This morning, I rode the bus to work for the first time in about a month. For several months, every time I rode, I got motion sick, so I just stopped. I really do dislike driving to work, though, and today I needed gas and didn't feel like getting it, so it seemed like a good time to see if this baby still doesn't like public transportation.
Well, we did fine--no motion sickness--but I'm not sure if that's because I am over that or if it's because I spent the whole bus ride either trying to ignore the conversation behind me or trying to resist the urge to slap this crazy woman behind me.
The initial conversation was more annoying than anything... there are some ladies on the bus we lovingly refer to as "biddies." They are very loud and opinionated and generally their opinions are not shared by the majority of bus riders. I was lucky enough this morning to have a man give up his seat for me on a bus that was packed full with about 15 people standing in the aisle, but unlucky enough that my seat was right in front of the biddies. So they were talking politics, and they and me are not on the same side of the political fence. I respect that not everyone thinks like me, so I was just trying to tune them out.
Unfortunately, it wasn't working, so I was still hearing every word when they started talking about health care. And I heard loud and clear when one woman, standing in the aisle, spewed out this little gem:
"You know, I don't have a problem with health insurance companies dropping someone if they get cancer."
EXCUSE ME!?
Oh, friends. Oh, dear internet friends. I turned around to see who the crazy bitch was who had just said this LOUDLY on a bus full of about 65 people, and really and truly wanted to say something to her, but I didn't. Because I was pissed, and I knew that if I said something, there was going to be a scene and I was not going to find any words to say that were going to be nice. And I try to be a lady, at least in front of strangers.
Can you believe she said that in front of God and everybody?! I still can't. Obviously she has never had a family member suffer from cancer, nor does she understand the concept that she's paying monthly for insurance that's supposed to COVER YOU if you have a SERIOUS HEALTH PROBLEM. Holy moses.
So I was fuming. I wanted to slap her so bad my baby hurt, but I just looked forward and got out my cell phone and texted away with two friends on the bus.
I couldn't, however, keep my mouth shut when we got to the first bus stop and someone behind her was trying to get off and I heard her say, "Well, you'll just have to wait until the next stop." I spoke up then, and said something along the lines of "OH NO, YOU WILL LET HIM OFF! YOU WOULDN'T LIKE IT IF SOMEONE TOLD YOU YOU COULDN'T GET OFF OF THE BUS!" And yes, I may have said it so loudly that probably everyone on the bus heard me.
But at least I didn't slap her. :)
1.21.2010
1.17.2010
LDB: Week 24
Yesterday I put a countdown of the weeks left until we get to meet LDB on our fridge... over half way there, and HOLY CRAP that Week 40 mark is coming fast! :)
The past month or so has gone really smoothly. I certainly am tired more easily and more often, and I'm starting to get uncomfortable, but really, I'm feeling good. My last doctor's visit was nice and simple... baby growing well, mommy feeling good, see you in four weeks! I have to say, since I'm in this calm stage of pregnancy, it makes me miss the midwife I started out with... my new high risk OB is great, don't get me wrong, but it's just a different type of care. I talked to my doc last week about getting back in with the midwife group at MCV so that, if I continue to do well with this pregnancy, I can have the natural birth I was hoping for. Hopefully that will work out!
Now our focus needs to be on getting ready for LDB's arrival in... wow, 3.5 months! We have to get a lot of stuff cleaned out of the house and clear out a room for him, we need to pick furniture for the nursery... we're working on it, but it's a slow process with both of us working full time. I thought that I would get a lot accomplished with two weeks off at Christmas, but between getting ready for the holidays and then taking some time to be lazy (pregnant ladies are supposed to do that, right?), not a lot happened. :)
My good friend Traci took me to Babies R Us earlier this week to register. She offered to do this a couple of years ago before I was even pregnant, and I had been counting on her advice ever since. And let me tell you, having her there was priceless! She and I worked together at the Arthritis Foundation and I've considered her a surrogate big sister for the past, gosh, almost 10 years. I trust her advice and we have similar personalities, so basically whatever she said worked for her, I scanned it. :) (With a little personalization, anyway...) My mother-in-law is having a baby shower for me Super Bowl weekend so that I won't have to make the 6-hour drive to Pennsylvania when I'm REALLY uncomfortable and huge, so we need to get to Target and do some registering as well. It's a bit overwhelming how much STUFF you need for a baby!
Bryan got to feel our little man kick for the first time Christmas night, how sweet is that? He (the baby) is quite the little athlete... he is very active and with some of the kicks I get, I'm nervous about what the next 16 weeks hold. I've heard stories of cracked ribs and such, hopefully LDB will spare me that. :)
12.18.2009
A Boy Named Sue*.
