Good morning, everyone, and a belated Happy Thanksgiving.
The holidays are a hectic time for my wife and I in a normal year - we both work in retail, have families who care very much about us, and friends who are invaluable. Throwing a baby in the mix increases the pace of the holidays by, oh, I don't know, say 7,000%?
The past two weeks have been very tumultuous for Mrs. J, and I, which has made it difficult for me to maintain this blog - for that, I apologize. Now that another Black Friday is in the books (my 8th with the company I currently work for), hopefully things will normalize a bit, and I can get back on with regularly scheduled updates.
That being said, I have a feeling that this post is going to be quite a wall of text, so if you don't have a few minutes, please come back when you do. I apologize for the long winded post in advance, however there are a few things that I've been itching to share, and I'm going to throw them all into this post.
Another quick note - I'm presently running on about 18 hours without sleep, so I apologize in advance if any part of this is difficult to understand.
So we begin:
Our Dr. Jekyll, and Mr. Hyde:
Mrs. J and I were excited beyond belief when we discovered that she was pregnant. For me, it was both an exciting discovery, and a relieving discovery all at the same time. See, her body has had a tendency in the past to run a few days behind her, erm... "clock," if you will. However, something seemed different about this time. She'd never gone beyond about five days late, give or take a day or two. However, the day she decided to test was a bit different - she was 9 days late and counting. Both of us had been through a pretty rough day at work, so neither of us really wanted to deal with the possibilities at that point in time, but responsibility won out.
Being that we both work in the same place, many of my regular clients know my wife as such, rather than a fellow employee. It happened that I was working with one of my long-time clients, and had to involve Mrs. J in the situation she was dealing with. That very same client turned to Mrs. J and asked, "Oh! How far along are you?" Keep in mind, at this point, we only had suspicions that she may be carrying a child, so Mrs. J was understandably a bit offended by the question, thinking that she had gained noticeable amounts of weight, or looked, er, "pregnant." We both quickly staved off the question, assuring my client that there was no bun in the oven, which prompted a quick flush of the cheeks from my client, and causing her to quickly scurry off once her issue was resolved. At this point, Mrs. J and I simply exchanged some puzzled looks, and both knew that it was time we actually had her take a test. It couldn't just be a coincidence, right?
So, Mrs. J finished her shift several hours before I did, and moseyed over to Wal-Mart to pick up a pack of home pregnancy tests. So, I waited, rather impatiently, for her to get home, and take a test. And let me tell you, that was a fairly agonizing few hours, because I hate talking on the phone, and prefer texts. Partner that with the forgetfulness that Mrs. J is prone to, and it's a recipe for disaster. After about 3 hours, I found myself hammering out text messages, getting shorter and shorter in length, quickly dissolving from "Are you pregnant?" to simply, "Pregnant?" No response came.
Mrs. J and I have been together for almost a decade, so I know that when she doesn't respond to a text, that one of three things has happened:
-She's fallen asleep.
-She doesn't think a text message is suitable for that conversation, or doesn't want to give an answer.
-She's left me to elope with a Colombian drug kingpin. (Only kidding!)
At that point, I pretty much had my answer, but waited until we were together to see it for myself.
That's when the panic set in.
You may be asking yourself, "Panic? But why?!" And truth be told, that's a pretty fair question. Not panic in a negative sense, where we've experience a prior loss, or didn't want it to happen. In fact, quite the opposite: We were absolutely thrilled. However, Mrs. J has had some prior issues with infected calcium-based kidney stones (sorry, I forget the doctor-ese version of the name), and was told that in the event of a positive pregnancy test, she needs to be seen immediately to be placed on the proper prenatal vitamins, and to make sure that the stones don't come back.
Fast forward to the next day, when our holy nightmare began.
Mrs. J spent the following morning calling around to just about every OB/GYN's office in our area. None of which were willing to see her until we were 10 weeks out from her LMP (last menstrual period). This prompted a lot of swearing on my end, and a lot of frustration on her end. She was simply trying to follow her urologists' orders, and none of the offices in the area were willing to hear anything about it.
Queue a panicked phone call to my mother, who has a particular dislike for doctors of any variety. Once we explained the situation to her, I'm assuming she made some rather unpleasant phone calls to our most local office, because they promptly called my wife back, and told her they'd squeezed her in for the following Wednesday. Now, that's better... Or so we thought.
