Today, Monday 10/29/2007, was my first day of my Maternity Leave. Totally weird, not having to go to work. And yet NOT being laid off. Messing with me.
Nice to be off work w/o worrying about job hunting and resume writing. Nice to know my job will be there when I get back. But weird to be off work in order to be Suzy Homemaker and a new Mom!!! :)
My Gestational Diabetes doctor said I could get away with an occasional hot chocolate. My numbers have been decent enough.
Sunday night, I gave in to that urge and had a Nestle French Vanilla Hot Chocolate, with cinnamon dumped in to hopefully reduce the sugar spike. [Cinnamon is supposed slow down the digestion of whatever you're eating.]
My husband isn't fond of the French Vanilla. I however thought it was divine.
I had it rather late, as my husband was working on some documentation, and wanted me to look it over when he was done. I had it in part to help me stay up. I mean, what did it matter to me? I could sleep in Monday.
Well, I was still ready to fall over. My husband sent me to bed... it was almost 2am. I ended up reading his document after he got home from work Monday.
While in bed, drifting off, my unborn son started to go hyper. If he had been outside my belly, he'd have been running laps around the block! Oops. He definitely got the first jolt of sugar and caffeine.
Two hours later, at about 4am, I woke up to pee. Because that's what I do all night... wake up every 1 or 2 hours to pee. I came back to bed, lay down, and promptly started sneezing. My husband had to be up early, and as I lay there, blowing my nose, I realized I was WIDE AWAKE. The caffeine and sugar had reached me now, somehow...
I got up and took the dogs, some water, and some kleenex with me. The water, because, in spite of the fact that my bladder is squashed into a container the size of a grape, I'm supposed to be drinking 128 ounces of water a day since I'm pregnant. I never make it, but I get about 5/8 or 6/8 of the way there, as judged by how many 16 ounce bottles of water I can drink.
Now, most people know they should be drinking eight eight-ounce glasses, or 64 ounces. Because their bladders are normal sized, and it makes no sense to send them running to the bathroom as often. It's just not as funny w/o the pregnant waddle. It's definitely a sight-gag. I know there must be camera's hidden throughout the house just to capture each of my frantic trips to the bathroom.
So I'm sitting there, in the recliner, flipping through channels. I see this show called "Clean House". It reminds me of "Clean Sweep", which is one of those shows that brings me great hope. You see, I am a packrat, and I live in a packrat's house. Watching other packrat's find a cure always gives me hope.
Well, "Clean House" is totally just like "Clean Sweep". So I settle in to have my hope renewed.
I'm up watching it for a while. The host... looks... REALLY familiar. Like she should be wearing a police uniform, with her hair up, and brandishing a gun. In Nevada.
I do some checking. Sure enough, it's Niecy Nash, the funny black chick from Reno 911, which my husband and I are addicted to.
I end up watching more of the show just for her! I've already become a big fan of her comedic talent, as well as the talent of all the other actors and actresses on that under-appreciated show, Reno 911.
But it was really weird. Houses got clutter tossed out, and some very nice changes done to them. Home-owners were blown away with being able to see their floors again. But no-one got arrested, nothing got blown up. Made it very surreal.
At 6am, I finally felt tired again. Crawled back into bed. My husband woke me up when he got ready to leave. I then passed back out until 1:30pm!
Yikes. And Day 1 began.
Crawled out of bed. Fed the dogs. Pricked my finger. Fed myself. Pricked my finger again. Folded laundry. Did more laundry. Ironed some pants for my husband. And that was it. Didn't accomplish anything more other than faxing in my Gestational Diabetes numbers and sending some emails.
So much for Suzy Homemaker. :P Guess I can't be too hard on myself. 3 weeks and 2 days to go on the pregnancy.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
What we're paid for...
So, today, it's 5 weeks until this kid pops out of me. Assuming of course he knows the schedule, LOL.
Last night I went over to this lab where one of the pieces of software I support is running. I had just come from my nighttime doctor's appointment... heh, I had 2 doc appointments yesterday plus work! Talk about running me ragged.
Anyway, I get all bunny-suited up (which is NO small feat when you are nearly 8 months pregnant), and waddle my ass into the lab. The 2 night test engineers are in there, preparing to run stuff on the system I support.
I make a few key changes, ensure my stuff is backed up, and tell them to go for it. They load stuff, and click Start. I stand around, wanting to watch to ensure my changes aren't going to cause any problems. Just for warm fuzzies: my changes were really benign. Not doing anything major to a system that I won't be around to support once I go on Maternity Leave, LOL! Once I start leave, I'll be out of commission until mid February.
It's been my experience that people who use hardware/software I support, even if they aren't "technically trained", i.e., don't have a "real engineering degree", are still people who HAVE A BRAIN. Some people don't extend themselves beyond the exact tasks they are being asked to perform, and yet others pick up an intuitive knowledge of the systems they use day in and day out, and can offer insight's you would have missed about the very system you helped develop.
I.E., a college degree and your IQ level aren't necessarily directly proportional!!!
And shoot, I learned way more out of college than I ever did IN college.
But unfortunately, not everyone shares my opinion.
Anyway, one of the test engineers and I get to talking. He's explaining why he's been avoiding using one part of the system. He suspects a problem. The hardware engineer has attempted before to do something about the problem, but his initial solution caused a different, unintentional side effect, and so hasn't been in use for a while.
So the test engineer is telling me what he thinks might solve the original problem. We both discuss some ideas... I'm no hardware type, but what he's suggesting sounds pretty good to me.
I ask him if he's going to tell the hardware engineer about his ideas, as I watch him crumbling the drawings of his solutions and tossing them in the trash.
He responds with, "No, I'm not paid to think."
At which point I had to put my forehead down on my arm and just shake, I was laughing so hard!!!
[I knew the hardware engineer must have said that to him. Sigh.]
Man... I'm going miss those test engineers while I'm on Maternity Leave. Sigh. :)
Last night I went over to this lab where one of the pieces of software I support is running. I had just come from my nighttime doctor's appointment... heh, I had 2 doc appointments yesterday plus work! Talk about running me ragged.
Anyway, I get all bunny-suited up (which is NO small feat when you are nearly 8 months pregnant), and waddle my ass into the lab. The 2 night test engineers are in there, preparing to run stuff on the system I support.
I make a few key changes, ensure my stuff is backed up, and tell them to go for it. They load stuff, and click Start. I stand around, wanting to watch to ensure my changes aren't going to cause any problems. Just for warm fuzzies: my changes were really benign. Not doing anything major to a system that I won't be around to support once I go on Maternity Leave, LOL! Once I start leave, I'll be out of commission until mid February.
It's been my experience that people who use hardware/software I support, even if they aren't "technically trained", i.e., don't have a "real engineering degree", are still people who HAVE A BRAIN. Some people don't extend themselves beyond the exact tasks they are being asked to perform, and yet others pick up an intuitive knowledge of the systems they use day in and day out, and can offer insight's you would have missed about the very system you helped develop.
I.E., a college degree and your IQ level aren't necessarily directly proportional!!!
And shoot, I learned way more out of college than I ever did IN college.
But unfortunately, not everyone shares my opinion.
Anyway, one of the test engineers and I get to talking. He's explaining why he's been avoiding using one part of the system. He suspects a problem. The hardware engineer has attempted before to do something about the problem, but his initial solution caused a different, unintentional side effect, and so hasn't been in use for a while.
So the test engineer is telling me what he thinks might solve the original problem. We both discuss some ideas... I'm no hardware type, but what he's suggesting sounds pretty good to me.
I ask him if he's going to tell the hardware engineer about his ideas, as I watch him crumbling the drawings of his solutions and tossing them in the trash.
He responds with, "No, I'm not paid to think."
At which point I had to put my forehead down on my arm and just shake, I was laughing so hard!!!
[I knew the hardware engineer must have said that to him. Sigh.]
