Wow, what a week so far and it is only Tuesday.

Everything is breaking in our house… Bobby’s XBox 360, the drum kit to Rock Band, thankfully both are still under warranty. I also need to get off my tail and replace two other things under warranty as well, my kitchenaid pan and the broken toy bar I need to return for Sophie’s swing.

Bobby is also starting school again this week, to get his Bachelors. Unofficially he will only need about 3/4th of the classes as his credits transfer very well, and his entire associate’s transfers in full.

Last week I took Sophie to the ped to see the cause of her horrible rash (below)

Turns out my poor honey has sensitive skin and a very bad case of baby acne. It is clearing up a little bit, this is what is looks like today:

Hopefully it clears up soon, poor little girl.

I also got the CUTEST diapers last night, they are embroidered on the bum! They are called Green Acre Designs, or GADs and I adore how cute, and well made they are. We won’t know how they fit until she gets a little bigger though. Aren’t these darling???

Brown w/ pink snaps & fleece with a monkey.

Pink paisley butterfly with purple snaps & fleece.

Yellow celestial image with blue snaps and fleece.

So so cute!!

This is what people look like with a 3-day-old baby in the house. So yeah, in the 4 pics my mom took, someone looked crappy in each of them, so I used the one where I looked the most decent, because I gave birth 60 hours earlier and had not showered or gotten dressed yet (that day, I have showered many times since the birth). Later I was back in my pre-pregnancy jeans and clean, so go me.

I would type more, but I am one handed right now. So I will just add I am working on my birth story, and all is well with us, this has been a super easy transition & recovery.

My children have entitlement issues. They made a list of summer activities and on the list was visiting expensive arcades and Six Flags this summer. Ha! I told them summer is for riding bikes and playing outside.

Christopher has had three days worth of enrollment and testing for the charter school he is on the waiting list for. I was hoping that would prompt Sophie to make an appearance since babies are so anti-schedule, but she decided to be a good little sister and let him finish, darn it!

I just got home from a 90 minute prenatal massage. O.M.G. Was heavenly!! For good measure I made sure to hit every bump and pothole on the way home. I am contracting a bit, but what else is new. LOL I finally feel at peace with the world though, I hope this does not wear off anytime soon, I am loving this pregnancy zen.

My husband came home this morning to take care of some stuff he needed to do for work. He ended up making me a nice brunch of eggs and sausage. YUM!

My cats have lost their minds, I think they have all decided to put their differences aside so they can keep me under 24/7 surveillance. I cannot leave a room without at least 2 of the 3 furry beasties following me.

Last night I was talking to a friend in IMs about my lack of energy to clean my house, and took some pictures of my horrible messy house to share with her, since she was saying she has not been cleaning due to a newborn, toddler, and preschooler… sheesh, what excuse is THAT! (Joking of course, she has more reason than I do).

So last night I got inspired to put a shelf in Matthew’s closet, but the shelf I had was about 6 inches too tall, so I found the perfect one at Home Depot’s website and decided tomorrow we would go get it… thinking I could get his closet looking better and then sit my ass on the couch and relax the rest of the day feeling accomplished enough with cleaning an ENTIRE closet.

So here is the before, you may not be able to tell but I *did* have a four compartment cart in there that I put his blankets in and on. Of course you probably CANNOT tell because he tore it down and all that is left is the frame and of course the blankets.

Here is the after, I actually was able to put everything in the before shot on one shelf! I used the others to empty two drawers of Sophie’s dresser, boxes from the other side of the closet, and a ton of stuff from my room!

Ok, so since we are on the subject of the corner o’ baby stuff in my room I will show you the before and afters of it:

This is all the crap I had in there before. Swing, bed, clothes, fabric, diaper bag, baby book, etc.

And this is all that is left, but only because they are two boxes of cloth diapers (clean of course) that I need to wash before I can put them away, and then also my Hypnobabies home learning package box that I need to find another home for, and some bags of baby magazines I need to go through and my sarong I need to wash for birthing day.

Here is the after of where those big boxes ended up, this side used to be crammed full with more clothes, blankets, and the crib (which now nicely fits in the closet behind the new shelf and a couple rails in this side).

Ok, so I could not start on the closet and leave his room looking like the disaster it was, so I started picking up and organizing his toys, here is what I did with his “cubby” shelf:

The before of course, yikes!

And the after, much better!

Moving onto his shelf:

Need I even tell you this is the before?

And the after.

His bed, before.

And after.

This is the changing table & Sophia’s dresser, before.

And the changing table afterwards.

And some misc after pics, because a clean room is so much more fun to take pics of:

His dresser & his diaper stash.

And his shoes on the back of his door.

Another project I have been putting off is my freaking NASTY toilet seat. I took a belly pic with my toilet seat up and could not use them because the underside of my seat had been scrubbed so much the paint was coming off, so it was stained REALLY bad from anytime anyone was sick (think splatter, EWWWWWW!) Here is a tiny before, since it is so so bad.

