And She Was...

I'm still getting over the nasty bug that caused sinus/ear infection and pinkeye. I took a nap this afternoon and Naomi's Daddy took her to the park. Here's something they did.

Took Naomi to Dr. Rich today. He declared that what's bugging her is likely growing pains or "teething syndrome"-he doesn't feel teeth yet but that doesn't mean her mouth doesn't hurt and basically told us we were doing the right thing and to keep it up. She's eleven and a quarter pounds now, growing well. And I am apparently doing a good job with her. He also complemented her eyes-they've gone to a kind of hazel color-a cross between mine and Cayne's I think.

Had she not decided to fuss, I'd have stopped to run errands on the way home, but she wanted to go home. We came home, she ate and she went to sleep for about five hours, waking only for a diaper change. I have no idea how this will affect her nighttime sleep, but if she's in a growth spurt right now, it may not affect her much at all. Still, I have some "must do" tasks this week.

I'm still on the hunt for a new bathing suit for myself, and for the Nacho...only three more months til we can do swimming lessons. I miss being in the water, but she's just too young for me to feel comfortable leaving her in childcare at the JCC right now so I need to wait til she's really old enough to be in there with me for any significant time. Right now, between the "no sunscreen" and everything else, we'll wait. I'll do something structured with her soon though.

I shopped online tonight- bought a couple of baby gifts, a toy for Naomi, and more diapers. I got a few that we know we like, but I also ordered a try it pack from Jillian's Drawers...we'll check out the new style Fuzzi Bunz (I have some old style that I like but I've heard mixed reviews on the new ones) and the Bum Genius stuff. We'll see what we do and don't like and supplement our diaper stash with that. I think I need some more premium prefolds, too, but I don't know where I want to get those from-probably GMD.

On the to do list this week...pick up Cayne's new glasses (most of Sunday was spent getting him new glasses cause he's been having headaches, so those should arrive during the week,) make eye exam appointment for me, get bloodwork for endocringologist appointment, call and change pulmonologist appointment, go to Chamberlins for teething tablets and whatever else we need there, go to bookstore, check out clearance sales on summer baby clothes so that Naomi has pretty stuff for later this year.

Now if I could figure out what was causing this unending funk. I was feeling good, now I'm feeling stuck with the blues. That and figuring out why "Disneyland is Closed". Ah well, it's all normal post-baby stuff I guess.

Hello Friend's List.

Things have been a bit icky here lately. While I mostly feel good, my lungs are cranky. Cranky enough that my mother noticed I sounded winded on the phone yesterday and today. I've been feeling less than spectacular breathing-wise, and well, that's kind of an essential task. (Yes puzzld1 I promise I called my doctor.) So I call the OB who said "If you start using your inhaler more than 3 times a day call." And I was silly and forgot to ask what to do besides call. I've had issues with the triage nurses before-they seem to assume all patients are dumb, and this is no exception. I told her that while it wasn't urgent (I wasn't turning blue or anything) I did need a follow up call to find out what to do next-whether they were going to call in a prescription, whether I needed to go see another doctor, and so on. I have my routine appointment on Wednesday anyway, and so I'll mention the lack of a call back then, but more importantly I'll hopefully get some guidance about my lungs. Not breathing well is somewhere between frustrating and scary depending on how I'm feeling.

Oh and, my pharmacy has complied with the requirement to phase out CFC based inhalers. Fine. Most of us know the HFA propelled ones don't do the same job. Only problem? My insurance company covers the HFA albuterol as a tier 3 drug, which means they covered about five and a half dollars of it. So I can either pay nearly full price for it at the pharmacy, switch to a totally different rescue inhaler (anyone have experience with Xopenex-that, they'll cover as a tier 1 drug so I only pay $10) or get what the insurance company deems a 90 day supply via mail order for almost as much as the pharmacy. If I used it daily as a maintenance med, I'd do the mail order, but I'm not really using it that way so it doesn't make sense. *sigh* Usually my insurance isn't awful, but this is annoying me.

