Not putting this behind a filter because many of the questions are coming from people not on my preggo filter. I've been getting a lot of questions and so I'm making one point of answer. Because repeating it over and over is kind of tiring. 

1) What is preeclampsia?

It's a syndrome that affects about 5% of pregnancies. The symptoms are high blood pressure (where there was normal or low bp before the pregnancy), proteins that leak into your urine, decreased kidney function, and decreased liver function. It tends to come on very quickly, so you can go from a textbook pregnancy to a high-risk one in a matter of days (this is what happened to me).  It can quickly progress from not so bad to very bad in a matter of days or hours, and it can lead to eclampsia. Eclampsia's symptoms are stroke and seizure on top of the rest of the symptoms. The reason I am being monitored so closely is so that it does not progress to eclampsia. Preeclampsia was at one time the main reason women died in pregnancy and childbirth. We've come a long way since those days but it is still nothing to take lightly. The only cure is to have the baby. To slow down the progression, bedrest and baby aspirin. And lots and lots of water.

2) So how do you feel?

I feel like total crap, and every day I tend to feel worse than the previous day. There's really no getting better until the baby is born. I totally appreciate that everyone wants to know how I'm feeling but I feel like a broken record/complainer when people ask how I'm feeling and the answer is always the same. 

3) How long is the bedrest going to last?

It will last until I have the baby. They will most likely induce me at 37 weeks, which is the week of July 26th. But if my kidney or liver function appears to be going down rapidly, they will induce earlier than that. Until then I am on bedrest.

4) So how does this bedrest thing work?

I get to lay in bed, mostly on my side, all day long, except to go to the bathroom or go to a doctor appointment. Occasionally I come downstairs and do my bed rest on the sofa so that I can be a little social, but if I do that, then I can't go back upstairs until it's time to go up for the rest of the day/night. Some people were surprised to hear that I can't sit up in bed. Sitting up makes my blood pressure go up, so I only get to sit up to eat.

5) Can I pray for you?

Yep. I don't much care who you pray to either. Best to cover all the bases.

6) Is there anything I can do for you?

Yes. If you are local, you can do any of the following:

a) Babysit--we need sitters on Monday morning/early afternoon, Tuesday evenings, Thursday afternoons, and all day Friday. 
b) Bring food--we never say no to food, unless it contains nuts or legumes (Adam is allergic).
c) Bring books. I read a lot in bed. If you live far away and want to send used books that would rock too. (PM me for my address if you want to do this)
d) just understand that living this way is exhausting and sometimes I am not up for being social, in person or on the internet. This has taken me about an hour to type because i am lying down and typing, so understand that it takes a lot of effort to type anything these days.

 12:22 PM 

me: omg

  adam took micah out to play ball

12:23 PM micah decided that they need to sing the star spangled banner before they play

 Maggie: lol

 me: he doesn't know how it ends though

  so he just keeps going

  it's been abotu 5 minutes

 Maggie: snort

  it's like a central american anthem now

 me: apparently he was quite confused last night when they also sang o canada

 Maggie: lol

12:24 PM best anthem ever though

  very singable

 me: yes

 Maggie: and less prone to r&b runs and octave jumping

 me: lol

  haha

  can you imagine o canada with r&b runs?

12:25 PM Maggie: i was just trying to sing it and see where they would put them lol

 me: haha

 Maggie: there is no good place for them lol

12:26 PM me: that would be something to you tube

  i think they are done singing

12:27 PM Maggie: kim was saying that a really long Oh would be funny

  OOOoooooooooooooOOOOOOh Canada!

 me: indeed

 Maggie: Canadians would laugh them off the field

12:28 PM me: it's true!!

  adam could not sell my ticket last night

  it seems no one wanted to GO to a Nats/TOR game

  so sad

 Maggie: so sad indeed

12:29 PM me: but hey, Nats won again!

 Maggie: woot!

 me: I know!!

12:30 PM i might have to post this to my lj

  too funny

 Maggie: lol

Everything that is happening to me now is pregnancy related. If you want to know what is going on with me, you will have to opt in to that filter. Let me know if you want on it and I will do some more additions. 

ETA: if you can see the post "pregnancy good news and bad news" you are already in :)

I keep trying to write stuff, and then end up not able to.

