The DiMartino Chronicles: September 2017

My mom came to help me for the next two months ( as I was growing bigger. Her visit ended up being very fortuitous with perfect timing due to a heavy transcript load and my physical health; what a God-send!!
I have always had restless leg syndrome (RLS) to some degree for 12 years but usually kept it under control through natural means. However, it kept worsening with this pregnancy and culminating in August. These past two months were marked by sleeplessness, pain, wailing, screaming, warm baths and all kinds of attempts for relief (31 to be exact, yes I have a list), verse recitation, worship, and crying out to God all night. Ricky called this time in our life a "living hell." What helped other people didn't even come close to offering me any alleviation. It had grown so severe that I had nonstop RLS and pain 24/7 prohibiting sleep for days and felt like I was losing my mental sanity. I would have to drink caffeinated coffee to ride in a car and make it through a day, but even caffeine stopped working. I gave in and took a pharmaceutical prescribed for me. It's a dopamine agonist. It's not a sleep drug but calms my legs down so my body can rest. And it lasts all the next day, too! But, I am a goner by 8-9pm, my old computer-work time :( We are waiting for test results regarding my low dopamine levels before moving ahead. Although I suffered great agony, baby boy is growing and moving a lot (more than the other two at this point) safe in his cocoon of love! We did begin to wonder just how long he would remain unaffected by my lack of rest and high stress levels.
We think we have a name for baby boy, but we are waiting to see him once he's born to make sure it fits him; so we are not revealing it ahead of time ;)
First week of July: We finished our school year last week; Grandma took the kids to a free summer movie one morning; we went to some friends' birthday party for their kids; and, I did Aolani's first standardized test, breaking it up into 45-minute sections over three days (she had fun and loved it!)
Second week of July: We went ahead and started school -- Kindergarten and Second Grade -- as we'll take a long break when baby comes; a month of swim lessons starts, and Aolani is now swimming on her own and Micaiah is on the brink now!; I had an Ob/Gyn appointment; and, we enjoyed hosting some missionary friends from Albania for a quick visit :)
Third week of July: Aolani had her first dentist appointment with no problems! We had some friends over for dinner one night.
Fourth week of July: All five of us went to the movie theater; we went for a prayer walk (I couldn't make it as long as normal); we hosted our church's seasonal missions' meeting; we went to the theater again for a double date with friends; and, we visited a friend out-of-town for church and lunch.
Aolani informed us, "My favorite part of my body is my leg because I can use it for everything!" :)