House, houses, and more houses...

So, the fam and I spent the day yesterday driving around looking at houses. My parents are hellbent on moving out of Kennett Borough, and Kennett is $$, so why stay. So around 11am my mom and I went to look at houses in Wilmington...

First we looked at this one. Not bad, cute red house, decent size. Needs some work, and there's NO parking around. I don't know about you, but lugging three kids and groceries a block or so does not sound like much fun to me.

So we went around the corner to this one. It was cute. That's about all it had going for it. The price was a giveaway lol. This house is one block away from a not so desirable neighborhood. My mother said that Ed and I were welcome to move there but she'd be damned if I was taking her grandkids. I'm guessing that's a veto.

So we went to look at this cute one. I'm NOT a fan of rowhomes/twins (remind me to tell you the story of the neighbors from hell, Gail and Jose), but it was so CUTE! Isn't it?!? Yeah. They can do WONDERS with digital photography in this day and age, I'm telling you.

So we gave up on Wilmington. Came home, mom went home, and Ed and the fam and I piled in the car to go look up towards Coatesville. First we went up the back roads to this house. We're driving up there and Ed's saying he can live in that area, away from everything... overlooking the Brandywine... then we turned the corner. Cute house, I'll give it that. Overlooking the Brandywine, definitely. Overlooking as in open a window and look down - there's the Brandywine. Overlooking as in you sure as hell better have GOOD flood insurance, because you're going to need it. And if we could overlook (ha ha) the close proximity of the Brandywine, I definitely was not overlooking the close proximity of the fire station. That first picture on the listing? I think the photographer had his back up against the fire truck when he took it. Having lived across the street from a fire siren in Kennett for a few years, I had to decline living across the street from the whole station.

So we went into the town (city?) of Coatesville. Saw a few that were not going to happen whatsoever. Then we saw this one. I like it. Needs a little work, but nothing too big (that we could see from the street, of course. Who knows though, there could be a swimming pool in the basement, and not the good kind of pool.) So that one went on the "haven't totally ruled it out" list.

Then we went over a couple of blocks to a really cute neighborhood and found this one. Definite fixer-upper. It's missing a window or two. But, I'm married to a guy who used to do windows for a living, so that's not a HUGE problem, just a on the larger side of medium problem. But it's in a nice area. Location, location, location. Who needs windows when you have location?? I think Ed said we do.

So we kept looking. Found some other houses, like the one on the busy road next door to Kingdom Hall, and then on our way home we drove by this one. I think I've stopped laughing. It was ok, we drove by, then turned around. HA! IT WAS MISSING HALF THE HOUSE! That was a big old hell no. Even Keith said "mom, that house is missing its wall!" Oh, and it was next door to the steel mill. Price - you can tell by the price (but I think 104,000 is too high for a house missing its right side).

So that was our weekend excitement. I think we're going to check out Lancaster next lol.

UBA4C

Update: She had her baby!

So I've been watching this thread on MDC, which has since been deleted. It's about a woman who is currently 40 weeks pregnant and has had 4 previous cesareans and now has her OBs all up in arms and is currently planning an unassisted birth. Interesting read.

Note: don't read the thread unless you have an hour or two - the last time I checked it was at post #665 and no baby yet.

Second note: no mom, I'm not planning an unassisted birth. Not my cup of tea.

Update: So, I'm hooked. I need to do things like, say, clean my house, but oh no, I'm sitting here reading MDC. I found another thread about the same mom/birth/OBs here, and according to one poster (not the original poster), the original poster had a T incision with at least one of her cesareans. However, that was pointed out on page 6 right when name calling started and the thread got shut down, so I don't know for sure if it's just someone with their info messed up or for real. So I found some other threads (yes, you'll need a whole day to read all this!)

Her decision to not have a repeat cesarean

A bit about what her OB/midwife said about her scar tissue

AHA! I FOUND IT!

