This week

I don't think I take nearly enough pictures during the week. What pictures I do take end up on Instagram. Oh well.

This week has mostly consisted of our usual routine: the kids go to school, the kids come home from school, we lather, rinse, repeat.

Andrea was supposed to have some extensive dental work done this week but the goofy gas system was down at the dentist, so they called twice to reschedule and finally put her at the top of the ASAP waiting list. We will probably get a call next week and I'm hoping she gets in early the following. She has five cavities that need fixing and one tooth that will more than likely be extracted. After that I get to meet with an orthodontist and work up a plan, then call insurance and make a case for her braces to be covered because she has teeth coming up in rows BEHIND her teeth due to crowding issues and they are causing significant, medical damage to her mouth. So THERE.

David is working on scouts stuff and his Duty to God requirements. He's a Jr. Webelos. Things get real this year. He has been planning out his Pinewood Derby car for this year, too. He wants to go for the Turtle Award. He went for it last year and came in second. He just might do it this year. We shall see. I'm a little concerned because check-in is the 17th of March, the race is the 18th. Also those days are some St. Patrick's day performances with Andrea's dance. So those are the busiest days of the month and more than likely, because we are so busy, will be the days Little Bit decides to arrive. Lucky for me my sister is coming out that week, sacrificing the fun she could be having over Spring Break, and coming to spend it with me. I am unbelievably grateful that she would do this. We will probably put her to work more than she knows!

Peter got a haircut today. I realized that, while I love the curls he gets when his hair grows out some, most of his hair looked like Hermione the rat had created a nest in it. I asked if he would be willing to let me cut it when we got home from shopping. He said, "Um..... sure!" and then changed his mind when we got home. That was fine. He threw himself into a chair at the top of the stairs and tried to throw a fit, I just told him to come get me when he was ready for his haircut. Twenty minutes later he came to me and said, "I'm ready." And he got his trim. He looks like a very presentable little boy now.

I had an appointment at the OB's office today. I am currently seeing the midwives. I love the level of care I get there. They are very attentive and kind and helpful. They have a birth center that I'd love to use when its time, however I just have a feeling that's not going to happen. We will see how things play out.

Anyway, Little Bit is doing very well. She's measuring big for her gestational age by a week, however that's just length because weight-wise she is in the 51st percentile. That's significant to me because all of my other kids have been in the 80-90th percentile by this point. She also was head down. Yay! Hopefully she stays that way. Heartbeat was good, 154, and her heart and face looked perfect (we had an ultrasound to check those things specifically, they were missed the first time around). She likes to have her hands up by her face which totally correlates with the movements I feel most often. Her long little feet were tucked up nicely next to my ribs, but I've got a built in cushion at the moment because my placenta (which looks strong and healthy this time around) is blocking her feet.

I took the initial glucose screening test. The results are supposed to take a few days, and I didn't hear from them today so I hope that means I'm all clear. I'll call Monday to confirm. I did, however, get a call about my CBC. Apparently my iron levels are really low. The midwives wanted me on a liquid iron supplement. Turns out the stuff tastes delicious and has a ton of B-vitamins as well. That's good. I've lost more weight, no one seems terribly concerned about that. So I won't be terribly concerned.

Jonathan is studying for the bar and he is Platoon Leader this next month at drill. He's very busy preparing for both events. He's also very tired all the time because of it. At least he's sleeping.

I'm adding more to my list of things we need for baby. I read a funny "list" the other day: How to Know You are Done Having Kids. I had done EVERYTHING on that list. I kept very few baby clothes, have no furniture whatsoever, and need just about everything. Of course my excuse is not so much that I was done but that I had no room to store such things. Still. Fun times. I need burp rags and bottles. It is the little things that I'm noticing now that I don't have. I've got time.

In the mean time I've started nesting. It is making me want to rearrange the furniture and redecorate the space. After I've had a nap. Or two. ;)

Checklists

To do:
- Change to the winter sheets. It is 6° outside, it is about dang time we had the flannels on the beds.
- Pull kids' short-sleeved shirts out of their closet. And the shorts out of their drawers. It is 6° outside, it is about dang time they were packed away so Peter would stop trying to wear them every morning. Yeesh.
- Have the kids clean the rat cage. And the litterbox. There will be much grumping and groaning. Use it as a reminder of why we will never get any more pets. Just say NO!
- Make dinner using leftover brisket. Can I make Mongolian beef with brisket?? I hope so! Cravings... they are a real thing.
-Fold the laundry. Thank husband for washing and hanging clothes by folding laundry. Can be done any time over the next few days while he is at drill, but just remember that the laundry is a never-ending cycle and if you wait your living room will turn into the closet. Just get it done.

