Wordless Wednesday #58: Mark Your Calendars

Ok, I admit that I digitally enhanced the text on this sign, but only because you couldn't make it out on my fuzzy camera-phone photo.

This church is right up the road from our house, and I swear this is what it really says.

That's quite the guest speaker they've got lined up for tomorrow's service.



Learn more about Wordless Wednesday.

Ten on Tuesday #30

Ten Superstitions, Traditions, and/or Personality Quirks of Mine

1. I count things. Things that don't need to be counted. Preferably in multiples of four. Always in even numbers.


2. I don't like stepping on cracks (no, it's not about Anonymama's back) and if there are changes in the flooring/ground/surface that I'm walking on, I'd much prefer to do an even number of steps on each type of surface. Even if it's just two different colors of identical carpeting or tile, I swear I can feel the difference with my feet.
   
3. Speaking of colors and evenness and such: When I eat M&Ms, sometimes I just shovel them in, but more often, I sort them by color, and eat them in order from lightest to darkest, two at a time, chewing one on each side of my mouth.


4. For some reason, I'm hanging on to the empty medication vials from not only my estrogen and progesterone, but both of our stim meds, from the IVF and from my IUI cycles. I've also got about six sharps boxes full of needles/syringes. I guess I'm waiting until I'm all done with the meds to get rid of all the sharps at once, and I'm hesitant to get rid of the unopened vials, for fear that if I don't have them, something will go wrong, and I'll need them again. But what's up with empty progesterone vials? Maybe I'd just saving it all to take one big photos off all the detritus when I'm done with the injections in a few weeks? Yeah, that's the ticket.


5. There are a lot of traditions that I try to follow, nothing really wierd enough to be worth mentioning here. The most important ones to me are family holiday traditions, and all sorts of traditions from my summer camp.


6. Oh, here's one, that sort of comes from camp. In Camp Fire, candles (and fire, as you can imagine) are a big deal, and it's sort of a "thing" that you snuff out ceremonial candles, rather than blowing them out, so that you don't "blow away the good spirits." I tend to follow that with candles in "regular" life too, if they are lit in any sort of ceremonial type way. (Except for birthday candles, which of course, must be blown. But, see below about the wishes.)


7. When I eat an apple, I twist the stem and say the alphabet, and make sure that the stem comes off right on Shrike's actual first initial (not "S"). She does the same thing. As those of you who actually know me can imagine, she has to yank on that stem a lot harder than I do, to make it work!
   
8. Any time I "make a wish" I must go on and on and on and include all the details and, as Shrike puts it, "get the monkey-paws out."
   
9. When my necklace gets turned around, I kiss the clasp, make a wish, and turn it back. Because I'm twelve years old.


10. This happens pretty often, and I was spending alot of time reciting several years worth of "wish" so I finally just declared that I had made a "wish macro" defining the default wish for the necklace, so now I just kiss it and say (silently) "wish" and go about my business.

Wow. I am a fucking freak.

Learn More About Ten on Tuesday

Dog Gone?

Don't worry, everyone is safe at home, where they belong.

Now.

But . . . .

Earlier this evening, I sat down on the couch to watch some TV. BoyCat was in my lap, and the dogs were in the backyard.

Or so I thought.

Just as I got comfortable, some movement outside the front window caught my eye.

I looked, and saw a glimpse of BigGaloot's tail passing by.

What the fuck?!?

I opened the front door and there he stood, looking like he was about the ring the doorbell and offer to sell me some cookies or tell me about Jesus or something.

I put on some shoes and checked the yard. PerfectPup was, of course, still in the yard, but I did find an area of hinky fence, which is where I'm sure he got out.

The fence is split-rail, with a wire mesh. In this one spot, not only is the top rail un-nailed and down on one side, but the mesh is pushed out at the bottom, right by a dug-out area.

Ack!

I moved some old plant pots in front of the pushed-out area, to block it off, and propped up the rail and hoped for the best.

They are out there again, and seem to be staying put, so I guess it worked. For now.

