"If I didn't know you so well, I'd be really worried about you."
"Why? Do I look that bad?"
"Yes, you look awful. Warning! Morning Person Alert!"
That was an actual conversation from this morning. But if I hadn't had such a long day
yesterday, I would have been in better form
today-I think.
Yesterday, our morning started early with Daniel and Lula snuggled up together between Mark and me (me, not I. Now that I'm teaching grammar, I'm actually learning it). Fitting four bodies in a king-sized bed is a bit of a squeeze, but when one of those bodies is also nine months pregnant...well, let's just say I didn't sleep well all night. The sound that woke me up was retching. Daniel was going to throw up in his sleep, all over Lula's head! I quickly jumped up (my speed amazed me), yanked Lula out of the way by her ankles, and woke Mark up. He sleeps with earplugs, so he didn't hear what I heard. I made him carry Daniel, still half-asleep, to the bathroom and hold him over the toilet. There way no way I could deal with that kind of mess.
When Daniel failed to produce even the tiniest amount of vomit (thank you thank you thank you God), Mark questioned my interpretation of what I heard. Was I sure he wasn't just coughing? I started to cry. How are these germs getting into my house? Lula had a fever all weekend and she is a fountain of snot! I'm purposely avoiding public places and people with germs. Doesn't everyone know that I'm only one week away from having a newborn? And sick newborns end up in intensive care? How was I going to function? We all got the stomach flu the day after Daniel was born. It was hell. I don't need a repeat performance of that! So there we were, four people up too early after a long night of not sleeping well after a weekend of Lula with a fever.
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| Molars? Virus? Bacterial infection? |
Daniel is always chipper first thing in the morning. We settled downstairs and got the fireplace going. Daniel said, "I want my ice cream now." Huh? What ice cream? "I want the ice cream that Ian bought for me yesterday!" We don't have any ice cream. "Yes, we DO! I WANT my ICE CREAM!" But how can Ian buy you ice cream? He doesn't have any money! You must have dreamed that Ian bought you ice cream! "NOOOOOO! He had money! He held it in his hand, like THIS!" [holds up fist] "And now I want to EAT my ICE CREAM!" Oh my, this morning isn't going well at all. I promised that I would buy him ice cream when we went to visit the midwife. I can't believe I did that, but I was in no position to establish my dominance yesterday morning. I just wanted him to stop screaming.
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| Professor Know-it-All aka Computer Junkie |
I couldn't handle life anymore, so I went back to bed and slept until 9:00. I woke up in a much better frame of mind. Mark made breakfast and the boys were settled into a nice, quiet morning pattern. After I woke up, Lula went back to sleep. Daniel threw one more temper tantrum when I wouldn't let him play video games, so he got sent to his room where he promptly fell asleep. The rest of the kids watched The Muppet Show until it was time to leave.
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| Back to sleep. In his own bed. |
The rest of the day didn't go too badly. We went to the drug store to finish Ian's first aid kit for Boy Scouts. I bought Daniel a lollipop instead of ice cream. I visited my midwife. Everything with my baby is going well. She is due with her baby two days before me, but she usually has her babies two weeks early. She has never gone this close to her due date, so she is as grumpy and frustrated as I am. Only she is very professional and didn't let on... (we have all sorts of back-up plans for this birth, so I'm not at all worried that she is not going to make it because of her own baby). After the midwife, we stopped by the library and then took Fiona to dance. The rest of the evening was spent watching TV while Mark, Ian, and Evie were at Boy Scouts and dance.
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| Dancing to Peter and the Wolf |
Last night, I kept waking up with an adrenaline-induced pounding heart rate. I kept thinking about labor-like I was in labor! I would calm myself down, reminding myself I'm still a week away from due day and I don't have early babies. I would go back to sleep and then fifteen minutes later the pattern would repeat itself. I finally got up and went downstairs. Sure enough, every fifteen minutes I would have a Braxton Hicks contraction. I stayed downstairs for another 45 minutes until I heard Lula start to cry. She's been a pain at night lately. Instead of fussing in her sleep, she screams! She doesn't wake up, but she needs some kind of touch to help her settle. I think I finally slept from 3:00 to 7:00 when Daniel came in to ask if he could make my coffee.
Daniel's latest thing is helping me make breakfast. He loves to crack eggs. Anytime he sees the eggs come out of the refrigerator, he needs to be the person to crack them open. Being three, he's very messy at egg cracking and I am tired of cleaning up drippy eggs. One morning, Mark decided to let him help make coffee. Now he wants to be the coffee maker every morning. This morning, my coffee wasn't ready by the time I waddled downstairs, but I'm not feeling well (insert morning person conversation here), so I asked for toast. Now Daniel knows how to make toast and we are all eating slightly burnt, over-buttered toast for breakfast.
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| Choked down. "Yum!" |
I just found out that one of Ian's close friends from Boy Scouts had to stay home from school with the stomach flu and that there are others in the Cub Scout pack with the flu as well. I am going to set up a "hands on" history learning lesson where I, the tyrannical dictator, completely isolates my country from the rest of the global community. We just finished a mini unit on North Korea (next up, Russia).
