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A few thoughts.
Jun. 15th, 2007 11:31 pm1. My mom has an appointment today to discuss "abnormalities" that they found on Wednesday during an ultrasound of her heart. They called her yesterday as she was leaving my house to schedule her appointment for Monday, and then called her back five minutes later to reschedule it for today at one, citing a "cancellation". Someone canceled in five minutes? I can't help but worry about this, of course, and then again even more so that they think she needs to come in so very immediately. I told her that it would all be fine but to be honest, I'm not so sure and I hate it when I have something that's actually valid for me to worry about. Update (since it took me all day to write this): there is apparently fluid around her heart. More tests to follow, but I got the feeling that the doctor wasn't terribly concerned quite yet, and said that some people just have some fluid there. He is, however, concerned about a vitamin D deficiency. That's at least the impression that I got.. I just talked to her for a few minutes while she was waiting to have more bloodwork done. Blah.
2. M finally got his American passport last week. He only applied for it at the beginning of March or so. I'm glad we didn't have a trip scheduled. Our local news show (which I have watched a little bit now that I am not working and I must say, I find extremely amusing at times) has done at least two segments in the last few weeks about how much of a delay the passport office is on. We were getting a little antsy about it, though, since of course they make you send in your original certificate of naturalization, and we are rather more comfortable having that one in our fire-safe box. You never know.
3. Lots and lots of people in the cloth diapering communities rave about tea tree oil. It's a natural disinfectant (added to laundry a few drops at a time) and also used for odor control, apparently. They talked about it so much that I finally figured out where to buy it locally (WalMart has it, in the vitamin section) and made sure that I had some before the baby came. It's been sitting on my kitchen table for literally months now, in a small little brown bottle that has prompted questions from people. After I actually started doing diaper laundry--you would not really believe how little trouble the laundry is, by the way--I just didn't feel the need for it so I never bothered using it. I happened to see it today and added a few drops to the little fabric flap on my diaper pail liner (made for odor eliminating stuff) and.. oh geez. No one ever mentioned how much the tea tree oil itself stinks. The hallway around my bathroom now smells like something exploded in the back room of an old-time pharmacy... or I guess how I imagine that would smell. By the way, have I ever told you that I have a bit of a gift for describing smells? Though this one is not all that terrific, come to think of it. Anyway, I can safely say that I would rather smell poo than this stuff--I've thrown it all into the wash again in hopes of getting rid of the smell. Also, I think I engaged in a discussion last weekend about how my daughter's shit does not stink. It made me laugh, later, because of that old expression about people who think their shit doesn't stink and all. That wasn't what I meant. I didn't even really mean that it doesn't stink, because it certainly does. The point I was trying to make was that the smell does not tend to linger... except when it's a disposable diaper. I imagine people think it's an acceptable trade-off, but the smell that comes from disposable diapers is vicious in comparison to the smell of cloth diapers. Ironic, really, since that's the first thing everyone asks us about when they hear we're using cloth--how we stand the smell. Well. Second thing. I guess the first is about laundry, or maybe our sanity.
4. Sadly, caffeine seems to make Evelyn a bit cranky. I had honestly not given much thought to the food/breastfeeding relationship. I tried not to think about or plan for breastfeeding much at all, to be honest, because I was afraid that I would be even more disappointed if I couldn't make it work. That was kind of dumb, really, but it worked out, so it's okay. Do you have any idea how much I am missing Pepsi right now? It was almost a craving, during pregnancy. It tasted better than any beverage has ever tasted in my life. I tried to keep it to one a day, or maybe two on special days, and all the while I was just kind of assuming I would be able to drink it again with abandon after she was born. However, I have been given lots of familial advice on what will hurt her belly--onions, for the biggest example, followed by spicy foods in general and also broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. I had read that most women don't really have to avoid any foods, so I finally asked one of the breastfeeding cousins if she had actually tried any of those things and found that it hurt the baby's belly. She looked at me like I was on crack. Of course she hadn't tried it, everyone knows that it will. So, you will be happy to know that onions, in moderation, do not seem to hurt the baby's stomach, because I had to try it for myself. It's not that I want to eat a diet consisting solely of foods that hurt my baby, but it is REALLY hard for me to cook without onions. It's just kind of what I do. So I'm glad to find that it doesn't seem to hurt her so far. Maybe caffeine will stop affecting her with time, too. I am so freaking sick of 7-UP.
