I have been shopping over the last week or so, more than I have in 6 months.  I am trying to get all my shopping done before baby Max comes.  I went out last week with my friend.  We shopped for over 4 hours.  Now being 37 weeks pregnant and walking that much, I was miserable by the end of it.  My feet hurt so bad I couldn’t even walk, my back hurt and all the stores seemed to have the heat on HIGH!  I was so hot! 

Well we went to several stores and I got a lot of shopping done.  I still have to do most of Nicki’s shopping and just a few more things for the lil ones.  I found these tricycles for the lil ones.  I decided to get 2, one for each because I know Isabel will try to ride Lil Tony’s and vice versa and it would just cause problems.  They we supposed to be on sale, only one showed a sale price.  I love the barcode scanner, ya know the price check ones they have in the aisles.  I think every store should have them, they are really convenient.  I just took the toy to the scanner and it confirmed it was on sale.  I was so excited because I really think the kids will like it. 

Tony and I went shopping again yesterday, mostly just got things we needed…toiletries but I picked up a new pair of shoes for Lil Tony and another Christmas gift.  I will still have to go out another day and hopefully I will get to before the baby comes.  I am not sure I will feel up to it after Dec 7 and before we know it Christmas will be here.

As I have posted about many times, baby Max is almost ready to be welcomed in to the world.  Only 2 more weeks.  There are still quite a few things we need.  We need some of the necessities like bottles and diapers and such but we also need different sleeping arrangements for the lil ones.  Well for everyone I guess. 

We have 3 bedrooms and a den type room.  It is a rather small room with a bathroom connected to it which is located off the dining room.  We used to have our computer and my craft stuff in there but we have since moved all that stuff to our bedroom.  It’s a little cramped but we make it work.  I gave Nicki the option to either share a room with her sister or have the “den” be her room.  I did that because I am going to have Lil Tony and Max share a room and then Isabel would need somewhere to go and I don’t feel comfortable with her in the “den” downstairs.  Nicki currently has one of the bigger bedrooms upstairs.  We live in an older house so there really isn’t a “master bedroom”.  Well anyways she chose to have the “den” downstairs which I figured she would because the connected bathroom is the one she uses.  It is a full bathroom so that is where she gets ready for school, showers, etc. 

I feel a little bad because the room is really like a VERY small room.  We will have to get her a twin bed and she won’t really have room for much more than that.  I guess the upside is she won’t have to share.  She is at that age that I am sure sharing is not ideal for her.  So then that leaves Isabel staying in the room she is currently in with Lil Tony.  It is the smallest of the 3 bedrooms upstairs.  Then Lil Tony and Max will get Nicki’s room.  Since they are sharing they will need a bigger room.   Tony currently sleeps in the crib converted to a toddler bed and Isabel sleeps in the pack n’ play.  I thought about getting another toddler bed for Lil Tony to sleep in and the Isabel will have the crib and Max would sleep in the pack n’ play that is like a bassinet.  The problem with that is price.  I then decided to just look online for crib prices.  I thought of like Goodwill or something like that but they didn’t have anything.  I then turned to Craigslist. 

Here is where the love/hate relationship comes in.  I have sold several things on there before and have had GREAT experiences.  On the flip side as a buyer, not so good. 

On Friday afternoon I found a crib/mattress for sale for $60.  She said it was in good condition and from the pics it looked nice.  In bold letters she said that she really needed to get rid of it ASAP and if someone wanted it but didn’t want to pay $60 she would take less.  She also said that they would deliver if needed.  Well I thought that was open invitation to offer a little less than asking.  I am not cheap just on a budget.  With a family of almost 6 I have to save where I can, that is why I went looking on Craigslist to begin with.  So I send an email offering $40 and told her that I could come out on Saturday to get it.  Tony had the day off so it was no problem picking it up.  On a side note we live in Northern Virginia and the person was located in Romney WV which I though was just over the border and only about a 30 min drive. 

Ok so it takes her forever to get back with me and she says she would not take less than $50 for the set, she said she only used it 3 months and paid almost $200 for it.  I understood but then I asked if she would be able to meet halfway or bring it to me.  We are still new to the area and not really sure where Romney was.  Again it takes her forever to get back with me and says she was trying to figure out where we could meet and what places where near us.  Still not knowing how far Romney was, we started naming streets and landmarks.  I don’t hear back from her again until Saturday morning.  We send about 8 emails back and forth and mostly it seems like her beating around the bush not wanting to meet up because we asked to only pay $50.  At this point I am about to give up so I go looking on Craigslist again to see if there were any new listings and since we had started making arrangements to meet she posted her ad again. 

