Friday, May 27, 2005

Missing in Action

Well, this is my last post for a few days. We're going out to visit my husband's parents. It ought to be fun. Have I ever mentioned how lucky I am on the in-law front? All of my in-laws are great.

My daughter and I went to Cody's sister's graduation last night. She graduated from high school, and she did great. She has cerebral palsy, so she's in a wheelchair. They had to bring a special ramp into the auditorium because the stage only had stairs on both sides. But everything went well. Of course, for 52 people, graduation took almost 2 hours. Mine was like that as well. Way too long. Especially if you have a 1 year old. My daughter and I spent most of graduation outside playing on the steps. We weren't alone. There were about 15 kids her age out playing.

So, we're trying to keep this pregnancy a secret, right? I looked up my
ivillage pregnancy calendar for the next couple of days, and this is what is says for Monday:

"Your nauseating hCG levels are at their peak this week. The good news is that starting next week, as your hormone levels stabilize, you'll start feeling a lot better. The bad news is that this week is probably going to be rough. If you're throwing up a lot, drink plenty of water to keep yourself from dehydrating."

Aren't those ideal conditions for keeping a pregnancy a secret? Wish me luck. We'll see if we can get through the weekend without telling. Let's hope we're not eating out a lot. That's when my anxiety of throwing up in public (yes, I have a real phobia about this -- I'm sure if I looked I could find a technical name -- well, maybe not).


Anyway, have a great Memorial Day Weekend, and I'll "see" you next Thursday!

Thursday, May 26, 2005

The Joys of Being Pregnant

This morning I threw up at my daughter's daycare. Yeah. Highly embarrassing. I had just dropped her off, and I was feeling pretty nauseaus from the minute I stepped out of the car. I hurried her down the hall to her classroom, dropped her quickly, and started back down the hall. I knew I wasn't going to make it back to my car. The only bathroom that isn't a kid's potty training bathroom (or at least the only one that I know of) is connected to the main office. I was literally sprinting back down the hallway afraid I wasn't going to make it. The assistant director said, jokingly, "Slow down," followed quickly by, "Are you going to be sick?" Well, duh! I made it to the bathroom. Barely. Just barely.

I hate being sick. It is just an awful feeling, you know? This is the first time that I've actually thrown up with this pregnancy. What a great milestone. I'm nauseaus a lot. I hate that feeling, too.

On a completely unrelated note, how does one get a gmail account? I've heard that they are all the rage. I want one, but if you go to google, it tells you that gmail is experimental and that you have to check back when they decide to make it completely public. So how do some people have them already?

Thanks for the encouragement to see if I can get the same nurse. I'll think about it. I might jokingly bring it up to my OB and judge his reaction. He might encourage me to do that or know how I can go about doing it.

The problem is that my OB likes to induce his patients at 38 weeks. So, with my due date of January 7th, 38 weeks falls at, oh, yeah, Christmas (actually, 38 weeks exactly is Christmas Eve, but there is no OB who is going to induce on Christmas Eve especially since it's a Saturday). So, I will most likely have the baby the week after Christmas. I'm hoping. Because I would really like the extra tax credit. I don't want to try for the first baby born in the new year. That doesn't help my tax return. Of course, that is all dependent on whether or not I am induced. My daughter decided to come on her own at 37w1d. That was nice. I could do that again. Let's see. 37w1d for this little bugger would be Sunday, December 18th. I guess we'll see when that time comes. Right now, I'm just working through the morning sickness.

Well, we're going to see my in-laws over the weekend. Actually, we'll stay through next Wednesday or so. That should be fun. My husband's grandmother (does that make her my grandmother-in-law?) will be there. It will be good to see her again. I don't know whether or not we are going to tell them about Baby #2. I guess we'll see how it goes. So far, the only people who know are my husband and I and my husband's boss (so that he doesn't start to wonder why we're not moving yet). We are kind of afraid to tell our parents because we want to be prepared beforehand. Meaning, we need a plan of action before we start the lectures on how we can't afford to have another baby. We've basically got this worked out. It might come out this weekend, it might not. I'm not showing enough to make it necessary. I just look fat right now. :) We'll see how it goes.