Man... I'm going miss those test engineers while I'm on Maternity Leave. Sigh. :)
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Rats and Straws
All this insanity going on, and I forgot to post about the rat at work.
[Either that, or I DID post about the rat at work, and my pregnant brain can't remember it.]
So, a couple weeks ago, I get in and there's all these pieces of plastic on the floor. I slowly figure out it's the lid to my can of nuts... THE can of nuts that is SAFE for Gestational Diabetes. There's also a couple of nuts on the floor. I show my co-worker, and I email our maintenance dude that we have a RODENT.
At the end of work, I toss all the food on my shelves away. I can just see the rodent crawling all over my stuff. I don't lysol my desk, but I do lysol where my food had been on my shelves. I ensure that the only food I'm leaving in my shared office is in the filing cabinet.
Then, the following week, while I was out sick on Monday (chills/cold sweats/exhaustion) and Tuesday (3 hours of sleep/exhaustion), the rat came back, and broke into my OTHER jar of nuts. This jar had a HEAVY red plastic lid. It was the nuts I can't eat, because they are salted, and I can feel my blood pressure go up when I munch on them. I left them out on my desk for others to eat. Guess the rat took me up on my hospitality.
My office-mate was at a meeting when I got in. I read (in email) about the 2nd visit of the rat well after I'd put my crap down on top of my desk, in areas the rat might have walked across. Ick.
I lysoled the surface of my desk. I lysoled some items that were on my desk that I take home with me every evening, but otherwise managed to stop myself from going too crazy. The following morning, before I set stuff down, I lysoled the desk again and then set my purse and my lunch pail, etc., down. My poor office-mate opened a window to keep from gagging on the lysol stench. He mentioned that the cleaning lady cleaned off my desk after the rat had been there, and I tell him that I bet she didn't swab it down with an antiseptic. [This is because I watched her use her duster to move the prior can of nuts' lid flakes around the floor to one location so she could easily pick them up. And because she was willing to take some of the food that I'd thrown into the trash (because the rat might have walked around the packaging) and take it home. I mean, yeah, maybe I'm at the extreme end of germaphobia, but she's kindof at the extreme of not caring about germs, LOL! She's a nice person, but I don't think the word "sterilize" is in her vocabulary. :) ]
So, that was the rat situation. It broke into other people's cans of nuts, as well! I guess it really likes nuts!
There's a sticky trap under my desk, but as I no longer have food out, the rat hasn't come back. I suspect that, with everyone hiding food now, it's probably given up and escaped the building.
The rat situation has been going on while all kinds of other things were going on over the past 2 or 3 weeks. But with all the other things, I forgot to blog about the rat. Which is ironic, because having a wild, disease-ridden rodent crawl all over my stuff is like my worst nightmare.
We've had a rat and we've had mice in the house, pooing everywhere, especially in our lower kitchen cabinets, which double both as a place to put pots and pans, as well as a pantry. Trying to clean all of that up periodically drives me totally batty, especially when I realize it's time to also clean ALL OF THE PANS, ETC., that the rodent might have walked over or peed/pooed on. That is a MAJOR task. We've got alot of pots/pans/dishes down there.
If I weren't afraid our dogs would eat it, I would get a cat. A really MEAN cat.
Anyway, no further signs of the rat at work since my food at my desk has been kept in the filing cabinet at night.
Please, don't get me wrong: I don't dislike all rats. Pet rats are great. They are disease free, and can be taught to not go hide in the kitchen and poo everywhere, LOL! It's the wild ones that decide to make themselves pests... or the wild mice. Or cockroaches or termites. Basically, the uninvited guests are the ones that piss me off.
I'm very much an animal person, but when a creature decides to invade my home and defecate everywhere, I get rather murderous thoughts towards it.
So straws. Well, the exhaustion has I think become the last straw.
Wednesday night, 10/10/2007, I was to have my last birthing class. My husband was on travel, due to a mixup in when his conference really was, and so he wasn't going to make the birthing class.
I was at work, sitting there, looking through my birthing class notes to see what the last class was about. And I realized that I didn't really care anymore. I was so tired... all the time. My hips have decided to hurt way more often. Just sitting in the computer chair that day was painful. I figured that was a sign.
I was done. Friggin done.
And after the class, I'd have to come home and try to clean up a little, "find the floor", so our house cleaners would have actual SURFACES to clean Thursday, LOL! And although I care about them dearly, they aren't the greatest at getting food off of our dishes, so I was planning on also doing a ton of dishes, even though that tends to really mess with my back right now. :P
I decided right then and there that I wasn't going to any more evening baby classes when I had been at work all day. Screw that. Yeah, the classes were so I'd be a good mother, and so I'd be informed about labor, etc., etc. But if I didn't get some rest at night, I was going to drop the kid right then and there.
So I skipped out on the last birthing class. And I made a mental note to skip out on next Monday's "breast feeding class". I've read a little about the difficulties some women have breast feeding, and what to do about it. I think I'll just wing it. :P
So that brought it down to 2 more classes. The first is "Baby Basics", which is on a Saturday morning. [It's the makeup class for the one my husband and I were too tired to attend on the morning of the baby shower.] And the last class is a baby CPR class, on a Monday night, but I should be off work by then. Those I don't want to miss.
So yeah. I give up. I'm not superwoman. I'm a tired pregnant woman who has been doing her best to meet everyone's expectations, but who just can't right now.
Besides, all this stuff, all this stress has been distracting me in a way from what it's really all about. It's about this adorable baby boy growing inside of me. It's about talking to him while he's in there, and talking to him when he's finally come out.
I am already in love with our son. He and I have had some long and meaningful conversations. :) Or more often some very silly ones, LOL!
And that's what all of this whole insanity of pregnancy is about: our son.
I love that today, Thursday, he kept squirming around while my ObGyn tried for the longest time to find his heartbeat. At one point she said, "Oh, did you hear that? That's him moving! You're going to have to run after this kid when he's born!" :) She finally found the heartbeat, and thank the Lord, it was in a good range. So far, he seems like he's doing REALLY WELL, even though I've got Gestational Diabetes, even though I'm getting more and more tired and miserable of being pregnant, LOL, and even though I found out that 64 ounces of water a day is actually HALF of what I should be drinking while pregnant!
I think I'll just move my computer at work into the bathroom upstairs, LOL! Yikes. Either that or learn how to catheterize myself and stick a bag down a pant leg.
The irony of drinking THAT MUCH WATER, when your bladder is being squished to a small fraction of it's original size, is hysterical. Then there's the fact that my "What to Expect when you are Expecting" book says not to hold it in if you have to go: just go to the bathroom and go. Why? Because a full bladder CAN bring on premature labor!
Yikes. It's just really amusing to get upstairs into the bathroom and do my thing, and then be like, "What, bladder, you made me come up here for THAT amount? Yeesh." Yes, there are downstairs bathrooms at work... but the upstairs bathroom, well, flushes better, LOL! And is generally cleaner as it's less used. :)
And although it's probably not helping my hips, it's at least giving me SOME exercise.
So, I'm just done. I can't do it all. I give up.
I've got a little under 6 weeks to the due date. This is it, the last stretch.
[Either that, or I DID post about the rat at work, and my pregnant brain can't remember it.]
So, a couple weeks ago, I get in and there's all these pieces of plastic on the floor. I slowly figure out it's the lid to my can of nuts... THE can of nuts that is SAFE for Gestational Diabetes. There's also a couple of nuts on the floor. I show my co-worker, and I email our maintenance dude that we have a RODENT.
At the end of work, I toss all the food on my shelves away. I can just see the rodent crawling all over my stuff. I don't lysol my desk, but I do lysol where my food had been on my shelves. I ensure that the only food I'm leaving in my shared office is in the filing cabinet.
