the name game

so i was working yesterday, and was listening to an opinionated old lady share her views on the names kids have these days. she was horrified because her granddaughter had named her sons, Riley and then... horrors, Ethan. I then struggled to keep from laughing as she went on to say, "I told her, why can't you just call him Bobby! Then I could remember it!"

I told her that i thought Riley was a lovely name, and she sniffed loudly.

"Well!" she said, eying my belly suspiciously. "What are you going to name yours?", as if expecting me to blurt out a name like Melchezidik or something equally ridiculous.

"We haven't decided yet," I told her.

"Oh," she says, sounding let down, like a sailboat that just lost its wind. Now of course, there was nothing to criticize whatsoever. Thankfully, I had other patients to see, so excused myself from the room, before she could start again.

Well, that was easy. Much easier than trying to answer, "Why did you pick that name?" (As if you had just announced that you were going to name your child after some evil dictator). So I think we'll do the same thing we did with Clay -- keep it secret 'til after he's born and then tell people.

i just saved almost 2 grand!!

so i had this cavity in my molar, but the dentist didn't want to work on it until after the baby was born, just to be on the safe side. he said to call him if it gave me any trouble.

well,about 5 months goes by, without any problems, them my tooth breaks. of course, all of this happens on a weekend, when the dentist isn't open. my tooth being in pain, i rummage through our medicine cabinet and come across something called "dental gum" which is some stupid wax substance filled with benzocaine (or something similar) to kill the pain. i stick it in the hole in my tooth and immediately i'm in the throes of agony. i managed not to scream, because clay was already in bed, and gingerly take the stupid dental gum out and throw it in the bin. now, not only my tooth, by the whole left side of my face is throbbing. i foolishly take a drink of cold water, thinking that will help. it does not help, and i wonder if labor pain is anything like this (clay was c-section).

the pain is so bad that i start visualizing taking it out myself. i get a vivid picture in my mind of tom hanks extracting a tooth with an ice skate and rock in that stupid movie where he gets stuck on that island for a couple of years. i then remember we have a pliers and hammer in my toolbox and wonder -- if i put the pliers in the right spot, and a get a well placed blow from the hammer to knock out the tooth, if it would work. i decide, maybe, if i'm still in this much pain in the morning, that i might be desperate enough to try it.

i try to go to bed, thinking that perhaps the pain will soon subside, but it does not. then i realize that clay has some orajel in the bathroom medicine cabinet downstairs. frantically i run downstairs like a herd of stampeding elephants and rip the cabinet apart. of course, i can't find it right away. finally, i discover the tube of orajel, and grabbing it triumphantly like it was the holy grail, i almost weep with relief. i slather it on and immediately my lips feel numb and fat. this is a good sign. sure enough, my mouth finally stops throbbing and i eventually fall asleep. i scheduled an appointment with the dentist and discover that the nerve root is indeed exposed and that i need a root canal and a cap, neither of which (surprise!) are covered by insurance. the root canal alone will cost about $900 and the cap (a stupid tiny cap the size of the tip of my pinkie) will cost about $1,000! oh and by the way, it will probably break anyway and have to be pulled in the future, i am told. my other option is extraction. so i tell them to forget the root canal and just pull the stupid thing. i had mentioned the dental gum; he tells me next time i have pain, not to use over the counter products, but to call him right away. i don't mention the pliers and hammer idea. i don't think it would have gone over too well. so i get to have the tooth extracted. i hope they give me lots of novacaine, because i don't want to feel anything.

i mentioned the hammer and pliers idea to my mom today on the phone and she was horrified. "oh, don't," she said. "i get sick just thinking about it!" (maybe that's where i get the weak stomach; maybe its not the pregnancy at all.)

at any rate, we have saved some money. so there's a positive spin. and i discovered something else. that orajel stuff is great.

not eggs-actly helpful

so today we had beans on toast with eggs for lunch. don't ask. its a brit thing. baked beans, on toast, with fried egg. so, i was in a hurry to make lunch and get it on the table. we have, unfortunately, a stove that is ancient, and on its very last legs. the burners and the oven are rather patchy in the times they decide to work, and so cooking is more down to luck than skill at the moment. thus is was, that lunch was on the table, and we were all eating. I was almost done with my egg when and was bringing a forkfull of egg to my mouth when i saw this gelatinous glob of raw egg white hanging indecisively from my fork. well, being pregnant, it doesn't take much to make my stomach rebel, and immediately i knew i was going to be sick.

"well, don't throw up on the table!!" nick said, panicking.

i gave him a dirty look and wished fervently that men could be pregnant.

as i'm being sick in the bathroom, i can hear clay imitating my retching noises, and nick saying in a rather amused tone, "mommy's being sick! don't think you'll be having eggs for a while, mate"

i groan, which seems to be nick's cue to continue. however, the worst seems to have passed - then...

