On Pins and Needles

--We are waiting to hear about the house. We put in an offer three weeks ago, which the seller accepted but unfortunately, it is subject to a short sale (more is owed on the house than the asking price and the creditor must accept the loss). Not one but two creditors. Even more unfortunately, the second creditor sent the offer to the wrong department, which means they could reject the offer thinking that they are not trying to mitigate the loss but recapture everything.

--My hives are back -- gee do we think this is stress related. My doctor gave me a cream this time, which isn't really helping. And it's worse when my skin is in contact with something. Like a bed, or more commonly, my children. Sigh.

--I need to make a quilt for my clerk who is retiring at the end of the month. So far I'm still at the cutting stage. Can I make it in time? I'm still waiting on fabric I ordered too. Yikes.

I itch, therefore I feel a bit grumbly

Well the shrimp was lovely. Chas and Angie decided to have a treat so shrimp it was. Very tasty, prepared all sorts of ways, each just as yummy as the other.

That was Friday night, following a seminar at which I was a main speaker.

Saturday Morning I woke up, drove to some errands, glanced at my arms and noticed red bumps appearing.

Sigh.

Got worse, took the generic benadryl we have and felt slightly better.

Sunday, still red and itchy. Drove to see lots of homes with a realtor (More about that later). In and out of houses and the car. Hot, red and itchy. Arrived home, desperate for more benadryl, discover that our package expired in September of last year! (And our calamine lotion expired in 2005).

Today, go to work. Heavy docket. Red and itchy. Somewhat grumpy.

Call doctor. Make an appointment for the end of the day. The Doctor says, "So was that shrimp good? Are you done with Shrimp now?" She decides that the best course of action is a shot. In my posterior. The nurse makes me stay after for a bit to make sure there are no cross reactions. I reassure him and wander home. I also take one of the Claritin samples, but don't take two as recommended by the Dr. because I'm worried about side effects--but really do I want know exactly how much more red, itchy and swollen I could get?

I am now itchy, blotchy, grumpy and red. I don't think the edge has been taken off. The shot takes 24 hours to really kick in. Can't stitch. Want to stitch. Can't focus enough to stitch. I hope the treatment works, because this is excruciating.

Darn, delicious, delectable shrimp.

Nary a February Unscathed

My husband has always hated February. Unpleasant stuff just seems to happen in that month. I'm sure other families have a particularly bad month, ours is February.

Warning--this post is not for the faint of stomach.

Last week Angie announced that her ear hurt--one trip to the doctor later we have an ear infection and pink antibiotics
Friday night, I look at Kian and see yellow goop in his eyes--one trip to the doctor later, we have pink eye and eye drops that Kian does not enjoy.
Saturday Morning (wee tiny early hours) Kian awakens vomiting, then hourly for the next several hours. One call to the nurse hotline and we are reassured that a trip to urgent care is not necessary. There is a nasty g-i bug rambling around. We're told it will get worse when the intestinal part kicks in. Oh and by the way, it is "highly contagious." Dandy.
I will not describe Sunday to you, except to say that Mommy and Kian had many clothing changes throughout the day. Sigh. The other thing I will tell you is that giving a child small sips of breastmilk directly from the source is very, very tricky. And regularly results in one very perturbed and expressive child.
Monday, Angie appears fine so she goes to school. I am weak from the nearly 24 hour care of Kian and feel the twinges of something g-i-ish so I stay home. Angie comes home from school pale, goes for a nap, and vomits over a large portion of her bed.
Monday night/wee early Tuesday morning, it is now my turn to join in the family fun. By daylight, I am so weak that I need to ask Chas to bring me things as I float in and out of consciousness.
Wednesday, still weak and having consumed no solid food, Angie and I remain home from school and work.

I will attempt to go to work tomorrow; we'll see if I am successful.

I was doing well on the quilt until we were hit with the various illnesses. I thought it wise to stop amidst the raging fluids though. Hopefully, I can get back on track this weekend. I couldn't bear it if I didn't get Angie's Class project finished in time.

