My New Lady

Our little H will be two months old tomorrow. I am still writing her birth story for you, but for now, I'll tell you that her birth was a whirlwind! She was born on my grandmother's birthday weighing 8 lbs. 15 oz. She is a gorgeous chunk of love and we are all so lucky.

Haha.

At the doctor's appointment yesterday, I was told I'm 80% effaced, 2-3 cm dilated. Haha. Commence to freaking the f_ out. As you might remember, I was 36 weeks yesterday. I know in my heart of hearts she could come at any time now (the girls were born at 36.5), but you know, knowing and knowing are two different things. My best friend reminds me that she was on bedrest for months and was at nearly the same spot I was when they took her off at 37 weeks. Her son wasn't born until he was induced for low amniotic fluid a day after his due date. So she could hang around a while. Zazie said to the doctor, "She needs to just stay in until Grandma comes on the 25th" and the doctor said "Well....." (cue dramatic pause and shoulder shrugging). We'll see.

Guess who's now planning all the stuff we need to get done asap? Yeah. The procrastinator's getting sh*t taken care of. Though I know that everything will work out even if we DON'T have everything ready (we certainly weren't ready for the girls), I'd rather not be in that place again, where we have to stumble, sleep-deprived, to the store to buy supplies like diapers because we didn't before she's born.

The girls were very disappointed with my ultrasound experience at the doctor yesterday. They keep talking about how they "didn't see the baby on the screen" this time, since the tech was concentrating on measurements and didn't really give us a good profile shot. I know they will be fine, but I am a little sad that these are the last weeks that we will have with just the four of us.

This weekend was fantastic.

So lots of this happened this weekend...

The girls' half-sib and her mom came to stay with us this weekend. The half-sib is super sweet and her mom is awesome. We'd met them once before on our Disney trip last year, but we haven't seen them since because they live on the West Coast. We have a large group of donor families that we're aware of. We want to keep peripheral contact with all of them for the girls, but some families are special. These are families that we will go out of our way to visit... A&R are one of them. You know you've had a good visit when you are said that your houseguests are leaving!

The girls' third birthday was last week. This is the first year that they really "got" it. Strangely, two days before their birthday, E started saying that she was going to get "a real tea set" at their party... their main gift was a tea set, so that was a little weird!

The party on Sunday was a success... we had it outside at a local playground. Not only did the rain hold off, but we had the playground to ourselves for most of the afternoon! A few of the other area half-sibs came too.

Sleeping.

Yesterday, I went to the doctor, who told me I probably had a virus. That was exactly what I was expecting she'd say. I've been going to this particular practice for going on 10 years now, off and on, and I think I've been prescribed antibiotics maybe once? I guess that's as much a testament to my general health as it is to their reluctance to prescribe. I'm glad they aren't pushing the meds, but sometimes when you feel sh*tty, you just want someone to say "here's what's wrong. take this and it'll be fixed." Between the diagnosis of "suck it up" (not at all what the doc told me, that's just my message to myself) and the 9 hours of sleep I had, I'm feeling much better today.

One of the girls' half-sibs and her mom are with us this weekend for the girls' birthday (which was yesterday). We are excited because we love the two of them, but a little freaked out because the bug situation in our apartment is gross. We live in a multi-story building, we've always had problems with bugs, but since I've been pregnant, we haven't let them spray, only put down gel. Well, that only works for a bit and now. Eek. Between the bugs and the freaking tiny apartment where our guests will be luxuriating in the palatial space we call the living room floor, we are hoping that her visit doesn't make her run screaming from us as fast as she can.

Their birthday party is Sunday. We've planned it for a local playground. Cross your fingers that it doesn't rain, otherwise we'll have 14 kids plus parents and sundry others shoved into our apartment. If that doesn't make a preggo crave some booze, I don't know what will.

How do I do this?

Ugh. People. I am not sure how I'm going to make it through the next month. I feel like I'm going to keel over and die. I am so exhausted and in such a bad mood most of the time.

The girls have been getting up at butt-crack o'clock every morning... I get up with them whenever they show up in our room (between 5:45 and 6:00), stay up until Lauren gets up at 7:30, then go back to sleep for a half an hour-ish. We have tried the wake-up alarms, but the girls just don't give a sh*t and get up whenever they damn well please. Plus, I've been sick the last week and a half with what the doctor told me today might be viral bronchitis (ie there's nothing they can do for me- annoying!).

The poor girls have been getting the brunt of it. I don't want to yell at them. I want to be the ideal positive parenting example, but it's so freakin' hard. Thing is, they either don't respond to yelling (ie they ignore you) or they get upset and start crying. Neither of those outcomes are what I want. I guess I'm just going to give in on most things for now... let them watch fifteen hours of Art.hur or games on my iPad, let Ru wash her toy horse in the sink for an hour. I just feel so impatient and annoyed with them much of the time. I really want to snap out of that, because that is bullsh*t and not the parent I want to be.

So, so wrong.

Our baby shower invitations went out. We didn't have much stuff that we needed, but we had a few things, so we made a registry. I can't stop myself, I have checked the registry several times to see what people got us. It's like knowing where your parents hid the Christ.mas presents and sneaking a peek. I need to stop!

So what would YOU do?

On Saturday, friends came over for dinner with their three kids. Halfway through, the oldest started laying on her mom saying she didn't want to play, that she didn't feel well. Turns out she'd had diarrhea and a fever all day! And they still brought her over!

This couple is notorious among our friends for bringing sick kids to events. Then their sick kids get everyone else sick. It doesn't help that their kids are always sick- either they're just sickly or it's that they're in daycare.  They never cancel. They just bring them snotty, feverish, pooping excessively, whatever.

Now Ellie's sick and I'm pissed. Who brings sick kids over to play, especially when one of their moms is pregnant? I guess since their kids are always sick they don't give a sh*t? I don't want our kids to live in a bubble, but they get sick every. single. time. we see this couple.

Is there a tactful way to say, "Hey, could you please cancel? Or could one of you stay home with the sick kid?"