Yes, We're Okay!

Sorry everyone, I forgot I posted about Hurricane Irene coming through. 

We're fine, totally fine!  Basically, we got a lot of wind, a bunch of rain, and that was it.  No flooding, no damage, all the family is safe.  We lost power for about 36 hours, cable and internet a little longer.  My relatives in Richmond are still without power and expect to be without it until at the very least Friday, probably longer.  Luckily, they have somewhere else to stay, so they are okay. 

We're very lucky, and reading reports about the damage in places like Vermont, where they are really not used to this type of weather is scary and sad.  I am counting my blessings every day to be safe and still have a home.  I kept imagining what would happen if the storm spawned a tornado--you know the paranoid daydreams of one's husband or child being ripped out of one's arms while cowering in a closet?  Yeah, those.  Not cool.  But no tornadoes came through luckily.

I sincerely hope all of you out there are okay as well.  I know at least some of you are local and some are NC state readers, so I hope you were not affected by the storm, or at least not severely.

Thanks Blueviolet for reminding me with your comment that I needed to update everyone!

Stupid Irene

We are in the path of Hurricane Irene, and it is annoying!!  I had things planned for this weekend, like FINALLY going to my friend's house for a 6-hour scrapbooking-fest, and now I can't go.  I haven't been there in over a year.  We had a picnic in the park at church planned for the weekend, too, and that's canceled.  Seriously, Irene is putting a major damper on a bunch of stuff.  Even the big sale at the consignment shop is postponed. 

On a serious note, the hurricane is indeed heading right for us, so all we can hope for at this point is that it either changes course abruptly and dramatically (not likely) or weakens (also not too likely) or magically disappears (least likely of all).  We are staying put, mainly because in order to evacuate we would have to pretty much go to Tennessee.  I don't want to go that far, plus my mother and grandmother are still here, so we are staying.  We have a 2-story house, so we've put the important stuff upstairs, and we do have a flood policy.  I'm hoping we won't need it though.  I'm kind of expecting some water in the garage, but hoping not; if our house floods then it means absolutely catastrophic damage to this area, so I'm not planning on my house flooding.  I was here for Isabelle, which wasn't fun, but we made it through okay.  They're saying it's going to be similar, slightly worse, but the same kind of stuff going on. 

My grandmother is a nervous wreck.  She worries about storms anyway, in fact, she worries about regular rain, clouds, a sudden breeze, you name it.  So she's been pretty much a wreck for the last week.  Today she was afraid to be home alone even though the weather today was perfect, although hot.  Sunny, no rain or wind to speak of, just kind of hot.  She was going to come over here to my house, but decided she couldn't drive here with the dog (even though she drove almost as far on Tuesday with the dog), so she was going to come later in the afternoon.  Then she called and told me it was too windy to come.  It was not windy today.  There was a slight breeze.  Anyway, I can't do anything about it.  All we do is try to keep her calm, and remind her that worrying isn't stopping the hurricane from coming, it's just making her life worse. 

Anyway, just keep the East Coast in mind the next few days.  If the forecasts are correct (which I always doubt til I see what it's really going to do), we're going to get seriously hammered.  Let's hope the weather people are WRONG and Irene changes her mind and makes a nice, sharp right turn back out to sea!

You know that list from "Friends"?

If you watched "Friends" or, like my mom, own every season on DVD and continue to watch it, you probably remember the episode where Ross makes a list of 5 celebrities he's "allowed" to, shall we say, date.  He agonizes over the list, finally laminates the silly thing, and then runs into Isabella Rossellini, whom he had previously had on his list but removed. 

In a completely lighthearted and not serious way, my mom and I made our own lists.  Mine has changed and been forgotten and remembered over the years, but let me just say this right now.  Damon Bennett is on my list.  Oh.  Yes.  If you don't know, he's the contractor on Holmes on Homes and Holmes Inspection.  I don't know what it is about him, maybe it's my raging pregnancy hormones, but yeah.  He's at the top of my list.  Actually, he IS the list.  Don't bother looking up his photo online.  They don't do him justice.  You have to see him on TV.

I love Sunday nights on HGTV.

