A PCOS mom with a kindergartener getting fitter.
The only thing I wanted to do today was a quick grocery run. Paul worked 1/2 day and is napping so in a bit I'll wake him up so we can go.
I've gotten so clumsy lately. My pinkie toe will never heal if I keep stubbing it into things. And today I dropped a can on it while sorting the pantry. Nrgh.
It was a long wait (again) and the receptionist just cannot schedule my future appointments properly. I don't know what the matter with her is. Grr.
But the OB I met today, Dr. K. was very nice. She's 24 weeks along herself and to make up for the long wait, she let me off having to go to triage for the NST for today by doing a check with a quick ultrasound in her office instead.
Baby was busy "practicing" her breathing so all is well. Heartbeat was 160 something.
I'm up 4 lbs this week though instead of my usual 1/2 lb. It's the swelling. She told me to try to drink more water to help flush it away, rest and put my feet up, and that other than that there wasn't anything else she could suggest because there is nothing wrong with me. Swelling is pretty normal at the end of pregnancy.
She'd asked if I was sleeping ok with baby squiggling around and I said I was a bit tired so she asked if I wanted some kind of antihistamine to make baby and I drowsy so I could sleep at night and I declined. If I don't really need it, I really don't want to add another prescription to my pharmacopoeia. No, I'm not happy when baby starts bopping around smack in the middle of the night but I can catch shut-eye later on in the day when she chills out. Paul told me the other night he could feel her whacking his back!
Came home to find a pleasant surprise -- my sewing machine has shipped and is en route! Booyah! :)
"This is day number 243 and you're 35 weeks pregnant!
You have 37 days or 5 weeks left, and are 86% of the way there. Baby's age since conception is 229 days or 33 weeks. You are due on 2/5/2004."
Paul cleaned up the turtles and did some stuff in the yard. He also slept a lot.
We're both pooped from Xmas at my MIL's yesterday. It was fun seeing everyone but the drive there and back takes it out of us.
Whit renewed our subscription to Paul's hometown newspaper. Even though he no longer lives there he enjoys reading it over the year. I find it amusing as well.
Paul got Scooby slippers from his mom and a dinosaur toy. I got slipper socks and a yoga ball. From our "Secret Santa" people, Paul got a 1 acre of lunar property deed from Jessica. That was very clever of her -- Paul and his brother both like space stuff. I got an "Expectant Angel" ornament from Miranda. It will be a nice memento of my first pregnant Xmas. It was fun finding out who had drawn our names... I hope the people we drew for names enjoyed their gifts too.
Baby got some surprise gifts -- a dressy outfit from Angie's little family, and then a overalls/shirt outfit from Greg's little family. Mom B. gave her a bunny toy that recites bedtime prayers when you squish it.
Angie baked like crazy and gave everyone dozens of delicious cookies like she does every year -- that's always something to look forward to. But I have to hide these cookies in the freezer or else I am going to RUIN my blood sugars for the next week!
The kids got oodles of things from everyone and it was a blast watching them enjoy their presents.
I kind of enjoyed having a lower key Xmas with less stuff and more family. I also enjoyed it being postponed a few days so we had a 2 day break between one family and the other side. Paul's siblings agreed.
For New Year I think we're going to stay home and watch movies.
And I ordered the same thing from Amazon.com. I still have to wait yonks (which is what I was trying to avoid in the first place), but at least shipping is free. Sigh.
Today we went out to do piddly errands. Bank first. Then lunch out. (122 blood sugar, go me! I think if I'd had milk rather than lemonade I would have squeaked it in under 120... but I'm getting better at this eating out thing.) Useless trip to Circuit City -- we keep forgetting they never have home appliances like they used to ears ago. Babies 'R Us to order the crib (will call me in 2 weeks for pick up when it arrives) and check gliders (hate them all). Then JoAnn's for quilt fabric for when my sewing machine arrives. Home Depot for screws, a saw, wood, and other tidbits Paul needed. Then Sam's Club for new microwave and odds and ends. Then home to call the sewing machine people and ask them why my guaranteed before Xmas delivery is not here. Called my SIL who wants a baby photo of me for some baby shower project. Called my mother to tell her about the crib/glider hunt and need to borrow baby album for a bit. I have to go get the mail and then I'm going to put my feet up, drink water, and read trashy novels. Whee.
What I did for Christmas? I slept. A LOT. Then I watched cartoons with Paul and trimmed a blanket while he added 3 more rows to his crochet afghan. I've got one more flannel receiving blanket for myself that I had started in pink trim but then ran out of pink. So I have to rip it all out and do it again in green instead. I took a shower. I ate. I read a book. Slept some more.
I feel soooo much saner and better rested.
Having 2 days between family Christmas celebrations is sooo nice. Greg called last night to see if Paul wanted to go fishing today but he declined because we're shopping today but from what I gather they enjoyed having Christmas day alone to themselves. Greg put together the new trampoline for the girls. I guess they figured since they obsess over ours every time they are over here that they'd get them a "bouncybouncy" of their own.
Today we're off to shop for many things -- microwave. glider. crib, screws, and a charger thing for the cordless drill. I hope the sewing machine arrives today. Because I'm also going to shop for cheap play fabric. Once it gets here I'm going to want to mess with it and it will drive me crazy not to have anything to practice on.
Fasting blood glucose today is 102. I'm supposed to be 90 or less. After dinner at mom's it was 155. So I need more practice eating at other people's houses and eating out. At least we're home for the next 2 days before I have to tackle eating out at my MIL's house. Then New Year's, baby shower, and 2 birthdays and I don't have to deal with any more holiday eating. Thank goodness!
Mom's was very low key and casual -- we played another round of Pictionary and then watched Chicken Run and Lilo and Stitch since my parents hadn't seen those yet. Karen had asked me to lend her a mess of movies so we grabbed a random assortment.
Dad is stressing out because I have yet to back a bag for hospital. He doesn't seem to understand that I have a limited amount of clothing that I can wear right now and I have to be wearing it, not storing it in a bag.
Mom boiled all the natural Chinese Prefolds for me and washed them twice. She said they looked like gigantic wonton in the pot and she was right. But the wax came off and I'll probably run them through 2 more washes here at home to be sure.
I had a weird night. Even though visiting my parents for Xmas Eve was fun, I poop out sooo easy these days. Somewhere around midnight Paul was trying to show me new screensavers he'd designed but I kept fussing and went to lay down. He's been trying to show them to me for days and I felt kind of bad about cutting him short but I just felt so blah I couldn't deal with sitting up looking at wiggling things on a screen. I went to bed and burst into tears because my feet were hurting and I felt so moody. My feet were annoying me from having worn my sandals instead of sneakers to mom's. The only shoes that don't make my feet hurt are my sneakers but I wore a dress so couldn't wear sneakers with it. That's one article of maternity wear I never could find -- dress shoes that were comfortable and supportive.
Then I had this weird pressure start in my groin and lower back and it was weird enough for me to call Paul.
He came over to where I was and for the next hour he massaged me, talked to me, played guitar, and just tended to me while I suffered weird cycles of... pressure. Oh, and the baby was moving around like a crazy person. I can't say it was painful -- it was just a lot of pressure. My bursting into tears earlier was from emotional duress rather than physical.
I don't know if these were supposed to be a different kind of Braxton-Hicks, real but light contractions, baby moving down closer to being engaged, or what. All I know is that it felt weird, my lower back and tailbone would ache, the baby quit squirming while it was happening, I'd get slight chills or shakes, then when the chills were done I'd get a break for a while before starting the whole thing all over again.
Paul asked me to describe it and I couldn't do it very well. I told him it was a mix of something like feeling a lot of pressure in my lower abdominal or baldder area like someone pushing on it, feeling pressure like I wanted to poop, and feeling pressure like squeezing. It was different than what I think were BH before -- those tend to start at the top of my uterus and squeeze downwards and then go away. My belly gets all hard all over on those. With these, sometimes my belly would get hard and sometimes it wouldn't.
