TTT: Season 2, Episode 25

1. Guess what, everybody! I'm still pregnant! Who me? Yes, me! After my last two deliveries and the crazy stressful pregnancy I've had this time around, I would have been more likely to bet that I would have had him sooner than Kolbe and Rudy instead of later. But as they always say, every pregnancy is different and right now, the little guy is still in there! On the other hand, pregnancies in the same mama can also be somewhat the same, and I definitely haven't missed out on that aspect this week. In fact, right now I'm waiting on the doctor's office to call me back with results of yet another twenty-four hour urine test. Sure enough, I woke up on Tuesday with higher blood pressure and it remained high when I went in to my weekly appointment. Blood work showed that my liver and other organs are doing fine, which is reassuring...kind of, but my blood pressure has stayed all over the place. One minute it's what would be considered high and then ten minutes later is just fine. So right now the only way I can describe the state of things is frustrating. Believe me, I don't want anything to go wrong. I'd love more than anything to just have normal pregnancies without complications. But unless you've been through a delivery like Kolbe's, it would probably be hard for you to understand why I'm so paranoid. When Kolbe was born, I had slightly high blood pressure, checked into the hospital for twenty-four hours of monitoring spent a good eight hours sitting there in the hospital with absolutely no problems at all...not even high blood pressure...and was unconscious and having an emergency C-section just hours later. With Rudy, it was a no-brainer. I went in to my thirty-six week appointment and my BP was 190/120. That's way out of control. Not marginal. There was no question of should we? shouldn't we? for the doctors. He had to come out. With this little fella, my "high" BPs are just marginally high (140s/100s-150s/100s)...and there's no other bad symptoms other than a nagging headache. Still, there's that fear of knowing that with Kolbe I went from completely fine to nightmare status within hours that lingers in the back of my mind. I don't want to be paranoid. But I kind of am. I just would much rather have the smooth delivery that I had with Rudy than the chaos of Kolbe's birth. Can you blame me? So we'll see what happens. They did an in-utero APGAR-type test of Mr. Grant yesterday and he aced it! He's ready to go! And as of tomorrow, he'll be considered full term at thirty-seven weeks. So I'm certainly satisfied. Proud of him, proud of myself, just ready to have peace about everything and not worry about if something is going to go wrong.

2. I have to admit, all things pregnancy related have pretty much consumed this week. We've lacked some major structure, and I think the boys are realizing it. They definitely know that something is up. Mark and I have done our best to try to prepare them for everything, but since things aren't exactly going as we expected, I think they're just confused. Kolbe definitely has the excited perspective of things. He's constantly asking when Baby Grant is going to be here. Will he be here tomorrow? And when he knows I'm going to the doctor the next day, he literally can't sleep with the all the anticipation. He's totally ready to be a big brother again. Rudy, on the other hand, is having a really hard time with everything. Poor fella. His biggest concern right now is Mama. When I talk about going to the hospital he immediately starts clinging to me. Not to mention the fact that he wakes up in the middle of the night still half asleep saying, "Mama, Mama, Mama." It's heart-wrenching! I know he's going to be ok and everything will go just fine, but he's definitely always been a Mama's-boy and I hate to see it being so difficult for him. Just have to do my best to make both of them feel as special as possible. Lots of cool big brother responsibilities for Kolbe and lots of love and affection for Ru.

3. I had so much fun doing the instagram pictures of our weekly happenings last week, that I thought I'd do it again this week. Here's a few shots of some of the things that went on:

Does anyone else's dishwasher look like a plastic rainbow exploded in it?

Rudy loves to play hide and seek. And he's SO good at it! Kolbe giggles and gives himself away instantly, but Rudy can have you searching for a while without making a peep! Of course, dangling little piggies tend to give him away...

The Woodlands has a mounted patrol squad that serves a lot of the shopping area and other social events. I'm not sure if they actually chase people down or what, but the boys sure are impressed when they see one of the horsies and patrol men in a parking lot. We finally actually saw one we could go up and visit with and Rudy was just thrilled. JJ was a massive horse but he wasn't scared of going up to pet him with Pinkie at all. Kolbe, on the other hand, wouldn't come within ten feet of him.

This week I washed up a bunch of my new-mama nursing gear items to get ready for Grant. The boys were helping me fold clothes and while I was working on folding bigger items, Kolbe discovered some of my nursing pads. Minutes later, he was offering me a "taco" that he had prepared for me with some of his bouncy balls. Sheesh. Let the humiliation begin!

Just a month or two ago we bought this bike for Kolbe. I wrote about how all the other three-year-olds on the block were all riding big boy bikes and poor Kolbe still had a tricycle. Mark and I joked that by the end of the summer, Rudy would probably be able to pedal it too. So much for end of the summer. He seriously just turned two in February and is already riding like a pro on a big boy bike. But...but...but...he's supposed to still be a baby!

And Pinkie found a slightly bigger bike at a thrift store the other day for $10 and brought it home for Kolbe to try out. His feet can barely make the full round of the cycle, but he loves it nonetheless. These two are bike riding maniacs!

And there's my little daredevil again! Nothing says summer like climbing trees!

No bikes for me. Just my annoying, stress inducing blood pressure cuff to keep me company....