Gross, gross, gross, GROSS! Can you believe a new seat was only $10? Had I known this, I would have replaced it when we moved in! I seriously think the old owners cleaned the seats with turpentine, the other bathroom needs a new seat as well (of course I notice this AFTER we get home with the first seat).

Another before. And no, we did not paint, it was the only room in the house that was not white when we moved in.

And here is the toilet after, amazing how much $10 can make over a bathroom!

Much like the new shelf in Matthew’s room inspired me to clean the room, the toilet seat accomplished the same thing.

This is the right side of my bathroom vanity before.

And after.

Center part of my vanity before.

…after.

Sink before.

The sink after, not TOO much of a change there.

I also vacuumed my entire upstairs, even my bathroom because the jackass designer of this house thinks bathrooms should be carpeted, gag. I also cleaned the upper shelves in my walk in closet where I keep the curtains for my family room I need to put back up, and also the shelf where I am keeping all my pre-pregnancy jeans. All in all, this ‘makeover’ cost a total of $70, $50 for the shelf, $10 for the toilet seat and the final $10 was for zip-ties and tax. The zip ties are for redneck baby-proofing, to make sure she crib and shelf is secured to the wall. I also had a ton of help from Austin and Christopher (and a little from Bobby, who claimed he wanted no part of my “wicked shenanigans”) and between 4-6 hours of time. We got one box together of items to donate to Goodwill when I hit the drive through on Thursday after my prenatal appointment, and one large garbage bag of garbage. I also got about three arm fulls of toys to add to his cubby from his toy box in the family room, which was getting too full to clothes. So two rooms down, nine rooms to go!!

I love it when you have a dream that is so realistic, that when you wake, you almost feel as if you are still in the dream.

Last night I had a dream about World of Warcraft, and online multi-player role playing game. I occasionally play, but Bobby spend most of his free time playing. Sometime this is an issue with me, sometimes not because he has always put us first when we need him. The dream though, really brought out my anger and frustration and blew them out of proportion. I woke up feeling abandon, neglected and unloved.

When I heard Matthew playing in the hall, I called him into my bed to cuddle me to make me feel better. Well, being that he is all of three years old, he was not interested in stroking my broken ego. I got maybe 2 minutes of being allowed to hold him before he was off again to conquer bigger and better tasks.

Now that I have had an outlet to vent I am starting to shake the feelings I had in the dream, but some of them are not entirely false, just blown way out of proportion. I look forward to again only having realistic carryover a few times a year, not a few times a month like I do when I am pregnant, they are very frustrating because they feel real, but I know they are not real.

29w5d and I had my weekly ultrasound (biophysical profile), midwife consult, and non-stress test yesterday.

Everything looked good, no pictures to share this time though. The baby is still breech, but my midwife said she is not concerned and won’t be until 36 weeks. I did talk to her about my options though, just in case, and it looks like I have three, none great though.

A) Schedule a c-section…. yeah, no way, not going to happen

B) Try to turn her myself with exercises, chiropractic care, and other alternative methods I seek out myself, and then hope when I go into labor she is vertex (head down), if she is not, c-section…. not all that thrilled about this one either, but better than the first

C) At 38 weeks schedule an external version with the obstetrician with an epidural and automatic induction at the hospital. This has only a 50-60% success rate and if she does not flip I will need a c-section… and it also guarantees an early baby plus the induction and epidural I want to avoid, with a VERY high chance of needing a c-section…. again, I am less than thrilled with this option too, but probably the choice I would make in combination with choice B

So, in the meantime I have been doing my research on how to spin this baby and encourage her into the correct position. I have also been using my hypnobabies to visualize her turning and staying in an optimal position. I also did some pelvic tilts, flashlight therapy, hot/cold therapy, played her some soft music in my ipod while I elevated my hips and talked to her, telling her it was time to move “head down, facing my spine, chin tucked in”. I guess only time will now tell. My next appointment is the 27th @ 10am.

Oh my goodness, the tax stuff this year has me wanting to pull my hair out.

First, we waited FOREVER from a W-2 from his college, it just came yesterday, so I was thrilled to be able to finally file… however, because one of our forms we did is one of the four forms the IRA is not accepting until at least the 11th I went ahead and filed, having the online Tax place hold it for e-file until the forms will be accepted.

So today… what do I get but another form!! This time a 1099-Misc from freelance writing that I was not expecting. I made $75 more than what I would not have to claim, so now I have to amend my taxes. Worse yet, because they do not deduct taxes, I will end up OWING! It looks to be around $200 from first glance. CRAP. We already owe the state $600 (plus whatever this little surprise will cost us) in taxes and my real estate taxes are $800 and due too. Since our federal return is going 100% to paying off his car, that leaves around $1600 we owe, and soon, that we don’t have the money to pay all at once!! Hopefully the economic relief (which I am SO against) will come and then we can put that towards the “economy”… a la taxes… woot!

This is just frustrating enough to be comical….especially since I have not done much freelancing, or so I thought!

I remember when tax time used to be FUN!!

