We got to go see the Menah Menah Muppets :)
And Kermit, Bert and Ernie, etc. We made it to the last day of the Jim Henson exhibit over at the Smithsonian - it was packed. Funny how it pretty much divided into parents with kids in tow ("hey, nice stroller" from someone with the same model) and people born in the 70's, reliving childhood memories. The concept drawings were fun to look at (yay for Electric Mayhem!) and Jer was glad to see the Dark Crystal and Fraggle Rock stuff there.

Oof. Round 2 of parental visits is this week, In-Law version this time. I'm still fuming over the passive aggressive shit that my dad and stepmom pulled... I really hope that Mother-in-law is over her cold, because I do NOT want her to pass it on to Sam. The NICU people gave us permission to keep whoever we wanted away from the baby for a year, but I can't tell the in-laws they can't hold the baby after they've flown all the way across the country to see him. Oy. More stress. (And since hubby and his dad will be trying to work on the house, guess who mommy and baby get to hang out with? Can't wait. Really.)

Gov. Palin: Who will bring the phonics to Main Street?

"Nuke-u-lar"

Really? Nukeular? I didn't think it was possible for me to dislike you even more.

My LJ paid acct. is expiring in 5 days apparently.
:(

I remember seeing Paul Newman on Letterman. The Mythbusters were on the show the same night, and Mr. Newman, of 70+ years, went out into the street and took a ride on a lawn chair suspended by a ton of helium filled balloons, and proved that he was made of Awesome.

Nothin' like having the parental units in town to obliterate your self-worth.


:)

fun times.

Because I think that astrology can give you a chance to make better choices, here's the Rick Levine outlook for today:

Saturday, September 27
The cautious Virgo Moon gives us a heightened ability to discriminate between which information is useful and which is not. The Moon joins restrictive Saturn and opposes progressive Uranus, foreshadowing a long-term alignment between these two conflicting giants that's exact on Election Day. We may personally feel the tension between the status quo (Saturn) and the future (Uranus). Which one prevails now or in November remains to be seen.

(So choose wisely. Old fart or new experience. BTW Mercury is retrograde, if'n ya didn't know, but it will clear up before elections... But it will make all the debatorating all the more confusified. And nothing will ever make Sara Palin intelligible. Just sayin'.)

When they invent the self-cleaning house, I will be all over that shit. It will be mine.

In related news, the first visit from family (to see the bambino) is this weekend. Wheee. Trying not to tweak, but not really succeeding. It's supposed to be pretty rainy, so we'll be pretty much stuck inside rather than taking baby and parental units for a walk or a picnic. Speaking of food, what am I going to feed them? Maybe they'll spring for pizza or something. (We haven't tried the take the baby out to eat adventure yet.) gaaaaah. visitors. Can't take the pressure! Erk!

Don't you love it when you can't sleep 'cause your face is twitching from lack of sleep?

I know I do.

Maybe I'm getting a bit media overloaded... I've been having strange dreams about politics - last week the Obamas were trying to prove that they were regular people and signed up for some dancing contest.. Dancing with the Stars or something like that.

So last night, I dreamt that I won an opportunity to run for President from the back of a cereal box. I was all worried about getting vetted, but then thought, well shit, if Palin can run for V.P....

I can hear the cat hunting for treasure (loose change) on the baby monitor.

Silly pirate cat.

Now she's running to bury a penny in her food dish.

Myaaaaarrrr.

In other news, the kitchen is home to a shiny new refridgerator and our budget is just a little bit tighter, thanks to the crappy dying fridge that was here when we bought the house. Yay Labor Day sales. At least we got a new one before it died completely and left us with a fridge full of spoiled food.

Wheeeeeeeeeee Mastitis!

I know how to celebrate Labor Day Weekend in STYLE.

Whew! Big day for all of us. Little guy is a bit overwhelmed. Mommy is too, sometimes, but Daddy keeps us all calm and sane. Poor kiddo had to have an IV put in his scalp (they can do that???) yesterday to finish off his antibiotic treatments, they took it out today, but now there's medical tape stuck in his hair. That's gonna be fun to take off. Yeah.
And Sam had his first big OMG WAAAAAH! cryfest in front of us, and it freaked out the cat - Rando kept trying to nose in to see if he was okay - it was really distressing to her to hear him cry like that. But she's been pretty good around him so far, playing guardian kitty already, sitting right next to the bassinet.

There's still a lot for us all to get used to, but I think that being able to cuddle him is helping us all to lovingly adjust from the NICU to home life.

Mon: Turn 30.

Tues: get induced to have baby at 6ish in the morning. do de do. around 4 p.m. they broke my water to get the show on the road. OMGPAIN ensued for about four more hours during which I was tripping balls on some meds that were not an epidural - basically I was only awake for the contractions as the night progressed. Three and a half hours of pushing (apparently only one swear word uttered and no real outbursts of crazy says Hubby) um, OW. But nothing doing. Kid was not about to come out.

