And I was doing so good.....

Well, my blogging every day in December kinda hit a rough spot, lol. I've been a little busy and a lot of not feeling good and that's about my excuse for it. Let's see if I can catch you up.......shopping. Lots and lots of Christmas shopping. The kids have had a tough year as far as behavior goes and we've been telling them all year that they are only getting clothes for Christmas. We stuck to that. However, Santa is bringing them each two toy gifts and a book (plus stocking stuff, of course). We went shopping three days last week, but are finally done!! Now for the wrapping..... which ought to be interesting since they are home from school until Christmas day. I'll have to do it late at night, which is also not easy since my youngest is a night owl and my new medication makes me dopey.

Ahhhh, my new medication. Let's talk about that. I had a horribly, unbearably, itchy rash show up Monday evening. I tried every conventional, and not so conventional, method you could think of or that was suggested to help quell the itching. Yuck yuck. I mean to say that it itches so bad that it actually hurts. I was resulting to taking hot showers because the pain was so much more easy to tolerate than the itching. I saw the OB on Thursday for my normal appt and he took a look and said that it looked like contact dermatitis. I was prescribed a strong antihistamine, which did very little for me. I should clarify. When prescribing the meds, the Dr said I should take it only when I needed it since it was a strong med and nothing is safe during pregnancy. I was taking it once a night when the symptoms were the worst and getting ZERO relief. I called him again on Saturday. He said he was stumped as we talked about me and my families routines and hygiene care. I was then advised to take the meds every 6hrs. I'm pretty sure this is because we do not want to risk secondary infection from the itching (which is so bad I do it in my sleep). He said he would do some research and talk to some other OBs and see what he could come up with. He called me back and told me he was pretty sure I have PUPPS. After looking the info up (wikipedia.org had the most info), I agree. All the symptoms are there, except it started on my legs and is climbing up my body. I have a severe case of it. He also prescribed me a steroid pill but I'm a little hesitant to start it. I might give them a call in the morning (as I sit here squirming and itching even on my meds, ugh). Oh, did I mention that the cure for PUPPS is delivery? Not that it's life or death and I need to deliver now, it's that it won't stop until she is born. I knew she was stubborn, but come on! lol

On other news, we put up our tree!! I'd like to say it was a joyous occasion, but I'd like to say that every year and do not. It's normally very chaotic and frenzied and the kids are usually a little too hectic for the adults to enjoy the moment. Matt thinks it's a race, which is fun, and everyone else always gets ahead of their age limits, lol. However, we made it through and it doesn't look half bad. Here are a few pics of the kids doing their thing. I'm gonna clean up the living room and put down the tree skirt and what little presents are wrapped, then I'll take a better pic to post.

Then there's the fun stuff..... contractions! Not BH, but real contractions. People often make the mistake of thinking that I don't know what they feel like since I've had all csections. WRONG! I go into labor and experience some variation of real contractions with every child. I had some back contractions before 20wks, which was scary. The good news is that I know how to stop them and I was pretty much just stressed and not drinking enough water. It's easy to get caught up in life, ya know? lol Anyhow, these are contractions right up front. Not regular enough to cause too much concern, but every day since Sunday there is a period each day that I have at least 4-10 of them fairly close together. Makes for a cranky and uncomfortable me. I will have to mention this next time I go in.

And the best news.......drum roll, please........February 15th is Dday!! We are scheduled for surgery at 8am. So, I have put myself on restricted duty so that she doesn't come early. I went from wanting her to come early to really praying that she doesn't in a matter of a few days. Funny thing, now that we have the day planned, I really don't want to worry about it being any earlier. I suppose we will adapt whatever happens. lol
Anyhow, that's all for now. I will make sure to post tomorrow as it is laundry soap day!! I have all the supplies for making homemade laundry soap and am dying to try this (plus we are all out of clean clothes!). Also, tomorrow is our church Christmas pageant, so hopefully I will have some cute pics from that. Happy Holidays to all!!

Christmas Pageant

The kids had their annual Christmas Pageant at school tonight. They were all so cute. Although Logan didn't smile; he said he was nervous. I feel his pain. I always suffered stage fright. Still, we got there early enough for a decent parking spot and a good seat. Those chairs were just horrible, though!! I swear, hubby and I left there in so much pain. I'll tell you, it wasn't easy dragging ourselves out there in 16degree weather, lol. Taking pics while having a 3yo crawl all over you and sitting behind a row of teenagers is NOT easy. lol

I think I've got it!!

