Ken got home around 6 tonight. We had the previously requested pancakes and bacon for dinner, spent some time with Mr. Man (who, Ken says, has changed a lot while he was away), and some time together. Ethan went to bed a tad early (though he’s still putting himself to sleep) but Ken’s out like a light. Unlike his flight over to HK, where he got 3 hrs of sleep, this flight he got none. He’s been up since (our time) Thursday night around 5-6pm. Apparently the flight back from China is the one where all the American parents have their little Chinese children with them – who all squak and talk and pull on the back of seats and kick seats and make all sorts of noise. As with the jetlag when he got there, Ken expects it’s going to hit him around 5pm tomorrow, at which time he’ll not be able to eat anything and basically pass out. At least we know in advance.

Just letting the world know that he now has two more animal identifications/sounds. He’s known what a puppy is and has imitated them for ages, kitty came next and is adorable when you ask “Ethan… what’s that?” “Kitty” “And what does the kitty say?” “Kittymeow” (all one word, spoken quickly). He now knows what a horse is and what it says, as well as a cow. I’m working on duck as well, and monkey. He’s so funny when he says it though. I keep meaning to get video of it, but it’s hard when it’s just me since I have to distract him from the camera.

Y’know when you have a dream and you just.can’t.let.it.go? Last night I slept like crap, and at one of those sleep/wake times I dreamt a dream that really shouldn’t have been so bad, but was. I was pregnant, was picking Ken up from an airport. It was crowded with people, and I looked over at the counter and then felt a whoosh right next to my ear. A second later I start hearing screams about a gun and see a guy at the counter (ticket dude) who’s bleeding from a scalp wound and someone’s saying he’s been shot. Stunned and terrified, I slowly make my way toward the stairs nearby and the door outside. I stop in the doorway and start to hyperventilate and am concentrating on breathing calmly and calming myself down. People are rushing past me and there’s some sort of hostage situation going on upstairs in the room I’ve just left and that Ken is in. I make it outside, still having a lot of trouble breathing. I see the parking lot, and know my Mom is there in her minivan waiting to give us a ride home. I still see people rushing about, panicked and confused. I start to slowly walk around, trying to calm myself and focus on that instead of freaking out about Ken being up there with some crazed maniac. A few minutes later I see a bunch of people coming out and know the situation is over, so I slowly start to walk back. I get inside and see Ken. He’s fine, and was worried about me. Now is when I let the emotions I’ve been keeping at bay – the terror, the self-preservation fear, the something’s-happened-to-Ken fear – out.

And that’s when I wake up. I was terrified when I woke up, and had trouble breathing for a few moments. I still can’t forget the dream – though that’s good since it ensures it won’t happen – but still. Ugh!

Today, as I do my end of day news sum-ups, I find out that the Senate has passed a truely terrifying bill. Crooks and Liars (one of our favourite political websites) has many articles on it, this one just sums it all up fairly well. I’m positively amazed at how much the current administration has been able to get away with and how willing the political leaders have been to follow along like good, trained dogs. Beyond the amazement is my absolute fear of what this bill means. Think about it. Decide to give to a charity in the Middle East? You could be dragged from your home and locked up with zero rights and an indefinite amount of time. You *could* be monetarily supporting terrorists. No, you have no say in it. You don’t have the right to a trial at all, let alone a fair one conducted by your peers. You can be tortured and treated in absolutely inhumane ways. You could be hidden away somewhere where noone knows where you are. Forever. For no reason.

Generally I try to see the good and the positive side of life. I try to keep in mind, through all the political crap that’s been going on the past few years, that this administration will end and something better will come along. Someone who will undo all this wrong that’s been done. I used to have equal hope in either a Democratic or Republican candidate since the most likely (in my eyes) Republican candidate is John McCain and several of the leading runners for the Democratic ticket would be a huge improvement. John McCain voted to support this bill. John McCain who’s experienced torture first hand…

Please please please… someone wake me up?

I’m back to the constant F5’s of Continental’s Flight status page for Ken’s flight, and it hasn’t even taken off yet! So far everything is “On Schedule” and he’s due to leave in little over an hour. They aren’t providing me with the same, handy, image as last time, but then I think they’re a little confused since he leaves on Friday, Sept. 29th (Hong Kong time) which is tonight, our time. As soon as they let me see a picture, I’ll let you stalk along with me.