Then, the following week, while I was out sick on Monday (chills/cold sweats/exhaustion) and Tuesday (3 hours of sleep/exhaustion), the rat came back, and broke into my OTHER jar of nuts. This jar had a HEAVY red plastic lid. It was the nuts I can't eat, because they are salted, and I can feel my blood pressure go up when I munch on them. I left them out on my desk for others to eat. Guess the rat took me up on my hospitality.
My office-mate was at a meeting when I got in. I read (in email) about the 2nd visit of the rat well after I'd put my crap down on top of my desk, in areas the rat might have walked across. Ick.
I lysoled the surface of my desk. I lysoled some items that were on my desk that I take home with me every evening, but otherwise managed to stop myself from going too crazy. The following morning, before I set stuff down, I lysoled the desk again and then set my purse and my lunch pail, etc., down. My poor office-mate opened a window to keep from gagging on the lysol stench. He mentioned that the cleaning lady cleaned off my desk after the rat had been there, and I tell him that I bet she didn't swab it down with an antiseptic. [This is because I watched her use her duster to move the prior can of nuts' lid flakes around the floor to one location so she could easily pick them up. And because she was willing to take some of the food that I'd thrown into the trash (because the rat might have walked around the packaging) and take it home. I mean, yeah, maybe I'm at the extreme end of germaphobia, but she's kindof at the extreme of not caring about germs, LOL! She's a nice person, but I don't think the word "sterilize" is in her vocabulary. :) ]
So, that was the rat situation. It broke into other people's cans of nuts, as well! I guess it really likes nuts!
There's a sticky trap under my desk, but as I no longer have food out, the rat hasn't come back. I suspect that, with everyone hiding food now, it's probably given up and escaped the building.
The rat situation has been going on while all kinds of other things were going on over the past 2 or 3 weeks. But with all the other things, I forgot to blog about the rat. Which is ironic, because having a wild, disease-ridden rodent crawl all over my stuff is like my worst nightmare.
We've had a rat and we've had mice in the house, pooing everywhere, especially in our lower kitchen cabinets, which double both as a place to put pots and pans, as well as a pantry. Trying to clean all of that up periodically drives me totally batty, especially when I realize it's time to also clean ALL OF THE PANS, ETC., that the rodent might have walked over or peed/pooed on. That is a MAJOR task. We've got alot of pots/pans/dishes down there.
If I weren't afraid our dogs would eat it, I would get a cat. A really MEAN cat.
Anyway, no further signs of the rat at work since my food at my desk has been kept in the filing cabinet at night.
Please, don't get me wrong: I don't dislike all rats. Pet rats are great. They are disease free, and can be taught to not go hide in the kitchen and poo everywhere, LOL! It's the wild ones that decide to make themselves pests... or the wild mice. Or cockroaches or termites. Basically, the uninvited guests are the ones that piss me off.
I'm very much an animal person, but when a creature decides to invade my home and defecate everywhere, I get rather murderous thoughts towards it.
So straws. Well, the exhaustion has I think become the last straw.
Wednesday night, 10/10/2007, I was to have my last birthing class. My husband was on travel, due to a mixup in when his conference really was, and so he wasn't going to make the birthing class.
I was at work, sitting there, looking through my birthing class notes to see what the last class was about. And I realized that I didn't really care anymore. I was so tired... all the time. My hips have decided to hurt way more often. Just sitting in the computer chair that day was painful. I figured that was a sign.
I was done. Friggin done.
And after the class, I'd have to come home and try to clean up a little, "find the floor", so our house cleaners would have actual SURFACES to clean Thursday, LOL! And although I care about them dearly, they aren't the greatest at getting food off of our dishes, so I was planning on also doing a ton of dishes, even though that tends to really mess with my back right now. :P
I decided right then and there that I wasn't going to any more evening baby classes when I had been at work all day. Screw that. Yeah, the classes were so I'd be a good mother, and so I'd be informed about labor, etc., etc. But if I didn't get some rest at night, I was going to drop the kid right then and there.
So I skipped out on the last birthing class. And I made a mental note to skip out on next Monday's "breast feeding class". I've read a little about the difficulties some women have breast feeding, and what to do about it. I think I'll just wing it. :P
So that brought it down to 2 more classes. The first is "Baby Basics", which is on a Saturday morning. [It's the makeup class for the one my husband and I were too tired to attend on the morning of the baby shower.] And the last class is a baby CPR class, on a Monday night, but I should be off work by then. Those I don't want to miss.
So yeah. I give up. I'm not superwoman. I'm a tired pregnant woman who has been doing her best to meet everyone's expectations, but who just can't right now.
Besides, all this stuff, all this stress has been distracting me in a way from what it's really all about. It's about this adorable baby boy growing inside of me. It's about talking to him while he's in there, and talking to him when he's finally come out.
I am already in love with our son. He and I have had some long and meaningful conversations. :) Or more often some very silly ones, LOL!
And that's what all of this whole insanity of pregnancy is about: our son.
I love that today, Thursday, he kept squirming around while my ObGyn tried for the longest time to find his heartbeat. At one point she said, "Oh, did you hear that? That's him moving! You're going to have to run after this kid when he's born!" :) She finally found the heartbeat, and thank the Lord, it was in a good range. So far, he seems like he's doing REALLY WELL, even though I've got Gestational Diabetes, even though I'm getting more and more tired and miserable of being pregnant, LOL, and even though I found out that 64 ounces of water a day is actually HALF of what I should be drinking while pregnant!
I think I'll just move my computer at work into the bathroom upstairs, LOL! Yikes. Either that or learn how to catheterize myself and stick a bag down a pant leg.
The irony of drinking THAT MUCH WATER, when your bladder is being squished to a small fraction of it's original size, is hysterical. Then there's the fact that my "What to Expect when you are Expecting" book says not to hold it in if you have to go: just go to the bathroom and go. Why? Because a full bladder CAN bring on premature labor!
Yikes. It's just really amusing to get upstairs into the bathroom and do my thing, and then be like, "What, bladder, you made me come up here for THAT amount? Yeesh." Yes, there are downstairs bathrooms at work... but the upstairs bathroom, well, flushes better, LOL! And is generally cleaner as it's less used. :)
And although it's probably not helping my hips, it's at least giving me SOME exercise.
So, I'm just done. I can't do it all. I give up.
I've got a little under 6 weeks to the due date. This is it, the last stretch.
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
But wait!!! There's more!!
I stayed home sick today, Tuesday, 10/9/2007. Was wiped out.
Thought I got you guys all caught up with my prior post with all the weirdnesses that have been going on since Monday of last week to today.
But NO... I typed too soon.
I checked my work email from home. Meetings for "Open Enrollment" are on November 1st and 2nd. For my company's new insurance plan. Which starts December 1st.
I see my ObGyn on Thursday, 10/11/2007, for a checkup and to also ask her how much time she recommends I stay home prior to the birth. I'm due 11/21/2007, unless they decide to induce, or the baby decides to come out early. I was thinking I'd start SDI 11/05/2007. That's a little over 2 weeks... probably not enough time, especially if the docs say the baby needs to come out early.
I don't know yet if my ObGyn, or the Pediatrician I picked out, will be on the new insurance. They probably will, as this new insurance is supposed to cover MORE doctors. Crossing fingers. Rather not deliver with one ObGyn, then have to see another one I've never met for my recovery!
If my ObGyn says I need to take time off prior to 11/05/2007, I may not LEGALLY be allowed to attend the Open Enrollment new insurance meetings. Once you are SDI, you cannot enter your place of work. I'd have to send my husband to them!!! So he'd have to miss time at his work in order to get me (and him) enrolled in the new insurance. [We are covered on my insurance currently as mine is better than his, and as his won't cover me if I'm employed and have the opportunity to have insurance with my company.]
If my pregnancy runs 2 weeks late, I may be on an insurance that won't cover my current ObGyn, my current hospital, etc.
Ok... whom did I piss off? This is just getting ridiculous.