Happy Birthday, Shrike!

To My Wife:

Once again, I am going to risk embarrassing you by saying a bunch of mushy stuff to you in front of all the Interwebs.

But it shouldn't surprise you, because it's nothing that I haven't been telling you over and over for, oh, the last ten years or so.

There are not enough words in the universe to tell you how much I love you, or what you mean to me, or how happy you make me.

There is nothing I love more than being with you, and I hate it when we are apart.

Sometimes I wish the rest of the world would just leave us the hell alone, and let us be together all the time, with our critters and our little Peeper.

(Family members and blog readers excepted, of course. Actually, I guess I'm mostly talking about work.)

And, speaking of Peeper. Wow. Just wow.

I can't even begin to tell you how it feels to be carrying your child, or begin to thank you for making that possible, or to begin to describe how happy it makes me to see you so excited about him/her.

It's hard to believe that this will be our last set of birthdays as a twosome - because next year Peeper will be here with us, to help us celebrate.

(And to help me welcome you to the other side of the proverbial hill.)

We have been through a lot (good and bad) in the ten years that we've been together - and we've been through a lot together in the past year - and we've got one hell of a year ahead of us - and I can't wait to spend it - and all the rest - with you.

Happy birthday, honey, I love you.
Whozat

Photo Hunter #51: Funny Signs

I've skipped the PhotoHunt for a couple of weeks, but hope to get back on track now.

(For some reason, memes have been really hard for me, since I've been pregnant. Odd.)

I didn't actually take this photo, because the signs aren't up anymore, but I got such a kick out of it (and others got so up in arms about it) that I just had to use it for this theme .


Other signs that I've seen around here (or back home) which would have made good photos for this theme:

• Please be patience. Food prepared fresly. (Handwritten, at a local Mexican restaurant.)

• Godloves Discount Liquors (Well, who doesn't!)
  

• Why Wait? Get Your Wheelchair Today! (Rather fatalistic, don't you think?)

Learn More About Photo Hunters
Photo Hunters Blog Roll

More PhotoHunt Photos

S/he's Got Legs . . .

First, and foremost: Everything is fine.

Peeper is great.

In fact, Peeper is an inch-long package of embryonic (soon-to-be-fetal) perfection, with arms and legs and (if the rumors are to believed) a tongue and a nose - and a butthole (like we didn't already have enough of those in the world!)

And here's the proof:

Now that we've established that, I'll explain that we had another ultrasound this morning, because the little shit darling gave us a bit of a scare earlier in the week.

We hadn't mentioned this to anyone, nor had I blogged about it, because we were 99.99999999% sure that everything was fine, so we saw no need in getting people worried for nothing.

Now that we know that for sure that all is well, I'll go back and tell the whole story.

On Tuesday, I'd taken the day off work to engage in some electorally-related activities that were going on in these parts. I'd planned to be out and about by 7 am, but didn't manage to actually drag my ass out of bed til around 8 am, so I decided I'd make phone calls for a while, then head out around lunch-ish.

About 10:30 am, I took a break from my calls, and went to the bathroom, where I discovered that I was spotting, just the tiniest little bit, but certainly enough to freak me out.

(As you might imagine, at nine weeks pregnant, the amount of spotting required to cause freaking out is pretty fucking minimal.)

Now, I knew, intellectually, that spotting in early pregnancy is quite normal, and nothing to be overly concerned about, provided that it's not heavy or bright red or accompanied by significant cramping, but still. Yeah. Pretty freaked out.

I immediately made calls to both my fertility clinic and my regular OB. By the time I was done leaving voicemails for them, Shrike had consulted Dr. Google, and was quizzing me about cramps and color and amount, and telling me exactly what I said above.

By that point, of course, I had already decided that my activities for the day would not involve standing around outside for hours at a time, talking to strangers.

While I waited for nurses to call me back, I went to lie down, because it seemed like the thing to do.

