Big Honkin' Update

Disclaimer/Update: I started this post on Monday. I'll hopefully get to publish it tonight, which is Tuesday. We'll see. I also intended to have tons of links to help you better understand all the tests, results, and wildness of our week. Yeah, not going to happen. Little tip: highlight a word, right-click on it, and choose

"Search Google for...". 'Cause I'm tired!

Original post:

Holy mother of pearl, it's been a crazy week. I mean seriously-crazy-not-fun-ER-visit crazy week. I'll try to catch you up as best I can, but bear in mind that it's been so nuts that I don't have the four days it would take to do our week justice. Or ten days, to be exact. Starting in order from when last we saw our superheroes....

Father's Day was lovely. Brian worked and I had a nice day celebrating Father's Day with my family. Last Monday was fun because I had a trial run with the new baby who will start here tomorrow, and it was wonderful to get baby snuggles again. The Big Kids have gotten to the point where they don't need me at all and would be just as happy if I let them go outside by themselves thankyouverymuch. Monday was the end of any fun and normalcy around here until....well, some point we haven't reached yet. Brian mentioned in passing that he had a headache Monday night. Then......

On Tuesday morning, Brian called me around 9:55. He sounded terrible, and I could tell he had a migraine and vertigo from the way he sounded. I'm becoming horribly familiar with that sound in his voice. He said he was on his way to the ER. From what I can gather he started feeling dizzy around 7:45 and went to the break room to grab a bite to eat. He was dizzy and had a headache. When he started dropping his food he started to worry, and stood up to go downstairs. He fell, and caught himself on the wall. Knowing that he couldn't make it down the stairs, he called for his friend/co-worker who is huge and very capable of lifting all 190 pounds of him (along with anyone else he happened to pile on, too, as he is very, very strong). Big Guy helped him down the stairs, to the front of the store and into a wheelchair. Apparently at this point Brian realized that he was hallucinating. Or else snakes had invaded the store, which is unlikely. Actually, not unlikely if you know the building, but it was a hallucination this time....

When I arrived at the ER 15 minutes later, Brian and Big Guy were in a darkened room and Brian was barely able to speak coherently, and was still seeing people and things that weren't there. Whenever he closed his eyes for more than a blink he was instantly dreaming, too. When he was taken to back to the ER, they wanted to treat him with meclizine. We knew from experience that when he is seen in the ER for vertigo they just give him this drug and send him home, and that it doesn't help him at all. They did not seem pleased that we refused their panacea. Then they sent him for a CT scan. Upon returning to his little curtained area, he immediately fell asleep. Huh?!?! Who sleeps in the ER?!?! The problem here is that he was asleep and snoring within 45 seconds, and was hard to wake him up. I tried for a while, nudging him and telling him he was officially that guy snoring loudly in the ER but eventually it was impossible to rouse him at all. When I could get him to wake up at all his eyes were going different directions and he made less sense than your average drunk. Soon I couldn't get him conscious at all. I was seriously worried, but no doctors were around. I alerted an orderly (the only person I could find who would make eye contact with me) and he started monitoring Brian. His pulse oximeter kept beeping as his respiration fell into the low 80's. No one seemed concerned at all. The doctor who finally showed back up around 3:00 suggested a spinal tap to rule out an infection.

It took me about a half hour to get Brian awake enough to sit up for his spinal tap. Then he had to lay flat for an hour afterwards. It came back clear, and he was starting to be more coherent by that point. So...they admitted him to the hospital. We reached his room around 5:00. That evening, we met his hospitalist, the neurologist who would be seeing him, and had some visitors. Brian slept well Tuesday night, and I stayed in the chair in his room. Rumor has it that I slept at least 2 hours that night, but I doubt it.... As we've been talking through this whole scenario, it's becoming clear that Brian has little to no memory of anything after about 10 AM through Wednesday morning.

