Busy Bee

J and I are still unpacking.  But other than a few boxes in the kitchen of damaged items and items for a yard sale I'd say that the apartment is unpacked.  The shed on the other hand, J's domain, is far from free and clear.

Yesterday I ordered for him a sturdy shelving unit identical to the one I had ordered and he put together for our utility room.  Now he can store his gear and tools on a shelving unit and still have room for his shop vac, work bench (if he ever finds its) and other items that don't get shelved.

Over the weekend J and I worked on the furniture in the baby's room.  There was quite a bit of damage to several antiques and unfortunately three of the pieces were ones we had put aside for our baby.  The antique Bird's-eye Maple dresser was ruined in my opinion.  The bottoms of each of the three drawers needed new pieces glued and nailed to them along with scratches, digs and stains fixed on the outside.  I found no less than three water glass rings on two pieces of furniture.  Seriously couldn't they put their bottled water some where besides on my furniture?  The antique cherry desk had issues too.  When they were bringing it into the house I stopped them.  Sticking out of the desk flap was a piece of the cherry wood that someone had splintered off and just decided to stick in the desk and partially out of it.  I was pissed.  So far it looks as though it has come from the underside of the desk in an area that is only partially seen.  But I bought paint markers for both pieces of furniture and lemon oil.  The Bird's-eye nursing rocker also has damage to it.  But since it uses the same marker and oil as the dresser I didn't have to purchase double.  I do have to say that all three pieces look wonderful now.  I had taken photos of all of my household goods before we moved, during the moving into the house and will take photos of them in the next few days to show what had to be done.  I have photos of where J was gluing and nailing pieces into the furniture.  Yes, I also saved receipts for purchases to repair the items too.

Thursday I have to go back to my Savannah Perinatologist.  While there I plan on checking out a furniture store on Bee street.  I still need to purchase a night stand for the baby's room.  Oh I realize she won't need it for about two years but I'd like to have it on hand so that I have a place to put one of the lamps in her room.

Her closet is packed right now with all the gear we purchased for her.  When we are fully done with restoring her furniture and assembling her crib, whenever that shows up, we'll put down the carpet, move the furniture into position and start taking things out of her closet.  However, as soon as we are done with restoring her dresser I am going to start washing her clothes and diapers.  I'd like to get things ready soon just in case she decides to show up a few weeks early.

Here is a 30 week photo:

First Perinatology Visit

Yesterday J drove us to Coastal Perinatology for our first visit.  I will be seeing them again next week too.

Since I am writing this on my tablet and am unable to get to the box that has my accessories in it I will keep this brief.

Every week from here on through the remainder of the pregnancy I have to be seen by either the military high risk or the perinatologist.  The baby is just fine but I am not.

Baby girl weighed 2 pounds 13 ounces yesterday at 29 weeks 4 days gestational age.
I lost 2.6 more pounds.

No they aren't concerned about the weight loss.  Their concern is my risk of a heart attack during labor.  I might yet have to have a C section.

I am also to be seen by the cardiologist here at Winn Medical as per request of the perinatologist.

Iam hoping that by Sunday night I will have my desktop computer up and running.

Birthing Plan

I took the plunge and purchased the hypnobabies program.  This past OB appointment I told my physician that I planned on using hypnobabies.  He was concerned because I'm not a 20 something year old and that I'd be in a lot of pain.  I personally don't do well on pain medications.  However he made me see a bit of reason that I might just need an epidural.  If I do then I'll get one.

If all goes well J will be there for the birthing.  If not I'll be doing it alone and hopefully it won't be a scream as Joan Rivers would said it would be.  J does have some training coming up with his new unit so anything is possible.

This week I'll be reading through class one of the hypnobabies and listening to the cd tracks once I find my cd player.  Alas I'm still not finding everything and I've yet to open all the boxes too.  Just no energy to go through the last forty boxes.  I'll have to find the energy as J goes back to work tomorrow.  I was nice to have him home for the three day weekend to help out.

Right now I can hear hammering as J is hanging up the curio cabinets and a painting in the living room.  He has also been hammering away on the baby's dresser, my old bird's eye dresser.  Alas my dresser didn't fare all that well during the move.  J and I have been making several trips to Lowes since we received our belongings this past Monday.  Yesterday it was to purchase wood filler glue, a dowel, and furniture makers.  Ugh!  When I get the chance I'll post photos of the damaged and broken items.

