Silver linings and other Pollyanna-esque musings

There's no way around it: pregnancy sucks. I've clued you in on some of the reasons why this rings true for me. But there is an upside to everything. Terrible pregnancies still equal sweet babies.

Here are a few of the upsides of this pregnancy:

• I have a maid. She is 9 years old. She makes a list of the chores as she does them and then I dole out spare change according to the difficulty of the tasks, the length of time it took to accomplish and how thorough her housekeeping is and...how much moola I have on hand.

• I nap. This may be the last time for several years I get to luxuriate amid my pillows every afternoon. My youngest (nearly 5 years old) is easily entertained by his two older siblings for a couple of hours. I often drift in and out of sleep and they wake me up if there is something wrong. Naptime is glorious.

• Simple meals are on the menu. I've dubbed this The Summer of the Tortilla because any day I can't figure out what to make for dinner, I chop up some stuff, drizzle it with a sauce or fresh salsa and shove it inside a tortilla, specifically the tortillas that come uncooked. They are delish after just a minute or two in a pan. If I was hardcore like Azucar or Lindsey, (WHY won't Blogger link to these ladies right now?) I'd make my own, but it's all about simplicity right now.

• My kids play together. They like each other most of the time. This is a very big deal as I can't handle much coming and going (play dates, trips to the zoo and whatever else) right now. We're keeping things low-key with some flexible planned activities. The rest of the the time we are just hanging out. Isn't that how summer is supposed to be?

On the 4th of July

Our celebrations were festive. Our bellies were full.



We had a small family BBQ at my brother and sister-in-law's home.


Our pyrotechnic tendencies were fulfilled.





Who doesn't want to climb into an empty swimming pool? It's only a 10 foot drop.




We're celebrating some additional freedoms with our patriotic trifle.
This week we learned that M. can tolerate eggs. This is wonderfully good news. I wanted to shout, Let him eat cake! He enjoyed it very much.



His food allergies once prohibited all dairy, eggs and nuts. Now he is able to handle dairy (though he refuses to drink milk), eggs (so far only in baked goods, but in a few months we'll move up to pancakes and then eventually plain cooked eggs). Nuts are still troublesome. The progress is liberating, especially when it comes to cooking for my family.

So that was our Independence day. It felt a little subdued for us, especially being the party animal that I am, but the kids were giddy and plenty tired by the end of the night. Tired kids--that's how I measure an evening.

No news is good news

At least as far as my pregnancies go. So far. so good--no trips to L&D, no hospital stays (overnight or 3 month long stints...and yes, I've done both before). I feel like I deserve a medal or something.

And then I remember that I have the fattest multi-volume chart at my OB's office. The complications are still there, but I have been ever so cautious. I am in the "minimum maintenance mode" which means I do the bare minimum. I keep my family fed and clothed. I can't do much by way of real housework. Which means Andy gets to do more than normal, which means it isn't done consistently. That's fine for now. My kids have learned to help out. My daughter is surprisingly good at cleaning bathrooms. And my J. sure loves to scale counters putting the dishes away.

Two or three hours seems to be the longest I can be up and around at a time. It is annoying, but it is what it is. This means that most Sundays I haven't been able to attend all 3 hours of meetings. By the time I've been up and getting ready for awhile, then at church for an hour or so, time's up. There have been some cramping-all-day Sundays when I couldn't even do that.

Yesterday it became obvious that I have either been considered invisible or inactive or....perhaps that I just had a really severe case of morning sickness. I don't know what people thought. I was feeling pretty good yesterday. I stayed beyond the first hour. I was living on the wild side! Being a normal church-going person for the first time in 3 months or more.

As Sunday School ended, I was approached and asked to speak in church and also to do something (not sure what exactly...just an "oh! You're not in Primary anymore, we could really use your help.") in Relief Society. Neither person had a clue as to my very high-risk pregnancy status. I don't blame them. I've been lying low, doing what I had to do to get by. But I sure walked away frustrated that I had to explain myself. How do you tell someone you hardly know that you have a faulty cervix, pre-term labor and at least 5 other complicating factors? I didn't say all that. I just said I was in the middle of a high-risk pregnancy and I'd be able to say yes to these requests in a few months. I've never felt so alone in a crowded room before.

