This morning's bulletin had our names and the due date of our baby listed under "Great Expectations." So we had a lot of people asking us questions this morning. As some of you may know I'm not very good at answering vague small talk questions (e.g. "How are you?), especially multiple times in one day. So I was complaining about having to answer the "are you excited" question to my mom who had asked. Martin heard me and came drafted this FAQ for all those who want to know more about the impending birth and how we feel about it. :) I feel like I have to communicate something unique and witty every time I'm asked one of these so that's why I kind of get drained by such questions but I love that people want to know and don't feel bad if you asked me one of these questions recently. I post this for humor's sake and in case you really do want to know and haven't asked.
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The following FAQ is provided so that readers will be able to understand Heather’s readiness and attitude toward the rapidly approaching birth of her first son.
Q: How are you feeling?
A: I am still feeling really good, most of the times. There are instances where it is difficult trying to find a comfortable position, mostly when I am trying to sleep.
Q: Are you nervous?
A: I am nervous, but it is more so focused on caring for our newborn son than the birth experience. Of course that idea does provide a little bit anxiety.
Q: Are you excited?
A: Yes, I am excited. I am anxious to see our son for the first time.
Q: Are you ready?
A: I feel that I am as prepared as I can be. Readiness implies a mental state that I am not sure if I’ll be ready for.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Friday, October 27, 2006
Would you induce on Halloween just to get "your" doctor?
So I was talking to this guy at work today about his wife who is due on November 11th. Apparently she has been progressing pretty quickly and her doctor says that she's "probably" going to go into labor pretty soon. The woman's doctor's is on a rotation with other doctors and her day to deliver babies is Tuesday. The doctor told the woman that she wouldn't make it until the 7th so they have scheduled an induction for this Tuesday, october 31st.
So maybe it's because I've been reading about all this delivery "management" stuff and how it can be bad, or maybe the idea of just having one doctor and being so into that doctor is foreign to me, or maybe the idea of giving birth on Halloween (no offense to Josh's mom) just bugs me, but this sounds crazy to me! Is it really that important to have this one doctor delivery your baby? From my understanding, they're not even there for that long. I know another woman who did this - she was induced 3 days before her due date to get a certain doctor. If there weren't risks to inductions, I don't think I would have a problem with this but from what I've been reading, it would not be worth it. I know there can be good reasons for inductions but that's to mitigate other risks. Here there are no other risks. Well, this guy says they are afraid the baby might be too big but those measurement techniques are so flawed. And even if there weren't other risks of induction, having a baby on Halloween would be a reason that would overide having a certain doctor in my mind.
All this makes me more thankful for my doctors. I have seen all three of them at least 3 times, and I like them all enough that I'm totally comfortable with them delivering my child. Except for some totally unforseen circumstances, one of them will be delivering our baby. Plus they don't seem to be caught up in this delivery management crap. Like I said, they didn't check to see if I was dilated. Granted I do have a favorite of the three doctors but I'm not going be induced just to get him.
So maybe it's because I've been reading about all this delivery "management" stuff and how it can be bad, or maybe the idea of just having one doctor and being so into that doctor is foreign to me, or maybe the idea of giving birth on Halloween (no offense to Josh's mom) just bugs me, but this sounds crazy to me! Is it really that important to have this one doctor delivery your baby? From my understanding, they're not even there for that long. I know another woman who did this - she was induced 3 days before her due date to get a certain doctor. If there weren't risks to inductions, I don't think I would have a problem with this but from what I've been reading, it would not be worth it. I know there can be good reasons for inductions but that's to mitigate other risks. Here there are no other risks. Well, this guy says they are afraid the baby might be too big but those measurement techniques are so flawed. And even if there weren't other risks of induction, having a baby on Halloween would be a reason that would overide having a certain doctor in my mind.
All this makes me more thankful for my doctors. I have seen all three of them at least 3 times, and I like them all enough that I'm totally comfortable with them delivering my child. Except for some totally unforseen circumstances, one of them will be delivering our baby. Plus they don't seem to be caught up in this delivery management crap. Like I said, they didn't check to see if I was dilated. Granted I do have a favorite of the three doctors but I'm not going be induced just to get him.
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Update - Week 38
Any time now....so they say. I'm not feeling like labor is eminent. But that's okay. I'm not in too much of a hurry and I'm not that uncomfortable. Two comments from women at work this week that I'll share. Incidentally, both were told to me secondhand - "she doesn't look like she's in enough pain yet to be ready to have the baby" and "I thought she was just gaining weight." The last one is probably THE worst thing you can say to a pregnant woman. That means this person thinks I've gained weight in the areas unrelated to pregnant (like my face and arms). But I won't let it phase me. I'm going to take the blessing of an easy pregnancy and praise God for it. Who cares if people think I've "earned" it. And I've had others say I don't look fat in the face so those outweigh the other comment.
Funny fact though - at this point in my sister's pregnancy, she had already given birth! And she was anxious for him to come about 3 weeks before that mostly because she had a lot of signs that labor was coming. I haven't really had an signs.
Doctor appointment yesterday went well. She didn't check to see if I was dilated which seemed a little weird to me but apparently I didn't have any other signs so it wasn't necessary. Baby's heartbeat was 128 and I was measuring (belly) right on target. She couldn't tell if he had dropped yet but she did say he was head down. And I don't have the group b strep. Yea! I actually lost about a pound since my last appointment so that evens out the 5 I gained before the last appointment. So 23 lbs so far. My bp was 104 over 60 so that was good too. I go back next Wednesday. Baby is still moving a lot. Especially when i eat halloween candy that my co-workers bring to work....