So yeah, that makes things more interesting. Risks of VBACs are higher with a vertical incision as opposed to a transverse incision. I don't have the actual numbers in front of me, but if you google something like VBAC transverse incision rate you'll probably find the transverse rates and likewise - just substitute vertical to get the vertical incision rates. Maybe if I get motivated later I'll look them up :)

Update #2: From Anne Frey's Holistic Midwifery:

As far as the type of incision goes, the mother who has a low transverse uterine incision is at the lowest risk for scar-related problems such as dehiscence and rupture. Those with classical or T-shaped incisions are at more risk for rupture, which tends to be more traumatic than the usually benign scar disruptions which occur in women with low transverse incisions. While some types of incisions pose more risk, the highest risk is still probably around 5% (some scars are more rare and limited data is available. From looking at the existing data, 5% seems to me a generous estimate of risk for all types of Cesarean scars, with the order of risk as follows: low transverse [0.5% Haq, 1988; to 2% Clark, 1988], low vertical [1.3% Enkin, 1989], classical and inverted T [probably about the same for both: 2.2% to 4%, depending on the study], upright T and J-incision [probably somewhat higher, but no specific data is available].). Women with an upright T, J-shaped, or classical incision or those who have experienced previous uterine rupture may want to birth in the hospital, although finding a practitioner that will assist them to have a VBAC will be more difficult.

Legos

So. Legos. Keith has discovered Legos, in more ways than one. A few months ago he was over at his grandparents and, being the good grandparents they are, they unloaded all of Uncle Adam's legos out of the basement for Keith to play with. I wish I had the picture - their dining room was CARPETED in legos. And, of course, being the slightly obsessive child that he is, Keith convinced Grandpa that they had to sort out all of the 1,000,000 legos into the original sets. Fortunately, he inherited that obsessive gene from his grandparents, because they still had all of the original paperwork from all of those sets. I think there were approximately 100,000 sets. So they sorted. And sorted. And sorted. Keith wouldn't come home, because they were having so much fun sorting. Eh, whatever floats the kid's boat. Anyways, all that sorting started a love affair with legos. Now, instead of Cars, every time we're at the store we have to check out the Lego aisle. And Keith keeps his different lego creations out on random surfaces and calls them his 'set ups' and God forbid you move one of his set ups.

He also has the toddler sized legos - I think they're called Duplex? I can't remember - it's been a while since I've looked at them in the store. He plays with those, religiously, too. Usually in his room. So a couple of weeks ago, Duplex legos were strewn all over his room, and he was building things (with his IMAGINATION, mom!) and creating things and not picking up the spare lego parts. Fast forward to that evening. Ed gave Keith a bath, wrapped him up in a towel (arms included - this is important), and sent him off into his room to get dressed. Keith walks into his room, trips on the edge of his rug, and with his arms wrapped up had no way to catch himself. So he landed chin first on.... you guessed it....

A LEGO.

Otherwise known as a damn expensive Lego. I hear all hell breaking loose upstairs and thought that Keith was just throwing a fit about having to get out of the bath. Then I hear Ed yelling "AMY! GET UP HERE!" and I run upstairs to see Keith hysterical and blood pouring out of his chin. So it was off to AI DuPont for stitches. 4 shots of lidocaine and 5 stitches later, Keith was mostly upset about missing his favorite cartoon.



(And can someone explain the 'injured Keith pose'? Every injury picture I have of the boy is the same pose!)

Yes, I'm a slacker

What else is new? So I figured I'd post a couple of recipes to make up for it.

One is the amazingly easy and amazingly delicious blackberry cobbler by the Pioneer Woman. That lady can cook! And who can resist the pictures?!? Her cinnamon rolls are pretty good, too. Trust me :)

And the other is...

crap. I forgot which one I was going to post. Damn pregnancy brain! And then after I posted it I was going to go make it, but no, now I have to try to remember what I was craving all of 10 minutes ago. Ugh. Stay tune for the update once I remember....