On Wednesday, Brian had every blood test under the sun, an MRI, and an EEG. We waited patiently in his room for the rest of the day for the results and a discharge as he was feeling better. The doctor came around 5:30 and said that all the tests were clear and that she would send us home that evening after the neurologist finished looking at the EEG. I went home to teach two lessons. Around 7:15 Brian texted me to say that he had to stay overnight again. What?! Apparently the neurologist is a very cautious man who prefers to keep patients for 48 hours instead of 24. I'm not sure why no one told us this in the very beginning. Around this point, Brian got a roommate! He was an older gentleman suffering from congestive heart failure who apparently has very little time left. It was amazingly depressing to know this from over-hearing the nurses and doctors and yet realize that he and his wife did not realize it themselves. Because of the roommate, I was unable to stay overnight. We decided that I would work on Thursday so that I could more easily refrain from killing a nurse or a doctor. Brian was released at 5:30 on Thursday evening without ever seeing the neurologist again. He spent his hospital visit playing approximately 6 hours of Final Fantasy on his PSP, watching approximately 36 hours of CNN, one baseball game, and running through two Blackberry battery charges. He was bored out of his skull by Thursday evening, still stressed, and not rested.

The official diagnosis of sorts was exhaustion, stress, and extreme dehydration. Seems a steady diet of no food, caffeine, and 65 hour work weeks will do that to you. Go figure. Brian has been told to drink a minimum of a gallon of water or Gatorade daily, to eat regular meals and not just whatever crap he can find at the store when he has a minute, to get more rest and to have a sleep study to evaluate him for sleep apnea, and to get a new job as soon as humanly possible. The doctors told him that if he doesn't change his lifestyle, particularly his stressful job, then he will be dead in short order. I really, really hope he was listening.

For now, he's still off work (at the time of posting, today was ER Day +7, so that's a huge deal for him) pending a doctor's clearance. His sleep study can't be scheduled for at least 2-2 1/2 weeks, his actual neurologist can't see him until mid-August, and he's hoping to see our family doctor later this week. Thank you all for your calls, emails, texts, and especially prayers. We will be making (more) huge changes around here to de-stress, so we'll keep you posted on our new normal.

Thank God....It's Friday!!

Oh, praise the Lord, we've made it through another week. That's what it sounds like around here, in case you've wondered. And of course, that makes it time for....

Thank God....It's Friday

Praises

We're thankful for having a great visit with Brian's Parents last weekend, and that they had a safe trip back home.

Thank God that Steve's surgery went well, and that is he is home and resting up.

My ankle is healing up and I can almost go up and down stairs like a normal person again. Some of the time, at least.

Thank God for Dads!

I'm thankful that my sweet husband understands when I'm in a horrid mood for no apparent reason, and doesn't mind if my motivation takes a hike.

Requests

Please pray for Stellan. He is struggling with SVT and has been hospitalized. Please stay updated on his situation through his MckMama's blog and Twitter feed, and pray hard today.

Pray for the people of Iran. The situation this week has been partly to blame for my mood. I cannot belive the human rights atrocities that are occuring, and feel that the people are completely justified in their wishes. If only we had exhibited the same indignation when in the same situation. Please remember that no matter what your religious or political views, these are people just like you and me who have seen the direction their government is heading and have voted to make a change. They deserve to be heard and respected, not hunted, beaten, and killed. While it is not in our place to intervene, we must stand with them in prayer and moral support.

Please keep MadHat76's husband in your prayers. He's on the way home from meeting with a specialist in Baltimore all week, and has some less-than-spectacular news. There should be an update on her blog soon, I'd think.

Pray for Sealgair. She didn't ask for it, but I know she's been sick. Love on her a little.

Have a great weekend!!

Not Fit For Human Interaction

Like several small children in my house right now, I am apparently not fit for human interaction this week.

I'm not sure why I seem to have to have awoke on the wrong side of the bed for two days straight.

You do not want me to blog today.

You do not want me to speak today.

I promise to return when I am able to speak nicely to my friends.

I am in time out.

