Author: althea

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Broken hip

Dec. 13: When I talked to my dad last night, he said that Grandma was scheduled to be in the hospital for about three days and then would be in rehab at a nursing home for about three weeks.  If she’s able to get her mobility back, that would put her back home around January 5…but I imagine that it’s going to be a long road for my poor grandma. Her  osteoporosis is really advanced, and her bones are so frail that they think that her hip may have broken while she was walking and caused her to fall rather than the fall causing the break.  Old age is not for the faint of heart!
Speaking of old age, Grandma told me about the poem “When I am old, I shall wear purple” about 15 years ago.  She got a really big kick out of it, and it makes me laugh because Grandma is so conscientious and quiet and reserved that the idea of her letting loose and “eating three pounds of sausage at a go” is just ridiculous!
3:30 pm update:  Grandma’s operation was successful, and she will be in recovery for about an hour.
Dec. 12:  I just got a note from my dad this morning telling us that my grandma (his mom) fell in her kitchen last night while answering the back door.
She was taken by EMS to the Monroe Hospital.  ER X-rays indicated that Grandma broke her hip.  The break occurred at the “neck” of the femur and requires hip replacement surgery (replacing the ball of the hip), which is happening today.

My poor, sweet grandma!

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She’s the size of four oranges (3.3 lbs)

Dec. 7: I can’t believe I’m at 31 weeks!  This pregnancy continues to chug along merrily.  I just keep getting
bigger, but I like my round belly, and the baby is super
active…especially when I lay down to sleep at night!  I think I’m
carrying this one quite a bit lower than I did with Andrew.  Could be because of the gender difference.  Could also be somewhat related to my general abdominal tone (I was going to the gym several days a week up until about this time with Andrew.  The last time I regularly went to the gym was…when I was about seven months pregnant with Andrew:)
I’ve been feeling a little less starved in the last couple weeks.  I do, however, eat very regular meals.  Last weekend I was having some painless belly contracting and some lower back pain, which was slightly worrying.  My midwives suggested taking it easy until I felt back to normal, so I just spent most of the weekend in my pjs, and Bryan did all the shoveling, Christmas decoration-box-carrying, and general household
manual labor.  I read the book Who’s that Knocking on Christmas Eve to Andrew about 35 times.  Good thing I really like that story:)
After a couple days of sitting at work, whatever physical shifts that were causing the symptoms had worked their way out, and I’m now back to my happy, nearly symptom-free pregnancy. (Aside from the hunger and the big belly.)  I’m at 31 weeks today.  Crazy!  We’re in the final trimester:)

Week 29 Update:
Your baby’s about 15.7 inches long now, and she weighs almost 3 pounds (like a head of cabbage). A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds her, but that volume will decrease as she gets bigger and takes up more room in your uterus. Her eyesight continues to develop, though it’s not very keen; even after she’s born, she’ll keep her eyes closed for a good part of the day. When she does open them, she’ll respond to changes in light but will have 20/400 vision — which means she can only make out objects a few inches from her face. (Normal adult vision is 20/20.)

Week 31 Update:
This week, your baby measures over 16 inches long. He weighs about 3.3 pounds (try carrying four navel oranges) and is heading into a growth spurt. He can turn his head from side to side, and his arms, legs, and body are beginning to plump out as needed fat accumulates underneath his skin. He’s probably moving a lot, too, so you may have trouble sleeping because your baby’s kicks and somersaults keep you up. Take comfort: All this moving is a sign that your baby is active and healthy.

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Currently eating…bakers chocolate

Dec. 7: There are shavings of chocolate all over my face and protruding belly.
Andrew went down for his nap, and I found myself feeling a) pretty worn out and b) in definite need of some chocolate.  So I checked my stashes.

  • Chocolate chips – nope.
  • Chocolate ice cream – out.
  • Bag of peanut M&M’s left over from Halloween – nada.

Feeling a bit panicky, I started digging in my baking drawer.  Nuts, almond paste, sweetened condensed milk.  Then, ah-ha!  Baker’s bittersweet chocolate.  That should be edible.  It’s old enough that it had a slightly whitish waxy look, but biting into it, it gave me the coca fix that I was craving.
Some set of internal chemicals have been happily set to rights, and I can now enjoy the next hour (?) of Andrew’s nap in a blissful, chocolat-ified state.

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Winter Wonderland

Dec. 5: It is just beautiful outside this morning.  Snow is piled on on every corner.  The sky is bright blue, the air is crisp, and the slow is pure white.  Makes me want to walk around with my camera and take some photos as the sun was coming up.
The world feels festive and December-y.
After putting something like 20 hours into upgrading the gallery component of my website, it’s still not working consistently.  So I think I’m going to take a break and send Christmas cards and bake Christmas treats.   I did attempt to make fudge last night.  Let’s just say the brown mass that I can barely cut through isn’t quite fudge.
But it still tastes alright:)
Happy winter!

