A piece of ice, anyone?

Let me begin my story with a little honesty. I dislike doctors a lot. There have been very few that I like, much less trust. I haven’t found one that I really like since my primary care physician moved to North Carolina. I miss her! Anyway, my OB is a woman, which is a plus, but I’m not feeling like I’m taken care of. It’s not that she isn’t nice, she is, but there is just something I don’t completely trust about her. I feel like everything I say is trivialized, like I’m over-reacting and all my aches and pains are completely normal–at least that is what she tells me.

That being said, if you recall, I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, that I was enjoying crunching my ice. I’ve talked to my doctor about this, as well as feeling light-headed and being out of breath, with my heart beating fast. Most mornings, I am exhausted and have a hard time completing simple tasks without getting out of breath and having to sit down. I haven’t gained weight for about 6 weeks–I’ve stayed the same or lost a few pounds. Also, it would add up that I haven’t had much of an appetite.

So I get a call on Tuesday, after I had an appointment on Friday and the nurse tells me my iron is low. (They took a blood test) She says the doctor is prescribing “Repliva.”

I ask, “How low is my iron?”

She says, “It is at a nine.”

Which means nothing to me, so I ask, “And what is normal?”

She says, “Between 12 and 16.”

By this time, it sounds like she is irritated that I’m actually asking questions, and instead of asking what the heck medication “Repliva,” is, I give her the pharmacy number, thinking I will call the doctor in the morning.

Then, I go online to look up low iron or iron deficiency in pregnancy and lo and behold, what do I find? All the symptoms I have talked to my doctor about are under iron deficiency as symptoms! I’ve been talking about this for 6 weeks, and we finally get around to taking my blood a few days ago? I don’t get it. So I’m irritated. I go to the pharmacy, which is a whole other story, but find out that “Repliva” is another vitamin, that I will take.

I wonder if I should take this in place of my pre-natal vitamin, or if I should keep taking them or what. It doesn’t say anything on the information sheet, except, “If you are pregnant or breast-feeding, consult your doctor about how this medication can affect your infant.” So of course, I’m like, “What the heck?” I go back to the pharmacy and they tell me that I might get constipated and that the baby might get constipated when I start breast-feeding.

I still decide that before I take this medicine, I will call the doctor to find out about it. So the next morning, I call. Of course, I can’t get the doctor, or a nurse and I have to leave a message. I leave a detailed message explaining why I am calling and leave my number and name. I wait all afternoon. I wait until 4:30 and still nothing. I haven’t taken this medication yet, and I finally decide to call back. I get the answering service. They close at 4:30. So I talk to the message taker and explain my situation and she doesn’t know what to do.

“Is this an emergency?”

“Well, not really…

“What is your name?”

I give her my name and number.

“Are you pregnant?”

“Yes. I just want to know if I take this medication with my vitamins or not.”

“Well, let me see…”

She consults some book and asks me again if I am pregnant.

“Yes, I am.”

“How many weeks?”

“38? I think.”

“I will leave a message for your doctor.”

So I wait another hour and my doctor FINALLY calls! She tells me that I should continue to take my vitamins and that I’m taking it because I have low iron. I can’t help but feel like I am bugging her, because, well, I am calling after hours and she sounds a little irritated, unless it is just me. I explain that I left a message at the office THIS MORNING and nobody got back to me, and I was assuming they wanted me to start taking this stuff right away. She tells me that is fine and we hang up.

I’ve taken two doses of this stuff and what do you know? I’m not exhausted, no feeling like I am going to pass out, no heart pounding. I feel a lot better. I just wish I could have had this figured out a long time ago–like 6 weeks ago. I still have the craving for ice, and hopefully that will go away too, because I have never particularly liked chewing on ice, until now.

Yes, it is taken care of, but why did I have to go through all of that to feel better? I will be glad when this is all over. I need to find a good doctor–one that actually listens to me when I have questions or concerns. I know there are good doctors out there, but I have had very few. Someone needs to tell doctors that the patients actually do sometimes know how they are feeling and what might be going on. We aren’t all a bunch of hypocondriacs wanting a prescription for some narcotic. Some of us are actually in tune with our bodies and know what is normal and what isn’t.