Wed: Super fast, get it done now, dammit c-section. Baby Sam born at 12:19 am, 9 lb 8 oz, 22.4 inches (that's a little tall, people.) Wheeled into post op, I am still crazy out of it, and the nurses really want to tell me that a set of twins that was just born - their weight put together was the same as my son. Hilarious. not really. Sam's feet are almost too big to fit on the ink stamp thing for footprints. We were rolled into our recovery room, so I hear from Hubby, and then they took Sam to the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) because his glucose levels were too low, and he had to be monitored. So not a lot of bonding time with baby... I gradually come out of zombie coma sometime during the day and we get to start our journeys between floors of the recovery rooms and the NICU for feeding the baby and going back to sleep/get poked at by nurses and techs and doctors.

Thurs: Find out that Sam has some kind of infection, they wanted to check for meningitis and did a spinal tap. I freak out. We're still trying to visit him at least every 3 hours for feeding, and we start earning our reputation for being determined to take care of him as much as we can, diaper changes and all. Nurses on both floors start bugging me to take it easier, try to push more pain meds on me, try to have us take a break or two for more sleep. Since I had a c-section, I had to be in the hospital for 4 days , since Sam had an infection, he would have to be in there for at least 7.

Fri & Sat: Still trooping back and forth between floors. Checking out of the NICU the phrases went from "See you later." to "Taking a break?" the "geez, you're here a lot" implied. Looks like the infection wasn't meningitis or anything major that they could quickly identify. No news being good news in this case. Breastfeeding issues had, sometimes resolved, sometimes worsened. Boobs huge. Everything below the hips hugely swollen. A few NICU nurse issues had - the major one being the first person that I've ever described as being a bitch on wheels. (that issue has been taken care of, she won't be caring for our son again - the charge nurse will schedule her elsewhere and will be speaking to her about the things she said.) Sleepless and on edge because Snoring Monster of the Black Lagoon was in the room next door, practically rattling stuff of the table in our room with the volume and intensity of his breathing. God. Damn. Nurses giving me looks because I should be resting more, and I more often than not leave the NICU in tears because of various frustrations. On Saturday, I told the nurses about the neighbor, and they move us into a room down the hall. My nurse, while helping us move, said she'd have to get a divorce if her husband snored like that. So we were able to take a break and rest. Ah, sleep. Sweet, wonderful sleep.

Sun: Jesus, is it Sunday already? Finally de-stapled and released from hospital, and I only want to go back to see my son. More than for a feeding hour at a time. We should be able to bring him home by Tuesday. But it was sad to come back home without him.

For some reason, Hubby found this hysterically funny, but could not explain why.


more cat pictures

President Obama Continues Hectic Victory Tour

Nice how they manage to both kiss ass and call him presumptuous at the same time.. Don't know why I bother reading political news, it just makes me want to poke myself in the eye.

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

Think Gallery of Regrettable Foods meets Ace of Cakes (or not)

The James Bond wedding cake was pretty cool... The life-sized bridezilla was rather terrifying. But the spelling/grammar/misplaced quotation mark cakes are some of the most "hysterical."

A friend out here told Jer about a place to get spices for cheap http://www.thespicehouse.com , and we got our order today. MMmmmmmm. even the receipt smells good. We got about 4 different curry blends, some big fat madagascar vanilla beans, a nice amount of saffron for a reasonable price, some really great smelling chipotle powder, juniper berries and some ground caraway. Warning: if you go to that webpage, you will be tempted to spend a huge amount of money. But you will get a lot for what you spend, and the quality looks great. I wanna get Suzi the cookie lover gift set or maybe the flavored sugars... so many good things to try!

And it feels as if little Elvis is preparing to leave the building - the doctor says it'll be sooner rather than later from what it looks like. Wish us luck.

There appears to have been some misinformation lately. As impatient as everyone is ;) no, the baby has not made his appearance yet. Evidence seen in the new icon, photo taken yesterday at the National Arboretum. Yep. Still Pregzilla.

The Arboretum was a lot of fun, even though it was roasting out (one of those high 100+ degree heat index days). Fortunately we made it mostly a driving visit. Aaaaah, A/C. Soooo nice.

Ok, hope that clears things up. Of course, now that I've said that, I'll probably go into labor.... *That was merely speculation and not a prediction or statement of future fact, and it should not be construed as anything other than trying to have a sense of humor about the impending date of having baby-ness.*

As Schwa would say, don't look.

Stinker Cat, Stinker Cat
Does whatever a Stinker Cat does.
Attack the bed, at a quarter to 5.
Does she care, no, she's a cat.
Look ooooouuut, here comes the Stinker Cat.


Oof. We're getting very very close. I can feel it. So place yer bets, will the baby be a Cancer or a Leo? I've recently taken to calling him Stretch, 'cause while his head feels like it is about to pop out, his little feets are still stepping on my esophagus, and ribs, and spleen, and he's bouncing around on just about every organ in my abdomen. wheee.