I made Paul check the list on the fridge and neither of us felt I was having anything so major it warranted a trip to ER:
RETURN TO HOSPITAL TO BE EXMAINED IF:
A. Your water breaks or you think it is leaking
B. You bleed from the vagina (a small amount of pink, red, or brown discharge may be normal after an exam)
C. Over 37 Weeks: regualr, strong contractions (labor pains) every 5 min.)
D. Under 37 weeks: any regular contractions, regular pelvic pressure, persistent backache, persistant abdominal cramping, or notice any changes in vaginal discharge
E. You feel burning when you urinate or pass water
F. You have a fever greater than 100.4
G. Your feet, hands, or face swell
H. You don't feel well due to bad headaches, fainting spells, spots before your eyes, muscle twitching, or chills
I. You have extreme pain and/or rigidiity (hardness) of the abdomen
J. You do not feel the baby move. Kick count: if less than 10 fetal movements over 8 hours, call your doctor, come in for evaluation, or follow the fetal kick count per office instructions
I didn't feel esp. hungry but he went off and made me a small ham and cheese sandwich anyway so I ate it (which is probably why my fasting is higher than normal -- eating so late) and eventually got to sleep once baby quit bopping me.
Who knows what today will bring.
Feel sooo much better after a shower. I was so wiped out from yesterday that after I got dinner together I crashed out and didn't want to take a bath with Paul or move or anything. I slept right through the alarm to take my after dinner blood glucose. Didn't wake til 10 AM this morning. Oops!
I was having a good time cruising through fabric.com and then a quilt gallery. So much eye candy! I'm a bit grumpy because I want to get on with teaching myself to sew and even though they promised to ship my sewing machine by Xmas, here it is Xmas Eve and nary a sight of it. Pooh! :P
So instead of playing sewing machine like I'd hoped I'd be doing over Xmas, I did two more letters of my "get it done before New Year's" stash of people to write. I looove writing on new stationary. It's def. one of the perks of the holiday.
I can feel baby moving around inside me -- not as much on the kicking and punching front -- maybe she's running out of space for that? But there's rolly, stretchy, swimmy feelings.
[later]
Tired. Feet stink. I did fine with my blood glucose other than restaurant eating so I can keep on diet alone and no insulin. Yay! NST test also went fine.
[later still]
Feel better after nap and snack. So my day...
The OB appt. took a long while. This office is just so much more crowded than Dr. G.'s office. I guess that's what happens when you go from a 2 person practice to a huge one. I'm not really happy about their office being so packed, but the staff I've met so far are nice so it's kind of a "live with it" thing for me. The head of the office is also the head of my hospital's high risk team, so that's why I'm there.
I am really happy not to be put on insulin -- I plan to work extra hard to get my restaurant eating over the holidays in better control. If that means I have to be carrying measuring cups to restaurants so be it. I was telling Paul last night that I feel sorry for anyone coming to nutrition juggling smack in the middle of the holiday season.
I've seen dietitians before and because of the PCOS/IR I already had to be watching nutrition stats and doing nutiriton math changing calories to grams and back again ages ago. Granted all the values I've memorized are for a more lenient diet breakdown so I'm having to readjsut my thinking to my new guidelines but it's not like I'm brand spanking new at this. I had a week to prove I could handle it and skip meds I did.
But I keep wondering if the ladies in my GD nutrition class did ok one week later at their OB appts or if they've had to be put on meds? I can't imagine anything more frustrating to have to do with baby's health hanging over your head like that.
Anyway, I have to have NST's 2 times a week now just to see how baby is. I had that done across the street at the hospital because they were so crowded at the office. I got enough pillow wedges this time and it went fine. I had my belly buzzed with a loud buzzing noise maker to make baby wake up and kick around and she cooperated and then she was allowed to go back to sleep. That was new. I got to keep the belts since I'll be coming in so much for NSTs.
Nothing in my pee, blood pressure fine, no weight change since last week, which is fine.
We went to lunch and then we went to Dad's appointment at the VA clinic. He liked his new doctor better than the old one but he's getting persnickety about taking his meds appropriately and Mom is getting grumpy with him over it. Dad's got a hospital/doctor/medication phobia so he's not the world's most cooperative patient at times and he thinks he can skip meds.
Then to the pharmacy and to get some groceries, then back home for me to await the UPS guy. I didn't think it would come in time but my sister's gift just made it!
Paul came home with his Xmas bonus so we're happy about that and he told me his coworker's kid's liked the little gifts we gave them. He told me 3 yr old Evan was so excited about the Cool Cardboard Intruments book he was roaming the office dragging out empty boxes all set to make one right then and there!
Paul's sister left a garbled message on our machine and I just got a hold of my MIL. She's at the emergency room -- Mawmaw is back in hospital. So she was only released for one day. Things are not looking well. Her blood pressure is now too low, she's developed a urinary tract infection, pneumonia, fluid in her lungs, and has not woken all day. They are about to do a CAT scan on her head but to me it sounds like a coma if she's been so unresponsive. I'm glad we went to see her on Sunday and we could talk with her a bit even if she was disoriented but to be honest I will be really, really surprised if she makes it to New Year's. :(
I told my MIL to please call us if she wanted Paul to be there with her. She said that was ok and he really ought to be with me and I told her that if she needed him to be there to please not hesitate. I couldn't come down for obvious reasons but I'd already spoken to my parents about Mawmaw so Paul would just drop me off there on the way down. And I'd be there in thought. Paul's sister was flying out to her in-laws tonight and I don't know if she went after all or not. If need be Paul and his brother could be there pretty quickly and leave their respective pregnant wives home.
So. December continues to be a pretty wacko kind of month.
We took Mom out to dinner to chat and one of the many things we talked about was Paul's teenage cousin being 6 weeks pregnant. Shocker for us both esp. since after her older sister went through that whole teen pregnancy thing you'd think it serve as warning enough to be sensible and not put herself in the same situation.
OB appt. tomorrow and then I'm off for the holidays. I still have cards and things to do but they can wait until New Year. I'm pooped out.
We popped in at Walmart so I could get red crochet thread, then off to Sam's Club to get Paul his spouse card and stock up on a few things. Then we went to my mom's house where we played Pictionary, had dinner, and then watched A Christmas Story. I got most of the red trim done on the cars and trucks baby blanket and finished it up watchign South Park once we got home.
I'm trying to get Paul up and about so we can shower, lunch, and then see about going to visit Mawmaw in the hospital. I'd rather go early and come home early than go late and be coming home late.
[later]
Ok, he's up and he's going to call to get directions to the hospital Mawmaw is at. I'm glad we're going to see her -- I hope it cheers her up.
What I'm not excited about is grabbing a drive-thru crap lunch from Mcdonald's. I'd rather have something else but it's the only thing we can have that's close to the on ramp to the interstate and I know Paul doesn't want to go way out of the way. They're building a Subway on the other street so I'll be glad once that is done. In the meanwhile, I'm stuck with stinky McD's.
After checking their website, that actually has nutrition info AND diabetes exchange suggestions (hear that Chili's?! Even crap McD's has this info posted!) I'm having a quarter pounder no cheese, a side salad, and 1% milk. I've already had 6 oz low-sodium V8 to make up my missing vegetable exchange and my prenatal vitamin. It's going to break down to a total of 580 calories made up of 43% carbs, 23% protein, and 34% fat. I'm amazed I managed it so the fat wasn't a lot worse.
I need to find a diabetes eating out chart thingie for popular restaurants. With all these holiday gatherings and all the eating out we still are going to be doing, it would be easier if I already knew what to order where ahead of time.
Met our doula at Chili's. We both liked her very much and we chatted about different things. She gave us some example birth plans so we can start getting that together so she knows what we want and how to support us re: advocacy.
Mawmaw is out of surgery ok, but no details on the answering machine so maybe tomorrow.
