Who needs sleep?

Little Sarah has become a night owl. Or, in the case of last night, a night HOWL. She decided, at midnight, that she was going to be up & about, regardless if Jeff & I wanted to sleep. She did the same thing the previous night, where I got about 3 1/2 hours of sleep. Last night, she woke up about 2:45am, after only being asleep for about an hour, screaming her head off. She wouldn't eat & she wouldn't be consoled for about 30 minutes. Even then it took me about another 30 minutes before she fell asleep again. Jeff thinks she must have had a nightmare. It definitely seems like that's what happened. So, again, I got about 3 1/2 hours of sleep. Coffee is the only reason I'm even still functioning. That and the lady who's coming to my house in about an hour. She's from the University of Michigan & is going to be conducting the study Sarah's involved in. I have to be conscious for her to be here.
Well we bought our tickets to Orlando, FL. Jeff's going there in a couple weeks for a conference and the girls & I are going to join him the last few days so we can go to DisneyWorld. It should be a fun trip. Jeff will fly out there on the 4th of October, with us meeting him there on the 7th, and then we'll all fly home together on the 9th. Short, but fun. Hopefully we'll be able to see our friends Jon & Jennifer while we're there.
Ok, this is written a few hours later:
The girls from the University of Michigan just left. They were here for about an hour, measuring Sarah, taking video of her movements & giving us toys & other paraphernalia to work with. Sarah's wearing an "Actiwatch" on her ankle & tummy that will measure her movements for the next 24 hours. I have to keep a log as to what she's doing during that time so they can accurately determine how much she's moving on her own. The toy is pretty cool. She can either lay on her tummy or back & reach for these stuffed animal looking things that make music. It also has a mirror on it, so Sarah should be getting to know her reflection pretty well. I was right, they had a "baby" treadmill. It was the cutest thing. She didn't really walk on it, but she moved her feet a little bit. They also took her height & weight. She's 23 3/4 in long & 13 lbs. 9 oz.
Emma isn't going to be able to do gymnastics this fall. Poo. I wasn't sent any information about it & by the time I called them to get her in, they were completely full in both the classes. Oh well, we're looking to get her into dance or soccer, so she can do something besides speech therapy & preschool.

Sarah Wilson-test subject

We got something in the mail the other day, inviting us to be a part of a research study with DS kids. It said that someone would com eout to our house & give us either a Kick & Play gym or a Tummy Time gym for Sarah to play with. We are to have her on it for a minimum specified amount of time per week and they would be coming back once a month for 4 months to see how she's. It's pretty cool! They also want to see how these toys affect Sarah's ability to walk (assisted) on a treadmill (I'm assuming they have a baby sized one & aren't using a full size one). So it should be interesting. Maybe we'll even be able to keep the toy!

Homegrown goodness

While Emma was at preschool today, Sarah & I went to the Farmer's Market. It was nice to go around all the displays & see things that were grown within about a 20 mile radius of here. They had huge zucchini & tomatos, and lots of corn. They've had it every Thursday since the beginning of June, but this is the first time we've been able to go. Truth be told, this is the first time I've remembered to go. I had all these plans to go every week, but it never happened. Like going to the breastfeeding support group once a month, hasn't happened yet either. But now that school has started up again, & we're planning on having Emma do gymnastics, I'm sure there will be plenty of other things that I forget to go to.
Emma is starting Speech Therapy again. It's taken a year & a half to get her back into it. It's going to be in a playgroup setting, with a group of kids, and it's 2 1/2 hours long, ince a week. Thursday's look like they're going to be our busy day, because the speech is in the morning & then she has school for 2 1/2 hours in the afternoon. They had said that Emma wouldn't be able to go to the therapy outside her preschool, since they had a therapist go to the school twice a week. But I argued for her, saying I didn't want her to be taken out of school just for therapy. She loves it too much & I didn't think it was fair. So, they agreed with me.

What was the point of that?

I drove all the way to Lansing, forcing Emma to miss school, all so we could be told things I already knew. You'd think that, since we had to make this appointment 4 months in advance, they'd have something new & interesting to tell me. All they did was give me information I already had & told me things that were obvious. I suppose it was nice to have a "expert" tell me that Sarah looks really good & doesn't have very many outward signs of Down syndrome, which I already knew. But they did set up a referral to have an EKG done on her, just to rule out any heart defects completely. They also set up a schedule to have other diagnostic tests done on her over the next year. Thyroid, vision, hearing, ect.
A word to the wise: young children & coffee tables don't mix. Jeff & Emma were rough-housing last night & Emma's nose came into abrupt contact with the side of the coffee table. She hit just below the bridge of her nose. We were freaking out, because I thought she had broken it. It was bleeding a little bit, not enough to get worried, but it started swelling up immediately. She has a little abrasion on it & it's going to be bruised, but I think she'll be ok. I don't see any signs of a black eye, but I'm sure it's coming. Poor kid. She was milking the attention though, got a big bowl of popcorn out of the ordeal.

Lansing, here we come

Today is Sarah's genetics counseling appointment at MSU. I'm not exacly sure what they're going to do at this appointment. Hopefully they'll be able to tell us what kind od Down syndrome Sarah has. We made this appointment back in May, so I don't know what to expect.
Poor Emma has to miss school in order for us to go to the appt. It's in Lansing, which is an hour away, and we need to leave here by 1:30pm. And since school is from 1-3:30pm, she can't go. I feel bad, but I think she'll get over it. Jeff can't go with us, since he has school, so I'm making this trek alone.
I started exercizing again today. Well, doing my Bodyflex tapes again, if that can be called exercize. I figure it's better than nothing & I need to lose some weight. It worked before, so I figure it can work again. I never seem to be able to do anything else. I'm also going to start walking with Sarah in the stroller while Emma's at school. I haven't done it so far, so we'll see.
I think we've changed our plans for going to Orlando, FL with Jeff next month. Because going to CA at Christmas is a little more important, we're going to instead probably visit our friends in Tennessee. They just had a baby, Justin, so it should be fun with 2 little ones. I wish we could see our friends in FL as well but sometimes things happen.

Yay for my techie husband!

We finally got our new hard drive on Monday & Jeff has spent the past two evenings, after a full day's work & school, getting our computer back up & running. We bought a program that automatically backs up the computer once a week if anything new has happened. So hopefully we won't have this problem again. We found out what the problem was, though. A faulty surge protector. Oh fun. Our video card also went kaput, so that's another thing we have to get. We have an older one that we're using now. I realize now why some people don't like computers & don't want to deal with them. They're expensive & are constantly needing to be tweeked, otherwise they throw a hissy fit & die on you, taking all of your digital pictures with it.
But the most important thing is now we have Final Fantasy XI back up & running. Yay! I played last night for the first time in almost a week & got myself killed 4 times in an hour. Two of them were my fault, two of them weren't. I wasn't happy.
Emma started school on Monday. She' s so excited! She loves it. In fact, she cried when her teacher told her it was time to go home the first day. They have playtime outside everyday the last half hour before school ends, and she about peed herself when she saw that they had swings. It was all she could talk about after Sarah & I picked her up that first day. And she keeps getting surprised every time I tell her that she goes to school everyday, rather than every other day. The only bad thing is they don't have a show & tell day for the kids, and Emma's upset about that. Things run a little differently at the school. They don't have a mandatory art time or a routine when it's time to go home, like they did at her other preschool. I especially think the routine they had, when they all lined up & sang the "goodbye" song helped Emma with her "transitional issues", where she has difficulty going from one thing to another without adequate time to adjust.
Jeff found out that he's on the Dean's list for the summer semesters! He got 3 A's and very high B+. I'm so proud of him! School started again for him on Monday & it looks like it's going to be a rough next couple of months. 13 units, including Pre-calc, so it should be fun! Looks like I'll be helping him with homework.

Memories

I've been going through all our 8mm video tapes to figure out what's on them all so we can transfer them to DVD. I realize that I am a spastic video camera user. Of the 9 or so tapes that we have, only about 1-2 of them go from beginning to end in line with real time. Meaning, that the content goes from one month to another, with the calendar. On the other 6 or so, there will be some from December 2000 & then it will jump to March of 2002, and then go back to September of 2001 or something. I've probably taped over some memorable moments in our family history with this haphazard way of taping but hopefully we'll be able to keep this from happening again now that we're able to record everything over to DVD.
I know this probably sounds biased, but Emma was the cutest little toddler. I'm watching all of these tapes & seeing her that young again is making me so nostalgic. It was so funny back when she couldn't talk & she had lots of blonde hair with little curls! And I feel much better about myself because I see now that I DID get a lot of Emma's firsts on tape. Most of the time I think I missed everything & was feeling like a bad mother (like I do now with Sarah, cause I haven't been taping anything of her yet). But that was the whole point of me getting all these tapes out & trying to get all the content off the 8mm & onto DVD. It's going to take awhile though, because I have to go through all the tapes & record everything in order. So maybe by Christmas I'll have everything finished.
On top of the video tapes to record, I also have to start painting Sarah's crib & put that together. She's getting almost too big for her bassinette. Emma slept in it until she was 5 1/2 months old, but we didn't have a crib for her until then. But with Sarah still waking up sometimes 2 times a night (yay) I don't relish the idea of having to go upstairs to feed her at 4am. I'm hoping she's just going through a growth spurt & it will end soon. I'm also going to feed her some rice cereal once a day, mostly before bedtime so maybe that will help.

