classic toddler moment

it's 9:25pm. the boys have been in their beds since a little after 8:30. peanut is asleep and i just got out of the bath. i sneak into their room to borrow their lotion. immediately pooks sits straight up. so i say to him "go to sleep, mommy is just putting lotion on her legs." he says ''oh, okay'' and lays back down. i glance over at bubba and while he's laying perfectly still with shut eyes, i can see his eye lids fluttering ever so slightly. so i say "bubba, are you faking it?"

he opens one eye, looks at me and says ''no". then closes his eyes.

i freaking ♥ toddlers!

happy birthday bubba!

yesterday bubba turned four years old. i can barely believe it. today we go for his well child check-up so we'll see just how much he's grown in the last year.

i would love to post pics of his birthday party, however blogger isn't letting me post pictures right now. i'll try again later, otherwise i'll upload them through another site.

a thousand words....

number of times bubba asked for this scooby:               over 20
attempts made to catch said scooby in claw machine:            13
total dollars spent:                                                           $6.50
seeing a smile this big on the birthday boys' face:   PRICELESS

sickos & seventy degrees

here is a run-down of my morning. woke up at 6:40something to B's cell phone alarm and peanut fussing. got peanut, snuggled in bed and watched a little ''curious george'' this the big brothers woke up around 7:20. came downstairs. changed peanuts diaper. snuggled up in the recliner for a much needed breathing treatment. finish breathing treatment only to discover that he's still wheezing. it's not quite 8am and i can't call the doctors office til 8:30. i know the drill, they'll want me to bring him in ASAP. get kids situated with froot loops and orange juice. get everyone's clothes picked out and placed on the sofa. run upstairs, brush teeth, apply make-up. run downstairs clean up cereal and get the little dudes started on getting dressed. at 8:32 phone doctors office, explain. nurse wants us to head in as soon as i can get us all there. big boys are dressed, i'm dressed. let the dog out, change peanut again and get him dressed. get everyone in the car. go to doctor.

find out that peanut has bronchitis and is now on an oral steriod, breathing treatments every 4 hours and a prescription cough syrup for at bedtime. pooks is also now on prednisone and breathing treatments morning, noon and night for wheezing with his cough.

run to store, grab a few groceries and go to get medicine. clean up pooks vomit off of the pharmacy waiting area's floor. apologize profusely. leave store.

get home in time for another round of breathing treatments. peanut then pooks. turn on backyardigans, fix lunch. find peanut asleep on couch. let him doze for a few minutes while i get lunch on the table. wake a very cranky peanut who sits in his highchair but refuses to eat anything. drinks entire cup of apple juice.

pooks shortly announces that he's full, everyone else follows. dose out prescriptions, wash hands, go upstairs and NAPTIME!

boys nap = mama naps. we all nap from 12:15-2:20. kids wake up in wonderful happy moods.

wander around downstairs while they wake up and have a snack. head to sonic for a bag of ice and happy hour slushes. once outside realize it's 70 degrees so i agree to letting them play in the front yard. happiness ensues:

pooks telling me that ''I's still coffin' mama"

boys pretending to be pirates

bubba, will be 4 on sunday (yikes!)

peanut while sick nonetheless, is a total dare devil. i glanced over to find him attempting to stand on the seat of his ride on toy. he did not like being caught:

and finally what i thought was a super cute pic until i realized he has snot running down from his nose, into his mouth. ugh.

all in all we were outside for about 45 minutes until pooks started throwing up in the grass and peanut kept attempting to run into the street. the rest of the night pretty much was a repeat of eating, breathing treatments, throwing up and chaos.

please oh please let them be better tomorrow!

(i should add that bubba is doing wonderfully. no pain, no coughing and wants to go to school tomorrow!)

multi-tasking

yep, we're back to breathing treatments. again. remember back on march 3 when we were all sick and i said that there seemed to be an end in sight?

yeah, i was wrong.

