This Week's Sarcasm, I Mean, Ticker: Vol. 2 No. 37

Good, you get right on that.

Actually, can you wait till some time next week? I'm liking this maternity leave thing. We've taken it easy (I swear. Easy for me, that is.) We've also had the pleasure of Daddy's company more than expected, which has been nice. Monday's storms ripped the roof off one of the wings of Bob's high school, so they evacuated and sent everyone home early. The next day the school was closed for repairs. We had a whole day and a half with Daddy that we weren't planning on, which was really nice. Tuesday we went to Spread Your Wings and hung out together, like a mini-weekend in the middle of the week. Wednesday Maddie and I hit the library and the mall, and were back before naptime. Both of our naptimes. :-)

Yes, Maddie still naps, and it's going to stay that way, thankyouverymuch! I'm gong to miss naptime someday soon. Mine, that is. I have a feeling that while both girls will be getting naps, they probably won't do me the courtesy of syncing them up until around the time that I go back to work. Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky. Naps make the world go round.

As far as the actual upcoming birth, NOW I'm getting a little nervous. I've gotten the "get to the hospital ON TIME, this time!" speech from more than one doctor in my twice-weekly travels to OB/GYN-land. What if I don't recognize real labor again? No, I am not crazy, I really didn't think I was in labor! What if I go in and get sent home and get to feel like an idiot? What if they don't like what they see at one of these testing appointments and I end up getting induced early? Liking that option less and less, what with all the IV's and rumored extra pain. Not a fan of extra pain. I've heard lots of people say natural birth was ultimately fine, and I'll testify to that myself. I've heard several say that they'd do a C-section again in a minute, too. Not once have I heard, "Oh, I was induced and it was a piece of cake!" Anybody? Anybody?

And I'm sorry, does that ticker say "17 days to go"????? How? When? What the?

I'd like to petition to skip labor and delivery please.

I won't fib and say I'm not a little preoccupied wondering how I'm going to do the whole newborn & toddler thing. I'm sure it will work out, I'm sure it won't be without it's bumps, what I'm not sure of is exactly how I'm going to pull off the logistics. Maddie has been, uh, less than independent lately. Oooh! Except for potty-related things. She's a shining star there. Thank you, God. But in place of the child who you'd have to go look for because she'd be chillin' in her room with her toys, we now have the "Will you play me now?" monster. She always knew how to activate the working-parent guilt. Now it's time to lay on the "You're about to devote all your attention to this new crying stranger, play with me now while you can" guilt. I'm ignoring an appropriate amount of it because it's GOOD FOR HER, and I figure she might as well get back in the habit of actually *gasp* entertaining herself. But seriously...how does it go?

I've actually caught myself mentally choreographing how I'm going to get both of them in and out of the car in parkinglots, for instance. How about nap/meal/feeding time? What do you do when one has to potty (and therefore needs a little wipe help) and the other is screaming for feeding time? Other mothers do this naturally, or don't worry about it and figure it out with ease. I am not one of those mothers. I would feel better if we had some kind of system. I'm a teacher, darn it... sometimes I need a lesson plan.

So the NST was easier today because Little D actually stayed on the monitor so we could, uh, monitor her...but she still flunked. The bio-phyiscal profile ultrasound went great. She's cool. She just likes to mess with us. And while I'm publishing mundane personal health information on the internet: My A1C (measure of your blood sugar control over the course of about 3 months) was the same as it had been 3 months ago, a healthy 5.6! My doc used the words "excellent control". *This is me doing a crazy-happy dance. Looks like the side-to-side MC Hammer dance.* My instructions were to (duh) keep coming back Mondays and Thursdays and do the whole 2 + hour routine to check Little D, and keep monitoring kicking at home. No movement for 3 hours = hospital. My favorite quote of the week's appointments: "You're doing great. Of course, if the baby blinks wrong, you're delivering that day."

Yay. Now, if you'll excuse me, it's naptime.