We went to the doctor today, and actually saw the OB for the first time.  I am SOOOO glad we finally got to see her, because she is so smart, and reassuring....I told her the contractions were getting better, but that I still felt uneasy because I haven't felt like anyone has told me anything comforting about the baby...Is it normal?  Does it have two arms and legs?  I wouldn't have known before today.  My first two sonograms were fourteen seconds long, and the lady at the ER wouldn't let me look at the screen (I'm still mad at her) so I have only seen glances of the top of a head....well, my doc saw that I was worried, wheeled the sonogram machine in, and let us look at everything.  We could see little arms and legs stretching, it's little spine....It was so fun!!  I kept telling Shawn what the parts were, and he was like "How can you tell what all that is?"  I think I am better than average at reading the sonogram, but only because I had 29 of them with the babies.  She tried to take a peek at the girl/boy parts, but wasn't willing to make a guess....We get our "big" sonogram next Monday, so I'll keep you updated on whether Sissy or Bubby will be sharing their room!  

On a little worrisome note, she noticed that my placenta is REALLY close to my cervix, which indicates placenta previa.  I am not sure if it means it is about to happen, or if it's proximity means it is already happening....or what exactly happens.  She said that most of the time it goes away on it's own, so I should be okay.  I know it's not great news, but I don't think it's horrible either.....I am having a planned c-section anyway, so it's not like the placenta will be in the way when I'm trying to push or anything.  (Sorry if this is TMI for some of you)  This may or may not be why I started contracting last week.  She said it is not necessarily what caused it, but could have been the culprit.  After re-reading this paragraph, I think I might need to look this thing up online....I am evidently painfully uniformed.  I guess I was so excited to see fingers and toes I failed to ask about my "condition".  Oops!!  

The list that broke the pregnant lady's back (or at least messed with her psyche)

Sitting around my house makes me realize how much there is to do around here!  I am normally not that great at sitting still (except when I'm sleeping...which is a lot I guess) so I am not usually just hanging out at home noticing what needs to be done.  I made a list today and almost gave myself carpal tunnel:

-Decide on website company to use to launch all new, exciting, life changing website for me. :)

-Finish and photograph dresses to be featured on said website.

-Make samples of all items and photograph.

-Purchase photo editing program.

-Look into new lens for camera. 

-Organize craft room that still looks like we just moved in.

-Finish curtains for the playroom.  (By the time they are finished, my third kid will probably want his/her own room.)

-make curtains for formal living and TV rooms.

-find a light fixture for our master bath...I still can't get the idea of out of my head that I want a sparkly chandelier.  My husband differs on this.

-Buy blinds for about seven windows.  (I think the neighbors are done with seeing in our bathrooms.  This may be illegal.  I need to check on this.)

-Go through a bunch of junk and give to Goodwill.  I am embarrassed to admit there is a vacuum in our driveway that has been there for weeks.  We are the Clampitts.

-Work on outside of house: weeding, fertilizing grass, organizing shed, mulching all planting beds and tearing out old stuff, planting new spring plants, clean up driveway (which still has pieces of construction trash, albeit small, all over it), tile my back patio, paint the new siding on one portion of the house....oh man, this is making me tired.

There are a myriad of other things to do, which include a ton more random house stuff, and making about forty doctors appointments for everything from our eyes to our teeth.....

I know I am supposed to be sitting still, and taking it easy, but all this sitting means I am staring at everything that needs to be done.  I think this list making frenzy started when I saw out my uncovered bathroom window that the neighbors behind us had landscapers in their yard yesterday, beautifying like crazy.  Trying to hide my post bath-nudity from them, I spied them mulching, planting new pretty flowers, working like busy little bees.  I was so sad when I looked at the yellow grass growing up our chain link fence.  Sigh.  As my husband likes to tell me "The bus don't stop everywhere." so I guess I can't do EVERYTHING I want to do.  Realistically, I can't do hardly ANYTHING I want to do at this point, since I am supposed to be sitting indian style and doing transcendental breathing to make the contractions stop.  I suppose I am going to have to resort to sweet talking my hubby and hoping there is no more NFL combine on TV by this weekend.  

Oh, I love my children.  I really do.  But for the last three nights, there has been a scream-a-thon going on in their room in the middle of the night.  I have no idea what is going on?  What happened to the babies that took two two hour naps a day, and slept eleven hours at night with no interruption???  My mom stayed over the last two nights to help...since I was trying to keep contractions to a minimum.  Normally, we would have let Hayden (the worst offender) cry it out, but she was in the room right next to my mom, so mom could hear her all night.  ALL night.  Finally, we brought her to bed with us two nights ago, and last night she got in bed with my mom.  Tonight is going to be an eye opener for her, because she is staying in that crib no matter what.  What in the world are we to do? My mom got her last night because she said she sounded scared.  I am wondering if that is just Mimi being sensitive, or is my poor baby really having night terrors or something and I am turning down the monitor and ignoring her?  

