Friday, October 24, 2003

Detoxing

My mom just left after a week-long visit so I'm in full recovery/detox mode. I don't really want to talk about it.

We got to see the twins on the ultrasound on Tuesday and they look absolutely gorgeous, healthy and happy in there. It was clear this time (unlike last time) that each girl has her own separate sac, so the "identical" assumption could be wrong, but the gender is pretty obvious. Two girls for sure. I hope they're identical, because how goddamn cute would that be, but chances are just as good that they will be non-identical. We'll see. The midwife is on board for a homebirth provided there is another midwife present to help out, and that we go full term (she's looking into exactly what "full term" is when you're talking about twins). The first baby has to be head down delivery, but that's the only real restriction, and it's the usual presentation, so I'm not worried about it. I guess it's pretty easy to turn the second baby after the first one is out, and it's also usually pretty easy to deliver a breech twin, since they are often on the smallish side. Reading about twins, now, and getting excited for girls...

Wednesday, October 15, 2003

Giant Gobs of Pus

Note to self: do not watch the Red Sox on TV. When you watch them, they lose. When you don't, they win. The World Series rests on your shoulders, self.

I'm late to weigh in on it all, but seeing Zimmer charge Martinez, and then watching him go down like a sack of potatoes was just, well, funny. What a bozo.

I thought the baby had the chicken pox but it turned out to just be viral. This kid has been sick and on some sort of antibiotic for a month now. And I don't do antibiotics, generally speaking. Monday it all reached a new low (or high) when I was called back to day care to pick up my VERY sick kid who was running a very high temperature. I nursed him all day long at home (not in the breastfeeding sense of the word, more in the Nightingale sense of the word). Tuesday morning I brought him in to the doc and he was given a super-duper shot of yet another antibiotic. She looked in his ears and said she couldn't distinguish anything in there -- it looked just like two giant gobs of pus. Nice, huh? I thought you'd like that. He looked like he had two black eyes from the conjunctivits that was going on, too. And there was a weird rash on his face (hence my false chicken pox diagnosis). He's mostly all better and is going back to day care tomorrow, but we're off to see the ENT next week and I dread the tubes discussion. I really, really, really, really don't want to do the tubes. But we may have no choice. I just hope that the audiologist doesn't find anything seriously wrong with his hearing. Poor kid.

My mother is coming tomorrow. Pray for all our souls. She is threatening, once again, to move to Austin. So, once again, I will have to tell her no. It's an excruciating dance, this push-me-pull-you thing we have going. Boundaries, boundaries, boundaries. I love her, really. But I love her more in Massachusetts.

Still waiting for another peek at Baby A and Baby B. We had to cancel the ultrasound this week due to the baby being sick. Hopefully we can go next Tuesday and bring my mom along.

I have client #2! This client represents a teeny tiny amount of money per month, but that's OK. Her business will grow, I think, and the more clients the merrier. And I get to type oophorectomy a lot. Which is just plain fun. OK, yeah, I'm a word geek.

I've been eating better since last week, I swear. I'm trying to eat lots of small meals every day, and making sure I get more than enough protein. Apparently, one of the secrets to making sure that twins are fully cooked is protein. The other is rest. Lots of rest just might not be in the cards for me...but I can definitely do the protein thing. I do NOT want to go early, I do NOT want to go to the hospital, I want to do this at home. So I'm making every effort. Still, I'm going to have to go down to DSS next week and apply for Medicaid. There's definitely a higher likelihood that I will end up in the hospital, and if I do, I want to be covered. This whole uninsured thing really, royally, sucks.

Thursday, October 09, 2003

Diet

When pregnant, especially with twins, it is very important to eat lots of protein and leafy green vegetables, avoid caffeine and alcohol, and drink 5000 gallons of water a day.

Today, so far, I have eaten four Krispy Kreme doughnuts, had 1 1/2 cups of coffee and a glass of water.

I'm doing it for the twins.