Well, now I just hope I don’t get constipated again! I’m taking measure in hopes that it won’t happen again. So far so good.

I think I will go and have a glass of ice…

2 More Weeks

As of today, I have 2 more weeks of being pregnant, and then we will have another baby around the house.  As I said, we are having a c-section on August 12th, Tuesday.

My sister is getting married on August 9th, and we won’t be able to make it, for obvious reasons, but we are thinking of you Sue–and praying for you!

These are things that have been on my mind:

1.  Being able to breastfeed.  With Elizabeth, she had a really hard time latching on correctly, and eventually, we switched to formula.  I’m praying that this one will be able to do it no problem, because I really want to be able to do this.  They say some babies have a natural ability to be able to latch on, while others don’t.

2.  Being depressed.  After Elizabeth was born, I went through about a month or so of “adjustment” and was rather weepy and sad.  It might have been because Alex was 2 and I had a new infant, but I don’t want to go through that again.  So again, I’m praying that I will have an easy time of adjusting.

3.  Dealing with colic.  Alex cried all the time–and that was hard.  I remember we had a wind up swing that ran for 9 minutes each wind, and I would put him in there and sleep for nine minutes at a time.  When the swing ran out, he would start screaming and I would groggily wind the swing up again.  Elizabeth, on the other hand, slept all the time.  The first night we brought her home, she slept from 7 p.m. until 11 a.m. the next day.  (I finally woke her up, because I was worried about her.)  She was fine.  We didn’t have many crying issues with her.  But as you can see, they were two different sides of the spectrum!  I’m praying that this baby doesn’t have colic and that she is comfortable.  I’m not expecting her to sleep all the time, but I wouldn’t mind, that’s for sure.

4.  Getting a schedule for home school.  We are going to have to “go with the flow” for the first couple months.  I don’t have a set schedule yet, but all I know is that when I am teaching one-on-one with one child, the other will have to hold/feed/rock/change/care for Emily, unless she is asleep.  I’m a little freaked out about being able to get everything in, but judging from their end-of-the-year test, (which they did great on,) They should do all right.  I got back the results last week, and they did fantastic, even though we weren’t as thorough as we could have been.

5.  Starting piano lessons in October.  I have a much smaller studio, so it should be easier.  Right now, I am planning on doing Mondays and Thursdays, and not all day, just for a couple hours.  We will have to see how things shape up.  If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out and I’ll have to wait until next year, when Emily is older.  Since David will be working from home on Mondays, he said he could help, but I don’t want to expect him to do it, since he is “working from home,” and earning money for it.

6.  Finances.  With an extra mouth to feed, and more supplies like diapers, and related baby items, we will have to spend more.  We’re praying for provision.  This doesn’t come as a surprise to God, so I know he has it under control, but sometimes you worry.

These are some of the things I have been lifting up to the Father.  If you feel led, by all means, pray for us!  We’ll keep  you posted on the birth!

What else has been going on?

Besides having the baby in a few weeks, we do have two other children, so here they are:

This is David, me and Alex at his Bronze medal presentation during church.  Getting the bronze medal of achievement is sort of like trying to earn your Eagle Scout.  They do a lot of the same things.  This is just a step toward getting his Silver Medal and finally, the Gold Medal of Achievement.  But a lot of boys don’t even get this far, so we are very proud of Alex!

Here we are pinning the medal on Alex.  In case you were wondering, we are both wearing white because that’s what we wear to do worship, we didn’t feel like we had to match or anything geeky like that….

Beth’s new room.  We had to scrape all the paint off the walls, because whoever built the house failed to prime the plaster, so when we were moving Alex out of here, we took pictures off the wall, but the tape took about 5 layers of paint of the wall, down to the plaster.  It was NOT fun to scrape all that paint off, but necessary.  Now her room is a lovely orange color with a new bedspread from her birthday and new curtains.  We also put in a ceiling fan and she loves it.  This is a view from the hallway.

Beth looking at her new room from the doorway.  This picture was taken inside the room looking at the hallway.

Another view of the room.  I don’t think you can see, but we also put laminate flooring in, since Alex’s carpet was trashed.  (It was the original carpet that came with the house.)

