Thursday, February 28, 2008

Shots

I had my baseline ultrasound yesterday and was told to start my shots today. One shot of Lupron in the tummy in the morning and two shots (one is Lupron and the is other Gonal-F) in the tummy in the evening.

I go to the doctor for my 1st panel of bloodwork on Monday. Monday's bloodwork is to see if the dosages are right. I'll have bloodwork and ultrasounds all the time for while to measure the progress of my eggies.

My guess is 14 days of shots. Anyone else care to guess?

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Thing I learned today

Instead of wrestling with the mattress to get the dust ruffle on the bed, some people cut the white muslin part out of the middle and then just Velcro the ruffle to the box-spring. Why did I not know about this? Life could have been so much easier.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

I ordered my covers!

When Alan and I were in Dallas in January I found the bedding of my dreams. Of course, like anything that you yearrrrnnnn for, I would have had to sell my soul AND Grace's soul to pay for the privilege of sleeping on bedding designed for the angels.

Thanks to Carroll and her superior camera phone, I have this image to carry around with me to fabric stores all over Memphis looking for a substitute.


















Tanya and I wandered into the 2nd store and right there in front of me Was. My. Bed. There it was! I sat down, pulled out my picture and held it up for comparison. My Bed!

I ordered the
Bella Notte toile duvet cover in Champagne (which is the color of the toile duvet in the picture), 2 Aqua Linen Embroidered Shams and 1 Aqua Satin Sham. Oh, and I got to take home the little toile throw pillow that matches the duvet cover.

Tanya and I found fabric at Hancocks to make a pretty little aqua blanket for the foot of the bed. We're also going to make two brown
euro-size shams and a dust ruffle. I'm thinking an aqua satin dust ruffle. We still have to find a crinkly white satiny fabric for the bed part. I don't even need a full beds worth; just enough to cover up the wrong color sheets we've already made just-right-soft by the many hours of use. The satin will be like a dickey for the bed!

Alan really likes the bedding. He likes that it's not red toile and he reaaallly likes that I'm so excited about it. (We have a deal, he looks like he's enthralled in my fabric talk
as long as I promise not to yammer on during the Memphis vs. Univ of TN game that's on TV.)

Now I just need to find a color to paint the walls. Not aqua. Maybe? What do you think? You know I'm totally leaning to beige. My walls always end up beige or olive. So predictable.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

It's all in the name

Alan: Honey, when we have kids, let's avoid any names with that accent mark thing.

Skye: Well hell. You've ruled out all of the good names. Not even Ahnia`h?

Alan: A contraction would look ridiculous. I can't even imagine how you would write that.

Skye: I think we should stick with trusted favorites. Airwrecka and Velvet Valentine. We can keep Qickey Valentine for backup.

Alan: Ahnia`h`s starting to look pretty good about now. I'm getting myself a beer.

Skye: How about Destineigh? Madisenne? Jaxon? Jas'hun?

Skye: I hope we have twins and we can name them both after my dad. Then we could say we're budgeting the Bills. Get it?! And when I'm in labor, we could tell the Doctor we're in politics. Just trying to push through some Bills! hahahaaaaaaa!!!!!

Alan: You're not right, honey. You know that, right?

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Notice how she points out that the garage was clean?

I talk to my mom every single day. She is doing so good. She had the babies (they aren't such babies anymore) all last weekend. I love talking to her about those kids. Her voice positively twinkles when she tells me stories about them.

And I'm sure she'll be surprised to know that just like real newspapers, articles never really go away!

Sextuplets’ caretaker lauds dog for rescuing her - Aid comes after van door traps her thumb

By Mary Clarkin - The Hutchinson News
December 11, 2005

— Carol Gunn is disappointed she has yet to find one item on her Christmas shopping list: a dog collar bearing a “Hero” medallion.

It’s for Queenie.

“She’s just a hero in my eyes,” said Gunn of the 2 1/2-year-old, 84-pound Chesapeake Bay retriever whose determination helped rescue Gunn.

Gunn only has to look at her right thumb to be reminded of that fall afternoon in the garage of her Kingman home.

Improbably, the sextuplets, born in April 2002 to Sondra and Eldon Headrick, Rago, take a back seat — literally and figuratively — in this story.

Gunn is a friend of the family and among the volunteers who started pitching in when the Headricks brought the babies home.

“They’re kind of my surrogate grandchildren,” Gunn said.

