Appointments

Dear Jen,

These past weeks have flown by. I’ve noticed after I sent my last update to a few friends and family that because I said our baby is doing well and all is well they assumed she doesn’t have Downs Syndrome. I don’t want to go around saying “She’s healthy but she might have Downs” so I have decided to let it go. She is who she is and I’ll just update them on tests as I feel comfortable.

Now at 32 weeks, I had another ultrasound. Things look good for baby. They are concerned my amniotic fluid is high. It was really high with June. I remember when they broke my water the nurse was running around saying she’d never seen anything like it and couldn’t find enough towels. My level was at a 23 (not sure if this is–oz, mm, jigawatts…). Normal range can be up to 24 BUT somehow he is very concerned about me. I’m really starting to get annoyed with this concern. Almost every test I have taken I have been in the normal range but close to the abnormal. How is it if I am within normal range they have to freak out?!  SERIOUSLY!!

Here is their next proposed plan: Two non-stress tests (NST) a week, one ultrasound a week, and one doctor’s appointment a week. Somehow, I need to fit those in while taking Catina to and from preschool three times a week, June’s speech therapy two times a week, June’s doctors appointments and well…just plain living life like, um, maybe going grocery shopping? The NST I took this week took an hour and fifteen minutes excluding drive time. I’ve convinced my doctor to let me just have one NST a week until 36 weeks. The specialist is the one who has been pushing for all the extras. I will see my doctor again on Wednesday and ask if I can cut down on ultrasounds as well. I just don’t see the point. Oh, and the specialist says if he sees the fluid continue this week I can just retake that 3 hour glucose test again. Why don’t I just move into the hospital until she is born?

I had a day of contractions last week where they were ten minutes a part. I think it was due to dehydration. I did not bring this up to the specialist because who the heck knows what he would do with me then?!

Trying to stay calm and educated in this mess of being an old lady having a baby.

Ann

____________

Ann,

So glad you talked your doc into a little more reasonable schedule! Now if only Catina could drive herself to preschool, you’d be pretty set.

Jen

Love

Dear Jen,

We’ve had an fetal echo-cardiogram and her heart looks good! I am so grateful for this. Through our journey towards children I realize that its not about if our baby is a boy or girl, if they are smart or dumb, ugly or cute, healthy or unhealthy, it’s about us loving them and wanting to be with them, whoever they are. I’m really looking forward to holding our baby.

We had another ultrasound and everything is progressing well. They still plan to monitor me a lot which is annoying but as the doctor who joked with me when I came in for the fetal echo-cardiogram “Are you here because you’re old?”  I laughed out loud!  YUP! Apparently, 37 is over the hill these days.

Here is a picture of our cutie patootie! I swear she looks like June!

Ann

_______________

Ann,

Love her already.

Jen

Lightbulb Art

Jen,

I really love this blog called Reduce, Reuse, UPcycle! I sent Rachel pictures of the sock animals my Mom sewed for your baby shower and she posted them on her blog. There are so many creative ideas she finds and I have started to bookmark the “some day” projects I may try!

Recently Rachel e-mailed and asked if we have any more projects to share, and since Greg and I are always trying to make things out of recycled items, in particular pallet wood, I sent her a few pictures.  In celebration of the season I wanted to share our Christmas light bulb project.

We took a piece of plywood and painted it black and then glued old Christmas light bulbs onto the board using JB Weld. We started at the top and laid the bulbs flush to the end of the board. We didn’t measure but used a bulb to help with spacing the next line.  I like this piece so much we keep it up all year round. Some day I think it might be fun to create different designs like flowers or swirls using the light bulbs.  Fun stuff!

Ann

Fire Alarm

Dear Jen,

A few nights ago our fire alarm started chirping in the middle of the night. Not only is that sound super annoying but its right at the bottom of the stairs to both the girls and our bedroom. What is even more annoying than that is Greg can sleep through it! I finally nudged him and told him if I weren’t pregnant I would go downstairs and get on a chair to pull the battery out but I just couldn’t do it. In a fog he went downstairs and pulled the battery out. An hour later I hear the chirp again. What the…?

