Eli who?

There has been more and more focus lately on preparing for Eli's arrival. Well, that has been the focus inside my head anyway. I think Lila is starting to feel the stress of that herself, though I doubt she really understands the source of it. She woke up last night with a bad dream and came into our room with the most pitiful request I've ever heard...

"Keep me safe. Keep me safe."

After crawling in bed with us for awhile, she was able to go back to her own bed and finish sleeping without incident. [Side note: This morning, we asked her what her bad dream was about and she said she opened a box and a pile of frogs came out. Then one of the frogs bit her. Nearly all of her bad dreams have been about some sort of unusual animal biting her, poor girl.]

This morning, when I told her that we were going to BSF, she declared that she doesn't like BSF. She has said this before, but she has also told me that she's excited about going and I know that she nearly always enjoys it once we get there. Anyway, we went. When I was picking her up after class, one of the teachers commented that she seemed to be having an "off" day.

At that point, I decided to ditch the ideas I'd had for last-minute baby-stuff shopping this afternoon. We have just spent the day at home and I have made sure to give her the amount of focused attention that she is used to. It may not make an immediate difference in her attitude, but at least I know that I am doing what I can to keep her world normal in the midst of this crazy-making anticipation!

Still Pregnant Blah Blah Blah...

I've made it to 37 weeks pregnant, which means that Eli is full term. [Okay, you can come out now!] That means that if he were born now, his lungs should be fully mature. [No really, you can come out any old time!] So he's ready to adjust to life outside the womb, even though my due date is three weeks away (and my c-section two weeks away). [Did you hear that? You're ready!]

I felt pretty great last week. Lots of energy and not too much discomfort. As of today, I'm back to being done with this. I'm so done with it that I don't want to talk about it anymore. Let's talk about... umm... Drat! I can't seem to think of anything else.

Okay, let's talk about kitties. That's always a good topic. They are cute and fuzzy and they purr. I like little bitty ones with round heads and tiny ears. They open their mouths all wide and then make these teeny squeaking noises. I would like a basket of them, please. I would also like to ride the Hogwarts Express, in the rain, TO Hogwarts.

What?!? I'm about as likely to get one as the other!

What a cutie!

I took Lila yesterday morning to have some "Spring Portraits" done and they turned out wonderfully! These two scans are really not great, but you'll get the idea. The dress she's wearing is her Easter dress, which we successfully got no photos of her wearing on Easter weekend. Well, that's not entirely true. She is wearing it in several pictures, but she also has a long sweater on over it. Effectively, no photos.

Lila and I went to BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) this morning and it was great, as usual. We did find out, however, that the Teaching Leader for our class will not be with us next year. So sad! I'm sure that next year's teacher will be good as well, but I'm sad to lose Renee because I love her lectures.

Next week, we are preregistering for next year's BSF class and I'm signing up in faith that I will find some way to make it work. They don't have childcare for little ones - only classes for kids 2 years and up. That means I'll have to find either a babysitter or daycare center for Eli on Wednesday mornings. It will be a challenege, but it's worth it for Lila and I both!

Where is your head?!?

It's ironic that I was just mentioning Eli's position yesterday. I had an appointment with my doctor today and found out that he is, in fact, breech. Frank breech, to be specific, which means that he's presenting booty first, with his feet up by his head. It was all a little funny because the doctor couldn't find his head and had to get the ultrasound machine to determine his position. And yes, I'll admit, I did experience a moment of paranoia that perhaps my son no longer had a head. Thankfully, he does.

All this time, I've been accusing him of trying to push his way out through my right-side ribcage, but I think I've had it all wrong. He actually knows where the exit is and is trying his best to stay away from it! Sorry kid, but you've got to come out eventually.

The photos I posted yesterday and today are of Lila and Jace Reed, son of our friends Chip and Sara. Jace is a few months old and has been instrumental in getting Lila more excited about Eli's arrival. She loves to hold him and give him his pacifier and his bottle, etc. Let's hope she likes her brother this much!

23 Days and Counting...

As of yesterday, I'm 36 weeks pregnant and I'm starting to get very excited. I mean, I've been sick of being pregnant for some time, but now I'm actually getting excited about our new child. Anyway, Eli is gaining about an ounce a day and (probably) weighs almost 6 pounds. I am looking more and more like I could explode at any moment and I'm noticing worried looks from people I talk to.

This week's vegetable weight equivalent means nothing to me, so I'll move on to tell you that Eli is also probably more than 18.5 inches long. Since he enjoys laying sideways inside my body, that means I have a very wide belly. (come over here some evening, if you think i'm kidding about this.) He's shedding most of the downy hair that covered his body, as well as the waxy substance that has protected his skin (the vernix caseosa, if you're interested).

