Yesterday was the first anniversary of my mother’s mom’s death. It is hard to believe she is gone sometimes. And I will very much miss introducing our baby to that wonderful woman. This morning Dave & I had a mass said for her so we got up early and went to church. Attending a daily mass is a wonderful way to start the day, I’m just too lazy to get myself to church at 7:30AM every morning. Grandma went to daily mass for a huge chunk of her life, I should really try to honor her memory and start that habit someday as well.
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First Anniversary of My Grandmother’s Passing
Monday, January 19th, 2009For Folks Dealing with Infertility
Tuesday, January 13th, 2009Infertility sucks. That is about the only “nice” way to describe infertility. Dave & I dealt with it for two years exactly and the pain of not knowing if we were going to be one of the blessed who are granted children was really hard. A friend of ours wrote a blog entry a few days back about her plight with infertility (see Maria’s Blog). She asks some hard questions and I’m not particularly sure there is an answer to any of them.
Folks she meets probably tell her to keep praying, keep trying, give her advice that worked for themselves, tell her that adoption is an option, maybe God has other plans for her life, “it will happen” or she should just relax. Let me just say this, those responses really are stinkers. I’m not even sure there is a good response for someone speaking of infertility difficulties. Listening is maybe the only good response.
Having children just seems like such an easy thing for so many people. And let me tell you, when you are dealing with infertility a person can get pretty judgmental about the gals that seem to get pregnant just looking at a fellow. Speaking as one who has been there, other women’s undesired pregnancies are really tough on the infertile. My personal favorite was to overhear a conversation where a pregnant gal is complaining about being pregnant again and how annoying her other children are. I know people who would give their left arm just to have the privileged to be parent to one of those lady’s “rotten” kiddos.
This blog entry doesn’t really have an end purpose, I just read Maria’s blog entry, felt her pain and can tell her that we will continue to pray for she and Ed and listen when she needs to vent, because infertility sucks!
Sick Day
Tuesday, January 13th, 2009Yesterday morning I thought I had a mild case of quickie food poisoning caused by a suspicious orange. Right after Dave left in the morning, I’d eaten an orange that was a bit on the dry side, but wasn’t bad tasting or anything, just not yummy. An hour later I totally got sick. Ya know that Seinfeld episode where he talks about not vomiting for like 15 years? Well, let’s just say I WAS working on year 14! After that little yuckiness, I felt fine and went to the midwife’s office. Then I got home and got to be sick for the whole rest of the day. Even water wouldn’t stay down. Dave brought home some ginger ale (that stuff is gross without having an upset stomach), but I have to admit it actually was the only thing that stayed down all day.
Today however, I have been absolutely fine. Either it was the orange or I had an eight-hour stomach bug which also did not cause a fever. So weird. I’m just not a stomach sick type of person so my guts must be more sensitive being pregnant.
But I have a new found respect for all those pregnant gals with morning sickness. Holy cow, if I had to be like yesterday for like 12 weeks, I’m not sure I’d live through that. Argh!
Oh, No! No More US Hand-Made Toys??
Monday, January 5th, 2009I was just reading about this online…never heard about it until today.
On February 10th, 2009 The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act will go into effect which will put strict safety measures on product made for children and requires that toys and product (even books!) made for children under 12 be tested for safety (specifically lead) content by independent labs and labeled with their material contents.
Okay, this sounds great on the surface. It means those horrid toys made in China and other developing nations for our US headquartered, outsourcing, mega-toy companies will now finally be tested for stuff harmful to children. That is great! Awesome & wonderful! BUT what this law failed to do is protect all those US, Europe & Canada based toy makers that already were making a quality product.
Any product made for use for a child under the age of 12 will have to be tested. That means the industrious homemaker in Iowa that makes cloth diapers for sale via the internet will now have to have each of her products tested at a cost of $4000/item. And the garage carpenter that makes wooden trains in Maine also will have to have each of his products tested.
This law effectively will put out of business hundreds of cottage industry toy and clothing makers. All because some corporate guys got greedy and had their silly toys made for dirt cheap in some country without a conscience.
Dave & I have just started creating our little stash of US, Europe & Canada made quality toys for our future tots and we’re no where ready for these companies to go out of business. It looks like the fix to this dilemma is for the law to be amended to exclude US, Europe & Canadian companies which already adhere to pretty strict safety regulations.
So today I’m going to find some more facts about this issue and write emails to our local Congressman & Senators. I’m so bummed. We literally just found out about all these little toy makers located here in New England and elsewhere that we were hoping to one day soon buy from, but now who knows if they will still exist.
A Comment About Voting
Friday, January 2nd, 2009As politically oriented as I am, I have stayed away from “political commentary” on this blog. Mostly because the blog’s purpose is not political. But I have an issue on my mind that I think I need to write about to feel like I said something. I suppose it is not entirely a political issue either, but religious in nature also. I am not even a single-issue voter, but I’ve got a single-issue concern on my mind.
