And Chaos Ensues...

Jan 15, 2008

Ah, December: the month of everlasting joy and chaos. Do I really need to relate much more? Well, yes, I guess I do. It was fun to watch David feel the excitement of Christmas. As I mentioned before, he was fascinated with the Christmas tree and its lights and ornaments. More than once I came into the living room and found him sitting on the floor beneath the tree and gazing up at it. I also wrapped a pre-lit garland around our stair banister and hung our stockings up the rail. David always made sure the tree and stairs were lit, and each time he ascended or descended the stairs he’d identify which stocking belonged to which member of our little family. He was also fascinated with the presents under the tree and regularly asked if he could open them. We attempted somewhat to introduce the concept of Santa; however, whenever he saw one he referred to him as “Snowman.” I guess that’s not crucial to grasp. On a note more true to the Season, we also had fun teaching him about Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, wise men and shepherds as he played with his Fisher-Price Nativity set.

One of our favorite tales of the season: Nathan took David Christmas shopping with him, then, realizing that David could tell me what they’d bought, trained David with the help of store employees to say that they’d gotten Mommy a “football” (the employees thought it was a hoot.) The plan worked, but David also kept pulling out the present for the next two weeks, asking to play with the football.

My parents came up for the weekend before Christmas for a brief visit. It was fun to share David’s excitement with them as we exchanged our gifts on this end. Then, very early on Christmas Eve, we boarded a plane, bound for Seattle. The boys did exceptionally well. On our layover in Las Vegas after a 5-hour leg on the plane, David kept asking when we would ride the plane again. (“All too soon” kept going through his parents’ minds). Thank goodness for our portable DVD player. We arrived in the early afternoon and then proceeded directly to Anacortes. David was very excited to tell his Grandma Nash all about the airplanes. By the time we did Nash family presents that night and Santa presents in the morning, David was an expectant pro at opening gifts, ready to strip giftwrap off anything stationary, whether it was for him or not. It took several days to convince him that there weren’t any more presents. Good thing we didn’t attempt the twelve days of Christmas…


We had a delightful time in Washington visiting family, and even getting a quick visit in with some friends in Lynnwood. On New Year’s Day we finally had all three grandkids (our boys plus our niece Sophia) simultaneously awake and happy enough to do a little mini-Nativity. Daniel played Baby Jesus, Sophia was Mary, and David was a modern-day Joseph; we couldn’t convince him to wear the costume. The scene only lasted a minute or two, but it was sweet nonetheless.
Then on Jan 2 we were back on the planes and back to the grindstone, albeit considerably jet-lagged. The boys adjusted fairly quickly to Pacific Time, but Eastern Time was a hard one to work back into. And of course, to make matters ever more delightful, we all got colds from the airplane.

That Sunday David went to Sunbeams for the first time at church. I can hardly believe I have a Sunbeam now! Nathan and I had to opportunity to watch him on his big day, since we were asked to substitute the 6-year-old class. Perhaps it was a good thing. David seemed to like turning around and seeing us there in the unfamiliar environment.

Then on Wednesday we enjoyed the very great pleasure of a visit from my mom and my brother Preston, freshly back from Iraq and on his way west to collect his family. We took advantage of an unseasonably warm afternoon to take the boys on a stroll through the neighborhood, and that evening got a grand tour of Preston’s pictures from his deployment. Fascinating stuff!

That evening we also discovered Daniel had an ear infection, confirmed the next day at the doctor. Oh joy. Then David started throwing up that night while Nathan was at a business dinner. Even better. I got him all cleaned up and back in bed just in time for him to have an encore act. Fortunately Nathan came home in the middle of the second clean-up and was able to help me get things taken care of. Since then we’ve been battling diarrhea, diaper rash, vomit, and ears, and doing way more laundry than normal. Things get tricky when both boys are crying and want to be held. I’ve managed to master packing one on each hip. Yesterday I took David in to the doctor to see if it was the flu and if there was anything I could do besides just ride out the storm. As I checked in, the receptionist asked, “Weren’t you just in here?” Yep. Round II. Prognosis was that it’s not the flu, but a nasty virus that tends to settle in the chest, so we have to keep our eyes on it. Meanwhile I feel anxious every time David coughs, worried that I’ll get a previous meal in the bargain. A friend of mine recently asked how it was mothering two, to which I must reply, not bad, and even fun, until they both need you at once or take turns being up half of the same night. That’s the hardest part so far. I once again have newfound appreciation for my mom’s sanity with eight.

