Preparing Katia

There are only a few things left to do on our “Preparing for Peanut” list, but since it has rained for most of the last six weeks, anything involving the car kept getting pushed off. But thanks to a couple short breaks in the rain, these have now been checked off.

Installing the car seat took a grand total of 3 minutes. Since our cars are too old to have the latch system, installing the base for the infant carrier consists of the complicated process of wrapping the seat belt over it and pulling until tight. But when we put the carrier onto the base we realized just how tiny our car is. We put the car seat in the middle for safety reasons, but it turns out it has to go there anyway because it won’t fit behind the front seats. It seriously sticks out between our seats! And we got the smallest version of the infant carrier. I swear car seats are made for minivans and SUVs.

While we didn’t realize just how small our backseat is, we were well aware that our trunk was too small to accommodate the amount of baby-related stuff it will need to haul. (Keep in mind we live on the third floor, so things like the stroller are going to have to live in the trunk.) To increase space in the trunk we decided to finally remove the CD player that hasn’t worked in 4 years. That took about 15 minutes (although it did require Joe to climb in the trunk to reach one bolt, and no, I didn’t close it on him) and I’m now not sure why it took us 4 years to get rid of it.

So Katia is now ready for a new little passenger:

Blood Pressure

I think I may be the first pregnant woman ever whose doctor recommended a high salt diet to raise her blood pressure. Normally the concern in pregnancy is high blood pressure. And my blood pressure has been higher for most of the pregnancy than it was pre-pregnancy. But the past couple weeks I’ve started getting dizzy again. And not recovering from it as quickly, leading me to give up last week and just sit through all of mass. And, sure enough, my blood pressure has been lower at the last two appointments. Not so low that it is actually a problem (and they would much prefer low to high), so don’t worry, but raising it a little would reduce the risk of randomly passing out.

My doctor’s explanation: I’m too thin. I almost laughed out loud at that one. Seriously? I can’t fit in most of my maternity clothes anymore, I’m seeing numbers on the scale I’ve never seen before, and the most frequent comment I get from people is about how huge I look (thanks for that, by the way). But all of that is apparently due to Peanut’s size and the way Peanut is situated in my belly (how I'm carrying, in pregnancy lingo). I don’t understand the science behind it, but apparently fat somehow helps your blood circulate. And so, lacking enough of that, my body is currently having difficulty forcing the blood back up my legs and past the placenta with any rapidity.

So I’m supposed to eat salty foods, drink lots of water (I swear, I’m trying), not stand still for long periods of time, and just stay sitting in church. But I’m hopeful that her little demonstration of how she couldn’t find any fat on my belly to pinch will mean that I have a chance of fitting into my pre-pregnancy clothes again. Although maybe not if I continue making a chocolate cake every other week. But the one I made tonight is particularly yummy, if I do say so myself. :)

Patience

We saw the doctor this morning, and everything is a-okay. As I noted in the office, Peanut's heartbeat is getting strong enough just about to break the speaker on the little doppler machine!

Anyway, the point is that Peanut is not yet in any hurry to get out (except Alien-style through the front), and the doctor today told us that the most likely date is four days after the due date (so May 26, for those keeping score at home). That's the average for first-time pregnancies.

I know I'm getting antsy, and Sarah is too, just out of pure excitement to get started. As we get closer, the wait gets more and more agonizing. But apparently we need to practice some patience. And try not to get anyone's hopes ups about imminent arrivals.

17 (Days) Again

Today is seventeen days before Peanut's due date. Why am I telling you that? Well, because I was born seventeen days early, way back in the dark ages when due dates were still calculated using a sexton and an abacus. But the point is that Peanut seems to not be taking after its father just enough to hang out in utero a little while longer.

In other news, Peanut's grandpa thought it would be funny if Peanut were a boy named Crystal Alexis. I think it was mostly because he thought he might slip an 80s pop-culture reference by me. No such luck. But I was amused to learn that the "official" website for the TV show "Dynasty" is shoulderpads.net. Seriously.

From the “Bad Mommy File” (entry 2)

Sometimes I wish for Peanut to come early because I want an excuse to stop working on this chapter.

Stacy's Dream

For your entertainment, here is part of a gmail chat conversation with Stacy:
Stace: i dreamt about peanut last night
it was a fun dream :)
Sarah: tell tell
Stace: i was at your apt and peanut was born and i was playing with peanut on that fun activity mat thing that you have
matt was there too...i think in my dream, it was around the baptism time
and Peanut just was making everyone so happy by smiling and giggling
Sarah: awww
I want Peanut
Stace: Peanut didn't have red hair
in my dream
lol
Sarah: I read that to Joe and he said "that doesn't sound like my child"
I reminded him that it is my child too
Stace: lol
i hope Peanut smiles!
and plays
and laughs
it would be very sad otherwise
Sarah: me too! I've decided that if Peanut is like Daddy, I'm just going to have to hug the grumpy bubble out of it. Just like I did with Joe
Stace: lol
i'll help out on that
Sarah: I think Joe will too--he now loves hugs
Stace: he just needed to know what he was missing
Peanut was a hugging-type kid in my dream
hopefully it was realistic
oh, and i forgot the best part!
guess what Peanut was wearing?
Sarah: what?
Stace: one of those fun carter's sleepers with the dogs on the feet
Sarah: awesome!!!
Stace: that is totally possible to be realistic...therefore i conclude that the other parts of the dream are also lol
Sarah: Peanut doesn't own that one yet, but if we have money left on a babies r' us giftcard in a few months, I may go buy that entire line--I just love the feet

Baffling

Insurance baffles me. As though all the intricacies of in-network and out-of-network and referrals and different levels of deductibles aren’t enough, our insurance company has now decided that if a doctor charges more than they think he/she should, they just don’t have to pay. Do we have that option too?

We finally got the bills for our hospital adventure in New York a couple months ago (You can read about it here) and the grand total actually came out to just about what we had randomly ballparked as our expectation. Great, right? However, looking at the bills we learned that all of the essential stuff (6 hours in the hospital, a bunch of tests and lab work and monitoring, IV, medicines, doctor, nurses, etc) combined to only 1/5 of the total, so dramatically less than we had guessed. The other 4/5? That was the surgeon who came in for 2 minutes completely unnecessarily and did nothing. The insurance company decided he charged more than “other doctors in the area” (as though we had a choice in the ER!) so only covered a fragment of his cost, and that at a reduced rate, leaving us with the rest.

And I know I shouldn’t complain because the total is around what we expected, but it is just so frustrating! And I feel so helpless.