It's alive!!!

Just a quick note - John and I both had doc appointments today. John's ear has healed. Again. And the baby is still alive! The doc was able to get a heartbeat with the little dopplar thingy. It was actually really loud! That's a huge relief. I joined an online pregnancy group as soon as I found out I was pregnant, and I'd say we've lost half our members. Some had miscarraiges, but for a lot of them, the baby just died, without them knowing. So it's nice to know I've made it through the first trimester without that happening.

I was joking with Mike last night that I should request an "unassisted home birth." They seem to be all the rage these days. No doc, no midwife. Nobody. Just the woman in her bathtub, while her husband holds her hand. Not for me, thanks! It's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Well, the doc had forgotten our discussion last time about how I wanted to deliver at Mac, with an OB, just like last time, so he asked again what I wanted. I told him about how we were thinking of scaring him by requesting an unassisted home birth. He just chuckled and said if I were actually wanting it, he'd be fine with it!!! Ack!!! He's very, very different from my last doc, who lectured me every month about the "granola people" who use midwives instead of OBs, or give birth anywhere but a hospital. And don't get her started on the masochistic freaks who "insist" on breastfeeding!

And then there were all the horror stories. Babies born alive, but without brains. Babies strangled by their cords. Moms who bleed to death on the delivery table. Yeah, I looked forward to those visits soooooo much. Much nicer this time around.

It's out!

Ok - it didn't work. He's supposed to be holding up a sign that says "I'm going to be a big brother." But he wouldn't hold it up. Not that it's a surprise to anyone anyway! Mike has certainly made sure of that!

I finally told my editor that I'm pregnant, which is why I can finally bring it up here - I think there may still be a few people from Burlington who check here now and again.

She took it a lot better than I was expecting - she's stressed, but happy for us. She told me she wasn't going to tell anyone else, but, true to her reporter nature, within minutes of me stepping out of the office, she had told the other reporter, and the managing editor. LOL! Fine by me! I certainly wasn't looking forward to telling any other managers, so I'm glad she took care of it.

One of the ad reps said she knew, because I'm starting to show. And now, the morning sickness has set in (isn't it supposed to END about now?!) so I think I told at the right time! I think the morning sickness is just from being sick. There's a cold going around here, and it's one of those long drawn out kind of colds. It just won't completely die, and it's thrown everything out of whack. John got it too. It gave him an ear infection, or at least brought back the ear infection he had before. Yup, he's on his second round of antibiotics already! It's horrible. feel like such a terible mother, because I didn't take him to the doc right away. I thought it was just the cold, but he just wasn't coming right. But he wasn't screaming or anything, like the last time. Just kind of droopy, but still smiling and playing through the day. The doc said it was very red and enflamed.

Well, he's feeling better now! He's a big ball of energy! I had to go to the grocery store after work. I got a cart, and put him in, but he'd have none of that!! He was not only going to walk, he was going to help push the cart! He grabbed the basket underneath, and helped me push the cart through the entire store, waving and smiling to everyone we passed! It was pretty funny - until he became entranced by the candy corn. I had to pull him away several times; he had a tantrum. I had to leave without cheese. It was very sad. I hate tantrums, and he's really got the technique down pat. He lays right down on the grounds and kicks and screams! Yup, sweet, mild John, kicking and screaming on the grocery store floor, because mom won't let him run his fingers through the candy corn. It's quite a sight, but no-one stares or anything - it gets mostly sympathetic "been-there-done-that" kind of looks from passers-by. I guess I should start reading up on tantrums, now that he's getting to that age. I read once that I'm just supposed to walk away and ignore him. But if I had done that, he would have gone right back to the candy corn. Besides, he seems a little young for that.

Anyway, I had better get some dinner into the poor guy. Now that Mike's on extended shifts, John eats earlier than we do - he's usually asleep before Mike even gets home.