There was an issue with the dress I ordered for Cayne's holiday party (which is tomorrow night.) I'd put it off for about as long as possible, ordered four dresses in three colors and two sizes, only to discover that when I tried them on both of us preferred the green dress, which I had ordered in one size though I decided that a different size would be more comfortable. So, since I knew I was going to have to do a return anyway, on Saturday morning, I told him to go order the green dress in the size I liked...I went and finished getting dressed. He did it, and we decided to upgrade it to overnight shipping. The dress shipped on Monday morning, we expected it on Tuesday and it didn't show up. Somehow, UPS lost the package. After a circus of phone calls with the catalog I ordered the dress from, who then turned around to try and get UPS to trace the package, they shipped out a new one yesterday and told me they would refund the shipping on the dress, and I'd have the dress today. Which is fine and reasonable. This morning, our UPS guy shows up much earlier than he usually does (he arrived at about 9:20, his normal arrival time is between 2 and 3 in the afternoon.) He delivered two packages...each contained the same green dress. They've arranged for UPS to pick up one of the dresses on Monday, I have a green dress to wear tomorrow night.

We've been trying to get the house organized to have in laws here in January, and for the baby stuff. I'm starting to get to a place where it'll be okay to start getting the baby things we need to have to start with, though other things can wait. But it probably does make sense to start acquiring things in January or February rather than feeling overwhelmed in March.

Busy weekend planned...tomorrow I go let the vampires take my blood (thyroid panel, CBC, hemoglobin, hematocrit) then breakfast at First Watch (mmmm potatoes) then groceries and lunch and a nap before the party. Sunday we're going to spend the day with friends-the two pregnant people are baking cookies, and the other three (Cayne, Nick and Bob) are going to do "something manly." (Yes, it's been an on and off joke about this division of labor and such.)

And notes to various people because finding LJ posts to respond to would drive me crazy...

To the person who found out she was pregnant this week-congratulations, I'm so very happy for you.
To the person in the UK who is worrying me and who is having great stress in her chosen family-I'm thinking of you
To the person whose pregnancy has reached a point where the first word that comes to mind is "difficult" and the next one is "complicated" I am crossing my fingers that things ease up soon and that the little remaining time is much smoother.

And with that, I'm hungry and need something to eat.

I've taken to using this as a spot for just dumping things...I save them up and then make posts that are a collection of all the various things that have been going on.

Things like the weird dreams I've been having-most of them are about places that I used to have to go, like junior high school, where I had to talk about the people I had crushes on back then, or high school where I forgot my locker combination. And then there was the airplane dream. No one needs to tell me that the airplane dream was a birth dream....I dreamed about airplanes, on the ground, rolling through tunnels and into hangars that were smaller than their wingspans. Yeah, that was a birth dream.

There was the strange experience this morning. I got up and got out of bed and heard noise. Before I went to the bathroom or brushed my teeth, I went to investigate what it was, thinking that Cayne had left the TV on or something when he was getting ready for work, only to discover Cayne sitting on the couch watching TV-about an hour later than he usually leaves for work. I asked him what he was doing, and he responded "Sitting on the couch." I asked if he was taking the day off from work and he said "No, it's Saturday." I reminded him it was Friday and he looked shocked. He scurried off, got dressed very quickly and sheepishly headed in to work.

We got the second trimester screening results back-this looked at the risk of Down's Syndrome-1/3000, Trisomy 18 (Edward's Synrome)-1/10,000 and Spina Bifida-1/1600. That of course still means that there are plenty of other thing that could go wrong, but at least that's somewhat reassuring.

We bought a chair last weekend...it arrived the other day and is in a box in the living room, on it's side. It will probably stay there until we figure out what to do with the two chairs it's replacing (one spot is getting a chair, the other is getting a new filing cabinet, but I need to decide if I'm going to Freecycle or Craig's List or what with the old chairs.) But the box is right where a coffee table would go if/when we buy one for the living room. And it's become a hot spot for cats to nap in lately. I wonder if the same thing would happen with a coffee table.

The craving for salty foods is going to drive me crazy. I really wish I could cut back on them, but I can't get enough pickles. I'm going to go open another jar when I'm done with this post.

