Category Archives: Family

The State of the Jen

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All I’m doing these days is sleeping, eating, and going to work.Â? Oh yeah… and dealing with swollen hands and feet from pregnancy.Â? OK… not so much hands as the thumb and pointer finger on my right hand.Â? Did I mention that I’m right-handed and kind of need those two fingers for work?

It was warm enough several times this past week for me to go out in flip-flops.Â? My feet rejoiced.Â? This is short-lived though as we’re supposed to get snow this week.Â? So much for spring!

My 7th wedding anniversary is tomorrow.Â? We tried going to a restaurant in town for dinner but it’s apparently not open on Sundays.Â? So… we did Pizza Hut and that was fine.Â? I still can’t believe I’ve been married that long!

Some Un-Passworded Posting

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It’s finally a beautiful day here.Â? It’s above freezing (it was near 0 F on Thursday), I got to sleep in, and Finian is bringing his catnip mouse collection up to me.Â? He is such a good prey-catching cat.

Daniel (the creature inside of me) has starting kicking HARD.Â? I wake up in the middle of the night and it feels like parts of my stomach are numb.Â? I’m not entirely used to it so it makes me jump when he goes into soccer-mode.Â? The funniest part was one of my guys at work talking to my tummy in Spanish and telling Daniel to stop kicking.

Musings

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[+] After about two weeks of nice Chinook winds, we got a few inches of snow Friday and yesterday.Â? The roads are fine — it’s just WHITE outside because it’s also cloudy.Â? Edda is just confused beyond all get out.Â? Black cats just don’t understand white very well.

[+] I might have to make it one of my Lenten disciplines to actually GO to church — I’ve missed more than I’ve attended this year because I’ve been sick or incredibly tired (more the later).Â? I’ve made it on Communion Sundays and to the annual meeting but that seems like all.Â? This morning (for example), I woke up tired and stuffy so I just drove my coffeehour stuff over to church, left a note, and came home to take Sudafed and go back to sleep.Â? I know… I’m just taking care of myself and of little Daniel inside of me but I *should* be making a better effort to keep the Sabbath.

[+] My mommy is home from Paris after 3 weeks there.Â? This is a GOOD THING.Â? I did get to talk to her weekly but I’ve missed having her one time zone away.

[+] I’m reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year in Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver and it’s excellent.Â? (Then again, all of her non-fiction is good and I’d heard pretty much the gist of the book on an episode of Speaking of Faith.)Â? I should probably be feeling guilty because I do eat a fair amount of processed food at the moment (well… given that I’m living on ramen) and I eat a lot of Subway because it’s on my way home and I can actually control what’s on my sandwich.Â? However, I’m also so low on spare time and energy at the moment that I’m not fully able to have a conscience about where my food was raised and how far it traveled to get to me.Â? More about my thoughts on the book and its feasibility for me later.

The Ultrasound Today

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Everything went well and??

IT??S A BOY.

It??s a little surprising because I??m carrying high which usually means a girl. But?? these things are usually old wives?? tales and the only body part the little monster was interested in showing us were his male parts. The rest of the time, he was either balled up being uncooperative or was playing with his feet and doing somersaults. My co-workers were commenting (when I told them) that there??s a reason I??m so wiped out all the time ?? I have an active little baby!!!!

Dr. Fabulous (the high-risk doctor who I saw today) is a total character. I was expecting a nice shirt and tie. Instead, I got scrubs and cowboy boots. 🙂 Very nice guy and he answered every question we had as well as reassuring us that the baby was just fine despite the bloodwork last week. None of the markers for Down??s were present and while they do want to do a short ultrasound in 10 weeks to re-check a couple things, the heart issues were not there and the facial features are good.

And his name shall be called?? Daniel James.

An Explanation of What Is Going On

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OK… the news from Tuesday (in the entry that got corrupted and had to be deleted) is that the Maternal Serum Alpha-Fetoprotein Screening test came back elevated for Down’s Syndrome. It doesn’t mean that the baby definitely has Down’s Syndrome — it just means that the right proteins and chemicals were present in the blood to indicate that they should look.

What this means: The high-definition ultrasound that I was supposed to have on the 20th just got jumped to the 3rd. (It was going to be the 6th but the high-risk doctor is out of the office that day.) Apparently, they need to have sufficient time in case we have to do amniocentisis or abort the kid. Neither one is going to happen — I draw the line at having amnio done unless the baby is actively dying and this kid will NOT be aborted. Period.

IF the baby has Down’s: we’ll deal with it. Seriously, it’s not a death sentence and there are two pastors that Jon has worked with here in Montana who have kids with it. One has a daughter my age who functions as well as most regular adults do (lives on her own, has a job, takes of most of her own business except for some of her banking) and the other has a preteen daughter who is like most preteens except that she has the flat facial features.

Regardless of anything that happens, the baby is going to be loved and it is very much a wanted child… even when it kicks so hard that it’s giving me acid reflux.

Sadness

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I was talking to Mom when she got a message from my uncle in Great Falls (her older brother).Â? They had put their eldest cat Fredd to sleep around New Year’s Eve (he had MASSIVE kidney failure) and apparently, their other cat Loogy decided to join his brother on the Rainbow Bridge.Â? He suffered a recurrence of the thrombosis attack that he had 8 years ago (I can’t remember the exact name but it paralyzes the lower limbs and is excruciating for the cat) and didn’t survive this one.Â? He was in good shape otherwise and so this is a shock and also very sad because Loogy was a great cat.Â? (Loogy and Freya are clones except that Freya has eyeliner and Loogy had a mustache.)

Please keep my aunt and uncle in your prayers, especially my uncle because this is like losing two kids at once.