...prenatal appointment outcome for today...
I am currently 26 weeks, 4 days
b/p: 120/80
pulse: 80
weight: back to maintaining what I had maintained for the last 6 months, lol.... I think they were relieved I hadn't lost anything!! I'm not sure why I gained the weight back... I haven't eaten any differently than I have been. Perhaps I had more water in me, perhaps their scale was slightly off last time. Whatever, it's back up, which is GOOD.
fundal height: 26 cm... a little small for 26 1/2 weeks, but essentially perfect for where it is supposed to be anyway.
fht (fetal heart tones... which is actually rate in my case, because they don't use a doppler to measure for me): 130's range
They did my glucose screening (ie, for gestational diabetes) and my hemoglobin testing thing...
hemoglobin: 10.8 that's a little low, so I've been told to find molasses that says at least 20% iron on it, and have a couple of tablespoons of that every day, because they want it up near 12, and the iron in molasses is apparently highly absorbable. There's a little home remedy for anyone struggling with low iron, lol.
glucose: 81 I'm told that is a perfect measurement for the conditions under which they took my sugars (fasting-- hadn't eaten in 3 hours, hadn't had anything to drink other than water in the same amount of time)
So, all in all, everything is essentially "perfect". They're not even too concerned about the iron, just want me to find something to boost it up a little, which if I can find the molasses to do it, I should be able to do just fine. :-)
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
Appliances!
We have a piano now! It's not been tuned yet, but there's apparently a very good tuner in the area that gives discounts to teachers, so I'll be able to get my piano tuned for nearly half the price people would normally have to pay for their tuning! I haven't taken pictures of it yet, as we have it covered in a plastic tarp thing to keep dust out while we work on the walls in the different rooms. I'll put pictures up when I do have them.
We also got a front loading washer, and a dryer (which happens to be like... laundromat sized capacity... WOW). They both work wonderfully!! I got four loads of laundry done in less than two hours! Five loads total (one dried on the line, but then it looked like it was going to rain so the others went into the dryer). We were quite impressed, plus both machines seem to be quieter than Justin's parents' machines! We'll be putting them in the garage when we figure out how to stop the garage floor from leaking because the cement pad wasn't done to code and so is right at ground level instead of being 3 inches or more above the ground level. *sigh* Right now the dryer is in the garage, because apparently whoever built the laundry area didn't realize that a 20" clearance is not enough to do laundry in. Justin did most of the wiring for the dryer already, the line just needs to be run through the wall and down instead of just be hanging loosely in the open.
In the process of getting the wiring done, we discovered that we need to rewire EVERYTHING in the house. The breaker box in the house says specifically not to exceed 120 amps, and it's currently running (if I remember correctly) 170 amps. The main breaker is a 60 amp, but the breaker in there for the garage is a 100 amp one, so the main breaker should have been at least a 160, but of course, that exceeds the box's limitation. Right there the limitation is exceeded, actually. Anyway, in the garage, running off that 100 amp breaker, there is currently (I think) 130 amps! YIKES! Whoever did the wiring REALLY didn't know what they were doing!! Anyway, it's become a priority for as soon as we have the money. At least the wire is all new wire so it's just a matter of getting a new box for each building, probably some new breakers, and connecting all the grounds properly and everything. Oh, that's right, most of the wiring is not grounded currently either! Justin's fixing a lot of this as we go.
We now have the bedroom that was blue in the pictures, painted a cheery yellowy-green colour, the ceiling is actually white now, and we've only got the trim, doors, and floor to finish! It's quite amazing to see how good that room looks, and how much larger that colour has made it appear! We should have the room finished next weekend... hopefully on Saturday, and we're hoping to have the masterbedroom painted fully by the end of Sunday... perhaps floored as well?? As soon as those two rooms are done, we'll be moving things in, and starting to live there instead. Just have to find ourselves a fridge!
