(Almost) 38 week Tiger check up

So once again, I sat in the waiting room at the NWS health clinic for over an hour... stupid walk in appointments... there's nothing else available on a weekly basis, though... erg. Anyway, they told me that she would check me, so take off my bottoms, and she'd be in shortly... someone did come in, asked where my chart was, like I knew, and then left to "find it". About 40 min. later the midwife FINALLY came in and got things started... sheesh!

So she measured me, and I'm measuring right at 38 cm which is exactly on track, my blood pressure is still great, no issues with that, no swelling or weirdness. She did his heart beat, but he really wasn't thrilled with that... kept rolling away from her! But his heart rate went up w/ movement so that's good, too. She also checked me, and I've progressed in the last week to two cm dilated, and about 60% effaced, and he's also (yay!!) moved down from almost too high to place in a "station" to -1 station, so that's definitely good, and also not in keeping w/ the other two boys at all. They were both way high till I started pushing pretty much.

I've also been having some off and on contractions, nothing that's lasted or been something I could really measure as consistent at all, but definitely doing what they're supposed to I guess, and getting us ready for Tim being born. So also good. Whether this means we still have 2 weeks or that he'll be born in the next few hours or days, I have NO clue. Josh was so text book and consistent once things started, and Sam was so NOT text book and refused to get in position even after they started pitocin and things were moving along w/ everything else, until HE decided he was ready, and then he came FAST.

Both situations were COMPLETELY different, and I have no idea what to expect from Tim at all! Which is kind of exciting, and kind of frustrating. But we have no real plans for the next couple of weeks really, and have all the really important things done that needed to get done, and while I'm certainly not what I'd term comfortable, I'm not in lots of pain or super UNcomfortable, either, so I'm more or less content to just wait on God's timing for us. I do tend to think he'll be here before his due date, b/c of how things are progressing, but I'm not willing to bet on anything, especially after Sam!

I will say, though, that after some pretty intense contractions last night, that I now have my bag more or less packed, Tim's bag more or less packed, and a list of instructions for whoever ends up watching the kids/house/dog!! AND got the car seat unpacked from it's box and de-tagged. So now we are pretty much ready whenever he comes!

37 week Tiger Appointment

Sorry, no pix again... I should have maybe taken some of the new Naval Health Care Center (or whatever it's called), but was running late and very lost, so I didn't.

Anyway. I got to go by myself, no kids, thanks to my new friend Crystal Cantrell! She was awesome and agreed pretty last minute to watch the boys for me! YAY!

So I had gotten my windshield sticker on Tues. while the boys were at school (yet another wasted morning, as I found out that a few days later, due to the HUGE amt. of people needing said stickers just for the clinic, they decided to make it N/A for people who are only going there to have them and not going to the NWS for any other reason... that would be me... sigh...), and managed to get them stuck on the windshield in the more or less correct place before going through the gate. Woohoo! I was "on time" at this point... till I walked in and couldn't find signs anywhere to the OB clinic. Some nice sailors were standing around, so I asked one if there was a map, which he got for me (fairly useless, since it was confusing, complicated, and had a lot of stuff on it that wasn't built/ready yet... plus I'm HORRIBLE at reading maps!) and then took me upstairs to the "Women's Health" part himself... very sweet, and I think that was the main purpose of him and some others that looked like him being there.

Check in, and they say, have you been to the lab... routine question, to which I can normally answer Yes, but since I had NO CLUE where the lab was, or if they were still doing things that way, I had to say NO and go back downstairs and wander awhile before finding the lab for my urinalysis. Found my way back up to OB w/o too much trouble, and waited... and waited... for an hour... finally got called back, sat in a room and waited... and waited... for a half hour, b/c they forgot about me!! ERG!!

At least the midwife was nice and very apologetic about it when she came in... the staff was still all confused and settling in apparently, and just forgot I was in the room... or something...

At any rate, she did his heartrate (144-146, normal), measured me (normal), felt around on him a bit and commented that I was "all baby" which to me sounds an awful lot like, "Holy cow, that's a big baby in there!" I'm hoping I'm wrong...

After this she kind of got distracted and was watching my belly... kind of weird, but then she said, "Can you see him 'breathing?'" WHAT?? I didn't realize babies "breathed" before they were born, and certainly never thought you'd be able to SEE it! But apparently the last couple of weeks they start practicing breathing motions, but are not actually circulating oxygen or anything through their lungs. And as she explained this and I, too, lay watching my belly, I could see him breathe!! SO COOL!!

