oh roo

so roo got us all worked up for nothing. what a little practical joker since last night jer and i told it like 100 times that it needed to stay put until daddy gets back from richmond. keira's recap of the past twelve hours (not for the weak of stomach!): i woke up at 3 a.m. feeling like i had to pee, not uncommon at all these days. but as soon as i stood up out of bed it was like a faucet flowing, like i was peeing in my pants with no control over it. at first i didn't think much of it really because roo has been camped out on my bladder for the past few days (gross, i know, but i'm prego - it happens!), but then i thought maybe my water had broken. i went to the bathroom, cleaned up, sniffed it (again gross, but all the books and the nurses said that you could tell the difference between pee and amniotic fluid by the smell.) i certainly couldn't tell what it was - didn't smell like pee but also didn't smell like clorox or bleach like they say amniotic fluid smells. they also say you can tell by color - pee is yellow and amniotic fluid is clear, but between pink underwear, black shorts, and a hot blue 1970's toilet i have no idea what color this stuff was. so i decided i was just incontinent and went back to bed. but then at 3:30, the whole thing happened again. felt like i had to pee, stood up, whoosh, fluid flowing. this time after cleaning myself up and repeating the completely inconclusive sniff test, i decided to get on the computer and see what "water breaking" is supposed to be like. i read a bunch of articles all saying essentially the same thing - it's not always the massive rush of fluid like on tv, sometimes it is just a regular dribble. that could be me. they described an experiment where you put on a maxi pad, lay on your side for 30 minutes, and then stand up and see if you get wet (sounds kinda like what i already did on my own, but i decided to give it a try.) this is about when i got jer up (4 a.m.) because i had to turn on the bedroom light to find another dry pair of underwear. he was sleepy but stayed awake with me for the 30 minutes. not surprisingly when i stood up 30 minutes later, another whoosh. and this time it was sort of pinkish in color. we then repeated it again just to be sure. jer decided it was time to call the 24-hour baby hotline at the hospital. i didn't want to because i didn't want to admit that it might be time, but he totally made the right decision. he called while i got cleaned up again. this second time i noticed that the fluid still had a pinkish tinge to it and there was some bloody mucusy stuff in there. i was now on board with the plan - this could be the ol' bloody show. while i quickly showered and packed a hospital bag, jeremy started to rebook his flight and the uhaul type truck we had rented for tomorrow. (remember there's still stuff in our house in richmond, so the plan was for jer to fly down during his vacation, load up a truck, and drive it back up here.) he easily got the flight rebooked online but had to wait a bit for the truck since they were not open at 5 a.m. jer called them from the road a little while later and switched the truck to next week as well. we also realized what a mess we are - we have a lot on our to-do lists like pack hospital bag, wash baby clothes, make sure there's gas in the car, etc. - none of it done! but by 6:30 we were on the road to boston. that's around the same time i started having little tiny contractions. not too painful - felt like a cramp or gas pain - that would last about 30-60 seconds each, but they continued like clockwork, every 15 minutes until we got to the hospital at 9. we thought for sure this was it. we got checked in at the triage part of labor and delivery. they hooked me up to monitors to measure roo's heartbeat and my contractions. roo was chugging right along and i had a couple more small contractions but they basically stopped as soon as we got there. they did the tests jeremy described and didn't quite know what to make of me since they could see the copious amounts of watery mucusy stuff coming out but no evidence that it was amniotic fluid. as the midwife said, i'm an enigma. :) once the ultrasound proved that my water did not break, the doctor ok-ed us to go home and said that the leakage is probably the mucus plug breaking down. it's just really watery for some weird reason. enigma :) so no roo today, but i bet soon. it was good to have a dry run because now i am definitely motivated to check all those things off the to-do list. and next time hopefully we'll remember to bring the camera! so we're now back in western mass. i'm taking it super easy. jeremy switched his flight and the truck back to tomorrow, so seriously roo... STAY PUT!

False Alarm! Roo = Enigma

Well, we are heading home. Our situation was called an enigma by the midwife because the nitrazine test was negative but she did show some ferning. For those who don't know, ferning is a test where they put the fluid on a slide, let it dry, and due to the chemical nature of amniotic fluid it looks like a fern under the microscope. The nitrazine test is basically pH paper, if it turns blue its amniotic fluid. They did both twice: nitrazine negative twice, ferning was less than convincing hence the enigma. They did an ultrasound which showed plenty of fluid. So that's a wrap from MGH today.

Update: 10:30AM

Well, it seems as if our child may be a prankster. The fluid does not appear to be amniotic in nature and they don't seem to think she is actively contracting. Anywho, we were told to go for a walk and check back in an hour or so. We'll keep you updated!

Breaking News

Well, it looks like Roo is really excited to meet everyone. It appears as if Keira's membranes are rupturing. We are currently packing up and head to Mass General. We will keep everyone posted!!!

Offer Accepted!!

We received our first piece of good news today, our offer was accepted! Our offer was apparently less than the other offer but they felt more comfortable with our offer and realtor. So we have a place to live!!! Here is the link. It's a cape house so it's actually bigger than it looks but its on a nice piece of land. We finally have a place to take the baby home to :)

our house!

We Made an Offer!

Well, we went back to the Hanson house today and still liked it. Our realtor and Keira's Aunt Lois both thought it was a good house. We were all planned to go ahead with an offer this week when our realtor called and told us there was a verbal offer that had been accepted by the seller pending a written offer today. For reasons I am not sure of, our realtor called to tell us that they would present both offfers to the seller tomorrow. So, we made our offer and just faxed it to the realtor. Keep your fingers crossed! We'll let everyone know how it goes tomorrow!