On the strike front - yes, there's STILL a strike front - the contract remains unsigned. The two local reps refuse to sign it. Mike has banked his full 200 hours already, but he can't pull anything out. Isn't that crazy? I wish they'd just get it over with and sign, so the healing process can begin! The guys are still so furious, and it doesn't help that they extended the scabs' contracts! They actually hired a bunch of them as legitimate techs. The scabs are in the union now. How sick is that?

John and other stuff

John out for lunch with Grandma and Grandpa W, when they visited on Friday. This reminds me freakishly of Mike - he built creamer towers for years after I met him. Thankfully, he's outgrown it. John, on the other hand, probably has a few creamer tower years left in him. (Apparently, he made it five high at its peak.)

John's doing great! He had a fun day with Mike's parents on Friday, and they're planning to take him again when they come back through.

I took him in for a follow-up at the Doc last week - the ear infection is completely gone. Doc, as usual, seemed a little offended that I took him to a clinic, but it was a deadline day - I couldn't get time off that day, and what good does an after-hours on-call doc do for an infection? All he would have told me to do is exactly what I did - take him to a clinic right away. I guess I should make a point of using the on-call service at some point. It probably costs them a lot to be a part of it, and they need billable things to justify it.

Other than that, life is chugging along. John is happy, as always. I wish I had more time to spend with him. We never do anything anymore. The mornings are spent in a rush to get out the door. At night, he just wants to go to bed as soon as possible. On weekends, I'm usually working. He's usually with me, but it's not the same. Mike never sees him. John is always asleep when Mike gets home during the week - overtime shifts have started, and won't be slowing down anytime soon. The new division he was just trained for has a backlog of 800 jobs, and he's not even put there every day. He's still putting people back in service, and servicing people who've been waiting for months for a tech, or who had a scab service them, who made their situation even worse.

Most of the scabs are gone. The first wave to be let go didn't go without a fight. There were reports of vans with loosened wheels - even loose wheels on the private vehicles of regular workers. That seems to have ended, now that they're gone. The last of the scabs will be leaving at the end of the month.

On the political front, Mike and I are being pushed out of our board positions. I don't know why I'm so bothered by it. I've wanted to resign for some time, but Mike has begged me to stay on until the term ends, so I don't cause any disruptions. The end would have been in January, so it's not like I was robbed of oh so much time by being turfed this early. We both had planned to leave in January, and reassess what contribution we wanted to make, whether to join the federal board where we live, go provincial, or take a hiatus from politics entirely. I want to leave entirely - this just isn't a good time to be involved in anything like that. I want to run as far away from federal as I can until the next leadership review/convention. Provincial? I don't know. I like John Tory, but I've had enough of politics for a while.

What's happening is, Mike and I used to belong to our local board. It was a small board, with nice people, and it was part of a larger association, filled with more nice people. It was PC back then. It was a small party, filled with nice people.

Then, two things happened. First, the merger with the Alliance, then, the riding redistribution, which knocked us into the neighbouring riding. We knew both boards, but we enjoyed the company of this one and we were asked to stay, so we did.

It wasn't completely the same, and over the years, the people have changed. It just isn't fun anymore. We have this one guy who's been trying to get Mike out since January. He had wanted to be CFO, and pulled out this obscure, never-followed rule about how an out-of-riding person can't hold executive office. The board chose to ignore the rule for the time being, and elected Mike anyway, which I can imagine really frosted this guy off. I was acclaimed - no-one else wanted to be secretary, from in or out of the riding.

Anyway, the issue kept getting put on the back burner, until just last week or so. This guy wants the riding to be able to take credit cards. He has been very frustrated that it hasn't moved as fast as he'd like - but it's a large financial committment, and he can't expect the board to just rush into it. There has to be meetings, with reports, and debates, and votes. It isn't Mike's fault, but he's been taking it out on Mike, because Mike has been verbal against the idea. He just thinks $40 a month is too much money, and from the way the campaign team was talking (this guy is campaign manager), they only wanted it for one fundraiser.

