Aurora Borealis

Yesterday was a red letter day at our house.  Miss A. got the Agent ready to go to the playground.  Then the handyman showed up.  (We had a list of miscellaneous things that needed attention — doors that were sticking, doors that weren’t latching, a doorbell that worked only intermittently, etc.)  Agent Murphy was fascinated and decided he’d rather watch Mr. Chip work than go to the playground.  (They went today instead.)  As if that wasn’t enough, then the lawn guys showed up, so the Agent had to run from window to window to watch them work.  Agent Murphy and Miss A. took some mail out to the mailbox and saw that people up the street were having some tree limbs trimmed, so they watched that for a while.  And the garbage truck came yesterday, too.

This afternoon it started raining and Agent Murphy pointed excitedly out the window.  Then he ran off to his room and came back with one of his issues of High Five! magazine that we’ve been reading a lot lately.  He had it open to the poem called “Rain Party” about a bunch of frogs playing in the rain.  He pointed to the poem and then out the window again.  I’m continually amazed at how the little guy’s mind works and how smart he is.  There’s so much going on in his head.  It’ll be so much better for him (and us) when he can make this talking thing work.

Mr. Tldz feels like the phone interview with Google today went well.  He has a phone interview with another company set for Wednesday, and he’s been told by the relevant recruiter that the company he phone interviewed with last week still wants to bring him in for an in-person, they just haven’t come up with the scheduling yet.  And he’s heard from recruiters today about at least 2 additional positions he may apply for.  Eventually something good will come of all this…

Some people have commented that it seems like we have quite a cloud hanging over us, given the bedrest situation and Mr. Tldz’s unemployment.  I guess that’s true, but maybe there really always is a silver lining. 

 For one thing,  having to lay around and not do much has meant that I have finally finished Agent Murphy’s baby book (with the exception of 3rd-5th birthdays and first schooling type stuff) — something I haven’t been able to accomplish in the past year and a half or more.  Hooray — just in time to start on another one!  (I’ve now set myself up a file for keeping notes for the various entries in Garbanzo Bean’s book, so perhaps I can be a bit more organized with it.) 

Another thing is that we’ve gotten to know people at our church and in our neighborhood who we probalby wouldn’t have met, or wouldn’t have met or gotten to know as well as soon.  Okay, so this really isn’t the way I would have chosen to make new friends; but we’ll take what good we can get.

Speaking of getting to know people at church…  Mr. Tldz picked up our copy of the new parish directory today after Mass.  It looks really nice, and a chunk of the parishioners do have their pictures in it, so it will help to be able to put names with faces, and to have contact info for folks all in one place.

Well, where to start?  He’s been more willing recently to try out sounds.  He’s started saying, “Go!” pretty clearly to get The Dog to go away from the table; unfortunately, she doesn’t really listen to his sweet little voice.  At therapy today he worked on 2-word sequences — verb and noun (like “roll ball”) — with pictures.  His therapist reported he did start getting frustrated. 

A while ago, at our old house, we tried a refrigerator lock to keep him out of the fridge.  We followed all the installation instructions, let it “cure” a full 24 hours before engaging it, etc.  The first time the Agent yanked on the refrigerator door after the lock was engaged, he flat out broke it.  We got a different lock, and finally got around to installing it the other day.  Shortly after we started engaging it, Mr. Tldz reported: “The good news is Agent Murphy won’t break the new lock.  The bad news is he knows how to operate it.”  So now he routinely opens and re-locks the lock for us when we need to get stuff out of the fridge.

These days, when Mr. Tldz puts a meal on the table, he sends Agent Murphy down the hall to the bedroom to tell me it’s ready.  He looks at me expectantly, and when I ask if lunch or whatever is ready, he says, “Yeah!”.  He had been running down the hall ahead of me, but in the last day or two he’s decided that he must take my hand and walk me down the hall.  My sweet little escort.

In a very exciting development, Agent Murphy seems to be heading down the path of potty training himself.  The other day the babysitter reported that he had indicated a desire to go into the bathroom.  So she put his seat up on the toilet and he peed in the toilet.  Today she reported that he did that three times this morning.  Aunty N. took him to speech therapy today, and when he got home, Daddy commented that he probably needed his diaper changed.  I asked Agent Murphy if he wanted to go potty.  He said, “Yeah,” so Daddy took him into the bathroom.  Daddy came back and reported that the Agent peed in the toilet, and that his diaper, which was last changed nearly 2 hours before, was pretty much dry; it may have been very slightly damp.  Then, when it was time to get ready for bed, Agent Murphy peed on the toilet again, and his diaper was dry again.  What a big boy!

I know it can be harder to get a kid to poop on the toilet, but hopefully if this keeps up, once we get settled in with Garbanzo and can actually focus on toilet training a little bit, maybe this will come together.

Mr. Tldz had a phone interview this afternoon and they’ve already indicated they want to bring him in for an in-person interview.  He has an in-person interview tomorrow and another phone interview scheduled for Monday.  And he seems to hear about at least one new position pretty much every day.  Something will come of all this activity, right?

So I spent the better part of the day researching the candidates for the various positions on the ballot.  God bless the internet!  Now we can be informed pretty easily about our choices.  I need to try to look up a few issues on the straw poll section, but pretty soon we’ll be able to sit down with my notes, cast our votes, and get them in the mail before Garbanzo’s birth.

Oh, and note to candidates:  If you don’t respond to the League of Women Voters voter guide questionnaire and one or more of your opponents does, you don’t get our vote.

