My DH Rocks!

Sorry I haven't kept up with this, but it is way past time for a new entry!

For the past two weeks at least, I have felt almost perfectly helpless to do a lot around the house and also to do any lifting of Josiah, including, but not limited to, changing diapers, lifting in and out of the high chair, or big boy seat, whichever floats his boat at the time, bath time and bed time. I have really only been lifting Josiah once a day and that is out of the bed in the mornings. So, Danny has been doing it all! Here is a little of what Danny's schedule is like: He works 3rd shift, so he generally goes in to work anywhere from 10pm to midnight each day of the week except for Wednesday nights. Danny generally gets home anywhere from 5am to 7am. When he comes home, he eats a little meal, usually washes any dishes I have had to leave behind, straightens up the dining room and living room - just because he knows how important it is to me! - and then comes to bed after slipping Josiah a little morning milk and coaxing him back to sleep so mommy can sleep some more. But wait! That's not all! Danny sleeps from about 8am to 3pm - roughly - we all spend afternoon time together, doing whatever needs to be done, and Danny usually helps me with more clean up and dinner. We might slip in a hand or two of our favorite card game after dinner, but after dinner, Danny gives Josiah his bath, readies him for bed, brushes his teeth [man, is he good or what???] and then, if Danny has time, he might catch him an hour or two of a nap before work. I just don't know what I would do without such a devoted husband and father. He never complains and loves everything he does. I look forward to having our little girl and taking some of the strain off of Daddy, but you know, he won't let me do that! He will just keep chugging along, doing everything he loves to do so much! Thank you, my sweetheart, for all you have been doing and for being such a wonderful father and husband!

While having said all of this, please pray for Danny as well. I know that he is becoming extremely nervous as the date for my c-section approaches. He worries about me and the baby and it is a very rough time for him. I know he feels lost without me at home too and thinks that everything including care of Josiah and everything else will fall on him even while I am in the hospital. I have care of Josiah taken care of until we return home, then Danny has about a week off with us and then Josiah will go back to Danny's mom's house. Danny is stressed and I think he feels pulled in many different directions, so please, as you pray for me on FRiday, remember him too.

But, needless to say, MY HUSBAND ROCKS!!!

Putting all of your eggs...

...in one basket...

Okay, so don't ask me how, but I seemed to have ended up with about 4 dozen eggs in my fridge and have been meaning to do something with them all for the past week or so. I bought a lot of english muffins, sausage and bacon and I am going to try to put together some muffins and freeze them. Right now I have three different little egg casseroles going on in the oven. One has ham and cheese in it...just for Amber [sorry, J/K, my dear sis - n - law!], the others are plain old egg and a little seasoning. I have learned to fluff my eggs up a little bit with milk or water to the scramble, so these are light and fluffy looking so far! So, does anyone else have some constructive ways I can cook up the rest of these eggs before I go into the hospital? I can't stay on my feet for long at all, so I am a little limited!

Josiah has been a delight this morning wanting to "help you mommy?", and I realized I still must be doing too much around the house and on my feet if my 21 month old walks around saying, "Wanna clean, mommy?"! So, while I have been cooking, and in an effort to be close to Josiah because I am sad about being away from him for a few days, I filled up the kitchen sink with water, got his potty/stool out and have been letting him "help" wash dishes. This has been his most fun thing to do in the last couple of weeks. Yes, it is messy, but sometimes I realize there is going to have to be a little mess to clean up in order for everyone to have fun, right? Plus, this will occupy him for a LOT of time and it beats just putting him in front of the "boob tube" to drain his brain! I am blessed that he does not like TV too much anyway. Every now and then when I need a break, he will sit long enough to watch a 30 minute VeggieTales movie, sometimes Elmo and sometimes Winnie the Pooh. Other than this, he could care less and would rather be doing other things! I hope it stays that way!

Well, I have taken my mandatory rest and am going to do a few more things [I will get up and do something around the house for about 10 minutes or so, then come and sit down for 30...hey, don't knock it til you've tried it! :-) ].

Playing with my blog...