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Dumb Laws and My First Appointment

I found this website of dumb laws. Being from Texas, I naturally looked up our stupid laws first. A few of my favorites were:

A recently passed anticrime law requires criminals to give their victims 24 hours notice, either orally or in writing, and to explain the nature of the crime to be committed. I certainly hope this isn't a real law (I haven't verified any of these laws by the way). It doesn't make any sense.

The entire Encyclopedia Britannica is banned in Texas because it contains a formula for making beer at home. This must be old. I'm sure that you can now get this information off the internet.

One must acknowledge a supreme being before being able to hold public office. This definitely sounds like Texas.

From Galveston:
One needs permission from the director of parks and recreation before getting drunk in any city park. I wonder how many calls that director gets asking for permission.

From Harker Heights:
Drivers of city vehicles must respect all traffic rules just like the rest of us. This was getting to be a problem?

From Lubbock County:
It is illegal to drive within an arm's length of alcohol - including alcohol in someone else's blood stream. Because that's easiest kind to get to....

From Mesquite:
It is illegal for children to have unusual haircuts. This one I happen to agree with....

From Port Arthur:
Obnoxious odors may not be emitted while in an elevator. How do they enforce this one? Cop stands in the elevator asking, "Okay, who did it?"

From San Antonio:
It is illegal to urinate on the Alamo. For a Texan, this would be common sense. It is hallowed ground. Apparently, Ozzy Ozbourne didn't think so. After he urinated on the sacred site, San Antonio passed a law against it.

From Texarkana:
Owners of horses may not ride them at night without tail lights. Where do you get these "tail" lights?

So, I had my first doctor's appointment today. It was not really a doctor's appointment, but a nurse appointment with
Gwen, my favorite nurse. Actually, Gwen seemed genuinely excited to see me. We went over the usual stuff for the 8 week appointment (I'm 7 weeks 4 days today). Nothing new there. She told me that there hadn't really been any changes since I had my daughter. But, there will be.

My doctor currently works with other doctors as part of a hospital group. He has his own office and everything, but the hospital does all the billing and stuff. With this group, there were about 5 doctors on call in rotation (hence the reason that Dr. K delivered my daughter, not Dr. B). Starting in September, he and Dr. N, one of the other doctors on this rotation, will be going into private practice together. They are moving to a new office (fortunately, it is just down the street from where he is currently). And my insurance will still be good. Great, no problems there.

The other change is in the hospital. A few year ago, 2 of the hospitals in the area merged. They kept both facilities under the new name. My daughter was born at the larger of the 2. They built a new labor and delivery/post-partum unit about 10 years ago. It was very nice. They built 6 labor/delivery suites. I stayed in the same room from the time I was admitted until about an hour after my daughter was born. Now, the company has decided that they want all the children's and maternity ward stuff at the other (smaller) hospital. They are remodeling and creating 14 birthing suites. This means that (theoretically) when I have this baby, I will stay in the same room for my entire stay. Pretty cool. And it is only about 5 minutes farther than the last hospital. Gwen assured me that they aren't changing the staff (nurses, doctors, etc.). Well, duh! How stupid would it be to fire all the nurses because you are changing buildings?

Speaking of nurses, our nurse when my daughter was born was so great. Can you request a nurse? I would like to request Harriet be there for my next delivery as well. Honestly, if she was, I would consider it very, very good luck.

So, then I got to talk to the insurance lady who assured me that I have great insurance that will cover everything. Yay! My benefits rock! Can I get a few more ultrasounds please?

Then, I got to do the labwork. 6 vials of blood. What are they doing? I'm sure they have lots of tests that they are running and stuff, but damn, they should have a couple extras with that many. I also had to give a urine sample. I bet money that I get a call from Gwen telling me that I have a bladder infection. I can kind of feel one coming on. She'll have to call me in a prescription. If I don't hear from her, I have a feeling I'll have to call her about it tomorrow anyway. I'm trying. I'm drinking lots of water and keeping my fingers crossed that I don't have any problems.