Well, it's official, Bryan's been calling our son a daughter for the past several months! :)
We had our 20 week ultrasound yesterday, and found out that we're going to have a son in a few months! We're both so excited, although I think it's safe to say we were surprised he's not a girl. Not disappointed, just surprised. :) We had a girl name all ready to go... no boy name yet. It'll come though. I mean, worst case scenario, we'll just pull a Tom Brady and take our sweet time naming him!
LDB (which can now be Little Dancing Boy instead of Little Dancing Baby) was playing with his feet when the ultrasound started... how cute is that? Like Bryan said, he probably gets bored in there, what else is he going to do??
I've put a couple more pictures from the ultrasound in LDB's Picasaweb album if you want to check them out. :) Also, I will not be posting pictures of his little penis, as I believe 'em when they say that anything you put on the internet lasts forever. I don't want my little man getting mad that I was exposing him to the world, before he was even born! :)
*No, Sue wasn't the name we had picked for a girl, and no, we will not be naming our son Sue. (Sorry boss lady, no namesake for you. ;-) )
12.17.2009
LDB: Week 19-20
(This picture was actually taken at Week 18... but whatever. :) )Today is the big day--we have our 20 week ultrasound! Woohoo! I have been so excited and distracted by this prospect since we set the date for the appointment. We are certainly not the types who want to be surprised on delivery day with whether our child has girl parts or boy parts. I need to KNOW before I go crazy! :)
Bryan has been calling LDB a girl basically since we found out I was pregnant. It's interesting, because I hear all this stuff about mother's intuition and whatnot, and people ask me what I think. Well, here's what I think: I either need to have my husband stop calling our son a daughter, or I need to know it's a daughter so I can stop worrying that he's going to give our child some kind of gender confusion complex before it's even born! :)
When we had our 10 week ultrasound, I referred to it as a girl without thinking about it. I've also had several dreams it's a boy. So... I have no prediction.
Of course, not having a prediction doesn't mean I can't get one! There are so many quizzes and methods you can use on the internet to determine if you're having a boy or a girl that, truly, what's the use of an ultrasound?
Anyway, as long as this baby exposes itself like we want it to this afternoon, we'll know in a few short hours if we're expecting a little miss or little mister Klinger in a few months!
Apart from eagerly anticipating today's appointment, all has been going well. We switched OBs to a doc here at MCV that Bryan and I both really liked. We'll see him again today after our ultrasound.
I've been feeling good, apart from being downright exhausted and apart from trying to get used to all this extra business in my midsection. Talk about throwing off your center of gravity! I find myself making grunting and groaning noises when trying to do something as simple as get off the couch ALREADY. And if you know me, you know that I am not a fan of extraneous human noisemaking. I like when people do things quietly. But I'm quickly learning that in some cases, you just feel like you have to make a noise to make it happen. I can tell I'm going to be annoying the hell out of myself before this is all over with. :)
The other day I tried to put on a pair of pants that had always been too big for me and that had been carrying me pretty far along into my pregnancy. Definitely can't button them. For some reason I thought I was going to be able to, but I had to accept that it's all-maternity-all-the-time for me from here on out. Sexy.
Anyway, sorry for the lack of updates. I'm going to try to do better. Once we know what LDB is going to be, I feel like I can really get rolling on planning for (meaning SHOPPING FOR) this tiny dancer, and that's gonna be all kinds of fun. :)
Bryan has been calling LDB a girl basically since we found out I was pregnant. It's interesting, because I hear all this stuff about mother's intuition and whatnot, and people ask me what I think. Well, here's what I think: I either need to have my husband stop calling our son a daughter, or I need to know it's a daughter so I can stop worrying that he's going to give our child some kind of gender confusion complex before it's even born! :)
When we had our 10 week ultrasound, I referred to it as a girl without thinking about it. I've also had several dreams it's a boy. So... I have no prediction.
Of course, not having a prediction doesn't mean I can't get one! There are so many quizzes and methods you can use on the internet to determine if you're having a boy or a girl that, truly, what's the use of an ultrasound?
- The childbirth.org quiz, which puts a bunch of prediction methods together, tells me it's a boy.
- The Chinese Gender Chart tells me it's a girl.
- The heart rate prediction method tells me it's a girl.
- The Drano Gender Predictor test tells me it's a... wait a minute, people actually pour their own urine in a cup of crystal Drano to try to figure out the sex of their baby?! Um, no. I will not be doing that.
Anyway, as long as this baby exposes itself like we want it to this afternoon, we'll know in a few short hours if we're expecting a little miss or little mister Klinger in a few months!
