After all, what’s not to celebrate about my entrance to this world 33 years ago???  My mom felt it necessary to call and tell me how nightmarish that day was for her…apparently induced labor is unpleasant.  My husband treated me like a princess, which is pretty much how it is every day, but tonight he made me a wonderful dinner and dessert.

The day started off with a trip to Apex where I dropped off clothes to consign.  We checked out Linens N Things to see if their going out of business sale could offer some good deals but it’s too early just yet.  I wouldn’t bother for a couple more weeks at least.  Their best deals were 30% off of draperies but they still had plenty of stock so I’m going to give it a week or two before I check back.  Almost everything else was still only 10% off AND they’re no longer taking coupons so I could get the same thing cheaper at Bed, Bath, & Beyond with a 20% off coupon.  Then we had lunch at TGI Fridays.  I was craving a drink *so* badly but obviously couldn’t get one.  I am not a big drinker but I do enjoy having one now and then, especially on my birthday.  This is the first time I’ve ever been pregnant on my birthday and known it (my first was born 10 days before my 27th birthday and I was about 3 days post-conception with my second on my 30th birthday) so I kind of missed having a fruity silly drink like I normally do!  Then we ran to Target for a few groceries and came home.  I enjoyed some time to myself while my smallest son napped and my husband went to pick up our oldest from school.

When he got home, they all had cards for me and they were so sweet that I cried…darn the hormones!  Then for dinner my husband made one of my absolute favorite dishes…Jack Daniel’s Filet.  There was a place we went to while we weere in college (Spankie’s in Cookeville, TN) that had the BEST JD Filet.  Over the years we’ve tried to duplicate the recipe and haven’t managed it but tonight was pretty darn yummy!  There’s also a butter pecan rum cake awaiting me in the kitchen.  So far I’ve avoided the temptation of it but I may break down soon!

Mostly I am proud of myself for not buying anything unnecessary in our shopping today…I really wanted a total body pillow designed for pregnant women but refrained.  I’m getting better at this “not getting everything I want” stuff but it’s tough!

It really started Friday morning when I woke up to the symptoms of hydronephrosis.  This is (basically) a backup of urine in the kidney.  It is painful and can be dangerous if untreated.  This is not the first time I’ve had it, and probably won’t be the last…so I got up determined to tough it out and see how things went during the day.  I wasn’t thinking about the fact that it was Friday and if it didn’t resolve by the next morning I’d have no option other than the ER!

By lunchtime I was in significant pain both from the hydronephrosis and what seemed to be a large kidney stone that was moving, so I took some pain meds.  (Yes, they’re safe during pregnancy!)  They made me sleepy so I laid down in the bed with a moist heating pad for the back/side pain (also safe for pregnancy) but couldn’t sleep because I was just hurting too badly.  I was able to relax a bit more with the edge taken off, though!  After a while, I started feeling a pain that was unmistakably the kidney stone dropping quickly.  I cannot explain how I knew this…but if you’ve ever felt it you know what I mean!  In between “slides” I actually felt quite a bit better so I decided to get up and move into my office and spend some time on the computer.  I felt it drop some more and then felt a “ping” in my bladder followed by the *very* urgent need to empty it.  Sure enough, the blockage was relieved and I had a nice, perfectly round 5.5 mm kidney stone to show for it.  The hydronephrosis was resolved by the evening and despite some more mild kidney stone type pain I was feeling pretty good.

Then Saturday morning I passed some more.  And have continued to pass bits and pieces (though none of them anywhere near as large!) every day since.  Maybe my kidneys are flushing themselves out really well?  I don’t know, but it’s nice to be passing them without needing a cystoscopy, a stent, or lithotripsy!

Then Saturday we went to ARTober Fest downtown and enjoyed lunch at La Dolce Vita which has the BEST pizza in town!  I spent some time talking to Amy and we also bought some chocolate treats from her.  (Those chocograhams are the BOMB!)  It was very chilly out though and I was completely unprepared.  Must remember that the weather now requires socks…

Then yesterday I overslept so we planned on going to the 2nd service at church.  Until I found out about the Barack Obama rally in Fayetteville!  We debated on it for a little while and decided to go to church anyway then head straight down there.  I doubted that there would be a lot of supporters and figured we could get there right at the time the rally was supposed to start and we’d still be OK.  Well, we made it to church and the service was a little long.  (But good!)  So we grabbed the kids from their respective rooms and hopped in the old minivan and headed down to the Crown Coliseum.  We had to drive through McD’s on the way so nobody would starve (um, namely the pregnant woman) and made it to the Coliseum area right at 1:30.  And saw cars parked EVERYWHERE and people *leaving* already.  What the heck?  So we pulled over and asked someone…it turned out he was already speaking and they’d started turning people away an HOUR before.  There were over 10k people inside and several thousand more outside we heard later.  We used to live in F’ville not far from the Crown Coliseum and I had never seen it packed like that.  Truly, truly amazing!

My 6 year old’s heart was broken.  He cried like he lost his best friend and I felt SO bad for getting him excited.  We don’t speak much about our political leanings in front of him and he actually told me he was going to vote for McCain a week or two ago (some of my conservative family members must have been talking to him or something!) so I’m honestly not sure why he was so upset.  I promised him that if Barack came back to North Carolina between now and November 4 we’d make every effort to see him, even if it was a school day.  He was somewhat calmed by that until he remembered the pizza party he’d miss out on at school if he missed a day.  *sigh*  I can’t win for losing.