In this photo provided by the family, Queenie, a Chesapeake Bay retriever, rests at her home in Kingman. Queenie became a hero after leading her owner, Betty Jean Patterson, to a woman in distress Wednesday.

In this photo provided by the family, Queenie, a Chesapeake Bay retriever, rests at her home in Kingman. Queenie became a hero after leading her owner, Betty Jean Patterson, to a woman in distress Wednesday.

On Sept. 30, Gunn drove the six children — in the Headrick’s 12-passenger van outfitted with six baby car seats — to her home for a day of play.

About 4:30 p.m., Gunn buckled Grant, Ethan, Sean, Melissa, Jaycie and Danielle into their seats and turned the key in the ignition.

“The babies are saying, ’The door, the door. You didn’t shut the door,”’ Gunn said.

Gunn hopped out, hurried around the back of the van, and shoved the back edge of the van’s sliding door forward. It shut on her right thumb, locked.

She could open the front passenger door, she said, but could not unlock the sliding door.

At 5-foot-2, Gunn’s eyes and nose rose above the window. Jaycie was seated just inside.

“Try to get your shoulders outside of the harness,” Gunn said she coaxed Jaycie.

Jaycie tried, but success was limited. Meanwhile, the other children talked, occasionally looking at Gunn.

Gunn had cleaned the garage recently, so there was nothing nearby to grab. Her cell phone was in her purse in the van. No one was expected home until 10:30 at night. Her cul-de-sac home was rather isolated, and neighbors weren’t home.

How long could her thumb tissue survive? Should she try to chew her thumb off? Who could hear a shout on the especially windy day?

She yelled for help.

Working in her garden, a long block south and then east of the Gunn home, Betty Jean Patterson heard noises that sounded like a cat fight, but her cats were OK.

Queenie, however, was very unsettled.

Patterson works with the Kingman Humane Society. She had adopted Queenie, a previous victim of abuse who had suffered from a broken leg, stab wounds and head wounds.

“She would run toward the sound and come back to me,” Patterson said. “She would not give up.”

“She just kept prancing around me and whining,” Patterson said.

“I threw my tools down, and zip, she was ahead of me,” Patterson said.

“She led me across a field and at this point, I heard a lady screaming, ‘Help me, help me,”’ Patterson said.

“This lady pokes her head around the corner,” Gunn recalled. “It was like a mirage. I didn’t expect anybody to come.”

Gunn estimates her thumb was trapped about 20 to 25 minutes.

The bone did not break, but bending the thumb is still painful today.

Gunn is grateful for Patterson’s care and for Queenie’s persistence.

Patterson is proud of Queenie and said she rewarded her with a box of special dog cookies and repeated praise of “Good dog, good dog.”

“She ate about half of the box,” Patterson said with a chuckle.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Hey, did I ever tell you about my Cousin Freida?

We got three new beautiful pink fish. They are a hybrid of white fish and an anemone. The swim faster than the guppies and always hang out in a group. The biggest is Vinnie and I call the two little ones sweathogs.

There are also The Heathers. All four of them came from the same mama and all look similar.

Nina and Bitsy are the oldest fish in the tank. Bitsy was the 1st to have little fry, and she even let me see her give birth. Very cool. She was named after a dear woman I know who has lots of kids. (The human Bitsy did not let me watch her give birth. Ick.)

There is also Cheddar and Cheese. They're yellow.

Did you know that guppies give birth to 40-100 fry every 28 days?

Vinnie Babarino just said God is a sharp dresser. They just don't make shows like Welcome Back Kotter anymore.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Party in the urterus March 21, 2008 (deviled eggs provided)

Alan and I have started our second round of IVF. I have no idea what's going on. I keep calling the nurse back and asking more questions and hoping that I don't get fired from the Dr's office. What does a person have to do to get fired from a Dr's office? One would think I would know what to expect since I did this only six months ago, but the doctor changed my protocol from last time. Just to keep the relationship spicy, I'm sure.

I'm getting more hopeful. I'm really trying. I am no good at let downs. I don't like bad surprises. When I was a kid my mom would ask what kind of party I wanted, and I always said a surprise party. I wanted a surprise party so that I wouldn't know who chose not to come. Hopefully a baby will come to the surprise party my uterus is having in March.

Things learned

Things I've learned so far this year:
1. I'm no dog whisperer
2. I live in a city with people willing to loot.
3. Tornadoes can happen in winter
4. Sour cream and onion dip is good!