Fine. Same. Fine.

Hi!

Sorry to leave you hanging. I sort of hate my laptop, which is slower than hell and keeps abandoning an internet connection every time a leaf is stirred by a breeze outside. Worst of all, its newest transgression is that it has developed a partially stuck "w" so I keep riting ords ithout it and have to backtrack. But enough about my troubles.

Friday's OB appointment was... not particularly satisfying. She checked the heartbeats and asked how I was doing. I said that the terbutaline appears to be helping with the resting contractions but is not doing much for the prompted contractions; by which I mean the contractions that seem to be started by some action on my part. Sitting up, say, or walking to the bathroom. I spent most of yesterday in semi-recline on the couch in the living room (watching football and weeping quietly, as I only got TWO right in the pool. TWO. it seems like a statistical impossibility but noooooooooo) and by the time I did my nighttime monitoring session I had eight contractions in an hour. So I had to take an extra dose and re-monitor and it was a drag, culminating in my accidentally ripping the damn tube out of my leg through injudiciously speedy underwear removal. I KNEW that as going to happen eventually, by the way. It sort of stung but the worst part is I had to put a new tube in the other leg. No big deal - tiny needle, CAKE compared to the Lovenox injections - BUT the window between swapping legs is my only chance to soak in the bathtub. I had been looking forward to it enormously and instead I had to take a hurried little splash-and-go. Most depressing.

Where was I?

Oh right. Telling the doctor about the contractions. She had me monitor in their office for about 20 minutes and when I was done the entire staff except the nurse who unhooked me was out to lunch. So Steve and I just left. I asked him if he had any clue as to whether I was supposed to stay on bed rest and he said he thought I was. So I am. We are opting for a commonsense approach, based upon the following model:

1. We are assuming that the contractions could lead to preterm labor. Although I am not entirely convinced of this the alternative if I am wrong is not worth considering.

2. Even minimal activity causes me to have some fairly spectacular contractions. I could rate the ones I get on a scale of one to five (with tens being actual hey-there! you are IN LABOR contractions) and for the most part they are just dainty threes. Noticeable but not bad. The fives, though, are enough to stop conversation and make me grimace (like this) and the casual observer is given a fairly good idea of where exactly the babies are located as my abdomen compresses like a vacuum pack.         

3. If the goal is to contract as little as possible then the obvious thing to do is stay under 45 degrees as much as possible.

Ipso facto.

I am actually in a great mood, all things considered. Just past 26 weeks, babies moving, Steve bearing up nobly, Patrick being more or less agreeable. I had been hoping that I would have a breezy pregnancy, the kind that people would say (as I would suddenly find myself dropped into a Dorothy Parker short story but one in which marital procreation was not a dirty shameful bore) "My DEAR you look too too marvelous! Due in a week? With twins? How EVER do you manage?" I saw myself twinkling through the third trimester with many a merry jest and a casual dismissal of related discomforts. And I am. I am just all by myself in bed, is all, and the only person impressed by my fortitude is... huh. Well, me, I guess.

I need to write a post about The Calligrapher, so if you've read it polish up your fingers for a little online book club. I liked it. I liked his writing. BUT WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THE MODERN NOVEL? Good LORD. I mean, GAH. But I shall save my indignation for that post.

Right now I am half-way through the Jasper Fforde Thursday Next series. Hurray! I never would have read it without your urging, so thank you. It is very entertaining. I loved the suggestions for books I do not know, but I also loved the suggestions for books I already adore. Because there is nothing nicer than having someone say, "I think you would really like this" and knowing that they are absolutely correct. It made me feel pleasantly understood and I thought, "Oh man! I hope someone who has never read these is paying attention." Like when someone suggested Wodehouse. My passion for Wodehouse goes back to the third grade. I wrote my final high school English paper on Wodehouse and the Eternal Edwardian. I own all but nine of his books and they have their own section on the bookshelf. I was recently fascinated by some blog in which the woman had her books organized by color (color?) but I tend to stick to category. With the exception of Wodehouse. Who stands alone. And E F Benson? I read the Mapp & Lucia series twice a year like clockwork and every time it is perfect. Sayers I have read over and over, except for Nine Tailors and Red Herring (or five herrings or five red herrings I cannot remember) - neither of which I have ever managed more than once. Or, my god, Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond series. Sweet merciful heavens is THAT a series.

So thank you very much, again. I am getting quite a bit of pleasure from the book recommendations and I hope you are as well. A Suitable Boy just arrived and I can hardly wait. It's MASSIVE.