Part of it is that my whole life right now is pregnancy and working, and I can't really write about working, and I don't really care to write about pregnancy (though I probably should) 

I know it may sound odd and completely weird that I took a year to see it, but I just saw WALL-E for the first time last night. It was on On-Demand, and I was tired of watching medical and crime dramas on the DVR (even though Adam is going on travel again tomorrow and we have to catch up on some stuff or it will fill up again, but I digress.)

The movie left me really discontent, in that I wanted to go seek out my Dystopias professor from grad school to talk about it (I did look him up--he is teaching in Ireland now so I think a coffee and a talk are out of the question for now).
( spoilers for the 2 people who haven't seen the movie, and also Cultural Studies blather that you may not care about )

Today is my anniversary! 6 years and it really doesn't feel like it!

Last night we had a babysitter (my MIL) and we went out to McCormick & Schmick for dinner. Now, we have no money, or rather, we are short on money this month, and M&S is very  pricey. I was really worried, but we had 2 coupons because we joined their Frequent Eater's Club back about a year ago. The two coupons were for 1 meal free and $25 off, and we were hoping against all odds that they would take both. But we weren't going to worry too much because it was our anniversary and we go out so rarely. And also I'm going to have a big MK sale to make some money this week (just keep an eye out and you'll see all about it!)

Anyway, I had my meal all picked out and then our fabulous server came over. She was having a bad night and had a wretched table that we could see (how could so many people look so surly at such an awesome restaurant?!) We were our usual awesome selves, and she remembered us from the last time we were there. She made me a great non-alcoholic drink that could make me feel girly and like I was drinking something other than soda (cranberry juice, seltzer and lime is yum!) and then told us the specials.

Oy. Well as soon as I heard the specials, my planned dinner went out the window.  I ordered the surf & turf, which was a choice of sirloin or filet with OMG GIANT WILD ALASKAN KING CRAB LEGS YUMYUMYUM. I ordered it with the sirloin because let's face it, that was the meal we'd be paying for (assuming they took off the lower priced meal) and we didn't want to go completely insane. Adam ordered the Salmon stuffed with crab meat and brie, which was my original pick, so I got to taste it too. We also ordered coconut shrimp and a salad to share. 

The shrimp were awesome. The salad was delicious. 

My meal came and she upgraded me to a filet. Woah. It was so good. And the crab was so fabulous and fresh that you didn't need the tiny little fork to get the meat out. It just all came out in one piece. Awesome! Very cool. I did share my meat and a little crab with Adam, and he let me taste his, which was OMG so good also. The two of us were in food heaven. 

When it was all over, we had forgotten that my special came with a creme brulee. Which I happily shared with my husband. She actually offered us another one on her to have with our coffee! But we were both so full that we declined. Can you imagine it? We declined free creme brulee! But really, we could not fit in any more food. 

So then, we took out our frequent eater's card and coupons and prayed. She took back the bill and did two absolutely amazing things: 

First, she took off the price of the more expensive meal. Second, she gave us the points as if we had paid the bill in full. Plus of course she took off the additional $25 for the 2nd coupon. We over-tipped her based on the cost of the original meal and the entire dinner came out to $50 including tip. Um, I doubt we could have eaten ANYWHERE in Reston Town Center for $50 last night. I was thrilled. Adam was thrilled. And oh yeah, we found out her name (Kristen C.) so that we could ask for her in the future (she also works the coolest room in the place which is the Jefferson Room. It has the seal of Virginia in stained glass on the ceiling and stained glass dogwoods and cardinals along the walls. The funniest part of the night? We were talking to Kristen and she said she had been working all day, and that morning had worked a Bat Mitzvah in the catering room. "At a Seafood Restaurant called McCormick & Schmick!?" Yeah, we made her laugh. (Seriously? There are 3 things on the menu that are not seafood, and most of the seafood is either shellfish or stuffed with shellfish!)  

In all we had a great meal. We were going to try to see Star Trek but by the time we got out we'd have had to go to the 9:00 showing which would have gotten us home at 11:30--a little too late to ask Cheryl to babysit. So we took a walk around town center and then took a drive (made sure we had enough gas this time) and listened to our wedding CD. It was a really lovely night.

This morning, Adam's mom and Bob came over for brunch, which was a joint effort. Adam makes the best home fries in the world, and i made the eggs to go with them. Cheryl brought over strawberries and rhubarb and an orange pound cake, which was perfect for dessert.

