Hey, Steph - look what we got!!!

My friend Steph and I have this strange knack for ending up pregnant at the same time. Asher (he's over there in my right margin) is just a week and a half younger than Elizabeth; Alexa is about a week and a half younger than Katherine; Aubree is about three months younger than Annie, I think. So, when Stephanie announced she was pregnant with #4, I asked her then "Does this mean I need to go buy a mini-van??" Well, little did I know - yep, that's exactly what it meant!!! ;) Little Andrew has already arrived while Poached Egg isn't even halfway finished baking yet...errrr, um, Poached eggs really don't "bake" do they? You know what I mean. :)

So, last Thursday after my OB visit - we traded in the Accord for a mini-van. We are *loving* it. The girls really love it and are trying to make it their newest play toy. Not hardly, kiddos. I'm constantly saying, "Girls, get out of the van. It is not to play in!" They love it. I think Elizabeth would sleep in it if she could.

It is a Kia Sedona, six airbags including side curtain airbags for all three rows. I love that they emphasize their safety rating and number of airbags over the number of "cup holders" because we all know how 22 cup holders are going to help prevent injury in a crash. It has LATCH (the Honda was a 98 - from before LATCH was standard). On a totally frivolous note, the middle windows roll down which is just the coolest thing. Brad loves that it is red. He stalked it on the dealer's website for four weeks before I finally felt like I could drive over and look at it. And once he laid eyes on it, there was no other van for him.

Man, the simple things that are thrilling when one becomes a mom...

Silly child #2

So, at 1:30 this morning she comes crashing out of her bedroom and climbs in bed with me and Brad. She sleeps fitfully over the next two hours - and I don't sleep *at all*. At about 3:30 she woke up wanting some water. I get her water. She takes a drink, hands it to me to set on the bedside table, wraps her arms around me and says very softly, "I yub you, Mommy" then she snuggles into my neck, arms still wrapped around me and starts giggling! She stayed awake for the next hour and a half - patting my face, rubbing my hair, holding my hand, kissing me, telling me she loves me, and flopping all over the little slice of bed she had between me and Brad. Goofy thing. Finally, she and I both got back to sleep at about 5. Seriously, I do love this kid. But really, must we have this lovefest in the middle of the night??

Mean Girls

I was going to take my blog "invited readers only" because I found out that a people who think they know me and the circumstances of my life (and apparently my finances?) loved to read my blog to ridicule me and my "ugly children". Oh, and my hen-pecked husband (which in and of itself proves they don't know me one iota). My position was they could mock me all they wanted. I'm an adult, I can deal with it. But don't you dare mock my children. And since my blog is mostly about my children, I thought "why give them fodder for their pettiness?"

Then my husband and a few friends who are familiar with these "mean girls" said the same things about the situation which boiled down to jealousy, bitterness, unhappiness, and the previously mentioned pettiness. Why let these people, who obviously have very sad lives, change *anything* about mine? So, I won't. And I refuse to justify anything about my life to them.

I recently ended a long-term relationship over someone else thinking they could meddle in my life. It's so nice to know that I don't have to deal with anyone who thinks they know what's going on in my life when really they don't have a mortal clue.

I just need to rant

I am almost 42. Why are there people out there who assume that just because I'm over 40 and pregnant then I "need" to have certain prenatal screening, testing or genetics counseling? People who don't even know me personally are questioning my decision to not do certain screenings.

We elected to bypass Nuchal Translucency Screening after my OB informed me that it would require (a) the MSAFP (which is a crock of a blood test) and (b) genetics counseling. I've already had genetics counseling TWICE. I wouldn't have had it the 2nd time but we got railroaded in to it because of a change in my OB's clinic policy which I wasn't informed about ahead of time (all Level II ultrasounds now go through their genetics clinic rather than the OB clinic) . I don't NEED genetics counseling again. The decision to bypass NTS and genetics counseling were both questioned - though not by my OB, he knows full well how I feel about this.

My OB and I will be discussing the "requirement" for genetics counseling before I schedule my Level II scan this time. I refuse to sit through a 25-year-old preaching her statistics to me and acting like I'm doing a disservice to my child by not having an amnio solely because of my age. The fact is that women younger than 35 years give birth to about 70 percent of infants with Down syndrome (http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Health/story?id=1296512). So, pardon me for not wanting to rush into having a needle stuck into my belly that risks this pregnancy more than I'm willing to risk it.

After my level II scan, if there are some questions about the health of this baby - then absolutely, we'll do an amnio. Had Annie had a heart defect, I would've had an amnio (babies with heart defects of moms over 40 often have chromosomal defects). I'm willing to have an amnio if there is a valid medical reason. My age is *not* a valid medical reason. I'm willing to have an amnio in order to make sure we have the medical and support systems in place at the birth of this child (that's to answer those who think one only does an amnio if one is going to terminate the pregnancy -- that's a crock-full as well). But willy-nilly testing because, "Oh, I'm over 35 there might be something wrong with this baby"? Not on your life. Women over 35 are perfectly capable of having normal, healthy pregnancies and normal, healthy babies. If you don't like my choices, get over it.

My sweet Bitty Bug

Well, Annie scared me to death on Saturday. She spiked a fever of 105.7 after her nap. I promise it was solely the grace of God that kept me from flipping out. I remembered a conversation I'd had with Tandy years ago, I think when Elizabeth was a little one, that those high fevers required immediate attention in a tepid bath. I had Brad draw the bath while I dosed up some IB and called Medical Exchange. The entire time I was praying that Annie didn't have a febrile seizure (she didn't, thank God!). While I finished off the bath, Brad got Bitsy ready and we stuck her in the tub with a cup full of cold water. Within about five minutes, her temp dropped to 102.9. I'll take it.

The nurse from Medical Exchange called me and confirmed that the things I'd done were the right things. She asked me a few questions, I could tell she was trying to determine if we were dealing with menegitis - we're most likely not. She determined that we didn't need to go to the ER at that point; however, if Annie spiked again we had to go in (whether we got it down or not). Thankfully the fever broke during her 2nd nap.

The fever was back today, though not as high as yesterday, so we're headed to the pediatrician on Monday to see if we can figure out what's going on with the Bitty Bug. Hopefully it'll be something definite and not just something like "viral syndrome". Ugh.

Messy house mom poem

So I get the Google Analytics report for my blog today and one of the search terms that brought someone to my blog was "messy house mom poem". I can only assume they were searching for "Song for a Fifth Child" which appears here on my blog. We won't even talk about the mess that is my house now that I'm pregnant again and sick. My sweet husband tries to keep up, but it's hard. Hopefully I'll feel better soon and we can knock it out together.

Speaking of my sweet husband. I need to take a picture of how he has redone the flower bed in front of the house. It looks *so* good! And much better than how it used to be done. Now we just need to finish putting dirt in it, do the French drain and then choose shrubs (I want hollies). Hopefully we'll have it all done before the end of September.