Winter sets in

I promise, to whoever is still reading, we're still alive, well and happy. Baby is over 6 months old and has the happiest little personality you could wish for. He's happy, easy going, smiley, hungry and sleepy.

He's sitting up almost on his own, but not quite crawling yet - normal for the bigger babies.

He's also super, super cute. I may be biased though.

Life update

Wow, it's been a long time since we posted here.

Life has continued onward. Babi will be 5 months tomorrow. On some levels it's hard to believe, but in other ways, it seems like he's been a part of our lives all along. There's the occasional stark reminders that really hit us. For example, Geek was answering some questions today and one was "Do you have kids?" and he started to automatically say no, but then said wait.. yes, we do.

In fitness news, Geek's running is going awesome! He signed up for a half marathon and a dualthalon! His training has been going really well and last weekend he ran 12 miles and still had a bit left. He will definitely be able to run that last 1.1 miles.

I'm back to dancing and have some shows coming up. I have one this coming Sunday, one in October and one in November. I need to come up with some new routines for the upcoming shows and I have some ideas floating around. I just need to start pulling them together. I've also started the couch to 5K. Today was my second day. I managed to run even after a migraine.

Lots of migraines here lately are definitely making me unhappy. They have been hitting more and more frequently. Had one that lasted two and a half days last week and had a day and a half long one this week. The doctor put me on the preventative, but so far it hasn't done a massive amount. I'll see how it goes.

Dad and baby

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Mom and Baby!

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Been a while

It's been a while since we posted here. We had a very healthy baby in April (YAY!!). I had to be induced though. After all the trouble to keep him in there, he decided to stay in there. I had some excess fluid so I can't really fault him for not wanting to give up the Olympic sized (for him) swimming pool.

We're starting to figure out a routine, albeit very slowly. The main one we've figured out is he eats every 3 hours or so. Other than that, it's all open ended.

I've started getting more active again. I've started going back to the gym this week and today walked about 3.5 miles with him. I wanted to go to dance class, however the walk totally wasted me. I'm going to try for class tomorrow. I'm not technically cleared for exercise, but I figure as long as I listen to my body and not push I'll be fine.

Hard to believe he's almost a month old. While the day to day seems to blur together, when you sit back and look at it, you really see how time is flying.

Good news

The doctor's office called today and said the latest round of labwork was all normal. So no thyroid issues!! This makes me very very happy. So the first one was just a fluke. I can live with a fluke like that.

No news

No news on the heart monitor, so it couldn't have been too bad, I'm guessing. :) I do need to check some test results. They are thinking there may be a thyroid issue. The first test came in a hair low. And I do mean a HAIR low. The normal range is 6.0, and I was at 5.6. We did a retest, so we'll see how those results look. If it's a bit low it could be causing the heart palpitations. However, I really only seem to get them when I'm working. So it could still be stress. This weekend went very well. I've been able to get out and about quite a bit. We went to a birthday bash on Sunday at Legal Seafood for our friend's 40th birthday and today was shopping.

I have been feeling more stress and fear of having this kid than excitement. Even if I'm the one having it, I don't really feel connected to him. I'm just the people carrier, really. So today Geek and I went out and did some baby shopping. It really was needed for both of us. We got some toys, some clothes, small pack of diapers, and the painting stuff we'll need to work on the nursery next Saturday. It really put us both in a better frame of mind and made all this seem more concrete and real, rather than just a waiting game.

Cyborg

Today was another ultrasound and the heart rate monitor hookup. He's measuring 31w 5 days and roughly 4lbs 4oz. He was also camera shy again today. You could just see him thinking "Argh! The pappirazzi again!!" and was holding a hand over his face.

Afterwards, they hooked me up to the portable EKG machine. So I have lots of pads, wires and a control box strapped to my chest. Yay for being a cyborg. I'm to record my symptoms as they show up. I then take it back tomorrow.