28 Week OB Check Up

Yesterday was my 28th week check up at the OB here at Fort Stewart.  Again a different doctor.  In the many weeks I've been going to an OB here and at Madigan I've yet to see the same doctor twice.  As of yesterday when they started to schedule the next few appointments it looks like they'll be keeping me with Dr. Canady.  He is a really sweet man.  Great personality, older, and I hope he turns out to be the one I'll look forward to seeing in the Labor and Delivery suite.

Next week Thursday I head over to the Perinatologist in Savannah.  Tricare is allowing me four appointments with them and hopefully I'll get to use them all before she is born.

I finally gained two pounds.  But alas I got on the scale this morning and found that I'd dropped 0.6 pounds overnight.  I swear it is all this unloading of boxes I'm doing that is causing the weight to drop off.  Dr. Canady isn't too worried.  He said the weight guidelines should be thrown out the window.  He also said that I have baby that is growing just fine but that she is well hidden.  I'm really getting tired of the remarks from women where they keep saying, "you are so small for 7 months".  I want to tell them, "yes, because this is my first baby and I'm not constantly stuffing my face with empty calories either".

Weight:  + 2 pounds which still makes me 3 pounds under my starting weight and of course another 0.6 pounds lost this morning gives me more wiggle room.

BP: 124/75

Fetal heart rate: 145

Fundal height: 31 cm.  Yes the dizzy spells I've been having can be attributed to the growth spurt of my uterus and baby.

Anatomy scan will be coming up soon.  High risk OB in Savannah will either be requesting that Stewart do it or they will do it themselves next week though I don't think I'm due for another anatomy scan until 32 weeks.

3 hour Gestational Diabetes test:  I passed with perfectly normal numbers!  Thankfully I corrected my eating habits early on with the 8 week test failure and barely passing the 10 week test.

Thyroid test:  controlled nicely on current dosage of synthroid.

On a different note:  My dad is still in the hospital.  We are hoping that soon he'll go to the nursing home for recovery.  Unfortunately he developed pneumonia after his surgery which was a complication we were hoping he'd bypass this time around.

I've called my mom and requested that J and I be allowed to come up for a visit on Memorial Day weekend as it is the last time until I deliver that I can travel up to see them.  She told me that my brother had requested that weekend too.  Well damn, I mean they won't get the chance to see me but for maybe an overnight trip as I pass through in November or December for the baby's christening.  I think I should get priority this time for that very reason.  My dear brother can get vacation easily while J can't.  Besides I have stuff to bring to my mom's that she'd like to have I reminded her.  Unlike my brother that makes a nuisance of himself while there and my parents often can't wait for him to leave.

I mean it isn't much that I'm bringing up to mom.  I have some hand embroidered table linen that I made and will fit her dining room table.  Also her grocery cart is bent to hell and I never used nor took out of the box the winnie wagon I purchased 6 years ago when I thought I'd be moving to Korea with J.  It is something she said she'd love to have and I intend on bringing it up to her and assembling it for her.  She has a ramp in the back of the house for dad's wheelchair which makes it easier to get the groceries out of her SUV too.

So we'll see what some pleading will do.  Hoping that mom understands that it is now or never with the wagon too as next time I come up the SUV will be filled with baby stuff, baby, and cat headed to NY with just an overnight stay at her place.

Disappearing Act

Yesterday my household goods arrived.  Some of the things that I need the most are missing and not on the inventory.

For example I have my washer but the hoses are missing.

I have my china hutch but the glass shelves are missing.

J is missing his work bench.

Jamal from the moving company gave us a hard time yesterday.  The man is disrespectful and has a real attitude.  We ended up on the phone no less than five times yesterday and ended up having two screaming matches with him.

Jamal started complaining that he couldn't use our toilet.  First off the cat is in that room.  Secondly the water for the whole cul-de-sac had been turned off.  It wasn't turned back on until 1700 hrs.  He continued to complain about the fire hydrant being open and the rushing water noise making he want to pee more.  Dude just shut up.  I'm pregnant, I have a full bladder too and it isn't like I can just up and go off in a vehicle to go pee somewhere like you can as I have to be here to supervise.  This was the first full move J has done and needed to be guided. J didn't even know that I could request them to unpack our goods too.  I decided to decline because this crew were idiots and that is putting it politely.

The first screaming match was me telling Jamal to please stop talking.  He is worse than someone trying to sell you something over the phone and just won't shut up.  Finally I told him to leave the house I was going to call his boss and if he didn't leave I was going to fire him from the job.

They refused to open up the crates and put in place the furniture first to ensure that the boxes could be placed around them which would have prevented them from having to move the boxes three times or more to fit all the furniture into the house.  IDIOTS!

