I have had a very long week.  Sick child (thought it was pneumonia again, but looks to be just a virus) and lots of other things have kept me busy.  And so it feels like Friday to me…but we still have 2 days to go!  And it’s freaking cold outside…seriously, I live in the south because I don’t like the cold.  Why does it suddenly feel like February when it’s still November???  I nearly started crying when I stepped outside this afternoon and I could smell snow in the air.  (Yes, I’m one of those people who claims she can “smell” snow.)

I did have a wonderful night on Monday, though.  I met a group of friends at the Carolina Brewery in Pittsboro.  I thought it was just a regular girl’s night out, but they bought me dinner, gave me presents, and a HUGE bag of hand me down clothes for baby Violet.  It was a great night and I feel so lucky to have such great friends!

Every Monday morning, I volunteer 2 hours to help in my son’s kindergarten classroom.  It’s hard to wake up, but I’m always so glad when I get there.  I love watching how they learn things so I can bring it home and help him with his schoolwork.  And it’s a great opportunity for me to see how the teacher interacts with the students and how he behaves at school.

This morning, I got up just like every Monday morning and started getting ready.  And then it hit me…the morning sickness that has mostly been held at bay for weeks now came back full force.  I’ve had nausea in the mornings, but nothing like this.  Needless to say, I crawled back into bed and sent my husband in my place.  I envy the women who don’t spend the entire 9 months fighting their gag reflex or severe nausea.  I’ve never been sick enough to be diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum, but it’s still pretty miserable.  I think this is one of my biggest reasons for not wanting to be pregnant again!

The worst part?  I pulled a muscle in my shoulder while I was throwing up and now it really, really hurts!  Time for the heating pad…

We ran to Durham tonight to get some plastic pants and underwear for my toddler.  He’s worn underwear all day!  There have been some accidents, but I’m hoping that’s because we had kind of a hectic day.  Hopefully the new undies and plastic pants will help his awareness.

On the way home, my oldest son piped up with that question I’ve been dreading.  “How do babies get in mommies’ tummies.”  Oh, crap.  I have to admit I laughed.  Luckily he could not see or hear my immature reaction.  I knew it would come some day…after all, that big question mark has been staring him in the face for months now!  When I was pregnant with my second son, my oldest was only 3 and we had used fertility treatments to get pregnant so the answer was easy.  I just told him the doctor helped put the baby there.  Since he always asked specifically about me, I felt like it was the best way to sidestep a potentially difficult conversation.  He had been dragged to Charlotte for all of the appointments and knew mommy was seeing a doctor so he accepted it.  At 3, it seemed good enough.

But at 6, he is old enough to have some of the basic details.  So I explained the sperm+egg=embryo concept.  Explained how it took 9 months for an embryo to grow in a mommy’s uterus and become a baby ready to be born.  When he asked where the uterus was, I fielded that question with ease.  I was able to explain how the baby came out…how most mommies are able to push the baby out of their vagina (Which he asked the location of and when I explained, he asked if it was near the buttcrack.  That set off another round of immature giggles.) but that I had to have a hole cut in my tummy and uterus and have the baby born that way.  I thought I did a pretty good job of explaining the pertinent details.

And then he asked how the sperm got to the egg.  Oh, shoot.  (Except that’s not really the word I was thinking when that question popped out of his mouth!)  There were questions about invisible tubes (um, no) and other strangeness and I knew that this had to be addressed soon so he didn’t get the wrong idea.  Luckily I’d purchased a book this past summer that explains it all in a way that a kid can understand.  It leaves out the morality issues, which is something we prefer to address ourselves, but explains the mechanics and basics of sex and procreation.  His daddy got the job of reading that tonight and I’m just waiting to hear how it went.

I was SO not prepared for this.

I have lots of stuff floating around in my head, so I’m just sticking with a brain dump post for today!  Sleeping, potty training, and Christmas gifts have all been big thoughts in my head over the last couple of days.

• Ambien = miracle drug.  Seriously!  I have been having so much trouble sleeping.  Even if I fall asleep easily, the slightest thing wakes me up and then I can’t get back to sleep.  I’ve been a walking zombie lately because I’m getting maybe 5-6 hours a night, but it’s not uninterrupted.  So my absolutely wonderful ob/gyn gave me a prescription to help me sleep and I got 8+ hours last night…in a row!  I feel like a new woman.
• My toddler is wearing Elmo underwear with a diaper over it.  He insisted on underwear this morning and has even tried to use the potty a couple of times.  No luck there, but the one accident he did have made him very unhappy.  I had to run out for a little while and he refused to change into a diaper, so I improvised by putting it on over his underwear.  So far, so good!  I’m going to buy him some more underwear and possibly some plastic pants tonight.  And I have a feeling there will be some more underwear in his stocking come Christmas morning…it would be fabulous to have him potty trained before January 20!
• Speaking of Christmas, it’s going to be necessarily slim this year, but we bought the first Christmas gift yesterday.  My youngest son is getting a Cabbage Patch Kid newborn.  He has been stealing his big brother’s baby for weeks now and nursing it and playing with it, so I thought I’d get him his own.  Like him, it is a little boy with blond hair and it has a brightly colored outfit rather than something pastel or girly.  I was thrilled to find it at Walmart yesterday and even more thrilled with the price…only $16.88!  That will serve as his big present and the rest will be smaller stuff…a new toothbrush, underwear, and maybe a DVD or 2 featuring his favorite character, Mickey Mouse.
• My oldest is harder.  It’s getting difficult to find gifts under $20 for him.  I am leaning toward a used Wii game if I can find something at GameStop he’d like.  Otherwise his list looks a lot like his little brother’s…toothbrush, underwear, and maybe the Wall-E DVD.  They’ll both get gifts from other family members, so I feel like this is a good (albeit shorter than in years past!) list.
• As for me, I want a million things as usual and likely won’t get any of them.  I tend to have expensive desires!  Since we’re not giving many gifts this year, I’m not expecting much, if anything.  (Let this serve as a warning…if you’re not my kids or a husband, you won’t be getting anything from me this year.  I’m sorry!  Even the husband is a toss-up.)  Honestly, the best gift will be here in January.  I really couldn’t ask for more than that…

For 4 years, I’ve been counting down to January 20, 2009.  I had no idea just how significant this day would turn out to be in my life…not only are we inaugurating the first African American president, (let’s face it, this is a huge thing for our country, no matter who you voted for) but my daughter is going to be born that day.

I had originally hoped for a January 19 c-section since that’s MLK day and my oldest son is off school.  But my doctor wasn’t available for surgery that day so I went with my 2nd choice.  I’ve updated my ticker.  It still shows how far along I am, but now also counts down to the exact day of her birth.  Apparently It’s only 67 days from today.  YIKES!!!

Otherwise all is on track.  There were a couple of small concerns but nothing to get worried about just yet.  I am so very thankful for this (mostly) uneventful pregnancy.  And also for having a date to count down to!