*warning, some content is not for those with a weak stomach or anyone who may eating while reading*

here it is march 22 and we're still dealing with this "virus". thankfully, B and I are fine (minus some congestion). however bubba, pooks and peanut didn't get off so lucky. we piled them all up and took them to stat-care yesterday with the results being:

• bubba was complaining of his ears and throat hurting, as well as a slight cough and runny nose. turns out he has a double ear infection and an upper respiratory infection. he needs to have breathing treatments before bed to help with his cough, tylenol for comfort/pain and was given an antibiotic for the ears.
• pooks has had a cough since march 3. she listened to his lungs and they are clear. ears, throat and nose all looked clear. tylenol as needed for comfort and an albuterol breathing treatment for bed to help coughing
• peanut had been wheezing, coughing, had a runny nose and a fever. she listened to him and the wheezing is coming from his lungs but his ears were a little pink, his throat and nose all looked fine. he is on breathing treatments every 4 hours, alternating tylenol/motrin to keep his fever down and zithromax as a precautionary because of his ears and fever.

doesn't that sound fun? the real ''problem'' is that being toddlers, they don't know how to clear their throats. or how to cough up the mucous or even how to ''hawk a loogie''. so pooks' especially starts coughing and coughing, which because of the snot in the back of his throat leads to gagging, which leads to vomiting. a lot of vomiting. like 6 times yesterday and 5 times (so far) today. he has a ''coffin cup'' (aka- coughing cup) that he keeps by him now. when he starts coughing he literally picks up his coffin cup and coughs into it, then gags thus vomiting into the cup a couple of times. i then wash the cup out and give it back.

you think that sounds gross?

imagine my floors before the coffin cup. mkay? imagine B's recliner. yeah not pretty. add to that the fact that peanut himself has done the same thing a couple times (sans cup) and mama is not having a fun time. wait, scratch that. daddy isn't having a good time. i do a lot of things as a mom and i take them in stride. messes from blood, poop and {non-partially digested} food i can handle. vomit i can not. especially not in my present 'with child' condition. obviously when alone with the children i deal with it and handle it {while gagging, but i do it}. this weekend however, that was all B's department!

so naturally, i have a call in at the doctors office for some sort of decongestant or cough medicine to give to pooks to end this horrific cycle. i realize it's the nasal drainage causing the cough but being that he's two years old, there really isn't anything OTC that i can give him. there used to be but then they decided that cold medicine didn't work on infants/toddlers... funny because when bubba was a baby, "little colds" had a multi-symptom cold medicine that was like magic in a dropper. ugh.

it's a vicious cycle. and it sucks.

can't hide or deny this belly!

8 weeks down, probably 29 more to go. When I word it like that, it seems like this pregnancy is just flying by! Given the fact that I've had all my babies around the 37th week of pregnancy, it seems like that's a good guess. This week sweetcheeks is about the size of a kidney bean...

kinda hard to believe that we all start out so small!

This week went by pretty well, a couple days of serious nausea and some days where I felt just peachy. I'm exhausted pretty much all the time. Last night it was about 9pm and I was watching my DVR'd episode of Project Runway. I remember the challenge, I remember the teams, I remember what the judges said about the designs they didn't like. And then I fell asleep. Woke up on the couch around midnight, B was playing on the wii and I just barely climbed the 13 steps upstairs to my bed, where I promptly laid until 9am this morning. And guess what? Not even 5 hours after waking up, I'm tired again!

The older boys kinda ''get'' it. When I was sick earlier in the week I explained that sometimes when mommy's are growing a baby inside, it's hard to eat some foods. Bubba without missing a beat replied "cause the baby is getting bigger and bigger and bigger and dere is no room for yots of food?" I said ''Yep". "Oh....and dat's why you're tired too?" And I told him that my body was working really really hard at growing the baby and sometimes it made my tummy hurt and sometimes it made me tired but it would be worth it when we had the baby. "You mean my baby sister?" um... "Well either your baby sister or maybe another baby brother."

