I don't have much on the tip of my "pen" today. Here is a list of mildly interesting occurences from the past 24 hours:

1) Dan's car did NOT need a new wheel bearing, which is a good thing. Wheel bearings are expensive. It DID, though, need some new lug nuts. I thoroughly approve of the phrase "lug nuts." It's quite nice to say. Lug. Nuts. Go ahead, try it.

2) Vi slept fairly well last night, only getting up once. I have no idea why.

3) I slept fairly well last night, although Riley was hogging the blankets.

4) I saw two foxes! Last night, I went to Friendly's for what is becoming a regular ice cream date with my friend Adrianne. After gabbing longer than the allowable booth-rental period, she drove me home and we continued to gab in the car, parked in front of my house. (Very good gab session.) I saw what I thought were two cats trotting down the street, so I excitedly said, "Ooh! Cats!" (I state the obvious with exuberance.) One walked by the car, and Adrianne turned on her headlights to see the second one. It was then that we thought - huh. That's either a tall cat or a short dog, and soon realized that it was a fox. The headlights stunned the poor critter, and after a moment's pause, he walked up my driveway, across my doorstep, through my yard, down my neighbors' driveway, then ran down the street to the Pekinese-owning Republicans' house. (They are new renters who are never home, so we don't know them...but I've seen their dog and their McCain sign, so we just refer to them as The Republicans.) People tell me that seeing a fox - or maybe having one cross your path? - is good luck. I'm happily anticipating my good fortune.

5) Vi had OMM this morning at the University of New England; she's participating in their free clinic, which allows students to practice and learn and allows patients free treatment. She did really well, and the teaching doctor explained that there is some compression in her skull and around her sacrum. They're going to hang her upside-down next week to help relieve it. Sounds fun to me! I know hanging upside-down in yoga always helps with my musculo-skeletal issues.

This is the final week of corporate-crunch, race to the finish, hurry up and finish up 2008 books for my clients. It's pretty crazy in my office - lots to do. Therefore, I am now signing off.

Have a great Tuesday!

P.S. My mother is back from Ohio. I'll post some of her funny stories from when my poor grandmother was on pain killers... I think we're all laughing about it, now.

Christmas and December 2008 in review...

It's hard to believe the year is almost over. I do believe 2008 has been one of the most challenging and rewarding years of my life (so far.) I'm sure I'll have to take some "time to reflect" before New Year's Eve. For now, though, here's what we did in the past couple of weeks.



Many of you know that Maine was hit hard with an ice storm recently. We were without electricity for just over 24 hours at our house, but family members were without power for 3 and 4 days. Others in the state suffered for almost a week!



We heat our home with oil...our, I should say heatED. This summer Dan refurbished the boat and sold it, making enough money to install a chimney, hearth and wood-burning stove, plus buy enough wood for this winter and possibly next. The installation has been a struggle to say the least. We had a contractor lined up to do the whole project - he had great references, a good price, and Dan really liked him. He showed up with rusty, used parts that were not even the right size to meet code. There was no negotiating to happen with this guy, so he left and wouldn't return our calls. Thank goodness we hadn't given him any money. It was another month before we had someone else lined up, and he was a total administrative nightmare...he wrote down our information as Stan Welch, and kept getting our street name and family names mixed up...I actually told him that I was Stan's wife at one point...ha! When it was all said and done, he did a great job in little time for a great price.



Dan decided to build the hearth himself, which was a big leap of faith for me. Half-way through that piece of the project, our neighbor offered some advice, training, and help. In the end, he built the entire hearth in exchange for driveway snow-blowing for the winter! What a deal. The hearth was useable but not beautiful JUST in time for our power outtage, so we were toasty warm. We cooked on the stove, heated up water for baths, and dried hand-washed clothes on racks in the living room. We felt like frontier-folk. We were *almost* sad when the power returned.

Popps decided to do his physical rehab here in Maine, so he arrived shortly after Thanksgiving to a nursing home about 20 minutes North of us. We've been visiting him a lot, and he's been making great progress. He's using a walker and a wheelchair, doing his exercises, and seems to have made peace with his PT after a rocky start. He's hoping to return to NY soon.