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Upgrading the gallery

1 am update: I’ve installed Gallery2 and migrated all the photos.  I even got it mostly working with Mambo.  But there remain some pretty serious problems.  However, as it is 1 am, I need to stop.  Andrew has gotten out of bed in a falling/sleepwalking way tonight.  Very odd.
Nov. 30: Andrew is currently not taking a nap.  He’s in his bed, banging on the wall occasionally.  hmmm
While he is not-napping, I thought that I would try to work on the website upgrade I have planned.  One unexpected issue is that downloading my huge-beyond-belief gallery is taking over an hour.  So I tried messing with my website templates while I waited.  The Christmas one I am using is somewhat horrible, but I think I like the seasonal-ness enough to use it.
If you end up having problems viewing photos in the next couple days, it’s probably because of the work I’m doing.  Hope you’re having a good day!
~Althea

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Too cute

Nov. 29: Andrew is so cute these days, it just makes me want to pop.  Bryan feels the same way.  In fact, last night as we were laying in bed, he said, “I think I might love Andrew too much.”  When I asked him why, he said that he was thinking back on all the adorable things he was doing this evening and just wanted to go in and pinch him.
I love that “must-pinch-the-cute-baby” feeling.
We got Andrew a baby doll the other day, and he’s been having fun playing with her.  She is called either Little Sister or Bucky Badger.  He sings to her and puts her down to sleep in the little box she came in.  And last night, he pretended to body slam her.  But thanks to Bryan’s intervention, he only pantomimed the attack.  We’re very gentle with babies.
In other news, my belly is getting enormous.  And the little one in there got the hiccups for the first time the other day.  Nice, rhythmic bumps in my belly.  Last night, she was doing an Irish dance while I was trying to fall asleep. Silly baby!
I added a commenting feature back to the website, and I have plans to upgrade my photo gallery program.  It’s going to involve backing up and migrating databases, so I’m a little nervous, but I’m going to give it a whirl.
Happy last days of November!
~Althea

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Andrewisms

Nov. 24: Andrew is such a beautiful, amazing little person.  He’s been sick with a cold for the last week.  The bad cough is gone, and now he just has a runny nose.  Who knows when that will clear up.  Hopefully by April.
The little guy is currently watching Robin Hood again.  He loves that show.  It’s funny to watch him try to walk out of the room when it’s on TV.  He keeps his eyes glued to the screen while his legs move him off to the side.
A few cute things that Andrew has been up to these days:

  • My aunt Julie gave us a book that plays 200 bird songs.  Andrew adores it.  The other day, we actually sat and played each page, which took us an hour and 15 minutes.  It is absolutely his favorite book/activity these days.
  • Andrew is taken up an adorable habit of saying to his toys or to me or Bryan or to stuffed animals in stores, “You are my BEST friend.  I love you SO MUCH.”
  • Sometimes when I say something like, “OK, sweet boy.” Andrew will reply, “OK, sweet Mommy.”  He knows how to make a mom feel good!
  • Andrew is crazy about identifying capial letters.  He loves me to write his name in capital letters over and over and over.  He’s not, however into lower-case letters.  In fact, if I try to mix some lower letters in to a writing game, he kind of freaks out and tries to desroy the paper.
  • On Thanksgiving morning, Andrew ran around Terry’s house (often on Maretta’s back) calling out “Happy THANKSGIVING!”
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Thanksgiving Recap

thanksgiving.jpgNov. 24: Ahhh, a quiet day to take a deep breath and look back on the last week.  Our Thanksgiving turned out pretty well.  I was kind of expecting it to be “not-bad” if all went well, but I would actually say that it was a pretty nice day.  It’s been hard to approach the holidays with Mom being gone.  Michael and I planned out Joe came home from Bowdoin on Tuesday night.  It was his first time back home since September.  Joe, Michael, Becky, and Lisa came over on Wednesday, and we made pies and prepped items so everything was ready to go for Thursday morning.
Maretta and Kyle drove in through the snow on Wednesday night.  On Sunday morning, Maretta watched Andrew while Bryan drove to Janesville to get Mum and I wrapped up most of the rest of the meal.  We headed to Terry’s house around
11:30 where we used his multiple ovens and warming ovens to get the meal ready for a 1:15 dinner.
Pictures of the day are in the gallery.