I did it! I did it! I finished the newborn sock I was working on. Thank you so much to the girls at Ravelry and a wonderful tutorial on how to make socks, I got the kinks worked out. It's not perfect, but I made it with my own two hands and I am very proud! Other than that, it's been a sick day for me. Contractions started yesterday and while they are irregular and unproductive, they are yucky and uncomfortable nonetheless. I have pretty much just hung out and knit and did homework. I did manage a load of dishes with dinner tonight, so that's something. The nice thing is that I am finally starting to feel better, although very worn out. I'm going to be calling it a night here very, very soon. However, here's a pic of my most recent triumph! Now, on to the next one, lol.

Contractions

I've never thought it was fair that I have to suffer through contractions and have all csections. Today is one of those days. Just drinking lots of water and trying to take it easy. I felt fine and then I went out to the coup to lock it up and it started. Yuck. With every baby, I have had to deal with contractions and with many of them actual labor. It can be so frustrating. When you labor you get an end result. You get an end result with a csection but it's just not the same. I have been bitter and felt a bit cheated for the better part of the last 11yrs because of all this. I try to make peace with it all the time. All I manage to do is alleviate some of the guilt, which I guess is nice. I plan to just sit and do homework and knit for the rest of the night. Although I can't get out of putting the laundry in the dryer and doing some dishes, ugh. They aren't full blown contractions, nor is there a pattern to them. No need to worry. Just quite a bit of discomfort and a lot of irritation, lol. So, that's my gripe for now, lol.

I always think that my blog posts are boring without pics. I hope not a lot of people share my feelings on this, lol. On the up side, Jay is being super sweet today. He spent two days with Grandpa and I figured he'd be all mad when I went to pick him up for church this morning. Instead he was all huggy and lovey. He made me carry him into the church and up the stairs (huff, puff, huff). Then he wanted to go back downstairs for the children's church. However, he wanted me to go with him (at least he walked this time). Then, despite the teachers' best efforts, he only wanted to observe. He laid in my lap and rubbed my belly. Then he laid on my belly where his sister kicked him in the side of the head a few times. He didn't seem to mind. He's been a little more than rambunctious since we've been home but awfully attached to me. We are on our second round of Madagascar 2. One more time and I might actually be able to recite some of it, lol.

Not much...

Not much going on today. Jay spent last night and Grandpa's house and that left me with the older three. While the morning was just as taxing as most time spent with the older kids is, they weren't too bad. They left in the early afternoon to go to their dad's house for the weekend (or what was left of it). That just left me with hubby sleeping. I knitted. That's it; no homework, minimal chores, just knitting. I have zero energy today and decided that with no kiddos I would spend the day relaxing. I finished up the back of my beautiful sweater, put in the other arm hole, and am now working on the left front side. My other conquest for the day is socks! Baby socks to be exact. I've been doing a lot of firsts with my crafts lately and this is no exception. I am learning that while you can learn to read a knit pattern, reading sock patterns is a whole other ballgame. I think I have successfully drove the designer nuts with my questions. lol Now, of course, I am stumped again. I am awaiting words of wisdom from my RTH girls on Ravelry. The designer suggested that I look up info on Google. I wish I could just type in what I needed and POP! there's the answer. It never works that way and as I said I am very exhausted and can barely make sense of anything. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. On the up side, I did get to take my first Vitamin E bath this pregnancy. I forgot how much I loved those and am thinking they need to become a permanent part of my life. lol I feel so soft and so much less itchy now.

Here's the progress on my ity bity sock. Hard to believe that I am going to have a little one that will fit into one of these in less than 10wks. Yikes!

They're here!!!!

It seems like every afternoon I am struggling to think of something interesting to post here and before the night is over.....boom!! Something interesting comes up. lol Today I was so excited when I went to go see my FIL. I was backing out of the drive and noticed that over in our cluster of mailboxes was a package sticking out of someone's box. Oh how I hoped it was mine!! I have been on pins and needles since I ordered my very first batch of prefolds and covers from Baby Cotton Bottoms. There it was!! My diapers are here! I cannot believe how excited I have been about this.


