By yesterday at 1 p.m. my hot water heater woes were solved. John opted to only make a couple calls to determine who could install a new water heater cheaper than the company the home warranty people use. He found someone, purchased the hot water heater, and convinced the home warranty company to write us a check for the repair we opted not to do.
While John braved a cold shower yesterday, I opted to hold out for some hot water, so I am now clean, as are all our dishes.
By the end of the afternoon yesterday I felt much had been accomplished. Not only do we now have hot water, but also my OB/GYN agreed to move my c-section (scheduled in case this little girl decides breech is her permanent position of choice) a week later, closer to the 40-week mark. I prefer to allow her to go as full-term as possible, and since I have absolutely no signs of going into labor anytime soon, I feel she's just not quite ready.
I, on the other hand, am getting to the point where I am ready. Especially since I've recently developed some sharp lower back/hip pain when I walk that causes me to hobble around like an old lady. Seriously, I was pretty much bed-ridden by last night. I think I might need a cane. The other symptoms I have (swollen feet, numb fingers) are manageable, just a bit annoying.
Honestly, I'd rather allow our child to come in her timing, healthy and happy, than be done with the discomfort before it's time.
John lamented last night that this pregnancy is lasting forever. I'm not sure if he said that in great anticipation of meeting our daughter or because he's so tired of all my pregnancy ailments. I'll just pretend it's the former.
After yesterday's victories, I'm prepared to not really accomplish anything today except holding this baby so she can finish her prenatal growth.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
I don't recall praying for patience.
Tomorrow marks 38 weeks of this pregnancy.
This morning our hot water was only lukewarm for 30 minutes. Then it became just plain cold. John determined the pilot light on the hot water heater was not lit, and it refused to light. Fortunately we sent in a service request with the home warranty company before 7 a.m., so we a place on a service list for today rather than tomorrow or next week.
I have a love/hate relationship with the home warranty company. Great that it's only $60 when something breaks. Awful that they usually take their sweet time figuring out what the real problem is, sometimes returning several times over two or three weeks in failed attempts to fix whatever is wrong.
Fortunately, today's repairman figured out within 45 minutes what was wrong and exactly what the home warranty company would pay for. Even though the water heater is probably on its last legs, the warranty is only going to cover a repair - no replacements for us. But then we have to go through the ordeal of how long it might take to get the right part, what would happen if we get the home warranty to just pay us for the repair so we can instead replace the whole thing, and how long will we be living with no hot water.
There is a significant difference between my priority (get me some hot water ASAP) and John's (you guessed it: the balance between the cheapest and most efficient solution to this problem, with emphasis on cheapest, I mean, most cost-effective).
I was out of pocket all morning, so nothing could be done on the water heater until this afternoon. By now I have been awake since 4:30 this morning. Usually 4 or 4:30 is the magic hour that I awake and can no longer get comfortable and end up tossing and turning until I feel it appropriate to finally get up two hours before the sun.
Recently, I've solved the sleep problem by taking an afternoon nap. Because of the broken hot water heater situation, I did not get a nap today. If this post is completely incoherent, you now know why.
The combination of being awake for so long, being so pregnant, and wrapping my brain around home warranty options while considering how long I can really go without hot water is trying my patience.
I think the last time we had a hot water tank go out, my grandfather died the same week and I had a flat tire that led to purchasing four new tires (or something like that). Our daughter is still breech and I've really had no feelings like I'm nearing labor, but now I'm wondering if the hot water heater is the beginning of a series of unexpected events. Then again, I really don't have the patience or brain power to think about that right now.
In fact, I'm really starting to not even care that we have no hot water. I'd rather sleep right now than be clean or have clean dishes. I guess this works in John's favor. He now has plenty of time to scrutinize the financial aspects of our dilemma. I do, however, suspect that after some sleep I may begin to start caring a little bit more about the lack of hot water.
This morning our hot water was only lukewarm for 30 minutes. Then it became just plain cold. John determined the pilot light on the hot water heater was not lit, and it refused to light. Fortunately we sent in a service request with the home warranty company before 7 a.m., so we a place on a service list for today rather than tomorrow or next week.
I have a love/hate relationship with the home warranty company. Great that it's only $60 when something breaks. Awful that they usually take their sweet time figuring out what the real problem is, sometimes returning several times over two or three weeks in failed attempts to fix whatever is wrong.
Fortunately, today's repairman figured out within 45 minutes what was wrong and exactly what the home warranty company would pay for. Even though the water heater is probably on its last legs, the warranty is only going to cover a repair - no replacements for us. But then we have to go through the ordeal of how long it might take to get the right part, what would happen if we get the home warranty to just pay us for the repair so we can instead replace the whole thing, and how long will we be living with no hot water.
There is a significant difference between my priority (get me some hot water ASAP) and John's (you guessed it: the balance between the cheapest and most efficient solution to this problem, with emphasis on cheapest, I mean, most cost-effective).
I was out of pocket all morning, so nothing could be done on the water heater until this afternoon. By now I have been awake since 4:30 this morning. Usually 4 or 4:30 is the magic hour that I awake and can no longer get comfortable and end up tossing and turning until I feel it appropriate to finally get up two hours before the sun.
