OH MY EYES!!!!!!!!!

As I stepped out of the shower this morning, I accidentally caught sight of myself in the massive mirror that spans from one end of my bathroom to the other. I typically try not to look but today it was inevitable. I was taken back by the sight in my field of vision as a flash of National Geographic came into my mind!

It simply amazes me that people grow inside of other people. I am honored to be carrying another child that God is carefully knitting together in my womb but let me tell you, it's wreaking havoc on me. I suppose every pregnancy is this way and I simply get mommy-amnesia after giving birth and healing up to be shiney and new, however, I'm in the thick of it now.

I truly think it's a miracle that God can expand my body to accomodate a growing little person but holy areola's!! It's not without a little caracture in the interrim.

Thankfully, Thong doesn't look at me and see "pretty or ugly" and is far beyond that, as I am with him. When you've gone through 7 years of good and bad together, you stop seeing the person on the outside and truly know them on a level that's deeply indescribable to any who have yet to experience it. In fact, trying to explain it is as easy as explaining the flavor of water. I'm glad he doesn't look at me and think "Wow she is really freaky looking all big, saggy and stretch-marked." I'm thankful that when he passes me after I've freshly stepped out of the shower, he doesn't seem to notice my massively protruding belly, boobs that have grown to unevenly rest on said belly and a butt that sticks way out thanks to my curved spine to negotiate the big belly with the hope I don't simply tip over one of these days.

On another note, I'm excited to be accused of "nesting" recently since I've decided to tackle decorating Noah's room. We went today and bought 3 gallons of paint and I came home and enthusiastically began painting the walls a beautiful shade of sapphire. I ordered the space-theme stencils early this morning and they should arrive the middle of next week. Although I'm so sore I can barely move tonight, I'm glad to feel somewhat accomplished in making sure my second-born feels as important as his brother and sister whose rooms are already decorated and painted with a cute theme to match their personalities.

Noah wanted Star Wars originally, but I knew that would be much more than I could handle, not to mention it might be more of a "phase" that he's more likely to outgrow than the cutsey outer space theme we ended up going with. I will order a specialty glow paint from the internet and paint a really neat nighttime scene of the galaxy on the ceiling so anyone in the room can see our solar system even at nighttime as they drift off to sleep. I'm hoping to get it all done before the baby is born, but if it doesn't happen to completion, it should mostly be done. I might put off the ceiling painting until I no longer am off-balance thanks to the big belly and swayed butt, although stranger things have happened and it's not uncommon to see me on the top of a ladder at 9 months pregnant.

I'm looking forward to going back to my doctor on Tuesday, in spite of the fact that I now have to get a shot for having Rh negative blood. It's routine in pregnancy to get the Rhogam shot at 28 weeks and then again after delivery if the baby is Rh positive (that's the + or - after your letter of blood type for example A- or A+). The shot itself does not hurt; in fact, I can't remember even feeling it the last few times I've had it. When I was pregnant with Lourdes, I remember not even thinking the nurse had given it to me. I literally DID NOT feel it. The anxiety of a big ol' shot going into my badonkadonk isn't overly appealing though so it makes me nervous.

I am also looking forward to being measured and having the doctor tell me if I'm back on schedule for how many weeks I am or if I'm still measuring 2 weeks big (or bigger?????). I will be 28 weeks on Tuesday. Where has time gone!? It seems to be flying by and I'm thankful to know if the baby was born right now, her survival odds are 80% with medical intervention. Although I pray to keep her in me for much longer, it's comforting to know she could and probably would survive if she came out sooner than later.

I have to do my glucose tolerance test tomorrow at our office and am SO not looking forward to it. I've had issues with low blood sugar and really gets worse when I consume a lot of sugar because then it crashes, so I'm expecting a day of turbulant blood sugar. It also means two blood draws tomorrow. Joy!!!!! I'm SURE I don't have gestational diabetes, so I'm not sure why I'm even doing this test, but the doctor wants it, so I will comply. I'm a good patient. :)

SO... some of my friends are giving me a baby shower!! Isn't that super sweet?! Seriously, I don't need anything for this loved baby and frankly, anyone who has had 4 or more kids know what I'm talking about when I say we don't go all out like we did the first or even second child. There is no "room theme" (heck, this baby won't even have a room; she'll be our roommate for as many years as we continue to live in this house), no fluffy butterfly bedding that will get folded and put away in a bottom drawer someday to be handed down to her children, etc. I have more than enough hand-me-downs from the other kids and learned through trial and error what I really need and what is more for show.

