35 weeks

I'm not sure if it's a coincidence or if maybe my heart-to-heart with the OB two weeks ago got through to them, but everyone was at the top of their game today for my appointments. I did have to see a dietitian, but it was Georgia this time and I don't mind her nearly as much as Marilyn. She was super pleasant and asked me about my weekend and if I had any questions or issues. She told me I was doing the right things and that the occasional high blood sugar for things like changing my infusion site was understandable and easily fixable.

I had a physician's assistant come in and tell me I was doing great as well and they just want to monitor me but don't see any reason for alarm. She complimented my Excel sheet and said my A1C of 6 was great. (I was hoping for something in the 5s but that test was from a crappy blood sugar period for me and there's no reason to get all Lisa Simpson about it.) They did my Group B Strep test today and sent me off for my nonstress test. That also went swimmingly and I have "great fluids" (I bet they say that to all the girls). Apparently anything over 10 is good (which I think is 1000mL or 1 liter) and I had 15.5.

It was almost creepy how pleasant they all were. Maybe they're scared of me. Which I would be fine with at this point.

I've got one more two week appointment at 37 weeks and then we're down to weekly visits until the baby makes his debut.

Dad's duck

15 years ago, my father lost his job and it almost ruined him. He had always had a job (if not several) since he was a teenager, but his contract job with a fax machine repair company was eliminated just before I left for college. 1994 was also the year Mom got breast cancer. It was a rough year for us all. When you suddenly don't have a job after 40 years, it can really turn you on your head. Dad had a very hard time adjusting. There was talk of getting rid of the pets because we couldn't afford them anymore, selling anything and everything we had and other gloomy premonitions for us all. Over time, though, he rallied when he realized we would indeed make it and eventually his contract job asked him to come back. But it was a long year or so in between.

During his period of unemployment, my father discovered a sickly duckling in the yard. I'm not sure where she came from or how she was injured, but Daddy took her in. He fashioned her an outdoor pen but because the raccoons might get her after dark, she spent the nights in my parents' bathroom. My mother brushed her teeth each morning with a duck to keep her company.

Because I was away at school, Mom sent me pictures to chronicle the progress of Dad's patient. The duck apparently had some sort of inner ear problem that made her fall over and unable to walk well. If you put her in water, she would immediately capsize and would have drowned if not rescued. So my father designed a sort of duck traction device out of a 2 gallon water jug and old pool ladder to keep her upright and encourage her to paddle. There were several versions of this device, but they all seemed to help in her water therapy.

Eventually, the balance issue resolved itself and the duck could again eat, drink, waddle and swim. Unfortunately, as the weather turned cold, we also discovered that the duck could fly. She flew south that winter to migrate with her fellow kind, leaving my father behind.

We worried that Daddy would get depressed once his duck had disappeared, but he seemed content enough that the duck recovered and adapted back to the wild. He did mention once, though, that if he ever found another sickly duck he might clip its wings so it would stick around a little longer.

Recap of 8th Living Out Loud project: Little treasures

This theme turned out to be harder for me than I thought it would be. Teller (of Penn and Teller fame) has a book about his parents called When I'm Dead All This Will Be Yours. The title came from a trip to his father's cellar in search of a flat-head screw amongst all the coffee jars of stuff. While searching for this particular screw, his father proclaimed with a sweeping gesture, "When I'm dead, all this will be yours!"

I think about Teller and his dad a lot when I'm dealing with my parents and all their stuff. So much of it is just worthless junk. But mixed in all of it are some true gems. It's just going to take years to find them all.

You all did a fabulous job of telling us what your personal treasures are, and the results are amazingly diverse!

Candice's What do you treasure? She did a fine job of being able to answer the question of what she would go back for were her home on fire. And after hunting for pictures of myself recently, I have realized the frustration of getting pictures of the person who's always the photographer. So her treasure is even more special for that.

Kim's Treasured Objects with a Purpose Kim has so many things that she has collected over the years, I was curious what she would pick. It amazed me that her treasures are things she uses every day.

Megan's Unadorned I was reading this and Rich looked over and said, "Hunh. She had that ring on when we were dating." I'm not sure if I'm more impressed with what she had to say or her ability to take a picture of her own hand.

Karal's Rock On. Convincing her to write stuff down in a blog will stand as one of my best ideas ever. I found a few rocks of my own this afternoon digging around as well as a 35mm film case full of sand from Los Angeles a friends brought me. Little things like that can mean so much.

Deb's Stuff and Nonsense I think the Christmas ornament is my favorite. Rich has all these treasured ornaments he brought with him to our relationship and I don't really have any. I should work on that.

And my own Treasures have happy memories

I also know that Gina has written an entry but left it at work, so I'll update that once she can post it.

Edit: Gina's entry is here - Living Out Loud #8 - and is a great tribute to both of her parents as well as her in laws. Thanks for sharing!

This month, I choose Karal as our winner as she truly stuck to the spirit of living out loud for this project. I should note, though, that Candice gets an honorable mention for having an item that fits the description of "take from a burning building" worthy.

Karal's prize is a compact flash card for her dSLR camera, to help ensure we see plenty of photography from her in the future. You can never have too many compact flash cards.

As always, I'm grateful for everyone who participated and hope you all enjoyed reading these. I have a few ideas brewing for our next project so stay turned for an update on that within the week!