My next appointment is at 12 weeks (actually 11 weeks 3 days) on June 21st. My husband will be able to go to that one. That's when we'll get to hear the heartbeat and everything. And it will be 2 days after my birthday. That should be a good week.

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

I Got Tagged!

This is a first for me. I was tagged by Elise. So, here goes:

The 3 Game

3 names I go by:
Mamma
Mommy
Pooh Bear (my husband's crazy)

3 screen-names I've had:
Hmmm....it's been a while since I had AOL
ALM2003
2003ALM (Oh, yeah, I'm creative -- I just switched them around)
Fungo (My cat's name)

3 physical things I like about myself:
My legs
My belly button (I have a cute belly button, but you can't see it because I can't show it off without showing off my tummy, please see next question)
My eyes

3 physical things I dislike about myself:
Just 3?
My left over fat from my pregnancy with my daughter (soon to be a cute baby belly)
My chubby cheeks (the ones on my face)
My scarred up knees (I've had stiches in both knees because I'm graceful and fall down a lot)

3 parts of my heritage:
Sweedish
Scottish
American (my family on both sides has been in this country since the 1700s -- I'd like to belive they were idealistic, but realistically, they were probably criminals or in debt or something and had to flee).

3 things I am wearing right now:
Tennis shoes
Jeans
T-shirt

3 favorite bands / musical artists:
Let's see, right now
Ryan Cabrera
Evanescence (I don't know if I spelled that right or not)
Billy Dean

3 favorite songs:
"Let Them Be Little" by Billy Dean (always makes me cry becuase my baby is getting big *sniff*)
"True" by Ryan Cabrera
"Southern Grace" by Little Texas

3 things I want in a relationship:
Stability
Honesty
Good Sense of Humor

3 physical things about the preferred sex that appeal to me:
Clean cut
Great eyes (my daughter got those great eyes -- complete with long eyelashes)
Tall

3 of my favorite hobbies:
Blogging
Cross-stitch
Playing with my daughter

3 things I want to do really badly right now:
Go home
Sit on the couch and watch TV
Take a nap

3 things that scare me:
Large crowds
The death of someone I love
How scary the world is becoming. Not just the world in general, but I remember as a kid riding my bike around all day long, and never having to worry about whether or not someone would kidnap me off the street. My parents didn't have to worry about this either.

3 of my everyday essentials:
Hugs and kisses from my daughter before she goes to bed (our ritual starts with a "pat" hug -- she pats your back -- a kiss, eskimo kisses, butterfly kisses, head bonks -- Daddy taught her that one -- high five) She does that with everyone in the room every night.
Talking to my husband (even if it's when he's at work and we can only talk on the phone)
Checking my email (sad, but true)

3 careers you have considered or are considering:
Nursing
Chemistry (my first major)
Teaching

3 places you want to go on vacation:
Hawaii
Alaska
Australia

3 kids' names you like:
William
Cora (family name on my side -- my daughter's name was a family name. She was named after her great-great-great-great grandmother)
Mary (do you think I like older, more traditional names?)

3 things you want to do before you die:
Finish my degree
Travel
Own a home (renting sucks)

3 ways I am stereotypically a boy:
Crude humor
I wear T-shirts and jeans most everywhere I go
Take a 3 minute shower

3 ways I am stereotypically a chick:
I like to feel pretty
Very emotional (stole this from Elise, but it still applies)
Chick flicks are my favorites

3 celeb crushes:
I can't think of any. I am seriously out of touch with celebrity gossip. I need to go get a few magazines and come back to this question.

Now, I tag
Dawn, Dana, and Amanda. I apologize if you've already been tagged.

Friday, May 20, 2005

Just for Fun...

I added the feature where I can see who is visiting my website and what kind of search terms bring them here. I'm thinking of turning it off now. Just kidding.

