Is it nesting?

I am going to be 36 weeks tomorrow. I have had three babies at 38 weeks. I am under the impression that somehow I could deliver at 38 weeks, again.

this is causing some "pressure" to get things done around here.

However, having our house on the market means I still have to keep things uncluttered. And while I don't consider necessary furniture (extra dresser for Isaac's clothes and stuff) to be clutter, we have to minimize things that we can downsize on. So this means that I have to be creative.

I don't want to be creative. I just want to pull out all my baby stuff and not worry about the fact that it is "over crowding" our little house. But alas, this is what we have to do to keep our house "ready."

All that to say, Im nesting. Seriously nesting. And i can't do a lot of things during the day because my kiddo's need me (go figure ;-p) so i have to get more done in the evenings. This in itself is a testimony to how badly I want to get things done/ready. My evenings are normally spent veggin' on the couch. But the past two nights I have been super productive, thus super tired. And I still feel overwhelmed that i am not keeping up with everything.

Well, if you have read this post this far, you are truly bored. Random, I know. More for my own documenting. And to keep my mind off the fact that my floors still need to be mopped.

As a doula, I know better.

Look. I'm human.

I know I should know better, but hey.. it happens to us all.

Just remember what its like when you are 35 weeks pregnant, tired, chasing three other littles and so tired and drained from a sinus cold due to an ungodly amount of pollen in your state.

But often today I found myself saying, "Rachel, you could actually have this baby early."

Now, as a doula I would respond to a client who says that, like this: "Yes you very well could. But remember, each pregnancy is different and each labor is different. Also, with natural childbirth you have to be prepared to labor when your body says it's time, which could be 41-42 weeks."

I want to slap that doula.

Ha! Here's how it worked in my head today. I went back and looked and the evidence with Eva.

-Planned induction on a Tuesday, at 38.1 weeks.

-the week before at 37.1 weeks I was checked and found to be at 5cm's. (no ctx's just braxtons).

-at 37.4 I had my membranes stripped (on the Friday before my induction)

-at 37.5 I lost my mucus plug and started prodromal labor.

-at 37.6 I had 5-6 hours of consistent 8 min apart ctx's.. (prodromal) because they puttered out that evening.

-38.0 weeks.. another day of prodromal.

-38.1 -induced. two hours of labor and had a baby.

Now, I am convinced that had I waited (not been induced) I would have had that baby sometime that week (week 38). However, again.. not a guarantee when it comes to facts. You can loose your mucus plug two weeks ahead of time, even though most moms loose it and have their babies a few days later. And prodromal, that can last weeks too.

However, none of that has any bearing on this pregnancy, yet I still rationalize in my head that it could happen this time. What I really mean is.. I want it to happen this time.

Yeah, I said it. I know my baby needs to cook as long as he needs, but lets just say, I won't be sad if he comes early. ;-)

See, as a doula, I am rolling my eyes at my pregnant self.

Blessings and weird things..

Let me start with the random weird things first. Those with children will appreciate this.. or at the very least, please tell me that we are NOT some strange family.

-Yesterday while taking a shower I noticed that our white shower curtain had a small spot of what looked like, well, poop. It was about the size in diameter of a quarter. Yuck. Where did that come from? Better yet, which child and why? So today as I'm using the bathroom myself, I notice another area of my shower curtain has two small spots of poop. However, this time I knew that my oldest child, Jorge (almost 5 yrs old in June) had just gone to the bathroom and had gone #2. I called him in there and said "Jorge, what is this?" To which he sheepishly smiled and said, "Poo-poo." Ah ha! We have our culprit. I was not expecting what he said next. "Jorge, tell me. How did poop get on the shower curtain?" .. brace yourself.. "because I wiped my bottom." WHAAATT??

How does a child that is about to be 5 think it's okay to pull the shower curtain over and proceed to wipe his bottom with it? You can't make this stuff up.

-While we are talking about said child.. today at church I got pulled out of my Bible Study because Jorge hit another child in the face. Why? Over a seat. Granted, Jorge was very broken and repentant and knew that he had really done something bad.. so that was hopeful. And he also got his punishment when he got home. What's weird is that Jorge is normally my child that will use his words to try and get what he wants and be the first one to come tattle-tale when he doesn't get it. Please understand, I am not saying that my child is not capable of hitting a child, unprovoked, it's just odd that he just hauls off and hits a kid. Either way, we dealt with it and I am praying that he thinks hard about losing his self control again.

BLESSINGS:

-today at Bible study a sweet friend in my class gave me some cash. Why? To get a pedicure. I had asked, jokingly if I were allowed to pray for God to provide me with a pedicure since I could not reach my feet to do it myself. That sweet lady, not three minutes later, handed me some cash and told me to go get one. Isn't that sweet?? So today when my hubby gets home I am going to go get my feet rubbed on (Lord willing).. thank you Gaye. You are a blessing.

-A few days ago a sweet friend (who I met first through the blogosphere) and then met at a Chickfila and realized that I knew her from her blog and that we new the same people.. (long sentence) brought me a meal. And not just any meal but an incredibly delicious Cheddar chicken pot pie. I am not exaggerating when I say I probably polished off half of it in one sitting. It was amazing. thank you Missi for your sacrifice (she has four little ones herself) and for blessing our family.