It finally came to a head, because we had a special executive meeting to approve a cheaper version of credit card abilities - only $5 a month, instead of $40 - we approved it, but after the meeting had officially closed, a discussion began, started by this guy, about how we needed an AGM right away, because he wanted a team in place for the next election, blah, blah, blah. Our out-of-riding status was of course brought up, yet again. So, the regional guy, who was there for some strange reason, decided to crack down on our residency, and now we're out. Well, we can still be board members, but we can't vote. What's the point in that? We can be observers? Ooooooo...thanks.

Anyway, I was kind of relieved to be out - I've wanted out for months. But I want the credit card system we approved to be stopped, because it's a three year term, and a major financial committment for the board to take on. I just don't think it's fair for such a major decision to be imposed by an out-going member, so I asked the decision to be deferred to the next regular board meeting, and from the look of things, that's going to happen. This guy has another way to process crdit cards anyway - there was never a rush for this system. He's just a really impatient, impulsive person.

Well, this guy has the gaul to start e-mailing me! He waffled on about how this had nothing to do with us personally, how it had nothing to do with him at all - it was strictly a party constitution issue, and he hopes we stay involved. HOGWASH!!! He's been gunning for this for months, and everyone knows it. How is it that it happened just days after he insisted that HQ crack down on it? Coincidence? I don't think so.

If he'd just be honest, and admit that he wanted us out, and created a fuss so we would be thrown out, then I'd be fine. But no, he keeps insisting that I don't know what I'm talking about and that he had nothing to do with it. And then he starts telling Mike something entirely different!!! Apparently, this has been planned for months - that there were meetings with select board members to discuss it, and right before the board meeting, he had a "pre-meeting" with who, I don't know. I'm assuming the candidate and possibly even the regional rep, where it was decided that if we voted against the credit cards, he'd raise a fuss, and if we voted for it, they'd keep quiet, until Mike set it up at the bank, and THEN he'd kick up a fuss. However, he felt it was unfair to ignore the rules, just because we were going along with something he wanted, so he brought it up right away anyway. Wow - so principled. Who knows if that's true - he was still mad at us even after we voted yes, because we voted yes to a system he didn't want, and it was too late to use for a particular fundraiser he had planned.

I just wish he'd admit to me - not just Mike - that this was his plan all along, and it had everything to do with him, and not just a coincidence that HQ cracked down at the exact moment that he wanted it to.

AAARGH!!!!!!

In the grand scheme of things, it's so small. He's a horrible, vile troll of a man, who I've never liked or trusted, so I shouldn't be so offended he did this; this is what he does.

I shouldn't care. It isn't my business anymore - they've found someone willing to take Mike's job, and he seems OK, and someone will take my job, Mike will concentrate on Hamilton Centre until the AGM, and life will go on. I was going to retire in January anyway. It's just the way it happened, and all the lies and passing of blame that really has me furious. Argg!

Taking a stroll on the soccer pitch! was assigned to weekend photos last weekend - I usually bring John, because he likes to see all the neat new things. He happily sat and watched a good 20 minutes of soccer. After a while, he got kind of ansy, though. so I let him down from the stroller and he walked away! 

John at the antique tractor show last weekend. They had an antique sawmill set up, which Joh thought was pretty cool - couldn't take his eyes off it.


Hoo boy! Where to start - it's been a while.

Well, let's start where we left off. Car is still acting up - that "misfire" the transmission guy has been getting steadily worse. We're really hoping it's something simple, like spark plugs, or those little wires that always seem to burn out that attach to the spark plugs. We'll get it looked at soon.

We made it to Vicki's wedding! It was a day later than planned, but we did make it, and it was great! It was a beautiful day, and John had lots of fun! At that point, he wasn't walking by himself, but he walked holding someone's hand the whole time. He loved the park - he picked petals off the flowers and wandered around the fountain. He had a blast at the reception too - well, until the bee that is. He was soooo excited. The music was pounding, people were dancing, and now and then, someone would come along and sweep him off his feet to spin around the dance floor with all the big people. After a while, he slipped into overstimulation mode. His eyes and mouth were permenantly open as wide as possible. We've never seen him that happy and excited.