Technology sucks

Ok, I'm writing this on Jeff's laptop that is hooked up to our big monitor. Our wonderful computer broke this week. Well only the hard drive, but it still means we have no computer. We're waiting on a new hard drive that's supposed to be delivered on Monday. Grrr. This is the second time this has happened this year. We, again, lost all of our digital pictures that we've taken. So the only ones we have left are the ones that we've posted on the website. But there are a lot of them on there, so I'm only minorly upset. It was nobody's fault, for some reason the hard drive just broke. It's a pain in the behind, but it's not the end of the world.
Emma starts preschool on Monday. She's so excited! We went to an open house on Thursday & she didn't want to leave. She was having too much fun playing with all the toys & meeting new friends. She has her own little cubby to put her stuff in & it has her picture on it. This was the first time that Jeff had seen the school & he was quite impressed. They have microphones hanging from the ceiling to record what's going on for the students who are being student teachers. They also have one way mirrors on one side of the room, where other students (and parents are welcome, too) can sit & observe the kids. It seemed kinda "big brotherish" to me at first, but I figure it's easier to observe the kids behaving naturally when they don't know they're being watched. And for a certain class you need to take to get your teaching credential, you have to observe so many hours so this was probably the easiest way to get it all on tape. Plus, parents are allowed to come in & sit back there to view what's going on, as well. I think I'm going to take advantage of that maybe once a month, just to see how Emma's doing. I know with her last preschool, they didn't really let me know if Emma was struggling with anything, either socially or anything. But with this school, they have parent-teacher conferences at the end of each semester, and they also encourage parents to come & observe their children. Because we all know how kids act differently when they're away from their parents. And I want to make sure that Emma knows that I know what's going on, even if she doesn't know HOW I know.

Tasty treats

Sarah had her first taste of solid food last night. Seeing as how she's 4 months old now, I figured it would be a good time to introduce her to rice cereal. Emma hated it when she was Sarah's age. But, in her defence, by the time Emma was 4 months old, she was almost off breast milk & had practically weened herself. And I, being an inexperienced mother, didn't mix the rice cereal with formula. Instead I did it with plain old water & Emma was less than thrilled.
But with Sarah, she's still nursing, so the rice cereal was mixed with breast milk. We gave her a bath to get her calm & then tried out the cereal. Jeff held her while I fed her. The first taste was very tentative. She was feeling it out, licking her lips & then got all excited, wanting more. She was so cute! She was making all these grunty, hungry noises, like she just couldn't get enough. The way you mix it for the first time, it's practically liquid, with the ratio of cereal to milk about 1:4, but Sarah just had a ball. She would open her little mouth when she saw the spoon & followed it with her eyes when she wasn't being fed. She wanted to keep that spoon in her sights to make sure it wasn't leaving.

New tricks

Hello everyone! I'm sorry I haven't posted in awhile, but my in-laws have been in town & I haven't had a chance to write anything. Sarah's been doing some new tricks. She can roll over from back to front now & she started laughing. We were putting her feet up against her cheeks last night & making funny noises & she started laughing out loud. It was too cute! She's definitely starting to smile more often & is happy that she can now switch positions if we put her down in a way she doesn't like.
We're going to Michigan Adventure tomorrow. It's an amusement park that's owned by the same people who own Knott's Berry Farm, so everything has a "Peants" theme to it. Emma's very excited. It also has a water park there that we can get into as well, it's all included in the price of one ticket. So we're taking our bathing suits, well Emma's, so she can have some water fun.
The only bad thing is, we're all starting to get sick. I started having a sore throat last night & today I feel icky. But that's not going to stop me from enjoying myself tomorrow.
I posted some new pictures up on the website from this last week. There are a few more with Sarah smiling & some of Emma sliding through the kitchen on her bean bag chair. It's her new sport.

Why some women don't breastfeed

I know now why some women decide that breastfeeding isn't for them, at least for very long. I think I forgot this since I was nursing Emma, but babies BITE. And it hurts, very bad. Even without teeth, those little gums can clamp down with the force of a vice. And Sarah is so good about doing it so very sneakily. She'll be nice & sweet and then all of a sudden she's Dracula looking for her next blood fix. I keep having to remind the 3 1/2 month old that my boobs are not a teething ring. Kids with Down syndrome don't tend to get teeth this early, but they can show the signs this early. I'm not looking forward to another 9 months of Sarah using her gums like a meat grinder while she's nursing. I think an actual tooth would be preferable. At least then I'll be able to see what's causing me so much pain.

Throwing out the trash

Jeff & I have been going through our file "cabinet" and throwing out all the old, outdated stuff that we have no use for. For example, bill stubs from 4 years ago, user manuals to items we no longer own, and bank statements for accounts that were closed long ago. We're keeping only the current things, and of course, all our tax documents & medical stuff. I have to say, we threw out a lot of paperwork. It feels somewhat liberating to be rid of all that stuff. Now, it might have helped to do all this before we moved, so Jeff didn't have to pack it, but that's a moot point at this juncture. Now all of our paperwork, aside from medical stuff, user manuals & tax documents, can fit into one small accordian type file. And with room to spare.
Liz & Dave are coming in 2 days & Emma is very excited. Even though she just saw all of our family less than a month ago, she always gets happy when people come to visit us. Most of the time because they bring presents. She is one spoiled kid.
My sister-in-law Melissa is getting married on the 21st of this month. We're all very excited & happy for her. She is marrying a very nice guy named Mark. We wish we could be there, but with Jeff's work, school, & the expense of flying out there with 2 kids, we just can't. But we wish her & Mark the best and we'll be there in spirit.
Speaking of school, Emma starts her new preschool/Kindergarden readiness in about 3 weeks. We have a home visit scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. I'm not sure what that's going to involve. Hopefully it isn't just an excuse to have someone come into our house to evaluate whether or not we're abusing our child, which the term "home visit" kinda make you envision. Emma's already excited about school so I don't think we'll have any problems convincing her to go. Every morning she has her little Disney Princess backpack ready to go & is crushed every time we tell her it's not quite time to go. I feel bad that she doesn't really have any sense of time, when it comes to future events. She still thinks everything happens in the now, and that future events will happen any second. Terms like "in a few hours" or "next week" really have no meaning to her other than they aren't happening right this very second & she doesn't like that.
I'm thinking Sarah is going through a growth spurt. She is sleeping all the time & eating constantly & very cranky. The crankiness is normally reserved for the car (she's the only baby I know that hates being in the car) but lately it's been popping up everywhere. She HAD been sleeping through the night, from about 9pm to about 8am, but the past few nights she's been waking up 2-3 times a night. I'm hoping this isn't a trend & that it will end quickly, but I suppose you can't rush the growth process. It'll end when this spurt is over. She's already pretty much grown out of her 0-3 month clothes, with the exception of a few things that are larger than normal. And dresses, since they aren't as binding as onesies & sleepers. She's just growing up so quickly! She's smiling all the time now, and she's almost rolling over from back to front. Jeff was holding her last night on the couch & I wanted to take some pictures. So I grabbed the camera & was standing in front of them, taking pictures. I would move from side to side to get a better angle & Sarah was just staring at me the whole time. She would follow me with her eyes as I was moving. She wouldn't even look at Jeff unless I was out of her field of vision. It was so neat! Not for Jeff, cause she wouldn't look at him, but cool for me. She really knows me! But she still loves to smile the most for Jeff. Every evening when he comes home, she always gets really vocal & smiles for him. And she makes the funniest faces at Emma. She loves it when Emma comes up & kisses her or plays with her. Emma really loves her little sister. Her "jealous" stage is coming to a close, I think. She still wants attention most of the time, but is a little more forgiving now that Sarah is a little older. Sarah can interact a little more with her now, which makes it more enjoyable for Emma. Both Jeff & I are trying to make sure Emma gets one-on-one time with us but it is hard when Sarah is still so needy. But Emma is being very understandable.

Privacy at last

We finally got our roller shades from JCPenney yesterday. I ordered them almost 2 weeks ago. None of our windows had shades on them, we've been having to tack blankets up in order to not flash people outside. Talk about ghetto. I got them all put up yesterday even before Jeff came home. I felt pretty proud of myself. It was relatively easy. Emma likes to open them, she likes how they snap up.
Sarah is getting so big! She's almost rolling over from back to front. SHe just has the issue of her arm getting in the way. She ends up tilted sideways with her arm underneath her tummy, trying to move it & gets very frustrated. She's also getting really strong in her front neck muscles. I was looking towards the back of the van this morning & I noticed that she was lifting her head up while she was in her carseat. I think that's the first time she's done that without someone holding onto her hands for support. She's also getting more vocal, & I think she even blew a raspberry at me this morning. For the past 2 nights, she's slept between 10-12 hours straight, with no waking up. It freaked me out yesterday morning because I woke up & realized that she hadn't & rushed over to see if she was still alive! She was fine, but I guess she's sleeping completely through the night now! That's nice, but I'm sure we'll have nights when she doesn't. I think maybe it's coming to the time when she will be sleeping in her own room. I still have to paint the crib. Maybe I can do some of that when Dave & Liz are here next week. Oh, and we have to buy a new crib mattress. I think that first night, when she's upstairs in her crib & not right next to us in her bassinette, I won't sleep very well. I know when Emma slept in her own room for the first time, I didn't sleep very well. Even though I had a monitor on & I could hear everything going on, it was still hard for me. And Emma was older, almost 5 1/2 months. Of course, she was also still sleeping in the bassinette because we didn't have the crib yet. I guess it was a good thing that Emma was kinda small when she was a baby. Otherwise she wouldn't have lasted that long in the bassinette. Sarah's still pretty small, too but I don't want to assume that she'll be small forever.

Can you have a pimped out family car?

I'm thinking you can, because that's what our van is turning into. A couple days after we bought it, we had Sirius satellite radio put in it. One more remote control for the car (the DVD player already has one). And now Jeff has discovered that he can hook up the Playstation to the DVD screen & play video games. Oh my gosh. This is going to be one long drive back to CA in December because Jeff will be in the backseat, watching movies & playing video games. I will be driving the whole way.
All of these upgrades, of course, are making our van the coolest way to be driven around campus. Jeff says the students he works with fight over who gets to sit in the backseat & watch a DVD with the wireless headphones that came with the car. What's kinda sad is the movie that's in there right now is "Finding Nemo". If they found out they could play video games in there, they'd never get out.