Vi has had an action-packed month. Between OMT for last month's ear infection, eczema, and a tummy bug, she's been in and out of the doctors' offices too many times to count. Her ears are all cleared up, and she started a growth spurt just after a four-day BRAT diet. The eczema still hasn't cleared up, so we visited the homeopathic doctor last week. She thinks that it's not an allergy, but a wrecked gut...from the antibiotics last month for her ear infection and the tummy bug. She is helping us cure this from the inside out with Cod Liver Oil, ProBiotics, and a homepathic remedy for her general constitution to help her immune system get balanced. Plus, she's having us eliminate dairy and soy for a bit, just to help along the process. (Goat and Buffalo are fine...we're sticking with Goat's milk, since Buffalo milk sounds revolting and wrong.)

New words that she's trying out: help, hot, down, cup, sit, ball, eyeball and all gone. All gone is a good one - it comes out sounding like the Law & Order chime - Ga-gong!

Her "receptive" language is still thriving - she seems to understand more than we realize. She is also using her signs as much as ever. New signs include train and rabbit. She can point to her body parts, too, so we're singing a lot of "head, shoulders, knees and toes" lately. We've been asking her lots of questions and trying to improve her ability to constructively use all of these tools. So, lots of fun stories are to come, including:

My brother's family was in town for the holiday, and poor baby Addie has started teething. There was a lot of crying in the past couple of days. (Which made Dan and me realize that a baby's cry is loudest to the baby's parents. Funny what perspective does.) Recently, Addie gave up the pacifier/Nuk/binky/bubba. I asked Vi if Addie had told her what she needed. (I sort of think the little ones actually understand each other...any research to prove that? I'd love to read it.) Vi nodded her head and said, "Yeh." I asked her, "What does baby Addie need?" Vi responded, enthusiastically and unprompted, "Bubba!"

This is one of those stories that's hard to tell without sounding judgemental, so I want to be clear that Addie's doing great without the bubba, does not need one, and I'm not suggesting they try to give her one! The Bub is one of those areas each parent has to make their own choices about, and I know how much I dislike uninvited advice. JD and I were comiserating about strangers giving us advice in public...so strange. That's the easy advice to shirk. Intra-family advice is harder because the advisors are witnesses to your choices. It can be hard to not take it personally, when parenting methods are not the same. I know we have different rules about bubbas and TV than my sister's family, and that sleep and slings are big differences between me and my brother's family...but you know what? It doesn't matter. I mean, of course it matters that one parents mindfully and makes these decisions with the overall health of all the family members being a priority, but it doesn't matter that we do it differently. These kids are all growing up loved and taken care of, with a great big family that loves them. That's all that matters.

Another word that Vi definitely understands is "scream." If you say the word, she willingly demonstrates. How can such little lungs make so much noise?

Christmas was great. We did our usual multi-family run-around - three families in one day. Vi got lots of new books, a table & chairs set, an emperor penguin, clothes, shoes, and money for college. I got clothes, a Kitchenaid mixer, slippers, and lots of sleep. Dan got a leather jacket, books, iTunes gift cards, and gift certificates for shoes and a wood-carrier. We got money for our oil bill, too, which is great...we'll have hardly spent any of our own money on oil this year! With a bunch of gift certificates combined, we also got a new camera. (RIP our Sony.)

My sister was here with her kids, and we got to go sledding, watch Prince Caspian, play with the electric train, draw and decorate cookies. The kids all did some disco-diva dancing at my dad's house that evening. I am hoping we have some video to post, because it was pretty hilarious. There will definitely be lots of great pictures coming from Noelle.

And, today, it's back to work. Just a 3-day work week for me, so I should really be plowing through my to-dos rather than writing in my diary...

Happy New Year to all of you!

P.S. 8 days until Birthday.

Eczema?

Vi's doctor has informed us that Vi's "itchy-scratchy" is actually eczema. Yuck. He gave us a topical cream and some other topical-strategic advice, but it's my understanding that eczema starts on the inside...
Any advice? Favorite websites? Anecdotal advice?

I will, of course, call our homeopathic PA for her take on it and we are considering allergy testing.

Yuck.