Anyway, I asked her to check me, since AJ was being pressured to go on a trip this week (no longer happening, b/c the short "keeper" mission he had been asked about first, turned into an open ended mission and that's not the sort of thing that's a great idea this close to Tim being born, probably), but I wanted to know what to tell him in terms of what she thought about Tiger being born soon/later and stuff. I was about 40% effaced and a "fingertip" dilated, but of course, like my other two stubborn sons, still WAY up high... my kids never "drop" till I'm actually in labor, and in Sam's case, sometimes declare their stubbornness and independence and willfulness by moving UP during labor... sigh... but at least there's some sort of preparation going on there, so maybe he'll be just a teensy bit early! Not TOO early, I still have stuff to get done, and would really like that October birthday, but other than that...

But on that front, I'm feeling much more ready, now that Josh's party is over and was a huge hit, and the house is almost clean... still need a couple more days to finish up baby laundry and cleaning out the guest room, and would really like to get the rest of the windows cleaned and some more "detail" type things done, but other than that, I'm feeling pretty ready!

Come on, Tim!! We're ready to meet you!!

Sam felt the need to catch up with his brother in terms of scars...

So this morning started off not super great, with crazy hyper Josh and slightly grumpy and still sleepy Sam... and out of patience quickly and still really tired Mommy. We were going to get donuts for breakfast for Josh's birthday, but he was being all defiant and wanting to control things himself this morning, and announced that he didn't want donuts, so there! So we stayed here and had cheerios (mommy missed those donuts, but my weight sure didn't!). Got worse when I went to change and dress Sam and discovered a really nasty poopy diaper... got him cleaned up and just took it all downstairs to wash out. While I was doing this, the boys were creating, as usual. Creating havoc, of course! I can't remember now what exactly they were into, but it was not on the "approved" list and they got into trouble. Got everyone breakfast (had to eat mine in the car, but that was fine), shoes on, bag packed, etc. and out the door to the car on time, for a miracle.

Made it to the Dr. w/ no trouble from the boys or traffic, and got there early. It was nice not to have to rush! Went to the lab, did my urinalysis, got checked in at the clinic... and sat... and waited. Finally got called to get my vitals about 15 min. after we sat down in the waiting room, not too bad. Then we came back out and waited for them to call us "in just a couple of min." Which turned into an HOUR! By this time of course the boys were crazy restless, Sam was wet again and there's no changing table in the bathrooms in the clinic (what???), so I just changed him on the floor and decided I didn't care if people were upset about it. Josh and Sam were running around, climbing in and out of chairs, stroller, kid chairs, turning every which way and generally just going nuts.

FINALLY they called me back and we got there and the nurse or tech or whoever said, "now, you know we're doing a Strep B culture today, right?" Um, no... no one happened to mention that to me, do you really think I would have brought my two BOYS to that type of appt?? I don't think so!! Erg... so I got undressed and sat... and waited... and sat and waited some more... finally Josh announces that he needs to go potty AGAIN... seriously?? OK, there happened to be a private bathroom connected to the exam room, thank goodness, so I just let him go in there. Sam, meanwhile, is uber sleepy and tired and grumpy and wants to be held and snuggled, which is what I was doing when the midwife finally appeared. Instead of me putting him down, she "let" me keep holding him while I lie back and she did the heartbeat (normal, though he wasn't too happy w/ her holding that thing on him... squirmy tiger), measured, and then did the strep swab. Um, OK... holding a 25 lb. kid while doing all this, not the best of positions, just so you know.

So we get it all finished up, and I go make my next appt. for the 24th (the day before Josh's party) and wait in the pharmacy to get my scrip filled, which amazingly didn't take all that long. Then we rushed off to CFA where we're meeting some friends for lunch, who are already there.

Which brings me to the most fun part of the day. So Sam ate some lunch (Josh had some fruit and one chicken nugget and a couple fries...), and they were both playing while Sandy and I caught up right outside the door to the play area. Sam wasn't mostly too thrilled about being in the play area, just was mostly running around our area and looking in the door and stuff. But he finally was playing w/ Evan in there, and next thing I know, I saw Evan run and "crash" into the padded top of the shoe cubbies, and then Sam trying to copy him, tripped and crashed into the actual cubbies. I go run in to grab him and when I picked him up, notice he's GUSHING BLOOD!!!!