In other news, I looked at a house this weekend. It is in our price range, but needs a lot of work. Realistically, everything in our price range will need work or is in not such a great neighborhood. I'll take work over not such a great neighborhood. I think Chas would like to hold out for little to no work and nice neighborhood because, as he reminds me, we just aren't that handy. The house has some quirks (like an attached garage that has no entrance into the home?????) and we would definitely need a home inspection. But it is full of possibility and may be a good chance for us to get a home this year.

Stay tuned and keep your fingers crossed. We need a lot of things to fall into place for this to happen. And February just isn't our month.

You MUST Be Kidding!

Thanks for the kind words in your comments to the previous post. I apologize now for the crabbiness about to assail you.

So we get up to get ready for school and work today. I go into the bathroom with Angie for teethbrushing time. I glance at her as I'm grabbing the toothpaste and I do a quick double take.

"Angie, could you look up at me?"

Little face turns up at me, squinting. One eye is normal, the other eyelid is swollen and pink, the eye bloodshot. There is goo under the eye.

Insert me mentally cursing.

I go discreetly to my husband and whisper, "I think Angie has pink eye, you need to look at her."

He gives me this look as if saying, "Foolish woman, you are overreacting."

He loads Angie into the car and they go to school while I head to work, ruminating over the symptoms.

I double check pink eye symptoms at work and call Chas immediately. I tell him he needs to call the Doctor and the school. He is frustrated because it is 8:23 a.m., he hasn't even arrived home yet.

He calls me later to say that he had someone at the school look at her. They took poor Angie into the hallway and agreed that it looked like pink eye. Chas told the he'd be back out to pick her up, then he called the Doctor.

The Doctor confirms the pink eye and waffles on prescribing drops for the eye since she was already on antibiotics. In the end, he gives Chas the prescription, just to be safe.

Chas loses the prescription on the way to the pharmacy. Apparently, he put both kids in the car and closed the doors while he stood outside next to the car swaering profusely.

Back to the Doctor's Office at their lunchtime to get the prescription agian.

By the time I arrive home, both eyes are infected.

Sigh.

I know full well that worse things could happen, but seriously, enough. I just want everyone in my little family to be healthy again.

Angie is Child of the Week next week which means we have to plan a week of show an tell and she has to do a short presentation on an animal.

Don't mind me. I'll just be sitting in a corner running my fingers over my lips going, "bibbilty, bibbilty, bibbilty."

Slowly Emerging from the House of Yuck

In my last post, I indicated that some illnesses in our home slowed my stitching last month. I believe that I failed entirely to mention that I felt terrible and was definitely coming down with something. And I did not specify that both kids were sick. Angie spiked a high fever one night, but recovered after a day of rest at home. Kian was unlike himself and was unbelievably grumpy--or perhaps because he is normally so chipper, his general crabiness seemed worse than it was. We went to the Doctor and were told that although he had fluid in his ears, he had no infection therefore no medication was necessary. We just needed to keep a close eye on him. That led to working short days while I drove Angie to and from school--two hours of driving each day. It was exhausting and I became worse.

Kian seemed to recover and even began giggling again. After waiting a week, I went to my Doctor and was put on an antibiotic. That night Chas turned to me and said, "I've noticed that Kian is poking at his ears. What do you think we should do?" So we have another trip to the Doctor to learn that Kian has infections in both ears. Antibiotics, twice a day is the plan.

Over the weekend, my course of antibiotics ends, and though I feel less foggy, I'm definitely not cured. I become more ill and have trouble breathing at night. Kian despises his antibiotics and fight diaper changes as his poor bottom turms bright red. Then Chas turns to me again and says, I don't feel well. What were your symptoms?"

On Monday I stay home from work and place several calls to my Doctor to get another antibiotic. After the second call, the receptionist tells me that the order will be ready at the pharmacy between 2:30 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. Chas and Angie, who is the only healthy person in the house, trek out to the pharmacy. No prescription. The pharmacy calls the Doctor and we learn that she has not even seen my message from 10:30 a.m. During my next chat with the receptionist, I am told that it should be soon, but her phones are cut off at 4:30 p.m. so she won't be available to help after that.

