Anxiety to the max

As my 37 week appointment approached this Friday (of course, Friday the 13th!), I'm getting more and more anxious as to what will happen. Likely (and hopefully), my OB will check my dilation. If things progressed like with Natalie's pregnancy, I could be close to 7-8cm dilated by now, at which point I'd hope I would not get sent home - again. Also, we are having record flooding in Iowa City. Unfortunately, the Iowa River separates us from the hospital. We've been eyeing bridges and making alternative routes. It looks that a couple bridges could get flooded over with the water level just 3 or so feet roaring below. They are forecasting that by next Wednesday, there will be possibly a 3-4 feet increase in the river levels!!!

So, with all that in mind, I'm feeling my heart racing a lot!

As for the weekend to come, it comforts us a lot that Sam's brother Jim will be visiting us from Chattanooga, TN from Thursday night through Monday morning. Making sure the kids have someone to watch them as we go into labor is one of the MAJOR things Sam and I have worried about. Having Jim in the house would make MUCH easier and faster! I'd feel terrible if Jim's weekend turned out to be a big babysitting job for him, but we would owe him dearly!

Peter also made a joke (all conjured up in his head by himself) tonight that made a slight possibility pushed into the forefront. Here it goes:

Knock knock

Who's there?

Uncle Jim and the baby at the same time!

Ha ha ha ha ha!

Trust me, we laughed but through a little bit of fear that he knows something we that don't!

I would be in quite the pickle if I go into labor while Sam is an hour away at the Moline airport!

Let's hope that doesn't happen!

Update of the peapod

All is good! Ear infections have cleared up and everyone seems to have recovered. Well, Sam still has a little cough but nothing like 2 weeks ago!

Baby #3 progress is going quickly. My 36 week check up was today, and I'm already 4 cm dilated! Today, I'm speeding up the preparations like packing the hospital bag and a bag for the kids, getting laundry caught up, making phone number list, and anything else left undone. "Go!" time is probably just around the corner!

Our primary plan is to send the kids to our next door neighbor's Donna and Mark when we go into labor. They have a 3 year old daughter Lily, with whom Peter and Natalie love to play with. I explained that they'd be going to "Lily's house" when the Mommy and Daddy need to go to the hospital and they might possibly need to sleep there (in case of an overnight delivery). Now, Peter and Natalie couldn't be more excited for this baby to come. Peter has even asked that I go to the hospital now! :)

This morning, Sam took Peter and Natalie for a walk around our neighborhood. Sam told me that Peter kept looking for the perfect flower to pick for Mommy. He was eyeing some of our neighbors nice landscaping, but luckily Daddy was there to prevent any flower swiping! :) Maybe Peter was remembering the flowers I picked from our own landscaping:

I just dropped the hint to Peter that HyVee also sells flowers that Mommy would like! :)

Attack of the ear infections

Just when we thought we were on the road to full recovery, we encountered some pain in our ears over the Memorial Day weekend. Luckily, a clinic was open on Monday where Peter, Natalie and I got checked out. As suspected, all three of us has some kind of ear infection. Unfortunately, after our appointment was over, Sam also felt like he might be getting an ear infection and since then has had more pain in his ear. :( The kids both got amoxicillin and I got an ear drop. I gotta tell you; even for a pharmacist, it's hard to get three drops in your ear canal! One good thing to this story is that Peter and Natalie LOVE their medicine. They almost fight over who gets to take theirs first! Let's hope the infections clear up and we'll all be feeling back to 100% soon!

What a week we've been having!

Sickness took over our house starting last Saturday. It seriously has taken us all to a dark place that we never want to visit again. Our kitchen counter has turned into a little pharmacy of medicines, dosing cups, oral syringes, and cough drops. Even still, we've been plagued with fevers, chills, congestion, body aches, runny noses, coughing, low patience and very whiny kids. We've all sounded pitiful either coughing our lungs out, Natalie freaking out about her nose running, or Peter yelling "TISSUE!" I'm so ready for this cold to be over!!!!

This picture pretty much sums up how we've all felt for days:

Friday night concert

Iowa City has these Friday night free concerts downtown during the summer. This past weekend was the first of the season. We took Peter and Natalie to enjoy some dinner, the playground, and some outdoor music. Who knew they would like it so much to come up with their own "dance routine"!

(not sure why the audio won't upload, but trust me there WAS music)

The funniest part is that they did everything on their own with no direction from us other than to dance to the music. If you can believe it, they also have not seen Dancing with the Stars, so the idea to swing around like that wasn't from that! :) Maybe we should keep an eye on this little talent!

Things I hear from Peter and Natalie

Peter and Natalie both have said the funniest things lately.

I need to document them as they're happening because likely they'll grow out of them and I'll forget about them! (for example, how a year ago, Peter would answer everything with "Rightay")

Some are too funny to ever forget!

Here are a few of them:

"No, [Mommy]! Don't eat all the special treat. Share it!"

"Goonga!" not sure what this means, but I actually heard another kid say it in a store...must be code.

"I just want to watch one show - just a little bit" mainly has been a Peter saying

"Mommy! I need to change my diaper change!"

"Mommy! Music... please!" mainly from Natalie while in the car. That girl loves to sing Blues Clues songs!

"Make a mess!"what I hear in the morning instead of "good morning" when every possible thing in their room is on the floor.

"Be healthy with your food!" just new this morning from Peter to Daddy on the phone

"No, IIIIIIIIIII do it" It's sooooooooo Natalie these days

Kids' First Life Lesson: Remove Fingers Then Bite

I never thought this would be an issue, but it's happened several times in the last week alone. Both Peter and Natalie fail to clear their fingers out of harm's way: their teeth. Their cries from the pain seem so severe - as I'm sure it clearly hurts to bite your own finger. I've learned to discern this cry from all other types by the tell tale sign of the injured finger stinking straight up. It might be even more than one finger, so that needs to be taken into consideration.

So, either my kids are starving and try to eat their own fingers or they are not thinking about their fingers when they stuff that piece of bread in their mouths to chew. I'm confident it's the later since I feel like I slave in the kitchen WAY too much for them to be starving!

But, luckily when a child is crying, nothing is more soothing than a kiss on the boo-boo and a warm hug from Mommy. As a tip to other or future moms, I have convinced Peter and Natalie that their own kisses have major healing power as well. This is good just in case I'm not immediately there to heal an ouchy or if the ouchy is somewhere I'd rather not kiss (ie: booty).