Baby prep: Because 10 weeks is not enough time!
- Need an infant car seat.
- Need a stroller. Do they make them smaller since the last time I got a stroller? I have no room to store a stroller, and yet... The dream is an Orbit, but the sticker shock on those puppies.... yikes! I'll certainly settle, but I need something small and compact that won't take up my hallway...
- Research small, compact stroller and infant car seat combos with a reasonable price tag.
- Finish quilt
- What do I put in a hospital bag??
- Freezer meals! Who likes chopping veggies? I'll take all the help I can get!
- Swaddle blankets - Check! My in-laws gave me an Amazon gift card for Christmas! Yay!
- Clothes - for 0-3 month, Check! We'll play the rest of her life by ear. Haha!
- Fix my Baggallini. Poor thing. I wore it out after Peter, the strap needs to be reattached. Easy fix!
- Make (or find) a few sheets to fit in the cradle. (Have you seen my beautiful, antique cradle?? I love it!)

Done this week:
- Renewed the tags for my plates on the suburban. That was a hefty blow. Michigan is really expensive! They have roads to maintain, so the 20% price hike in vehicle registration and the extra almost 10 cents in gas tax/gallon had better make some pretty roads!
- Oh, cars.... Funny (or not) story... We were driving home from the church (I think) when a loud, inconsistent thumping started ringing out from under my seat. Jonathan (driving) pulled over and we tried to figure out what was the deal. It sounded like a soda can was rattling around in the engine block, but when we slowed down it stopped. We heard it a few days later and finally managed to find the problem. A metal piece of something that was welded along one of the long lines of the car as a cover had come off. Rust had eaten through the welding and knocked it loose. Michigan is NOT kind to cars. Snow, ice, and road salt is NOT kind to cars. This all despite the fact that I get the car cleaned pretty regularly to avoid rusting problems.
- We finally got Jonathan's car fixed. The bearing we had replaced last year was bad. Fortunately the part was under warranty, so the shop fixed it for free. I love this mechanic! He, his mother, and his wife run a good, honest shop.
- I got a watch. My parents sent birthday $$, so I got a fun watch. I'm saving the rest for my trip to Texas in two weeks.
- Speaking of trip, I got flat shoes to go with my dress I'm wearing to the wedding. My poor feet... I've been wearing one pair of shoes since about October. Slip on Crocs. Not the sandal kind of crocs, they're actually pretty nice and you wouldn't know they were made out of foam. But after months of wearing nothing but that I knew I needed something nicer for church and for Chandler's wedding.

I'm trying to think of anything else, but at this point I feel like I'm rambling. So I'll just end there and throw in some pictures of the kids from when we went to the fire station with the scouts:

New Year

So I stopped blogging for a while. For one the app quit working on my phone. I find it terribly inconvenient to have to upload photos from my phone to the computer and then to the blog. I'm lazy I guess. And it is totally a first world problem. And then I started back to school, and the time it took to blog was just not high on the priority list. Especially when morning sickness decided I hadn't experienced enough of it with the last three pregnancies and wanted to make me absolutely bedridden for about three months. Yes, that was fun.

Yes, Little Bit caused quite the stir in my poor stomach. But I finally got over that by Halloween, and I've been fairly okay since.

A few days ago Jonathan got onto the blog and started clicking through old posts. The kids sat around laughing at old pictures and videos for a really long time. After they were in bed he commented on how much they enjoyed reading our personal family history and seeing all of those old pictures... It got me thinking. My journal this last year was pretty bare, too. There are a lot of things I know happened, but very few that I remember. That's part of the reason I keep this blog, so I can go back and remember things that have happened. So the kids know what life was like for them when they were little, because I certainly have a hard time recalling details sometimes. So for the record, I'm going to be a little better. Maybe not daily blogs, but I'll try. The kids will want to know what they did, what they said, and what they looked like. Someday this will be important to them, even if it wasn't much of a priority for me for a while.