Family

I can post this, because my family does not know about my blog. I believe I have posted before about some of my issues with my sister-in-law. I love her, but I think she is married to a horrible specimen of a man and this has caused a rift to develop. She has a step-daughter (age 14) and a step-son (age 16) and a biological son that is 6 months younger than Trinity. Her husband has custody of his son, but his ex-wife has custody of his daughter. They split the kids because he did not want to pay child support. Right after Christmas my step-niece got into a fight with my sister-in-law. Apparently she was rude to both her step-mother and her father. Her father asked her to leave. She was angry and refused to visit. Now my sister-in-law and her husband are bad mouthing my step-niece saying she is a brat, lazy, unappreciative, hates her family, she's worthless and disrespectful. My step-niece has shown some questionable behavior to the point that a family member who is a state mandated reporter, called to report her behavior to her school counselor. I hope she is getting help. I have limited access to her. In times like these I am so very grateful for Facebook.
None of us are allowed to question the parenting skills of my sister-in-law or brother-in-law. If we do, they rip you apart and you are bad mouthed for months. And by parenting skills, I mean ANYTHING having to do with their kids. I asked the oldest if he had started drivers training and I got a 20 minute lecture on how he was ungrateful and not responsible enough to drive from my sister-in-law.
I am typing this all out because it is eating me alive and I miss my niece. What she did was wrong and she should be held accountable, but casting her out of your family may be a little overkill in my opinion. I want her to have a good life and be surrounded by supportive, loving people. I think it is sad that in these critical formative years her Dad has chosen to turn his back on her. I love her, I hope she knows that and I wish her nothing but happiness.

Manic Monday

I am working again today. Therefore the title of this post seemed right, since I seem unable to coordinate getting Trinity ready for school, keeping Noah happy and getting myself ready. However, Trinity is at school, dressed properly with a lunch and instructions for getting home after school (I won't be picking her up). Noah is safely at home with a capable sitter (his aunt) and I am at work with coffee. I was a few minutes late, but that was because I had to stop for coffee or today would have been unbearable. Okay, the day would have been bearable, but I would not have been bearable. I'm even showered, dressed, wearing heels and made an attempt at doing my hair. It is raining, so I didn't make much of an attempt at my hair, but an attempt was made and I count that.

Yesterday I was supposed to get a bunch of stuff done and I ended up snuggling on the couch all afternoon with Trinity. I feel she sometimes gets my 'leftover' time, so it was nice to have some 'girl power' time. 'Girl power' is what we call our one-on-one time. We've been calling it that since she was quite little and it has sort of stuck.

Saturday we went shopping at Kohl's. It was fun, even though Noah was crabby. He was fine as long as the stroller cart kept moving, but if we stopped the screaming began. This was fine until Trinity had to try on clothes & Noah didn't want to sit still. I couldn't let him out of the stroller, because he would crawl out under the door. In the end it worked, but it made life interesting. Trinity had fun picking out her own clothes and figuring out her money. She loved that she got to count out her money to the cashier. I think she was a little disappointed that she didn't get change. She even talked me into getting a pair of shoes for myself. I am disappointed that we went shopping for clothes for warm weather and the next day it turned cold and rainy. Blech, but that is spring for you.

Feeling the love

I took the kids shopping this morning. Trinity has been learning about money in school, so I took the opportunity to cash in her piggy banks and after putting half in her savings account, she was allowed to spend the remainder at Kohl's today. She needed some summer clothes & she wanted flip flops and sandles. Noah also needed summer clothes as he has been forced to roast in long sleeves or wear nothing but a onesie.

Trinity was in charge of her own money and after counting it out MANY times, she knew how much she had to spend. Off we went to Kohl's this morning. The nearest Kohl's is about a half hour away. Not too long, but long enough that Trinity gets bored. So, here is a snippet of our conversation this morning.