Monday, Monday

Happy Monday, everybody! Don't you love how I say that like I have more than four regular readers? Whatever, I love all four of you to pieces and hope you have a great Monday. At some point, I'll catch you up on our weekend. For now, though, please pray for my friend Steve. He will be having a total hip replacement today. Please keep him and his wife in your prayers, that he might have a safe surgery and a quick recovery.

Thank God....It's Friday!!

Yep, it's Friday! So....

Thank God....It's Friday!!!

Praises

Brian had a safe trip home, and is off all weekend. Yay!

Brian's Parents will be here this weekend. We only see them about 5 times a year, so this is a special occasion.

My ankle is healing nicely, and has really impressive bruises to show off.

Sweet Lizzy's newest little niece was born last week!

Requests

Please keep the following people in your prayers: Uncle Carroll, MadHat76's husband, Sealgair's Uncle Gary, Cozie's Aunt Elva, JustMe's family friend, and Uncle Billy. If you are any of these people or if you know them, please post updates in the comments.

**UPDATE: MadHat's husband is in Baltimore today meeting with specialists regarding his foot. Extra prayers would be apprectiated, I think!**

**Further UPDATE: Please pray very hard for sweet baby Annette. She is battling cancer with all she's worth, and has a fever and possible infection. Go show her family some love, while you're at it!

Safe travel for Brian's Parents.

Safe travel for Little Bro and Sweet Lizzy, who are in the City of Brotherly Love for a bit.

Wow, that's a short one today, isn't it? Send me your praises so the list will grow! Have a great Friday!

10-Day Crash Course in Living Alone

I've learned a lot during the past ten and a half days with Brian out of town. Some of it is very useful, and some of it is just depressing. Some of it is downright enlightening. In bullet form, here you go:

I can finally sleep with the TV off. I started this bad habit ofsleeping with it on when I was single, and I usually leave it on when I'm alone, but managed to do without it most of this week.

Brian creates most of the trash in our house.

I don't cook when Brian isn't here to eat. Maybe that explains the reduction in trash, now that I think about it.

All that mess in the bathroom sink? Not just Brian. When did I forget how to rinse the toothpaste out of the sink?

You never outgrow that childhood tendency to hear spooky noises when when you're home alone. Apparently I am still 11 years old.

Our cats love Brian way more than they love me.

My daycare kids love Brian way more than they love me, too.

The mess in the office? Totally all Brian's.

I can no longer drink a whole soda in a timely fashion. But I tried. A lot. Somebody pass the water, please.

Brian generates 75% of the laundry in this house. I've gone from 8-9 loads per week to 2....

I seriously hate cleaning out the litter boxes, and never want to do it again.

My mama is really good at picking injured people up from the Super-Mega Buy In Bulk Store, taking them to the ER, settling them in at home, and catering to their every Darvocet whim. She rocks.

So does my Daddy, for the record.

When left alone with 3 two year olds and no adult supervision, I will eventually begin talking the ear off of anyone older than 10 who will listen. This is probably annoying.

It's been a loooooong ten and a half days, folks. But my Pepsi Throwback Advent Husband Calender is starting to look promising. Here is what it looked like last night when I got my second to last (penultimate, if you will) soda for dinner.

Only one is sitting on the counter now, ready for lunch. Brian called earlier and is about eight hours away. I am so excited I can't hardly stand it, so I'm off to finish cleaning the house in preparation for the weekend. Have a great Thursday!

Thoughts From The Asylum

Just a few random thoughts and universal truths for you this morning.....

If you pack your child's lunch and place their sandwich in a handy, eco-friendly sandwich keeper, you can probably get away without also using a plastic bag. Thanks for the double packaging!

If your child can sing all the songs on Noggin and tell you what comes on next, she watches too much television. Since she's only seeing an hour at daycare tops (and usually PBS), this means you watch too much TV at home.

Given a room full of toys, books, potato heads, and friends, some kids will still choose to lay on the couch and do nothing at all. Or in the middle of the floor. This same child will yell at their friends for then walking on them.