Speaking of my co-workers, they had a little celebration for me at our staff lunch on Tuesday. We had cookies and they bought me a Vermont Teddy Bear. He's dressed in a suit and is carrying a briefcase. He's very cute. I guess the idea was the baby can aspire to be a businessperson...(like his mom???? - also a message to me to encourage me to come back to work? I think at least one guy is worried I won't come back.) The one woman in the office got me some onesies and a bib and burp cloth set. (BTW, - this is mostly for my mom - we have tons of bibs, so please don't buy anymore, no matter how cute the baby's first veterans day bib is, please take a pass...:)
Still trying to go on one long walk on the weekends and then I've been walking during my commute. Went for a walk around a near-by neighborhood on Sunday. Next week I start teleworking so I'm going to have to do a walk around the lake each day to keep up the exercise.
Saturday Martin and I went to the movies probably for the last time in a while. We saw Man of the Year. We liked it. It was very funny. Something we were definitely in the mood for. Tuesday we went out to dinner (just at Tara Thai) since it was the 4 year anniversary of us starting to date officially. We figured we'd go out an celebrate that anniversary in case we don't get to celebrate our wedding anniversary this year. Although, we've been celebrating all month really with the baby moon and all. I told Martin what I got "us" for our anniversary. It was probably something more that I wanted so I told him he was off the hook for an anniversary present for me. Plus, I spent more than I was expecting to. I got this painting we got in Aruba on our Honeymoon framed. Something we've been meaning to do for a while. The framing of course was more than the painting itself. And that was with 50% off at Michaels. But I'm glad we're getting it and since we rearranged the room we really need something to go above the bed so that will go well there.
As far as getting things done, we actually did a lot this week. I guess the biggest was rearranging the bedroom and putting the pack-n-play in our room to use as a bassinet. Martin and our friend Mike did a great job moving the furniture. We really like the new arrangement and it seems like we have more room. I'm also very glad since my side of the bed is now near the bathroom so I won't be bumping into things at night when I get up.
The guy hasn't finished our bathroom yet though. He has to come back one more time and we thought he was coming yesterday but didn't show. Hopefully he'll come today and we can finally put our bathroom back together. Martin has been the one making sure he's home for when the guy comes and he also got the car seats inspected at the police station.
I also got all the baby clothes and diapers washed and ready to go. And we made some decisions on insurance and flexible spending accounts. I also finally got around to reading some of the books I've been wanting to read. I'm reading up on inductions since I guess it's getting more likely I'll go past my due date.
Maybe the baby is getting ready to come since I haven't pack the bag yet for the hospital. Once I do that he can come...:) And after I have my prenatal massage on Saturday.
Funny fact though - at this point in my sister's pregnancy, she had already given birth! And she was anxious for him to come about 3 weeks before that mostly because she had a lot of signs that labor was coming. I haven't really had an signs.
Doctor appointment yesterday went well. She didn't check to see if I was dilated which seemed a little weird to me but apparently I didn't have any other signs so it wasn't necessary. Baby's heartbeat was 128 and I was measuring (belly) right on target. She couldn't tell if he had dropped yet but she did say he was head down. And I don't have the group b strep. Yea! I actually lost about a pound since my last appointment so that evens out the 5 I gained before the last appointment. So 23 lbs so far. My bp was 104 over 60 so that was good too. I go back next Wednesday. Baby is still moving a lot. Especially when i eat halloween candy that my co-workers bring to work....
Speaking of my co-workers, they had a little celebration for me at our staff lunch on Tuesday. We had cookies and they bought me a Vermont Teddy Bear. He's dressed in a suit and is carrying a briefcase. He's very cute. I guess the idea was the baby can aspire to be a businessperson...(like his mom???? - also a message to me to encourage me to come back to work? I think at least one guy is worried I won't come back.) The one woman in the office got me some onesies and a bib and burp cloth set. (BTW, - this is mostly for my mom - we have tons of bibs, so please don't buy anymore, no matter how cute the baby's first veterans day bib is, please take a pass...:)
Still trying to go on one long walk on the weekends and then I've been walking during my commute. Went for a walk around a near-by neighborhood on Sunday. Next week I start teleworking so I'm going to have to do a walk around the lake each day to keep up the exercise.
Saturday Martin and I went to the movies probably for the last time in a while. We saw Man of the Year. We liked it. It was very funny. Something we were definitely in the mood for. Tuesday we went out to dinner (just at Tara Thai) since it was the 4 year anniversary of us starting to date officially. We figured we'd go out an celebrate that anniversary in case we don't get to celebrate our wedding anniversary this year. Although, we've been celebrating all month really with the baby moon and all. I told Martin what I got "us" for our anniversary. It was probably something more that I wanted so I told him he was off the hook for an anniversary present for me. Plus, I spent more than I was expecting to. I got this painting we got in Aruba on our Honeymoon framed. Something we've been meaning to do for a while. The framing of course was more than the painting itself. And that was with 50% off at Michaels. But I'm glad we're getting it and since we rearranged the room we really need something to go above the bed so that will go well there.
As far as getting things done, we actually did a lot this week. I guess the biggest was rearranging the bedroom and putting the pack-n-play in our room to use as a bassinet. Martin and our friend Mike did a great job moving the furniture. We really like the new arrangement and it seems like we have more room. I'm also very glad since my side of the bed is now near the bathroom so I won't be bumping into things at night when I get up.
The guy hasn't finished our bathroom yet though. He has to come back one more time and we thought he was coming yesterday but didn't show. Hopefully he'll come today and we can finally put our bathroom back together. Martin has been the one making sure he's home for when the guy comes and he also got the car seats inspected at the police station.
I also got all the baby clothes and diapers washed and ready to go. And we made some decisions on insurance and flexible spending accounts. I also finally got around to reading some of the books I've been wanting to read. I'm reading up on inductions since I guess it's getting more likely I'll go past my due date.
Maybe the baby is getting ready to come since I haven't pack the bag yet for the hospital. Once I do that he can come...:) And after I have my prenatal massage on Saturday.