I was a little upset about that because we still had no solid plans for exchange and it was getting later in the night.  I decided to email her and confront her about it in a nice yet, you’re busted sort of way and she emailed me back and was sort of yelling at me. She was telling me not to freak out in big bold letters and she said it was her husband that re-posted it and he didn’t even know she had been talking to me.  I called “bullshit” on the email and was deciding to just give up on her.  I told my friend about it and she said she was going to email the girl, offer $50 and tell her she wanted to come in the morning and get it.  The girl almost immediately emailed back and said perfect.  Oh, I forgot to say that I had given the girl my number twice so she could just call me and she never did and she never gave me hers.  By the second email to my friend she had already given her phone number.  Now I was pretty pissed.  I was going to bust her out again and go off but my friend reminded me that we still needed a crib and to just let it go.  I never heard back from the Craigslist girl and so my friend and I just went out to Romney today to get the crib. 

OMG she lived in the boonies.  Seriously it was like over an hour drive, we had no cell reception, she was in the mountains.  I got a little car sick because of all the mountains and all the driving.  It was worth it though, the crib was in good shape and we got it for $50.  The girl was really nice to me when we got there, not knowing I was the girl she blew off.  LOL!

This is why I have a love/hate relationship though.  I have never had a problem as a seller but as a buyer, not such good experiences.  Oh well, I have the crib and that is all that matters.  What a day!

Now it is getting down to the wire.  My doctor visits are every week.  I only have 2 weeks and 2 days left and I can’t wait.  We are going in to the second month or so that I have gone and not gained weight.  This is a great thing because since I lost the 65 pounds after having Isabel I have gained back 45 of them in 9 months and it makes me sad. 

With Lil Tony and Isabel’s pregnancy I gained a lot of weight in the last 2 months.  I gained enough each visit at the end that I had doctors not very happy with me, a little concerned even.  This time I think the lack of weight gain has a lot to do with my inability to eat as often as I would like.  I know I should be eating every couple of hours but then I would need to feed my kids that often too.  I just don’t think they need to be eating all the time like that.  Not only is that a lot of preparing food and such but it is a lot of food.  Plus I just don’t have the time.  I eat breakfast, lunch and dinner and an occasional snack somewhere in there.  I think the lack of eating all the time is what is keeping me from gaining weight, in fact I would bet I am losing it because the baby is clearly getting bigger. 

Again with the last 2 pregnancies, I at ALL THE TIME, and not the best of foods.  I am really looking forward to getting back in shape, losing the 45 pounds I put back on and then some.  I am not sure how I am going to be able to achieve that though.  When I lost all the weight last time I had a gym at my apartment complex and I also had an elliptical in my house.  Lil Tony slept a lot and so did Isabel.  I don’t think I will need an appetite suppressant because the 3 lil ones are going to keep me plenty busy, I won’t have time to eat like I used to.  The problem is that we now live in a 4 season state, so it’s winter now and I can’t really go out for walks.  Not to mention, I don’t have a stroller big enough for 3 kids.  In addition, I don’t have any exercise equipment in my house and the local gym I thought about going to had a fire last month and they are not sure when they are going to be able to reopen. 

I think my only way to do anything about getting in to shape at first is to eat better.  Watch what I eat.  I wish I could afford a Wii because I would get a Wii fit and workout that way.  Even if we could afford another exercise machine, we would have nowhere to put it. 

When I lost the 65 pounds last time, I did it in about 4 months.  I worked my butt off to do so though.  At first I worked out several hours a day.  Then I got to a plateau and I had to cut back, so I worked out everyday for an hour.  Then I hit another plateau and I had to take a day or two off a week, but I still worked really hard.  I counted my calories, it consumed my day.  Making sure I ate the right things at the right time, drank enough water, logged my progress and food intake.  It was a lot of work, but I did it in 4 months. 

I just hope that I have some of the same great success as I did last time.  I have a long way to go to feel healthy.

It has been 3 days since we saw the speech therapist and we are having a rough start.  So far we have had to take juice away from Lil Tony.  We decided that the things he REALLY wants we would refuse to give unless he starts saying the word.  So since we still allow him access to the fridge, he still brings us juice or whatever it is that he wants to drink.  Right now we are working on juice.  So he brings the jug of juice and we ask him to say the word.  He throws his usual fit, we calm him down, repeat juice he refuses and so we tell him “no juice”.  We repeat this a time or two and then finally just put the juice away and he gets none.  We still allow him to have milk and water, we repeat the words when he asks but haven’t refused yet. 