We arrived at our first appointment at the crack of dawn, approximately 0730. Once her paperwork was complete, they rushed her right back to the ultrasound machine, and began probing away. This was the first stop on the nightmarish bus ride. The ultrasound tech had the audacity to say, "You know, this is just stupid. I have no idea why we're seeing you this early." Now, I already do pretty poorly with social situations to begin with, partner that up with an early morning, and already being agitated with this office, and I wanted to scream. I managed to withhold my rage, and respond in kind with, "Well, we're just doing what her doctor told her to. Sorry if that's an inconvenience." This response garnered a pretty targeted look of daggers in my general direction, and silence for the rest of the probing.
After the ultrasound was complete, we were shoo'ed off to the doctor's exam room, where we waited 45 minutes for her to show up to our appointment. I'm fully aware that doctors offices tend to run behind, but this was ridiculous.
The minute that the OB stepped into the room, she started in on Mrs. J.
"When was your LMP?"
-According to the calendar, about 5 weeks, 2 days ago.
"Well, then this pregnancy is most likely ectopic." (WTF?)
-W-what?
"Your uterine lining is thickening up nicely, like it's expecting a yolk sac, but there just isn't one there. So, if your period was really that long ago, this is not going to be a viable pregnancy." (W...T...F....?)
By this point, my blood was boiling, as Mrs J. was already in tears.
"Why are you even here if your period was only 5 weeks ago?"
-Mrs. J explains the whole story over again.
"Well, that's ridiculous. I've never heard of such a thing. In fact, no prenatal vitamins contain dangerous levels of calcium. What's your doctor thinking?"
This was when I felt that I had no choice but to intervene, and redirect the conversation to being just she and I. I began with the typical questions, "Are you sure? Because her urologist felt very strongly about the subject, and insisted that she be seen on her first positive result." She responded with medical gibberish that I can't begin to comprehend, but I was pissed.
To make a long story fairly short, she ordered a blood-draw to measure her hCG levels over a 48 hour period. Research on the internet showed this to be a pretty common procedure, especially when nothing is present on an ultrasound. Those 48 hours were an absolute nightmare. The doctor promised to call Mrs. J back as soon as the blood results were in, and even ordered them "stat" to ensure they'd arrive before close of business.
Big surprise: she didn't call. Mrs. J had to call her, and leave a message, only to receive a call back from the doctor's nurse. "WHAT DID SHE SAY?!" You're probably shouting that to yourself (or at least, my 2:00AM brain hopes you shouted that out loud).
Everything was perfectly fine. The hCG levels grew as necessary, and determined that it was just too early for anything to be visible on the ultrasound. See you in three weeks.
Mrs. J and I were, in my opinion, justifiably angry, distraught, and upset with how blunt, and frankly, downright rude the doctor had been during this appointment. I did, however, appeal to the logical side of my wife: She was being a doctor. She was telling it as she saw it, and not beating around the bush. On the other side of that coin, though, she could've been way more tactful about the delivery.
We went back and forth on whether or not to see her a second time, or to switch doctors. Ultimately, we decided to give her one more chance. And pardon my French, but that was a huge fucking mistake. She was just as bad, if not worse the second time through. At 7 weeks, we saw our little Bean (thus where the nickname arose), and everything looked fine. Only, she was a raging snatch the entire time we had our visit with her.
Mrs. J went through the typical questions with her, "What can I eat? What should I avoid?" and so on. To these questions, the doctor only responded with other questions, and tore apart my wife's current way of living. Here's a sample:
"What do you eat for breakfast?"
-Usually a Pop-Tart, or a bowl of cereal.
"Pop-Tarts? No. There's nothing good about eating a Pop-Tart. You need to eat cereal. Stay away from white bread - wheat only." (Keep in mind, Mrs. J is mildly allergic to wheat bread, you know, causing her throat to close up.)
She then starts firing off a myriad of do's-and-don'ts, and we're both listening fairly intently. But, the good doctor decided it was necessary to stop mid-sentence, glare at me, and tell me, "You need to be writing this stuff down."
Now, if you don't know me, I respond to situations like this (uncomfortable, or confrontational ones) in one of two ways: Yelling/swearing, or sarcasm.
