My first gray hair!

I found a gray hair this morning. I knew they were coming soon. My sister said she was 26 when she got her first, so I actually purposely do not look closely at my hair for fear of finding one. Here I am, 8 days shy of my 27th birthday and I just happened to see it in the mirror. One, very long, gray hair just sticking off the top of my head. It makes DH feel better. He's going bald, so now he's not getting old alone.

I decided years ago that when I started going gray, I was just going to let it go and not dye it. I want to go gray naturally and gracefully. I am still determined to do that. I struggle with vanity, so this is one way I can grow in that area. Besides, it'll be years before the gray gets really noticable, right? Especially since I wear head coverings most of the time. Surely I'll be in my 30s before I start looking gray. Right? Right?

My dad is getting married!

Almost 15 years after my parents divorce, it looks like my dad is getting married! He sent out a mass e-mail last week talking about this lady he works with. Apperantly they've been chatting at work, then a possibility of lay-offs came up and the next day she called my dad and started talking about all these plans to both leave work and travel the country, etc. After discussing it some more, they both realized that they are in love and are goign to get married! Amazing. I was sure my dad was a bacholer for life. He had one girlfriend for years and I never even met her because she wasn't important enough to bring down for a visit. This lady that he's marrying, they're already planning for her to come down with my dad to meet us after the baby is born in January. Apperantly they're just goign to go to the Justice of the Peace at some point and not tell anybody until after it happens. They're dont' have the patience for a formal wedding. Right now, both their jobs are secure and they actually like working so they plan to stay put. She has a lease on a house until July, so things might change after that, I guess. I've been e-mailing with her to discuss the January plans and she doesn't expect to have any grandchildren (she has one son who she describes as "failure to launch") so she's thrilled with the fact that my dad will soon have 17 grandkids, lol. Just thought I would share the news!

Day of Doctors

Yesterday was a day full of doctors. First we went to see our family physician. He had done some blood work with me and wanted to go over it. Everythign looks great. I have no RH sensitivity, which is what we were specifically looking for since I got the RhoGam shot late after Genesis was born. So that was all good.

Then we went to the ENT for a follow-up on my ear and that Dr gave me a clean bill of health. He said unless I have returning symptoms we're goign to say that I'm healed and I'll never have to see him again. He checked my hearing and everything and that's back to 100% (it was at one point at about 50%) and he said my eared looked perfectly normal and healthy. Yay.

Then we went to see the midwife. Another great appt. She was glad to hear both about the RH and the ear thing. I'm done with antibiotics so we can spend the next 3 months getting myself back into tip-top shape for giving birth. Since our family dr was so willing to help out with the blood work, she wants me to call him and see if we can get some tubes for collecting the baby's blood after it's born and drop it off there to blood type the baby. Then we can see if we need a RhoGam shot of not. I know he's willing to get me in with a Ob/gyn to get the rhogam if I want to go that route, so hopefully he'll be able to do this as well. We could also get the shot through the midwife, but then we have to pay for it at $166. If I go through a Dr, then it's covered by Medicaid. I'm not sure if the hassle with an ob/gyn is worth it yet, we'll decide on that later. It may be our only option depending on finances at the time. We also talked about the things I need to start getting together for the birthing kit. There's a lot of stuff you have to buy to homebirth! Luckily I"m a bit of a pack-rat and still have a lot of things that I saved from the hospital after Canaan was born, so I don't have to buy any of that. Things like a peri-bottle. And last but not least, we dicussed the position of hte baby. The baby is breech right now, not a huge deal, there is still plenty of time for flipping, but this baby has been in that same position for well over a month and seems pretty comfortable there. The others were all head down by now. So we discussed possibly doing an external version next time (I'll be 30wks) if the baby is still breech. I think we're going to try it. It's probably much easier to flip a baby at 30wks then 36wks, and like I said, this baby is pretty comfortable, so I don't know that it will flip on it's own any time soon. If it was flipping back and forth regularly, I would jsut let be, but it's not. It's just staying in that same breech position. So we're goign to try a few more natural things in the next 3wks to get the baby to flip on it's own, hands and knees exercising and things like that, plus just telling the baby to turn. I know some people think that's crazy, but I'm a firm believe that a Mommy's thoughts do influence the baby. There were some experiences with Genesis that just aren't coincidence and had a lot to do with my thoughts. But if the baby is still breech, we'll go ahead and try and flip it and hope it stays.