Apart from eagerly anticipating today's appointment, all has been going well. We switched OBs to a doc here at MCV that Bryan and I both really liked. We'll see him again today after our ultrasound.
I've been feeling good, apart from being downright exhausted and apart from trying to get used to all this extra business in my midsection. Talk about throwing off your center of gravity! I find myself making grunting and groaning noises when trying to do something as simple as get off the couch ALREADY. And if you know me, you know that I am not a fan of extraneous human noisemaking. I like when people do things quietly. But I'm quickly learning that in some cases, you just feel like you have to make a noise to make it happen. I can tell I'm going to be annoying the hell out of myself before this is all over with. :)
The other day I tried to put on a pair of pants that had always been too big for me and that had been carrying me pretty far along into my pregnancy. Definitely can't button them. For some reason I thought I was going to be able to, but I had to accept that it's all-maternity-all-the-time for me from here on out. Sexy.
Anyway, sorry for the lack of updates. I'm going to try to do better. Once we know what LDB is going to be, I feel like I can really get rolling on planning for (meaning SHOPPING FOR) this tiny dancer, and that's gonna be all kinds of fun. :)
11.19.2009
LDB: Week 16
On Saturday I'll be 16 weeks pregnant. As if time hadn't already started flying fast enough after I graduated from college 9 years ago (really?! 9?!), I guess this whole being a parent thing makes it fly at warp speed?
The past few weeks have been... interesting, to say the least. Last week in particular... but where to start without giving a whole long medical history of myself...
Well, let's start with the Down's screening we did. That went well--our risk of the baby having either Down's Syndrome or Trisomies 13 or 18 is less than 1 in 10,000. That's better than your average 20 year old woman, so that was awesome. But as this pregnancy has gone along, my high risk OB has become more and more concerned with potential problems with all of my health problems. We started out with a midwife as our primary obstetric care provider and the high risk OB on the side for backup, but the HR OB was wondering if perhaps I should switch to a straight up MD, and if maybe I should move my care to MCV rather than St. Francis, since all of my specialists are at MCV and they're basically ready for anything. At St. Francis, they'd have to move me if anything got too crazy.
That probably sounds awful... all my health problems... potential problems... well, the thing is, it's not. I have a couple forms of arthritis and an autoimmune disease called hereditary angioedema and apparently a mild form of something called Klippel Trenaunay Weber Syndrome. None of these poses any real risk to the baby, it's moreso a question of what happens if I end up in a flare of one of the autoimmune things during the pregnancy? Who's gonna handle it? How's it gonna be handled?
Ironically, the night after I had conversation with my HR OB wherein I told him I wasn't worried about this, I have lived with these problems my whole life and I know how to handle it, I had a horrible attack of angioedema. This is a swelling condition... there's a certain enzyme I'm deficient of, and if my levels of that get too low, I have crazy abdominal swelling. The swelling pushes on all your organs and it hurts like a sonofabitch. It makes you nauseated and there's really nothing you can do but take something for the pain and wait it out. Yes, that blows, but I've been there a time or two (or 20) and I know that typically I can sleep through a lot of it, then within about 36 hours I'm getting better.
Well, not this time. I was 48 hours in and my pain was spiking to an 8 or 9 on a 10 point scale, and I was holding steady at a 6 or a 7 when I wasn't having stabbing pains. So I told Bryan it was time to go to the hospital. We came to MCV in the middle of the night on Saturday of last week. I knew I was dehydrated, and I just needed someone to do SOMETHING for the pain and nausea.
Thankfully, the people here took very good care of me, but I didn't get better very quickly. My immunologist came in on Monday and got the process rolling to get in a supply of this wonder drug that IS the enzyme I'm deficient of in a concentrated form. Unfortunately, it's very new to the market and it was going to be 24 hours before I could get it. So I stayed in the hospital, with the lovely doctors managing my pain and nausea and me getting sicker of being in the bed by the minute. Bryan stayed by my side almost the whole time--he was working night shift, so he slept in the chair in my room during the day and went to work at night. I had some visitors to keep me company (thanks Dad, Leslie, Krystyna and Maia!), and finally, on Tuesday, I got the miracle infusion.
It's weird to think that there is a drug that stops a swelling attack within 30 minutes, but there is. An hour after I had that medication in my IV, I knew the swelling had stopped. I still felt like crap, but, I mean, wouldn't you, after being sick for five days and being in the hospital for three of those? Thankfully, my immunologist arranged for the pharmacy at MCV to keep another dose of this medication in case I or another angioedema patient have another attack... next time, I'll be in ASAP rather than suffering for days!
I took Wednesday off of work, too, at my doctor's orders, and Thursday came back for half a day. I think it was weird to everyone that I had been in the hospital yet was already back at work. But once the swelling was gone, I was practically good as new!