Trinity: "Mom, can I tell you a story?"
Me: "Sure."
Her: "What do you want it to be about?"
Me: "How about a frog."
Her: "Okay. Once upon a time, there was a frog. The end. Now it is your turn to tell me a story."

Hmmm...kind of walked into that one. But off we went taking turns telling each other simple silly stories that had us both laughing...UNTIL...

Me: "What do you want your story about this time?"
Trinity: "How about a really awesome Dad and his wife."
Me: "Once upon a time there was this Dad..."
Her: "Don't you mean a really awesome Dad?"
Me: "Right, sorry. Once upon a time there was a really awesome Dad and a really awesome Mom. ..."
Her: "That's not right, the Dad is really awesome and he's just married to his wife, she's just a regular boring mom."
Me: "So, you don't want the story about your Dad?"
Her: "Mom, I just described my Dad, so of course it is about him."

So, I was feeling the love from my eldest child today. Apparently, I am just a regular boring Mom who has the honor of being married to a really awesome Dad. Am I supposed to be honored for myself or feel sorry for him?

Working

I am working today. A good friend of ours owns a jewelry store and prior to having two children I would help out every Christmas. He sent his staff to the jewelry show in Chicago, so I am filling in. A pretty low key job, obviously, since I'm blogging while here, but I am having fun. I love customer service A LOT and retail sales in small doses. So this job suits me perfectly on a fill-in, part-time basis.

I have to say, I admire those of you working moms, because having been out of the workforce for so long I find it very difficult to get in the swing of things. I forgot to send a lunch to school with Trinity this morning. Luckily lunch was something she didn't hate. I forgot to send her yearbook order form back, again luckily I taught Art Adventure today, so I took in at that time. I miss Noah like crazy & it has only been 4 hours. I felt like I was rushing to get ready and I forgot to eat lunch. Thank goodness for the tictacs in my purse. I just feel completely out of my element and unorganized today. Those of you that do this on a regular basis, I applaud you, because come fall when I am back in school my family will most likely be running around naked and living off Pop Tarts.

Art

One of the bad things about Trinity going to a small (less than 100 total students K-6) school is they don't have an art curriculum. They have gym, music, Spanish & religion, but no art program. This is where the parents step in. They do, however, participate in the Art Adventure program in conjunction with the Minneapolis Institute of Art. This program allows parents to volunteer their time and teach the kids a little about art. At the beginning of the school year Trinity's teacher gave my name as someone who would be a good choice to teach. This proves to me that I am far too nice to Trinity's teacher. But anyway, twice a year, once in the fall and once in the spring the parents go to the MIA and see 8 pieces of art and learn about each one. Then we go home, pick 4 days that work with the teacher, enter the classroom and try to excite these young minds about art.

I love the way the program works, because we don't tell them dates, names & spout off facts and speculations about the artist or the piece of art. The kids tell us. We ask things like "What do you see?" "How does this make you feel?" "Why?" We teach them that no matter how you look at it or how it makes you feel, there is no wrong answer. You can't be wrong in the world of art! After spending about half the time discussing the art, then the kids get to do a project that the parents think up that corresponds in some way with the pieces they just talked about. Some are fun and successful & some are not. But we are not professionals, nor do we pretend to be and the kids have fun no matter what.

So last week I had my first spring Art Adventure class. Normally I do this with another mom, but she called and said she had an emergency and could I handle it myself. The project seemed fairly easy, so I said yes. The project was looking through a toilet paper tube and drawing only what you saw through the tube. Straightforward enough, I thought. These are bright young kindergarten minds - they can handle it. . . Until we got started. Oh me, oh my! I had one little girl in glasses that swore she could not see through the tube with one eye shut. I told her to put her glasses back on and try and she said she was unable to shut her eyes with her glasses on, nor could she cover up one eye. She ended up keeping both eyes open since the tears were starting to sprout. Then Trinity brings me her picture, which is well done and I can tell she spent a lot of time on it, except she drew me, her father, herself and her brother. Um, two of the four weren't in the room. So, I asked her as sweetly as I could if she could turn her page over and try again, after praising her work of course. She slunk back to her desk and put her head down - AND STARTED TO CRY. Yes, she has the meanest mom in the world, because I made her cry in front of her entire class. I felt so awful.