Should have knocked on wood

On Monday Vi had a vaccination called PREVNAR. It's supposed to help prevent strep-pneumonia and ear infections. Apparently, one of the possible side effects is diarrhea. So many wonderful stories there...but don't worry, I won't bother you with such colorful tales.

We've discovered that Vi is extremely sensitive to vaccinations. Not necessarily to the shot, the needle, but to the actual junk that's injected into her tiny little body. (Which is, by the way, not so tiny anymore. She can hardly stand up beneath the dining room table, her thighs finally have a little pudge, and her belly is getting a bit round.) Knowing that I'm quite sensitive to all medicines (and life in general), that there are allergies and Aspergers and other risk factors on both sides of her family tree, we decided when she was born to consult with a homeopathic doctor in our area whose specialties are pediatrics and immunizations. She helped us create a customized immunization schedule based on Vi's family medical history.

She prescribed a homeopathic remedy which, I'm convinced, got Vi to stop crying in the car.

Vi had a horrible reaction to her first shot. She didn't really notice the needle, and was in good spirits for a few hours. Towards the end of the day, she completely melted down and was inconsolable. Completely inconsolable. Dan called the homeopathic doctor, she told him what remedy to try, and within twenty minutes Vi had fallen into a deep, contented slumber.

So, we like her. She GETS it. She GETS our parenting style. She GETS Vi. Her homeopathic remedies work for Vi. And, she is very, very cool.

The "should have knocked on wood" part is that since Monday's shot, Vi hasn't slept through the night. I had a sick, superstitious feeling when I created my last post that just by thinking it out loud, the spell would be broken, and we would be back to 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock, 4 o'clock wakings.

We are.

We made the mistake of breaking with some of our patterns that first night. And we broke the patterns every other night, too. So, we're back to square one, because I think she's pretty much un-learned everything she had figured out about how to sleep. The good news is that - according to this doctor - she'll probably be able to get back to where she was last week quickly. Maybe just a few nights.

And if not, she's got a remedy for that, too.

36 Weeks - Less than a month to go!

I started seeing my acupuncturist last week, to get "things" moving. I saw her again today, and next week we'll intensify the treatment. She does some points along my sacrum, mostly, and stimulates the needles just by twirling them. "Intensifying the treatment" means adding the electricity...ZAP! I'll have some buzz-buzzing feelings where the needles are inserted, but it won't hurt (me or the baby).

I have a 36-week check-up on Thursday, and the doctor will do my first cervical exam. This will most likely not be very pleasant, as a woman's cervix is very sensitive. They'll also do a Group B Strep test, to see if I'm a carrier of that bacterial strain. (I'm probably not). If I am, I'll have to take anti-biotics right before labor to make sure I don't pass it on to the little baby.

We had an ultrasound on Monday. Once again, Baby was movin' and shakin' up until they started looking at her! I think she's getting camera shy. They were able to get all of her measurements, listen to the cord and the heart, witness some "practice breathing," and check the placenta with no problem. Before they will let me go, Baby has to show her stuff - she has to demonstrate that she is able to move around (and kick her Mama). She was sound asleep for most of the exam, so I switched positions, we jiggled the belly, Dan talked to Baby...and they had to bust out the noise-maker in the end. This is a little hand-held device that makes a buzzing noise like an alarm clock. The technician holds it up against the belly to wake up Baby. Within a half-second of doing this yesterday, Baby woke up and tried to leap out of me through my belly button. That was definitely a big enough movement to pass the test!

Her size is normal - about 6 pounds, 10 ounces. She's in the 60th percentile. (The 50th percentile is the weight of most babies.) They say you can give or take a pound off that estimate, at this stage. Dan and I agree that there is NO way Baby is 7 pounds 10 ounces right now - I'm simply not THAT big!

So - how much do YOU think Baby will weigh at birth? I'm putting my official guess out there at 7 pounds, 13 ounces. Go ahead - guess. Put it in the "comments" section below. If you're right, you get the satisfacation of knowing you once guessed the weight of a person before you ever laid eyes on her.

By the way - Baby Walsh IS in the head-down position!