Weird dreams

I always have weird dreams, but when I'm pregnant they are really weird!  Last night I had about 3 bad dreams, but I can really only remember one.  I know one was about snakes or something (don't get any funny ideas, I mean real snakes, like poisonous biting ones).  But the other one was long, involved, and scary.  Here it is.

It started our in my old elementary school, with someone after me and trying to get out without them finding me.  Next, I was going to a church retreat (at the regular place we take our youth, up in the mountains) but somehow it was also a school field trip.  My friend L, who is pregnant with her 3rd child, was on the field trip, but had to leave when she went into labor.  We were all in this big red van, the 14 passenger kind, up in this mountain place when suddenly there was a tornado.  We couldn't get away, and suddenly the van (or part of it, I'm not sure) was lifted up and started spinning through the air.  It spun and flew all the way back to my church where it crash landed on the ground, and slid along the road toward the embankment of the river (the church sits right on the river), and of course, it went right over.  At the bottom, we crash into this big building, but everyone is okay...so far.  Then we realize that what we hit was some kind of nuclear thing that is about to explode and kill us all, so we start running. What else can we do?  We run all the way back down the street along the river, towards the bridge, but of course we know we'll never be able to outrun the explosion.  Then Karina woke me up.

Not really a good dream. 

Oh, I do remember one other dream I had.  I dreamed the baby was a boy.

Chef Karina

After her nap today, Karina decided she needed to make cupcakes and muffins downstairs in the kitchen.  We went down there and she told me that she needed a spatula, bowl, and ingredients.  She went in the pantry and got out her ingredients, including two bags of Hershey's chocolate chips, one to be the milk and one to be the chocolate.  Then I gave her some water to pour in her bowl so she could mix it up.  She added her ingredients and told me that she was making both cupcakes and muffins in her bowl.  She added a few more ingredients, some chocolate icing, vanilla, and a can of peas, then told me that she was making the cupcakes and muffins for her dad, her mom, and Karina and Karina's two trucks, Lightning McQueen and Brown Truck.  She does not have any Lightning McQueen toys.  I was so confused!  She kept asking me to go get her two trucks.  She has two toys of Mater (she calls him Brown Truck) but none of Lightning.  Finally I convinced her to show me, so she took her to the living room, opened up her toy kitchen cupboard, and took out two imaginary trucks!  She carried them to the kitchen and set them down next to her.  Then she proceeded to continue baking her cupcakes and muffins and shared them with all of us. 

Doctor Appointment Today

Back from my appointment, everything still great!  Heartbeat was 147.  Karina was SO good, I can't even tell you.  She sat quietly on the bench while the doctor was talking to me.  He had to update a bunch of stuff that hadn't been done since I'd been to Maternal Fetal Medicine and had my due date changed and all that bloodwork done.  She was awesome.

My ultrasound is scheduled for September 12, so look for a post after that!  I'm so excited, and I can't wait to find out what the baby is. 

If you want to guess feel free.  Here's what I know: 

all the heart rates have been over 140 (old wives' tales say that means a girl)
my first intuition was that it was a girl
Intelligender says boy
Karina says boy
the lady at playgroup who dreamed about me 3 times in one week that I was pregnant before I told anyone that I was thinks it's a boy
My Scottish grandmother thinks it's a boy
the lady at the consignment shop says it's a girl because I had morning sickness
I still crave tomatoes.

So there you go, you have about as much info as I do at this point.  Girl?  Boy?  I have no clue!  But what is most important is it's still healthy, thank goodness, and for that I am thankful.

Snakes (not real ones)

Today at my mom's house (we went over because my cousin was in town) Karina got on some kick about the word "snakes".  For some reason, she started saying it over and over again, and she doesn't say /snakes/ she says /thnakes/.  She must have said it a hundred times, and she was laughing and laughing every time she said it.  I don't have any idea what made her say it, it was something my mom said or did.  My poor cousin had just walked in the door, and was trying to greet my grandmother, and here's Karina yelling "snakes" at the top of her lungs!  I started laughing more and more, and then (I was holding her) she put her hand over my mouth and said, "Stop laughing Mommy".  It made me laugh even more!  She is just so funny.  That girl.  What would I do without her??  (Not laugh nearly as much, that's for sure!)