So anyway, that brings us up to the now. It’s a little late, but up until this afternoon, our recent dramas have taken the time I’d normally spend reporting. I hope things level out soon. ☺ We love you all and wish you the best in the New Year!

Love,
The (Other) Other Nashes
Nathan, Natalie, David, and Daniel

Thanksgiving and the Outer Banks (Again)

Hello Everyone Near and Far,

November was a fairly eventful month for our boys and us. As for comings and goings, we enjoyed our second trip to the Outer Banks just before Thanksgiving. We went down to Cape Hatteras and viewed the lighthouse at night and again during the day, visited the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum, where we learned about several of many shipwrecks off the coast of Hatteras Island, and rounded off our trip with a visit to the NC Aquarium. We noticed several other sights of interest while we were out there but could not visit due to time constraints. We’ll just have to take a third trip!

For Thanksgiving we enjoyed the company of my brother Sean, his wife Jenny, and their 7-month-old daughter Anne Elyse, down from Connecticut, as well as a childhood neighbor, Ann Corbly, who now lives in nearby Wilson, NC. We celebrated our freedoms with good company over good food. The day after Thanksgiving we took Sean and Jenny to Pullen Park in downtown Raleigh, and later that afternoon and evening we enjoyed the company of my parents and my brother Brenden’s family up from Aiken.

David has taken to playing—and defeating—games on the computer. He beat one in two tries that I’d been working on for almost an hour with no luck. He loves to look at digital pictures and videos we have on the computer, too. I’m telling you, he will be a computer whiz. He also likes to draw, more particularly tracing his hand, and he loves hugging and kissing Daniel. One day I was holding Daniel in my lap and David came up, gave him a squeeze, and said, “Dee wuvs him.” Two big firsts here: David said he loved someone, and he used a pronoun (his speech therapist will be ecstatic). Since then he has been prolific in telling Daniel that he’s loved. He tells us occasionally, too. ☺ I also overheard/saw him petting a fuzzy Grandma bear in one of his books one day and saying to himself, “Dee wuvs Ma (grandma). Dee wuvs Ma. Dee wuvs Ma.” My all-time favorite quote for this past month: Daniel was mildly protesting being set down for a few minutes and David went over to him and said, “Baby stop whine!”

Speaking of Daniel, he hit two milestones within a week of each other. He started laughing just before Thanksgiving, and he rolled over right after everyone left. He does lots of ab curls and I’m sure he’ll be sitting up on his own in no time. He’s a darling lad, and he continues to be Daddy’s boy.

Other than that we’re just doing our thing, day in, day out. We bought our Christmas tree this past Monday for family home evening, and David has been very interested in it. Come to think of it, we’ve never had a tree in our apartment since he’s been born. He’s only experienced them at visits to Grandma’s. He usually asks me to turn the lights on if they’re off, and he likes identifying the colors of the ornaments. He also likes picking up needles off the floor and occasionally from the branches. I might be keener on that if the tree was live… but, he’s my little human vacuum. At least he wants to help.

We love you all and wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Love,
The Other Other Nashes
Nathan, Natalie, David, and Daniel

All the Fun of Autumn

Hello everyone!

Time once again for an update. I can hardly believe how time flies. I have contemplated content for this letter several times over the past few weeks and always hit writer’s block. At least I’m consistent. So, since I am struggling to recall what we’ve been doing, I’ll just hit some highlights.

October 19 we went to the NC State Fair. We were excited to go in spite of the weather forecast. As we were purchasing our tickets at the gate it started to rain. We weren’t too phased by it; nothing more than we’d had regularly in Washington and we’d brought a raincoat for David and an umbrella, but not ten feet from the gate it absolutely poured buckets. I think the sidewalks were under three or four inches of running water. We waited under the entrance tent for a while, and then when it let up slightly we made a mad dash until it start really coming down again. Let’s just say we got quite wet, but we had fun at the fair nonetheless. We were grateful for the rain to help ease the severe drought this area is suffering from.

Halloween: We still can’t get David to say “Trick or Treat” or “Happy Halloween.” The closest we got was “ween.” Mostly he would just hold out his hand and look cute. When the Bishop prompted him with “What do you say?” before giving him candy at the ward Trunk-or-Treat, David half whispered, “Please.” He totally melted my heart.





