The flu

So, apparently there's been a stomach flu going around, because I got it yesterday. Talk about pure misery. And of course my body doesn't throw up, so I just felt nauseous all day. Thankfully Steve's on half-day schedules, so he was able to let me sleep most of the day. To make matters worse, whenever I was up, I was having strong contractions every 15 minutes. Bleh. I got a blessing last night and was promised to be able to sleep through the night. And that mostly happened, except poor Steve got the virus and was up all night throwing up. He finally went to the doctor this morning and got 2 bags of IV fluids because he was so dehydrated. He will probably sleep all day today. Thankfully it's just a 24-hour bug and I'm feeling much better, though weak today after not eating all day yesterday. Certainly not the best timing, but when would be?

The good news is my pregnancy counter says only 29 days... I am definitely ready to be done with this pregnancy. I even got all the baby things out yesterday and organized our closet to fit his clothes in with ours. Not an easy feat in our closet, trust me.

Here are those pictures from Christmas that Steve edited... again- I took these without help, so I took what I could get!

Ponies

This summer Emma and Mary gave Katie some My Little Ponies for her birthday. I never had them growing up, so they were never a big deal to me. But the girls love them- they just love horses (especially after being with Sybil's horse, Doc). Sybil had also gotten the girls some My Little Pony T-shirts this summer, which the girls wore nonstop. Anyway... a lot of times when Steve and I pick up food, we just get the girls a hamburger (hangaburger as Katie says) from McDonalds. When Mom was here we got some Chilis and then made our stop at McDonald's. I don't buy Happy Meals. I just don't. But since Mom was here, I got a couple to be nice and was pleasantly surprised by the toy. The girls love it! We've been twice now, so we have 3 different colors of ponies. Then Steve found an advent calendar with even smaller ponies inside, so now we have 3 sizes of ponies. It's one more toy to have around, but I don't mind- they're fun :-)

Picture proof.

Here's that promised picture. I'm 35 weeks today...

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone! We had a very busy day today and I'm worn out! But the girls loved that Santa came and that they got presents from two sets of grandparents, Dick and Sybil and their friends Emma and Mary. So even though we kept Christmas small, there were lots of fun things to open today because of our very wonderful and generous family and friends. My favorite part (as selfish as it might be) was having the girls open the presents from me. I have been sewing every night for the last 2 weeks trying to get these dresses ICinderella and Tinkerbell) finished and was able to get them done Tuesday night. And the best part is that they loved them so much they wore them all day until friends arrived (and that always means the million changes of clothes begins). Sarah insisted on being in the picture- she's wearing one of ellie's leotards because she needed to dress up, too.
We were able to have friends over to share Christmas dinner and the girls always love having them come over and play. We were also able to do the webcam with Grandma and Grandpa and that allowed the girls to talk with Dick, Sybil, Carrie, Brad and Brandalee. The girls loved it, especially Sarah. Here are a couple pictures from the day (Erin, you might recognize the earrings that Sarah is wearing)...

Tricare and Fort Riley Medicine STINK!!!

Yeah, I had a horrible experience today. I was actually excited about going to the doctor today to meet my new doctor- who was supposed to be Dr. Leyba. My old doctor just left, so he gave me a couple recommendations and I chose her. I for sure didn't want Dr. Charles, who delivered Katie and left me in pain for a year until Sarah was born (I think I mentioned before). So anyway... we were all out running errands together this afternoon and Katie fell asleep on the way home. I figured it would be a usual 15-minutes in-and-out appointment, so I had Steve and the girls come with me so Katie could stay asleep in the van. Well, I get checked in and wait for 1/2 hour to see my doctor. Finally a nurse comes and asks if I would be willing to just see Dr. Charles (apparently Leyba was held up with a patient). Bad news #1. I figured it was just a routine OB, so I went ahead and agreed, knowing that Steve was in the van probably with three very squirrely girls. She comes in, looks at my chart and asked how I was doing on weight gain. I told her I was around 35 pounds (yes, the truth comes out) and she gasped and told me that was much too much weight. As if I'm not already self-conscious about how enormous this belly is of mine. So she tells me I need to make sure I watch what I eat. Gee... thanks. She measured me and everything was right on and the heartrate was at around 130, which she said was fine. Appointment is over and I go to make an appointment with Dr. Leyba in 2 weeks. Here comes bad news #2. Oh, her soonest appointment is January 21st. I was supposed to be scheduled for my c-section January 20th. Great. So then she starts searching for any available doctor in 2 weeks and it took her forever to find someone. She found Dr. Mason, who is a civilian and has been practicing for like 35 years or so. And I honestly don't care who my doctor is as long as he/she is competent. But since I won't see him for 2 weeks, I have no idea what day he does surgeries, so I have no clue when my c-section might be now. And then the bad news #3 is that I believe Dr. Charles assists on his c-sections. I don't want that woman near me. An hour later I finally leave the hospital and poor Steve is just done- and I don't blame him one bit. So my great day of shopping with Steve and the girls (and we did have fun) was ruined by this horrid experience. Now I'm feeling depressed and anxious and scared and uncertain about my future. Dumb Army medicine.

Long Update- sorry

Just a couple tidbits of what's been happening the last couple weeks:

My girls love to be helpful when we're grocery shopping. I always take all three girls (never ceases to be an adventure) and they love to help put the food on the counter to be paid for. Well, Mom was in town and she was keeping an eye on Ellie and Katie while Sarah was handing me groceries to scan in the self-checkout line (I thought I was taking the easier way out). Well, I turn around for a minute to scan and I hear my mom gasp. I looked over and saw that Sarah was being extra helpful by trying to hand me the eggs one by one. There were broken eggs everywhere. What do you do? I gave a great sigh, cleaned up the eggs while Mom got a replacement pack, and then just laughed. A little too helpful!