Today I am going back, on my own again. Wish me luck. I'm going to try really hard not to make anyone cry today, especially my own child.

I have so much I want to tell you, but I doubt the baby is going to give me enough time to say it all. So, I am going to meander my way through and hopefully there is a point at the end.
Can I tell you how much I am enjoying being a mom of 2. I love it. However, I am nearing my end of the stay at home mom gig. I am ever so grateful for the opportunity to stay home for over a year with Noah. I was able to stay home for 6 months with Trinity and I loved it. I think that closing the business before Noah was born & then staying home was the correct decision at the time, but now I'm looking for more.
The market is being saturated with photographers claiming to be professional, just because they bought an SLR digital camera. I don't want to spend every moment of my time begging for business and explaining why my prices are higher than the weekend photographer who gets their prints from Wal-Mart. I want to spend my free time with my family. I want to have free time. I love being a photographer and I'm good at what I do. But I want to focus my energy on my children right now. Trinity is only in kindergarten once, Noah is only 1 for a year - I want to savor every moment.
Right before Christmas we learned we were pregnant again. It was bad timing, but we came to love the idea of growing our family and adding another life to our hearts. However, it was not meant to be. We went in for a routine appointment and there was no heartbeat. I ended up having a D&C a few weeks afterwards. We decided to wait to make a decision until our emotions were less raw and now we've decided our family is complete. Unless God decides to intervene, we are done having children. I believe this has prompted my latest transformation.
I have decided to go back to school in the fall and get my teaching certificate. I want to teach. It was my dream in college and the dream is starting to surface again. I am feeling good, very good.

Mommy Guilt of a New Kind

When I was little I remember my Mom was the best room mother. She attended every Halloween, Christmas and Valentine's party my class ever threw. She was a chaperone on every field trip I ever took. I have such great memories of picking apples with my Mom, going to the circus with my Mom, eating pink cupcakes with my Mom. In all these pictures there was also my little brother. See back when I was in elementary school, little siblings were welcomed on these trips and parties. And when my little brother started school, Mom went on his trips and attended his parties as well.

So here we are today and now I have a kindergartener and an infant, just like my Mom, but somehow things are different. First, I don't know how she did it, but my Mom managed her time WAY better than I do. Maybe it is because she didn't have Facebook, Twitter & blogs, but who can say for sure. I've been asked twice now to help with Trinity's class. Once was a lunch server and just today I was asked to be a teacher for Art Adventure week. My problem - no siblings allowed. I can't do it. I tried to get Noah into the daycare that Trinity was in, just part time, maybe 10 hours a week, but no, they don't have any openings until June. June! So, here I sit almost in tears, because as I watched Trinity grow from a infant to a toddler to a preschooler, I was there - always - for every field trip, for every party, for every event, until now.

We had a plan, a plan for an only child. ONE child I could devote all my attention and time to, but then we were surprised by this wonderful gift from God. While I wouldn't change things for anything, I am now plagued with mommy guilt once again. The guilt that my plans of being there for every field trip, every party, every fundraiser, every PSA meeting, every Girl Scout meeting is crushed. I now know that the same fond memories I have of my Mom and snowman cookies, Trinity will not have. Maybe the pain is too fresh, maybe after some time I will come to grips with this too, maybe I am just feeling overwhelmed this week, maybe I am just overreacting, but my heart is breaking & I feel I am not living up to my fullest potential as a Mom today. The guilt is creeping in and I'm not sure how to stop it.

I'm getting my groove back.