kiwi addendum

jeremy captured peg pretty good but neglected to tell you all about the best part of last sunday's real estate search... with our new price range in hand, we started looking for suitable houses that we could afford. we compiled a list and discovered that one of the early faves was having an open house on saturday. i was in western mass at my parents' house, but jeremy was down near boston still. so he went to check it out with my aunt. it's a huge house, with a decent yard, and in our price range. it's also a giant sty. you see, the people who live there have 6 kids, well, 7 if you count their japanese foreign exchange student ranging in age from 12 to 8 months. there is crap everywhere as you can imagine with all those kids. it could be a very good house underneath it all, or it could be a structural nightmare - really hard to tell with all the crap. so jeremy wanted me to see it on sunday when i came down. he scheduled a showing with the sellers' real estate agent for early on sunday. we felt guilty kicking the whole family out but heck, we've been playing this game with our richmond house showings. that's what you have to do to sell your house - all part of the game. we got there a bit early, and knowing what it's like (frantic last minute cleaning, making sure everything is perfect, trying to get out in time) we decided to cruise the neighborhood for a bit. we came back a few minutes after our scheduled showing and all the same cars were still there. we figured we must have screwed up the time or something so jeremy called their agent and made sure we were still on. she said she was in the house waiting for us, as was the ENTIRE FAMILY. i guess they don't feel the need to vacate the premises for showings (or clean! - eek!) we toured the house with a new strange child peering at us in each room. it was seriously creepy and made it hard to ask questions and point out flaws. it was really quite uncomfortable. and creepy. we decided we really liked the house in general, the location is quite good, and the price is awesome. but it is also a serious risk - what exactly is lurking beneath all that crap?!?!!? the bathrooms were atrocious and we have a feeling that those are the least of that house's problems. immediately following the creepy kid house we went on the peg journey jeremy discussed before. peg was a nice lady and was probably a really good realtor before technology sped by her and swallowed her whole. can you imagine - a realtor with no cell phone??? as jeremy mentioned, we really liked one of the houses in hanson. it's smaller than we want (25% smaller than our current house), doesn't have a fence for the dogs, and is a bit more of a commute for jeremy. on the plus side, it has enough rooms, a full cellar, almost a whole acre, and the best part - central air conditioning - a rarity in houses up here, especially those in our new price range!! we debated for quite a bit between the risky, creepy house and this one, eventually deciding that the creepy house was just too much of a gamble. it could be fun to make it into a nice house, but who knows how much that might end up costing. if we weren't about to be paying two mortgages for an undetermined amount of time, we might take the risk since the house has so much potential, but without knowing when the dual mortgage situation will end, it's just not a risk we can take with a roo so imminent. can't risk a money pit (awesome movie, by the way!) so while saddened that our richmond house continues to be the bane of our existence, we were both quite happy with the new choice and ready to pursue it. yeah! but... that's when our richmond realtor calls us. he called us late tuesday night as we were driving back to western mass to let us know that he was expecting an offer from the 12-minute showing lady the next day. we were ecstatic, but tried to remain calm. there's a big difference between expecting an offer and having one in hand. but there was light at the end of the tunnel. woo hoo. we might even be able to expand the budget for a new house and get more of what we want! all day wednesday we waited for a call. nothing. when we finally got in touch with our realtor we learned that her agent had written up an offer and handed it off to her to review before they submitted it. and apparently that's where it is stalled (and continues to be 5 days later.) we do not get this lady. either you want to put in an offer on a house or you don't. i'm 9 months pregnant dammit - i can't handle this kind of stress. either put in the offer or stop wasting our time (and getting our hopes up!) every time jeremy's cell phone rings we hope it's the realtor with good news, but it never is. so now a week later, we've made no more progress towards buying a cheaper house because we got caught up in the prospect of a bigger budget. but we have come to the realization that 12-minute lady's torture may be endless or she may just walk away entirely. with roo so close, we have decided we might as well go ahead with plan C (or whatever plan it is we're on now) and just buy the cheaper house, ignoring what may or may not be happening with our cursed richmond abode. heck if it does sell, we'll have a lot more money to put in savings or do home improvements with. so tomorrow morning we're going to see the house in hanson again, hoping we still like it. if so, i guess we'll start things in motion to get an offer in and take it from there. it would be so nice to not be homeless when roo is born!

Real Estate Search

Hello all! Well Roo is rapidly approaching and we still don't have a place to call our own yet. The state of Massachusetts is the only state in the country with a decreasing population. I now know why! It is hard to move here. Anywho, the original plan was our house would sell quickly and we would buy a house up here and everything would be set by the time the baby came. Well, we all know that didn't happen. Plan B was to rent an apartment. I searched around for places with flexible leases etc. Found one that looked good. On Saturday the rent was ~1300 per month. I went back on Wednesday to fill out the application and the rent was now ~1550 per month. I told them to take the application turn it side ways and well most you know how the rest of that goes. I then started looking in the local paper for places thinking that a non-corporate landlord may be more willing to let us have the dogs. I literally called about 20 places and they had one of two answers: 1) No pets or 2) since you are having a baby, we can't rent because the place has lead paint. So we threw in the towel on renting. I called some mortgage folks and found a price range where we could buy and carry our mortgage down in Richmond. However, we need to move fast because we would like to have something lined up before the baby is born. Anywho, I frantically tried to use online requests for showings last Friday. By Saturday morning I hadn't heard anything. In a panic I called a real estate agent thinking they may have better luck arranging showings with short notice. That's how we met Peg. Peg was something else but to her credit she got 5 showings scheduled! So we pull up to the first house. The driveway was full of cars so we were worried about that the owners were still home. So we tried to call Peg. Well, Peg doesn't have a cell phone! Not sure how that is possible but it was. We sat there for 15 minutes before someone came out and I went up and said "Are you Peg?" It indeed was Peg. We were in front of the house and she didn't notice us nor did she keep an eye for us. Right away we knew Peg was gonna be awesome! Went through the house and were heading to the next one. Peg said to give her a few minutes b/c she has a hard time programming her GPS with her vision. After another 5 minutes, Peg came up to us and said she couldn't find the address on our GPS and asked if we could put it into ours. Ours worked fine so the agent followed us to the next house. She would follow us to two more houses that afternoon b/c she couldn't find it in her GPS. Peg also did not schedule 2 houses because she felt we would not like them. Thanks Peg, good work. To her credit she was right about one of them. Actually, one house she could not get in touch with the other agent so we did a drive by. On paper, this house looked like a steal. Now it did mention it would be good for a professional's office. So we plug in the address into the old TomTom and check it out. She tells us we have reached our destination and we're like what's going on all we see are two used car lots. And there it was sandwiched between two used car lots. A beautiful home that you would be crazy to buy. Well, long story short, the house we liked best is in Hanson, MA. It's 30 miles from Boston. It will take some commuting but I will do whatever I need to to have my family together! Talk to yous later! PS: RIP Skip Prosser :( Very tragic news for all those associated with Wake Forest. We'll miss you Skip!