At this point in the story, I would be remiss if I did not describe just how wonderful Shrike was during this whole episode. I keep telling her this, and she keeps telling me that I'm being silly, but I really mean it.

She handled it just perfectly. She was appropriately concerned, yet very reassuring. She told me that everything would be fine (and mostly convinced me) without ever making me feel like I was overreacting.

When I retreated to the bed, Shrike joined me and snugged me, and petted me, and let me freak out and cry for a bit. Then we both fell asleep.

Because that seemed like the thing to do.

The first call back was from the nurse at my regular OB's office who told me what I already knew (see above) and said that everything should be just fine, but to call back if anything changed.

When I'd not yet heard back from Nurse E at the fertility clinic, I called them again, and this time told the receptionist what was going on (the first time, I just asked for Nurse E's voicemail).

Because Nurse E is technically no longer our nurse, since we moved to IVF, she made me talk to another nurse, part of Nurse D's donor team (Nurse D was not in, as she only works Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Must be nice.).

Note: I really like Nurse D too, but "she's not my real nurse." And, it's kind of a pain in the ass that she's only there every other day. When we were in the middle of the IVF process, it made sense to deal with the nurses who specifically work with donor-egg IVF patients but, at this point, Nurse E knows the answers to my questions just as well as they do, so if I have my choice, I'd rather deal directly with her.

Anyway, that nurse told me the same thing, again, but also that, "if it were me, I'd want to come in for another ultrasound in a few days, just for my peace of mind."

Bingo! That's the answer I was looking for!

Let's see, ultrasound three days from now - or three weeks from now? What ever shall I do?

"Well, if you think I should. Can you transfer me to the scheduler right now?"

I was already feeling much better about everything by that point (from what the nurses had said, and the fact that nothing was changing spotting-wise; it wasn't getting heavier or any different), when Nurse E called to reassure me some more.

She agreed that the ultrasound was a dandy idea, and also assured me that something terrifying happens to every pregnant woman at some point along the way (for her, it was a fall down a flight of stairs!) and told me not to hesitate to call back if I needed to.

The spotting continued to be very, very, very light through Tuesday and Wednesday and had pretty much stopped by yesterday.

I was feeling pretty confident about things at that point, but was of course, still pretty nervous by the time the ultrasound rolled around this morning.

Of course, as soon as the dildo-cam was in position (when do I get to switch to abdominal ultrasounds?) we saw Peeper right away, including his/her little heart beating just as it should be - and a hint of some stubby little legs!

S/he is 24.7 mm long (just shy of an inch), which corresponds to 9 weeks 1 day, with a heart rate of 182 beats per minute (which is, evidently, just right).

There was no sign of any bleeding going on inside my uterus, or anything else to cause any concern.

Dr E (like the nurses) said that there are any number of inconsequential things that can cause a little bit of bleeding during pregnancy, and that, while it's very scary at the time, it's usually nothing to worry about.

She did recommend that I "take it easy" with no heavy lifting or strenuous physical activity for a few days, but other than that, everything is just fine.

So, the upshot is that we got a bonus look at Peeper, which I was happy to have, spotting or not.

My next appointment will be on May 8 with Dr B, my regular OB and then I have another appointment on May 14 with the perinatologist, for the nuchal translucency ultrasound.

I'll try to resist coming up with any other excuses for additional ultrasounds between now and then.

Five on Friday #10: Achoo!

1. Do you experience any seasonal allergies? Are you allergic to anything else?
   I don't think I have seasonal allergies, although everytime I get a cold (at any time of the year) everyone always wants to tell me it's allergies.

   Me: "Sniffle, snort, sneeze."
   Them: "Allergies?"
   Me: "No, just a cold."
   Them: "Yeah, my allergies always act up around now."
   Me: "No, I think I have a cold."
   Them: "Right. Must be the pollen."

   I guess the fever and the predictable pattern of progression from throat to sinuses to chest over the course of 5 to 7 days, and the fact that Shrike often gets exactly the same symptoms a week later, isn't enough to convince them.
   