One thing about my pregnancies is that they throw my life into chaos. I realize that is probably true for most people, but all I can atest to is my own. I feel like I lose myself because I am unable to function normally. Add to that the fact that just being pregnant this last time was a shock for me I haven't felt like myself in over a year. Noah is now 6 months old and I am just starting to feel like I am getting myself back. So, part of getting myself back on track is to start blogging again.

I am not going to make any promises and I'm not going to pretend that I am blogging for those of you reading this. This blog is for me. It is my place to express my feelings that I may not be comfortable expressing anywhere else. You are welcome to read it, comment on it or ignore it. I appreciate your interest in my life, but these thoughts and words are mine.

Trinity began kindergarten on September 1st. I am not sure when she grew up, but I look back and realize that I took for granted that she would always be little and now she isn't. She loves school and I am so far happy with our choice of sending her to our local Catholic school.

Noah is all boy. He made his appearance into our lives on March 4, 2009. His labor was a little longer than Trinity's, but still short at 6 1/2 hours. He is now just over 6 months and doing well. He is almost 18 lbs and 26 1/2" long at his appointment last week. I find that parenting the second time has some great times and some horrible times. I know that we never thought we'd have a second child, but now we just cannot imagine our lives without this amazing gift from God. He has already managed to climb out of his swing and is a daredevil. He is not a snuggler much to my dismay, but I'll keep him anyway.

We have made much progress on our kitchen remodel. We still have some trim to get up & a little touch up painting, but overall we are close to done. It was one long year of construction. My black concrete counter tops are killer by the way. If you want to see them I have pictures on Facebook, just friend me.

I think this is going to be the end of my return to blogging. I need to get some stuff done before Noah wakes up and we have to go pick up Trinity today from Montessori. She was missing her Montessori friends, so we agreed she could do their after school program one afternoon a week and Tuesdays are her day. She gets to ride the bus from kindergarten to Montessori and boy I think the only thing that could top that is if we actually bought her a pony. I can't wait to hear about her first day.

Have a wonderful day, smile and ask someone how you can help them today. It is amazing how your outlook can change with one question.

Maternity photos

I

Naive, strict, old-fashioned, out of touch - what am I?

I liked how I was raised. I think my parents did a great job and I turned out pretty well. My parents weren't perfect & made plenty of mistakes, but they let me explore my surroundings & gave me a stable foundation in which to build my life. So, I learned from their mistakes, but I try to raise Trinity with the same values I was raised.

However, DH & I seem to be the only ones who subscribe to our parenting style. Not that this bothers me, but I'm wondering if I'm out of touch with how children are raised today. For example, we expect Trinity to have table manners, well actually, manners in general. We follow through with what we say, so if she is misbehaving and we tell her 'x' will happen if she doesn't stop, then 'x' happens. Not sometimes, but every time. We expect her to be quiet during church and not run in stores. She has to hold our hand to cross the street & she only watches age appropriate TV & movies.

It is the TV & movie rule that seems to be criticized the most. My SIL sees nothing wrong with letting her 3 1/2 year old watch Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix. My good friend lets her 7 year old watch Star Wars, Doctor Who, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, etc. I won't even allow Trinity to watch Hannah Montana, because I think high school issues are meant for an older demographic than an almost 5 year old. I don't think the humor in shows like "Back in the Barnyard" & SpongeBob are appropriate for her age either.

So, am I just old-fashioned, out of touch or too strict? I know that I am comfortable with my parenting style & I have no plans to change anything, but I am interested in knowing if I am the only parent who feels this way.

I survived Vegas, pretty much.

Vegas was a blast, for the most part. The flights were fine. I met some new cool people & I got about a months worth of walking in. I slept very little & it caught up with me Saturday night. The rest of the girls went out clubbing Saturday evening, but I went back to the condo after dinner, because I knew I had overextended myself on Friday. Well, after everyone left I got ready for bed, and after lying down I started violently vomiting. I think in the end I slept less than the girls, because I was so unbelievably ill. I managed to get through the flight home without being sick, and I even slept a little. Once I got home, it was another story. I am so grateful for the PICC line, because I think it is the only thing that saved me from a hospital stay. I slept from 3pm on Sunday until 7am Monday waking for an hour to attempt dinner (& promptly throw it back up). I feel much better today and ate an apple for breakfast & some lunch. I can tell I'm still dehydrated, so I may do three bags of fluid today to get myself totally back to normal.