I have enjoyed rearranging and changing my blog this evening. I did not know that it could be this easy! I chose pink because "pink is in the air" around this part of Roanoke, Virginia! Friday 12/5 is the date that my husband, son and I should meet little Bethany Arlene. I am so excited! Of course, there is a very slight chance that Friday will be a no go, but it is so slight I am not even considering it! We have been busy here trying to get last minute things done. I have mostly been sitting and delegating as my DH is doing. Going into the hospital is like going on a vacation. I hate coming home to a messy or unorganized home and there is only so much I can do from a resting state. I like to come back home to nice smells - you know, not the kind where...oops, you forgot to empty the trash before you left... or dishes piled up at the sink waiting to be washed. I really want to come home to my haven and rest, so we are still plugging away at at few things here in our home.

Thursday is a packed day for us with three different dr appts and a presurgical appt at the hospital, so that morning, really early we are going to drop Josiah off at Grandma's house [Danny's mom...who btw...is such a great mom and grandmother! I feel great with Josiah in her care for a few days now and a few days later. She has been such a help to me/us!!!], go to all of our appts, and we even thought we might be able to throw one more quiet night in the mix for just Danny and I. This will probably consist of one of our favorite things to do...Barnes and Noble...we love to go, sit and read! I told Danny tonight that I already miss Josiah and he is not even gone! Josiah melted my heart tonight when, for the first time, unprompted, got a baby doll[okay, so it was actually a naked Barbie doll...I have no idea where it came from...], put it in the new swing we have for Bethany, and turned the music on and said her name. He has been calling Bethany "Baby Betty" which I have been working really hard on, so tonight he turned the music on and gleefully exclaimed "Bet-a-nee!", over and over again. It really did do my heart good!

So, Friday morning is fast approaching and I am excited yet really nervous about my surgery. I don't want to go into too much detail, but my c-section with Josiah was not planned, but that is what ended up happening. The surgery was very invasive and some things were not what I wanted at all. Since the surgery was so invasive, it is a very bad idea for me to have future births naturally. Trust me on this, I could go into further detail, but will spare you unless you want to talk privately. But, I hope things will be different with this delivery. With Josiah, I was not alert AT ALL. I remember only a few things because right before we decided to go ahead with the c-section, I had been given two very powerful pain medicines...stadol and something else. I was loopy! In the operating room, I remember my DH with tears in his eyes getting down in my ear and singing "Great is thy faithfulness". I remember waking myself up snoring...yes, I snored through most of the surgery... and I remember hearing Josiah screaming and trying to comfort him from where I was. Danny was able to hold him and Josiah finally stopped crying when he was held up to my face and I was able to sing to him and whisper in his ear. I don't remember anything after this. I don't remember the first time I got to hold Josiah and I don't remember the first time I got to nurse him. I know that both were very long periods of time after Josiah was born and later I was really sad about this. Anyway, I guess what I am getting at is that I am glad that I expect this surgery to go better. I can be as alert as I want as long as the anesthesiologist knows what I want. I have already talked to the L and D nurses at the hospital and I have been assured that unless there is a problem with me or the baby, I can take Bethany with me to the recovery room and hold her or nurse her as long as I want or when I want. So, I am thankful that since I have to have a c-section, it will at least go the way I want it to this time. Well, I have gone on for long enough. I mostly wanted to say I am excited about our baby and seeing pink!!!

Kids do the darndest things!!!

Okay, so, I am supposed to be staying off of my feet, and most of the time I am able to accomplish that, but then there are those days...

Poor Josiah was extremely restless today and for the first time asked me over and over to "go outside and play?". I knew I couldn't do that and stay completely off of my feet because he likes to walk up and down the sidewalks in front of the houses in our neighborhood and look for dogs and cats. So, I thought today is the day I will take him to Chik-Fil-A and to play...nice alternative, and staying off my feet 75% of the time, right? Well, off we went. We had a nice lunch and I let Josiah play for almost an hour at ChikFilA while I sat and watched him and talked to other mothers. I can not tell you how many looks of sympathy I got today, but I can tell you that 4 times I heard expressions like, "Oh my goodness, you are huge!", or "Good grief, you are about to pop!". I guess people are afraid to ask when a woman is "due" anymore because what if they are wrong and the person is not really pregnant? Anyway...

