Secular Confessions

[3andMe]

I think there are regulations about the number of people in hotel rooms.

(Christine???) I am SO bad at names! NEVER been to the zoo????? What? I can say there was a long period of time I didn't go, but now I have a family membership. It's nice to be able to zip on over if I have a free couple of hours. Kids love animals, and now baby S. is getting really interested in them so it's nice to be able to go. Since it's close by and we have a membership, we don't feel obligated to go through the whole thing every time. We can just go to the big animals, or the children's area, or hang out with the meerkats or watch the leafcutter ants for a while and then go home. We went last weekend and baby S. saw the giraffes and started screeching with glee. And the tortoises were mating and making these really loud sounds that could be heard all the way over to the chimp area. My sister will never go with us, though, and neither will my dad, because they both have really strong feelings about caged animals.

I'm having a bad day. So is baby S. I have spent the past two hours trying to get him to nap. He was crying pretty much the whole time, interspersed with shrieks, and I was bent over his crib, patting him and rocking him and singing to him the whole time, except for brief forays out to the living room to give the twins more lunch and to remind them to be quiet. S. almost fell asleep a number of times, and each time was awakened, either by a twin bursting into the room (GRRRR!) chasing a wayward ball or by a coughing fit (he's sick) or by sheer contrariness. I came out and scolded the twins for being noisy and told them to sit on the couch and be quiet. In the end, after two hours of crying by S. and culminating in crying by me, I finally picked him up and brought him out to the living room. No nap for him, and I have no idea when or how I'm going to get all the chores done that I can usually only do during his naptime.

DD saw me crying and came over and gave me a big sloppy kiss and a hug and told me she hoped I would feel better. She is so sweet. But man, I feel like crap, and my back is killing me from leaning over the crib for two hours, and I know I'm going to do the same thing this evening, and I'm predicting more crying because of the no nap and being sick.

[missychrissy]

Is it weird that I'm excited cause its challenging

No, that's great!!

DD saw me crying and came over and gave me a big sloppy kiss and a hug and told me she hoped I would feel better. She is so sweet. But man, I feel like crap, and my back is killing me from leaning over the crib for two hours, and I know I'm going to do the same thing this evening, and I'm predicting more crying because of the no nap and being sick.

Awww L, bless her heart and for you. I hope you have a surprisingly easy time tonight.

[3andMe]

Oh, something funny did happen last night, though. I came out after putting S. to bed and there were a bunch of balloons in the living room, saying "Congratulations!" and "It's a GIRL!" I turned to dh and said, "Honey, can I ask you a personal question? Is there something... or someONE I don't know about?"

He laughed and said there was a baby shower at work and the woman sent home extra balloons with everyone who had kids.

[3andMe]

That sounds fun, Bridget!

I'm taking the boys with me in to town to buy Cash a birthday cake. He turns one on Friday!

Happy birthday to Cash! Are you doing a party?

[missychrissy]

Oh, something funny did happen last night, though. I came out after putting S. to bed and there were a bunch of balloons in the living room, saying "Congratulations!" and "It's a GIRL!" I turned to dh and said, "Honey, can I ask you a personal question? Is there something... or someONE I don't know about?"

He laughed and said there was a baby shower at work and the woman sent home extra balloons with everyone who had kids.

I'm having such a hard time keeping up! Bridget-I hope your day at the zoo was great!

Happy Birthday a little early to Cash. I cannot believe he's a year already!

[Gwenn]

I'm back from my HSG. The procedure went without a hitch and the doctor said everything looked great! So we're just waiting for DH's repeat s/a and then we'll know for sure what our plan is.

I did cramp a lot, though, and I got motion sick in the car on the way home and was afraid I was going to throw up. The radiology place was really far from my house, too, so it was a 45 minute drive with me trying not to throw up and cramping a lot. Got home and took a nap, and woke up a little while ago feeling hung over from the valium and still a little crampy. Not a ton of fun, but I'm glad to know for sure everything is okay.

