Congrats, MM! I'm sure that's a big relief to both of you.

Congratulations! (Have you told your phone, yet?)

This made me laugh like a drain.

Ugh.

So I took Annabel in to daycare this morning, I was chatting with her teacher, and she asked me if we'd ever had Annabel evaluated for epilepsy!

You see, Annabel sometimes spaces out, even in the middle of an activity, and for maybe 10-20 seconds it's difficult to impossible to get her attention--you have to get up in her face, say her name loudly, etc. And then she snaps out of it and will answer your question or go back to what she was doing before or whatever.

On the one hand, I can see how that might be mild epilepsy. That's kinda what it looked like in the roommate I had one summer back in college, only her spells tended to last a bit longer and leave her shaken up, while AFAICT Annabel's space-out moments don't have any lasting effects whatsoever. But, you know, it's hard to judge, because if this is normal for her and she's been this way all her life, she wouldn't be telling us there's a problem or acting scared, you know?

But OTOH, it's not like I hadn't noticed she does this, and I'd thought it just meant she's our kid. DH and I both space out on occasion, but since we're older, we're more socialized and are less likely to do so with other people around. For myself, I think of it as having an "outward" and "inward" focus, and unless I'm alone or in a situation where no one is talking or interacting, I'm in "outward" mode. But when I'm "inward," I often just pause and stare into space for 20-30 seconds, either because I'm deeply pondering whatever I'm working on, or else because I'm distracted and am riding the new train of thought for a bit. And if someone comes along and abruptly pulls me from deeply inward to outward, depending on the context I'll either startle like a newborn hearing her first thunderclap or I just won't hear the first part of whatever they say because it takes me that long to disengage from whatever I'm thinking about and get my brain back into the outer world.

An example of the latter: The stock DH and I are supposed to inherit has ranged from around $65/share to $75 since the beginning of the year. One morning I stepped out of the shower in deeply inward mode, IIRC thinking about my WIP. When I walked into the bedroom, DH was at the computer, and he started saying something as soon as I walked in. By the time I'd pulled myself outward, all I heard was "...up to 75 today." Since I knew it was forecasted to be the first day of a warming trend, I said something like, "Yeah, I'll wear short sleeves." At which point DH looked at me funny and said, "That's nice, but what does that have to do with the price of STOCK?"

Anyway, I'd been assuming all along that Annabel's space-out moments were just like ours. But I'm freaking out a bit now just at the word "epilepsy." And I do wonder if she's right, because Annabel sometimes spaces out while eating or watching TV, and you'd think those would be inherently outward-focused activities.

I'm going to call the pediatrician as soon as the office opens in 10 minutes. I'm not too freaked out, because it just doesn't sound quite right to me, and also because I know mild epilepsy is nothing to freak out over--that roommate of mine was certainly bright, healthy, and successful, for example. But it's still not the best way to start a morning, you know?

Susan - the number of times I've been asked "Has child X been checked for Y" is amazing. I used to freak each time but then I realized these folks are taking what scant knowledge they have about Y and applying it to the kids they come in touch with. Unless it is a doc, or someone specializing in that particular Y asking the question, I take it with a HUGE grain of salt.

Gack Susan, what a way to start the day. Hopefully Annabel's just easily distracted by invisible shiny things like, um, this friend of mine...

My current irrational parental freakout is that Dylan doesn't point at things. Which, like just about everything else in the universe, is a possible early sign of autism. Which he has no other signs of. And it's not like he doesn't indicate "that thing over there that I want you to get for me because I have temporarily forgotten how to crawl" in other ways, just not by pointing. So I'm giving my brain a time-out until it comes to its senses and stops bothering me with stupid things to worry about.

((((Susan and family))))

Also, a question for that portion of the hivemind with experience with pregnancy. Hubs recently got transferred to a smaller office where he has to coordinate time off with a co-worker. Co-worker is pregnant, her baby is due October 1, and she expects to take about 2 months maternity leave.

As always seems to happen with these things, we'd planned our vacation for late October/early November. No big, because we hadn't made any nonchangeable plans. But we do need to reschedule.

Now, the question: When should we avoid taking our vacation to make sure there aren't any conflicts with co-worker's maternity leave? We know that October 1 due date is approximate, not exact. So I assume late September and early December aren't good ideas. But how far away from the due date should we be thinking? Is early September or late December okay?

I would think late December would be better. You run the risk of coworker deciding to take more time, but you can make the argument that the vacation was planned in advance. You can't exactly get shirty if you have to cancel because the baby came early.

That sounds like she's just your kid, Susan. Really. Bring it up with her doctor next time she has a checkup, but otherwise I think it might just be the teacher trying to be helpful. Also, totally what Suzi said.

Not pointing is a sign of autism? I didn't know that.

Time out, Jessica's brain! Being a parent turns on switches you never knew you had, and it's SO HARD to shut them off sometimes.

Fred, I'd allow 2 weeks margin of error on either side of her due date, and also find out if she's planning to leave on her due date no matter what, or if she's planning to keep on working until she goes into labor. (HR policies vary on how flexible they are about that sort of thing.)

Not pointing is a sign of autism? I didn't know that.

Practically EVERYTHING is a sign of autism if you read enough parenting sites. It's ridonkulous.

I'm sort of glad I wasn't on the internet when Jake was born.