Update:
Well, last I checked it said “Departed Gate Late – Taxiing to Runway” and now it says “In Flight – Estimated to Arrive Early”. Um… huh?
Flight path image removed

Oh, and the weather’s sped itself up and should stop raining by 10am in the Newark area, so there’ll be hours of time for the air traffic controllers to catch up from any delays and his flight, hopefully, will have no delays from the weather.

As of this morning, he’s scheduled to arrive late… by ONE.WHOLE.MINUTE.AHHHHH!!!

Ok, flight landed and taxiing to gate. It’s only like 3 minutes late *gasp*. Silly pipple. I’mma go nap now!

Yeah, baybee! Little is now approx 2.5lbs and about 15″ tall and his brain and lungs continue to develop. I’m starting to feel some added pressure on my breathing and stomach, especially when I lie down. My ankles are pretty much slightly perma-swollen too, but it’s not toooo bad. Really, it’s the backaches that I could do without. I’m dealing, and it’ll be better once Ken’s home and can give me the occasional rub. Otherwise things are going great. I’m not sleeping all that well – I’m up every 2hrs or so most nights, but so be it. Anybody who tells a pregnant woman that this is “preparation for once the baby is born” is so full of it. Getting up for a few moments to stumble to the bathroom and pee then stumble back to bed is SO OMG DIFFERENT than getting up for half an hour or more and having to be awake enough to breastfeed (and ensure a proper latch until the little one can do it themselves) or awake enough to prepare a bottle and then feed the little one – or awake enough to change a diaper or just soothe someone back to sleep. Way different. I’ll take all the sleep I can get now, since I won’t likely get much for a long time after Little is born. Especially until he’s sleeping through the night, since Ken can’t alternate nights with me like we did with Ethan. Well, not unless he starts to lactate… and, between you and me, he just doesn’t have the figure for it.

Two thoughts that just popped into my head while I was sitting here. I figure I’d best share them before they dissolve into those fluffy white thinge I keep seeing flying around the outdoors this time of year.

TMX Elmo
Ken and I have a rule. Any toy that has any amount of hype about it… lines to get it… back orders… news reports… Any toy like that is not allowed in our house. No, our kids do *not* need it. If you want it at your house, that’s fine, but not in ours. We’re doing our best to avoid our kids having any sort of toy-brand attachment, in general. We don’t plan on exclusively buying Thomas the Tank Engine or Hot Wheels or any other specific toy brand that requires us to buy every last piece made or else our kids are just.going.to.die.omg. We *will* be the meany parents. We *will* deny their heart’s desire of owning every ____ . The kids? won’t die. PROMISE!

Tylenol for Teething
I’ll admit. I used to make Ethan tough it out. Teething never really bothered him that much, and he’d just chew and drool a lot and eat less; no screaming or whining or fussing. Granted, molars are a different (longer lasting) shade of green so with Little it’s entirely possible that we won’t medicate him either (for the non-molar teeth). However, as for the administration of tylenol which I used to shun? We’re *SO* there. We have been for a while, actually. Not for all the time, but naptime and bedtime are often accompanied by a few squirts from the infant tylenol bottle. Ethan doesn’t sleep well otherwise, and we both need him to sleep well. This recent round has been taking months but seemed to ease off a bit after Labour Day weekend, so I stopped with the drugs. Today, however, I gave it another go for his nap. Instead of 45mins to fall asleep, he was out in 20. Instead of waking up around 3 he slept til 5. He’s *MUCH* happier right now (as am I). Maybe he’ll even eat a bit better now that he’s more rested (hey, a Mom can hope).

Follow-up: aHA!HA!ha.  Ok.  Not so much the eating better part.  In fact, he didn’t (really) eat at all.  He had his usual post-nap (chocolate) milk, then at dinner time he had two spoons of rice (the kind he generally loves) and a few sips of juice and then wanted no more of the whole eating thing and wanted DOWN! to go play.  Ahh well.  C’est la vie!

FINALLY!

Ken’s flight leaves at 10:25pm tonight (assuming no delays) and arrives tomorrow at 2:05pm. I’ll try and get the same flight graphic up, but their website won’t show it, likely, til closer to departure time. It’s supposed to rain (here) tonight and some tomorrow morning, but that should stop around noon so hopefully there won’t be too much, if any, delays.