Plans change

Especially when they involve my husband. I love him to death, but sometimes he gets on tangents and won't stop until someone's head is on a pike. But, I will give him credit, this time his tirade worked out.
We had put a deposit on the white Honda Odyssey over a week ago. We had been told that it would be delivered by the end of last week. Well that came & went. We actually went down to the dealer on Saturday & they told us that it would be delivered, for sure, the next day, and they would call us on Monday to come pick it up. Well by around noon yesterday no one had called, so we started calling them. The salesman we had dealt with in the beginning didn't answer the pages to come to the phone, nor did he call me back when I left him a message (to his defense, he apparently had gotten his stereo in his car stolen & had been dealing with that all morning). So we ended up calling the finance guy, even though we already had a check to give them and weren't in need of any financing. He told me that the car wasn't delivered the previous day & would get back to me. Jeff had finally had enough & called them to ask them how we could get out of the deal, because he was tired of all the lies & broken promises, and we were going somewhere else. Now, mind you, the people there had told us repeatedly that there were NO Odyssey EX's with the DVD player ON THE LOT at any dealership in the state of Michigan. Nor were any dealership expecting them, because Honda wasn't making the 2004 model anymore. Only "premium" dealerships were going to get the last few & of course, THEY were one of them. And I, being the kind of person I am, believed them. Jeff, being the kind of person he is, didn't. We called 2 other dealerships in MI, one in Grand Rapids, about 90 miles away, and one is Okemos, about 70 miles away. Jeff had told the first dealership that if the other ones didn't have anything, that we would wait for theirs to be delivered. The one in Grand Rapids had one that had just been delivered on Friday, and it was the light blue, called Havasu Blue. We were cool with that, because it was better than the white. Jeff rambled off the numbers that the other dealership had aggreed upon and asked them if they could meet or beat that. They said yes, so we were off to Grand Rapids. Once we got there, and examined the van to make sure it had everything we wanted, we said ok let's do it & Jeff called the first dealership to let them know that the deal was off. They were less than thrilled to say the least. So, we got our van, in Havasu blue. It's pretty cool, and Emma loves the DVD. She had even brought a movie with her to watch on the way home. I am definitely learning that a van handles a lot different than a Civic, though. But we're really happy with it. Now all I have to do is go & get our money back from the first dealership. They had cashed our check, even though the car hadn't come in yet. So now we get to go get a check from them, and mail it to Wells Fargo and wait a week for that to process. Not fun.
On another note, Emma found out that we have a spray nozzle on our kitchen sink. She decided to hand wash my coffee cup this morning (she loves to wash dishes), and I showed her how to use the spray nozzle. Her eyes got really big & she went "Oooooohhhhh". It's very cool to her.
So now we have our new van with the nifty dual sliding doors that can be opened & closed via a remote. It's nice not to have to stoop over to put Sarah into the car. And now that Emma can fasten her own seatbelt, I feel a little more free when it comes time to put the kids in the car.

Dude, where's my car?

We were pretty excited about this weekend because we were anticipating going to go pick up our brand new, barely off the truck, has approximately 1 mile on it, van. We got approved through Navy Federal Credit Union for a new car loan, at a really good interest rate, WITHOUT needing a co-signer, which is a first for us. We didn't have to deal with the dealership ruining our credit by going all over town, trying to get a loan for us. Jeff had haggled for a decent price on the van (the dealership's only getting $200 over invoice), and we were getting a pretty good trade-in value for our Civic. We were on top of the world. Then the other shoe dropped - our van wasn't going to be delivered on time. It was scheduled to be there by Friday, it was on the delivery invoice & everything, but something happened that prevented it from getting there. We were so bummed. We even thought that maybe the dealership was just yanking our chain for some reason & our car was actually already there. Maybe they were upset at the fact that they hadn't taken us for a ride on the price of the car & weren't getting much out of us, so they decided to hold our car for ransom until next week. But that seemed silly (but we took a ride down there today, for an unrelated reason, & checked it out anyway). So, here we are, van-less. Emma was upset, not because of the van itself, but because of the DVD player. Everywhere we went, she asked about the "car with the TV in it". Something tells me we're not going to be able to go to the grocery store without watching 5 minutes of a movie on the way there. I know we're just whining about the van not being here when we thought it was going to be. Our Civic isn't on it's last legs, we aren't without reliable transportation. But gosh darnit, we want our nifty van. You know the feeling when you're looking forward to something new, that whatever you have at the present time just starts to seem less than what it is? Our Civic is in good condition, it runs great, it looks good. But when we've got that new van in our minds, and we know how it looks, it just seems better than what we have, and we want it now. We're spoiled people, I will admit. We remind me of this woman on this new Fox show called "Trading Spouses". The concept seemed really bad to me when I first heard of it, but I watched most of it anyway. The two women who traded places for about a week, were one completely spoiled rich housewife, who has 2 kids, and a mother-in-law who lives with them, who does all the cleaning & cooking. She had a gorgeous huge house, with a closet the size of my bedroom and it seemed she didn't really spend all that much time with her children. The other woman was a married working mom of 3 kids, and their family was definitely "working class". They traded places & the first thing that set me off about this rich woman, was that she thought the husband of the other woman, who had come to pick her up, was a member of the crew of the show. I'm wondering if it had to do with the fact that the husband was black, and she was white. He was dressed very casually, and maybe, to her, that was a clue that he couldn't possibly be the person she was supposed to meet. She seemed less than impressed with the family's house, and she seemed to be very put off by the fact that the family drank instant coffee, and wouldn't even drink it. She didn't seem to want to help with dishes or cleaning. And she wanted the husband, and in fact TOLD him, to go pick up something for lunch because she wasn't "in the mood to make lunch". She just seemed very uncooperative. The other woman, on the other hand, was helping out at the rich woman's house, playing with her kids, bonding with her mother-in-law and generally being a good sport about everything. I'm sure it had a little to do with the environment she was in. It was definitely more luxurious than her own house, but I know it had a LOT to do with her character. She was appreciative of everything she had & didn't take it for granted. The other woman just seemed really spoiled & selfish. She even said something to the effect of,"Maybe I should spend this kind of quality time with MY kids." It just made me very upset, but I suppose, when you're used to one type of situation, whether it's financial or otherwise, anything else is very foreign, especially if it's something lower than you're used to. I know my life is a lot better than other people's. I don't need to boil water before I drink it, I know where my next meal is coming from, and I have a roof over my head & a soft bed to sleep in. My children aren't begging on the street or dying from some disease that is preventable. There are people in this world who that is a reality for, but I am not one of them. So, I realize that my whining about not getting our new van is just that, whining.

Hurray for handymen

We finally got our garage door opener & towel/toilet paper bars installed yesterday. I might have to ask to put another towel bar up, though, because the one's our landlord bought are really short in length. About 1 1/2 towels are all that will fit on them. That might work for the girls' bathroom that they share, but not for Jeff & I, since I alone use 2 towels when I take a shower.
It's very nice to be able to drive into the garage without physically having to get out of the car, & opening up the door manually. A lot easier. I feel better now about driving Jeff to work in the morning in my pj's and not having to go outside to get into the car. I know that's lazy, but right now, I cherish sleep over fashion, and it's much easier to just get up & go rather than getting fully dressed just to drive him 3 miles away & come right back.
We had a freaky sudden rain storm yesterday. I hadn't seen it coming & left one of the windows down in the car. When it started pouring, I realized that the inside of the car was going to get soaked, and ran outside really quick to shut the window. I was out in the rain maybe a total of 10 seconds, but by the time I got back into the house, I was drenched. These Midwestern storms are no joke. And the humidity after it ended was bad, like walking into a sauna every time we went outside. But there was a gorgeous rainbow so I guess that made up for it.
I finished Sarah's room yesterday. Well "finished" is a loaded word. I guess the correct thing for me to say should be that you can now walk into her room & not trip over anything. If it were truly finished, her crib would be painted & set up, and she'd be sleeping in there. But alas, that is not the case. She's still sleeping in the basinette in our room. She's still waking up once during the night (it usually ranges from 4-7 am) and I don't feel like walking upstairs to go get her. I'm starting to think the idea of keeping both girls on the same floor (that's different from the one we're on) was not such a good thing, but it's too late to change it now. Plus, I know Jeff loves having his office down here, rather than upstairs. So, we'll deal with whatever has to happen once Sarah gets into her own room.
So now I just need to get the rest of the house straightened up. It's coming along nicely, I think. Everything's pretty much out of boxes & bags, it's just put in piles somewhere else until I can figure out where everything goes. We also need storage, because that's something this house lacks. No linen closets. We have a "closet" that could be used for linens & other things, but we have no shelves to put things on. So that's on our long list of stuff we need. Or should I say "want" cause we could live without some of the things on the list, but life would be a lot easier with them.

Online shopping

I'm up after midnight because I was trying to take advantage of the "Free shipping" in the Fall & Winter JCPenney catalog. We need something to put on our windows so we can change in our bedroom without worrying about people looking in on us. I know that mini blinds are way too expensive & they probably wouldn't transfer well to another house, what with windows not all being the same width. So I decided on cheap roller shades. I didn't even get the kind with the pretty fringe on the ends. Just the plain old white roller shades. But I'm going to be putting pretty valances & curtains over them, so it will make them look better. We're only in this house for 2 years, anyways. I bought a valance for the kitchen window & Sarah's window the other day. Now I'm on the prowl for some white eyelet curtains for Emma's room and something manly for Jeff's office. That leaves our room & the living room, but I think I'm going to wait a little longer to get something for those rooms. I have no idea what I want in them.
This house seems to be coming together. Hopefully we'll have our garage door opener all set up tomorrow, along with the towel bars & toilet paper holders. We got the A/C fixed yesterday, I think. It's been cooler in the house, so I guess that means it's working. And Jeff said if he got an 80% or higher on his test tomorrow (that's worth 1/10th of his entire grade) and I finished at least 2 rooms by this weekend, that maybe we'd go to Cedar Point. It's "Six Flags-ish" type of amusement park. Oh did I mention we bought a minivan? Yeah, we're supposed to be going to pick that up this weekend, too. Before our "yet to be determined if it'll happen" trip to Cedar Point. We bought a 2004 Honda Odyssey.  It's pretty sweet. We got one with the RES (Rear Entertainment System). Basically, it's a DVD player with a screen coming down from the roof for the people in the back to watch. We had a DVD player that was portable that was our lifesave on the long 4 day trip out here last year, but it kicked the bucket right after we got here. It had a good long life, though. We've only made one long trip without it since we moved, and that was enough to make us want another one. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for trying to get the kids interested in watching the great outdoors fly by at 65 MPH and trying to find all the out of state license plates, and playing all the wonderful car games that we all grew up on. But eventually, on a 10 hour drive to Tennessee & back, those types of things lose their nostalgic, kitchy appeal. And you just want peace & quiet, even if it's shared by a Disney character singing something about "Hakuna Matata". Although Sarah won't be able to enjoy the movie experience, seeing as how she has to make all car trips facing the back window (poor kid), I'm sure she'll be equally relieved when Emma isn't asking that dreaded question "Are we there yet?" every 10 seconds.
Our van is going to be white, not our first choice in colors, but it will do. It was actually put together only the day before we bought it. Our Civic was brand new when we bought it 3 years ago, but not, right off the truck, out of the factory new. This is like having another child, only one we have to feed oil instead of breast milk. I know Jeff isn't thrilled with the idea of another "family car". He was really hoping to be able to get a truck soon, but with 2 kids in car seats, it's not that feasible. Maybe by the time we're 40 he can get a car of his own. But by then he'll be wanting his mandatory "mid-life crisis" car. He already knows what that's going to be: a Dodge Viper. He's known that since he was 12. I told him if he had taken over Bill Gates job by then he could get one. I'm thinking that's the only way we'd be able to afford it.

