Feeling Obligated to Post

So I haven't posted much in a while.  It wasn't intentional, life's just happened.  A lot.  And I haven't felt like talking about it necessarily.  Nothing bad, just too busy to ponder deep ponderings or come up with witty things to say.

But something prompted me to look at my blog stats today, which made me notice that there are actually real people looking at my blog occasionally and not just the folks who click "next blog" on the top.  Many of them are still searching for Unisom/B6 anti-morning sickness and finding me (which considering I wrote all of ONE post about that, still surprises me - ladies, go see your OB/midwife, because "Darn it, Jim, I'm a rocket scientist, not a doctor!"), but occasionally real people are clicking through from my comments on Stuff Christians Like or just stopping by on their own.

So I thought maybe I should post something.  Especially considering that NaBloPoMo is coming up and I usually at least attempt to participate in that.  So maybe I should gear up or something.  Consider this some linguistic stretching.

Oh, and Jones baby #3 is due on March 24th!

Welcome to Our World

So on December 23rd at approximately 11:39 PM, Joanna Hope Jones explosively entered our world! She weighed 6 lbs. 15.8 oz, and was 19.5 inches long (so two ounces more than her brother, but an inch shorter). We got to bring her (and her tired and sore mommy) home from the hospital on Christmas morning! Talk about a Christmas present! :)

The contractions started on Monday the 22nd around 6 PM. They weren't terribly regular, but they were painful, so we fully expected to be making a trip to the hospital sometime that night or early the next day, especially when the contractions kept going through the night (false labor would normally stop with a change in position). I was able to get _some_ sleep, but not a whole lot. I already had an appointment scheduled, so we dropped AJ off with a friend for the day and went to get checked out. I was 3cm dilated, ~70% effaced, and the baby was at about -2 station - so not exactly ready to go, but progress from the week before. They sent us home with the expectation that they'd be seeing us again later that day.

We went over to the local mall for a little walking. After a lap on each level, my contractions were around 4 minutes apart and lasting almost a minute each (we were told to call when they were 5 min apart and 1 min duration for at least an hour). So we went home for a quick nap, expecting to go to the hospital very shortly thereafter.

By the time we got home, the contractions had spaced out to 8-10 minutes, and eventually I was able to sleep for at least 45 minutes! So I took a walk, trying to get them to speed up again. But it was like 20 below and getting dark, so we went to another mall for more walking. Keep in mind that by the time we got to this second mall, I'd been having painful contractions for 24 hours. As I was quickly nearing "the wall," we began attempting to call the midwives to see if what they would recommend. Unfortunately, their phone system hadn't been switched for the night, so I couldn't get the after-hours number. Fortunately, we've got friends who use this same practice. Unfortunately, they were in Buffalo. But thanks to the glory of cell phones, we were eventually able to get in touch with them and get the after-hours number.

VNB dropped me by a door (of the second mall) and went to park while I walked toward the food court. It's one of those "Mills" malls, so it's big, but I was only part of a "neighborhood" away from the food court when VNB dropped me off. Still, by the time I'd reached the food court, I couldn't go any further (mostly my hips just couldn't take any more, but I was also hardly able to stand during the contractions). VNB managed to get a hold of the midwives, and they agreed that I could come into get checked, but couldn't promise that they would keep me, and wouldn't agree to induce me (they were _really_ busy). So we headed out to the hospital.

By the time I got to the car, contractions were fast and furious (~3 min apart). The minute I sat down in the car, the contractions spaced out again. But "the wall" had been reached. I'd been in labor for over 24 hours at that point, and the end seemed no closer than before.

We got to the hospital and they started checking us in around 8. The midwife checked me around 8:30-ish and I was at 4 cm, ~70%, and the baby was at -1 station. That was enough progress that she was willing to keep me, which was a good thing because I think I would have completely lost it emotionally if they'd sent us home. We got settled and the contractions continued and got steadily more painful.

A little before 11, they had to hook me back up to the monitors for a few minutes, so I got back on the bed. The contractions were more manageable when I was on my side, so I spent most of the time that way. While I was hooked up, the midwife checked me again. Since the time between 4 cm and baby had been by far the longest part of labor with AJ, we weren't expecting much. VNB planned on taking a nap if he could unless I was up to 7 or 8 cm.

