Category Archives: Family

One Big Joke

Posted on April 17, 2006 | 8 comments

I knew it was going to be difficult raising a girl… but I had no idea she would be causing so much trouble so soon :giggle:

So intent is Small on defying her mother’s wishes for a ‘normal’ delivery (note I’m just talking about the exit-location here – I’m totally pro-drugs!) that she is taking nothing for granted. Let’s examine the facts:

1. One previous C-section – this already stands me in good stead for a second surgical delivery. My hospital of choice is not anti-VBAC, but their policy states subsequent pregnancies should not progress further than 41 weeks, and, most importantly, no chemical inductions will be performed. I understand the reasoning for this, I do (these drugs are associated with a higher risk of uterine rupture at the previous scar site). But this one factor plays a big part in this whole situation.

2. Blood pressure ‘issues’ – currently my blood pressure has been at normal levels for about 5 weeks. This is good. However the increased BP might make a reappearance. If I do develop pre-eclampsia, making it necessary to deliver early, no chemical induction… so, straight to caesarian.

3. Gestational diabetes – currently under good control – I was not placed on insulin, the few high readings I recorded earlier in the piece were attributed to a ‘learning curve’, and all is OK on this front so far. But simply having this diagnosis means my time-limit is now 40 weeks. No GD patient will be allowed to progress past this point. Again, hospital policy. Again… no chemical induction.

These three factors considered are enough to make you (and me) fairly confident that I won’t be having a normal delivery. However, clutching at straws, I’ve requested a ‘stretch and sweep’ – kind of a ‘manual’ induction, if you like. Just to see if I can go into labor at all. (As I doubt I would go into labor naturally before 40 weeks – I was late with Finn). They have consented to do this… at 38 weeks. That early, it probably won’t make an iota of difference. Grrr.

Anyway, just in case all of this wasn’t quite enough, there’s a 4. Wait… you’re gonna love this. I did. (I think I’ve finally reached the point of a slightly resigned ‘what next…?’)

4. She’s breech.

Ahahahahaha….. hmmmm…. :blank:

(Petulant child)

We’re booked for a June 20 (surgical) birth-date. Nine weeks tomorrow… and counting 🙂

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Forewarned is…

Posted on April 7, 2006 | 2 comments

In her book “On Death and Dying” in 1969, Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross proposed these ‘five stages of grief’:

1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance

Apparently it is not unusual for patients diagnosed with chronic illness – not just terminal illnesses such as cancer – to progress through these stages (not necessarily separately or in order).

I believe it. It became apparent to me sometime early last week that I had progressed neatly from ‘denial’ to ‘anger’ over this whole diabetes debacle. I don’t recall any ‘bargaining’, but that could be because I don’t subscribe to any Higher Power with whom to bargain? Regardless, these last few days, I seem to have landed squarely in ‘depression’. Despite my best efforts of the last two weeks, I seem to be headed straight for the insulin, probably by the end of next week, would be my best guess.

I know, I know… technically I have not been diagnosed with a chronic illness. Technically, gestational diabetes mellitus is most often just that – gestational, therefore a transient problem. I think the main problem I have is that I tend to over-educate myself about anything that’s going on in my life. And all that I’m reading points to a fairly huge risk of me being diagnosed as a Type 2 diabetic in the next 10-15 years. As in, a 30-50% risk.

So the changes I’m making now, to my diet and exercise regime, must be made for life, in reality. Knowing I must do this is not really the same thing as feeling like I can do it. Knowing something is only for the next 10-12 weeks is entirely different, and entirely doable. (And for the record, I am doing it – I’m eating well, exercising, and have been losing what little weight I’ve put on through the pregnancy). Changing my habits for the rest of my life involves overcoming years of poor eating and exercise habits, and years of the crap self-esteem which lurks beneath. It strikes me that forewarned is not always forearmed. Sometimes, to be forewarned is to be burdened with excess stress and anxiety, both of which add their own little risk factors to one’s health.

Right now, I’m having a hard time coming to the ‘acceptance’ stage 😥

Meh. Must stitch…

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The Awesome Brain

Posted on March 28, 2006 | 4 comments

Ok, I admit, this is a bit of a mummy-brag here, so if you don’t like that kind of stuff, read no further!

