[Sarvi]

Perhaps you read only a brief headline. He committed suicide, Ork jokes are possibly not wholly appropriate just at the moment.

Glad to hear that all you moms struggling with getting the best support for your kids are making some headway. Best of continued luck.

[Tamara]

Oh I keep putting my foot in it!!!

[vothgirl]

We woke up at 3:30am this morning to the windows rattling and everything jumping around – earthquake! It was a 6.0 magnitude, so fairly significant. The epicenter was 15-20 miles away in the northern Bay Area. We are all fine, the girls both slept right through it (which I don’t understand – Ellie can sleep through an earthquake but wakes up if we open her bedroom door?! 😛 ), and there was no damage to our house. A few things shifted around on shelving in our garage but nothing fell. I’ve been reading that there has been damage to highways and freeways in the area as well as quite a few damaged/destroyed mobile/trailer homes. As far as I’m aware there have been no deaths, thank goodness. I hope that does not change. Also rather unfortunate is that since the epicenter was only 6 miles away from the city of Napa, there was significant damage to quite a few wineries, with some sustaining heavy losses of barreled and bottled wine, as well as to harvesting equipment (the grape harvest has just begun). Such a shame, tho I am glad my favorite winery appears to have escaped with relatively minimal damage.

All in all, it was a most unsettling experience and one I’m hoping isn’t repeated while we live here. I’m just so glad it happened very early in the morning on a Sunday when traffic was minimal – I can’t imagine the degree of destruction and injury that could have resulted if the quake had happened at 3:30 in the afternoon on a weekday during rush hour. Ugh.

[jay_1965vw]

Oh how scary, Patricia! I’m glad you are all ok.

[Tamara]

Oh Patricia, we heard this on the morning news this morning! What are the chances of large aftershocks? I didn’t realise you were in this area. Glad you are ok and praying you stay ok.

[vothgirl]

Tamara, I think they’re saying there’s about a 54% chance of aftershocks big enough to feel, tho they could be any time in the next few days to months. This is the biggest quake since 1989, tho at least this time there don’t seem to be any fatalities. We live about 15-20 miles from Napa Valley, definitely a big perk of being stationed out here for a few years!

And thank you for your kind thoughts and prayers, I too am praying this is the last of it and people can start cleaning up the damage and move forward.

[Sarvi]

Yikes, Patricia, hope that things are quickly back to normal! A few of my other friends in the area also reported that their kids slept through it — probably for the best so they’re not frightened. Though all quakes are different, as a seasoned Californian I can tell you that the worst is most likely behind you at this point. Once all services are restored, it’ll be mostly a question of rebuilding.

[Nicole]

I am so glad you are okay Patricia. The thought of earth quakes scares the willies out of me.

I have missed you all.

I came home when Trixie was one day old and we were both doing really well. Unfortunately, last Friday, when she was 5 days old she looked a bit jaundiced and my blood pressure went a bit haywire so we were sent back to the city and re-admitted to hospital.

After two days of light therapy for Trixie and some jiggling of BP meds for me, we are heading home again.

I can’t wait to see the Fab Five!

[Tamara]

Hope you are feeling up to speed soon – my Bp goes jingly right before so I understand the bumpiness there. And light therapy seems to be the norm at this end too. Better safe than sorry.

[Mama_Knowles]

I do hope you and Trixie are feeling much better now Nicole and are getting lots of rest. (I know it is really hard at times)

[Nicole]

Thank you!

We are very happy to be home.

[Nicole]

One more day until Hugo comes home.

He is away on another science course. This time it is a Forensic Science workshop. He has really enjoyed it, so far.

Yesterday they tested blood and synthetic urine. Some of the other students were a bit squeamish so he did their samples too. Hugo said the tools were the ones used by the professionals.

I do miss him and his excellent first-thing-in-the-morning coffee.

[Sarvi]

What a wonderful guy, I love hearing about Hugo. He’s always learning such interesting stuff. That sounds like such a cool course!

[cybele727]

Patricia- Glad that you didn’t suffer much in the quake. We live on an inactive fault line. If we get one here, we all get excited because it is so minimal, that we all think it is cool. Of course, we are rather famous for our winter weather, which is never quite what the media makes it out to be, so for us a minor quake is excitement.

Nicole- one day and out? Wow! You are super woman!

I spent 4 days in with my second, 3 in with my first. I had c-sections though, and my second was in the NICU. In New York State, 3 is the minimum admission for c-sections. Also, in NY, if a newborn is admitted to the NICU, like my daughter was, you get up to 5 days, I think. They try to discharge together, unless the baby is a “long term” admission, which is like more than 5 days. (She was admitted to the NICU because she has a heart condition that interfered with getting breath- with a 3 week premature birth.) They also heartily encourage the mom to spend as much time in the NICU as possible to hold the baby, etc. It helps prevent “failure to thrive” in NICU babies. Oh those NICU nurses are my heroes! The stuff they do to keep those newborns alive.

I do remember my son getting jaundiced. My ped was like, “eh strip him down to his diaper, and put him in his car seat and sit him in front of a sunny window for 10 minutes 3 x day for the next 5 days- just don’t choose the strongest light- go for medium but direct light. BAM! Pink returned.

Get yer rest, and put those kids to work, helping you!! 🙂

[jay_1965vw]

One day and home is fast.

The hospital that I go to here have a home the same day policy though. I had Josephine in the car park at 10.30am and was home 12 hours later. They were going to send me home at 6pm, but I went tachycardic (sp?) after having a shower, so they did some blood tests to make sure everything was ok before they let us go home.

The hospital got away without much effort for that birth! 😀

I certainly wouldn’t want to go home the same day for a first baby, but I was happy to be home when I knew what I was doing; and Audrey was much happier to have mummy home too.

Glad you are feeling much better, Nicole and Trixie better after her light therapy. The thing I hated about being in hospital with a jaundiced baby (Audrey) was how many times they have to do the heel prick test. Poor little bubbas 🙁