My new eval partner, G, told me to stay home tomorrow if I was still crampy. I don't think she'd mind a bit if we had to reschedule our evals! I don't think that will be necessary, but I like that she said that. We'll see how it goes.

L, that's hilarious about the balloons!

Happy almost birthday to Cash!

[Bridget]

I'm so glad the appt went well!
Lydia, you and dh are so witty in your conversations! I asked dbf last nightt if the bromance fizzled out because his buddy who comes over every stinking day didn't show up for a couple. He laughed pretty hard when I said that and I felt witty. I love being successfully funny.
The zoo was fantastic. Dbf came with us which surprised me. When I asked earlier this week he said something like, "I might be able to do that." I told him I wasn't asking him as a favor but that I was inviting him to join us. Then i didn't mention it again and he was all for it. We had such a pleasant day. It's days like today that I think sometimes he must be listening. He was very patient and selfless with the children. Often our outing revolve around when he is tired or when he is hungry, tired, bored. Today he did good.

[Gwenn]

I'm so glad the appt went well!
Lydia, you and dh are so witty in your conversations! I asked dbf last nightt if the bromance fizzled out because his buddy who comes over every stinking day didn't show up for a couple. He laughed pretty hard when I said that and I felt witty. I love being successfully funny.
The zoo was fantastic. Dbf came with us which surprised me. When I asked earlier this week he said something like, "I might be able to do that." I told him I wasn't asking him as a favor but that I was inviting him to join us. Then i didn't mention it again and he was all for it. We had such a pleasant day. It's days like today that I think sometimes he must be listening. He was very patient and selfless with the children. Often our outing revolve around when he is tired or when he is hungry, tired, bored. Today he did good.

Great news about your outing! And the bolded was definitely successfully funny.

[daylilies]

So, today Josh asked what his testicles were. Actually, what he said was, "What are these bumps down here?" I said they're testicles and he said "What are tes-ti-cles for?" I told him there were seeds in there to help him make a baby with a lady someday. :shrug: He seemed content with that.

[Cosmosmom]

Gwen, glad to hear it went pretty well! I thought that might be where you were when you said you were on valium. Have you heard anything about the blood draw yet?

Bridget, what a fantastic day that sounds like! I like trying to be funny but really DH is the funny one. He makes me laugh pretty much every day. I wish that he wasn't so shy and introverted because people just don't know that side of him except the select few....and when they finally see that side of him, they are shocked at how funny he can be.

kate, that sounds like a perfect explanation!

[Gwenn]

Gwen, glad to hear it went pretty well! I thought that might be where you were when you said you were on valium. Have you heard anything about the blood draw yet?

Yes, I got the lab results today by phone as well. My folate is low, which doesn't surprise me (folic acid is recommended as treatment for MTHFR) and also my TSH was high indicating mild hypothyroid. My mom and sister both have hypothyroid, so I wasn't too surprised to hear it. I'm supposed to take 3mg of folic acid daily including what is in my prenatal, and I could swear the nurse who called me said they wanted a re-check of my TSH in 6 months or immediately on pregnancy.

Oddly, on the way to the radiology office we stopped to pick up my abx (I'm supposed to take them to prevent any infection from the dye and DH has to take them, too) and when I gave her my name, she had a bag with two prescriptions. The first was folic acid (which I picked up an identical prescription last week so I don't know why there was another one) and the second was thyroid medication. I'm totally confused, because the nurse didn't tell me I was supposed to take thyroid meds. I told her I was there to pick up the abx and she had to go looking and found them in another bag. I didn't purchase the other two yet - I want to call the doctor's office and find out what was going on with that.

Any info you ladies have to share about hypothyroid and fertility and pregnancy is welcome - really I don't know much about that. Might explain why I've been feeling sluggish and depressed recently - actually both that and the folic acid I suspect.