Why do persons who claim to be Catholic (specifically) not carry that faith with them into the voting booth? The absolute least amount of work a Catholic can do to help stop the practice of abortion is to use their power as a voter. How can you say you are pro-life and actually vote for a pro-abortion candidate? That is an act which utterly and completely negates your espoused desire for ours to be a life loving country.
I know all too well why so many non-Christians will ask why they should become a Christian when the Christians they know do not live their faith. We are all human. We are all sinful. We will all falter. But voting is an intellectual act that one would suppose requires forethought. Therefore, there is no defensible argument for being pro-life and having voted for a pro-abortion candidate. Oh, you say you wanted change! Change from what? We are and will remain, for the foreseeable future, an abortion friendly nation.
Over 40 million people not alive right now because of legal-abortions in the US since 1973…hmmm, guess we’ll never know how they would have voted?
Our Trip Out to Illinois
Monday, December 1st, 2008WARNING: STORY SPOLIER IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE POST BELOW THIS ONE!
Dave & I left on Friday the 21st for Illinois to spend Thanksgiving with my side of the family. Friday’s drive was sooooooo long. We hit snow in the PA mountains and then eastern OH. So that added 2 hours to our drive that day. Saturday’s drive was extended an extra hour because of heavy traffic. Finally, we got there around 4:30. Corralling my parents in one room after we arrived to tell them our news (see post below) proved really hard. My mother flits around like a hummingbird sometimes and then once we got mom in the room, my dad took off. So finally we got to tell them and they were extremely excited. It was funny though because my mom seemed like she expected it. She said that she was hoping we’d have baby news this trip.
I got to see my 7 month old niece!! Oh, she’s beautiful. It was so wonderful to get to see her and hold her finally. And she’s got spectacular parents! Her big sister is totally great. Those two girls totally have my parent’s wrapped around their little fingers. My mother has purchased more toys and things that I never in a million years would have conceived of her ever buying. It is so funny. If it lights up and makes noise the woman has purchased it. For perspective…heck would have experienced an ice age before my mother would have purchased those things for my brother or I as children. She’s even purchased a musical training toilet for my older niece. It actually makes a triumphant music noise when the sensors feel warmth from waste being deposited.
On Sunday , after church, Dave & I went to the John Deere Pavillion in Moline, IL. Dave got his tractor fix! We came home in time to see my brother’s family again! I got to spend more time with my nieces. Monday we drove down to Argenta to see a dear friend and her family. What a blast it was telling her about being pregnant!!!
Tuesday I went in to see all my old friends where I use to work. They are experiencing a huge change in the coming months so it was good to see everyone together, probably for the last time for me. Then we met dear friends for lunch. After lunch, we drove to the two cemeteries where my Grandmothers who died this year are buried. My mother’s mom is buried in a National Cemetery because my grandfather served in WWII. My dad’s mom is buried in a public cemetery with her husband and her parents nearby. Then we met the same friends for dinner so I could spend some more time with them. We had a fantastic fried chicken dinner and some awesome chatting time. Boy, I miss my friends back there so much. There is never enough time to spend with them when we are back visiting.
Wednesday & Thanksgiving Day we spent mostly at my parent’s house spending time with them and extended family that were able to come. We had a great Thanksgiving feast and a really nice time visiting with everyone. Another friend of mine stopped by later in the evening with her two children. I hadn’t seen her since our wedding so that was great. And her children have grown so much, it is amazing what two years does to children.
Friday we had to pack up and leave. It is always sad to have to leave. But the trip home was made even better because we were able to stop in Ohio to see my dad’s sister and two of my cousins. It has been FOREVER since I’ve been in a sit down and chat situation with those folks. So we sat and talked for a couple of hours which was absolutely wonderful. When Dave & I are zipping out to IL in the future we’ll make plans to some how meet up with as many of the Ohio family as we can. Our path doesn’t go directly past any of their homes, but close enough that we could easily meet up for a meal together some where along the way.
So all in all, we had a really nice trip. I got to see lots of family & friends, none of them nearly long enough, but I got to spend time with them nevertheless. And we had our own very, very awesome news to bring to everyone.
Lots to be thankful for this year!!
ANNOUNCEMENT!!
Monday, December 1st, 2008We are expecting our first baby July, 2009!!!
I’ve been wanting to update our blog with our news, but it couldn’t be done until after some keys family members had been told in person (namely our parents).
I think it is a pretty interesting story (with an awesome ending), so I’ll repeat it here even though I’ve pretty much told everyone that reads this blog already.
