Do you ever get the feeling you're being watched?

We went out to do a photo shoot up in Provo Canyon the other day for a shoe company, and found that there were a thousand butterflies everywhere we went. It was like being in a butterfly atrium! My favorites were the big Monarch ones, while Garrett loved the little milk white ones, and Owen loved the small orange guys. Emmett just loved which ever one someone had in their hands that he could hold too.
We caught some and found this big guy in the process of dying, he didn't move away from us and he let me use him as a prop in a lot of the pictures I was taking. Teagan liked looking at him from the side and the top and the back, but she said his eyes freaked her out and that he was staring at her, so she didn't look at him straight on. So I took a picture of him looking at her and am thinking about making it a screen saver on the school room computer in her room so she can see it watching her when she gets home from girls' camp this week!

I thought it was good news...

I had another OB appointment yesterday. I am almost 36 weeks along now, and she told me I could stop taking the nefedipine to stop the contractions and could get off bed rest!! I was thrilled to get off a couple of days early; the last doctor I saw told me to stay on it until this Sunday, so getting off on Thursday saved me about 14 rounds of feeling tingly, itchy, hot, drained of all my blood, and basically feeling overall wasted. She said the baby is measuring two weeks behind and was a little guy - only weighing about 6 pounds right now. (Although, babies are supposed to gain a pound a week in their last month...that doesn't make him a little guy!) She even told me to start going for an evening walk to help with the swelling and pain. I left there a happy bloated whale!

So I went home and did about 6 loads of laundry, mopped the kitchen, cleaned the kids' bathroom (you have to love living in a house with 3 little boys, one of which is still potty training and hasn't caught the concept of "make sure you make bubbles in the in water and don't spray outside.") So I got to skip my 2:00 dose, and all was well. I was still flying high. Along came 8:00 and I gladly missed that pill also. But sometime around midnight the aches and pains and cramping started to settle in, and man was last night a long night! I didn't realize that along with no blood pressure came no aches and pains...maybe it was just a coincidence, but all the same, last night was a tough night!I was up so many times last night moving from room to room trying to get comfortable, or comforting a little guy who had had a night fright. All too soon morning was here...bummer.

I've been pretty active today and have skipped all my pills and have just been dealing with the contractions; if I am up and moving, the contractions are a pretty constant companion. But this weekend is a busy weekend for us, and Scott will be gone for most of it, and then next week the two older kids have a robotics camp that they won't want to miss...so I am thinking that I might take it easy for a few days. Just in case these contractions decide to do anything productive.

But, knowing my body, and knowing the family love of teasing that runs so deeply, I am fairly sure that this little guy is going to hang out and keep cooking until September. And in the meantime, I will keep having contractions every 5 minutes - for the next month+! So I think I have come to the conclusion that what started out as good news could also have actually been a mixed blessing.

It should be this week!!!

this is the week...for sure. I can feel it...

I was just told that it should be in the next couple of days!!

The man in charge said the second he finished my camera, he would give me a call so I can bring my prodigal camera home!

Are you not as excited about this as I am?

What were you thinking I was talking about?

So loved

Have I mentioned before how great my friend Wendi is? She has rescued me on all too many occasions, and has made me smile and laugh even more often. Today she did it again. As she drove by to return something she had borrowed from me, she also dropped off her camera for me to use since I am going through serious camera withdrawal!

After she dropped off her camera, Owen immediately went to a tree and climbed up and called me over for a photo shoot... apparently I wasn't the only one feeling the acute sting of no camera!

After a few shots with Owen and his koala bear self in our cherry tree, I tried to catch Emmett's black eye. At first he stood still so I could snag a shot...

But then he was off and didn't want to be bothered again! (Don't you love the undies shot? This is his favorite outfit; cute undies and nothing else.)

I did get a couple other shots of him and his 'Owey' together.

But he was quickly gone again and Owen was my lone picture subject. But with an adorable face like his, how could I not take picture after picture of him?!
After a few shots of Owen I saw that Emmy had gone back inside and that he had snuck into the fridge and was sipping on the soy sauce. So I snagged one more picture of him when I caught him in the act! He put on such a sweet face and offered me a sip.
So here I am, with a post full of wonderful pictures, thanks to my friend. There are pictures of those that I love so much (at least the ones who were at home!) and I feel so loved by my friend for sharing her camera with me :-)

When I was uploading my pictures, I got to look through her pictures that were on her camera and I borrowed one that I thought was great (hope you don't mind, Wendi!). This is one of her chickens, he is named Popo. Isn't he great?!! He makes me smile, too!

