Fantastic Four

Bo's birthday party was Saturday.  Sadly, I took about 4 pictures... total.  We had too much fun!  I am still glowing from being surrounded by our closest family and friends!  You wouldn't think that building a village in a small town like ours would be difficult, but finding the people that you really connect with... it takes work.  I don't care where you are.

Anyhow, Hubby is in the process of changing jobs.  He's working out his notice at one place and prepping to start at a new one in September.  This birthday needed to be low-key.  I started with our immediate families.  Then I added in our closest friends... you know... the ones your kids refer to as auntie and uncle?  Those.  Before I knew it, the guest list was at 20 adults and 22 kids.

I considered cancelling.

Then the text messages started coming in.  "Can I bring anything?" "What can I do?" "How can I help?"  "What size shoe does Bo wear?"  It really started to sink in that these are our people.  These are not the people to whom we are obligated.  These are the people that we are blessed to love.  They came early. They stayed late. We laughed. I don't know what anyone did. I hope everyone ate enough and chatted enough and left feeling as loved as I did.

Thanks, y'all.  For being my family.

That's not Mickey.

We're really loving the house that we're living in now.  It's been just incredible.  There are multiple rooms in the house where we can all 6 comfortably hang out together.  I forget sometimes that we have a large family by most standards... until it's been raining for a few days - then it all comes screeching back into focus.  

One of my favorite rooms is the laundry room.  It's HUGE - and it's mine.  Several days ago, I went in to get dog food, and when I picked up the bag a handful of kibbles and bits rolled across the floor.  Deep breath.  There's a rodent.  Upside?  No evidence of this rodent anywhere else in the house.  Downside?  RODENT.  

First step?  Denial.  It's a fluke!  I literally taped up the hole in the bag and told myself it was a fluke.  It was a friendly country mouse en route to visit his friend in the city who stopped in for a snack.  Surely he wouldn't be back.   

But he was.  The next morning there was another hole in the bag.  Of course.

I bought the sticky traps.  Deep down I knew that this was going to lead nowhere good.  There was really only ever one plausible conclusion and it included a panicked (and STICKY) wild animal, hysterical me, and at least one (probably 2!) child(ren) who wanted nothing more than to see what the ruckus was and then put it's hands in it's mouth.

I looked to the traditional traps, and I saw one thing.  SNAP.  Microscopic diseased blood splatters.  Think Dexter.

Nope. Nope. Nope.

This was one of those things that I was going to just have to power through.  I tossed the glue traps in the cart and left.

One night went by... no mouse.  Considered briefly baiting the traps, but the box said it would make the glue less effective.  I needed the most effective glue possible.  Considered briefly pouring extra glue on the traps.  Decided to just be thankful that I had put off my face to face with those beady black eyes for one more day.

Night two came and went.  No mouse.  Having found the silver lining the day before, I jumped directly to relieved.  

Sometime after lunch, I went into the laundry room and I heard it.  I heard the furious scritching of a mouse ... a BIG mouse trying to escape from a trap.  I couldn't even talk myself into getting onto the floor and putting my face in front of it.  I was afraid that the face of his oppressor might be the thing that gave him the adrenaline rush he needed to pry his body from the glue and jump on my face.  So I did what anyone would do...

I blindly snapped a picture and ran.

To be continued...

and then there were 5 M&M's...

Unfortunately, the threat of losing M&M's did not stop Bo from streaking through the school today.  He lost 5 M&M's for running away from his teacher naked after potty time.

It's a good thing he's cute.

He ate his lunch and went straight down for his nap.  Hopefully he was just testing to see if we'd follow through today.  I'm not done fighting the good fight.  We'll try again next week.

10 M&M's

I have a very intelligent, high energy, hard loving, hard living 3 year old.  He tests boundaries.  All the time.  We've tried many things to encourage him to follow the rules.  We've responded with anger and with love.  We've expressed to him that it makes us sad when he acts like a bad boy because in reality he's a very very good boy.  We've tried not responding at all in hopes that taking away the attention that comes with negative behavior will change it.  Unfortunately, nothing really seems to penetrate that hard curly head of his.

