My mom is here now, and that is helping a lot. They have me lying down and resting a lot, and coming in twice a week to see the doctor and check labs and fluid and non stress tests. Baby is very active. My bp is creeping up, but slowly, mostly in the mid 140s over 90s (though yesterday it was 145/107). I have to go in if I get over 160 systolic or over 110 diastolic. Just trying to hold off a few more weeks. We hit 35 weeks tomorrow.

Macaroni and cheese Quesadillas, sometimes with black beans or leftover meat in them Freezer Pizza Pizzadillas (essentially a quesadilla with some pepperoni and marinara) Pasta of any kind with jarred marinara sauce, also cheese and/or leftover precooked meat on top if I have any Chili from canned black beans, chili beans, tomatoes, corn, and leftover precooked meat if available (I often cook extra chicken or ground beef when preparing meals so that I have extras for times like these). Corn bread to go with it if there is time. Kielbasa, often with Mac & cheese or cheesy rice or cheesy broccoli, depending on whether I have leftover rice to use, broccoli in the freezer, etc. Nachos Salad bowls or rice bowls if there are leftovers in the fridge that could go into these, but not enough to feed the whole family a meal from. French Toast German Pancakes If the crunch is my available time to work on prepping and not that the food needs to be ready right away: Chicken Pot Pie-store bought refrigerated pie crust, can of cream of mushroom soup, leftover precooked chicken or 1-2 cans chicken, can of mixed veggies, can of cream of chicken soup, 2nd pie crust on top. 5 minutes prep time, but it takes 45 minutes to an hour to cook, so only useful in certain situations.

But surname has a definition that is different from maiden name. Wouldn’t you have to explain to someone that you were redefining the term every time you used it? That sounds like a huge pain for you, and weirdly complicated.

I check on them anytime I hear something from upstairs, and when I am about to settle down for the night. My oldest is nearing 13.

-Take kids for flu shots -pick up dd10’s glasses -Make the kid(s) who unplugged the garage fridge throw out the spoiled food! -Have the boys put their warm weather clothes in the storage bin and cold weather clothes in their drawers -Get the kids to try on snow gear from last year, see what is still fitting and in good condition -Finish calls to pay medical bills -Do the math for baby quilt pattern -Return call from RS president -Pick up my mom from the airport -Stop at kid store to get a breast pump -Blood Pressure check at doctor

No, he's actually looking big. But so was ds7. He was 7 lbs. 14 oz. at birth, but he still struggled to breathe and digest, couldn't maintain his body temperature, and had no urge to eat at all.

I looked it up, they have some MFM specialists based in the same hospital as my maternity care. It looks like you have to be referred. I will talk to my doctor about it.

I'm supposed to take it easy and limit my activity for blood pressure. So here's the plan for today. -homeschool kids from couch -drop off S's glasses to get fixed on the way to -r's physical therapy -make the girls clean their room -post the instruments on craigslist, put them all away in the downstairs closet in the meantime -preshrink baby quilt fabric -phone call to-do list: ~make dr appointments (1 for me, cardiologist for ds7, flue shots for kids) ~call plumber & pest control ~call to pay medical bills

The doctor in L & D and my doctor were both in very firm agreement about not giving me bp meds because of the potential to not catch the onset of preeclampsia quickly enough if medication successfully controlled my blood pressure. I am frustrated that the plan is apparently to therefore not treat the problem I have. They said yesterday, "We're on this train, now, we know where it is going to go. We just need to watch carefully to see how fast it will go so we know when to get you in here to induce you." They were also talking about giving me the steroid shot for baby lung development when I come in for going over 160/110 and trying to start the induction slowly so as to have 24 hours they need for that. It occurred to me later that I should ask them if I were at the bp where they were having me come in to the hospital, if they could watch for preeclampsia with lab tests instead and try medication for the bp at that point. I know that statistically 34+ week babies usually do well, but after our experience with our last, knowing that doesn't help much. I've always wondered if my babies just take longer than average, if I would be a ten month mom if I were ever able to go until the baby was ready to come on its own. Even my first, at 41+6 (with an early ultrasound for accurate dating) was 7 lbs. 2 oz. and covered in vernix. Her doctor pulled her out and said, "Huh. She looks like she could have cooked for a few more weeks." They just all seemed young for their gestational ages, especially ds7.