He looks at me like I'm a total idiot and replies "Girl babies are sisters Mom, not brothers."

"mama...."

this was our conversation at bedtime-

pooks: mama...i had yots of fun today.
me: i'm glad. i had lots of fun today too.
pooks: i yiked pizza hut for supper, it was nummy. i yiked today.
me: well i liked today and had fun too. now go night night and tomorrow we'll have even more fun.
pooks: {kisses me on the cheek} i love you mama. *insert the biggest and best toddler hug here*
me: i love you too pookie.

i'm nauseous, i'm nauseous....

Ugh. The title pretty much sums it up. I'm living in a state of constant nausea. I feel like filbert on Rocko's Modern Life. Sitting in a corner rocking back and forth just repeating ''i'm nauseous...i'm nauseous'' sounds pretty do-able right now.
*this post contains no cute stories or pictures of the little dudes, just me journaling this pregnancy. reading may induce sleepiness. consider yourself warned.* 

I've actually gotten sick a few times {let's just say I won't be eating Chinese food, oh...ever again} but I actually prefer that because I usually feel better afterward. It brings a little relief. This constant feeling of motion-sickness with a side of hangover is a bit much. Add to that the fact that I still have to cook for the little dudes and mama's not eating very much these days.

Red meat is a huge no-no...the smell, flavor and even sight of raw ground beef is enough to push me over the edge. We've eaten a lot of chicken and soups lately. As well as fast-food. I know, it's not the greatest health-wise for anyone but it seems to be a necessary evil right now. And some days are worse than others, as are times of day. Mornings are the worse; I don't even try to eat anything until after 10am and then it's usually nothing to do with breakfast. Yesterday morning I had ramen noodles...for breakfast. Today I had a little 'breakfast' pizza. Saturday morning it was a Colby-Jack cheese stick and Ritz crackers. The thought of milk, makes me cringe. Pouring the boys cereal is the morning is rough.

Luckily when I am hungry, it's been for pretty decent things. Any really cold fruit hits the spot; strawberries, grapes and granny smith apples have all be devoured without the slightest hint of nausea. Cheese is a go-to as well. Especially Colby-Jack. Orange juice (ironically enough) helps a lot. Little sips and I feel much better. Fortunately, I've been able to keep down my pre-natal vitamin (with bubba and pooks that never stayed!) and it's a really great pre-natal. I've noticed that the nights I take it right before bed, I wake up feeling less nauseous. I'm actually considering taking it in the mornings, which I've never been able to stomach in previous pregnancies.

Other than the nausea, I feel pretty good. By evening I'm pretty tired but I notice the more I keep busy, the better I feel. Obviously the little dudes keep me busy so overall, I can't complain. At least I'm not worshiping the porcelain throne non-stop---that's the worse! I'm really trying to cherish this pregnancy and not complain too much...so far, it's been the easiest!

parade

On Saturday morning we took the little dudes to the local St.Patrick's day parade. It was a first {well, since having kids} and despite the fact that it was freezing out, it went pretty well. The kids had a blast scooping up candy and seeing all the ambulances, vintage cars, police cars, tractors, etc. They managed to snag a strand of beads, a ball advertising a local bar/grill, a t-shirt, some tattoos--overall they had a blast. Other than telling us every five minutes that they were ''freezing'' but then refusing to actually leave the parade. Eventually we left {before it had ended} and at least two kids were beyond mad, throwing tantrums about it. Today bubba is complaining of his ears hurting so we may not have left soon enough! It was fun while it lasted though!

all 3 decked in their St. Patty's day shirts

and giving "big hugs"

 and just because they are so stinking cute, one of each

okay so after our mini photo shoot, we actually went to the parade.

they liked the horses

pooks was a little nervous about some of the entrants, clung to daddy a few times