But it’s also a marvel about the human brain. I can’t really fathom the leap that Finn’s brain made today, all by itself. I don’t know how this works!

I’ve been dyeing some more floss these last couple of days (yay). Today when I was hanging a bunch out to dry, Finn decided to count them all – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Ok, good. Then he decides that since they’re each hanging in a way so that two ‘legs’ hang down (from the middle, like an inverted ‘U’), that he would count all the legs. 1, 2, 3, 4…. up to 20. Excellent. So, being the marvellous educator I am, I confirmed for him ‘two groups of ten, that’s twenty’. (Well, technically 10 groups of 2, but who’s being picky?!)

That’s not the amazing bit. The amazing bit is that without missing a beat, this three year old of mine then pipes up ‘three groups of ten is thirty, and four groups of ten is fourty, and five groups of ten is fifty…’! I had to pick my jaw up off the floor, I tell you. That means his mind effectively made the connection that the ‘…ty’ end of a number indicates ‘…groups of ten’. Wow 😮 !

Brains are awesome things. I should have stayed in research after all!

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Posted in Family, The Kids

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Retail Therapy

Posted on March 25, 2006 | 1 comment

When in doubt, spend money :giggle: Yep, yep, yep.

This is not the fun kind of retail therapy that involves a LNS or Lush, mind you, but it was fun all the same. We’re preparing for an upcoming kitchen renovation. I already mentioned I’m not much into home-improving, especially of the DIY variety, but sadly our home-buying budget only ran to the kind of house which needs a good dose of TLC. Luckily my father-in-law used to be a Joiner, and he’s done a good share of house building and renovation, so basically this is going to cost us materials and appliances only. And much nail-biting terror on my part. OtherHalf suggested today that perhaps I should move myself and Finn out to Mum’s place for the duration, and if she weren’t 90 minutes drive away, I might be tempted. As it is, I’m going to have to be elsewhere for the part which involves KNOCKING DOWN A LOAD-BEARING WALL 😯 😯 :shock:. Don’t worry, there’s an extra beam going into the roof, but it scares the bejeebus out of me still!

So today we went ahead and ordered an oven, cooktop (also white, just not in this pic), and rangehood, and brought home a sink and mixer tap. Wheee! We still have to choose laminate for the benches, tiles and paint, and order all the timber required, but at least we’ve started the ball rolling now.

Thanks for all the good thoughts following my last post. I’ve stopped freaking out for now… my ‘education session’ is on Tuesday, so that’s when I’ll learn all about the can- and can’t-haves, and how to measure my own blood sugar levels (fingerpricks, owwweee). Should be fun… :blank:

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Cancel Those Chocolate Eggs

Posted on March 24, 2006 | 6 comments

Right now I could go a glass of good red wine or three, but cancel that too 🙁 I’ve just had a crappy phone call to top off a pretty blah week. I have gestational diabetes. Just fricking fabulous!

Sorry. I know it’s not the end of the world, but it’s just one more thing to add to my list of ‘why-I-wish-this-pregnancy-was-over-already’. And three weeks before the annual chocolate-orgy that is Easter… that’s just cruel and unusual punishment, wouldn’t you say?!

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Gold Star For Me!

Posted on March 16, 2006 | 3 comments

So, I fully intended to sit down and write a somewhat shamefaced apology to the world on behalf of all Melbourne for the giant flying koalas debacle… but I kind of got distracted by my health.

I am still sorry about the koalas. And the duck. Let me just say this… it was not MY idea! Our ‘esteemed’ Premier said in an interview just prior to last night’s opening ceremony that said ceremony would showcase Melbourne as the truly sophisticated city we are. Um. Yeah.

But that’s all forgotten now. I get a gold star for my blood pressure today!