I was at 7 or 8 cm, much to everyone's surprise. The midwife warned me that those last couple of centimeters usually take a while and are relatively painful, but that I was doing a great job and was handling things just fine. She walked out the door probably around 11. The very next contraction, I felt an overwhelming urge to push.

Knowing that I'd _just_ measured at 7-8, I thought maybe it was a fluke, so I didn't say anything. But I felt it again the next time and even though it seemed crazy, I said the only word I could manage - "push." That got everyone's attention. The labor and delivery nurse took a minute to assess the situation, but quickly realized I meant it and yelled out the door for someone to get the midwife. While we were waiting for the midwife, they told me not to push, but there was very little I could do to stop it.

The midwife came back in and got ready to check me again, but I couldn't get myself from my side to my back so that she could. They kept trying to get me _not_ to push, but I couldn't _not_ push, so she gave up on checking me and switched to "lets have a baby" mode. About that time, my water finally broke. It was a good thing too, because within a push or two after they'd dropped the bed and gotten me to finally roll over, VNB said something I didn't expect to hear for a long while yet - "they've got a full head of hair!" About that same time, the L&D nurse said that I was crowning. I hardly believed them since it had taken 40 of the 45 minutes of pushing with AJ to get him to that point.

Then, a couple of pushes later, little Joanna gave the nurses another surprise by coming out, head, shoulders, and most of the amniotic fluid in one, explosive burst. They were laughing afterward about wishing they'd worn shoe covers.

So with minimal tearing, and a lot of thankfulness that they kept me at the hospital when we came in, Joanna Hope was born at 11:39 PM. Just in time for her mama to get her Christmas wish - not to be in labor on Christmas or Christmas Eve. :)

Big brother AJ met her the next morning and did great with her. In fact, he only cried when VNB took her _away_ from him.

And other than last night's traditional late night Mylecon run, she's been doing great since we came home Christmas morning. Like her brother before her, she's an expert nurser, and her mama is doing surprisingly well. I mean, I still hurt and all, but the healing process has been _much_ faster than with AJ already.

So that's her story! I can't explain how relieved I am to not be pregnant anymore. With AJ, I had severe indigestion which ended the moment he exited my body. This time around it was the nausea that blessedly left the moment Joanna came out. Brushing my teeth doesn't make me gag anymore! Woohoo!

I'll post more pics one of these days. In the meantime, find VNB's facebook account. He's got pics there.

Can't Sleep

So yet again, I can't get to sleep to save my life. Dunno what the problem is, but I'm sure I'll be sorry for it tomorrow. I even waited to go to bed this time until I was nodding a bit on the couch. But the second I hit those sheets, I'm wide awake.

So you get an update. We finally picked out baby names today, I think. VNB is so sure it's a girl that he left the boy name completely up to me. And since AJ's middle name was determined at the beginning to be his middle name (and his father's and grandfather's), he only picked the first name for a girl and I picked the middle name.

So except for the house that got hit by a "stuff bomb" over the weekend, I think we're pretty much ready to go. The stuff bomb was a direct result of re-arranging our bedroom to make room for the pack 'n' play for the baby to sleep in until we figure out how to make us all fit better. We got most of the major furniture back in Friday night when we re-arranged, but all the random stuff from all over the room is still mostly all over the rest of our house right now. I'll definitely finish getting that cleaned up tomorrow though (well, the stuff I can actually lift) since we're supposed to go see a show with my aunt and will have a babysitter over. It's really only clutter, toys, and a load of dishes at this point, but it seems like so much more since we've got such a small space.

The remaining things on my list of "things to do before the baby gets here" mostly pertain to Christmas presents. And I'm pretty sure that our family would forgive us if we were a little late on the presents this year. Something about providing them with a second grandchild/niece or nephew...that should be enough for one Christmas, imo.

Anyway, the musical went well. VNB did a great job, and I managed to waddle my way through.

