Merry Christmas

Baby Blues

Well this is my first post since P was born. He was 9 pounds 15 ounces and 21 inches long. I was induced and in labor for about 8 hours. It was one of my harder births even though I had an epidural. The epidural didn't go down far enough, so I was fully aware of everything that was going on once I was in the final stages. The doctor didn't really talk to me at all. P's heart rate kept dipping, so I was rolling on my side constantly even trying to push on my side, which was a joke. I had to push harder and longer than I've ever had to push. I kept saying to myself that the harder I pushed the sooner the pain would be over. I won't bore you with the complete details.

I don't know if I have the baby blues or if I am just at my absolute limit. There is no down time, things are constantly in motion. P is a great baby, thank the lord. In the midst of all of this I have decided to sit for the bar exam again because I failed it this summer. So I have completely lost my mind, even typing it I am shaking my head. I don't know how I am going to manage this. I just feel like I need to try while the information is fresh in my head. Plus I just don't know how I will manage it any other time until maybe 5-6 years from now. The husband is going back down range summer/fall so this really is my best option for a while.

So I haven't been posting, because I haven't had much to say. The kids are great. The baby is great. I on the other hand am feeling like I don't have skin. Hard to explain, but I am just not quite myself yet.

You Know You're Having Another Big Baby, Right?

I went to my orientation at the new hospital yesterday and also managed to score an appointment with a nurse practitioner. She informed me that I will be having another big baby. Yippee!! Big babies are great because they sleep longer faster, but they have to come out first, which is not a yippee!

Anyways my next appointment is with a doctor who the nurse assured me would be more likely to listen to my inducement request than any of the male docs. So we will see how that goes.

Baby Saga

Okay, so as you can tell from the baby ticker I only have about six weeks to go. Which is a lot of time, but is not much time at all, all at the same time.

So here is my problem. I was supposed to have the baby onthe post where we are currently living. Unfortunately we, meaning the clinic and myself, are having some serious differences in opinion. The first is that they think it is okay not to have bathrooms in the hospital rooms and have everyone use a communal bathroom at the end of the hall. Too gross, just too gross. Then I spoke with a midwife who had the nerve to tell me that the size of the baby does not affect the amount of pain you are in during delivery. Obviously a woman who has never birthed a baby over 8 pounds. Let me tell you, after having a 10 pound baby without drugs, it makes a difference, a big painful difference.

I have been trying to convince midwives and doctors to induce me at 39 weeks and they all refuse saying that it will only increase my chance of a c-section. Well I was induced with C and it took only 5 hours beginning to baby. No one is listening to me. There have been a couple of other things, but I won't go into too much detail as the bottom line is that they are not listening.

Then I heard from someone at my husband's work that the clinic here will not intervene until you are over 42 weeks. My first thought is that it must be some kind of joke. If I had a 10 pound baby at 38 weeks, how big will my baby be at 43 weeks. Give me a break.

Sooooo, with only six weeks to go, I am switching clinics. It will be a much farther drive and I am running the risk of birthing our baby on the highway, but I think it is worth it. The only scary thing is that the can't fit me in for two weeks, which means I will be 36 weeks at my orientation appointment. Seems ridiculous, I mean how much more do I need to learn with my fourth baby. Any ways, I am anxious but I think I made the right decision. My biggest fear is laboring for 24 hours and then having a c-section because the baby is so big and gets stuck in the birth canal.

The new hospital has private rooms with there own bathrooms, what luxury!! Who knew Fort Sill would be the standard I would compare other posts too.

Lemonade Will Make You Fat

The weather has been a little cooler here, so I took the boys to this giant playground the other day. We went earlier in the week and had it to ourselves, so I was a little surprised to see cars in the parking lot on Tuesday. At first glance it looked like four moms and their kids. After we were there for a while I figured out that there was only one mom and three nannies. We are so not in Lawton, Oklahoma any more!

I brought juice boxes and apples for the kids to snack on and Charley was carrying his lemonade around. One little boy was following him around talking to him, suddenly he spied the juice box and told Charley "Lemonade will make you fat." Fortunately Charley could care less. How sad is it that a four year old boy probably doesn't drink lemonade ever? My kids get lemonade every now and then, only in their lunches for camp or school. I remember drinking lemonade, it certainly didn't make me fat.

Quotes of the Week

As S handed me a dish towel that turned out to have the remains of a broken egg in it. He said "it was an egg-mergency." Considering that he took all of the eggs out of the carton while I was changing a diaper, I am grateful it was just one egg.

This morning when I replaced some dried out play-doh with brand new play-doh, H said "Let's rock this play-doh."

They crack me up!!!

Pulling my hair out

There are days as a stay at home mom that I just want to tear my hair out. Today was one of those days. This week has been a collection of those days. The thrilling threes are way worse than the terrible twos.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

I'm Done

I am home, got in late last night. After two days of sitting in a sadistic metal folding chair trying to squeeze every last drop of knowledge from my brain, I am done. I finished the bar exam and jumped straight into the car and drove four hours to get home.