I think that's about it, health update wise.

Nesting much?

I am officially in my 3rd trimester, and officially nesting. How can I tell, you ask? That one is easy (as anyone who has nested knows!)

This week I went through all the boys' clothes, pulling out too small ones, packing up most of the summer ones and rearranged their drawers. I went through all of Genesis's clothes, packed up summer stuff, pulled out winter stuff, washed it all and put it in the newly vacated drawers in the boys' dressers.

Yesterday I took every book and toy off the bookshelf and scrubbed the whole thing down with a magic eraser, then took the diaper drawers (one of those plastic, rolling 3 drawer things from walmart), emptied them all, packed up what I never use, scrubbed the whole thing with my magic eraser and put it all back together.

Today I found it necessary to rearrange the dining room, which actually just means pulling the table a few feet in one direction and moving some chairs, though I'm not sure it'll stay that way. Then I mopped the kitchen floor on my hands and knees, which I actually do every week, but this time I got all the corners really really good and washed down the baseboards, then cleared off what is supposed to be the boys' craft table that has been piled with stuff for weeks now.

Tomorrow the dining room is getting a good scrub down, along with the washer and dryer area and I'm thinking I need to go down to DH's Grandma's to look for that missing box of winter coats and hats that I know is there.

On the list for next week are mine and kids' room, hopefully getting Genesis moved out of our room and cleaning out the boys' closet, which is a complete disaster. Yup, I'm nesting.

Still getting tomatoes from the garden!

Dh and I were sure we weren't going to get anymore tomatoes this year. There were plenty of green ones on the plants still, but the plants were starting to die, so we didn't think they'd turn. Boy were we wrong! I went outside yesterday and noticed a bunch of red tomatoes. We ended up picking almost 2 dozen! There's still at least a dozen green ones left, so we'll see if they turn. Now I'm slowly processing the tomatoes (running through the food chopper, then freezing) as they get completely ripe. I also have two pie pumpkins to process. Mmmm....pumpkin bread. We hope to buy a few more before the end of the month, but we'll see how that goes. Wouldn't it be great to have pumpkin bread in the middle of the summer?

That's about all that's going on here. The boys are done being grounded, but still complaining because they don't get near the outside time they used to since I can't be out there all the time.

Oh, Genesis had a well-child checkup last week and she looks great. I was able to schedule the boys and myself for an appt for this Friday. At my appt we're goign to do some bloodwork to check for RH antibodies. He's just goign to order the whole prenatal blood screen. I also found out I can go up there after the baby is born and get the rhoGam shot, so we won't have to pay for that out of pocket. The dr was really nice and didn't seem to care at all that we don't vax and I'm having a homebirth, which is wonderful! I've very happy with the provider we picked.

We also have the exterminator coming out on Thur. So that's going to be a busy day, pulling the whole house apart, cleaning up a bunch of dead cockroaches and then putting it all back together again. But that's how it goes, I guess.

Well that was fun...