We ended up with the Quality Assurance personnel department for the installation sending out their representative named Nellie.  Nellie gave a few choice words to Jamal, Bryan and the other work man.  They weren't doing things right and scuffing up the walls and damaging our inventory.

Nellie hung around until 1500 hrs but had to leave after that.  She did tell me to keep an eye on Jamal as he has an attitude.  Well not long after she left Jamal started in again.  Come 1630 hours when it was evident that we are missing items and he refused to look for them I had had it.

Jamal had plunked his sweated, dirty body down at my dining room table on the nicely reupholstered chair and decided to do his paperwork there.  He didn't ask if he could sit down on the chairs making them grubby.  He had plenty of room at the kitchen counter to sign his paperwork.  The rest of us including the two other crew members were looking for the items.  I asked him if he was going to help look for the items. He gave me lip that he had to do his paperwork.  I told him he could do it at the counter.  He started in on my attitude.  I said we weren't going to sign off on the paperwork until we found the items or he surrendered the papers for missing items of which he refused to do when he should have for damage reports.

Finally he gets up off his lazy butt and starts to look at boxes complaining that it could be anywhere.  Really?!?  As if I didn't think of that.  Here I am 7 months pregnant and obviously I'm stupid to boot.

He started to get in my face and just wouldn't shut up again. As soon as I turned my back he'd start complaining about me again wanting him to basically do his job.  Yes, after they left we called up Nellie to file a complaint.  But first I'll tell you that Jamal accused me of cursing at him and raising my voice.  I said what cursing?  I didn't even say the word "crap" in his presence.  Then I said you haven't heard me raise my voice yet but if you don't stop talking you will.

Finally I had to scream at him to "Just get out of my HOUSE!  NOW!".  He wasn't looking for anything and he was causing more issues.  I explained to him several times throughout the day that I am a high risk pregnancy.  At one time I started in with contractions he had my blood pressure up so much.  I had to leave and chat with the gals in the neighborhood in order to calm down.

Back to the get out of my house. The nameless co-worker started pushing Jamal verbally and physically to leave the house while all the time Jamal was getting more verbal with me.  As soon as Jamal was out the door J got on the phone to Nellie and I locked the door.  The workers rang the bell but I refused to answer as our peep hole had been painted over and I wasn't sure it was them.  I had told Jamal on the way out the door that he can come back in if he apologizes for his behavior.

After I heard their truck leave I went outside to apologize to the neighbors.  The soldiers were there and wondering if I needed help when they heard me screaming to the workers to get out.  The soldiers also heard Jamal talking smack about me outside to his co workers.  Jamal is not professional.

Two hours later the moving company sent out a different man, a man who knows Jamal and he apologized for him and said he shouldn't have acted the way he did.  We signed the paper for the main inventory and were given the papers for the missing and damaged items along with papers for the damages they did to our housing unit.  The man they sent would have preferred if we had signed off on all the damages last night but when I brought out my camera and started showing him all the photos I took he said he'd leave the paper work with us to write it all down and pick it up in 75 days after he found out I would be doing all the unpacking because of J's long work hours.

This morning I was able to unpack two dish packs of bar ware and have still yet to find the glass shelves for my china hutch.  If they can't be found they'll have to be custom made and it will leave me with dish packs for months to come.  I hope they can be found because I'm now into crunch time and want to get the nursery cleared out of boxes and set up for Baby Hiccup.

28 Weeks

Finally made it to the third trimester.  If I do my math correctly I am considered to now be in the seventh of the tenth month of pregnancy.  Mind you my mind is total mush now and I often have to search my brain for the word I am looking for during conversation; much like how I was after my last TBI.  I feel like such a dull-witted fool.

Carpal tunnel issues along with the spinal stenosis are getting worse but that is just par for the course.  Thyroid levels are holding the same which means I'll be staying on the 75 mcg dose.  My next OB appointment is this Thursday.  I'll be finding out how much I've gained in the past two weeks.  Can't believe it has been almost two weeks since my last OB appointment here.  Oh and I know I've gained about four pounds in about a week's time because I've been weighing myself and watching my feet swell to the point that they look like puff balls.  Now if only I had some furniture besides the card table and chair set and the blow up bed to put my feet up on during the day.

Tomorrow the household goods shipment will be arriving.  I can only hope for two things:  first that my cat stays in the bathroom and doesn't mind it for the almost six to eight hours that the movers will be here and that very little is going to turn up broken.  I know there will be a few broken things as that happens with every move.

