TV

Okay, this has the potential to be a long post because soooooo much has happened surrounding our TV drama. I will do my best to shorten it with the CliffsNotes version in the form of a time line. A-hem . . .

November 19th: Notice initial trouble with TV. Call Geek Squad and schedule service. Are informed that the next available appointment is on December 4th.

December 4th: Geek shows up to examine TV. Upon entry into our home, I describe the problem and he (without even looking at the TV) provides a diagnosis and says he must order parts and will return when the parts come in.

December 24th: Still no word from Geek Squad. Call to check on the status of the parts arrival. Find that the Geek in question NEVER ORDERED THE PARTS!

December 25th: Newly ordered parts arrive at my door. (Seriously, one day after ordering.) So I call Geek Squad back to schedule the technician. Next available appointment? January 4th.

January 4th: New Geek arrives to install parts into malfunctioning TV. While working, he fumbles something and damages our power board. Now TV is completely inoperable and he needs to order another part. Says he'll call when the part comes in to schedule another date to install. (Yeah right, like I'm going to trust that course of action this time around!)

January 12th: One week later and still no word from Geek Squad on the new part. I call to find out that the part has indeed arrived and they can schedule another technician to come out on January 21st--my official pregnancy due date.

January 14th: I go to doctor and find that we are going to induce in two days on the 16th. I also get a call from the Geeks with "good news". They can bump us to an earlier date. January 16th! A great friend offers to come sit at our house while I am laboring so that my pesky birthing plans won't interfere with the technician's schedule.

January 16th: I deliver Baby Sarah early in the morning. Michael has enough time to head back to the house for the 12-4 window so that our dear friend can be spared having to TV-sit. By 2:00, there is still no call from Geek Squad and Michael starts to get nervous. He calls to find out that they think we are scheduled from 4-8. Really? He informs them that he has left his wife and new baby at the hospital so that he can be there from 12-4 as they previously scheduled and that he was staying no later than 4:00, so they'd better figure out how to get the technician out to our house ASAP.

Geek Squad calls the Geek of the day to find that he had us blocked out for the 8-12 time frame and since we weren't home when he called, he simply moved on to the next in line.

As you can guess, this didn't sit well with my wonderful husband. He and the technician went back through our little timeline of TV drama and agreed that the best course of action was for them to simply replace our TV. They were going to have to schedule someone to come out and pick up the TV and who knows when that would take place, so Michael assumed the role of "Geek" and delivered the TV to Best Buy himself. As a result, we finally have this:



Ahhhhh . . . . just in time for my arrival home from the hospital. It's amazing how dependant we can become on these little inventions. They certainly come in handy when you need to entertain a toddler while you feed an infant a zillion times a day.

The Geek Squad better be glad it was remedied before I came home. I guarantee the last person they want to speak to about this issue is a hormonal, postpartum female with two screaming kids in the background.

Okay, I am off to watch TV.

About Time

Blogger has really been giving me fits lately. I've been trying to get on and post, but for whatever reason, Blogger is slooooooooooow and won't load. I don't think it's my computer because every other site pops up super fast. It finally started working the other day and since then I've been too busy to blog. Sigh.

Anyway. Any of you heard of a baby being in an "OP" position for birth? This is where the baby is facing mom's tummy instead of her spine. Apparently? This isn't the easiest way to deliver a baby. Leave it to Sarah and I to travel this route. While in labor, I was having lots of back labor and knew that was a sign that the baby wasn't in the correct position so I had the nurse check. Sure enough, she was turned wrong.

When I was having Claire, we discovered that she was turned wrong too, but she corrected herself before it became a problem. This time, Sarah was too big to turn. They tried and tried, but that stubborn little girl just stood her ground. The doctor said she'd give me 45 minutes to attempt delivery before we moved to a C-section. I am glad she let me try, because as tough as it was, we were successful and I avoided surgery.

The next day, the doctor on call came into my room to check on me and the first words out of her mouth were, "You're famous, girl!" Apparently the story of Sarah's birth had more than made the rounds in the doctor's office that day. I'm just glad I didn't realize that it was such a big deal until after Sarah was born.

So now we are all home and doing well. Claire is, for the most part, oblivious to the new addition. She always points her out and says, "Claire's baby!" She'll even give unprompted kisses to her sister. But the majority of the time, she is just enjoying having Mommy and Daddy both home all week to play.

Sarah is sleeping like a champ day and night. I know that will change here in a week or so, but I am enjoying it while it lasts. Her doctor did say that for the first couple of weeks he wants us to feed her every 3 hours around the clock. That means setting my stinkin' alarm through the night to wake up for her feedings. Grrrrr. She doesn't have jaundice so I was really hoping to just let her sleep until hunger woke her at night. However, the doc says that she is too young to be able to do that just yet. Really? I didn't realize that. So now we are getting up every 3 hours until our check up on Thursday. Hopefully at that time, I'll get the green light to let her tell me when to feed at night.