I had my appointment. My blood pressure was 164/102, and I had some protein in my urine, which I have never had with my prior pregnancies. They sent me up to Labor and Delivery, where they monitored me for a couple of hours and did labs. My bp came down while I was there. I have small amounts of protein and slightly low platelet counts, but everything else came back good. Because of the concern about preeclampsia, they will not medicate me for blood pressure. They are concerned that if they do it will mask the signs of the onset of preeclampsia. I am very worried about having to induce early. It would be surprising if, barring any treatment, my blood pressure did not continue to rise in its previous pattern and put us in dangerous territory within a week or two. I know that preeclampsia is the more dangerous condition, but it is still just a potential right now. And honestly, while I am worried about premie health problems and NICU time and all of that, my greatest fear is deeper and less rational. After all the breathing problems my 37 weeker had for the first three years of his life, all those chest X-rays as an infant, he only had three healthy years of childhood before we found the tumor in his spine. I know it is not logical, but I am terrified that if E is premature, he will get cancer, too.

Well if you were to marry the king of Babylon. . .

Maybe a pretty bell of some kind?

I have found that board games make great economical gifts for my nieces and nephews that still live at home. A lot easier to come up with ideas for, as it is natural to give as a shared gift for them to play together, and a $30-$40 game for each of two families can be a lot nicer than trying to come up with something under $8 for each of ten kids, especially the teens.

I can't really vote yet, as my opinion on how high I think U.S. inflation will be over the next few years is largely influenced by whether/how much of certain eminent proposed government spending actually goes through.

It's definitely slowed it's advance here. We live in a less desirable area fairly near a very desirable area (we have much worse schools and higher taxes). Our cost of living is low here, but housing has increased dramatically from its low starting point. Housing values made crazy gains over the summer; now they are still growing, but more like gaining a couple thousand more per month. Houses are lasting a little longer on the market, too. There is a house in the town my dh works in that has been on the market for almost a month now, to my great surprise. It is actually one of the most beautiful homes I have ever seen. It's a gorgeous, historic home that has been perfectly kept up, has some updates like vinyl windows but all kinds of beautiful original details. Even going for dramatically less than it would almost anywhere else, it has sat on the market far longer than I expected. I guess there aren't many people in the market for a 4,000 sf 6 bedroom house in a dinky, declining little town.

I found this on https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1768605/#r17 “The level at which antihypertensive treatment is initiated for non-severe hypertension remains controversial, depending on whether treatment is focused on maternal or fetal wellbeing.16,17 Most physicians commence antihypertensive medication when the systolic blood pressure > 140–170 mm Hg or diastolic pressure > 90–110 mm Hg. Treatment is mandatory for severe hypertension when the blood pressure is ⩾ 170/110 mm Hg. Once treatment is started, target blood pressure is also controversial, but many practitioners would treat to keep the mean arterial pressure < 125 mmHg—for example, a blood pressure 150/100 mm Hg. Overzealous blood pressure control may lead to placental hypoperfusion, as placental blood flow is not autoregulated, and this will compromise the fetus.” According to their linked sources, mothers’ use of bp medication is linked to low weight-for-gestational-age babies.

Thanks. Earlier in the pregnancy they said they would not put me on bp medication until I was repeatedly measuring 150/100. At my appointment this week I will ask why they want to wait until that threshold. They have had me taking baby aspirin daily since 16 weeks, and monitoring my bp at home.

We can’t really afford that. Or I guess technically we could, except that I have been nervous about affording the medical bills, especially if the baby is premature, and so we’ve been on a budget to set extra aside for that contingency. It took us three years to pay off ds7’s baby medical bills. We have a very good insurance arrangement now, with the kids double covered, but even a small fraction of the care needing to come out of pocket for whatever reason they’re not covering it adds up very quickly.

The main goal is to get baby to term, though I would really prefer to get further along than just 37 weeks after my last one’s lung problems. I was never given bp meds during a previous pregnancy, just after birth, and I didn’t even know it was an option. But my babies were at or close to term by the time my bp went up and stayed up. After ds7, the doctor told me that if I was pregnant again, we’d likely have a situation where they might have to induce early to prevent me having a stroke. So we didn’t have any more, until this little surprise. Bp medication was effective after I had my babies, but not immediately. It took a week or two to settle down, and they’d take me off the meds after a few weeks to a month. No preeclampsia, just PIH, but the last time I also started having unexplained shaking episodes that had my doctor nervous. The plan is to induce if/when my bp goes up and stays up if the baby is term; or to try medication, bed rest, hospitalization, induction (in that order) if it happens before baby reaches full term. We hadn’t really even discussed the possibility of inducing at some point if my bp stays under control. It’s a good question to ask. I’m not sure if they would even consider an induction that wasn’t medically indicated, as my births are vbac and hospitals tend to have strict rules around those. (My oldest’s induction failed and resulted in c-section.)

We have some very kind and helpful people in our ward who are happy to help when available, but none I think who both have an open schedule and are physically capable of dealing with it if he’s chemo sick or falls down the stairs or something. I think I need to talk to my sil. She lives a ways away, but in the same direction we have to go for the hospital. I have avoided asking for her help with all the medical stuff whenever possible because it’s clear that my bil considers it an imposition. But she is great, and probably our best option for watching the kids until my mom gets here.