We also got a front loading washer, and a dryer (which happens to be like... laundromat sized capacity... WOW). They both work wonderfully!! I got four loads of laundry done in less than two hours! Five loads total (one dried on the line, but then it looked like it was going to rain so the others went into the dryer). We were quite impressed, plus both machines seem to be quieter than Justin's parents' machines! We'll be putting them in the garage when we figure out how to stop the garage floor from leaking because the cement pad wasn't done to code and so is right at ground level instead of being 3 inches or more above the ground level. *sigh* Right now the dryer is in the garage, because apparently whoever built the laundry area didn't realize that a 20" clearance is not enough to do laundry in. Justin did most of the wiring for the dryer already, the line just needs to be run through the wall and down instead of just be hanging loosely in the open.
In the process of getting the wiring done, we discovered that we need to rewire EVERYTHING in the house. The breaker box in the house says specifically not to exceed 120 amps, and it's currently running (if I remember correctly) 170 amps. The main breaker is a 60 amp, but the breaker in there for the garage is a 100 amp one, so the main breaker should have been at least a 160, but of course, that exceeds the box's limitation. Right there the limitation is exceeded, actually. Anyway, in the garage, running off that 100 amp breaker, there is currently (I think) 130 amps! YIKES! Whoever did the wiring REALLY didn't know what they were doing!! Anyway, it's become a priority for as soon as we have the money. At least the wire is all new wire so it's just a matter of getting a new box for each building, probably some new breakers, and connecting all the grounds properly and everything. Oh, that's right, most of the wiring is not grounded currently either! Justin's fixing a lot of this as we go.
We now have the bedroom that was blue in the pictures, painted a cheery yellowy-green colour, the ceiling is actually white now, and we've only got the trim, doors, and floor to finish! It's quite amazing to see how good that room looks, and how much larger that colour has made it appear! We should have the room finished next weekend... hopefully on Saturday, and we're hoping to have the masterbedroom painted fully by the end of Sunday... perhaps floored as well?? As soon as those two rooms are done, we'll be moving things in, and starting to live there instead. Just have to find ourselves a fridge!
Monday, July 21, 2008
Work We're Doing
Justin and I spent our weekend tearing out the corners in the brown bedroom and re-mudding them. one of them had been done entirely wrong. I don't think there are many people who can claim to have mudded a wall using handfuls of mud, but I am a person who can make that claim, due to the size of crack in the corner that was done so badly. It's quite amazing that rooms that are not nearly finished and ready to paint can look so much better, especially considering how many white patches are all over the walls right now, but it really does look quite good. I think (hopefully) in the blue room, all that needs to happen now is for it to have its final sanding and it should be ready to paint, which would be nice! The brown room... we have no idea how long that mud is going to take to dry. Probably a week at least. Anyway, after that, it needs sanding, and then probably some more work in the two corners we needed to mud, but then it will be ready to paint as well. Thankfully the other four rooms that we need to work on do not have corners with such major issues!
On Saturday night we were there quite late in the evening, and arrived just in time to disturb (and frighten away) a small brown rabbit that was feasting on some plant or another that is growing on the driveway. We then found two toads in the garden! That's a good thing to have in the garden, so we'll be seeing what we can do to make our garden a little more toad friendly. Then, as I was taking a walk around the yard, I nearly stepped on a small dark shiny creature, which I discovered was a frog when I finally managed to get my hands on it long enough to get it into the light. In our searching, we found that the most likely candidate for what species of frog it is, is some sort of a chorus frog, but seeing as there are three different ones we get in Virginia, and even five of the same one can have completely different markings and colourings, I don't think we'll ever know exactly what kind it is!
Oh yes, and we mustn't forget my *very* small garden that I am working on. I have a whole bunch of pepper and tomato plants, some cantaloupe, and some watermelon plants all growing! I'm looking forward to being able to transplant these gorgeous plants, as they do seem to be thriving quite well. If I recall correctly, you're supposed to wait until your plant has at least four real leaves before transplanting, so I guess I have a couple of weeks to wait. The tomatoes and cantaloupe are just starting to put out their first real leaves, and the watermelon and peppers have really just started growing in the last few days, so they'll be a little slower.