[Smplyme89]

Awww I missed that Cash's birthday is coming up!

L, we didn't exactly do very many "family" outings growing up. My mom was always working and my dad doesn't do people, crowds, or fun I've already looked into annual passes for when N gets a little bit bigger (as in walk ) DH and I are looking forward to it

Bridget I am glad you, DH and the kids had a good time at the zoo!

Kate that is hilarious! I think you did a great job of explaining it!

Jennifer your DH sounds alot like mine. He is SO funny, but incredibly.... shy?? I dont really know how to explain it. He's insecure in some ways and not so much in others... He is a complex man, but anyway my point was he is SO funny as well just never lets it show!

Gwen I am glad to hear the HSG was clear! That is awesome news I have no experience with hypothyroid and fertility, sorry

Did I forget anyone

[Cosmosmom]

Yes, I got the lab results today by phone as well. My folate is low, which doesn't surprise me (folic acid is recommended as treatment for MTHFR) and also my TSH was high indicating mild hypothyroid. My mom and sister both have hypothyroid, so I wasn't too surprised to hear it. I'm supposed to take 3mg of folic acid daily including what is in my prenatal, and I could swear the nurse who called me said they wanted a re-check of my TSH in 6 months or immediately on pregnancy.

Oddly, on the way to the radiology office we stopped to pick up my abx (I'm supposed to take them to prevent any infection from the dye and DH has to take them, too) and when I gave her my name, she had a bag with two prescriptions. The first was folic acid (which I picked up an identical prescription last week so I don't know why there was another one) and the second was thyroid medication. I'm totally confused, because the nurse didn't tell me I was supposed to take thyroid meds. I told her I was there to pick up the abx and she had to go looking and found them in another bag. I didn't purchase the other two yet - I want to call the doctor's office and find out what was going on with that.

Any info you ladies have to share about hypothyroid and fertility and pregnancy is welcome - really I don't know much about that. Might explain why I've been feeling sluggish and depressed recently - actually both that and the folic acid I suspect.

Yeah I can. I have hypothyroidism and have taken pills since I was maybe 21ish. I was really concerned about it and did a ton of research on it when I still thought I would end up pg. It's vital to have good thyroid levels for pg and it's a good thing that they want you on meds. Too often a TSH is considered "normal" but really isn't normal enough to support a pregnancy. Too high a TSH and you either won't get pg, if you do you have a high risk of miscarriage or if you don't, being hypothyroid while pg is associated with a lower IQ in the child. With meds correcting you to good levels, all those things above go away. They will definitely want to recheck your levels at least once a trimester because pg hormones can affect levels.

Do you know what your TSH was? Ideal for pg should be between 1-2. And you should be having the first recheck in 6 weeks. Once stable, you generally only need to be rechecked once a year except of course when you get pg.

the prophylactic antibiotics is pretty standard for both in a couple.

Oh and one thing to do is take the thyroid alone....other pills can affect absorption. It's best on empty stomach but if you are going to take it with food, you should always take with food. I take mine when I first get up and I do eat within 20-30 minutes. The rest of my vitamins and such I take at night.

Folic acid is easy enough to take. So it sounds really good that the rest of the labs came out ok....the two that were low are ones that it's easy to do something about.

[Gwenn]

Okay, that makes sense. She gave me a LOT of information by phone and I don't do well with streams of auditory information by phone. I'm better when I'm face to face or can read information like that - I actually asked her if she could email me all the info and she said she'd mail it to me. Don't know why that can't email lab results as a follow up to a phone call, wouldn't that make sense?

Anyway, I think she said my TSH was 3.something - 3.4 maybe? Not certain - I meant to write it down but she was saying so much I couldn't write and listen.

I did think she said 6 months but maybe she did say 6 weeks. Hopefully the doctor will clarify.

Thanks for your help.

[AmeriBrit]

Happy birthday to Cash! Are you doing a party?