I hope the writer's strike doesn't mean that the new shoes I like on TV disappear. Not much in the way of new shows that we're watching, just Big Bang Theory and Chuck, I think. And on the subject of TV...NBC Universal has been going on and on this week about all sorts of environmental stuff. They also sent correspondents to the Equator, the Arctic Circle and Antarctica. And my first thought when I heard about this was "I wonder if they accounted for the environmental impact of moving crew and equipment there, and what they did to balance it."

We've both been reading Scott Westerfield's books-in particular the Uglies series. I finished the first one about a year ago, on one of our winter trips, picked up the second one months later and caught the third one on a remainder table at Borders recently. They're adolescent fiction, so they're quick reads, but they're pretty good. Someone at Border's suggested them to me last year. I gave Cayne the fist one when we were traveling recently and he liked it, devoured the second and third within a matter of days, and insisted on having the fourth one, which had just come out in hardcover, and between a coupon and a sale, it was reasonable. The third one felt unevenly written, but the fourth one, the writing has gone back to what we expected, but the concept is really interesting. I'm enjoying the concept of a reputation economy, though I'm wondering how different some of that is from the way adolescents currently live today.


And the links, since I collect them.

This one talks about post partum sex...someone fears that her vagina will be too loose after giving birth. And also on the subject of vaginae, slinkr pointed me at The New York Times on the word Va-jay-jay.

This one (text follows behind the cut) is about a woman who was asked to cover up or leave Universal Studios because she was breastfeeding. (The end result, by the way, is that Universal apologized to her, because Florida law allows her to breastfeed in public.)

( The Cut )


There's also Abstinence Doesn't Curb Teen Sex

( Read about how abstinence fails )

Has anyone looked into Sony's Digital Book Reader? Despite his hatred of Sony, zedrikcayne has suggested that if I want one, I should get it. I haven't really investigated it much yet, but the idea of being able to read while nursing late at night in the dark if I'm awake, for example, is kind of appealing. It's bigger than a Palm, which is also appealing, as I've always found reading on my Palm screen rather irritating. Does anyone know more about it than I do?

We're also starting to shop for cameras-it's amazing what's become lumped in with "baby expenses" even though they really have very little to do with the baby. The two things that first come to mind are more life insurance and the camera. We're looking for a point and shoot, throw into the diaper bag kind of camera. I bought Mom a Canon of some variety last year, and the camera that I'm replacing (nothing wrong with it but the LCD screen is shot, and frankly, the cost of the LCD replacement isn't worth it) is also a Canon.

In case you haven't read about it already, comment editing is in place for paid users. Can't edit a comment that's already been replied to, but it was nice when it helped me correct some bad HTML today.

Okay, that's enough. It's time for pickles.

If you saw this post last week, you may remember that my someone came home and announced that he'd lost his wedding ring.

On Saturday, it turned up. And he thought he'd mention it in an oh-so-casual way. "Oh, when I was getting up this morning, I moved the pillow and saw something shiny on the bed. It was my wedding ring."

I suspect, as was suggested the other day, that it got tangled in the sheets while he was sleeping and pulled off. He's lost a little weight recently and, while it's not really enough for him to want to get his ring sized (I don't blame him either) it's probably enough that with a good tug, his ring slipped off.

And if you're wondering how it could happen in his sleep...he sleeps more deeply than anyone else I know.

I wasn't feeling well this afternoon, and so I crawled into bed for a while.

The following conversation transpired while zedrikcayne was rubbing my back.

Him: "I'm not a doctor, but I really think you should drink some more, and if you're not feeling better in a little while, we'll go to the emergency room."

I mumble something about not feeling like sitting around in the ER because they're not going to do much for me.


He says, "I'm not a lawyer either."

I say, "And you're not an elephant either."

We dissolved into giggles at that point.

It's been a while since we had a silly LJ poll here. But I'm very curious after watching zedrikcayne get dressed this morning. Here's the story:

I was sitting on the bed, and he was threading his belt into his pants. He threaded it before he put his pants on, then put his pants on, realized he'd threaded his belt backwards and pulled it out to re-thread it. I asked him about that...how he threaded it backwards when he always puts the buckle on the same side as the button. He pointed out that he'd never thought about it that way, which led to a conversation about whether or not people were aware of these things, and whether or not people were consistent with them, and whatnot. So, I present you with today's silly LJ poll. It's better than most of my recent content.