Meanwhile I was crusing the Chili's website. So annoying... I don't see why all restaurants don't just POST their nutrition information online and make life easier. We KNOW eating out is loaded with calories. We aren't stupid. And do they really think it would hurt sales THAT badly to just make the info public? Jeez. Anyone who is worried about it from a weight loss standpoint already knows, and people who don't care, still won't care. All they do is make life hellish for the people who have to track nutrition crap (high cholesterol people, diabetic people, allergy people, etc.)
I had to call Chili's 1-800 number to get calories, fat, carbs, and protein for their Old Timer burger. They won't give you anything else, but at least I got that much. If you were wondering, It's about 793 cal. for the burger. Then 45 g fat, 52 g carb, and 45 g protein. I usually skip the fries and have a naked corn on the cob instead.
I asked the guy to give the values for cheese so I could substract it from the burger because I never get it with cheese.
At least now I can plan my lunch to accomodate dinner out... blood glucose readings for today are great so far so hopefully Chili's tonight to meet our doula won't wreck it.
Today I have to wait for the lojack guy to come and stick it into my car. Then I have to find the old car's repair papers and stuff to give to my dad so he quits bugging me. Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't have been easier to just trade it in rather than give it to Dad. Sigh.
Later today Mawmaw has her shoulder surgery. My MIL will call around 3 or 4 PM to let us know how it went. And we go meet our doula for dinner in the evening.
Last night I was watching old South Park cartoons and finished two more baby blanket trims. I'm giving them to Kimberly, my niece-to-be, for Xmas. My SIL Donna is about a trimester behind me and since I was doing a bunch for myself, I thought it would be nice to do two extras for their new baby.
Reader Amy asks how to punch the fabric while doing crochet trim -- basically you use a fine thread crochet hook (ex: a 10) and just stab it through the cloth. The finer the hook, the easier it is to punch it into the cloth and the smaller the resulting hole. Once you go around with a foundation row, you can change to a bigger size hook for the decorative part. I go with a 7 for that. Sometimes you have to punch through a tag or a particularly thick seam corner... for those I use a chunky upholstery needle. It is not threaded -- I just poke the needle through the layers a few times to get a prelimary hole going and then I try it with the #10 crochet hook. Sort of like a pilot hole when you are drilling wood.
I updated all the craft blog pix just now to show more trims and an afghan.
Later today I have to tackle the filing and that's more groveling around on the floor. Ugh! :P
I spent a nice morning wrapping holiday packages and getting things ready for the mail. Tomorrow I'm going to look at more cars, and hopefully this weekend we'll buy one.
This afternoon we go see the new OB so I'll write about that when I get back home. Yesterday afternoon I had my GD class. It was with 3 other pregnant women and taught by a dietitian and a diabetes educator. The first part I could have missed -- it was passing out monitors and learning how to do the finger pricks and so on. I already got that talk from Mary at Dr. H's. And I like my Accu-Chek Advantage Kit over the Accu-Chek Compact Kits they handed out. I'm not wild about the drum-style test strips or the shape of the meter. Mine is more like a PDA and not so chunky.
We saw a movie thing explaining what GD is and then the dietitian came along to teach us nutrition things like portion sizes, label reading, diabetic exchanges, etc. Then we got our meal plans. Mine is for 2600 calories and I felt that was sheer madness -- I asked her if she took my hypothyroid into account. She said to give it a shot for a week or two and if it gave me problems or if I was gaining too much, then to call her and she'd adjust it.
I've got 3 meals and 3 snacks broken into exchanges but thankfully on the side she has it in percentages too -- 43% carbs, 23% protein, 33% fat. I can't deal with exchanges. The math is sooo much saner to me in percentages.
So now I have to map out food for the rest of the week and go to the grocery.
I'm still worried about Paul -- he's looking pretty haggard and very tired. Mawmaw is still in hospital and things for her are not looking good. Her blood pressure is still too high and she's got a broken shoulder.
Friday I called Dad to see how he was and he told me to come along to get his medical records from the hospital. So we did that, did a little shopping, went to lunch and then went to test drive a Honda Accord. That night was Paul's company dinner. It was at the Park Plaza Garden. I'd thought about having my wedding reception there years ago but didn't because it was too big a space for my needs. The food was great, and it was nice to visit with Paul's coworkers.
Saturday we did nothing most of the day and then went to SuperTarget to finish the last of the Xmas shopping. Now I have to finish writing my holiday cards and I can do a mail run and get all the things that need mailing out.
Today we were going to go see Mawmaw for her birthday but Paul's mom canceled her birthday party because they had to go to the emergency room. Mawmaw had another high blood pressure episode and took a fall because she got all faint or something. She's stable.
It rained all day and when it let up we popped over to my parents' house to visit and to give Dad his birthday present (Home Depot gift card) and both parents anniversary gifts. (hair dryer for mom and bed tray for Dad.) Dad was thrillllled with the tray. Mom had hinted that he'd always wanted one and apparantly he did. Now he's trying to get us all to make him breakfast in bed. I promised that if Karen or Mom didn't make him one soon, I'd make him brunch. I can't make him breakfast -- he gets up too dang early for me!
OB appt. this morning for a non-stress test. I asked Paul if he wanted to go to hospital today for pre-admission and he said we'll do after my OB appt next week. He'd forgotten to tell people at work about this week's appt. so he doesn't want to be gone too long and have them wondering what happened to him. That's fine. I just wanted to know what is on my agenda for today.
With 8 weeks to go, I'm looking at a very busy calendar. Apart from weekly OB appts?
This weekend we do his company dinner friday and Mawmaw's b-day with his family. We finish Xmas shopping the next day but I have to call my parents to wish them a happy anniv. and Dad a happy birthday. Then GD class monday and meeting the doula sometime during the week.
The next weekend over is when we will celebrate the anniv/bday things so Karen will be home from college. We're going to see an ice show. If I'm very lucky, I'll have finished test driving things the week and I'll also be buying my car that weekend.
A few days later, Xmas with my parents either on Xmas Eve or Xmas day. The other day we get to our ourselves. Then on the weekend, Xmas with the in-laws since this year we're going to wait a few days more so nephew is home from the military.
The weekend after that is my baby shower with the family.
The weekend after that is my sister's birthday and we go get our goodie bags from the Disney marathon. Whether we pass our numbers along unofficially to friends or not is up in the air but I do want to go watch and collect the goodies I've paid for. (Registration does not get refunded if you cannot race.)
The weekend after that, baby might come early. You know how they say any time 2 weeks ahead or 2 weeks behind your due date? That's the 2 weeks ahead weekend!
So I'm leaving everything from that point on open.
Some where in there I have to fit another doula meeting, and then baby care class, breastfeeding class, and parent's class if Paul wants to attend. These are supplemental classes included in the whole Lamaze thing. We don't have to attend, but they are free if we do since we completed Lamaze already. What I wanted to do was baby first aid and a prenatal massage somewhere in there as well. The problem is when!?
In a way I'm glad there's stuff going on to distract me. I'd be obsessing about the final waiting otherwise.
[2:15 PM]
Finally home. My appt with Dr. G. was at 9:45 and it was for a non-stress test.
He wasn't happy with a "dip" he saw on the chart. I never got to see the chart
and I asked if it was from my wriggling around during the test -- it was on a very
uncomfortable metal table. He kind of nodded and kept on talking and said he'd prefer
I get and ultrasound to check on baby and since his u/s tech wasn't coming til 11, to head
to triage at the hospital to have it done there. He'd call ahead to let them know we were coming.
He also was going to turn my case over to the high-risk pregnancy specialist. Then he stressed the importance
of me sticking to the GD diet.
This part irked me more than him not answering me about whether me wriggling affects the
NST data or referring my case on to a specialist.
Because when I first met him and told him I had PCOS/IR I had asked if I should
just do the GD diet from the get go even though at that point I hadn't been dx'd with GD.
Me thinking it could hurt if I didn't have it and I'd be ahead of the game if I did.
He had told me at the time that they'd check with GTT's later on and we'd deal with it then
when it showed up. Fine. But now that it has showed up, just don't be nagging me about a diet
when I don't even have diabetes class until next Monday! I only just got my dx and Accucheck machine last week for pete's sake! And even without benefit of a class, I'm keeping my sugars reasonably within range. So thpppt! :P
Off we go to triage...
