Pukies and Edema

My baby boy is going to be two years old tomorrow. Looks like he is going to share a birthday with his "step"-cousin. His "step"-cousin's mommy-to-be is being taken off the pit. for the night, and, they'll gear things up again tomorrow. Or possibly do a c-sec then. Meh. Hospital births.

So yesterday was a gorgeous day (as was today), and it would have been so wonderful to have had a birthday party then. O. Wait. We were supposed to. D'oh! No, instead, little Mr. Man puked twice in the morning, with quite some force behind it. So, we cancelled the party. He was whiny and miserable the whole morning, although abouts two hours after his puking he ate two bowls of cheerios and had some Gatorade (he kept saying, "MMMM! Goooood!" to me as I was drinking mine), and managed to keep that all down. He then had a 4 1/2-5 hour nap. That evening, you would have never known that the boy had looked as though he was knocking on death's door that morning. The highest his temp got was 99 degrees, which, everyone now knows, is not 'actually' a fever.

So, I can't say if we're going to try and have a redo of his birthday. We *might* have a Happy Bday Ethan, come meet Rei party at some point later in the summer. But I can't pull something else together right now. And as Alex pointed out, Ethan really won't miss the party anyway at this age. Maybe if we wait 'till August, we can lump it ALL together: Ethan's 2nd, Leah's 6th, and meet Rei. Or maybe that's when we'll get her baptized. Hrrrmmmnnnnn . . . sure would make things simpler.

With the last two, I didn't have any edema until the week before I delivered. I've been having MAJOR edema since Saturday. I went and got a Mocha Frappe today so that I could make good use of caffeine's diuretic properties. It has indeed helped the swelling some, and I've peed more today than I think I peed all weekend. I don't know how much stock to put in the sonogram dating of my pregnancy. I feel right now as I did in the days prior to delivering Leah and Ethan. Maybe it's just wishful thinking. The 30th of May seems so very far away.

On the other hand, I need to get my butt in gear and get my stuff done for my class. Tomorrow should lend itself well to that. Well, sorta. I have a cake to make. And a parent-teacher conference to attend. Maybe I'll do it half-assed and leave the lightning bolt and the number 95 off of Mr. McQueen, and just make him a red car. That saves mixing up 3 extra icing colors as well as having to take the time to fade the yellow into the orange on the lighting bolt. He can be all Radiator Springs repaint style. Then all I need is red, blue, and black. And white, but white doesn't require extra mixing. Though, I can't remember what color they made the hubcaps. But grey isn't too hard to do, I just scoop some icing out as I'm mixing the black icing.

There's two weeks left until the semester ends. I gotta get my butt in gear. Rei is going to be a coffee junkie. I'm horrid.

Slow Down!!

We think that little Rei is eager to be here. I spotted--again--on Thursday. So, off to the midwives we went, where I was examined and found to be okay (cervix closed and all that stuff, ya de ya da), and was then sent to the high-risk OB across the hall for a detailed sonogram of the placenta, which was also found to be a-okay. They also did that 3-D sonogram thing. Rei would not move her arms from in front of her face, and, the one pic we got of her, she's smooshed up her face. So it's hard to tell whose nose she has, but she definitely has Ethan's pouty pucker. Maybe I'll get around to scanning that in and posting it.

So, there's no real concrete "reason" for the spotting. It simply must be that my normal level of activity (going to class, caring for Leah & Ethan, and running household errands) is just too physically demanding on my body. So, there's a been a change in plans. Since I can't guarantee that my health won't land me on REAL bedrest (or with a preemie baby), I've had to go ahead and drop my A&P class. There's just no way to get through that class w/o completing the labwork, and in order to complete the labwork, I need to be well enough to go to lab. I'm quite bummed about that (and that's an understatement, I'm actually closer to PO'ed). The not-as-bad news is that I can do my other course from home. So at least the efforts of this semester aren't completely fruitless.

Rei is already an estimated 5 1/2 lbs. At 33 weeks gestation. She's measuring closer to 34 weeks. So perhaps my bet for her due date (05/25/07--based totally upon the fact that Leah was born the on the 23rd and Ethan the 24th, so, next in the pattern is 25th) might actually be right. Unless she really tries to come much sooner. Which, the way things have gone with this entire pregnancy, I wouldn't be surprised!

Ethan is starting his speech therapy next week. So hopefully it'll be easier to care for him soon, as he'll be able to just say what it is that he wants! No more mind games :D He actually spoke conversationally to me last week, while we were at my mom's for Easter. He was in the den that's off of the living room. I was in the living room, taking it easy on the couch. He starts calling out, "Ma! Ma!" So I reply, "Yes, Ethan?". He then said something which was an approximation of "I got cars". He then turned back to playing with the cars that he had pulled from the storage drawers. That verbalization was such a big breakthrough! Granted, he hasn't just talked to me again since then, but, it's good to know the wires are there.

Yes, so if you haven't heard, we decided on a name: Rei Isabelle. I kept wavering between "Isabel" and "Isabelle". Alex, fortunately, was decisive and proclaimed that he didn't care for the "Isabel" spelling. I also managed to come up with wording that I'm happy with for her birth announcement. I wanted to incorporate both the kids into Rei's announcement, as I had incorporated Leah into Ethan's announcement, but, finding wording to include multiple older siblings is a bit trickier.

Leah is, well, Leah. We stopped and visited the day camp that she'll attend while she's staying at my mother's while during my post-pardem recovery. It was a good visit and she's now really pumped about going to camp. She's got chutzpah to spare at this point. It's hard to refrain from laughing, seeing her with her fierce Jersey-girl attitude spoken with a slight southern drawl. It's also hard to keep from wanting to make her sassy mouth land in the next state when she gets going, BUT she at least minds me when I tell her she's being fresh. Alex is not so lucky. Yes, we can't get one kid talking, and we can't get the other to shut-up!

I've been done with being pregnant for quite a few months now and I'm really freaking done now. Just a few more weeks . . . I think I can, I think I can . . . my new baby indulgence/birthday gift to myself is this:


Is that not the coolest damn sling you've ever seen? The calaveras even have some sparkle to them :D

AND IT'S LIME!

This sling, and many other gorgeous ones, are the creation of a Laura Jane from down in the south (MS, I think. It says for sure on her site somewhere). Her product line is called ChicKen ScRatch Slings. The price of this sling was a bit much for me, but I really don't ever treat myself like this, either. She has many other slings on clearance right now, especially those in her Southern Collection. Hooray for crafty, WAHM's!! I can't wait for it to arrive ::squee::