I am happy that he is at least paying attention to the words we are saying.  I make sure he is listening to me (not throwing a fit) and looking at me.  He hasn’t made any attempts at saying words but I am hoping one day, SOON, that he will just bust out saying juice or something close to it. 

He has started to shake his head yes and no.  If I ask him something I either get a shrug of the shoulders (with the sound of “I don’t know) or a head shake of yes or no.  I feel like that is progress I know not to being vocal but at least he is showing he understands what yes and no means.  At least that’s how I feel.  Will I stop trying to get him to talk, absolutely not, but any changes in his communication is a plus in my book.  Hopefully things will get progressively better over the next couple weeks.

My friend and I were talking about a week ago about how we can’t wait until our children are a little older and we can take the well needed vacation.  She wants to go to Hawaii or go on a cruise.  I don’t care where I go as long as I am kid free.  LOL!  I love my kids and right now I wouldn’t be able to leave them.  I am already getting emotional when I think of leaving them for the few nights while I am in the hospital.  However, in 4 yrs or so when Lil Max is 4, Isabel is 5 1/2, Lil Tony is 6 1/2 and Nicki is 16 I am sure I will be ready for a well needed adult vacation. 

If it were just Tony and I going I wouldn’t mind looking into some las vegas resorts. We went to Vegas a couple years ago prior to living there for a year and before any kids.  Well I had Nicki but she was spending the summer in Illinois with family.  We had a great time and I think I would enjoy it again.  Since we are trying to plan a vacation with friends we may just go to Hawaii.  Don’t get me wrong, I am sure I will have a great time, I think it was just a little more expensive than we originally planned on spending on a vacation. 

We are planning the trip for 4 yrs from now so we have time to save.  My friend is really excited about it and has been doing some research over the last week.  Trying to find good deals and deciding on whether we should get hotel rooms or a condo.  We will be there for a week so we thought the best way to go is a condo.  Turns out that is the cheaper way to go. 

I am really looking forward to a vacation, I just hope we can save the money up to go.  If we start now and save a little something monthly maybe it won’t be so difficult.  It feels a bit weird to plan something for 4 yrs from now with friends.  Tony and I don’t have the best track record of staying anywhere for any length of time.  We PLAN on staying here for a long time but who can tell what may be in our future or our friends future for that matter.  Hopefully all will work out and in 4 yrs from now I will be sipping an alcoholic beverage chilling on the beach!

Yesterday we had a visit with a speech therapist and an educator.  Just a little background as to why we chose to wait and or get help.  Lil Tony is 27 months and he is still not talking.  He is so intelligent in every other area and very independent.  We encouraged him to be that way.  We don’t lock the fridge and the only places there are gates is leading in to the laundry room and up the stairs.  So basically he has full access to everything he may need.  If he wants a drink he gets it out of the fridge, gets on the counter and gets a cup and brings it to us.  We have other forms of communication other than verbally. 

We had Lil Tony at a doctor at 12 months and the doc didn’t seem concerned he wasn’t talking.  We had him in there at 15 months and the doc didn’t seem concerned.  He said that if he wasn’t talking by 18 months that we should maybe look in to it.  We were never referred until about 21 months and that was right before we moved to Virginia.  So at this point things are working for Lil Tony.  He gets what he wants without having to talk, why change, right?

See here is the kicker, I know he can say things because about 4 months ago I said “say Nicki” and without hesitation or anything he said “Icki”.  We were all excited and asked him to say it again.  Well then he just laughed at us and never said it again. 

The concern started becoming more serious about a month or so ago when his frustration started increasing.  He is getting more angry and the fits are more often and louder.  I know he is going through “terrible twos” but this is something more.  With the arrival of a new baby in just 3 short weeks and the fact that Isabel is getting older and starting to imitate the way her brother acts I decided enough was enough. 

So a couple weeks ago when we had a well visit at the doctor, we expressed our concerns and he referred us to a speech therapist.  After all the initial meetings and insurance verification we finally had an appt yesterday. 