Here is the email update for the week:

Your baby is gaining about an ounce a day. She now weighs almost 6 pounds and is a little under 19 inches long. She's shedding most of the downy hair that covered her body, as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that protected her skin during her nine-month amniotic bath. Next week, your baby will be considered full-term. Most likely she's in a head-down position, but if she isn't, your practitioner may suggest scheduling an external cephalic version, where she'll try to turn your baby by manipulating her from the outside of your belly.


By the way - Baby Walsh IS in the head-down position!

How do you cope with pain?

In my last post, I mentioned the childbirth prep class Dan & I are taking. One focus is on understanding our own instincts towards coping with pain. There are many ways of coping with pain, but two basic instincts: internalization and externalization. Some people like to focus on something outside of themselves to ignore the pain, and some like to focus on something inside themselves to address the pain. The main thing we're encouraged to remember is that neither way is "right" or "wrong." That's why Lamaze - a very specific pain-coping technique - worked wonders for some women, and not so well for others; it involved very externalizing methods which just don't click for those who tend to internalize pain.


One very intersting point is that labor pain is expected, whereas most all other pain in life is not - so we react to it differently.

One exercise we did was holding an ice cube for 60 seconds - the length of the average contraction. Some people in the class didn't find that painful, so they would hold it on their wrist or to their temple.

The first round was done with no instruction, just to see what we instinctively did. I kept my eyes closed and relaxed, focusing my attention on my breathing and directing my breath and attention to the pain in my hand. This is pretty much what I do when i have a migraine - I try to "be with the pain" and relax the rest of my body. That worked pretty well for me in the ice cube trial. It occured to me that I am one who uses the internalization methods more often than not.

The second round we were told to use focused, patterned breathing, whether that meant counting breaths, timing breaths, hee-hee-hoo-ing...whatever was focused and patterned for each person. That worked okay for me, but wasn't enough. I felt like I was trying to ignore the pain, and of course, the pain wasn't actually going away.

The third time we talked about the "Theory of Equanimity," a buddhist theory that basically says no one thing is more interesting than any other thing. So, we were instructed to widen our field of vision - try to look at the ceiling and the floor and all of the walls, all of everything in the area, without focusing on one particular spot - and to do the same with our other senses. It was really interesting! There were candles burning in the room, art on the walls, patterned slipcovers on the sofas, other couples sitting together, the instructor's soft voice, music in the background, traffic on the street, the feeling of the ice in my hand, the feeling of the breeze from the window, the cushioned sofa, the air flowing in and out of my nostrils... I was so surprised by how well this worked for me! I was so completely relaxed by the end of this 60 seconds, and the pain had just been a part of all of the sensations I was taking in. I had doubts about this technique, since in trial #1 I had realized, acknowledged, and grasped onto the idea that I Cope With Pain Using Internalization...like, it was a new law in my life or something. I remembered learning that "be with the pain" technique about 10 years ago, and that it's something I have practiced since then...always a conscious choice to cope that way, rather than what I could call an instinct.

I'm finding this stuff FASCINATING.

Again, I'm hoping for that 2 1/2 hour labor during which I won't need to know much of this stuff, anyway! (But, it's always a good idea to be prepared.)

24 Week update - 15 weeks to go!

We had an ultrasound again yesterday. All of her little pieces and parts are still there, in perfect working order. She weighs just over a pound - about one pound, six ounces. Her profile is amazing to see!

The question I get often is, "Is it standard procedure these days to have this many ultrasounds?!?" The norm is to have one ultrasound sometime between weeks 16 and 20, to check for development (how are the organs forming? is the correct size? did they estimate the due date correctly?), birth defects (cleft pallette, Down's Syndrome), to see the location of the placenta and to look at the umbilical cord. And, of course, to see the sex of the baby if possible and requested by the parents. If the pregnancy is high-risk, the mother has a history of miscarriage, or there is another pre-existing condition to render it necessary, more ultrasounds are "required." Because of my genetic mutation (MTHFR-1, for you curious, sciencey folks) I will have monthly "growth scans" via ultrasound until 32 weeks, then I will have weekly scans until delivery. That means I'll have one at 28 weeks, one at 32 weeks, then one a week until 39 weeks...at which point, if I haven't given birth they will induce labor.