Sarah's appointment

Sarah had her 2 month well-baby appointment this afternoon. Seeing as how she's going to be 3 months old tomorrow, it seems kinda late, I know. But I was out of town when she turned 2 months, so it could not be helped. But, some good news, she's gained almost 3 pounds since she was 1 month old. She's 11 lbs. 7 3/4 oz., and 22 1/2 inches long. And no, that does NOT include her hair. The doctor says that she's growing great & that she's showing no signs of any problems normally associated with DS. No heart, intestinal, vision or hearing problems, so far. The heart & intestinal or any other major problem should have shown up by now, so it looks like she's in the clear for that. The only bad part was she had to gets shots today. Poor little girl never saw it coming. One minute she's lying on the doctor's table, perfectly happy, staring up at mommy, the next, some maniacal nurse is jabbing her in the thigh with a sharp object. Four times! At least she got some nifty Garfield band-aids out of the deal. But she was too traumatized to care. She was so worn out from protesting the indignity, that she fell right asleep when I nursed her to make her feel better. But after she woke up again, she remember, HEY, I'm hurt over here, and started crying again. So we bought her some infant tylenol to help with the achiness. I had been trying to explain the concept of immunizations to Emma before we went to the hospital. I think she got the idea. She asked if she needed a "pinch" to keep her from getting sick. I told her not until she started Kindergarden. But that won't be until next year, so hopefully she'll forget all about this conversation we had & not be freaked out about it.

Home at last

I'm finally home!!!! It's been a long 4 weeks, and I had a blast but I'm glad to be home. Such as it is. There are boxes & bags of stuff everywhere. I am trying to get everything unpacked & into it's place. It's going well but it's been hampered by little people needing things. Like food & baths. Can't these kids see that I'm trying to get some work done here?! J/K Dave & Liz are coming to visit in 3 1/2 weeks & I'm sure they'd appreciate being able to sit on the couch & not have to step over boxes in the kitchen on the way to the fridge. We have no curtains on the windows & the landlord isn't providing us with blinds, so it's up to us to make sure we aren't flashing the neighbors. I'm looking around for cheap blinds or curtains. I'm thinking roll-up blinds would be the best idea. With a cute valance on the top to make it look not quite so ghetto. I'm not going to worry about privacy on the kitchen window. We're not in the habit of getting dressed in there. The big problem is the sliding glass door in the dining room. I found something really cute in a catalog. It's vertical blinds, but it has a sheer curtain that goes with it. So when you close the blinds, the curtain is attached to them & closes with it. It's very pretty, but expensive. And not exactly practical, since we won't be living here forever. We could probably take that with us, since sliding glass are pretty universal in size, but I don't think Jeff woiuld go for it.
Have to cut this short, hubby just called for a lunch date. Write more later!

End of the line

My trip to California is almost as an end. Tomorrow the girls & I are leaving Sac & traveling south, back to Santa Barbara, and eventually LA where we'll catch our plane back to Michigan. Emma is very excited about this. She misses her daddy & I think this long of a trip is kinda hard on her. Sarah doesn't notice a difference as long as the food supply is with her (me). She's pretty easy going. I'll be glad that we're in our new place. I really think the other place dragged me down. Maybe it was just the weather, I don't know. But there's something nice & refreshing about newly painted walls & floors that don't already have scuffs on them. And carpet that doesn't jab your foot when you step on it. I'll finally be able to decorate Sarah's room the way I want to. Even though I can't paint the walls, I can still do a lot. Hopefully we'll have nice neighbors whose kids can play with Emma. We still have a visit from Nana & Papa to look forward to next month. It'll be nice to be back home.
But while we're still here, we have a lunch date with Aunt Deanna, and a visit from a friend of mine whom I haven't seen in 4 years. She's bringing her 16 month old son with her so Emma should have a little playmate for a couple hours.
It's lunch time, so I better end this. A hungry stomach calls...

4th of July

It was actually yesterday, but I didn't have time to write. We had a fun 4th. We went shopping (always fun), Emma went to see the fireworks with Melissa & Mark at Cal Expo, while Dave & I went on the roof to try & see the show from 15 miles away. Getting on & off the roof was an experience in itself. Getting down was a bit more harrowing. I felt like I was going to slip off & hit the concrete. There were some people who were shooting off illegal fireworks somewhere around here. They looked like professional ones. I wonder where they got them, cause it doesn't seem like those are the kinds of things that are sold to the public.
Jeff had a nice 4th, too, I think. He had some friends over for a BBQ and fireworks.
Emma's feeling better after a few days on her antibiotics. The lump under her chin is slowly going away. I guess that's a good thing, but I wonder if it was just an infected lymphnode and nothing more. Now there's no lump to biopsy so I guess we'll just have to wait & see if it comes back.
I went shopping yesterday and bought some cool clothes. I'm seriously going to have to get a box together & ship some stuff home because I do not have enough room in our suitcases for all the stuff that we've bought & been given.
I'm trying to look for matching outfits for the girls to wear in their first professional pictures together. I'm finding some cute things, but they are super expensive. Maybe I'll just end up putting them in something simple. They'll look cute either way.

Moving Day

Well, for Jeff, anyways. Not me, I'm way out here in California while my poor husband gets to move all of our belongings to a new place. But he's got friends to help him out, so he's not alone. Should I feel bad that he has to do this without me? I actually think it's better for me not to be there. I think I would probably be WAY too controlling, and so would Jeff, so that would be a recipe for disaster. Plus I don't want to see the near misses that I'm sure will happen as they manuever big heavy items through tiny doorjams, narrowly escaping putting a gigantic hole in our brand new walls. This way, Jeff can be the foreman of this job & tick all his friends off by being a tad too Nazi-ish. From what I've heard from his mother, this is something that he has always done. And from being with him for 8 years, I can definitely agree to that.
So instead of worrying about moving the house, I'm sitting here, drinking coffee and looking through the JCPenney catalog. I'm looking for things to put into our brand new duplex to make it look pretty and to help KEEP it look pretty. There's going to be a major change it routine once Emma, Sarah & I get home. No more eating in the living room. We have to keep our brand new carpet looking that way. Plus the living room is on an entirely different floor than the kitchen & dining room, so maybe that will help keep us out of there during mealtimes.
Jeff called about 1pm our time to tell us that the move was finished. He had about 10 people show up to help, so it went pretty fast. We're finding out though, that we're responsible for a lot more than we thought. There are no towel bars in the bathrooms, there are no blinds on the windows. So Jeff is trying to do make-shift curtains so he can change his clothes in semi-privacy. I will definitely have my work cut out for me when I get home.

Being worried pays off

So, I call every ENT in the phone book yesterday morning, trying to get Emma an appointment for her lump thing. Most of the people tell me that they don't have any available openings for at least a month. I finally get one for next Tuesday, but I knew I needed to find something sooner. Emma's chin was starting to get pinkish & warm, and the PA had said that those were both signs of an infection. So, I'm starting to freak out. I get another appointment for Friday morning, but I ended up calling them back & asking them if I thought I should just take her to the ER because I thought she was getting an infection, or could it wait until my appointment. They ended up squeezing her in, and she was able to see the ENT. He didn't confirm that it was the thryoglossal duct cyst that the PA had thought it was, and instead called it a "midline neck mass" which doesn't sound much better. He said it could be any number of things, but that most likely it was the cyst. But he said in order to confirm that, he'd have to do a head CT, and all sorts of tests, along with a biopsy. Major stuff. Plus he said that all the biopsy would show now is infected cells, so we would have to wait until the infection was gone anyways. So, Emma's on antibiotics for 10 days, and we'll have to do the medical stuff when we get back home. I'm kinda hoping it will shrink & go away for right now, but on the other hand, if it does, there won't be anything to take samples of, and we'd have to wait for it to show up again. I'm hoping they'll do the biopsy & CT scan at the same time, because I know they're going to have to put her out for those. They put her out last year when she got a CT scan to try & find out what was causing her Bell's palsy. Not a fun prospect but at least I'll have Jeff around for support this time.