Shopping Frustrations Part II
I posted Part I below. Since I started it yesterday it's out of order so scroll down to read Part I.
So I go to KMart yesterday to get the baskets. I'm already frustrated with the baskets because I need this one size that is part of a nesting set. So I have to by 3 baskets to get the one I need. The sets are $25 so I had to pay $75 to get the three baskets I want. I'm sure I'll either find a use for the other ones or give them to someone but it's still annoying. Well, the KMart I went to only had two sets. So I still didn't get all what I wanted. I did get the CD player so that was good. I also remembered something else that I wanted to look at which I forgot about until I got there - wash cloths to use as baby wipes. Kmart had them but they were $2.99 and i'm thinking I can find cheaper ones at TJMax. Too bad there are no Gabs here!
Oh, so one more frustration. We decided to buy one package of newborn disposable diapers because we want to wait until the baby's poop isn't black anymore before starting the cloth diapers. We had a coupon for huggies. Well, Giant didn't have the newborn size in Huggies. So we got the pampers which were $12 for 40 diapers (that seems like sooo much - motivation for the cloth diapers!). Well, Kmart had the huggies newborns for $10 and then we would have gotten them for $8.50 with the coupon. Grr.
Okay, I'm going to stop complaining now....
So I go to KMart yesterday to get the baskets. I'm already frustrated with the baskets because I need this one size that is part of a nesting set. So I have to by 3 baskets to get the one I need. The sets are $25 so I had to pay $75 to get the three baskets I want. I'm sure I'll either find a use for the other ones or give them to someone but it's still annoying. Well, the KMart I went to only had two sets. So I still didn't get all what I wanted. I did get the CD player so that was good. I also remembered something else that I wanted to look at which I forgot about until I got there - wash cloths to use as baby wipes. Kmart had them but they were $2.99 and i'm thinking I can find cheaper ones at TJMax. Too bad there are no Gabs here!
Oh, so one more frustration. We decided to buy one package of newborn disposable diapers because we want to wait until the baby's poop isn't black anymore before starting the cloth diapers. We had a coupon for huggies. Well, Giant didn't have the newborn size in Huggies. So we got the pampers which were $12 for 40 diapers (that seems like sooo much - motivation for the cloth diapers!). Well, Kmart had the huggies newborns for $10 and then we would have gotten them for $8.50 with the coupon. Grr.
Okay, I'm going to stop complaining now....
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Update - Week 37: Full Term!
Sorry for the late post - no I haven't gone into labor in case you were wondering. And since I haven't been to the doctor in 10 days and don't go until Wednesday I don't even know if I'm any closer. If you can't tell I'm very anxious for my doctors appointment on Wednesday. Has the baby dropped or turned into breech position, am I dilated at all? I'm not really hoping the baby comes any earlier than Nov. 1st (that would so ruin the title of my blog..:) but the uncertainty of when he is coming is bugging me. My gut feeling is that he'll either be on time or "late" but maybe that's just hopeful since I have so much to do yet. Both at home and work. Work has been abnormally busy this week. Actually it's not abnormal in some sense. Anytime my boss is getting ready to go on an exotic (meaning no blackberry service) two week vacation, which he does 3 times a year, suddenly things pick up. So that's another reason for the late post.
Oh, so explanation of the pictures. I posted both shots of the picture Martin took of me this week to show what a difference the position I stand in has on how big I look. And Martin and I were joking around about how he hasn't gotten his update picture taken so there's also a "before" picture of the dad to be. :)
I'm still feeling great. I'm able to stand on the metro for the whole 25 minute ride if need be, like it was this week a few times. I started taking the elevator sometimes to go up the one floor I need to at work but sometimes I just take the stairs slowly. Beside commuting, my other exercise was a walk around a nearby cemetery last Saturday while we were waiting for the tires to be installed. I'm still sleeping good too. And I'm assuming since I haven't heard from the doctor that my group B strep test was negative. So all continues to go well.
This week's to do list was mostly shopping (see post below). After we got the car seat, we had our friends Dan, Laura, and Charlie over for dinner and to help us install the car seats. It was good to hang out with them. Laura is due with their second in January. We got the car seats in and had fun watching Charlie eat - he loved the meat in the chili and kept asking for more "meat"!
We called the police station near Martin's work to find out when they were having their car seat "inspections." (Not that we didn't trust Dan and Laura's advice - it's definitely better to learn from parents how to do these things and then have the police check it out which Dan and Laura also recommended.) I don't know if we just got lucky or what but they said the next two sessions were on Thursday and the following Tuesday. So Martin took the one car on Thrusday and will take the other one on Tuesday. He said it was pretty quick too and they had evening hours. After all the shopping frustrations I was glad something was relatively easy.
We made a packing list for the hospital but I still need to pack my bags. Got some laundry to do first though. And we also have to think about a birth plan before the appointment on Wednesday. I'm not sure we'll have much to put in writing since we agree with most of the doctor's and hospital's policies. The basic thing is if and when I want medication. I've told one of my doctor's I'm doing the wait and see thing so not really sure if I need to write out a birth plan just for that. I'm reading some this weekend on other things like induction in case I need to be prepared for that.
I got the old boxes out of the bedroom and today Martin and Mikey are going to rearrange the bedroom. The boxes just moved to the baby's room though so I still need to go through those. I started to but got really mad at myself for not touching this stuff in two years. There was one bag that must have been the bag you throw all the misc stuff in when you move. You know, the last bag. I had mail in there from June of 2004 that I hadn't opened (nothing important like a bill though), a CD that Martin had bought me (shows how much I loved the CD, right? to my credit though I had downloaded it to my computer at work and listen to it there), and stuff I had been looking for 2 years. Shameful! I'm a procrasinating, desiring-to-be-organized packrat! And I'm married to a "chucker"!
