37 weeks pregnant.

Still pregnant.

And you'll have to wait to find out if our son's name is one of the names on my belly!

We all slept through the night!

Hurray!

Poor Grant still isn't feeling 100% but he seems to have just a regular old cold and we can deal with that.

I haven't had many contractions today.

Drew got some sleep.

We're all sort of back to normal.

Drew worked from home today.

I demanded a trip to the Bradford farm store.

One of my friends discovered that they had a delivery of Honey Crisp apples.

Have you ever had a honey crisp apple? If not, you're truly missing out. They are a little piece of heaven... and have a very short season. Usually they come a little later, but I don't ask questions, I just eat them.

This morning we headed over to the store (just about 20 minutes from our house) and I was SO excited. This farm store is so cute. It's like 90% local produce... they have things like organic bananas which aren't from around here.

I stocked up on some awesome treats.

Of course... the apples... and a couple of lemons.

Some fresh goat cheese... Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm breakfast just got a lot more interesting.

Fresh sweet cream butter. MMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

I've eaten almost the whole jar of Okra... it's just SO good.

We also got some falafel chips but they're gone.

In my fantasy life all of our produce would come from our garden... our bread would all be homemade... I'd never ever watch TV because I'd be too busy quilting and gardening and hiking and camping and training for a triathlon or reading a really fantastic book.

I'm not there yet, so I can compromise and get food from local farms and know we're at least eating local and supporting organic farsm.

Well, we've had a day.

It started at 2:30 as in A-M.

Grant woke up wanting a drink, then a story... just up... clawing at his legs again. We think it's growing pains... but it's happening enough that I'm going to have to take him to the doctor to be sure.

Anyway, by 3am Drew was ready to go back to bed... I was up with heartburn like I've never experienced or heard of. Grant called out again for Dad. I told Drew he may as well just sleep in there with him as I figured I'd be up for the rest of the night. Drew and Grant fell asleep... I stayed up most of the rest of the night writing in pain from heartburn. I've had this issue for several weeks now... and have started a new medicine for it... but this new medicine (Protonix) needs to build up to be effective. Thanks for telling me that NO ONE. By 6am... Grant was up again... and in our room ready to go. We convinced him to lay down again for a bit... but about that time my puking started.

Now... if you're not interested in graphic details scroll down a bit....

you've been warned.

I puked up nothing but acid... and lots and lots of it. It was astounding and seemingly never-ending.

My physical exhaustion has reached a new point... all I can do is crawl back to bed until it's time to get Grant ready for school. I stumble down the stairs with some outfit... get him dressed... get his lunch... and then he starts telling us he doesn't want to go to school. He's crying. He says he wants to stay home with mommy. My heart starts breaking a little bit, but I'm honestly so exhausted from the battle to just 'exist' during the night, that I'm pretty happy when Drew & Grant head out the door. Of course though, I'm still a mom... even if I'm broken, exhausted and can feel my stomach lining burning away... so I when I crawled back in to bed I laid awake worrying. At 9:00 I called Drew's cell phone to find out how the drop-off went.

Not good.

Grant cried when Drew left... (of course). Drew went back because he'd forgotten to tell the teacher about Grant's show-and-tell item in his backpack. When he went into the classroom, Grant was alone on the floor screaming. Drew, of course, scooped him into his arms to comfort him and the teachers came running over.... apparently he'd cried like this on his first day too and, true to Grant form, when he's mad he doesn't want to be touched and anything you suggest to distract him is met with a loud “NO!” We know his teachers weren't leaving him to cry alone... they just knew he needed to work it out a bit... but still.... no one wants to ever walk into a classroom and see their kid crying alone. Ever. Drew was shell shocked. As he told me the story, I started sobbing on the phone... debating whether I should just drive over there and go get him.

I talked myself out of it...

and slept for about 30 minutes...

hopped in the shower...

cleaned up around the house...

and headed out for my OB appointment.

I got there early on purpose... I had an NST scheduled as well as an OB visit and time was going to be tight on whether I'd get it all done before it was time to pick up Grant.

I was in luck!

The nurses got me back for an NST very quickly and the little guy cooperated...lots of good variations in his heart rate (until he fell fast asleep).

I had a very surly nurse of some Eastern European origin take my vitals. If I never see her again it will be too soon. I can only hope I get to tell a manager or someone about how unfriendly and nasty she was.

They brought me into the OB room at 10 of 12. PLENTY of time to see the OB... complain about how horrible I feel... get some ideas... and get out of there to go get Grant.