I remembered a cute anecdote after sending this out: I was holding Daniel and David came over, gave Daniel a big hug and kiss, and said--for the first time ever about anyone--"Dee wuvs." A few days later he was looking through his books. He has a touch-and-feel one called "Little Bear, Who Do You Love?" and it goes through all the bear's family members (with different fur textures). I was on my way downstairs from changing Daniel when I saw him looking at the Grandma page in the book, petting the furry G'ma, and saying over and over to himself, "Dee wuvs Ma (grandma)."

Daniel is still growing steadily, and is such a little social bug. He really likes to see people and be a part of what’s going on. His eyes get huge and his little arms quiver with excitement when he sees he’s about to be picked up, and he’ll just coo away while you’re holding him. If I take a few minutes to just totally dote on him, I’m well rewarded with huge smiles and happy grunts. He is an absolute dear.



We finally got a diagnosis for Nathan’s ankle (which, by the way, I erroneously reported as the right ankle. He injured his left. Sorry for the mix-up). Nathan sprained every ligament and tendon in his ankle, and suffered a contusion on top of that. Fortunately only time is needed to help it mend. No surgery. He is now free from the surgical boot that he was wearing and is just working on restoring his range of motion.

Something about fall puts me in crafty mode. I busied myself lately making inexpensive Christmas gift ideas to display for the Relief Society, finally finished crocheting the tote made of plastic grocery bags that I started in May, and have now set to work making window treatments for Daniel’s bedroom. I’m excited to see the final result, and hope it turns out as cute as I envision it.

That pretty well sums us up for this month. We’re excited to head out to Washington for Christmas!

We love and miss you all,
Love,
The Other Other Nashes
Nathan, Natalie, David, and Daniel

Tumbling into a Routine

Hello Family and Friends!

Our month has been fairly simple, all things assessed, but I am amazed at how quickly things get busy, and how fast time flies.

Shortly after our company dispersed, Nathan entered a dark garage on his way to work and missed a stair, crumbling to the bottom with an awkward landing on his right foot. Two days later, he did it again. After hobbling around for two weeks he decided to go see a podiatrist to make sure nothing was broken. The podiatrist took one look at his foot/ankle and said, “Geez, what did you do?” He took 5 or 6 x-rays, and we’re still waiting to hear his diagnosis.

I enrolled David in gymnastics at The Little Gym once a week. He loves going into a brightly colored, padded room and running, jumping, somersaulting, swinging, and climbing to his heart’s content. I’m glad for the hour-long energy outlet that doesn’t require my undivided attention! We also have taken to going to the ward playgroup at the mall once a week. That’s another somewhat contained, padded environment that lets him work off some energy, and I get the benefit of making friends with the other moms.

On September 12 I took both boys in for routine exams (1-month and 3-year). Daniel measures very long (>97%) and rather chubby (85%), while David is still pretty average. I did express some concern about David’s apparent speech delay. It seemed to me that a lot of his peers, and even younger children, have larger vocabularies and clearer speech than David. His hearing checked out fine, but an evaluation by a speech specialist indicated that he would definitely benefit from speech therapy. We start that this week. I’m interested to see how quickly he improves.

At church they wasted little time in extending us callings. Nathan was called as Ward Mission Leader, and I was called as a Ward Missionary. Neither of us have any experience in that field, so it will be interesting for us to learn and grow.

As we prepared to move to Raleigh, I wondered how David would take to all the changes that were pending. New apartment, new house, new brother, new nursery. That was a lot to absorb in a few months’ time, and I was amazed at how smoothly he took everything in stride. It was not long before he referred to the apartment as “home” and when we got the house, the “new house.” A girl in the ward watched David for me several times for doctor appointments or house stuff, and he would talk about playing at Anthon’s house. Recently however he has started to ask about people back in Washington. Are we going to so-and-so’s house; where did they go? He tells me about once a week that he wants to go to Grandma’s house with the kitty. It is hard for me to explain to him that the people he’s asking about are very far away and we can’t go see them like we used to.

David continues to be a wonderful brother to Daniel. He is very attentive to Daniel’s needs, giving him blankets, binky, toys, turning on his swing, tightening his seat belt, patting his head and tummy, and his absolute favorite thing—holding Daniel’s hand. It’s so cute! David also likes to help me put laundry in the washing machine, and fold and put it away afterwards. He’s also very good at reorganizing the cans in the pantry, and putting away his toys when asked. One of my favorite things he does at this age and stage: when we tell him he needs to hold someone’s hand (i.e. in the parking lot) he quickly clasps both his hands together and says he’s “holding David’s hand.”