We had a group of fourteen for our Thanksgiving meal: Terry, Tom, Terry’s neighbor, Connie Maxwell, Nancy Thurow, Mum, Dad, Bryan, Andrew, myself, Michael, Lisa, Maretta, Kyle, and Joe.  Our menu was smoked turkey from Greensburg, Texas, spanikopita made by Lisa, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, green beans, pink salad, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and Grandma’s turkey (sugar) cookies.

After dinner, Andrew went down for his nap really nicely, Dad did a massive dish-cleaning job, and we all attempted to digest.  Dad headed to Monroe in the evening to take a Thanksgiving supper to Grandma and uncle Gary.  The boys (Bryan, Michael, Joe, and Kyle) broke out the poker set, and they had fun playing together well into the evening.

On Friday morning, we gathered together again for a day-trip to Chicago.  Eleven of us made the trip: Terry, Connie, Bryan, Andrew, myself, Michael, Lisa, Maretta, Kyle, Joe, and Becky.  We drove down to The historic Women’s Athletic Club in downtown Chicago. The reason we were crazy enough to brave a trip to Chicago on Black Friday?  Ron of Japan shrimp sauce.  Mom ate a Ron of Japan while she was pregnant with each of us kids.  I ate there when I was pregnant with Andrew, and so a trip was required to ensure the quality of this little one on-the-way.

After a really nice lunch at Connie’s club, some of us braved the incredible crowds to venture onto North Michigan to see the decorations and, er, experience the chaos.  A little bit was more than enough, but it’s not often that I have the opportunity to shop in Chicago.  So we spent a few hours poking around.  Then at 5 we rejoined the rest of our group at the club and moved on to Ron of Japan.  Andrew did a great job all day despite his lack of a nap, and we made it all the way home, even though we almost ran out of gas in the last half-mile.

Overall, it was a full, fun day.  I wish my health had been better.  Bryan was sick on Sunday-Wednesday, and I got sick Tuesday-today.  Just a normal, winter sore throat, stuffy nose and cough thing.  Hopefully I didn’t infect everyone I cooked for on Thanksgiving!

Hope your holiday was a good one!
~Althea

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29 Week update – What a belly!

Nov. 24: This pregnancy is going so easily.  I really enjoy being pregnant:)  The little one (now the size of a butternut squash!) is sometimes very active and sometimes really quiet.  When she is turned in the right direction, you can feel her head or butt or back pretty clearly.  Sometimes she seems to be tapping out a little rhythm that I only notice if I’m sitting quietly.
Andrew has been roll-playing baby all the time.  He likes to be carried like a baby, and he sometimes likes to do baby talk.  Recently, he’s started saying, “Now I’m a baby.  Now I’m big Andrew!”
I’ve done some more shopping for this new baby.  Knowing how quickly they grow, and finding it therapeutic as I miss Mom, I’ve had fun continuing to build the little ones’ wardrobe.  I added pictures in the gallery.

BabyCenter.com week 29 update

Your baby now weighs about 2 1/2 pounds (like a butternut squash) and is a tad over 15 inches long from head to heel. His muscles and lungs are continuing to mature, and his head is growing bigger to make room for his developing brain. To meet his increasing nutritional demands, you’ll need plenty of protein, vitamins C, folic acid, and iron. And because his bones are soaking up lots of calcium, be sure to drink your milk (or find another good source of calcium, such as cheese, yogurt, or enriched orange juice). This trimester, about 250 milligrams of calcium are deposited in your baby’s hardening skeleton each day.

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My little cabbage (mon petit chou)

Nov. 17: She’s getting so big!  I’ve definitely got a belly.  My winter coat is starting to strain, and it won’t be long until I’m switching over to Bryan’s jackets.  The little one actually woke me up the other night with her activity, and she’s made me gasp out loud when she gives an unexpected kick.  My 28 week appointment is next Tuesday.  Gluclose testing time!

28 week update
By this week, your baby weighs two and a quarter pounds (like a Chinese cabbage) and measures 14.8 inches from the top of her head to her heels. She can blink her eyes, which now sport lashes. With her eyesight developing, she may be able to see the light that filters in through your womb. She’s also developing billions of neurons in her brain and adding more body fat in preparation for life in the outside world.

27 week update
This week your baby weighs almost 2 pounds (like a head of cauliflower) and is about 14.4 inches long with his legs extended. He can now open and close his eyes, and he sleeps and wakes at regular intervals. He may suck his fingers, and although his lungs are still immature, they would be capable of functioning — with assistance — if he were to be born prematurely. Chalk up any rhythmic movement you may be feeling to a case of baby hiccups, which may be common from now on. Each episode usually lasts only a few moments, and isn’t bothersome to him, so enjoy the tickle. With more brain tissue developing, your baby’s brain is very active now. Wonder what he’s thinking?