Chugging Along

So we have some good news: Josh's collar bone is healed! We had so many problems trying to find a doctor that took our insurance and saw children that we actually didn't see a doctor until three weeks after Josh broke his bone....by then it was basically healed. The doctor wanted me to bring Josh back four weeks from then to take one last x-ray, but considering I'll have just given birth and the doctor lives in Brooklyn I've decided to forgo that appointment. We are really sick of doctors! I go twice a week for my OB appts, and we've had to see doctors for Josh, so I don't feel too guilty about one less visit.

Well, I'm now 36.5 weeks pregnant! I can't believe how quick this pregnancy has seemed to go. Actually though, when I stop and think that I was pregnant in August, it does seem like a long time. I still have no real complaints. My blood sugar levels are great: my HbA1C was 5.7!! For those who don't know (which excluding Heidi Nelson and family is probably everyone), that's an awesome number. I'm just so grateful to have been able to control my sugars so well with out a good doctor, and believe me, I know it's not all due to me. I had a lot of help from above. I'm very lucky to have a husband who can give priesthood blessings; they've been so instrumental in getting little Carter here with out complications due to diabetes. The one thing that's changed is that I'm starting to feel a lot of pressure (physically, not emotionally, haha). I don't really remember feeling it with Josh, so I don't know if it means anything. My doctor here doesn't check to see how dialated you are unless you complain of any problem, which I think is really weird. Is it just me? Maybe I'll tell him I'm feeling lots of pressure and that that's problem enough for me to want to be checked. I mean, besides my doctor, who wouldn't check on something like that?
Anyway, going back to the middle of the last paragraph, you might have caught on that we're going to name this kid Carter. We've really struggled with coming up with a name, but we both like Carter, and so does Josh. :) His full name will be Carter Evan Allen, unless he comes out looking like a Luigi or something, but I highly doubt that.
This week is spring break for Ryan, so we're pretty happy about that. We won't be going anywhere due to doctor appts and me being very pregnant, but we are planning on going on a small hike, taking a trip to the Bronx Zoo, and just enjoying having Ryan around. Josh really dotes on his father, and I think it'll be really good for Josh to have one last time where he has his dad to himself.

Below: Josh's first attempts at capturing the life of Ryan and Katie.

Just Call Me Reann...

I've been found out. Blake broke the news early this morning. I might as well tell everyone else...

Bumps and bruises

"Bumps" referring to me ("bulge" is more like it), "bruises" referring to Josh....

So I'm 33 weeks prego right now....nearly eight months!  I'm feeling really good, not anything to complain about, except that I still wish I had a good diabetes doctor..... Lately it's been hard for me to be as strict with my diabetes as I should be because I have no one to report to, except for the resident at my OB's office (yeah my diabetes doctor has seen me maybe twice since being prego), and he (the resident) doesn't know much about diabetes, so when he says anything, I basically ignore it...:) I'm committing to do better this week, though.  

Josh had a little mishap this week at McDonalds. We went with our friends Wes and Holly Carter to eat, and Josh fell off the bench onto his side.  His face immediately starting bruising, so we figured that was why he was crying so much.  He cried a little when we moved his left arm, but when Ryan starting moving it around to check it, he didn't cry at all.  We decided he just probably bruised his side along with his face, but later when he would lean on his arm he'd cry out, so we took him in to the ER just to be safe.  It took about six hours to find out his collar bone was broken....so now he gets to have his shirt sleeve pinned to his tummy (well, the part of his shirt that covers the tummy) 

and walk around one-armed.  When we see a specialist we'll get to find out how long he'll be like that, but until then Josh is doing okay.  He has gotten used to having use of just one arm,but he is a bit more sensitive (not surprisingly) a bit less coordinated, and a bit less patient when he wants to play with his basketball.  Every once in a while he'll cry out because he's hurting, which is hard as a parent, but he's tough.  Actually, Ryan broke his collar bone when he was a little guy, so Josh is just following in his father's footsteps, which is fine with me, Ry's a good guy to follow.

Ryan with 3 of the 4 kids in our babysitting co-op group.  He and any kid will just gravitate toward each other.  Maybe it's because he's so fun.

    Josh and Ryan showing off their fort.

Paraskavedekatriaphobia Anyone?

It means you have "a fear of Friday 13th". To be honest, I had a little Paraskavedekatriaphobia going on today myself. Mine wasn't so much due to the superstitions surrounding the day. It was more due to my aversion to thinking about anti-acetylcholinesterases, parasympathomimetic drugs & Catechol-O-methyl transferase. That's right, I had my first test in Pharmacology today. Not my idea of the best way to start off a Friday.

Being that it is Friday 13th, I thought I'd share some things about it that I learned on my way home from school today.

An aversion to the number 13 can in part be attributed to Norse mythology, as well as Christianity. I guess Judas was numbered the 13th guest at the Last Supper. In Norse mythology, the ever troublesome Loki killed Balder during a dinner party. Yes, he also was the 13th guest. Interestingly enough, Balder's mother was Frigga. One of the possible derivations of the term "Friday" comes from Frigga (Thanks to my 9th grade English class with Ms. Martin).

Friday is also the day that Christ was crucified. (Here's where it gets to be kind of a stretch) Some religeous scholars claim that the Flood started on a Friday, and that Adam & Eve ate the Forbidden Fruit on a Friday. Hmmm.... In classic literature, Friday is often referred to as an unlucky day, a la The Canterbury Tales (Thanks to my 10th grade Humanities class). Also, King Philip had all the Templar Knights throughout Europe arrested on October 13, 1307. You guessed it, it was a Friday.

How about the sports lovers out there? Dan Marino wore #13. Hall of Famer. Never won a Super Bowl. Alex Rodriguez wears #13. Hall of Famer*. Yankees haven't won the World Series since he came in 2004 (let alone been to the World Series). Also he's a cheater.

On a positive note: if you're a Jewish boy you get to have your Barmitzva at age 13!

I'm Turning Into My Mother

My mom is about the sweetest lady. She'll do anything she can to help you out. But growing up, I always thought she was a little blinded when it came to her children. In listening to her, you'd think my siblings and I were perfect. We were, in fact, not.

Fast forward a couple decades. The parental pride cycle has now come full circle. My son is, in fact, perfect. I have become my mother in a sense. However, I have no such dreams of my children growing up and becoming the next Osmond family. Growing up under that kind of pressure ruined my childhood. No, I'm just kidding. I think my mother's dreams of a musical family ended the day I quit piano lessons after only a year.

I apologize that the bulk of my blogging is about Josh. But let's be honest. How many of you want to hear about the intricacies of dentistry? Besides, all the good stories that happen with patients here at NYUCD can't be shared. It would violate HIPAA I guess. It would be doubly bad, since I'm sitting here blogging during my HIPAA training.

Before I get to Josh, I thought I'd share this picture from our Thanksgiving trip to Virginia. I realized that when Katie posted about our trip, she neglected to share it (TL). Katie can be seen here walking out of our hotel room with a hanger still on her coat, compliments of Matt.

Josh is getting to be so helpful, taking out the trash (MR), feeding himself (ML), and even picking out his clothes (BR). He is also getting the idea of smiling for the camera, and loves to look at his picture right after.

He is a lot of fun right now. At random times he'll break out singing songs and doing the actions for them. He will even try and play the piano while singing. His favorite songs are: "I'm so glad when daddy come home", "Once there was a snowman", "The wheels on the bus" & a few others. He also likes to sing his ABC's, all except for Q.

Now here comes the really braggy part. He can count to 10, knows his colors, and can even read a few words! Ok, so I'm just kidding about reading. We'll work on that next month...or not.