But we're definitely in the home stretch with this little one. So very different from those last few weeks with AJ when we were trying to get him to turn over by every means possible. I can see the attraction to planned inductions and cesareans since this waiting is so hard to do. But at the same time, it's far healthier for the baby to come whenever s/he is ready...I just wish I knew whether or not I need to get a "baby's first Christmas" ornament. :)

My Little Helper

So one of the first things I did during this horrific pregnancy was teach AJ to pick things up for me. It took a few months, but I can pretty reliably say "AJ, would you pick that up for Mama, please?" and have him actually do it in a relatively timely fashion. He's also started enjoying putting things in the trash...and only occasionally digs things _out_ of the trash.

Anyway, a few weeks ago he did something that completely shocked the socks off of me. I was folding laundry and had left a pile of clothes for the baby on the coffee table for sorting into types and sizes. It had been there a couple of days when it got knocked off into the floor sometime that I wasn't in the room. That didn't surprise me at all (well, I was a _little_ surprised that it took a couple of days). What surprised me was that as I was walking into the room, without saying anything about it or even looking upset about it, AJ started picking up the clothes and putting them in a pile on the table. And he kept going until all of the clothes were picked up. No one asked him to, he just did it. I think I nearly cried.

Then just now, I was finishing up the water in a water bottle in order to keep the vultures from backwashing into it (the vultures in this case would be AJ). When I finished, he fussed a tiny bit that he hadn't gotten any, then took the bottle, I assumed to play with it. He then proceeded to the kitchen where I heard a cabinet open and close. A minute later, he was back in the living room with me, but without the bottle. It was then I realized that he'd thrown the bottle away for me. Now, I fully expect to have to fish it out of the trash to put it in the recycling...but such independence! Such understanding of the situation! Such a continuation of the Turner and Jones tradition of just doing what needs to be done without having to be told exactly what to do!

I was (am) so proud of him! As he came back into the room, I asked him if he'd thrown the bottle away and he nodded and smiled. I grabbed him and hugged him and told him what a good boy he is, what a good helper he is!

It's amazing to me to see him grow so much. I remember how little he used to be - the lump of not sleepingness he used to be. He's so creative in his play (anything can become either a phone or a hat, and many things that one would never anticipate can become train tracks). And when he's play talking on the phone, he actually has pretend conversations. When he drops practically anything, but especially one of his trains, he picks it up, looks it in the "face," and asks if it's alright. He even "reads" books to himself sometimes.

I'm just amazed by this little person who gestated inside of me for close to 9 months. It's hard to imagine that lightning could strike twice to give us another one as amazing...but at the same time, it's hard to imagine that this new little one could be anything but amazing him or herself.

But here's hoping that s/he is a better sleeper. :)

Measuring Small...Again...Some More...

So with AJ, I measured consistently small for the last few months (by "measuring small" I mean that they measure the "fundal height" of my uterus (from my pelvic bone to the top of my uterus) while I'm lying on a table. The measurement is supposed to roughly equal (in cm.) the number of weeks gestation I am). With him, it was only a cm or two, it was consistent, and it was because he was breech. Apparently breech babies take up less space. This time around, when I've measured small (which has happened randomly throughout the pregnancy), I've measured _WAY_ small. They sent me for a sonogram to check on things a couple of months back and Baby was fine, just 35th percentile for weight/size. That's small, but not abnormally so. And I'm all for birthing small babies. I even had an above average amount of amniotic fluid.

Well, I'm just over 38 weeks today and at my appointment, I measured 29 cm.!!!! That definitely concerned the midwife some (although Baby's moving around plenty (still trying to escape through my belly button) and the heartbeat was strong), so she sent me for another sonogram. Baby still measures fine (and is _DEFINITELY_ head down this time!!!! Woohoo!!!!), and my fluid is on the low side of normal, but still well within the normal range.

So apparently this baby is going to be able to fit easily into small spaces. Maybe s/he will be the next Houdini. It's interesting though because my lung capacity doesn't seem affected, my bladder doesn't seem overly affected, and the indigestion has actually gotten better lately. So somehow, this little one has managed to squish my organs less, grow normally, and _still_ seem small from the outside.

Big things come in small packages?