Daniel is as charming as ever, and even more so since he started smiling. He definitely prefers smiling at Nathan. At first he would beam and Nathan, but give me what my siblings have dubbed “The Brow Furrow” that looks pretty much like a scowl. While I would have loved a few grins in my direction, I was delighted for Nathan to get some favoritism since David is such a Mommy’s Boy. Daniel has since warmed up to smiling at me, and prefers to do it when he should be nursing. I’ll switch sides, and rather than latching on, he’ll often sit and grin for 5 minutes or so before getting back to business. It’s darling, and I have to remind myself not to wish it away even though I’d like him to eat a little more efficiently. Daniel’s well-earned nickname of “Little Squirt” has been joined by “Little Windy,” which he earned after keeping Nathan awake for several hours early one morning. Ah the joys of living in a house full of boys.

Well, such is our lives at the moment. We’re having fun, but we miss you all.

Lots of love,
Natalie & boys

A Tale of Two Major Life Events Colliding

My oh my, how time does fly! My report to you this month can be very long and very short all at once, if you can believe me capable of that. The short version of our lives over the past two months is: moved into the house, had the baby, went to the Outer Banks, blessed the baby. See? I told you I could do it!

Now, normally I would not make the longer version as detailed as I will do so now, but several have told me it’s a fantastic tale, so by your leave, I will share the whole of it. The stars must have been aligned just so, or a full moon, or something cosmic and unnatural to make the timing work out the way it did.

So, the longer version picks up thus (or “thusly” as Alton Brown on the Food Network would say): We gave notice to vacate our apartment by September 15, allowing plenty of time to have the baby, adjust, and gradually work our way over to the house. However, sometime in July our manager told us that they had rented all the other 3-bedroom apartments and ours was next to be vacated. They knew I was due to give birth soon and said they by no means wanted to push us out the door, but if we could vacate earlier they would have a better chance of re-renting it and thus relieving us of our responsibility for rent through October, when our lease ends. We decided to take them up on it and revised our notice to vacate by August 18.

When I went to the doctor for my 39-week checkup on July 30, I was dilated to 4 cm and 75% effaced. The nurse practitioner checking me said I would probably go into labor at any time, gave me instructions for when the happy moment would arrive, and sent me home. My parents were flying home from England that day and Mom planned to drive up the next. When she called on their layover in New Jersey I told her about my progress, and we all figured I’d have the baby within the next 24 hours. Well, I didn’t. We laid low for a few days, every night saying “if we’re not here in the morning…” but I kept emerging each morning, still pregnant.

Finally Mom and I decided we couldn’t just sit and wait for the baby; stuff needed to be done to get ready to move. We set to work, packing the apartment and getting the house cleaned before we moved stuff in. That weekend my Dad came up with his truck and we moved all the food storage and other stuff we’d left in boxes and stored in the third bedroom. Basically we moved everything that wasn’t being used regularly and piled it in the garage.

I went in on Tuesday August 7 (I was due Aug 6) for another doctor’s appointment. I still measured 4 cm and 75%. This doctor (Dr. Alvarez) was absolutely puzzled why I hadn’t gone into labor yet (“Your cervix is so ready!”). He called the hospital to schedule an induction, but they were full until the following Tuesday. Meanwhile they put me on a waiting list for an earlier slot if one opened, and the waiting game continued. I started to feel like giving birth was a myth, and I’d be pregnant forever. Funny how that feeling comes when you’re closer than ever to childbirth. Mom and I kept working hard at the move, starting to unpack essentials at the house so we could function on that end. Nathan arranged for several guys at church to come help move the big stuff on Saturday, after which point we would be living at the house. By that Thursday we figured that when the baby came, he would come home to the house, not the apartment, so we moved all his stuff over and set it up right away. I didn’t want to be sorting through boxes in the middle of the night looking for something. Friday Dr. Alvarez had me come in for a fetal stress test and also did a quick ultrasound to check amniotic fluids, making sure everything was ok before the weekend.