J and I have finished buying all the baby gear.  Truly it did cost us about five thousand dollars to equip this baby and no I didn't end up buying the expensive Origami stroller either.  We decided to go with the Bob revolution SE stroller with the Britax infant car seat.  Seems that it has become a gimmick to ensure that all new parents have to purchase infant car seats if you want to use a stroller during the first six months of your child's life.  So that meant the adapter for the stroller too along with the sun shield, weather shield, bug netting and so on.  Weather here in Georgia is just the whole gamut in just a days time I swear.

We are loving our trial subscription to Amazon Mom and I think I'll continue it.  Nothing better than getting your packages, most of them, delivered within two days.  We purchased a metal shelving unit for the utility room.  At Lewis I had a nice wooden built-in one that I used for pantry and storing my appliances.  Unfortunately the cabinets in my kitchen here, though I have more of them, have fixed shelves.  Rather a pain in the but when I can't even put a bottle of olive oil in the cabinet because it is too tall!  We measured out the space between where the washer will go and the hot water heater sits and we can fit an 18 inch deep by 48 inch wide shelf unit.  This house was built in 1978 and it needs a lot of work.  Really wishing I could tear out a few things and make it more mine but with renting one can't do that.

The bassinet, I bought for $10, is up and sitting in the baby's bedroom.  I'll be putting it later in our bedroom but that will have to be after I dig it out from the mountain of boxes that will be arriving tomorrow.  Anything that was in drawers or trunks they repacked into boxes so I have double the stuff to work through.

Yesterday I scored a Munchkin microwave sterilizer at a yard sale for just a buck.  I also purchased two pieces of outerwear and a newborn onesie for $1.75.  Most everyone with a yard sale was closing up when it started to rain, even those having it in their garage.  That wouldn't happen at Lewis as rain is a given most days.

Sad to say but I still have over sixty more items on my Amazon registry that I'll be needing to purchase.  Mostly just the nipples, bottles, teethers, toys, Christening outfit, books and sundry things.  But still I swear it is like it is a never ending list.  I dreaded spending all that money but knew it had to be and J was good about it, the one person I thought would put a halt to the spending of such a large amount from our savings.  I was pleasantly surprised.  Maybe it is because he likes the idea of getting to assemble all of the equipment?

Yesterday when the infant car seat came in I had him take it out of the box and line it up next to Bugsy's cage.  Before it arrived he swore it wouldn't take up any more space than that large cage though I told him it would.  I don't mind moving my seat up another notch as I had some room between the cage and me during the 3000 mile trip.  So yes he was surprised to see it was an inch or two longer than the cage.  We have a medium sized pet kennel for Bugsy since he is a large cat. 

Speaking of Bugsy, he has lost 2.8 pounds in a little over 6 weeks.  No we haven't had him on a diet but with the move he wasn't eating as much nor getting as many treats.  I would actually say that he is close to no longer being obese with just 2 more pounds to lose.  Still wishing he didn't lose it so quickly.

Finally the bump photos.  Even with the suspected weight gain I am still weighing less than what I did when I found out I was pregnant.

I still have a waist to put my hands on.  Don't mind the roll under the bra line as I've always had that from wearing ill fitting bras.  I can't seem to find one with a band that goes under the boobs to hold me in so I go without the band type bra and just learn to deal with it.

Finally I have an internet connection

Yay!  Now I'll try in earnest to find time to blog. 

Monday the household goods shipment is due to arrive.

Tomorrow about half a dozen packages from Amazon are due to arrive.  I've been busy using the internet at the library to shop for items off my registry.  I still have over 100 items to purchase!

I finally settled on a crib.  I bought one through Stanely Young America.  It is made in the USA of sustainable wood harvested in the USA.  Through Amazon I purchased the mattress made of soy foam, also sustainable and made in the USA.

I did break down and bought an organic cotton bedding set from Pottery Barn Kids.  I couldn't resist the Peter Rabbit design.  I still need to purchase the crib bumper but I'll get that later when I'm sure that I want to use a bumper pad and not a crib liner.  I'm paranoid about suffocation.

I am a bit bloated.  Still at a negative weight gain from the starting weight but I'm sure I'll remedy that before this pregnancy reaches its end point.  I'm definitely showing.  I went to the post office today to pick up a package, it was Bugsy's birthday gift, and I asked the clerk if she could help me.  She says she doesn't deliver babies.  HAHAHA!

I'll be 28 weeks on Sunday.  Third trimester where the heck did you come from?  I swear this move has just ate up an entire month.

More in a few days or when I get the chance if sooner.  Hope to have a new bump photo to post if I can get J to use the camera.

Hope everyone is doing well.