Plus, Cale has decided he is TERRIFIED of everything.  I'm not sure if this is normal either.  If we park anywhere near a street or (God Forbid) the highway, he literally climbs up your leg to be held, because the sound of the cars rushing by are so scary.  He doesn't like dump trucks, the garbage truck, 18 wheelers, airplanes.....I need to go research this...I am hoping the screaming at night and terror are just because they are becoming more aware of the world around them.  In any case, I am not sure how to deal with either situation.  Do we act normal around the loud noises and make him walk beside us (not letting him climb up our legs) or do we love all over him and potentially make him more likely to freak out?  Do we make Sissy cry herself to sleep, or get all European and let her sleep with us every night??  What to do!

An update on my "condition".....we saw the nurse practitioner on Monday....long story short:  it is really too early to do anything in the way of stopping whatever is going on.  I can't take meds yet, and they can't really do Non-stress tests because the baby is too little.  My only option is to stay hydrated, take it easy (yeah right!  So easy with a non sleeper and an Everything-phobe) and hope they stop entirely.  Today was really, really good.  Far fewer contractions....the only really significant set of them happened when I was beating and berating my dog for tearing up more blinds.  If I could only give away my dogs, and hire a nanny and a maid, I think I'd be okay.

We had a pretty eventful weekend.  Friday I woke up with horrible cramps (think labor) and knew something wasn't right.  We called the on call doctor who told us to wait it out a few hours, and call back if it didn't go away.  In the morning we talked to another doctor who wanted me to get hydrated and then go to the ER if they didn't stop.  Well, after 75 ounces of water and thirty thousand trips to the bathroom, the cramping was still there, so we headed to Methodist (with Cale) to see what was going on.  I tried to be sneaky and head straight to Labor and Delivery, hoping they would help me there....but no luck!  I am too early on, so they made me go sit in the ER with a bunch of people who looked to have NOTHING wrong with them.  I have only gone to the ER when pregnant, and ONLY because it was for another person (the baby).  I can't imagine going there on my own unless blood was spewing from my eyesockets.  Everyone in there was laughing, and watching TV.....same situation as when we had to take Sissy to the ER for the falling out of the high chair incident.  

They took me to triage and listened to the heartbeat, made me sit in the waiting room for a while, and then took me to a bed.  A couple hours later (and a LOT of entertaining Cale done on Shawn's part.....think making balloons out of surgical gloves and batting them around the room) we finally got a sonogram....with the meanest lady on the planet.  Not only would she not tell us the sex (said it was too early.....LIES!) but she wouldn't even tell us if the baby was okay.  She said "I'm not a doctor".  This statement, combined with her incredible bedside manner was really, really reassuring.  (said with sarcasm)  Finally, a few hours later, the radiologist read the results and they said everything looked fine.  We headed home (with a TIRED baby, who kept saying "Bye bye" in the ER) and I laid around all day yesterday.  Sadly, the cramping is still sticking around, so we are heading to the OB to find out more.  I just can't believe I am having contractions at 15 weeks this time, and didn't have them last time until 22 weeks, and that was with TWINS.  My guess is that my equipment is all blown to hell and is having a hard time hanging on to just one baby.....say a prayer we hang on for a LONG, LONG time....

Dancing Queen!

Spinning like a ballerina

Dancing with Mimi to Bruce Springsteen

We can tell already that Hayden has a little talent (other than making us laugh).  She is the BEST dancer!  She was already good at dancing a year ago, but now she is REALLY good.  Seriously, you'd think so too!  I posted some pics of her dancing, but they really don't do her justice.  If her mother could figure out how to post video, you'd be a fan, too!   Her moves have evolved of course....she started with the standard bounce up and down to the beat when she was tiny....then she moved to swaying back and forth when she could stand, then she incorporated this move where she swings her arm from front to back with the music.  Now, her dancing involves full body action!  Fists pumping, arms swinging, twirling....Shawn is convinced she is some kind of baby prodigy.  I have to admit, it's pretty impressive.  She adjusts her moves to the genre of music, too!  Daddy even taught her how to work in a hiney smack or two for when she is grooving out to rap.  Maybe someday soon we'll find a little class for her...but for now her stage is the living room floor, and we are her very appreciative audience.  Now I just have to convince Shawn that she did NOT get her dancing ability from him, as he keeps telling people.  

The Rodeo

Instead of actually taking the babies to a rodeo show like we did last year (really, really good idea....I am pretty sure their hearing is damaged because of it) we decided to just take them to the fair grounds to see the animals.  This was much, MUCH more age appropriate.  They rolled around in style in a stroller (after about an hour, I wished I could get in the stroller with them.)