I think Paul was a bit more anxious than me. Unless somebody tells me it is time to freak out, I refuse to freak out. He told me in the elevator he had visions of me delivering right then and there. Poor guy. He's getting upset over whether something is seriously wrong and I'm getting annoyed because my breakfast is wearing off and can't eat anything.
Peed, blood pressured, temperatured, filled forms, and then a nurse hooks me up to another NST machine. And again I try to ask about whether or not my wriggling around affects the results and while I don't think she really absorbed my question well either at least I got more pillow wedges than the 1st time with it. I even got a blanket.
I wasn't on it for very long when they took it off again because the on-call doc came with her student docs. I got asked a bunch of questions while the student doc did an ultrasound. Baby measures fine,
everything looks fine. Cervix checked -- everything closed and happy.
Since they took off all the NST belts so they could do the belly u/s I had to get hooked up again to the NST so they could get a nice long strip. The third time I insisted somebody go get me a wedge for my side, belly, AND back because they wanted me to sit still for 30 min. And guess what? Now that I was comfortable and didn't have to keep shifting to keep bits of me from hurting or falling asleep, my results were a lot more stable. Duh!
When the doc came back to tell us my chart was beautiful and baby was great, Paul asked her if maternal movement could
affect a chart and she looked surprised and said yes.
So I got sent home and I see the new OB next week.
I'm not mad, and I think Dr. G. did the right thing in sending me to triage to get checked out more carefully
if he thought something was wrong with my NST chart. He also did the right thing in referring my case to a high-risk speciliast
if he was starting to feel that my case was getting beyond his scope. I still like him very much.
But it drives me crazy when I want something answered and it takes me forever to get a response!
I told Paul if the new OB wants me to do another NST test I'm not going to let the attending person leave me until I have
enough pillows to lay comfortably on. While I'm glad in the end there was nothing wrong, if someone had just
took the extra minute or two to make sure I was comfortable the first time we could have saved ourselves several hours of running around. How can you expect a very pregnant person to be happy laying on a metal table or gurney with no cushioning?! Sheesh. I've got 5 pillows on my bed!
On the bright side, we got the preadmission stuff done today while we were there... one less thing be doing now. And we got to see the hospital and meet some staff -- we're still happy with our hospital choice.
That hat is too cute! I'm trying it now in a varigated rainbow. How would you make it larger for a toddler?? I'm not sure it is working for me. :)
I was reading "Exercise: An Alternative Therapy for Gestational Diabetes" and thought it gave some good advice re: exercise.
We got a surprise box from our niece today and guess what was in it? A huge pile of baby clothes her daughter has outgrown from 0-12 mos! I was so thrilled! It was really a sweet gesture. Baby def. does not need any more clothing for a long while to come... I updated my baby shower wishlist so clothes were at the BOTTOM of the list and only in sizes bigger than 12 mos. There are other things we need more than clothes at this point.
Granted, Sunday Lamaze was better because we actually got some SLEEP on Saturday night and it was 12-4 rather than 9-5.
First we watched the medical intervention part of the movie and then Teacher did show and tell again only this time related to that segment of the movie. She'd explain the item and then pass it around the class. So we saw a bulb aspirator, ID tags, umbilical cord clamps, forceps, a vacuum extractor, catheter thing that goes in the epidural needle, internal fetal monitor, extrenal monitor belts, pitocin tubes, etc. A bit of a talk about breech babies and turning them and then the other section of the movie about ceasarean sections. Then a longer talk about medical interventions like Stadol shots or different epidurals and what stage it is appropriate to give them in. In the movie they had sterile water injections which I hadn't heard of and thought were interested but my hopsital doesn't do those. I plan on asking Terri or Dr G. about it because perhaps if enough people start asking they'll start doing it. It interests me because it sounds like something I can tolerate a lot better than some of the other options. Paul was pretty grossed out over the epidural part of the movie and after all the risks were listed he later told me he could def. see why the whole idea of one turns me off and why I'd leave it as a last resort and avoid it if possible.
A break, then we reviewed the breathing patterns from yesterday and learned a new one. We practiced that for a while and then on to learning to push. Practiced that on the floor. But I forgot to ask WHY they want you to hold your breath during pushing when everything I've ever read about physical effort says to exhale with the effort and NEVER to hold your breath. I'll have to ask Dr G. or Terri that also on Wednesday.
Then how to squat with your partner sitting in a chair helping you. More homework over the next few weeks for building up to squatting for 15 min out of every hour and leanring to focus on the breathing despite distractions and coordinationg hand signals with your partner. (This is starting to feel like trainign for the Diseny marathon to me.)
Finally the relaxation/guided imagery exercise where we lay on the floor in the dark. That was ancie way to end the day. Then we got our completion certificates and went to visit Dad at the hospital.
Told Dad about class today and he alternated looking grossed out with looking very interested.
Dad's got a pretty old-fashioned idea of childbirth and he still gets queasy over the idea of watching people give birth on video even if it's for childbirth educations classes. My describing the ceasarean bit had him scrunching up his face in dismay.
Baby woke up and I tried to get Dad to catch a feel but she wasn't feeling cooperative. Maybe he'll get a feel later today. Then home for sleep.
Paul told me on the way to the hopsital parking garage that Dad's face when I stood up and walked over to the bed to get his hand was funny. First he was looking at his hand like, "What does she want with my hand?" then he was staring at my belly like some kind of scary thing was going to happen.
"He looked like a mixture of 'oh my god, this is weird! Help!' and 'Oooh, maybe I get to feel the baby... neat!'" Paul explained.
Amusing because my mother tells me to shut up and bends over to press her head against my belly to see what she can hear without warning. I think if she could run off with my belly to go cuddle it she would. LOL.
Today was class #1 for Weekend Lamaze. It went from 9-5 with some 10 min breaks and a 60 min lunch break at noon. It was a lot of review for me until the end but it wasn't bad to review. We covered 4 weeks of material. For Paul a lot of it was first time stuff because he doesn't read quite so much on his own and relies on me to keep him updated with anything interesting happening in my pregnancy instead. He seemed to enjoy it and so did I. Neither one of us wants to be doing this every weekend, but it was a good class. We both could have used more sleep, but the teacher seemed nice and kept us interested. It's the first time Paul and I have ever taken any kind of class together so there was some giggly business, poking, sly comments, note passing and so on. Felt very high school boyfriend-y.
There were 3 other spouse type couples, and 1 mom-daughter couple. So just 10 of us in class. The first thing we had to do was go around the room introducing ourselves. The preggo had to say her name, her doctor, her due date, the gender of the baby, what the worst thing was about pregnancy (nausea and puking!) and what concerns she wanted to address in class (eating with GD). The coach had to say his/her name, what weekend activities the couple usually did, the name of the baby-to-be, what the best part of pregnancy was, why they were in class, and what concerns they wanted to address.
The first chunk of class was a lot of show-and-tell with props. The first was a model pelvis and explaining all the parts. The second was a baby doll and explaining baby skull bones, demonstrating how baby might be sitting in the womb, how baby travels through the pelvis and twists his way down, explaining different stations as baby moves on down, how long it takes for babies to pink up, what Agpar scores measure, etc. Another baby doll came out for comparison to the first baby doll since one had a regular shaped head and the other had a molded, cone-shaped head. Teacher had a whole bag full of props and she went digging for a bulb aspirator thing to show how baby would have his nose and mouth sucked out when just the head was born and a prop infant monitor that attaches to the babies head. This made Paul snicker because she was flinging other baby dolls out of her bag left and right onto the table.
During this part of class I discovered I knew things already without knowing I knew. Like how vaginal birth babies have all the amniotic fluid squeezed out of their lungs as they pass through and how it might dribble out of their mouth and nose during birth hence the bulb to help suck all this gunk out and how ceasarean babies don't get that lung squeeze business and it usually takes them longer to pink up as a result because they have to work more stuff out first.