Being that it's a doctor's office, and I didn't want to get my wife blacklisted, I chose sarcasm, "And with what, pray-tell, do you expect me to write with? You've got the only pen in the room, and you're using it to point at nothing." I'm assuming this was the appropriate response, because it got the woman to hand over her pen, and I didn't get Mrs. J blacklisted from the practice.
And I wrote. And wrote. Only to find out that it was pretty much pointless, because after the appointment, when we met with the birth planner, she gave us a big folder outlining basically everything that Dr. Asswad dictated.
You might be thinking to yourself, "But J, this doesn't sound that bad." And thinking in retrospect, it may not have been as bad as I thought, but the big issue was that she wouldn't speak to me directly, other than to be rude. If I'd ask a question, she'd respond to my wife instead. If my wife asked a question, she'd speak down to her, and speak to her like she was five. These are both pretty awful qualities in a doctor.
Then she started in on prenatal trisomy and genetic disorder screening. Which she made a point to tell us repeatedly that insurance didn't cover, was very expensive, but she felt it was necessary. I truthfully suspect that she's getting kickbacks or something, the way she tried to push these tests on Mrs. J and I. Keep in mind, as well, that we'd already decided we would be doing the prenatal trisomy screenings, we just weren't sure what trimester we would do them in until we knew what our insurance would cover.
Now, I'm getting tired, and you're probably getting bored, so I'm going to quit ranting about Hell-Doctor, and move on to our next visit, which I may have even covered in my last update:
Turns out, our insurance does cover 1st trimester screenings. They cover it 100%. And our kick-ass new doctor called in a favor to get us in that very day to have Mrs. J and Bean tested.
If you've taken the time to read through this wall of text, you're probably wondering why I brought all this up.
It's simple: to serve as a cautionary tale to anyone who may be newer to this than we are. It's okay to see multiple doctors. In fact, I encourage it. There is such a thing as not being compatible with your doctor, which is exactly what happened with Mrs. J and I with our first doctor. The woman was just too tactless, and far too matter-of-fact. If there's one thing I've learned in all of the research I've done (and I've done a lot of it), it's that pregnancy is far from an exact science. There are too many what-ifs involved for any OB/GYN to be matter-of-fact about much of anything. There are exceptions, of course, but things like whether or not a pregnancy is ectopic should be determined by more than a cursory glance at a 4/5 week ultrasound.
I hope, that if you've come across this blog by random, that you learn from the missteps that Mrs. J and I have taken through our journey, as short as it's been.
More to come, later. I need to sleep, and you're probably bored.
Good night.
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
A Tale of Two Cities, kind of...
Today was a long, and challenging day, for Mrs. J and I.
For anyone who comes across this blog, and doesn't know me, I manage retail. As such, I had the pleasure of working a midnight release event for the latest Call of Duty video game. It just so happens that this event fell on the night before our appointment, which equaled out to less than four hours of sleep for me.
Anyone who does know me, knows that I function very, very poorly on that little sleep.
However, in spite of that, I made sure that we made our 10:00 appointment with our new doctor. Though Mrs. J was willing to reschedule, I felt that since it was a new doctor (our prior OB may as well have been the boogeyman for pregnant women), that we kept our appointment.
I'm sure glad we did. Due to some misinformation from our previous doctor, we were told that our health insurance would not cover any form of first trimester chromosome defect screenings. Apparently, that was false information. Fortunately for us, though, that we found this out in the last week of her first trimester. As such, our fabulous new doctor was able to call in and get our local(ish) perinatal group to squeeze us in.
Unfortunately for us, that perinatal group is about 40 minutes away.
Ah, I'm rambling... Long story short, we had a minor heart attack in the office, as our medical group only normally does three total ultrasounds throughout the pregnancy: early pregnancy, anatomy scan/gender peek, and pre-delivery. Otherwise, they normally just use their doppler machine to listen to the heartbeat between those. For some reason, our new doctor was unable to pin down the heartbeat, and got nothing but static from her machine. Queue my panic attack. Now, I'm not an overly emotional man, however I'm an eternal pessimist - as such, I immediately assumed the worst. Luckily for me, this doctor moves quick. She had her ultrasound machine in the room in a jiffy, and was able to see the heart beat via ultrasound, and determined that my wife has a "tilted uterus," which can make it almost impossible to hear a heartbeat unless the baby is in the perfect position.
So, in spite of a small-scale anxiety attack, we ended up with a new photo of our little Bean... Which, consequently, looks less like a bean, and more like an alien now. However, I don't think that "Alien," is nearly as catchy of a nickname as "Bean," so we're going to stick with that.