Here are a few of my favorites:

unlock the door test, Bronx Tale door test -- Yes, we all love the car door test. You can read about it
here.

Best Time of Day To Weigh Oneself -- first thing in the morning before you have anything to eat or drink. Right after you pee. You're usually slightly dehydrated because you've been asleep and unable to drink anything. This is my favorite time of day to weigh myself.

Bucky Catt Comic -- It's called Get Fuzzy. You might have more luck googling that.

Then there are the pregnancy ones: (Note: I am not a doctor and do not give medical advice.)

35 weeks preganant can you still have sex -- I did. But please see note above. Each person is different.

birth control failsafe -- Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Definitely the wrong website. Let me know when you find it.

i'm on birth control and I saw my period can I be pregnant -- I don't know. Please call a doctor.

if I took birth control pills one week after my period can I still be pregnant -- Huh? I don't understand the question.

got pregnant while on birth control -- welcome to the club. We have T-shirts.

Then there are the ones that are downright scary:

teenage potty training -- hmmm....I guess I would need to know the circumstances. Some special needs teenagers might not be potty trained. Okay, not so scary.

mother and son have sex -- yuck!

10 year old boys are still in diapers -- refer to teenage potty training.

mucus is dripping from my horse pregnant -- we're just going to leave that one alone.

And the absolute worst, most scary thing that brought someone to my site:

methods a daughter can use to make her daddy have sex with her -- that is just so wrong that I can't think of one thing to comment about it except to say, please don't ever come back!

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Oprah

Do you remember the cockroach that was grossing me out the other day? The one that was there on Monday after they had sprayed over the weekend? It’s still there! Which means our bathroom hasn’t been cleaned since at least Monday. Ewwwww….

Well, since my husband left this morning, it was
Oprah time for me. The show was about being the fat kid in the family. The first 2 people were twin sisters where one weighed 120 lbs (Ruth), and the other one weighed 420 lbs (Mary). If I was Mary, I would have smacked my 120lb sister. Ruth went to Walmart with Mary and was looking at underwear (note to self: never go underwear shopping on national TV). Ruth was making fun of her sister. I was horrified. Oprah got her to admit that, in reality, she didn’t want her sister to lose weight. It would change the dynamic of the relationship. Personally, I thought that Mary was the prettier of the two. They were identical twins (I think), so they had the same facial features, but I thought Mary had a much prettier look (maybe less makeup?).

And they also had this father who was pushing his daughter to be thin (she was overweight, but I didn’t think she looked that bad). He admitted that she wasn’t good enough the way she was. He keeps telling her that she needs to be more like her sister. That was the problem with the first sisters as well. Their mother had always introduced Ruth as the pretty one.

How does someone do that to their kids? I only have one, but I think I can love the next one just as much. How awful to feel that you never measure up to your sister! I thought it was sickening. I hope my children never feel that way. I'm sure that I will ruin them in many other ways.

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Who's Brilliant Idea....

was it to shut down the water to our building all day long? I don't believe that there was any leak that warranted that! So, to go to the bathroom, I have to go to the building next door. Yeah. A different f---ing building. That works really well for someone who is trying to make sure that her employer doesn't know she's pregnant, but she has to go another building 5 times a day. Great.

Oh, and the water that I normally get out of the water fountain for FREE? Not free today. I have to buy water from the coke machine. All I have to say is that better be one big ass leak.

Of course, I have to give our maintenance men a little credit. They did come fix my air conditioning yesterday. My vent was still blowing heat (and the outside temps have been in the 90s). So, I called and the maintenance man came to check it out. The second (and I'm not exaggerating) that he walked in the door, he turned to the thermostat and said, "Well, here's your problem, it's set on 80." Okay, so I'm an idiot. But, in my defense, I didn't know we had the ability to adjust the thermostat. Now that I know I have access.....Mwaahahahahahahaha. Oh, I'm going to be comfortable now.

Monday, May 16, 2005

Blah...

