Category: Pregnancy

It’s quite nippley out. It’s not even that drizzley outside and it feels frigid out there. I had to cave in and put on some sweatpants. I never wear sweatpants while I’m pregnant because I get hot really easily, but I was freezing this morning. And since the washer/dryer are outside and I had to get Mario’s clothes out to iron them before he got ready for work, I got cold and not even standing in front of the spaceheater helped. I’m praying I don’t get sick.

It’s been cold almost every day since the last week of November. I need to backtrack and read my entries from November-December 2004 so I can check if the weather’s the same as it was at that time, because that year it snowed. In South Texas. On Christmas Eve out of all days. That would be so awesome and magical if it happened again this year. I’d be really surprised if we don’t at least get sleet or something. It’s so COLD!

Jaylen and Eenan are doing much better. Eenan slept over at my mom-in-law’s last night and showed up a while ago wrapped only in one of Mary’s sweaters–he was naked other than his underwear. Darn kid. He started hacking while he thawed off in front of the heater. I started putting clothes on him and tell him, “Ahhh! Are you coughing again?!” He clears his throat, waits a minute to supress a cough, and says, “Nope.” Mmmhmm.

I dropped the kiddos off at school yesterday and came home, had breakfast and slid back into bed next to Mario, who makes me insanely jealous since he gets to sleep super late without interruption. It was the best 2 hour nap I’ve taken in a long time. I think it’s the cold; it just knocks you out and being wrapped in a thick, soft comforter next to a very warm husband makes it all the better.

We picked Jaylen up and John, Jaylen, Mario and I packed ourselves in the truck and went to pick up his paycheck. We had just about every bill to pay this paycheck, so we set aside all the Bill Money and deposited a bit more “just in case”. We won’t get to buy any presents this time (although I’m going to town after John gets out of work to visit Gramma and get Mario a pocketknife he wanted) but I’m just glad we paid all the bills plenty of days before we had to. I still have to go grocery shopping though. I loathe grocery shopping, especially when I have both kiddos with me. It never fails that one of them throws himself on the floor and that just so happens to be the exact moment that the whole store’s quiet and everyone turns to stare. *Hiss*.

We came back to pick Eenan and Brandon up from school. We went on a little hunt for Eenan’s jacket again, since he forgot it in his cubby and his teacher had locked the door. While I’m waiting for him I see a little boy who looks *just* like Eenan running in a sweater and jeans, hair flying everywhere and his backpack half-hanging off his back. He was searching for a janitor to open the door to his classroom. I got off the car and followed him and we walked to his classroom where his teacher just so happened to be standing with a group of ladies. THANK GOD he got ahold of her since this weekend’s proven to be really cold.

We went back to town, this time with Noelia in tow, and dropped her off at her mom’s office. Then we paid more bills and went to Target, where Mario got his gift-exchange gift for work and John got his gift-exchange present for Matthew. I forget what else we did exactly but we picked up some pizzas from Little Cesar’s (sp?). Yay! No cooking for me.

We ate at home, then I went through our DVD rack and dusted them all off. I really need to update our DVD list since I think we’re missing some and that sucks. Doesn’t help that we have them out in the open where anyone can just come “borrow” some when we’re not here (’cause everybody and their mama has a key to our apartment).

I washed the unsightly pile of dishes afterwards and after Mary got here with the cake mixes and icings I asked her to pick up for me I started making a chocolate cake. For Mario and his buddies at work. He kindly volunteered me to do so after he took some leftover Funfetti cake to work and all the guys ate it within 5 seconds. Mario didn’t even get to have a piece. Most of the guys wanted chocolate, so I made that one and I’ll make him the Funfetti one just for him here at home. I also had to get strawberry icing since John’s still holding me to my promise of making him a birthday cake that I never got to make him (I was working at the insurance place at the time). I guess I’ll do that before he gets home from work.

I hope there isn’t all kinds of traffic. I only have to go to Gramma’s nursing home, Kmart, Wal-Mart and Target and they’re all pretty close together so I don’t have to go into the hellhole that is McAllen during the holidays.

Speaking of McAllen, it’s kind of sad that the city I grew up in and was raised in is the #1 poverty-stricken suburban city in America. Wow.

According to the Weather Channel, it’s 47° now. I wish I could just go shopping in my sweatpants :(.

So it turns out that the “beeping” Jaylen was hearing in his “bwain” yesterday was due to an ear infection. I started getting a little suspcious since he kept saying his ears felt weird later on during the day. Then he said the sound “jumped” from one ear to the other and that it hurt every time he talked. I asked him if it hurt when he swallowed and he said no. He fell asleep just fine; I gave him Motrin just in case he felt any pain and some Triaminic Night Time since he had a runny nose.