We liked:

The petting zoo, the free biscuits they were handing out, the baby chicks (Cale kept saying "MINE" as he looked at them through the glass), looking at the baby pigs, the ice cream and milk samples.

We did NOT like:

the llama, (who invaded our personal space), the shetland pony that Mimi tried to make us get on to take a cowboy picture, being asked if we wanted to ride a horse (Cale kept shaking his head and saying "NO!, NO!"),  being left in the stroller entirely too long.  

I am sure next year will be even more fun for them....although they'll probably want to ride the rides, and mommy is going to have a problem with that.  (I am pretty sure they have no standards for safety....I don't care that I wanted to ride them I when I was little!!)

We're a MESS!!!

In the last few weeks, the babies have dumped not one, but TWO full boxes of Cheerios on the floor....I know this is totally my fault...both times I left the box on the coffee table and went into the kitchen to clean up.  This last time, I heard squealing, and Hayden yelling "Sheeree!  Sheeree!" and I knew what happened before I rounded the corner.  They were stomping and jumping in a huge pile of cheerios, having the time of their lives....who wouldn't?  Especially when your mom keeps leaving materials out for such an activity....The stuff they come up with is ridiculous....yesterday Cale was hollering about something, and I looked around the island to see him pouring his milk into the dog bowl...by the time I got to him (literally four seconds) he had dumped the whole dog bowl on the floor, and soaked his "Zoolie" (teddy bear) in the nasty mess.  We tried to nap without Zoolie (who Hayden calls "Louie") but he cried for SO LONG....I finally had to open his door, and throw the bear into his crib (stink and all) and hope he didn't see me.  Yesterday was a big day for us.....when I went to get them up from nap, I got to the door and smelled what was ahead of me....yep, you guessed it!  It was a Hiroshima style poo explosion!  Sissy had her diaper hanging on my one tab, and poop was everywhere.  Right when she saw me, she told me, "Poop Mommy.  Uh oh".  That's right, baby, UH OH.  There was poo EVERYWHERE.  She must have been playing in it for awhile.  I took her to the bathroom, ripped off the sorry traitor of a diaper, and told her to stay put.  I ran to get an HEB bag for the mess (how's that for recycling?) and when I got back, she was standing on the bath mat in a puddle of her own pee.  "Pee Pee, Mommy".....well, at least she is running an absolutely correct commentary on what's going on...The kid is smart, if not hygenic.  We got cleaned up, and I repeated the story that night to my mom, and my best friend.  Both times, Hayden heard me and said "It okay.  It okay Mommy."  For the first time, I think she was a little embarrassed.  Later, when I talked about it to Shawn, I made sure to spell things so her little feelings wouldn't be hurt.  She is SO sensitive.  

Both babies are talking up a storm...they repeat everything we say, and add their own opinions....Hayden's favorite phrases are:  "Eat. Eat. Eat.  Lunch.", "More Moka!", "Bubba did it."  (when asked about the Cheerio incident), "Passy Nite Nite" (when she's tired), "Apple slush" (her favorite from Sonic)....she can pretty much say anything and everything now.  Cale is right with her on the talking, but he is still a little harder to understand...plus, as a man, I think he is less motivated to actually communicate something in words to us.  He does say, "Daddy, Where Go?" (or anyone else's name when you leave the room), "Watty did it" (when he holds up one of his torn apart footballs or basketballs), "Sissy leeping" (his comment at the end of naptime, because he is usually always the first one up).....

I still can't believe I am going to have THREE!!!  When you ask the babies what's in Mommy's tummy, most of the time you will get "Baby" as an answer.  Hayden still answers "Boy" every time we ask her what it's going to be....I'm not sure Cale knows or cares that we are getting another one, but he loves to point out babies in public, which I hope is a good sign.  I am finally feeling better, and I am trying not to take my Zofran anymore, since sometimes the headaches they give me are worse than the nausea.  Even though morning sickness is going away, I feel like barfing when I get dressed.....Maternity clothes are still a little big, but trying to wear my regular clothes is like trying to squeeze into my eighth grade cheerleading uniform.  (Yes, it's that funny/sad)  I am ready to LOOK pregnant, not just like I succumbed to the Whataburger commercial a few too many times.  (Although that's happening a little bit, too...If I'm gonna be honest)  

All in all, things are good here at home....I am still enjoying every day with my babies, and hoping the third won't be the straw that breaks the camel's back.  As I told the girl I met yesterday at the park....no, we don't have a nanny, and yes, I do it by myself.  The look of horror on her face made me wonder if I was a weirdo, or maybe just a way better mom than her.  (JUST KIDDING!!!)