If you and your wife/husband are going to tell the daycare provider a blatant lie about your child's behavior at home, please get your stories straight. We can remember what we heard at 7:30 when we hear the opposite at 5:30 from someone else, I promise you.

If you take your child to the potty every half an hour, she is not potty trained. You are trained.

Committees exist for a reason. They are not there to simply agree with you and to be ignored when they don't.

Cats who scratched nothing at all when you lived in a hovel will shred walls, furniture, and carpet in the house you love and are still paying for.

Your child does not need applesauce and yogurt in the same meal. He has teeth for a reason, I think.

The child who is bossed around by older siblings will boss her friends at daycare.

All the really horrible things you allow your child to say at home, or God forbid say to her, will come right out at daycare while she talks on the play phone. Daycare providers will later discuss these hilarities amongst themselves, and probably judge you. Not me, of course. I'm just saying.

When you use your Blackberry as a home phone and general lifeline to the world, it's hard to find time for a two hour software update. Thanks for making that so hard, Verizon!

Enjoy your Hump Day, folks. This is my last full day alone!!! Tomorrow, what I learned while Brian was gone. It's been a learning sort of week, hasn't it?

Surprisingly Okay With It

Last Tuesday evening one of my daycare parents told me that she's expecting. A baby, that is. I was so happy to hear it, as I love this little guy and think he'd make a great big brother. And they've done a stellar job raising their first child, so rock on.

After she told me, I had some time to think. I wonder if she was hesitant to tell me that she's pregnant since she knows what we've been dealing with, at least in part. I know if I were her, I'd be a little nervous and guilty feeling to tell an infertile woman that she'll get to take care of my next one. I really don't want people to feel this way! I hate to think that I've made someone uncomfortable or nervous. I am so happy for this family to be having another little blessing, and don't want them to dampen their enthusiasm for my sake.

That said, I do not always feel this way. I seriously hate to hear about yet another person who is having an unwanted baby, and feels saddled by that child. There are so many people who would love to adopt that baby, for the record. But, more to the point, I am infuriated by the fact that people can be so irresponsible and in return receive what I would give my right arm for and am trying so hard to achieve. That's annoying, quite frankly. So is hearing about how much someone's child bothers them. These things tend to make me react like a typical infertile.

However, I would never begrudge this family their happiness and I am so glad they've been blessed in this way. I know that this is not necessarily the case with a lot of people struggling with infertility, and I can respect that. But I was really pleased to discover just how okay I am with this news. Yay for babies!

Felled By A Blueberry

For those of you who don't know me in real life, I am the Queen of Bizarre Injuries.  Well, maybe the Duchess - Yaya Princess is pretty capable of some bizarre ones, as I'm sure she'd tell you herself.  Basically, I fall.  A lot. If there's an opportunity to bust my tail, I will.  I have sprained my ankle numerous times.  I fell from the top of a set of bleachers when I was 17.  I have fallen up as many staircases as I have fallen down.  I dislocated my kneecap last year by falling into my shower.  I once fell in my parents' shower and ended up with a bruise in the exact shape of their soap dish on my rear end.  I am a champ at falling, trust me.  

Also, when Brian is out of town, weird things happen to me.  When we lived in the old house, we had a bad problem with wolf spiders.  I'd link to it for you, but I'm too weirded out to even look at the results.  Google it.  They're huge.  When Brian would leave, the spider-count usually doubled. Considering we used to kill 6-7 daily, that's a dozen spiders a day when Brian was gone. Once, my exhaust system fell out from under my car while Brian was away.  Fell out, ya'll. Invariably, he leave and the weirdness increases around here.  See why I need him in my life?

