you asked!

So, I am excited to answer the couple of questions from the last post! Because, as you know, I love to ramble on about my life.


Laurie over at Days with Dylan asked why it was I thought Jane might have Down syndrome when I was pregnant with her. Laurie, the reason I thought that was because when I had my triple screen (which is a blood test where they screen your baby's risk for chromosomal issues, for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about) it came with with a 1/77 chance that the baby had Down syndrome. That blood test is notoriously wrong, with a lot of false "positives" (this is really the wrong terminology, since it's not really giving you a "positive" result, it's only giving you a risk factor), but still, that was a high risk for someone my age (at 33, which is how old I was way back two years ago, the risk factor is, on average, 1/4oo or something like that). So they scheduled a level 2 ultrasound, which is a more detailed ultrasound than you would typically get, so they could get a better look at the baby's major organs. The ultrasound was scheduled for three weeks after I got the results of the blood test, so during that time (one of the most stressful periods of my life), I did a TON of research on what Down syndrome actually was (I knew, but didn't really KNOW, what it was), what the life of someone with Ds was like in this day and age, what kind of early intervention was recommended and available, etc, etc, etc. See, everyone told me "It will be OK, she will be fine" but here's the thing: I wanted to be prepared. I wanted to know what our lives would be like, and more importantly, what her life would be like if she did have Down syndrome. When I had the ultrasound, everything looked great, but the genetic counselor really recommended that I get an amnio and another ultrasound at 24 weeks to get a better look at her heart. But at that point, I was exhausted. We were going ahead with the pregnancy no matter what, and I was sick of tests. As it turned out, she didn't have Down syndrome, but it was during that last half of my pregnancy that I got hooked on some wonderfully-written blogs by moms who have children with Down syndrome, which at some point led me to yours, Laurie!


Lisa wants to know what I'm reading these days. It's true, Lisa, I plow through books like nobody's business. It's the result of having been an English major in college - you just learn how to read really, really fast. I just finished the book The Ten Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer. It's about a group of stay-at-home mothers in New York City who are feeling itchy (for lack of a better word) about where their lives are going. It goes into the politics and drama between stay-at-home moms and working moms (all a very real, and very silly, phenomenon) and the friendships that develop between women who are threaded together by mere fact that they have children the same age. It was really good, although kind of depressing in its honesty.


I am now reading The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs, a book I've been avoiding in the bookstore for a couple of years now. It scared me off with the whole idea of a plot centered around knitting (you know how non-crafty I am) but it finally lured me in, and I'm glad it did. It has very little to do with knitting and more to do about a multi-generational group of friends who gather on Friday nights at a knit shop in New York City. Their lives are diverse and very different from each other's, but their lives link up at their weekly knitting social hour type thingy. (I think it's very good that I don't write the copy for book jackets.) Anyway, I like it so far, but rumor has it there is a very sad part, and I AM NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO THAT.

Have a great weekend! Hope the Easter Bunny visits your house (he better visit mine as I'm counting down the hours of Lent - I need chocolate, stat.)