We did decide on the pediatrian though - we're going to go with Vienna Pediatrics. We'll just have to make sure to get morning or mid day appointments to avoid traffic.
We sent in applications for absentee voting just in case I go into labor "early." Got the ballots back quickly. Oh, and we finally got the bathroom ceiling fixed! It still needs to be painted which we want to do ourselves because we want to do the whole bathroom but that can wait. At least we don't have pipes and insulation showing. Martin and I also talked about health insurance, life insurance, a will, and flexible spending accounts (both health and dependent care) this week. The cost of our health insurance (with the company we like) is going up $60 a month. There's a comparable plan with another company where the price is about the same as we're paying now but we're afraid of the unknown and haven't heard the best things about this company (Aetna). We have Optimum Choice now which is a Mamsi/United Health Care plan. If it was only a couple hundred a year, I wouldn't think twice about not switching but $720 a year it a big price to pay just for a little piece of mind. (Maybe I should have put this in the shopping frustrations post.) Then we found out with the life insurance that Martin can purchase through his employer the same about of term life for me that i'm getting at work for $240 cheaper a year. Again, i'm reluctant to give up my basic coverage there (they threaten you with all kinds of meaningless warnings about screwing up your retirement benefits if you opt out of the coverage) but it's probably worth the money. We haven't found a lawyer yet to do a will but I still need to ask around. I think we're going to do the FSAs but we just have to figure out how much. Well-kid doctor visits and my vitamins will be at least $200 so we'll do at least that much for the health one. But since we haven't figured out childcare yet we don't know how much that is going to be. All this stuff led Martin to say to be last night, "I don't get to do anything fun with you anymore." (We do fun things at least once a week but he was lamenting how it's not like when we were dating.) So we played Yahtzee last night at 10:30pm probably much to our neighbor's disliking. Never realized that game was so loud.
Oh, and then we got a letter from our credit card company saying that MasterCard had compromised our number or something so they were issuing us a new number. Well, you know how much of a pain that is today with all the automatic payments. I fixed a few but still have one more to switch over to the new number. Since we don't check our snail mail that often we didn't get much of a window between when they issued the new number and when the old one stopped working as we found out yesterday when we try to go shopping. There's always something. Some errand or chore or paperwork to do. I guess now it's just especially annoying.
To end on a much happier note, we found out this week that two more of our friends are pregnant and due in June! Catherine and Patricia! Congrats to them! This is Catherine's second and Patricia's first.
Well, that's it for now. I will update again after my appointment on Wednesday! Thanks for reading!
Shopping Frustrations
So this was the week we've been planning to cross off a lot of the shopping on our to do list. The main thing being the car seat. I called 3 Babies R Uss to find out if they carried the car seat that I had registered for online. None of them had it since it was discontinued and so it was only available online. But then you had to have it shipped and that was an extra $20. So I was looking to see if they had the car seat in other stores. Target had one that I liked but it was only available online but it had free shipping if you ordered another big item. So we could get the car seat and the stroller from Target.com and not pay shipping. But then we couldn't get the $10 off that Babies R Us was offering on the stroller so it was only going to be $10 cheaper. So the plan was to go to Babies R Us and see if they had another car seat that we liked and if not go with the Target one. In the meantime I talked to Laura B. who saw the same car seats at Baby Depot that Target had. She told me the one I liked was skimpy on padding but another one that wasn't bad had good padding. She offered to pick up the one with good padding for us since she was going to buy the same one there that weekend. After looking at Babies R Us I figured out that the Snug Ride2s were the ones with the skimpy padding but the Snug Rides were good. (BTW, the one I had registered for was a Snug Ride2.) So we decided go with the one with good padding although I wasn't too crazy about the pattern. And we got the stroller and a few other things at BRUS. The problem was we got to the check out and I asked about the $10 off. The lady told me I needed a coupon. I asked if the coupon was in the flyer. She said yes you have to be on the mailing list. I told her I was and even gave another coupon that I had from the same flyer. (I was mad at myself too because I had looked at that coupon before leaving but didn't think it applied and thought the $10 was a promotion.) So we didn't get the $10 off anyway. After all this effort to save $10 and then not getting it I was pretty frustrated. Yes, it's $10. I just felt like all my planning and research had gone to waste. So I was upset when we got home. I should have been thankful though about finding out that the car seat we originally picked out wouldn't be good. And when we did get the car seat, I ended up liking the pattern even though it doesn't match the pack and play.
A day earlier we went to verizon to get new phones. We were ready for the "new every two" deal that verizon has. Plus, we had just found out that Martin's employer has a company discount with verizon. I wasn't sure if we could get two new phones for free but I thought between the two discounts we'd work something out. Well, turns out Martin still had to pay $30 for a new phone even though I could get one for free. He could get a certain one for free if I got a new phone but he can't take a camera phone with him to work so he had to get a non-camera phone that cost $30. And of course the $10 for the transfer of numbers. (I ended up deciding against a new phone since we thought it better to wait until there was something wrong with my phone to get the free one.) So my shopping frustration started even before Babies R Us. Again, I should have been excited about getting the employee discount on our monthly bill ($10 off PER MONTH!) but then I'm like man, how long have they had this in place - we could have been saving $10 a month for the past two years! And then we didn't get any discounts on the phone, even though I though we should but then I think we would have had to order the phone online.