I keep thinking this can't get any more messed up or stressful. Heh-heh.
Thought I got you guys all caught up with my prior post with all the weirdnesses that have been going on since Monday of last week to today.
But NO... I typed too soon.
I checked my work email from home. Meetings for "Open Enrollment" are on November 1st and 2nd. For my company's new insurance plan. Which starts December 1st.
I see my ObGyn on Thursday, 10/11/2007, for a checkup and to also ask her how much time she recommends I stay home prior to the birth. I'm due 11/21/2007, unless they decide to induce, or the baby decides to come out early. I was thinking I'd start SDI 11/05/2007. That's a little over 2 weeks... probably not enough time, especially if the docs say the baby needs to come out early.
I don't know yet if my ObGyn, or the Pediatrician I picked out, will be on the new insurance. They probably will, as this new insurance is supposed to cover MORE doctors. Crossing fingers. Rather not deliver with one ObGyn, then have to see another one I've never met for my recovery!
If my ObGyn says I need to take time off prior to 11/05/2007, I may not LEGALLY be allowed to attend the Open Enrollment new insurance meetings. Once you are SDI, you cannot enter your place of work. I'd have to send my husband to them!!! So he'd have to miss time at his work in order to get me (and him) enrolled in the new insurance. [We are covered on my insurance currently as mine is better than his, and as his won't cover me if I'm employed and have the opportunity to have insurance with my company.]
If my pregnancy runs 2 weeks late, I may be on an insurance that won't cover my current ObGyn, my current hospital, etc.
Ok... whom did I piss off? This is just getting ridiculous.
I keep thinking this can't get any more messed up or stressful. Heh-heh.
My 2nd job
The longer I'm pregnant, the more I realize this is truly a 2nd job.
I'm exhausted all the time.
My hips are sore, so I move pretty slowly.
At night, I have problems breathing due to my nose drying out and then clogging up. I have to sleep on my right or left side, and that just aggravates the hip pain. I have tried Tylenol PM for the pain relief and the decongestant, which also should make me sleepy. But it makes my nose dryer, and makes me pee really often at night. And it doesn't seem to touch the hip pain. It actually seems to exacerbate my nose being stuffed up at night. :P
As it is, w/o a decongestant, I still pee 4 or more times every night. And with... yeah. Makes me pee more.
Have started to try Ocean nasal spray to keep my nose from drying out so much. Am hoping that will be what it takes. And shoot, I can always spray my nose again when I have to get up to pee. :P
So this past week has been interesting:
On the night of Sunday, 9/30/07, woke up to pee. It was really cold, but didn't notice it. Did my thing, then washed my hands in cold water. Just as I was about to get back to bed, I suddenly felt really chilled. I crawled into bed, and shook and shivered. And my hands HURT. It was like the cold water on my hands had been the last straw!
It took a long time for me to finally warm up.
Then, after finally warming up, I had cold sweats.
Monday, October 1st, I stayed home sick. That whole thing just wiped me out.
Mom called me, wanting to meet with me when my husband was out of town (so I wouldn't lose spending time with my husband) so we could discuss what items she would need at her place when babysitting our son. Now, I was 7 weeks 2 days from delivery. I'm working (or trying to), attending more baby classes than I can shake a stick at, having 1 to 2 doctor's appointments a week, and constantly exhausted. I was in the process of getting the whole SDI/FLMA/CFRA/etc allowing me to take time off for pregnancy and delivery. The idea of adding one more task, one that could wait until I was taking time off, about wiped me out. I was tired, stressed out, staying home trying to sleep. I don't think my Mom quite understood that she was adding one more thing that I couldn't juggle.
I HAD to work for the $$$ for delivery, etc. Diapers weren't going to pay for themselves, and we're already a 2 income family by necessity. I had to go to the baby classes so I'd know what to do for our new son. I had to go to the doctor's appointments to catch any problems and know if I'd need to have insulin shots for the Gestational Diabetes, or if I'd need to be induced, or if I'd need a caesarian, or if there was any other problems with the pregnancy. I had to rest every night I didn't have grocery shopping or a baby class. I was also doing final preparations for the Baby Shower that week.
Mom was going to have to bend, because everything else wouldn't.
As it was, the idea of even meeting with her on a weekend was horrible. I've been sleeping 16 hours a day on the weekends, if I can get it. It's like I'm trying to catch up for the week.
Yeah, ironically I could sleep on weekends. Not well on weekdays.
Monday night I couldn't sleep. I got about 3 hours of sleep if that. Don't know if it was due to the conversations with my Mom or not. I think it was a little of everything.
Tuesday, October 2nd, I had an 8:20am appointment with my Gestational Diabetes doctor. I got up to call them at 8am and say it wasn't happening. I wasn't driving there on 3 hours of sleep with full-on pregger exhaustion. No friggen way. [Heh: so much for my absolutely HAVING to go to doctor appointments. :P ]
I emailed work that I was staying home sick again. And crawled back under the covers to try to sleep some more.
Mom called again. I tried to explain that we really didn't need to have this conversation so early. That I'd be taking time off prior to the birth, and we could totally do it then. She explained how she needed her ducks in a row, and how she knew I understood that, as I always needed that too. Ghrrrrrrr.
Wednesday, went to work. That night went to the birthing class. Got to go through a full labor dress rehearsal, so to speak. Well, was mostly all about the breathing. :)
Thursday, went to work. Got educated by HR on the forms and plans, etc., available to me. Sorta had a handle on it...
Realized I HAD to get my car's oil changed and fluids/air pressures checked. Had been attempting to do that for weeks. Went to Jiffy Lube at lunch.
In the early evening, while at work, I vented to my Sister in email that Mom really needed to lay off the pressure right now, because I was already doing my best to do everything I SHOULD do prior to having birth, and I was out of bandwidth as it was.
That led to my writing a long email to my Mom that effectively communicated the fact that I was already stressed out to the limit. And also explained why, therefore, we REALLY needed to postpone this babysitting planning when I had more time and rest.
Thursday evening, left the building to find my right front tire was flat. Didn't realize it until I had driven about 100 yards from work, having turned around a corner so I was out of sight of my building. Finally pulled over to figure out why my steering was all screwy. :P
WTF???? Apparently I had FAILED to appease the car gods when I took care of my car earlier that day.
There should be a rule against that happening. If you take your car in for care, it should NOT have a flat tire later that same day! It's not bloody fair. And I wasn't in any physical shape to be changing the tire myself.
Called my husband, who was trying to make a nice dinner. Told him I was on the street, that I was going to run back to work to go to the bathroom, then would be back on the street with my car. Hobbled back to work, peed, hobbled back to car, and waited.
Husband missed the turn, and came to work the rear way. So I never saw him, as he was around a corner from me. He stopped at my company and honked his horn for about 15 minutes. I never heard a single honk. I kept watching the cars coming from the opposite direction... the direction I always drove in to work. I kept flashing a little keychain light at approaching cars to let them know where I was, in case one of those cars was my husband.
We both got angrier and angrier at each other, LOL!
My husband finally gave up and drove around the street, towards where my car actually was. He pulls over and yells "Where were you? I've been honking my horn for 15 minutes!" I yell that I'd been there, where I told him I would be, and that I never heard the bloody horn.
He pulls over. I move my crap into his car, somewhat violently. I'm really pissed now, because I was already angry at him, and now he'd yelled at me on top of it, LOL! So I imagine he was extra pissed, too, because he had already been pissed, and then after yelling at me, he gets yelled at!
He decides to go ahead and change my tire for my spare rather than leaving the car there. He does so, and he's much calmer. I get much calmer, except I'm still f*cking frustrated that I had done the right thing for my poor car, and yet here I was. Not fair. NOT FAIR.