And for those of you who want these types of details, ~1cm, 50%, and -2. If you don't know what those numbers mean, you probably don't _want_ to know.

Our hope for the week is that baby waits until at least Sunday night. It's not _that_ big a deal for me to miss the musical (performances are Saturday and Sunday at 6 - Saturday's a dinner theater though, so dinner starts at 6 and costs $10 - see here for details), but VNB is one of the principal characters and would be very torn/distracted if I were in labor during the show. Even if it were only early labor. And it would be hard for him to be gone from one of the dress rehearsals this week...so it'd really just be best to wait till next week. That's closer to the due date anyway.

In the Stillness of Naptime...

That sounds like a poem title that they'd make you read in high school.

But instead of a poem, you get my random stream of consciousness again...

So last night I filled up the car with gas. At $1.75 a gallon (minus our 5% discount for using the Shell card at the Shell station, which I would highly recommend). The thing is, I remember exactly when gas got to be $1.75 in the first place (i.e., the last time it was that "cheap"). I went on a trip to Nigeria with some folks from church back before VNB and I were married. When we left, gas was an "astronomical" $1.50-ish. When we got back, it had "skyrocketed" up to $1.75 and we were all shocked at the change in price in so short a time period. This was late August of 2005 and Hurricane Katrina might have been building in the Atlantic at the time. So anyway, it's been over three years since gas was this cheap. Just thought you'd like to know.

Yesterday I also was sent another rumor on the astronaut hopefuls email list. This time, someone had heard from someone who'd actually talked to someone in the selection office that if the references hadn't been contacted by now, they weren't gonna be and therefore I'm not in the "highly qualified" group this time around. But they'd also heard from people close to the selection office that references might be contacted throughout the interview process (which ends in January). I'm still gonna keep checking the mail through Thanksgiving, but I'm pretty sure I didn't make the cut this time around. :( Oh well, the only people I know of who got picked on their first try are the Mercury 7. Granted, I haven't done _any_ research in that regard, but it makes me feel better.

Heh....so much for the "stillness of naptime." He took forever to actually go to sleep, but he woke up right when he normally does (lately anyway). And he's quiet again. Yay for dozing back off!

And he's crying again...

And quiet...

Anyway, and I found out this morning that my mom's gonna be able to come into town for the weekend (which happens to also be my baby shower)! She's coming tomorrow night and staying through Wednesday afternoon! Woohoo! I planned the date of my wedding shower so that both my folks and my (future) in-laws could be there...which happened to be a date that almost no one else could come. My in-laws made it to AJ's baby shower, but it was looking like this was going to be a "friends only" shower this time around. So yay for my Mommy!

So two nights ago I got into bed probably around 10...and by midnight had given up on getting to sleep, so I got back up and piddled around until 2. At which point I slept pretty well until VNB's alarm went off, then slept again until AJ woke up. Last night I got to sleep around 11:30 or 12 and slept until 2:45 when I woke up thirsty. Getting up to get a drink (and go to the bathroom and eat a few more tums) woke me up enough that I couldn't get back to sleep. I kept trying until 4 when I gave up again. I stayed up until VNB's alarm went off (5-ish), then crawled back into bed as he was in the midst of his morning "hit the snooze button several times" routine. I remember him getting into the shower, but not out, so I slept from about 5:20 until AJ woke up right around 8. The last two days, I've almost actually napped while AJ did (I actually put the computer down and closed my eyes and did my best to get comfortable, which is impossible at this point and one of the main reasons that I'm not sleeping). Today, despite being just absolutely wiped out, I stayed awake. Hopefully I'll be so exhausted by bedtime that I'll conk right out and sleep through till morning (yeah, right...that's what I thought _last_ night). I really don't mind the lack of sleep so much as I mind the extra queasiness that goes along with it. I'm really tired of being sick.

So woohoo for being "full term" on Saturday!

Ok...that's it...he's asking to get out of his crib now. I have to stop pretending to ignore it.

