23andme experience » Creating Motherhood

It's Luscious

23andme experience, Asides 17 Responses »

May 032010

And by luscious I mean HUMID. And by humid I mean ew. But it isn’t Florida so I feel like I should shut up already about it. I’ll try.

Instead how about I tell you about the awesome poison oak that I have on the inside bend of my elbow? Don’t want to hear about that either? I don’t blame you. It suuuuuucks.

But I can tell you about how W and I spent just under 24 hours in Pennsylvania this weekend. One of W’s Godparents has a little sister that is pregnant. So W and I traveled north to attend the sister’s baby shower. And eat cake. I hate that I didn’t get any new photos of W with Marta but this means that we now MUST plan another get together again soon. And have more cake.

The morning after the baby shower several of us were half asleep around the breakfast table. Marta’s little sister turned to me and said that it freaked her out a little that I basically held W the entire time I was there. Not in a horrified way, more of a, “damn. A baby is going to change things.” way.

W is in this not so fun phase of not walking, not wanting to be held, and certainly not wanting to be held by anyone except me. It is utterly exhausting and outside of the house makes me feel like a loser. Irrational. I know. But hearing him scream when I leave his sight is brutal. It brings up a cluster of emotions: guilt being the front runner. Like I should know better than to leave his sight. Or Guilt that he doesn’t have more people in his life or exposure to social settings. I wonder if he was in daycare if he would be better adjusted. And then I hate myself for thinking he isn’t adjusted. I really can get worked up over it and then, just as suddenly, berate myself for not just chilling the fuck out.

Sunday afternoon, once W and I drove back from PA, we had a quick lunch and fresh up and then headed into the city to meet a relative stranger. Literally. She was a stranger that was related to us.

One of the new features of the site of that DNA genotyping that my family did is something called “relative finder“. I have not investigated it as deeply as Mother has, but basically the genotyping company finds other people that used their product that have similar DNA and based on the strength of the similarity determines a relation. About once a month I get an e-mail from someone with a message like, “Hi! We might be cousins!”

Mother gets the e-mails too and because she is now the keeper of all of our family charts she likes to follow up and investigate if the people sending the e-mail have common known ancestors with us. A few months ago she got a nice e-mail from a woman in Australia. A couple back and forth e-mails revealed that we most likely did have a shared ancestor. But the question was who?

The woman was in town on business this weekend and yesterday Mother, myself and W met up with her at her hotel. W crawled around the suite and the three grownups began pouring over our family trees trying to find common ground or names. It was actually pretty fun. I was online going through one of the online charts that Mother had created and I would call out a name of an ancestor that was born in Europe but died in America. Our new relative from Oz would go through her list of ancestors trying to find a person from whatever city in Europe my person was from and Mother would flip through a giant book of charts she brought trying to make it all connect.

And the entire time I thought how tickled my Grandmother would have been. She and my Grandfather were totally invested in charting our family tree- to them it was a giant mystery that never ended. And now, thanks to science, we are able to utilize her research in such a fun way.

This woman was really cool so claiming her was a treat. She and Mother hit it off before they even met so it was fun watching them both sitting on the floor getting excited about the same things and showing each other photos of their cats. I found her really easy to talk to and look forward to finally landing on the name and history of the ancestor that we share. It was pretty amusing to see that she has the exact same blast of freckles on her arm that Mother and I have.

And I might as well go ahead and say the other thing that is in my head- why was it SO easy to connect with and enjoy the time with this distant relation and why is it so hard to connect that way to my sister?

A giveaway is just a click away

23andme experience 17 Responses »

Jun 212009

Ah…nothing like father’s day to make you think about genetics. Am I right? Feel like learning more about what makes you, well, YOU?

Click here for a kick ass giveaway!

Sunday cuteness

How is time moving this fast?

23andme experience, everyday life 34 Responses »

Apr 152009

I can’t seem to settle on a blog name for the Snork. Should he remain “the Snork” or should he be “WW” or does he graduate to an entirely new blog name? Any thoughts?

On Monday every time I looked at the Snork I would hum, “it’s been one week since you looked at me…”

For a few days there I totally thought I had the greatest deal of the century- a baby that was mellow and or slept pretty well. He is still mellow, but the kid likes to party down all night long. I’m talking on demand feeding pretty much every hour.

Things I have surrendered: using the remote control, pretty much all ability to read/type, eating anything with a fork. I just need one more hand…

I have a new post up about my 23andme experience over here.

BGT is still missing. We have papered the neighborhood, called local shelters, posted on craig’s list and told all neighbors and dog walkers. We live in a VERY animal friendly neighborhood and I am just hoping like hell someone will find her in their bushes and send her our way.

Dude. What’s a shower?

My swelling is going down a bit. My flip flops fit again. phew.