We've had our kittens over a month now. The girls are getting better... slowly. The cats are amazingly patient are really quite fun to be around. They really enjoy being in the action, which I sometimes wish they would just run for their lives!!! They're constantly climbing on everything- including the Christmas tree. We've had to remove all ornaments, as they like to swat at them and knock them off. Then Mom made some pipe-cleaner candy canes, which the cats also knock off and play with. Nothing is safe on that tree. Daisy even likes to nibble on the foil star that Steve and the girls made.

Ellie told me yesterday that she loves church day because it's the day she gets to wear her beautiful dresses. Yes, she is all girl! Katie and Sarah have learned to love to play dress-ups with Ellie (much to Ellie's enjoyment) and they come down in some very interesting outfits. The favorites lately have been the Halloween outfits- as Katie and Ellie can fit into all three dresses. Sarah prefers a rather silly, poofy pink skirt.

Sarah is just a crack-up. Some of the things she comes up with are just hilarious. She of course is great at saying no, but it usually comes out as, "uhhhh.... nooooo". So funny. While she doesn't have a lot of words that anyone outside the family could understand, she really is doing great at communicating. And she likes to copy her sisters- tonight she asked for a co-cone over and over again when she heard Katie request an ice cream cone.

Katie regressed on the potty training while Grandma was here. She's hasn't had a dirty diaper in weeks, but she tends to get that pull-up rather wet. I'll take it anyway! She is amazingly good at remembering and singing songs (although she is terribly tone deaf so far). The girls LOVE the Raffi Christmas CD the Tolmans got us last year and we listen to it whenever we are in the car. The girls know most of the words to most of the songs now.

And it was just wonderful having Mom here. But of course our week flew by far too fast, as usual. The girls did projects every day and had a blast doing it. Ellie informed me one day that I was no fun- only Grandma. C'est la vie, right? Mom helped me pick out fabric, etc. for the projects I'm doing for the girls for Christmas. I am so incredibly excited about them, too. Ellie and Katie are going to love it. I'm still not done and am not going to give it away, but will get pictures on Christmas.

Steve is finally done with his Masters degree from Webster University online (out of St. Louis), which is a huge relief. He is being highly recruited by BYU at the moment (obviously accepted there) and has his acceptance to Georgia Tech as well. We hope to find out mid-January about the other two schools: Purdue and University of Illinois.

I am amazingly large. Steve laughs almost every time he sees me because I'm so big. I just stick straight out. I might break down and get picture proof of it one of these days. I am having strong Braxton Hicks (some really hurt), I don't fit in most of my maternity clothes any more (strange for me), and I'm getting rather awkward doing just about anything. But I still have a month to go and will somehow survive! Carrying a boy is tough work!

I think that's probably enough for tonight. Oh- I did receive callings again at church. I'm back to playing the piano in Primary, which is great, and I'm also the Visiting Teaching Coordinator. That one will keep me busy! I tried my best to get a picture of the girls in their "beautiful dresses" after church by myself and Steve is currently cleaning one up for me. I'll try to get one posted soon. I'm certainly no photographer, but my subjects sure are cute :-)

Released

I was called into the Relief Society Presidency a few months ago as the Enrichment counselor. And I really enjoyed it. I liked helping the sisters, knowing what the issues were and being able to help, having that "in" so Steve (Elder's Quorum President) and I could discuss and share with each other how the ward was doing, and having that night off from home to have our meetings. Then our Relief Society President's husband got orders to Korea. So that meant it was time to reorganize the Relief Society again. I was surprised at just how upset I was about the fact that I wasn't called back in. The normal person would give a big sigh of relief. The other two were called back into the presidency, and that was probably part of it. I guess I felt that for some reason the new president didn't think I could handle it. And maybe she's right. With the baby on the way I will be busy and overwhelmed. And even if it had nothing to do with it, inspiration is inspiration. I can't argue with that. Maybe I'm just needed somewhere else. I'm not being demoted, just moved somewhere else. But honestly, that's how it felt. I'll just blame it on those crazy pregnancy hormones again. It's an easy out ;)

Quickie

I always say these will be quick and hopefully this time I can stick to that. So, even though I feel HUGE and have gained far more weight than I'll ever admit, when I went to see the doctor on Thursday (exactly 32 weeks) I was measuring 31 cm, so I'm back to my typical 1cm behind again. Maybe this boy won't be enormous after all? I also had to pick a new doctor, as mine is out-processing next week and won't be back for a year. He gave me a couple options and I chose the female doctor. There were a couple reasons for this choice. First of all, it was the first name that came to his mind- always a good sign. Second, when I asked about a c-section date (at 39 weeks) I found out the other doctor I had considered was being assisted by the doctor that messed up royally on my c-section with Katie. Not even interested in having her near my body- mostly for my mental consideration. It has been almost 3 years, so I'm sure she has improved, but that year was HORRIBLE after Katie and I don't want to even think about going through all that again. So it looks like my date (if this boy cooperates) for the c-section will most likely be January 20th. It's nice to have a date in mind. And it makes me feel good that it's just about 6 weeks away... I can do 6 more weeks.

And that's my update. Steve goes into the field for 10 days starting Monday-including sleeping over (the field being a patch of grass about 3 minutes from our house here on post.) Absolutely ridiculous to take husbands from families for 10 days right before Christmas. Infantry mentality makes no sense to me. I'll probably complain about this some more next week ;)

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