"I hate all duty days."

Tuesday, May 12, 1992

     Elizabeth is doing better with her sinus infection but she sure has been grumpy. She's been taking good naps and sleeping all night, once she goes to sleep. Sometimes we have to rock or walk her completely to sleep. Yesterday's the only morning she's had a lot of gook in her eyes when she woke up. We're still using the eye drops but I've been putting one in each eye instead of two.

     I've been having a really hard time with wheezing and not being able to get anything up the past few days. But today I've been coughing up a lot of stuff and it's been pretty thick. I called yesterday & got an appt. next month with my new pulmonary dr., Dr. O'Neil. I was surprised that he answered the phone. I hope we'll get along well.

     I forgot to mention that Ez. was a handful at church Sun. morning. She wouldn't take a nap. She didn't want to play with anything I'd brought. I tried taking her for a walk but there were too many people roaming the hall. I took her outside but the sun was too bright & the traffic too noisy. I tried going into an empty classroom but hers was the only one empty & she just wanted to look around. So I decided to take her to the nursery. There were about five different babies in there and the people in there were Gary Cruspach & Ryan Bailey. I looked in the toddler room to see who was in there. It was Dinah Croft with her son & Spencer Ferguson. I was desperate enough to ask her if she could watch Ez. for the rest of the service. The sermon was half over by then. I only stayed long enough after church to change her diaper. She fell asleep on the way home & stayed asleep. I stopped at Wendy's to get a hamburger. I was planning to go ahead & take a nap but I couldn't go to sleep so I got up & ate then went to bed. I got maybe an hour of sleep before she woke up. We didn't go to church that night. I really do hate duty Sundays. I hate all duty days.

     Our Olan Mills pictures came Sat. We shouldn't have bought any, just gotten the free one. I hope the Sears ones come out better. We get those tomorrow.

May 1992

"It's really gross."

Sat., May 9, 1992

     Ez. is doing a lot better. Mine is sort of coming & going these days. Sometimes I cough up a lot of gunk & sometimes I wheeze like crazy & can't get anything up at all. Yesterday and today I've had lots of bright dark green stuff coming out of my nose. It's really gross. Guy says he's doing better but his voice still sounds kind of raw. Hopefully we'll all be well soon.

     This has been a pretty nice Mother's Day Eve. Guy got up with Ez. & let me sleep til 9:00. He brought me breakfast in bed (I had to request it) – just toast & bacon since I was going to a brunch at 10:30. It was for Rosemary Snowden & baby Zack and Ez. went with me. She was all over the place now that she's crawling. She did relatively well though. She fell asleep on the way home (12:30) and slept til 3:30! I was going to take a nap but decided that if I was going to do all the shopping I planned to do, I needed to go ahead. We'd already decided I could have time off today. I went to LeeWards to get some odds & ends stuff for the ABC book I plan to make for Ez. Then I went to a knitting store to see if they could repair my sweater. One I've had since college had two holes in the front of it when I got it out last fall. The lady said the yarn was so fine that her repair lady wouldn't be able to fix it. But she gave me a business card for a place on Mil. Hwy. near Best that she said had a person who does beautiful work & could probably fix it. I didn't take the time to go over there today.

     Next I went to From the Heart, the cross stitch store, to look for something to do for a quilt block. Ann Prescott is planning to make a quilt & is asking everyone from Empty Arms to make a block for it if they want. They didn't have anything I liked for it.

     Then I went to Piece Goods to get some buttons for the sundress I'm making for Ez. & some other stuff for her ABC book. And I found a Precious Moments book with a good picture for the quilt. A little boy angel is standing behind a little gate with Heaven written on it. There's a little girl in front of the gate crying & holding a handkerchief. The boy is pointing to a box by the gate that says 'old hankies'. At the bottom it says 'No tears past the gate.' I hope I can get it done in time. There's not really a time limit – I forget how she said she's going to do it. I didn't think to get any cross stitch fabric though.

     I told Guy I'd like my next day off to be a weekday cause everything's too crowded on Sat.