I finally hear from the nurse who informs me that "The Doctor will be calling in the prescription and oh by the way are you breastfeeding?" Yes. "Well you can't breastfeed while on this antibiotic so you'll need to pump and dump for the next ten days."

I almost cry.

Then I ask if there is anything else I can take because he is sick too and I'd like him to have the immunological benefits of breastfeeding in addition to his antibiotics. She tells me that he is probably getting my illness through the breastmilk and hints that I should stop for the duration. My husband is reminding me that we have plenty of frozen breastmilk so we wouldn't need to put him on formula.

I stand my ground, because while the young nurse (who has obviously never had to pump and dump around her own sick infant and who probably doesn't have kids yet) clearly thinks it's no big deal to pump and dump, I can imagine the horrors that await me if I have to push Kian, in need of milk and comfort, away for ten long days. Not to mention how uncomfortable pumping all day for ten days would be.

The nurse promises to check with the Doctor after she finishes with her patient. 4:30 p.m. comes and goes--we hear nothing. Dear Chas is annoyed. I'm searching KellyMom (bless them) and the LactMed Database for info on breastfeeding compatible antibiotics (and I'm horrified at the side effects of the proposed antibiotic--Psychosis? Hallucinations? Suicidal thoughts? I don't want to take it even if I'm not breastfeeding).

At 5:00 p.m. Chas has me call and I get the most unhelpful answering service for a Doctor ever. Apparently, I'm out of luck and they are gone for the day.

5:30 p.m. arrives with a call from the nurse, I propose an antibiotic, which is rejected, but a prescription for a breastfeeding friendly antibiotic will be called in immediately. We eat dinner quickly and Chas and Angie venture out once more.

I feel yucky, but vaguely victorious.

Chas decides to go to the Doctor the next day, so I stay home until lunchtime. Chas now has his own antibiotics, or he will when goes to another pharmacy later as I received the last of the antibiotics the previous night. Concerned about the kids (I saw Angie pulling at her ear before school and Kian's bottom is scarlet and painful to the touch) I call their doctor before I leave. We are to watch Angie, but bring Kian in. I go to work and call Chas later. Kian's ears are not much better, and certainly not enough to justify what the antibiotic is doing to his diaper region. So we get a new antibiotic (thankfully a smaller dose once a day) and a prescription for butt paste (nystatin, Aquaphor and minty Maalox).

Yes three of us are now on antibiotics but at least Angie stopped pulling on her ears and seems well.

Did I mention through this last week, I'm the hotline Magistrate who is on call 24hours a day, seven days a week? Or that the house is a disaster and Chas's parents will be arriving on Saturday?

Slowly, the antibiotics start working, the house is presentable and we're feeling human by Saturday. Yay family.

Sunday night, I'm thinking to myself that at least Angie is okay and we'll all be better soon.

At 3:00 a.m. today Angie wakes me tearfully to say that her ear hurts. We go to the Doctor today. Angie has an ear infection. Sigh. We have lunch with Chas's parents before they leave then we go fill yet another antibiotic prescription (if you're counting, we're up to six antibiotics since February commenced).

I have surfed the net to learn that Nicki and Janet both gave me an award. Thanks ladies--that was a sweet surprise. I'll post my favorite blogs later.

I've been slowly stiching Angie's Tooth Fairy pillow and hope to finish it by the end of the month. I put a few stitches in my HAED Challenge piece, but all other stitching has suffered greatly. I am inspired to stitch Paradigm Lost over one after seeing Nicki's The Token framed. I think I have just the fabric....

I hope February has been gentler to you.

Come on March!

End of the Month Update

Just brief bits from me:

I've been sick this week so no posting and very little stitching. Midi is not done, nor is Amethyst. Bummer. I did stitch two ornaments but I'm just not up to scanning or tinkering with photos (heck I can barely spell "photos" at the moment). I don't think I'll be able to stitch anything for the Holiday Bazaar which is next Thursday unless I have a remarkable recovery in the next twenty four hours.