Tonight I can go to bed feeling so loved and contented that I have pictures on my blog again. And this time there is a picture of a real black eye and not just of a goofy black 'I'!

Yeah, life is good tonight!

Black eyes

It has been too long without my camera and I am going stir cray without it! we have had fun with extended family, fun as our own little family, and all sorts of great photo ops that have come and gone without any documentation... and I still have another wek or so to go before it will be done and I can be reunited with my mechanical extension to myself.

One thing that I am really missing it for are the pictures of my kids that I am missing. When we are out on walks Owen will invariably find an area that he things is beautiful and he will pose somewhere and say, "Mom, this would make a great picture spot if you had your camera." He's usually right, too.

I am missing a first for Emmy this week, too. He had a little friend over playing the other night with who he has a love/hate relationship. He has bitten her so hard before that it left bruising, and she is constantly screaming at him and throwing things at him, yet they still love to play together and he loves giving her hugs (which she detests). She is only a few months older than he is, so all of these behaviors are right on cue age-wise, but it is still funny to watch it all the same. This week's incident was her turn to be the brute and she whacked him with a heavy metal flashlight on the face, leaving a nice sized goose egg that turned into a healthy black eye the next morning despite us trying to ice it down after it happened. I would love to have a picture of his cute little black eye, but instead, this is the only thing I have to remember it...

Darn camera. I miss you!

Oxymoron for the day: Bed rest with Children

Week three of being on bed rest is almost over and all I can do is laugh at the whole idea of there actually being such a thing as bed rest when you have little kids. One of which is a potty-training two-year-old with a bladder the size of a pecan shell.

I love the concept of bed rest, and get the whole idea behind it; I even see the benefit of sticking with it. But the practical application of it is a whole different scenario.

I think it might be a bit different if I thought there was an actual medical necessity. If high blood pressure loomed over my head if I moved too much. Or if I was already dilating and really needed to keep still to prevent opening the proverbial (and literal) flood gates. But I think my contractions are more along an annoying alleyway rather than a productive path; so I find that I am not keeping my tail end still as much as the term 'bed rest' would imply.

Groceries still need to be bought. Papers need faxing for this and that. Registration for one thing or the other needs to be turned in. Cherries need to be picked before the flock of robins ravage our tree into oblivion. Dinners need to be prepared because I have a 12 year old who is allergic to browning meat apparently, and a hubby who always seems to be working on some other project that trumps cooking. I do spend a good portion of my day sitting down with my feet up, but there are times when I have to get up and get things done because otherwise they just won't get themselves done alone!

I've have figured out how to lower the amount of pills I take each day, though, while still not allowing the contractions to kick in too strongly. That's helping with my energy level. As long as I take it really calm throughout the day, I only need one pill in the evening to calm things down again. Which is nice because while the pills do calm the contractions, they also lower my blood pressure so much that I feel like a hollowed out grape - just skin with nothing inside. The other day I was feeling really low and I checked my BP and found it was 79/54...too sluggish for my comfort!

I think perhaps, the mix of bed rest and the pills have helped calm Sparky's water balloon apartment down a lot over all. I used to get contractions every 5 minutes as soon as the pill started wearing off, whether I was active or not; now as long as I am calm and somewhat sedate, I can skip the nighttime and early morning ones and make it through the day with minimal contraction discomfort and still have energy to keep my head up and my eyes opened. I think that's a good thing!

I am fully expecting, however, that in three weeks when I can officially get off of my modified bed rest, that Sparky will show his true F family side and will stubbornly stay in there until September ~ past his due date. Just to be a stinker. As it is, he is hanging out transversely (side to side, horizontal instead of up and down like he should be) and not letting his head sink downward where it needs to be. It is like he is trying to make sure his presence is known and that he doesn't get forgotten... there's no chance of that with him making me almost as wide as I am tall!

We'll just have to wait and see what the next 7 weeks brings!