Oh, and this morning, I was soooo tired (long night; long story.  Short version: loud party down the street, and too much watermelon caused Karina to wet the bed).  Karina was in my bed and wanted me to wake up.  She put her hand under my head kind of, and tried to lift it up.  I sat up and she shouted, "I did it!  I help Mommy get up!"  She was so proud.  Then at breakfast, we were eating oatmeal.  I must have been eating too fast, because she leaned over, put her hand on my arm, and said, "Mommy slow down."  It was adorable, and totally cheered me up. 

Love love love that girl!

Baby Moving

So I wrote this post and then my internet crashed and it didn't save any of it.  That is so frustrating.  Basically, I can feel the baby move; not like kicks or anything, but almost like the whole baby shifts from one spot to another.  One night I pressed my hand where it was and I could feel it pushing against me.  What a great feeling, especially since I've been so nervous this whole pregnancy. 

Here are my last ultrasounds; I don't know why I didn't share these earlier.  I hope you can see what they are.  The top two are baby from head to rump, lying on side and then on tummy with head to the right in both.  The bottom ones are close ups, head and arm.

I go tomorrow for the heartbeat and hopefully they'll get my ultrasound scheduled for about 2-3 weeks from now.  I can't wait to stop calling it IT. 

Franklin Goose bummer

I don't know if any of you heard about the amazing promotion that the baby store Franklin Goose had last year.  For every legitimate review, you earned $5 store credit.  Amazing, I know.  I guess they were kind of overwhelmed, because they had a hard time getting orders out to people, and I eventually canceled one of mine that was taking months to be filled, and banked my credits to use after a mandatory 6 month period of time, per their rules.  So today, I thought I'd go check them out, since I have the new little one on the way, and see what I could find to use my credits on.  Well, I couldn't find my credits in my account, so I emailed them to ask where they were.  This is the email I received back:

To all of our loyal customers,

 

We are writing to update you on the status of the promotion.  As you may know, we were overwhelmed by an enormous number of reviews submitted in connection with the promotion, and we thank all of you who followed the rules and wrote honest, heartfelt reviews.

 

Unfortunately, many of those who submitted reviews merely sought the promotion's benefits without providing a commensurate genuine, honest review.  While we initially filled a large amount of orders, we simply do not have the resources to continue vetting the reviews to distinguish those that followed the rules from those that did not.

 

In order to continue as a business, we must amend the promotion. This is not a step we take lightly, but one which is necessary for the health of our business.  Accordingly, we have decided to take down and remove from the site all reviews which were written as part of the promotion. All open orders using store credit and partial store credit will be cancelled, as well as all remaining store credit.  In their place, we are providing a one-time use coupon for 40% off of any purchase.  The purchase can be as large or small as you wish, but only you can use the coupon code-it is not transferrable, refundable, or redeemable for cash and it can only be used on full price merchandise.  The coupon will be good until September 15, 2011.  In order to get your coupon code you must email us at

[the email address they gave me]  This email is only equipped to send you a personal coupon code.  

 

We understand that this step may frustrate some.  If you have constructive feedback, we look forward to hearing from you.  Otherwise we look forward to focusing our customer service efforts on customers placing orders.

 

We thank you for your time and effort in writing reviews and value you as a customer.

 

Thank you,

 

Franklin Goose

 

Yeah.  So you can imagine I'm not too thrilled about this, seeing as people who already used their credits didn't get punished, and the honest people like me did.  I did send them an email, and I told them I thought it was unfair of them to punish their honest customers, especially since some people had already been able to take advantage of the credits.  I explained why their coupon isn't really compensation.  I understand they are a business and need to remain profitable.  I get that, really I do.  But to me, that's something they should have taken into consideration before undertaking such a huge promotion.  They could easily have limited everyone to say, 10 reviews.  They could have done a number of things to prevent this promotion from hurting their business.  But they did it the way they chose to do it, and now unfortunately, people like me who honestly reviewed ONLY products they had actually used are being punished for not being able to redeem their credits immediately.  I don't think it's fair and I don't plan to shop there anymore.  I can't give my money to a business that can't follow through on its promises to its customers.   