This weekend was no exception to the rule.  Saturday I had tons to get done, including grocery shopping, baking a pound cake for my cousin's surprise birthday party carry-in, and taking cards to the store where I'm going to sell them.  Running behind schedule, I went to the store to drop off cards and found they were closed already.  So I headed to my favorite Super-Mega Buy In Bulk Store (you know the one!) to pick up some tea tree oil.  I found they had it in the pharmacy a while back and needed some more.  They don't have it anymore, in case you're wondering.  I went bopping toward the door, headed for the natural foods shop a block over. I noticed something squishy that looked like fruit on the floor in front of the registers.  Being prone to busting butt, I was careful to give it a wide berth.  Ordinarily I'm the type of person to report this to the nearest store associate so it can be cleaned up before anyone can fall and hurt themselves.  I was in a bit of a hurry and it never even crossed my mind.  I feel kind of bad about that.

As I continued on past the membership desk, I moved to the left to pass a couple walking slowly. Literally the next thing I knew I was on the floor.  I had felt my ankle turn under, realized that my foot had slipped in something squishy, and landed on my right knee (thankfully, my good knee!).  I was immediately horrified, mortified, and embarrassed beyond belief.  Only about 8,392 people saw me, though....  

People immediately notified the folks at the membership desk who helped me sit down in the food court and called a manager.  Everyone was very sweet.  I learned that when someone falls, the first thing you must do is offer them a drink.  I was offered three drinks in a matter of minutes.  Unless they contained morphine, I didn't need a drink.  About 15 minutes later someone thought about ice.  I filled out an accident report and was assured that someone from Liability will be calling me.  Everyone was very sweet and helpful, and it's not their fault that all I wanted to do at that point was scream my ever-lovin' head off in pain.  I called Mama and she picked me up, offered to take me to get a drink, took me home, and then took me to the ER.  My ankle is sprained, of course.  They x-rayed it, wrapped and braced it, gave me Darvocet and sent me home.  I've been on the sofa or in bed since, moderately doped up. I'll schedule this to post Monday morning, and I should be back to work by that point, if a bit gimpy.  It's amazing what a bit of rest, some ice, an Ace, and a lot of comfrey salve will do for you.

So what did I slip on?  A blueberry.  I know because in the middle of the fruit-squish I landed on was that weird little star-shaped thing that is on the stem-end of blueberries.  Big, huge, Buy In Bulk blueberries.  The really, really hilariously ironic thing is that I HATE BLUEBERRIES. Go figure.  

Can someone please send my husband home before anything else goes cattywampus?

Thank God....It's Friday!

Here you go, folks.  Your chance to make some prayer requests, praise God right out loud, or just take a moment to pray for others.  

Thank God...It's Friday!

Praises

As of the time of this posting, I have made it through 92 hours with Brian out of town.

Theoretically I have not lost my mind.  Only 153 left go, roughly.

It's possible that by agreeing to cover for some other daycare providers (namely Mama) during their respective surgeries, maternity leaves, vacations, etc., that I will maybe have a full house for most of the fall and next winter.  While I'd love to have 5 full time kiddos again, I'll take what I can get!

Requests

Mama's best friend from high school, Cozetta, has requested prayer for her aunt, Elva.  She was in an accident with a school bus recently, and is very injured.  I believe she also had a stroke, if I'm not mistaken, which may have caused the accident.  She had emergency knee surgery Wednesday, possible vertebral damage, many broken ribs, and broken toes on both feet.  Please keep her and her family in your prayers.

Please pray for Uncle Carroll as he continues to struggle with pancreatic and liver cancers, as well as the vast amounts of stuff that comes along with those, like blood clots.

My new endeavors selling salves, teas, cleaning supplies, and cards.  A little alternative income would be nice.

Please pray for people who are grieving.  Most pressing on my mind lately are the Spohr family and the Gorillabuns family.  Losing a child is just wrong in so many ways.

Keep MatHat76's husband in your prayers.  I haven't heard any updates lately, but I'm hoping that's a good thing!

Sealgair would like prayers for her Uncle-in-law Gary and his wife, Anita. 

Here's your chance:  post your praises or prayer requests in the comment.  And while you're there, pray for any comments ahead of you, please! Happy Weekend, folks!