So with these two experience under my belt, now comes Saturday when we went to buy tires. I'm reading these coupons and talking to my dad, again more research to make sure we only pay as much as we have to and that we don't get screwed. We go to the tire place and find out that on a Maxima you have to buy these extra wide expensive tires that only have a life of about 30,000 and even that isn't guaranteed. Okay, fine but at least we can get the best deal. There were really only two options and we went with the cheaper one. The lady told us with "everything" it would be $880. Well, turns out later that was just the tires. The road side assistance and warantee and balancing were extra. We had already agreed to the allignment and oil change which were discounted (one promotion and we had a coupon for the oil change for $15.99). Then we are told if we sign up for a Goodyear credit card we'll get $80 cash back. So we're paying for all this and looking at the bill and the lady is screwing up the ticket and taking forever and there are a ton of people in line. I really hate making decisions and checking bills under these circumstances. Especially when the people are like, oh, it's just like this, you don't undertand. Well, we did say something about the $40 they charged us for the oil change. But the guy's like oh, yeah that's wrong, we owe you $10. And he gives us $10 cash back. At this point I should have said something but I was confused about the bill that was broken down by labor and parts and then you had to multiply some stuff by 4 for all four tires so I'm like on line 2 of the bill and they want us to pay. So we pay, partly just wanting to get out of there. We come home and I examine the bill and get upset about paying extra for the oil change and then realize there was an ad for 50% off the balancing that we didn't get. I started crying at this point. It was a lot of money that we just spent and again I was mad because I try so hard to save money. But later I realized we would have decided to get the extras anyway even with the cost. And so really we only got screwed on the oil change (and I guess the balancing). As a percent of the cost of the tires it was small. Plus, as Martin keeps telling, I can't be perfect at saving money. I will lose some. I guess I just felt like I was losing more lately.
On Sunday, I also found out something where I felt like a misinformed consumer. Laura B. told me she and her husband went to their childbirth class. Theirs was totally different from ours although it was the same class description. They went over all the breathing stuff that I was hoping to learn. They practiced going through a contraction and everything. Grr. We should have gone with them. Then I would have been able to go to her shower and would have gotten the better class (which we paid $150 for!). I was afraid it was too close my due date which seems silly at this point.
Then there are health insurance problems with trying to save money (see update).
One bright spot in this was last night though (Friday). I went back to Babies R Us with the coupon asking to get $10 store credit and they easily gave it to me! I also picked up a diaper bag and some more pack and play sheet since i think we're going to use that as a bassinette. I forgot to look at the baby books there but we can go back on Sunday when we'll be in the neighborhood.
I think I just haven't done much shopping lately and this is why this frustrating me so much. Plus, when you live in NVA, it's not that easy to go to multiple places to get what you're looking for so you have to do the research online beforehand. Maybe once I'm on maternity leave I'll be able to shop during the day and that may help the frustration.
Today I'm off to KMart to get the baskets for the changing table and a CD player to take with us to the hospital. We'll see how it goes.
A day earlier we went to verizon to get new phones. We were ready for the "new every two" deal that verizon has. Plus, we had just found out that Martin's employer has a company discount with verizon. I wasn't sure if we could get two new phones for free but I thought between the two discounts we'd work something out. Well, turns out Martin still had to pay $30 for a new phone even though I could get one for free. He could get a certain one for free if I got a new phone but he can't take a camera phone with him to work so he had to get a non-camera phone that cost $30. And of course the $10 for the transfer of numbers. (I ended up deciding against a new phone since we thought it better to wait until there was something wrong with my phone to get the free one.) So my shopping frustration started even before Babies R Us. Again, I should have been excited about getting the employee discount on our monthly bill ($10 off PER MONTH!) but then I'm like man, how long have they had this in place - we could have been saving $10 a month for the past two years! And then we didn't get any discounts on the phone, even though I though we should but then I think we would have had to order the phone online.
So with these two experience under my belt, now comes Saturday when we went to buy tires. I'm reading these coupons and talking to my dad, again more research to make sure we only pay as much as we have to and that we don't get screwed. We go to the tire place and find out that on a Maxima you have to buy these extra wide expensive tires that only have a life of about 30,000 and even that isn't guaranteed. Okay, fine but at least we can get the best deal. There were really only two options and we went with the cheaper one. The lady told us with "everything" it would be $880. Well, turns out later that was just the tires. The road side assistance and warantee and balancing were extra. We had already agreed to the allignment and oil change which were discounted (one promotion and we had a coupon for the oil change for $15.99). Then we are told if we sign up for a Goodyear credit card we'll get $80 cash back. So we're paying for all this and looking at the bill and the lady is screwing up the ticket and taking forever and there are a ton of people in line. I really hate making decisions and checking bills under these circumstances. Especially when the people are like, oh, it's just like this, you don't undertand. Well, we did say something about the $40 they charged us for the oil change. But the guy's like oh, yeah that's wrong, we owe you $10. And he gives us $10 cash back. At this point I should have said something but I was confused about the bill that was broken down by labor and parts and then you had to multiply some stuff by 4 for all four tires so I'm like on line 2 of the bill and they want us to pay. So we pay, partly just wanting to get out of there. We come home and I examine the bill and get upset about paying extra for the oil change and then realize there was an ad for 50% off the balancing that we didn't get. I started crying at this point. It was a lot of money that we just spent and again I was mad because I try so hard to save money. But later I realized we would have decided to get the extras anyway even with the cost. And so really we only got screwed on the oil change (and I guess the balancing). As a percent of the cost of the tires it was small. Plus, as Martin keeps telling, I can't be perfect at saving money. I will lose some. I guess I just felt like I was losing more lately.
On Sunday, I also found out something where I felt like a misinformed consumer. Laura B. told me she and her husband went to their childbirth class. Theirs was totally different from ours although it was the same class description. They went over all the breathing stuff that I was hoping to learn. They practiced going through a contraction and everything. Grr. We should have gone with them. Then I would have been able to go to her shower and would have gotten the better class (which we paid $150 for!). I was afraid it was too close my due date which seems silly at this point.
Then there are health insurance problems with trying to save money (see update).