We had an appt for the exterminator today to come between 8 and 10am. This was our "free" service call for problems between appts (ie, we still have horrible cockroaches so we're going to take all the spraying we can get!) with our monthly appt scheduled for end of next week. We would have preferred to have them come out last week, but couldn't get scheduled in. So this morning we all got early (well, I got up at my normal time, but immediatly got moving), got showered, dressed and spent a good bit of time pulling furniture away from walls and pulling stuff out of dressers/cabinets. Then we spent 2 hrs waiting. 10am rolls around and no exterminator. So DH calls the 800 number, they'll call us right back. Half an hour later I call them again. No explaination for why they didn't get back with us before, but this guy finds out that the exterminator never got our work order. Great. They found somebody else who can come out between 1 and 4 today. Fine, whatever. We run a few quick errands and then commence with waiting. DH goes to work, and I wait some more. Kids ask to do school, no sorry, don't want to get it all out and then have the guy show up. More waiting. 4:15 I call Terminex again. "It appears your service tech is delayed" Yeah, I noticed. So I told them this is what is going to happen. They were going to cancel my service for today, because I am done waiting. I've spent 6 hours of my day waiting already, plus time prepping for the visit and now clean-up. All for nothing. So the end of next week, they're goign to come out for our monthly visit like scheduled, but I am NOT going to pay for it. I refuse to put my house back together to make it through the night, just to pull it out again tomorrow and wait some more. I spent the next few hours trying to get my house back together, taking many frequent breaks, b/c there was lots of bending over and stretching and things like that that my belly did not like. A lot of furniture is still pulled out, b/c I need DH to push it back, but otherwise I got it all done. And next week I get to do it all over again, plus clean up dead cockroaches everywhere and wash all the dishes. Fun for me!!

I'm still here!

Stopping in real quick while the bacon for bfast is cooking. I'm still here. Been keeping the boys busy while they're grounded (half way done!!) and I've been using my online time a bit more effectively. I found out about this thing called ChaCha, people can txt in any questions they have and a real person txts back an answer. I"m one of those real people who answer's questions. You get paid by the answer, and it's not a lot, but I made almost $25 last week. And if I get good enough I can double my pay per question. This is all money that is going to be mine to spend however I want. Though I'm thinking if I"m making $200 a month some of it will probably go to bills, lol. If anybody wants more information, let me know! But yeah, so I've been busy doing that. Well, need to get back to bfast!

Spoke too soon

So much for Genesis being the one to give me grays (see post below). I'm surprised I didn't turn all gray this afternoon. The boys were playing outside, as usual, Austin came home, gave them hugs, came inside, we talked a bit and then a few minutes later I looked out the window and couldn't see the boys. "Hey honey, did you tell the boys they could play next door?" "No, why?" "I don't see them. I'll go out and call" A minute later "Honey!! They're NOT out there!!" So we both go into search mode. Something told me they walked down to DH's mom's house (where his sister, BIL and their 3 kids live also), so I told DH to go down there, but first he went around the block a few times, asked neighbors if they saw them, came back, walked around a bit, had me call 911 (I had already called down to MIL's but noone answered the phone), then he drove down to MIL's. They were stepping on the front porch as he pulled up (she lives maybe 1/3 of a mile down the road). So he disciplined them good, called me, I called 911 back, but right after I got off the phone the cops and fire dept showed up. I assured them we found the boys at their Grannie's house and DH was headed back home with them.

So my boys are in very big trouble. DH grounded them everything for 2 wks. No outside (obviously), no TV, no computer, and no toys. They'll probably drive me crazy, but DH wants me to work them anyways. I think we'll get some fall cleaning in the next two weeks. And of course it'll probably be next year before they're allowed outside without a grown up.

She'll give me grays for sure

I think Genesis is going to give me more gray hairs then the boys combined! For one thing, she is into everything. The boys were nothing like this. I had always heard the "I can't even take a shower b/c of my toddler" lines and I always thought they were slight exagerations. Now I know better. Literally, if I have her out of my sight for 2 minutes, she's into something. Whether it be washing her hands, getting some water out of hte sink to drink (or spill), finding the boys' scissors and glue, emptying a drawer, etc etc, she's doing somethign that is going to require cleaning up. But that's not the worst.

