Happy Valentine's Day!

Whew, this was a busy day for us! I woke to an alarm to be sure I'd get up in time, the first time I've had to do that in a long while. But as I had a scrapbook club meeting here last night and got to bed later than I intended to, I know I would have slept long past time for me to be up and moving.

I had to drag the kids out of bed at 7 a.m. Any other morning the boys would be up and bouncing by that time, but of course today everyone was sound asleep. They had dry cereal in the van on the way to the B's house, where I left them with Sarah before heading to base for my two appointments.

First up, anesthesiology. This is a required appointment if you even want to think about having a spinal or epidural during delivery. Since I have not had a drug-free delivery yet, I don't anticipate going the full-blown natural childbirth route this time around, though I'm open to the possibility if labor progresses at a more bearable level of pain than the last time I delivered. (Getting a couple of drips of pitocin was NOT fun.) At any rate, I signed the papers, which do not bind me to actually having an epidural, but should the need/desire arise, we won't have to take time shuffling papers around.

Then, since L&D was just around the corner, I poked my head in so I would actually know where to go once labor begins! This was my first time to the second floor of this hospital. I got a quick tour, then headed downstairs for my actual 36-week appointment.

Wow! 36 weeks and counting! The stats are currently 1 cm dilation, 50% effacement, soft cervix. The midwife who checked me was careful "not to stir things up!" There's no rush! My mom will be coming out here March 6, and I'm fine with waiting until then to deliver. :-)

I took advantage of my kid-free time to get some groceries, then took them home to put everything away. I happened to look out the front door, because a customer had thought about dropping by to leave an order for me. She hadn't, BUT, I did find two vases of flowers waiting for me! Ted had a dozen red roses delivered for me and one pink rose with baby's breath delivered for Charis--her first flowers from a man. :-) I put the flowers by her seat at the table and got out the gifts he had gotten for the boys--a Cars bicycle helmet for Tobin (who just got his first bike recently) and a Cars Leap Pad book & cartridge for Arden.

Then it was time to go back to Sarah's house for our own little Valentine party! We were joined by two other moms and their kids, for a total of 9 kids all together. We enjoyed a yummy lunch and of course lots of treats, and the kids played fairly well together while we moms had a great time chatting. I could hardly believe it when I realized it was nearly 2:30 p.m.! Poor Sarah had been stuck with my kids for almost 7 hours. :-) OK, I was there part of the time, but after hearing that Tobin had had some behavior issues, I know it wasn't the easiest morning for her with all 6 of our kids together. (Sigh...why is it always Tobin?!)

The kids loved their Valentine's gifts waiting at home for them. We called Ted at work to thank him for the surprises. After some quiet room time to give me a chance to decompress (and make a Valentine's goodie for a friend of mine), I worked on a special dinner--not fancy as far as preparation, but the kids enjoyed it. They got strawberries to dip in Cool Whip, and I made pancakes shaped like Mickey heads. While the kids loved the pancake shapes, Charis remarked that she thought I was going to make heart-shaped pancakes. The idea had not even occurred to me--3 circles joined together just seemed so much easier than trying to form a heart shape with pancake batter!

Charis hardly ate any of her pancake and complained later that her tummy was hurting. And, as she had been sniffing quite a bit, she also said her nose was sore. She didn't seem feverish, but together we decided that maybe we should skip AWANA tonight and just get some rest.

It was a good plan. The kids were in bed by 7:15, and I am headed there myself now!