Then my Mom calls on my cell. My first thought was, "Oh, God. She's read my email." I felt like my email was maybe a little bit scathing, as I was stressed out when I wrote it. I couldn't decide whether I should expect her to chew me a new one, or go all apologetic on me. Neither one felt like something I could deal with right then.
She asks me where I am, and I explain that my husband is changing my tire. Whereupon she goes all worried on me, and says she must not have been praying hard enough for me! [Later, when I told my husband what she said, he jokingly told me I should have told her to "Get to it, then!", LOL!]
Anyway, it's obvious she hasn't read my email yet. We hang up. Husband gets ancient spare tire on, puts regular tire in my trunk.
He follows me home. About 1 or 2 miles from the house, that's it: I break up into tears. It's just been too much.
When I get inside the house, my sweet husband cheers me up, and we work out how our schedule is going to go Friday. At one point, he's jonesing for sugar. We head to 7-Eleven. When we get back, we look at the spare tire... AND NOW IT'S FLAT.
I felt horrible, but I needed him to help me out. Friday was his day off, but I needed him to pump my spare tire back up, (I'd already discovered I no longer was physically capable of doing that when trying to use a bicycle pump on one of my tires a week ago) and to give me a ride to work after I dropped off my car at the tire shop. And I was hoping we could schedule things such that I could still make my doctor's appointment that morning!!!
Well, we eventually crashed, after eating his wonderful spaghetti.
Friday, 10/5, we both woke up late and dead tired. I called and (sigh) cancelled yet ANOTHER doctor's appointment, and emailed work explaining I'd be in after I dropped my car off at the tire shop. Husband followed me to tire shop, then took me to work, and then went to meet friends for lunch.
And the tire? It was fine. When Jiffy Lube checked the pressure on it, the valve stem must have gotten stuck. It slowly leaked air out all Thursday afternoon. The tire shop replaced the valve stem, and the tire is doing great. And I ended up telling Mom that her prayers WERE being heard, since it only cost me $10.00 for the labor and the replacement stem.
Friday night we dropped crap off at our friends, S&R, who were hosting the baby shower. And I did dishes, as I sensed I wasn't going to have the stamina later on.
I slept horribly. Husband had nightmares.
Saturday, October 6th: 7:30am rolls around. I tell husband I'm exhausted. He says he had nightmares. I ask him if he's ok with us missing the "Baby Basics" class from 8:45am to noon that morning, and going to it next month. He says, "Oh, thank God!" We both go back to sleep until 10:30am.
Sometime either that morning, or the prior night, my Mom responds really sweetly to my email regarding postponing her, uhm, ducks. :) Phew!
We get to S&R's early, and help set stuff up. So it works out. We would have been too wiped out if we'd done the Baby Basics class earlier that day to do any helpful preparational work.
Baby shower was from 2pm to 5pm. And it was awesome. :) I had a couple of foot in mouth events (which amazes me, since I can barely reach my feet anymore, much less stick one in my mouth), but otherwise it was perfect. Everyone was awesome. Got alot of stuff we need, and alot of very cute items as well. :) And we didn't play any cutesy baby-shower games. Instead we hung out, ate, drank, talked, and opened presents.
It was totally awesome. :) I was amazed at how many people were THERE for us. It honestly blew me away.
We leave around 7pm. Husband has to catch a flight Sunday morning. I do laundry and a few other things. Husband packs. We crash, dead tired.
Sunday, October 7th: I crawl out of bed. Husband finishes packing. I drive him to the airport by 10:30am, kiss him goodbye. He gets to spend all Sunday in the air in order to reach the East Coast. He'll end up landing around 9pm East Coast time. He makes it to the hotel just in time for ROOM SERVICE TO STOP FOR THE EVENING, at 10pm their time, or 7pm our time. :P
After I dropped my husband off, I picked up meds at the pharmacy, groceries at the grocery store, then stopped by S&R's to pick up our 2 camp chairs, our blue cooler, and the punch fountain my husband borrowed from a friend.
Thankfully, R had washed the punch fountain Saturday for me. Which is good, because by the time I got there, I was starting to feel light headed. [I hadn't eaten breakfast before dropping my husband off at airport.] S & R were not at home, but had left the key for me so I could pick up stuff.
If someone had been secretly filming me trying to get all the pieces of that punch fountain back into the styrofoam slots for it, and then get that back into the box, it would have made for a hysterical YouTube video. :) Pregger brain and low blood sugar were NOT helping me. Eventually I succeeded, then I loaded the car up, and drove home.
Honestly, packing the camp chairs was the worse. I had to bend over to wrangle them into their carrying bags. Apparently I don't DO bending over very well anymore, LOL!
I got home, unloaded the car, put the frozen groceries away, fed the dogs, pricked my fingers for my fasting blood sugar, ate breakfast, then crashed in bed, expecting to get up when the 1 hour alarm went off for me to prick my fingers again.
That alarm came and went. I slept from 1:30pm-ish until 4pm-ish, with small interruptions!
My parents, my husband's parents, and my husband's sister (and her 3 boys) came over to see the loot that had been mailed directly to the house. [Husband and I had agreed it would be too much to transport to the Baby Shower, and instead, at the shower, I announced all the gifts that we'd already received.]
I was stinky, hadn't brushed my teeth, and was too tired to care. I'd invited everyone over back when I had some strange idea that I'd have energy, LOL! But ended up having a good time. And no-one seemed to care that much that I probably stank.
Sister-in-law's 3 boys and my Father-in-law played with our German Shepherds until they were ready to drop. (The dogs were ready to drop, not the humans.) Everyone came back inside with all their fingers intact. I was pleased with my dogs. 2 of the boys are around 9 and 11, and they squeeled alot. Was worried the dogs would go into "prey drive" mode or something, but they were AWESOME around the kids. Finally brought the boys and Father-in-law indoors in order to give the poor dogs some time to rest, LOL!
Everyone trooped into the "guest bedroom"/"baby nursery"/"baby-stuff storage room" and saw the other loot we'd gotten. This was especially important for my parents. My Sister had gone in with them on all this stuff, and had taken care of ordering all the stuff and having it shipped. My parents hadn't even SEEN what they'd help get us yet!!!
Then we had a demo of Halo 3, which Sister-in-law's oldest son did for us. :) [He's played Halo 1 and 2... and now is very much jonesing for 3.]
Everyone filed out. I fed the dogs, fed myself, and kindof collapsed.
Monday, 10/8: Get 2 phone calls in the morning. One is from my husband. Pregger-brain is apparently catching, because he got the dates he needed to be back East mixed up. His conference didn't start until Tuesday, and finished on Wednesday. When he woke up today at 4am West Coast time to make it into work 8am East Coast / 5am West Coast time, he read when the conference actually started, groaned, and put his head back on the pillow.
So he spent Monday driving around, seeing the sights. And he has to stay an extra day. I don't pick him up from the airport until Thursday... and if the flight is late, I might not be able to pick him up as it might interfere with my ObGyn appointment that day!!!
Yikes.
And he misses the last Birthing Class Wednesday night. I'm almost jealous. There have been several Wednesday nights when I just wished the damned thing were available over the web, so I could be in my comfy recliner under a blanket, resting while watching the class. :P
And, my husband could have flown out Monday. Which means he could have helped me retrieve our stuff from the Baby Shower on Sunday. AND he could have gotten an extra day to see his Sister. [His Sister had to drive back home to Arizona Monday. She drove all the way out here on Friday, with her kids, in order to attend the Baby Shower on Saturday.]
Finally, Saturday night, he could have gotten more rest after the Baby Shower instead of having to hurriedly start packing for the trip. And I could have waited on starting the laundry -- I had to do it early so he'd have clean underwear! :)
So, all you husbands out there, beware: pregger-brain IS contagious. It can infect you, too. Just because your hormones aren't going all crazy doesn't mean you aren't losing IQ points along with your pregnant wife!!!! :)
Oh, the OTHER Monday morning phone call. Here is the number. Do Not Call Them. They are becoming an extreme annoyance, and I realize they will be legally allowed to be for another 31 days from when I got pissed and put our home phone on the Do Not Call list. I guess you can't reasonably expect a company to take you off their calling list for at least 31 days from when you register on the http://www.donotcall.gov site.