See, for the last six weeks, I have been deliberately not talking about all things pregnancy. Because the more I talk about it, the more I think about it, and the more stressed I get. And the more it becomes a problem. My blood pressure, that is. The problem, it seems, and I have believed this for some years anyway, is that I have what is affectionately known as ‘white-coat hypertension’. Essentially, that means doctors stress me out to the point where my blood pressure increases just by visiting one! It just kind of makes it hard to accurately monitor my bp. I have experienced the joy of having a 24-hour monitor strapped to me once before, and 90% of all the measurements were within a normal range. Admittedly, my ‘normal’ bp is on the high end of the scale, but not to the point of requiring treatment.

Those of you who’ve been pregnant, however, know how antsy doctors get about blood pressure and pre-eclampsia and whatnot. So six weeks ago, when my bp was suddenly high at one antenatal visit, I was launched through a barrage of extra visits, endocrinologists and fun tests. One of the ‘features’ of the public health system (and please don’t misunderstand me, I love the public system and that I can still have a baby for free, nada, zip in this country) is that you never seem to see the same doctor twice. That sucks for white-coat hypertensives, and frankly, the bedside manner of the last three doctors I saw left much to be desired.

Today – brilliance! I saw someone who in fact turned out to be someone who was once a semi-colleague of mine. During my honours research year I was stationed in a hospital department partnered with his. He recognized me, which was nice. And, he treated me like a human being. What’s more, like an intelligent human being. You have no idea how much more at ease this puts me. After talking things through with him, my BP today was back down to normal (for me), which makes me super happy. Now that it’s officially on the hospital record that I have eccentric bp, even the scowling doctors should be somewhat appeased, and what’s more I feel better armed to discuss my options from hereforth. No, it’s not a guarantee against pre-eclampsia, by any means, but it makes me feel much more confident that I’m not heading directly (do-not-pass-Go) down that route.

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Posted in Family, General Ramblings, Pregnancy

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Life

Posted on February 10, 2006 | 7 comments

Well… um…

No comments on the last post! At all. That kind of reminds me why I don’t lay my heart out very often. I’ll just pick it back up off the blog floor now and go back to ‘safe’ posts. Or maybe I’ll just pretend you all forgot the way here and no-one read it. Yeah. That’s it.

OK, no more feeling sorry for myself, I promise. After I finished writing that post and went back to bed (yes, it was really that time here… not sleeping well of late), one Small person decided to have a party in my belly and remind me in her infinite wisdom that in the eternal cycle, life follows death just as certainly as death follows life.

Her! Yes, I said her 😉 ! See, you knew I wasn’t going to keep that secret for long, didn’t you? Yes, Small is a she-Small. She in fact has a name now, but in the interest of keeping something for later, I’ll keep that to myself.
(Also in the interest of just-in-case-the-sonographer-is-wrong… in which case we will of course name him ‘Sue’!)

20_weeks_profile
Check out the mugshot… check out that huge head! Yes, just like both of her parents, she needs a giant head to keep her giant brain in :giggle: Anyway, as the measurements came through (at 20 weeks, measuring about 21), my hopes of having a ‘normal’ birth began to fade. Either way, I will of course be happy, as long as she’s OK, but I really was hoping to avoid a second caesarian.

In other brief news, the three 2½ day cram is about to begin. I haven’t been able to focus on studying effectively for Monday’s exam, so tomorrow I’m running away to Mum’s place, sans family, to stick my head down and get it under control. You won’t notice I’m gone, of course… not because no-one visits my blog anymore (sob!), but because I have a fascinating post lined up to auto-post itself while I’m gone. Apart from that, I shall report back on Monday night.

PS. Ahh, now, you see, I look silly. I just get through posting this, then Annette left me the most lovely comment on the last entry. Thankyou Annette, I am humbled by your appreciation.

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Posted in Family, Postgrad Study, Pregnancy

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Halftime

Posted on January 31, 2006 | Comments Off on Halftime

Yes, I edited this post. Very ‘1984’ of me, I know 🙂 The self-indulgent whine I had annoyed me too much, so I got rid of it. All is well in the world…

Twenty weeks today, twenty weeks today… yay us for making it this far! We’ll be finding out on Thursday (two more sleeps) if Small is a heSmall or a sheSmall… though I’m not sure we’re going to be telling the world this time. (Yeah, that’s what we said last time! Finn was named from that day forth, and everybody knew about it). Finn and I went off to buy a video to record the scan for posterity today, and he was convinced that this means we’re “taking Small out” on Thursday. Ha! I wish :giggle:

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Resurfacing

Posted on January 13, 2006 | 1 comment

Ahem. Hello! Remember me?