One bright spot in this was last night though (Friday). I went back to Babies R Us with the coupon asking to get $10 store credit and they easily gave it to me! I also picked up a diaper bag and some more pack and play sheet since i think we're going to use that as a bassinette. I forgot to look at the baby books there but we can go back on Sunday when we'll be in the neighborhood.
I think I just haven't done much shopping lately and this is why this frustrating me so much. Plus, when you live in NVA, it's not that easy to go to multiple places to get what you're looking for so you have to do the research online beforehand. Maybe once I'm on maternity leave I'll be able to shop during the day and that may help the frustration.
Today I'm off to KMart to get the baskets for the changing table and a CD player to take with us to the hospital. We'll see how it goes.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Update - Week 36
Okay, so now I'm officially 9 months pregnant, there are only 28 more days until the due date, in one week I'll be full-term, and today on one of the pregnancy emails that I get it said "if you've already given birth, click here." !!!!!! (Apparently this is important because I know a friend of a friend who was almost 2 weeks late and she kept getting these emails that said, "now you're taking your baby home from the hospital," etc. and it made her sad because she was still pregnant.)
Wow. This last month has gone really fast. I'm still feeling really good. It's really hard to move anytime I need to use my stomach or back muscles (like getting out of bed) but other than that, I've been feeling really good. Not even noticably more tired.
So update, let's see - pediatrician. Met with another practice on Friday - Vienna Pediatrics. We liked them. They have a lab in house and they would be closer if we move further out (mostly likely scenario in the future) and 2 other friends we know go there. The doctor answered all our questions in a way we liked. For some reason I liked the other place a little better though. But the lab thing and the location thing may over ride that. We haven't decided for sure but we should soon.
This weekend we went on our baby moon. It was a great time despite some set backs (took us 5 hours to get there - normally a 2 hour drive, the weather was pretty cool on Saturday, and the breakfast was not that great). But it didn't rain and didn't stop us from doing anything. Sunday was beautiful and we stayed around until the mid afternoon. The view from the B&B was awesome. We were right on the Bay. On Saturday we went to Tilghman's Island and St. Michaels and walked around. St. Michaels is a quaint little town with lots of shoppes and restaurants. (During lunch, I had (caffinated!) iced tea!!! I was a real rebel. That was the first time I'd had iced tea in 8 months!) There is also a Maritime Museum which we went to and learned about oystering and shipjack boats. And we saw lots of small craft boats as there was a festival going on for them. We had dinner at this place right on the harbor of the bay. We actually had to wait for the tide to go down before going in because they were having a really high tide that day and the door was blocked with water. I ate steamed crabs there and had a virgin strawberry daquiri. Sunday we went sailing on a 16 passenger sailboat. It was neat. I didn't realize how much the boat tips when you go sailing. I was able to keep my balance though. Sailing was beautiful. So peaceful. We did a lot of walking so I got my exercise. Overall it was a relaxing weekend and it really felt like we were on vacation (which we hadn't gone on since last August, camp not included!).
Sunday I worked on shower thank you cards some (only about half way done so if you haven't gotten one yet, its coming! :) Monday I had a doctors appointment. I gained 5 pounds since my last appointment two weeks prior. Doctor said it must have been water retention from extra salt in my diet - I told him we ate a lot of seafood at the shore last weekend and he said that will do it. Still I was only +24 lbs and my goal was +25 so I'm still in that range. Much to my surprise, when the doctor measured my belly, he said I was measuring right on target. So I might not be as small as everyone keeps saying I am. BUT, both Martin and I have noticed that in the last 2 days, it seems I've gotten noticably bigger. Doctor did the group b strep test and I guess we'll get the results at the next appointment which isn't until the 25th! I'll be 38 weeks then. Appparently the doctors aren't worried about me or think I'm close to going into labor. Baby's heartbeat was good - 140bpm.
On Monday I worked out (Kathy Smith tape which I decided I didn't like.) I also got to do a little shopping but it wasn't a terribly successful endeavour. I did get the "lilly pads" which are nursing pads that I was told were the greatest thing since sliced bread. And I got some other sterilizing stuff for the pump. I didn't find the baskets I was looking for for the changing table drawers. I have one from the shower that is the right size but it came in a set of three (y'know, the nesting baskets) and so I"m not sure how I'm going to get three more of the right size. They have to be exactly the right dimensions and so I'm afraid ebay won't be very helpful. Another frustrating shopping experiences is that I found out the car seat that we want is only available online since it has been discontinued. And the shipping cost is $23. grrr.
Well, hopefully we'll get that figured out this weekend. We still need a few other things from babies r us so we'll probably still go on Friday. Tonight we're going to verizon to get new cell phones and to jared's to get my ring inspected. And Saturday we have to buy new tires for the Maxima. So we'll be going through lots of money this week. Martin got a bonus at work so that should help some.
Next week I'm hoping to work on getting our bedroon ready by rearranging the furniture so the baby won't be by the window and taking care of the boxes I have stacked in there.
Laura H. and I are planning on going and getting pre-natal massages on the 28th (if I haven't gone into labor by then). That should be fun.
Well, I guess that's all for this week. I'll try to get a picture up this weekend.
Wow. This last month has gone really fast. I'm still feeling really good. It's really hard to move anytime I need to use my stomach or back muscles (like getting out of bed) but other than that, I've been feeling really good. Not even noticably more tired.
So update, let's see - pediatrician. Met with another practice on Friday - Vienna Pediatrics. We liked them. They have a lab in house and they would be closer if we move further out (mostly likely scenario in the future) and 2 other friends we know go there. The doctor answered all our questions in a way we liked. For some reason I liked the other place a little better though. But the lab thing and the location thing may over ride that. We haven't decided for sure but we should soon.