One crazy old lady in our ward happens to be the only one to know a little of my issues. She has made herself our little adopted Argentine abuelita. She adores my husband-- that he speaks her language (if you have heard Argentines speak, you know what I mean) and that his family knows some of her family.

She manages to ask about me every week. Yesterday, she was next to me waiting for a stall in the bathroom. Her heavily accented words and kisses on my cheek comforted me. I wished I could speak her language better, but it wasn't really necessary. She understood. She told me about her miscarriages and then I understood.

Random stuff

Ok, I have left my unborn child's private parts on display long enough. I don't have anything magical to say. No unicorns or magic beans. Just a rundown of our daily and weekly un-adventures.

(My long winded disclaimer: As for these less than stellar photos, that's my fault. I used Andy's camera and I am retarded about F stops and aperture settings and whatnot. I just stuck it on "program" and let the flash help me. I have decided he must teach me the photography mumbo jumbo because my photos are horrible. And we're having a new baby that's likely to have very cute moments while he is at work and I'll be photographically responsible to capture them....what pressure...)

My girl is practicing taking care of a baby girl cousin.




My youngest boy surprised me by intently following directions to create Lego something-or-others. Legos are a BIG DEAL for my three boys. That includes Andy.



Andy put together some bookshelves for me. I just love it when he breaks out a power tool. It means he is going to put something together or fix something.



He also replaced a broken faucet this week, which required three trips to the hardware store. It made my heart all a flutter. That man deserves some cookies. But first, I need to get him to put a bike back together.

Here is J. playing Gameboy upside-down.


See the need for a (fixed) bike? Yeah. He's my very active, creative little boy playing Star Wars with a head rush. Notice the popsicle stick on the floor? Head rush and sugar rush. Notice the black trash sack behind him? I've been going through kids clothes and getting them ready to give away and/or donate.


Andy wants us to agree upon a name right.this.minute. For some reason, I can't. There were girl names I LOVED when I was pregnant with my boys. But, that was 5 and 7 years ago, and sadly, those names became very popular during that time. I am looking for something either slightly different or classic that is not widely used and that is easy to spell and pronounce. I don't want my child being teased over their name or have it repeatedly mispronounced and misspelled like I did. If you've got some great girl name ideas--please share them with me in the comments.

The other day Andy came into a room and said every single girl name that came to his head and then he just started saying random words to see if I was hip with naming our child "Tree" or "Book." So, you see, I really am anxious for your good ideas.

The Proof

So today I had an ultrasound. My 10th for this pregnancy, but whatever. It was the first time they checked all four chambers of the heart and the spine and the brain and the kidneys and all that. All is well. Oh and the gender. THE GENDER.

"Do you want to know the gender?" the tech asked.

"YES" I said.




It's a GIRL!




And I think she's cute.




She was very active and slightly uncooperative during parts of the ultrasound. She kept putting her thumb (and/or possibly fingers) in her mouth as well as shaking her head in a back-and-forth (NO!) type of motion when they tried to get nice shots of her profile.


I am already in love with the baby in these grainy images.

Bedtime Antics

The kids were showered, their teeth brushed...all ready for prayers to be said when I find them doing this...








They're lucky to have a goofy dad.

A laundry list of things I don't understand

• Sundried tomatoes. I frequent food blogs and experiment in my kitchen. But I just can't develop a taste for these.

• Feta cheese. (Ditto above.) Oh and I got sick on some that I accidentally ordered once in Feneuil Hall.

• My hair--Why does the left half of my hair flip up and the right side turn under? And why is it getting frizzier and wavier every year? Why not all the way curly or very, very straight? Is my hair as non-committal as I am? Does my hair need therapy?

• Precious Moments figurines. Huh? Don't those big, wide-set eyes and HUGE heads look just a little demented?

• Writing stuff on walls? As in cutesy sayings or inspirational quotes actually PAINTED on walls, not as in penciled growth charts ('cause I dig that). I have a hard time committing to a paint color, much less choosing actual words that will greet me every.single.day. And if I were to put words on the walls, wouldn't the kids think they could do the same? Is this not just righteous (or patriotic or sentimental) graffiti?

Feel free to try to change my mind on any of the above. (Except my hair, 'cause it's a moot point.)

What don't you understand?