oh boy and egads

the oh boy? I was given a TENS unit...ohhhhh the joy and near squeeee I had when the gift bearer said it was mine. Devildog just doesn't get it. His inability to walk properly 11 years ago was a joint injury. Mine was a huge misalignment of the hips added together with pregnancy and a physical job. He is no stranger to pain, having been severely injured as a child and enduring multiple surgeries from it. The person who gave it to me has endured their own share of pain and injuries. They understand my joy as recipient of this gift.

I love my chiropractor. I got him from my sister. I can walk more like a normal human now. My chiropractor has given me TENS therapy several times and I looooove it. Apparently I mentioned it in conversation to the gift bearer and they decided I needed one. So wooot! I got a portable, battery operated TENS unit and have already put it to use. I kinda think this is cooler than my sister's breathalyzer thing.

the egads? Shopping takes energy when you're difficult to fit in the first place plus 3 months postpartum and still shrinking. I did score a pair of khakis and grey pants to expand my wardrobe beyond the jeans and the one pair of black pants. I have a sneaking suspicion that I will be in this size longer than I want to admit and my prepregnancy pants will be out of style by the time I fit back into them. Four babies does things like that to a mother's body.

the other egads? I-and everyone else- forgot the diaper bag when we went shopping. Thankfully I had a contingency plan for that and put a diaper in the van. That got full and had to be changed while shopping. Then between stops the baby filled the diaper with vileness. Poor thing, Mommy's antibiotics get shared and as a result her diapers are big messes. The one diaper in the van was all I had in there too. Devildog ran home to get the diaper bag and a change of clothes because she oozed. I had to wash the carseat cover when we got home. Yuk.

I'm still hacking and coughing because my lungs are still compromised. But that fever that slowed me down broke last night. What a Christmas gift! I awakened at 5 am fully drenched and smelling so abhorrent that it rivaled Beast's football funk. That aspect wasn't such a pleasant one. I do feel a bit better, but certainly won't complain about a return of my pulmonary function.

"Oh wow she really must be sick"

This is what my MIL said to Beast on the phone Christmas morning. I was not well enough to go to church Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. She called and the phone got passed around and when Beast had the phone, MIL asked to talk to me, and he told her I couldn't talk and had no voice. I heard her ask if I went to Midnight Mass (always went when we visited her for Christmas, but my parish has 10:30 Mass the latest), and he told her no, nor did we go this morning. I woke up when we should have been at the church already. She then said "Oh wow! She really must be sick then if she didn't go to church"

Yes I am. Augmentin = horse pills. Constant coughing due to lung spasms for lack of sufficient oxygen = raw throat. Devildog hates the "psst" I have to use to get someone's attention, despite the fact that's how I call my kids when we're in public. The number of "psst" is the number child I'm calling, and it's more fun to see what kind of looks I get from people than a game of Marco Polo. Everyone's becoming more proficient at figuring out the mix of charades and handful of sign language signs that I remember. And when all else fails I get pen and paper or use my cellphone text screen to get the message across.

Merry Christmas family, you got a wife & mother that can't nag you because she can't talk. Now I just have to figure out which one of these yayhoos put in that request to Santa. Next year they're getting a huge pile of coal.

Too busy for sick, too sick for busy.

I have bronchitis. For asthmatics it's one of the biggies we try to avoid because of the compromised lungs. I worked 4 service calls each on Monday and Tuesday so I could get last minute things finished Wednesday and Thursday. Well last week's menopausal weather stirred my allergies and having 4 kids who create mommy-brain, and the increased workload draining my cranial function further, I forgot that we even had allergy meds in the hall closet. I could've avoided the copays for this bronchitis if I'd taken a few allergy meds a week ago. I'm thankful that I had enough in the bank to cover those copays. The Augmentin wasn't too expensive, but the inhaler was not exactly cheap. Thankfully I told them I'd come back for it. In the 20 minutes between doc and pharmacy, I totally forgot the doc gave me a coupon for the inhaler. DUH. So I went back later to get it, and between 2 doses of the antibiotic and a shot of the inhaler, I'm feeling a bit better. And I heart my chiropractor. He helped release the tension in my chest and upper back from all the coughing. A few naps and a few rounds of crisis cleaning per FLYLady's instructions, with help of course, and the hovel should be decent enough. I'm verrrrrry thankful for Beast though. He's been primary babysitter though my extended work hours, and today's adventures. It's a good thing the baby likes him.
I may have to rethink my primary care provider though. Mine is a walk in clinic, but it is NOT a doc-in-a-box. So the caveat to that is waiting. And waiting. And waiting. Thankfully I brought my knitting with me and got a good bit done. Thanks to Devildog's aunt for teaching me to knit Continental. It goes SO much faster. I might actually finish this project in time for next Christmas. In the meantime, I am just too busy to be sick, but alas, my body said "HAH!" and now I'm too sick for busy. When you don't get enough oxygen, it makes things just a weeee challenging.
I really am trying to keep my focus on gratitude in all my challenges. No point in making things worse by whining like I so often do right? I'm too busy to whine about being sick or busy anyway.

oooops...