After all was said and done, came the flu-shots. Now, I've never really gotten vaccinations, short of a Tetanus shot after a small work injury a few years back. I've got nothing against them, I've just never done them. Mostly on account of the fact that hypodermic needles are one of the few things in this world that can turn me into a screaming five year old girl, but also that I've just never made them a priority. However, in the interest of Mrs. J's health, and the health of our little one, I felt that I should man up, and stop being such a sissy. Although, in truth, I did almost chicken out after reading through all of the short-term side effects of the Influenza vaccine. But, once I saw my pregnant wife take the shot like a champ, I figured I was kind of obligated to follow through with mine - my manliness was on the line.
Next stop:
The car dealership.
Now, you're probably asking yourself, "But J, I thought this was about doctor's appointments!"
And you're right, it is... mostly. However, in light of the fact that I've been driving a mid-sized, front wheel drive luxury sedan, with a malfunctioning automatic rear passenger lock, and an interior size that was just not well suited for a baby... Or me, for that matter (another note for those who don't know me: I'm huge)... and being that my mom happens to work for the largest automotive group in our area, I had her put some feelers out for a more safe, and family friendly vehicle.
Also keep in mind, that I live in an area with absolutely unpredictable weather. Some years it may snow an inch, some seasons it might snow 18 inches. You can never tell from year to year, and while front-wheel drive vehicles do okay, a lot of times they don't... Unless you want to drop the cash on snow-tires, and in the case of my previous vehicle, it was serious cash, because the genius who designed it used an abnormal tire size.
That being said, we've been in the market (for some time now) for an all-wheel, or 4-wheel drive vehicle.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the hell out of my car, but let's face it: it was a Saturn. A damn nice Saturn, but it was a Saturn with some minor electrical problems (nothing serious, just interior bells and whistles). Pair those up with the fact that it did awful in inclement weather. Now, bunch all of that up with the fact that Saturn is out of business, and it was losing more and more value by the day (well, maybe not the day, but at a much quicker rate than I could pay it off). All of this just made it more and more of a priority to get our stuff together, and get into a car that was more suited for our growing needs.
I won't bore you with all of the details, but our options were extremely limited due to the depreciated value of our existing car. Or so we thought. We were shopping the used section with the saleswoman that my mom just raved about, and things were looking fairly bleak. Until she came across what I can only assume to be a diamond in the rough. In our travels, we discovered a vehicle that had just re-arrived on the lot after some minor repair work - a 2008 Cadillac SRX-4. Now, I never thought I'd ever drive a Cadillac, not because I don't like them, but because they're generally pretty expensive. Not knowing the cost, we looked at it anyway, and discovered that it was perfect. Roomy in the back (and I mean room), and an absolute goldmine of cargo space. Still skeptical, we asked for our saleswoman to get a price.
When she came back, we were shocked to discover that not only was the vehicle in our price range, but also very well kept, maintained, and even though it had higher mileage than what we were trading in, had a great extended warranty option available. Once we found out all of these details, I had to drive it. That's where I fell in love. Just before pulling out of the parking lot at the dealership, I discovered a plethora of safety features that even the saleswoman was unaware that it had: backup sensors, OnStar, tilting mirrors in reverse, and front and side curtain airbags. Both Mrs. J and I fell in love with it, and the one other option we were originally presented suddenly became not an option at all.
This step isn't one that I think a lot of new parents think about, but it's something that had been weighing very heavily on me for some time now. No matter how I looked at it, our previous vehicle was becoming less and less of a realistic option as something to trust our family's safety and comfort to. I tried to think it out, but just couldn't find a way to make it add up.
Now, if you've made it this far into the wall of text, I promise that I'm almost done for tonight.
Our Last Stop:
Perinatal Associates. We arrived right on time to our appointment, which happened to fall right in the middle of our vehicle purchase.
