Enduring Plum

I finally, finally! got a hair cut after all these months! It's a huge relief not to feel my hair hanging against my neck anymore.

( Miranda's Day Out )

My mom came over to help out today and give me a much-needed break, although I'm still exhausted. Miranda was up almost all night long last night, so Carl and I are both worn out and very thankful that my mom came over to cook, clean, and baby sit long enough for me to take a nap!

Speaking of my parents, today is their 27th wedding anniversary!

( Breast Feeding and Diapering )

Carl and I went this evening to the Raisins from Heaven ferret rescue, which Marin (the rescue lady) runs out of her home. It was clean, well-organized, and all the ferrets looked healthy, happy, and well cared-for. With Marin's promise that she would not re-home Trixie and Spook unless they could be re-homed together and that she will e-mail me updates, I left two of my stinky babies with her. I feel very sad about it, but I just don't believe I'll be able to give them the time and attention they need after our baby is born. I chose to keep Orbit because he's at an age that makes him an elderly ferret and he is more attached to me than to Trixie or Spook, who are very closely bonded to each other and should never be separated; so far Orbit hardly seems to have noticed that the other two are missing and with a little extra attention I think he'll get over it completely without any depression, which is a legitimate concern for ferrets who have just gone through a big change. If, for any reason, Spook and Trixie cannot be placed in a good home and Marin can no longer care for them, I will be happy to take them back in, but I feel safe placing them with her after seeing her home and her obvious devotion to all the ferrets in her care.

We learned this afternoon that my mom's neighborhood does not have power yet, so instead of driving home tomorrow she and I are going to wait until electricity has been restored. Jefferson Parish has also asked residents to please not flush their toilets, because the water processing stations don't have power and there's a concern that the sewage system might back up and cause flooding, so that's a very good reason not to return until power has been fully restored!

Carl is still going to drive back tomorrow, because work will just not stop calling him and he'd prefer to be back in the city, anyway. Since our neighborhood is still without power he's going to stay with Germaine or in one of the RVs his boss has sent to the city to house some employees. He's going to drop the three outside cats (Musashi, Kira, and Sterling) off at our house with a big bowl of water and stop by to feed them every evening, so I won't have to somehow cram all the pets in to my tiny car when I finally head back.

It'll be a lot easier to make the drive with just one ferret, because I can take Orbit inside with me on bathroom stops, rather than leaving him in the car with the motor running and the A/C on and he's already leash trained, so that's not an issue like it would have been with Trixie or Spook; ferrets can die of heat exhaustion very easily, which is something I learned the hard way, so I was extremely cautious about keeping them cool throughout the evacuation. Sunny and Sayuri will also be riding back with me, but Conrad will ride with my mom and her dog, Cora.

Until power is restored to either my neighborhood or my mom's, it'll just be the five of us in the hotel room, but I can always drive over to my aunt's place to visit my mom and the rest of the family if I get too lonely or too bored. I've got my computer and my knitting, though, so I'm sure I'll be fine!

The shower went well, thanks entirely to my lovely helpers: Triple_Phoenix, Miss Stacie (Triple_Phoenix's mom), Jodi, and my mom and dad. The only thing that could have improved the shower would have been if it wasn't hot as Hades, but that's August in New Orleans, after all; it was great to be able to get off my feet and in the pool after most of the shower guests had gone!

I was impressed that everyone brought some food or drinks! I expected it from the older guests, but honestly not from our friends who are our own age, but I'm glad I was surprised; we would have run out of beer and soft drinks early if they hadn't brought anything, so I'm especially glad that they all planned ahead and demonstrated their good manners.

We got a lot of wonderful gifts and all I was hoping for was that people would show up, because it was most important to me and Carl that our friends and extended family just come to celebrate with us. It was very touching, too, because all the gifts seemed to have had a lot of thought put in to them. The most adorable gifts were definitely the hand knit baby sweater and socks from Jodi and the hand knit baby hat from Jenae (please correct me on the spelling of her name if you know it, because that's just my best guess), but there wasn't a single gift we received that I don't love and know we can use; I'll have to post pictures of the knit gifts later, because they're just too cute. Linda and Joe Nelson bought us a book that is basically an idiot's guide to Baby's first year, which we should certainly get a lot of use out of - I feel that we need all the instruction we can get!

Speaking of instruction, Carl and I also completed our birthing class this weekend. The instructor covered a lot of material, but focused mainly on the different stages of labor and coping strategies that may help during each stage. She also spent a lot of time working on getting the men/partners to understand how to connect with their women during labor. Of course not all of the information she provided will apply to us, but I think that some of the exercises we did certainly helped us to connect on a deeper level on which we usually only "meet" during sex and Carl feels better now that he has a clearer idea of what to expect during each stage of labor, both physiologically and emotionally, from me and from himself. He also didn't even flinch when we watched a video that included the delivery of the placenta, so I think he'll do well with any blood he might see during our baby's birth, which was something I had been concerned about before; he doesn't have a problem with other body fluids, but seeing blood - spilled or being drawn - just gets to him.