When I'm feeling a bit more normal, I will post some Vegas pictures. We had so much fun!

I'm going to Vegas

I've had this trip planned for several months, but it has always seemed so far away and now I'm leaving in less than a week. How did that happen? Where did the time go?

DH's cousin is getting married, so I sort of put the idea in her head that she needed a Vegas bachelorette party. Okay, maybe I just needed to go to a Vegas bachelorette party, but that was before I got knocked up. Obviously my initial plan of partying like a single girl in Vegas isn't going to happen now & I'm okay with that, but I'm still looking forward to the trip. I adore DH's cousin & her sister (who is also coming). DH's sister lives in a suburb of Vegas, so I get to see my niece (& my SIL & BIL) which I am excited about. I don't know the other girls going, but I'm sure they are tons of fun. We plan on going to the 'Thunder from Down Under' show on Friday night and one of my favorite Italian restaurants on Saturday. I know I will have to pull out of a couple of the activities, but hopefully everyone understands.

Of course I've been in a panic for two days because my SIL is one of the most stylish people I know & so is DH's cousin. I have no clothes that fit or are appropriate for Vegas nightlife. I guess I will survive or I'll just go naked. That's okay in Vegas right?

I will post all about it after the trip as I'm trying to get by without dragging the laptop with me. I really want to travel as light as possible.

Our daughter's first solo adventure

Sunday started as any other Sunday - up early, breakfast, church, Home Depot, lunch, nap, etc. Little did we know that our evening was going to be far from routine. First, we discovered our upper cabinets had to come out in one piece, so we had to call in favors for people to rush over and help us remove them. We are trying to reuse our cabinets, so we wanted to take them out gently. Second, I developed a clot in my PICC catheter so I had to run to the emergency room to have it de-clotted. Right before I headed to the ER Trinity asked if she could play outside, but since I was leaving and DH was in the kitchen, I said 'no'. DH then yells from the kitchen that he let her do it on Saturday while I was at work. *sigh* Okay, I caved and said fine assuming DH & Trinity had worked out some kind of arrangement. I'm waiting in the ER, which is pretty busy, when DH comes rushing in, looks around and runs out again. Uh, what the hell, I am thinking. So I have a friend of mine who is keeping me company when it dawns on me that Trinity must be missing. I can think of no other reason for his behavior. She leaves to help him search and I'm stuck in the stupid waiting room of the ER unable to do anything.

Turns out in the end that Trinity had asked if she could push her baby in her stroller on the sidewalk. DH had said yes, assuming she meant the sidewalk in front of our house. However, she decided to take her baby for a walk on the sidewalk on the busy street at the end of our block. Then, she apparently decided it would be fun to visit the park. The park is about 1/2 a mile from our house and involves crossing one of the top 5 busiest streets in our town. DH found her and she spent the rest of the evening sitting in the recliner. She is also unable to play outside for a few days at all and after that she must be supervised. She also had her TV priviledges taken away for last night and today until bed.

I'd love to be able to say 'I told you so.', but DH was so freaked by the whole incident I just don't have the heart. The bigger problem I see is that while she understood she was in trouble, she doesn't actually seem to think she did anything wrong. I have to admit that this worries me. We have always told her she cannot cross the street without an adult and we still enforce holding our hands when crossing streets, driveways & parking lots. When asked about why she thought it was okay to cross the street, her response was "But I thought I was old enough to cross by myself."

Call me crazy, but I see lots of gray hair in my future.