Friday I intended to work a full day, but guess what? I got in a car accident on the way to work. As if I needed that on top of the week I had already had! Thankfully it was pretty minor--there was a rear-ending in front of me on the interstate, I had the good sense to be far enough behind the person in front of me that I did NOT rear end her, but the lady behind me was not so sensible, nor was the lady behind her. So... that put another kink in the week. I was a little stiff, and didn't think there had been any damage to Little Dancing Baby, but I went to my midwife that afternoon just to check... LDB's heart was beating just fine, at 152 beats/minute. :)
So, after all of that, I decided my high risk OB is right. I think it's better for me to transfer my care to MCV so that all of the people who know about all of my things are under one roof and can consult with each other (or be available) as needed. So we'll have our first appointment with our new OB on December 1. Good times. :)
In other news, I went last weekend and bought maternity clothes. The bump is growing, for sure. And yesterday, I felt the baby move. I think I've felt it before, but this time, there was no question in my mind whether it was gas or something else... it was our LDB, dancing up a storm in there.
And it was amazing. :) I can't wait until s/he is big enough that his/her Daddy can feel the movement too... I feel like I'm hogging all the fun! :)
The past few weeks have been... interesting, to say the least. Last week in particular... but where to start without giving a whole long medical history of myself...
Well, let's start with the Down's screening we did. That went well--our risk of the baby having either Down's Syndrome or Trisomies 13 or 18 is less than 1 in 10,000. That's better than your average 20 year old woman, so that was awesome. But as this pregnancy has gone along, my high risk OB has become more and more concerned with potential problems with all of my health problems. We started out with a midwife as our primary obstetric care provider and the high risk OB on the side for backup, but the HR OB was wondering if perhaps I should switch to a straight up MD, and if maybe I should move my care to MCV rather than St. Francis, since all of my specialists are at MCV and they're basically ready for anything. At St. Francis, they'd have to move me if anything got too crazy.
That probably sounds awful... all my health problems... potential problems... well, the thing is, it's not. I have a couple forms of arthritis and an autoimmune disease called hereditary angioedema and apparently a mild form of something called Klippel Trenaunay Weber Syndrome. None of these poses any real risk to the baby, it's moreso a question of what happens if I end up in a flare of one of the autoimmune things during the pregnancy? Who's gonna handle it? How's it gonna be handled?
Ironically, the night after I had conversation with my HR OB wherein I told him I wasn't worried about this, I have lived with these problems my whole life and I know how to handle it, I had a horrible attack of angioedema. This is a swelling condition... there's a certain enzyme I'm deficient of, and if my levels of that get too low, I have crazy abdominal swelling. The swelling pushes on all your organs and it hurts like a sonofabitch. It makes you nauseated and there's really nothing you can do but take something for the pain and wait it out. Yes, that blows, but I've been there a time or two (or 20) and I know that typically I can sleep through a lot of it, then within about 36 hours I'm getting better.
Well, not this time. I was 48 hours in and my pain was spiking to an 8 or 9 on a 10 point scale, and I was holding steady at a 6 or a 7 when I wasn't having stabbing pains. So I told Bryan it was time to go to the hospital. We came to MCV in the middle of the night on Saturday of last week. I knew I was dehydrated, and I just needed someone to do SOMETHING for the pain and nausea.
Thankfully, the people here took very good care of me, but I didn't get better very quickly. My immunologist came in on Monday and got the process rolling to get in a supply of this wonder drug that IS the enzyme I'm deficient of in a concentrated form. Unfortunately, it's very new to the market and it was going to be 24 hours before I could get it. So I stayed in the hospital, with the lovely doctors managing my pain and nausea and me getting sicker of being in the bed by the minute. Bryan stayed by my side almost the whole time--he was working night shift, so he slept in the chair in my room during the day and went to work at night. I had some visitors to keep me company (thanks Dad, Leslie, Krystyna and Maia!), and finally, on Tuesday, I got the miracle infusion.
It's weird to think that there is a drug that stops a swelling attack within 30 minutes, but there is. An hour after I had that medication in my IV, I knew the swelling had stopped. I still felt like crap, but, I mean, wouldn't you, after being sick for five days and being in the hospital for three of those? Thankfully, my immunologist arranged for the pharmacy at MCV to keep another dose of this medication in case I or another angioedema patient have another attack... next time, I'll be in ASAP rather than suffering for days!
I took Wednesday off of work, too, at my doctor's orders, and Thursday came back for half a day. I think it was weird to everyone that I had been in the hospital yet was already back at work. But once the swelling was gone, I was practically good as new!