Little Chinese lanterns Beth picked out to string across her room.  This is the other window in her room, with new curtains.

So that is what we have been busy with.  Moving children to different rooms, pinning medals on our son and getting baby’s room ready.  Soon, I will have pictures of Emily’s room for you to enjoy.

More Gifts

I promised I would post some pictures of the gifts from my baby shower.  I’m not sure how interesting this is to everyone, so if you are bored out of your mind, I would probably skip this post.  Wanting to share what I got, I decided to add pictures, so I don’t have a long list of stuff.  Since the shower, I have gotten a lot more stuff, but this will keep you busy.

One of my daughter’s friends made this!  It turned out beautiful!

This is a “quillo”–a quilt and a pillow.  Handmade from Julie.

Ralph Lauren onesies–a little bigger, so the baby can grow into them.  From my good friend Dorn.  I love these!

This cute little outfit is from Gymboree.  I got it from Beth.  Her son has a matching one in blue.

Cute little socks from Victoria.  I think I need to use some better adjectives other than “cute”, don’t you?

An adorable Piglet outfit!  From Abigail.

A Christmas Dress–lined–from my friend Joy.  She threw me the shower.

Classic Pooh wall hangings and a dust ruffle from Kathleen.

A bedroom set:  Sheet, quilt, and bumper pad.  All in classic Pooh.  Thank you again, Dorn!  I really, really wanted these!

Baskets for the changing table from Rachel and Theresa.  I really, really wanted these too.

A lovely diaper bag from my friend Hope.  It even attaches to a stroller!  Lovely.

A bright Pooh lamp from Kerri and Cindy.

The other outfit from my sister Marrielin.  It has a little pig on it.  It makes me laugh.

That is all I am going to post for now.  I have so much more stuff, but I’m not going to bore you with all the pictures again.  I’ll just take a picture of Emily’s room and highlight some of the stuff I got.  Hope you enjoyed looking at my bling. (or Emily’s bling, more accurately.)

August 12th

That is the official birthday of our 3rd child.  I will have a c-section at 11:30 and shortly after, we will have our new daughter.  It is a Tuesday.  That is in 3 weeks!  They tell me I will be in the hospital for 48 hours to 72 hours.  With my first two, I was in for 3 nights and 4 days–much better to recuperate.  So I have major surgery and 2 days later, I’m out.  I thought they were trying to keep moms in for longer these days, not push them out because of insurance money.  Yeah, I’m complaining.  Not like I enjoy being in the hospital, I just remember the pain and how it was easier after 3 days.  But we will have a new daughter to look forward to, so I will concentrate on that instead of stupid medical ideas and insurance companies.

We have a few more things we need to get ready.  I don’t have any wipes yet.  I forgot about those things.  I also need diapers and Desitin.  There are a couple of things on my registry at Target that I still want/need, but can do without.  I am trying to decide what outfit to bring her home in.  I don’t remember it being a big deal with the first two, but for some reason, I want stuff to match.

I am just so excited to meet our girl.  I think everyone is pretty excited.  Sometimes David and I ask each other, “What were we thinking?!”  We have only a short time with our older two and we would have been done.  That is ok.  I don’t know if I’m ready to have an empty nest just yet.  I’ll let you know in a month.  (ha, ha.)  I can’t help but thinking how fast the time will go by with this one and I do want to be a mom still.

I’ll try to post more pictures tomorrow.  In the meantime, you can go to David’s blog and see the picture of our oldest receiving an honor at church.

Mmmm. Crunchy!

Lately, because of my plumbing problems, I have been drinking a whole lot of water.  I like to put a slice of lemon in it and also a lot of ice.

Do you think it is a problem that I try to pick out all the ice chips and crunch them up?  I’m not talking whole ice cubes, but just the chips?  Yesterday, I filled a cup with ice, separated the cubes and crunched down all the chips.

Then I added water to the cubes and drank the water, but boy were the ice chips good.