He woke up in a pretty good mood. Well, I’m lying, since he gave me a hard time while he was getting ready and to top it off spilt his bowl of cereal all over the floor. Eenan was a bit more cooperative though, thank goodness.

I dropped them off, came home, dropped John off, ate breakfast and reheated some leftover barbacoa for Mario. Then I made an appointment for Jaylen, which couldn’t be set until 2 since the doctor was out till then. Thankfully Mary’d asked Sonia to pick the kids (Eenan and Brandon) up afterschool for me. Mom waited at my house so someone would be here when Eenan arrived.

Everything with their insurance went without a hitch and we were seen pretty soon. They were having problems with some audio test they were performing on him to check for infections, so they waited for the doctor. He was tested for Strep, which came out negative, but he definitely had a full-blown infection in the left ear and the beginning signs of one in the right. And the kid doesn’t even act sick. Dr. Z. prescribed some antibiotics, ear drops, Tylenol (which I wouldn’t be getting since I just bought Motrin) and some mild cough/congestion medicine.

We go over to the pharmacy next door and I ask the guy helping us how much he thinks it’ll come out to. He says he’ll be right with me, which I take as him actually checking and finding out, but instead he just has them filled and rings up my total. I get my Debit card out and to my horror, it’s $30. The co-pay for each medicine is supposed to be $5, $20 if there isn’t a generic. I assume it’s for the antibiotic but when I check the receipt, it says $5. I ask him what came out to so much and he says, “Oh, that’s the congestion medicine. There isn’t a generic.” My mouth drops and I practically yell, “For that, I could have just bought Triaminic like I have been!”

I wanted to tell him to keep the medicine and shove it, but I held my tongue and paid. Grr. Next time I’m going to stand there until he tells me what each thing is and how much it’s going to cost!

We went to see Mario really quick before we went to his mom’s office to drop some stuff off. I was introduced to his friend/co-worker Lenny and Mario spoke to Jaylen for a bit. I told him about how pissed I was that they charged so much for frickin’ cough medicine but he said it was fine–anything for the kiddos. I’m all for getting our kids everything they need, of course, but the fact that I was screwed really irks me.

We get to Mary’s office and she gives us a tour since we’d never seen it before. It’s gorgeous and the decor is so modern. John, Jaylen and I get drinks and then we come home. Then came the nightly routine of cooking, bathing the kids, eating and putting them to bed. I was ready to crash at 9:30 but I figured I should stay up a little since it would only make me wake up even more during the night to pee :(. Alaethia’s so active around this time. She’s been doing something weird where I feel like one of her limb’s going to rip right through my abdomen.

Totally random: I’m SO getting The Biggest Loser Workout 2 to use after I have Alaethia. Have you seen the people on that show?! They all look so damn amazing! If they can do it, I can totally do it. I *have* to!

Okay, talking to Mario on the phone, who’s finally on his way. I’m ready to sleep!

Mom is almost totally done with her Christmas shopping as of Saturday, which makes me completely jealous. I wish I was almost done, darnit. We still need one more gift for Jorge (Mario’s Nino), 2 for Noelia (since we got her in the gift exchange), 2 for Big Mario (since it was his birthday yesterday and, of course, Christmas), something small for Mary since we already got her two other things, two more gifts for the boys plus stocking stuffers, my gift to Mario, and Gramma (but Gramma’s totally easy to shop for). We’re hoping we’ll be done this Friday, but I highly doubt it, considering we have the car payment and most of the other bills. We also need to save some money (about $500, ideally) for when Mario takes a few days off after Alaethia’s born. We’ll see.

As for Eenan’s competition, there was a mistake with Eenan’s final Place, or whatever it’s called. When we picked him up from Yadira’s that day (she picked up Angela and Eenan) he was thrilled that he’d gotten 2nd place, which meant he’d receive a trophy. When I drop the kids off at school on Monday, I’m opening Jaylen’s juice for him as he sits for breakfast and listening closely to the announcements. I hear, “For storytelling: Eenan, 2nd grade, got –th place!”

2nd doesn’t exactly end in “th”, so I thought they’d made a mistake.

His coach just so happens to drop her little girl off late that morning (she’s in Jaylen’s class) and tells me how unprofessional the hosts were this time and that they’d put up the wrong sheet; he’d placed 2nd on the Semi-finals =\. She said he deserved a trophy though, and she’d probably get him one herself. How nice :).

After we picked Eenan up from Yadira’s we had about 10 minutes to “rest” before Mary and I had to leave to a baby shower. It was for Mary’s co-worker, Melba’s, neice Priscilla. I remember her from somewhere…maybe middle school or high school. We talked for a little bit after we were introduced. I’m due 4 weeks after she is.