Awesome Opportunities

Recently I've been working on getting ready for some pretty cool things.  You may be familiar with my little online store, Baileys Basics.  For right now, it's off-line, actually.  I'm finding that I've been selling a lot more product in person than I was online.  My cousin owns a local flower shop, and has offered to let me consign my products there.  I'm really excited, and need to build up good inventory to send her soon.

In addition to my Baileys Basics shop, I also have opened a card shop called 3 Cats Cards.  I've been making things like this for ages, but finally have the time to turn out enough inventory to sell.  A local shop called On The Turtle's Back has approached me about putting cards in their shop.  How cool is that?!  So I've been working on new cards and other paper products that are baby- and child-centered. Be sure to check out On The Turtle's Back, too, for great locally-produced kids' products.

Now, if I could only get up the same enthusiasm for making my curtains for downstairs....

The Soda Advent Husband Calendar

On Saturday, our community had a yard sale.  Ever looking for alternate streams of income, Brian and I set out our useless junk Priceless Treasures for the consuming masses. Ever inventive in our search for alternate streams of income, we also bought a ton of soft drinks that we put on ice and sold for 75 cents each.  We have a few (thousand cases of) sodas left over.  Luckily, Brian resists my efforts to make him give up caffeine and canned beverages full of sugar and will have these few remnants consumed in no time.  Not to mention that the bulk of the soda is Pepsi Throwback, his soda du jour.  

As we were cleaning up Sunday night, there were a few sodas left in the bucket, swimming in water.  I dried them off and we took them inside.  Since our fridge is full of Pepsi Throwback and my single-person, I'm-not-cooking-just-for-myself-but-still-need-to-be-low-carb food for this week, these sodas (Cokes, if you're from the South....) ended up on the kitchen counter.  Monday, after Brian left, I realized that there are eleven sodas on our counter.  Exactly the number of days (including the two half-days of travel) that Brian will be gone to North Carolina.  I try not to drink soda very often, and since I found a decent source for sparkling water (which I LURVE) this past weekend I'll be drinking even less.  But I've realized that if I drink one each day, I have a tangible countdown until Brian comes home.  It's an advent calendar of sorts, I guess.  Except one made of Pepsi Throwback, and Grape and Orange Crushes.  

Do you think if I drink two each day he'll come home faster?

One Is Such a Lonely Number....

Yesterday, Brian left for North Carolina. He'll be gone 10 days.  Well, ten and a half days, and ten nights.  If you're counting.  Which I am.  I'm not telling you this so that if you're some weird murderer you can come and stalk and kill me.  I'm not small, I do fight back, and I do have an incredibly large butcher knife.  Don't even think about breaking in.  I'm telling you this so that you can understand what's going on around here, and why I'll be weird if you talk to me this week.  You know, like I'm lonely and missing adult companionship!  Nothing like being surrounded by two-year-olds to make you need an adult, right?

I hate it when Brian has to leave for work.  The Bargain Basement where he works sends him all over the place to open new stores. Luckily, everything so far has been in either Pennsylvania or Virginia.  And a day trip to Maryland, I think.  He had to go to Kansas City when he worked for Circuit City (see the irony?), but that was like four days.  This is North Carolina.  For a week and a half.  One particularly long trip was to Richmond for somewhere around three and a half weeks. It was horrible, but he could come back here on his days off and I visited him down there once as well.  Of course, being Richmond, part of the fun was that the store was in an absolute ghetto and people were often robbed at gunpoint in the parking lot.  While he was there.  Gotta love Richmond.  But now, he's eight hours away, too far to visit, and gone for a long time.  