     We went out to eat at Annabelle's at Pembroke Mall for supper. It was pretty good. I had a sub & Guy had a club sandwich. Ez. had some fries. Guy fed her before we went. For dessert we went down to the Dairy Queen (in the mall) for ice cream cones. When we got home (after watching Star Trek) I got my Mother's Day present. Guy had given me a basket of mixed flowers – beautiful. Tonight I got a card from him & one from Ez. that were both so nice and a Bruce Hornsby tape. Not your typical Mother's Day present, but nice. So I guess it's been a pretty nice day. It sure seemed to go by fast though.

May 9, 1992

"Could I be so lucky!"

Wed., May 6, 1992

     I took Ez. to the dr's. office today. She started having a runny nose a week ago today. I'd called & the nurse said to give her Triaminic Nite Light. She seemed better after a couple of days so we stopped it then a couple of days later it came again. We started the Nite Light again but she didn't seem to be any better. She was up & down for about an hour last night & woke up about 6:00 this morning. I couldn't get her to go back to sleep so I went ahead & took her down for breakfast. Guy was still here. He was supposed to go to the base & pick something up before going to the ship but the place at the base didn't open til 7:00. Anyway, she finally went back to sleep about 7:20 & so did I. She woke up around 9:30. We had an early lunch & she took a short nap before we went in. When I called this morning they said to come at 2:30. Luckily, Dr. Karp was there. They said we could see another dr. I haven't heard of sooner but I said I'd rather wait for Dr. Karp. We waited an hour & Ez. was very tired. She has a sinus infection & we got some amoxycillin for her to take. I'd sent Dr. Karp a letter telling her we would need to go to a Navy orthopedist because we couldn't find a civilian one that accepts Champus. She hadn't seen it yet but they'd mentioned it when I signed in. (I'd called PNH one day & found out how to get an appt.) She wrote the info on a prescription form and gave it to me to send to PNH. They're supposed to make the appt. & let you know when it is–not the ideal situation. I just hope it's not anything serious.

     I figure Ez. will be pretty restless again tonight, especially since Guy's on duty tonight. He wasn't any help last night anyway. He came down with a cold on his last duty night, Sat., & didn't go to church Sun. morning. I think I wrote about that. He went to sick call yesterday & they just gave him dimetapp. My throat kept trying to get sore & my head was stuffed up for about a day but I think I'm back to 'normal'. I'm just so tired all the time any more. Probably because I stopped taking a nap every time she does. I think I'll start doing that again.

     Can't remember if I wrote about the reunion. A couple of weeks ago I asked Ann Prescott if we could have a reunion of the people who've had their babies from the Expectant Arms. She said that would be good but she didn't have time to plan it. She sent me a list of everyone's phone numbers. Everyone I've talked to so far can come except one–someone I don't know. (I don't know half the people on the list) I still have one person to talk to. I finally got ahold of her husband tonight & left a message for her to call me tomorrow.

     It's 11:30 & I've already had to go to Ez. about four times. Once I got her up & checked her diaper & sucked some stuff out of her nose. I'll probably need to add some water to the humidifier sometime overnight. Unless she doesn't wake up any more. Could I be so lucky! I hope she does sleep through the rest of the night & not wake up as early as she did this morning.

     Sun. is Mother's Day but Guy has duty so I'm supposed to get Sat. off. That morning I have to go to a baby shower but I don't know what I want to do the rest of the day. I just hope Guy's well enough to take care of her. We're supposed to go out to eat Sat. night.

"She's really a lot of fun sometimes."

Monday, May 4, 1992

     I can't believe it's been so long since I wrote. I just used the proventil in my nebulizer & my writing is going to be shaky.

     Ez is cutting another eye tooth & from all the drooling she got a runny nose. I got a sore throat & slightly stuffy nose from her and Guy got a very stuffy nose from one of us. He had duty Sat. & it hit him that night. When he came home Sun. morning he said he needed to go to bed so Ez. & I went to church without him. I'd taken two bottles of OJ for her – the first time she had it. The particles kept clogging up the hole. I took her to the nursery & left her with Cecelia while I went to the kitchen & strained the juice through a coffee filter. She drank most of it & was about asleep then all of a sudden she opened her eyes & sat up. She wouldn't drink any more so I was going to let her play. But she just kept squirming around & whining. I'd forgotten to bring a pacifier. I had a NUK one but she wouldn't take it. So I got the other bottle to go strain it. By the time I got back to the nursery she was playing happily so I left her in there for the rest of the service. Guy was still asleep when we got home. He was feeling better so he stayed up all aft. watching tapes even though Ez. took about a 2-hr nap. I only slept about 1 1/2 hrs. mostly just tossing & turning. My throat has kind of been coming & going with feeling sore. It's better tonight & my nose isn't too bad. Guy went to the corpsman on the ship & he gave him some dimetapp & sudafed. He sounds awful but says he's not as bad as he sounds. We've been giving Ez. Triaminic NiteLite. She's worst in the morning & better by nighttime.