Friday I intended to work a full day, but guess what? I got in a car accident on the way to work. As if I needed that on top of the week I had already had! Thankfully it was pretty minor--there was a rear-ending in front of me on the interstate, I had the good sense to be far enough behind the person in front of me that I did NOT rear end her, but the lady behind me was not so sensible, nor was the lady behind her. So... that put another kink in the week. I was a little stiff, and didn't think there had been any damage to Little Dancing Baby, but I went to my midwife that afternoon just to check... LDB's heart was beating just fine, at 152 beats/minute. :)
So, after all of that, I decided my high risk OB is right. I think it's better for me to transfer my care to MCV so that all of the people who know about all of my things are under one roof and can consult with each other (or be available) as needed. So we'll have our first appointment with our new OB on December 1. Good times. :)
In other news, I went last weekend and bought maternity clothes. The bump is growing, for sure. And yesterday, I felt the baby move. I think I've felt it before, but this time, there was no question in my mind whether it was gas or something else... it was our LDB, dancing up a storm in there.
And it was amazing. :) I can't wait until s/he is big enough that his/her Daddy can feel the movement too... I feel like I'm hogging all the fun! :)
11.01.2009
LDB: Week 13
So yesterday was LDB's birthday... or whatever you call it before they're born. I have been feeling pretty good... mainly I've been HUNGRY. It's not totally out of control yet, but occasionally I get this intense black hole feeling in my stomach, and it's typically no more than an hour and a half or two hours after the last time I ate. Baby's HONGRAY! :)
We keep trying to remember to take belly pictures on LDB's birthday, but really there hasn't been much of a change until the past week or two. And most people tell me I still don't really look pregnant, but my pants can tell for sure, and you can probably tell from these lovely pictures of my pale white belly.
Week 5:
Week 13:
I cleaned out the closet today of all of the clothes I was meaning to get rid of before I got pregnant (stuff I haven't worn in a couple years), and while I was at it I took out all of the stuff I won't be able to wear this year but I still hope to wear in the future, then also all of the stuff I still like, but am not fooling myself to think I'll ever wear it again after I have this baby. Not that I intend to let myself go totally to pot, it's just that we women have a tendency to hold on to a few things we love that, really, we should have stopped wearing a year or two ago because they don't fit quite the way they're supposed to anymore. :)
Tuesday is the Down's Syndrome testing... we went back and forth about whether or not to do the test at all, but ultimately decided that it would be easier to plan and be prepared for any special needs if there's a way for us to know about them ahead of time. Plus, there's another ultrasound involved, and I'm all about another opportunity to see LDB in there. :)
We keep trying to remember to take belly pictures on LDB's birthday, but really there hasn't been much of a change until the past week or two. And most people tell me I still don't really look pregnant, but my pants can tell for sure, and you can probably tell from these lovely pictures of my pale white belly.
Week 5:
Week 13:
I cleaned out the closet today of all of the clothes I was meaning to get rid of before I got pregnant (stuff I haven't worn in a couple years), and while I was at it I took out all of the stuff I won't be able to wear this year but I still hope to wear in the future, then also all of the stuff I still like, but am not fooling myself to think I'll ever wear it again after I have this baby. Not that I intend to let myself go totally to pot, it's just that we women have a tendency to hold on to a few things we love that, really, we should have stopped wearing a year or two ago because they don't fit quite the way they're supposed to anymore. :)
Tuesday is the Down's Syndrome testing... we went back and forth about whether or not to do the test at all, but ultimately decided that it would be easier to plan and be prepared for any special needs if there's a way for us to know about them ahead of time. Plus, there's another ultrasound involved, and I'm all about another opportunity to see LDB in there. :)
September: A Retrospective
Now that it's November, I have finally uploaded pictures from our camera from the past two months.
In addition to trying to keep the big secret of me being pregnant in September, Bryan and I kept pretty busy.
Let's see..
In addition to trying to keep the big secret of me being pregnant in September, Bryan and I kept pretty busy.
Let's see..
- We spent Labor Day weekend in Pennsylvania with Bryan's family, where I got to hold 6-week old twins. They were born six weeks early, so at the picnic they each only weighed about 6 or 7 lbs. I let Bryan know that our child may NEVER weigh that much in the outside world, since I was the smallest of my mom's three children at 9lbs 9oz, and my Grandma recently informed me that all of HER kids were more than 9 lbs.
- We spent the following weekend at the Outer Banks, NC with our dear friends Todd and Sarah.