[Poll #1044545]

Dear Neighbor,

Painting your driveway with a sealant to prevent cracking is actually not a bad idea. Doing it now, when the weather has tended to be dryer than usual for the summer months is also not a bad idea. However, parking your Land Rover SUV in the middle of the street is a very bad idea. Especially when it impedes my ability to back out of my driveway. I realize that street parking is very limited on our cul-de-sac, but parking the 50 feet or so down the street where you won't impede access to my driveway, mailbox or trashcans would be a much better plan.

No love,

Me

Dear Husband,

Garlic cream sauce plus roasted garlic on your take out pasta last night=a very unhappy wife. Please to be remembering that you sweat garlic when there's a minimum of it in a dish, and an overwhelming amount like that is repulsive when I have to breathe it all night next to you-especially since you can't smell it coming out of your pores.

No love,
Your wife

Dear Referral Coordinator at my doctor's office,

An 8 AM appointment downtown coming from where I am is nuts. I appreciate the fact that your office makes the appointment for me, but to be there at 8 AM is crazy. I will think very hard about whether I want to try and reschedule that appointment, but I hope, in the future, I get to schedule my own appointments with this new doctor.

No love,

Me

Other than that, not much to say. An overly-social weekend, with a party Friday and a party Saturday. The party Saturday was an homage to the San Gennaro Feast plus a celebration of the second anniversary of the corporate relocation that brought us all here. (Greg, a colleague of Cayne's had complained "I can't go to San Gennaro, so San Gennaro will come to me." Complete with Italian food, sausage and peppers, zeppole and pictures of the Pope. Our friend Su's brother had returned from Myanmar where he'd been working with the Jesuit community there before he took his final vows, and was full of really fascinating stories about his work and his experiences.

Yesterday was housework/yardwork and a trip to the bookstore. We returned home to discover that the chicken I'd planned to cook for supper was spoiled, and so we ended up with take out (hence the letter to my dear spouse who overdid the garlic a bit.) Today, I have a quick trip to the grocery store planned, maybe some bill paying, and I'm not sure what else yet.

It's been a bang up weekend. Yesterday was productive. This morning I got up, changed the sheets, and made waffles. I followed the impending baby news, and Cayne mowed the lawn. I paid bills and then we rather suddenly decided to go to a movie. We checked on the schedule and decided to go see Hairspray. I had high expectations and was pleasantly surprised. Cayne liked it more than I expected him to. I may send the soundtrack and a gift certificate to my Mom, who would probably enjoy it.

Dinner is now in the oven, and I'm recording the JK Rowling interview on Dateline NBC so that Cayne doesn't get spoiled by any of the things she said. Speaking of such things-he wants to know if he should put his "Snape is Loyal" or his "Snape will betray" sticker up. I know the answer, because I finished the book already, but he doesn't. Do I tell him, or not? (Any comments with spoilers will be screened...)

We had zedrikcayne's green card (permanent residency) interview on Monday. It was, at best, anti-climactic, and at worst, a complete and utter joke. I believe he uttered the phrase, "Well, we could have gotten through that if we were strangers."

Seriously. We'd spent the evening before, preparing everything, so that we had all our document organized and easily accessible. We had all sorts of organized paperwork, and everything prepped. We went and ran a couple of errands, had some lunch, stopped next to the Homeland Security office to make copies of a few things we'd forgotten to copy, and arrived, as our attorney had instructed, about 45 minutes before the interview. Went through metal detectors, and sat. For about two hours and a half hours, actually. Waited, waited, waited. Finally, we were called in for our interview. The woman looked at the file she had in front of her, confirmed information like our names, birth dates, whether this was our first marriage, social security numbers, names of our parents and so on. Pretty basic statistical information. She asked about any documentation we had of joint stuff-insurance, bank accounts, credit cards, and so on, and we added a few more photocopies of things that we had. We provided her with a copy of our 2006 taxes that we'd filed after the immigraiton petition, and corrected the statement about Cayne's arrest, and that was it. Then she stamped his passport with a temporary green card, confiscated his EAD, told him he could apply for citizenship in three years and sent us on our way.

And the green card process is over for now.