36 weeks pregnant

I'm almost 37 weeks now, but we've been crazy busy with home renovations, working on some of our rental units, and dealing with sick kids.

Pelvic instability has hit. I can feel my joints loosening, especially the symphysis pubis. Whenever I get up from sitting or lying down, I have to do belly dance hip circles before I can move. I also ran into major sleep issues about 10 days ago: inability to fall back asleep after 3 or 4 am. I finally gave in and started taking a half dose of Unisom 3 days ago, and it's made a tremendous difference. I feel like a normal, functional person again. I haven't had any of the weird breathing issues I had during Inga's pregnancy, thank goodness.

Eric was gone all last week doing book readings and classroom workshops. He has another trip scheduled for the end of next week, getting back March 10th, and I've been realizing more and more how much I do NOT want him to be gone. He's had this trip planned for a year now, and back when I was barely pregnant, having him leave for a few days didn't seem that big of a deal. After all, I've barely come to mental grips that I'm actually having a baby. I'll be almost 38 1/2 weeks when he gets back. I had Zari at 38 weeks, so it's entirely possible for me to have a baby when he's away. I've expressed very strongly how I would really rather he not be gone, but I have to accept the reality of his being away. I just called my younger brother, and he said he could come down and help out while Eric's gone. Then my mom found out and said, "There's no way you should be alone this far in your pregnancy! I will come help out while Eric is gone." (I hadn't even thought to ask her, since I figured she'd be too busy with work.)

All I can do now is hope and pray that I won't have the baby until he gets back.

The baby has been hanging out ROT/ROP recently. Still quite active and tons of movement up front and/or stretching my belly from side to side. Zari and Dio love to feel the baby squirm and kick and hiccup. Inga knows to say that there's a "baby inside Mama belly"--not sure how much of that she really understands, though. She found a container full of newborn socks and soft fabric shoes, and she's been carrying them around all day, exclaiming in a high-pitched voice, "baby shoes! baby socks!"

One of the big stressors I had to deal with while Eric was gone was evicting a family from one of our rentals. They moved in and didn't pay another penny of rent, ever. So we went through the whole eviction process...and then they didn't move out on the designated day.They gave excuse after excuse, but still they wouldn't leave. Finally I got them out 2 weeks past their eviction date and went by to pick up the keys. They had already left the apartment by time I arrived, probably because they had completely trashed the apartment in just 3 short months.

I hauled out almost 10 huge trash bags full of oozing garbage (mainly dirty diapers), slipping on the kitchen floor several times from the liquid nastiness. They left behind rooms full of old furniture. The carpets were covered in a thick layer of dirt and dried up food. Worst of all, every wall in the house was ruined. They had let their kids draw all over the walls with permanent marker, crayon, pen, and nail polish. They had thrown raw eggs and melted wax against the walls and on the carpets. They had also tossed cups full of soda and kool-aid onto the walls and let the liquids drip down and dry, leaving sticky streaks everywhere. And imagine the insect infestation as a result of them living like that...

It felt like a slap in the face, since we had just renovated the apartment from top to bottom. I've spent hours and hours scrubbing down walls, carrying down furniture, vacuuming carpets, and smashing bugs, with Dio and Inga in tow. Ugh. Ugh. I CANNOT understand how people can live like that. We've had to completely repaint the apartment--no small task in a 3-bedroom, 1,000 square foot space. (We hired someone, since I've been too busy painting and tiling at our own house.) It's almost done now. Next up: having the carpets deep cleaned.

I'm sorry, but having 3 small children is NO excuse for treating an apartment like that. For the place to be that badly damaged, the parents had to be not only allowing this behavior, but encouraging it.

~~ deep breath ~~

I really need some cheering up after that fiasco. How about sending me something for my virtual Blessingway? It's not too late, and you can always send it by email as well as snail mail. Here's the invite again, in case you missed it the first time. I'd love to hear from you :)