The Novel of an Entry

It’s been one of those days where nothing major goes wrong, just a lot of little things that by the end of the day have taken their toll.

The day started off early – like at 2:30 a.m. My typical time to wake up each morning and then lay awake for at least 3 hours trying to fall back asleep. I love my pregnancy insomnia! I have been spending the last few nights trying to make a decision that has been weighing very heavily on mind so sleep has been even more elusive. So let’s just say I started off the day a little tired.

Then the following happened:
Bella woke up in a very bad mood and was just screaming for no apparent reason. I finally got it out of her that she was “so sad” I hadn’t made her toast for breakfast. She hadn’t even told me she wanted toast she just began to cry. Isaac decided he was also unhappy and needed to scream to get my attention. So now I have 2 crying kids.

We’re rushing out the door because Samuel and Bella need to be at preschool and gymnastics at the same time. I tell the kids to get in the car while I finish changing Isaac’s diaper and I can hear them playing around instead of getting in their car seats. I holler for them to get their straps on and Bella hollers back that she has no seat.

We’re going to be right on time (I hate being late for things) except I now realize what Bella meant. Chuck had removed the car seats the night before and didn’t put them back. So despite the fact it probably cost me an extra minute, I call to tell him “thanks” for remembering to put the car seats back and that now I’m going to be late (I know not very nice of me! He did feel bad and brought me a donut for lunch). Once the seats are back in the car I have to get all the kids straps on because Bella is still in a bad mood and refuses to do it herself. Samuel is in the third row of seats and can’t get his buckled by himself and of course Isaac.

Now we’re off and Samuel informs me his foot is caught in the seatbelt. We get to preschool, I open up the back to let him out and he tells me again he can’t get out because his foot is caught. So I have to haul my big belly into the back of the Pilot to figure out the problem. And sure enough he had wound his foot around the seat belt that was hanging from the second row of seats. I tried to loosen it, but it just locked up even tighter. Let’s just say it took me several minutes to get him undone and at one point I thought I was going to have to drive to Chuck’s office so we could cut him loose. Luckily kids are flexible and somehow I got him free.

I pull up to gymnastics and run Bella into class 7 minutes late (did I mention I HATE being late!). Then I went back home to “relax” for a few minutes with just 1 kid. I read to Isaac for a few minutes then unload the dishwasher quickly before I need to pick Bella back up. Isaac loves to help me unload the utensils and throw them in the drawer. I notice when he is about done that many of them look wet for some reason. I look down to see that he is sucking on them and then throwing them in the drawer. Lovely – who needs clean utensils anyway.

As I’m pulling out of the garage I notice that a guy is clearing our huge weeds next to our block wall. Several weeks ago I mentioned to Chuck that our weeds were getting pretty big, but he told me he thought they looked very natural. (The HOA requires that our landscaping be natural vegetation, but I don’t think that includes weeds!). I know they’re really interested in selling the lot next to us so they must have decided we needed a little help in keeping things tidy. Over the next few hours I pull in and out of my garage 7 times passing this poor guy working on the weeds and just try to pretend like I don’t see him since it’s pretty embarrassing to be the ghetto neighbors with the big weeds!

Later I had my OB appointment and I had gained another 7 pounds. It’s okay I tell myself, but I am gaining more rapidly this go around. For several weeks now my right leg and feet have been causing me problems. I thought it was just because I’ve gained a lot of weight and our concrete floor is really hard. We don’t wear our shoes in the house so I bought a nice new pair of comfy shoes to just wear indoors. I’m the primary pianist in our ward and on Sunday we were practicing for the primary program so I was sitting at the piano for 2 hours. By the end my leg was really causing me a lot of pain. Up until then I hadn’t bothered to look at the back of my leg to see what the problem was, but when I got home I lifted up my skirt and asked Trina if there was something on the back of my leg. Well her reaction said it all. I looked back and was mortified at what I saw. Ugly looking veins poking out behind my knee and a big spot that looked like a bruise. Great, I would have to develop varicose veins on my last pregnancy! Today I showed the doctor my leg and he said I could either wear support hose or I needed to elevate my legs more during the day to help. I don’t particularly have a lot of time to just kick the legs up so I guess I’ll be getting the support hose – at least it’s not hot summer! Then he really made my day by saying they would probably fade after the pregnancy, but not go away. So call me vain, but I really am not excited about having one leg that looks like I’m 90. The only good thing about all this – my brother-in-law is a plastic surgeon so I’m thinking after I’ve had this baby and finished nursing I’ll just have him fix all my pregnancy related problems!

But the day did not end with this good news. I picked the kids up from my friend’s house and they had been playing in the sand so they were all extremely dirty and needed to get in the tub. Samuel fell asleep on the way home and so he was crying that he couldn’t get in the tub because he was tired and would fall asleep in the water and drown. Isaac hates the tub so he is standing up screaming about getting washed. He then begins to pee and because he's standing up it is going all over. But I was lucky because it didn't hit me it went the other way and covered the bathroom slate instead. Just another thing to need to clean at the moment! And every night Isaac wipes food in his hair, but tonight I was a little disheartened that he wiped syrup all over his head just after I had washed his hair.

On the bright side, Chuck got home from City Council in time to help put the kids to bed. As I’m typing this Isaac starts to cry and I find that he has his leg stuck in the slates of the crib and Chuck’s writing out a check to the IRS because they have determined we owe them more money.

Here’s to hoping tomorrow’s a little better than today!