the looks i get

meant to include this as part of the last post... jeremy and i went to the mall last night to buy the extra car seat base. i must look like a complete freak or something because people seriously gawk at me. there was this family walking through target and i watched their two little girls' heads just turn and follow me, their eyes totally fixated on me and my massive belly. i also get a lot of really sympathetic looks from the mommies pushing their little ones in strollers. then i ran into this same lady several times in another store. she declared that roo is a girl and is coming out much sooner than 4 weeks. good to know, random christmas tree shops shopper. thanks. :)

36 weeks

so close. at the end of this week, we are full term!!! also this week, we get a recap of the various stages of labor. roo is definitely dropping and i have the weird pressure on my lower abdomen. doesn't hurt, just feels weird and a bit uncomfortable. from babycenter.com: Your baby is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. She now weighs almost 6 pounds and is a little under 19 inches long. She's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered her body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected her skin during her nine-month amniotic bath. Your baby swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, will form the contents of her first bowel movement. At the end of this week, your baby will be considered full-term. (Full-term is 37 to 42 weeks; babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term and those born after 42 are post-term.) Most likely she's in a head-down position. But if she isn't, your practitioner may suggest scheduling an "external cephalic version," which is a fancy way of saying she'll try to coax your baby into a head-down position by manipulating her from the outside of your belly. Now that your baby is taking up so much room, you may have trouble eating a normal-size meal. Smaller, more frequent meals are often easier to handle at this point. On the other hand, you may have less heartburn and have an easier time breathing when your baby starts to "drop" down into your pelvis. This process — called lightening — often happens a few weeks before labor if this is your first baby. (If you've given birth before, it probably won't happen before labor starts.) If your baby drops, you may also feel increased pressure in your lower abdomen, which may make walking increasingly uncomfortable, and you'll probably find that you have to pee even more frequently. If your baby is very low, you may feel lots of vaginal pressure and discomfort as well. Some women say it feels as though they're carrying a bowling ball between their legs! You might also notice that your Braxton Hicks contractions are more frequent now. Be sure to review the signs of labor with your practitioner and find out when she wants to hear from you. As a general rule, if you're full-term, your pregnancy is uncomplicated, and your water hasn't broken, she'll probably have you wait to come in until you've been having contractions that last for about a minute each, coming every five minutes for an hour. Of course, you'll want to call right away if you notice a decrease in your baby's activity or think you're leaking amniotic fluid, or if you have any vaginal bleeding, fever, a severe or persistent headache, constant abdominal pain, or vision changes. For first-time moms, labor takes an average of 15 hours, though it's not uncommon to last more than 20. (For women who've previously had a vaginal birth, it takes eight hours, on average.) The process of labor and birth is divided into three main stages. Here are the highlights on how childbirth progresses: First stage The first stage begins when you start having contractions that progressively dilate and efface your cervix and it ends when your cervix is fully dilated. This stage is divided into two phases, early and active labor. It can be tricky to determine exactly when early labor starts. That's because early labor contractions are sometimes hard to distinguish from the inefficient Braxton Hicks contractions that you may have been feeling for some time. Unless there are complications or your midwife or doctor has advised you otherwise, expect to sit out most of your early labor at home. (Be sure, though, to check in with your caregiver to make certain.) Early labor ends when your cervix is about 4 centimeters dilated and your progress starts to speed up. At this point, you enter what's known as the active phase of labor. Your contractions become more frequent, longer, and stronger. The last part of the active phase — when your cervix dilates from 8 to 10 centimeters — is called the transition period because it marks the transition to the second stage of labor. This is the most intense part of the first stage, with contractions that are usually very strong, coming about every two and a half to three minutes and lasting a minute or more. Second stage Once your cervix is fully dilated, the second stage of labor begins: the final descent and birth of your baby. This is the "pushing" stage of labor, and it can last anywhere from minutes to a few hours. (It's likely to be quicker if you've previously given birth vaginally.) Your baby's head will continue to advance with each push until it "crowns" — the term used to describe the time when the widest part of your baby's head is finally visible. After your baby's head comes out, your midwife or doctor will suction his mouth and nose, and feel around his neck for the umbilical cord. His head then turns to the side as his shoulders rotate inside the pelvis to get into position for their exit. With the next contraction, you'll be coached to push as his shoulders deliver, one at a time, followed by the rest of his body. You may feel a wide range of emotions now: euphoria, awe, pride, disbelief, excitement (to name a few), and, of course, intense relief that it's all over. Exhausted as you may be, you'll also probably feel a burst of energy, and any thoughts of sleep will vanish for the time being. Stage three The final stage of labor begins immediately after the birth of your baby and ends with the delivery of your placenta. The contractions in the third stage are relatively mild.

roo's bag

thought i was going to be able to start packing my hospital bag today. the ups man just delivered the lands end bag i had ordered. but i opened it up and they didn't monogram it the way i had asked. i wanted it to say "roo" but they capitalized the "r" so it says "Roo". not really wrong, but not what i wanted. instead of being non-assertive me and just keeping it as it is, i called them up :) they are making me a new one with all lowercase and i just have to drop the incorrect one off at sears. pretty convenient since we need to go to the mall anyway. we're going to use another of our babies r us gift cards to buy a second base for our roo carrier / car seat thingy. then we're going to set up an appointment at the police station to help us get them installed into our cars properly!

i pee good

my 24-hour urine test checked out ok. i don't have to be admitted today! woo hoo!

admit me???