Here's the worst. A few weeks ago (I don't think I blogged about this, but maybe I did?) she came up to me, handed me a washcloth and said "Owie Mommy," and then held up her hand that was covered in blood!! She had cut herself on the tip of her finger, calmly got a washcloth and then let me know about it. She had dripped blood all through the house! I freaked out for about half a second, but then I saw her face mirror my horror, so I quickly regained composure and took care of her.

Then last night, DH and I were watching a movie when she comes in and says "Mommy, look" and her face is covered in blood! She had somehow gotten a bloody nose (which was still bleeding) and had smeared the blood all over her face. Talk about freaking out Mommy and Daddy! The best we can figure is that during the small tantrum she had been throwing a few minutes before she had hit her nose. She has a tendancy to roll and throw herself around during fits. It only took a few minutes to clean her up and get her nose to stop bleeding, but it still made our hearts stop when we first saw her. Though I'm glad DH got to experience the freak out with me, so he can see what I'm talking about when I say she's turning me gray!

Midwife appt

We had another midwife appt on Thurs. This is one we've been trying to get in forever, but it kept getting cancelled for one reason or another. We finally made it though! Everything looks wonderful. The MW already is putting a plan into place to make sure we get my body back up to par after the antibiotics and ready for this baby. My "homework" is to self-educate myself on that as much as possible and to find where the closest helipad is. She said she doesn't care about the closest hospital, since they're all likely to be dinky, b/c if we need to transfer to a hospital it's goign to need to be a big one. Almost anything the little hospitals can do, she can do at home. So I actually find that comforting. I know if she says "we need to get you to a hospital" then we need to go. If an ob/gyn were to say "you need to have a c/s" I probably wouldn't trust them!

Our MW has an apprentice who did all the baby checking. It was so funny though b/c she's been mainly working with larger inutero babies up to know, so she was almost giddy with how small the baby was. She kept saying "It's so cute and tiny!!" It just made my day. It's so nice to see someone else as excited about your 4th baby as you are.

Rediculous Dr's office policy

After putting it off for many reasons, I finally called to schedule my children for well-child check-ups. None of them have had any in about 18 months. Not so bad for the boys, but that's when Genesis was 6 months old, lol, so she especially is a bit overdue. Plus I need to meet with the dr anyways before the baby is born to get acquainted and ask some questions, etc. So today I called. Turns out, they won't see all 3 at the same time, or even on the same day! The lady I talked to claimed it took too much of the Dr's time for new patients to see that many. Ok, so schedule extra time for it. I asked if we could stagger the times, etc and all I could get was "no." How frustrating is that? The dr's office is not near by so it takes a good bit of time and gas to have these appts (which is part of the reason I've delayed this long) but she was not willing to work with me at all. I went ahead and scheduled Genesis an appt, since I figured she needed it most, but I have every intention of mentioning the absurdity of it to the dr when we get there. I mean seriously, what if in a few days another new patient wants to schedule an appt for that day. Are they going to say "I'm sorry, we already have one new patient scheduled for that day..." It wasn't just like there wasn't room that day for 3 new patients, she was very specific in saying htat I could not schedule all 3 children for the same day, regardless of day, it was simply too much. Whatever.

One of those days

Ever have one of those days where you just have no patience for your children? How is it that they can sense that and be at their worst when it happens?



The day actually started out really good. I felt productive, got a lot done, including laundry, etc and then by afternoon, I just had no patience. The kids only did half their chores b/c then I sent them out to play, rather than deal with them in an unkind way. I think Genesis is teething, so she was pretty cranky all day and kept screaming, which was probably part of my problem. You can only handle so much of that screech before your nerves are shot. The boys kept bothering her on purpose, making her scream more, making me more irritable. It just was not pretty. So it's now 8pm, the kids have been in bed for half an hour (an hour earlier than normal), Genesis is asleep, I'm considering duct-taping the boys to their beds with their mouths taped shut too and I've exhausted my normal internet sites that I visit. Maybe I'll go to bed early tonight...