 

the green tractor was their favorite

all my boys (peanut was upset about being in the stroller, had to be bribed with a cracker)

this vintage tow-truck had an ''aahh-ooga'' horn like papa's truck!

this odd rainbow/pot of gold/jeep thing kinda freaked pooks out!

and the number one sign that it's time to go home-

"i'm just fweezing mom''

a blueberry

well sweetcheeks, today mama is seven weeks pregnant with you. i feel like i should be much further along; i found out i was pregnant so early on that time is kinda dragging. i am trying to cherish every moment since i know you will be our last baby. so far, you're making that easy! while i have bouts of nausea, it's nothing horrible and completely manageable. i am tired and i still have that funny metallic taste in my mouth but i can easily handle that in exchange for a healthy baby. since your big brothers all take an afternoon nap, i've had the luxury of taking a nap everyday too. it definitely helps me get through the day!

according to babycenter.com this week your hands and feet are emerging and you are about the size of a blueberry. seeing how last week you about the size of a grain of rice, that's tremendous growth. mommy's tummy is definitely getting bigger too. it's amazing how much bigger we each get in a weeks time!

ps: on the right-hand side, you will see that i added the expectnet game like i did with peanut. feel free to put in your guesses on sweetcheeks arrival. i know this is early, but i want you to go with your instinct and not change it or guess later on when we know the sex, etc. have fun!

terrible twos

pookie is now two years, nine months and twenty one days old. and now at this age, he has been struck with the terrible twos. i mean t-e-r-r-i-b-l-e. like for the first time since having kids, i had to leave a store because he would not listen. normally (as in three days ago) he walks very nicely along the cart. he holds either the cart or my hand and we have the pocket rule. (his non-holding hand has to stay in his pocket so he doesn't get touchy fingers). granted this doesn't work the entire time but for the most part it does.

not lately.

lately, he hides in the racks of clothing, grabs/drops things off of the shelves. i say ''let's go'' and he says ''no, i still looking''. it's horrible. if he is being mean to peanut/bubba and i tell him to behave he replies ''you behave mama''. you can tell him to stop being mean and be nice and he replies ''i'm not mean, i'm happy.'' even bubba today told him that ''you're happy because you are mean yo-yo. not cause you're nice. you're not nice."

i'm at a lost.

moms, what do i do? if i put him in the big part of the cart (not only is it dangerous) but he throws a royal temper tantrum. if i ignore him, he continues the behavior. i rarely spank, rarely and let alone in public. i don't buy him trinkets and toys so i can't take those away. as of now, my only option is leaving.

it's been three days and leaving stores is officially getting old.

the kids are now completely out of toothpaste because i didn't have a chance to grab it before we had to leave. we have no q-tips for the same reason. we're on our last pack of baby wipes because we never got to that side of the store today.

and it's not just stores. at mr.goodcents tonight he was trying to climb over the back of the booth. he isn't using his inside voice and he vocally throws a hell of a tantrum. even at home* he is pushing peanut and refusing to apologize.

*home is slightly easier because of the option of using a timeout or taking away the toy in question. it's not pleasant but it works. and i don't care how loud he screams/cries at home--could care less as a matter of fact! his tushie is still sitting in timeout.

help!!! i've never dealt with this behavior before and i need i am begging for advice.

all tuckered out.

when we got back from picking bubba up from school today, i set peanut down to help pooks with his jacket. took pooks jacket off and turned around to find peanut o-u-t like a light. he slept like this for over 30 minutes, despite his brothers playing and rough housing all around him. sometimes he's still my little baby :)

P is for Park

which is where we went today! it was gorgeous out! almost 60 degrees and sunny. after the longest winter ever and then being sick for the last week, i think i was itching to get outside even more so than the kids were. i couldn't wait for them to wake up from their naps so that we could get outdoors and play. we ended up having to go to two parks to find one that wasn't overly crowded. (seriously the first one, there was no where to park!).