Thanks, L. No, no party. Just a little catepillar cake and the immediate family over for coffee and cake/ice cream tomorrow evening. I will hang up decorations, though. Just no official party and all that jazz.

My new eval partner, G, told me to stay home tomorrow if I was still crampy.

I've only had about 3 hours sleep and I read taht as "evil" partner. I chuckled. And then re-read it.

So, today Josh asked what his testicles were. Actually, what he said was, "What are these bumps down here?" I said they're testicles and he said "What are tes-ti-cles for?" I told him there were seeds in there to help him make a baby with a lady someday. :shrug: He seemed content with that.

That's a pretty good explanation....I cringe when I think of those kind of questions....I just hope I can answer things correctly.

I went to a Pampered Chef party last night that my best friend was hosting. We had a fun night. She's the only other expat who is a southerner like me, so we clicked from the first time we met 8 years ago. I didn't get home til after 11pm and at 11:30, Cash was up crying. He then got up at 12:30 and then 3:00 and then up for the day at 6:00. I am so tired. It's nights like that where I think 'yep, 2 kids are enough for me.' DH is going for a vasectomy at the end of September and I keep having second thoughts about it, but I'm pretty sure we're happy with our decision.

[missychrissy]

Today he did good.

I'm really glad.

So, today Josh asked what his testicles were. Actually, what he said was, "What are these bumps down here?" I said they're testicles and he said "What are tes-ti-cles for?" I told him there were seeds in there to help him make a baby with a lady someday. :shrug: He seemed content with that.

oh man, even after 4 of them I still dread those questions. I'm glad he was happy with your answer!!

Conner has done the funniest thing when his is at attention...he asks what's wrong with it and then tries to hit it to make it go back down. I tell him nothing is wrong with it and that it will go down eventually on its own. He seems ok with that and doesn't ask any more questions, but it kinda cracks me up inside every time it happens.

I've only had about 3 hours sleep and I read taht as "evil" partner. I chuckled. And then re-read it.

I read the same thing the first time too.

[missychrissy]

Mandy-how are you feeling today?

[Gwenn]

I've only had about 3 hours sleep and I read taht as "evil" partner. I chuckled. And then re-read it.

LOL - I write that word a lot in work emails and the spell check always wants to replace it with evil!

Mandy-how are you feeling today?

Nauseous and crampy in waves. Not constant, and not wipe-out horrible, but bad enough that I don't feel up to chasing nonverbal kids around and I have two evil evals scheduled this morning. I did call in sick, because I know G was okay with it. I really hate to cancel an appointment the parents have scheduled, but I don't think I'd do good work. I could go in and write reports but I would hate to go in at all after cancelling the evals so I stayed home.

[daylilies]

Maybe it's weird but I feel like the best thing about being a parent is being able to teach your kids things...I always try to choose my words wisely when Josh asks me how something in his body works or what something is, because it may be the most accurate answer he'll have, at least until middle school health class.

[Cosmosmom]

Kate that isn't weird. I think that is one of things we really look forward too...being able to teach the kid stuff.

[Gwenn]

That's one of the things I really enjoyed when I worked with the non-Autistic kids at work. Those kids (well, many of them) really looked up to me as a role model and asked a lot of questions about everything under the sun - in the speech room I really encourage them to ask a lot of questions and I'm happy to answer them. The 4-5th graders are really the greatest because they're really starting to think about the big picture of the world, but the hormones haven't hit yet. It's really a wonderful stage of childhood. One of my child development books called that age "the calm before the storm." Really the only point in your life where you are capable of really advanced logical thought and no hormones to interfere!

Those kids were a lot of fun - but in the end I really love working with the non-verbal kiddos, too and I'm good at it. When I dealt with the kids with a mild pronunciation problem and huge amounts of "attitude" I had no patience for them after dealing with kids with really severe problems who managed to keep a smile on their face. So I really don't want to work with "normal" kids again, fun as it was.