The baby furniture arrived today promptly as scheduled.  It’s really nice!  This afternoon Mr. Tldz moved the couple of existing pieces of furniture in there around, so now we have the room set up as we want it.  Now we just have to put diaper supplies away and wash clothing and blankets, etc. and put all that away.  And set up the baby swing, car seat, etc.

We’re getting ready for you, Garbazno Bean!

Mr. Tldz and S. had good luck knocking out all the errands on the list (with the exception of a haircut for Mr. Tldz, but we already have someone lined up to take him for that tomorrow morning) last night after going to the MARTA hearing.  I’m impressed, as they didn’t leave the MARTA thing until almost 6:00 and the store they went to for the baby furniture closed at 7:00; but they got there, looked at the options and made a purchase.

They got a great deal, too.  A set (crib, changing table, tall chest of drawers) for half off, apparently because the color (amber) is being discontinued.  Hurrah!  From the store handout, it looks to be a very attractive color.  The way Garnbanzo’s room is painted, white furniture would probably have “matched” a little better;  but, truth be told, my preference really is for warm wood, especially for a set that we’ll hopefully be able to pass down.  (Unlike Agent Murphy’s set — that’ll teach us to try to buy at the low end of the price spectrum.)  This morning I scheduled the delivery for early afternoon tomorrow.  I can’t wait to see it!

Then they went to BRU and got all the stuff I was looking for there.  The thing they struggled with was a neutral baby outfit for photo at the hospital and/or coming home.  From what Mr. Tldz described, what they settled on was the best option.  But to me it looks to lean heavily to the boy side, and since I’ve recently started feeling pretty strongly that this Garbanzo is a girl (after going months with no sense at all of the gender) I may try to poke around on line to see if I can find another option.  But I do recall from looking myself before that truly neutral items are pretty tough to find.  There’s tons of girl stuff, a little bit of boy stuff, and “neutral” stuff that does lean a little more masculine — I guess to make up for the discrepancy between girl and boy stuff.

This morning, very early (to her credit), our substitute babysitter called in sick.  She was supposed to work 8-noon, and then again this afternoon from 4-8.  She apparently woke up in the middle of the night with some strange and worrisome chest pains.  She was going to the ER to be checked out, and she said she hoped to be able to come in the afternoon and would let us know around mid-day.  Fortunately, Mr. Tldz didn’t have anything formal scheduled for the morning, but he did have follow-up calls, e-mails, etc. to do. 

I called J^3 from our old parish.  A couple of weeks ago, Mrs. J. had called and volunteered that she could watch Agent Murphy during the day if we needed that.  She is regularly keeping her grandson during the week in the summer.  He’s only 5 months older than the Agent and she said she’d really like to find a playmate for him.  So lucky for us, she was able to take Agent Murphy on short notice, although her schedule was a little strange today.  She picked him up around 9:30 or 10:00 and brought him back around 1:00, which gave Mr. Tldz time to do the job search things he needed to do.  J^3 called this evening to report that Agent Murphy was very easy to take care of and they like him and they think he likes them.  He’s not always easy for Mommy, so it’s good to know he’ll behave better for others.

Fortunately the babysitter is okay and she was able to come for the afternoon.  We don’t usually need that, but the community exchange on the MARTA route modifications was today.  S. took Mr. Tldz to that, and since we were able to line up an actual babysitter we worked up a list of some other errands they might run if the MARTA thing didn’t take too long.  They’re still not back yet, so hopefully they’re having some success getting miscellaneous baby gear we need and picking out baby furniture.

I’m 33 weeks, 2 days today.  The OB reports everything looks good.  I’ll have another ultrasound with the perinatologist next week.  If we have a miracle and the placenta has entirely cleared the cervix, then I can proceed normally with this pregnancy to term; and perhaps I’d have a nice, natural delivery like I did with Agent Murphy.  But no one is really hopeful of that…

More likely the placenta will still be covering the cervix, fully or partially.  In that case, I will have an amniocetesis the morning of June 28 (to check the baby’s lung maturity) with C-section delivery scheduled for bright and early on Tuesday, June 29.  (Happy Birthday, Garbanzo Bean!)  After having had the anesthesiology consult during my hospital stay, doing some research, talking with Mr. Tldz, and some more with my doctor today, I’ve decided to have the C-section under general anesthesia. 

The epidural scares the bejeezus out of me, given potential neurological complications from its interacting with my CP.  I know there are risks with general anesthesia, and those risks are somewhat greater during pregnancy than during some other surgery; but those risks are well known and every anesthesiologist knows how to handle them.  On the other hand, no one can really assess the neurological risk for me or do anything about it if I have an issue.  All they can say is, “Oops – we’re sorry you can’t walk after surgery.  We hope you’ll be able to again soon.”  (And then there’s the fact that the anesthesiologist who spoke with me matter-of-factly said, “Well, you’re a good candidate for general anyway [aside from my fears about the epidural] since given your diagnosis you may well have a major blood loss in the OR.  You’ll be a lot more comfortable if you’re asleep for that.”)  So my doctor is fine with just going ahead with general anesthesia, even if we get to do this delivery on a scheduled basis rather than as an emergent situation.

We should be able to come home on Saturday, July 3 or Sunday, July 4.  What is still unknown in all of this is how Garbanzo Bean will fare, and whether baby will need to be admitted to the NICU or get to come home with us.