Elizabeth’s Journal

Allergies Return with a Vengeance; and other things

Goodness, the last few days have been just miserable with allergies. Whatever is blooming here in Austin is quite vicious. Last night the only way I could stop my eyes streaming was to use an eye wash, which did the trick long enough for me to go to bed (although not to sleep, since my husband is back in the big bed and snoring away).

Last week was full of drama on Tuesday—at our midwife’s appointment, we found out that unless I can come up negative on a test next week, I’ll have to get antibiotics while in labor b/c my Group B strep test came back positive. Luckily I don’t mind needles. Then our midwife (I think she was having a bit of an off morning) wasn’t confident about her ability to say what position the baby was in and was concerned it had turned breech, which tends to unsettle medical personnel at 38 wks in a pregnancy. With the help of my husband, we managed to avoid an internal exam and got an ultrasound scheduled for the next day (much less invasive technique and one with absolutely no chance of premature stripping of the membranes or introducing bacteria that might cause an infection). Sure enough, the baby was in the same lovely head-down position it’s been in for over a month now. But we did have that 24 hours to practice not being stressed about the possible outcome. We also learned about moxibustion.

Then in the afternoon of that same day (Tuesday), I found out we are getting screwed for yet another year on our homeowner’s insurance. I find it hard to believe that the CLUE database is legal. The industry must pay a lot of money into political campaign coffers. And I’m sure the people responsible for this have a special circle of hell reserved for them by Dante.

Monday was a red-letter day here—our house got cleaned! Thank you Mom! She gave us a maid (actually a team of 3 from Molly Maid) for two months, coming every two weeks. Our house has probably never been so clean. No more dust bunnies in the bathroom, the kitchen floor is actually clean, the blinds got dusted . . . it was like Mary Poppins coming in and waving a wand, because I didn’t have to do a thing except lay out fresh sheets on all the beds, and someone else put them on! I could get used to this. Dale too was most impressed and rather disbelieving to find out it was going to be only two weeks until our house got cleaned again. We won’t know what to do living somewhere without dust all over everything.

Regarding baby preparations, I think we are in very good shape. My bag is actually packed and has been for a few days now. All the baby items have been procured (diapers, wipes, etc.), and the clothes have been retrieved from the attic, washed, and put away. Only thing remaining is to secure the infant car seat in a car. We are creatively investigating the purchase of a minivan (the creative part is the financing), which would make us feel much better about the safety of the car seat as well as its occupants. Should have a decision by the weekend. Dale actually drove the little car (i.e., the Civic) to work today as he’s visiting a Toyota dealership and this way they can give us a definite trade-in appraisal on it; this means he’ll probably come home grumpy from not being in his armchair (i.e., the Pathfinder), which will equal out the day since he left grumpy too .

A couple of days ago we went to the registration roundup for the elementary school where Jonathan is slated to go in August (kindergarten already—doesn’t seem possible!). It was a little mind-numbing, as these things usually are, and the PTA president was a little too perky for my tastes (although at least she wasn’t wearing any makeup), but all in all it was all right. Jonathan liked seeing the classrooms. Dale and I got even more worried, though, that he’s going to be just desperately bored. Looking at the schedule for the day and going over the evaluation form (can your child count to ten? does he know his colors? how many letter sounds does he know?), I think we could accomplish at home in less than an hour what it will take them seven to do. One teacher was speaking to her class of kindergarteners (and since it’s May, most are six and will be in first grade in August) in the kind of sing-song, high-pitched voice that is usually used for toddlers, by those prone to the unfortunate habit in the first place. So now we are looking around again at other options. All the private schools that look good are on the south side of town, for some reason. We might see if Round Rock is still accepting transfers, as they have a program in place for kindergarteners who are advanced/accelerated, and AISD doesn’t. Too many things to worry about!

On the plus side, Mom arrives tomorrow. Yay! We are all looking forward to her company and help. Jonathan hopped up on the big bed this morning and said, “Gram comes tomorrow. That means she’s driving to Wichita Falls today.” (I had prepped him for Gram & Boppa coming together, which was the original plan, in which case they’d drive to WF to stay a night or two with Grama Karl before coming on to Austin—now Mom flies in on Friday and Daddy will drive down when he gets word that the baby’s on its way.) So I reprogrammed him with the information that Gram would be flying in. He said that’s good since it doesn’t take too long to fly. I feel that once Mom is here and I know that Jonathan will have someone to take him to CAPS, lunch bunch, out for mini golf and ice cream, etc., that I can relax and let this baby come. Of course, the baby may have its own ideas . . .

Posted by elizabeth at May 6, 2004 09:14 AM