Two very nice ladies came to the door along with Kathy who does all the paper work and such and we all met and got comfy.  Lil Tony had just gotten up from nap so he was a little cranky and unsure of what these ladies were doing here.  Thankfully Tony was home and so was Nicki.  Tony was able to sit on the floor with Lil Tony, the educator and the speech therapist.   The speech therapist mostly observed Lil Tony and his actions and the educator “played” with Lil Tony.  Showed him blocks and wanted him to do certain activities, gave him paper and pencil and wanted him to trace lines and draw, among a few other activities.  When it was all said and done they had a better knowledge as to Lil Tony’s development. 

First was the motor skills, now keep in mind Lil Tony is 27 1/2 months and he has a 33 month level of knowledge.  So he is advanced in his motor skills.  The disturbing news was his verbal skills, he is only developed to a 10 month old.  It was a little bit of a shocker, I mean I thought it was pretty low of an age but to actually here someone else say it was hard to handle.  The positive thing I got from it is they do think he is extremely intelligent and that he is just set in his ways and finds no need to change.  Not that he is slow or has any mental development issues. 

I mean the kid is smart, give him a screw driver and he will take apart his toys, sit him in front of a computer and he will pull up an internet browser, type (nothing that makes sense just random letters)in the search box and click on the search button.  Ask him to close the browser window and he will, he can find music saved on the computer and play it.  He is just really smart.  Anything I ask him to do, he understands what I am asking but he refuses to talk. 

Well the speech therapist says that we have to chose the time to make the change and we all (as a family) have to work together to implement the changes.  She wants us to lock our fridge and make it more difficult to have access to things so he has to ask for them.  She says things that he really wants we need to not give in when he fusses for it and we need to be consistent in trying to get him to repeat words.  One of the things he likes is juice, whether it’s apple juice or koolaid he likes it.  We don’t have it often but when we do he wants to drink it, which he needs to have poured for him.  So the speech therapist says that when he goes for the juice we need to try and get him to say the word or refuse to give it to him.  She expressed that this is going to be a painful and stressful transition but she is sure it will work.

Let’s just say today was mildly rough.  I realized just how much we give in when he whines and fusses.  I think because Lil Tony is so smart that is just one step ahead of us, he doesn’t scream and fuss anymore than normal when he can’t have something.  I am worried he is just going to start “living without” the things he wants that we are refussing to give unless he talks.  He whined for juice several times today and never got any because he refused to say anything and by the end of the day, yeah he still tried but his desire to have some didn’t last long. 

This process is going to be long.  Both the speech therapist and educator felt we waited too long to get help.  I am frustrated because just like everything else I just felt that when he was ready he would do it.  Most other milestones were well before they should have happened.  We explained it was mostly because of the pediatricians not showing much concern.  The speech therapist says she will work with us until his 3rd birthday which is in July and then the services will have to stop ( I guess it doesn’t go past 3 yrs) but then they will get us set up with a Head Start program.  I was not planning on putting him in any pre-school and anything but we will see how he develops. 

All in all I am really happy to finally be working with someone that can help us.  I am sorry I waited so long and now I have to work with this stressful transition and the arrival of a new baby.  I should have again listened to my motherly instincts and did something about it a yr ago.

Where has the time gone, seems like just yesterday it was Halloween.  I knew this last few months of pregnancy would go by fast.  I remember when I had 8 weeks left and thought time better fly by and it sure has.  As of Monday the 16th we will only have 3 weeks to go.  I am so excited to get this all over with.  I want to be able to sleep more comfortably. I know sleep will still be almost non-existant, I just want the time I do sleep to be pleasant.  Now all I do is toss and turn, my back hurts, my sides hurt.  Lil Max seems to want to play in the middle of the night.  There has been plenty of times I wake up because he is swimming around.  I want the belly burn to go away, I know it’s heart burn but it hurts just at the top of my stomach. 

I just can’t believe we are down to 3 weeks.  I feel so unprepared.  I need to get the car seat all cleaned up, rearrange the seats in the Ford so one car seat (probably Lil Tony’s) will have to go into the 3rd row and Isabel and Max will be in the middle row and that leaves room for Nicki to sit wherever.  I need to get all the baby clothes out and organized.  I need to get Lil Tony and new bed so Isabel can go in the crib and Lil Max can have the pack n’ play.  Wow, I just need to get organized. 

So I will be posting a little later today about our first visit with the speech therapist.  We had a speech therapist and an educator come over yesterday to work with Lil Tony and work with us on a plan to get him communicating verbally.  I don’t have much more time to post about that now, so tonight I will get to that. 

Well off to hang with the kids and do laundry.