I go in on Tuesday to see the doctor and see what my labwork results were. Hopefully the heart monitor results will be there too, and I have the ultrasound report for her. We'll see what happens.

Frustrated

I tried going back to work this week. The plan was to go back two days a week. Well, the day went fine, but I either overdid or was overtired because that evening had another cramping episode. No bleeding so I wasn't too stressed. They also weren't that regular. But it's taken me a few days to recover. So I didn't go in on Thursday. I figured I'd rest and go in today. Wrong!! I had another bad day and ended up having "issues" all night, so I plan on working at home and taking it easy. This is really getting on my nerves though. I'd like to see the office a few times before I go off for maternity!!

We got the furniture last weekend, as well as a carseat and a stroller from a friend of ours that is the last year's model of the one we want. So basically we can get him home now. Still need a blanket and a onesie to finish the checklist for the trip home, but we can get from hospital to home and he has a place to sleep. :) So far the crib and the changing table are up. We still have work to do in the room, so we didn't really go nuts constructing stuff yet. We have a friend coming out in a few weeks to take the mirrors down, patch the holes and paint. They should also be able to tear down the bookcase that's in there and move it somewhere more useful now. We'll move the glider in there, put up the dresser, and get the curtains up and that should do it.

I had an "alien baby" moment last night which was funny. I was reclining in bed and went to sit up, tightening my ab muscles as I did so. You could see the outline of his back. That was pretty creepy but cool at the same time.

In other non-pregnancy news, things are moving along here. Geek is doing a charity spin class at the gym called Spin for Hope (for the American Cancer Society), so feel free to sponsor him. It's a three hour ride. :) I'm really proud of him for doing this. In May, I will be performing in Hips for Hope for the same cause.

It's that lovely tax season again so everyone's got their hand out. It's annoying as anything, but what can you do. Hopefully we'll get some of it back.

The puppies are good. Brutus loves the snow and has a blast playing in it. He's been getting very adventurous and wandering off down the road here lately to do his business. Mainly because he knows we can't follow him. Silly dog. He comes back right after but still... Buddy, on the other hand, can't wait for it all to melt and get warm again. He hates the snow and usually tries to look pathetic as soon as we go out by shivering and lifting his paws. Silly dogs.

Huray

Got the results of the glucose challenge. No gestational diabetes. :)

More of the same

I had a doctor visit today. I'm still off work/working from home. Now the difference is, given the cramping/spotting that occurred last week (which was very likely stress induced) if there's no improvement there, I will be taken off work completely. So I really have to learn to relax and not push so hard at working, and not get so stressed when things aren't working right.

On other news, the glucose challenge is tomorrow. This is going to be particularly nasty as I can't drink the usual icky orange syrup. I get a special mix of straight sucrose solution with saline. Yum. Hurray for corn allergies. So hopefully that will be uneventful and I'll pass first go.

Otherwise, da Babi is doing great. His heart sounds great and I'm measuring right on target. There's another ultrasound being scheduled and I go back to the doctor in two weeks.

In yet other baby news, we did the childbirth class last Saturday. It was an interesting time. We learned a lot, and honestly wasn't freaked out by a lot of the stuff. Facts given straight up tend not to bother me, whereas hearing the stories do. The tour of the facilities was totally worth it. I was surprised that the hospital doesn't staff the nursery. They encourage the baby to be in the room as much as possible. Dads don't have to abide by the visiting rules (YAY!!). The one thing that totally sucks is that kids have to be over 12 to visit. :( That part I was totally annoyed with. But the other side is if it's a normal birth and I can get out of bed, I can go to the lounge and visit with little folks. The rooms are very homey and nice, so that won't be bad. They have 5 private rooms and they fill those first then there are 3 double rooms. So here's hoping I will be in a private. :)

I've signed up for a baby CPR class, a mother/baby class and a breastfeeding class. I'm looking forward to them actually. There are people from the childbirth class signed up for them, so I'll get to see them again, which will also be nice.

