Say Whaa???

The company I work for is global. My actual "home team" is the LA office, that's where my bosses and my manager sit. I'm just floating out here in the middle of the ocean by myself, enjoying the peace and quiet of not having any one constantly looking over my shoulder.

Anyway, once a week we have Team Meetings. These Team Meetings are run by my "fake" boss since my real boss is out on maternity leave. When my real boss ran the show, I was normally done with the meeting inside half an hour. The "fake" boss drags these things out for an hour and half. Mostly because she's introduced "Teaming Presentations" where someone has to present something in 15 minutes. Anything. Doesn't have to be work related or the least bit relevant to anyone's life. We've had some doozies, let me tell ya. And they ALWAYS go longer than 15 minutes. I now know more than I ever wanted to about fun things like cricket and street basketball and the mating habits of killer bees from Africa.

Today was my turn. I presented on hypertension and pregnancy. You know that one guy in every office that is a know it all? We have one of those and he stated in the middle of my presentation that he was SURE he had the answer to what causes pre-eclampsia. This was after repeatedly interrupting me to add on to whatever I was discussing at the time and starting a lively debate (is it a debate if he's the only one talking?) about beta blockers as a treatment for hypertension. Hmm, I don't remember anyone doing that to him while he was giving his presentation on the benefits of homeschooling...oh wait, we were all asleep.

He declares that he will "touch base" with me after the meeting is over as his information was highly personal in nature. Umm...ok. By the time the HOUR AND FORTY FIVE MINUTE MEETING was over (not due to me running long, by the way) I'd totally forgotten about his self-proclaimed answer to the question that medical science has been trying to answer forever.

My phone rang and displayed an Unknown Number. Lovely. It was him. He said he had something very important and personal to discuss with me and proceeded to tell me about the research he'd done some 13 years or so ago when his wife was pregnant with his son/daughter (I forget which). He continued talking and declared that the cause of pre-eclampsia was....barrier contraception methods. He stated that the womb treats the fertilized egg as a parasite at implantation when barrier methods (sponge, spermicide, condom, etc.) were used. I could tell that he was trying to figure out a way to ask me what method of contraception was I using when I became pregnant. Seems to me if you are using contraception and you get pregnant anyway, you got bigger issues. He apologized for being personal. I said "obviously we both know I was having sex or I wouldn't be pregnant in the first place." Do you know it is totally possible to sense someone blushing over the phone? I'm pretty sure he did.

Those of you who know me well know I'm an information gatherer. So I set about researching his claim. Hmm...seems that is the COMPLETE OPPOSITE of what the Journal of the American Medical Association has determined. And the Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh.

Maybe his conclusion was true 13 years ago. Maybe there are still institutions out there who stand behind that conclustion. Maybe things have changed in the last decade and a half. Who knows? I just find it incredibly creepy that a co-worker that I hardly know and have never even met face to face just called me to inquire as to the type of contraception I was using before I conceived.

Is this part of the "pregnant women are part of the public domain" phenomenon?

The Latest

I had a regular OB appt and an ultrasound appointment this week.

Lucy, as usual, was being totally uncooperative during picture taking. This time she had BOTH arms up and crossed in front of her face. She's starting to look like an actual baby on the 3d ones (what we could see of her). Her head is by my belly button and her body goes along the left side of my belly. When she wasn't crossing her arms, she was playing with her toes, sucking her thumb or making fishy faces. We got a picture where you can see her little tiny fingers on top of her little tiny toes. She's measuring in the 71st percentile (whatever that means) at 2lbs 4oz.

In three weeks, I start weekly stress tests. They assume my pressure will start creeping up then. I'm to take my bp at home/work 3x a day and write it down. I will bring my bp monitor in on the next visit so they can calibrate it with theirs, since it's a little off every time. If the bottom number goes over 90, we got issues and 2x weekly stress tests. There's talk of increasing my bp meds. I'm so scared about this because I get conflicting information from the internet about what I'm on. I hope I'm not hurting my Lucy.

During one of the 3d views, I saw what looked like testicles between her legs. I flipped out. So they showed me her girl parts. On 3d they actually look like girl parts. None of this "see the 3 lines" crap that I didn't believe.

Friday she got her first case of the hiccups (that I had felt anyway). It's freaky to see my boobs moving of their own accord, so I got up to walk around. When I'm standing up, she's not right under my ribs. OB started fundal height measurements this week, which I thought was hilarious, given my ampleness in the midsection.

My Husband the Brainiac

About a month ago, as DH (dear husband) and I lay in bed reading baby books, he turned to me and said, "I think you're anemic."

"Why?" I asked him, wondering if my hypochondriacal tendencies had rubbed off on him.