I feel blah today. I don't feel good. I don't feel bad, just blah. I'm so tired. I can't seem to get any sleep. I spent 2 hours last night trying to fall asleep only to have a nightmare about being in a tornado. Now, I live in an area where we have tornadoes, but this was weird. My husband and I were at this house that I didn't recognize. We were in the basement (a good place during a tornado) except we could see out above us. Somehow, the house had disappeared above us, but it was never clear in the dream where it went or when it disappeared. My husband was standing in the middle of the "room" watching these 3 tornadoes merge into one. I was in the corner trying to hide behind a card table because the tornado was coming towards us. It was one of those dreams where you wake up before it gets to you. So, I was a little afraid to go back to sleep. With good reason. I had another nightmare, one of those that you can't remember what it was about, but you just wake up with a bad feeling. It has been like this for the last week or so. I'm getting scared to go to bed at night.

Just out of curiosity, why can't they spray the building I work in for cockroaches over the weekend and actually have them cleaned up before we come to work on Monday morning? I mean, really, I hate walking to the bathroom and seeing 3 cockroaches on my way and then 2 in the bathroom. It kind of turns my stomach. Spray on Friday and get the custodial people to sweep them up over the weekend. Please.

My daughter is being a pill. I don't know if she suspects I'm pregnant and is trying to punish me or since I'm pregnant it just bothers me more. She's so whiney. Whine. Whine. Whine. Just quit whining for a few minutes. Just let mommy lie on the sofa for a couple of minutes before you take her hand and try to help her up to get you more juice.

Hopefully, I'll get a good night's sleep and feel better tomorrow. I've got to work on drinking more water (or more anything). I'm not drinking nearly enough. Gotta drink more water. It will help with the headaches (or so I'm told). With my daughter, I started drinking KoolAid just to be drinking something (I hate the taste of water, and yes, water does have a taste). Maybe I'll try that again. At least I'm feeling hungry. I haven't been feeling very hungry at all today.

Thursday, May 12, 2005

Note To Self

NEVER, EVER even think "Well, I'm having a good morning, I don't feel sick, I don't feel dizzy. Wow! This is going to be a good day!" unless you want to have every pregnancy symptom in the book. You deserve it.

Okay, so anyway, I am due January 7, 2006. I haven't mentioned that yet. Most likely, my doctor will induce in late December after Christmas. Or maybe that's just my hope since I would like the extra tax credit. My husband assures me that either way, the baby is screwed and will always get joint Christmas/birthday presents. His birthday is December 4th, and he swears that if you were to put a money value on what he gets for Christmas and what he gets for his birthday and add it all together it would not equal what his brother gets or what his sister gets. He's a middle child, and what can I say, I told him to get over it.

For my husband, Fall/Winter babies are not unusual. Most of his family was born in that time period. In my family, we have 90% of our birthdays between March and June. There are a few oddballs, but most are in that time period, so a winter baby is unusual in my family.

In other news tonight, I picked my daughter up from daycare yesterday where she was busy tormenting another little boy in her class. There is about a 2 foot gap between the table they sit at for lunch (once it's pushed up against the wall after lunch, that is) and a toyshelf. So, picture if you will, a table on one side, a wall, and a toyshelf on the other. It's a small space. The classroom has a standing mirror (safety glass, don't worry). The teacher had obviously put it in this space so that the kids wouldn't play with it and would leave it alone. Cute theory, but she should know that makes it all the more irresistable to toddlers. So stuck between the wall and mirror is poor little Andrew. There's barely enough room for him. Who's on the other side of the mirror cackling like the wicked witch of the west giggling? You guessed it. My little angel. Every time little Andrew would peek his head around, my daughter would say, "Boo!" I'd like to think they were playing. But after about 30 seconds, I think Andrew really wanted out, and my sweet little girl wouldn't let him leave. When another little girl, Alex, came to play, too, my daughter turned around and told her very sternly, "No! (with the finger point and everything)" At this point Andrew escaped crawled under the table, and my daughter saw me standing at the door.

