7 months preggers

celebrating another awesome report from the dr this month.

baby continues to grow right on schedule, and so do i!

one thing that gets more difficult as i add children to the fam is working up the courage to find people to babysit for these appointments. when child is no big deal, but asking anyone to watch both boys gives me a guilt trip. and now that we are this far in, i have used my entire list of generous keepers of kids. therefore, for this last dr visit, we all went together: me, baby, and the boys. 28 weeks generally indicates the time for gestational diabetes testing. so we added some lab work to the early morning agenda.

i was already sweating as i huffed and puffed the double stroller filled with my beautiful boys, their blankies, poptarts, ju ju, books and toys. we wheeled into registration and with relatively no troubles continued into the lab where i sucked down that orange drink in 5 min flat. bear was convinced that i was selfishly indulging in a delicious treat without him, so he fought for the beverage the entire time i was sipping and coolly/calmly shushing him and strapping him back into the stroller. feeling good about that accomplishment, i maneuvered the stroller over to the dr's office right on time for my appointment.

the weigh-in was a success. in fact, i gained a whopping 7 pounds, an amount never before gained in one months time in my pregnant life. impressive. then comes the pee in a cup portion of my visit. this is always a stressful time for me as i have pee anxiety issues which make me almost unable to perform. usually with much self talk and coaching, i get eek just enough out and embarrassingly hand over the paper cup. well enter two rambunctious though still cute children into the bathroom with me. focus is not happening, and pee is not coming. the boys are pulling apart the tower of cups, unsticking all the labels, and flushing the toilet while asking "what you doing mommy?". by some miracle, i peed, mostly in the cup. hallelujah. we were on our way to room 5.

once settled, the nurse expressed her desire for me to have a girl since i had these two wild boys already. i made some sort of noise that let her know i heard her but refrained from launching into the speech about how now that we have two boys another would just add to the fun of boyness, but a girl would also be a blessing... basically, i dont get to choose so i will take whatever god gives me. i was hoping to assist in the speed of the appointment by not uttering a nonessential syllable.

after a briefish wait, in comes sonya. she is not my dr, but some sort of close to dr person in the medical field. she is capable and knowledgeable, but severely lacking in social graces. when she entered the room, maxer was playing on the stool, swiveling back and forth and giggling with delight. the first thing sonya says is " i am going to need you to get off the stool". max looked at her and laughed assuming the tone and words she used were a joke. no joke, she tried to pick a fight with my 3 year old. i kindly asked max to get off the stool, he obliged and we moved on. during the discussion concerning my zero questions or concerns, she would stop speaking anytime either boy made a noise. she has four kids. this was going to take the rest of my life if we did not speed things along. after doling out some goldfish, i convinced sonya to continue with my exam. heartbeat is strong, measuring on schedule, all is well. thankfully, i had to be back at the lab an hour after i drank the orange pop for a blood draw so she set us free.

back at the lab, we had a little time to kill with book reading and chasing one another around the lobby. this also gave us the opportunity to retrieve a bowl of poptart that we left down there during the earlier visit. oops. as the nurse is drawing my blood, both boys are on my lap intently watching the procedure. the nurse asked of max and wes, "are those boys twins?". i assured her they were not, as they are two years apart and look like opposites. clearly this nurse is a close friend of sonya's.

when everyone was strapped into the van, i was exhausted, relieved and proud that we successfully completed the visit. i also am a little more comfortable with the decision to have only three kids and no more. wow