Bloodwork came back all good!

I can't remember if I told you that because I'm considered high-risk with this pregnancy I had to have some extra fun stuff done.  The main thing they wanted to check for was risk of Downs syndrome and Trisomy 18.  Trisomy 18 causes a host of really severe learning disabilities as well as physical and the life span is significantly shorter than normal.  They give options for how to do this test, and the most common way is to have an ultrasound and measure the nuchal translucency.   I linked you to a great explanation over at babycenter.com.  Well, my little bundle wouldn't cooperate, so they couldn't do the measurement and had to go the bloodwork route.  Frustrating because you don't get immediate results, but they're very accurate, so that is a plus.  I had to give blood both before and after 16 weeks.  I gave blood the day I was there, and then again this past Monday.  They called me Wednesday with results--I was shocked.  They had said 7-10 days!  Holly, the very nice genetic counselor I had already met, called and said, "I have good news about your bloodwork".  What a great way to start out our phone call.  I thanked her for it, because otherwise, it's instant panic city when you hear them say they have your results.  She said the risk of both Downs syndrome and Trisomy 18 were 1 in 10,000, which is as low as it can be.  The risk of spinal openings (like spina bifida) was 1 in 2300, which is also good.  So overall great news.  I go Monday for the heartbeat at my regular doctor again, and hopefully they will schedule my next ultrasound which should hopefully hopefully reveal the baby's gender!

Feel free to make a guess if you want.  I've lost my mother's intuition.  I thought it was a girl at first, but then I used Intelligender and it said boy, but friends said they used it and it was wrong for them; and then other people said they thought it was a boy.  Then other people said girl, so basically, I have no idea.  Anyway, feel free to guess.  I think it's fun to speculate and hopefully early in September we'll know!

I am Karina

This morning as I was brushing my teeth, Karina stood in my bathroom looking at herself in the mirror.  She started to talk to herself and this is what she said, "I have one mouth, one nose, two eyes, one hair, one dress, one arm two arms, two hands.  I am Karina!"

What's That Baby in a Box?

You see that baby in the box over on my sidebar?  You know what that means. 

I am expecting Karina's little sibling in January!  I have been dying to share with everyone but because I had a miscarriage last January, I wanted to keep it hush-hush til I felt more comfortable.  I'm now 15 1/2 weeks or so, and feeling good.  I had terrible morning sickness, just felt sick all day and night until week 10 (although it turned out to be week 11).  I had several ultrasounds at my regular OB's office, and then an extra one at maternal fetal medicine because I'm considered high risk.  I'm 35 and with the miscarriage, I now get special treatment.  I am fine with the extra ultrasounds, but the appointment was pretty scary, actually.  They wanted all this genetic history, but then I had to sit there the whole time staring at this list of possible birth defects and complications that the baby could have.  1 in 25 chance of this thing if you're a carrier, or 1 in 135 if you aren't, that kind of thing.  The main test they wanted to do was to measure the nuchal translucency, which is some kind of space at the back of the baby's neck.  It is apparently a good determiner for both Downs Syndrome and Trisomy 18.  Trisomy 18 is a genetic condition which causes much more severe mental and physical problems and a reduced life expectancy.  The baby did not cooperate during the ultrasound so the tech could not do the nuchal translucency measurement, which meant I had to do the test via bloodwork (lucky me).  It involves 2 blood draws, the second of which is coming up on August 8.  They said everything looked okay based on what they were able to see, but of course we'll know more in a few weeks. 

On the fun side, we've been trying to guess the baby's gender.  At first, I thought it was a girl.  But I won an Intelligender predictor kit at Second Time Around a while back, and so of course as soon as I hit what I thought was 10 weeks (but was 11, so that's good) I took the test.  It said boy.  I was very surprised, because I was convinced it was a girl.  But the test isn't foolproof, so we still have to wait and see.  If it had said girl, I'd be pretty positive, since I had thought it was a girl.  Now, I have no idea, but Karina tells me it's a boy.  I will be able to find out in about 5 or 6 weeks and I will let you know!