They took class pictures a couple of weeks ago. Thank goodness my daughter's hair was washed. Her teacher put it up in a ponytail for her. Better her than me, that child screams and will not cooperate when I want to make her hair look cute. Anyway, the proof of the picture was back, and I could choose to order it if I wished. Well, my daughter is well-dressed, clean, and has a go-to-hell-I-can't-believe-they-are-making-me-sit-here-and-take-this-picture look on her face. Very stubborn looking. So I ordered a print. It was only $6.50 for a 5x7 (I was not paying $10.00 for the 8x10). I can't wait to add it to the baby book.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

So I Don't Have To Change Doctors...

yet.

Gwen called me back. At about 3:30. That's what, a 5 hour turnaround time? Good to know. If I have a real problem, then I'll be sure to call early.

In all honesty Gwen did at least pretend to seem happy to talk to me. She congratulated me, and she told me my due date. Yeah, like I hadn't calculated that already. I calculated that before I knew for sure that I was pregnant. And my first appointment will be with her (oh, joy!) at around 8 weeks. My appointment is May 25th. I can't wait. Then I have an appointment with Dr. B at about 12 weeks (or at least I did when I had my daughter, and I don't think that things have changed).

Overall, I'm feeling pretty good. Physically, that is. I'm having very little morning sickness, and it falls about the same time that it did with my daughter (5:00 PM or so). It's not very bad (I know that I'm going to eat those words within 3 weeks), and I'm handling it tolerably well. I feel dizzy sometimes, and I occasionally get headaches. The headaches I know are from dehydration. I've got to drink more water. Gotta make that effort. I have a heightened sense of smell, but that's not unusal for me when I'm not pregnant, but I work at a university, and, well, college boys don't necessarily shower everyday.....and they should.

Emotionally, I'm happy. I'm scared. I'm thrilled. I'm terrified. I'm nervous. I'm anxious. I'm elated. Well, I'm pregnant, so I can have all of those emotions in the space of .001 seconds. And I do.

I haven't checked what's on Oprah tomorrow morning early. Maybe there's a baby show.....

Monday, May 09, 2005

The Results Are In...

I'm pregnant. Eeeek! But that's good. We'll figure everything out. We've got a little under 35 weeks (provided the baby doesn't come early -- my daughter was born at 37 weeks 1 day) to get everything settled and ready.

Did I mention this screws up my Christmas plans? Oh, well. :)

So, I've called my OB's office and Gwen (his nurse) has to call me back. "She's on the phone, but she'll call you right back." That was 2 hours ago. Right back. Riiiigggghhhhtttt.

I don't think I've mentioned how much I dislike Gwen. When I was pregnant with my daughter, at about 14 weeks or so, I got really sick. I couldn't keep anything down. For about 2 days straight. I called the OB's office and talked to Gwen. She told me to take a...now, I can't remember what it's called, but it's a horrible anti-nausea drug that just knocks me out for about 3 days. I told her that I had already tried and had thrown it up. She told me that was all that she could suggest. When I called back 1 hour later (after throwing up 3 more times), I got the other nurse, Irene. Have I mentioned that I love Irene as much as I despise Gwen? Irene told me to go to Labor and Delivery. I was so dehydrated that I spent the night in the hospital getting fluids. Thanks, Gwen.

So, as far as I could ever figure out, Gwen is the nurse you have for the first 20 weeks. Irene is your nurse from weeks 21-40+. If you call them, you'll get whichever one is available. Therefore, I saw Irene a lot more, and she was the better nurse anyway.

My husband called me a little while ago to ask if I had called the OB, and I told him that I was waiting on a call back from Gwen. "Is that the one that we don't like?" She must be really bad for my husband to remember that we don't like her. I told him that if she doesn't call me back by the end of the day, I'm changing doctors. I really liked my OB, but if his staff can't make a simple phone call to make an appointment, I will take my business (and yes, my insurance company pays a lot of money to this doctor) elsewhere.

