Saturday, October 29, 2011

Baby Showers All Around

Last weekend my Aunt threw me a wonderful baby shower. It was at Biddie's Coach House in Dublin. I can't thank her enough for being so great. My sisters and mother also assisted.  They made a Dr Seuss theme to go along with my primary colors. There were a total of 14 of us there and I think everyone had a good time. We had high tea, lots of games, and great presents of course.  Thank you to everyone who came! It was so nice to have everyone there, it is probably my over-emotional pregnant self, but I just am very happy with how it went and how much fun it was.

On top of the excitement of the shower, it meant that my mother, mother in law, and two sisters all came. It was a packed house, but a lot of fun. I wish they all could have stayed longer and I hope they all come back soon.

The week was uneventful. I had book club and I carved some pumpkins. I want to post a review of the book club book as well as a parenting book I am reading and loving, but not tonight.

Today I went to a baby shower in Cleveland for my cousin who is due right at Thanksgiving. Time is flying by! I am now 31 weeks, 2 days along, only 60 days to go, and that is assuming  baby does not decide to come early. I want to post about some health things, and about my lovely stretchmarks, but not tonight.

I am going to bed now. LOL. I am SO exhausted from the trip to Cleveland it is ridiculous. Who knew driving could be so tiring?




Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Pregnancy Update

(1) I don't have gestational diabetes!! Yay!!

(2) Baby measuring right on track.

(3) Feeling TONS of movement, and freaking DH out with it.

(4) I got stretchmarks literally overnight. They were not there when I went to bed and they are there this A.M. Coworker states same thing happened to her. I swear I am bigger than yesterday too. If I have stretch marks at 30 weeks, that does not bode well for the total amount I get!! LOL


Sunday, October 16, 2011

Hospital Bills and Health Care Issues

I know that lately this blog has become just a list of what I do each day, I apologize if it is boring you. I think it has been like that for a few reasons. First, it is what some of my blog readers are looking for I think, the people like my parents who I don't talk to all that often but want to know what is going on in my life more. I may put something here that they did not know about in our phone and text conversations. Second, its easy. Its much easier to post about the random things that happened over the weekend than to delve into various thoughts and questions, some of which are controversial. Third, it is just how I have been feeling. I have not had time or energy to mull over anything really interesting lately, I spend a lot of energy just making sure I am doing what I can to be healthy for baby and to not feel like crap.

So, how about a ranting post for a change? 

We got our bill from the hospital. Looking at the itemized list is ridiculous. There is something seriously wrong w/out hospital's charge people. I am not saying we got charged too much either, I am just saying that the itemized list is all wrong. I mean, the point of an itemized list is to explain why your bill is what it is, not to list random prices the hospital has assigned to things. This is how you end up getting charged $56 for a dose of Tylenol that, as they bill even stated, I administered to myself. What is costing money is not the tylenol, but rather the record keeping, and the nurses care and the doctors expertise, and the well equipped hospital that was ready to deal with me if things got worse. So why doesn't my bill even mention these things? Instead it has all of these physical items, like "IV Therapy, $2780.80". Really? The IV cost $2780? I don't think so. I would much rather see "IV equipment use 24 hrs $1000, Nurses IV monitoring $1780.80" than this, or however they actually explain the expense when they come up with these prices. I know its a matter of semantics, but I am just saying whats the point of an itemized bill if it does not really tell you how the costs are incurred?

Of course we are among the lucky who have health insurance and we will be paying much less out of pocket than this itemized list totals, which is another can of worms I am not going to get into involving just what is broken about our healthcare system in America. I have to say seeing this bill gives me a little more sympathy for the plethora of claimants I have every week that say things like "I can't afford to go to the doctor every time my condition acts up because I don't have insurance" or  those who beg us to expedite their case because of the medical bills they are facing. The fact is that not getting medical care can affect your ability to get disability, because if you don't have your own treatment then all we have to go on is a one-time exam. This one time exam will be pretty good for things like back problems, chronic lung disease, etc, but it will not give us any real perspective if you have severe seizures or migraines or asthma attacks or anything like that. Or lets say, if you have cancer that you have not been able to get treatment for because you don't have insurance. There are some really sad things that happen to people in this country that do not have insurance. Back when we were in training we worked on a practice case (using a real person from a long time ago), who was diagnosed with cancer and told to report for tx. She did not see anyone for six months because of money problems/lack on insurance. When she went back to the doctor 6 months later they told her there was nothing they could do for her as the cancer was to advanced. Of course she got disability at this point, and then died shortly after. Yet we are supposedly the "best" country in the world (or thats how many American's view it!).

I recognize there is no perfect healthcare system, and I also recognize that there is not enough resources in the world to give everyone perfect healthcare, but there has to be something that makes more sense than what we are doing now.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Productive Yet Relaxing

It has been a very good weekend, both relaxing and productive. Friday we went out to eat with a friend. We went to Mac's Cafe. It was quite good and had good prices! On Saturday I got up and headed to the farmer's market, then rescued DH from the gas station he was stranded at (he forgot his wallet and ran out of gas while trying to go buy dog food). Then I ran errands - pet food, fabric store, maternity pants, Great Harvest Bread, Target.

