So long, tourniquets!

A certain undergarment has felt like a tourniquet lately. Tenderness had become pain. Yesterday afternoon Alexis came over to watch the kids so that Paul and I could have our Valentine's date. I had a hankering to eat at Olive Garden, as I haven't been to one in a couple of years. Paul is not a fan of that restaurant, so he suggested I go there when I'm in Maryland with my family next month. On our way to Friday's, we stopped at the mall. My sweet husband allowed me to shop in the lingerie department at Sears and JCPenney. Sadly neither one had anything in my pregnant/nursing size aside from the sleep style kind. After we had dinner, we stopped at Target on the way home. We should have started there! I even had choices in my size and was also able to pick up a belly band. I never used a belly band before, but since I'm trying to stay in my non-maternity clothes as long as possible, I thought it was a good idea to get one. They had them in natural, white, and black. I toyed between white and black, and then I picked white. Hopefully I made the right choice. I am wearing my jeans today, and thanks to the belly band, I don't feel like I have a tourniquet around my belly, which is what it felt like when I first zipped and buttoned them this morning. I felt badly for dragging Paul through three lingerie departments, but it's pretty much impossible to try on something in a dressing room at a store with a 3 year old and 2 year old in tow.

At Target we also picked up a box of Hot Wheels cars for Ian (I think he needs to again receive a prize each time he poops in the potty as he's regressing in that area) and a box that contained 3 Disney princess puzzles for Nadia (ranging from 48 to 100 pieces). That will be Nadia's Valentine's Day gift. This morning I was questionning the wisdom of the cars for Ian because he cried quite a bit this morning over them. He wanted ALL 10 cars right away. I changed the plan and allowed him to have one every time he pooped or peed. I had assumed this box of cars would last 5-10 days, but considering how much he's drinking today, he'll probably have earned them all by the end of the day. I guess they turned into his Valentine's Day present (one day early). The upside is that he did poop in the potty twice this morning, and he hadn't done that for several days. Hopefully this will be enough to get him back on track. It's much cheaper to potty train a child who enjoys candy.

Thankfully he's napping in his crib right now. I say thankfully because he's slept in my arms the last few days due to his illness and the fact that we didn't get home until 2pm yesterday as there was a puppet show at church after the worship service was over. His lack of sustenance didn't interfere with his sleeping at night until last night. He woke up at 5:45am. I was hoping he'd fall back asleep, but I went in to his room at 6:00am as my heart couldn't take listening to him scream "I want mommy" any more. He slept in my arms in the glider for an hour. I woke him up at 7am because I had been dying to go to the bathroom for almost an hour and couldn't wait any longer. I love having a baby sleep in my arms, but I'm hoping he'll sleep in his crib until 7am tomorrow morning. I want to enjoy the ability to sleep through the night for several more months before the new little one arrives.

We had a bit of a scare on Saturday as Paul's mom was admitted to the ICU with pneumonia in one lung. Thankfully she was moved to a regular room last night, and they're planning on discharging her tomorrow. Ian also made a lot of progress over the past two days. On Saturday he only drank 12 ounces total (1.5 sippy cups). I think the least he's ever consumed in the past was 32 ounces, and that was on a day he ate a lot of solid food. He still didn't drink much yesterday morning, but yesterday afternoon he started guzzling it again. Whew. Today he's been making up for lost time. He also hasn't thrown up since Saturday morning although the carpet still looks horrible from that last episode. We thought it was just a case of it not being totally dry yet, but I think it probably is still dirty as it's been more than 48 hours.

I brought a granola bar with me to church and ate it in between Sunday School and church. That did seem to help as I was able to stand for all of the singing during the worship service (although I still sat during a lengthy prayer time). Today I ate my dessert from our trip to Perkins on Saturday. I didn't feel well At All after I ate it. I have a strong feeling I'll be diagnosed with gestational diabetes again. In fact, I'm trying to talk myself into putting myself on that diet this week. I'm a bit bummed about that because a GD diet means I pretty much have to completely change what I eat as I typically eat very little protein, but the baby is SO SO SO SO SO SO SO worth it. I would MUCH rather have GD and be pregnant than be able to eat what I want to eat and not be pregnant. I was planning to make heart shaped pancakes for Nadia and I to have for lunch tomorrow. I'll stick with that plan in light of the holiday, but then I'll probably need to take a break from that delicacy.