This weekend we went on our baby moon. It was a great time despite some set backs (took us 5 hours to get there - normally a 2 hour drive, the weather was pretty cool on Saturday, and the breakfast was not that great). But it didn't rain and didn't stop us from doing anything. Sunday was beautiful and we stayed around until the mid afternoon. The view from the B&B was awesome. We were right on the Bay. On Saturday we went to Tilghman's Island and St. Michaels and walked around. St. Michaels is a quaint little town with lots of shoppes and restaurants. (During lunch, I had (caffinated!) iced tea!!! I was a real rebel. That was the first time I'd had iced tea in 8 months!) There is also a Maritime Museum which we went to and learned about oystering and shipjack boats. And we saw lots of small craft boats as there was a festival going on for them. We had dinner at this place right on the harbor of the bay. We actually had to wait for the tide to go down before going in because they were having a really high tide that day and the door was blocked with water. I ate steamed crabs there and had a virgin strawberry daquiri. Sunday we went sailing on a 16 passenger sailboat. It was neat. I didn't realize how much the boat tips when you go sailing. I was able to keep my balance though. Sailing was beautiful. So peaceful. We did a lot of walking so I got my exercise. Overall it was a relaxing weekend and it really felt like we were on vacation (which we hadn't gone on since last August, camp not included!).
Sunday I worked on shower thank you cards some (only about half way done so if you haven't gotten one yet, its coming! :) Monday I had a doctors appointment. I gained 5 pounds since my last appointment two weeks prior. Doctor said it must have been water retention from extra salt in my diet - I told him we ate a lot of seafood at the shore last weekend and he said that will do it. Still I was only +24 lbs and my goal was +25 so I'm still in that range. Much to my surprise, when the doctor measured my belly, he said I was measuring right on target. So I might not be as small as everyone keeps saying I am. BUT, both Martin and I have noticed that in the last 2 days, it seems I've gotten noticably bigger. Doctor did the group b strep test and I guess we'll get the results at the next appointment which isn't until the 25th! I'll be 38 weeks then. Appparently the doctors aren't worried about me or think I'm close to going into labor. Baby's heartbeat was good - 140bpm.
On Monday I worked out (Kathy Smith tape which I decided I didn't like.) I also got to do a little shopping but it wasn't a terribly successful endeavour. I did get the "lilly pads" which are nursing pads that I was told were the greatest thing since sliced bread. And I got some other sterilizing stuff for the pump. I didn't find the baskets I was looking for for the changing table drawers. I have one from the shower that is the right size but it came in a set of three (y'know, the nesting baskets) and so I"m not sure how I'm going to get three more of the right size. They have to be exactly the right dimensions and so I'm afraid ebay won't be very helpful. Another frustrating shopping experiences is that I found out the car seat that we want is only available online since it has been discontinued. And the shipping cost is $23. grrr.
Well, hopefully we'll get that figured out this weekend. We still need a few other things from babies r us so we'll probably still go on Friday. Tonight we're going to verizon to get new cell phones and to jared's to get my ring inspected. And Saturday we have to buy new tires for the Maxima. So we'll be going through lots of money this week. Martin got a bonus at work so that should help some.
Next week I'm hoping to work on getting our bedroon ready by rearranging the furniture so the baby won't be by the window and taking care of the boxes I have stacked in there.
Laura H. and I are planning on going and getting pre-natal massages on the 28th (if I haven't gone into labor by then). That should be fun.
Well, I guess that's all for this week. I'll try to get a picture up this weekend.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Update - Week 35
Well, I'm still feeling good. Having a harder and harder time leaning over though. For instance, if I'm trying to eat soup or pasta or anything that I need to lean over my plate so as not to spill something, I get out of breath and really uncomfortable and the baby starts kicking me like I'm not giving him enough room...:) So I try to find some counter to eat at.
Martin and I went on a hike on Sunday. We are going to learn all the flat trails in the area now. We started near Teddy Roosevelt Island and walked up the Potomac on the Potomac Hertitage Trail. There was this really neat waterfall at the place we stopped to turn around. The whole hike (3.5 miles!) was beautiful. The funny thing was that before we started out, I went to the bathroom in these port-a-potties that were in the parking lot. Well, the whole way back I was feeling like I had to go so I was looking forward to the port-a-potties. We get back to the parking lot and they were gone!!! Apparently there was some event going on and so they were only there for part of the day. I had to hold it all the way home (15 min ride). It wasn't too bad but I just can't believe the timing. I had considered going in the woods too (which is actually sometimes easier because you have trees to hold onto) since we didn't see anyone on the trail until we were just about to turn around. But we started seeing a lot more people so I decided to wait for the port-a-potties...but they were gone...:(
Saturday we did some walking too. After our class, we went on a "date" to Georgetown for dinner and then walked up the hill, almost to the university.
So the childbirth class - it was mostly "this is what's going to happen to you." They showed some videos of actual births which was probably the most useful thing for me although if you get TLC then I think you would see this stuff on there. I'm glad I won't have the same view the cameras had. I almost started crying when the babies were born - good emotional tears that is. Now when the nurse described how one gets and epidural, that's when I started crying fearful tears. That just freaks me out - the whole needle in your back. My current thinking on epidurals is that I'm not going to go into the hospital and ask for one then. But if it looks like it's going to be a long birth - like if I'm still 4 centimeters after 8 hours or something like that, then I'll probably get one. I don't want to get one because I want to be able to move around and I don't want this thing in my back and because there is some evidence that they prelong birth (which may lead to a higher chance of c-section). But apparently with the latest research, the studies are mixed on the prelonging labor thing. So says the nurse we talked to on Saturday. Now normally I wouldn't trust someone on that who is so fully indoctrinated into doing medical precedures as you would think an L&D nurse is, but this lady seemed very balanced. She sought very much to avoid c-sections and she complained about doctors who induce for the wrong reasons (the most extreme being not wanting to have to work on the weekends!) and seemed convinced that inductions do lead to longer labors. Apparently, at my hospital 80-90 percent of women get epidurals. Plus, my doctor has told me that I don't have to "be a martyr." I'm not totally against it, but then my mom and sister never had to have one and so I'm hoping it won't be necessary. Martin thinks this will just lead me to be being indecisive - me? indecisive, he obviously doesn't know me at all...:) What, I've only been thinking about this for 8 months now. My decision is "be flexible." But that decision will have to be amplified at some point. Hopefully it won't be too difficult.