I did make some progress on Taj ( can I tell you how much I love Taj? Such beautiful colors and I love my fabric) and on the Christmas Mandala (hate the gates, hate the plain white fabric I'm using but I just want this one done) so I'm glad I did the Chatelaine SAL. I might see if anyone wants to join me at the end of December for another week long SAL.

My computer is really misbehaving so if you don't hear from me for even longer, you'll know this antique I use for internet is not cooperating.

In happy news:

My dear friend Cathy gave birth to the handsome, squeaky Myles. Yay!

And from our household: Kian had the "watershed" Cardiology appointment today (Doctor's words not mine). He had both an ECG and an ultrasound/echo thing (very cool--the ultrasound technician let me breastfeed him during the ultrasound to keep him calm. She told me that she had breastfed too and so she understood.) He is basically at the same level as he was immediately following surgery! At this stage, if things start to go wrong, it will most likely be a gradual change that we can detect by our monitoring appointments, instead of the rapid changes immediately after he was born. We will always need to monitor him, but for now, she is very pleased. We are overjoyed.

And from the crazy me file:

Because I am such a good wife, I'm allowing to go on the trip to see his friend this weekend (which was originally planned as a family trip to see his friend's family). I, in my current unhealthy state, will be staying behind with the kids. Heaven help me. I honestly don't know how hubby is going to make this one up to me.

That's it for now--I'm bone tired and need to brace myself for the coming weekend.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

The Baby Info and Other Things

We have told all the family at this point. At least I'm assuming that my mom couldn't contain herself and told my brothers.

It appears that we are having a boy, unless, as I told a friend, that was the umbilical cord we saw at the ultrasound in December. The professionals seemed certain that it was a boy, and I do think the 3D ultrasound looks like a boy, so it is probably a boy. Let me tell you, it was far easier to see Angie's gender at the ultrasound than it was for this little boy. If we are all wrong, Chas and I will be in trouble as we have only selected a name for a boy.

Thanks to everyone with suggestions. I will actually post them all at the website just so that you can see how many names were proposed. In the end we have settled on:

Kian Derek

Kian is pronounced: Key-en. The emphasis is on the first syllable.I have received one positive response from a non-relative (the lady who works with me at Court), while the other mommies at Gymboree were politely underwhelmed ("Oh"). Both names actually stuck for a little more than a month, which is longer than anything else did. Both names are not in the top 100 at the SSA, which is important to us because it can be tedious to be share names with seven other kids in the same class. The names fit my syllable rule for our baby names (same number of syllables in the first two names as in the last two). I also love the meanings of the names and how they work together: Kian means "enduring" and Derek is a "wise ruler/leader." I'm a little disappointed that I won't have a great story to tell Kian about the person for whom he is named, unlike Angie. At best I will simply say, "Because Mommy didn't want to name you Zaphod." However, Chas, his Dad and Uncle Rick have all indicated they will still call this child "Zaphod" anyway. Sigh.

In other news, Angie is sick. As in woke me at 1:30 this morning with fever of roughly 104 sick. She and I were up for a while and finally returned to sleep at 4:00 a.m. only to re-awaken at 7:30 a.m. She has been napping off and on all day. She is very chipper for being sick and her temperature has been down a few degrees (102 give or take a degree depending on the time) most of the day. We're just keeping her hydrated as much as possible and watching her carefully. The Doctor's Office said this is going around. Lucky us.

I'm feeling a bit unwell myself, but since I think I forgot to take some of my asthma medication last night, it's no surprise that I'm feeling poorly.

Obviously I've switched to the new blogger, but playing with it will have to wait until we're all healthy again.

Some Stitching and Some Worries

In stitching news, I've almost completed all the cross stitching on Midi. Next week I hope to finish it so that I can switch to MX and Snow Crystal. I still think I'm on target to finish Midi before April.