     The big news since I last wrote is that Ez. is pulling up now. She's been standing up in her crib since Thur. & she pulled up on the floor yesterday. No cruising yet. She's getting better at crawling. She likes for me to chase her, saying "I'm gonna getcha!" She's really a lot of fun sometimes.

May 1992

"She was happy to see us though."

Sunday, April 26, 1992

     Thursday Ez. & I went to the library. She did fairly well. I couldn't find very many board books this time. After that we went to Babylady. I got her two dresses, some long pants, a sun suit, & several tops.

     Friday morning we went over to Michelle Bridgeman's to take her some of the scraps from Ez's quilt to use to make a rabbit for her. I'd seen one she'd made out of fabric strips with blue ribbons & asked if she could make me one with pink ribbons. That was a couple of months ago & I asked her a couple of weeks ago if she would still be able to & she said yes. (She's 8 mo. pregnant.) Then Thur. I got the idea of using the quilt fabric instead of ribbons. I was supposed to call her to see if they'd be able to keep Ez. for us Sat. aft. I'd asked her mother, Sue Forsythe, several weeks ago if she'd be interested in watching her some Sat. aft. for us & she said she would but then we didn't have a free Sat. since then. Last Sun. morning she said she'd been waiting for us to call her & I told her I was planning to ask her about this Sat. & she said they were going to Florida for the week & wouldn't be back til late Sat. night. Sun. night Bob & Michelle were sitting in front of us and out of the blue I decided to ask if they could watch her. I told Michelle I didn't know if she should pick Ez. up cause she's so heavy. She said to call toward the end of the week. I called Thur. about that and the rabbit and she said they would be able to keep Ez. When I took the fabric over there we stayed for a little bit so she could get used to being around them.

     She did fine Sat. She slept for about an hour on the couch with Bob. Didn't even use the Travel Tender. We went to Janaf to see Thunderheart. It was pretty good–I'd like to see it again to pick up on some details. I had Guy call them after the movie to see how she was doing. She was doing fine. We went to Big Lots to see if they had any high chairs but they didn't. We found some games for our Atari for $1-3 each. We got Dig Dug & QBert & a couple of combat things for Guy. Then we went to Wal-Mart. Among other usual stuff, we picked up the last roll of film. They messed one (two) of them up–got half of two pictures on one print. They said they'd redo them for free & it'd take a week. It was about 3:30 when we got to their place so she was there for 5 hours. They said she did fine. She was happy to see us though.

     Today Daniel Simpson gave Ez. a pair of "tennis" shoes for her birthday. They're Stride-Rite, which are supposed to be good kids shoes. We didn't get around to trying them on her yet but they're size 4. He said he left the receipt in the bag in case we needed to exchange them.

"So we were very surprised when she started crawling that night!"

Tuesday, April 21, 1992

     Sirens woke me up at 6:30 this morning. They weren't in the neighborhood but the wind was probably carrying them from the station. Then the dogs started barking at 7:00. Ez. woke up at 7:30. I fixed a scrambled egg for breakfast & gave her some. She didn't like it much. She hasn't gotten any hives yet. Knock on wood. When Guy's on duty I don't use the air vent to block out noises so I can hear if someone's trying to break in. I don't think Chief would be much help if that happened. Anyway, that's why I hear all the things in the mornings, especially this one dog that apparently barks the whole time it's out in the morning.

     Back to Ez's checkup. Dr. Karp was surprised that she's made so much progress since last time. But she said Ez. would probably skip crawling all together. I'd about decided that on my own. So we were very surprised when she started crawling that night! Guy was working in the yard & instead of rolling over to the door she crawled about 3 "steps" to go look out the back door. I started pulling the blinds up partway last week so she could look outside when Chief's out there. (Only problem, he can see in.) I won't be able to pull them up during the summer cause it'll be too hot. Wish we could afford awnings.