The next prop was my favorite -- the placenta pillow with a mesh bag attached around it representing the amniotic sac and the umblilical cord dangling down from the center. I don't know why but it looked really cool to me. Paul liked it too because during her lecture Teacher kept popping the cord on and off the baby doll and this amused him. The doll had velcro hands to help hold him in fetal position while she popinted at parts and he had a button for a belly button so she could snap the cord on. All these props could fit together -- baby snapped to cord and into the mesh bag/amniotic sac with the drawstring closed, the whole placenta/bag thing into the uterus model bag, then the whole uterus bag into the pelvis model. So we go through how all these things work and fit together, what it means when your bag of waters breaks and gushes or trickles, and what your placenta/cord choices are at the hospital.
You can have it just tossed out, or you can request to take it home with you, or if you want to look at it all before it's tossed they'll give you gloves and let you handle it and examine it for a while. Paul groaned when he heard that one because he knows I'm going to want to look at it and handle it. I don't necessarily want to bring it home to bury in the yard, but I do want the chance to check it out. It just looks so cool! Esp. that 2 cell-thick amniotic sac part. If we ask our OBs we can arrange to donate cord blood/stem cells so I have to remember to mention that at my Wed. appt. We're probably not going to store it, but there's no point in just tossing it either if it can help someone else. It doesn't cost me anything other than sigining permission slips and possibly a few more blood tests or something to see if I'm a healthy donor but the stab me all the time anyway so why not?
Break time, and then we were back to discuss the uterus model, names of its parts, and what things like "dilation" or "effacement" mean, what a mucus plug does and how it can be lost, etc. I remember Paul murmuring to himself, "Oh, that's where fundal height comes from. Fundus. Ok...." and I must have glanced at him oddly because he whispered "Well, I've seen people measuring your fundal height at appointments and I knew it had to do with how the uterus is growing taller inside with baby in it but I didn't know it's because the top part of the uterus is called a fundus."
Next came stages of labor, how to recognize them, how long each stage typically lasts in first time moms, what baby is doing at each stage, what mom can expect to be feeling, how coach can help, what contractions are trying to do and how to work with them, etc. Then some rules like... when in doubt, check it out...if you have a rupture of memebranes you either call the doc or go to hospital... How many contractions and how far apart before going to hospital if there's been no rupture yet.
We broke up for lunch after that and when we got back, we saw part I of the movie. It was 3 births that were pretty straight forward.
One was a woman with a midwife and no medical interventions. She had her spouse, the midwife, and a doula or nursey person for support. (Later we both commented to each other how even though it looked intense, she seemed to be having the most satisfying birth.) The couple went to a movie through part of early labor and hung out at home for a while doing things like hot showers or massage or walking or whatever. So the first woman saw it coming and had time to try different things. She also tried more positions for labor.
(Paul told me later when we were at lunch that he had a hard time watching her segment not because it was gross or bugging him... but because all these noises she kept making and all these various positions she kept trying reminded him too much of the noises and positions I want during sex. So instead of paying attention to the movie he kept thinking about sex. What a weirdo!)
The second woman was in a hospital to be induced by her OB because of high blood pressure or something, and she had a narcotic to take the edge off pain and that was about it. She had brought her spouse, a doula, and her mom for support. She didn't try as many positions but she did walk the hospital halls and rock in the rocker a lot.
The third woman was caught a bit unawares at her OB appt. when it turned out she was 3 cm dilated and was sent on to hospital. She didn't have time to gather her support people how she wanted, her contractions never came in a regular pattern, she didn't want to try different positions because she hated to be touched or moved, and she eventually wanted an epidural for pain, but the baby was born fine in the end.
Tomorrow we see part II for the complicated births.
After movie time we did the hospital tour in class with maps and things because since 9/11 they do not allow classes to go across the street to tour in person. I'm ok with that -- we'll see part of it when we go in for pre-admission papers and I've already seen quite a bit on the website video clips.
There was an explanation for baby security so people know which baby goes with which parents and the system for getting people moved around. There's the first waiting area with 10 beds for early labor, then there's the birthing rooms for later labor and actual births, then after a while recovering in there you go to your private room. If it's a normal vaginal birth they like to move parents and babies along as a unit but if there's a c-sect or some emergency thing and people have to be separated there's a lot of checking of bands. Baby gets a transponder as well that sets off alarms and locks doors if he's moved beyond the floor limits. This made Paul laugh because it was those department store tag things.
Nobody gets keys -- a nurse has to buzz you in and out of places and I wanted to know what doors are closed at night and what happens if there's a fire. Teacher looked a bit startled when I asked that but even as much as I'm grateful for the extra security measures the idea of being locked up in all these layers during some kind of crisis weirds me out. Teacher explained their evacuation proceedures. This also made Paul grin when she got to the part where the nurses have huge emergency baby aprons they have to wear with all these pouches all around them. Then they can put babies into the pockets and leave the building with them all and once everyone is out sort out the babies by their bands. I felt better after that.
Another break and then on to comfort measures at home, example focus objects, example massage tools, strategies for dealing with relatives, getting to hospital, tips for coaches, etc. Then we learned 2 breathing patterns and masaae techniques for moom and coach to do. We practiced those for a while and then the arm thing was the last bit for the day.
In that exercise Paul sat behind me and had to provide a simulated contraction/pain stimulus. This was his slowly building up to a peak squueze of my arm and then tapering the squeeze off. Teacher would time it and point to parts of a bell curve to show the coaches how hard to be squeezing when. Meanwhile I was supposed to me doing a one-handed belly massage and doing the medium breathing pattern throughout the time interval.
So Teacher calls time, Paul starts applying pressure to my upper left arm and I'm sitting there having a hard time coordinating belly rubbing with my breath count. I'm the only one in the class with asthma so while Teacher will count aloud for everyone else's pattern, I have to count in my head and ignore her counts because my asthma pattern is slightly faster. This was hard to do and in the back of my head I kept thinking things like "Boy, I hope this interval ends soon because he's squeezing my arm kind of hard... is this breathing business really going to help any? Damn, lost count... ok... 2...3..."
Then to illustrate how breathing patterns and such help manage pain by distancing you away from it she made us all do it again only the preggos had to just sit -- no rubbing/breathing stuff. The whole class suddenly started yelling things like "Hey!" or "Ow!" at thier coaches.
Paul told me the first time he was worried about hurting me and decided that when I started fussing that would be as strong as he'd squeeze for the peak part of the simulated contraction but since I never said anything he just kept on going until he was squeezing with ALL his strength and having a hard time keeping it at that level for the whole 60 seconds. (No wonder I have red finger marks on my left arm!) Then the second time when I was just sitting and he had to do the same squeeze he didn't even get the chance to get to peak squeeze because before he even got out of the first 10 sec taper-up bit I pulled away and hit him because it hurt so bad.
We were both pretty amazed at the difference in my tolerance during the two examples.
We got homework assignment (practice the 2 patterns) and homework assignments to practice on for the next few weeks with increasing pain stimulus to help us learn to concentrate. (1 arm squeezed, 2 arms squeezed, 1 arm squeezed and one ice cube in the other hand, ice cubes in both hands but no arm squeezing, etc.)
THEN we went to the hospital to visit with Dad for two hours -- told him all about class and we talked about car shopping some more. It excites him that I'm getting a new car and he's thinking of getting a new van so we're trying to see if we both like something form the same dealership if we can get a bit of a price break since we'd be purchasing 2 vehicles rather than 1. So chatting about when we'll go looking and test driving and stuff. We walked the ward with him for a bit, kept him company through his dinner, had him tell us about this vistors that day (mom and his friend and the friend's spouse), what his doctor said and what he is supposed to be over the next few weeks recovery period, etc.
So. Another very long and involved day. One more tomorrow, and then Monday I'm taking off. No errands, no visiting, no cleaning, no nothing. I just want to have a sleepathon!
