Absolutely Exhausted

I am absolutely exhausted.  Dead tired.  Thoroughly beat.  Downright tuckered out. 

I thought I was tired the day after Prom in high school when I was basically up for 24 hours straight.  I thought I was exhausted after working 31 our of 37 consecutive hours at the hotel one weekend.  Even in my first trimester, I thought I was just plum tuckered out.  I realize now that was nothing compared to how I’ve been feeling the last few days.

Unfortunately for those around me, that means I’m also crabby, testy, irritable or “sensitive” if you’re being nice.

My amazing husband (he really is) has the bewildered look down pat.  I don’t blame him for looking at me like I’m crazy, because I feel a bit like that sometimes when I’m upset for no particular reason.  He does what he can – rubs my back when I’m trying to get to sleep and preemptively brings me cookies or candy sometimes, assuming that I’m cranky.  And for the record, bringing me baked goods or candy will cheer me up for a bit at least.  My mom knows me well enough to count on this and brought chocolate cake when they came over the other night.

I blame my tiredness on the obvious – I am growing a baby!! – and the related, but less obvious.  I have trouble falling asleep, because I have too much running through my mind – What do we still need to do to get the nursery done?  Will I have a job after BabyMort arrives?  What will we do about our finances if I don’t?  Did I change the dog’s vet appointment?  The list goes on and on…  Once I’m lucky enough to fall asleep, I wake up because of heartburn, achey hips and/or back, because I have to pee, because I’m thirsty or because one of my extremities is asleep.  Usually, once I wake up, I start thinking about all the things that kept me up in the first place and the fun starts all over again.

I have a plan to (hopefully) get at least a few nights good sleep though.  I have yoga tonight and I usually sleep pretty well after that.  Then I made a chiropractor’s appointment for first thing tomorrow morning, hoping that after stretching at yoga, he’ll actually be able to adjust me and relieve some of my back and hip pain (something he hasn’t been able to do since for 20 weeks now…)  And the (chocolate buttercream) icing on the (chocolate) cake – I’m getting a massage on Saturday!!  We’ll put blankets over the windows in the bedroom Saturday night so the rising sun doesn’t interrupt my slumber on Sunday morning and I’d be perfectly happy sleeping until Monday morning if possible 😀

Hopefully I’ll look something like this:

The upside to heartburn

Yes, it’s annoying.  By mid-morning, I can’t eat or drink much of anything without feeling it.  Even water gives me heartburn, which makes me not want to drink it, which makes me dehydrated and cruddy feeling.  This week, however, I realized that there’s an upside.

A few times a day, when it gets uber-uncomfortable, I pop a couple Tums. (On a side note, my cousin kindly recommended the berry flavored, and I have to agree that they’re a little easier to choke down this way.)  I was looking at the package the other day and saw 2 Tums offers 640 mg of calcium, which is 64% of the daily recommended amount.  If I take 6 Tums a day, that’s 192%.  Combined with my prenatal and the calcium that I get from actual foods, I’m probably getting at least 450% of my needed calcium in a day.

At first glance, this seems a little excessive, but I’d much rather get “too much” calcium in a day, since it’s hard for the body to absorb and increased amounts of calcium can help prevent leg and foot cramps at night.  And according to my weekly update from BabyCenter – this week,  BabyMort starts depositing lots of calcium into her little bones daily!!

On a completely unrelated note – the counter on this blog says there are 75 days until Little Miss Chloe Mae’s expected arrival.  That’s not very many…

5 shirts, I swear!!

Can someone explain to me why the maternity sections of clothing stores (at least in Ames) only carry like 5 shirts??  I swear there were more options for pants  than for shirts – maybe like 7 or 8.  I was looking for an outfit to wear to my interview last week that looked professional and didn’t scream, “HEY, I’M PREGNANT!!”  I had recently been in Target and knew that they had nothing to offer, so I headed to the mall and looked in Younkers and JcPenneys.  Neither store had a button down shirt available in their maternity section.  In fact, in January, all they had available were baggy, short sleeved shirts with weird designs on them.  And they were like $40 a shirt – seriously, for a t-shirt??