had a doctor's appointment this morning. i handed over my jug of pee, which i was happy to see go. when you have to pee 12 billion times a day it is no fun to lug a pee-catcher and a cooler with jug of pee around every where with you. plus since we were out and about yesterday, i had to set up the pee-catching contraption in a gas station bathroom - gross. we started with a non-stress test today since i guess i have now been classified as a high(er?) risk pregnancy with the high blood pressure. we passed with no issues - yeah roo! found these which explain what's going on pretty well: i either have gestational hypertension or preeclampsia. got my first vitamin b12 shot - that will be fun to do monthly! blood pressure was a little high today, but at least the new doctor finally(!!!) has my records from richmond so she can see for herself that my bp was fine prior to getting up here to boston! the results from the 24-hour urine test should be back some time this afternoon. fingers crossed for good news, because there were several mentions of admitting me today if there was still protein in the pee. don't feel ready to be checked into the hospital yet. haven't even started packing my hospital bag, haven't washed roo's potential coming-home-from-the-hospital outfits, haven't installed the car seat bases... i did order a fun new bag from lands end to use as a hospital bag and had it monogrammed "roo" :) hopefully it gets here before roo does!!! so now just anxiously awaiting the phone call about my pee :)

35 weeks

5 weeks to go! (hopefully not just 2!!!) roo definitely doesn't spin and roll as much but it is still very, very active. it also gets the hiccups 2-3 times a day. what a crazy feeling! from babycenter.com: Your baby doesn't have much room to maneuver now that he's over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 pounds plus. Because it's so snug in your womb, he isn't likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times he kicks should remain about the same. His kidneys are fully developed now, and his liver can process some waste products. Most of his basic physical development is now complete — he'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight. Your uterus — which was entirely tucked away inside your pelvis when you conceived — now reaches up under your rib cage. If you could peek inside your womb, you'd see that there's more baby than amniotic fluid in there now. Your ballooning uterus is crowding your other internal organs, too, which is why you probably have to urinate more often and may be dealing with heartburn and other gastrointestinal distress. If you're not grappling with these annoyances, you're one of the lucky few. no new news on our richmond house so we're enacting plan b - looking for and buying a significantly cheaper house further from boston. we're figured out our new price range. and we've made a list up 8-10 potential contenders in the towns of abington, east bridgewater, hanson, weymouth, and whitman which are pretty far out of the city but have access to commuter rail. jeremy is trying to get us appointments to see them this weekend and hopefully we'll find something and be able to pull the trigger soon - like within a week! it would be really nice to be semi-settled into a house before roo comes! or at least knowing that we'll be settled soon!

back to the doc (and more key problems)

yesterday was a fun day. wicked fun. i had my 2nd appointment of the week down in boston to check in on the blood pressure and get an ultrasound to see how huge roo is. we planned for me to drive to framingham, catch the commuter rail, and meet jeremy at south station in boston to head to the hospital together. good plan in theory, except that 1) framingham sucks; 2) i absolutely hate traveling alone in unfamiliar territory; 3) framingham really sucks. i left my parents' house a little after 10 a.m. which should have been plenty of time to get to framingham to catch the 12:15 train into boston. with the help of the trusty tom-tom (god i love that thing!) i easily found the train station in framingham, arriving there right at noon. (do not ever attempt to find that train station without a gps or really solid directions. you will fail.) so i got there in plenty of time except that there was absolutely nowhere to park. the lot at the station (all of like 60 spots) was long since filled with commuters. street parking was not allowed anywhere and all the other lots required a permit. after driving up and down the street several times hoping for some magic answer, i decided to choose the seemingly most-legal place to park - on the street in front of a church several blocks away from the station. would god really let them tow the car of an 8-month pregnant lady? i hoped not. i hoofed it up to the station all the while thinking about how much i hoped it would be light outside when i got back because framingham is not a nice place, especially around the train station. i got to the station and found a train sitting there. but there was no indication whatsoever that this was my train. no signs, no people, no ticket booth, nothing. just a train sitting there. it was like a freaking ghost town. i walked the length of the platform twice hoping for some sort of something to let me know that i should get on this train, all the while cursing jeremy for making his pregnant wife with high blood pressure endure such unnecessary stress :) well i got my sign. at 12:15 on the dot it left. without me on it. the next train wasn't until 2 and wouldn't get me to boston in time for my appointment. my now too-frequent tears starting falling. i called jeremy to yell at him because it's obviously all his fault ;) and then hung up on him because i was so mad :) once i settled down, i re-programmed the tom-tom to take me into boston, directly to the hospital. i was certain that this was a terrible, terrible idea given my aforementioned hatred of traveling when i don't know where i am. throw in crazy boston drivers and i assumed i was just doomed. amazingly i made it there in no time, without any issues. jeremy hopped in the car at the entrance to the parking garage. i decided to forgive him since it all worked out ok :) we parked right there at the hospital figuring it would cost at least $30, but we didn't really care at that point. we had some time to kill so we grabbed some lunch at the nearby bagel place and sat there until it was time for my appointment. i checked in for my appointment and was informed we'd start with the ultrasound and then see the doctor - a different one today, because monday's doctor does not work on thursdays. the ultrasound nurse was very nice but used an exceptional amount of that goo they put all over your belly. i was soaked and so were my clothes! she kept saying how she couldn't really see anything because ultrasounds are pretty useless at this stage of pregnancy because of how little space the little buggers have in there (so why are we doing one??? i'll never understand.) we couldn't see much of anything, but we did see a couple of random fingers and part of roo's face. we couldn't see the whole face because roo insisted on keeping its hands in front of its face the entire time. everything else just kinda looked like pictures of the surface of the moon. as far as they could tell though, everything looked normal. on the way in to the doctor part of the visit, we ran in to the nurse who said that they still haven't received my records. seriously - what is the hold up??? all the records at the old doctor's office were digital - they carry laptops from room to room and it all goes directly into the system. how hard is it to hit print, and then fax them???? sigh. need to harass them today. we got the scary consent forms that i need to sign for labor and delivery, as well as the roughly 8-page massachusetts state birth certificate request form to fill out. as usual, stepped on the scale, peed in a cup, and had my blood pressure taken. my bp was much much better (phew - i was worried based on the framingham start of my day!) but there was protein in my pee (not good - potential sign of preeclampsia.) as a result i need to pee in a jug for 24 straight hours (and keep it refrigerated - ewww) and then bring my wonderful collection back to my appointment on monday. i'm sure people on the train in will think i'm thoroughly sane, carrying a big jug of my own pee :) if they confirm preeclampsia, roo will have to come out in 2 weeks (eeek - 2 weeks - so not ready!) otherwise, they'll just monitor my bp and let me go as long as possible. so i get to go in weekly from here on out. oh - and i'm still hurting in the vitamin b12 department, so i now have to get a monthly shot of b12 straight to the ass. loads of fun. mass ob/gyns are just overflowing with good news for me :) fortunately, despite all this, i actually feel just fine - pretty comfortable actually considering the size of my feet and how damn pregnant i am! to avoid another episode of tears, jeremy decided to drive me out of boston. (good husband!) the plan was to drive in to the train station in worcester, about halfway between boston and my parents' house. i would drive myself home from there and jeremy would catch a train back to boston. despite leaving boston at 4:45 we got out of the city rather easily and got to worcester without a problem. jeremy hopped out and i got on the road back to westfield. made it home with no problems, pulled into the driveway, reached for the keys to shut my car off, and realized... CRAP. they were jeremy's keys. the ones he needed to pick up his own car at the train station in boston. i quickly called him and before i could even tell him our newest issue, it dawned on him too. he got off the train at the next stop so we could formulate a plan. seriously - how did we ever exist without cell phones???? after researching various train and t schedules, we decided that the best plan was for him to hop on the train back to worcester and i would drive back, pick him up, and bring him back to my parents' house for the night. and of course then bring him back to the worcester train station first thing in the morning so he could get to his 9 a.m. meeting in boston. fortunately, everything went smoothly from there and as of 8 a.m. this morning, we're all back where we're supposed to be :) crazy. absolutely crazy.