I really wonder if she'd sleep through the night already. Probably not, but you wouldn't believe the stuff I have to do to get this kid to wake up for a night time feeding. Many times, the process of waking her up takes longer than the actual feeding. Sigh, again.

Well, this concludes what is probably the most random update ever. I'll try to be more focused in later entries. I really need to update you all on the TV issue. Quite a roller coaster. Maybe I'll blog about that next.

PICS!!!

Such a serious face. So does every newborn have a "Palmolive Hand Dipping" picture out there?

What are those bright circles up on the ceiling?

All snuggly.

Seriously mom? You've got to get a grip with this whole picture taking thing.

Just listening to my tunes. (hearing test . . . she passed BTW)

Do all hospitals bring you a complimentary birthday cake, or is my hospital just that cool?

Big sister meets and falls in love with little sister!

Note to My Night Nurse

Just FYI: It makes no sense to wake me from a deep sleep to ask me if I would like a you to give me a sleeping pill.

Thank you and good night.
Aims

Baby Sarah Grace Has Arrived!

Well she's here! We ended up not needing to induce after all because I went into labor on my own on Thursday. I know we had friends praying specifically for that to happen and isn't God good?! I SOOOO wanted to avoid an induction and He made that possible!

Sarah weighed in at 8 pounds 8 ounces and was 20 inches long. There is soooo much to post about this blessed event and I plan to do more of that possibly tomorrow. For now, I have gone approximately 40 hours without sleep, no exaggeration. So I am going to crash.

More, hopefully including pics to come soon!

Aims

Birthday

I had yet another weekly check-up at the doctor today. We did a sonogram to check Sarah's size, which is good, but not overly hefty (for which I am grateful!) They did find that my amniotic fluid levels are pretty low right now which is what happened with Claire too. So when the doctor came into the room her question to me was, "Thursday or Friday?"

That caught me a little off guard. I was expecting the choice I would have to make was whether or not to schedule an induction, not which day it must occur. Fortunately the baby is looking good and is not in any danger at the moment. But she said with the levels dropping like they are, there was no need to risk putting the baby in danger when she is already full term. Currently she is measuring 7 pounds, 9 ounces. Who knows if that is correct because these estimates can be off by a pound plus or minus.

Anyway, we chose Friday so that my mom would have time to travel here for the birth. And also so I would have time to do some of the last minute house preparations I have been putting off. I kept waiting for the nesting to kick in to do all that stuff. Apparently? I don't have a nesting instinct. I am completely content sitting around in my own filth. Okay, that is not true at all, but at this stage of pregnancy, I would rather nap while Claire naps than run around the house cleaning everything that bothers me.

I have Michael bringing his laptop to the hospital with us so I can update on the blog once Sarah arrives. I doubt I'll update before then, too much to do to get ready.

Oh and want to know the real kicker? The Geek Squad called the other day and bumped our January 21st TV repair appointment to Friday to help us out. Now? I have to cancel them unless I can find a friend to take pity on us and come sit in our house for the 4 hour window. You know what that means right? Yep.

"Our next available technician can be at your house on February 17, 2012."

Sigh.

Wish me luck!

Letter to The Geek Squad

Dear Geek Squad:

I don't think you realize just how hard it is on a woman in her 9th month of pregnancy to have to live with a toddler and no TV. After our call to you prior to Thanksgiving, I was certainly hoping that our practically brand new TV would be fully functioning by January 12th.

After your first technician came out in early December to assess the problem and order the part, I felt like things were really moving along. That is, until I called back at the end of December to find out that he had yet to order the necessary parts.

I was pleased that the part came in overnight, however, disappointed to learn that we couldn't schedule the next technician until 2 weeks later.

Upon his arrival, my daughter and I were thrilled to see him coming to repair our beloved TV so that we could get back to our breakfast and Sesame Street routine. Interestingly enough, the wonderful technician fumbled the install leaving us with a TV that had a damaged power board. Hmmmmm.

Normally I would assume that you would do everything in your power to make sure that this error on your part was corrected as soon as possible, however it has been over a week and we still have not heard from you or your technician except to say it could be as late as January 21st before he gets back to us.

Again, can I stress to you how much a TV would come in handy to entertain my daughter while I am timing contractions?

Sincerely frustrated,
Aims


Okay, so I am not sending this letter, but once all is said and done, I will be formulating some sort of letter. This is ridiculous, folks. I will say that we are blessed to have a TV in our bedroom. Although it is set really high up on a chest of drawers. So the only way Claire can see it without breaking her neck is to sit on our REALLY high bed. It does make for cute Daddy/Daughter pics though. Here are Michael and Claire watching a riveting episode of Blue's Clues:

"Yes" = "Okay"

So these past couple of days, Claire has shifted her words so that whenever she would normally say "yes", she now says "okay". It is really cute, but we are trying to remind her to say "yes" when appropriate while at the same time checking ourselves to see just how often we say "okay". She's obviously getting it from somewhere.