(Jaylen just came over to me and with trembling lips said, “My bwain’s beeping. I think it’s gonna bweak!” I ask him if he hears a ringing in his ears, if that’s what he means and he nods. I tell him his ear’s ringing, his brain will be fine. He’s so adorable LOL.)

I didn’t win any games but I did get to see most of the ladies that work with Mary. They kept asking about my belly and the baby. When I got up to leave, some of them were shocked to see how big I’ve gotten since the last time they saw me.

I was so tired and sleepy I couldn’t wait to get home. I’d only gotten 5 hours of sleep or so, and hadn’t had a nap all day so I was falling asleep whenever there was a quiet moment in the car on the way home. We get home and Eenan’s doubled over in pain, holding his hand against his groin. He says his Weedos don’t hurt, but right above them it does. No nap for me. I make sure I have his confirmation letter from the insurance, which I can use this month till I get their new cards. Thank GOD. I can’t tell you how happy and relieved I am that the kids finally have their insurance!

We try all the “Night Clinics” in our area and nothing’s open. They all close at 12pm, which is NOT night time, darnit. We had to go all the way to McAllen to see the doctor we usually see after hours. We waited for a good two hours before they finally called us in. Eenan was running all over, climbing chairs and jumping off them (they never act that way, I was mortified shocked) which led me to believe he’d been faking.

We finally get into the vitals room and this damn woman comes in and interrupts our visit. She spends about 20 minutes in there, totally oblivious to the fact that we’re there, because she’s an idiot and can’t remember which vaccine’s her daughter’s gotten. I was pretty pissed at the nurse, too, who could have told her to wait her damn turn.

The dumb nurse takes us into a room and the doctor sees Eenan really fast. He says he’s definetly got an ear infection (which we were also taking him in for) and that the stomach pain was probably due to that. That amazes me, how two things that are so far apart in the body can influence one another. I’d looked it up on Webmd before we’d left to the doctor and I read how it could be a virus, throat infection, ear infection or UTI. WEIRD. He’s doing much better now, thank goodness. Hopefully those icky coughs and colds will stay away, too.

Mary ordered pizzas that night, which I was so grateful for since I did not feel like getting home and having to cook in a hurry since Mario was probably going to get home before us. After we ate, I had the kiddos paint some clear Christmas ornaments that I’d gotten earlier that day in Target’s Dollar Spot. Since our big tree’s in storage (the box in the lowest, furthest corner of the unit, no less) I got a tiny tree and some ornaments for the kids to decorate since they wanted a tree LOL. I figure, when we do get the tree out, I can recycle their hand-made ornaments and keep using them year after year :).

We slept in on Sunday, which is always nice. It was so cold outside it felt really cozy inside. I picked up some breakfast (barbacoa and tamales) from Aziz per Mario’s request and we ate. Eenan was in CFF with Angela and then later attended church with Yadira. Mario and I (okay, I mostly watched and held things together) put the crib together while the kiddos played in their room. We moved our bed and side table a few feet and the crib fit exactly where I wanted it to: right next to the bed. I can’t wait to get the mattress, her crib set and mosquito net set up with it!

We had a party to go to just as we finished with the crib. We get to Mario’s grandma’s house and there aren’t any cars outside. Turns out they cancelled the party due to the birthday boys being sick but someone forgot to call us =\. We sat around and talked with Mario’s grandma and cousin and visited his grandpa for a little bit.

We had the whole afternoon to go so Mary treated us to House of China. I had the chance to choose the restaurant, but since Eenan had already begged to go to House of China, we went there.

The food was great, although I’m a bit disappointed that I can’t “fit” as much food as I used to. I guess with Alaethia growing at rapid speed she’s pushing my stomach up and squishing it. I get full so fast now and the heartburn? It’s terrible. Even sweets give me heartburn with this pregnancy.

Mom and Elda’s mom made tamales yesterday. I was volunteered by my dear mother to take her to H-E-B to buy the supplies (who didn’t let me take my nap at all yesterday morning since she was practically screaming outside my house talking to my father-in-law). Gave me a chance to buy some cake-mix for my dad-in-law’s birthday cake.

The tamales were SO GOOD and there was a bunch left over! They still have like, 3-4 lbs. of meat left to make more tamales with. How’d they know I’d been craving them ;).

Mario and I played checkers after we put the boys to bed last night. He frickin’ cheated, darnit. We played “his way” and I lost in like, 5 minutes. I didn’t want to play anymore (sore loser, so what :P) so we went to our room to read. I love reading at night since it makes me even more sleepy and I fall asleep right away. I did end up getting up every hour on the hour; sometimes because I needed to pee, other times because Jaylen had a kneeache and needed a rice sock first, then Motrin since it wouldn’t go away. I thought I’d be much more tired today, but I haven’t had a nap at all.

Who knows how I’ll feel this afternoon, though. The cold weather makes me feel so nice and lazy :).