I wore the equivalent of a nude colored bathing suit: 
And Bryan rubbed off his top layer of skin, and subsequently any sunscreen he had applied, playing football on the beach with Todd, resulting in this:
Needless to say, we only had one day on the beach. (More photos of our beach trip if you click here.) - Bryan turned 33, and we celebrated by using a free night's stay I had at the Crowne Plaza Downtown (where we stayed for our wedding night). I gave Bryan a bocce set for his birthday, so before meeting some friends at Buffalo Wild Wings to watch some football, we went down to Brown's Island and played a few games. Fun times!
- And on the last day of September, we celebrated our 3rd anniversary with dinner at Bonefish Grill. We also took a weekend trip to Boston to celebrate, but that didn't happen until October, so I'll get to that later. :)
10.23.2009
Oh, Paris, I miss you!
Last week, I noticed a little card on one of the bulletin boards in our building advertising: "Fridays are crepe days at the Who Spilled the Milk cart!" A month or two ago we got this new breakfast cart on the street outside where I work that sells cereal and yogurt and fruit and stuff. I went there once, but this baby in my belly doesn't care for milk so much, so I haven't been back.
Seeing that they'd be serving crepes, though, oh dear. Trust me, I have planned to have crepes from this cart today ever since I saw that ad.
I think most people are familiar with crepes, but if you're not, they're basically very thin pancakes. In other parts of the world, they fill them with all kinds of goodness and you can eat them for any meal. I was first introduced to them when I visited Paris the first time in 1996... in Paris, you can do crepes in a fancy restaurant or as street food. One of the restaurants Bryan and I went to in South Africa was a crepe restaurant... there, mine was filled with some pork/peaches deliciousness, Bryan's had chili con carne. I haven't seen much of the ol' crepe here in Virginia, but everywhere else they seem to share my affection.
Street crepes in Paris are where it's at. Whether you get it with just butter and sugar (to die for) or get a savory option, like ham and cheese (drool), you can't really go wrong. I can remember being torn a lot of times between whether I wanted a giant baguette (don't need anything with it) or a crepe while I wandered around the City of Lights... heavenly times... :)
So I knew at the breakfast cart that I probably wasn't going to be getting real live Parisian crepes, but I still went. What I got was okay... a thin pancake with Nutella and strawberries... but then he rolled it up and cut it in half and put it in a bowl. Hmm. I kind of wanted to school him on how he should REALLY be doing it, but... well, that's not my place, is it?
Anyway, now I can't stop thinking about Paris. And how completely fabulous it would be to be standing in front of the person doing this:
Seeing that they'd be serving crepes, though, oh dear. Trust me, I have planned to have crepes from this cart today ever since I saw that ad.
I think most people are familiar with crepes, but if you're not, they're basically very thin pancakes. In other parts of the world, they fill them with all kinds of goodness and you can eat them for any meal. I was first introduced to them when I visited Paris the first time in 1996... in Paris, you can do crepes in a fancy restaurant or as street food. One of the restaurants Bryan and I went to in South Africa was a crepe restaurant... there, mine was filled with some pork/peaches deliciousness, Bryan's had chili con carne. I haven't seen much of the ol' crepe here in Virginia, but everywhere else they seem to share my affection.
Street crepes in Paris are where it's at. Whether you get it with just butter and sugar (to die for) or get a savory option, like ham and cheese (drool), you can't really go wrong. I can remember being torn a lot of times between whether I wanted a giant baguette (don't need anything with it) or a crepe while I wandered around the City of Lights... heavenly times... :)
So I knew at the breakfast cart that I probably wasn't going to be getting real live Parisian crepes, but I still went. What I got was okay... a thin pancake with Nutella and strawberries... but then he rolled it up and cut it in half and put it in a bowl. Hmm. I kind of wanted to school him on how he should REALLY be doing it, but... well, that's not my place, is it?
Anyway, now I can't stop thinking about Paris. And how completely fabulous it would be to be standing in front of the person doing this:
10.13.2009
Something's been going on.
I just logged in and saw that I haven't blogged since September 3! Oh, mercy! And if you'll notice, even that was commentary on the news, nothing about me or my life. And yes, there is a reason for that. It's hard to write about anything when there's something big going on that you have decided not to talk about (at least for the moment).
So August was a crazy month, what with my birthday, my sister staying with us, a birthday party for my Mom and Sister, then getting Victoria off to college. It was one of those months where you're doing good to remember all of the things on your immediate radar and make sure everything gets done. It was a good month, but definitely a busy one.
Cut to the very last weekend of that month. I'll attempt to avoid the whole TMI phenomenon, but let's just say that visitor I expect every month had not shown up yet. And at first I had the "oh, tomorrow... tomorrow it'll be here" attitude about it. And then I had the "holy shit she's never taken this long to arrive but that probably doesn't mean anything" attitude about it. And then, I went to Target and bought a test.