Yeah, that is weird…

Going “Natural”

Last year, we decided to try to eat more organic foods.  We bought a wheat mill and grind our own wheat for bread and buy from a co-op of organic foods.  We support our local farmers by buying vegetables.  All of this has been a good thing.  However, when I found out I was expecting, a lot of it went out the window.  Macaroni and cheese, how I missed thee.  We are getting back on track, though, and I find that I miss having the fresh fruits and veggies at home.

When you talk about pregnancy, going “natural” takes on a whole new meaning.  We have quite a few friends at church that have taken this natural approach to pregnancy and childbirth, and although I don’t have a problem with what they choose to do or not do, it often irritates me when someone expresses distaste or questions my ideas.

For example, the following exchange took place a few weeks ago:

Well Intentioned “natural” acquaintance: How are you doing?

Me: I’m doing great except for my cankles.  (Shows off ugly swollen ankles.)

Well Intentioned “natural” acquaintance: Oh, that is uncomfortable?  When are you due?

Me: In August sometime.  They say the 20th, but since we are having a c-section, it will be scheduled earlier.

Well Intentioned “natural” acquaintance: (I swear I hear an almost audible gasp, and then…) Oh, that is disappointing.  Why on earth would they schedule a c-section?  I would find another opinion.

Me: Well, my first two babies were c-sections.

Well Intentioned “natural” acquaintance: Oh!  Why is that?!  (dismay sounds in her voice.)

Me: They were both breech babies and…

Well Intentioned “natural” acquaintance: Oh, my fourth baby was breech and I stood on my head and did all sorts of things to get him to turn and finally, I went swimming in the pool and did 60 consecutive somersaults.  It made me so sick that I puked.  But the baby turned and I was able to have him naturally.  I was so happy.

Me: Wow.  Hmmm.  (I don’t quite know what to say about the puking.)  Well, with both of them, I tried the stuff they tell you to do, like standing on my head and stuff, and the doctors even tried to move them by putting their hands on my belly and manipulating them that way.  Nothing worked.  After two c-sections, they don’t really recommend having a vaginal birth.

Well Intentioned “natural” acquaintance: Oh my, that’s too bad!  Have you tried the pool?

Me: The doctor has told me that I will probably end up having breech babies because of the way my body is.

So anyway, I am all for “natural” childbirth and all that, but I never had the opportunity to experience it and frankly, I’m not sad about it.  We have been able to pick our kids birthdays, and we were more prepared for the “big day.”  For me, “natural” childbirth is a c-section, since I have never experienced labor and delivery.  I have experienced being cut open while awake feeling a ‘tugging’ sensation when they were doing surgery.  I had my arms strapped down and my husband at my side with a sheet blocking the view of the actual surgery.  I was still able to hold the baby right after they were pulled out and I wasn’t drugged out.  Recovery was longer, but at least I had something for the pain.

We are thinking that Emily’s birthday will be on August 14th, although the hospital and doctor need to confirm that day.  I will keep you posted.

The days are crawling by…

Just a couple of weeks ago, I was commenting to my doctor on how quickly this pregnancy seemed to be going and joked that, “When you get older, time goes faster.”  But this week has been so slow for me.  After tonight, I have one more week of lessons for June and then I have a lighter load for July–only 10 students.  But time has gone by so slowly this week!   I have been doing a lot of organizing of space and trying to get ready for our new arrival.  It has been enjoyable.

If you have seen David’s blog, you saw that we are thinking about converting the garage into a school room/piano studio.  It is not uncommon around here to do that, as we have very little use of our garage.  Now when we lived in Minnesota, you needed a garage, or at least a place to plug in your car for the cold winters, but here, not at all.  I can’t remember the last time I parked in the garage.  Hence, the garage conversion.  Anyway, we have 3 bedrooms and an extra room over the garage.  The room over the garage is now the school room/piano studio, but once the baby comes, we are moving Alex up to the room over the garage and Beth wants to move into Alex’s room, so the baby will have Beth’s room.  We can make due having school in the kitchen or dining room, but it will be tight, so David, who always likes a project, wants to do this.  I’m liking the idea, but I don’t want him to stress himself out.  We could get by without it, but he loves working on stuff like this, so we are looking at ways to pay for it.

