18 weeks 4 days

We found out Monday that we are having………ANOTHER GIRL!!!  I was genuinely surprised – I sort of thought that it would be a boy.  I seem to have lots of practice at growing them.  But I was very excited to find out that Layla would have a SISTER!!  How fun!!

 

The boys went with me to my ultrasound; the two oldest had begged to stay home from school a few hours so as not to miss the big reveal.  They were sooooooooooooo happy to be having another sister!!  (Tim stayed home with Layla due to her being so sick.)  While we waited for the doctor to see us after the ultrasound appointment, we discussed names. (This was an attempt to distract three ACTIVE boys!! )  

Gabe suggested Hannah.  I said that Hannah is indeed a nice name.

Israel suggested Dora.  I affirmed that this was another idea.

Zion’s vote was for Cutie, Sweetie, or She.  All of these were met with Mommy’s approval as well.    (He was so stinkin’ cute saying these names…!!!!!)  

Everything on the ultrasound looked well.  My quad screen also came back negative for any problems.  The doctor increased my thyroid dose per my request in the wake of a TSH of 3.9 that had drained all of my energy back out this month.

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Layla is still getting over her bout with sickness.  This is Day 6.  Her fever is gone, and she hasn’t needed any breathing treatments all day, but Girlfrien’ is F.U.S.S.Y!!!  

 

She has been about Velcroed onto me these past few days.  It’s sweet for a while, and then you start to feel really antsy because you basically can’t get anything done while you’re lugging a two year old around.  

 

Ah well.  This too shall pass.

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Some pictures that please me of late:

 

The boys were filling balloons up with water and then popping them in the chair.

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And new pictures of the kids:

Iiiiiiit’s SUPER LAYLA!!

 

No one can resist the fun of a furling, whirling cape.  

 

 

Layla at the breakfast table with her daddy.  Love this.

 

Gabe had a field trip to the Salisbury Zoo this previous weekend, and we took the whole family.  The day turned out to be gorgeous.

 

One of the cutest specimens I saw at the zoo.

 

Another cute ‘un who asked me specifically to take his picture. 

 

I like these guys.

 

The kids had a great time running around on the creekbanks at the zoo after lunch while the adults sat and talked,  

 

and while the little people ate chips.  

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This was my Mother’s Day, in the spring of 2013.  Sitting outside on a cool but sunny day, with my hair in a ponytail and my legs in fuzzy pants, seventeen weeks pregnant with baby number five, with a curly-haired painter at my side, and three superheroes on the loose behind me.  

In celebration, Tim hung up my living room curtains for me that I finally settled on (after only 4 years) from Target.  Gabe gave me a colorful laminated bookmark that he had made in school.  Israel gave me a yellow flower that he cut out and colored and pasted on blue paper.  Zion gave me the aforementioned flower that he had me draw for him.  Layla was a fussypants with a bad case of Mommy-itis.

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A cutie in the doorway.  

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We’ve rigged the big tree in our front yard with two nifty items: a rope ladder and a swing.  Both were very warmly received.  

(note the inside-out shirt that he dressed himself in.  I find this detail endearing.)

The boys also did their own rigging and tied a ball to a jump rope, and the jump rope to the dogwood tree, and they like to hit the ball back and forth, and Layla likes to grab hold of the rope and hike her little feet out straight in front of her and swing – “Wheeeee!!!”  

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We’ve been celebrating the spring with a nice round of nasty virus.  Boo hiss.  Israel got it first and was sick with a fever, lethargy, and loooots of coughing relieved with albuterol treatments for 4+ days.  When I took him with me to pick up Gabe at school on Wednesday afternoon and he said that he couldn’t play on the playground because his lungs couldn’t handle it, I called the doctor and they fit him in that afternoon.  The doctor said that he does have asthma (which I have suspected for a while now), but thankfully he has never had an asthma attack.  

Then Layla got sick, and the two of us went to the ER at 4 AM on Thursday morning with bad croup.  

