Oh my gosh, that's such a small number! How did I get here? I'm definitely ready to go on maternity leave. I've already pretty much left my programming work, but I'm still trying to keep up with housework and school. My midwife thinks I should already be on leave, and I know some people do that with their regular jobs. But I've never gone on leave until I went into labor, really. Then again, I've never been in this much pain before.

Wednesday, I put my foot down and said I will not go anywhere alone with Liam until after the baby comes. The older kids have seemed to realize that Mommy's not fooling around anymore this week and are actually being fairly good when we go somewhere. But Liam, for the last week, has thrown a hissy-fit every single time we leave somewhere. I've had to drag him out to the car screaming, literally dragging him across a parking lot at the birth center Wednesday. Also Wednesday, he pulled me over at a friends house while I was trying to get him to get ready to leave, knocking me into her keyboard, breaking the stand and knocking everything over. I just can't deal with that when I already hurt so much I can hardly walk without crying.

Yesterday was very good, though. We had the Planetarium scheduled, and I had been thinking we just wouldn't go because I couldn't handle Liam there. But Beth offered to watch him and let me take Genevieve instead. So I traded my willful 3-year-old in on a very well-behaved 5-year-old, and off we went. We went to the planetarium, and they all behaved. Caitlin's glasses broke, but that's nothing new (the poor frames have seriously had it!). Drove through McDonald's, then went to the mall to get Caitlin's glasses fixed and got the kids some cookies. Then Beth and Dave called and said they'd meet us at the park. They had taken the boys to McDonald's too, walking. So Liam got to go to the park, too, and Beth and Dave helped coax him back to the car when it was time to leave.

Then Brian let me have my night out, so I went and sat at Schuler's for a few hours. Three hours. In a way, it was boring and lonely; I didn't have anything to watch or anybody to talk to. But I got a small dinner and dessert and read for a while, then sat and knitted until they closed. There was a small fire in the cafe, so I sat in front of that and just sort of watched people come and go. Then I went and finally did the grocery shopping I've not gotten around to all week, so we have food until next week now.

All in all, the best day I've had this week. Nothing made me cry, the pain was better than it has been, happy day.

And then I got a terrible night's sleep last night, waking up with stomach/belly cramps all night long. They almost felt like my contractions with the triplets did, so every time I'd wake up I'd have adrenaline going because the stupid part of my brain was thinking yippee, here we go! Must have been leftover from the Meijer shopping trip. I swear, that place is what will put me into labor. Every time I go in there now, I start having incredible contractions.