And now Adam has taken the boy to the playground, which is nice because I can relax a bit while they are away. 

Happy Mother's Day!
 

The Reston Farmer's Market opened today! YAY! 

 

We did not buy a ton as it was mostly plants for gardening (which I don't generally speaking do) but we did get most of the ingredients for my salad! 

 

We got spinach, strawberries, eggs, goat cheese, and, uh, maybe that was it. Like I said, not a lot but definitely a good start, and I'll be having my salad TOMORROW. I can't wait. 

 

The best part about the market was seeing everyone. My friend Mary, who owns one of the farms, is pregnant too. Her first was born right after my first was born, and her second will be born right before my second. How cool is that? The Jam Lady has some new jams this time around. The Honey, meat, cheese, and bread people are all back too.  And of course everyone was out shopping and socializing and having a great time.

 

What a great morning. So excited for the rest of the summer! 

 I think everyone has seen Star Trek but me.

Sad.

 But, husband home tonight! Dollhouse tonight! Anniversary this weekend! Yay!

No spoilers, just want to say that after Buffy, Angel, and Firefly, I would think that Joss would lack the ability to surprise me anymore. I would be wrong. Episode was fantastic, and I practically fell off my chair. 

 

It's not the plague people.

I was watching the news tonight (um, somewhere around the election I broke my news fast and I might have to start it again thanks to Pig Flu, but I digress).  Apparently Rockville High School closed today due to a suspected case of Swine Flu. On the news, they showed a woman berating a bunch of kids for being out and about instead of in their homes, that they were being irresponsible and were going to expose everyone to Swine Flu. The kids were just hanging out playing basketball. She insisted they should be in their homes and not be out in the world.

they're kids. they are not criminals.

You are setting a dangerous precedent by insinuating that simply being in a building with a possibly infected person is enough to quarantine yourself.  The fact that there are a lot of people who do feel this way is very scary to me.

Two weeks ago, I was at my knitting group and started talking to a woman there about cloth diapering. She was cloth diapering her new baby and she actually showed me how some of her newborn diapers worked. Once I saw how easy it was, I went online and bought a very small amount just to see what they were like and show Adam.

Two days ago, someone posted on freecycle that she was giving away about a dozen fitted diapers and some covers.    Since fitted diapers cost a lot more than pre-folds, I was pretty excited and really hoped I would get them. I wrote to the poster, and got back a sad "Sorry but they are already gone."

Ah well, it was worth a try.

Last night at knitting I was talking to the woman and she mentioned that she had just given away a set of fitted diapers on freecycle. Yep. Same person. See, we talked for like an hour at knitting group but didn't exchange email addresses. I didn't remember her name and her email address is random. She didn't remember my name either. 

She will be giving me her next set of diapers when her son grows out of them though.

 It's been a crazy couple of days.

Yesterday i went to my friend Pam's house for a stamping party. All was going quite well until I went to get up and go to the bathroom. That is when i discovered that the living room next to the dining room was actually a sunken living room. I found out by completely falling on my ass. Well, my hip, and my ankle. My ankle hurt a lot but I figured i just twisted it and I'd be fine. I finished up the party and went home. 

While driving myself home I realized that the injury might be more than just a twist. I got home and iced it, felt a little better and figured that was it. Then I went to stand to get up to eat dinner and realized that all was not right in the world.

I called Maggie and she said she'd take me to the urgent care place. I didn't really want to go to the hospital because I figured I would avoid more sick people this way.

Untrue. Inova Urgent Care in Reston is a freakin' cesspool. They told us it would be a 2 hour wait. I feared I'd walk out with swine flu. We headed to the hospital instead. 

They did take me in right away, and the radiology people were quite awesome. They brought the x-ray machine to my room and double lead blanketed me while doing x-rays.

But as soon as it was determined that nothing was broken, the doctor basically decided to blow me off. She had them put me in a gel splint that didn't actually help the part of my foot that hurt. And then she made the brilliant decision that I could not use crutches safely because I am pregnant, and ordered a freakin' walker for me.

In retrospect, I should have turned right back around and told them to take it back. Walkers are made to help old people stabalize themselves while walking. You know what happens when you put a pregnant woman behind a walker and tell her to move it forward and then hop?

Have you EVER heard of recommending ANY kind of hopping around for a pregnant woman?

By the time I got to the door, my hip and OTHER foot were killing me. I was ripping mad and I just had Maggie take me home.

