36 weeks

I am in my own way.

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Taking time now

I've finished Sarah's britches in green (picture to come) and they'll go out tomorrow.
Other than that, it's time to take some time. I'll be knitting for my own baby for a bit now, and working furiously on some extra knitting for a special fundraiser.

Many of you know that Colleen of Spiffy Knits has been fighting the good fight with cancer. I do not want to capitalize that word, even though we all say it like that. I don't want to give it that much due. The updates are not good, and I regret that I never got any of her yarn to work with. I always thought there'd be time. She has been one of our own on Soggy Granola, and when you hang out on a small forum with someone like that, and share pictures of your children... you think that they'll always be there.
I will be posting a link to the fundraiser closer to the date. There will be some beautiful items up for bidding, raffles, buy it nows... All proceeds will go to her family for medical bills, things for the kids, and whatever they need.
It breaks my heart that she won't be able to watch her kids grow up.
It hurts even more that their memories of her will be cut so short.

Check back for the link. And peace be with you.

34 weeks

Yep.

I'm moving a little more slowly these days.
I've been accused of waddling.

Not too much longer.

I still have so much to do around the house, it's not even funny.

The goal is to have everything done by 36 weeks, and then I can just hang around and knit.

Thanks Dan!

Thanks to Dan, we have a new kitchen sink!
Because of a crazy amount of luck, he found the sink we (I) wanted for our kitchen on sale for about 75% off. Talk about timing!
So now, one of the householdy things that I really wanted to do before we have the baby is done.
We had this regular old stainless double basin sink in the kitchen.

It wasn't remarkably good or bad. Probably the one the builder stuck in the house about 15 years ago. Funny she upgraded to the granite countertops, but kept the regular sink.
I didn't like it because neither basin was big enough to do anything. I really wanted a big, deep, single basin sink. It would be especially nice to bathe a baby in.

Here is the hole left behind when John took out the old sink. Isn't he cool? He knows how to do that kind of thing now. Yay for plumbing knowledge acquired on the job while taking care of fishies.

He placed the sink and then left it to set overnight so the would be nice and dry. Here he is with his helpers, assessing to see what piping he needs to get from the store to complete the job. He had to redo all the under the sink stuff because we were going from two drains down to one, and he also removed the disposal. We now have a lovely compost bin that we bought from the county. It will be really good for our garden next year.

After a trip (or two) to the hardware store, he was finally finishing up. Niall was his big helper and held the flashlight.

And here it is! Our new sink, complete with new faucet since we didn't have to buy the sink. Thanks so much Dan! I'm sure there will be plenty of baby bathtub pictures taken right here.
I'm very happy with it, because it is wide (33 inches) and deep (9 inches) and gives me plenty of room to do those sinky things. And I love the white. It feels very clean.

And just because it's cute and I just got it off the camera, here's Rowan's soccer picture for the season. He plays for the Diamondbacks, and they've won 1 and lost 1.

Craniofacial Team Day

Okay. It went well. Here's all the gritty details, probably more than you wanted to know!

Orthodontics - Rowan will need a palate expander, but his first permanent molars haven't erupted yet so there's not a place to cement it in. We have to go back in June for a panoramic x-ray and to see the team orthodontist about that. He does need expanding before his bone graft, as he has a crossbite and they need to widen things before they put in his bone graft.

Plastics - Rowan can have a lip revision any time he wants. Dr. VanAalst would like to narrow his philtrum and increase the fullness in his lip to give it more of the natural cupid's bow appearance. This is totally up to Rowan as to when it would be done. He will also need his nose lifted at some point, but it would be better to wait until after his bone graft for best results. He's a handsome kid, and we're going to follow his lead here. He says that he thinks it would be cool to have surgery and eat ice cream, but he probably wants to wait until he's 7 for that.

Speech Language Pathology - No nasal leakage, age appropriate sounds. He does have some kinds of "clefty" sounds, but they're not consistant and when we ask him to repeat he does it properly. No reccomendations. Rowan will continue to participate in the research study for speech in June. They'll make a mould of his teeth at that time. They also tested his vocabulary - he's at the 7years 8months level there. Smart kid!