She has almost never had croup symptoms up until this point in her life, but has now joined the croup ranks with her brothers.  She remained extremely croupy the whole day after coming home, and I knew I HAD to get her prescribed steroid in her little body before bedtime so as to avoid a repeat of the night before, but every. single. time. a single DROP of about four different carefully disguised concoctions touched her tongue, she would vomit everywhere.  Arrrgggh.  So, after calling the doctor, we returned to our friendly ER for a (fairly quick) steroid shot, much to Layla’s utter disgust.  Her symptoms really improved after the second shot, much to my relief.  However, today it looks like she has pneumonia…sigh.  Thankfully, the doctor is letting us treat her from home with antibiotics instead of admitting her, as long as her oxygen saturation stays ok, which so far it has.  

I sure am grateful for medications such as steroids and albuterol and antibiotics when you need them, even if kids are SUPER CRANKY in the aftermath of steroids.  (Phew).  Just such a relief to know your child is breathing ok.

Zion:  I need your help drawing a flower.

Me: Ok, show me where you want it and how big you want it. (He shows me, I draw it, and he examines it happily.  He then hands it to me.)

Zion:  This is for you.  

Me:  Oh!  Well, thank you!!

Zion: (satisfied smile)  Happy Valentines Day…

Last night I felt the baby move for sure for the first time.  I actually felt it by putting my hand on my stomach.  I have my ultrasound in 12 days (and counting). 

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Lately the boys have each worked to earn a reward by accomplishing a new task that I wanted them to master.  Israel’s was taking care of bathroom cleanup, Zion’s was getting himself fully dressed on his own every day, and Gabe earned his just yesterday by showing bravery in during a vaccination.  Every vaccine he has received in the past few years has been accompanied by lots of fear and frantic behavior that results in him being held down whilst shrieking.  No fun for anyone.  Yesterday he got two of three remaining vaccines that I still had to catch him up with, and there was lots of talking through the situation beforehand, a practice run with a needle-less syringe on the couch, and instruction from his daddy regarding such things as bravery.  He got a little freaked when it was time, but the nurse and I talked him through it,  and there was no yelling and restraining.    Good for you, Gabe.

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Lately Israel has had concerns of varied natures.  Black widow spiders have been very concerning lately, for example, and we have had several bedtime conversations where he expressed fear that there were black widows in the shadows around his bed that he couldn’t see.  

The other night he came to me very distressed about heart attacks, and what if he had a heart attack because of “the way I (Israel) ate when I was young!?”  Despite my attempts to mollify him, he was only encouraged when I told him that his Uncle Quentin had eaten at LEAST a half a stick of butter in one sitting when he was little, and he never had a heart attack and probably never will because he eats very healthy and exercises.  

I have no idea where he picks these things up.  

Today on the way home from school he was teary because the mother of one of his classmates had jokingly told him that a certain type of grass would cause people to turn green and their blood to turn green if they touched it, and he was very anxious about this, and was only comforted when I reminded him that I was a nurse, so I should know these things, and there was no such thing.  ”Oh, right,” he said in relief.  Cha-ching for playing the nurse card.  

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Today I had a happy glow in my heart about our evening, for no particular reason.  For some reason, Tim and I were both hungry for fried chicken for supper, and he went to KFC and picked some up, and then me and the chilluns took a quick run to Dairy Queen for ice cream cones.  And the day was finally warm and rain-less, and it made me happy to have all the kids playing outside all afternoon, with the two oldest boys running races on the sidewalk in front of the house and Zion and Layla playing in the backyard.  

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Israel has mastered the “doorway climb” much to his glee.  

 

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On Tuesdays and Thursdays when Israel is home from school, he, Zion, and Layla all play very happily together.  The other day they were playing on the back porch, and wanted a tablecloth for the table, and then busily went to task preparing a snack, which consisted of a large bowl of water in which were placed various apples and individual grapes.  Then they had a happy little chow-down.  

 

I’m soooooo ready for it to get warm and STAY warm. 

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Here is Miss Lucy Pants with some of her favorite things:  a “p’etty (pretty) dress”, a “p’etty bow” in her hair, (the two are in no way obligated to match) and paints.  

 

 She paints a lot, and colors.  The floor is oft scattered with various artistic endeavors.    

Her other talent of late is stripping off all of her clothes and escaping out to the yard.  That also gets one of these faces: .