I’ve got laundry and Ethan bathing to do today, and cookies to bake tomorrow, but otherwise it’s just waiting. But not as much waiting as it was 2wks ago!!

*does a very happy dance*

Ken remarked last night that it’s not like this is Christmas Eve or something, but it’s SO MUCH BETTER!!

Or the business of backs… aching, that is. Today I’m having a pretty rough day with back pain. I know it’s partly from things I do since it hurts more on one side than the other, but it’s stuff I have to do so I can’t help that. I hope the tylenol I just took works quickly and thoroughly.

YAY! Today is a *great* day, because today is one day before Ken departs for home. Tomorrow night around 10 his plane takes off to zoom him (fast, but not fast enough) home. The weather should be beautiful in China, but his arrival weather is still uncertain. The weather shows a high percent chance of showers, but we’ll see whether that changes or not (it hasn’t over the past week, though, so I don’t know). I hope it doesn’t delay his flight. They’re just saying showers, not thunderstorms, so maybe it’ll be ok.

I just got off the phone with Ken and I have to say that I’m just so SO proud of him for trying so many new foods!! Generally speaking he tends to have quite a few “I won’t eat that”s, and he’s very hesitant to try new foods sometimes. While on his trip he’s had Korean, Thai, eaten tofu and we’re now allowed to have broccoli!! (previously he wouldn’t eat it) He’s had a lot more, but those are the ones I remember right now. He hasn’t caved on the fish/seafood front, but he’s had lamb and dragon fruit. He’s really fond of the Thai (and I think the Korean, though he said it was pretty spicey – which coming from Ken says a lot!) but says we likely can’t get it here since it’s all made fresh. I’m thinking we may have to venture abroad somewhat – maybe even near The City – to find some of these foods so I can try them too.

Today’s a pretty quiet day for Ethan and I. I want to get my shrug done today (I’m working on the “fringe” on the body of it), and should be able to I think. It’ll be nice to have a day where we’re not going anywhere. I think we both need that.

Ethan has always had a love of books. We’ve done everything we could to foster that, since Ken and I both love books and I think there’s no better desire to instill in your child than a love of reading. We’ve always surrounded him with books, almost from the moment he came home from the hospital. Books that he looked at, books that he chewed on, books that he eventually started turning pages for (way before the developmental milestone of turning pages) and “read” to himself (sat and flipped pages and babbled to himself). Books amuse him whenever he wants them. Books can be an alone entertainment for him, or a group activity (he’ll bring us a book if he wants a story now). Rarely do we read the same book twice in a row. He’s known for ages what “no, go get another book” means.

Today I discovered just how beneficial his books have been. He’s got 3-4 books that are ABC books, he’s also got the Leap Frog phonics ABC toy on the fridge to play with. While playing with it today, I pulled out the A magnet and asked him what it was. “A” he said. I reached for the B magnet and asked again. “B” he said. I reached for the C magnet. “D” he said (he’s also been trying to sing the ABC song as ABD lately too). I left it at that. Tonight, though, he grabbed an ABC book so we went through and I asked him what each letter was. He correctly identified A, B, D, H, K, P, R (kinda), S, W (came out as “double” but I figure that’s close enough), Y (initially he called X “Y” but he also called Y “Y” so that counts!), and a very vehement Z.

So.SO.Proud.

Well everything went fine. Mr. Man was getting pretty sick of the in/out of the car and riding in the stroller by the time we were done, but he wasn’t too whiney. I’m sure he’s sick of all the driving around we’ve done the past few days, so the next few at home should be a relief for him.

The dr said to call friday for my test results, so I’ll call either then or Monday to see how things are going. She ordered a thyroid (natch), LDL, HbA1c and something else that I know but just don’t remember. The vampires got me in and out fairly quickly, so I was at the McPig’s drive-”thru” by 10, as predicted. I ate… more than I’d usually eat, and was quite full afterwards, but it was goooood. Of course, lately anytime I eat even a previously “normal” amount of food (for me) I feel really full and like I’m about to burst. My obliques have been kinda pully/achy the past few days up near my ribcage, which is kinda annoying but liveable. The dr’s office scale weighed me at +22lbs, but their scale tends to weigh more than the ob’s scale. You’d think dr’s office scales would be correctly calibrated, but of course they’re used so much that I suppose that’s impractical. We’ll need to be getting a new one for our bathroom. Ken dropped something on the scale window and it’s broken (it wasn’t a very accurate scale anyways).

