Dream On

Pregnancy does crazy things to your dreams.  Really vivid, detailed dreams that you can almost feel.  The only thing that separates them from reality is the absolute nonsense mixed in.  Where does the mind find these loose ends to tie together?  A recent sampling...

I was at church and the service was wrapping up.  I was a little concerned because I had asked the nursery to text me when the baby was ready to eat and they hadn't sent me a message yet.  When I arrived to pick up the baby, I took it in my arms cooing, "My goodness, you must be starving!"  I sat in one of the rocking chairs and proceeded to nurse my newborn kitten.  Yep, I dreamed my baby was a cat.  Even crazier?  The volunteers in the nursery thought it was perfectly normal.

Another night, I dreamed I was working at huge, global corporation for a man who was a less-than-ideal boss in real life years ago.  He decided we needed to have a company-wide celebration for something or other at the end of the week.  I was in charge of pulling together a global conference in the span of days.  The crazy part?  I sang in a gospel trio as part of the opening ceremonies.  You didn't see it, so you'll have to take my word for it....bizarro!

Then there was the dream that was obviously trying to tell me something.  I was trapped in a labyrinth ladies' locker room.  The door led immediately into a bathroom stall, but of course you never pick the first one, so I kept going.  The stalls were all linked together like a torturous maze.  Some of them were toilet stalls, some showers and some changing rooms.  You never knew who you'd walk in on.  Some of them had more than one door---aaaahhh, choices!  I just wanted to find a bathroom with a little privacy! Even crazier?  Every one I walked in on thought this was a perfectly normal way to conduct business.

This is the way God eases you into the year (or more) of sleep deprivation that accompanies pregnancy and new baby.  Humor always makes discomfort a little easier to swallow, no?

Gross

I'm tired of feeling gross.  I'm officially done with my first trimester, but the gross is lingering.  I can't really say it's morning sickness, just a general gross hanging over part of the day.  Nothing sounds good to eat, but if I don't eat, I'll feel worse.  If I pick the wrong thing to eat, I'll feel worse.  If I do feel gross, I can't think of anything that will make it subside.  I feel like this right now, that's why I'm whining.  I'm just ready to be done with gross.

Still Thankful

Happy belated Thanksgiving!  We had a great day feasting with family and friends.  J said it was the best Thanksgiving dinner he's had in a few years.  I ate myself miserable and sat up half the night wishing I hadn't had the second helpings.  The kids played well, the home team won the game, and the weather turned cold.  Definitely a good day.

Since we don't celebrate Halloween, I try to really emphasize Thanksgiving once fall hits.  This year, we made a Thanksgiving tree.  I picked a branch out of the yard and put it in a big canister full of rocks.  We wrote (or drew) things on foam leaves that we were thankful for and tied them to the tree.  By the big day, it was a little Charlie-Brown-ish, but we could see how much we have to be thankful for.

A is thankful for mermaids, fairies, ladybugs, Chick-fil-A, rainbows, her best friend, her mom and dad, the new baby, cousins, herself, pink, and various toys in no particular order.  C scribbled on leaves and we left them open to interpretation, until one of the last drawing sessions when she handed me a leaf and told me it was one of her cousins.  I obliged and wrote his name on the leaf to identify his portrait.

The grown-ups in the house are grateful for employment, good health, kind neighbors, loving family, precious daughters, each other.  Above all else we are humbled by the opportunity to thank our God for His loving kindness, His constant nature, His gift of salvation, His personal involvement in our lives.

We've been singing a Thanksgiving song this month cut and pasted from the psalms.  Perhaps you know it..."I will enter his gates with thanksgiving in my heart, I will enter His courts with praise.  I will say this is the day that the Lord has made.  I will rejoice for He has made me glad.  He has made me glad.  He has made me glad.  I will rejoice for He has made me glad!"

Not ready

C has shown some major interest in potty training in the last month or so.  I procrastinated on going all out because we had so much going on, including a couple of road trips.  Finally, I couldn't rationalize it away any longer.  I didn't want to miss the oft-coveted window of opportunity if she really was ready.  So about two weeks ago, after  a successful trip to the bathroom, I introduced her to big girl panties.  She did great for the first hour and I thought we might be on to something.  I asked her every half hour and she was eager to go try.  She had another success after that first hour, so I figured we were good for awhile.  Nope, she peed all over the kitchen chair two minutes after peeing in the potty.