Sickly child

I swear, sometimes I feel like my poor children get the short end of the stick every time. Emma woke up this morning with a huge lump on her throat. It's between her chin & throat, actually. It's swollen & she says it's painful but she may just be acting on that one. But there's no fever, no redness, no other sign of infection. So we made an appointment for this afternoon. After driving halfway to Stockton & realizing that obviously the wonderful, if not always reliable, internet had given me bogus directions, I had to call the doctor's office to push back our appointment by 30 minutes, so I could drive practically back to where I had originally started (the office was 5 minutes from my in-law's house, grrr). The Physician's Assistant we see tells me it's probably a thyroglossal cyst. Huh? Long story short, it's a congenital defect (I hate that word) where something didn't quite finish developing in utero and is now rearing it's ugly head on my daughter's throat. Nice. But, fortunately, it's quite common & can be remedied, either through antibiotics or surgery. The surgery thing scares me, because it's NOT an outpatient thing. Emma would have to be put out with a breathing tube down her throat. She was put under general anesthesia last year for her CT scan when she had Bell's palsy, so I know she probably won't have any adverse reaction to that. It's the breathing tube & the actually cutting of skin that I wouldn't be looking forward to. I definitely could NOT do this while I was here visiting CA. I would need Jeff to be there with me. And I know he would want me to wait until we got home to do it.
So, I get home from the appointment & immediately try to get in contact with an ENT doc to confirm the diagnosis & prescribe treatment. Of course, no ENT doc has ANY appointments for at least a week. Apparently there's always a run on ENT docs, and they never have to beg for patients. So I take the earliest appointment I can, but I'm going to call the places that were closed by the time I called today in the morning & try to get something sooner. The PA said to look for signs of infection, like redness & fever. I thought it was starting to get a little pink this evening, but it could just be that Emma was poking at it.
But, we DID go the zoo this evening. Dave's job was having a special preview of the Touring Termite exhibit & we all got in free. Emma was bummed because they apparently sent their only elephant to the Detroit zoo, and that's the only animal was actually looking forward to seeing. But we still had a blast. She loved the giraffes and the monkeys. The only big cats that were still out in the open were the snow leopards. I think this one might have been hungry because it was sitting about 4 feet from the front of the enclosure and it seemed to be watching Emma like a hawk. Emma would walk back & forth in front of it & it would follow her with it's eyes. Emma walked out of it's field of vision & it actually got up & walked down a few steps to try & find her again. It seemed to be saying, hey that one's little, I could take that one down no problem. But then more people started crowding around & it backed up into it's original spot, like it was saying, oh they're gathering, I think I lost my chance. Too many of them now. It was funny, and kinda scary at the same time. I didn't like the fact that some animal was sizing up my daughter for a meal.

From somewhere in Ca...

Actually, I'm in Sacramento now, after visiting Santa Barbara for 2 weeks.
So far, this trip has been great. I was able to spend a lot of time with my dad's family and had a really fun time. My sister Tracey graduated from high school on the 15th. Emma, Sarah & I went to the beach, and Emma had a blast running around in the water & playing with anyone who was around. We went shopping, always fun. It was nice to just relax & be with family. I think I really realize now how much I miss CA. I don't miss the outrageous prices on everything from gas to houses, but I miss being able to just take a short (or long) drive and see anyone in our family. I think this has really solidified our resolve to make it back here as soon as we can.
Emma was so funny with my two brothers. She seemed to have problems remember their names individually so she kinda merged their 2 names together. Their names are Kyle & Evan, so she called them both "Kevin". She also periodiclaly called them "the big boy" & "the little boy". She had a little difficulty with the concept of great-grandparents, so she just called them Grandpa & Grandma. But then when my dad came into the picture, she kept calling him "Daddy's mommy". In our attempt to help her understand, we had told her that he was "mommy's daddy" but she kinda mixed that up.
Sarah started smiling a little while we were there. She's not doing it very often, but it's still a big milestone. They both have done really well on the trip. Our flight to CA was fun, in the least likable meaning of the word. We missed our 1st flight in the morning (to be truly accurate, the people at the aiport were Nazis about security & took WAY too long to check everyone's bag, thus making me miss my plane). So we had to catch the next flight, which didn't leave for 6 hours. I felt like Tom Hanks' character in "The Terminal". We were stuck there. We had checked Emma's carseat, so we couldn't just leave, but we couldn't stand staying in an airport for 6 hours. So I drove to Targe, bought a cheap booster seat, and then picked up Jeff & the girls and we went back to the mall for a couple hours. Our original flight had us going to Minneapolis with a 3 hour layover. This flight we ended up taking took us to Detroit (which is only a 30 minute flight from where we took off), with an hour layover, but we ended up sitting on the tarmack, in the plane, for 1 hour 45 minutes. Apparently there was a storm going over & we couldn't take off. It could have turned out a lot uglier than it did, with two kids in a plane that isn't making any progress. But Sarah nursed most of the time, and surprisingly, Emma kept herself occupied the whole time. Mostly bugging the guy next to us who was trying to sleep. That was a long day. By the time we got to Santa Barbara, after landing in LAX, it was 2:30am, Michigan time. I was exhausted. But the kids were troopers.
We extended our trip 2 weeks so be able to come up here to Sac & visit. In order to get up here, we made a pitstop in Pismo Beach to see Jeff's grandparents. We met up with his mom & step-dad there and they drove us up here. We got here yesterday. So, now it's 2 weeks in Sac to visit anybody I can.

Impatience

Well, no word yet on whether we are in first place with our bid for the house. Our realtor went out of town & we were told that she was going to be checking her voicemail & getting back to us. No such luck. I left a message on Friday evening and haven't heard anything back. Someone was supposed to be taking over for her while she was gone, but he hasn't called us either. I called & left him a message this morning, so hopefully someone will get back to this. I'm beginning to think I should have just gone with the person who helped set us up with the house we're renting, but that's a whole other bag that I don't even want to get into. If we don't end up getting this house, it's going to create a messy situation with me going out of town next week. I'll end up having to look for another house to buy, or possibly rent, because the whole escrow thing takes forever, and we won't have enough time to get through it before we have to be out of this house. We'll have to start the whole process all over again, and that takes a lot of time. Plus, this is the only house I've looked at that I like that doesn't need a ton of work.
I'm leaving for CA next Monday. I can't wait to see my family. It's been over a year since I've seen them. I wish Jeff could go with us, but he has summer school & that's important.
Grrr, just got off the phone with the replacement realtor. He said the other deal is still in the works, so we're still in second place. This is ridiculous. People move at such a slow pace around here. I wish they'd just get on with it and tell me yes or no, if we're going to get this house. I don't have time to sit around & wait. I asked the guy if we could see some more houses, because last week we didn't see ANY new ones. My realtor didn't follow up on any of the other houses I gave her, and then she got really sick and was out for 2 days. That's not her fault. But I still don't think she gets the concept that we're on a short time schedule here. Unless she wants us to be out on the street come the end of July when we have no place to live, I think she better get on the ball. I couldn't imagine if our landlord hadn't been generous and given us 60 days notice. We would have been seriously up a creek.
Anyways, Emma had her IEP appointment this morning. It's for her speech therapy that's going to start up again in the fall. The speech therapist is starting a new program where 5-6 kids are put into a group session together that lasts for about 2 1/2 hours, once a week. It'll basically be preschool, but where the only thing they focus on is speech related things. They'll have a snack & everything. They're not 100% sure that's how it's going to happen, but it's looking like it will. That would be fun for Emma, she'd be able to interact with kids her own age in a setting that's helping her speech. Plus, she'll still have regular Kindergarten readiness preschool 4 times a week.

Summer blues

Last week was Emma's last day of preschool before they break for the summer. It was the last time she'll be going to that school because next year she's going to the CMU Kindergarten Readiness preschool. It's 4 days a week, 2 1/2 hours a day. And best of all, it's free. I know she's sad that she won't see her friends for awhile, but I'm trying to set something up so she can see a few of them during the summer. She's already gotten upset at the fact that we keep driving by the school & not going.
We have our tickets comfirmed for our trip to CA. We're leaving the 14th of June and returning on the 29th. It's going to be fun flying cross country with 2 kids, but Emma's been on planes before & Sarah should be relatively easy to care for, since if she starts crying, I can breastfeed her. The only thing that might be hard is the layover in between flights in Minneapolis. It's 3 hours long. We're definitely going to have to bring some toys & other distractions for Emma, otherwise she's liable to drive the other people in the airport batty. I'm hoping she'll want to take a nap, but I know that's a pipe dream.
Last night was Jeff's last day of his Human Growth & Development class. It was a rough 3 weeks but we got through it & hopefully Jeff will get an A in the class and it'll be all worth it. He did really well & worked really hard. I'm very proud of him. Now all he has is his math class for the next 3 weeks. I'll be gone for the last 2 weeks of it, so hopefully he'll be able to handle everything without me.
We put a bid on the house we want, and it's been accepted. Well they countered for $1,000 more than what we offered, but that's fine.But, we're in 2nd place right now, since they had already accepted another offer before ours. But that one might fall through, so we're the second option. That's fine, but we're also still looking at houses, just in case it doesn't fall through. Plus, I just found out that our real estate agent is going out of town for a week, so that might cause some problems, especially if the deal falls through & we have to look elsewhere for a house.
The kids are doing great. Sarah is continuing to grow & she's rolling over more. She did it three times in a row the other night. I kept putting her onto her tunny after she'd roll & she'd immediately roll back over, like she was saying,"I want to be on my back, mom, not my tummy, quit putting me there!" It was funny. Her vision is starting to seem better. She stares at the mobile above her swing now more intently, and she's starting to take more interest in the rattles we hover in front of her eyes. I thought I got a tiny smile the other day, but it hasn't been a full blown one yet. I'm still waiting. It could take up to 12 weeks, and she's only 6 weeks, so I'm not panicking yet. She smiles in her sleep though, so I know it's coming. Emma is still really great with her. She loves her little sister to death, even though she's having a bit of confusion about Sarah's gender. She keeps saying Sarah's a boy, not a girl, like her. I keep trying to explain it to her, but I don't think she's ready to listen. She's getting better at not throwing huge temper tantrums whenever we tell her something she doesn't like (this is a bahavior that started after Sarah was born) but I think this is the way she's voicing her inner displeasure. Which is better than her taking out her aggressions on the baby, which is what I was expecting.