The minutes tick by.

After 30 minute I went out in the hall and flagged someone down.

The OB had to go for an Emergency C-Section.

It was going to be a while.

WELL WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST TELL US!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

I called my friend Brynn... we had a contingency plan in place for just this sort of annoyance.

She picked up Grant from preschool...while I cooled my heels playing Demon solitaire in the OB room.

A doctor finally came in...

and I totally understand... I've been the mom having an emergency c-section that is dangerous and requires an assist. I'm not mad at all about that... but couldn't the nurses have told the people waiting that there was going to be a significant delay?????

Anyway... the doctor listens to me complain about my pain and my heartburn.

She informs me that the Protonix is going to take a while to kick in... so take something on top of it.

The crippling pain in my hips is from the number of times I've been pregnant (four) and the fact that I have no muscle town in my lower abdomen thanks to my previous c-section. There's nothing that can be done.

Great.

And off I go.

I call Brynn, tell her I'm on my way... pick up Grant from Brynn at Grant's son's doctor's appointment... (can I tell you how wonderful it is to have a friend who can just roll with the punches like this??) and then Grant & I go back to the grocery store to pick up the online order I placed last night. Grant informs me he's going to go to sleep... and I tell him that's fine. Hilarious.

Groceries in hand (Lowe's Food to Go is where I will be getting groceries until it no longer hurts to walk by the way)... we head home.

Grant & I call Drew to tell him about school. He had a good day and wants to go back. He played outside. He painted two pictures. Very exciting.

And then, I get to sit down... and I notice the nagging back pain I'm having is pressure... and it's coming in waves.

Great.

So it's time to start timing contractions.

They start coming in the front before too long.

A still-traumatized-from-the-morning-preschool-drop-off Drew gets home pretty early to give Grant a hug. He arrives just as I start timing contractions on the I-Phone. Now a protective dad goes into overdrive. The contractions aren't letting up... the pressure is getting pretty painful. Time to call the OB again.

I also decide to go upstairs on my own so I can do what I want to do – get on all fours and rock my hips. I know if Drew sees this he'll be really alarmed, but it sounded like the only thing I could do at the moment that wouldn't hurt.

So, upstairs, on all fours, rocking my hips I try to call my sister Katy (the L&D nurse) to see if she has any advice. She's not home... so I just wait... rocking hips... reading InStyle Magazine of all things. The OB nurse (not the mean one) calls back and I give her the low down. She tells me to drink water and start walking around and says she's going to call back in 30 minutes to check on me. I do exactly what she tells me to do... I drank 32oz of water... and started cooking dinner... still contracting but they're getting better. She calls back and says if I get to five minutes apart I need to call again. Yep. The water and walking seemed to help my back pain quite a bit... I decide the contraction crisis of 2009 is over and ... hooray... it's Bunco night!

My friend Jessica comes to pick me up just as Drew is putting Grant down to bed.

Bunco is awesome.

I didn't win any money but it sure is a good time!

I had several decent contractions but nothing to get worked up about...

and then Jessica and I head home.

When I walked in... all I could hear was Grant screaming bloody murder.

I RUN up the stairs...

Grant and Drew are in Grant's bed.

Drew says “Grant is sick.”

Wow.

He sure is.

Two days of preschool and he's already got a cold.

Good grief.

His nose is running.
Drew suspects his throat is hurting.

No fever.

Just horrible screams.

I get the ear numbing drops-- give him a few just in case... but the screaming doesn't stop.

Drew has reached his saturation point... and as to just take a breather for a bit.

I take Grant downstairs and turn on “Cars.”

He screams and cries for the first 30 minutes of the movie... then demands cake. Luckily, we have one piece.

But then he doesn't want it.

I run upstairs and get his pillow and blanket and bring them down... now he's starting to calm down a bit. He eats the cake (actually asks me to feed him... and of course I did)... then he starts screaming again... this time he says his bottom hurts. I changed his diaper... and then he really calmed down. I have no idea at this point what part of him exactly is hurting... but something does... so I gave him some tylenol and a bit of benadryl for his nose. (Maybe a half-dose of each). He starts to relax... lays on his pillow... asks for dad... then falls asleep. Whew.

Drew carried him upstairs as I picked up from the evening of screaming...

and now... at 11:58... I'm getting a chance to wind down.

Here's hoping that all three of us get a much-needed full night's sleep...