22 Weeks

A Status Update: I'm feeling pretty good, still much better than I did before I was pregnant, but a few symptoms have crept up recently. I'm getting headaches pretty frequently, but nothing bad. Also I'm very very tired and again, that's pretty normal. I think I'm still trying to catch up on the sleep I lost while I was in WI. My sciatica is bothering me a lot though. This leads to me getting nightly massages from Tony, but I'm pretty sure nothing can really fix that problem, so I will not be talking about it unless there is actually some development on that front. This leads me to the oh so fun topic of the Rhuemetologist. Basically, I was supposed to get kicked off of my secondary insurance once I sent in the change of income form after Tony got his first full time check (because the rhuem thinks it's fraudulent to have these 2 insurances). Well I did that. Then while on vacation the rhuem office calls me and says that they called my insurance which said I was still covered at of May 1st....well duh! Of course I was covered in May, that was 2 months ago! Anyhow, so when I got back from vacay I had a letter from the insurance company which I thought would say I was terminated, but alas, it said that they received my change of income form and that I was still covered. So then I frantically call them to see if I can just get my coverage cancelled and of course I leave messages and they won't call anyone back. So then while I'm asleep on Monday morning the rhuem calls me and tells me that they filled my appt time since I never got back to them (once again, not my fault) and that I can reschedule my appt. Problem there is that it takes about 4 months to get an appt, so I'd pretty much have already had my baby by then. Anyhow, so then I went ahead and made an appt for another rhuem who doesn't care about my insurance (because nobody does except that one lady) and they were very nice and even bumped up my appt up 3 weeks to Aug 7th since I'm pregnant. Then yesterday the insurance company finally called me back and said that I'm still within the income limits and will be covered at least until 3 months after I give birth and that my child will be covered for at least 1 year after it's born. So, wish I would have known that sooner!

A lot has happened in regards to my pregnancy this week!

The first exciting this is that Tony got to feel Embry moving for the first time on Monday night when we were laying in bed. Generally that's when I feel the most movement and it's easier to feel from the outside since my stomach is flat, so I will put tony's hand there. Most of the time I end up saying "did you feel that?" a lot with him responding "no" over and over again. Well that happened about 3 times and then she punched really hard and I looked at Tony's face and could tell right away that he felt it too because his hand flinched and he got this big surprised look on his face, but I still said "did you feel that?!" He responded "yes, oh my gosh! That was amazing!" He was very very excited and kept kissing me and kissing my stomach. I told him that is what I have been feeling for weeks and just couldn't understand how he couldn't feel it, but I'm really glad that he finally got to.

The other big event of the week is that I went to my OB appt on Tuesday at the Rita Ranch location which means that I got to meet the actual doctor. You might think that since I was at a smaller office this would also mean that I would get in to see the dr closer to my appt time, well that was not the case. It was 1.5 hours after my appt time when I was finally called back. I knew it was a bad sign that when I got there and signed in at 9:45 (5 min before my appt time) the receptionist told me that Dr. Sherman was 'on her way' haha. So asked what was going on and she told me that the dr had an unscheduled C-section that morning, so that's why she was late. I would say this is an acceptable excuse (unlike the other office where they're just slow). When I finally got called in, the nurse weighed me and I have still lost weight overall, but gained 2 lbs since my last apt 5 weeks ago, so that's good. Then she took my BP which was normal and then checked for the heartbeat with the dopplar. She had trouble finding it at first, then I told her they said I have placenta anterior and she moved off to the side some and found it right away. The heart rate was a solid 154 bpm. Then I got to meet the dr finally! She measured my stomach which is apparently measuring on target and I started asking her the question I wrote down. Basically she gave me the go ahead to lay on my stomach until it becomes uncomfortable, said that my back/side pain was normal and from stretching, and told me I am allowed to have tylenol pm (which is just about the greatest news ever). I told her briefly about Kim's experience with the dr wanting to turn down her epidural for pushing and immediately Dr Sherman asked what Kim's dr's name was, I said I didn't know the last name but the first name was 'Lynnel' and my doc goes "I knew it! That's her signature move!" I thought it was freaking hilarious that my doctor knew Kim's dr just because of that one thing. Anyhow, she said that as long as I can push then she would want me to keep the epidural on through the entire labor and delivery. She said she used an epidural with all of her kids and didn't see the point in someone experiencing more pain than is necessary. I basically could have given her a hug at this point, but refrained. She also said I could get my epidural at any time that I don't have to be dialated to a certain point first, so that's great. I asked what the likelyhood was that she would deliver my baby and she said that towards the end of the pregnancy they would be monitoring me very closely and it would be likely they would induce me before my due date, in which case, she would definitely be the delivering doctor. Otherwise she works with 4 other doctors, all of which are male, so I'd basically have a 20% chance of having during delivery. It doesn't matter to me who it is really, but I do like this doctor a lot. The other thing she said, which made me sooo soooooo happy, was that since I have lupus she wants to monitor the growth of the baby more closely and is going to send me in for another ultrasound at 28 weeks! I told her that I'm always willing to get another ultrasound, I love to see my little baby! I'm really really happy that someone has finally taken some stock in the fact that this is high risk. I don't feel like anything is going to go wrong, but I'd much rather be on the safe side. My next appt is on Aug 5 again at Rita Ranch and then we'll plan for the 28 week ultrasound, yay! So in summary, the apt went very well and I got to meet my doctor, who I like very very much...even more so than the nurse practitioner.