The next question I get is "Why will they induce your labor? Is that normal?" The thing is, the placenta can start to function poorly towards the end of gestation. A full term is 40 weeks. That's why some women are forced to have labor induced if they go way past their due date. The placenta issue is especially true for women with MTHFR-1, so it is better for the baby to be delivered just before the due date. They could use any number of techniques to induce labor - pitocin, hormones, etc.

My question to all of you: What induces labor? What stories, old wives tales, anecdotes or alternative medicine methods have you heard of to get the process going? I've heard that exercise, sex, beer, and pedicures can help. I'm going to call my Accupuncturist/Accupressurist for some advice, but I want to hear from all of you! Please use the comments section below to share your ideas, because I really don't want to be hooked up to an IV unless absolutely necessary!!!


Here is the weekly email from BabyCenter.com:
How your baby's growing:
Your baby's growing steadily, gaining about a quarter of a pound since last week, when she was just over a pound. Since she's almost a foot long, that makes a pretty lean figure, but her body is filling out proportionally and she'll soon put on more baby fat. Your baby's skin is thin, translucent, and wrinkled, her brain is growing rapidly, and her taste buds are developing. Her lungs are developing "branches" of the respiratory "tree" and cells that produce surfactant, a substance that helps the air sacs inflate easily.

18 week update!

I've realized that none of my links were working properly. Instead of trying to figure it out - for which I have NO patience right now - I'm just going to paste the text from the Babycenter email into each post. Like this:


18 weeks pregnant: Head to bottom, your baby is approximately 5 1/2 inches long (about the length of a large sweet potato) and she weighs almost 7 ounces. She's busy flexing her arms and legs — movements that you'll likely start noticing more and more. Her blood vessels are visible through her thin skin, and her ears are now in position and stand out from her head. Myelin (a protective covering) is beginning to form around her nerves, a process that will continue for a year after she's born. If you're having a girl, her uterus and Fallopian tubes are formed and in place. If your baby is a boy, his genitals are noticeable, though he may hide them from you during an ultrasound.

Changes with us: I'm ravenous - constantly. Pickles and ice cream are right up there on my list of favorite foods right now; it's not just a myth. I have had my belly patted twice, and I am told that I definitely look pregnant. The emotional roller coaster seems to have cooled down, only to be replaced by physical aches and pains. Why didn't anyone tell me how much it would hurt to be growing this much?!? I am, of course, worried that I am just a wimp and this doesn't actually hurt that badly, and that I will never survive the pain of labor. The ultrasound - the big one - is scheduled for March 12th. We STILL haven't decided if we want to find out the sex of the baby.

We'll be delivering at Mercy Hospital in Portland, and we had a tour of the Birthplace there yesterday. It is very much a hospital - duh, Lindsay - but this section has nicer curtains and some hot tubs. They have one tub for water births, an option we're considering. (If any of you have a good resource on the topic, please share it with me. ) It really looks like they have made an effort to make the delivering mom comfortable, so I will be perfectly happy to bring Critter into the world at this particular place. Dads beware, though: the chairs in the delivery rooms are plain, wooden chairs, and you have to wear a swimsuit if accompanying your wife in the tub. I know - who cares about the Dad's comfort?!? I certainly won't in the heat of the moment, but I got a sore rumpus just looking at those chairs.

We're both working a lot right now - Dan's district will be doing inventory for all of the stores next week, so he'll be on the road a lot helping out his fellow managers. I'm gearing up for my new consulting responsibilities at work with online training. We started a registry with Babies R Us, but gave out in a fit of exhaustion without really finishing it...I don't think what we accomplished is truly "starting" the registry. I think we managed to get a mattress and a thermometer on there...

My friend Bonnie will be here next week, so she and I will get to play/work on the nursery and registry some more.

We're still brainstorming a baby-moon to take this Spring. The one consistent piece of advice we receive from everyone is that we should take a trip together, just the two of us, before the baby comes. We hate the idea of spending any money, but we're going to make an effort to get away for a romantic weekend sometime in April.

Any cheap vacation ideas? Anyone win a vacation that they can't take? :-)

March is almost here, we're setting our clocks ahead soon, and the songbirds are out again. Hurray for Spring! I hope you are all well, and please stay in touch!

-Lindsay