   Other allergies: Penicillin, Antihistamines, Decongestants, Cough Suppressants

   
   

2. What kinds of symptoms do you experience during your allergic reactions?
   Penicillin: Twice, I've gotten hives a few days after finishing a course of Ampicillin or Amoxycillin, or one of those A...cillins.
   
   Other things: Anonymama can tell you better, because I was a tiny thing, but it involved being completely freaked out and possibly (based on LadyKay's similar reactions, when she was old enough to recognize them) hallucinations.

   
   

3. How do you manage your allergies?
   Avoidance. The antihistamine allergy is a serious incentive for avoiding the penicillin which will give me hives, and the stories of my reactions as a kid keep me away from the cold meds.
   

4. What is the strangest allergy you've ever heard of?
   My "anything one might possibly take to feel better when one has a cold" allergy.
   
   The upside: When I had a cold a few weeks ago, at about 6 six weeks pregnant, all the drugs that are "no-nos" during pregnancy were already on my "can not take" list, so unlike most pregant women with a cold, I was no more miserable than I usually am when I'm sick. Yeah, it was a small consolation.
   

5. How do you feel about school and social policies banning peanuts and other allergens?
   If there's a kid in a class who has a serious peanut allergy, it seems reasonable to ban them from that classroom, or the lunchroom or whatever. It would be one thing if we were talking about something he'd have to actually eat to be affected, or something that might cause a few sniffles, but a serious peanut allergy can kill a kid, just from being around it. I don't think that's something that you should take chances with. It's not going to hurt the other kids to save their PB&Js for after-school snacks, in order to protect the health of their classmate.

Visit the Five on Friday Blog

View My Five on Friday Posts

A Pick-a-Nick

Nothing really exciting to tell from today, except that Shrike and I had a lovely picnic dinner in the park.

I think I've mentioned before that the town where she works is between my work town and home, so I often stop by for dinner when I get off early enough.

At first, we'd throw something in the microwave and hang out in the lunchroom at her work, but that got old fast, and she prefers to get away for a while.

So, then, we'd gotten in to the habit of going out to dinner - usually either Taco Bell or Chinese or a new little Mexican restaurant near the Chinese buffet, but that's starting to get pretty pricey.

So, today, the weather was so nice, we decided that I'd pick us up some dinner at the local gas station / convenience storage / made-to-order fast food establishment (which has surprisingly yummy food, although it doesn't really help with the "pricey" thing - but it's a start) and we took it to the local park for a picnic.

We ate, then walked around by the pond/lake/body of water and watched the ducks and geese and freakishly large fish - and the other people who were watching and feeding them.

Then I had to take her back to work, which sucked, but it was a nice little bright spot in my day.

And hers, too, I hope.

Wordless Wednesday #57: Easter Feast

I just realized that I never posted any of the photos from our Easter party.

Learn more about Wordless Wednesday.

Ten on Tuesday #29

Lately the "Ten on Tuesday" questions have been things like "your favorite actors/actresses" and other such stuff about which I really have no opinion, so I've been opting out. This one, I can sink my teeth into, though.

Ten Things I Love About My Life

1. Shrike. I can't say this enough. Maybe it's the hormones making me all sappy, but she is the best thing in my life.
2. Peeper. S/he is the best thing that is about to be in my life. (And, currently, the best thing in my uterus.)
3. The rest of our families.
4. Our pets (on most days).
5. Our friends, old and new.
6. We're both in good health.
7. Although it would be great to win the lottery and never have to work again, we are both lucky enough to have jobs that are fulfilling and pay well. (Or, at least, one of each.)
8. So, while we may not have anywhere near everything we want, we do (mostly) have everything we need.
9. Despite the fact that there are a lot of things that could use some work (see my my most recent Ten on Tuesday entry) I really like our house, and I'm glad that it's ours.
10. This isn't exactly about my life, specifically, but it's springtime here in BlueState, and the flowers and flowering trees are distractingly beautiful, as you drive down the road.

Learn More About Ten on Tuesday