My most utterly, mortifying and embarrassing moment happened when we were readying to leave. I put on my coat and I was putting on Josiah's coat as we stood beside a nice older couple eating lunch in their booth. The older man was very demonstrative in his talking and talked with his hands extensively. In the hand closest to us, the man had his fork with a forkful of food on it and was just talking to his wife. I saw Josiah's eyes following the fork, but didn't think much of it. I thought Josiah was just a little intrigued. Well, that man kept waving his fork and I didn't realize how close to Josiah he was getting, and when he stopped moving his hand, Josiah grabbed his hand and shoved the forkful of food into his own mouth! The couple thought it was adorable and I was apologizing and wanting to hide under a table when Josiah uses his best sign language and words together makes the signs for "more" and "please" and says it to the man. Then the man gave him another bite!!! He said he couldn't resist and thought he was the cutest boy ever. I can laugh about it now, but I tell you, I was mortified! I finally talked the man into letting me get him another fork as he was originally content on eating off the fork that had also been in my son's mouth...well, what can you do?

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving day with friends and family. God Bless!

Falling behind, and falling in general...

I thought I would quit falling behind and update everyone on the Hodges happenings for now. We are 2 weeks and 1/2 day away from meeting our little girl. I am very ready, past ready, but also do not like the thought of having to deliver at 37 weeks as slight problems can arise. My doctor figures fewer problems can arise if I deliver 3 weeks early, so we are going with his decision. He is a very good DR and has take very good care of me, especially this pregnancy.

So, since I mentioned falling behind, the dishes sit, stacked elegantly, yet dirty, on my kitchen counters...a few on the kitchen table, and a few on the dining room table. There is a lot of laundry folded, just not put away. There is a lot of dirty laundry piling up again, but what can we say...it's only going to grow bigger, right? The living room is a maze of my son's toys, scattered here and there, and we won't even begin to talk about my bedroom! I am okay with it all though. I simply wish I had the energy I had a week, two weeks or even a month ago. Last week I was asking my mother in law what I could cook for our Thanksgiving meal and today I was telling her whatever could be bought would be what I could bring. Energy...where did it all go? It probably went away with all of the swelling that encompasses me. Yes, just like with Josiah, I am swollen again, but that is what happens though. My sister in law dropped by tonight and she was like a breath of fresh air...as she always is! Amber found me upstairs sitting in the bathroom while Josiah was vegging in the tub. He was grouchy tonight, but he seemed to be so happy in the tub that I let him sit and get prune-like. When it was time to get out, Amber did all of the honors, diapering, dressing, lifting! Whew, I was glad she came over. It seemed like she knew that I was tired and came to minister just to me...she is so sweet! Speaking of Amber, she and I were talking and I was lamenting, AGAIN, the fact that I feel HUGE and we were talking about the differences between last pregnancy and this and we were just goofing off. She remembered, when I was pregnant with Josiah, how I went on and on about how huge my nose got. All of my facial swelling really bothered me last pregnancy and all I could see out of my peripheral vision was my huge honker. Amber brought up my previous lamenting and without skipping a beat reminded me how big my nose is now! We laughed as she often makes me do!