She manages the bulk of grandma’s care during the day, with help from my sister at times. My wonderful parents would send her without hesitation if I asked, but I know it would be hard on my dad and that my mom would feel bad about dropping her other commitments. Dh will be taking some time off when the baby is in the hospital and if necessary again after my mom leaves, but there is some financial pressure to keep that to a minimum because he will have to be taking days off pretty often to take ds to appointments that the hospital will not allow me to bring the baby to. (The oncologist’s office has said they will make an exception for the baby until he begins to crawl. The other specialists are a no go.)

This is a great idea, we are going to do this. She is coming out for a week—not this coming one, but the next, when ds has his monthly day of appointments downtown. So she can babysit for that, or if they put me on bed rest by then, she will be able to take him for me. I still don’t know what or when it might be with the feeding situation with ds. The oncologist is watching his BMI and saying maybe soon, not yet. I am worried about dealing with premie problems after the baby comes, too. The first month home with my 37 week baby was rough.

This is currently what we’ve talked about, that she will get a flight and come as soon as the doctor says it’s time to induce. With most of my others, that was sudden enough that they sent me directly from an appointment to the hospital. (Except for the last one. With him, they told me to go home and lie down with my feet up for the weekend, come back if x, y, or z happened, but otherwise be there on Monday morning when I hit 37 weeks.) I am mostly anxious about leaving ds with someone else during that time while she’s on her way here.

I am 33 weeks 4 days pregnant. Every one of my pregnancies has been induced for blood pressure, earlier each time. Despite having been on daily aspirin and very careful about healthy eating and weight this pregnancy, my bp is rising right about on schedule, a little sooner than last time. I’m not on bp medication yet; they said they will put me on something when I am regularly reading at 150/100 or higher, and while I‘ve reached 162, it’s not staying that high, but dropping back down to the 130-140s/80-90s. I have started getting the headaches, though. My mom is planning on coming to help when I have the baby, or sooner if I get put on bed rest. My ds7 has cancer, and while his care is relatively simple for a cancer patient, I am pretty anxious about leaving that with someone else. He has been having more weak and wobbly days lately. His BMI is dropping as he grows and doesn’t gain weight even with all my efforts to get more calories into him, and the oncologist is talking about potentially turning to medication or a feeding tube. I would really prefer to have my mom here with the kids before I go into the hospital. But she has a life of her own, too. She has a conference and some other events for some organizations she helps run. When she comes out to help me, my dad struggles to get any work done from home while also managing my grandma with dementia. I keep telling myself it would be unreasonable to ask her to come early and hang around for who knows how many weeks before her help is needed, just because I’m nervous about leaving ds with a sitter for a day while she’s flying out here. (Especially since I would like to have her stay for a while afterwards, particularly if baby E has health problems like ds7 did. My 37-weeker acted very like an oversized premie.) There is a five-week spread between when my other kids came. If this baby follows the same pattern, my bp will be spiking up to dangerous levels before we reach term, but they will also be inclined to do more to keep him where he is longer. On the other hand, this baby has already broken some patterns that were consistent across my other pregnancies, so maybe bp will go differently this time, too. I am sure that dwelling on all my worries like this is the opposite of helpful with my blood pressure. I don’t know how to not worry, though.

I'm in get-ready-for-baby mode here. The past few weeks have been super busy. We got home from a trip to visit my side of the family in California, and have had so many medical appointments packed in since then. But all is looking good with ds7 medically, and he has only weekly PT and one or two full days of appointments downtown in the weeks before I expect the baby will be here. Dh has been crazy busy with work and sick at the same time, but he is finally getting better now and the extra money from his new clients will be much appreciated. My mom and sister threw a baby shower for me, and I am pretty set on baby stuff now (other than a crib, which I will wait to get until he grows out of the bassinette). I totally expected to have to replace that bassinette, as it has been in storage that mice got into, but it was on a very high shelf and appears untouched. So I took it apart and sanitized all the pieces, and just need to put it back together now. It has been through my four kids and a friend's two since I bought it 13 years ago at a garage sale for $10. I finally took the new school year photos and did our tradition of schultuten today (better late than never!). There really wasn't very much they needed for new school supplies, but they were very happy with the few items they did need, some basics like crafting paper, new water bottles, and some candy. I cut all their hair the other day, too. We still haven't finished with the Fall kids' clothing shopping, though I got most of it done at some thrift stores before our trip. The rest of it is mostly things I need to buy new, like underclothes, socks, and a few items I couldn't find. I also have to go through the winter snow gear and see what still fits, what I can sell back to the thrift store for credit, and what needs replacing.