I ended up finding a non-maternity shirt that I thought looked okay in the clearance section.  It was just long enough to cover the panel on my dress pants and not super tight.  After this experience, I have to admit that there’s a small (very small) part of me that hopes I don’t find a job before Chloe gets here, just so I can live out the rest of the pregnancy in sweatshirts and Aaron’s t-shirts, therefore avoiding any more maternity clothes shopping!!

(I just knocked on wood several times and am hoping that I’m not jinxing myself…)

Hooray – we have our ultrasound scheduled!!

At our last Doctor’s appointment, at 15.5 weeks, it seemed like our doctor was in and out of the room in 30 seconds flat.  As he was leaving the room, he said, “See ya’ in 4 weeks.”  I was waiting for him to say something about our ultrasound, since I’d be 19.5 weeks and the standard ultrasound is done between 18 and 22 weeks, but he didn’t and then he was out the door.  Looking back, I should have stopped him and asked, but I honestly don’t think I actually believed that he was leaving the room already – he never even asked if we had any new questions or concerns!!

I like my doctor and understand (or at least try to) that he has all kinds of interruptions and lots of appointments crammed into the day.  We didn’t have any pressing questions, and I know that if I had stopped him and asked, he would have taken the time to thoroughly answer all of our questions. 

But…I’d had it in my head that we’d get to have our ultrasound in January.  We want to find out the gender – I’m a planner!!  And I’m also the type of person who likes concrete evidence, not abstract ideas, so, I want to see BabyMort!!  I called the Doctor’s office yesterday to ask about scheduling one.  She asked who our insurance provider is, I said Blue Cross Blue Shield, and she immediately responded with, “They don’t cover ultrasounds unless the doctor says one is medically necessary.”  I told her that I had been told by my doctor that I’d have one between 18-22 weeks to check on the development.  She, again, just responded with, “BCBS doesn’t cover ultrasounds unless the doctor says one is medically necessary.”

I was thinking, “It seems to me like checking on the development of a baby and getting a better idea of the due date is medically necessary,” but I didn’t want to fight with the receptionist.  It wasn’t going to get me anywhere.  So, I said okay and hung up.  Then, I complained to my husband and friends, because it wasn’t fair (mature, I know) and asked friends who had been pregnant before about their experience.  BCBS is one of the most common providers in Iowa, so I was having a tough time believing that our plan, which is the best option the hotel offers, wouldn’t cover 1 ultrasound.  Everyone I asked told me it was ridiculous that I wouldn’t get a standard ultrasound around 20 weeks, so at least I didn’t feel like I was being a crazy, hormonal pregnant woman!!

Today, my Knight in Shining Armor arrived – aka DaddyMort.  He called the insurance company, who told him that 1 ultrasound is covered as well as any others deemed necessary by the doctor (just not an ‘elective’ ultrasound if, for example, the sex can’t be determined at this first one.)  When he explained that our Doctor’s office was telling us it wasn’t, they conducted a 3-way call between them, DaddyMort, and the Doctor’s office.

It’s amazing how the story can change when the insurance company is on the line.  The exact same receptionist told DaddyMort that “of course you have 1 ultrasound covered.  And even if you didn’t, we’d never tell someone they couldn’t get an ultrasound.  We’d always give the option of having one, but paying out of pocket.”  That is so not the conversation that had transpired 24 hours prior!!  But, I’m a grown woman who is about to have a baby, so I’m going to try to look past all of this, and just be happy that the situation has been straightened out!!

After a stern warning from DaddyMort to be nice to the receptionist (see above about being a grown woman…), I called and rescheduled our next appointment for a few days later so that we could have our ultrasound at the same time.  The big day is Thursday, January 15th.  As long as BabyMort cooperates, we’ll know (and share) if we’re having a boy or a girl in just a couple weeks!!