rest in peace jake

on monday we found out that my parents' beagle jake had a massive 11 cm tumor on his spleen which had already spread to his liver. the vet said it was an aggressive, fast-spreading type of cancer. by the time you notice that anything is wrong, it's too late. there was nothing more they could do for him. jake died peacefully today. he was 12 years old and had 6 good years here after my parents adopted him from a beagle rescue. everyone here is very sad, but we're glad that he's not suffering anymore.

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable. All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

we love you and miss you snort!

uh oh spaghetti-o's

so jeremy and i just got back from our first official appointment in mass. roo thoroughly enjoyed the train ride in. it seems to love all the beeps the train makes - kicking me every time! my records from richmond didn't make it there yet (way to be on the ball richmond doctor's office) so we pretty much had to start from scratch. my blood pressure was pretty high today - the first time it has been anything but good this whole pregnancy. they took it again a second time a little while later - it was lower but still on the high side, especially compared to where it has been during my previous visits. the b-word was mentioned (bed rest) so that's not good. have to go back on thursday and monday to have my bp checked again to see if it stays elevated. it's not like i'm completely stressed or anything ;) but preeclampsia is always a worry. other symptoms include protein in the urine (guess we'll find out soon how my pee checks out) and swelling in the feet, hands, and face. my feet are obviously swollen all the time and my hands and face have been tingly, though not noticeably swollen. hopefully i am just paranoid at this point. what's funny is i always thought that bed rest would be freaking awesome, but when actually confronted with it, not so much :) roo also appears to be tracking big still so we're going in for an ultrasound on thursday too to see just how big we're talking. and since they didn't have my records and were worried about the whole vitamin b12 deficiency, guess who got to give another 6 vials of blood today???? yup. me. at least this time the lab peeps listened to me and went straight for the hand. they were a little skeptical, but did it anyway. good old hand vein pulled through as always and pumped out the 6 vials (including 2 massive ones!) in record time.

productive trip to the mall

hit the mall earlier today with much success.

got a new cell phone (you can call me again - i can't call you - i don't know any one's phone numbers!!) from t-mobile for only $25. i miss my old phone. we had quite the four year relationship. oh well. all good things must end.

got some new maternity shirts that will hopefully cover the whole belly plus a stash of nursing bras (fun!) the girl at the motherhood maternity store thought i was having twins. guess i'm huge :)

also used our babies r us gift card from jeremy's mom to purchase our car seat / stroller thingy. now roo can come home from the hospital after it's born. assuming it has a home. how about this - roo can leave the hospital after it's born. in a car.

34 weeks

so 6 weeks to go. somehow that seems like way less than 7 weeks. at least we are now in the state of massachusetts so that the odds of roo being born without daddy around have just gone way down. we're also making a list of the things we need to acquire asap (car seat, stroller, etc.) so that we're ready should roo make a surprise early appearance. from babycenter.com: Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds and is almost 18 inches long. Her fat layers — which will help regulate her body temperature once she's born — are filling her out, making her rounder. Her skin is also smoother than ever. Her central nervous system is maturing and her lungs are continuing to mature as well. If you've been nervous about preterm labor, you'll be happy to know that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies. things seems to progressing on the house front. someone came to see our house yesterday too - giving us a grand total of 3 showings in a week! we haven't had that kind of action, even when it first went on the market. plus the realtor called this morning to tell us that the 12-minute lady is coming back to see it again (yeah!) and to let us know he's going to do an open house tomorrow. hopefully something will happen soon so that we can make something happen up here and get moderately settled before roo comes. even if the richmond house sells, we think we might still with the plan to buy a little farther outside the city to save some money. it would be fun to live closer to the city, but it would be nice to have spending money too :)

moving on up (a week in review)