So last night at the hospital... Mom told me over the phone that at first Dad wanted only Mom and Paul to come because he thought I'd get agitated and that would be bad for me because I was pregnant. I told her not to be silly -- I don't get upset easily and besides, by that point we already knew Dad was in decent shape and not in dire circumstances. So after she hung up she saw Dad off in the helicopter from the one hospital and then came by to get us in the van and made Paul drive the rest of the way to the other hospital.
By the time we got to the hospital they transferred him to, everything that needed to be done had been done. He got checked out, they located the block, put a stent in, and he was recovering. He didn't have any other blocks or thinning passages. We got to see pictures of his block -- it was 100% closed! Now it's open and hopefully the stent will work out. They are going to keep him for 3 days for observation to be on the safe side but his attendant and doctor told us that because they caught it well within the 6 hr window he doesn't think that any of Dad's heart tissue died and at most there may be some slight scarring. He got a 98-99% chance of recovering from this episode without further complications so we were all glad.
Mom's going to spend the day with him and we'll pop in after Lamaze later today. We talked to him for a while and he seemed to be groggy, in decent spirits, but annoyed with how dry his mouth felt. He didn't want any of his water and smack in the middle of a conversation he stuck his tongue out at us and started feeling it with his hands like he was trying to stretch it out so he could look at it. He looked so weird trying to look at his own tongue we all busted up laughing.
As we were leaving Dad called Paul back and when he came out I asked him what was all about. Paul started to laugh and told me Dad called him back to tell him to make sure to wear a hat because it was cold outside.
People in recovery get so weird as they come out of it and start to come back into themselves. Paul never let's me forget how I told my nurse I could see her brains through her nostrils when she leaned over to check on me post-endoscopy a few years ago.
Paul came home early from work because he felt sick and collected me at Mom's around 4:30. I was taking a nap at home when Mom calls at 7 to tell me Dad's fainted and has been taken off by 911 and she's going to follow them in their car. She's called several times as she gets more news and it turns out Dad had a heart attack and they are taking him by helicopter to a different hospital that has more heart/cardiology stuff. She says he's doing fine and is very calm and she sounds fine but we're going to go with her to see Dad get settled for the night. They are keeping him for observation.
Thanksgiving and Paul's birthday were nice. We went with my parents to my MIL's and got to see the family for a bit. Mom B. was worried I was upset with her or something later but I explained I wasn't upset -- I'm just tired and very pregnant. Baby has become even more active (how could that be possible?!) and I'm feeling it. Donna was also feeling uber-pregnant and we probably looked funny flopped on the sofa together. I'd gotten used to the crazy kicking and then baby goes and surprises me again. It's really weird to be sitting down, minding my own business and have my boob flop up because baby has kicked my stomach THAT hard. Sometimes I watch my stomach and see body parts stretching my skin out with punches. Very cool.
Mawmaw is back from hospital after going in for observation beause she had super high blood pressure over Thanksgiving. They think it was a reaction to her meds so they've changed it, and she's doing better. My own grandmother is thinking of coming down to visit and meet the new baby so Mom is trying to get a room ready for her mom. Paul has never met any of my mother's realtives so meeting Popo will be interesting for him.
I get my car back tomorrow so that ought to help some -- doing some errands during the week rather than piling it all on at once on the weekends when Paul is home and can help or going with my parents to do things. My parents have been very good about taking me to my doc appts and helping out -- it's just that Dad drives a bit too jerky for me right now and riding around with him when he takes sharp corners makes me want to puke. He's trying to remember I'm pregnant and can't take the motion like that. And now I can car shop in earnest since I can drive over to car dealerships and check out new models at my own speed.
Anyway... a lot of endoc appts (4) and OB appts (2) over the last two weeks. I can't even remember the first OB appt... it was routine.
Dr. H (endoc) got the last A1C's from Dr. G. (OB) and wasn't happy with them being high normal, but my thyroid is doing fine. So he made me come back for another GTT but promised I could eat food instead of drinking more foul glucola.
So I went back again and did a 3 hr test were they took 4 blood draws. Basically just like the previous 3 HR GTT only I got to eat Nature Valley Banana Nut bars and I didn't throw them up. Hooray! I did get a little faint near the end and they let me lay down and brought my mother to me to keep me company. To come in fasting and get nothing but 2 granolas and then wait for 3 hours more before having lunch -- ugh. I was getting quite grumpy, hungry, and light-headed.
They called me that afternoon to tell me my results were over and that I had to come in again Monday to see Mary, the diabetic educator to pick up an Accucheck machine and learn to use it. So I go over there again for the third time, get taught to use the little machine and make another appt. for Thursday to see Dr. J. and show her how my blood sugars are. Stabbing my fingers with a lancet pen thingie 4 times a day isn't my idea of thrills but it's not too bad.
Wed. I saw Terri, the midwife, for my 2nd OB appt. My iron is 11.6 (last time was 11.7) so I'm escaping extra iron supplements so far. My weight gain was fine, my blood pressure stable. Baby's heartbeat was 147 bpm and really LOUD on the doppler. Even Terri commented and how strong it sounded.
She took down copies of my blood sugar chart, gave me a gestational diabetes diet, and gave me the number for diabetes nutrition class. She was happy with the numbers since they're all under 140. And the OB moved me to once-a-week visits a bit early and I get a non-stress test next week and an extra ultrasound the week after that. Like the endoc. they've decided it's better to just play it on the safe side and watch me more closely.
Today I saw Dr. J. (other endoc. since Dr. H. was booked up) and she took copies of my blood sugar chart, and she wants my numbers under 120. Apparantly they go with a different standard. She thinks between diet and exercise it should be under control because I'm not sooo far over 120.
My fastings are 70-80 where they want under 100. For my post-meal numbers I'm 100-138. The 138 came from too much juice in one sitting -- I'm starting to figure out how much of what I can have. But it is going to feel really stupid to put back a whole bottle of juice when there is only 3 or 4 oz left in it.
I have to call her in 2 weeks and report my numbers again and if they are not stable looking she's going to send me to a dietitian. She explained that my test results AFTER eating were ok but my fasting that day was off so they're just going to be safe and monitor me anyway for the last 2 mos of this pregnancy. I asked her to find out if Glucophage affects breastfeeding or not. Because I think I'd feel best going back on it when I'm allowed to. (PCOS/IR -- I don't think you ever get "cured" -- you just learn to deal with it. But neither do I want type II diabetes later.)
I got a call from the hospital regarding the diabetes nutrition class and if my insurance does not cover it, it will be $300 for the 1 day class. Personally, I'd rather go see Karen, my old dietitian, and fork over the $45 it costs me to see her instead. Who wouldn't prefer one-on-one to a group setting? Speaking of class...
This weekend is our Lamaze class -- it will be an interesting experience with Paul. The midwife told us to take lots of notes over things we had questions about and as the weeks go on we can start talking about how I want to birth the baby and how the hospital does things vs. how their practice does things. I measured 31 inches at 31 weeks pregnant for fundal height so nobody is getting excited about baby being too big or anything. I've been gaining 1 lb a week or so in third trimester so that looks fine too. So hopefully all this extra attention will wind up being just that -- extra attention but nothing distressing coming out of it.
I called my doula so we can hopefully meet some time soon now that Thanksgiving is over.
I got the out of town kids Xmas shopping done, so now I have to finish with my out of towners and mail things off.
Paul told me his brother e-mailed that it looks like they are having another little girl by their ultrasound. Not 100% sure, but it's looking like a girl.
I washed all the 0-3 mos clothes and stuck them in the dresser. I'll deal with the 3-6 mos. later. Even though cotton does shrink a bit when first washed, all my favorite little clothes are 100% cotton because they are sooo soft.
Paul brought home a little dress and socks that his boss gave him. Larry had gotten it from Chad, a co-worker who left ages ago, for his then newborn daughter and stuck it in his desk and forgot about it. It's not til now that they've moved to the new building and are changing all the furniture that he found it again. Of course, his baby has gotten too big to wear 3-6 mos -- she's over a year and a half old now. Deborah is having a boy so she told Larry to put it on Paul's desk and Paul told me it was weird to walk in to work and find a little pink dress on his keyboard.