Toddler Lounge Chair

So my in-laws have been storing our rear-facing baby seat for us since AJ stopped needing it. Since Baby will need it soon, we brought it back with us last weekend when we visited. My original plan was to just go ahead and hook it into the car so that AJ could get used to it being there, but then I remembered that I was in charge of getting all of my church's Operation Christmas Child boxes to the collection center this week. Since that'll take up all of our trunk space and then some, we didn't install the seat and today I got the last of the remnants from our trip (and things since) out of the car.

One of the first things I brought in was the car seat. AJ seemed to recognize it, so I asked him if he remembered sitting in it when he was a baby. When I finished bringing everything in, AJ pointed to the seat and asked "Baby?" To which I replied that, yes, the baby was going to sit in the seat. Then he looked like he wanted to climb in, so I helped him in and handed him his snack bowl. Now it's sitting in the chair with his snacks on his lap like it's a lounge chair, watching Thomas. Except for it being reclined a bit more than he'd seem to like (he sits up occasionally), he really seems to like it. Hopefully he won't mind sharing with the baby.

Heh...he just handed me his empty snack bowl and asked for more raisins. I'm not sure he can get out.

Well, I was going to upload a picture of him sitting in it, but while my camera knows that it's connected to the computer, the computer can't seem to see the camera. Sorry!

Waaaaaaay Too Early

So lately, I've slept pretty well from the time I get to sleep (depends on when I go to bed, but usually somewhere between 9:30 and midnight) until about 20 minutes prior to VNB's alarm going off (around 5:15 on weekdays). Then I'm cognizant enough of the fact that it's about to get kinda noisy for a little while (with alarm snoozes and then his shower) and usually just a touch queasy that it's hard for me to get back to sleep until after he leaves. Then I sleep until AJ wakes up, usually between 7 and 8 (although I don't go into his room to get him until at least 8).

Last night, VNB fell asleep on the couch with specific instructions that I _wasn't_ to wake him when I went to bed (he's got a cold and was sleeping off the store brand Nyquil), so I did something I only rarely do. I read a book in bed before I fell asleep. Which meant that I was up later than normal (I probably turned off the light sometime after midnight). Then I was either still awake when VNB came to bed, or that woke me back up. Then I woke up around 6:30, wide awake.

That's just wrong on a Saturday morning. Granted, VNB has someplace to be shortly, so it's not like I was gonna get to sleep in today, but still.

In any case, not being at all sleepy and being a little bit queasy, I got up and did what any pregnant woman would do. I went to the bathroom, then I made myself a caffeine-free Coke with lime. Mmmmm...healthy breakfast. Hey...there's fruit in there. It's like it's a fruit smoothie, and everyone knows _those_ are healthy, right?

So in between getting VNB out the door (it's "build the set" day for our church's Christmas musical, plus he's got another trustee thing to do), I've just been sitting here, catching up on emails and watching the leaves fall from the trees behind our building. It's actually quite lovely.

And all of that together meant that you got a late posting last night and an early one this morning. Both about absolutely nothing. It's like a Seinfeld episode! Woohoo.

And the baby has his/her morning hiccups.

Almost Forgot...

I was just about to go to bed when I realized that I'd almost forgotten to post today. I keep waiting until the mail's come to see if there's anything exciting to report (nothing today, although I'm not sure how we got on Eddie Bauer's mailing list...wait...yes I am...we got an EB car seat...one of the great questions of the universe answered...)...anyway...so I wait and then almost forget to post for the day.

Arg...the baby has hiccups again. Somehow s/he is hiccuping on a nerve or something. Dude...that just feels weird.

Ok...off to bed for me and my hiccuping belly.

Randomness

So more stream of consciousness from me today...

I had my 34-week check-up this morning at which the midwife was pretty sure the baby was, indeed, head-down and ready to go! Woohoo! Now if the heartburn would just stop. And the itching. And, you know...everything else that's uncomfortable....and this would be a "normal" pregnancy finally. Actually, the heartburn, itching, and uncomfortableness _are_ "normal pregnancy" unfortunately. But I'm still waiting for that "glowy" feeling that pregnant mamas are supposed to have. You know, the joy of new life growing inside of me. I keep hearing that I'm supposed to feel that way. Maybe someone should mention that to my back. And my esophagus. And my skin. And everything else that hurts, itches, or is just uncomfortable in some way.