What is funny to me is when her response makes it sound like we came up with whatever idea she had. For example:

Claire: "Mommy, cereal?"

Mommy: "Yes, baby? Do you want some cereal?"

Claire: "Okay!"

It is equally cute to me when her response makes no sense whatsoever. For example:

Claire: (pointing at her stuffed mouse's nose) "Mouse. Nose. Pink!"

Mommy: "Does the mouse have a pink nose?"

Claire: "Okay!"

I just love the way she is experimenting with her words, but she is also picking them up with such speed that it makes us realize how much caution we need to use with what we say ourselves. Today we were out in the backyard letting Claire run off some steam. While she ran about, Michael and I were playing a very stimulating game of bounce-the-tennis-ball-back-and-forth-to-each-other. (You should really try it some time.) Anyway, whenever I managed to not catch the ball, I would have Claire go retrieve it since my pregnancy girth makes it more difficult for me to bend over and pick up said ball. Well, one of the times she want to pick up the ball, I noticed her diaper sagging which revealed the top half of her bottom. The conversation went like this:

Mommy: "Claire, can you get the ball for Mommy?"

Claire: "Okay!" (actually an appropriate use of the word this time!)

Mommy: (noticing the upper-bum flash) "Thanks, Crackie!"

Claire: "Crackie! Crackie! Crackie! Ha, ha, ha! Crackie!"

Ahhhh . . . . so it begins. I can just imagine all the things she will be echoing to her Sunday school teachers this week!

Rollin' In It

Any of you take advantage of the whole FlexPlan spending with your insurance? If not, this is a program where you can set aside some money pre-tax at the beginning of the year. It has to be used for medical things--which comes in real handy when you have babies at the break-neck pace that we do.

Anyway, at the end of the year they send you a reimbursement check for any money you didn't spend. Being the planners we are, we only take out what we know we will need. So barring anything catastrophic, we get pretty close to the amount we set aside. Need proof? Check out the amount on our reimbursement check:


Yep, you read that correctly . . . 22 cents. Now seriously folks, couldn't they just roll that amount over to next year? The cost of postage was more than the amount of the check. Not to mention check printing and processing costs. Good grief. Michael told me to wait to deposit it until we had another reason to go to the bank. When factoring in gas money, we would actually lose money getting it to the bank for deposit. Hee.

So anyone needing a loan let me know. This new-found money is just burning a hole in my pocket!!

Rambling Update

Well I guess I should start by saying "Merry Christmas" AND "Happy New Year" since both of these holidays have passed since I last posted anything. So I guess I will just do a random update on everything since I have nothing noteworthy to discuss.

Boy did Claire give me a whopper of a bug. I am still trying to recover from the sinus/ear infection that resulted from the wonderful chest cold I received. I am doing my very best to get over this before Sarah is born. Not that I have much control over it.

As soon as Claire came down with a fever I called my doctor to see if they would let me take Zicam. If you haven't heard of this stuff, it is great at keeping sickness at bay, but you have to take it early. Almost before you get symptoms. But I got a resounding "NO" from the doc so I just sat in my house absorbing the lovely germs that my precious little one was spewing forth waiting for them to take control of my body. Now? I am on 2 different antibiotics, Sudafed, Clariton AND a prescription nasal spray. Seriously, is that better for the baby than my taking Zicam to avoid this entire mess? Apparently so.

I will say that trying to deliver a baby while not being able to breathe or hear out of either ear doesn't sound like much fun. Although I will be happy if I can escape this one without suffering vertigo. I've only had one other ear infection in my life and that was while I was teaching 4th grade with Pigs in the Dallas area. I ended up with a grand case of vertigo that lasted almost a month. I spent that entire month teaching from a chair at the front of the room. Pigs can probably remember having to physically walk me from point A to point B at times. It was not fun and I really don't want to deal with that while taking care of a newborn and a toddler. So let's all keep our fingers crossed, huh?

We did go back to the doctor for another sonogram to check Sarah's size. Apparently the 34 week one was really off because she isn't as huge as they had originally thought. More like about 6 pounds 12 ounces right now. (unless this most recent one was wrong and she is about 9 pounds--shudder) But apparently all those fun little contractions I've been having are real ones because I am 2 cm dilated already. We go back on Tuesday for another of my weekly checks so we will see if the progress continues. I really like the idea of going into labor on my own and it looks like that is going to be a possibility now. Yeah!

Claire has really amazed us this past week. She has started talking like crazy. No sentences or anything, but adding nearly 5 new words to her vocabulary daily. It is so cool how it happens so suddenly. It's like for months she is the silent wolf and then out of nowhere she decides, "Sure, I'll try that talking stuff. Why not?"

Since this post is so random, I'll leave you with a random pic of Claire. It was taken while we were putting up our Christmas lights outside. She got bored of all the "fun" and decided to use the dog as a pillow. Notice the rock in her hand? Yeah, she loves to go rock hunting in the yard. Nature's little toys I guess.