Would you trust this doctor? (Chloe update)

We had our appointment with the (one and only) pediatrician today. He was a 50-ish Asian man. Maybe he's really experienced and has seen a lot of kids with transient tics. Or maybe he was really patronizing. I'm not sure.

I told him that Chloe had been blinking a lot for the past 6 weeks, and showed him a video we took when it was at its worst. I said that I have a cousin with Tourette's and that her blinks looked a lot like his.

He guaranteed me that it is nothing (he literally said guarantee). He said we should relax and have fun and it will go away. He said it absolutely will not turn into Tourette's and it's very common (according to my internet research, up to 20% of kids experience some sort of tic while they are growing up). He didn't ask any questions. He didn't ask how often she did it. He didn't examine her at all. He said it can be stressful for her to have a little brother, since they carry on the family name.

HELLO! She's not even 4. She doesn't even know what a family name is.

So I asked if we should have her re-evaluated after a certain length of time if it doesn't go away. He said no, he wouldn't give me any time limit because if he did then I would stress about the time and that would make it not go away. He said moms are for worrying.

He did look at her chart. He said that her immunizations are up to date, and is the first doctor not to comment on the fact that she has not had the chicken pox vax.

So was he trying to be reassuring from his experience, or was he talking down to the mom he saw as overly worried and stressed out?

FYI, our plan is wait another 3-4 weeks, and if she is still ticcing, then we will fight to get a second opinion and probably even to see a specialist. I'm sure it will be a hard and stressful fight since this doctor is obviously not going to give us any kind of reccomendation to see a specialist!

If you don't know, just ask the girl!

Friday night Isaac and I really wanted to relax and watch a movie. He's been spending all his free time studying for his upcoming Professional Engineer's exam, so we haven't had much time together. We had three new movies from Blockbuster.com to choose from, but we couldn't find them anywhere.

We searched for over an hour. We even dug through the trash. Finally at 10:30pm, Isaac said, "We could ask Chloe if she's seen them."

Despite having been in bed for over 2 hours, she was still awake and singing her own version of "I just can't wait to be king" from The Lion King.

Isaac went in and asked her.

Her response?

"Yes, Daddy! I disappeared them today when I was helping Mommy clean."

She went right into the cupboard and pulled them out for us.

Of course, it was way too late to watch a movie, but now we know...when we can't find something, just ask Chloe!

Mood Swings!

After the emotional day I had yesterday, today I am energized and ready to go! And I haven't even had any coffee yet (because I never washed the dishes yesterday and my kitchen is just too messy to make coffee in!!!)

We got the entire upstairs of the house cleaned and we are now getting ready to put together our new bookshelves and finally organize all our homeschool stuff. It's been driving me crazy that half is upstairs and half is down!

The kids are even happily helping me clean! Woohoo, thank God for a good day!

Those mean librarians made me cry...

Well...kind of.

Ok, maybe they weren't that mean. Maybe they were actually very kind and understanding.

But I am 7 months pregnant and somewhat, um, emotional, these days.

So Chloe, Luke and I went to the Preschool Storytime today. It just started back up again for the year, and Chloe loves it. She really does learn there and gets to be around kids her own age-something that is lacking since all of her friends have just started preschool except for her.

But Luke couldn't quite get with the program today. He wasn't bad. He's just almost 2. Every other kid was sitting down and quietly listening to the story. Luke was standing, and calling out the names of the animals in the book the librarian was reading.

Of course, he was standing right in the middle of the front row.

And then he stepped on some kid's fingers. Not on purpose. Just because he was the ONLY CHILD STANDING.

I kept subtly pulling him to the side dragging him away, but he was a bit distracting. And let's face it, so was the pregnant woman who had to keep gracefully stepping around crawling through the other kids in order to reach him. Finally I took him to the back of the room by the door since he was protesting a bit a lot ok, he was screaming.

And then the horrible mean nice librarian interrupted her story to say, "It's ok if you take him out of the room to calm down."