You probably know where this is going now. :)
Because it's something that not enough people who go through it talk about, I have to tell you here that Bryan and I have been trying to have a baby for about two years. I'll also tell you that we went through quite a few (seven) cycles of fertility treatments until I was in an awful place mentally and we decided to take a break before moving on to more expensive forms of fertility treatment. So we did take a break... we went to South Africa, we had a lot of fun over the summer, but I was still thinking about it every month. Until August, of course. That month I was so convinced we were never going to get pregnant on our own that I even called and made an appointment with a different fertility specialist to get a second opinion before we launched into the next step.
Okay, back to the end of August. I went to Target with shaky knees and bought a pregnancy test. I'd been through so many of those buggers during the early days of us trying that I almost didn't want to take it and have the disappointment of the negative test. But I also knew that this was probably going to be the time that all of that changed...
I got home and immediately took the test. I brought it out to the couch and sat with Bryan while we waited for it to tell us our fate. I purposefully bought the ones that either say Pregnant or Not Pregnant, because I did not want any of this "one line or two?" interpretation business.
The little hourglass turned a few times, maybe for a minute, maybe two, and then, this:
I gasped. We laughed. We squeezed each other to pieces until one of us said, "Crap, don't squish the baby!" There were some happy tears. And a lot of... well, surprise!
I called my fertility doc the next day, got in to get some blood work to confirm, went in to see her to find out the results and had an early ultrasound. All you could see was a tiny black dot, but, still, it was obviously there. (Incidentally, our child spent weeks 4-10 being called TBD, for Tiny Black Dot.) We then got appointments with the high risk OB (since I have two autoimmune diseases) and the midwife, and kept our news pretty quiet. Since we had tried for so long, we wanted to have a little more certainty that everything was going well before we started spreading the news. We did tell some close family and friends, but tried to put off telling everyone else until after the first trimester.
Of course, then we had our 10-week ultrasound last week, and hearing that tiny heart beating 174 beats a minute, and seeing our Little Dancing Baby (LDB) moving all around in my belly was so amazing and wonderful that we decided we were ready to spread the word! :)
I've been feeling generally like crap, but my morning sickness and other pregnancy symptoms have been nothing compared to some stories I have heard. Plus I asked for this, so I can't complain. :) I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be one of those people who doesn't have any of that after the first trimester. I miss actually WANTING to eat food. :)
LDB is due on May 8, 2010. The thing that gets me the most is that, as amazing as last week's ultrasound was, it's only going to get MORE amazing from here. Wow.
Here's a peek at LDB from our ultrasound last week. This was after the American Bandstand audition... baby had to take a little siesta after all that hard work! :)
So August was a crazy month, what with my birthday, my sister staying with us, a birthday party for my Mom and Sister, then getting Victoria off to college. It was one of those months where you're doing good to remember all of the things on your immediate radar and make sure everything gets done. It was a good month, but definitely a busy one.
Cut to the very last weekend of that month. I'll attempt to avoid the whole TMI phenomenon, but let's just say that visitor I expect every month had not shown up yet. And at first I had the "oh, tomorrow... tomorrow it'll be here" attitude about it. And then I had the "holy shit she's never taken this long to arrive but that probably doesn't mean anything" attitude about it. And then, I went to Target and bought a test.
You probably know where this is going now. :)
Because it's something that not enough people who go through it talk about, I have to tell you here that Bryan and I have been trying to have a baby for about two years. I'll also tell you that we went through quite a few (seven) cycles of fertility treatments until I was in an awful place mentally and we decided to take a break before moving on to more expensive forms of fertility treatment. So we did take a break... we went to South Africa, we had a lot of fun over the summer, but I was still thinking about it every month. Until August, of course. That month I was so convinced we were never going to get pregnant on our own that I even called and made an appointment with a different fertility specialist to get a second opinion before we launched into the next step.
Okay, back to the end of August. I went to Target with shaky knees and bought a pregnancy test. I'd been through so many of those buggers during the early days of us trying that I almost didn't want to take it and have the disappointment of the negative test. But I also knew that this was probably going to be the time that all of that changed...
I got home and immediately took the test. I brought it out to the couch and sat with Bryan while we waited for it to tell us our fate. I purposefully bought the ones that either say Pregnant or Not Pregnant, because I did not want any of this "one line or two?" interpretation business.
The little hourglass turned a few times, maybe for a minute, maybe two, and then, this:
I gasped. We laughed. We squeezed each other to pieces until one of us said, "Crap, don't squish the baby!" There were some happy tears. And a lot of... well, surprise!