[demigraf]

I wish my DH wore tighter tshirts. Just sitting here looking at a guy in one thinking how nice DH would look in it. DH is very conscious of whether he thinks he looks pretentious, but there's a bit of pretentiousness in his attempts to be deliberately unpretentious.

Kate, I love it when I feel like I actually teach Bodhi something. It's like no other feeling I know.

Christina, how's the int. Accounting class going? I think it's always helpful to learn the basic concepts when you have to hurriedly learn them to apply them to more difficult concepts. I mean, it helps to solidify basic concepts when you have to use them in harder ones. did that make sense? Probably not. Lol.

Mandy, I hope you're feeling better. I hope the results of your dh's SA give you a good sense of direction.

[missychrissy]

I wish my DH wore tighter tshirts. Just sitting here looking at a guy in one thinking how nice DH would look in it. DH is very conscious off whether he thinks he looks pretentious, but there's a bit of pretentiousness in his attempts to be deliberately unpretentious.

You crack me up!!

Work is mega busy and people aren't giving us a minute's rest. 3 laptops are going to arrive tomorrow and I fear there will be some temper tantrums if we don't get them done before quitting time as they (the profs) have to work Monday and we don't. Ugh. On a positive note, bossman is being extra nice to me. I think my near leaving scared him straight.

[Smplyme89]

Kate I feel the same way. I really look forward to teaching N things In regards to his body, my biggest stickler is making sure that we use the "correct" names for his body parts. I always hated that penis, testicles, vagina were all so "taboo"

Class is... going I'm feeling more confident as teh days go by, but between the stomach bug I got on Tuesday and DH working until 9 last night I have not accomplished as much as I would've liked. He took off early today, picked N up from the sitters though so I have the whole evening to do what I need to do

[daylilies]

I hate how my DH dresses too, but he doesn't have the body for the things I like to see guys wear...he's so tall and skinny, anything fitted would make him look even more like a twig, I think.

About the body parts...I like to use correct names too, but we've been using peenee for penis since he was a baby, and I'm trying to break out of that too. I'm glad I fielded the question about his testicles, or DH would have told him it was called his junk.

[Smplyme89]

Kate that is hilarious! Sounds like something my DH would say too!

[Cosmosmom]

In regards to his body, my biggest stickler is making sure that we use the "correct" names for his body parts. I always hated that penis, testicles, vagina were all so "taboo"

Kind of ironic given what I do for work but I just really dislike the technical names for those body parts. I hardly ever say them outloud....though do have to sometimes for work.
Course a lot of times at home we don't use the correct medical terms.....I would say chicken pox and not herpes zoster or cancer instead of neoplasm. It's why my handy dandy medical dictionary comes in so handy.....half the time I get a request for a search I have to look up in there to see what I'm looking up. Sometimes I get the request and am like until I break down the correct terms into something that makes sense.

Back to topic.....at home I just usually say "area".

[Smplyme89]

Okay I had no clue that chicken pox wasn't a technical name

I find that alot of people are uncomfortable with those terms, but I think its because there are so many "slang" words used in place of them that the technical words are somehow looked at as "dirty". I love how uncomfortable I can make people when I say penis

[Cosmosmom]

Okay I had no clue that chicken pox wasn't a technical name

I find that alot of people are uncomfortable with those terms, but I think its because there are so many "slang" words used in place of them that the technical words are somehow looked at as "dirty". I love how uncomfortable I can make people when I say penis

Yeah I don't think the words are dirty....I just think that they sound ugly.

Yup chicken pox isn't technical....found that out when doing a search 7 or 8 years ago. Personally like that better than herpes zoster though!
and I use heel spur instead of plantar fasciitis......

[Smplyme89]

Breaking out all the big medical terms on me Jennifer, you're going to give me a headache

Now herpes zoster sounds dirty

ETA: Oh and I wanted to add, your explanation of them being ugly is actually really accurate. As far as I'm concerned our junk and their area is indeed very ugly