But I ask you, how would that help? When I brought him back in would he suddenly say, "Oh, sorry I was standing up and having a good time, mom. I realize the error of my ways. I will now act like all the four-year-olds in the room and sit quietly."

No, he'd still be almost 2, and would want to stand up and clap and yell out all the animal names. So I took Luke in to the hall, and had Chloe come with me, since I know that she would fuss at me leaving her alone in a room full of 50 strangers.

If I wasn't 7 months pregnant, and somewhat emotional, this would have been fine. But I am. So I valiantly fought back the impending storm of tears while Chloe asked, "Why are we leaving? Is storytime done? Are we going? Where are we going? Is storytime done?"

And then, do you know what that horrible mean librarian did? She actually poked her head out the door and snidely very kindly said that they'd keep an eye on Chloe if she wanted to go back in while I helped Luke calm down.

At this point I completely lost it and all I could do was wave the librarian away. I had planned to let the kids play a bit and get some books, but I just couldn't stop crying, and was trying to hide it from the kids.

So we went to the park. And I couldn't stop crying.

So we went to Starbucks. And I got the kids a healthy snack giant cookie and me a nonfat sugarfree caramel macchiato (and possibly a pumpkin cream cheese muffin, but we won't talk about that) and kept on crying.

It took me 3 hours to stop crying.

And all because of those mean kind and understanding librarians. I mean, really. You'd think they'd know better than to be nice to a pregnant woman when she's fighting off a storm of tears!

Thanks to those who prayed!

The baby moved just enough to keep us from calling the doctors, and this afternoon she/he finally started getting some good, hard kicks in again! Even had the hiccups for a while :) We don't have another scheduled dr's appointment for a week and a half, but we'll have an ultrasound and find out whether it's a girl or a boy then!

Thanks so much for your prayers and encouraging words.

Scary Moments

Last night around 9 I realized that I couldn't remember the last time I had felt the baby move! With my last two pregnancies, when that happened I just drank something and laid down for about an hour, but usually within 20 minutes the baby was active.

Last night, nothing.

Isaac and I prayed, and then I expected to feel something immediately after. Do you ever think that way? Like prayer is some magic wand that will fix everything. But there was nothing.

So Isaac made me some hot chocolate and we decided to watch a movie. If by the end of the movie there were still no movements, I would go to the ER.

Stinkin' baby didn't move until the final credits were rolling!

I've felt some movements today, but they're still not as strong as I'm used to. But according to the books, at 26 weeks the baby is not actually neurologically developed enough to have a regular pattern of movement. So I'm taking it easy today and paying attention to how often I feel movements, just in case.

If you get a chance, pray for us today!

The Downside of Military Life

I think almost any military wife you meet will tell you that the hardest part of military life is constantly saying goodbye to our friends. Someone is always moving to a different part of the world, and there are no guarantees that we'll see each other again. Twice I've had my best friends move within a month of me giving birth, losing some of my greatest support.

But this is worse.

Much, much worse.

I had to find a new hair stylist.

I LOVED my last stylist. I could say "surprise me" and she'd do a beautiful job every time.

So when I moved here I looked around at all the moms I had met, and asked those with cuts that I really liked to give me a name. I wasn't even nervous.

Little did I know...

I went in and told my new stylist that I was tired of growing out my bangs and wanted to cut them, and to update my layers a bit. She seemed to know exactly what I wanted.

After she was done, there was just something off about the cut, but I figured once I had washed all the gunk out and styled my hair myself, then I'd like it.

So I washed it.

And I dried it.

And OH MY GOODNESS pass me a can of Aquanet because I have 80's bangs!

I spent enough of my youth torturing my bangs into a giant frothy wavy mass and then spraying them into submission while using enough aerosol to wipe out any ozone that had survived the previous day's shellacking.

I DON'T WANT 80'S HAIR!!!

I don't want skintight jeans, legwarmers, neon clothes, anything that tapers (and hence shows how wide my hips have gotten since the 80's). And I definitely do not want mile high bangs.

Please excuse me while I go use my non-aerosol, ozone-friendly, flexible hold hairspray to try and fix this problem.