Paul put all the things together that needed to be put together -- rocker, co-sleeper, swing, stroller, etc. The living room has exploded into a baby circus.
I've been playing with thread crochet lately to relax. So far I've edged 2 flannel receiving blankets and I'm almost done with the third. I think they look prettier than leaving the edges as plain seams. My mother made two for baby that way and when I was sorting baby things to wash I realized I should just go ahead and trim some myself. Mom told me coming back from the endoc. this morning that now that she knows "Cletus" is a girl, she's going to watch for fabric sales in cute prints and start doing little outfits and dress-up clothes.
So things here are a whirlwind of various activities!
My babyage.com order shipped so if I'm lucky it might get here this evening or tomorrow. Whee!
[10:45 AM]
We are back, and I've scanned and posted the ultrasound pictures. Cletus-the-Fetus is a GIRL! A strong 166 bpm. Everything looked great, we got to see her swallowing, waving, kicking, rolling, her bones, heart, brain, amniotic fluid size, etc. She's measuring at 3.5 lbs, so 2 weeks ahead but nobody seemed overly worried.
Dr. G. spoke to us briefly once we got out of sono. He wanted to be sure we registered for a class, and just said we'd keep an eye on how she is developing and if she is still measuring ahead and looks like letting her go to 2/5 may make her hard for me to pass her vaginally, we may talk about inducing her a bit early. Paul knows I'd prefer to let her come at her own time but asked on the car trip home if the choice is inducing early or C-sect, what I would pick. I'd pick to induce early.
He also confessed that even though he would have been totally ok with either, he was secretly leaning towards a girl. I don't knwo how many times he patted my stomach on the way home. He's so cute giddy. :)
I'm on appts. every 2 weeks now. (!!!)
I'm not holding my breath.
Paul's cholesterol labs came back -- overall chol. and LDL are ok, but his HDL And triglycerides could use improvement. Didn't check his blood sugar -- will have to make them check that later. With diabetes in his family I really worry about that.
My family practice will take newborns! Hooray! So the ped. on call can check baby out at birth and then Dr. B. or his staff can deal with me, Paul, and baby. I forgot to ask about after hour pediatric type calls though... I will have to call them back up to be sure I can speak to someone outside their office hours. Hopefully it will work out because it will be nice to have the whole family treated by the same people.
Just got off the phone with Dr. B's clinic and they told me there's a doc on call for after hours stuff. Good. One more thing off my checklist!
Added my name to the PCOS quilt.
Having fun reading archives.
It reads fast, but probably not something everyone is going to want to read while pregnant, esp. if you have an anxious personality and worry easily.
The first half of the book disappointed me with it's tone... a frequent complaint reviewers seem to have. No, not everyone has the same pregnancy experience. But, geez, it got old fast... all the personal stories were negative experiences -- there were no positives to help balance it out. I just couldn't relate to it. I've read personal memoir type books that were much better editted for a more balanced tone overall and present themselves as a collection. In a clearly defined anthology or collection, you know going into it that every story is going to have it's own slant.
With a title like Misconceptions: Truth, Lies, and the Unexpected on the Journey to Motherhood I was expecting something something more factual, better researched, and more truly unexpected. So I wasn't ready for the heavy personals in the first chunk.
I still wonder why it has "parenting" as the back cover's category guide. But then, they couldn't have put "anthology" or "non-fiction" or "women's studies" or "popular culture" on it either because the book doesn't seem to have a clear writing style or clear goal in mind. Or maybe it aims for one and misses the mark? But definitely it was NOT a "parenting" type book.
The second half was slightly better in tone but it wasn't anything unexpectedly new. It has less personal stories mixed in and more statistics but seems to skim across the topics rather than going deeply enough. I remember wondering why this book was so short if the topic it attempted to cover had so much potential material.
One review I read made me laugh because it echoed my thoughts in a succint way:
Reviewer: ytak from Canadada
It stretches credulity to imagine that Naomi Wolf was unaware of any number of the issues her book covers.
Gosh, North American doctors tend to medicalise pregnancy, labour, and delivery.
Golly, pregnancy really gets a woman's nesting instinct perking.
Jiminy crickets, being a mother really changes a person's life.
Gee whiz, motherhood is seriously undervalued in North American society.
Heavens to Betsy, women generally end up being the primary caregiver.
Gracious, it's hard to be a mother **and** have a career.
I mean, duh.
While it's true that no one is fully prepared for motherhood, Wolf ranges, wide-eyed yet uninsightful, across well-travelled terrain, displaying a disheartening ignorance of the reproductive aspect of womens' lives. She presents as fresh and new phenomena and experiences that have been widely chronicled and trenchantly observed by far more perceptive writers than she, and she does it all in a prose that is both breathless and cloying. It is shocking that an educated woman, a proud feminist, no less, could have been as thoroughly uninformed about pregnancy, childbirth, and mothering as Wolf apparently was.
All in all, a silly book penned by an uninspiring scribe.
I'm still not sure if it's bad editting or unclear goals in writing that are the fault with this book. I wanted to enjoy it so much more than I actually did. I'm probably going to re-read it before I make up my mind if I'm keeping it or returning it but it certainly wasn't one I'd heartily recc. to friends and right now it looks likes a return.
So the weekend... every year for the last 3 years or so I try to book us an anniversary weekend mini-vacation. The first was to go mountain biking in Croom, the second we wound up having a spa weekend at the Wyndham, this year we had to postpone it a bit because of morning sickness in August but we finally got to this month. Originally it was going to be Universal Studios themed but we scaled it back to just being away. I'm feeling too waddly to deal with theme parking.
Friday. While I popped into the endoc. to get my lab drawn, Paul went next door to mail all these things he was supposed to have done earlier but didn't get a chance to do. The nurse doing my lab asked me if I was expecting an donce I said I was, if it was a single or twins. We did groceries on the way home, unloaded them, fed the pets, and then played video games for a while. Then we left for our 4 PM check in time at the Westgate Lakes Resort and Spa. We stopped at Target to get camera batteries and the cashier asked Paul if we were expecting. He had a funny but pleased expression on his face -- it might be the first time someone directed the question at him rather than me.
Check-in was very quick and we got to our room. It was very nice at a good location at a decent price. Anyone coming to Orlando to do that whole tourist thing who is going to rent a car for their stay would def. do well to stay there. We lounged about reading all this tourist info packet stuff and then we watched trashy TV until dinner time. We went down I-drive with the idea that we'd stop when we saw something tasty but we drove the whole length instead and ended up in the Belz shopping area at Van's Skate Park.
I think Paul secretly wants to give it a whirl -- I told him I'd rent him equipment for a session if he wanted to come back after dinner but he didn't quite take me up on it. He's got to get over his shyness first and the idea that he might be too old to play around on skateboards. Mostly it is the shyness though because the "too old" stuff is crap. Sure there were a lot of kids/teens there, but in the really BIG pool and BIG ramps? It was all adult men with their wives and babies/toddlers watching them from the balconies. They were our age or older. I'll have to write to Lara to see if Dean would enjoy a day at the park with Paul when they are down for the holidays. I think if he goes with a friend he'd feel better about the shyness in new places thing. We spent more than an hour people watching -- Paul explaining to me what different people were doing or trying to do.
We went to Cattlemen's Steak House on the way back down I-drive and it was very good food. Paul told me ever since I've gotten pregnant we've been to more steak places than ever before previously. I told him since we'd NEVER gone to steak places before it wasn't hard to beat by going two times. He laughed. He's right though -- if I had to name the one odd pregnancy craving I've had it's steak. I'm normally not a steak person.
We'd talked about mini-golf but we were both too full so instead of going to Tiki golf we just went back to the resort and enjoyed the jacuzzi bath. Stayed up late watching bad TV shows. We don't normally watch it so it was amazing to watch all this junk on TV. We saw a LOT of bad stuff but "Jackass" probably tops them all.