And for the record, I have never seen such hellacious, bratty, out of control kids as I did at the doctor office today. OMFG, they were awful. Screaming, yelling, one was grabbing their baby sister and trying to wrestle. And the parents did NOTHING. I so appreciate our friends with well behaved kids and great parenting.

Vaccine?

I was checking my mail today when I noticed a message from one of the CD boards I'm on. Here's the message:

"Apparently Dr. Anderson in Australia (Nexpep) is starting Phase 1
clinical trials early 2009 on a vaccine for Celiac Disease. Every
indication is that this will work on 80% of Celiacs worldwide.

If this is true, in 3 to 5 years the majority of us (fingers crossed I
and my family are in the 80%) will be drinking a real beer and having
our favorite meals again!

Though GF food has gotten better, it hasn't gotten much cheaper and it
still isn't very nutritious either - high in fats, sugars and starches.

So this might be the "hope" we have been waiting for?

In any case if you haven't read about it this will be your heads up to
start reading on the vaccine...."

My first reaction is total disbelief. I've not heard of many auto-immune diseases being "cured" by a simple vaccine. Treated, yes, but not cured. So let's assume this is for treatment.

What boggled my mind was in one breath the poster was talking about drinking beer and eating favorite meals again, and in the next talking about how GF foods are high in fats, sugars and starches. What do you think fast food is?? What is beer? I'm sure those "favorite meals" weren't Healthy Choice meals.

I've found I don't miss most of the glutened stuff, and most healthy, natural foods, like meats, fruits and veggies are naturally gluten free anyway. So what exactly is missing? Oh yes, all the fats, starches and sugars of pre-packaged convenience foods.

Anything that I have found myself missing, I can usually duplicate in a pretty tasty facsimile. All these people in mourning for glutened food could too, but it takes some determination and willingness to experiment. I mean, I just made dairy-free, egg-free Yorkshire puddings, which in theory shouldn't be possible, since it's made of eggs, milk and flour. That's it. But I did it and they were really tasty. Other people have done it, so it's not like I had to re-invent the wheel. A few minutes on Google for inspiration and then went to work modifying. That's it.

So I think it's safe to say I will be taking a pass on this vaccine. Good luck to those who want it, but I think I'm ok the way I am. :)

Good bye 2008!

2008 is on it's way out, and 2009 is nearly here. What did the year bring?

I could go back through my posts here and on other forums, and give you the recap, but you likely read it all yourself.

Really, there are a few of major stand out things for me for 2008 -

We're pregnant! Dancer is going to be giving birth to our baby boy next April. Even though she spent some time on bed rest (and still is), things are going well and on track. It's going to be a roller coaster for sure.

Weight loss - I got into the local gyms "Biggest Loser" program weighing around 255lbs in January, and today I weight 201lbs, can run 4 - 5 miles and am fitter and healthier than I can ever remember being. January 2009 I will also be team captain for the *next* "Biggest Loser" event. I've spoken at seminar's at the gym, and run their Team page on a weight loss forum.

Photography - I finally got seriously into photography - took some classes, bough some equipment and started reading as much as I could get my hands on. I'm launching a small business (http://www.rt2photo.com) to pay off that equipment too :)

None of this will matter once our son is born in 2009 though - this will an awesome year!

26th Dec - Boxing day

26th Dec - Boxing day

Merry Christmas from our home to yours this year!

Refugees

We had a massive ice storm on Thursday. The weather had been weird. It wasn't cold enough to snow, but not warm enough to be pure rain, so it froze. We lost internet and cable first, but didn't really think much about it. However, around 2:30am on Friday we lost power. Ok again, not really a biggie. It will be back on soon, right?

