A Rundown of Epic Randomness

A lot has happened in the last few weeks, as I have hinted, and even more stuff happened this weekend (unexpectedly), and really, I'm pretty jangly and can't get my thoughts straight. So please excuse this dump-some-photos-and-call-it-a-post post. Please. Have mercy.

First off, last weekend, Labor Day weekend, we traversed to Kansas City for the marriage of my cousin, Zach, and his lovely bride, Danielle, who is seriously like a model, you guys. These two people are incredibly special to us, and we had a great weekend seeing family, meeting new friends, and being a part of a great union. All three kids were actually in the wedding, and they managed to do pretty well in a strange and full-of-new-people situation. Danielle asked that the boys' ringbearer pillows be Thomas-themed, which was a genius idea, and I also made King Peter the Boy's dress, which ended up being too short for her because in the two weeks between me finishing the dress and the wedding, she apparently grew four inches.

I didn't tell any strangers that I had been responsible for the dress. She looked like she was wearing knickerbockers, you guys.

I have a lot of pictures from the wedding which I'd like to share with you when I get more time to go through them, but I did want to show you one picture that just might keep me going during my daughter's teenage years. If her toddler years are any indication, she's going to be a force to be reckoned with as a teenager, and I need something to make the struggle seem worthwhile.

Behold, C's rendition of "smile":

Seriously, excuse me while I choke with laughter.

This is the last time my sister, Zach, his sister, Kaila, and I were able to be together for a long time, as we are all scattered quite literally around the world. The "around the world" part is really due to Kaila, who has taught in South Korea for the last few years and loves it and probably will never live in the States again. This girl is a world traveler and she is amazing. She looks like a model, too. And we got to spend time with her and her brother (our two families are extremely close) and man, I'm going to miss them.

Two of us are heavy with child in this photo. Guess which two.

Speaking of My Sister the Goddess, I have HUGE NEWS: She and her family moved back. They are back! I get to see my sister and my niece and my stinky brother-in-law all the time again!! I won't give you the gory details, as they are not mine to share, but they said bye-bye to Texas just before the wedding and made the trip to Kansas City itself their big, cross-country move. And she is due in five weeks, too. It's amazing.

My mother now gets all her grandkids, plus the two bonus near-arrivals, within a two-mile radius again.

I think she is okay with this arrangement.

Okay, last little pseudo-update and I'm done. This is a big one and I purposely buried it so that people wouldn't freak. This Friday I started having regular contractions around 2:30 in the afternoon. They got more and more uncomfortable and closer and closer together, despite gallons of water and tons of walking around, so finally around 11 at night, when they were 5 minutes apart, we went to the hospital. I was dilated to 2 cm. and the contractions continued to get more powerful, but I never progressed, so we headed out around 2 a.m. I tossed and turned all night while the contractions continued (albeit to a less painful degree) and then woke up sore and exhausted. And that's pretty much it.

Despite those simple details, it's not really a simple story. I'm extraordinarily frustrated, obviously because I got my hopes up, thinking, Baby's here!, and then walked out with nothing but a head-and-uterusache and a raging appetite for a Wendy's chicken sandwich (THE DRIVE-THRU WAS CLOSED FOR REPAIRS), but also because this is the Exact. Same. Thing. that happened when I was pregnant with my darling daughter. I went into labor at 35 weeks. I was admitted and told, "Baby is coming tonight!" I got fluids. Contractions stopped. I walked around for 5 weeks dilated to 4 centimeters and experiencing painful and regular contractions that never really went anywhere. By the time my due date came, I was a crazed, emotional, worn-out mess, which is really not the state you want to be in to greet a demanding newborn who never sleeps and also who has some pretty epic colic. For three months.

The point is, it looks like it's happening again. It's like my body enjoys completely faking me out and then keeping me on tenterhooks for over a month. We've had to cancel some fun things we had planned, like my first Notre Dame football game, since the situation is so extremely iffy, and I don't even know whether I can trust my own body. Every time the contractions (which are pretty strong) start, I think, Okay, is this it? Should I be timing them? Should I be rallying the troops? And frankly, it's pretty exhausting. Why isn't pregnancy easy and predictable and whoosh!, your water just flooded my car!, like in the movies?

Wah wah wah. Sorry to complain so much. I have to keep reminding myself that I have a) a healthy, happy baby who is perhaps just slightly indecisive; b) an incredible support system of loving, watchful friends and family; and c) access to wonderful healthcare and a gorgeous hospital less than a mile away. I am blessed. I'll try not to whine too much.

To close, here is a picture of me Friday night, when we were getting our hopes up thinking maybe we'd be a family of six by the next morning:

And yes, in case you're keeping track, this was the second time I had been in the hospital this week, which just makes me feel like a loser who is new to this whole pregnancy thing when in fact, YOU GUYS, I am on my fourth kid. 

I'm going to go help my husband eat ice cream out of the carton now. I am allowed.