Next week, I'll be considered full-term, which means that this baby REALLY could come out at any time with no concerns (and my complete blessing). I think Eli is head-down, when he isn't laying sideways. I'm not sure about that, but I'm altogether unconcerned about it for the same reason that I won't care if he's enormous - I won't be pushing him out!

Good Grief!

Lila is experiencing some... difficulty. For the past few days she has been extremely volatile. You never know what is going to set her off into a screaming fit. And she's not even pregnant! Right now, Doug is trying to give her a bath and she's freaking out about who-knows-what. I have no idea what's causing this phase, so I'm calling it a Growth Spurt. Sounds as good as any other explanation...

Get Out!

Eli, my darling son, is being very mean to me this week. I had a lot of pain in my lower back -- really my whole lower body -- last Thursday evening and Friday morning. I didn't know what he was up to at the time, but I have since discovered that the pain was because he was on the move. He has moved down lower, which is a good sign that he'll be ready to join us sometime soon.

However, "lower" is not a remotely comfortable place for Eli to be. There are times when it feels like his head is resting directly on my pubic bone. And there is now, officially, no room for my bladder. Needing to go to the potty is a constant state of being, rather than an occasional sensation. The real irony is that somehow, even though his head is lower in my body, he's still managing to stick his feet in my ribs. Go figure.

Oh well. I just finished up meeting with the neighborhood women's bible study that I started recently and we're studying forgiveness. I can practice by forgiving my son for the mental and emotional anguish that he is causing me by continuing to live inside my body.

I have to go potty now.

Sweet & Funny Things That Lila Said Today

1. Lila and I were outside, having just finished blowing bubbles, watching a little lizard, and having our Bible Time. I was pushing her on the swing and she said, "You're always fun to play with and you're always fun to read Bible stories with." Aww... thanks! And here I thought I was the boring parent.

2. Lila was in our bathtub, playing with a stuffed mouse named 'Mousie'. She was holding Mousie and talking to him when I walked into the room. She looked up and said (to Mousie), "Here's my friend, Mommy!" It's always nice to be introduced as a friend.

3. Lila was still in our bathtub, now playing with Mousie and a rain stick. The rain stick was Mousie's daddy, apparently. This is what I heard, "You're tall! How tall are you, Daddy? -- I'm 6 4 8. -- Wow! 6 4 8!" I don't know what sort of measurement 6 4 8 is, but it sounds tall to me!

4. This afternoon, I heard Lila telling someone that they were getting a timeout. I asked her who was getting the timeout and she said it was Piggy. I asked what Piggy had done to get timeout and she said, "He was hitting Cordy, a lot." Is that so? Where's the cat...?

As a bonus, here's a funny one from Easter morning. We had just gone out on the back porch to look for eggs and Lila walked past one without seeing it. After she'd found the others on the porch, we started trying to give her clues to where the missing one was before we moved on to the lawn. The egg was right next to the little Snoopy statue that's on the porch, so Doug said, "I think Snoopy knows where the other egg is. Why don't you go ask him?" Lila walked to that side of the porch, leaned over and looked at Snoopy, and said, "He's not talking."

Stuff

Lila and Doug are playing on our bed right now, running out the last of her energy (hopefully). Lila just threw a stuffed Snoopy at Doug and said, "It's time to dance!" Yes, ma'am!

I'm 34 weeks pregnant now; inching my way ever closer to the finish line. Eli weighs about 4 3/4 pounds, which is the size of an average cantaloupe. He should be almost 18 inches long and he's packing on the layers of fat. Not that newborns are ever really round. Well, Doug, who weighed over 10 lbs at birth, might have been round... But normal babies are wrinkly and look rather like plucked chickens.

This photo, by the way, is of Lila's Easter basket, after she found all the eggs. I didn't even notice that we had given the bunny a pair of blue boobies until I saw this picture later. Doug said it would only have been better if they were pink eggs.

Oh, I saw the movie '21' on Friday night (most likely my last late night movie for a long time). It was a bit predictable and it glorified all kinds of debauchery, but I still enjoyed it more than I expected. I wouldn't recommend paying full price to see it, but it's worth a matinee or discount theater trip.

Catching Up

I'm sorry I've been so delinquent at posting lately. I guess there's been some little shift in our routine that's made it hard to find the time. I'm only doing this right now because I decided, for once, not to take a nap while Lila does. I may regret that decision later, but I just didn't feel tired at the time that she went to sleep. My naps aren't always restful anyway.

I've reached 33 weeks pregnant and I have exactly 41 days to go. For those who need to know, the doctor's office had to reschedule my c-section and it will now be on Tuesday, May 13th at 11 a.m. This week, Eli weighs a little over 4 pounds - roughly the same as a pineapple. They've been warning me that he might be larger than average, but that's what they said about Lila too and she was small/average.