all 3 little monkeys climbing. well, peanut was trying to push it over!

bubba made it to the top and wanted me to ''cheese'' him

the playground was really really crowded so we took a small break from playing and went on a little walk. they have these fitness paths that go all through the park and the older boys like climbing and hanging from the bars. peanut however could have cared less about the obstacles. peanut loved being able to walk. granted it was painstakingly slow, but he was doing it and {if you click on the pic} you can see on his face how excited he was!

once back to the playground, the boys resumed playing. pooks loves slides!

peanut was much more excited about the swings today

{as opposed to previous attempts when younger}

this park/playground is old. the equipment pre-dates even me playing there as a kid. there is no fancy roller slide or zip-line. no rope bridges and it certainly doesn't have a play surface made from recycled tires. nope, it has good old fashioned sand. well, more like pebbles. and the boys love to use these old hand-diggers to scoop and pour all those pebbles!

it was really exciting to watch peanut today. he hadn't been to a park since the fall and because he didn't start walking until december, he never actually had played at one before. so seeing him touch the pebbles, pull up grass and really watch the other kids was pretty cool. definitely could see all the excitement in his face. his absolute favorite thing was this ''big'' slide. he went down it all by himself, over and over again.

and lastly, i took the opportunity to take another family self-portrait via the timer:

not too bad, i think! look how much the kids have grown since august!

they're growing like weeds i tell ya!

sweetcheeks 1st photo

well i went back to Dr. P's office for my ultrasound today. as i mentioned before here, there was some questioning on my dates. they were in fact off, originally we thought i should be 7 weeks {today} but in actuality, i'm only 6 weeks. the baby measured 3.4mm or about the size of a grain of rice but luckily it's heart has developed and i actually got to see it flicker on the screen as well as hear it! (in the above picture, the blurry white dot inside the black circle--yeah, thats the baby and yolk sac) they adjusted my due date to october 29, 2010.

seeing everything was very reassuring after being in a constant state of anxiety for the last week. the heartrate was 108, which is kinda low but normal for this gestation. she guesses that the heart as only been developed for about a day! i feel much much better :) we saw the inside view, now here is what i look like:

i'm still in my regular jeans, so that's a plus! i still don't have any real symptoms. (not that i'm complaining) it's just odd. this is my fourth pregnancy in as many years and this one is really throwing me through a loop! everything is different. out of the 'usual' pregnancy symptoms i am more tired than usual and i have a funny taste in my mouth damn near all the time. (apparently it's pretty common but never before have i experienced it.) there have been a few evenings where i kinda get this carsick feeling but overall, no morning sickness, i'm not peeing more than normal, i'm not nauseous. so far, i've gotten off pretty easy.

oh and should mention {just for the sake of remembering later} that both bubba and pooks as well as B, all are insisting that this is a girl. pooks doesn't give a reason as to why, bubba says ''cause we already have a baby boy" and B ''just knows''. my cousin ashly is also insistent that this baby is a girl. me? i have no clue. i know it's healthy though :)

remember the horrible sickness that cascaded over our house this weekend?

yeah well there is finally an end in sight. we all 5 piled into the car yesterday and went to the doctor. there is only so long where one can handle the feeling of coughing up a lung while going back and forth between hot and cold all while taking care of everyone else and wiping noses every 2.2 seconds.

turns out we caught a nasty little virus and on top of that, peanut also has an ear infection. so after a dose of mucinex for B, zithromax for peanut and nothing but fluids and tylenol for the remaining 3 of us we returned home. last night was rough; the virus has moved into peanuts chest, thus resulting in breathing treatments. again. although i have to say, he's taking them pretty well.

bubba, pooks and B have been fever free for over 24 hours. peanut and I haven't been quite so lucky, although mine is much lower than peanuts. bubba will finally get to go to school tomorrow! it's like a christmas miracle {except, well it's not christmas}. he is so excited! of course he'll go tomorrow and then not again til monday {there is no class on fridays} but at least he'll get out of the house for a bit. never in our entire history as a family have we all gotten so sick at the same time. today we went to the grocery store just so the kids could get out of the house!