Pardon the pregnancy ticker...I need to take that off here with a quickness. But it's way past bedtime and I need to pry myself from the desk and go to bed. In the slight offhand chance you missed me...lemme 'splain. I got sidetracked by crackbook, a baby, 2 teenagers, a clone and a husband. My poor father has started resorting to that age old custom typically reserved for Irish mothers. He lays on a slathering of guilt when I finally get around to calling him. Between a teenager that heists the phone (which is why I refuse to buy new batteries for any of them or replace them as they die - we're down to one and a half cordless phones out of four), another teenager working his way into phone hog status, a baby that for all intents and purposes is exclusively a nursling, and the increased workload, plus Devildog's funky shift, and you've got one Wench who is not well balanced with time expenditure these days. I also have been coughing up weekly copays to my chiropractor because I am still not back in alignment enough nor regained strength after having a very cute, funny and smart little piglet nursling.

To quote my crackbook status update for Sunday
Feisty went to Mass, fed baby, took a nap, fed baby, made dinner, fed baby, and now needs to clean and declutter SOMETHING in the den. Meanwhile everyone asks "which Christmas Mass are you attending?" ::shrug:: late vigil maybe? Depends on dh's work schedule & what happens at Dad's. Oldest sis has called a gathering at his house Christmas Eve.

I didn't clean anything because Devildog dragged out the Christmas tree and I gave him authority over the lights this year. I didn't have the energy, plus my lower back was screaming at me again by that point. We gave Clone full reign over where the ornaments went. Yet, all of that and I'm still awake, forgetting to order my FLYlady calendar so I can get it by the end of the current year. THAT and scheduling my work for the week were the whole reason I got online so late.
Meanwhile an old friend from a message board has been keeping things current on her blog. She's one of those overachieving, busy, suzy-homemaker types that works Catholic homeschooling waaaaaay better than I work my slacker mode. Feel free to peruse her blog, and perhaps send me some of the rum balls she's got posted somewhere in one of her recipes.
http://saintsfaithhopechairty.blogspot.com/

kids are tasty

I was playing tic-tac-toe with Clone today. We always seem to end up in a draw, except the very rare occasion one of us misses something and gets taken by surprise. Between games I said "I'm hungry, how 'bout you?"
Without missing a single beat, breath, or blink the child said "No, you can not eat me"

I promise nothing exciting

Yea, don't mind the pregnancy ticker at the top of the page either. I still lack sufficient mental energy to tweak layouts, even if that includes a simple deletion of something like a ticker. I'm sure you'll forgive me, and if not I am already over it.
I'm still busy tending the mini-human and her 3 older siblings, plus working (yes already) and going to the chiropractor twice a week for adjustments. I missed Friday's appointment because I was running behind the 8-ball and then there was an accident RIGHT in front of me. Then the mini-human screamed for my help with a yucky diaper, but I couldn't get out of the mom-bus to tend her because the rubberneckers are morons and would have clobbered me as they gawked at the vehicular carnage. I really needed an adjustment Friday, so I was upset with myself for being late, and really frustrated that I missed my appointment. That in conjunction with the postpartum hormones, I wanted to cry actually. Love the hormones. Really.

Today's adjustment consisted of a few additional manipulations than previous visits involved. I was really trying NOT to undo the chiropractor's handiwork. So I honestly did very little today in hopes of achieving that particular goal. Two of the kids were home from school today for planning day, and it was fairly quiet for the most part. Except, the Clone and her hormones were out of whack and PMSing today. I offered her chocolate and she said she didn't like it. ::quizzical look::

I'd be rambling with a bunch more of the mommy-blather at this point but I will spare you the boredom-induced drooling. I'm sure you would much rather use that salivary function for baked goods or that hidden Halloween candy you've been trying not to eat - but just can't seem to ignore its call.