Oromaxillofacial Surgery - We need to make an appointment with Dr. Turvey for a separate evaulation for his bone graft. He'll want a panoramic x-ray. This could possibly wait until June, but might be sooner. They'll conference about it with the Orthodontist and let us know. They're also pretty sure that he'll need a midfacial advancement in his later teen years.

ENT - Rowan has outgrown all his ear issues. His hearing is great, and we just need to keep on with our regular ped for his asthma.

Psych - Great kid, well adjusted, no worries. Hooray.

Social Work - We actually didn't see her much, because she hooked us up with a new person who is trying to start a local group near Wilmington. So I got her info and will get her the stuff she needs for Pathfinding and plugging into our NC listserv. Kim also gave us a replacement feeder and nipples so I can redo photographs for the sippy cup page on cleftAdvocate, and gave me an article on the Victory Junction Gang camp. Rowan will be old enough for that next year.

Dentist - Good oral hygeine. Keep up the good work. His extra tooth in his palate isn't loose. We'll leave it alone unless it's an issue.

So, what does all this mean?

Rowan is doing very well and is not too complicated. He needs a bone graft, but his palate needs expanding before then. They need an x-ray so they know how much bone he needs and where, but they want to wait until his top molars come through to do it so they don't zap his head too much. Once he has his top molars, they'll zap him and put in the palate expander. Once his palate is wide enough, they can do the bone graft. He will need the bone graft before his permanent lateral incisors try to come in (if he has them) so they have something to hold on to. It's all very time-dependent on what his teeth are up to, so we'll be in touch. For now, we have a little bit longer before we have to jump on the horse again.

Grumpy Grumperton

That would be me.
Sleep is a task these days. I can't get comfy, and I've developed some strange pregnancy twitchyness so that makes it even worse. I looked around online and found that restless legs are a pregnancy thing, woo. And they think it might be a lack of iron. So today I ate a burger and cooked eggs in the cast iron skillet for dinner.
It's like I can feel the crickets chirping on my skin. *shudder* I hope it works.

In other news, we went to tour the hospital tonight, only to have our tour cancelled. We'll see if we actually get to see where we're going before we have to go there for real. But we now know that it takes 15ish minutes to get there from here. So there's that anyway.

Knitting wise, I sent this out last week

For Erin to use on her baby. I've also made britches for our baby out of the same colorway. But I need to weave in ends and such on that pair.
And I sent out this pair of britches today:

They were boring to knit because of the all navy factor, but are way cute when done. They made me think of Harry Potter for some reason.

Also from today - a conversation:
Niall: Can I smell Mommy? Can I smell?
Me: Can you smell what?
Niall: Can I smell your armpit?

Yes. They helped me pick out new deodorant yesterday. Fun times.

Well? What do you think?

The first picture is with Niall, the second is this baby.
Both pictures are me at 30 weeks.


I think I'm smaller this time around.

Pregnancy Update

I went for my 30 weeks visit today and met the new doc in the practice.

They got the results from the redo of my gestational diabetes test. The first one I had a 136 on it and the cut off is 140 so they wanted me to retake it just to make sure. This time I got a 114, so no worries there at all.

They had to start the asthma protocol on me today since they put me on pulmicort. I wasn't on the protocol already because I hadn't been taking any meds, but with the summer ozone and baby taking up my lungs, and how much trouble I'd been having... ya, so I'm on it now.
This means I have to do a peak flow at every visit (I got above 400 today -excellent. The best I've ever gotten was 450).
I also had a quick ultrasound today to check growth. Surprise! It was nice to have a peek. She's perfect, head down, and weighing about 3lbs right now. Plenty of fluid and all looks good.
And now I'll have an NST done at 34 weeks as part of the protocol too. I need to figure out if I'm bringing Niall along for that, and what I'm doing with him otherwise. Although he's so interested in hearing the baby I imagine that he'd just sit there listening with wide eyes if I end up needing to bring him along.

All in all, everything is looking good. Rowan will be on track break for my next visit, so he'll get to come too. He's excited about that because he's been asking about how they hear the baby's heart, so that will be fun for him to see.

I'll be officially 30 weeks on Sunday, and I'm going to take a picture then because I have a picture of me at that point from when I was pregnant with Niall, and I honestly think I was much bigger then. It will be interesting to look at them and compare.