Mama swears I'll eventually want Brian to be away sometimes.  She lives for hunting season, when Daddy becomes a mountain man living in his cabin and pretending to hunt deer She loves to eat out for every meal, stay up late, sleep in late, not clean house, and basically be single for a week.  They both think it keeps them married, this system having a few weeks a year off for good behavior.  I do not think we will ever get to this point, and personally hope we do not.  I love Brian more than anything in the whole world, and could happily spend 24 hours a day with him for the rest of our lives.  We've actually talked about this quite frequently (he feels the same way), and we're so glad our marriage is so good.  He's my best friend and I want to share each little mundane thing with him. Not having him here for at least a chunk of the day makes my life crawl by in a boring, pointless blur.  If you don't know me, you may not know that I am an accomplished sleeper.  I can sleep anywhere, anytime, in most any position, and through any ruckus.  I'm really good at it.  When Brian's gone, I do not sleep.  If I can get to sleep before 1 AM, it's a good night.  And then it's only with the pillows strategically arranged, at least one cat purring by my head, and with the TV on. Then I'll wake up every two hours until 7:30.  Tons of fun.  It wears on me when he's gone for three or four days, so I can't imagine how I'm going to last 10 days of this routine.  

Before the Yaya Princess and I were married, back when we were blushing, virginal maidens (cough, sputter), (you know like three years ago?) , Brian had to go to Kansas City for Circuit City.  He had never flown anywhere before, and neither had I (I know, we're sheltered). I took the day off to drive him over to the Charlottesville airport, put him on a horribly small propeller plane, and watched it take off for the middle of nowhere.  I will freely admit that I fully expected to see his plane drop from the sky or explode while I stood by the fence crying my head off.  You see, I'm part of that lucky generation that has lived through the Challenger and 9/11.  So maybe my imagination works overtime, or maybe I have post traumatic stress. Whatever, I was scared.  I waited until that plane was completely gone from view, and then I headed back home.  I cried for the entire hour I was on the road.  I called my Yaya Princess to cheer me up.  She travels a lot for work (so not kidding....like living in a different state for a month out of the year at that point), and so does everyone she knows.  I called to ask her how on earth you get used to putting someone you love on a plane, trusting that it won't fall out of the sky and that they'll be back safe and sound. Better yet, in light of Brian's need to do this again in a month, how do you get used to doing it over and over?!  She assured me that it was totally safe, and that I'd be fine.  I think maybe she thought I was a little bit nuts.  She loves me anyway, though, and checked in on me through the week.  

Fast-forward about a year or year and a half. Yaya Princess and her Prince were engaged, and he had to go out of town for business.  Living within spitting distance of three airports like they do, the Princess dropped him by the airport on her way to work.  And then called me, sobbing like someone had shot her cat.  She suddenly got it -- it's a whole heck of a lot different when you put the person you love more than anything else in the whole world on a plane.  Saying goodbye to your boyfriend for a week? Easy.  Saying goodbye to the love of your life for 10 minutes? Enough to make you rend your clothing, break out the ashes and sack cloth, and maybe go on a hunger strike to boot.  She said it was infinitely harder than ever before, and that she completely understood why I was so upset now.  We haven't talked about the subject in a while, but I'm willing to bet it still feels the same way for her.  I know it does for me.  As I watched that Jetta pull out of our driveway I couldn't help but cry.  Forget that my husband is The Safest Driver On The Road.  Hands at 10 and 2, foot ever ready for the brake, GPS enabled and guiding him to safety, always 5 miles under the speed limit.  I don't care, I sobbed anyway.  Maybe I'll stop crying by the time he gets home.  Ugh, I hate business trips!!!

Our Master Plan

Due to popular demand, I'll share our Get A Baby Plan 3.0.  You know, 1.0 was just get pregnant like everyone else.  2.0 was do a little Clomid. 2.5 was see the fertility gurus for a lot of Clomid. So, without further ado, 

Get A Baby Plan 3.0!

