36 Week update

 Yep, 36 weeks!  Went to my appointment today and doctor decided she just couldn't stomach me and my blood pressure longer than one more week.  So tomorrow, hand doctor, possibly hand doctor sometime next week, NST on Monday, then Thursday I go in at 9:15 (same appt time as the day we decided to deliver Henri!) and I'll probably be admitted to the hospital by 10am on July 22nd! 

Please note this does not mean I want you all to come to the hospital.  Giving birth is a messy, not great endovour and I would much rather people see me at home!  I'd expect we'd be home by noon next Friday.

We've been so blessed having my Mothers of Preschoolers group bringing us dinner Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.  I'm exhausted and being on my feet long enough to make dinner, not to mention the carpel tunnel from cutting up ingredients, has made preparing dinners nightly a total pain, literally! This has been such a huge, huge wonderful thing to have!

Paul is staining the deck and keeping the lawn trimmed, my incredible babysitting co-op members (esp. Jackie & Dayna) and friend Jodi have all helped me so much by being available to watch the boys for my doctor appointments.  It's been so wonderful to go in to the doctor and just spend my NST time reading my bible (for those that aren't aware, I'm trying to read it cover to cover this year) has at least made my blood pressure lower than it would otherwise be at the doctor's office!

My parents will keep the boys while we are at the hospital, members of church have offered to get Carter to VBS next week, my mom is hoping to take off the first week in August, and my inlaws are coming the second week.

Thank goodness, because 3 kids is going to be quite the adventure!!!

Ballard Locks

Our adventure last week was to check out the Ballard Locks.  I had always heard it was a great place to take kids and, best of all... FREE! 

Luckily, my friend Christine was available and because of Vacation Bible School was minus one of her three children, so I had someone to help me with my two little bundles of energy.  35 weeks pregnant is not maybe the best time to let the children roam out in public....

We were very lucky and got to see both the small and large locks being used and the fish ladder was FILLED with huge salmon.

what a surprise, Henri trying to climb the fence.....

This one is my favorite!

The fish ladder....

35 weeks update

Carter took some pictures for me this morning...

why yes, that is my belly button way the heck over to the side.  Baby girl has been head down, leaning on the left for the last 15 weeks or so.

We are having record-breaking temps here and still have only the two window a/c units, it was 90 yesterday and is supposed to hit 94 today.

Here's the scoop. No baby today, but baby is happy, 5.5 pounds and perfectly well. She'll be fine no matter when she's delivered.

My NST (non-stress tests testing her heartbeat and movement) are being upped to 2 x per week, so I'll be going in Mondays and Thursdays until she's born.

We plan to go to 37 or 38 weeks if possible, but if I cannot get my lower blood pressure number down below 100 for 24-48 hours, I am to call and be induced, no matter what day it is.

I'm also to take it easy and keep up the water.

Dr said, "baby's happy, but you are killing me with this blood pressure of yours, get it down!" She doubled the meds 2 weeks ago and it helped for about 4 days, she'll deliver rather than up them again.

Busy, busy day

Started this morning by getting back to gym class.  The boys were so glad to be back doing it and had a great time.  Then we drove to my old office in Seattle to say hello and go out to lunch with Cissie.  Then back to Kirkland to drop the kids off at Dayna's so that I could go to the hand therapist, then picked up kids and mom brought Etienne over to play with Carter.

Henri only slept from Seattle to Kirland in the car and we did all this plus, when I got home the nesting set in.  I spent 4.5 hours cleaning the garage.  I don't know if you've ever been in my garage, but we park two cars in there, plus keep our holiday decorations and hand me downs in labeled bins and our tools out there.  It's pretty darned organized.  Now, you may not want to lick the floor, but you certainly wouldn't think twice about eating a dropped cracker off the floor in there.  Henri was with me most of the time, so he was BEGGING to go to bed when I finally took a break to give the kids dinner and a bath.

The whole time my hands didn't go numb or hurt.  The only thing different they did at my hand appt was, get this... a parafin dip!  However, my butt and legs are a different story, the good ol' relaxin has also kicked in and is making my hips wobbly and waddling.  Wondering how I'll feel tomorrow when we go explore the Ballard Locks.

4th of July and pregnancy updates

For the 4th of July I have no pictures, so I'll just have describe it for you....

We went to some friends' house who lives on Cottage Lake (excuse the poor grammer, it's late!) and had potluck dinner, then changed the kids into pajamas and watched fireworks out their huge windows looking out on to the lake.  A highlight was when Carter decided to change upstairs in their loft and throw his clothes down, including his underwear, like a fancy stripper.  Awesome.