Lila is doing well, for the most part. Ever since we went to Dallas last week, she's started waking up at 6 or 6:30 again for some reason. If it continues through the weekend, then I guess we'll move her bedtime back to 7. We had taken advantage of the time change to put her down at 8 and have her sleep 'til 7 or 7:30. We much prefer that schedule, but we're most interested in seeing her get ENOUGH sleep.

Doug is the same as ever - working diligently away at Dell during the day and being Lila's favorite person when he gets home. He's ready for Eli to be born too, though it doesn't weigh on his mind (or his spine) all the time like it does mine. Yesterday, he officially requested his "paternity leave" which made things a bit more real for him. Occasionally, I try to convince him to finish off this pregnancy for me, but he won't do it. Oh well.

An excellent question

I will write more later, but I had to record the question that Lila just asked before I forget it.

We were finishing up dinner and her Daddy was pointing out what a good thing it was that she had just eaten so much lettuce and other veggies. He said they help you have good poopies instead of mean ones. Lila then asked,

"What tempo is it when you go poopie in the potty? Fast or slow?"

I fell apart laughing, but Doug handled it much better and gave her an answer. He said, "That's a good question. Sometime poopies are fast and sometimes they're slow!"

Oh dear. What will she think of next? :)

stories with interruptions

So, those cookie-looking things that you see Lila proudly displaying in yesterday's photo are Sweet Potato Patties. They are very yummy, and she ate two of them after they were cooked. Of course, she has refused to have anything to do with them today... The photo that you see here is the gigantic mess that we made while cooking. It was a fun little project, but much more involved than I expected when we started out!

Hah! Lila just informed me that there are grapes and a baby in my belly. True. True.

I'm still going to the gym twice per week, but my speed on the treadmill is getting lower and lower. Sometimes I have to rest after just hauling myself up the stairs to GET to the treadmills. I do like the confused and nervous looks on people's faces when I'm using the weight machines though. (don't worry - i'm being careful!)

Now Lila is telling me about how she's going to take care of her little brother when he's sick. She says she will go to the store and get him some medicine while he stays home and rests. I love hearing the things that are going on inside that little head!

uhh...

This is another one of those days where I'm sitting here, staring at the computer, trying to figure out what to talk about. I mean, we did plenty of things today. I just don't have the energy to tell stories. I'm worn out. Oh well. I'll go do something that does not require me to use my brain...

Eli

I'm 30 weeks pregnant now and my c-section is scheduled for nine weeks from yesterday! Eli's about 15.7 inches long (again with the odd measurements) and weighs almost 3 pounds. 3 lbs is about like a head of cabbage, for those of you who need a food comparison. We needn't discuss how much weight I have gained so far. He is surrounded by a pint and a half of amniotic fluid, but that amount will decrease as he gets bigger.

Oh! Doug just walked in the door... and Lila went running out of the room saying, "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" in her little monster voice. :)

danger

I grated my knuckle while cooking dinner this evening. Even better, I was grating a lemon, and the juice ran into the wound instantly. On my way to the bathroom and the bandages, I banged the knuckles of my other hand on a doorframe. Doug offered to let me bathe Lila instead instead of cooking, for my own safety, but I was afraid I might drown.

Hop! Hop! Hop! (says Ray the Bullfrog)

Lila is currently watching a video called 'Potty Power' and I can hear kids singing, "I can do it myself. I have potty power!" A few minutes ago, it was a song about how great underwear is. Life as a parent is really strange sometimes.

I don't think I've given you the latest update on my pregnancy/Eli. I'm 29 weeks pregnant now, which means I have less than 10 weeks until my c-section! Oh my! Eli is growing rapidly and still seems to be trying to push his way out through the lower, right-hand portion of my ribcage. This week he weighs about 2.5 pounds. That's the size of a butternut squash. Butternut squash makes good soup. Babies do not.

Oh, so you probably gathered from my first comment that Lila is home. She got home yesterday afternoon and did seem as happy to see us as we were to see her. She had some trouble re-entering the atmosphere of Home, but is doing great now. The issue with the new medicine has been dealt with and a new, hopefully uncontaminated, urine specimen has been taken to the lab for testing. I'll keep you updated on results.

Grr!!!

Lila is in Houston with Grammie and Papa Joe right now and I should be having a fabulous day by myself, but at the moment I'm just feeling frustrated and sorry for myself. There are a lot of little things that haven't gone the way I expected today, but my biggest frustration started with a call from Lila's doctor. Well, the story really starts with her appointment last week.

While we were there, it was decided that they needed to do a urine culture on her (odor and discomfort). I really wanted to avoid torturing her with another catheter, so they said I could try getting her to go potty at the doctor's office. She wanted no part of that, so they sent me home with a sterile cup and a lab slip. That evening, just before her bath, I got her to go potty and I collected it.