TOTAL mommy-brain

I have so many stinking passwords to remember. I haven't been able to access my blog to post because I haven't been able to remember my password. It's bad enough to be short on sleep because of your own doing. However when another miniature human is dependent on you, and wakes you at screwy times and then proceeds to STAY awake for hours....mommy-brain inevitably amounts to:
Thinking = epic FAIL

New baby means no time for anything

And I don't miss that aspect of it. I love her immensely, she's a sweet baby and very alert when she's awake. Well she does have two speeds - hungry and asleep. That will change eventually but I'm struggling to adjust. And she's a gassy lil bugger. She is definitely her father's child in that regard. She's still a NASCAR baby in that she goes from zero to sixty in no time flat.
She was born a week and a half before big brother's birthday. A board buddy on another site was due the first week of October, and because of some health related issues, she was induced the same day I was. So Thumper has a birthday buddy born a short time after she arrived.

Because I'm rather tied up with tending a baby, the other kids are a mixed bag of helpfulness and annoyance. The teenagers are taking advantage of things and I won't go into detail but I am hopping mad about one particular instance involving someone snooping in my drawers. I should hide other things in there that would shock that person, or require brain bleach. Later, karma will come back and say hi, they can rest assured about that. Then there are times when my time doesn't equal a child's timeframe...and THAT is enough to make lumps on heads a reality. Meanwhile Clone is having a hard time with my time and attention being directed at the baby. She's only getting slightly less attention than when she was the only girl and the baby of the household, but now my attention is directed at someone very loud and demanding and isn't easily quieted...well except via constant attachment to my person. We're getting more attitude and defiance from Clone and it's not typical for her unless she's overly tired. She's not overly tired so much as mad that someone has invaded her territory as the baby, and let's just add insult to injury and include that this someone has moved into her bedroom to boot.

I'm thankful Thumper has developed some semblance of a routine. It's not a concrete routine but more what you could call "guidelines". Eventually that pregnancy ticker at the top of the blog will get removed or changed to something else.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

On a funny note: Last week, as I was driving Beast home from his football game, Thumper was squawking full force the entire drive home. Thankfully it was all of 5 minutes away but she still vehemently protested the delay of a meal. We got into the driveway and as we were getting out of the mom-bus, Beast said "ohh stick a boob in it!"
He's weirded out by my nursing Thumper, but he still maintains his sense of humor about it.

Now, if I could get him to maintain a sense of time.....

And the adventure begins....

After my last post, I went to bed, woke up a few hours later and called the hospital to make sure they were available for the induction and some freak force hadn't sent 30 other women to the hospital in the throes of labor. All systems were go, and I was on my way to evict a baby. I am just going to post a "reader's digest" version for now, other details may appear later as time permits.
I got to the hospital, was put into a room, with one of those *lovely* gowns that are too big for me, even that pregnant. Can we raid pediatrics for a gown more my size?
The doctor broke my water at 8, pitocin was started at 9 after several attempts to get the darn IV to not pinch me. I finally asked that it be redone because there was no "unpinching" of the first.
By 11 I was not having a party by any means.
By 12 I was a sniveling baby.
By 12:30 I was fighting the contractions and whining about an epidural.
At 12:50 I asked for the epidural.
The nurse called the anesthesiologist, stepped into the hallway for the epidural cart and brought it in, turned around to do something w/ the monitor and
At 12:51 I had to push - no time for epidural now because the baby exit was completely ready for the baby to leave the nest.
At 12:56 the baby was out - yelling that she was cold and did not appreciate having landed on the end of the bed. She only landed there because things moved so fast the bed didn't get broken down, and the doctor had to pause to unwrap the cord from the baby's neck.
The doctor almost didn't get to the room in time, barely got her hands into gloves and had to change clothes when she was done. It was a war zone for a few minutes. We were the talk of the maternity unit, and the OB's office.

My hips are still bothering me, and I think I broke my tailbone again. I need to go see a chiropractor for a realignment. It's been a busy week, and looking busier as time goes forward.

Her name means "peace-maker", she has a lot of hair, very functional lungs and a huge appetite.
For the sake of the blog...I might keep her name as Thumper, or change it to something like Torpedo. Heck, I might even go with Nascar for her - she goes from zero to sixty in no time flat.

And in other news....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEAST! Sorry, I didn't get you much for your birthday but I did get you a little sister ;) Yea, I know...I suck at this mom thing apparently.

moving right along

At this point, I was due according to the ultrasound 9/21. The charts and calculators said 9/23. The little wheelie thing said 9/25. It's officially 9/28. Either my due date was a miscalculated one because biology doesn't always have a calendar, or I'm just that overdue. I've never been overdue. My other kids were on time. The boys came 2 days before their due date, and Clone was making her way to the exit on her due date, but technically came 5+ hours late.

I went for step 1 of the induction process Sunday. Step 2 is Monday. I'm too tired and uncomfortable right now to go into details, and I still have a bunch of crap to finish before heading to bed. So, just keeping it short and simple this go round. Prayers for us would be lovely.