On an administrative note, I can read my Darwin mail online but I cannot reply to it without opening new files and crashing my laptop repeatedly. So I have a lot of email to which I wish to reply but it may take a while. For those of you who wondered about the migraine drug, I am getting good results with Fioricet. Bear in mind, though, I do not get full-scale migraines, just crappy vascular headaches. So I do not know how well this stuff works on a more powerful problem but it certainly knocked my ass back. So I hope it works for you.          

Comments

[shirky]

oh, that book is so sad

[Beth]

Wait. Your OB left when you were in the middle of an appointment? WTF? I mean, I -- personally -- would consider it still within the bounds of the appointment if you're being monitored for contractions ... ?

And she didn't call later on to say, "based on the monitoring ... blah blah blah"??

[Barbara]

good to hear from you! keep on.........

[Lisa B]

Glad you're enjoying Thursday Next. You'll need to provide Book Club-like reviews of all that you're reading for the next 14 weeks. Just so we know what else you're up to. :)

[Kathy W.]

Two wonderful books that I know you would love are
Raising Demons and Life Among the Savages by Shirley Jackson. Life as a writer in Vermont in the 40s and 50s raising 4 kids--smart, hilarious, and informed by her deliciously warped sensibility. Available used in one volume:

www.amazon.com/Life-among-savages-Raising-demons/
dp/0965780066

more on Jackson from wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Jackson

[Mandy]

I hope you get definitive answers from your OB soon.

I'm on procardia right now, having developed a lovely tendency toward too many contractions in an hour - especially those brought on by moving, walking, standing. Bleh. The first dose had me feeling like I had far too many margaritas in a spinning room, but a half dose seems to stop contractions and keep the room relatively still. So far.

Not on official bedrest yet, as my cervix hasn't moved during any of this, but creeping closer and the husband and I have put me on modified rest. As in he does all the work, I sit on the couch and look prenatal. Oh, and do lots of side lying.

Anyway, just want you to know I'm thinking of you lots and hoping things ease up for you soon.

[victoria]

I am so so so glad to hear that all is still relatively ok. You sound great.

You might not trust my judgment if you disliked The Calligrapher, but I think Donna Tartt's "The Secret History" is just about a perfect book. She's almost the only contemporary writer I can think of whose sentences are as well crafted as Jane Austen's.

Plus The Secret History is a ripping good mystery -- I read it in one sitting because I couldn't put it down. It's the only book I've ever encountered that simultaneously made me want to race through asap to find out what happened and, at the same time, dwell slowly and thoughtfully on every sentence. I spent years of my life just re-reading that novel over and over, trying to figure out how she did it. (The Little Friend, her second novel, is not worth the bother.)

Jane Smiley's three early novellas, The Age of Grief, Ordinary Love and Good Will display a similar Austen-like care. They are filled with beautiful, well made sentences that reward the reader's close attention. (Her other work is fine, but not as well crafted as these novellas.) The final few sentences of The Age of Grief haunt me; again, I keep asking myself, how did she do it? I used to teach The Age of Grief to my writing students but it was kind of a useless choice; I couldn't figure out how she accomplished the effect and so was unable to say anything useful about it to my students.

Here's hoping your mood remains cheerful and upbeat, the 13s stay in there, the ute mellows out, and you get to have a nice long bath sometimes soon.

[Isabel]

I am SO glad to hear all is relatively well. Keep on doing what you are doing!

XOXO

[e]

By god woman, you are OWED a new laptop, surely? Or the very least a service on your current one. Unless all that new plasterboard and timber didn't come cheap. Or it's the flaky internet connection -can so relate to that as our broadband connection is on a 1Mb 1:40 line and 5 miles from the telephone exchange, which means that when some wassock decides to download illegal movies, our connection falls over repeatedly. Which is just great.

[Lisa]

I LOVED A Suitable Boy and I don't know another single person (except the person who gave it to me) who read it! I read that on the urging of an ex-boyfriend's mother the summer I turned 21 way back in 1999. The chapters on Indian parliament drag a bit but once you get to the other side it picks back up again.

[Carrie]

I'm currently reading The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden by Catherynne Valente. It is absolutely delicious. Lush, evocative language like I haven't read in years. It's a feminist feast of nested fairy tales. I am becoming just a little bit obsessed with the author.

Really glad to hear the babies are still in your belly and that you seem in good spirits.

[Geohde]

I am much relieved to hear that the 13's are still firmly in utero. I hope that eviction proceedings do not start in earnest for a good 8-10 weeks :)

J

[Blaine @ 5McCKids]

I'm with Beth....What is with the OB just leaving?!?! Weren't you just in the hospital a few days ago? Aren't you on home monitoring twice a day with a tube in one leg or the other?! Aren't twin pregnancies automatically put in the "high risk" category?!?! Geez...I would at least expect a phone call.