On the knitting front, I'm working on a pair of navy blue britches for an order. And a purple sweater for the baby. No pics though. I can't find the camera cord.

Sometimes it's so hard to keep from laughing out loud

I picked Rowan up from school today. This was our conversation in the van on the way home.

Rowan: Mom, I met a new kid today. And he said that he saw this guy who had rings in his nose and his eyes and his EARS! and a mohawk.

Me: Really?

Rowan: Yes!

Me: Well, you can't get any rings yet. You can just have a mohawk.

Rowan: Ya that guy was kind of scary. He was some kind of teenager.

Me: Oh.

Rowan: And he was kissing a girl in the parking lot.

Me: Well, you can't go kissing girls in the parking lot yet either, ok?

Rowan: Ya, that would be kind of dangerous.

The yard

Fran and Robert, this one is for you!

So... when we looked at this house to buy, we thought it was good for our family and we made an offer. As part of the closing, we had a survey done. We knew we wanted to fence in the back yard, and it would have to be done eventually, so we went ahead and got it done.
Imagine our surprise when it came time for the walkthrough before closing, and we found out that our backyard did not end where we thought it did!
We thought it ended right behind the shed, where some briars were growing up. But it didn't. Our realtor Jo was practically jumping up and down when we realized that the surveyor's flags were waaaaaaay back there. Beyond the briars. Meaning that our back yard was HUGE.

So we had a job to do.

This is what the back yard behind the shed looked like when we moved in.


The briars were huge. Thick and healthy, and they didn't want to go anywhere.
John's parents came for a weekend to help, and we quickly figured out that loppers were NOT going to do the job if we wanted it done before spring really hit and the briars grew even more.
So the next weekend

We rented a bobcat!
How fun, and how satisfying to see those briars come down.
We also pulled out A LOT of metal that weekend. An entire pickup truck load. I regret that I didn't get a picture of it. There were bikes, at least 6 tires, a bedframe, the backseat of a car... BUNCHES of stuff hidden in all those briars.
I joked with the neighbors that if they came home and saw crime scene tape up
they'd know we found Hoffa.

So after that, it was time for fence kinds of things. Our friend Robert came up from Charleston to help John out. They planted stakes and measured and did all those manly things.

And rented a post hole drill auger type thingy to make the job easier.

After that, John began to set the posts.

He decided to go ahead and set them, and worry about topping them after they were done. This ended up being a pretty good plan. I actually got to help there, measuring the posts and marking them, since pg me couldn't do any of the heavy lifting for the rest of it.

After that, he put up the sections, and finally, we had a yard!

This is the section that is pictured with the string above.


This is the other part of the front of the back yard, or all the yard we thought we had when we made the offer on the house. The shed is not pictured, but the wagon is right in front of it.


This is the same spot that I took a picture of before,
the picture with the briars and the bag caught in them... WHAT A DIFFERENCE!


And this is the one side of our bonus back yard.

And the other side.

Yay!

Future plans include moving the shed to the back of the yard, near where the little plastic table is sitting now. I'm also planning on a compost pile behind the shed. The swingset will be moved so it's under the big shade trees, and since there's no grass there right now I want to put in landscaping timbers in a large rectangle and fill it with mulch for the swingset to be on. This will give the kids a shady place to play (the slide gets HOT in the sun) and a soft place to land, and will give us less yard to seed with grass and eventually mow.

So that's the yard! We'd like to thank Tommy and Fran for financing the Bobcat weekend, and Robert for his help and knowledge in fence building. We couldn't have done it without you!

more pics

Today is the first day of FIRST GRADE!

Rowan is happy with his snazzy new shoes and his groovy new lunchbox.


At his desk in his new classroom. Here's to a great new year!
Yes, he goes to year 'round school. He'll have most of the month of September off.
It's strange to me to send my child to school in July, but Rowan doesn't know any differently, and I think the big chunks of time off during the year are going to be great instead of spending all his days off in the summer.


Niall wanted his hair buzzed too.
Actually, he asked for "fuzzy hair."


My two buzzed bandits.


And Loki, because she never gets her picture online.
And her ears are big and cute.


And big but not as cute... here's the belly.
I'm 5 months now. John did the extra sweet hubby thing yesterday and came home with a body pillow and an eggcrate for the bed. What a guy!