here is hoping thats the last illness of winter. we're ready for spring!

tasty tuesday-easy dinners

 if you're like me, you're not up for cooking every.single.night. some nights we just need a break but that doesn't mean that we want to feed our kids junk. here are a few of the easy, yet still healthy, dinners that we have on nights where mama doesn't want to cook.

our go-to easy dinner is a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store deli. they are seasoned, hot and ready and usually only $5. bake some potatoes in the microwave and throw in some fruit or frozen veggies. i usually just call B on his way home from work and he swings by the store and picks one up while i prepare the sides. instant dinner that is healthy, cheap and yummy. what kid doesn't like chicken?

now let's talk frozen food. usually it's full of sodium and preservatives, and that's okay every once in awhile but i prefer to offer the boys something a little healthier. my mom actually introduced these bag meals to me and we love them. they are by birdseye and they are the Viola! meals.

now granted, they still have quite a bit of sodium (940mg in one cup) but to me, the fact that they get my kids to eat carrots and broccoli make them a win! our favorite variety is the Garlic Chicken but the boys also like the Three Cheese Chicken. you literally just pour the bag in a skillet, add 1/4 cup of water and heat to a high boil, then simmer for 7-9 minutes. one bag is about $4 and it will feed our whole family one meal. usually i will add a little bit more water, then add another handful of frozen corn or broccoli from the freezer and cook that up with it. its a great thing to keep in the freezer for a night when you just don't feel like cooking.

another frozen favorite is tyson's chicken nuggets, which have no artificial ingredients and are made of white meat only. we usually eat these with mac and cheese, frozen fries or mashed potatoes and a side of fruit.

probably my favorite easy dinner is one where we just thaw out something that i had previously made. usually this is a soup. i previously shared our easy peasy cheesy potato soup which freezes very well. i also make a fairly simple chicken noodle soup, chocked full of veggies, that freezes wonderfully. here is that recipe, though i use the term loosely as I don't measure.

Chicken Noodle Soup:
You will need-
-about 3 cups chopped carrots
-about 3 cups chopped celery
-about 1 cup chopped onion (i use chopped frozen)
-about 3 cups of previously cooked chicken, shredded or diced. (left over rotisserie works great! or you can use boneless skinless chicken breasts)
-chicken broth (how much depends on how much soup you want, I usually use 3 cans of broth/stock and then 2 cans of water and 1 bullion cube)
-parsley
-24 oz bag reames frozen egg noodles
-salt
-pepper


In a large pot, with a little bit of EVOO, saute onions until translucent. Add chopped carrots and celery and cook for a few minutes. Slowly add in a little bit of broth, taking a second to scrap off any seasoning/flavor that is on the bottom of the pot. Add chicken and remaining 2 cans of broth.

Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Let boil for about 5 minutes, then add chopped/shredded chicken and continue to boil for another 5 minutes. Turn heat down to low/medium and add noodles. Add salt, pepper and parsley. Let cook/simmer for at least an hour to an hour and a half. Take a spoon and taste it. What does it need? Stronger chicken flavor? Add a bouillon cube. Too plain? Add more seasoning/herbs. Parsley, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and or thyme are all good. As is Mrs. Dash. It can be done now, if the noodles are fully cooked. However, I usually leave it on low heat for 2-3 hours.

I typically make this during naptime, around 2:30pm and it takes about 30 minutes of prep between the chopping and boiling, etc. i let it sit on low heat from 3pm until we eat at 5:30.