But I _do_ have to say that this definitely feels different than the end of AJ's pregnancy did. I didn't get the "about to drop a bowling ball" feeling until about five hours before he was born. This one still has about six weeks to go (or thereabouts) and I already feel that way whenever I stand up. It's a rather...interesting...sensation.

So I'm a member of all sorts of online survey sites and things of that nature in an attempt to make a couple of easy bucks here and there. So far I've probably made like $0.000000000000000005/hr that I've spent filling out surveys and the like (and that includes the $30 I got for showing up to an online focus group just barely in time, which meant that they were already full and I didn't have to do anything). But today there was a pleasant surprise from the UPS man - 54 Luvs diapers for us to test out. Considering that Luvs is our normal brand of choice anyway, they basically just gave us $10. And I didn't even know it was coming!

Now if NASA would just hop on that "unexpected surprise" bandwagon. The mail hadn't come when I checked around one Veggie Tales video ago. Is it a bad reflection on me for me to measure time in Veggie Tales videos? There are worse things for AJ (and me) to watch. And he's started asking for "Bob." He really means Larry, but whatever - it's a nice break from "Ta" (Thomas) or "May/Vroom vroom" (Mater from the movie Cars, although I think he really means Lightning McQueen - hence the "vroom vroom").

So there ya go...this is what I think of during the afternoons.

Home Again

So we drove back from NC today. Well over 5 hrs in a car, if you include the stop at one of VNB's college friends' houses to meet a new baby and all of the other pit stop breaks.

AJ slept for about 2.5 of those hours and pretty much entertained himself the rest of the time. We're still surprised, given that he screamed most of the way down there.

Still no word from NASA, although there are people on the Astronaut Hopefuls Yahoo! Group that have been asked to come down to interview without having their references checked. There's speculation that the selection office is trying to catch up from...well, the poster said Hurricane Rita, but I'm pretty sure they meant Gustav. Still a few weeks of hope.

Boy am I ready to not be pregnant anymore. I mean, I'm looking forward to Baby #2, but right now overpowering that is the desire to be done with pregnancy. I can't tell you how great it's been the last two days to have about half an hour of feeling "normal" before the morning (slight) nausea set in. But seriously...7.5 months of nearly constant nausea? Are you kidding me? Not to mention other stuff. I'm so ready to be done.

But in the meantime, AJ has decided that the baby is hungry, so he just finished sharing his chicken finger with the baby through my belly button.

Blah, Blah, Blah

It's bad when on November 9th I already have nothing to say.

Well, right this second, Baby Jones has decided (for about the fiftieth time) to attempt an escape through my belly button. I keep pointing out to him/her that my belly button is _not_ the correct escape route, but s/he is not interested in my advice.

Drug-Free Day Three!

So, while I'm definitely still feeling the "morning" sickness, Day Three was definitely do-able!

I was starting to get worried that I'd have the baby and still have issues with needing the Unisom. So woohoo!

Drug Free, Day Two

So two nights ago, I just forgot to take my 1/4 tablet of Unisom (for the "morning" sickness that I still have). Yesterday was a pretty good day, so I didn't take it again last night. I didn't sleep all that well either night, but I didn't sleep a _whole_ lot worse than I normally do. (When it takes a crane to turn you over, you tend to wake up every time you do...which is often because there are 30 extra pounds weighing down on your hips...and then there's the indigestion...)

But the times that I've tried to go without the drugs, it was the second day that was the real killer. So we were kinda concerned that today would be awful.

But it wasn't.

Up till now, I haven't made it to day three, so we'll see how it goes tomorrow. I may be drug free, finally after almost 8 months! Woohoo!

Wide Eyes

So AJ was "playing" with the baby a few minutes ago (kissing, sharing the sippy, peek-a-boo, etc.) when the baby started kicking. AJ was somewhat occupied, so I grabbed one of his hands and put it where the baby was kicking.

All of the sudden, he stopped whatever he was doing, and looked up at me with the biggest eyes I've ever seen. His mouth was a nice "o" shape too. I think it kinda wigged him out a little.