Fortunately, they were very understanding of my need for punctuality, and let us take a brief pause to get there on time. However, what I didn't know, was that my need for punctuality didn't apply to this appointment. Mrs. J finished her paperwork approximately 5-10 minutes after our arrival, which we've found to be a pretty typical time frame for this sort of thing. However, what we were not expecting, was to be kept waiting for almost an hour after our appointment time. We were scheduled at 2:30, and Mrs. J didn't enter the exam room until almost 3:30. Now, I'm fully aware that stuff happens - especially at a doctor's office. However, that "stuff happens," mentality is difficult for a very hungry, and very pregnant woman to deal with. Couple that with the stress of our snag at the car dealership, and I saw a look on my wife's face that I can say I've honestly only seen once or twice in our 9 years together - anger. Mrs. J doesn't get angry. She just doesn't, and it's one of the most beautiful things about her: the innate ability to roll with any situation, and make the best of it, helps make her who she is. When I see that look of absolute anger on her face, I know that stuff's about to get very unpleasant for whomever incited that anger.
Fortunately, she was able to keep her composure, but in speaking with her after the fact, it wasn't the time that upset her, more that the girls behind the glass were just laughing, eating their lunches, chit-chatting away, without so much as an acknowledgement of the doctor's tardiness, or some indication that they were aware of our plight, and were trying to get us in. The staffers at the office chose to ignore both of us, and go about their day.
Come to find out, after speaking with the Doctor, the issue was the result of him needing to spend some extra time with a patient that had issues arise with their testing, and it taking longer than he expected.
No problem dude, stuff happens... But it'd be nice if you teach your staff some common courtesy.
Once seated and comfortable, we watched the Doctor do his thing. He wasn't a very talkative man, but I don't suppose he needs to be. Honestly, I was too busy with my jaw on the floor, watching our little one bounce around and turn circles. The little bugger even mooned us once or twice.
Unfortunately, at this point, we won't know the results of our testing until next week, but I think we'll make it through. Our doctor was pretty reassuring prior to the appointment, and I think that'll get us through.
Thanks for joining us again, and I apologize if this post dragged - I'm going to use my lack of sleep to excuse it, or that the flu-shot I got earlier has been kicking my ass for the past several hours. I get chatty when I'm tired... And pretty philosophical, or so I've been told. However, I'll refrain from imparting my Voltaire-worthy anecdotes on you all this evening.
Until next time!
-J
For anyone who comes across this blog, and doesn't know me, I manage retail. As such, I had the pleasure of working a midnight release event for the latest Call of Duty video game. It just so happens that this event fell on the night before our appointment, which equaled out to less than four hours of sleep for me.
Anyone who does know me, knows that I function very, very poorly on that little sleep.
However, in spite of that, I made sure that we made our 10:00 appointment with our new doctor. Though Mrs. J was willing to reschedule, I felt that since it was a new doctor (our prior OB may as well have been the boogeyman for pregnant women), that we kept our appointment.
I'm sure glad we did. Due to some misinformation from our previous doctor, we were told that our health insurance would not cover any form of first trimester chromosome defect screenings. Apparently, that was false information. Fortunately for us, though, that we found this out in the last week of her first trimester. As such, our fabulous new doctor was able to call in and get our local(ish) perinatal group to squeeze us in.
Unfortunately for us, that perinatal group is about 40 minutes away.
Ah, I'm rambling... Long story short, we had a minor heart attack in the office, as our medical group only normally does three total ultrasounds throughout the pregnancy: early pregnancy, anatomy scan/gender peek, and pre-delivery. Otherwise, they normally just use their doppler machine to listen to the heartbeat between those. For some reason, our new doctor was unable to pin down the heartbeat, and got nothing but static from her machine. Queue my panic attack. Now, I'm not an overly emotional man, however I'm an eternal pessimist - as such, I immediately assumed the worst. Luckily for me, this doctor moves quick. She had her ultrasound machine in the room in a jiffy, and was able to see the heart beat via ultrasound, and determined that my wife has a "tilted uterus," which can make it almost impossible to hear a heartbeat unless the baby is in the perfect position.
So, in spite of a small-scale anxiety attack, we ended up with a new photo of our little Bean... Which, consequently, looks less like a bean, and more like an alien now. However, I don't think that "Alien," is nearly as catchy of a nickname as "Bean," so we're going to stick with that.
After all was said and done, came the flu-shots. Now, I've never really gotten vaccinations, short of a Tetanus shot after a small work injury a few years back. I've got nothing against them, I've just never done them. Mostly on account of the fact that hypodermic needles are one of the few things in this world that can turn me into a screaming five year old girl, but also that I've just never made them a priority. However, in the interest of Mrs. J's health, and the health of our little one, I felt that I should man up, and stop being such a sissy. Although, in truth, I did almost chicken out after reading through all of the short-term side effects of the Influenza vaccine. But, once I saw my pregnant wife take the shot like a champ, I figured I was kind of obligated to follow through with mine - my manliness was on the line.