Long time, no see

I'm finding since Sarah came into our family that I don't have enough time to do anything, it seems. At least not anything productive. If I could get paid for it, I'd much rather prefer just to sit in my glider rocker, holding Sarah & reading to Emma. That would be my idea of bliss. But, unfortunately, the house doesn't clean itself (although I think in the 50's we were assured by this time of modern technology that it would, liars) and everyone still needs to be fed. At least with Sarah, feedings are easy. Lift up shirt, insert baby mouth slot A to boob tab B, and commence feeding. It's nice that she doesn't even dirty a dish in the process. The same can't be said for the rest of us.
I feel bad for Emma. Jeff got this vacation planning kit in the mail from Disney World (we're thinking about taking a cruise when he graduates from college...in 5 years). She still doesn't understand the concept of future time. We told her that we were going to go on this cruise with "Cinderella" & "Mickey Mouse" and she was all ready to pack her bags. We tried to explain to her that we needed to wait until Sarah was bigger & could walk, so now she's telling Sarah that she needs to get up & walk so they can go see Cinderella.
It's been forever since I wrote in this thing, and it's not for lack of trying. It seemed every time I'd sit down to write, I'd get interrupted by one of my two children. So, I guess I should go through the events of the past couple of weeks. I hope everyone had a nice Mother's Day. Mine was great. Sarah's umbilical cord fell off that day. At first I thought I'd lost it, because I couldn't find it. I was changing her diaper & realized that it had fallen off & was searching around in her bassinette & her onsie to try & find it. I did finally find it though, it was floating around in her clothes, the same way Emma's had. Emma's fell off on Jeff's birthday, so that was pretty interesting.
The next day Sarah had her first bath in her baby tub. It has a sling that is stretched across the tub, so she doesn't lay down directly in it yet. The sling is helpful since she can't hold up her head yet. And she seemed to enjoy herself. Even when we washed her hair. Emma was a big help. She poured the water over Sarah & helped me wash her up with a washcloth.
Sarah is staying awake more often during the day, which is helping her sleep better at night. She's still waking up 1-2 times a night, but she goes right back to sleep most of the time. There are even nights when she goes 6 hours without waking up. I'd consider THAT sleeping through the night. She seems to be taking in more when she's awake, and gives me these looks like "what is going on here?" Especially when Emma's throwing a fit or things are a bit chaotic.
Emma is still doing great with Sarah. She's very helpful & very loving. Since we've kinda gotten into a routine with Sarah and things aren't as hectic, I think she's beginning to feel less stress about getting attention. She knows that we're going to take time to play with her, so she's not demanding it all the time. But she still does have her moments. Lately it's been having drop down, drag-out tantrums when we tell her to do something and she doesn't want to. The other day, we were at her speech therapy evaluation (she's going to start that again in the fall) and we needed to get going. She had been playing with some toys & I asked her to help us put them away. You would have thought I'd cut the poor kids arm off with the reaction that I got. Her face crumpled into sobs & she dropped to the floor like a leaf, and just lay there, crying. I would have laughed if I hadn't been mortified. I don't think it helps that since Sarah was born, we've been giving in to her wants more frequently. We're going to have to put a stop to that pretty quickly, otherwise Emma might get the idea that SHE'S running the show here.
In other news, we found out last week that our landlord finally sold the house, so we have 60 days to get out. At first we were thinking about renting again, but decided against it. Since we know we're going to be here at least another 4-5 years (for Jeff to get his degree) we decided to buy a house instead. We know it's risky, what with the slow housing market. But I'm hoping that in a few years it'll be better & also we're looking at a house that has great re-sale potential. It's a cute little house that's already had some upgrades, so all we'd need to do is keep it in good shape and maybe put a little money into it. And it's not a bad price either.
I had the oddest experience yesterday. I was in the living room, walking around and I went toward the garage door to hang something up. I felt a sharp pain on my neck & I freaked out & started swatting at my neck. I felt something there and I hit it to the ground. At first, I was afraid it was a spider, but I looked on the carpet & it was a bee. I got stung by a bee on my neck, IN THE HOUSE. It hurt like crazy & I ended up putting a cold compress on it for an hour. Even today I still have a welt on my neck and it itches. It was too weird. I was just thankful that it hadn't stung one of the kids, and Sarah was only about 4 feet away from me at the time.
Well I think I've written a novel here, so I should end this. Hopefully it won't be another 3 weeks before I post again.

Busy day

Today has been very hectic & busy, and it's not even over yet. It all started with some serious lack of sleep, due to Sarah needing to be wide awake at 3am. It's probably because she slept way too much yesterday & I didn't wake her up like I should have. Then I had to take Jeff to work this morning so I could have the car to take Emma to preschool. Everyone had to have baths this morning, because Emma's preschool was having their Mother's Day program (photos of which are on our website). While Emma was playing in the tub, I gave Sarah a sponge bath. Her umbilical cord hasn't fallen off yet, so no baby tub yet. As I was cleaning her legs & feet, I noticed that she had what looked like a popped blister on the side of her index toe, where it rubs up against her middle toe. It looked like it was becoming infected, so I immediately called the doctor to set up an appointment to bring her in after preschool.
Emma's Mother's Day program was really sweet. They sang a few songs & the teacher read the book "I love you forever". It's such a sweet book. Emma sat very quietly, listening to her teacher read it. Which is better than how she does at home. Normally, she wants to discuss the book & read it to you, instead of just listening. Then we had refreshments. I had brought 2 dozen homemade chocolate chip cookies for her class. Emma had about 6 of them. She didn't want to try any of the cookies that other people had brought. I would have thought she would be tired of my cookies and want to try something different. Then she ran around playing with her friends, until I practically had to drag her out of there to go to the doctor's appointment for Sarah.
The doctor said Sarah's toes were just rubbing up against each other, probably from being confined in socks. He said to put Neosporin on it 3 times a day & keep it covered with a tiny, microscopic bandaid, that of course I don't have any of at home. Time to make a trip to Rite-Aid! Now that it's getting warmer out, I won't have to keep Sarah's feet covered all the time to keep them warm, which they never seem to be. So that will help, as well.
Sarah has an appointment next week with the Early On coordinator. She's going to evaluate which therapies Sarah might benefit from & also be a liason with support groups, as well. And a couple moms who have kids with Down Syndrome are supposed to be calling me sometime this week or next week. They live in the area, sort of, so it'll be nice to be able to have contact with some people who have been in our shoes recently.
So that's been our day so far! I know that there will probably be more interesting stuff happening once Jeff gets home. I'll write more later!

I'm back!

Well, it's been a hectic past 2 weeks since little Sarah Grace Wilson came into the world. I know everyone's been wondering why I haven't been writing in this blog, and frankly, it's because I don't have the time. Also, because the previous 2 times I tried to write, I was interrupted in the middle & Jeff accidently erased all I had written. So, I kinda got dejected at the idea of starting over again, thus is why it's taken me this long.
Just to me sure we're all on the same page, let me give you some of the details surrounding Sarah's birth.
She was born at 1:02am on April 20th. She was 8 lbs. 15 oz., and 21 inches long. I was actually only in labor for about 4-9 hours, depending on who you talk to. At 4pm on the 19th, I had a doctor's appt., and we determined at that time that I hadn't progressed any further than I had been in the previous 3-4 weeks. Which was kinda upsetting, because that probably meant I would have to be induced. I didn't relish that idea at all. So, we went home, I made Jeff his favorite dinner (Hamburger Helper Stroganoff, yuck) and then afterwards, around 6:30pm, we decided to go to Dairy Queen. We came home & I started to feel some stronger contractions, stronger than the Braxton Hicks contractions I'd been feeling for months. Nothing to feel too concerned about, but they were definitely changing. We went about our business, got Emma into bed around 8:30pm, and then I started playing on the computer. At around 10pm, I told Jeff we should probably start timing my contractions, because they were getting stronger and more painful. At that time, they were about 5-8 minutes apart, but they weren't consistent and we had been told that we should really stay home until I couldn't talk during a contraction. I wasn't at that point yet. But, about 11pm, we decided to put our babysitter on call, and let our families know that it might happen sometime tonight. So, we tried to go to bed, but by 11:30pm, the contractions were to the point that I couldn't relax during them. So we called the hospital & they said to come on it. We dropped Emma off at our neighbors house, and we drove to the hospital (thankfully it's only 4 blocks away). We got up into the room at around 12:15am. At this point, I was asking for an epidural, thinking I wasn't very far along & the pain was too great to try & make it through completely natural. We told the nurse, after I'd changed into a hospital gown, that we had just been checked about 8 hours previous & didn't think that much had changed since then. The nurse checked me and said that I was 8cm, which for those of you who don't have children is only 2cm away from being ready to push. Jeff & I were completely shocked. There was no time for an epidural, and they needed to call my doctor right away. Thank goodness HE only lives 1 block away from the hospital. By this time, the contractions were practically on top of each other & they were extremely painful. Jeff was my hero though, he was right there, helping me through each one, breathing with me, and allowing me to dig my nails into his hand & arm. A half hour later, I was ready to push & Sarah was born 15 minutes later. She was born face up (the same as Emma), which isn't the way they're supposed to come out, but oh well. Apparently that's just how my body does things. The umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck once very loosly, but that wasn't a problem. She had swallowed some amniotic fluid so the nurses had to clear that out & give her some oxygen. She also had a huge bruise on her forehead from coming out face up. But other than that, she was healthy.
After about 2 hours, we were put into another room, where I would stay for a couple days. We made a few calls to family to let them know that she had been born, and then we tried to get some sleep.
My hospital stay was uneventful, and both Sarah & I were allowed to go home the next afternoon. She had a bit of jaundice so the pediatrician wanted us to come back the next day & get her bilirubin level tested. It was still pretty high, so he prescribed a bilibed for her. It's basically a plastic hospital bassinette with an ultraviolet light underneath that shines up under the baby. You put the baby in there with just a diaper on and the light helps get rid of the excess bilirubin in their bodies. That wasn't so bad, the worst part about jaundice is having to go get the poor kid's heal pricked every morning to have their bilirubin level checked. Apparently my kids have elephant feet & they can't get blood out of them very easily. So, the poor nurse is having to squeeze very hard to get enough blood out of Sarah's foot in order to run the test. It's not very pleasant, for her or us. Jeff & I had to tag-team during it in order to give the other person a rest. No one likes to see & hear their child screaming in pain. But, after about 4 days, her bilirubin levels came down & she was fine.
My mom had come into town the Friday after she was born, and Emma was loving it. She ran my poor mom ragged. Emma has been very loving & protective of Sarah. Whenever Sarah would start moving, sqeaking or crying, she'd come running into wherever we were & tell us, the baby's crying, she's cranky!She's very helpful and very gentle with Sarah. If Sarah's on the floor, or somewhere where Emma can reach her, she's always kissing her & tickling her and playing with her hair. It's very cute.
I know most of you have probably already heard this news, but for those of you who haven't, we found out last Friday that Sarah has Down Syndrome. She was tested for it while she was in the hospital & the results had just come back last week. Jeff & I were called into her pediatrician's office and told the news. It was very devastating to us to hear that our perfect baby had something wrong with her. We were pretty much in mourning for about the first 24 hours. Jeff, fortunately, was able to snap out of the funk that had consumed our whole house, and helped me to, as well. He has been the epitome of optimism, and a great source of strength for me. We have gotten such wonderful support from our family & friends and we can't thank each of you enough for all your kind words & love. Even though this diagnosis was shocking, there are many things that we can do for Sarah to ensure that she has the best life possible. There is an Early Intervention program that we're going to be starting soon that will help her with her fine & gross motor skills, her speech & language, and her mental capacity. Studies have shown that the earlier you start these programs, the better chance a child with Down Syndrome has of being closer to "normal". And there are varying degrees of severity. She doesn't have very many outward physical signs, and so far is behaving like any normal baby would at 2 weeks of age. There are some medical things that we have to be on the lookout for, and we have to be a little more diligent with her health, because she's at a greater risk for upper respiratory illnesses, which could lead to ear infections & hearing loss. But, we're going to be very proactive about her health & make sure that nothing (if possible) affects her therapy. I know that she's going to grow up with all the love & support as any other child, and we certainly aren't going to impede her by treating her any differently. I know this will help Emma with tolerance and understanding that not all children are the same. And Michigan is apparently a wonderful state to be in for this because they have a huge assortment of programs & support groups. I know it will be a rough road, but we're strong & we have a great family to support us.
I better end this for now. If you want, you can go to www.ndss.org to find out more. That's the National Down Syndrome Society's website. This will be a learning process for all concerned, but I know that things happen for a reason. She's still our perfect little girl & we love her with all our hearts.