(954) 724-9490
PPI / Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes
[When my caller id sees it, it just says "Personal Period", which must be what the first 2 P's are for.]
I have probably deleted a few times they have called, but our caller id reports that, from 9/3 to 10/9, they have called 10 times. The calls appear to be twice a day: once in the morning, which is going to be annoying as hell when I'm off work on maternity leave and trying to sleep, and once in the evening. Because they have a calling machine that is faster at calling than their sales people are at picking up, all 10 calls have been hangup calls. Well, I think most of them have been... we haven't been home for some of them.
I googled their phone number (since googling "Personal Period" didn't do the trick), and found that they have become an extreme annoyance to many people. It seems that that's what they are good at, vs. actually selling stuff.
If people answer the phone, and get a human and say they aren't interested, the marketing person often hangs up on them before they have finished their sentence. If they try calling the number back, the voice mail is often full. If it isn't full, and they leave a message asking to be taken off the calling list, it doesn't happen.
Matter of fact, if this place actually speaks to you, or you leave them voice mail, the number of times per day that you are called often goes up geometrically!!!
Hence my advice NOT to call the evil bastards back!
I've never dealt with any tele-marketers who were quite this evil. Anyway, avoid them like the plague.
Sigh.
Monday night, I go over and pick up the last item from our baby shower hosts: a shade tent. That damned thing has come in really handy. We used to take it with us to dog shows, and now we keep taking it for other people's outdoor baby showers, or our own in this case, LOL! It's a little heavy, but has wheels on one side, so I didn't strain anything dragging it to the car, shoving it inside, and dragging it back out again.
And then I came home and crash, after depooing (dog poo) the backyard with a head-flashlight ('cause it didn't happen Sunday like planned, and boy was it dark by the time I got home), and watering the avocado trees. Whew.
Monday night, I tried once again going w/o Tylenol PM, but just squeezing Ocean nasal spray in my nose. Because the Tylenol PM is just drying out my nose worse. I swear I'm so close to having a genuine nose bleed right now, it's hysterical. I haven't had one since I'm a kid. But every time I blow my nose, it's like I'm visiting someone in the desert or something. And my lips are chapped too. Don't even talk to me about my poor dry hands.
Thought the humidity close to the ocean should stay at a reasonable level? About ready to purchase a humidifier, and risk extra mold in the house!
Today is Tuesday, 10/9. I didn't sleep well. Between dry nose, pregnancy, and husband being on travel... yeah. Emailed in sick, slept more. I don't know why, but my nose doesn't bother me so much during the daylight hours.
Great. I'm "allergic" to sleeping at night. Does that make me a vampire? How appropriate. ;)
Since I was home today, I dealt with that 954 marketing thing. And rested. Actually, after the insanity of the weekend, and working Monday, I think this is the most rested I've felt in over a week. Whoa.
Ok, that's it. My 2nd job of being pregnant is slowly killing me. My normal job is suffering because I'm wiped out all the time, or going to the doctor, or attending baby classes. And pregger-brain has infected my poor husband now, LOL!
Help.
I'm exhausted all the time.
My hips are sore, so I move pretty slowly.
At night, I have problems breathing due to my nose drying out and then clogging up. I have to sleep on my right or left side, and that just aggravates the hip pain. I have tried Tylenol PM for the pain relief and the decongestant, which also should make me sleepy. But it makes my nose dryer, and makes me pee really often at night. And it doesn't seem to touch the hip pain. It actually seems to exacerbate my nose being stuffed up at night. :P
As it is, w/o a decongestant, I still pee 4 or more times every night. And with... yeah. Makes me pee more.
Have started to try Ocean nasal spray to keep my nose from drying out so much. Am hoping that will be what it takes. And shoot, I can always spray my nose again when I have to get up to pee. :P
So this past week has been interesting:
On the night of Sunday, 9/30/07, woke up to pee. It was really cold, but didn't notice it. Did my thing, then washed my hands in cold water. Just as I was about to get back to bed, I suddenly felt really chilled. I crawled into bed, and shook and shivered. And my hands HURT. It was like the cold water on my hands had been the last straw!
It took a long time for me to finally warm up.
Then, after finally warming up, I had cold sweats.
Monday, October 1st, I stayed home sick. That whole thing just wiped me out.
Mom called me, wanting to meet with me when my husband was out of town (so I wouldn't lose spending time with my husband) so we could discuss what items she would need at her place when babysitting our son. Now, I was 7 weeks 2 days from delivery. I'm working (or trying to), attending more baby classes than I can shake a stick at, having 1 to 2 doctor's appointments a week, and constantly exhausted. I was in the process of getting the whole SDI/FLMA/CFRA/etc allowing me to take time off for pregnancy and delivery. The idea of adding one more task, one that could wait until I was taking time off, about wiped me out. I was tired, stressed out, staying home trying to sleep. I don't think my Mom quite understood that she was adding one more thing that I couldn't juggle.
I HAD to work for the $$$ for delivery, etc. Diapers weren't going to pay for themselves, and we're already a 2 income family by necessity. I had to go to the baby classes so I'd know what to do for our new son. I had to go to the doctor's appointments to catch any problems and know if I'd need to have insulin shots for the Gestational Diabetes, or if I'd need to be induced, or if I'd need a caesarian, or if there was any other problems with the pregnancy. I had to rest every night I didn't have grocery shopping or a baby class. I was also doing final preparations for the Baby Shower that week.
Mom was going to have to bend, because everything else wouldn't.
As it was, the idea of even meeting with her on a weekend was horrible. I've been sleeping 16 hours a day on the weekends, if I can get it. It's like I'm trying to catch up for the week.
Yeah, ironically I could sleep on weekends. Not well on weekdays.
Monday night I couldn't sleep. I got about 3 hours of sleep if that. Don't know if it was due to the conversations with my Mom or not. I think it was a little of everything.
Tuesday, October 2nd, I had an 8:20am appointment with my Gestational Diabetes doctor. I got up to call them at 8am and say it wasn't happening. I wasn't driving there on 3 hours of sleep with full-on pregger exhaustion. No friggen way. [Heh: so much for my absolutely HAVING to go to doctor appointments. :P ]
I emailed work that I was staying home sick again. And crawled back under the covers to try to sleep some more.
Mom called again. I tried to explain that we really didn't need to have this conversation so early. That I'd be taking time off prior to the birth, and we could totally do it then. She explained how she needed her ducks in a row, and how she knew I understood that, as I always needed that too. Ghrrrrrrr.
Wednesday, went to work. That night went to the birthing class. Got to go through a full labor dress rehearsal, so to speak. Well, was mostly all about the breathing. :)
Thursday, went to work. Got educated by HR on the forms and plans, etc., available to me. Sorta had a handle on it...
Realized I HAD to get my car's oil changed and fluids/air pressures checked. Had been attempting to do that for weeks. Went to Jiffy Lube at lunch.
In the early evening, while at work, I vented to my Sister in email that Mom really needed to lay off the pressure right now, because I was already doing my best to do everything I SHOULD do prior to having birth, and I was out of bandwidth as it was.
That led to my writing a long email to my Mom that effectively communicated the fact that I was already stressed out to the limit. And also explained why, therefore, we REALLY needed to postpone this babysitting planning when I had more time and rest.
Thursday evening, left the building to find my right front tire was flat. Didn't realize it until I had driven about 100 yards from work, having turned around a corner so I was out of sight of my building. Finally pulled over to figure out why my steering was all screwy. :P
WTF???? Apparently I had FAILED to appease the car gods when I took care of my car earlier that day.