I know from experience that I don't need a Diaper Genie because I tried that with the first baby and got entirely grossed out that you can collect a month's worth of poopy diapers and pop them out of this white trashcan to look like massive white sausage links. Who cares if you can't smell it because each diaper is individually twisted off from the rest... you know what's in there!!!

I came to know that I don't need "burp cloths" because a hand towel works just fine to clean up any spit-up that makes its way to my shoulder or lap. By the 4th baby, I don't even plan on bothering to put up a towel on my shoulder to play offense. I'll just go on the defense if I get nailed. I don't plan on having a lot of clean clothes or clothes without some kind of stain. But that's what makes being a new momma kind of fun and adventurous.

Bottle sterilizers? No thanks. I have a pot and water that boils when I turn on the stove... not to mention, I hopefully won't have to use bottles, since I like to rely on the resources God gave me to nourish my babies. I guess I'm a little granola like that. Don't worry, I'll still shave my pits, wear deodorant and a little bit of makeup when I go out in public. I'm definitely pro-breastfeeding and I pity the foo' who tries to tell me not to do it. :)

Anyway, all these fun little inventions that first-time moms collect will someday be looked upon and the realization will be made that most of the neat little ideas really aren't necessary and functionality is much better than commercialization and marketing of these money-making products.

I'm thankful, though, that my awesome friends thought about me and want to celebrate the existance of my sweet little baby girl that they already love and haven't even met yet. It means so much to me to know that there are people who still value the birth of each child, whether it's the first or the fourth. I'm so blessed.

Come to the rescue!

How many times as a mother have you truly wanted to save your child? Whether it's emotionally or physically? I am the type of mom who usually tries to find the lesson and blessing in every situation and the silver lining in every cloud. Today was the exception.

I didn't sleep much last night. I don't sleep much any night for that matter, so it wasn't too far out of the norm. Between having to pee every hour to a sweet baby in my belly that wants to kick or get the hiccups, my sleep is interrupted frequently. I don't mind at all; I usually get up and find something to do since I can't go right back to sleep. Well, Thong has gotten sick and I kept waking up to check on him, make sure he didn't have a fever and walk around the house to make sure the kids were all ok and not catching what he had.

Thankfully, I browned and seasoned some meat last night and got it in the crock pot for today's meal. (YUM for beef stew!!!). Everytime I'd get up in the night, I would go to check on it and it was looking better each time. :)

Given the lack of sleep, I was tired this morning. I got up and did my routine with the kids; got Noah ready for school, fixed his breakfast, combed his hair while he ate his Cheerios and cut-up banana, brushed his teeth and off we went to school after making sure he had his bottle of water and Nutri-Grain bar for his snack.

All seemed to be going well and I decided to lay down when I got back home because Lourdes was still sleeping. I set my alarm for 10, unless she woke up before that, which would give me 35 minutes to prepare lunch for both kids and be up to the school to eat lunch with Noah by 10:45.

Just as I start to drift off to sleep, my phone rings. It's the school nurse. Noah had a runny nose this morning so I figured it was a call to let me know I should come get him or maybe he had gotten worse. Not the case.

"Mrs. Do? This is Stephanie, the school nurse. I have Noah in the office. He wet his pants. I don't have any spare underwear that are big enough to fit him, so I was wondering if you could bring him a change of clothes." Okay, first of all, YUCK on the spare undies!!! Thank goodness my child's hind-end is too big to fit in the normal kindergarten spare drawers. Second of all, what happened? I was so heartbroken for him. She told me he was in the bathroom in her office with the door locked waiting for me.

Realizing that I had not yet put Lourdes' car seat back in my car after washing the padding and cover over the weekend, I hurried to get it securely placed in the car, in spite of a massive belly that tried to get in the way, every which way I turned. Finally, I got it so it wouldn't budge and off we went with a change of clothes.

When I arrived, I found a very large child who felt very small. I wanted so badly to take away his pain. Noah is a really strong and well-spoken child, but is also very tender hearted in spite of his absolute love for Star Wars and light sabers which make him come off as being real rough and tough. I asked him what happened and he said he just didn't know. He smiled when he saw that I brought a very similar pair of shorts to him. I told him I didn't want the other kids to notice he had on something different.