So we get up on Friday morning and the whole side of the house (where the garages are) was a solid sheet of ice. The garage doors were frozen shut. Around 11:00 Geek was able to get them open and clear off the drive. We realized we'd lost cell phone service. Still no sign of power. He was able to make it to a friend's house who had been listening to the radio. They said no power til at least Sunday at the earliest. Our friend was taking his kids to his parents to hunker down. So now what do we do?

It was bad. They were setting up emergency shelters. The whole area (almost 350,000 people) were without power. The last place I wanted to go was to a shelter. No way.

We packed up the boys and make the trek to Salem to our friend Mike's. The boys are happy since they get to see their friend Reggie. It wasn't pleasant - the car ride was rough (tells me I'm still not entirely ready to come off bedrest yet. Bum) But we're here and warm.

We had to leave the bunny, so I'm worried about him being in the house with no heat, but hopefully he'll be ok. We gave him lots of hay and water, and added a blanket to his tunnel, so I'm hoping that will be enough. I'm worried about a couple of our friends who are having a time of it. One of our friends went to a house where the generator ran out of fuel and the cars were out of fuel. Another went to her dad's in NH (the part that did still have power) but her husband was at a funeral and didn't know what was happening. So I'm definitely thinking of them right now (both have small kids, so I really feel for them here.)

Looks like we're here through the weekend.

Christmas tree 2008

Christmas tree 2008

Christmas has arrived at the Jones home.

Presents haven't been bought, but Christmas is here - so that helps :)

Pregnancy update again

For those of you bored of this topic, feel free to skip. :)

I'm still on bedrest for this week and at least Tuesday next week. There's an ultrasound scheduled for Friday and a doctor's appointment for next Tuesday. With any luck things are moving as they should, up. I honestly don't know how other women cope with being laid up like this. It's driven me nuts!! I was able to sit up and direct my kitchen this weekend which helped a lot. I simplified the menu, so there wasn't a huge amount for Paul to cook. Even so, there's still a lot for one person to do. I over-did it a bit on Friday to try to help him out. It didn't seem like much (empty and reload dishwasher, trash out the fridge for new food arriving) but apparently it was, as I felt a bit off Saturday. However, that was nothing compared to Saturday evening.

I'm usually very careful about where I let the dogs sit on me. They need to stay off my stomach. Buddy was in a spot that I thought was ok, until Paul made a noise and he launched himself off me to go see. All his weight launched into my lower abdomen and then he launched himself off like it was a springboard. OUCH!! It started some of the worst cramps yet and I seriously thought it was time for the ER. I was also afraid the babi got hurt as there wasn't much movement that evening compared to the day before. However I decided that since there was no blood to wait and see how I felt. Sunday was still not the best but I still wanted to wait and see how things were going. The cramping wasn't as bad, still no blood and some movement. We also had folks coming for a photoshoot, and I didn't want to cancel.

The shoot went well, which made us all very happy, and things seemed to simmer down for me. After some chocolate cake, lots of movement and kicking was felt, so I'm not as concerned. The "cramping" that started last night was in fact pain from muscles not really wanting to stretch in my midsection. That I can live with. :)

To save what's left of my sanity I started working remotely last week. I'm quite happy about that, as at least I'm no longer chewing up sick time. Now the trick is to stay stress-free. Even with the bit of the job I'm doing it can be stressful. The good news is it's hard to be stresed out when there are warm pugs snoring happily in your lap. I will still need to sort out my time off and get the doctor to fax over documentation, but that should be relatively easy.

Not even born yet...

and this kid is already causing grief. :)

The ultrasound last week showed a very healthy little boy in there. While he's healthy, Mom's not so much.

Starting on Sunday I started cramping rather badly. I thought it might be due to the fact the office was 87 degrees (83 with the door wide open and fan blasting on high) so I thought maybe I was dehydrated (even though I was drinking tons). Nope. Not it. The cramping continued on Monday. It was pretty intense at work, but I was hoping it was a growth spurt or something, so didn't say anything about it. In the car the cramps were steady - almost 10-25 minutes apart. I made a deal with the Evil Overlord. I'd lay down in bed and behave if he'd stop the cramping. That worked until I tried to get up on Tuesday. It was still totally bad. I ended up staying home and flat out to keep the cramping at bay.