Speaking of falling in general, about a week ago, I had three falls in one week...really abnormal for me. The first two were harmless, really, and could have been worse, but praise the Lord, they were not. The first two falls I missed the first step on my way to the bathroom upstairs and bruised my knees. The third fall I had was not so glorious. Let me start by saying, it could have been MUCH worse, so I praise the Lord for His mercy! I was getting Josiah a cup of milk and I leaned the baby gate against the buffet table in the kitchen. On my way back through the kitchen/dining room door with the cup of milk, I hit the corner of the baby gate and knew I was going down. Josiah was right in front of me, to my right was nothing but another buffet table full of glass items I had been cleaning [candle holders, glass pitcher, picture frames, etc] and I was so afraid I was going to fall on Josiah. So, as I was falling in slow motion, I was trying to decide how I was going to land to have as little impact as possible, not fall on Josiah, not hurt the baby and not break any glass, but I was not successful in all of my musings. I did not fall on Josiah, but I reached for the buffet table, knocking off a bunch of the glass pieces, scattering them and breaking them, and managed to fall mostly on my forearms, a little on my knees and my side. On my way down, as embarrassed as I am to say it, all I could get to come out of my mouth was, "Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!". Josiah was terrified, screaming, and through his screams asking me, "Momma, are you okay?" over and over again. I gave him his milk and made him sit where he was because of the glass all around us. He and I were both barefoot which was not good. I yelled as loud as I could for Danny to come downstairs [since he works at night, it was perfect for him to be there to help me!]. He heard me and came to my aid. I thought I broke my big toe, but it is solidly bruised only, and most of my soreness is faded away. The worst thing to come of my fall is that Josiah has picked up on a new phrase, thanks to me. "Oh, crap!" How utterly embarrassing!

Well, that is all from me for now. Please pray for me as we have a few more check ups, then on 12/5 we head to the hospital for surgery!

Please forgive me!

I don't want to go into detail, but there is a reason I haven't posted lately. I am simply unable to sit in chairs without a tremendous amount of padding for a long time, so I haven't been able to spend much time on the computer. That is also kind of a good thing.

Well, to catch up a little, I have been given a tentative date for a c-section. I will go into the hospital early on 12/5/2008, Friday, and I will have an amniocentesis to make sure the baby's lungs are mature. If the test shows good maturity, a c-section will be on for around noon. If not, we will wait 1-2 weeks before scheduling a c-section. I am excited, yet still a little fearful, but I know and trust that God is in control and that is what calms my fear!

I told my husband that one thing good came from Obama being our next president...Olive Garden. Olive Garden, you ask? How on earth does Obama have anything to do with Olive Garden. Well, I am a realistically pessimistic person whereas my DH is an optimisit person, just not always realistically [I love you with all of my heart, honey!]. He was SURE that McCain would win just as I was sure Obama would win, so I smelt a bet in the works. I told Danny is McCain won, I would take him out to eat to Outback Steakhouse [one of his favorites] and if Obama won, we would go to Olive Garden [by far, my favorite and also one of Danny's]. So, tonight, to celebrate our last date night by ourselves, before the baby comes and without little Josiah, we will go to Olive Garden, Barnes & Noble and to the theater to see Fireproof. Josiah is going on an adventure of the first kind for him tonight. He has NEVER spent the night in someone else's house without mommy and/or daddy, so tonight, also to prepare for being without mommy and daddy when the new baby arrives, he will go and stay at Grandma and Grandpap's house until tomorrow afternoon. I really hope he does not give her a run for her money, but I know she knows how to handle them, so I trust everything will be well!

Well, I have sat here for as long as I possibly can. God Bless everyone!

Catching up...

I am catching up from last week. We had a busy week and an even busier weekend. We had the Troy Thomas family in town for the whole weekend and for the most part, we did a lot of nothing. I have been taking it easy as I get to the end of my pregnancy and they were content to sit with me and let me take it easy! I am so thankful for friends like that! We have another family staying with us Wednesday night so I have been busy preparing for more guests...I just love having people over and keeping guests in our home...if it has been a while, you should try it more often! So, let me start by saying...MY HUSBAND ROCKS!!! Danny had the opportunity to go to the Sara Palin rally in a neighboring city and I was feeling quite cantankerous and told him he could go if he took Josiah [halfway kidding...]. The next day he told me he got the tickets and he was going to drop Josiah off at his mother's house so Grandma and Grandpap could spend some time with Josiah. I was so excited at all the things it seemed I was going to be able to get done that day. I started working long before Danny went to the rally and by the time he left, I was pooped...too pooped to do anything but sit, prop my feet up and crochet and watch movies for the rest of the night. Danny is always trying to give me some alone time and this is just another reason my husband rocks!

I will close soon, but I wanted to share the crochet project I was working on. I love to crochet, especially baby blankets! So, here is the one that I finished for our daughter who should arrive in about a month. Hope you enjoy and have a great day!