But a few minutes later, he put the baby "to bed" (i.e., pulled my shirt back down), then pulled my shirt back up, and put his hand on my belly. His eyes got big again (the baby wasn't moving as much) and he whimpered, but then put his hand on again.

I wonder how much he understands when I talk about the baby. That's got to be a completely foreign concept to him. I've never wanted to know exactly what someone else is thinking as much as I do with him. What thoughts go through his head? Are they more like what comes out of his mouth, or like Stewie from "Family Guy" (hopefully minus the thoughts of matricide and world domination)? I mean, I doubt he's thinking about Schrodinger's equations or something, but what does he think about all day? What goes through his little head?

Anyway, I guess I'm gonna try to NaBloPoMo, but I'm not gonna knock myself out if I miss a day.

Cute Overload

So we've been doing what we can to prepare AJ for the new baby. He's still a 'little' young to really understand anything, but we do our best. Whenever he sees my belly, we talk about the baby in it. Whenever we see another baby, we talk about the baby we'll be bringing home soon, etc. Mostly we try to convince him that his belly isn't named "baby" like Mama's is.

Originally, I'd planned to mess with him a little (hey, he's _my_ kid - if _I_ can't screw him up, no one's allowed to!) by teaching him that my belly button was the microphone that he needed to talk through in order to speak to the baby. That was _way_ too advanced a concept for him this go 'round (maybe next time?! Or will he be too old then?). So we've stuck with just pointing out babies and talking about babies and how we're going to have one soon.

But usually if you ask him where the baby is, he'll point to my belly. And often when I'm sitting on the couch, he'll ask to "see" the baby (or ask where the baby is), and we'll play peek-a-boo with my belly button (this can become rather embarrasing when I'm wearing a dress). If you ask him to kiss the baby, I'll get a bunch of slobber on my belly (good for moisturizing? Stretch mark repair serum? Maybe I should bottle his drool and sell it...).

But his favorite thing lately has been to give the baby a drink from his sippy cup. He puts the cup up to my belly button, then I make slurping sounds and thank him for sharing with the baby. He figured this out all on his own.

That's our boy - _way_ too smart, _way_ too sweet, and _way_ too cute!

Who needs sleep?

So have you ever gotten into bed sleepy, with the thought that you've got as close to a perfect life as it gets...only to then remember that you might get to achieve your life-long dream of being an astronaut too?

I mean, seriously...I've gone on and on about how good God is to me before...but really...life can hardly get any better than it is right now. Does that seem an odd thing to say in the middle of a financial crisis in our country? I've got a wonderful husband who has his quirks, but who takes excellent care of me and who loves me very much. I've got the cutest, smartest, sweetest baby outside of a uterus right now...and another one (who is also the cutest, smartest, and sweetest - yes they can both share the titles) inside my uterus right now. We've got jobs, we've got savings, we've got a mortgage that we can handle for the foreseeable future, we've got minimal non-mortgage debt, we've got cars that work, we've got supportive families that love us, we've got a circle of friends who love us and pray for us, we've got a good church, and a cat named Monkey. I mean, seriously, what more could you ask for?

And I might get to be an astronaut too...

Yeah...break out the Farscape DVDs...there's no sleep for me for a while tonight...

Addiction?

So when I was horribly, unendingly ill at the beginning of this pregnancy, I decided to go the OTC route and "just" take vitamin B-6 and Unisom. For some reason unknown to science, this combination of drugs helps with nausea. No one's really sure why. Some speculate that it's a vitamin B deficiency that causes it...but no one really knows.

In my case, I found out after just a few months that the B-6 wasn't really doing that much for me, so I stopped taking it around the time I was starting to feel better. Since I don't really like taking _anything_ (and especially not the infamous "sleeping pills"), I was really far more concerned about the Unisom than the B-6. So about the time I cut out the B-6, I starting cutting the Unisoms in half. That transition went surprisingly well.

When I started feeling even better, I tried going one day on, one day off the half-dose of Unisom. That transition didn't go so well (I could tell a definite difference between the days that I'd taken it and the days that I hadn't), so instead I started cutting them into ~fourths. I've been doing that for a while now, so I thought maybe I could stop altogether.