I needed to get out and walk around, so we headed to Cross Creek Mall to walk a bit before heading back to good old Sanford.  I hadn’t been there since we moved away from the area way back in 2004 and it hasn’t gotten any better.  YUCK.  I am *so* glad we got out!

Needless to say, it was a looooooooooong and exhausting weekend.  And tomorrow is a big day for me, so I should get some rest tonight!  It doesn’t look promising as both kids are still very much awake and I still need to sort through the clothes I’m taking to the consignment shop tomorrow.  A mother’s work is never done.  (And yet, you see what I’m doing…am I putting kids to bed or resting or sorting clothes?  Um, no.)

I have been fairly certain for a while (even before we knew this was a girl!) that this is my last pregnancy.  We were making plans to ensure that there would be no future surprises.  Pregnancy is hard on me…I am very sick for the first 4-5 months (not just the first 3 like most) and continue to experience a lot of queasiness right up until delivery.  Just to give you an idea, I am 3 months from my anticipated c-section date as of today and *just now* reached my pre-pregnancy weight again.  I think I was down over 15 pounds at one point!  There’s the worry over kidney stones and what a bad blockage could do to me AND the baby.  Most of the typical detection & treatment methods are out of the question when I’m pregnant so I just have to cope.  I get extremely uncomfortable very early.  My whole body aches, I’m exhausted to the point of wanting a nap almost every day but have miserable insomnia at night, and then when I do sleep I don’t sleep well because I can’t get comfortable.  It’s basically 9 months that drag by in a blur of nausea and exhaustion.

Then there’s the fact that I’ll be on my 3rd c-section this time around and the worries that my uterus can’t take much more.  Though it wasn’t a problem last time, they did say they prefer not to do more than 3 c-section births for anyone due to the wear and tear on the uterus.  I’ve been told that VBAC isn’t an option this time (which is fine with me, as much as I wanted one last time) so I have no choice in the method of delivery anymore.  And let’s face it, it’s a tough recovery.  I envy those women who can jump right up and be super moms after birth!  I’m not one of them.  Something about having your belly and innards cut open and sewed back together is quite draining…who knew?

And then there’s the fact that I already have 2 *very* spirited little boys who require a lot of attention.  A house I can’t keep clean.  Bills to pay and college funds to worry about.  And the list goes on and on.  I feel like 3 is my physical, emotional, and financial limit.  And I have been very firm in that until today, when I was sitting in church and for some reason found myself thinking about *just one more* and how we could manage it.

Clearly the hormones have gone to my head!  Let’s not mention this little development to my husband, because he’d be all for the idea of “just one more.”  Yikes…

First of all, yes I’m alive!  Thanks for the emails checking on me.  It’s just been a very busy/hectic week.  Plus I have so little to say.  I’m about to enter the 3rd trimester and feel mostly OK.  I have some minor complaints but right now I’m just glad to be where I am…I have learned not to take healthy pregnancies for granted!  My husband and I are finding ways to provide some income and though it’s nothing like our previous income, we’re hopeful that things will turn around soon.  The kids are doing well and we’re enjoying these last few months as a family of 4.

Today we’re hoping to make it over to Depot Park for ARTober Fest.  The weather looks a little icky but I’m told the clouds should blow over soon.  That’s OK…less sun = less heat, right?  I just need to remember my water.  If anyone wants to check it out, it is being held from 9:00 - 6:00 today at Depot Park.  Lots of entertainment on the stage as well as local artists displaying their creativity.  Worth a look!

And now, I must wake up my smallest child (who is asleep in my bed by himself) and take a shower so I don’t scare anyone.  There’s still a couple of weeks before Halloween…

I can hardly believe that my first baby is 6.  It seems like only the other day he was born.  Yesterday, I was reminding my husband of the major freak-out I had the day before his birth.  I was scheduled to be induced because I was a week overdue.  It was still really hot, I was miserable and I was just done being pregnant, but when it came time to leave for the hospital I basically decided I wasn’t going to go.  The plan was to give me a drug overnight to help “ripen” my cervix, then start pitocin the next morning to get contractions going.  But I suddenly decided there was just no way in the world I was going to do that.  I look back and laugh now, but I was really and truly terrified!

As it turned out, they had a hard time getting labor to start and when they cranked the pitocin up as high as they safely could he started having decelerations in his heart rate.  They stopped the induction immediately and I was prepped for an emergency c-section.  It was terrifying and something I’d never like to repeat.  Looking back and knowing what I now know, the induction was a bad idea.  My body was not at all ready.  And also in researching, I’ve learned that the type of decelerations he had are not necessarily dangerous and we could have tried for a vaginal birth a bit longer.  For a long time it bothered me, but I’ve reached a state of peace with it.  The cord was wrapped around his neck twice and if we’d continued with the induction that could have caused complications.  Maybe it wouldn’t have made a difference…but the possibilities are too difficult to contemplate otherwise!

So today at 12:30PM, I will pause and remember that first cry and reflect on all of the good times we’ve had in the last 6 years with him.  Happy birthday, little man!