it's been a helluva week. not sure i'll remember everything, but i'll give it a shot!! thursday 7/5 after scrambling to get out of the office early (got to love junk mail related emergencies!), i picked up my mother at the train station and headed home to meet some folks from work who had GRACIOUSLY offered to help me empty the fried-tape boxes from the attic so we could get them re-taped before the movers got there on tuesday. my friend jenn and i went off to pick up some virginia bbq for dinner, while her husband buck, jay, and jeffrey unloaded the attic in record time. (they were quite pleased to find that it is a walk-up attic as opposed to one of those creaky pull-down from the ceiling contraptions!) they were done before jenn and i made it back with dinner! we enjoyed a wonderful southern meal (mmmmm hush puppies and sweet tea!) before they all left. my mom passed out on the couch due to her long day of train travel, and i returned a call to our realtor. someone wanted to come see our house - yeah! on saturday - boo! the weekend really needs to be all about the packing, but we also really need to sell the house. so friday would have to be a "make the house look presentable even though we are mid-move" day instead of a "hard core crazy packing" day. sigh. friday 7/6 i had to work friday, but i gave my mom a list of stuff to work on while i was out, mainly re-taping and organizing the boxes the boys had brought down from attic the day before. we also found some stuff that could be easily packed without making the house look empty for the showing the next day. she got going on her list and i headed off to work. until our entire day was thrown off course... around lunch time i received a phone call from my mom. jackson the beagle had gotten into her suitcase (he knows how to open zippers!) and had eaten her entire week of medications and vitamins including blood pressure medicine and a crapload of ibuprofen. (she takes fish oil pills and we think that the aroma of those was just TOO good to ignore for jackie's beagle nose!) fortunately (or unfortunately - not sure) this was not the first time jack has ingested mass quantities of human medication so i am familiar with the routine. last time, when he ate a whole box of zicam, i wrote down the instructions from the aspca's poison control hotline (god bless them) on how to induce vomiting in a canine (hydrogen peroxide and ice cream - yum!) i told my mom where to find those instructions as well as the puppy poison control phone number. she got off the phone with me to get working on the ice cream concoction and to call poison control. she got him to vomit on the first try, but the aspca recommended that he get to a vet asap to get some activated charcoal. turns out of all the stuff he ate, ibuprofen is the worst and can be fatal in dogs. i called the vet and got them to squeeze us in even though they were booked all afternoon. i scooted out of work early to get him to the vet. jack got his dose of charcoal from dr. riley (and apparently enjoyed it!) dr. riley said that most pets hate the stuff, but jack ate it right up - figures! back at home, jack was relaxing on the couch in the living room. the living room with the light tan carpets. without any notice at all, he vomited up the charcoal from his belly. on the light tan rug. fun. remember that we have a showing at noon the next day. and we're supposed to be packing. because the movers that are already paid for are coming on tuesday. mom and i spent about an hour cleaning the huge black puddle out of the carpet. by the time we were done, you couldn't even tell it was ever there. phew. but we lost essentially a whole day of packing and cleaning time. we used the rest of friday evening to organize and clean the house as much as possible for the showing on saturday. but there was still a ton to do before noon... but jack is ok :) saturday 7/7 we got up pretty early to get to work cleaning and prepping for the showing. absolutely no packing was done. but by 11:30 a.m. the downstairs rooms were gleaming and looked thoroughly lived-in. the upstairs rooms were mostly empty, except for some well-organized boxes, but they were good enough to show. these people have to understand that we're seriously in the middle of moving, right??? we loaded the dogs into the car, went through the drive-thru for some limeades, and then pulled into the parking lot across the street from our house to scope out these potential buyers. they stayed in the house for 12 minutes - a new record for one of our showings! maybe 7/7/7 would be our lucky day! we headed back in once they left and rested a bit before launching into some serious no holds barred packing. we got a lot done. it looked like a tornado had come through our house, but boxes were getting filled left and right. we got a good chunk of the living room, dining room, master bathroom, and master bedroom done. the kitchen and the shed loomed in front of us, but we had some major reinforcements coming in the next day. feeling good about our progress, despite the inconvenience of the house showing and jackson's digestive pyrotechnics :) sunday 7/8 another early day for me and mom. we got back to work on the dining room and living room while our assistants for the day made their ways toward richmond. jenny and john came down from dc to help and jeremy's mom came up from williamsburg again. they all arrived around the same time and we all got back to work. virginia and jenny ROCKED OUT the kitchen (major props to them!!) while john tackled the scary, manly outdoor project - the shed. my mom kept going in the living room and i essentially finished the dining room. we ran out of cube and medium boxes at one point so jenny and i made a trip to the uhaul store to get more. the girl there officially knows me now and couldn't believe we were back for more! i have too much stuff. jeremy - please notice i said "i" - i know it's my fault :) additionally, we unloaded the contents of our kitchen cupboards on to the counters and everyone went grocery shopping before they left. by the time the help dispersed, we were tired but feeling really good that we would be ready for the movers to show up on tuesday.