Anyways, Henri wasn't so sure about it, but once we got settled in, he thought they were quite awesome, esp when they were going off of the dock in front of us, and across the way, so that there was less delay in the action.  Then I sat with my legs up and he laid back on them with a sippy cup of water and decided this was the life and was quite happy.  Though I think he did about 150 situps going up and down trying to catch all the action.  Then when we were done with ours on the dock, he was the only one left in the dark living room and called to us seemingly saying, "hey, where are you going?  They're still going strong across the lake!" 

We loaded kids in the car and drove home almost over a family who decided the best place to light off fireworks would be in the middle of the road in the entrance of our development,   We pull in the driveway, get the kids to bed and our neighborhood looks like we're in a war zone.  Anywho, then, about 10 minutes later, this mysterious family drives up in front of the house that is for sale next door, opens their car trunk and starts shooting off fireworks in front of that house in the street.  5 minutes after that, our neighbor across the street comes out to talk to them, apparently to tell them to move along.  Which they did.  2 driveways.  So now they are parked in front of our house lighting off fireworks.  We turn lights on thinking maybe they'll move along.  Nope.  Paul goes out to talk to them, asking nicely if they could move along, our strip of road didn't have fireworks on it and, frankly that's probably the safe thing.  See our road has been deemed too busy to put speed bumps on and it's quite curvy. 

She tells Paul basically that we are a bunch of non-patriotic people with sticks up our butts.  He points out that he doesn't like fireworks landing on the roof while his family is sleeping.  She insists they aren't.  Just then they all turn to watch still-flaming pieces of firework debris land on our roof.  They ended up moving along.  Seriously.  Go home or find a friend who has a home who will let you use their driveway like everyone else.  Sheesh.

Oh, so about the pregnancy thing.  My body's getting ready, I feel like this kid could fall out at any minute.  We don't know what's going on with the blood pressure, because it's up, it's down, we get high readings on one arm and low on the other.  We do know the change in meds has made mommy very sleepy.  It's been over a week and I'm still a zombie about 30-45 minutes after taking the increased dosage.

On Thursday, look for an update as to how my appt went.  I think it's in the late morning, I should bring a snack now that I thiink about it.  We're doing an ultrasound, a non-stress test and regular OB appt, who knows what all she's going to check and going over my blood pressure readings for the week (I turned in last weeks' when I went for my NST with the nurse) and we'll talk about how things are going.  I'm hoping to find out a little more concretely when we'll be expecting this little girl.  Hopefully she doesn't say "today" because I'm so not ready.

To keep busy while waiting for the appt, tomorrow gymnastics starts up, thank goodness.  Henri has been climbing the walls, chairs and whatever else he can.  In fact today I think was "If I can't reach it I'll find something to stand on it so I can climb to it" day.  Then we'll go have lunch with an old co-worker and walk around my old office in Seattle, then we'll head back to the Eastside, I'll drop the kids off at a sitter and go for my hand therapist appt for the pesky carpel tunnel.  Then I believe Etienne will stop by while my mom heads into her office for an hour or two.

Wednesday I thought since the weather should be nice and we have nothing else to do, we'll check out the Ballard Locks which we've never done.

Confessions of a Reformed Pack Rat

Someone on a message board I frequent asked about how to get started decluttering.  As a reformed pack rat, I shared some advice with her that some of my other friends may like, so I'm putting it here as well...

I am a reformed pack rat. Growing up and being single, even when I was working FT, I kept everything. Never knew when you were going to need it, right?


Then I started staying at home. In the clutter. Every day. It made me insane!

Now people can come over and I'm not embarrassed. People marvel about how my house is neat whenever they come over. Decluttering is key, you are correct.

Get rid of the knick knacks, esp ones you don't care about (you can also take pictures of them and get rid of the knick knack!) and take care of papers immediately.

I open my mail and sort it AT THE MAILBOX or immediately upon getting in the house and recycle the junk and envelopes. Then bills and such get put in my inbox which gets cleared out at least once a week. My inbox is never allowed to be higher than the top of the inbox.

About donating. Do not save for a garage sale. It's too much work and then the clutter is STILL IN YOUR HOUSE! I mean, maybe if you are committed to doing the whole house, set a date for a garage sale and have it, but then donate the rest immediately. Then using either big boxes you get or garbage bags keep 2-3 in your garage of stuff you come upon on a daily basis that is outgrown, etc. and when you get 2-3 call a truck to pick it up or drop it off. I recommend:

www.satruck.com Salvation Army (they no longer accept toys, though) you just go online tell them what you have and what day to pick it up.