At this point, I already have another doctor picked out. My OB with my doctor was Dr. B. He is one of the best OBs in the area, and he came highly recommended. There are 5 doctors on call with him if you call after hours (or give birth after hours). All are excellent doctors and some of the best in the area.

My daughter was born on a Sunday. That wasn't during Dr. B's regular office hours, of course, so she was delivered by Dr. K. Dr. K was great. He was smart enough to know that right after a baby is born, Mommy and Daddy don't want to talk to anyone; they just want to admire their little baby. I can only remember two things that he said after my daughter was born. He guessed she was about 7 pounds (6 lbs 14.2 oz, actually -- I guess that's what experience will do for you!) and that she probably would have been about 8 1/2 pounds had she waited until her due date.

I was only around Dr. K that morning for a little bit, but I really liked him. In all honesty, I will probably put up with Gwen and go back to Dr. B. He's a great doctor. I never felt rushed (even though it was usually about 5:30 before I saw him -- my appointments were at 4:00), he answered all my questions, he was always polite and wanted to know how I was feeling. He even teased me about having her on a Sunday when he couldn't be there. So, I'm trying not to make my OB decision based on nurses.

I think I'll try to get out of the first appointment though. With my daughter, our first appointment was with Gwen at 8 weeks. She proceeded to tell us absolutely everything that could still go wrong (um...hello...first time parents here....we don't need that much reality) and sent us on our way. I guess I didn't like her from the very beginning.

What I did like was that I could make all my appointments right then. All the way up through the end of the pregnancy. Therefore, I got all 4:00 appointments. That was great. If I'm going to wait around for an hour and a half, I don't want to have to worry about how much time I was missing at work. And I liked having an ultrasound at 13 weeks. No that wasn't typical, but I got pregnant while on birth control, so they have to know how big the baby is. He seemed a little annoyed that Gwen hadn't had me go in for an ultrasound after she met with me. That's right. She's incompetent. Please fire her.

So, I guess I'll try to call Gwen back. Of course, I wanted to schedule my appointment when I called because no one was in the office at that point in time. Now, all the eavesdroppers are here, and I don't really want anyone to know that I'm pregnant. Ugh!

I'm over it, now. I'll call Gwen back whenever I get a chance. We'll see if I need to switch doctors.

Friday, May 06, 2005

Okay, so....

Do you remember the pregnancy scare that I had last month? Yeah, okay. Well, who would have thought that I could have another one this month. Just when I was getting started on all of the resolutions that I created.

So, here I am thinking of what bad timing a baby would be. Money-wise. School-wise. Potty-training my daughter-wise. Etc. Etc. Etc. The list goes on.

But (and you knew a but was coming), a part of me is hopeful. And actually, this month I have a little more reason for hope. Today makes 3 days late. Yeah. The thing is I felt more pregnant last month than I do this month, and I am trying not to get my hopes up. I just keep telling myself that it is just the stress of not knowing that is keeping my period away.

So. Hopefully, tomorrow night when my husband gets home, I'll take a test, and I'll know. One way or the other. And then I can panic.

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Potty Training...And Then A Rant on Sex Ed

Have I mentioned how much PMS sucks? Have I? Because it really does. Fortunately, I am expecting my period anytime today. Yay? I guess. My husband would probably say yay because he's ready for me to not be quite so neurotic. [insert evil laughter here] What would he do if I got pregnant again? [more evil cackling here]

Anyway, new topic. We bought my daughter a
potty chair. We have no intention of potty training her, but I would like to be able to go to the bathroom in peace. I guess I should rephrase that to say that we have no intention of potty training her at this time. Eventually we will. Anyway, going to the bathroom is much harder when you have a child constantly trying to flush the toilet behind you. So, if I can tell her to sit down on her potty chair, maybe she will, and I can go to the bathroom without her help.