Back to the bathroom we went.  I handed her a fresh pair of panties and proceeded to sit on the tiny stool blocking her exit for twenty minutes (!!!) while she wrestled with trying to put them on by herself.  At one point, it was so hilarious I went to grab my phone for documentation.  Unfortunately, I'm still trying to figure out my phone and missed the first five minutes of recording even though I thought I was getting it.  Aaarrgh!  The dialogue went something like this:
Mom: Do you want help with that?
C: No, do it.
Mom: (after watching another futile attempt to get one leg in each hole) Do you want help with that?
C: No, do it, Mommy!
Mom:  (trying to restrain laughter) Can I help you with that?
C: No, Mommy, own.  My do it.  (She patted me on the chest to indicate that I had my own panties to do.  She would do hers, thank you very much.)

While this video is not quite as thorough, it is pretty funny.  And I think it answers the question as to whether or not she is really ready to potty train.  So do the 12 pairs of panties I had to wash that morning.

Who's That Baby?

My mom recently passed on a photo to me.
















I asked A who that baby was and without hesitating she identified her sister.  The resemblance is pretty crazy, I think.  That's me opening presents on my third birthday.  What's even funnier is that everybody tells us C looks just like her daddy.  Maybe, maybe not.

Three down

I asked my doc if there was anything I could do to prevent the low amniotic fluid toward the end of this pregnancy that has necessitated inducing my previous two pregnancies.  She said about the only thing I had any control over was staying well hydrated.  I asked her for a goal...the usual 64 ounces a day, she said.  I've never been a good water drinker, so I thought I better keep track of it to see how I was doing.

Bad.  I'm doing bad.  Last week, I couldn't get more than 32 oz down in a day without feeling like I was going to puke.  I'm not trying to do it all at once, of course.  But after that fourth glass, I just felt like I could not possibly put more water into my belly.

I'm going for incremental change.  It sounds like such a simple thing, I feel like I should be able to do 8 glasses of water a day.  But for now, I'll be happy if I can consistently do 4.  Next week, I'll aim for 6.  Maybe by my second trimester, I'll be up to 8 glasses a day on more days than not.

I just finished glass 3 for today; one more shouldn't be hard.  Maybe today I can do 5.

What's That Smell?

This week has been a wild ride so far.  Sunday I came home from church feeling really weak and tired.  I went to bed and realized later that I was running a low fever.  I was laid out the rest of the day, couldn't eat much or stay mobile for long.  Monday I was feeling a little stronger, but still very tired.  My wonderful neighbor came over to play with the girls for a couple of hours while I took a morning nap.  I napped for almost four hours that day!!  Which explains why I laid in bed that night staring at the ceiling until 2 am.

Sunday when I was feeling so puny, I told J that we had to call somebody about the smell in our bathroom.  It was going on two months and we couldn't figure out what it was.  We thought maybe something had crawled into the wall and died.  You can understand our hesitation to investigate.  J spent a Saturday about two weeks ago taking apart the exhaust fan, hoping that whatever it was could be easily cleaned up from that pipe.  No such luck.  The smell was getting so bad that I was avoiding that room for the sake of my stomach.

Monday I called the pest control guy.  I explained the dilemma and told him I didn't know if he could help or not, but he was the first person on our list of professionals who might could help.  He showed up around 5:30 pm on Monday and said it wasn't anything dead.  He couldn't say for sure, but it might be natural gas. Hello?!!  Let me just say it did not smell like the usual sulfur, rotten egg smell you get from a gas leak, so that was not even on our radar.  Never mind that there is no gas source in that room.  It smelled more musty, earthy....I had cleaned the toilet with a toothbrush about three times hoping I could find whatever speck of bacteria was causing the odor.

J very wisely called the gas company to come check and sure enough, we've been living with a low-level gas leak for the last two months!!  We were both mortified.  God has definitely been watching over us.  It's a good thing we don't make a habit of lighting matches in that bathroom.

They shut the gas off immediately and Tuesday morning began the detect and repair process with the plumbers.  They were here all afternoon yesterday and all day today.  They finished up this afternoon, and the gas company will probably make it out to do the inspection and turn the gas back on tomorrow morning.  (Hurray for cold showers and microwave dinners!)  Turns out there were three slow leaks in the attic where the pipe sealant had started to decay, along with a couple of underground leaks between the meter and house.  So yes, they had to dig up part of the back yard.  Fun times, I tell you.

The wonderful part (no sarcasm this time)?  I felt amazing yesterday and today!!  Turns out the main side effects of exposure to natural gas are nausea and headaches.  It basically keeps you from getting the best oxygen supply you would otherwise get.  So you might also feel a little sluggish.  Who knew you could mimic the first trimester of pregnancy just by inhaling a little natural gas?!  Fortunately, the side effects are very short-lived.  I had my first prenatal appointment this morning and the doctor was not concerned about any harm to the baby and was glad that my symptoms were leveling back to normal range.  I told her time would tell if it really was the natural gas causing such intense nausea or not, but I like feeling so much better for sure!  Here's hoping the rest of the week has a little less drama.