Then, the fun came to a crashing end - he stepped on a bee. He screamed and screamed, and Mike's first reaction was to get him to a hospital ASAP, because his dad is allergic to bee stings. We probably would have gone, if we hadn't realized that we'd actually need money to go, and well, had none.

It worked out OK, though. After a few minutes of sitting on the kitchen counter, surrounded by a sea of concerned faces, he stopped crying. Hs foot swelled a little but he was walking on it 15 minutes later, as though nothing had happened. It still managed to take the wind out of his sails, though. After that, he just wanted to cuddle up. We felt so bad for him, because he was having such a good time, but it made bedtime a lot easier!

He was a relatively good traveller. A few episodes of screaming, but all in all, a pleasant trip, and it was good to see some family again.

We got back on Monday night, and it was right back to normal life the next day. None of us had recovered, including John. He crashed when we got home, and slept in the next day. I had to wake him up, which I hate to do. He was groggy for days. I think all that excitement was a little harder on him than we thought, because now he's sick.

He has his first ear infection. We noticed he just wasn't right a couple of days ago. Acting a little off. That night, he woke up screaming his head off. I brought him to bed with us, and he kind of settled down, but tossed and turned all night. The next day he was kind of off and groggy. And sure enough, again that night, he woke up screaming his head off. It was much, much worse, though. usually, it just takes a cuddle, maybe a few minutes of nursing, and he drifts back off. But that night he was completely inconsolable. Wouldn't let us touch him. Didn't want a toy. Didn't want a drink of water. Pushed everything away and screamed even louder with everything we offered. Eventually, we pulled out the Tylenol, out of desaration. 20 minutes later, he finally settled down and let me rock him back to sleep. Mike, who was clearly much more awake than me through the ordeal, thought it was an ear infection, because he was rubbing one of his ears. I figured it was just from being tired. But sure enough, the next morning he walked around holding that ear, so it was pretty obvious that's what was wrong. We kept him doped up on Tylenol until we could get him into the doctor. Had to wait FOUR HOURS at the after hours clinic, because I couldn't get into our family doctor on such short notice. But, sure enough, he has an ear infection. He's been on antibiotics since Wednesday night, with instructions to take him to emergency if he gets worse, and th family doc if he's not significantly better after two days. It's ard to tell if he's getting better. His babysitter thinks he's still crabby. She says he gets frustrated really easily, and is having trouble settling down for his nap. He even cries when I leave him there, which he's never done. I feel terrible. It's hard to tell if he's getting better. He's kind of out of it, but my editor said that's how babies react to antibiotics in the beginning. It's powerful stuff to them, because they've never had it before. We have a tentative appointment set for tomorrow, in case he's still in distress. he was smiling and playing peek-a-boo tonight, so I'm hoping the dose he had at bedtime will do some good overnight, so I can cancel it.

Other than that, things are great - he's walking!!! Like, actually walking. It's like he just woke upon Saturday and said "I'm going to start walking today." It's lots of fun. For the first couple of days, he spent a lot of time going from Mike, to me, back to Mike, then back to me, and so on, and so on, back and forth. He'd have his arms stretched out, and he'd give us a big bear hug every time he reached one of us. That was less than a week ago, and now he's a pro. He wanders around freely, even without anything nearby to catch him. He can turn corners. It's like he's been walking for months. A mom at the clinic asked how old he was when he started to walk. Her jaw dropped when I told her he'd just started that week. He had lots of lead-up, though, so that's not really fair. He's been cruising since he was 8 months old, and he's been taking a step or two at a time for a while now. It still seems very sudden, though. He still crawls a lot - he's still just a part-time walker, but every day, he walks more and more. I guess I had better get him to start wearing shoes again!