Well, after hardly sleeping at all last night (my first night without - although, really, it's not like I've been sleeping _well_ lately, so last night wasn't _that_ much different), the morning didn't go all that badly. I felt a little "off," but really nothing that different from recent mornings. But around lunchtime I spent a second too long in AJ's room (where the combined smells are: dirty diapers, cat litter, cat food, an air freshener, and various un-lit but still pungent candles). Really, the smell wasn't that bad...but the combination was just enough that for the first time in several months (I think - I mean, there's been a morning dry heave or two, but no real food loss in quite a while), I saw my breakfast and morning snack all over again. It wasn't fun, especially with Baby now big enough to be pushing on my bladder with every heave.

Now I'm back to hungry, but not all that desirous of eating. I guess that's better than the last week or so when I just haven't been hungry.

But I think I'll wait a little while longer before I try stopping the Unisom again. I don't think I can cut the pills any smaller and crushed Unisom tastes _AWFUL_ (although not as bad as metronidazole - just trust me, it's nasty).

I will be _VERY_ glad when these extra hormones are gone and I feel "normal" again. Although I'm beginning to be concerned that at some point I'm just going to have to suck it up and go cold turkey on the Unisom - that's it's not a "morning sickness" thing anymore, that it's become a physical dependence. Which is exactly the reason I was leery of it in the first place.

Arg.

"Just" 11 more weeks. I can make it. We're almost to single digits!

THIS is Parenting

So since AJ's started being FASCINATED by anything violent or negative on TV, we've switched from watching whatever was on USA in the mornings to whatever's on PBS. Yes, I've succumbed to the world of "kids television." And I don't mind, really. Barney's not so bad, really, especially when followed with a chaser of Mister Rogers.

Especially when during Barney's closing credits, AJ gets an uncontrollable urge to dance (which means stomp his feet and clap, not anywhere close to in time with the music). Unfortunately, he was holding a ring from one of his stacker toys (the parent police put you in parent jail if a toddler's household doesn't contain at least one ring stacker toy - we have two, just for good measure). That prevented him from clapping like he had to do. So instead of putting it down on the floor (like everything else) or on the table that was between us, he insisted on handing it to me. After which he proceeded to dance in the cutest way possible to the Barney end credits music.

Then, when Mister Rogers came on, he spent the entire opening song ("It's a neighborly day in the neighborhood...") waving 'hello' at Mister Rogers.

These are the sweet moments that make it all worthwhile.

This next one had better be a world of cute. They're sure going to have a lot to overcome in the "making it all worthwhile" department.

Unisom and Vitamin B6 are my Friends

So the over-the-counter anti-nausea meds they gave me are vitamin B6 (50 mg, 3X a day) and Unisom (which I was only taking at night). I started taking them roughly a month ago now. Long enough, that I finished the last of the Unisom two nights ago. Since I'd been feeling better (12-weeks seemed like it really was the magic number this time - a nice surprise given that it was FIVE MONTHS with AJ. Granted, I wasn't nearly as bad with him, but still, FIVE MONTHS!), I'd cut back on the B6 to twice daily (if I took it too late in the afternoon, it made me sick anyway). And since I was still feeling better (better being a _very_ relative term, but still, I was better - I even cooked dinner the other night without gagging at all...of course dinner consisted of a bag of something that I could pull out of the freezer and dump into a skillet, but still, _I_ cooked it with _NO_ gagging!), I figured I could just not restock the Unisom. I mean, "all it did" was make me groggy in the mornings. Plus I was (am) concerned about getting dependent on it.

Yeah, BIG MISTAKE! While I've enjoyed not being drowsy these past two mornings, I have _NOT_ enjoyed the major relapse into constant nausea. Smells that haven't bothered me in a week, now make me puke again. Goody.

The worst part is that since I didn't restock when I was feeling _well_, now I have to go out while I feel barfy. Always fun with the most active toddler in the world.

Maybe I'll try just half a Unisom each night.

And to give him his props, VNB made me continue taking the B6 at night, even though I planned on stopping that too. Who knows how awful I'd feel if I hadn't done that!