Sorry. I seem to have been in a bit of a blogging-minislump lately. Coinciding with a stitching-minislump, unfortunately. So what have I been doing? Well, sleeping, shopping, studying, and stuffing my face, mainly 😆

New Year’s Eve, aka Finn’s Birthday, was quite something. The hottest NYE since… well, ever! In Melbourne the temperature eventually climbed to 42.9C (that would be 109.2F for some of you). In the part of the state where we were – somewhere north-west of Bendigo, it was somewhere close to 46C (that would be oh, about a million in Fahrenheit terms, I think). I say “somewhere close”, because opinions were varied between those who had thermometers attached to their cars, and we had no other measuring device. Suffice to say, it was Not Good. Much like an oven, really. We managed to summon enough energy to sing Happy Birthday for Finn (He’s THREE… OMG!) during the afternoon at some point, but mostly we just sat around in my Father-in-law’s half-renovated, non-airconditioned house and melted into people-puddles. The point where the power failed and our one little pedestal fan was no longer, that was really, really Not Fun.

At close to sunset (temperature still v.high 30s, at least), we drove up to nearby Melville Caves, where we ate prawns, drank champagne (though neither for me 😥 ), and watched the sun set. Well, kind of. Visibility was a bit poor due to the bushfires raging across the state in Stawell.

We had plans to stay the night with my FIL and drive to Mum’s (about an hour-and-a-half away) in the morning for another mini-party for Finn. But at around 11pm, with one grumpy boy on our hands, temps still in the mid-to-high-30s, little hope of restful sleep, and no shower to be had in the morning, we decided to pack up and drive across the state right there and then. So that is how I came to see in 2006 as the only person awake in the car in the middle of nowhere. (After saying the obligatory “White Rabbits”, I woke OtherHalf to wish him Happy New Year :giggle: )

The change in the weather didn’t come through until mid-afternoon on the 1st, but how blissful when it did. I celebrated by burning the wagon! Yes… that’s right. I SHOPPED FOR STASH! I’m glad I managed to last out the year, but heck, I’m not doing that again :giggle: I headed over to Stitching Bits and Bobs and reduced the size of my wishlist by 8 charts, some beads and sparklies to kit out Mermaids of the Deep Blue, and a few other bits and pieces (or bits and bobs, I guess!) My package should be here any day now, I’ll be sure to take a picture for you!

Christmas and NYE (and shopping) having taken the wind completely out of my sails, I pretty much slept through January 2nd and 3rd… and then I went back to uni on the 4th. Eeeek! I have been immersing myself in the exciting 😐 world of web servers ever since, and that’s what I’ll be doing for the next few weeks, oh joy. After that…… FREEDOM! Free, free, free as a bird! No more studying for me, for at least… err, well, let’s not make any promises we can’t keep now, shall we?!

Anyhoo… here’s a couple of NYE pictures for you. These were taken up at the caves. 1) Happy Birthday Finny Banana! 2) Happy New Year to 3 generations of boys 🙂

NYE2005-2NYE2005-1

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Posted in Family, General Ramblings, Postgrad Study, The Kids

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O Tannenbaum

Posted on December 29, 2005 | Comments Off on O Tannenbaum

Christmas-Tree

Christmas for me is always so much more about the anticipation. After 3 days of family craziness, by the 27th of December, I always have something of a ‘Christmas hangover’, and not in the normal way. Yesterday, we took down our tree – we don’t waste any time around here! Finn was quite dismayed that ‘Christmas is over’, but easily placated by a ‘sleeps-until-my-birthday’ countdown (2 more sleeps).

Anyway, for posterity’s sake, I give you… our tree, circa 2005 :giggle:

FinnWhiteBoard

Also, because I think it’s cute, and because it needed preservation (darn the transitory nature of the whiteboard), here’s a self-portrait Finn drew with his new markers from Santa:

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