Saturday morning, August 11: Moving Day. I woke up at 6:45 am with a hard pain. I had just rolled over and often felt a similar pain as all my insides rearranged themselves, but ten minutes later, without moving, I had another pain, and ten minutes after that, another. I was finally in labor! When Nathan woke up and asked if I was okay, I said, “What’s our backup plan?” We’d had contingency plans for weeks, covering all sorts of scenarios. I don’t know why we didn’t have one for Active Labor on Moving Day. I guess by this point we’d figured I’d go during or after, sometime when help was organized and in motion, not right before. We were already congratulating ourselves that I’d be around to direct traffic that day. Anyway, Nathan started pondering Plan B while I jumped in the shower. It was not a long shower, but by the time I was finished contractions were about 3-4 minutes apart. We called the doctor’s office at 8 and left a message on the paging service that I was 41 weeks, dilated to a 4 and 75% effaced, with contractions 3 minutes apart, please tell me to report to the hospital. The on-call doctor (Dr. Zimmerman) phoned back and asked when my last appointment was (“Yesterday”) and did they check my cervix then? (“Uh, no, but they checked me on Tuesday”) He asked me to meet him at the office in an hour so he could check me. I said ok—it took 40 minutes to get there anyway—but the whole time I was wondering why he wanted to check me since his fellow practitioners were telling me I was good to go.

We decided to call a friend to take David, have Mom drive me down there, while Nathan went to pick up our rental truck and organize the help before joining us. I sat down to wait out the 15 minutes or so before it was time to leave, but my contractions were now about 2 minutes apart, and we weren’t sure I’d last an hour. We called the doctor back, but he still said to meet him at the office. Nathan looked at me and said to just go, so we did. Mom and I got to the doctor’s office 10 minutes early and had to wait in the parking lot for Dr. Zimmerman to show up and unlock the building. When he pulled up he took one look at me leaning against the car, working my way through a contraction, and said, “I should have sent you to the hospital. I thought your message said you were 31 weeks.” That explained a lot! He decided to go ahead and check me, since we were there, to skip a step at the hospital. I was almost to 7 cm. Fortunately the hospital was across the street. They met me with a wheel chair and got right down to business. I guess I got there just before 10.

Meanwhile Nathan went to pick up the truck, only to be told they didn’t have a truck available in the size he reserved online. They had a bigger truck, but Nathan knew it would be too difficult to maneuver in our parking lot. Finally he said, “Look, I just bought a house, we’re trying to move today, and my wife’s in labor in the hospital. I’ve got enough stress in my life right now, help me out!” The guy in line behind him laughed, said his stuff could wait, and gave up his truck for Nathan.

Around 11 the doctor said we were almost ready to push, so we called Nathan to join us. No one had shown up yet to help move, but he left a note on the door and came down. Five pushes later, at 11:52 am, Daniel Taylor Nash was born. He weighed 9 lb 2 oz and was 21.5 inches long.

What amazed us about Daniel from the start was how calm, alert, and strong he is. He was very content, as we held him for the first time, and followed the sound of Nathan’s voice as he walked back and forth around the bed. He started attempting to lift his head, and just lay there with big open eyes looking around for a couple hours, even while they were cleaning him up and doing all their pokes and tests.

We all oohed and aahed and gave hugs and kisses after he was born, then Mom and Nathan decided there wasn’t much left for them to do at the hospital so they left to go make the move happen. Nathan called the Elder’s Quorum President from our new ward for an extra pair of muscles, since we still didn’t have any help from the old ward, and the two of them moved the big stuff down all our stairs all by their lonesome. Nathan and Mom finished moving stuff on Monday, and when Daniel and I were discharged from the hospital that evening, we came home to the new house. How fun!

Ok, so that was the end of the fantastic tale. I’ll work on brevity now for the rest of my update.

We hadn’t been in the house two weeks before we had our first homeowners’ adventure. I noticed a discoloration on the ceiling below the master bath, and found that it was wet. A visit from the plumber revealed that missing grout and poor seals around the shower surround and drain were the source. At least we didn’t have to open up the ceiling! Nathan took on his first handy-husband job and re-grouted and re-caulked the shower himself. I was so proud of him!

We enjoyed another visit from Nathan’s family, in town for Daniel’s blessing on Sept 2. Mom Nash and Bethany came August 24th and stayed with us for a week before Dad Nash joined us. That Friday (31st) we took them to the Outer Banks, where we toured the Lost Colony at Fort Raleigh, the Bodie Island Lighthouse, and Kitty Hawk. We also did a quick stop at a public beach so they could dip their toes in the Atlantic and feel how warm the water is.