It's funny. Potty training is the only milestone I'm not in a hurry to get to. Maybe that's because it requires so much effort on my part. Rolling over, crawling, walking, etc. That was all her. I just provided a little encouragement. Potty training? Way more involvement from me. I guess more involvement from daddy, too, but I have a bad feeling it's going to be a conversation starting with, "She's a girl, so you'll be better at this part." Clever. Try to throw in the compliment that it's something I'll be good at, but no dice. He'll be helping as much as I will. Actually, if that conversation does happen, it will probably be more joking than anything. He's a very good daddy.

The only time that I will accept that argument is the birds and the bees talk. That is because I have full intentions of having a boy the next time around (like willpower will make it happen or something), and he will have to have that same talk with our son.

That's another thing I dread. "The talk." Seriously, in my area of the country (Texas), or at least in my area of Texas, we don't believe in sex education in our schools, so I will have to do that part. If you want to know how well abstinence education works, study my area where we have one of the highest pregnancy rates around (oh, yeah, our STD rate is pretty high, too). So, my talk will consist of telling my daughter the mechanics, and then that I will kill her if she has sex before she is married and financially stable enough to have a baby(what a hypocrite I am!*), and then I will proceed to tell her about her birth control options because I don't want grandchildren while she is a teenager.

*At this point, she will, in a rush of teenage hormones, tell me that I am a horrible mother and that she hates me, and then she will point out that my wedding was only 3 months before she was born, so there was no way that she was planned or even a "honeymoon" baby.

So, as you can see, I'm looking forward to that talk.

Just a quick little note on abstinence education: it doesn't work. I went to school in a small town. I graduated with 45 people in my class. I remember a couple of years before I graduated, I went through an counted the people in the graduating class (not mine, but the one 2 or 3 years ahead of me) who were parents (male and female). 25%. That's right. 1 out of 4 were parents. That's what telling teenagers that the only way to avoid pregnancy is to not have sex gets you. Teenagers ignore that. They'll have sex anyway. I say that we teach them to do it safely.

They actually had a guy come in and tell the students in junior high and high school that condoms don't work. You can still get pregnant; you can still get STDs. No birth control is failsafe. Therefore, you can't have sex or else you will be diseased and pregnant.

I know from experience that no birth control is failsafe. Yeah, the pill failed me. I was not on antibiotics; I took it everyday before I went to bed. I'm just that lucky 0.00001 or whatever percent who is blessed with a child (see next post).

The entire presentation of this man was crazy. In fact, we had to have parental permission to go. My parents, knowing how much my brother and I liked to escape from class (another future post), asked us if we wanted to go. They didn't care. We were old enough and smart enough to know this guy was full of it, so if we wanted out of class, they'd sign the permission slip. Both my brother and I decided not to. My parents were one of a handful of parents who denied permission.

I did get to see part of this presentation though. I was in yearbook, so we needed pictures according to our advisor. I didn't think the guy merited any mention in our yearbook, but I wasn't in charge, so I went to take the pictures.

Picture this: Man standing at the front with an overhead projector telling a group of 15 year olds about abstinence. He was explaining how condoms and birth control don't work, so THEY SHOULDN'T BE USED. Yes, that's right. Don't have sex, but if you do, don't use any protection. It doesn't work. Apparently, it never works. He didn't give any figures about how it works 90-something percent of the time if used correctly.

Now picture this: Roomful of about 50 or so 15 year olds. By the time I got there, about 10 minutes into the presentation, at least 10 were asleep. Not even trying to hide it. The rest were either about to fall asleep or were doing things to amuse themselves (did you know that you can throw a sharpened pencil at a ceiling and make it stick -- just like a little spear?). There were maybe 5 people paying any attention. Of the 50 in the room, only about half were still virgins.


So, I wish in this conservative little town that they would at least teach how to try and prevent pregnancy and STDs. They are welcome to say that no method is 100% except abstinence. They don't have to go so far as to put condom machines in the restrooms even (although I suspect they would be used a lot), but at least give the options.

Okay so my little side note turned into a full-blown rant, but once I get started, I can't stop. Sorry.