Today was the doctor appointment. I did have some good news, heart was strong, the tape measure came out for the first time, bloodwork from last week came back fine, the quad screen was negative and even the Down syndrome risk was really low.

The bad news is I have placenta previa. The bleeding started today. It's still light, so no one's really stressed, but this does mean I'm off work for at least a week. I can't work out at all, and have to stay horizontal and stress-free. I'll go for weekly ultrasounds for a bit and have an appointment next week. If anything gets worse, I need to call immediately. So not entirely happy but rest is about all I can do. The doc's reasonably convinced it's going to resolve itself, we just need to wait for things to grow enough to lift the placenta up. So what to do in the meantime. I wonder if I can play Oblivion and stay relaxed and not get stressed playing it.

Training

I haven't really said much about training in a while. If at all actually ...

Right now, I'm in the best shape of my life. Honestly. I can run 5 miles, I can do 50+ military style push ups in one go, I weigh 203lbs, and have 21% body fat.

It's all rather new to me - 2008 has been the year I went from 255lbs (more in 2007), 35% body fat index, and last January I managed a whole 7 push ups in a fitness test, when I did the "Biggest Loser" program at the gym (I came second place in the guys team). Summer of 2006 my doctor told me I was at risk of high blood pressure. At 27.

I have a personal trainer, Matt, and a work out buddy, Michelle. Matt hooked us up, and I don't think he knew what he was going to create when he did - we motivate each other, push each other and keep each other honest about our food and our exercise. We even have the same birthday.

Recently, Michelle and I talked at a weight loss seminar held at our gym, as a favor to Matt, and have motivated a bunch more people to push themselves beyond the limits they set in their head.

Next January, both Michelle and I will be doing the Biggest Loser program again, but not to loose weight ourselves - this year we will be captaining teams, and providing motivation - we both think it's important for the people in the program to see that *real* people with *real* weight problems can not only lose the weight, but become so passionate about keeping it off.

There are talks of doing a triathlon next year, but I'm not sure I'm strong enough in the swimming to train for that - I may just have to bite the bullet and try.

Yesterday, I donated 6 pairs of 38" wasted jeans. They were replaced with a pair of 34" waste jeans. I have XXL T Shirts that are sitting dusty, and now I have L shirts.

Before 2008, and even during the first quarter of 2008, I never would have thought I could write a post like this. I've got the bug to work out. I've got the bug to get, and stay, fit. Food will *always* be a struggle for me, for whatever reason, but with Dancers help, and good planning, I'm getting better. I still refuse to call my new eating habits a "diet" - I hate that word.

Go me.

Saving on heating

When we first moved into the house, the thermostats they installed were super cheap. We had two, one upstairs, one down. There was no programming options on them, beyond on or off.

But oil was cheap two years ago, and we never had a problem with the bills, and never thought about it much - very low on our priority list.

Then last year, our oil bills went up by over $300 a pop during winter, and became harder and harder to find the cash to pay - by the end of winter, I had invested the time and money into some programmable thermostats, and we have had them all year - but not had to fill the oil tank back up yet.

Now it's cold out. It's been down close to freezing at nights, and is 40 - 60f during the day. We have a feature on the thermostats that tells us how long they have been on to maintain the temperature we're programmed.

Today, so far, the downstairs thermostat has been on for 13 minutes. It's warm in here, we're both comfortable, the puppies are happy, the bunny is happy.

We didn't lock in the oil prices this year - we were quoted $4.29 when I did think about it. I'm damned glad I didn't, as today's full tank refill was only $2.79.

They have to be on more as it gets even colder, but it's nice to know that when we're not in, the house can be 62f, instead of a much more comfortable temperature for humans :)