself. There is no visible problems caused by it so we nurse at nap and nite nite time. She seems to get comfort from it. And I can't steal that comfort from her. Some day I am sure I will have to limit it, but for right now she is still young. I have to go though as my daughter is wanting time mommy and this is not time with mommy. So duty calls. I will of course keep you updated as we go.