So now I’m still very full and going to wait a bit before eating lunch. I’ve been wanting to eat a lot lately, in quantity as well as frequency. I wish these eating cravings had come some weeks ago when there was still lots of room inside me for the food to sit. Now I’m going to have to start eating smaller meals, I think, and more frequently which messes with my already somewhat messed sugars. The contra-insulin hormones have kicked in, and I’m taking rather large amounts of insulin to compensate and keep ahead as best I can. I’m doing ok, though, so.

I’s tired! Been sleeping poorly the past two nights. Hopefully that’ll end tonight, but in the meanwhile thank goodness for naps!!

I leave for my dr’s appointment in 10 min. It can’t come soon enough since this morning I’m getting bloodwork done that they require me to be fasting for. That means no breakfast for Kelly. Don’t they know I’m pregnant?! I need breakfast. Heck, on normal (unpregnant) days I need breakfast; but now?!! I should remind them, with force, of my being pregnantness. I’ll go down there and wildly swing my belleh around and knock things off table tops and unbalance little old ladies. HUNGRY!

8:15 – leave house
9:00 – appointment
9:30 – visit vampires
10:00 – EAT!

At least I can console myself with McPig’s breakfast sandwiches and hashbrowns…

Today is the day. Today marks the day that I’m now the most pregnant I’ve ever been. Today, in a way, I feel like celebrating. I want to say to complete strangers “Look! I’m still pregnant!” They’d look at me like I’m crazy, smile uncomfortably, and hurry off. But I’d know. Today is a whole new chapter. Today is a gift. Today is a scary day. Today marks the day I no longer know what to expect beyond vague notions of what’s been and what might be because of those experiences. I’m bigger than I’ve ever been – have been for weeks, actually. How big will I get? What will it feel like? What if I can’t breastfeed this one because of *me*, and not because he’s not strong enough or he’s nipple-determined? Today marks when I start asking these questions in concrete terms instead of fuzzy-future terms. I don’t know these things, and only my experiences over the next 12wks or so will shed any light on them. What will it be like to birth a full-term baby? To love a little baby who’s plump? Starting today I count each day and each week as a blessing. Each day means more development to those tiny lungs and heart and body. Each week means less fear. Until now I’ve been waiting for 28wks. It’s my starting point. It’s where we were interrupted last time, and I want to finish this time in entirety. Now I start to count. Now we have 80 days to go. Now we have 11wks+3days.

Well, Sharon’s just left, after we’d put Mr. Man down since he doesn’t deal well yet with goodbyes. The weather is beautiful today, so her drive back to VT should be an uneventful one. Our weekend started when she arrived slightly before the end of naptime on Friday. She quickly rushed outside with him to walk around and play and since he was hungry and a bit tired still when it was time to come in he flipped.right.out. I’ve never seen him hold onto a temper for so long, and it prevented him eating much of anything for dinner. Saturday we went shopping at the outlet mall and picked up a bunch of cool weather clothes for Ethan, some baking/kitchen supplies for me, etc. Sunday we took a quick walk around the flea market, picked up some cheap local produce and discovered dried lemon peel gratings (which worked really well in the dinner I made last night – Lemon and Basil Pork Chops). This morning I got my passport photos done, had my dr’s appointment rescheduled for tomorrow morning since the dr was running late, and swung by Walmart to look at fabric for a quilt for Little that Sharon’s going to make.  This weekend Ethan finally said “Grammy”, on two separate occasions… both of which Sharon was out of earshot.

That’s the basic sum-up. I slept horribly last night (my arm’s bothering me again) so I’m just too tired to remember much else. We had a great time, and I’m very glad she could come down to see us and keep us company. We’ve got 4 more days til Ken comes home, and it won’t be too soon. I miss him so much. I’m grateful he’s been able to call at least once, if not twice, a day.

Tomorrow I’ll be going to my dr’s appointment and then hopefully right to the lab for my blood work, to the pharmacy to pick up drugs that I should order, and then back home. Then we’re staying here for the rest of the week. I’m going to nap now.