The Waiting Game

No further progress in the baby department. After seeing the doctor on Tuesday, he said I haven't progressed much at all, maybe another cm but nothing to write home about, per se. But, we did talk about the possiblity of inducing me if I haven't gone into labor by the middle of next week. I was happy he was so open to it. And thankfully I don't have to go straight to the Pitocin. He said he would try something else first, some sort of hormone. And if that didn't work within 24 hours, then he'd start Pitocin. Both Jeff & I would like to avoid the whole inducing thing all together, but I also don't want to wait too long, and end up needing a C-section because I've got a 10 pound baby on my hands.
I took Emma to gymnastics last night. Most of the people that I know there were surprised I was still there. Most expected that I would have already had the baby, me included. One women even said right before we left, well I hope to not see you next week. I said thanks.
It was a busy evening. Right after gymnastics, we came back home to pick up Jeff to go grocery shopping. Since he's had the car all week, I haven't been able to go. I told him that if I went into labor without going, he & Emma would probably not have any food or toilet paper while I was gone. Either that, or they'd go buy it & pay an extremely high price for it when I know where are all the sales are. I think it was the shortest shopping trip on record for us. We only spent roughly 45 minutes in the store, and that included check-out time. And I got almost everything we needed. The rest can wait, it's not that important. Of course, the one bad thing to having Jeff go with me grocery shopping, is he's just like a little kid, grabbing things off the shelves & putting them in the cart, half slyly, thinking I won't notice until it's too late. Something tells me he's been perfecting this art since he was a small child. And he grabs things he never tells me he wants when I go by myself, so I can never buy it when it's on sale. Instead we have to pay full price for his convenience. Sorry, that's my "Grandpa Schmechel frugal gene" talking.
Emma's going to miss school today because Jeff has the car & he's going to be in a meeting from 1-5pm. But, it'll be ok, this is only the first time she's missed school (well, actually the second, but that was because we were out of town). So, I think she'll live. We'll have fun around here, maybe walk around the block again. And she can help me put away laundry, that's always fun! I've got about 50 loads of clean laundry all folded up down here by the computer, that I just haven't put away yet. Something about sclepping all this stuff up a flight of stairs just doesn't appeal to me right now. I probably should have asked Jeff to go it for me, but I forgot. I had a pretty rough night last night, very little sleep, and lots of aches & pains, so by the time Jeff got up for work, I wasn't thinking about anything but just trying to get up for the day. I told him, I can handle the sleepless nights when there's a crying hungry baby involved, but this "not sleeping" thing just because I'm uncomfortable isn't cool anymore. I'd take the crying baby anyday.
I think Emma has decided that today she's going to be a kitty all day. She's crawling around the house, meowing at me, and I have to refer to her as "kitty". She definitely has a good imagination. She comes up with all sorts of interesting things.
I think I spoke too soon when I told people that I thought that I had escaped the worst of my cold that I had last week. It seems it maybe coming back with a vengence, and a sore throat, too. But the sore throat I can handle, as long as I can breathe through my nose. Having a sore throat during labor might be a good thing for Jeff, so I won't feel as apt to yell at him.

Counting the days

Every day it seems I get at least half a dozen calls, from Jeff, and other family members, asking me if I've gone into labor yet. Mostly from Jeff. He calls from work, asking me if it's time for a baby yet. I hate to disappoint him. I keep telling him, I'm trying my best to get things rolling, but I really have no control over this. Emma & I went for a walk around the block yesterday (I walked, she was on her skates). It was a slow process, to be sure, but she had fun. Then she played with a ball in the driveway, and on the swing set out in the backyard. It was still a little chilly, but she kept herself warm by running around. I took some pictures & put them on our family website.
Jeff is taking the car to work everyday now. He wants to make sure I don't have to drive myself over to get him, should I go into labor. It's very sweet. But now he has to leave work every time we need to do something. Like today, Emma has preschool & I have a doctor's appointment. Tomorrow evening, Emma has gymnastics. We normally pick him up on the way there, but now he'll have to leave work early to come pick us up. So, hopefully I'll go into labor soon so he doesn't have to keep doing this for another week and a half.
With all the worry about having the baby early, now that I'm less than a week away from my due date, I'm now beginning to worry that I'll go late. And I don't want to do that. My mom comes on the 23rd and is only here for a week. I'm going to try to convince my doctor to induce me if I haven't delivered by that date. I don't know how he's going to react to that, but we'll see. And I don't like the idea of getting Pitocin again, since I know what it does to me, but if the ends justify the means, then I'll do it. I get to find out if I've progressed anymore today. I sure hope so. This baby's getting too big for her current surroundings. Although I think she likes it in there, and may decide to stay for a little while longer. We gotta shake her up & get her moving so she can get out. As much as I'm going to miss being pregnant (the good parts of it, at least), I'll be glad when my body is my own again, and I'm not sharing it with another tiny human being who gives me heartburn when I drink water.
Emma decided last night, after telling me that she wants me to have the baby NOW, that she would like to go to sleep, and then come downstairs in the morning & VOILA! Find the baby down here, just waiting for her, like some present on Christmas morning. I thought that was too funny. Jeff overheard her and said, Yeah I'm sure mommy would like it to happen that way, too. Too true. That would be great, but it's not even conceivable. Unless I have to be put out & given a C-section. It's so funny how little kids come up with explainations to things they don't understand.

Easter fun

Emma had her first big easter egg hunt yesterday at her friend Morgan's house. Her mom decided yesterday would be the best time, since it looked like it was supposed to rain/snow today. Emma had a great time. Since this was the first time she's ever done this before, she had a little trouble getting started, and basically just followed Morgan around the yard. There were a few other kids there, Morgan's brother Bobbie, and Zoe & Zack, the kids of some colleagues of Morgan's mom. They all had fun running around the yard, looking for eggs. We did have to help them find a few that were hidden, but overall they found them all on their own. Or so we thought. About 30 minutes after they stopped searching, the dog in the yard behind theirs was scratching & digging at the cyclone fence that separates the yards. Sue, Morgan's mom, went over to see what he was digging at. He had found an egg that no one had remembered, hidden under a pile of leaves. It was too funny. The poor dog was just looking at her like, I found it, give it to me, don't I deserve it? But it had candy in it, so no such luck for the poor guy.
After searching for the eggs, the kids decided they wanted to play on the swing set, while the adults stood around in the backyard talking. It was nice. It was a little chilly, but I don't think the kids noticed, since they were running around. After a little while, we all went back inside. We didn't stay much longer after that, but Sue offered to have Emma stick around so she could decorate real eggs with Morgan. That sounded fine with us, so we went home. Sue brought her back over about an hour later. And she wasn't screaming her head off, like she was the LAST time she left Morgan's house. But we had discussed that with her prior to us leaving her there. Jeff answered the door when she came back & offered to have the kids come over here this afternoon. So, Emma's going to have a weekend full of Morgan. It's nice that they get along so well, especially since they'll be seeing a lot of each other once I go into labor. Emma's going to be spending the night at Morgan's house once we go to the hospital. And she'll be going to Morgan's babysitter's if it happens during the work week. Speaking of which, Emma & I went over to meet her babysitter on Friday. Her name is Sue, too. We were there for about 2 hours, and Emma was really excited to see that Morgan was there. They played nicely together for the most part, except that Emma accidently hit Morgan in the face with some sort of toy. I know it wasn't on purpose, but I felt so bad for the kid. And I knew that probably wasn't the best impression to give to the lady who might be watching Emma all day in the very near future. But she didn't seem to think it was that big of a deal. She's very patient with the kids, but she doesn't take any crap, which is a good thing. Even while we were there (and probably BECAUSE Emma was there, and was causing a ruckus) the kids had to come into the living room & have some quiet time, where they just sat on the couch. Emma couldn't quite understand why she had to do it, too, but she didn't give much resistance.
When I had first told Emma yesterday morning that we were going over to Morgan's house, she thought that meant she was staying the night. We made an overnight bag for her, for when I go into labor. But she grabbed that & thought she was going to stay the night there. It was too cute. So at least I know there won't be any need to worry about separation anxiety with her when we leave her there for a day or so. And once I have the baby, she can come back home with Jeff.
So, now I'm a week away from my due date. It could happen at any time, Jeff's hoping that it'll happen soon (he really wants to have 2 weeks off of work) and now I have no idea when it's going to happen. It's kind of a dose of reality, after planning & waiting all this time and trying to get everything prepared, that you still have no control over when it finally happens. Unless you're having a scheduled C-section. It kinda makes you feel helpless knowing that you really can't do anything but sit & wait. But, since I probably should be doing more of that (the sitting, preferably with my feet up), I guess I can handle it.