So, yeah, we talked about epidurals at the class. She did go over some positions for comfort and basic breathing (cleaning breathes and the beginning and end of contractions and paced breathing during.) I was hoping for a little more on the breathing end but everyone says you forget that stuff anyway. My friend Jan offered to teach me the breathing if I wanted to learn it.
I did learn some stuff in the class (like how the baby proceeds through the mother's pelvis) but it probably wasn't $150 worth of info. But I guess I feel better just having taken the class. Like I've done what I could type of thing. And this is what the hospital wants me to know. Not that one can ever been totally prepared for this type of thing.
We're meeting with another pediatrician tomorrow and then heading to MD for our baby moon! It's been a busy week so we haven't done much else on our before baby to do list. I'm off on Monday and have a doctors appointment so hopefully I'll at least get some shopping done. We have tried to start praying for our baby every day now until the birth. It ends up being more like every other day though. Hopefully we can be more frequent. It's fun to sort of dream up what you want your child to be like and pray specifically for those things. I think I've been lead to pray specifically for a heart of compassion and intelligence for our baby. I've also prayed for him and Steven to be friends. Last night at Bible Study, Laura B. suggested that we could start praying for a good wife for him too...:) You know so at his wedding we can say to his bride, "we've been praying for you since before he was born." :)
Until next week....I'll try to get some baby room pictures up soon.
Martin and I went on a hike on Sunday. We are going to learn all the flat trails in the area now. We started near Teddy Roosevelt Island and walked up the Potomac on the Potomac Hertitage Trail. There was this really neat waterfall at the place we stopped to turn around. The whole hike (3.5 miles!) was beautiful. The funny thing was that before we started out, I went to the bathroom in these port-a-potties that were in the parking lot. Well, the whole way back I was feeling like I had to go so I was looking forward to the port-a-potties. We get back to the parking lot and they were gone!!! Apparently there was some event going on and so they were only there for part of the day. I had to hold it all the way home (15 min ride). It wasn't too bad but I just can't believe the timing. I had considered going in the woods too (which is actually sometimes easier because you have trees to hold onto) since we didn't see anyone on the trail until we were just about to turn around. But we started seeing a lot more people so I decided to wait for the port-a-potties...but they were gone...:(
Saturday we did some walking too. After our class, we went on a "date" to Georgetown for dinner and then walked up the hill, almost to the university.
So the childbirth class - it was mostly "this is what's going to happen to you." They showed some videos of actual births which was probably the most useful thing for me although if you get TLC then I think you would see this stuff on there. I'm glad I won't have the same view the cameras had. I almost started crying when the babies were born - good emotional tears that is. Now when the nurse described how one gets and epidural, that's when I started crying fearful tears. That just freaks me out - the whole needle in your back. My current thinking on epidurals is that I'm not going to go into the hospital and ask for one then. But if it looks like it's going to be a long birth - like if I'm still 4 centimeters after 8 hours or something like that, then I'll probably get one. I don't want to get one because I want to be able to move around and I don't want this thing in my back and because there is some evidence that they prelong birth (which may lead to a higher chance of c-section). But apparently with the latest research, the studies are mixed on the prelonging labor thing. So says the nurse we talked to on Saturday. Now normally I wouldn't trust someone on that who is so fully indoctrinated into doing medical precedures as you would think an L&D nurse is, but this lady seemed very balanced. She sought very much to avoid c-sections and she complained about doctors who induce for the wrong reasons (the most extreme being not wanting to have to work on the weekends!) and seemed convinced that inductions do lead to longer labors. Apparently, at my hospital 80-90 percent of women get epidurals. Plus, my doctor has told me that I don't have to "be a martyr." I'm not totally against it, but then my mom and sister never had to have one and so I'm hoping it won't be necessary. Martin thinks this will just lead me to be being indecisive - me? indecisive, he obviously doesn't know me at all...:) What, I've only been thinking about this for 8 months now. My decision is "be flexible." But that decision will have to be amplified at some point. Hopefully it won't be too difficult.
So, yeah, we talked about epidurals at the class. She did go over some positions for comfort and basic breathing (cleaning breathes and the beginning and end of contractions and paced breathing during.) I was hoping for a little more on the breathing end but everyone says you forget that stuff anyway. My friend Jan offered to teach me the breathing if I wanted to learn it.
I did learn some stuff in the class (like how the baby proceeds through the mother's pelvis) but it probably wasn't $150 worth of info. But I guess I feel better just having taken the class. Like I've done what I could type of thing. And this is what the hospital wants me to know. Not that one can ever been totally prepared for this type of thing.
We're meeting with another pediatrician tomorrow and then heading to MD for our baby moon! It's been a busy week so we haven't done much else on our before baby to do list. I'm off on Monday and have a doctors appointment so hopefully I'll at least get some shopping done. We have tried to start praying for our baby every day now until the birth. It ends up being more like every other day though. Hopefully we can be more frequent. It's fun to sort of dream up what you want your child to be like and pray specifically for those things. I think I've been lead to pray specifically for a heart of compassion and intelligence for our baby. I've also prayed for him and Steven to be friends. Last night at Bible Study, Laura B. suggested that we could start praying for a good wife for him too...:) You know so at his wedding we can say to his bride, "we've been praying for you since before he was born." :)
Until next week....I'll try to get some baby room pictures up soon.
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