Anyway, back to the rest of the post. Fioricet did wonders for my crazy pregnancy headaches. I did have to pop into L&D for the occasional dose of Demerol along with some miracle antihistamine. Sorry, but in that state of mind, I was not able to remember the less commonly used IV medication. The Demerol had pretty much taken over what little of the pregnancy brain I had left.

I think you need to hit Steve up for a new laptop. After all, you do actually "work" on your laptop for REDBOOK. You wouldn't want to let a bum gadget get in the way of your ability to do your part to support the family, right? It seems the least you deserve for carrying twins and suffering through bedrest. I'm just saying. (Bedrest was how I got my first laptop. Use it while you can.) 8^)

[sindam]

Oh good, am so glad for the update.

I'm also glad you're enjoying Jasper Fforde - I find his books highly readable and entertaining. The Egg series not quite as much, although The Fourth Bear did get to me.

As I was reading, I thought, Sayers, I must recommend Sayers! But you were way ahead of me. So - Laurie King, for the modern novel - the Mary Russell series in particular, or Folly. She also has a blog which I quite enjoy - she's the only author whose blog I read, but I like her voice very much. The link between her and Sayers is 1) Oxford and 2) Lord Peter makes a brief appearance in one of her books.

I've often thought how I would enjoy bed rest for a bout a day, and then hate it - you seem to be holding up well. Keep asking for what you need, that's the hardest part for me.

[Carrie]

I am so happy to hear you are doing well (enough). I know you have 437 books on your "must-read" list, but in case you want something very light, funny and relevent: Bed Rest by, Sarah Bilston.
Keeping fingers and toes crossed!

[Candy]

It's a good thing you're doing all that reading now because in about 10 weeks, I don't think you're going to have much time for it :)

[CaraH]

My favorite read of all time is The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton. It has you rooting for the bad guy, you don't have to concentrate on it too hard, and it is just plain a FUN read. Good luck!

[Lucky]

Phew. Glad all is well. Thanks for the update. FWIW, I am impressed by your fortitude, Dorothy. I think it is Crazy Aunt Purl that organized her bookshelves by color (so ARE you going to learn to knit?) - and I thought the same thing: color? It does look pretty ... but everything is all mixed up! Anyway, stay well.

[Cris]

I meant to mention Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Orczy, but forgot. So, if you want to leave heavy books behind for a ripping good Brits rescuing people from the French Revolution read, order that one!

What is the deal with your doctor? Please tell us she called, properly covered with shame (hmm, reminds me of the Sports Night line, "Neighborhood park all covered in cheese" - please tell me someone else remembers and mourns the loss of Aaron Sorkin's Sports Night! - get it from Netflicks).

Everyday I take a deep breath before checking in on you and the 13s. Glad all is well so far! Stay babies, stay!

[Cris]

Oh - and by color? This is what leads to people abusing their local Barnes & Noble bookseller (who, by the way, was only working there to finance grad school applications) because she can't locate the book they want; "um, it came out in the last couple of years, I think it was fiction, and it was brown! Yes, brown. Do you have it in stock?"

Sheesh.

[Cris]

Oh - and by color? This is what leads to people abusing their local Barnes & Noble bookseller (who, by the way, was only working there to finance grad school applications) because she can't locate the book they want; "um, it came out in the last couple of years, I think it was fiction, and it was brown! Yes, brown. Do you have it in stock?"

Sheesh.

[Dara]

I am with Victoria on Donna Tart's "A Secret History". Loved, loved, loved that book. I am so disappointed that she's a one-hit-wonder.

Glad to hear you are still hanging in there...

[Leggy]

Glad the 13s are staying put, hopefully for about 10 more weeks.

[susan]

Whew! I was wondering how things were and you know how upset I get when I don't see a new post for a while. (Yeah, right. Like you even know me from all the other susans out there. But I like to pretend you know exactly which one I am by my sparkling and humorous comments.)

Anyway, I am loving the suggested books list your readers sent. And I am so happy the 13s are still in place. I can't believe your OB left for lunch with you in there...gah!

I arrange my books by author in no particular order. But with the 14 books I went out and bought after your last set of reader suggestions, I now have them piled up in front of the others and sagging shelves. A good excuse to get that matching tiger maple bookshelf I've been requesting for a year now. Yay!

Chin up darlin. 26 weeks and counting. Every week the 13s stay abakin' is a good week!