So November 14th, we had an appointment with our reproductive endocrinologist (he’s mentioned a few times in other posts). He told us that my one centimeter-sized polyp located on the lining of my uterus had to be removed or I was not going to get pregnant. He also said that I would have to take contraceptive pills for the several weeks leading up to the surgery in order to thin the lining of my uterus to make removing the polyp easier. When I balked at taking The Pill, because it utterly goes against our decision to follow our faith values, he actually said, “well, I could call it something else if you want me too.” EEK!!…
So the appointment didn’t get any better when Dave & I really questioned the importance of removing this polyp and were unwilling to make the decision right there in front of him, but said repeatedly that we would have to discuss it first. Then he proceeded to say, “you do your research to find a doctor you can trust. And then, you do as you are told.” Oh, good golly…
Oh, and he declared definitively that I have PCOS (hmmm, and yet I don’t have symptoms traditionally associated with PCOS except for one, being heavy), hypothyroidism (which my midwife discovered) and this one centimeter sized polyp which he said WILL make it impossible for a baby to implant in my uterus (unless of course he removes it).
We told the doctor I was late and my temps were still elevated. But he made it very clear that I couldn’t be pregnant, didn’t offer to even contemplate a quick pregnancy test and then proceeded to leave us in the incapable hands of a medical student to discuss further the surgery. Said medical student then proceeded to explain that during the surgery the polyp would be snipped away and then they would conduct a D&C to scrap away additional uterine lining for analysis and just to make sure they got the whole polyp.
Dave & I left in what I guess could be considered a fog of dismay. That doctor was so utterly and completely disrespectful of our faith values and was so mean about making awful assumptions based on our being overweight. So enough of dippy doctor dude.
The next day, Saturday, I awoke with a still elevated temperature and now eight days late. After about an hour of indecision, Dave finally convinced me to do a pregnancy test. I think at that time I had actually become afraid of pregnancy tests. We had used many over the course of two years and none of them had happy endings. Plus, I was still down about the meeting with dippy doctor the day before. But Dave prevailed. I used the test and brought it into our computer room (aka baby’s future room), set it on the desk and we sat casually glancing down waiting for “Not Pregnant or Pregnant” to show up on the digital results screen. Suddenly the word Pregnant appeared! I was in shock, a little, I think. Dave was too, and then he jokingly said, “where’s the Not?” What an awesome moment in our lives!! No matter what happens to my mental faculties later in life, I hope I will always remember the moment I found out God graced us with this new life.
So the whole while that we were sitting in dippy doctor’s office the day before I was PREGNANT!! God is awesome!
Monday morning I called that doctor’s office and asked that all the blood test results and such be sent over to my midwife’s office and asked that they cancel the surgery (which we’d never actually agreed to do yet anyway). I called the midwife who thankfully took mercy upon my soul and saw me for 15 minutes in the early afternoon. The doctor had gotten me freaked out about the polyp and my newly pregnant brain was inventing all sorts of ways it was going to cause problems for a baby. She had blood drawn to conduct an HCG hormone level test and ordered another to be conducted two days later. My levels more than doubled…exactly like they were supposed too. So the midwife was comfortable saying things looked pretty good. WHEW!
So here we are 7 weeks 2 days pregnant! I’m not experiencing any morning sickness yet. The past couple of days I’ve been slightly tired and about once a night I have indigestion/heartburn issues. But aside from that I feel pretty great. I don’t “feel pregnant”, or really any different physically and that scares me because my brain can make all sorts of stuff up when unoccupied. i realize I need to just be grateful that I’m still feeling well, but still… Oh, and I’ve noticed that thinking about some foods can make me slightly grossed out. And certain textures like a ripe banana and a glob of mayo in a sandwich can turn me off eating immediately.
Since I was desperately interested in finding anything I could about what it felt like being pregnant in the early days and I couldn’t find any non-generic answers, I will be blogging about that topic frequently. So if ya don’t like reading about such stuff…tough…who knows how many times I get to do this pregnancy thing (which thus far is pretty totally awesome) so I’m going to talk about it and write about it lots!!
Just reading & imagining about the raspberry-sized little person developing inside me right now, whose heart is actually beating already, is so incredible.
On the Lighter Side…
Friday, October 31st, 2008
My Father’s Mother
Monday, October 27th, 2008My last living grandparent, my dad’s mom, died early Saturday morning. By God’s grace she is happy and she has been reunited with loved ones long passed.
She entered the hospital last week. I knew she was not doing well, but it still comes as a shock to learn of someone passing. My grandmother’s eldest child was with her when she died and I am grateful that she was not alone. She’d spent most of her life alone.
I will not be going back to attend the funeral services. My parents & I discussed this and decided that I should come back, as previously planned for Thanksgiving, rather than trying to make two trips in one month. I’ll miss seeing my extended family and being there, especially with my father. My thoughts and prayers are with them all though.
May you rest in eternal peace Grandma.
Other Blogs I like
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008I am loving this new blog set-up because I can add things all over the place, including links to blogs I really enjoy. That means that not only can I share the blogs I like to read, but when I’m at another computer I can still check those blogs even though I don’t have my bookmarks available. Pretty awesome.
I’m really enjoying this font. I kind of like it.