Five

This is being posted early because it's been on my mind and I don't want to forget it on the day.

Five years ago I was living in a hospital room, hugely pregnant and with great anxiety and expectation. I had been on strict bed rest for about 7 weeks at this point.

I had complete placenta previa and when it was first diagnoses at about 16 weeks into my pregnancy, I was told that bed rest was a certainty as well as a c-section since there was no other way for the baby to get out with the placenta blocking the birth canal. Later, my OBs told me that I lasted much longer before I had any bleeding (which indicated that the placenta was tearing away from my uterus - this is bad). Anyway, on the Wednesday after Thanksgiving I experience my first bit of bleeding. I was at 29 weeks. Naively, I headed to the hospital where I was immediately checked in and told that in no uncertain terms was I to get out of bed. For 2 days I lay in that shared room (only for the first couple of days, then I got a room to myself), miserable, stressed (about baby and my job (I had driven myself to the hospital, blithely telling my bosses that I'd "see [them] tomorrow." Ha! Little did I know.)).

Mercifully, one of the peri-natologists relented and allowed me to get up to use the potty. One week after arriving I was sent home with instructions to stay in bed except to use the potty. I was allowed 1-2 showers per week.

My Beau was awesome. He set up a table next to the bed, brought up my computer to the table and I was able to function pretty well there from bed. I did 100% of our Christmas shopping that year online. I hand addressed all of the Christmas cards and I think I may have hand written notes in most of them, too. I even wrapped many of the gifts in bed.

And then I had more bleeding, two weeks after arriving back at home, so into the hospital I went again and this time I was in for the duration. This time I was more prepared for being in the hospital since I already knew what to expect. After a few days I was again able to get up to use the bathroom and shower.

Interestingly, most of my memories are wonderful and fond. I was visited every day. My husband came every day. My mother came several times a week. Our small group friends came frequently - our small group leader is a surgeon so he would visit me almost every morning when he was there to do his rounds. His wife was wonderful to visit often as well. Folks brought me food from outside. I watched a lot of TV, read some, slept a lot.

Beau and I celebrated our first anniversary (New Year's Eve) in Labor & Delivery - I experience my third bleeding that night and we spent 36 scary and uncomfortable hours in L&D. The nurses there were great though. They were cheerful and encouraging and very much doing everything they could to ensure that my baby did not arrive early. I am grateful for their hard work that night. Things settled down and I was sent back to the high risk pregnancy unit to continue my extended stay.

Two more weeks passed. I was now 36 weeks. My docs wanted to get to at least 34 weeks and we had done it. Now they were hoping I could get to 37 weeks. But alas, 36 was the magic number.

It was a Sunday night. Beau and I had watched the Redskins play in a playoff game that evening. I dozed off to sleep, but awoke at about 1am because I was bleeding. And this time it was scary bleeding.

Thinking back on it, it all reminds me of an ER episode. I pressed the call button, telling the nurse I was bleeding. Seconds later 2 nurses came in, took one look and called for reinforcements. I heard one say they were calling my doctor right away. I knew this was it and asked for the phone so that I could call Beau. I can't remember if I called my mom or if he did. The rest is sort of a blur but about 90 minutes passed.

Next thing I remember is being wheeled into the OR and being prepped for the c-section. Beau came in. People were bustling about. My doctor arrived (she was about 5 months pregnant at that time, too. Bless her.) Things had sort of been quiet, so I asked Beau, "Have they started yet?" There was laughter from several people and the nurse at my head said, "Honey, they started about 10 minutes ago. Your baby is about to be pulled out!" Beau looked green and laughed in disbelief - he's a bit squeamish and as he tells it there was a lot of blood where the doctor was working.

Then she pulled out our baby. "It's a boy!" she confirmed what we already knew. The nurses bundled our preemie to the scale and then there were more chuckles. He was a large preemie at 7lb 5 oz. He was 19" long. And we was born right on the dot of 3am on January 16, 2007.

Happy birthday my precious boy. Thank you for the joy, giggles, kisses, and hugs you gift us with every day. Every moment of every day I am grateful that God chose to gift us with you. I love you.

Happy New Year

I can't believe I didn't post a single thing in December. That's just crazy.

I fear that blogging will not happen as much in 2012 either. There are just too many other things that are more important, although Facebook gets plenty of play.

Anyway, I hope you all had lovely Christmasses or Hannukah or Festivuses.

And happy new year!

Happy Thanksgiving

We Live!

Snippets:

1. The end of the fiscal year looked like it was going to be easy and then things got nuts in the last week.

2. I have been crafty at home due to Pinterest driven inspiration. Made so far: fabric embroidery hoops, ceramic tile coasters, canvas/printed art. Also, I finally hung a grouping on the wall in our main stairs that included several cross-stitch samplers that my grandmother did and an old art print that Beau picked up in Spain. It looks good.

3. I have cooked a lot of good food, also from Pinterest. I'll post more of that in a bit.

4. My mother had her birthday and I cooked dinner and baked my pumpkin cake for her.

5. My kids got cuter by the day. My husband got better, too. I love my family to pieces and I'm so grateful for them.

6. We received some furniture I inherited from my grandparents - it's in the master bedroom and the receiving of it required the giving over of the beloved furniture that we had been using that I got from my great-grandmother back in the 1990s. My mother is "storing" that furniture for us - I want it back one day for Molly's room when she's ready for the larger pieces.