Next stop:
The car dealership.
Now, you're probably asking yourself, "But J, I thought this was about doctor's appointments!"
And you're right, it is... mostly. However, in light of the fact that I've been driving a mid-sized, front wheel drive luxury sedan, with a malfunctioning automatic rear passenger lock, and an interior size that was just not well suited for a baby... Or me, for that matter (another note for those who don't know me: I'm huge)... and being that my mom happens to work for the largest automotive group in our area, I had her put some feelers out for a more safe, and family friendly vehicle.
Also keep in mind, that I live in an area with absolutely unpredictable weather. Some years it may snow an inch, some seasons it might snow 18 inches. You can never tell from year to year, and while front-wheel drive vehicles do okay, a lot of times they don't... Unless you want to drop the cash on snow-tires, and in the case of my previous vehicle, it was serious cash, because the genius who designed it used an abnormal tire size.
That being said, we've been in the market (for some time now) for an all-wheel, or 4-wheel drive vehicle.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the hell out of my car, but let's face it: it was a Saturn. A damn nice Saturn, but it was a Saturn with some minor electrical problems (nothing serious, just interior bells and whistles). Pair those up with the fact that it did awful in inclement weather. Now, bunch all of that up with the fact that Saturn is out of business, and it was losing more and more value by the day (well, maybe not the day, but at a much quicker rate than I could pay it off). All of this just made it more and more of a priority to get our stuff together, and get into a car that was more suited for our growing needs.
I won't bore you with all of the details, but our options were extremely limited due to the depreciated value of our existing car. Or so we thought. We were shopping the used section with the saleswoman that my mom just raved about, and things were looking fairly bleak. Until she came across what I can only assume to be a diamond in the rough. In our travels, we discovered a vehicle that had just re-arrived on the lot after some minor repair work - a 2008 Cadillac SRX-4. Now, I never thought I'd ever drive a Cadillac, not because I don't like them, but because they're generally pretty expensive. Not knowing the cost, we looked at it anyway, and discovered that it was perfect. Roomy in the back (and I mean room), and an absolute goldmine of cargo space. Still skeptical, we asked for our saleswoman to get a price.
When she came back, we were shocked to discover that not only was the vehicle in our price range, but also very well kept, maintained, and even though it had higher mileage than what we were trading in, had a great extended warranty option available. Once we found out all of these details, I had to drive it. That's where I fell in love. Just before pulling out of the parking lot at the dealership, I discovered a plethora of safety features that even the saleswoman was unaware that it had: backup sensors, OnStar, tilting mirrors in reverse, and front and side curtain airbags. Both Mrs. J and I fell in love with it, and the one other option we were originally presented suddenly became not an option at all.
This step isn't one that I think a lot of new parents think about, but it's something that had been weighing very heavily on me for some time now. No matter how I looked at it, our previous vehicle was becoming less and less of a realistic option as something to trust our family's safety and comfort to. I tried to think it out, but just couldn't find a way to make it add up.
Now, if you've made it this far into the wall of text, I promise that I'm almost done for tonight.
Our Last Stop:
Perinatal Associates. We arrived right on time to our appointment, which happened to fall right in the middle of our vehicle purchase.
Fortunately, they were very understanding of my need for punctuality, and let us take a brief pause to get there on time. However, what I didn't know, was that my need for punctuality didn't apply to this appointment. Mrs. J finished her paperwork approximately 5-10 minutes after our arrival, which we've found to be a pretty typical time frame for this sort of thing. However, what we were not expecting, was to be kept waiting for almost an hour after our appointment time. We were scheduled at 2:30, and Mrs. J didn't enter the exam room until almost 3:30. Now, I'm fully aware that stuff happens - especially at a doctor's office. However, that "stuff happens," mentality is difficult for a very hungry, and very pregnant woman to deal with. Couple that with the stress of our snag at the car dealership, and I saw a look on my wife's face that I can say I've honestly only seen once or twice in our 9 years together - anger. Mrs. J doesn't get angry. She just doesn't, and it's one of the most beautiful things about her: the innate ability to roll with any situation, and make the best of it, helps make her who she is. When I see that look of absolute anger on her face, I know that stuff's about to get very unpleasant for whomever incited that anger.