-My mom told me today that she and dad had discussed it with my little sister Rachel (remember, the gymnast for the University of Alabama?) and they want to pay her to be my nanny this summer!! I can't even type that with out wanting to cry with such thankfulness. Granted, it won't be an everyday all day thing.. she will still have to go to Tuscaloosa to practice a couple of days a week.. but even if it were for two hours, I am eternally grateful. I talked to Rachel today and she said she was very excited and can't wait. don't worry, I warned her that at some point she is probably going to want to pull her hair out.. but that I'd take it easy on her. ;-)

Well, that's it for now. God is amazing and I am thankful for the weird things as well as the blessing in our family. Now, i need to go so that I can bleach a shower curtain.

Happy Easter.. cup half full..

Cup half full: at least they were all sitting still. (even though not one of them smiled for the camera. My little precious family. I love 'em. Smiles or not).

feeling a bit.. blah..

Everyone gets to that week in pregnancy where you just feel blah, right?

Maybe it's just me. I have my days and this evening was one of them. i just enter a blah land and pass through the time on auto pilot. I also look around my house and see the 50 million things I'd like to get done and then get a tad bit overwhelmed.

For instance:

-my ceiling fans DESPERATELY need to be cleaned.

-the chairs and table need a thorough wipe down. the top of the table is clean but not the sides, under the the top (make sense?).

-I need to mop all the house.

-I need to dust everything.

-I tried looking in the attic for the boys summer clothes but couldn't find them (way too much stuff up there).

-I need/want a pedicure.

I'll feel better tomorrow.

I am going to pick up a box of my baby boy (newborn size) clothes from a relative who borrowed them. That will help me feel like I am getting something accomplished. And yes, I know, I am only 34 weeks (on Thursday).. but for some reason the nesting is coming early this time. My guess is it's the whole limbo of not knowing when the house will sell.

Anyway, random post for ya here. Just feeling blah this evening. Looking forward to a new day tomorrow. I'll let you know if anything on that list gets accomplished. ha!

as of late..

Her royal cuteness playing with playdoh. Let's just say it's a good thing it's not toxic.

my boys.. doing their best attempt to give me something camera worthy.. yeah, we gotta work on that.

A perfect picture to describe my day to day routine.. juggling kids.

A belly shot. I promise it's bigger than it looks.

bye bye anonymous.

Sorry to my readers who use the anonymous option to enter your comments. I don't have a problem with allowing people to use it, but apparently I have been getting a flood of spam comments (including pornography links) and therefore have to sacrifice true comments to keep those nasty ones out.

If anyone knows a way around this, let me know.

rg

Falling way behind..

I feel like I might not catch up for a little while.

But only as it relates to my doula birth stories. I just had another birth on Saturday and still have to write the birth story from two weeks ago. And of course, the one from Saturday.

This past birth was my last Brookwood client until next year (?). Because my last client, due next month, is at Trinity. Then I will give birth at Brookwood. Its such a bitter sweet thing. Of course its sweet that I am going to have my baby soon. But bitter that there are so many moms that I would love to be helping over the next year. But alas, it will be much easier to start back doula'ing when Isaac is weaned. Watch him be the first child to actually decide to go longer than 11 months. ;-)

Speaking of Isaac, I saw him today. On an ultrasound of course. Measuring beautifully and I saw his sweet little face. Every day I get more and more anxious to hold him, nurse him and just cuddle him until I just have to go to sleep. And then I'll just snuggle him right on my chest and go soundly to sleep! ;-P

Before I go I want to tell you that i have a lot on my mind about this past year of doula'ing and am excited about writing a blog about the things i learned this year. Practical stuff that you can only learn with experience. I feel i need to write them down soon so that I can document all of it. Good stuff.

Well i better go. Got to get little ones ready for naps. And while I am NOT little, I will be napping too! ;-P

Sorry blogging friends..

I always feel as though I should apologize for my blog absence. To be honest, it has been so crazy around here and on top of that, I go through seasons of blog inspiration. When I have loads of laundry, kids climbing the wall and generally too much to do inside my four walls, I can't justify blogging.

Which, I might add, is something I am grateful for. I am realizing that although I am a social creature and crave interaction, I also crave to just "vent/share" on the blogosphere. However, I do NOT want to be the mom/wife/daughter of Christ that has my priorities out of whack.. and for me that means.. no blogging unless my other "duties" are taken care of. I guess bc for me, blogging takes a lot of brain power and therefore time. ;-)

Enough of that.

Last week the kids (and myself) went through a nasty stomach bug. Read here, throw up. Not fun. We are all better. i attended a birth that I still need to write a birth story for. I have another mom that is due this week and one more in April.

I am 31 weeks pregnant (this Thursday) and my blood sugars are doing GREAT. I can't remember if I shared but at my last doctors appt I had gained 12 lbs in 5 weeks. GASP! But it was because I my blood sugar was out of control for about 4 of those weeks. And in the past two weeks since getting it back in control, I actually lost 5 lbs. Now, I am not saying that it is a "good" thing to loose weight during a pregnancy, but in my case.. it's not a bad thing. I will steady out now and hopefully stay within the normal range for my pregnancies.

We still don't have a middle name for baby Isaac, so any suggestions you have.. go ahead. I would like it to be a Spanish name. but NOT Jose. ;-P Our other kiddos are Jorge Emanuel, Miguel Alexander and Eva Isabel. So they each have a "Spanish" name.

Well I better get going. hope everyone is doing well. adios.

just kiddos..