I called my fertility doc the next day, got in to get some blood work to confirm, went in to see her to find out the results and had an early ultrasound. All you could see was a tiny black dot, but, still, it was obviously there. (Incidentally, our child spent weeks 4-10 being called TBD, for Tiny Black Dot.) We then got appointments with the high risk OB (since I have two autoimmune diseases) and the midwife, and kept our news pretty quiet. Since we had tried for so long, we wanted to have a little more certainty that everything was going well before we started spreading the news. We did tell some close family and friends, but tried to put off telling everyone else until after the first trimester.
Of course, then we had our 10-week ultrasound last week, and hearing that tiny heart beating 174 beats a minute, and seeing our Little Dancing Baby (LDB) moving all around in my belly was so amazing and wonderful that we decided we were ready to spread the word! :)
I've been feeling generally like crap, but my morning sickness and other pregnancy symptoms have been nothing compared to some stories I have heard. Plus I asked for this, so I can't complain. :) I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be one of those people who doesn't have any of that after the first trimester. I miss actually WANTING to eat food. :)
LDB is due on May 8, 2010. The thing that gets me the most is that, as amazing as last week's ultrasound was, it's only going to get MORE amazing from here. Wow.
Here's a peek at LDB from our ultrasound last week. This was after the American Bandstand audition... baby had to take a little siesta after all that hard work! :)
9.03.2009
Stranger than fiction.
People, you can not make this stuff up!
Okay, well, I guess you probably could, but these two stories are real live news items from CNN this morning. I almost barfed on the bus coming in to work while reading the headlines in my email about this first one:
FDA says residue is frog or toad; how did it get in Pepsi can?
Yes. You read that right. Some poor, poor man in Florida took a big ol' swig of his Diet Pepsi as he was cooking some food on the grill, and was greeted with a *SCHLOP* right into the kisser. And that *SCHLOP* turned out to be a GUTLESS FROG OR TOAD! Oh, mama! The wife said when she took the can away and dumped out all of the Diet Pepsi, what started coming out looked like "pink linguine."
HO-LEE MOSES. If that ain't enough to get you off the soft drinks!
There's a picture on the CNN site if you've got a strong stomach or are just morbidly curious. :)
And then, there was this story:
Stranger allegedly slaps crying child in store
Some lady had her kid in Wal-Mart in Georgia, and the 2-year-old was pissed. Girlfriend would not stop crying. I guess it was really bothering this old dude, because he decided he would take the parenting of this child into his own hands (literally). He told the mom if she didn't shut the kid up, then he would. And when Little Miss did not quit with the crying, he sure did. He found them in the next aisle and SLAPPED THE CHILD! Like four or five times, they said!
You know, I bet you that man is the type who sits around with his older friends talking about how parents nowadays just let their kids walk all over them, and what kids these days need is a little discipline! A good smack never hurt anybody when I was growing up! I mean, besides turning me into the type of person who would slap a stranger's 2-year-old in the face!
Mr. Slaphappy was arrested, but first he did apologize to the mother. And I'm sure he said, "If you'd do that a little more often, she wouldn't be so ornery!"
Man, the world is awesome. ;-)
Okay, well, I guess you probably could, but these two stories are real live news items from CNN this morning. I almost barfed on the bus coming in to work while reading the headlines in my email about this first one:
FDA says residue is frog or toad; how did it get in Pepsi can?
Yes. You read that right. Some poor, poor man in Florida took a big ol' swig of his Diet Pepsi as he was cooking some food on the grill, and was greeted with a *SCHLOP* right into the kisser. And that *SCHLOP* turned out to be a GUTLESS FROG OR TOAD! Oh, mama! The wife said when she took the can away and dumped out all of the Diet Pepsi, what started coming out looked like "pink linguine."
HO-LEE MOSES. If that ain't enough to get you off the soft drinks!
There's a picture on the CNN site if you've got a strong stomach or are just morbidly curious. :)
And then, there was this story:
Stranger allegedly slaps crying child in store
Some lady had her kid in Wal-Mart in Georgia, and the 2-year-old was pissed. Girlfriend would not stop crying. I guess it was really bothering this old dude, because he decided he would take the parenting of this child into his own hands (literally). He told the mom if she didn't shut the kid up, then he would. And when Little Miss did not quit with the crying, he sure did. He found them in the next aisle and SLAPPED THE CHILD! Like four or five times, they said!
You know, I bet you that man is the type who sits around with his older friends talking about how parents nowadays just let their kids walk all over them, and what kids these days need is a little discipline! A good smack never hurt anybody when I was growing up! I mean, besides turning me into the type of person who would slap a stranger's 2-year-old in the face!
Mr. Slaphappy was arrested, but first he did apologize to the mother. And I'm sure he said, "If you'd do that a little more often, she wouldn't be so ornery!"
Man, the world is awesome. ;-)
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