I asked him if any of the other kids saw it and he said he wasn't sure. As much as I don't advocate lying, I told him just to tell anyone who might ask that he had a bottle of water in his pocket and the lid came off and got all over him. A small smile crossed his face as I presume he felt less trapped as he walked back to class.

Lourdes and I came back home and put together lunch for her and Noah and I got some tupperware out and gathered some food for Thong. As we sat in the cafeteria, Noah's teacher (who I LOVE) came up to talk to me and let me know that Noah is such a rule-follower, she thinks he just didn't want to ask for permission to go to the bathroom while they were all sitting on the round carpet listening to a story. That made me proud of him to be known as a strict rule follower, but sad to know that he would rather be humiliated than to ask to go in an emergency. (Which she allows the kids to go to the bathroom if it's an emergency, just not a regular occurrance if it's carpet time.)

After lunching with Noah and giving some extra hugs, love and words of reassurance that it would all be ok, Lourdes and I came up to the office to check on Thong and give him his food.

All in all, I think our day is turning out ok, but it was absolutely one of those times as a mom where I would have given anything to take the place of my humiliated child. The look of complete shame on his face was almost too much for this momma to take without crying.

I haven't forgotten!!!!

I love my blog. It's happy and has pretty colors.

Well, I have finally gotten caught up on my housework and laundry and boy oh boy, it feels GOOD!!!!! I can't tell you the last time my laundry was all done and put away but I hope I can keep it up! Wish me luck.

The baby has begun to kick harder and more frequently these days. I don't just feel her when I'm laying down at night in my bed holding real still, but also when I'm up and about or riding in the car, etc. It's such a sweet feeling and a quiet reminder that I have a new life growing inside of me. How lucky am I?!

While I feel VERY blessed and honored to house a growing soul, I am also frequently reminded that I'm not a young, spring chicken anymore and the aches and pains are a lot more noticeable as a 31 year old than when I was an 18 year old mother-to-be. I try my best to take it all in stride and remind myself "why" things hurt but it's hard to always stay positive. I do try though and that counts for something!!

The weeks are flying by. I can't believe I'm 24 weeks pregnant tomorrow. Talk about exciting! I don't think I'm having a baby shower, although a friend asked if I was and inquired why not since any baby at any birth order is a reason to celebrate!! I have to say I agree about celebrating a new life, but I'm not into the whole baby shower game thing and I definitely don't need anything for her (except diapers which everyone always needs)...

I am getting nervous about delivery and am not really sure why. I've never had any complications giving birth. At this point, I'm a pro!!! LOL... I know what to expect and what to do and not to do, but knowing each pregnancy and delivery is different, that unknown brings me anxiety. I asked Thong the other day if he wanted to go through a birthing class with me (again)... which I certainly don't feel the need to do, but don't want him to feel excluded from any part of this whole process, so asked in case he wanted to have at it. I had to laugh when he replied that he didn't even do anything last time to help me because I already knew what to do! I beg to differ that he didn't do anything to help, but had no choice but to laugh.

As of now, the baby's first name will be Madeleine. Thong and I discussed Vietnamese names yesterday and he suggested the name Hoai Mi' (his mom's name was Hoai which is pronounced WHY)... yes, he was serious, and NO he didn't think about what I was about to say through fits of hilarious laughter... I said you want to name our child WHY ME???????? (That's how it would be pronounced)... HAHAHAHA... He started to laugh and said he didn't think of it that way and was only thinking about the name in Vietnamese which is apparently a very well-respected name. SO THEN... I asked if he had any other ideas and one was Hue which I liked and the another that he liked was Phuoc (yes, it's pronounced how you think)... I was about to pee my pants I was laughing so hard at this point and said "This poor baby! You want to name her Phuoc Hoai Mi" I still crack up thinking about it. Bless his heart. He is so innocent. He really doesn't THINK of things like this. It takes my little convoluted mind to put it together, but thankfully ONE OF US thinks this way or our bundle of joy would be bound to relentless teasing at some point in her educational future!

Well I would write more but the kids are all off to bed and the house is finally quiet. I'm going to pull my sheets down and climb into a nice clean bed and watch some tv before drifting off to lala land. Goodnight, friends.