One Crisis Averted

Last night at Emma's gymnastics class, we got the best news I think we've heard in awhile. Our neighbor's daycare provider will watch Emma if I go into labor during the work week. Plus, my neighbor is cool with taking her & picking her up from there (since her kids go there, too) and watching her overnight. I think both Jeff & I were ready to kiss my neighbor when she told us. I am so relieved & happy. I know Emma will have a great time with Morgan, and at the sitter's, should that become necessary. So I'm going to call the sitter today & try to set up a time to meet her, and so she can meet Emma. Apparently, she's relatively inexpensive, too, so we might be able to use her for other times when we need a part-time sitter as well. Sue also said she's very flexible with times, so she sounds great.
Now all we're doing is playing the waiting game. The baby could theoretically come at any time, which is nice, because I'm very ready for her to come now & stop playing "trampoline" on my lower abdomen. But I'm still hoping that she'll hold out until my mom gets here. But that's not for another 2 weeks. So the chances of that happening are very slim. Well, whatever happens, happens. I'm not going to stress about it because that's just going to push my blood pressure up & that's not a good thing.
We got a package yesterday from my Aunt Rhonda & Uncle Brian. It had some nice clothes in it for Sarah & also some new gymnastics/dance clothes for Emma. She was really excited. She got a new pink leotard, a black chiffon dance skirt, pink shimmery tights & black ballet slippers. She immediately wanted to put them on & dance around the house. It was too cute. I had to tell her that if she insisted on wearing all of her new clothes (mostly just the tights, skirt & shoes, I had no problem with her wearing the leotard) to gymnastics, she might get them messed up. That horrified her, so she took everything off, and wore an older leotard that she has.
She was still having a little problem understanding that the baby is going to be using all of the stuff that we've been accumulating and not be using any of Emma's things. I think she's already being a little territorial. Claiming her property before Sarah can snatch it away from her. We had a little talk yesterday about how Sarah's not going to be taking any of Emma's toys or other things (at least not for the first year or so) and how Emma's things are for big girls & all the stuff in Sarah's room is for babies. I think she got the idea. So, that was one of her big worries lately, that Sarah was going to swipe her stuff. Poor kid, this must be hard for her to understand. But I think she's dealing with it well. I know we'll have some instances where Emma's not going to be happy that Sarah's here, but hopefully those times will be outnumbered by the times that she actually likes having Sarah around.
Andrea, the girl who watched Emma a couple months ago, said she had a dream that I had the baby tonight at 8:08 pm. Jeff said I better get going if I'm going to meet the deadline. I asked him what he wanted me to do, jump up & down, go up & down a few hundred flights of stairs, or maybe get someone to scare me to kick start the labor? Plus, Survivor's on tonight & I doubt even contractions would get Jeff & I to miss it.

No news is good news?

I had my 38 week check-up yesterday afternoon. I was so excited because I really & truly thought that I was going to have progressed since my last check-up 2 weeks ago. Apparently my body had other ideas because I haven't changed a bit. Bummer. Now this doesn't mean that I couldn't go into labor at any money, because I could. But it also means that I still might have another 2 full weeks before this baby's born. I don't know whether to be happy or sad. Happy, because then my mom might be here, or sad because I'm really starting to get sick of being pregnant.
The only thing that changed since the last time was my blood pressure. It was up a little bit, which is what started happening with Emma. That forced me to not be able to get up & walk around my whole labor, which I believe stalled it, forcing me to be given Pitocin, which inevitably means an epidural. I'm not a Pioneer woman by any stretch of the imagination. I would like to avoid pain at all costs, but I want to TRY to have a natural drug-free delivery. I'm going to go as far as my pain receptors will allow me. And since I had NO breathing techniques to fall back on last time, I'm really glad that Jeff & I have been watching this childbirth video. We watched the 5th installment last night. It was all about the medical stuff that is entailed with a delivery. The different forms of pain management, Pitocin, also forceps & vacuum deliveries, and both external & internal monitoring of the baby. Jeff feels like he got a "Get out of jail free" card when the instructor told her class that most doctors will ask the husband to leave the room when they give their wife an epidural. Mostly because most men will wind up on the floor, needing a hospital bed themselves, if they saw how big the needle was that was going to be in her back. And if they don't end up fainting, the husbands could end up knocking the poor anesthesiologist upside his head for the same reason. "You're going to stick that gigantic needle WHERE? I don't think so, how about I stick it somewhere?" Jeff feels he's more inclined to smack the doctor for that reason, rather than fainting. I pointed out to him that the one time he's seen me in a hospital setting where I had an IV in my hand, I had to cover it up with a blanket because he can't stand needles. I told him that I wasn't going to be so discreet about it this time. I reminded him that this whole thing isn't about him, it's about me. He's going to have to somehow get over the fear & realize that it's helping me, not hurting me. And I don't care, stick me anywhere, I have no fear of needles. It's a good thing, too. I think it goes back to when I was in the hospital for 2 weeks after I got hit by a car at age 8. I had IV's stuck everywhere, so much so that I have scars on my arms from them. Little tiny pin prick holes in the crook of my elbow. They were concentrated on my right arm because I think my left arm is defective. You can't get a needle into any vein in that arm. Maybe it's because I'm left-handed, I have no idea. But it's always been that way.
I was really surprised when the instructor on the video told her class that she got an epidural. I had been thinking to myself that she probably is going to be the typical Lamaze instructor, advocating no drugs, you can do this, it's completely natural, you don't need help. But even she conceded that when you get Pitocin, as she did (and as I did, too) that it's almost impossible to get through the labor & delivery without an epidural. It's because it makes your contractions 10 times worse than what Mother Nature would do to you. It's forcing your body to do things in half the time, thus making everything stronger. I can attest to that. Pitocin sucks the big one. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure that if I hadn't gotten it, I most likely would have had to get a C-Section with Emma, because I was going nowhere fast with her. But I would really like to avoid all that stuff this time around. But, it was really nice to hear a Lamaze instructor not be all "mafia-like" about using drugs during labor. And although I'm not opposed to using some sort of pain management therapy, I'm also not going to walk in the door & schedule my epidural right then & there.
One thing that is so frustrating about going into labor is not knowing the actual time that it'll start. It makes it really hard to plan things. I'm sure that's not the #1 complaint of pregnant women, but it's one of mine. I know I have things I should be doing, to make sure they're finished by the time I go into labor. But at the same time, I'm afraid if I do them too soon, then I'll end up having to re-do them many times before the actual time comes. Like laundry. I had all our clothes ready, in the bags, raring to go. Then Jeff gts sick & we have to use some of his clothes from the hospital bag. So now I have to wash them again. It's little stuff like that that gets me a little tired. I know that's not anything big, but when you're 9 months pregnant, already feeling like you're carrying more than one little person inside your body, carrying a basket full of laundry up a flight of stairs, trying not to knock anything off the wall in the process can be a feat. By the time I get up to our room, I'm winded, my heart is racing, and I feel like I've just ran a marathon. So you can see how I would like to avoid these things as much as possible. I do utilize Jeff & Emma during these bouts of cleaning. I ask Emma to run around the house looking for dirty dishes & she trails after me, picking up clean laundry off the floor should it fall out of the basket on my way upstairs. And I don't think I've carried the vacuum cleaner up or down any stairs in the past month or so. If a floor needs cleaning, it can wait until Jeff gets home to move the vacuum to that particular level. If he's not here, the level the vacuum cleaner is on is the only one that gets cleaned. And don't even think about asking me to vacuum the stairs, it's not happening. That requires way too much energy to even think about.
Jeff came home sick today. Apparently his "super-human" immune system may be taking a vacation. I don't think I've ever seen him this sick for this long. And he actually sounds worse today than he did yesterday. I picked him up before picking Emma up from school and he went with me. She came out of her class, saw Jeff & was so excited! I'm sure that made his day a little brighter knowing his daughter was so happy to see him. And even though he was so sick, he helped me clean up the house before the realtor showed it this afternoon. Good thing, too because I think I would have been too tired to finish on my own everything we did together. Plus, like I said before, he's the one who schleps the vacuum up & down the stairs. So between the two of us, the house looks pretty nice. So, if I can just keep it up like this until the baby's born, then I won't have to come back from the hospital to a mess. Oh wait, Jeff's going to be here alone with Emma for 2 days. That perfect scenario just flew out the window. I can't expect him to keep the house clean AND watch Emma, right? That would be way too much pressure. Hehe
Emma had a really good time at school today. She was so happy to be going back after having a break last week. And her little friend Lillie was also happy to see her. She's so funny, everytime she sees Emma, she runs over to her & gives her a big hug. I feel bad for her, though, because Emma keeps calling her Brandon, don't ask me why. I keep reminding her that her name is Lillie, but Emma's not too good with remembering names sometimes. She kept calling her friend Matthew in San Diego Ryan, and she kept calling Ryan, Matthew. It's all so confusing for a little 4 year old. But at least she's remembering Sarah's name. I keep quizzing her.
Emma got the new movie "Brother Bear" today. We really liked it when we saw it in the theater. It's such a cute movie. The moose are my favorite characters. Canadian moose, no less. They end every sentence, question, or statement with "eh?" "Beauty, eh?" I think it's funny because people around here talk like that sometimes, too. It must be because we're so close to Canada. Even when we saw the Barenaked Ladies in February, they said stuff like that, too. So much for trying to not stereotype people. It's hard to give people the benefit of the doubt when they do the things that are stereotypical.
And to be fair, Jeff also got a movie. "Matrix Revolutions". So, now they're both happy. Something tells me I won't be able to watch anything I want for awhile.