Cheers,
Susan

[Olya]

So glad you are OK. The silence was beginning to be worrisome :-)

[Kirsten]

I'm thinking you and I have similar taste in reading, based on what you're saying here. I'm sure you already know about Georgette Heyer, but thought I'd mention it Just In Case. Otherwise, you have plenty of fun light reading ahead of you.

[Sarah]

I believe you would classify your book shelving style as "Library of Congress" rather than "Dewey Decimal" My is, in theory library of congress, but in most cases "shove it where it fits."
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO glad that you were not in some awful hospital--the mind tends to wander. Can't you update your blog from your cell phone? Ok, that seems a little over the top, but we are all pulling for the lucky 13's.

[wealhtheow]

I am mightily impressed by your fortitude. Hope all continues to go well.

[cat, galloping]

My mom organizes all her books by cover (and throws away the jackets, too), which drives my book collecting husband to distraction. So all the green books are in one of the guest bedrooms and red and blue are in the little sitting room. A book of any other color must fear for its life in that house once it's been read.

Love the Thursday Next series!

[kathleen999]

Yes, Wodehouse. I am down to very few existing books that I don't have as well....not sure of the number. I need to do that research!

Every now and then I see one on half.com that I don't have...always expensive but I splurge. Soon there won't be any more in print to read, but have you checked out the Gutenberg project? There are a few there that you just can't find anywhere in print. That made me very happy.

[kathleen999]

Oh, and stay in there, boys!!!!

[Accidental Poet]

*phew*

[vanessa]

I am SO GLAD that you are reading Thursday Next. I adore Thursday Next. I reread her frequently. You must write a book-clubish post about her when you are done with all five so that we can chime in.
I have not read very much non-modern fiction because I suck (I, incidentally, would welcome suggestions for excellent older, classic and accessable fiction--I read compulsivily but I am a bit scared of anything written much before I was born in 1985 and I think I am missing out on a lot.)
But erm, anyway, I just started this book, Claire Messud's "the Last Life." I literally just began it, but the sentences are beautifully crafted, if thats your thing. I found that also in anything by Denis Johnson.

[All Adither]

I think I am too dumb for this blog.

[Denise]

I loved A Suitable Boy but I have to confess I hated, hated, hated the Thursday Next series. I think I wrote about it on my blog once and you may have commented then. I never really felt like there were any boundaries to that world, and I just couldn't get interested in it.

Hey - I loved "Sports Night!'

So glad those babies are staying put and the weeks are passing by.

[Nikki]

Ok, if you're a fan of British drawing-room satire, you've probably already read some Nancy Mitford-- they have a great paperback set of 'The Pursuit of Love' and 'Love in a Cold Climate'... two of my favorites ever. I was stuck in bed for 6 weeks over the summer (hip replacement surgery) and my husband was stuck caring for me and our 18-month-old daughter. I feel for both you and Steve, and hope all is well!

[julie]

I am impressed with your fortitude. Every day those babies stay inside is a day less in the NICU (or something like that, according to the incredibly wise Sarah, she of the Goon Squad).

Being pregnant with twins is hard. Stay in bed. :)

[Amie]

WHAT'S WITH THE DR??? I hope you at least get a phone call from the office instructing you on what to do! Not that you don't know how to take care of yourself but LEAVE?? WHILE YOU'RE STILL MONITORING CONTRACTIONS???? Humph. I'd be pissed were it me left there alone!

Anyway, I am glad to hear that the 13s are still staying put. Another 8 weeks would be great!!

Also, hope you get to read the Birth House by Ami McKay...that is if you think you'd like it lol...I loved it:)

Lots of luck with the contractions...I hope they F.O. for you LOL!

[lagiulia]

I'm glad you're okay but sorry you're on bed rest. When I was on bed rest with the terb, I too had lots of contractions if I did ANYTHING aside from lying on my left side. Even then, I'd have an average of 4 per hour anyway. But sitting up? Forget it. And I know what you mean about seeing the babies' exact positions when you contract. Creepy, eh?

[Caitlin]

Not to be inappropriately personal, but what about your cervix??? As a 13 week bedrest survivor (of nearly 3 y.o b/g twins who are kicking my ass they're so damn energetic) my big concern for you is your cervix. Is it still nicely closed? what about the dimple???
my matria nurse used to say that some people just have a grumpy uterus (and who wouldn't be with two in there?) so perhaps that is you. But as I'm sure you know but it bears repeating in the dreary days of bedrest, every day longer they cook is a good day.