I'm going for that cool mom award or something

See... when I was a kid my Mom had this rule.
If you keep your hair clean, you can have it however you want it.
No matter what. Color. Shaved. Whatever.
Clean = freedom.
It led to some really strange do's for my brother.
Not so much for me, but I could have if I'd wanted.
So when Rowan started asking for a mohawk after seeing a kid at the pool who had one, and didn't forget about it after weeks went by, and kept bring up the really long mohawk dude from the Ellen show and saying he wanted one... well...
I kinda had to do it.


Before. All that luscious hair.


Parts of getting it done were ticklish.


Halfway done. He kinda looks like a skater dude.


It's all serious business when I get near his ears.


Mohawk.

He looks pretty cool.
He's very happy with the final product.
We'll need some fine tuning of a few stray hairs, but there he is.
I can't believe I did that.
Uncle Doug would be proud.

Massive picture post

Dial up users - beware.

A lot of things happened while I was feeling like less than a human being.
Funny how making a new human being can do that to a person.
At the end of May we went to Gatlinburg to see John's cousin James get married. It was a lot of fun and a great excuse to get snazzed up. But it was also VERY hot, so by the time this picture was taken some of our snazz had worn off. That's ok. It was all about the couple.


And of course the kids can pull of cute way longer than we can.


Next up on our list of exciting times, we went out and got a bunk bed for the boys. They'd been sharing a double bed since we moved here in Nov, but (judging from the bloodcurdling screams that would come out of their room after bedtime) the snazz wore off that as well.

They seem much happier to have their own respective places.
It makes them seem like BIG boys now.

HUGE on the list of wowie: Rowan graduated from Kindergarten.

(Obligatory blurry picture taken in bad lighting. I remember our photo albums being full of pictures like this. Now I know why.)
It was very cute, and they played the graduation march and everything. I was very proud of my hormonal self in that I managed to not cry. I did have to ignore the story that one teacher told about little caterpillars, but those are the choices we must make if we are to maintain some sort of shreds of dignity. And besides... HOW CUTE.

And HOW PROUD.

Rowan is really going to miss Ms. Gross and Mrs. Montgomery. I'm amazed and impressed with all of the things he's learned this year. And I remember my kindergarten teacher still, so I'm sure he'll never forget them.

Ms. Gross, Rowan, Mrs. Montgomery. K-grad 2008

So then we started summer, which led to the excitment of new floaty suits...

Yes, I do make them wear their swim trunks underneat. The tightness of the bottom of this suit is just a tad on the creepy side. But it works great to keep them alive.

...falling asleep on the living room floor...


...and for Niall especially, advancing the cause of mess-making...


But my bathroom did smell almond fresh once it was all mopped up.

...and checking out the cool new guy in the neighborhood.

This took some skulking around in the back yard, but isn't he pretty?

And finally, I'm doing well. I'm halfway done with this pregnancy. Baby girl is growing stronger, and John felt her kick, so that is exciting. I have another ultrasound in a couple of days, and hopefully that will be the last one that is needed.


So there you go! Our past little bit in pictures. And yes I'm back to knitting too. Yessss!
I see a cupcake hat in this baby's future.

I'm BACK!

WOOOO HOOO! It's like someone flipped a switch, finally, and I'm starting to feel like a human being again! In fact, I felt so good yesterday that it took seeing my belly in the mirror and a few little kicks to the bladder to remind me that I'm even pregnant. Yes! Hooray and hallelujah!

Tracy, your soakers are done and dry and ready to send. I'll be emailing pictures as soon as the sun gets out of my picture taking spot.

Everyone else, I'll check if you still want something. I know it's been quite some time - 14 weeks of hurling but who's counting? So if you have changed your mind don't worry about it. It's been a long wait on the wait list.

And news from here. It's a girl! I have another ultrasound next week to check for growth, so I'll ask them to look again and make sure. I'm still getting used to the idea. You mean I'm finally going to get to make all those frilly girly things?

Rowan graduated from Kindergarten last week. He was proud as punch, and though he's sad to leave his old school we're looking forward to starting 1st grade at the year 'round school. And it's close enough to walk. No more half hour drives!

That's about all the news from here. We'll be going to the CCA retreat in a couple of weeks, and the NACFC in July. Those are the big travel plans for the summer.