This isn't a soup with a clear broth; by slow cooking the frozen noodles instead of boiling them quickly it will make a thicker heartier soup (the flour breaks down and acts as a thickening agent) similar to making homemade chicken and noodles over mashed potatoes. we usually have this with a french baguette from panera. so yummy and it makes A TON. i mean, a lot. we can easily eat it for dinner and have enough leftover to freeze and feed the whole family for another dinner. when reheating you may want to add a bit more chicken brother as it will be pretty thick.

next time i make it, i can try to take pics as a tutorial like i did with the potato soup. i'm not sure if this helps or not, let me know!

open gym and one rough weekend!

a local gymnastics place has open gym on fridays. for just $4 the kids can go and run around like wild banshees for an hour and a half. they can play in the foam pits, the trampolines, bars, rings, mats--anything really. i took them once, a long time ago and it turns out it really isn't something that one adult can do with 3 kids. they all take off in different directions and it's impossible to keep an eye on all of them! so we took advantage of B being home on friday and went as a family, along with marc, hollie and lando. the boys had a blast!

peanut walking on the beam

 

 the older boys loved the trampoline, peanut not so much

 

the foam pit was a close second, and no pooks isn't hurt; he didn't want his pic taken

B tossed peanut in there too but he didn't really like it

so after open gym we all went to lunch at mr.goodcents. oh how i love thee! it was delicious and surprisingly calm for having 4 kids under the age of 4 all eating together. shortly after lunch, i started getting a really sharp pain in my lower abdomen. at first i just chalked it up to growing pains as my uterus is expanding at a rapid rate right now. well the longer it went on, the more i thought i should have it checked out. i called my ob/gyn nurse and she agreed; i went straight up for an ultrasound.

it ended up being the worst ultrasound, ever. first off, there was no sign of a baby or a gestational sac. at all. never in all 3 previous pregnancies have i ever seen an empty uterus. it was heart-wrenching. the sonographer kept saying ''no pregnancy seen in uterus''. which can be explained by two things: miscarriage and mis-calculation of dates. while i didn't feel like i'd had a miscarriage, one can't help but wonder. i was 6 weeks along, at that point you can usually see a heartbeat so imagine my shock when we couldn't see anything. so after the ultrasound they wanted me to have blood drawn to find out exactly "how" pregnant i was. when you're pregnant your body starts producing a hormone called hcg and it shows up in your bloodstream. they can actually test to see how much of that hormone is present and in a normal healthy pregnancy, that number will double every 48 hours. so on friday that number was 2,704. not horrible but not great for supposedly being six weeks along. i had to go back in monday morning (today) for another draw to see if it doubled.

i went in at 8am this morning. i didn't hear anything until after 3pm this afternoon (by which time i was furious). when they finally returned my 2 messages, i found out that my numbers did indeed double. today they were over 5,000! so, YAY i am pregnant. however, it looks like i might not be as far along as we originally thought. when the nurse first called me, i was instructed to come back in on wednesday for another lab draw followed up by an ultrasound next week. well two hours later i got another phone call saying scratch that; Dr P liked the look of my blood draws and doesn't see a purpose to poke me again. my levels rised, i'm not bleeding or cramping, so instead i'm having an ultrasound done this friday. wish us luck that we see a baby!

to top off the entire weekend, we all caught the flu. well i assume it's the flu. it started with B on friday night and progressed to everyone by today. every single one of us has a cough, sore throat, stuffy/runny nose, fever, chills and general aches. i'm talking fevers of 102. we've gone through 3 boxes of tissues. saturday was the worst for B, yesterday the worst for me. the kids were horrible today. pooks told me several times today that his teeth hurt. at one point today, bubba refused to walk. none of them really ate today despite the fact that i let them pick whatever they wanted for dinner. pooks and peanut had a pb&j sandwich with vanilla pudding and bubba chose pizza and pudding. none of them really ate, but they have drank a ton of orange juice. while i still feel a little like death, i feel amazingly better since last night! i am hoping that they wake up feeling better tomorrow, although i still won't take bubba to school since he had a fever today.

ugh, what a weekend! here is hoping that the rest of our week improves!