Day Five

Much colder with a tad bit of sun for a short time today. It seems like Bavaria had 4 months of spring, 1.5 months of summer, and then jumped straight to winter. I can only imagine how cold it's going to be when winter officially arrives =(.

Interestingly enough, I got more sleep last night than any night since my husband left, yet this morning was the most tiring for me. I had the thoughts of just staying in bed and letting Hayden miss school, but then I remembered we've been studying all week for his big spelling test, and I just couldn't let him miss it. I dragged myself out of bed and got Hayden up and got on with our routine. It wasn't until I was coming upstairs from the laundry room with clean socks that I heard my phone reminder tone go off. "What in the world do I have planned today?" I thought. I looked at the phone and saw the kids had their doctors appointments today, starting with the first at 820, meaning going right after I dropped Hayden off at school. I had completely forgot. The system thingy called me for my reminder on Monday night, so it'd been a while since I even thought about it. I knew then I had to jump into gear and really make myself presentable lol. Hayden was eating and already had his clothes laid out, so I ran upstairs, got Brayden up, and gave him a quick bath. This also meant that yet again I would have to put off another day of going to the farm to get the milk. Sheesh.

After we all got ready, I had just enough time to drop Hayden at school and get to the clinic about 10 minutes prior like they like. His appointment was supposed to be the first one of the day, so I figured we'd get right in on time. Nope. I was really contemplating wearing one of those mask thingies. The push for the flu shots, especially mist here is disgustingly huge, and they room where they were doing it was right next to the waiting area. I didn't touch anything, and kept Brayden on my lap holding his hands to keep him from touching anything either. I was so ready to get out of that place. Anyways, the nurse who took all the vitals, weight, etc was super duper with Brayden, and he did such a great job. We finally got into the room and sat down and waited for the lovely (sarcasm) Dr. Estroff. For some background, when we first got here last year I knew I had to get the kids a vaccine waiver specific for this duty station. I asked the nice ladies in the immunization clinic and they were clueless, but set me up with an appt to talk to Dr. Estroff about it because he was "old school and probably knew about it." Needless to say, he was old school, but not in the sense that I needed. He questioned me about wanting the waiver and then lectured me about not getting my kids vaccinated. This was my first meeting with this guy. If I'd known he was going to be my kids primary physician, I would've had that switched over right after. He ended up giving me this packet of paper on how to request a waiver, however, it turns out that packet was the procedure soldiers would have to go through, and it was like jumping hoops in a 3-ring circus! Anyways, I'm not sure what I did or who I called to further investigate, but I found who I needed to talk to and she was just a doll and really helped me out and made it easy. I'm also happy to refer people to her as opposed to the debbie downer at Ft. Campbell who just argued with me and said "well I can see this isn't going to go far so I'll just sign the papers so you can go." Whatever. My husband has had appointments with this lady and she always remembers me and they talk about me and he told her once he still doesn't fully agree with not vaccinating and she told him she would slap him if he ever said something like that again LOL. It's nice to have good support in the medical community, because it is quite rare these days. Back to Dr. Estroff, he is known for giving parents terrible advice and criticism, ESPECIALLY breastfeeding moms. He's told them they *have* to supplement, give vitamins, etc. Just a bunch of crap. I honestly can't wait to have this baby and hear what he has to say to me, especially when he finds out it's a homebirth.

Anyways, Brayden was just in for his sports physical that ended up doubling as his 3 year check-up. He is the picture of health. We went over him not being vaccinated again and he didn't really give me a hard time but just told me that he's going to have to tell me I should be making sure he's UTD on shots as a part of his whole safety spiel. He then asked if I was giving him any vitamins or supplements and I told him vitamin D. He asked if it was 400 IU and I said no, 1,000. He told me very seriously, the recommended dosage for *everyone* is 400 IUs, I can get you some 400IU drops if you'd like. I said, no, I like my 1,000. To clarify, vitamin D is one of the most important vitamins you should make sure you are getting, because being deficient (which most people are) is a big factor leading to illness like the flu. The old recommended dose of 400 IU is completely outdated, and probably just enough for a newborn baby. He went on to tell me that giving him that much would give him an increased risk of kidney stones. Now, one would have to take an *ungodly* amount of Vitamin D supplement to even begin to think about acute toxicity, so I am going to keep with what I am doing. My son is the absolute picture of health, so that's enough validation for me. He did all his checks, signed the papers and we were off.