"Your nail beds are purple."

"Umm hmmm," I said, basically blowing him off.

From time to time he'd check my nail beds when he thought I wasn't looking. I really wasn't paying any attention to him, being diverted by more pressing issues like not sleeping, pregnesia, and worrying about getting butt grapes.

This past Saturday, I went in for my Glucose screening. It basically consists of drinking what I had heard was a nasty concoction, sitting around the waiting room for an hour and getting blood drawn at the end of the hour. The blood is then tested for diabetes, which many women develop while they are pregnant. Especially when they start out overweight, like me. My OB said results should be back within a week.

So, I go check in for this test...hand over my insurance cards and sign on the dotted line. The technician asks me what type of solution do I want.

Me: "What are my options?"
Him: "We have a orange cola-like drink and one that is a bit like Sprite."
Me (totally thinking he would be no help at all): "Well, have YOU tasted them?"
Him: "Yes, they make us try it."
Me: "Ok, what's your recommendation, then?" like he is some type of sommelier.
Him: "Personally, I like the Sprite one."

I was waiting for him to tell me it should be optimally paired with a fish or fowl selection, probably because I had been fasting for the last 12 hours and Lucy was getting cranky (aka kicking the crap out of me from the inside). He kindly served me my six ounces of liquid sugar in a dixie cup. (What? No wine glass?)

I drank the Sprite-like solution at a full gulp (remember, hadn't eaten in 12 hours). I think it tasted like Sprite, but was a little more...viscous. I proceeded to fiddle with my iPod for an hour killing time and at the end of my wait gave my required pint of blood. (Ok, I'm being a little over dramatic, it was just two vials.)What I didn't realize was what the second vial of blood was for. Didn't really care, just wanted to eat some darn breakfast already!

This afternoon my OB called with my results. Apparently, they tell you a week so you can be better blindsided when the results come back early. The good news is that I do not have Gestational Diabetes. Hooray!

The bad news is...I'm anemic. I guess I should have listened to Hubby, huh? Now I have to take iron supplements (read: constant constipation). Just when I thought I was going to avoid the butt grapes....

Drugs Are My Friend

Ok, not all drugs.

I've been suffering from serious insomnia for about 2 weeks now. Pretty much started after my last OB appointment.

I didn't go to work yesterday because I didn't sleep the night before. Falling asleep while at stop lights is not my idea of fun.

I went to my OB yesterday. Lucy's heartbeat is down to 145 from 150. I was freaking out about this til I read a friend's post about it getting closer to 120bpm as we get closer to delivering. Lucy was full-on kicking at the doppler wand.

Blood pressure holding steady at 120/80 - even though I had some salty jambalaya the night before. I thought for sure that would skew it up.

I talked to my OB about the not sleeping and she gave me a prescription for Ambien, with the caveat to use it sparingly. What the heck does that mean?? When I was filling the prescription, I didn't agree to generic (I blame the lack of sleep) and came back with a whopping bill for $130! Whoa. Generic, please. Since I am double insured (employer and military dependent) that got it down to free. Works for me.

So I took this Ambien last night. I really had reservations about it, but my god, how long can I go w/out sleeping? It didn't make me loopy or feel like I was in a coma all night, but I did get a solid night of sleep. Only woke up once to pee. I think I could have slept another couple hours, but I had to get up and come to work. It didn't leave me feeling groggy or loopy in the morning either and I actually feel like a human being again today. I think I'll take one tonight and then give it a rest a couple nights. I don't want to get hooked on it.

Funny how a good night's sleep can make you feel almost positive again.

I lost three pounds in two weeks because of this stupid insomnia. After researching Ambien on the web, I will only use it when I have to and not at all in the third trimester. Hopefully the insomnia will go away by then. I know not everyone agrees with taking drugs while pregnant. But a non-functioning zombie mommy isn't that great either.

Whew!

Night before last I couldn't sleep because I kept counting weeks and trying to figure out when week 30 was. (Kinda hard to do in the dark when you're in bed half asleep.) I thought 30 weeks was when they were going to make me go off my blood pressure medicine. I talked to my OB yesterday and she looked at me like I was nuts. She told me I wasn't going off the meds at any point. I'm going to double check with the perinatologist, but if that's the case, I'm feeling much better. I may even carry to term!

Halfway There

I’m halfway there. As of this past Tuesday (6/26/07), I am at 20 weeks, with 20 weeks to go. You’re probably saying “Hey, wait, that’s 10 months!?” Yes, that’s right. The nine months thing is misunderstood. You actually don’t come to term until the end of the ninth month.

