It’s not what you think…
August 20th, 2008 by amylherzog
Our absence, that is.
This picture is from two weeks ago, now, but the little dictator-in-residence is apparently still quite happy where he is. (All labor-inducing suggestions and distracting funny stories gladly welcomed.) A few days after my last post, we finally diagnosed the rash Jon and I had picked up since the move. (Warning: Those looking for cheery content should skip to the pictures at the end.)
Our (insert expletive here) tenants–or, more particularly, the tenant in our bedroom–forgot to take their bedbugs with them when they left.
Now, just in case you thought that bedbugs were something out of a Dickens story, let me briefly digress and say: They’re making a resurgence in this country now that we don’t dip everything in DDT, they’re common in most of the rest of the world, they’re persistent, and cleanliness has no effect on them. In neighborhoods like ours, they’re often brought into a house on used furniture picked up from the curb on trash day.
(And, lest you be tempted to never visit us again, they’re nocturnal and VERY lazy. The few who managed to survive our first spraying are still living in the same baseboard in our room as before we arrived, and Jacob never got a bite despite sleeping just down the hall from us.)
So the bedbugs have kept me from the blog (and that idyllic lifestyle I wrote about last time) because getting rid of them is like some terrible soap opera. One basically has to move out–pack everything up, get all furniture away from the walls, live somewhere else for a couple of days, take every piece of fabric in the house and either launder it in hot water or dry clean it.
Three times, 30 days apart.
No, I’m not kidding. We’ve been through one treatment, and the next is in a week. An “insurance” treatment at the end of September, and then hopefully we can be done with this move. To say that it’s been stressful would be a major understatement, particularly at this very nesting-focused point of my pregnancy. I’m not sure I’ll ever be willing to be a landlord again, after these nightmare tenants.
Anyway! More cheerful content. Jacob does seem to enjoy many things about living here again, even if our house isn’t one of them.
The local park, for instance.
(This is where Daniel will sit.)
The local kid-haircut place, which is like a giant plastic theme park and which has cheap-cheap toys that he can have after he cooperates about the haircut.
And his Daddy, of course. Strangely, my lumbering and incapable self doesn’t seem to be high on his favorites list these days. :)
Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the baby comes soon, eh?
Can’t say as any inducing worked for me. I got a massage that was “supposed” to work but didn’t (I didn’t really expect it to work, but hey, massage…)
They were going to induce me due to the preeclampsia at the end, and gave me some cytosec (sp?) to prep me (causes both effacement & dilation) and that was enough to get the ball rolling.
One of these days I’ll write it all up…
Hey, if you want more company at the park, let us know. If it’s the one I think it is, it is one of the kids’ favorites. We are also open to other playdate ideas. :)
Sorry you have to deal with bedbugs at all, let alone right now!
You know, Melissa had a freak out just about the time we last saw each other because an off-hand comment my Mom made made Melissa think my parents might have brought bedbugs back with them from Bolivia. I think if we ever got them, we’d have to move to a different house, not kidding. As it was, I had to segregate all our luggage until I had thoroughly checked it for eggs.
Anyway, hope labor comes when you want it to. I hear Pitocin helps, but that may just be a rumor.