I'm finally back

I have been feeling pretty miserable lately & typing does not help. I've had a PICC line for almost 2 weeks and it has helped. I am able to give myself IV treatments at home or at the studio. So it helps me stay hydrated and I still get to be productive - woohoo!

Trinity is back at Montessori and doing well. I have kept her teachers apprised of what is going on at home, so if she has any behavioral issues or anything at school, her teachers know what is going on. So far everything is good. She is such a trooper through all this chaos of me being sick. We heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time in the ER. Trinity was with & she thought it was pretty cool. We are letting her come to the 20 week ultrasound and she is excited for that.

Today is construction (destruction) day 1. We are gutting our kitchen. We've hated our kitchen since we moved into this house 8 years ago, but there have been so many other projects that needed to get done, so the kitchen got dropped to the bottom of the to do list. Well, now it has made its way to the top. On top of gutting the kitchen and completely changing the layout, we are replacing all the plumbing and moving the laundry room from the basement to the second floor where all the bedrooms are. We are also going to gut the upstairs bathroom, but that will be more of a winter/spring project. DH is doing most of the work himself. This is good and bad. He is very talented and able to do the work, however, he isn't always the most motivated. We have several projects in various stages of 'doneness' around the house. We've picked out the new flooring and paint. I have an idea of what I want for lighting, we are keeping our existing appliances, since they are only a couple years old. DH & I still have to agree on cabinet hardware, a faucet & sink. We have it narrowed down to either a concrete countertop or we found this awesome granite tile today that I want most desperately. DH is crunching numbers to see which is in our budget.

So, lots of stuff going on. I am starting to get more energy, so hopefully I will get caught up at the studio and be able to post more often. I feel like I've been neglecting all of my friends. I hope to be better. And hopefully next time I will have pictures of my torn up kitchen.

Exaggeration versus Lying

Trinity loves pretend play. She loves to dress up as a ballerina and dance around the house or put on a cowboy hat & boots and pretend she's in a rodeo. She pretends to be a singer, a basketball player, a volleyball player, a princess, the list is quite endless. While in the pretend mode, she will often say she is giving dance lessons or teaching someone what she is doing. She loves to put on concerts and parades. While I love seeing her be creative and using her imagination I've begun to worry lately. Sometimes her pretend play leaks into reality. We will be out at Home Depot or the grocery store & she will be dancing around and someone will ask her if she is in dance & she'll state emphatically "Oh yes, I love taking my dance lessons." Except she has never taken a dance lesson in her life. Or while she is watching Michael Phelps win multiple gold medals state "I am a better swimmer than he is. I could beat him." She has been taking swim lessons for a month & has yet to swim without their flotation devices. She also claims in public that she is a wonderful horse rider and she takes singing/guitar/piano lessons. She has ridden a horse once at a fair where it went in a circle & she has never taken a music lesson in her short life. I know that part of this is her age (she's 4 1/2), but at what point do I correct her and tell her that actually what she is doing is lying. I don't want to embarrass her in public, but I also don't want people getting the wrong information. How much of this is normal and how much should I be concerned about? I'd love to get opinions from all of you. Thanks.

Pop/Soda/Soft drinks/Carbonated beverages

I'm not sure what you call them in your area of the globe, but I'm talking about Coke, Pepsi & all the in between carbonated, sweetened and most of the time caffeinated beverages that most people consume. I dislike these drinks overall and generally consume them on rare occasions. People find this odd, because I also dislike water, but that is a post for another day. Why am I blogging about my dislike of soft drinks? Because for some reason it seems the only beverage that does not make me queasy right now. WTF??? I would think this would be bad enough, but no, it gets worse (at least in my mind). When I have a soft drink I tend to be a Pepsi or Pepsi product drinker or an A & W root beer fan (I make an exception for root beer floats - yum!). I don't think there is a nastier product on the market than Mountain Dew and Coke & any diet products come a very close second. Why am I telling you this, because for some reason my beverage of choice at the moment is Cherry Coke. I gravitate towards it at restaurants, when we do eat out these days I choose restaurants that I know serve Cherry Coke - basically, I am a Cherry Coke addict. I am hoping this phase does not last long, because I don't think I can handle the long term affects on my body. And, please no comments on how I shouldn't be drinking caffeine while pregnant, because I've gotten the okay from my doctor and right now we are just concerned about getting any fluids at all in me.