I received some supplies to finish GTK and JG so hopefully they will be done by the end of the year. I missed getting the finishing kit for GTK so I will be assembling my own. I still need to get the silk dupioni, but I received some lovely mother of pearl thread rings which will look beautiful in the book. I've also received the chart for three dimensional beading, which I intend to use to create my own grapes rather than using a piece of jewelry. For JG, I received 12 yards of Gloriana silk in India Ink. It seems to be the right shade of black for the crane medallions. I've tested it and love how it looks.

This weekend is the HAED SAL, so I am working on my mystery project. I finished a few more 10 by 10 squares today (absolutely no stitching yesterday). However, there is no possible way for me to finish the first page of the chart this month. Sigh.

In the worry news, I have been feeling lightheaded lately, to the point where I must lay down in the evenings. And today I had some very light bleeding. Not great, but I did speak directly with my Doctor today. He doesn't think there is anything to worry about yet, and he believes that it is okay to wait until my appointment on Thursday. It's stopped for now, but if it happens again, he wants me to call him immediately of course.

I can't help but worry. The baby seems to be moving less frequently, but maybe that is just my imagination. It may be a very lonnnnnng week for me.

Wow! That is COLD!

We are in the below zero range (Fahrenheit--I don't know what that is in Celsius) and have been for several days. I haven't left the house since Friday night. I called off work today because cold weather is hard on my asthma, sub-zero temperatures are brutal. There were over 600 schools closed in Northeastern Ohio today. I'm not sure what the count is for tomorrow. My intention is to go into work anyway.

And since I keep forgetting to respond to Nicki's question about my inhaler: they have come up with one that does not use CFC's, but it is a matter of what my insurance company will cover right now. I suppose they won't have a choice soon.

Angie has been sick since Friday night. She still sounds terrible, but her mood is better. She is a little pale and her eyes are red rimmed, but I think she is on the mend. We had a nice day together, cuddling on the couch and assembling puzzles. She was missing her Dad by bathtime so he had to "rescue" her from the tub.

I received some stitching supplies in the mail today: The ECC Bead Collectors Club February shipment, some backordered things from Stitching Bits and Bobs and an order from ABC Stitchery. Some things are still en route, but it was great to get three packages in one day. When not playing with Angie, I ogled my new ornament charts (and the TW Best of Christmas Book), some small cuts of fabric, the beads, and some deeply discounted Stranded by the Sea (which I love and wish I had more of them) and some also deeply discounted Six Strand Sweets (which are nice although I don't go for a lot of pastels). It was quite fun to play with the beads.

I stitched very little this weekend since Angie needed lots of cuddle time. I did manage to finish the dress on Midi and the lady's skin. The dress is gorgeous even if I do say so myself. I am well on track to finishing all the cross stitching on Midi soon. I'm itching to get to the beads and special stitches.

Have Needles, Will Stitch.

I am ready for the Ornament SAL tomorrow. I've grabbed a pack of needles, pulled the silks and fabric and selected the chart. Now I just need to wait patiently for lunchtime tomorrow so that I can start.

Today I received the Dinky Dyes LE Winter Pack! It is beautiful. I couldn't capture the color of the fabric properly (it's more of a lighter, sparklier blue), but the silks and cottons are close. I love #12 perle and my pack included a skein of Mulberry Ice in #12 perle. Happy Day!



In other, non-stitching, news: My glucose test from Saturday indicates there may be a problem, so I have to take the 3 hour test this Saturday. They were so wonderful and accommodated me because they don't normally do the long test on Saturdays (they are only open for a few hours). I explained that I don't have enough leave to cover maternity leave and they were kind enough to squeeze me in so I can save those precious four hours for the baby.

So Saturday, I will wake up early, get poked, drink more super sugary, fizzy, orange goo, wait an hour, get poked, wait another hour, get poked, and wait yet another hour and get poked again. Fun. I'll be taking some ornaments to stitch of course. With the sugar high, the lack of food, and the constant blood drawing, they will be very simple ornaments.