I'm also getting ready to embark on another wonderful journey....... homemade laundry detergent! Borax is a main ingredient and readily available at your local grocer or WallyWorld. I already have it on hand, although I cannot recall why, lol. Washing soda is another main ingredient. CANNOT FIND IT ANYWHERE! I was going to purchase it online but wasn't thrilled with the shipping costs. So, I tried Ace Hardware online. They had it for less with free shipping to my local store (yes my local store is 65miles away, but it is down the street from my Dr office which I am now going to every two weeks, so). Now there was the detergent bar. Also, could not be found anywhere near me. I know that some people use Ivory soap, but I worry that it won't get the job done and we all have such sensitive skin that we couldn't use it for anything else. Which leads to the thought that if we are all too sensitive to wash with Ivory, how will it affect our clothing? So, Ivory is out! Since it is overwhelming to try to figure out what needs to be in a bar of soap to have it effective, I am sticking with the recommended brand of Fels Naptha. I know that a lot of people just use whatever soap they have on hand, but I worry that it won't get the job done. I have boys, lots of boys. They are filthy, not that their sister is any cleaner. I worry about stains and grime and all the other nonsense. So, the decision has been made to stick with Fels Naptha. That was also spendy online (either you had to buy in bulk, major bulk, or they got you with the shipping). The whole point of this detergent experiment is to save money, so having to fork out a bunch of money for shipping just isn't an option. Also, I'm not interested in buying in huge quantities since this is an experiment and I must be prepared for the unfortunate event that it should not work out for our family. I called my 'local' Ace Hardware and explained my dilemma. The woman explained to me that they were a small store, but that she would be more than happy to call some of the larger stores to locate the Fels Naptha for me. She said that she could probably have a couple of bars sent to their store if she could locate some. She is going to call me by 10am tomorrow morning! I was so taken by her customer service skills. I am so happy that she is willing to go the extra mile. They really are my go-to for hard to find household and hardware needs, so here's a plug for them! lol So, hopefully next weekend I will be making my first batch of detergent. I'm going to go with the powder version since it is less work and I already use powder form store bought detergent. I'll let you know how it ends up. PS, I will also be using these on my cloth dipes so here is to hoping that it works out for us.

Babies really ARE delivered by storks!!

Today's drama has been an ongoing deal. There are no stores that carry maternity clothes within 1.5hrs of me (unless I speed, then it's more like an hour). This includes Walmart. Now, you can buy maternity clothes at Walmart.com, but I had significant changes in my weight within a year of becoming pregnant and am just never sure what size I wear. Plus, when you outgrow your pants, you sort of need some new ones......NOW (especially when it is in the single digits outside with a killer wind chill factor). So, we tried our fourth WallyWorld today. They told me that none of the Walmarts sell maternity clothes. I felt it pertinent to bring to their attention that they have a HUGE baby and kid section. Where do they think the babies come from? Is it more likely that they come from pregnant women (you know, the ones who are buying the massive diapers and baby products) or that they are falling from the sky? One of the associates there thought that was pretty funny. A woman at church told me it is because most pregnant women want to wear those tight shirts or let their bellies hang out. I thought, not if they are on their fifth kid and their bellies look like well worn road maps! C'est la vie, I suppose.

So, in utter defeat and desperation, I caved. I needed pants now!! Not in a week when I finally go to the larger town for my next Dr's appointment. I decided that comfy wasted sweats would work, thank you Hanes! Much to all of our surprise, I still fit into a medium!! I almost did a happy dance in the fitting room, but if you've ever seen a large pregnant woman dance you would know that I didn't to the benefit of those around me. They also had these soft, soft flannel shirts for women, um er girls I guess. I grabbed the biggest size I could find, XL, and brought her home. It is peasant fitting at the top and then ties at the bottom. I think I have a little room to grow, but not too much. The nice thing is that it feels wonderfully soft on my sensitive and stretched skin. Also, it has potential as a nursing top (you know, since no one sells those either).

I do love living in podunk, but there are definite some disadvantages. I had to include a pic of me and the youngest because he was having a really sweet moment. He came to have a pic with me for hubby and told me that I look perfect. Sometimes kids know just what to say.