"a little raw egg won't hurt you," he says. "i used to drink 3 or 4 raw eggs a day when i was training," he adds brightly. this triggers another series of violent retching which doesn't seem to phase him.

"you know", he continues cheerfully, as i try desperately to tune his voice out, "rocky balboa drank raw eggs in his health shake too, when he was training. it never hurt him either!"

i finally top being sick and tell him (somewhat icily) to shut it; and emerge, a faint tinge of green, from the bathroom.

nick is grinning and i give him a dirty look before sitting, rather weakly, back at the table. i think darkly that it will be awhile before any eggs are fried in this house. maybe, if the oven is destroyed beyond repair, he will let us buy a new one. do you think he'd notice if, for instance, it was smashed with a sledgehammer in a few choice places? i could tell him i was running with the hammer, slipped on the floor and fell onto the stove.

at the moment, i'm heavy enough; it might be a convincing story. only one burner is completely not working at the moment. i would have to destroy the remaining three; and unfortunately, clumsy as i am, i doubt he'd be convinced that i tripped and fell with the hammer three times.

maybe i could tell him i was trying to kill a wasp and i got carried away. because normal people always kill wasps with a sledgehammer. riiiiight - he'd buy that story. *sigh* looks like destroying the stove beyond repair and inventing a story about its demise probably won't work.

at any rate, maybe i can convince him we need a new oven. soon. i'll tell him the money we saved by me not having to have a root canal (another story) can be spent on a new stove.

and he's right. we won't be having eggs for a while.

on a more serious note

i've just recently learned that a my friend Gen (Genevieve) has been diagnosed with a follicular tumor on her thyroid, and that there is a 95% chance that it is cancerous. she has four young children, and her youngest is 3 months old. your thoughts and prayers for her and her family in this difficult time would really help. it's a pretty scary time for them right now. i can't imagine what i would do if i got a similar diagnosis. it is hard for me to understand why bad things happen to good people, but i am amazed at her determination to keep a positive attitude and find something good out of all of this.

she will have surgery to remove the tumor next week on the 18th, and it will be a pretty delicate surgery. for those of you that pray, please pray that the surgery will go well, and that no complications will occur, that it will not be cancerous, and that if it is, they will get it all and it will not have spread.

thanks,

nora

scrubs

you know, i'm a nurse, so i wear scrubs to work. i'm 5 months pregnant, and there are people that still act surprised when i tell them i'm pregnant. i know scrubs are really shapless and bulky, but c'mom! you gotta be able to realize that my extraordinarily large and perfectly round belly is not due to krispy kreme doughnuts. and then i had someone tell me i wasn't very big for 5 months. oh really? define big, because big to me is any point where you find yourself unable to pick up a pencil off the floor without having to grab something to haul your huge arse back up to a standing position. it amuses me, because other people will say, "are you sure there's not twins in there?". yeah, i'm pretty sure. unless the other one is really, really good at hiding. at any rate, if i had twins in there, i think i would dislocate my hip i tried to squat down and pick anything up off the floor. well, i should go for now, claybear is suddenly quiet, and that is never a good sign. he must be into something and i need to discover what that is.

i think, therefore i get?

ahhh... pregnancy... the cravings you get when you are pregnant. i've been craving chinese food like there is no tomorrow and guess what is opening up soon in our town? a "china buffet"!!! anyway, i'm pumped because this means i won't have to drive 25 miles to get some good food (well, food that i don't have to cook). anyway, baby is getting big. it is starting to get to that difficult part where you can't get back up after you bend over to pick something up. with that thought, i suppose i shouldn't eat too much of the really good stuff. i'll have another ten pounder!

a rare moment of free time...

so i dragged myself away from my textbooks and went to see prince caspian with my mom today. the baby must have liked the music because he kept jumping around during the loud parts. anyway the movie was lovely. however, hormones are not. i got teary eyed about a dozen times. but alas, its one of those trade-offs that come with pregnancy. it was nice to get out of the house and do something fun. i told myself i was going to see it before it came out on video and i actually succeeded. lately my trips out of the house have been going to class... or grocery shopping.

clay thinks we should name the baby "baby jaguar" like on "go diego, go!". hmmmmm... don't think that's quite what i had in mind. at any rate we have like... 4 more months to make up our minds about the baby's name, so hopefully we'll come up with something better than that. :P

right now, we are in the throes of potty training, and i think he's finally ready. except when you ask him, "do you have to go potty," he'll always say no. just because he can. but we've been having alot fewer accidents and that's worth celebrating. my goal is to have him potty trained by the time the baby comes.

well, it's 8:30, and i need to get our little munchkin ready for bed, so adios for now.