I'm with Olya. Don't be so silent even if it's just to say "hey, I'm not in labor yet :-)"

[Ruth]

Were you visiting Crazy Aunt Purl's blog? Because if not, there's more than one person out there arranging their books by color. Which I totally don't understand, but then my books aren't so much "arranged" as "scattered all over the house", so there you go. Different strokes, and all that.

Speaking of books ... have you read Sharon McCrumb's Appalachian Ballad series? They were first suggested to me by a librarian, and I am ashamed to admit that my first thought was, "if she can't come up with a more creative pen name than that, how good can the books be?" Turns out it's her real name, and the books are wonderful. The first one is called "If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O". She also wrote a series about a forensic anthropologist with a thing for Scotland ... lighter in tone than the Appalachian books, but good reads, nonetheless.

[Kristin]

I third the recommendation for Donna Tartt's "The Secret History."

By the way, do I recall correctly that you were also up for some happy kid lit? There was a book I read when I was a young'un, called "Understood Betsy." I can't remember the author, but oh wow, was it a nice little book. Betsy is a timid, sheltered wee slip of a thing who lives with her timid, wee Aunt Frances, and another aunt I can't recall. Second aunt gets sick (but is OK in the end), so Betsy has to go stay with the "dreadful" Putney cousins up in the wilds of Vermont. Of course, the Putneys are not terrible child-eating ogres, but are just good stoic New Englanders who aren't used to having a little girl around. Everybody adjusts, amid nice of descriptions of going to school and learning to milk cows and sew and talk and stand up for oneself. And oh, the ways they all realize (and show) how they've come to love each other -- just gorgeous.

Now, stop contracting, darn it.

[Hetty_Fauxvert]

So glad the 13's are right where they belong!!! But I must add to the growing chorus: your OB seems to have a curiously laissez faire attitude. MY OB threatened me with hospital bedrest (HOSPITAL! I must repeat!) if my contractions during my twin pregnancy got anywhere near where yours are right now. Mind you, I don't want you in the hospital any more than you want to be there (though perhaps your Internet connection would be better there?) but ... perhaps a leetle more attention to detail would be in order. Just sayin'.

BTW, it sounds like you love Sayers as much as I do, and therefore I will also second the previous nominations for Laurie King's "The Beekeeper's Apprentice." I've never been that keen on Sherlock Holmes, but King's very expert pastiches of Doyle's works (set in the 1920's, btw) are not only lots of fun but oftentimes very affecting. Good stuff. (Oh yes, and Lord Peter does show up, but don't hold your breath on that one. So-so. Though a fun idea.)

[susan]

Glad to read that all 5 of you (!) all seem to be ding OK. Every day counts!

Have you read anything by Robertson Davies. Canadian. You can google him and read some reviews on Amazon etc. Either you like him or you don't. The Deptford Trilogy woudl be a good place to start if you are interested . . .

[Genevieve]

Chiming in on being impressed wtih your fortitude, and distinctly unimpressed with your OB's walking out before the appointment was over.

OK, given that you and I are exactly the same in our Sayers-love (inability to re-read the same too -- though I did eventually manage to reread Nine Tailors because I liked the girl in it, but I had to skip over all the bell-ringing and fens stuff), I have recommendations you may love.
Did you ever read the sort-of-sequels? Jill Paton Walsh wrote two sequels based on Sayers' outlines. They take Lord Peter and Harriet into married life after the honeymoon. They are extremely well-done -- the tone is a little different, but they were huge fun to read. "Thrones, Dominations" and "A Presumption of Death".
Also, there is a book of her letters, collected by her friend Barbara Reynolds, and a biography by Barbara Reynolds. Very enjoyable.

[Kizz]

Oh Lymond!

That's all. I am just compelled to cry out my recognition when I find another lover of the series.

Oh! Lymond!

Swoon.

[throwingutah]

Re: football pool:
Statistical impossibility? You? No way.

Re: babies staying put:
Go babies!

[terri c]

So glad the 13s are still inside. If you run out of books (seems unlikely but still) you could read consumer reviews of new laptops... Thinking of you all!

[maggie]

Glad to hear things are reasonably fine.

And delighted to hear that you got A Suitable Boy!

And, I think I have a new author to check out, since I love love love Wodehouse, Bensen and Sayers, and I have never heard of Dorothy Dunnett.

[ali]

Just one completely self-serving question, OK, more than one:

Are you still injecting Lovenox? And the reason (because I'm trying to advocate for myself)?

And did you actually PUT THE TUBE INTO YOUR OWN LEG? WHAT???

Also, so glad to hear that the mighty 13s are still hanging out (in utero).