One of my friends has taken it on herself to give me a baby shower.  I haven’t had one since Alex was born, and I’m kind of glad she decided to do it, because we didn’t save ANY baby stuff from Alex and Beth’s baby years.  (14 years ago.)  We have got quite a bit given to us from people at church–so most of our bigger things are out of the way.  David’s family sent a “shower in a box” a couple of weeks ago that came complete with a diaper cake and gifts and party favors.  It was very cool!  But when people started asking where I was registered, I didn’t have an answer.  I have never registered anywhere, not even when we got married.  And after a couple more people ask, I finally decide I should probably register somewhere, so David and I went to Babies R Us and registered for stuff we needed.  It isn’t a huge list, but it sure was fun.  We also went to Target, which is my favorite store and registered there too.  My friend sent out invitations out today and the shower will be on June 30th.  I’m kind of excited.  We definitely still need a mattress and bedding and stuff, and that is on the registry.  We did put a few “non-essential” items on there, like a rocking chair and a bassinet.  We already have a swing, a bouncy seat, a stroller, a baby car seat, changing table and crib.  Most of it was given to us.  Oh and the clothes!  David’s co-worker had a baby last September and gave us all her beautiful clothes–I mean they are so nice and in good condition!  So we have definitely been blessed!  I think after all the discussion on who to invite to the shower, we got it down to 36 people.  I know not everyone can make it, and some of those people I felt I had to invite since David is a worship leader at church, but I think it will be a pretty nice shower.  I’m getting kind of spoiled, I think.

We still have some things we need to do.  We need to pack up the room over the garage, so Alex can move in.  We need to have a garage sale to get rid of some of the extra stuff we have accumulated.  We need to put new flooring in Alex’s room, since the carpet is done for!

I guess if I look at how much we have left to do, I might not be inclined to think that the days are crawling by.  Hopefully they will get faster!

Getting Frustrated

When I first started this whole piano lessons business, I tried to think ahead as I planned my yearly calendar. I wanted to offer 36 lessons a year, and go for about 10 months–and offer the same vacations, etc, that the public schools do, since half my students are public schooled. I charge $55.00 a month per student, and offer a discount to families. ($45.00 per child.) As stated in the agreement that each customer signed, tuition was due the first week of the month. It was a great deal. Yes, I had regular people who always forgot to pay me at the beginning of the month, but I would send an invoice and get the money quickly. It was usually the same people–and they were quick to get back to me.

Well, it is June. I have lessons through the end of the month, but tomorrow is the 13th and I still have to collect money from 7 students. Usually it is one or two people, but I am getting frustrated. This is my income, people. I have birthdays to pay for this month. I have had more cancellations this month due to vacations. I have had cancellations due to really bad excuses, like, “I forgot,” Even though I reminded everyone that lessons went through the end of June. I have had it with make up lessons–some people have 3 lessons to make up due to various reasons.

If I do this next year, I think my policy will be to pay me by the first of the month, and if you don’t, get charged a fee for every day you are late. And I think I will allow for one make up lesson a month, not 3. If you want to pay me for lessons, then be sure you are here, otherwise, you are wasting my time and being plain selfish. Now I understand different circumstances come up during the year–I’m not talking about those. But someone who forgets 3 times a month to bring their kids is really being inconsiderate of my time. Also, I think I will schedule lessons through the end of May, not June. That way, school will still be in session and I won’t get into vacations, graduation, and award ceremonies, etc.

Argh. It is David’s birthday on Saturday. Father’s Day is on Sunday, Beth’s birthday was on the 8th, and my mom’s was on the 3rd. That is a lot of money to try to pay on my little piano salary. Not that I have to shoulder it all, David’s check covers some of it too. But for his birthday, I’d like at least to try to surprise him. At least we got that government reimbursement check, so we can use some of that. Anyone have any suggestions on running your own business? How would you deal with late payments and late lessons, etc?

I know it might make it worse, but….

I am going to try to eat something.  4 spoonfuls of cereal just did not do it.  David took me out to get some Mylanta and I’m hoping that cottage cheese with strawberries will reduce the hunger pangs!  It tastes good going down, but I hope it’s ok in 15 minutes.  Aren’t you all excited to hear about my heartburn?