I'm sure more stuff happened, but those are the big things. Life is good.

Monday Random

1. Jesse's first soccer game of the fall season was Saturday. What a difference 6 months and a good coach makes. The team actually looked like they sort of knew what they're doing and Jesse scored a goal! It was a fun morning.

2. We had Chick-Fil-A for lunch post-game. Man, I love that place.

3. Pumpkin Spice Chai is my new fall go-to on the commute. So yummy. Brew with half milk/half water for 10 minutes on low-medium heat. Strain into your mug and you have lovely deliciousness.

I have nothing much else to share. God is good, therefore, life is good.

Ten

"Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve. " President George W. Bush, September 11, 2001

Remembering ...

The Busy

It's the end of the fiscal year, which means it busy at work. Although things have slowed down this week. I think we may be done spending money.

I took Friday off to get my hair cut. I think it had been 6 months since my last professional cut. I had cut my bangs 4 times in that time. She took 2.5" off of the length and layers. So much better; it was approaching Hermione Grainger for unruliness.

I then put on my crafter's hat for the weekend and created some small art pieces to finish a gallery of stuff for our stairwell. I had a nice collection of my grandmother's needlework and a nice art print that Beau bought in Spain back in his single years. Anyway, it was a nice little bit of creativity and realized inspiration.

My mother and I are working on a collaboration. More on that in the weeks and months to come. There are some details to work out still, but we think it'll be fun.

And that's about it. I don't have much else to say.

Shake, Rattle, and Roll

Old news now, but we had the excitement of an earthquake yesterday. Centered in Mineral, Virginia, it rumbled through at about 1:50pm and measured 5.8 on the Richter scale.

I was at work, of course. My office location is about 80 miles northeast of the Mineral. Weirdly, at first we thought maybe a tornado was going through because the rafters in the open second story of our building were shaking. Then we felt it in our feet and legs. Before I recognized it as an earthquake, we were running to get out of the building - our thoughts were that the roof could cave in. But it turns out that we should have stayed inside, under our desks. I knew that, but it had been so long since I had experienced an earthquake like this one.

When I went back inside after a minute or so, I called Beau to see if he and the kids felt it. They had. He told me later that while he knew what to do because of his childhood in California, he was more scared and flummoxed about it because of his responsibility as Dad. He kind of forgot the training he had in his concern for the kids - Molly was napping upstairs and he had Jesse with him. He was torn about what to do with both of them being in two places.

In any case, a friend at work and I strategized what we would do in certain disaster events (tornado, earthquake, etc). And Beau and I discussed what we should do at home, too.

Now we prepare for the effects of hurricane Irene. Just lots of rain for us, fortunately. Praying for safety for my friends and family in the eye of that storm.

Pinspiration

I have been spending a lot of my internet time perusing and pinning at Pinterest.com. There is so much cool stuff, from home decorating ideas, to recipes, to pictures and tutorials for hair-dos and nails.

I have printed a lot of recipes and tried a few of them.

I found a DIY idea this morning that I was able to implement right away (take a produce tiered hanging basket and hang it in the bath/shower for the kids' tub toys). I had one of those things in the basement not being used. I immediately grabbed it and took it upstairs to hang in the kids' bath. Perfect. Genius.

I feel like an idiot when I look around that site, too. I see great ideas for keeping kids occupied in restaurants (use the cutlery to form a tic-tac-toe grid and then use the sugar/sweetener packets to play the game).

Anyway, my head is swirling with projects that I'd love to do for and around our home, recipes that I'd love to cook, things I'd love to learn to make. Where to start?

Snap Movie Review: The Help

Usually a movie adaptation of a beloved novel is disappointing (I'm looking at you, Simon Birch). But then there are the adaptations that almost (ALMOST) surpass the brillance of the novel (I'm looking at you with adoring eyes, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy).

So where does The Help movie fit? It's solidly in the LOVE category. I love everything about the movie - even the little changes from the book.

The casting is nearly perfect. Emma Stone does a great job as Skeeter. Viola Davis is sublime as Aibileen and if you ask me, she deserves an Oscar for her performance. Octavia Spencer as Minny is perfection (she narrated that character for the audiobook, to perfection as well - she IS Minny) and she should receive a nomination, too. Bryce Dallas Howard as Hilly was solid - I've read that she was the weakest cast member and I can see where they think that, but I thought she played her well. Sissy Spacek as Hilly's mother is great (hilarious) and Alison Janney as Skeeter's mother is great, too. The weakest were the men, but this movie was not about the men.

The one actor that I expect to actually get a nomination is Cicely Tyson as Constantine. She was in just two scenes, but both were so powerful, emotional. Both scenes brought me to tears. But Constantine made me cry when I read the book, too.

If you loved The Help book, have no fear of the movie. It's a very faithful adaption that will be as beloved by fans of the story.

I give The Help 5 stars out of 5.