So I grab him and rush out of the play area and yell for Sandy to grab some napkins to mop up some of it so I could look to see how bad it was. So I'm rushing a bloody child across the restaurant, and people are gasping and asking if I want them to call 911, and I'm trying to get them to let me get the bleeding under control for a min. so I can look at it. Sure enough, once the blood slowed down a bit I could tell that it was a pretty small, but pretty deep cut on his forehead. Nothing to call 911 about, at least not in that location. So I keep putting pressure on it till the bleeding slows down, and someone brought some wet cloths and an improvised ice pack which also helped, and Sam started calming down, and we kind of just settled down and let it get controlled. I figured I should probably still get it looked at and that it would probably need at least some glue to hold it together so it could heal up right, so Sandy offered to take Josh so I could take Sam in. So as we were trying to get everything together, the managers grabbed their first aid kit, Sandy ran out to her car to get hers, and some guy in the restaurant also went to his car to get his. Looking for butterfly bandages to hold the cut closed. No one had any, but Sandy had some neosporin and I smeared some of that on, and then just squished it closed with a regular bandaid, which worked amazingly well, actually.

We put Josh's seat in Sandy's car and I started off w/ Mister Sam to the closest emergency room, a few min. down the road. As I was driving, it occurred to me that maybe I should check w/ our dr. office on base to see if I should go there, instead. So they took his name and what happened, and made me an appt. for almost 2 hrs. later, with an urgent message to the nurse for her to call me for a phone consult about whether we should just go ahead to the ER or not. Meanwhile, I'm sitting in the ER parking lot, waiting to hear back from the nurse... she never did call back...

I called back about 20 min. later, and let them know I figured since our appt. time was in about 45 min. anyway, that we'd just head in to the base and not worry about the ER. So that's what we did, w/ a stop at the bathroom for me and some new clothes/diaper for Sam, who was covered in dried blood. And had a VERY wet diaper.

Didn't wait too long to see the Dr. and he came in and basically told me what I'd already guessed, and went off to find some Derma glue to glue the cut together. It came in an applicator that had both the nurse and the Dr. a little confused, but after several min. they figured it out, and got it glued, with absolutely NO fussing from my brave little man, Sam!! A sterile strip and a band aid, and we were out of there! He fussed a couple of times in the car when we had to get buckled up again, but then went to sleep and had a nice long nap, while Mommy washed the blood stains out of our clothes. Josh slept some at Sandy's, and Rachel (our neighbor across the street) came and sat here while I ran to grab Josh and bring him home, since Sam was still sleeping.

Sam didn't have much dinner, but ate some and is in a decent mood, so hopefully he'll be ok to sleep tonight and more or less back to normal tomorrow.

Poor Sammy, but glad he's ok and that it wasn't more serious. Also glad that blood doesn't really phase me too much, so I was able to handle the situation without panicking or anything. But Murphy really needs to find a NEW home!!

Trying to upload pix from FB or my phone on here, but in the meantime, if you'd like to see pix, look on my FB.

Only 45 days left????

OH NO! I'm soooo not ready for him to be here... except that I'm soooo ready for him to be here! I have SUCH a huge long to do list that I'd like to get at least a major part of finished, but have been unable to make much of a dent in it so far b/c other random things keep coming up (like having to sit at the lab for 2 hrs. to get a 1 hr test done... adn then go back another day b/c I didn't have time to wait for their slowness in getting my shot... erg!). And it's hard to get any major re organizing/cleaning out done till I finish the regular cleaning/cooking/laundry/etc. Which I'm also super behind on.

Here's my list for today:

Call Terminex to renew our termite bond and see if they'll come spray to try to kill some of these nasty bugs I've been finding

Call someone to powerwash the house SOON!!

unload/reload the dishwasher

finish the hand washing

clean up the kitchen

pick up the library/play room areas

clear off the couches and dining table

vacuum downstairs

clean downstairs bathroom

I think that's a fairly realistic list... I hope! I feel like I'm always going in circles, b/c as soon as I get one room mostly cleaned I have to go clean up whatever's been crashing around in the other rooms! Sam is definitely in the destructive phase...

Hopefully I'll get things accomplished today, and then I can move on to bigger things like cleaning out the guest room and getting the kids' clothes packed up and organized. And possibly having or at least organizing to have a garage sale. We need to get rid of some stuff...

Update: I have the kitchen, living room, and play room all picked up. Except for clearing off the couches. Working on the library, and then I can vacuum... maybe after dinner...