On Saturday night we were there quite late in the evening, and arrived just in time to disturb (and frighten away) a small brown rabbit that was feasting on some plant or another that is growing on the driveway. We then found two toads in the garden! That's a good thing to have in the garden, so we'll be seeing what we can do to make our garden a little more toad friendly. Then, as I was taking a walk around the yard, I nearly stepped on a small dark shiny creature, which I discovered was a frog when I finally managed to get my hands on it long enough to get it into the light. In our searching, we found that the most likely candidate for what species of frog it is, is some sort of a chorus frog, but seeing as there are three different ones we get in Virginia, and even five of the same one can have completely different markings and colourings, I don't think we'll ever know exactly what kind it is!
Oh yes, and we mustn't forget my *very* small garden that I am working on. I have a whole bunch of pepper and tomato plants, some cantaloupe, and some watermelon plants all growing! I'm looking forward to being able to transplant these gorgeous plants, as they do seem to be thriving quite well. If I recall correctly, you're supposed to wait until your plant has at least four real leaves before transplanting, so I guess I have a couple of weeks to wait. The tomatoes and cantaloupe are just starting to put out their first real leaves, and the watermelon and peppers have really just started growing in the last few days, so they'll be a little slower.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Our New House
This is the view of the front yard, garage, and house, with the willow rising up behind the house.
This is the front porch. Since I took this picture we have rearranged (and drastically weeded) the garden, uncovered the sidewalk, and removed that UGLY white latticework. It looks SO much better now!
This is the living room. The fireplace is painted with some sort of ugly gold metallic paint which we will be stripping and figuring out how to finish the fireplace properly so that it looks nice instead of being an ugly sparkly orangy-yellow.
This is the dining room, looking toward the living room. To the left of the dining room in this picture is the bedroom that is currently painted brown (the colour will be changing to a blue).
This is the kitchen, or, at the moment, what looks like Justin's work bench, lol... looking toward the back entry. To the right in this picture of the kitchen is the other bedroom.
This is the back entry, where the hot water heater, washer, and drier all go.
The VERY small bathroom. If you notice, on the left of the picture there's the little sink, and then the toilet is right there, and the tub is right next to it. There is hardly any space to move in there!
What we have deemed our bedroom, simply because we don't think our bed will fit in the other bedroom. This is the bedroom off the dining room.
View from the other end of the bedroom.
As you may be able to guess, this is the baby's room. It's a rather ugly colour of blue everywhere, including the ceiling! It's going to be changing to a very nice green colour instead.
View from the other end of the bedroom. Notice the ugly brown door....
A look at the back of the house. Somewhere in here I lost a picture of the willow from the ground... I'm not sure what happened to it!
A look at the garage. The shed is the building to the right of the stairs. The stairs lead to the "Frog" (Finished room over garage).
A somewhat areal view of the backyard.
This is where part of my vegetable garden is going to go... eventually.
This is the other part of my vegetable garden. The two pictures span the space between the garage, shed, fence, and frog deck, and make a pretty decently sized garden space, I think.
Deck and outside of the frog.
Looking into the frog.
Look at the entry to the frog from inside.
Here's a look at the "bedroom" part of the frog.
Look at the other end of the bedroom part of the frog.
The bathroom in the frog.
Toilet...
Shower... without a shower head. We're quite fascinated by how they managed to put this shower in, actually. Though we can't say much for the work they did, this one was quite creative!
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Happy Canada Day!
Despite being in the USA, I DID celebrate Canada Day with my niece and nephew. We all wore red and/or white, and we painted "flags" and had a red balloon water balloon fight. I thought that was sufficient.
After the kids went home, I went to my prenatal appointment. I'd missed last month's because I was in Canada, and it turns out I've lost more weight, which is quite amusing, because no one is really concerned. I feel good, I look good, and the baby is wiggling and kicking like CRAZY, so I'm told that despite the fact that no one could get a steady reading on the heartbeat, the child is definitely healthy judging by the amount of movement, lol. They couldn't get the reading simply because the baby didn't stay still for more than about two seconds at a time every time they managed to find the heartbeat! Oh, and I'm measuring dead on for where I am supposed to. I'm 22.5 weeks today, and I measured exactly 22.5 cm! I guess that's a good thing too, hehe.
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