     Anyway, Ez. is 31" – only 1/2" since 9 mos. – and 21 lbs. 6 oz. I forget what she was at 9 mo. But Dr. Karp said their growth rate does slow down now. She didn't get any shots this time but she had a TB test done. I was supposed to check it yesterday aft. & let them know if it was red or swollen. It was fine.

     We told Dr. Karp she could pull up to her knees but that if we stood her up she'd hold on & stay up awhile. She had us stand her on the floor holding on to the chair and said her ankles were turning in too much. She said we might need to see an orthopedic dr. but that it could wait til after her 15 mo. checkup. She gave us a name & the front desk gave us the address & phone no. It's over near Dr. Rand, near Leigh Mem. Hosp. I need to call just to find out if they accept Champus. If not, we can ask Dr. Karp for another dr. next time if she still thinks we need to.

     She said we could give her eggs and citrus now, waiting 2-3 days between anything now. Egg is the only thing we've tried so far. She said to keep diluting her juices and that she'd probably drink less milk now, which she was starting to do. She also said she should be off the bottle by her next checkup! Now that she's finally holding it by herself! At least she can hold her cup herself too.

"I cried of course."

Monday, April 20, 1992

     Well, Ez. turned one year old yesterday! I guess she's not a baby any more. I think she enjoyed herself this weekend. Sat. we took her to Sears first thing to have her pictures made. She fell asleep while Guy strolled around while we were waiting for them to open. We were first ones there so we had to wake her up. She did good though, better probably than if she hadn't gotten a little nap. After that we went to the ship's egg hunt & she had her picture taken with the Easter Bunny. She was smiling & laughing & waving at him until Guy put her on his lap. Then she just kind of looked at him. We got a Polaroid from them & took a picture with our camera. We stayed and had cookies & "bug juice" (Navy KoolAid). We had taken her lunch with us so when we got home she was ready for a nap.

     I finished hemming my dress while I was sitting under the hair drier. That's the first time I've rolled my hair in a long time. I need to do it tomorrow too cause she & I are having our pictures made together at Olan Mills tomorrow evening.

     Several people commented on our dresses yesterday. We had a new picture taken for the picture board. It turned out really well. She looks so cute in the bow. I'm surprised she left it on all through class and church. She wouldn't take a nap in church.

     We went out to eat after church at Spaghetti Warehouse, a new place near downtown Norfolk, across from Doumar's Drive-In. The Krebsbach's went with us, and Daniel Simpson. He brought a black guy named Bernard. The food was very good. They had gigantic glasses of tea. I had to change Ez's diaper before we left cause she pooped. She went to sleep as soon as we got home & we figured we'd have to wake her up for her party at 4:00. But she woke up around 3 or a little after.

     I'd made a microwave cake mix cause we knew we wouldn't need much. It wasn't very good. We taped the whole thing & took lots of pictures. We opened her presents before doing the cake though. Guy had put together her toy chest Sat. night. She had packages from Judy, Sue, & Deanna. Sue & Harold sent a silky flop-eared bunny that's dressed in bright clothes & a straw hat, sitting & holding a carrot and five Disney board books. Judy sent a night shirt with a bunny & lamb on it (& a matching one for me), a goose-shaped soap, & a stuffed bunny like the one on the shirt. (She also sent Guy a video of baseball bloopers). Deanna sent tow board books: God Made & Dear Gold. We also got her an Easter basket that was a sand pail & spade. It only had about four things of candy in it. We also had the present Tim & Janice sent back with us when we saw them at Thanksgiving. It was a pretty pink jumpsuit–24 mo.

     There was a fellowship after church again for the trying out preacher. We asked if everyone could sing Happy Birthday to Elizabeth. Ralph Dunbar got Ben Wilson to lead it. She knew she was the center of attention but wasn't quite sure what to make of it. I cried of course.

     It's just so hard to believe she's a whole year old now. I'll probably say the same thing every year. One thing I'm glad about is finally being able to fulfill the dream of having matching mother/daughter dresses. So even if she doesn't look like me at least we were dressed alike Sun. (& will be in our pictures tomorrow).

     I need to write about her checkup but I need to try to get sleepy. I still have trouble going to sleep when Guy's on duty.

April 19, 1992