My First Day of Lonely

The past week has been pretty brutal. I have been a totally good doobie & spent almost every minute of every day laying on the couch, laying on the bed, laying in the chair, etc. I've been working hard to not get excited, to stay calm & just relax & keep my blood pressure down. My kids, however have had different ideas.

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Anyone with kids knows that you kind of get used to the particular brand of mischief that your particular kids tend to get into. You tend to know which cabinets they get into, which shelves they climb on, and which messes they generally make.

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My kids, however, have spent the last week finding new, exciting, and completely unexpected ways of getting into trouble. I've found them destroying bank statements, opening boxes of food, and other equally un-anticipated mischief. They've been engaging in extraordinarily inventive behavior that is making Mom feel like she's losing her mind, just as I'm supposed to be trying to be calm & relaxed. This morning we were awakened by Emma playing the drums on some canning lids. I still haven't figured out where she got them!

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So when Nana offered to let my little conspirators come play at her house for a few days, I jumped at the opportunity to let them go. I'm usually pretty reluctant to be away from them, but with Emma's school being on vacation (year-round school, you know), and NOTHING for them to do all week, my poor kids were going out of their mind with boredom. Since Mommy is confined to the house because it's still 90+ degrees outside, and it being snake season so I can't let them out by themselves, they've been bouncing off the walls. Bedtime has been a particularly bad nightmare, as they are just simply not tired! It takes hours for them to wind down at night, with lots of jumping on the beds, wrestling, & dragging stuff out of the closet & throwing it around. Poor kids are just so bored! Hopefully the change of venue to Nana's will let them get out some of their wiggles. They definitely need a change of pace.

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What this means for Mommy is not as positive, however. Now I'm bored! I felt pretty good last week, but for the past few days I've really started to feel awful. No more pretty sparkles in my vision, and I have actually had ankles for the past couple of days, but my headaches are becoming almost unmanageable. I spent the entire day in bed today with the lights off, popping Tylenol as often as recommended. With the kids around, I have to forget all this & just deal. But with them gone, it's hard not to focus on the yuckies.

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I've had a lot of time to reflect this past week. We have some good friends that just had a miscarriage at 20+ weeks. It's been so awful for them, and it's forced me to look at my life & really appreciate what I have. Although I've had some small hiccups with my last 2 pregnancies, it's impossible to feel sorry for myself. We are so blessed to have the opportunity to have children at all! And the fact that they come so easily, especially in comparison with what some women endure, is amazing to me. I've really felt blessed this past week or so. I know that the Lord loves me, and has blessed me far beyond what I deserve.

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So tomorrow we'll go visit the Dr & find out how I'm really doing. I would not be surprised to hear that I need to have this baby soon. However, I would also not be surprised to hear that everything's fine, & we'll just have to keep waiting. Past experience has taught me that when it comes to pregnancy, I simply do not have any idea what my body's up to. If I think I could go into labor at any moment, we end up having to be induced weeks later. And when I think I'm fine, the Dr confines me to the couch. I guess you could call it pregnancy-induced stupidity. But really, how is that too different from my every day child-induced stupidity? Just a thought......