Yesterday, there was a teacher absent from his school.  (Praying for Mrs. Jen and her now removed appendix!  Love you, Jen!)  He was especially rowdy and had to sit out at recess.  I was mortified. This behavior is just not acceptable.  So, we're trying a new tactic.  After school, we put 10 Pecan Pie M&M's in a jar.

I don't recommend these M&M's.  I don't care how much you like Pecan Pie - just don't bother.

When he misbehaves, he loses a piece of candy.  After dinner, he gets to eat any M&M's that are left.  Last night, he had 5 of the 10 left.  Of course... we started at lunchtime.

This morning, we walked into school together.  He apologized to Mrs. Bobbie.  We talked to her about the M&M's.  If you are reading this, please pray that he has a better day.  It is just so frustrating to know what a sweet kid he is and have him act out this way at school.  I'm telling myself that as long as we don't stop trying to correct him, then we haven't failed yet.  Besides... he's 3.  3 year olds get to have bad days too.

My Second Home: Floyd Labor and Delivery Ward

Yesterday, I had a routine visit at the doctor's office.  All thanks to my blood pressure, we were sent back to the hospital.  To tell you the truth, I'm a bit tired of the same old story myself.  I was excited to meet Miss Jasper Wheeler on her birthday!  The nurse let us slip back to say hi before they strapped me to the bed.

I was in triage for about 4 hours before they put me in a room on the maternity ward.  I was told (again) that this was it.  I'd probably be here until 37 weeks - November 10.  The doctor visited this morning.  All my labs look good, and my blood pressure is down.  I'm convinced that the nurse at the doctor's office was using a blood pressure cuff that was too small and that contributed to my highly elevated blood pressure yesterday.  The doctor told me that I don't look toxic at all - always nice to hear.  

A determination will be made when my 24 hour test comes back after lunch, and I'll (hopefully) be discharged.  Bo has gone to stay with his Moma and Bepaw.  He'll be beside himself.  :)

Up until this point, I was counting down to 37 weeks, but now they're saying that we could go past that.  Good for the baby, but I'm OVER BEDREST ALREADY.  I'm going to work on having a good attitude.  A visit from the Wheelers will help.  Totally looking forward to that.

Baby Cheeks: Good News!

We had the first of our 2 weekly checkups today.  I got there about 15 minutes early in the hopes that they'd get me in earlier.  It was a joke.  My 10:30 appointment turned into an 11:15.  Ugh.  I understand that doctors typically run late, and usually my clinic is really good.  I think that when you're going twice a week, though, patience runs thin.

Anyhow - the nurse took my blood pressure... she and I both know that it's been pretty high (sometimes frighteningly so).  She gave me a funny look.  I immediately thought that I was headed back to the hospital.  NOPE!  It was 136/90.  If my count is right, that's lower than it's been in almost 6 weeks!  Also, there was no trace of protein in my urine!

Baby Cheeks wasn't as responsive as we wanted on the NST, but that's pretty much standard at this point, so I got the go ahead to come back on Friday.  

It's such a relief to finally have a good report!  Now the challenge is to remember that my good report is because I'm doing things correctly and not use it as license to go back to running around doing whatever I want.  Except Halloween.  I want to see the kiddos Trick or Treat!  Anyone have a wheelchair I can borrow for the night? 

35 WEEKS TODAY!

You'll have to forgive me.  The next few Mondays are BIG milestones!  Today we are at 35 weeks.  If Cheeks comes now, (s)he is considered late preterm - not a preemie!  (Okay - technically still a preemie, I guess, but you get it...)

I've done a lot of googling "babies born at 33 weeks" and "babies born at 35 weeks" and whatnot.  I noticed that many of the babies born in the 34th week still have feeding tubes, whereas the babies born at 35 weeks seem to be pictured without them.  I know it's not in the least bit scientific, but it does make me feel better.

Last night, I *think* we had some Braxton Hicks contractions.  They were short, but I'm almost sure that's what they are.  Could have been Cheeks pushing against my whole belly at once, but I kinda doubt it.

Doctor visit tomorrow!