My freaking hormones are driving me mad insane. I keep crying at everything, some logical, some very irrational things. One of my darling children left the dogs in the house this morning before they went to school. I won’t name names, because it is pointless, but I know I have mentioned on more than one occasion that my Great Dane will tear my house to shreds given the chance that she is “alone”. Normally I am up before the last child leaves the house, but this morning my youngest decided to snooze in an hour later than normal instead of being my 7:15-7:30 alarm clock. By the time I cam downstairs at 8:15 my house was in shambles. Lost were several DVD cases, a bunch of papers, a CD case, my hair brush, more pieces of my area rug, new chew holes placed in my shoes and 2 of my 6 Hypnobabies CDs. Ok, so THOSE were some earned tears, I could buy three new Great Danes in what I have spent on replacing stuff she has ruined. Of course I wouldn’t, but it is just that frustrating to think about.

Of course normal TV shows caused me to cry, then a story about a lactavist who set up a safe place to breastfeed at a gathering after being told she could not shade her and her infant years before.

Other than the hormonal outbursts, the day was pretty mundane, a friend came over to visit, I mailed off a check to the doula I want to hire, played around with the tax program, and pouted about my shoes & CDs. I just don’t have the money to replace any of them right now, and I needed them like yesterday. Tomorrow is another day, right?

…and my husband really is not helping!

He called this morning to say “what if you can’t see the gender, $100 is a lot to spend on a ‘what if’ and chances are the baby won’t cooperate”. Thanks dear, this is the first time I have thought that. I keep telling myself that the receptionist said that 90% of the time the tech can see the goodies and tell you what you are having at 20 weeks and reports say that 16 week (I will be 17 on Friday) gender ultrasounds are usually just as good as 20 weeks for telling gender. Medical professionals chose to wait to 20 because the parts they care about, like the heart, stomach, kidneys, etc are easier to see at 20 weeks.

I am trying very hard to stay calm in all this while trying to pass time until 11am when I can go get Austin from school. I am thinking about heading to the library to return books and look for new ones, but it is so cold out there, I hate dragging Matthew out into it before it has a chance to warm up. I also need to go get fish food and clean up around the house, but I just can’t get myself going this morning.

I had so many strange dreams last night that it seemed to me I was up half the night, most of the dreams seemed to point out that this baby is a boy, where others were of a girl, so geez I have NO CLUE what this kid could be. When I woke up this morning I was so wide awake I just got up and showered knowing I would not be able to go back to sleep. I wish I could have because now I am feeling sleepy and my moms words keep coming back to me if you go to sleep, the time will pass faster, however I have a two year old who I know will NOT enjoy me taking a nap.

What I would not give right now to have someone come over right now and keep my company while I clean my kitchen, that is what I want most of all, someone to help me pass the time.

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Now playing: Leonard Cohen - Woke Up This Morning
via FoxyTunes

Thanks to the “wonder drug” making me so sick, I have yet to have a full night’s sleep. The first night I was puking, the second night I kept waking from crazy dreams (the kind you get when you are sick), and last night I was in so much pain that not even the hot bath could relax me enough to get more than a couple hours of sleep. Everything from my waist up (to include wrists and thumbs) hurt so bad that breathing is almost unbearable. Even sleeping upright did not help.

My only solace is that DH is taking our oldest to school, so I don’t have to get out of my pajamas. I need whatever comfort I can get so not dragging out the two year old, scraping frost off my windshield to drive him to school is the best thing I could have asked for.

Don’t get me started on the middle son though…. the boy is on my last nerve. I have been wondering how it takes my oldest two boys to get ready to school when the oldest has 1 1/2 - 2 hours to get ready for school, and the middle child has 2 hours to get ready. Yes, they have chores in the morning (make sure the dishwasher is loaded, should have been done after dinner so that is a cinch, get the clothes out of the dryer and start a new load in the wash, pick up your messes, and get yourself showered, dressed, eat breakfast, brush your hair & teeth). NOTHING that should take more than an hour. Apparently my middle son thinks it should take 45 minutes to be dressed up to his underwear. When I finally gave up trying to sleep, and got up because I was sick of hearing him yell through the house, I got up to find he had showered for 15 minutes (no biggie) and then done nothing but stand around in nothing more than his underwear for the next 30 minutes. I am not sure how I can get that boy motivated without breathing down his neck for 2 hours each morning, which just is not feasible with my lack of sleep lately.

On a better and brighter note, I am 12 weeks today! The baby is starting to look more human, and I am *supposed* to start feeling more human soon, but I will just watch and wait to see if my morning sickness gets the hint that it is time to hit the road. I am going to go out on a limb here and say either I am carrying a girl (since I have 2x as much morning sickness than I did my other two pregnancies combined) OR this is another baby boy trying to guarantee he is last baby we have (which was always the plan anyways). Either way, I will be happy, as I truly just want a healthy baby. Don’t tell Matthew this, as he insists this is his “baby sister”, he gets angry anytime I even suggest it could be a baby brother.

Please someone tell my 2 year old that mama REALLY needs him to take a nap today, so she can try to nap herself. This nap strike he is on is about to drive me batty!