Lunch
“Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what’s for lunch.” -Orson Welles

Well, I haven’t popped yet. If you could see me, you’d realize how the phrase “ready to pop” really fits the occasion. I’m huge. I look at my body all of the time now, just watching for changes. I look at myself in the mirror each day and think, “Oh my goodness, I’m huge. I can’t get much bigger than this.” Then I see myself the next day and you guessed it…I’m even bigger.

I had a brief reprieve from the swelling. I even had ankles for about three days. This weekend, the ankles went away again. The swelling in my feet was terrible yesterday, but I still managed to get a lot done. OK, “a lot” is a subjective term. I’m just not able to move around a lot or for too long before the pressure in my lower body makes me want to cry. However, I managed to take long breaks between short stints of housework yesterday and it worked out pretty well. I’ve been wanting to get the baby stuff all organized and ready to go, but haven’t been feeling up to it since there were so many factors involved. The biggest factor being that the baby room is part of our bedroom and our bedroom tends to end up as a catch-all. Everything that we don’t want a cat to get into ends up in the bedroom. Now we have a lot of nooks & storage but it needs to be organized better.

So, I spent the day upstairs. I never got out of my pajamas and I hung out on the bed watching either Animal Precinct, Red Carpet shows or the Oscars and took advantage of commercial breaks to do some organizing & cleaning. I really made quite a bit of headway with that tactic and didn’t wear myself out too bad. Around 8 pm I hit a wall and just couldn’t do anything else. My body can only handle so much before the pain & pressure take over. I feel really good about what I did get done though!

Well, we went in for our bi-weekly doctor’s visit yesterday. Gabriel weighed in at a whopping 8 lbs…although the doc thinks he’s probably closer to 7.5 lbs. Either way, he’s huge.

I’ve been miserable lately and Gabriel’s size explains a lot. I just have so much pressure in my hips & crotch that all movement is excruciating. Sleep is difficult to say the least. While the swelling is better, my feet are still very sore.

There is no way we are holding out until the actual due date of April 4th. The doc says that he’ll probably have to take Gabriel via Cesarean section within 3 weeks. I think Gabriel is going to try and bust out within one week. Shall we start a “delivery date” pool? Place your bets!

I final got the pictures uploaded from my first baby shower! Stop by my gallery and check them out!

It was so much fun. Baby stuff rocks!

I spend a great deal of blog time boasting about my wonderful husband. Let me just state for the record that I’ve been truly spoiled this Valentines Day. On Thursday of last week, I received a beautiful bouquet of red, pink and white tulips. Friday, I received luxuriously scented Star Gazer Lillies with the largest and most gorgeous blooms. Yesterday, I got a dozen lovely red roses. I am the envy of the office.

To top it off, he took my car last night, filled up the tank and left me an “I love you note” that made my morning!

I’m such a lucky, lucky woman.

So, I’ve mentioned that some things have changed on the work front. Well, there have been multiple changes. I know I’ve mentioned on several occassions that the new boss and I just never clicked. Okay, okay, I think that is much kinder than I’ve put it in the past. I don’t like the man. He’s been nothing but rude to me and I’ve watched him be down-right cruel to others, as well. Yet, I’ve tried to be a good assistant to him, regardless. I’ve tried to follow his rediculous requirements. I’ve scheduled his 6:00 am meetings when he “wants to make someone suffer”. I’ve busted my hump to try and keep up, even at the risk of my own health.

When I found out that I was pregnant, every time I could get him to sit down with me, I brought up the need for help and maternity coverage. It wasn’t until I landed myself in the hospital w/ pneumonia…and was required by doctor’s orders not to return to work until a week later that it really hit him, how dire the need was for some help. That is when he realized that he wasn’t the kind of person to offer up any kind of flex-time. He wanted an admin that could be there at 6 am, leave at 8 pm and not have any other obligations to keep her from being his right-hand person. No lie, he actually told me as much when he talked to me about getting a different admin. Granted, I had been putting in a rediculous amount of hours, especially for a pregnant woman, but I always had an obligation to my husband and my family before my job.

So, that was the first step. He wanted a new admin. Now this didn’t mean I was out of work, by any means. I supported him, as well as 2 other VP’s and a handful of finance staff. When I say I was drawn and quartered, I’m not joking. They were tugging at me from all directions. Truth be told, we had needed another admin for quite some time. So, basically, my (now ex)boss wanted to hire someone that didn’t have a home-life, to be his abused wife at work and I would continue to support the other VP’s and finance staff. To say that this made me happy was an enormous understatement. Sure there was some small part of me that felt a little defeated. You know, like I wasn’t good enough for the job. There was a much bigger part of me, however, that was elated. Elated that I didn’t have to support this man anymore. Elated that I would have some help. Elated that I’d get to watch while someone else endured the hell that I once called my own.

So, his replacement admin started last week. In addition to that, we’ve brought on a temp training to be my maternity coverage. So, starting yesterday, I’ve officially been able to cut my hours back to 6 hours/day…which is something that my doc requested several weeks ago, but due to the existing circumstances, cutting back to 9 hours/day was the best I could do. Now, I’ve got to admit….I’m having a hard time fight this “screw it” attitude. I had been beat up for so long that now, I just want to kiss this place off and focus only on my health, my baby, my husband and my home. It isn’t like me to think that way. Even when I despised the person I was working for, I busted my chops to be the best that I could…something has changed though and I’m having a very difficult time fighting this. Maybe it is just hormones. Yes, that’s the ticket, I’ll just blame my crazy hormones.

Today was my first 6-hour day and it rocked!

Today was a much better visit to the doctor’s. 3 weeks ago we had a pretty bad appointment. That was when we found out Gabriel was too big. That was also when we found out that I’m now battling gestational diabetes. The doc seemed very concerned about the entire situation. Basically, it was a matter of getting the diabetes under control, before Gabriel got too big. Even then, there is still a valid concern of pre-term labor or the necessity to take Gabriel early. The problem is that even though the baby is big, the lungs are underdeveloped. So, while I’m ready to call this done 8 weeks early, Gabriel isn’t as ready. This is the same visit that the doc said I needed to cut back on my hours.

Then 2 weeks ago, we went back and after trying very hard to control the diabetes with diet, we realized it was out of our hands if I still intended to get the nutritional necessities for myself and Gabe. I’ve been giving myself insulin injections twice a day since then.

This visit was much better. I’ve got to do weekly visits now and they are a pain. Each visit requires the usual blood pressure/urine test. Then I have to be connected to a fetal monitor for 30 minutes. Then the ultrasound. My appointment was at 3:15 pm today and we got out about 5:36 pm. The results this week were better. My blood sugars are better, but still a little high, so we are upping the insulin a tad. Gabriel is now weighing in at 5 lbs 14 oz, which means that in 3 weeks, he hasn’t quite put on a pound. That is good news. He’ll probably start putting on a lb a week from here on out, which still means he’ll be a big boy. The doc thinks he’s probably in there for about 4 more weeks, so he might not be too big. Overall, the doc seemed pleased but still concerned. I’m feeling pretty good. Now, I just need to kick this cold and I’ll be much better!

Pregnancy and colds don’t mix!