monday 7/9 i had to work again, but mom kept busy while i was out, packing boxes and shredding catalogs to use a packing material. my sister becky and her boyfriend came by "to help" after work, though they really didn't do anything except distract us from packing. oh well. at least they took some more of the unwanted food with them. a scheduled trip to the vet for bailey (just his regular shots) also slowed us down. it was a late, late night as we tried to get everything packed before the movers arrived some time between 9-11 the next day. i tackled as much of the master bedroom as i could before having to throw in the towel a little after midnight. if i wasn't pregnant i could probably have stuck it out much longer, but the extraordinarily swollen ankles, back pain, and general fatigue just wouldn't allow it. i set my alarm for 6 the next morning, while mom continued to work well into the night (she didn't go to bed until 3:20!!!) tuesday 7/10 i got right out of bed at 6, nervous about our ability to be ready for the movers when they got there. i decided to let mom sleep in since she had been up so late, especially when i saw how much progress she had made! with my energy refreshed and my ankles at their new "normal" size i was able to finish the master bedroom by 7 a.m., including isolating things i didn't want the movers packing into the master bathroom, master closet, and guest bathroom - three areas they didn't even need to touch! mom got up at 7 and between the 2 of us we tackled as many of those weird items that you end up with (you know the oddly sized or shaped ones that just don't fit nicely into boxes) as we could. i also ran out quickly to get bottled water and gatorade for the movers ( it was gonna be a HOT one!) and to hit up the atm for cash to tip them at the end of the day. we were making good progress, but secretly hoping the movers would come toward the later part of their 9-11 window. nope. they pulled up at 9:06. we got the dogs crated up, and took the movers for a walk-through of all that would need to be POD-packed. they immediately expressed concern about the ability to fit it all in 2 PODS, but committed to giving it their best shot. 2 of them got going loading the PODS, while the 3rd started packing up all the stuff we hadn't gotten to yet (lamps, framed art, etc.) there wasn't much left for mom and i to do by 10ish so we just watched as they hauled and hauled and hauled. not looking good for getting it all in to the 2 PODS. by 3 p.m. they had gotten everything out of the house (furniture and boxes) that they were supposed to, but the PODS were bursting at the seams. all the outdoor stuff (patio furniture, grill, shed contents) remained but there just wasn't room. oh well. the movers went on their way just as the thunder clouds rolled in and jeremy and i started planning "plan b" to get the remaining stuff up to massachusetts. "plan b" basically consists of a one-way plane ticket for jeremy and a uhaul truck :) no fun, but there's enough stuff left that it is worth it. 20 minutes after the movers left, the realtor called. someone wanted to come see the house in a half hour. though i am quite desperate to sell the house, i had to say hell no. when the movers moved the furniture, we discovered several of the kitty's favorite hiding places. there were patches of black cat hair under everything. the house was a certifiable disaster area. we took a chance that the potential buyers would be willing to come on wednesday instead. the realtor called back a few minutes later to say that we were on for 3 p.m. on wednesday. phew. but another freaking showing to prepare for when we have some MAJOR cleaning to do. oh well, gotta sell the house. realtor did mention that the peeps who saw it on saturday absolutely loved the house, but they were concerned about the lot across the street. but they liked it enough to call the city to research the plans for the lot across the street, so that's promising. we'll see. i had to run off to a going-away happy hour that my coworkers were having for me and mom stayed home relaxing (though without any furniture!) and doing some organizing. later that night i made a walmart run to get us some blow-up mattresses to sleep on. i think i totally scored a $37 air mattress for free thanks to the general incompetence of my walmart cashier. sweet. the air mattresses weren't the most comfortable ones in the world, but after a long day of packing and moving, they were good enough. wednesday 7/11 reality sets in. there is no freaking way we'll get all the remaining packing, cleaning, spackling, etc. done in time to leave on thursday plus be ready for the showing at 3. it's just not going to happen. even if we stayed for 3-4 more days we probably couldn't get it all done to my standards. we decide to add the spackling and painting to jeremy's agenda for his "plan b" trip and to hire merry maids to do the cleaning when jeremy is back in richmond. we started packing up the remaining things to make jer's uhaul loading easier. and cleaning up all the cat and dog fur. which is when the vacuum craps out. yes, the $500+ dyson. lovely. it just wasn't picking up any of the hair like it normally does. but i quickly diagnosed two issues - one it was set on the bare floor setting (why? i do not know) and i was doing carpet, and the beater bar thing was coated in layers of tangled thread, hair, etc. after switching the setting and cleaning out the beater bar we were back in business sucking up fur like a freaking dyson should. phew. i didn't want to have to hate my dyson. i love my dyson. at 1:57 the doorbell rings. it's the potential buyer and her agent. my mom is holding 3 of the dogs by their collars and i had the 4th. this is a rough re-enactment of our conversation: realtor: did your realtor tell you we were coming? me: (tersely) yes. at 3. realtor: (awkward pause, as if waiting for me to offer to let them see it now) me: we're in the middle of moving. come back at 3. realtor: ok we'll come back at 3. me: great. i'm sure we're at the top of their list now, but i don't care. i just want to be able to get on the road like we're supposed to on thursday. mom and i quickly finished up what we were doing, loaded the dogs into the car, deciding to forgo the limeade, and parked across the street to watch. they came back promptly at 3 and stayed in the house for 6 minutes. not bad considering there is no furniture or decor of any kind in it. just empty rooms. we dropped the dogs off and set out to run some errands. i dropped my mom off at the scrapbooking store while i ran into the office to check email and do some web-necessary to-do items. afterwards, we dropped a bunch a crap off at the goodwill, grabbed some wine boxes from the wine store to pack our wine in, and grabbed dinner (our first real meal in days!) at lonestar. delicious. except i think i left my cell phone there, though they said they didn't find it. so if you're trying to call me, that why i am not answering. there's a chance that my phone is just somewhere else amongst all the chaos but i'm pretty sure i left it there. oh well. it was circa 2003 and dying a slow death anyway, but it does suck to be without cell phone. so that's it. yesterday was a relatively uneventful drive from richmond to my parents' house where all the rupons were reunited for the first time in over a month! the dogs and i are hanging out here catching up on email and other things, while jeremy had to run back to boston for a meeting this morning. next on the agenda - figuring out how to not be mortgage-paying homeless people!

update on the whole moving adventure forthcoming

things are crazy and no more internet at home (computer and modem are packed!!) so i will get an update on the whole crazy moving adventure later tonight if i can find a wireless network to tap into, or tomorrow once i get into my parents' house :)

I'm currently staying at Keira's aunt house in Hanson, Ma. I can't thank her enough for bailing me out in a time of need. The house is 30 miles or so from Boston and is definately in a more rural area. Keep in mind that there are lots of little critters that live around the house. On Sunday, I went to see a house in Quincy and when I opened the door I found a mouse in the corner where the door meets the car. I tried to grab it with some pliers that i had in the car but it got away. I figured it crawled into the engine and probably would jump off or burn. I got into the car two more times that morning with no sign of my mouse friend. Then i stopped at duncan donuts, opened the door and there was my friend. this time i was able to grab him with the pliers. i got out of the car right by the drive through holding a mouse with a pair of pliers. a guy in line was looking at me like i was crazy. then this dude in van sticks his head out the window and said "I'll have one of those with a large coffee to go!" I let the mouse go and went to the car to lock it and get some donuts. mmmmm donuts. in all the excitement i left my keys in the car which i locked! so i had to wait for AAA to bail me out. anywho, thought it was a funny story that you all may get a laugh out of :)