The next day we upheld our Northwest tradition of celebrating Nathan and David’s shared birthday over Labor Day weekend. This time my parents were able to join us. David by now has figured out that blowing out candles is fun, and started blowing his out before we had them all lit. By the time we had gotten all the pictures and video done, he’d blown out his candles three times. After he finished that round, he looked at us expectantly and said, “More!” He’d make the Big Bad Wolf proud. Later that night my brother Brenden and his family came up for the blessing as well. I was sad when everyone left on Monday. It was so much fun to have a house full of family.

David absolutely loves the new house and runs, jumps, and climbs all through it all day long. We decided to help him channel his energy a bit and signed him up for gymnastics at The Little Gym. In addition to the benefits of social interaction, physical skills and exercise, we’re hoping the structured activity will help him learn to sit still and follow directions better. His teachers are amazed at how fearless he is on the equipment.

David is also very sweet and attentive to Daniel. He often asks to hold him and very gently pats his head or tummy. If Daniel cries, David hollers “Baby eat!” and gives him a binky. David also shares his favorite toys and blankets with Daniel. It’s been really fun to watch him.

Mom Nash taught David to hold up three fingers when asked how old he is. A few days later someone asked him his name, and he dutifully arranged his fingers and said, “Three!”

Okay, I think it’s time I bring this novella to an end. We love and miss you all!

Love,
The (Other Other) Nashes
Nathan, Natalie, David, and Daniel

He's Here!

Daniel Taylor Nash made his debut on August 11. 9 lb 2 oz, 21.5 inches long, 11:52 AM. Only 5 hours of labor! Yay!

Mayhem cont...

2007-06-05

Things are going pretty well for us here. We're just bobbing along, looking at houses still but not making much progress. I will be very glad to be done house shopping. I'm sure our Realtor is harboring similar thoughts. She'll definitely have earned her commission! We had one house that we were seriously considering, but then Nathan spoke to a law enforcement officer in our ward who strongly recommended we avoid that part of town. That really redefined our search parameters and made us re-evaluate our budget. I feel like we're starting all over again. We had another house—townhouse, actually--on the "good side of town" that we considered, but someone else placed an offer while we were still mulling. Such is the Raleigh market. If you like it, act fast!

As for our Medical Mayhem, my rash is not ringworm, or anything else fungal or bacterial. After examining a skin sample under the microscope, the dermatologist diagnosed it as "pityriasis rosea." She used a common name something like "irritable eczema" or "aggravated eczema" or something like that. I heard eczema in it. She prescribed a 2.5% hydrocortisone lotion to help calm the itch but said all you can do is ride it out. The good news is that it is not contagious or spread by contact so I can go back to a normal lifestyle that involves considerably less worry--and laundry :D. The rash is unsightly, but harmless, and fortunately is looking much, much better.

David is also doing better. Although he is still hesitant to descend our apartment stairs without a firm grasp on our hand, his eyes and ear seem to be better and I see no lingering effects on his hand from the van-door incident. We're still working on clearing up coughs and congestion that started that same week, but those, too, are on the mend. Overall, I'd say things are looking better for the Nashes. I can only say, thank goodness for health insurance!

Pregancy is going fine. I can hardly believe I'm already at 31 weeks. It seems to have flown. Now I just struggle with turning over in bed and getting up off the floor...oh yeah, and keeping up with David when he occasionally decides not to come when asked. "XY" sits really low and makes movement somewhat uncomfortable, plus some of his kicks rather hurt. Nathan is charmingly unsympathetic...he gives me puppy dog eyes and half a smile and says, "Sorry, I don't know what it's like to be kicked from the inside out."

The last two weeks of May found me rather consumed trying to get NC license plates for our van. Our WA tabs expired at the end of May, so I was scrambling. I went and got my NC driver's license, as required, and made several trips to the license plate agency, but kept getting turned away because I inconceivably lost my current vehicle registration (don't ask how, I'm in shock myself) and no other documentation would suffice, with the exception of a copy of the title from the bank through which we have our loan. Problem is, it would take them 10 weeks to get it to us. No can do. I'll have the baby by then and lots of doctor’s appointments in between. Need car. As a last minute idea of desperation I called the WA DOL and asked if they could fax a copy of the registration. No, but they could mail it. I made those arrangements and then decided to just go ahead, bite the bullet, and renew in WA, figuring that by the time I got the current registration it too would be expired and I'd be back at square one. Luckily when I updated our mailing address to NC, I changed my WA address on file to Nathan's parents' house, which reduced our renewal fee by $86 for monorail tax. Thank you, Skagit County! That took a lot of the bite out of having to renew in WA plus register in NC. I had to just park the van for a few days with the advent of June, but today's mail brought both the 2008 renewal and the requested copy of my "current" registration (impeccable timing). Happy day! I have a car again!