So far, everything is progressing nicely. My bp was down to a normal 120/80 at my last ob/gyn appointment -much jubilation all around. It probably helped that they took the blood pressure before the excitement that day. Let me tell you about that.

My OB is normally very punctual. I’ve never had to wait more than 10 minutes past my appointment time, with the exception of the first time I visited. As I walked into the office that day, Dr. was at the front desk on the phone…

“Yes? Really? Well, I have 2 more patients I’d like to finish up with before I head over. Do you think I have 20 minutes? Ok. Call me back.”

Dr. asked that I hurry along and do my usual routine – bp, weight and PIAC (pee in a cup) and her assistant put me into an exam room to wait. There was another woman to be seen before me. I heard the Dr. go into her room. About two minutes later, the receptionist comes running down the hall…

“Dr.! Dr.! The head is crowning. You must go now!”

She pokes her head in my room and apologizes for having to rush off. And poof! She was out the door.

I sat there for 10 minutes or so wondering what to do. Finally I wandered into the waiting area where her assistant told me the Dr. had asked that I wait. As the head was already crowning, the Dr. predicted that she would be back in about an hour.

I hadn’t gone into work that morning because I wasn’t feeling well. My husband had duty that night, so it wasn’t like I had anything else to do. So I waited.

An hour and 10 minutes later she was back. I can only hope my labor goes that quickly and smoothly.

As a high risk pregnancy, I’ll be going in for another ultrasound tomorrow. Since I had some doubts about the whole girl thing (I didn’t really “see” the girl parts myself, I just believed them), it will be good to get some confirmation before we start painting rooms and buying stuff.

I found this link to be really interesting - and explained a lot about the aches and pains I'd been having: http://www.pennhealth.com/health_info/pregnancy/9monthmiracle/tools/fetaltool.html

Twice a Month Dr. Appts.

I mentioned before that I am considered a high risk pregnancy. I don't feel high risk most of the time (unless you count my driving habits), but I have that label because:

• I'm overweight
• I'm over 35
• I have hypertension (high blood pressure)

My thoughts...ok, I'm overweight, but I know there are lots of people bigger than me that have healthy babies all the time. Ok, I'm over 35, but this isn't the Middle Ages for cripe's sake. What about that woman who had twins at freaking 60! Ok, I have hypertension, but before I got pregnant it wasn't considered terribly bad and was controlled through medication (a rather low doseage, I might add).

Before getting pregnant, I even talked with a doctor who later became my perinatologist to make sure I wasn't putting myself at risk by getting pregnant. He pretty much told me what I was thinking, but it was good to get confirmation.

There are benefits to being considered high risk. I didn't have to wait until I was 8 weeks pregnant to see a doctor for the first time. I got my first doc visit and an ultrasound at 6 weeks and an ultrasound every time I went in to see the OB until the heartbeat was able to be heard on a handheld Doppler. I got a Level 2 ultrasound at 12 weeks as well as a blood test to start screening for genetic anamolies. That came with lots of pictures and a cd of even more pictures. I got another Level 2 ultrasound at 17 weeks as well as another blood test to continue the screening. We found out the sex of the baby at 17 weeks instead of having to wait until 20 weeks like the "normies." I feel I'm getting really good care and I'm grateful for that.

Drawbacks of this high risk label: I have to go see my regular OBGYN every two flipping weeks because of my high blood pressure. I've already had to double the doseage of my bp med, which is unusual. Normally your blood pressure drops on it's own during the second trimester. I guess this isn't really a drawback, because everytime I go in there I get to pee in a cup and hear the baby's heartbeat (not at the same time, of course). It's just tiresome going in every 2 weeks.

At yesterday's appointment, my bp was 130/90. Considering it was 135/98 before the meds were doubled, I guess that's movement in the right direction.

Smelly

Ok, I know the pregnant woman is especially sensitive to smells. I know that and I thought most pregnant women knew that? I can forgive the over-perfumed elevator ride sharer who about gassed me into unconsciousness the other day. She probably didn't think about that cloud of noxious fumes while applying her eau de toilette with a heavy hand that morning.

But other pregnant women? Don't they know better?

While waiting at Fetal Diagnostics the other day, a woman whooshed by me on her way to the check in counter. I thought for sure I was having some sort of life threatening event as I sat there gasping for air. Come to think of it, she was probably in her third trimester. Maybe this over sensitivity to smell disappears later on in pregnancy?

I'll have to stop myself from smelling other pregnant women to test that theory. Lord knows there's a ton of them out there right now. I can't walk down the street to get lunch without seeing at least four or five of them. I guess it's similar to when you get a new car. Suddenly EVERYONE is driving the same car as you.