I am totally worn out and so relieved to be done. Now the waiting, I won't know until October how I did.

I am just so glad to be done. Now I can focus on settling into the house and waiting for the new baby.

It's a Boy!!

The ultrasound tech announced today that our newest bundle will be a boy. Oddly enough my husband and I were stunned. We were so sure that we were having a girl. I think dear husband is thrilled because in the future he will always have a foursome for golf. I can't stop calculating grocery bills. Thank goodness for the commissary.

Newest baby boy has gigantic feet. Perhaps he will be an Olympic swimmer, he has Michael Phelps flipper feet. I think I may be in for another gigantic birth!!

So we are headed for the world of four boys!

Solidarity with Mommy

The boys are getting so excited for the new baby. I had to share this photo, how cute!!!

Pink!! Maybe...

This morning at the midwife appointment, the nurse could not find the heart beat, so she pulled out the ultrasound machine. I couldn't see a thing because she had her acu'ed arm in front of the screen, but my husband didn't see a penis. He swears he saw the railroad tracks!!!

When I was pregnant with C we went to one of those ultrasound boutique places to find out the sex early and as soon as she put the ultrasound probe on my stomach, I knew it was a boy. So this morning I just had a girl feeling. The midwife said that this time we might get lucky. So we will just have to wait two weeks until the official ultrasound.

Color Wonder? Color Scary!

I was very eager to jump on the Color Wonder and Go Paint band wagon. I love to let the kids paint, but we frequently have quarters that have cheap beige carpet, which means it is impossible to clean. The kids have not been huge fans, mainly I think because it takes a second for the color to show up on the paper after you paint, color, or stamp. The best is by far the Color Wonder paint that comes inside the paint brush. I think the worst overall is the finger paint because it inevitably gets under their fingernails and has a very odd consistency, particularly smeared on the carpet.

One thing that concerns me about these products is the ability to melt plastic. A couple of years ago one of my boys left a marker on something plastic and it left an indentation in the plastic. More recently I purchased the Go Paint Stampers for an airplane trip. Of course the caps that came with the stamps were lost very quickly. I left one in a bag sitting on top of a plastic fork. Lo and behold, the ink in the stamper melted part of the plastic prongs on the fork.

I don't know about you, but I have serious questions as to how these products qualify as non-toxic if the ink can melt plastic. That is why I will no longer purchase these products.

Man in Canoe

Okay so this morning I was watching the footage of the terrible flooding in Indiana, and what do I see, but a man in a canoe paddling across the flood waters. Now this man is not a rescue person, not a firefighter, nope, he is an average dude who has kept his canoe in his garage for just this occasion. I imagine that he has not taken the thing out in years, but along comes a flood, and he just has to canoe around the block. Am I crazy or is there always that one dude in a canoe in flood footage no matter what state in the United States there is some kind of flood? Amidst the raging flood waters there is some guy paddling along as if he is out on a Sunday morning taking advantage of the fine day.

Day Care

I suppose it would be a lot easier for me to go back to work if I could find a good care provider for my kids. My experience so far has been with three different preschools and two CDCs on post. Only one of the preschools either of my kids have been to felt right. H and S are currently going to a "Camp." I am skeptical because it is $50 more a week than their preschool program during the school year. They made it half an hour longer to justify the price. I have some small issues that I can totally overlook because my kids are having fun, but I hate dropping my children off with people who are not enthusiastic about children. I could totally run a daycare out of the house, but I am not enthusiastic about other people's children, so I abstain. I wish others would do so. I realize there is a lot of money in watching children, but come on, try to enjoy it. You can tell the providers who love what they are doing. For instance in Germany at the CDC there was Ms Darla. She was the best provider ever, hands down. She had so much joy in her face when she talked about the kids. She was one of a kind. H had a great teacher this past year, unfortunately we moved and had to leave before the end of the school year. She was so excited to teach S next year. Ugh.

I cannot imagine how tough it is for working moms to drop their kids off. I just wish that providers in general could put a little more pep in their step.

The Bar Exam

I am taking the Virginia Bar Exam. Two years ago I failed the North Carolina Bar Exam. My excuse was that my husband was in command and I found out I was pregnant after I sent in my application. Well this time I am pregnant with our fourth or as we affectionately call her, Delta. I will pass this time, no questions asked. I may go insane in the process, but I will do this. Any encouraging words would be very welcome, particularly in July!!

Rain Rain Go Away

We drove to North Carolina on Saturday to get C baptized. The trip took about six hours, seven if you include our hour long stop to let the kids stretch their legs. So on Sunday we left about 1:30 to head back home. It took us almost ten hours to get home. The weather was horrendous, torrential downpours and terrible traffic. A car driving behind us tried to whip around us and ended up spinning out in the median on a major highway. It was so scary. We didn't get home until after 11 pm. Then my poor husband had to wake up and drive to work, dodging flooded roads the entire way. It is still raining. I am just grateful that we didn't meet up with any tornadoes!!!