5. Geeks of more experience than me... do I actually need to pre-order the last Harry Potter book? There was a sign with a pre-registration form at WalMart. I was really just planning on popping in the next day to pick one up. I would just order it from Amazon in advance but they won't ship it until the day it's officially available, right? Also, I must confess that for some unknown reason I called Evelyn my little Muggle baby the other day. I am not so sure why but I think it's because I'm a dork.
2. M finally got his American passport last week. He only applied for it at the beginning of March or so. I'm glad we didn't have a trip scheduled. Our local news show (which I have watched a little bit now that I am not working and I must say, I find extremely amusing at times) has done at least two segments in the last few weeks about how much of a delay the passport office is on. We were getting a little antsy about it, though, since of course they make you send in your original certificate of naturalization, and we are rather more comfortable having that one in our fire-safe box. You never know.
3. Lots and lots of people in the cloth diapering communities rave about tea tree oil. It's a natural disinfectant (added to laundry a few drops at a time) and also used for odor control, apparently. They talked about it so much that I finally figured out where to buy it locally (WalMart has it, in the vitamin section) and made sure that I had some before the baby came. It's been sitting on my kitchen table for literally months now, in a small little brown bottle that has prompted questions from people. After I actually started doing diaper laundry--you would not really believe how little trouble the laundry is, by the way--I just didn't feel the need for it so I never bothered using it. I happened to see it today and added a few drops to the little fabric flap on my diaper pail liner (made for odor eliminating stuff) and.. oh geez. No one ever mentioned how much the tea tree oil itself stinks. The hallway around my bathroom now smells like something exploded in the back room of an old-time pharmacy... or I guess how I imagine that would smell. By the way, have I ever told you that I have a bit of a gift for describing smells? Though this one is not all that terrific, come to think of it. Anyway, I can safely say that I would rather smell poo than this stuff--I've thrown it all into the wash again in hopes of getting rid of the smell. Also, I think I engaged in a discussion last weekend about how my daughter's shit does not stink. It made me laugh, later, because of that old expression about people who think their shit doesn't stink and all. That wasn't what I meant. I didn't even really mean that it doesn't stink, because it certainly does. The point I was trying to make was that the smell does not tend to linger... except when it's a disposable diaper. I imagine people think it's an acceptable trade-off, but the smell that comes from disposable diapers is vicious in comparison to the smell of cloth diapers. Ironic, really, since that's the first thing everyone asks us about when they hear we're using cloth--how we stand the smell. Well. Second thing. I guess the first is about laundry, or maybe our sanity.
4. Sadly, caffeine seems to make Evelyn a bit cranky. I had honestly not given much thought to the food/breastfeeding relationship. I tried not to think about or plan for breastfeeding much at all, to be honest, because I was afraid that I would be even more disappointed if I couldn't make it work. That was kind of dumb, really, but it worked out, so it's okay. Do you have any idea how much I am missing Pepsi right now? It was almost a craving, during pregnancy. It tasted better than any beverage has ever tasted in my life. I tried to keep it to one a day, or maybe two on special days, and all the while I was just kind of assuming I would be able to drink it again with abandon after she was born. However, I have been given lots of familial advice on what will hurt her belly--onions, for the biggest example, followed by spicy foods in general and also broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. I had read that most women don't really have to avoid any foods, so I finally asked one of the breastfeeding cousins if she had actually tried any of those things and found that it hurt the baby's belly. She looked at me like I was on crack. Of course she hadn't tried it, everyone knows that it will. So, you will be happy to know that onions, in moderation, do not seem to hurt the baby's stomach, because I had to try it for myself. It's not that I want to eat a diet consisting solely of foods that hurt my baby, but it is REALLY hard for me to cook without onions. It's just kind of what I do. So I'm glad to find that it doesn't seem to hurt her so far. Maybe caffeine will stop affecting her with time, too. I am so freaking sick of 7-UP.
5. Geeks of more experience than me... do I actually need to pre-order the last Harry Potter book? There was a sign with a pre-registration form at WalMart. I was really just planning on popping in the next day to pick one up. I would just order it from Amazon in advance but they won't ship it until the day it's officially available, right? Also, I must confess that for some unknown reason I called Evelyn my little Muggle baby the other day. I am not so sure why but I think it's because I'm a dork.