Paul wouldn't let me change the channel because he wanted to watch the entire thing. He lay there under the covers giggling and I KNEW it was out of nostalgia so I punched him. Not that Paul's ever laid on the hood of a car and run gone through a car wash or run down the street in a dutch girl costume flashing people. But he HAS gotten into tubes and then been pushed down hill. And that stunt where they guy was trying to "skate" while strapped on to sanding belts? That's totally something he and his friends would have done. The climbing up a stepladder on snowboards going down a hill bit had him dying with laughter because if there was ever snow in Florida, that would have been something he'd have done also! Boys are demented. That's all I have to say.
Saturday. We slept in til noon and then we went to TooJay's for lunch. We bumped into Adam (co-worker of Paul's) and his girlfriend while there and chit-chatted for a bit. Paul joked on the way to the car that he was going to have give Adam a stern talking to on Monday because bumping into them entirely ruined the illusion that we were on vacation somewhere else.
We found a Barnes and Noble we'd never been to before and we spent a long time reading and looking at things. I picked up Misconceptions and Paul got another Terry Pratchett and a Christmas Carols book because he wants to learn to play them on the harp he just made.
Pit stop at a grocery to snag something for dinner. I hadn't realized we were going to have a kitchenette in our studio room otherwise I would have brough some food from the first grocery trip on Friday but oh, well. Then we tried to go swimming but Paul told me the water was way cold and when I stepped in to my ankles I agreed. It would have been ok for just me but I'm leery of too cold/too hot stuff with baby and all. We'll have to try swimming at the heated pool instead next weekend. Since the swimming was out we decided to walk around and explore the resort. It was probably 2+ miles roundtrip... we went all over the place -- by the lakes, by other pools, tennis courts, shuffleboard courts, the arcade, etc. I got a "menu of services" card from the Papillon Spa and Paul told me if I wanted to book an appt. for the next day to go ahead but I told him I already checked and they don't do pregnancy packages like I wanted. I just wanted the menu for my collection. We holed up again after that -- reading, more TV, long bath, dinner, etc.
Sunday. We checked out at 10 AM and went to breakfast at the Bistro McDonald's just because it was funny looking and their bistro menu cracked us up. Unfortunately we didn't get to try anything on the bistro menu because it was 10:30 and it was still breakfast. Went to Michael's to look at hobby stuff and to Petsmart to get a mouse wheel and then home for a nap. Later we popped in at Holly's to trade movies and visit for a while-- it was nice to chat.
Very restful weekend -- apart from doing nothing in particular, it was so good to get to just be together without interruptions. No phone, no family, no pets, no work, no baby discussions, just him and me.
Speaking of appts... Off to my lab appt. at the endoc., to do some errands, and then Paul and I are freeeeeeee for the rest of the day! Whee!
I'm so excited to be in the home stretch! Even more so for the ultrasound appt. I hope Cletus "tells" us if he's a son or a daughter... I'd like to start using his real name.
I'm taking a break from housework. It's very frustrating to want to clean things below waist-level and not be able to do it properly. I can sweep things into a little pile, but then bending down with the dust pan is hard. I really don't want to leave little piles around for Paul to get for me later. At least most of the house is not too horrible -- we've been cleaning quite a bit and it isn't so much mess or clutter as it is general dusting/sweeping to maintain the status quo plus sorting for Goodwill.
This morning I was trying to take digitial photos outside in the sun of the afghan squares I've done lately and they came out all weird. It's the dark yarns -- I just can't get a good texture shot with them no matter what I do. I think once all the squares are done, before I whipstitch I'll take new photos with the 35 mm SLR instead.
[later at 4 PM]
Just got off the phone with Rochelle, my 1st doula match. I got a good impression from her so after I talk to Paul about it to see what he thinks, she's probably going to be the one we choose unless someone else impresses me more. Told her I'd call her back Mon.
I just want to check with Kathy, the doula coordinator, if I am supposed to be getting any other calls from prospective doulas or if she's giving them to me one at a time. She's not in the office til Fri., and I'm taking off for the weekend then so it's a bit awkward.
While the phone call is still fresh in my head:
Had some cramps yesterday and today -- indigestion. Seem to get that more lately. Celtus was also very active yesterday so that didn't help any -- my insides feel like there's not enough room. Breathing deeply? Forget it!
Paul told me his Aunt Dareen said his cousin Lisa had one of her babies at 7 mos. While certainly possible, I think I'd prefer if Cletus stayed in for longer than that!
Changed my endoc lab appt to friday instead of thursday so Paul can take me. Still don't know when my car will be ready at the garage. Poo. :P
This weekend is the 15th -- mid Nov. already! I was looking through babyage.com at all the things I want to order from there (co-sleeper, stroller, car seat) after the weekend.
It was all held at the restuarant in various spots. The service was outdoors in the side garden and very short. I was a bit surprised to see the bridesmaid's all wearing black and carrying creamy-pink tea roses -- a bit somber for a wedding but from a practical point of view, reusing a black evening dress type thing is a lot easier than trying to reuse a bridesmaid's dress that's too weird or frilly so I thought it was a great choice.
I have to remember to learn the Lord's Prayer (Padre Nuestro) in English. Paul didn't say it, but I said it quietly in a mixture of English and Spanish because I started out in English like everyone else in the congregation but then got tired of mentally translatating in my head so finished it up in Spanish. I never learned any of the prayers in English as a child whenever I have to say them I have to think it in Spanish but make it come out in English. It's weird.
When it was done we all went to this porch area to collect seating assignments and sign the guest book -- no receiving line. Then we got fruit/cheese/crackers/drinks from the litle buffet table and bar and hung around chatting with Paul's coworkers until a waiter announced that the dining salon was open. The bridal party came last so the DJ could introduce them all.
We got assigned to a table with Ira. Not exactly a coworker, but someone Paul knows from work and someone that I've met quite a few times. His grilfriend and then his younger brother and his wife were the other people there. Turns out the younger brother and his wife only got married 2 weeks ago, and we hear Ira and Karen may be getting engaged soon so there was a lot of wedding talk/comparisons. When Mike found out we eloped an then just threw a welcome home party after the wedding he told me that is what they would have liked instead.
"Oh, did you get pressured into a bigger one by family and stuff?" I asked him.
"Did I say that?!No....not me!" he rolled his eyes.
I laughed at him.
We talked about honeymoons and places to go, having kids, and chit chat like that in general. It amused me that all of the coworkers who haven't seen me in a while told me I looked great or fabulous or exquisite pregnant. What else would you tell a pregnant lady? That she looks like a wreck? LOL.
Other than me and Deborah (another coworker of Paul's) there were 4 other very pregnant ladies there. I don't think I've ever been to a wedding where there were THAT many people pregnant at once. It was kind of funny watching the bathroom door and the preggo parade.
Paul asked me to dance and I smiled and told him it was nice of him to ask but he was only asking because he knew I'd say no because of my shoes and being mega-pregnant. He grinned back. He NEVER wants to dance at weddings no matter how many times I try to coax him.
The lunar eclipse on the way out was nice -- hope someone got a picture of that for Dan and Lisa's wedding album.
This evening when we went to go get a wedding card we popped into Motherhood to get me pantyhose and a maternity belt. I won't be wearing it around the house or to things like this wedding where I don't want it showing through or under clothing, but for running around town or walking around a lot I can see where it will come in handy. Cletus-the-fetus is getting quite large and the extra support feels really good.
Both Paul and the saleslady commented that I looked happier in it and that my posture was beter -- I didn't slouch forward with it on. So now I'm curious... exactly how big is this baby now anyway?!
FedEx came early this morning to bring Paul his harp kit so I have a feeling he will be working on that tonight.
I may not get to wear that skirt to the wedding -- new stretch marks and much poochier belly. Sigh. When I tried it back on this morning and joked to Paul, "Ack! How dare he grow! My skirt is tighter!" he thought I said "How dare he growl?" Paul told me he then thought, "Growling... that's a new one...." This struck me as funny.
Baby is still knocking about but I'm in a much better mood and feeling alert and happy. Maybe that mythical 2nd trimester burst of energy finally arrived. I feel less draggy so I'm more kindly disposed again.