I had about an hour until Hayden's appointment, so I decided it would be best for Brayden and I to run home and grab something to eat real quick. There's nothing worse than being pregnant and starving, and I had no idea how long we'd be waiting for Hayden's appointment since we'd already gone way past the allotted 20 minutes for Brayden's appointment which would leave a ripple effect on the rest of the day. After we finished eating, I got Hayden and headed off. We got there just before 10 and were 7th in line waiting to check in. Once again, I was freaking out about having to be back in that place and made sure the kids didn't touch anything. Luckily, we actually got called back before we could even check in. We didn't get the same great nurse, but this guy was still very nice. He couldn't get the automatic blood pressure cuff to work, so he had to drag out the manual one. I was hesitant if he even know how to work it, lol, but it seems it worked out. We got back to the room and Dr. Estroff was soon to follow. We were there for a follow-up for a wart removal for Hayden. The day after school started, Hayden showed me this huge wart on his finger that he'd never shown me before. I had no clue how long it'd been there, but it definitely had to have been there for a while. He froze it about 6 weeks ago, but it didn't completely work, so we were back. He sprayed it some more, so hopefully it takes this time. He did such an awesome job with it. I know that stuff can sting really bad, but he didn't even flinch. Even Dr. Estroff was impressed. I took him to get something to eat because he would get back just as the other kids got out of lunch. We studied his words some more on the way to school, and I got him back just in time to get him outside for recess.

Brayden and I got home and decided it was a perfect time for a nap =) It was a good maybe 3 hour nap, but I stil could've slept much longer lol. I really need to catch up on all this sleep I've been missing. My alarm went off, and it was time to go get Hayden. We picked him up, came home, and relaxed a little. I made some yummy muenster and roast beef grilled sandwiches for lunch. It was during that time that I did something that I'd read of other people doing, but couldn't imagine possibly doing myself. I looked down at one point to an empty plate and immediately thought to myself "hey! who ate my sandwich?" I retraced my steps really quick (I had been sitting there the whole time) and realized it was indeed me. I was so ashamed. Not a second later I looked up and saw the kids were on the couch watching a movie. "Are you guys gonna finish your sandwiches?" I asked. "No," they said. *big grin* Luckily, my kids "left me" a whole sandwich all-together, so all was not lost ;P

After that, I let the kids ride their bikes outside so I could get our snacks together for the free movie night at the school. Of course my husband decided to call me right then. I was so happy, though. I finally got to ask him if he'd listened to audio attached emails of the baby's heartbeat, and he did. It was great. He told me I can go buy better headphones so I can hear it better because the only ones I have without a microphone are the cheap ones we got on our hop-on-hop-off bus tour in Rome. He said he'd be leaving tomorrow and he doesn't know how communication would be from here on out =( I let the kids talk to him and Brayden especially was happy. Hayden was happy of course, but he absolutely hates talking on the phone for some reason. We got to talk for about half an hour, but unfortunately the call cut out towards the end, and by that time it was time to head out. I tried to call him back because he was calling me from our Skype number, but no answer. I went ahead and packed up the kids and left and got a text from him on our way there saying he had to go and that he loved us. It's so nice to see something like that. We got to the school for movie night, settled in and found out they'd be starting it an hour late. The kids ran around and played with friends and had a great time, and I sat down and relaxed. The movie was Mars Needs Moms. It was pretty good, but not one I feel the need to run out and buy. I'm glad we brought our own drink and popcorn so I didn't have to end up buying anything, though. The movie let out and on the way to the car Hayden says "when we get home it's gonna be bedtime." It was before 8 when he said that, so obviously that made me happy =) He's already asleep on the couch, and Brayden's asleep in my lap. I'd asked Hayden when we got home if he took his spelling test today, and he said it was today but he missed it because he had to go to his reading class. Ugh. I really hope he gets to make it up on Monday, though, because of all the work we've been doing to prepare! Well, it's 2100, and bed sounds like a great idea to me.

Goodnight.

(P.S. I'm sorry if there are ever any writing mistakes in these. By the time I'm finished I'm way too tired to read back through it and check for mistakes. Please forgive me.)