Wednesday, October 08, 2003

The Goods

I love presents. Brian's mother sent me birthday money so I could go out and buy some boots. I promptly (after finishing all of my work, that is) headed for Nordstrom's and fell upon this pair of Franco Sartos:



Style name is "Rachel." Rachel happens to be one of my top choices for girl names, I might add.

Then it was time for dinner at the fabulous Habana (previously mentioned here).

At dinner, I opened my present from Brian, which turned out to be some very chic salt and pepper mills from Williams-Sonoma, they don't show them on their website, but I assure you they are exquisite.

Jack picked out some pear-scented votive candles for me and Eli gave me a lovely rose (Brian brought me orchids AND lilies on Monday night as well). Fleurs!

All in all, a good birthday. Of course, there was the box from my mother filled with strange plastic vases wrapped in newspaper and a drab olive green shirt. Plus a copy of The Three Little Pigs, which I have to assume is for my children, but was just stuffed into my birthday box for economical reasons. Oh, and there was a clipped recipe in there as well. It could be said that my mother doesn't exactly have a flare for gift giving. I did get a lovely email from an old friend of mine, calls from 3 of my 4 sisters (one of whom moved to California a MONTH ago and did not tell me, this is how lame we have been at communicating). My dad called me first thing this morning, and my mom called this evening, so I'm feeling pretty well remembered and gifted today.

I hope Jesse and Jesse got some good presents too!

Happy Birthday, Jesse and Jesse

Jesse Jackson is one of the few famous people who shares my birthday*. I also happen to have met him, and mentioned our shared birthday to him, which prompted him to kiss me on the cheek. Actually, I suspect he kisses a lot of the ladies on the cheek. He's that kind of guy. Dapper, debonair, smooth, very tall...just a little too much of all of that. Happy Birthday to you, Jesse, I believe you are 62 today.

I went to high school with Jesse M. He was a year older than me, and hailed from Kentucky. He had a dreamy accent, was thin and willowy and wry, made plaid shirts and jeans look romantic, and had a poetic talent which he kept mostly hidden. His father was a moderately well-known novelist. He was friendly with me, and I was of course madly in love with him, and followed him around like a lost kitten, watching in agony as he embarked on a series of relationships with other girls. Every year on our birthday we would give each other a carton of Camel Lights. Isn't that romantic? Happy Birthday to you, too, Jesse M. And thanks for letting me follow you around like that.

*Others.

Friday, October 03, 2003

A + B = 2



Yes, that's right. Say hello to Baby A and Baby B.*

Identical. Twin. Girls.

I'm going to go pass out now.

*Yes, I realize they both say "Baby A" but that's because the sono technician messed up. If you look at the picture on the right, you'll see "Baby B" printed directly on the image, just over the baby.

Thursday, October 02, 2003

Thanks, Mom

So I finally told my mother. Her response? First thing out of her mouth was, "Oh, I'm so sorry." Like someone just died. And she topped off the conversation with, "Well, I hope after this you get your tubes tied."

Sigh.

Thanks, Mom.

Maybe I'll get a sympathy card when the blessed event actually takes place.

So tomorrow is the big ultrasound day. I'll be sure to ingest lots of caffeine and sugar to get this baby moving. I want to see what's between those little legs. Jack is quite sure it's a girl, and will be very disappointed if it is another boy. I'll be all right, no matter what, but I'm crossing my fingers...

And, in sports news...

King Kaufman stole my headline today, which was going to be "Rush Limbaugh Really Is a Big Fat Idiot." I don't really have time to watch football much these days, and of course most of the football to be watched is on Fox and CBS, not ESPN, but I was truly, truly horrified when they hired that fat fuck, and I'm more than happy to see him go. ESPN has no semblance of dignity or good taste, in spite of their consistently brilliant advertising campaign. Things just haven't been the same since Keith and Dan broke up, anyway.

Gender update tomorrow! Take your best guess now...all will be revealed tomorrow afternoon.