I enjoyed hearing about her experiences working as a doula in local hospitals, including Touro, which is where we plan to deliver under Esther's care. Apparently New Orleans' hospitals are still very set in their ways when it comes to taking the newborn to the nursery for testing, rather than performing the tests in the labor-deliver-recovery room or in the postpartum room; I would much rather not be separated from my new baby just a few hours after birth, so we may have to struggle with the nursing staff over that, but hopefully Esther and Cathy (the other midwife at her new practice) will be able to help us gain leverage on that.

I need to sit down to write some "thank you" notes now, then I need to make a quick trip to the grocery store before the rain picks up again; Faye doesn't seem to have much steam left, however, so I'm not really worried.

I didn't have time to do any quilting this week, which was extremely irritating, but I just got caught up with everything else... you know how it goes. I did make it to my knitting group, however, and I'm looking forward to going this Wednesday, even if I just continue knitting my zigzag scarf; the meringue yarnis fun to work with.

I had started a baby blanket, but I can't find it since moving; I hadn't completed much of it at all, but it's still on the circular needles, which I really do want to find.

I also can't find my beginner's knitting book, which I want to find because I'd love to make a simple baby sweater or cardigan. I found a pattern on Ravelry that looks pretty simple, but I don't know how to make things like button holes, so I'd love to have the book handy to guide me through those techniques. There's no telling where it is at this point, though. It may be packed in a box somewhere, forgotten somewhere in our former closet at my parent's house, or buried in a stack of books in our office.

I would also like to knit some baby socks, but I think I'll need some devoted instruction from someone knowledgeable about socks. I could be worrying about it too much, but socks just seem tricky. Baby socks might be a project Bedstemor and I can work on while I'm in Denmark for a few weeks; a quilt isn't exactly an easy project to travel with, after all.

I know it's okay to fly in the U.S. with knitting needles, but I'm not so sure what the regulations are like abroad. If anyone has any idea or can point to a website where I can find out more, I would really appreciate it; I can't sleep on those long, international flights, so it would be wonderful to be able to knit while everyone else snores.

( Baby Clothes )

Now I've got to put away the baby clothes I've sorted through, freeze my leftover red beans and sausage, and clean out the 'frige; there's a mysterious and slightly funky odor the origin of which I haven't been able to determine, so all the drawers and shelves are going to get a good washing down.

My mom called me around eight this morning, saying that Calvin was doing poorly, so we should come over to help move him outside so he could relieve himself. When we got to the house, he was lying on the lawn beside my dad, where he had been able to relieve himself and looked alert, but he was unable to walk or stand. When we brought him back in, we put him on his bed and he just sat, looking around, and seeming to enjoy the attention. My mom and I then made a quick trip to the Whole Foods for some Arsenicum Album that the homeopathic veterinarian recommended we give him. After we gave him the herbal remedy, he seemed like he was finally able to relax, although his breathing was still very labored and he was still refusing all food and water. Around ten-thirty in the morning he seized up briefly, his breathing stopped, and Calvin died, but it was very quick and did not seem painful; he would have been fourteen years old this summer.

Carl was offered a job today. To work in Dubai for two years.

We're going to discuss it further when he gets home, but right now I don't know just what to think, except that this is an opportunity we probably can't afford to pass up.

-my dad has to have back surgery again; it will be on Monday
-my right eye will not quit twitching and it is very annoying; I think it is from lack of sleep
-money is especially tight for everyone right now, which might be the reason my eye is twitching - who knows?
-I have more than thirty voice mails on my cell phone, but I cannot bring myself to listen to them
-waiting with bated breath to see if I will menstruate this month since I did last month; it would be refreshing to have two periods in two months!

My little cousin's (kcf_chicken) graduation is this weekend and I'm ridiculously proud of her; in the fall she'll begin attending Princeton. I might be jealous if she wasn't also such a nice girl and cool person. :D

My dad is— finally— having back surgery as I type this. He put it off for so many years that it came to down to having the surgery now or losing function of one of his legs, so he quit being stubborn and afraid and consented. His surgery is scheduled for ten o'clock and should take a little longer than an hour, so I'm going to go down to the hospital soon to keep my mom company and wait for him to come out of the operating room.

Jelly Belly is giving me a serious tummy ache. Maybe I should sue them for making these damn things so delicious. One flavor that's not delicious? Baked bean. I sampled it at the grocery store, it was atrocious.

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