There should be a rule against that happening. If you take your car in for care, it should NOT have a flat tire later that same day! It's not bloody fair. And I wasn't in any physical shape to be changing the tire myself.
Called my husband, who was trying to make a nice dinner. Told him I was on the street, that I was going to run back to work to go to the bathroom, then would be back on the street with my car. Hobbled back to work, peed, hobbled back to car, and waited.
Husband missed the turn, and came to work the rear way. So I never saw him, as he was around a corner from me. He stopped at my company and honked his horn for about 15 minutes. I never heard a single honk. I kept watching the cars coming from the opposite direction... the direction I always drove in to work. I kept flashing a little keychain light at approaching cars to let them know where I was, in case one of those cars was my husband.
We both got angrier and angrier at each other, LOL!
My husband finally gave up and drove around the street, towards where my car actually was. He pulls over and yells "Where were you? I've been honking my horn for 15 minutes!" I yell that I'd been there, where I told him I would be, and that I never heard the bloody horn.
He pulls over. I move my crap into his car, somewhat violently. I'm really pissed now, because I was already angry at him, and now he'd yelled at me on top of it, LOL! So I imagine he was extra pissed, too, because he had already been pissed, and then after yelling at me, he gets yelled at!
He decides to go ahead and change my tire for my spare rather than leaving the car there. He does so, and he's much calmer. I get much calmer, except I'm still f*cking frustrated that I had done the right thing for my poor car, and yet here I was. Not fair. NOT FAIR.
Then my Mom calls on my cell. My first thought was, "Oh, God. She's read my email." I felt like my email was maybe a little bit scathing, as I was stressed out when I wrote it. I couldn't decide whether I should expect her to chew me a new one, or go all apologetic on me. Neither one felt like something I could deal with right then.
She asks me where I am, and I explain that my husband is changing my tire. Whereupon she goes all worried on me, and says she must not have been praying hard enough for me! [Later, when I told my husband what she said, he jokingly told me I should have told her to "Get to it, then!", LOL!]
Anyway, it's obvious she hasn't read my email yet. We hang up. Husband gets ancient spare tire on, puts regular tire in my trunk.
He follows me home. About 1 or 2 miles from the house, that's it: I break up into tears. It's just been too much.
When I get inside the house, my sweet husband cheers me up, and we work out how our schedule is going to go Friday. At one point, he's jonesing for sugar. We head to 7-Eleven. When we get back, we look at the spare tire... AND NOW IT'S FLAT.
I felt horrible, but I needed him to help me out. Friday was his day off, but I needed him to pump my spare tire back up, (I'd already discovered I no longer was physically capable of doing that when trying to use a bicycle pump on one of my tires a week ago) and to give me a ride to work after I dropped off my car at the tire shop. And I was hoping we could schedule things such that I could still make my doctor's appointment that morning!!!
Well, we eventually crashed, after eating his wonderful spaghetti.
Friday, 10/5, we both woke up late and dead tired. I called and (sigh) cancelled yet ANOTHER doctor's appointment, and emailed work explaining I'd be in after I dropped my car off at the tire shop. Husband followed me to tire shop, then took me to work, and then went to meet friends for lunch.
And the tire? It was fine. When Jiffy Lube checked the pressure on it, the valve stem must have gotten stuck. It slowly leaked air out all Thursday afternoon. The tire shop replaced the valve stem, and the tire is doing great. And I ended up telling Mom that her prayers WERE being heard, since it only cost me $10.00 for the labor and the replacement stem.
Friday night we dropped crap off at our friends, S&R, who were hosting the baby shower. And I did dishes, as I sensed I wasn't going to have the stamina later on.
I slept horribly. Husband had nightmares.
Saturday, October 6th: 7:30am rolls around. I tell husband I'm exhausted. He says he had nightmares. I ask him if he's ok with us missing the "Baby Basics" class from 8:45am to noon that morning, and going to it next month. He says, "Oh, thank God!" We both go back to sleep until 10:30am.
Sometime either that morning, or the prior night, my Mom responds really sweetly to my email regarding postponing her, uhm, ducks. :) Phew!
We get to S&R's early, and help set stuff up. So it works out. We would have been too wiped out if we'd done the Baby Basics class earlier that day to do any helpful preparational work.
Baby shower was from 2pm to 5pm. And it was awesome. :) I had a couple of foot in mouth events (which amazes me, since I can barely reach my feet anymore, much less stick one in my mouth), but otherwise it was perfect. Everyone was awesome. Got alot of stuff we need, and alot of very cute items as well. :) And we didn't play any cutesy baby-shower games. Instead we hung out, ate, drank, talked, and opened presents.
It was totally awesome. :) I was amazed at how many people were THERE for us. It honestly blew me away.
We leave around 7pm. Husband has to catch a flight Sunday morning. I do laundry and a few other things. Husband packs. We crash, dead tired.
Sunday, October 7th: I crawl out of bed. Husband finishes packing. I drive him to the airport by 10:30am, kiss him goodbye. He gets to spend all Sunday in the air in order to reach the East Coast. He'll end up landing around 9pm East Coast time. He makes it to the hotel just in time for ROOM SERVICE TO STOP FOR THE EVENING, at 10pm their time, or 7pm our time. :P
After I dropped my husband off, I picked up meds at the pharmacy, groceries at the grocery store, then stopped by S&R's to pick up our 2 camp chairs, our blue cooler, and the punch fountain my husband borrowed from a friend.
Thankfully, R had washed the punch fountain Saturday for me. Which is good, because by the time I got there, I was starting to feel light headed. [I hadn't eaten breakfast before dropping my husband off at airport.] S & R were not at home, but had left the key for me so I could pick up stuff.
If someone had been secretly filming me trying to get all the pieces of that punch fountain back into the styrofoam slots for it, and then get that back into the box, it would have made for a hysterical YouTube video. :) Pregger brain and low blood sugar were NOT helping me. Eventually I succeeded, then I loaded the car up, and drove home.
Honestly, packing the camp chairs was the worse. I had to bend over to wrangle them into their carrying bags. Apparently I don't DO bending over very well anymore, LOL!
I got home, unloaded the car, put the frozen groceries away, fed the dogs, pricked my fingers for my fasting blood sugar, ate breakfast, then crashed in bed, expecting to get up when the 1 hour alarm went off for me to prick my fingers again.
That alarm came and went. I slept from 1:30pm-ish until 4pm-ish, with small interruptions!
My parents, my husband's parents, and my husband's sister (and her 3 boys) came over to see the loot that had been mailed directly to the house. [Husband and I had agreed it would be too much to transport to the Baby Shower, and instead, at the shower, I announced all the gifts that we'd already received.]
I was stinky, hadn't brushed my teeth, and was too tired to care. I'd invited everyone over back when I had some strange idea that I'd have energy, LOL! But ended up having a good time. And no-one seemed to care that much that I probably stank.
Sister-in-law's 3 boys and my Father-in-law played with our German Shepherds until they were ready to drop. (The dogs were ready to drop, not the humans.) Everyone came back inside with all their fingers intact. I was pleased with my dogs. 2 of the boys are around 9 and 11, and they squeeled alot. Was worried the dogs would go into "prey drive" mode or something, but they were AWESOME around the kids. Finally brought the boys and Father-in-law indoors in order to give the poor dogs some time to rest, LOL!
Everyone trooped into the "guest bedroom"/"baby nursery"/"baby-stuff storage room" and saw the other loot we'd gotten. This was especially important for my parents. My Sister had gone in with them on all this stuff, and had taken care of ordering all the stuff and having it shipped. My parents hadn't even SEEN what they'd help get us yet!!!
Then we had a demo of Halo 3, which Sister-in-law's oldest son did for us. :) [He's played Halo 1 and 2... and now is very much jonesing for 3.]
Everyone filed out. I fed the dogs, fed myself, and kindof collapsed.