We're stopping everything for six months.  I know, a crazy way to get pregnant, you might think. We know that it's either going to take IUI or adoption for us to have children, so we individually took a week or so to think through our options, do some research, talk to the doctor, etc.  Brian said he continually came back to the feeling that we need six months off and then we'll be successful at something.  Since he kept coming back to this same conclusion, we decided to listen.  If God points you in a certain direction, the best plan is to listen to Him.  So, six months off.  No Clomid, only loosely monitoring anything, and just enjoying our Summer and Fall.  If I get pregnant, it's God's Will and rock on with it.  This gives us a chance to heal emotionally, rest me physically, and maybe even drop some of this big ol' butt.  Hopefully.  Gaining 25 pounds on Clomid sucked, in case I haven't mentioned it.  

After six months, we'll try six rounds of IUI.  Ideally, of course, we'll try far fewer and be successful.  If after six trys I'm not pregnant, then we're going straight to adoption.  We know that we want to adopt at some point.  Whether that's for all our children or for children in addition to a biological child remains to be seen.  First we'll try the IUI so we can have exhausted our options and can move on with no question.  

Don't think we'll be spending six months lounging on the beach and drinking mai tais, though. Nope.  Remember my post about preparing for rain?  That's what we'll be doing.  We've been so intent on asking the Lord to give us a child, but not so intent on preparing for that child. Sure, I've done a lot of reading and planning about home birth, cloth diapering, homemade baby foods, chemical-free living, homeschooling, and raising children to serve the Lord, but that's not preparing for the flesh and blood little person that we're asking for, is it?  Our eventual nursery currently houses a twin bed, full-length mirror, spare Pack n Plays for the daycare, all our yard sale accumulations, our china, a drying rack for clothes, and the second litter box.  That's not counting the closet!  Not exactly a nursery.  So, over the next six months, we'll be rearranging a few things in other rooms to accommodate the furniture and "stuff", and I'll purge most of it out of our house.  We'll return the bed to Mama and Daddy, since it's theirs, and start planning for baby furniture.  We've been buying things here and there that we know we want our kids to have, so that stuff will go into the room.  We're not painting or hanging window treatments, but we're getting ready. You know, preparing for rain.  In addition, I'll be low-carbing it, since that is a good way for women with PCOS to drop weight which leads to higher pregnancy rates.  It's worked for me before, and as important as grains are for a healthy lifestyle, it's only a temporary thing for me to do.  Bring on the steak!

The most important things we'll be doing will be gathering information for adoption, and saving money.  We'll be choosing an agency, and maybe doing agency interviews.  We'll be getting our home ready for a home study, too.  Since we'll be saving $135 each month by not going to the gurus, we'll put that aside to save.  And start cutting back dramatically in every area so as to start making a dent in the expense of IUI and/or adoption.  This six months is for preparing and planning, and that includes financial preparations.  So we won't be going many places, doing many things, or eating out much at all.  We're going frugal, ya'll.  After six months we should be able to afford six months of IUI and be better prepared financially for adoption.  

So, that's it.  I know, it's pretty simple and logical.  We have a great peace with the plan and believe that we're following God's will.  At this rate, we're looking at Baby 2010! Thoughts and prayers, and even advice are greatly appreciated. Have a great day!

Thoughts on links:  if you're here because you're dealing with infertility, some of those links might be helpful to you.  I link to things to better explain myself, not because it's the end all and be all of the information I've found.  Like the china link....it's our pattern, but not our registry. If you see a link about something you're interested in, follow it and be informed.  If you need an explanation or a link and I didn't make one, please feel free to comment or e-mail me for further information.  A handful of folks comment on my blog, and I appreciate each one.  But I see a lot of other people are here via Google Analytics, and I see the keywords that lead you here.  So know that I love you, Dear Lurker! Those links are for you!  Later, taters.

Search Me!

Hey, look!  Now you can search my blog!  And not just that, you can search my blog, anything I've ever linked to, any sites on my blog roll, any of the sites I like, and the web all from one little box. It's over there on the right-hand side of my blog, and will bring up a little box up at the top of my blog.  How cool for you?!

This post is scheduled for 12:30 PM on Monday.  The update for our Master Plan is scheduled for 1:00.  Check back!!