We sold our guest bed this weekend. I have feelings about it. It didn’t start as our guest bed. It started as my bed. The first bed I even actually bought. When I graduated from college I took the old double-bed from my parents house which I had been using. It was ok, but after my second move with it, the wooden frame was EXTREMELY creaky. So my parents and I made me a custom bed with storage underneath (I’ve always carted around far too many books for apartment living with roommates). This bed was large enough to be upgraded to a queen mattress, but it survived through with a double. Homemade beds don’t last well when you move almost annually, and when a friend at work posted she was getting rid of her wrought iron bed and queen mattress… I jumped on it. I have since replaced the mattress, but I loved this frame. It is a great frame.
Life Events
Burned Hand
I burned my hand this weekend. Just a moment of distraction while I was pulling dinner out of the oven and brushed the back of my right hand against the edge of the inside of the oven (not the heating elements, just the edge near the door). I yelped and rushed dinner to the stove. I turned on the kitchen sink to the coldest setting and stuck my hand under the water. It HURT. The pain was immediate and I wasn’t sure how bad the burn was. It wasn’t third degree (skin was still in one piece) and it hurt. It HURT. I wanted to just swear and cry. I didn’t because I didn’t want to further upset my husband and child (both were watching me with deep concern and my husband was only half-believing me on my “no no I’m ok” response to his question on my well being). I went into a sort of emotional shut-down to fight
Life Events: ER and COVID-19
Let me start with this: I am OK. Saturday morning I was ok. Got up, played with Remy. Did a bit of picking up to vacuum the living room. At 11 I took Remy upstairs to cuddle with daddy while I made a cup of tea and used my inhaler. I felt my asthma flaring up and I hadn’t even done any real cleaning yet! My husband came downstairs sometime after 11:30 and looked at me and said, “You look like you need to use the nebulizer.” I always argue this. I hate the nebulizer. I didn’t argue this time. I did need it. I could feel it. I hate it, but I know breathing is kind of important. I use the nebulizer, but I still feel like I just can’t get my breath. Every inhale hurts. I log into my health insurance site to get a teledoc. I don’t know what else to try. I’m #23 in line for
Current Events: Coronovirus
I wasn’t going to add to the noise around this, but then the other day someone posted “ok everyone, this isn’t the bubonic plague.” The historian came out. So many ways I wanted to respond: Yes, please don’t kill cats. Rats are the ones most likely causing the spread of the plague. True. The bubonic plague had a mortality rate of almost 70%, even in the modern era it’s somewhere around 10% even with antibiotics, so 3.4% isn’t as bad! Well except that bubonic plague is a bacteria and antibotics are kind of amazing and COVID-19 is a virus. Hence the family “coronoVIRUS” As someone who doesn’t know whether I’m in the “80% will be fine” group or if my asthma will put me in the “20% vulnerable people” who will not be ok…. please take it seriously. You see, that last one is the truth. With my asthma, I don’t know. I am compromised because my lungs are not
Musing: Daycare
Remy is six months old. He has been in daycare for two weeks now and I have thoughts. My mother has a brilliant approach to life choices like “daycare vs Stay at Home Mom (SHM)” questions – there are always trade-offs. There isn’t necessarily a right answer, they both can be right and wrong in their own ways. With that said, I think daycare is the right choice for my child. For a variety of reasons, some of which others told me before we signed him up and some which I hadn’t heard from friends and family. An upside-downside is the hit to his immune system. Now, we haven’t had anything yet (knock on wood) but it’s also only been two weeks. I can 1000% understand when a mom is going “I can’t work from home and my kid isn’t very sick – I need to work and they need to go somewhere, so… Tylenol!” Is that half-day (until the
Tech: The Tablet Hunt
My tablet is dying. I have finally had to admit it doesn’t hold much charge, the bluetooth keyboards can not manage to stay connected (yes, I have 2 and both of them are in bad shape too). I do NOT want to do this, but Eli is pretty sure my tablet was purchased in 2013 or 2014…. which means it’s well past “expected life” for tech – much less a tablet. Hell, it’s on Google 6.0 and can’t be updated anymore (I could probably jailbreak it and maybe get another version on there, but I’m also afraid this would brick the thing). So I need a new tablet. Unfortunately, there isn’t a tablet on the market I’m excited about. What I have now: To understand what I’ve had for the past ~6 years, it’s a Nexus 7, 32GB version with LTE access through T-mobile. The Big Problem My current tablet is 7″ and has been the perfect size for me.
Prayers Please
I took all the animals to the vet a few weeks ago. I took Riley on Monday and the cats
Life Event: Birth (Part 2)
So the second reason it took so long to get back to blogging is after little Remy was born, we spent an extra 4 days in the hospital. You see, Remy had jaundice. This isn’t entirely uncommon (apparently). The pediatrician explained that it takes a few days for the liver to “boot up” in a newborn, and sometimes can struggle to keep up with dead red blood cells. This was exasperated by the fact I have a different blood type. This difference in blood types meant Remy’s body was attacking my blood still in his system. You know, all that blood I had been passing over to him through the placenta for the past nine months. NOW he hates it. Ingrate. As HIS blood production and liver are just booting up, they were fighting a war of attrition. He WOULD win (eventually) but prolonged high levels of bilirubin (the toxic stuff causing the jaundice) could cause brain damage. YIKES. So
Life Event: Birth!
There are several reasons this post has taken more than a minute. My son, Remy, was born April 5th at 9:42pm. Woot! Fair warning – I am going to talk about medical stuff that is kind of gross to some people. If you don’t like knowing the details of medical procedures, reactions to such procedures, and the details of childbirth – skip the rest of this post. This is your “spoiler” warning (or trigger warning). I had a routine doctor’s appointment on the 4th – my wedding anniversary no less – and my blood pressure was high. It had been creeping up over the past few weeks, but it finally hit the threshold where the doctor was “concerned.” When I arrived at the doctor’s office it was something like 147/82. This isn’t “oh my god she’s dying” level, but since “good” blood pressure is the 110’s/60s (naturally I tend to run ~116-122/~65), this IS high. So the doctor wanted to
Life Event: 3rd Trimester
I have been in the 3rd trimester awhile now, but it finally “got interesting” (which isn’t a good thing in pregnancy). We were doing great until about two weeks ago when my blood pressure spiked. I won’t say there wasn’t a catalyst (there was), but it also wasn’t entirely without merit. The doctor has been aware I was at risk of my BP going up from the beginning. Between my asthma and starting out overweight – the fact I made it to week 36 without spikes or increases was awesome. So I borrowed an at-home BP monitor from my parents and started taking data. Never let a nerd collect their own data unless you don’t mind them doing things like making a trendline. And seeing the trendline of my BP over the past 2 weeks…. doesn’t make me a happy camper. I mean, we are past the “oh god he’s not done yet” – this cookie is cooked. Now we
Dream by Day 