Monday, 10/8: Get 2 phone calls in the morning. One is from my husband. Pregger-brain is apparently catching, because he got the dates he needed to be back East mixed up. His conference didn't start until Tuesday, and finished on Wednesday. When he woke up today at 4am West Coast time to make it into work 8am East Coast / 5am West Coast time, he read when the conference actually started, groaned, and put his head back on the pillow.
So he spent Monday driving around, seeing the sights. And he has to stay an extra day. I don't pick him up from the airport until Thursday... and if the flight is late, I might not be able to pick him up as it might interfere with my ObGyn appointment that day!!!
Yikes.
And he misses the last Birthing Class Wednesday night. I'm almost jealous. There have been several Wednesday nights when I just wished the damned thing were available over the web, so I could be in my comfy recliner under a blanket, resting while watching the class. :P
And, my husband could have flown out Monday. Which means he could have helped me retrieve our stuff from the Baby Shower on Sunday. AND he could have gotten an extra day to see his Sister. [His Sister had to drive back home to Arizona Monday. She drove all the way out here on Friday, with her kids, in order to attend the Baby Shower on Saturday.]
Finally, Saturday night, he could have gotten more rest after the Baby Shower instead of having to hurriedly start packing for the trip. And I could have waited on starting the laundry -- I had to do it early so he'd have clean underwear! :)
So, all you husbands out there, beware: pregger-brain IS contagious. It can infect you, too. Just because your hormones aren't going all crazy doesn't mean you aren't losing IQ points along with your pregnant wife!!!! :)
Oh, the OTHER Monday morning phone call. Here is the number. Do Not Call Them. They are becoming an extreme annoyance, and I realize they will be legally allowed to be for another 31 days from when I got pissed and put our home phone on the Do Not Call list. I guess you can't reasonably expect a company to take you off their calling list for at least 31 days from when you register on the http://www.donotcall.gov site.
(954) 724-9490
PPI / Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes
[When my caller id sees it, it just says "Personal Period", which must be what the first 2 P's are for.]
I have probably deleted a few times they have called, but our caller id reports that, from 9/3 to 10/9, they have called 10 times. The calls appear to be twice a day: once in the morning, which is going to be annoying as hell when I'm off work on maternity leave and trying to sleep, and once in the evening. Because they have a calling machine that is faster at calling than their sales people are at picking up, all 10 calls have been hangup calls. Well, I think most of them have been... we haven't been home for some of them.
I googled their phone number (since googling "Personal Period" didn't do the trick), and found that they have become an extreme annoyance to many people. It seems that that's what they are good at, vs. actually selling stuff.
If people answer the phone, and get a human and say they aren't interested, the marketing person often hangs up on them before they have finished their sentence. If they try calling the number back, the voice mail is often full. If it isn't full, and they leave a message asking to be taken off the calling list, it doesn't happen.
Matter of fact, if this place actually speaks to you, or you leave them voice mail, the number of times per day that you are called often goes up geometrically!!!
Hence my advice NOT to call the evil bastards back!
I've never dealt with any tele-marketers who were quite this evil. Anyway, avoid them like the plague.
Sigh.
Monday night, I go over and pick up the last item from our baby shower hosts: a shade tent. That damned thing has come in really handy. We used to take it with us to dog shows, and now we keep taking it for other people's outdoor baby showers, or our own in this case, LOL! It's a little heavy, but has wheels on one side, so I didn't strain anything dragging it to the car, shoving it inside, and dragging it back out again.
And then I came home and crash, after depooing (dog poo) the backyard with a head-flashlight ('cause it didn't happen Sunday like planned, and boy was it dark by the time I got home), and watering the avocado trees. Whew.
Monday night, I tried once again going w/o Tylenol PM, but just squeezing Ocean nasal spray in my nose. Because the Tylenol PM is just drying out my nose worse. I swear I'm so close to having a genuine nose bleed right now, it's hysterical. I haven't had one since I'm a kid. But every time I blow my nose, it's like I'm visiting someone in the desert or something. And my lips are chapped too. Don't even talk to me about my poor dry hands.
Thought the humidity close to the ocean should stay at a reasonable level? About ready to purchase a humidifier, and risk extra mold in the house!
Today is Tuesday, 10/9. I didn't sleep well. Between dry nose, pregnancy, and husband being on travel... yeah. Emailed in sick, slept more. I don't know why, but my nose doesn't bother me so much during the daylight hours.
Great. I'm "allergic" to sleeping at night. Does that make me a vampire? How appropriate. ;)
Since I was home today, I dealt with that 954 marketing thing. And rested. Actually, after the insanity of the weekend, and working Monday, I think this is the most rested I've felt in over a week. Whoa.
Ok, that's it. My 2nd job of being pregnant is slowly killing me. My normal job is suffering because I'm wiped out all the time, or going to the doctor, or attending baby classes. And pregger-brain has infected my poor husband now, LOL!
Help.
Monday, October 01, 2007
Pregnancy is Weird
So, I've had 2 new weird symptoms to add to my pregnancy experiences:
1. Sore thumb joints.
2. Chills, shakes, and then cold sweats at night.
Although I'm kindof wondering if the sore thumb joints is a real pregger experience, or simply a bug bite on my left thumb, and thinking I felt much lighter pain in my right thumb joint.
And the reason I'd have sympathy pain in the right thumb joint would be that I've noticed that, when a joint on the left starts hurting, eventually the one on the right will start in as well. My left-side joints are more open than my right side... always have been. And now, my left thumb joint is feeling a little better, so am wondering if it was really a pregger thing, or just a bug bite and inflamation, and then just sorta feeling similar, milder pain in my right thumb.
But as to chills/shakes... this was weird.
In the night, I wake up every 2 or 3 hours to go to the bathroom. At 6am, I headed off to the bathroom. Did my thing. Then washed my hands with cold water. It didn't feel that cold. I felt ok. Then I walked back to bed, and suddenly felt really chilled.
I crawled into bed and just started shivering. And then, my hands started to really HURT. Like they were experiencing the cold worse from having been washed in cold water. It took me a few minutes to finally feel warm again.
Then, later on, I had cold sweats.
When I finally got up, I was exhausted... more so than usual. Emailed in sick.
I have NO idea what was up with that. :P Pregger hormones.
And btw, as to the sore thumbs? No, I haven't been playing alot of video games, LOL! No, I don't go nuts doing text messages on my phone. And no, I don't hit the spacebar with my thumbs THAT much, LOL!
1. Sore thumb joints.
2. Chills, shakes, and then cold sweats at night.
Although I'm kindof wondering if the sore thumb joints is a real pregger experience, or simply a bug bite on my left thumb, and thinking I felt much lighter pain in my right thumb joint.
And the reason I'd have sympathy pain in the right thumb joint would be that I've noticed that, when a joint on the left starts hurting, eventually the one on the right will start in as well. My left-side joints are more open than my right side... always have been. And now, my left thumb joint is feeling a little better, so am wondering if it was really a pregger thing, or just a bug bite and inflamation, and then just sorta feeling similar, milder pain in my right thumb.
But as to chills/shakes... this was weird.
In the night, I wake up every 2 or 3 hours to go to the bathroom. At 6am, I headed off to the bathroom. Did my thing. Then washed my hands with cold water. It didn't feel that cold. I felt ok. Then I walked back to bed, and suddenly felt really chilled.
I crawled into bed and just started shivering. And then, my hands started to really HURT. Like they were experiencing the cold worse from having been washed in cold water. It took me a few minutes to finally feel warm again.
Then, later on, I had cold sweats.
When I finally got up, I was exhausted... more so than usual. Emailed in sick.
I have NO idea what was up with that. :P Pregger hormones.
And btw, as to the sore thumbs? No, I haven't been playing alot of video games, LOL! No, I don't go nuts doing text messages on my phone. And no, I don't hit the spacebar with my thumbs THAT much, LOL!
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