This morning I went to the chiropractor who is wonderful. He did some feeling around and figured out that I have a torn ligament. It was so torn that he could feel it. Something which they just decided to blow off in the hospital. Also, I had a sprain, and some other stuff was knocked out of alignment. He iced me for 1/2 hour before attempting an adjustment, so I was almost numb when he did it. Not entirely though, and it still hurt a LOT to have the adjustment. But once he was done it felt much better, and I could actually walk on it. Then he adjusted my hip so that felt better. 

I have to go back on Wednesday.

In and among all of this insanity, we discovered that our air conditioner was broken. So that was fun too. I feel like I'm bleeding money. It is fixed now and at least the house is cooler, even if I am poorer.

Just glad Adam is home this week.

That about sums up my life right now.

Adam is in California this week. And then maybe he'll be in Yuma later this week. Who knows? Micah is confused again. Every morning we go over the same thing: Daddy is in California. He will be home on Friday. Today is Tuesday. Let's sing the Days of the Week song. How many days until Friday? OK that's when Daddy will be home.

And then he says "go see the Nats! Ryan Zimmerman! Nick Johnson! Adam Dunn!"

And while I am proud that he is learning his players (and their numbers and their positions actually) I have no way of convincing him that just because Daddy came home last Friday and we went to see the Nats doesn't mean it's going to happen every week.

That said, I did check to see if they were playing at home on Friday (they are not) and even checked the P-Nats schedule (they are away, too).

In other news, Gobi's tubes came out yesterday. As of last night the wound was still open (I could flush it as if the tubes were still in) but as of tonight it seems to be closing. I spoke to the vet today and the culture came back and it seems that she has FOUR DIFFERENT BACTERIA. That's right. FOUR infections. Fortunately, he found an antibiotic that should work on all four. Unfortunately it is in pill form.

So now, I have a very pissed off cat and I have to pill her instead of just squirt some liquid in her mouth. I bought a piller. Here was how it went tonight:

1) Catch the cat. Finally grab her by the side of the neck that does not have a gaping wound. 

2) sit on floor with towel. I am getting good at this. Hold cat between legs and wrap in towel.

3) pry mouth open and stick piller (with installed pill) in mouth

4) wonder how the cat got away, and chase her and catch her again

5) notice the pill is no longer in the piller. Wonder if it actually made it in her mouth.

6) move on to wound cleaning. Fortunately she is used to this part.

7) let cat go. Notice pill on the floor

8) chase and catch cat again

9) attempt pilling without piller. Avoid getting bitten but wonder if she swallowed the pill this time

10) look around for pill on the floor and assume she ate it since it is nowhere to be found.

I get to do this once a day for 20 days. 

Well, this morning was my first time having to flush the wound on Gobi's head and neck.

I made up the mix, filled the syringe, and also grabbed the antibiotics because I wasn't going to chase down the cat twice in one morning.

As soon as I entered the room she ran. Great. Into the corner that I can't get to. I started moving furniture and then noticed that she was out. Huh. Grabbed her (uh, you can't do the usual grab-by-scruff-of-neck thing because she has three giant holes in her neck, but I managed to get her). Got the towel. Gave her scritches. Grabbed the syringe. Braced myself for the worst. Syringed fluid into the hole in her head.

Huh. Not so bad. There was liquid EVERYWHERE, as it just came out the other end. Apparently one towel was not enough. She didn't complain though.

Refilled syringe. Oh yeah, I have 4 oz of this stuff to flush through her wound.

She did pretty well. She did shake it off, getting yet more liquid everywhere. I was fairly soaked by the time I was done.

When that was done, I grabbed the antibiotic and tried to squeeze that into her mouth. She bit me. But not hard enough to break the skin. More scritches, treats, and I left her alone.

So not bad for Try #1. I have to do this two more times by myself before Adam gets home tomorrow.

My church, St. John Neumann church in Reston, is big. It's really big. There are a lot of people.

About 10 years ago, before I moved to Reston, the church building was the size of the replacement church for the church I grew up in. That is, when I was a teenager they built us a new church in Canarsie to replace the one that was always meant to be temporary, and which was teeny tiny. They built a lovely church. The original St John Neumann church in  Reston reminded me of the new church in Canarsie.