The whole day went by and it was in the middle of the next night that the fire alarm began to chirp. I hit Greg and asked him if he changed the battery. He said he hadn’t but there was no battery in the alarm. I told him he had to get out of bed and get a battery because I am not going another night where its harder to sleep than it already was. This whole time I am feeling badly about my bossiness but COME ON!

The third night it begins to chirp. SERIOUSLY! After smacking Greg and waking him up he tells me that he put a new battery in last night so he has no idea why its chirping. I let it go because I could tell he was not getting out of bed. The next morning he took the fire alarm and after investigating we figured it must be too old and we need a new one so he threw it outside in the garbage.

The fourth night I hear the chirping! Jen, seriously, I thought I was losing my mind. Come to find out we had been working with the wrong fire alarm. There is another one in the living room that we didn’t think to check and because it was so loud we just assumed it was the one closest to our room. OY!

Ann

Grandma’s Nativity Set

  

Introducing…

Dear Jen,

Lately I’ve been wondering how we’re supposed to announce our baby’s birth now that some people know that she has the potential to have Down Syndrome? Everyone will want to know now as soon as she is born. How should the text to friends read?

<Born at 8:57am, Nameless Baby, 8lbs, 5oz, Down Syndrome> or <Born at 8:57am, Nameless Baby, 8lbs, 5oz, does not have Down Syndrome>

SERIOUSLY!!! Then if she doesn’t, I am again fearing people’s reactions of wanting to “praise the Lord.”  Would you not praise the Lord if she was? Jen, seriously, struggling here!

A few days later…
I asked my doctor today when we would find out if our baby has Downs and she said the test results may not come back for 5 to 7 days. This was comforting to me because I no longer have to worry about how to announce how she is doing. People will know in time.

Ann

——————

Ann,

This is complicated! Sort of glad the question is answered, but this totally hits a nerve with me.

I don’t know if there’s a book that’s popular or something that promotes this, but I keep hearing everyone say “God is good.” (OK, I know the book that originally said it is the Bible, but for it to be on everyone’s tongue all of a sudden? I mean, it’s definitely a true and good thing, but…well, read on….) So what makes me so crazy is that it’s said as though the THING that happened MADE Him good. “My husband got a job! God is good!” “We finally got pregnant! God is good.” “I passed my exams! God is good.” These aren’t false statements, but one really has nothing to do with the other; those accomplishments have NOTHING to do with His goodness! They’re totally separate. He’s good when we’re unemployed, and infertile, and failing out of college. Period. I know it seems like I’m splitting hairs, but I think a more appropriate response is to praise God because certainly all good things do come from Him, but His character (as in God IS good) has nothing at all to do with these things.

Amen?

Jen

A New Sense of Accomplishment

Ann,

You know how great you feel after you’ve cleaned your whole house top-to-bottom, knowing every nook and cranny you’ve ignored for months is now cobweb-free?

OK, well that’s the best way for me to describe the euphoria I feel after 1 week away from some of my “escape vices.” For the season of Advent I’ve decided to stay off Facebook and some other internet sites that tend to put my brain in bad spots.

I’m sure you weren’t surprised when I told you I felt like I was supposed to do this. I comment a lot about having a bad attitude even though I love my life and wouldn’t change a thing. I mean, LOVE my life. I realized that I was sort of living a lie by escaping online, watching how others lived and then unwittingly becoming insecure or discontent about how I was living. Let me give you an example: I feel discouraged because I can’t keep up with duties around the house, and BAM! There’s a Facebook post from a lovely friend who lists her superwoman accomplishments from that morning. Or I feel frustrated because I have the best paint colors picked out for the living room, but can’t find the time to actually paint, and BAM! There’s the most  beautiful, put-together house on Apartment Therapy.

I love pretty things, and even though my life is exactly what I’ve asked for it to be, it’s not really pretty. I mean, it has moments of pretty, but then it gets puked on. And I don’t really mind, puke is surprisingly easy to clean. But there goes the pretty, and “high” I get from it. After a week of not escaping, I can’t believe how much I’m enjoying our little life here, how much more mellow and how in-tune I am to our kiddos.

Well, that’s where I’m at after 1 week. We’ll see if I’m detoxing a little harder in another 7 days.

Jen

________________________

Jen,

I am so excited to see where this leads you and to learn from you during this time. As long as you don’t “fast” from ME its all good!

Ann