Community Services for the Blind will also come out. They take toys and I think they have a once a month schedule of when they will be in your area. Punch in your address and tell them you want them to be sure to stop on that day.

We also get Northwest Center sending cards in the mail that they will be coming on a certain day.

Toys & Clothes: If you or your kids don't love it, don't fit it, it's not the right age or they or you haven't touched it in 6 months, get rid of it. If your youngest is 5 and you have maternity clothes or baby clothes, get rid of them, you probably aren't the same size anyways and the kids' clothes are probably out of style.  You probably know enough friends with kids that if you get rid of your kids' clothes or your maternity clothes and God has other plans, you can probably scurry around and find enough second hand things to use.

Books Once you read it, if it is not a reference book donate it or pass it to a friend. You can always get it back at the library.

Manuals and Parts Do you even own the appliance anymore?

Broken things Fix within a month or trash and get a new one. It is no good to you broken! This includes toys missing pieces.

Food/pantry items I kept throwing away expired stuff or having stuff that I never used and it was taking up my pantry. By going through and either using stuff up or donating it, I now use half my pantry for storage, half for groceries! I now shop once every 10 days or so and ONLY buy what is needed for that week's menu. Sure, I'm not stocking up on sales, but that's a savings issue, not a decluttering issue.  Plus, I'm not spending money on stuff I'm throwing away because I couldn't find it before it expired.

Toilettries- see above. These things go on sale often and aren't really that expensive. Use up what you have, donate stuff that people gave you that you will never use to a women's shelter and buy shampoo when you run out of it.

Have you seen the show the show that used to be on TLC? I think it was Clean Sweep. They emptied the whole rooms, but you don't have to go to that extreme, but they had keep, toss, donate. Keep it if you love it, need it, use it donate if you don't but it's still usable-duplicate items, no longer use it or need it or love it. Trash if it's just junk.

Is it important to you or someone else? I have received stuff from people that was important to THEM, but not me.  I don't need to keep it if it's not important to me!

Things like roasting pans, stuff you only use once a year either store in a hard to reach place or just get rid of it and borrow it from someone when you need one! It's not like you are going to wake up Christmas morning and say, "hmm... I think I'll roast a turkey" no, you go to the store 3 days in advance, thaw it, etc. Find a friend who is going somewhere for Christmas and won't be using their pan and borrow it! Also, remember, you need one set of everyday dishes, one of china. I had some china from my first marriage for 4 people, I had gotten the set from my grandmother who entertained a lot. I gave away the smaller set to an organization that is for single women getting out of homelessness.
examples: my soy milk maker-I hadn't used it, um, EVER and had held on to it for 2 or 3 years and was no longer lactose intolerant. I sold it on Craigslist for a nifty $25; Cutting boards- I think I had 6 and they didn't fit in the shelf I had allotted, so I got rid of 2.

Decide on how much space you want to devote to something and stick to it. Some examples for me: One shelf of home improvement/gardening books, one of parently books, one of cook books. One shelf of bath towels in the linen closet. One box of cleaning rags. One bin of hand me down clothing for the boys in each size. One shelf of wine glasses. I got rid of anything that didn't fit. It forced me to really decide which were my favorites.

Holiday Decor Every holiday, put out the pieces you LOVE. Donate the rest. Seriously. If you don't LOVE that plastic Frosty the snowman that you store 11 months of the year, get rid of him.

Don't buy party plates 75% off for holidays you don't have parties for. I had Happy New Year plates for literally EIGHT YEARS that I stored because I bought them at 90% off. I've never had a New Year's party. I used them as cake plates at birthdays for 3 years in a row and donated the rest to my mops group for crafts-putting glue or paint on. I held on to Halloween stuff to throw a party for 5-6 years before I actually threw one, and all the games and leftovers I DONATED. If I throw another party, they'll go 50% off 3-4 days before the holiday. I promise.

Hand Dr. update

So I've been sent to a hand therapist for the carpel tunnel.  It was awesome!  Warm heat packs, nice, chatty ladies and ultrasound and hand massages.  What, you want me to come back twice a week?  Oh, yes!

They also gave me exercises to do 3 times a day (I'll be starting those tomorrow, the paper's in the car and I'm already settled in for the night).