Memorial Day weekend we took a delightful trip to visit my brother Sean in Connecticut. He and his wife Jenny just had their first baby in early May. It was a nice drive, albeit a long 10-hour one. Our only glitch (aside from driving through the Bronx thinking we were lost but ultimately not) was that David threw up (on me—lovely) when we were only 20 minutes or so from Sean and Jenny’s. He didn’t have any more incidents, so I guess he was just carsick. My brother Preston and his family came up as well from Charleston, SC. We spent the weekend visiting a few sights including a tour of Yale, where Sean and Jenny both attend grad school, but mostly we just enjoyed everyone's company. Preston will be deployed to Iraq in two weeks for an 8-month tour. Please keep him in your prayers.

I think that brings us up to speed. We miss you all and think of you often!

Love, Natalie & boys

Medical Mayhem

No emergencies, thankfully, but I figured I'd tell everyone our latest, which includes lots of doctor visits.

Way back when we were still in Washington, I noticed a dry patch of skin on my leg. I've had a few little bits of eczema before so I just rubbed Aveeno on it occasionally and gave it little thought. As we were driving back East, I noticed in the shower one morning a trail of small red spots on my chest and belly. They were itchy, and Marianne thought they were bug bites. Our hotel in Nebraska was kinda icky, so we figured something must have chewed on me there. Again, I gave it little thought and carried on with life. Over the next couple of weeks the spots grew bigger, more spots appeared, itching continued. The spot on my leg developed a red ring, and then the belly spots got rings--my first indication that the two were related. I put Aveeno on everything in case it was eczema and Gold Bond on everything in case it was bug bites. I started to think it looked like ringworm, but really had no idea what was the deal. All I knew was I'd had the belly spots at least three weeks and they were still getting bigger and spreading. It looked like I had the plague.

Meanwhile I asked around at church for recommendations for a good OB and then scheduled care at a recommended group's office. I had two appointments scheduled: the first what they call an OB History, where I don't see a doctor, but a nurse tells me what to expect in pregancy, office policies, etc. That was May 4. I had a New OB appointment scheduled for May 14 to do all those lovely preliminaries with a doctor, plus my glocose test and RhoGam shot (b/c I'm type-negative blood so my body doesn' reject a type-positive baby). So, at my OB History I showed the nurse my spots, and she thought it was a rash common to pregnancy, but decided to ask a doctor to be sure. She forgot to ask while I was there, but called later and said the doctor thought it sounded fungal. I was instructed to start applying OTC anti-fungal cream and they wanted to see me the following Tuesday (May 8?). Nice--three doctor visits in two weeks.

Friday, May 4: I decided last-minute to go to Aiken for Dad's birthday. David and I left shortly after my doctor's appointment. As we were descending the stairs from our apartment to the parking lot, David took a tumble and somersaulted down a couple of (cement) stairs. He seemed ok, but had a bruise and some scratches around one eye. His eyes watered a lot and I was a little concerned that his eye itself may have gotten scratched. Someone suggested I watch for discharge.

We had a fun time in Aiken, albeit a bit trying. David was obviously out of his element, not sleeping well (or at all some afternoons) and therefore was difficult to handle. It was great to see Mom and Dad and the Brenden clan, though. I also got to see old friends that I didn't expect to run into. We came home on Monday.

Tuesday May 8: Dr. B looks at my trunk and agrees it's probably fungal, but does a blood test just in case it's Lyme disease. Fortunately, it is not. Over the next week I continue to apply the Lamisil twice daily. David starts to show signs of a cold.

Thursday, May 10: In the late afternoon/early evening I noticed that David's eyes were goopy. I cleaned them out only to discover a few minutes later that they were full of yellow crud again. This continued through the evening. As I was getting him ready for bed I noticed that his eyes were now cloudy and the area around them was red and puffy. He rubbed them often and cried when he touched them. Nathan and I decided I should take him to a doctor the next day to check for an eye infection.