I owe SO many of you e-mails. I am also way behind on news in our community. I really miss reading the blogs and catching up- but my brain is a fried wonton right now. Please do leave me a comment if you’ve got stuff going!

My Mother is the baby whisperer. Seriously. The Snork is pure putty in her arms. It is the most amazing thing to see the two of them together.

Speaking of Mother- still no leads on jobs. She has had a few promising starts but nothing ever panned out.

Every song I hear, every single one makes me cry. I cry at everything. I also have this hyper emotion where if I feel worried I feel ALL CAPS WORRIED. Any emotion is extreme and it is exhausting. It is also exhausting knowing that you are acting like a crazy lady. I wish that before I opened my mouth some auditory disclosure would chime in, “Please me aware that this lady is running on empty in terms of sleep and probably food. If she cries please avert your eyes and carry on…”

I keep waiting for this extreme depression to find me. I mean I am totally a basket case when it comes to BGT, but so far the dark corners that I have been familiar with have been moderately lit. I am very aware of my emotions- and when I am depressed that awareness is one of the first things to go. I have been on wellbutrin since the end of month 7 (I think that is right) and am so glad that I can stay on it.

A Southern Girl Learns to Spit

23andme experience 4 Responses »

Apr 092009

As a properly raised Southern girl I was never educated on the delicate way to spit. Even during times where spitting would be moderately acceptable (bad food, flu epidemic, or dentist visits) I just never got the hang of it. Growing up in a world where little girls spoke only when spoken to and always minded their elders, spitting was a gateway into a world of ick.

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This is why I spat.

23andme experience 9 Responses »

Mar 302009

Anyone else spend their childhood weekends in unfamiliar cemeteries learning all about the lost art of grave rubbings? I spent my fantastic youth being dangled from the family tree. If I said that my family loved genealogy it would a huge understatement. We lived genealogy. Every single one of our pets is given a full name taken from the pages of a cherished ancient family bible (including the many tropical fish that lived and died in our home).

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What about the birds?

23andme experience, everyday life 16 Responses »

Jan 162009

Like most of you, I imagine, I have been glued to the non-stop coverage of the “Miracle on the Hudson”. It is a totally fascinating story with an amazing outcome. But the one thing that keeps bothering me is the statement that I hear over and over again- that there were no casualties. Um. But what about the birds? I mean, don’t get me wrong, it is brilliant that no human lives were lost, but there is a bit of a tragedy that birds did die. Right? I mean the more I think about it it really upsets me…

Speaking of flying (groan. I know.) I had hoped that I would be able to make a cross country flight this week to Northern California. Unfortunately I seem to have all kinds of covert notes on my chart at the OB’s office as there was no way that they would sign off on travel this week or on a trip I wanted to make in February. Turns out my visit a month or so ago to have them check out my fat ankles red-flagged me for third trimester travel. (well it was the early edema coupled with that OB appointment where I had high blood pressure) And I am all for being careful, but I am having a bit of a pout over the good times I am missing.

And just what in the hay is going on in Northern California? I’m glad you asked. It’s a gathering, a meeting, a get together of bloggers that will be working with a super cool company called 23andMe. You might have heard about this company on Oprah or read about it in several national news articles. (it was Time’s best invention of 2008!) I have been given the opportunity to write about the experience of getting this kind of DNA testing. Pretty cool.

As a gal with very little information about an entire half of her genetic background I am extremely curious about learning MORE about, well, me. The test was super easy, just a bit of lady-like spitting, and in a few weeks I will be in receipt of all kinds of genetic information. It will be a journey of learning and I am looking forward to taking you guys along the ride and sharing what I find out.

The things that I am most enthused to learn about have to do with ancestry and with health & genetic traits. And I keep thinking what a massive tool this could be in raising Snork. And of course I keep thinking of that old childhood song, “Do your ears hang low, do they wiggle to and fro…”

So I am bummed to be grounded, so to speak, from being able to mingle and meet so many of the people that I have been working with (& the other bloggers!). They have done a wonderful job of keeping those that could not attend in the loop and when I can share more I certainly will.

In other news of the day- Mother and I had a very smooth and pleasant meeting with our Hospice Nurse this morning. She is a well-seasoned type with a serious can-do attitude and quick draw cell phone to the pharmacy power. She already had helpful input about GM’s medication and was so, so sweet with GM. I adore her because she really sat and talked to me about what to expect in the Spring. She had many suggestions and thoughts about how we can make it a smooth transition between Snork’s arrival and taking care of GM. She even has a pediatrician to hook me up with that will make house calls!

In a few hours a health aid will be coming by to give GM a bath. And all I have to do is show her the tub and put out clean clothes and towels! It is a profound relief to have a team of people take care of us as we take care of GM.

Of course it would have been nice to be in Northern California right about now too…but being able to relax a bit this afternoon while someone pampers GM? That is pure gold.