Guilt

I hate guilt. I think it is a wasted emotion for the most part. I really try to own my actions so I live a pretty guilt-free life. However, I am currently feeling some guilt. Because I have been feeling so crappy and when I'm not feeling crappy I am so freaking tired I've been *neglecting* the physical needs of my husband. He hasn't been pressuring me and he even tells me it is okay. But I'm not an idiot, I see he is having a difficult time. The problem is that with Trinity I'm pretty sure we only had sex once while we were pregnant and he went like 6 months without sex. I would prefer not to have a similar situation this time. This is why I hate guilt, you cannot win. ARGH!!!!

Rough week

I've been a little out of touch and I apologize for that. This week was a bit rough. I have been very nauseous lately, but keeping it under control with the Zofran and Zantac. However Wednesday I took the Zofran in the morning as usual and then promptly threw up. There was some blood in my vomit, but when I talked to the phone nurse she didn't seem concerned. It happened again on Thursday & the nurse didn't seem concerned again when I called. Friday I was unable to keep anything down, but since when I had called it hadn't been 24 hours they told me I was supposed to wait. Didn't keep anything down all day on Friday and all morning today. I didn't dare go for fluids this morning, because I had a wedding today and I couldn't risk being late. So, Mike shot my wedding today while I stood (sat) around looking pathetic. Immediately after finishing the wedding Mike dropped me at the ER & I got two bags of fluids & some IV Zofran. I had a great nurse & doctor & I was out in less than 2 hours. I'm trying to eat something now, then I'm going to bed.

I am SO lucky.

Lucky that I have a phenomenal doctor. I love my doctor. He isn't perfect and I've had my issues with him over the years, but overall I think he's one of the best. He takes me seriously and listens to me when I have concerns. For instance, the hyperemesis gravidum (HG) has hit hard today. I've noticed this time around that my stomach acid is high when I feel my sickest. So, I logically thought that maybe Zantac would help. I called the phone nurse and after patronizing me and telling me I'm putting my baby in danger by even thinking of taking Zantac in the first trimester she agreed to talk to my doctor. I admit that I didn't have much faith in hearing from her again. However, she did talk to my doctor and she had to call me back eating crow and tell me that my doctor told me to 'absolutely try Zantac if I feel it will help'. As I said I love my doctor, because I feel better already.

He is far from broken, but he's getting fixed. . .

DH that is. Considering that this pregnancy was a great big giant OOPS and I really don't want that to happen again I suggested (okay, really I just flat out told him) that he needs to go get fixed. Shockingly, he seems a bit put off by this idea. He spouts something about his manhood and needles and knives or something, but I couldn't hear him clearly as I was heaving my guts out at that moment. When I pointed out that for him it was an outpatient procedure with little to no risk involved, he responded with "Well, since they are already going to be in there, can't they just tie you up?" UH, say what was that? Who are 'they'? and Where are 'they' going to be? Does he really not remember the first time, where I pushed a few times and out came a crying bundle of energy. Do I not remember him there next to me encouraging me even as I puked on the nurses shoes? I don't remember 'them' with their little prospector hats going mining for the baby. Maybe I was a little out of it, but I'm pretty sure I'd remember someone climbing in my vagina screaming "Hey, since we're in here, is there anything you'd like us to do? There's a baby in here, would you like us to push that out? Maybe dust the shelves, put away the dishes, clean up a bit? Tie something off? Whatever, we're in here." I think for that statement alone he should get snipped.