Everyone keeps talking about rising grocery prices... I have not noticed these too much, but what I have noticed is the increased PET SUPPLY prices. Says something about my lifestyle, eh? Cost of our dog food, cat food, and rawhide are all up. The correct size of rawhide has become difficult to find- Target used to have a bag of 5 bones of the correct size (about 5-6 inches long) for around $10. They have stopped carrying that bag entirely and have raised priced on all of their other packages/sizes. Its a bit frustrating, but such is life.

After all those errands, my feet and legs and back were killing me, so I went off to the pool and floated around for awhile, stretched, swam. It definitely helps! Getting in the water relives the pressure on my joints, especially my back, and gives me the freedom to move and stretch in ways that my balance and strength won't allow me to do on land. I don't do much cardio, but I do a little, and the water keeps me cool so no worries about overheating, no jolting motions, so its all good. Anyways, I came home feeling much better, though admittedly my feet still hurt!!

I spent the evening watching football and baseball. It did not go so well. While OSU came out fighting, especially Braxton Miller who had way more confidence and better decision making than we have seen, things went downhill in the second half. Braxton Miller unsurprisingly got hurt. Let's call him (setting aside legal/moral issues) Mike Vick Jr. He is small, good at scrambling, he can really make plays, and gets hit WAY TO OFTEN and WAY TO HARD to not have injury issues. Also in the evening I taped off the last little bit of the nursery that had a mistake in the paint and started painting it.

Sunday we did a little house cleaning, watched a lot of NFL football, finished the painting, spent a bit of time working on cleaning out the second guest room (or what is going to be the second guest room...).

Today, Monday. I have it off. I don't really like the hero worship of Christopher Columbus. He did not discover a new world, other people had been here, and he did not make good decisions or smart decisions about his discovery (uh.. like why do we have "indians" in America? Because he was clueless....). Despite all of this, I don't mind taking the day off! These random holidays off is one of the very few remaining perks of being a state employee. My plans for today? Well, I got up early and did Laundry and some dishes. I have a handyman coming in to re-install the closet doors in the nursery (That we took out while it was being used as an office), and when that is done, I am going to head out to see a friend I have not seen in 3 months (she was on field research in Mexico). Should be a good day, followed by short week!

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Baby Baby Baby Oh

I know, I know.. I spent SO LONG "catching up" on the trip that I now have not had a current post for three weeks... But this is the only place I have that detailed account of my trip because I did not keep a journal on the trip like I normally do, so it was really more for me than for you.

I recently turned one of my old blogs into a book - http://lost-in-europe.livejournal.com/ - into a book. Specifically, the section that talks about my time in Europe, and it sort of reminded me exactly how cool a detailed account of trips and such can be. It jobs so many good memories that I have not thought about in years.

As for the past three weeks since I got back... first, I can't believe it has been that long. My appetite returned about a week after I got out of the hospital, which was really great since I was having to force myself to eat even near 2000 calories for that week. Now I am eating everything in sight, which is good for the most part, though I still have nausea sometimes (mostly in the morning). I also have lots of heartburn. I read in a magazine that I should "eat small meals, avoid spicy foods," etc. I don't follow these rules because they don't actually help. I can eat a single yogurt and get terrible heartburn... so why should I avoid food I want? Thats about as small and mild a meal as you can get...

DH and I went to a baby sale last Saturday (a week ago today). It was a lot of fun. We bought some books and toys and clothes. We even bought a little Christmas outfit. We don't expect the baby to be here by Xmas, but if they show up early, we are ready for an adorable Christmas picture! And since it was all used, it was all nice and cheap. I still need to wash it all, and we need to get somewhere to put it, like a dresser. Its time to really crack down and start getting baby stuff done. So far, our baby items consist of 1 carseat and stroller (will need a second car seat), and the little stuff described above (from the sale). I also got an adorable stuffed elephant from a friend. My shower is set up, which is exciting. I am not planning to register, which I have a feeling will throw some people for a loop. But, I just don't feel the need to pick out every toy and piece of clothing and washcloth etc, the ladies that are coming know WAY more about baby stuff than I do. I don't expect to get any really big items anyways.  I hope people don't get annoyed and feel "set free" instead, but we will see what happens. Its all gifts and we are not counting on it to set us up, so I will be thankful for anything I get.

Now, off to watch football for the rest of the weekend. Though if I am good I will spend at least a couple of hours trying to clear out our red office. When we cleaned out the nursery to paint it all of the crap that had been stored in there, a lot of holiday stuff for example, got moved to the red office. Now we need to clean the red office so that we can put the futon in there and have two guest rooms instead of one. I have a feeling that the shower (10/22) will be the first of many times we have multiple guests staying here in the next year or two.