Friday, May 11: I read in my home health-care manual that if the eye discharge continues for more than 24 hours to consult a doctor. David's eyes were still red and puffy and he still rubbed them a lot, but the discharge did not continue. I called Mom to see what she thought. She advised me to take him in anyway so we weren't having problems all weekend. We went to the pediatrician that afternoon. By this time his eyes had cleared up considerably--there were only traces of red and puffy, and still no discharge. The doctor looked at his eyes, then checked his ears and found an ear infection of all things! He said the same bug was probably causing both eye and ear problems. Since the eyes were clearing up he wasn't concerned about pinkeye, but prescribed an antibiotic for the ears.

Saturday, May 12: Nathan and I viewed three homes with our Realtor. We really like one of them and are considering placing an offer. We're viewing another tonight (Monday 14th). We'll keep you posted on that. David is looking and acting much better. I don't notice any improvement in my fungus; in fact, it spread to my back and shoulder.

Monday, May 14: This was my originally scheduled New OB appointment/glucose test. I didn't ask anyone to watch David because of his infection, so he came along. I as I was unloading him out of the van, his right hand got shut in the automatic sliding door while he was "helping" it close. Now we know--the doors have sensors in the front to prevent smushed appendages, but not in the back. It closed over his palm from his index knuckle to his wrist, with his entire thumb inside. I had locked the car before shutting the door so I couldn't open it immediately. I had to fumble with my keys to unlock it and then slide the door back. Oh how he howled! He had a pretty deep dent in the top of his hand and the skin was slighly broken inside his palm. I hurried into the doctor's office and asked the receptionist for some ice, showing her David's hand. She ran to the back and apparently had the entire nursing staff scrambling. The "head nurse" came out with the ice for David and looked at his hand for me. He was moving his fingers, so she didn't think anything was broken, just badly bruised. He was more interested in sucking the ice than having it on his hand. Soon he wanted to go play and carried on quite happily. Although he was moving fingers, I noticed that he was having a little trouble with his pincer grasp on his right hand, and he held his thumb at a funny angle. He did use it to apply pressure to a lamp switch without complaint, but he had to use his other thumb to actually turn the lamp on. I'm wondering how much is just tenderness from bruising and how much is cause for concern. As the afternoon has progressed he seems to be okay with everything. Just now I bent and wiggled his thumb without any fuss or flinch (thank my lucky stars!).

The actual doctor's appointment was okay, but rather long. When it was all said and done, I had been there for two and a half hours and chased David down about every hallway they had. This doctor said since my fungus has spread even with a week of treatment, I should see a dermatologist, and soon. He also said with my history or David being an early baby, I really shouldn't go to the family reunion in Aiken at that stage of pregnancy. It wasn't a firm "absolutely not," but he wasn't encouraging by any means. As a rule their office doesn't want patients to travel farther than 2 hours from Raleigh after 34 weeks. I will hit 34 weeks during the reunion. I'm going to double check at a later visit and see if I can at least do the weekend for the family picture (if that's still on) since technically I won't be 34 weeks yet, but the Charleston portion is out for me--that part I'm sure is doctor's orders.

I had a little trouble with my glucose test. When I first arrived (after taking care of David's hand) they gave me the glucola and a timer. They said when the timer goes off in an hour, go to the lab and get your blood drawn. I visited with the doc, scheduled my next appointment, and discussed insurance coverage in billing. I finished talking to the billing department with 5 minutes to go, so she walked me to the lab waiting area. I was left with the impression that the lab tech would call me when she was ready for me. My timer beeped and I waited...and waited....and waited. Three other women came and went from the lab while I sat there. Eventually a nurse asked me how much longer I had on my timer. I told her that it rang half an hour ago and I was waiting for the lab tech. Oops, I was supposed to tell her when my timer rang. They weren't sure if it was too late for an accurate test, but the doc said to draw the blood anyway and if it came back abnormal they'd do it again at my next visit. Lovely. I felt so stupid!

So, as if we hadn't seen doctors enough in the past two weeks, in the next two weeks we're looking at another OB visit, a dermatologist appointment, maybe a pediatrician for a smashed hand, plus since my WA tags expire at the end of the month, I have to get my NC driver's license so I can apply for NC plates. We're also planning to head up to Sean and Jenny's for Memorial Day weekend. I'm just glad that I'm not trying to dance around a work schedule, as well. Never a dull moment in the Nash household!

Well, I do believe that brings us up to speed. We love all y'all!

Natalie & boys