But again, about 10 years ago, they realized that SJN church was too teeny tiny for the size of the parish. So they built another church and kept the original church as a chapel. The new church is HUGE. 

Last year on Easter, we arrived at the 11:30 mass at 11:20 and ended up basically, uh, in the hallway. But we learned then that there are actually 2 masses at a time--on in the church and one in the chapel. By the time we arrived both the church and the chapel were filled. It was a very bad experience.

So today, more prepared, we decided to go to the 9:30 and to arrive at 9. We also decided that we would head straight to the chapel, because it would obviously fill up more slowly than the church.  

We arrived at around 9 and OH MY GOSH it was so crowded. I was worried. We did find a parking space, and got to the church and headed straight into the chapel, where we got a lovely seat (near the back). The place filled in, and there were still a lot of people standing, but it was great. They don't do anything silly like closed circuit tv. They just have 2 separate masses. I'm pretty sure the mass in the church started as soon as the place was filled, and ours started about 15 minutes later. We got out at the same time (yes, it is big enough that it takes an extra 15 minutes to distribute communion in the main church).

So I got interrupted by family and dinner :) It was good. Yum. Anyway, Church WIN today. Micah was pretty good. Mass was lovely. Now i nap.

Since I have been so focused on food recently, I decided to start a food blog. Who knows how long it will last, but for now, it's here http://gottoeat.blogspot.com/

 

I had an amount--a not small amount--of slivered almonds that I bought a while ago and which are not good for much. Haha. I was thinking about salad yesterday and what would be delicious, and suddenly, the thought of glazing the almonds came to me. 

It was really easy:

1/4 cup sugar
1T water
pinch of salt
coat almonds (about maybe a little more than 1/2 cup? I just added almonds until the mix was gone)

Spray a nonstick baking sheet with cooking spray and spread out the almonds in an even layer. Bake at 300 and stir every 3 minutes until done. Allow to cool. Transfer to an airtight container.

YUM. 

I started out this morning with a chiropractor appointment, which went great. I get to go back on Monday and then go back to every 2 weeks until I'm about 35 weeks pregnant, and then I can go once a week until I have the baby.

Micah was a cranky kid this morning and spydielives  was coming over to watch him so that I could go to my free massage (which I thought was Saturday but which was today). So I put him down for his nap at 1:00 and amazingly, he was just so tired that he was asleep before I put him in his crib. Wow.  Spydie came over, I got her set up on the wireless, and I headed for my Free Massage.

Now, when you realize that you're getting a Free Massage, you kind of assume it's a short thing. Maybe 15 minutes. Half hour tops. 

I drove out to Herndon and there were 2 lovely ladies standing outside of the place directing the preggos on where to go. I went up to the place and it was lovely. They had me fill out my paperwork (the usual stuff) and paired me with my massage therapist. 

So you see, this whole thing was because the therapists at this place were all being certified or re-certified in prenatal massage. What I thought would be a 15 minute massage was a full on 1-hour massage! Oh my gosh it was so good. At the end they asked me to fill out an evaluation, which I happily did. Then I booked a massage for the first weekend in May. As I was booking I asked the owner how much I was signing up for! It's a $96 massage. Which is awesome, in that it was a much better actual massage than I had at Red Door and also about $30 cheaper. Also, hello I GOT A FREE $96 MASSAGE!! How awesome is that?

I came home and Micah was just waking up. Amy and I hung out for a bit but then she had to leave to get home. 

For dinner, we had a freezer meal--chicken penne--and garlic bites and salad. I was feeling ambitious and we had all these slivered almonds in the fridge, so I glazed them and had them on the salad. OMG best salad! It was lettuce, cabbage, carrots, broccoli, celery, green peppers, tomatoes, glazed almonds, and Wisteria Gardens house vinaigrette. SO good. Everything was a hit.

Now Micah is happily watching the Nats game on TV, yelling out YAY BASEBALL and randomly breaking into song. It's awesome.

Edited for some links:
Wisteria Gardens
Rejuvenations Massage Therapy

It's hard to believe but the final vote for LJ Idol Season 5 is here. 

The posts and the vote is here: http://community.livejournal.com/therealljidol/252171.html

It is actually a community only vote. You can join the community and then un-join if you want to after the vote is over, but of course we love to have more people in the community :) It is bound to be quiet for the next few months!

I do have my favorite but am not going to post it here. Just read and vote if you would. Thank you so much :)