33 weeks

this week marked the first time i was belly-molested by a complete stranger. the grocery store lady who helped me bring my groceries to the car just reached out and started patting the belly to determine if it is a boy or girl. random touchy-feely ukrop's grocery bagger says girl, for what it's worth! :) from babycenter.com: This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds and has passed the 17-inch mark. He's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and his skeleton is hardening. The bones in his skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for him to fit through the birth canal. (The pressure on the head during birth is so intense that many babies are born with a conehead-like appearance.) These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as his brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood. As your baby fills out even more of your belly, lots of things might start to change: Whereas before you were sashaying, you may find yourself waddling. Finding an easy position to sit in — let alone sleep — is becoming more of a challenge. And bumping into chairs and counters is par for the course. You may be feeling some achiness and even numbness in your fingers, wrists, and hands. Like many other tissues in your body, those in your wrist can retain fluid, which can increase pressure in the carpal tunnel, a bony canal in your wrist. Nerves that run through this "tunnel" may end up pinched, creating numbness; tingling, shooting or burning pain; or a dull ache. roo is huge!!! as for the other stuff... waddling? check. difficulty finding a comfy sleeping position? check. bumping in to everything? check. tingly fingers and hands? check. also, spilling stuff all over myself? check. dropping everything i touch? check. :)

happy 4th!

spent my whole day "off" packing. heard the fireworks but didn't see them - oh well! got a lot done though. now the office, guest bedroom, and guest bathroom are entirely packed. i also got a good start on the master bedroom. mom will be here tomorrow to help with the packing and cleaning, as will a few AWESOME people from work who are going to help me haul the boxes with fried tape on them from the attic. fyi - the dachshund barks at fireworks and the beagles are all afraid of them!

anemia update

talked with temp doc earlier today. my hemoglobin levels have fallen again, down to 9.2, despite the fact that i have been taking my prescription strength iron+ vitamins like a rock star. my iron saturation is actually normal - i have vitamin b12 deficiency anemia. guess that's why he needed 7 vials of blood - to look for all the different types of anemia. what causes b12 deficiency? from webmd: Vitamin B12 deficiency anemia usually develops when your body cannot absorb this vitamin from food. This can happen if:

• You have pernicious anemia. In pernicious anemia, your body destroys the cells in your stomach needed to help your body absorb vitamin B12
• You have had surgery to remove part of your stomach or the last section of your small intestine
• You have a digestive problem, such as sprue (also called celiac disease), Crohn's disease, bacteria growth in the small intestine, or a parasite.
• You take medicine to treat heartburn and ulcers for a long time. Examples include omeprazole (Prilosec) and lansoprazole (Prevacid).

guess it's either the pernicious anemia or a digestive issue since my stomach is intact and i don't take ulcer meds! anyway, we'll talk with new boston doc at my next appointment to see what we need to do, but it may require b12 shots (fun! i love needles!) big bummer from webmd: You should not drink alcohol while being treated for a vitamin B12 deficiency. Alcohol interferes with the body’s ability to absorb this vitamin. i've already had to go 7+ months without a drink. not sure how long i can hold out after roo is born! :)

temporary doctor hates me

today was my last appointment here in richmond. i have a temporary ob/gyn because my original richmond doctor is out on maternity leave. i also have a doctor lined up in boston, but for the time being i have been seeing one of the other doctors in the richmond practice. he is worried about my anemia so i had to do another blood test today. i was kinda hoping that it might just be a finger prick because he was just checking in. nope. and it was even worse than the previous two blood tests, including the glucose screening. i think he's trying to torture me because i stopped taking the iron for a while (with my original doctor's permission) because of how bad my nausea was. the nurse drawing my blood had never even seen a doctor order the some of the tests he was requesting (scary!) AND whatever he was looking for requires 7 full vials of my blood to see (ouch!) the regular jabby nurse was out on vacation today so i had their substitute nurse. like original nurse, she's an older lady who believes that the best place to get blood out of me is in my arm even though my veins are non-existent. i try to tell these people that the veins in the back of my hand are far superior but they don't listen to me. substitute nurse jabbed me in my left arm and managed to get 3 of 7 vials before that vein ran dry (meanwhile leaving me with a nasty bruise - again.) fortunately, before she could dig in my other arm to get the rest, another substitute nurse swung by the lab and offered to help out. she was much younger and willing to give my hand a try after i promised her it wouldn't bother me any more than the constant arm jabbing and bruising. sub nurse #2 got 4 vials out of my right hand in half the time it took to get the 3 out of my left arm. she said i had the most productive hand veins she'd ever seen. see - you should listen to me nurses! and the best part - no bruise and no pain. roo is still tracking a little big, but within normal tolerances so that's good. but getting papa john's for dinner last night = bad idea, at least on the night before a doctor's appointment. i weighed 3 pounds more this morning than i did yesterday morning because the papa just sitting in my belly. oops! but sometimes you just need comfort food!

105 hours = <10 dollars per hour

So I made it through my first week of residency. I logged 105 hours. When you break that down, it's less than 10 dollars an hour. Anywho, it was brutal. I'm on the surgery service which is not much fun. However, I switch to a new more laid back rotation in a little over a week, so that's not bad. The good news is that the surgery service travels all over the hospital so I got to see where Roo will be born! Very exciting! I can't wait! In other news, life away from home is very hard. I miss the fam a lot but will get to see them in about 10 days or so. That is going to be awesome. Well, i gotta run I'm supposed to be watching a surgery but there is really nowhere for me to get a good view so i am pretending to follow-up on some lab results. hehehe. talk to everyone later!

tired of this real estate market, tired of packing, and just plain tired

i didn't go to either of the open houses today. was in a groove packing and didn't want to lose momentum. there were a bunch of people at the one next door. i don't get it - tons of people come see that house but no ones comes to see mine! depressing. oh well at least i won't have to look at it much longer, even though i'll essentially be homeless. yeah. awesome. but at least my 3-page, 3-column per page, single-spaced 10-point font to-do list has a lot crossed off it. progress. the office is 100% packed. all that remains in there is spackling / painting and cleaning. whew. i got some work done in the hallway and the guest room too. i'm fairly confident that we'll get everything packed in time, i just don't know how we'll get the house clean at the same time. plus, all the packing tape is peeling off the boxes that jeremy packed and put in the attic before he left. it's too darn hot up there - the tape just looks fried off. i will need to get all those boxes re-taped. but i certainly can't carry them down the attic stairs myself to do so! i may need to swallow my pride and ask for help from all the people at work who offer to help me pack and prepare for the move. i pay well (with pizza and beer!) so tired - two straight days of nothing but packing - i'm pooped!