Fortunately, she was able to keep her composure, but in speaking with her after the fact, it wasn't the time that upset her, more that the girls behind the glass were just laughing, eating their lunches, chit-chatting away, without so much as an acknowledgement of the doctor's tardiness, or some indication that they were aware of our plight, and were trying to get us in. The staffers at the office chose to ignore both of us, and go about their day.
Come to find out, after speaking with the Doctor, the issue was the result of him needing to spend some extra time with a patient that had issues arise with their testing, and it taking longer than he expected.
No problem dude, stuff happens... But it'd be nice if you teach your staff some common courtesy.
Once seated and comfortable, we watched the Doctor do his thing. He wasn't a very talkative man, but I don't suppose he needs to be. Honestly, I was too busy with my jaw on the floor, watching our little one bounce around and turn circles. The little bugger even mooned us once or twice.
Unfortunately, at this point, we won't know the results of our testing until next week, but I think we'll make it through. Our doctor was pretty reassuring prior to the appointment, and I think that'll get us through.
Thanks for joining us again, and I apologize if this post dragged - I'm going to use my lack of sleep to excuse it, or that the flu-shot I got earlier has been kicking my ass for the past several hours. I get chatty when I'm tired... And pretty philosophical, or so I've been told. However, I'll refrain from imparting my Voltaire-worthy anecdotes on you all this evening.
Until next time!
-J
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Oh, the hunger!
Today we're going to talk about food. Specifically, the quantity of which may be necessary for someone who's growing a person.
Being a dude, it's hard to truly wrap your head around a lot of the aspects of pregnancy. One that I never really thought about much before this evening, is the astounding appetite that pregnant women can develop.
Sure, you see it on TV shows, hear relatives joke about it, but it never really clicks until you see it in action.
Over the past couple of weeks, I've gotten more and more used to the Mrs. finishing a meal, and saying, "I'm still hungry." Up until tonight, I've usually just kind of chuckled, and offered up suggestions to supplement lunch or dinner.
However, this evening at work, we were eating dinner together (for those unfamiliar with us, we work for the same company), and we went to our local In-N-Out, as our pregnancy friendly options for take-out are pretty slim around where we work.
Now, I'm not exactly a skinny guy, so it's not unheard of, in-fact, it's usually expected that I order a lot of food. However, what is unheard of, is for my wife to order a meal equal in size to what I order. In fact, she normally can't finish a single burger and all of her fries. Not only did she finish her meal, but afterwards said, "I'm still hungry... Can I have some of your fries?"
Anyway, where I'm going with this, was just how mind blowing this was. Not because she ordered extra food, because we all have those moments where an extra side of fries might sound good, or an extra patty on your burger - but because it's happened so quickly. Our little bean must be growing so quickly!
You hear the phrase, "eating for two," very frequently when you're around someone pregnant, but it finally just clicked for me what that really means.
As you can probably tell, I haven't been around many pregnant women for any extended length of time, so this is all brand new to me. Needless to say, it's been awesome.
That's my bit for the evening. Who knows, maybe the Mrs. will pop in later and add something else to entertain you all.
-Mr. J
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
What's in a name?
On this momentous evening, the Mrs. and I spent the majority of our evening watching President Obama win his re-election, but once that was all said and done, we moved on to an even more important (at least, to us) activity: Picking the name of our child.
Now, since it's so early, we obviously haven't the first inclination of whether we'll be having a boy or a girl. If you're to believe the Chinese Gender Predictometer, as well as a number of old wives tales, we're to be blessed with a bouncing baby girl. However, since I'm of the firm belief that these devices are 100% hokum, we've picked a name for both.
We're keeping our names under close guard, as to avoid any tomfoolery or name snatching from taking place by the people we know, and the people we don't.
However, I will say we had a blast picking our names. We've toyed with baby names since long before we were blessed, but never actually decided on anything concrete. My wife's grandmother was kind enough to send us an enormous book of over 100,000 baby names, and we got a kick out of flipping through the pages. Many names in this book, I never realized existed, and many of them are names that you would never expect to be used as names.
As it is, prior to receiving this book, we had picked out a handful of names for either gender, but picked out a select few as we were flipping through the pages. We lined out a list of around 10 names for a boy, and 10 names for a girl (girl names are tough, in case you've never been a dude and tried to think about girl names).