At that point I realized that the lab was closed and this urine was going to have to sit overnight. Doug and I decided that was probably okay and he dropped it off at the lab first thing on Wednesday morning. We went to Houston on Thursday and I got a call on Friday saying that there was bacteria in Lila's urine and they had called in a prescription for her. At this point I began to feel guilty over a not talking to the doctor about her problem sooner.

I had the prescription transferred to a pharmacy in Houston on Saturday and Lila started taking the medicine that morning. Once she started her medicine and had no reaction to it, I felt better and we left her to live it up at Grammie and Papa Joe's house. I talked to them yesterday and found out that she had been happily taking her medicine and was doing great!

Today, I got another call from the doctor's office saying that they had gotten the final results back from Lila's urine and that the bacteria was resistant to the medicine they had her on. They wanted us to stop giving it to her and start her on a new medication that they'd faxed in to the pharmacy. They also wanted us to take another specimen in for a repeat culture and needed the name of a lab to send the info to.

I called and passed the info on to the grandparents who said they would stop the medicine. I figured it would be okay to wait until tomorrow afternoon, when Lila gets home, to start giving her the new stuff. After some phone tag with the doctor's office, I talked to a nurse who told me that they really wanted her to start taking the new medication ASAP. [sigh]

They also got info on the closest lab for us to go to and said we needed to pick up a sterile cup from them, collect the urine, and return the specimen to the lab within an hour of collection. Within an hour, eh? At that point, I told them how things had gone down with the first collection and asked if that might have affected the results. They said that yes, that could definitely have been a problem. [sigh]

They said that for now, we need to assume that the results are accurate and wait to see what the repeat culture says. They did assure me that it will not hurt Lila to take this medicine if she's not sick. I called and left a message with the Peelers, asking them to call me with a pharmacy number so I can have the prescription transferred, but it's really only going to get the medicine into her a few hours earlier.

Now I'm frustrated because this has all been a big hassle and emotional drain (for me) and there might not even be anything wrong with Lila! She might be taking medicine that she doesn't need. The easiest way to make sure the next sample isn't tainted would be to have a catheter, but I hate to do that to her. And they want all this to happen as fast as possible, but she's not here!

I know that I'm overreacting, but we've had to torture Lila so many times with tests that always come back negative. I finally decide to be relaxed about something that I was concerned about and then it turned out I should have pursued it sooner. Or maybe it's all nothing again and our mistake (made, in part, because we didn't know any better) cost us all this time and stress.

Ugh. I'm just whining now. And I just got the number for the pharmacy in Houston and need to make another phone call.

Quickie

I started this post earlier in the day and then got distracted by something. Now I'm too tired to put much effort into it. I am happy to report that Lila seems to be done with the fever this time around. Now I'm going to go snuggle with kitties.

Filling in the Middle

Now we've settled on a middle name, so The Boy has officially become Eli Sebastian Peeler. And no, Eli is not short for anything.

I'm 28 weeks pregnant, which puts me officially in my third trimester. I had another appointment with the doctor yesterday and will now be going in every two weeks. By this week, Eli weighs 2.25 pounds, which is about the same as a Chinese cabbage. Of course, my uterus is consistently measuring two weeks bigger than normal, so he could weigh more than that! He also measures 14.8 inches from the top of his head to his heels. (where do they come up with these measurements? 14.8? why not 14.773?)

Lila, sadly, has another fever. This one has been going since Friday or Saturday. We didn't take her temperature and discover that she was actually sick until Saturday afternoon, but upon reflection, I think she was probably sick on Friday afternoon as well. We went to the doctor today, where, I am happy to say, they did NOT take any blood or give her a catheter. They did send me home with a sterile cup and a lab slip though. Now I have to convince her to pee in the potty this evening.

Only missing the middle now

I'm pleased to announce that, as of this morning, our baby actually has a first name! The middle name is still open for debate, but he will be Eli _________ Peeler. At last! I can stop referring to him as The Boy! (Though I have grown rather fond of that nickname.) I was beginning to think we would still be debating names in the delivery room!

I'm also beginning to think that I'm going to be retired before I can finish typing out this post. My desk is right next to my bed and Lila has recently taken to getting up on the bed and chattering/making constant requests while I'm trying to do anything on the computer. If only she could understand that I would be done in half the time if she weren't distracting me...

She has also just made the discovery that there's no one to stop her from disobeying when she's alone in a room. This week has been filled with things like drawing on her arms, scooping food onto the table, writing with pens on inappropriate surfaces, pulling books off of shelves, and generally playing with things that she knows she is not supposed to touch. I've been trying to teach her that she needs to make good choices even when no one is around. And to myself I say, "Yeah. Good luck with that."