Moon Sand is the Devil

I used one of my Michaels 50% off coupon to buy Moon Sand for our airplane trip to Florida. Fortunately I wised up before the trip and did not take it along. This morning, prompted by a major rain storm, I cracked open the moon sand. What a total disaster!! Sand inside the house is not a good idea, even if it does stick together from time to time. I didn't buy the kit, just a tub, so we didn't have any of the molds you can use to shape the sand. It also meant that we didn't have the play mat. I would highly recommend some kind of mat on the table, because it took a lot of wiping and cleaning to get that stuff off of the table. Then I had to vacuum up all the sand that fell on the floor, it all came up, but left a very fine grit on the floor that won't come up.

I really can't say anything nice about moon sand. Save yourself time and money, don't buy it.

Another New House

We have moved yet again!! This time, we moved ourselves onto post. Wow, I thought pcsing was challenging, but moving on your own is a whole new category. My poor husband had some guys from work help him, but he was on the other end of everything that came into or out of the house. He worked so hard. Fortunately I was just exhausted, I thought at the time that I was just so miserable. That was until last week when the constant nausea showed up!! I had no idea that I would desperately want to go back to just feeling tired.

We love our new house, which makes the hassle of the Uhaul and the 40 plastic bins that we bought from Target worth it. The first morning we were in the new house the boys ran outside and played and played in the backyard. We'd gone almost a year without a yard and now we have a fenced in backyard which is so fantastic. Also for the first time since 2003 we have our own walls, no sharing, no duplex, no townhouse, just us!!!

Baby Number 4

I figured because I hadn't been blogging regularly no one was reading the blog, so no one would notice my baby ticker. I suppose I was wrong. The new news is that we are expecting baby number four or Delta as we affectionately call him/her November 19th!! We are excited, a little nervous about the prospect of four kids, but thrilled none the less. I am exhausted and very weepy, I was crying this morning watching some kids play soccer because they were working as a team.

I will keep you posted as to how things go!!

Chef Boyardee

When we lived in Germany there was this German restaurant right around the corner from our house. They had live lobster, which turned out to be two lobsters swimming in a galvanized tin tub by the front door. For lunch I opened a can of Chef Boyardee ravioli, which reminded me of the last time we got take out from that funny little restaurant. I ordered the ravioli and sure enough, it was Chef Boyardee. The first time we went, the schnitzel was dynamite, unfortunately each time we went after the first, the food was progressively worse, ending with the Chef Boyardee.

I miss Germany!! I hope some day we can be stationed there again, good thing there are awesome restaurants that serve real ravioli!!

What's in a name

I have been messing with the name of my blog, obviously. More sperm than sense was a joke. I don't know, my attempts at funny. Plus we are discussing having another baby. I think the crumb and snot thing is more accurate, a little more realistic. I think it seemed more relevant because I actually had snot drying on my leg from a little person's nose. H brought a cold home from school and now poor C is suffering the snots.

Despite signing up to run a 10 mile race in April, which would require losing large amounts of weight, we are discussing pushing the baby decision to an earlier time because we think the giant deployment is coming clock has started to tick. So here I sit on my large behind contemplating putting off weight loss for 9 months. Argh, not the original plan, but I am learning that it is futile to plan. LOVE THE ARMY!!!

One of those moments

It is one of those cold crummy winter days. It seems like it has been cold and crummy for years. So I decided to let the boys paint!! They love to paint, their arms, the floor, their feet, and sometimes the paper. They had a high old time. So when the painting was occurring less and less on the paper and more on other surfaces, I bundled them upstairs for a bath. They whooped and hollered, and best of all they giggled and laughed. I stepped out of the bathroom for a second to get something and I could hear their giggles reverberating through the house. There are days when I wonder why we are even considering having another child because my hands are full. Then we have a day like today, when I can stop and listen to their laughter and revel in the wonderment that is being a mother, especially a stay at home mom. I think the part of being a stay at home mom that is so fantastic is that you see everything. You are with them 24/7. I can totally anticipate their next move. Which is particularly great when I can prevent a disaster, like a banged head or a giant mess. I will have to come back and read this next week when I am pulling my hair out after cleaning up spills and messes all day long. I am very blessed to have a house full of laughter. I am blessed that I can be home to witness these moments. I am grateful for the moment of clarity.

Where Did the Gummy Tongue Come From

Today as I was walking past the living room rug I saw a gummy tongue on the floor. I am not sure what is more bizarre, the fact that it was on the carpet or the fact that I knew immediately what it was. I believe it was leftover from Halloween, but honestly I have no idea how it ended up on the floor.