From there, we went through each list. First we paired each name with our last name, and said them out loud a bunch of times, to figure out what fit, and what didn't fit. Once we had narrowed down the list a bit, then we picked middle names (which is even more difficult than picking a first name, in my opinion). Once we'd picked out middle names, we said all three together, and then crossed off which of those didn't fit.
This process actually worked quite well, better than I expected. It allowed us to narrow down the list to exactly one name for each gender. And as I said earlier, we plan on keeping them under lock and key (literally), until the day our child is born. Until then, our child will continue to be lovingly referred to simply as "Bean." (For those who are just joining us, we started calling our kid "Bean" the day we had our first ultra sound, as that's exactly what it looked like).
I feel accomplished tonight. I'm pretty sure the Mrs. does, as well, but she's passed out on the couch currently, so I'm unable to verify.
So tonight marked a milestone for not just America, but for us well.
Until next time!
-Mr. J
Now, since it's so early, we obviously haven't the first inclination of whether we'll be having a boy or a girl. If you're to believe the Chinese Gender Predictometer, as well as a number of old wives tales, we're to be blessed with a bouncing baby girl. However, since I'm of the firm belief that these devices are 100% hokum, we've picked a name for both.
We're keeping our names under close guard, as to avoid any tomfoolery or name snatching from taking place by the people we know, and the people we don't.
However, I will say we had a blast picking our names. We've toyed with baby names since long before we were blessed, but never actually decided on anything concrete. My wife's grandmother was kind enough to send us an enormous book of over 100,000 baby names, and we got a kick out of flipping through the pages. Many names in this book, I never realized existed, and many of them are names that you would never expect to be used as names.
As it is, prior to receiving this book, we had picked out a handful of names for either gender, but picked out a select few as we were flipping through the pages. We lined out a list of around 10 names for a boy, and 10 names for a girl (girl names are tough, in case you've never been a dude and tried to think about girl names).
From there, we went through each list. First we paired each name with our last name, and said them out loud a bunch of times, to figure out what fit, and what didn't fit. Once we had narrowed down the list a bit, then we picked middle names (which is even more difficult than picking a first name, in my opinion). Once we'd picked out middle names, we said all three together, and then crossed off which of those didn't fit.
This process actually worked quite well, better than I expected. It allowed us to narrow down the list to exactly one name for each gender. And as I said earlier, we plan on keeping them under lock and key (literally), until the day our child is born. Until then, our child will continue to be lovingly referred to simply as "Bean." (For those who are just joining us, we started calling our kid "Bean" the day we had our first ultra sound, as that's exactly what it looked like).
I feel accomplished tonight. I'm pretty sure the Mrs. does, as well, but she's passed out on the couch currently, so I'm unable to verify.
So tonight marked a milestone for not just America, but for us well.
Until next time!
-Mr. J
Introducing...
Greetings, and welcome to our little slice of the internet!
Chances are, you may have stumbled upon us by accident, but hey, you're welcome to stay and read through our adventure.
A little backstory:
My wife and I recently found out that we are expecting our first child. As of this past Sunday, she's currently 12 weeks along, and having the time of our life planning for our little one. The challenges, the struggles, and the excitement.
We've set this blog up mostly for our family to keep up, as unfortunately, as much as everyone would like to, we can't talk to everyone every day.
It's not fancy, but it's not intended to be. We're keeping it simple, for the sake of time and energy.
Frequency in updates may be questionable. One of us will try to update as often as we possibly can, or whenever pertinent events occur, but who knows how often we'll be able to.
Stay tuned, and we hope you enjoy!
Chances are, you may have stumbled upon us by accident, but hey, you're welcome to stay and read through our adventure.
A little backstory:
My wife and I recently found out that we are expecting our first child. As of this past Sunday, she's currently 12 weeks along, and having the time of our life planning for our little one. The challenges, the struggles, and the excitement.
We've set this blog up mostly for our family to keep up, as unfortunately, as much as everyone would like to, we can't talk to everyone every day.
It's not fancy, but it's not intended to be. We're keeping it simple, for the sake of time and energy.
Frequency in updates may be questionable. One of us will try to update as often as we possibly can, or whenever pertinent events occur, but who knows how often we'll be able to.
Stay tuned, and we hope you enjoy!
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