Recently, I've solved the sleep problem by taking an afternoon nap. Because of the broken hot water heater situation, I did not get a nap today. If this post is completely incoherent, you now know why.
The combination of being awake for so long, being so pregnant, and wrapping my brain around home warranty options while considering how long I can really go without hot water is trying my patience.
I think the last time we had a hot water tank go out, my grandfather died the same week and I had a flat tire that led to purchasing four new tires (or something like that). Our daughter is still breech and I've really had no feelings like I'm nearing labor, but now I'm wondering if the hot water heater is the beginning of a series of unexpected events. Then again, I really don't have the patience or brain power to think about that right now.
In fact, I'm really starting to not even care that we have no hot water. I'd rather sleep right now than be clean or have clean dishes. I guess this works in John's favor. He now has plenty of time to scrutinize the financial aspects of our dilemma. I do, however, suspect that after some sleep I may begin to start caring a little bit more about the lack of hot water.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Where have I left my brain?
As I was mailing off a 30th birthday card to my sister-in-law earlier this week, I remembered my 30th year. Then I prayed fervently that hers would be 500 times more joyful, fun, and happy than my pretty unpleasant one.
So I was going to reminisce on the heartbreak of my 30th year until I just now remembered I'm actually 32, not 31, and so the most horrible year would have been my 31st. How can I not even know how old I am? Possibly because I try hard not to care? Or maybe just because I'm 37 weeks pregnant, my hormones are crazy, and most nights I get very little sleep?
And come to think of it, wouldn't the year after I turned 31 actually be my 32nd year? So, the horrible year would have been my 32nd year, I'm now in my 33rd year, and my upcoming birthday will make me 33 years old.
I don't even know if there's a point in writing anything else in this post. Welcome to the madness in my head!
Reminiscing on the worst year of my life would have been completely unproductive anyway, so apparently even in this lapse of rational thinking my brain is saving me from myself. And all I have to say about the current year is that time is going ever so slowly. John and I were talking last night about how long this pregnancy has seemed. Partly due to the fact we found out almost as soon as one can discover a pregnancy, partly due to all the anxiety and fear as we waited for the first trimester to be over, and partly due to all the major life changes that have ensued since finding out we were pregnant.
My four-year-old nephew has recently started telling my sister that I've had my baby (that's as opposed to telling her I have a baby inside). We think this is a long pregnancy! For him, I suppose this pregnancy is 1/6th of his life! That's like five and a half years for me (if I am indeed about to be 33 and not 32 as I assumed as recently as an hour ago)! John would like to point out that, at this point, our nephew probably doesn't even remember life before I was pregnant with our baby girl.
I still hope my sister-in-law has an exponentially better birthday and year than I had when I turned 30. Perhaps she, too, can have the blessing of not remembering how old she is...or caring! You're only as old as you feel anyway!
So I was going to reminisce on the heartbreak of my 30th year until I just now remembered I'm actually 32, not 31, and so the most horrible year would have been my 31st. How can I not even know how old I am? Possibly because I try hard not to care? Or maybe just because I'm 37 weeks pregnant, my hormones are crazy, and most nights I get very little sleep?
And come to think of it, wouldn't the year after I turned 31 actually be my 32nd year? So, the horrible year would have been my 32nd year, I'm now in my 33rd year, and my upcoming birthday will make me 33 years old.
I don't even know if there's a point in writing anything else in this post. Welcome to the madness in my head!
Reminiscing on the worst year of my life would have been completely unproductive anyway, so apparently even in this lapse of rational thinking my brain is saving me from myself. And all I have to say about the current year is that time is going ever so slowly. John and I were talking last night about how long this pregnancy has seemed. Partly due to the fact we found out almost as soon as one can discover a pregnancy, partly due to all the anxiety and fear as we waited for the first trimester to be over, and partly due to all the major life changes that have ensued since finding out we were pregnant.
My four-year-old nephew has recently started telling my sister that I've had my baby (that's as opposed to telling her I have a baby inside). We think this is a long pregnancy! For him, I suppose this pregnancy is 1/6th of his life! That's like five and a half years for me (if I am indeed about to be 33 and not 32 as I assumed as recently as an hour ago)! John would like to point out that, at this point, our nephew probably doesn't even remember life before I was pregnant with our baby girl.
I still hope my sister-in-law has an exponentially better birthday and year than I had when I turned 30. Perhaps she, too, can have the blessing of not remembering how old she is...or caring! You're only as old as you feel anyway!
Thursday, February 02, 2012
Reality Check - Five More Weeks
It took a plastic life-size baby to shock John into the reality that pretty soon we're going to have an actual little person living with us. And we'll be responsible for that person.
Last night at baby care class, I let John practice on the plastic baby: diapering, bathing, swaddling. The entire time I reminded him that our real-life daughter would be crying, screaming, wiggling and/or flailing her appendages around while he tried to accomplish those tasks. Not sure if that helped his confidence at all, but I proceeded to remind him that he's a very smart person capable of learning new things. His experience with babies is almost zero.
(And now, even before our daughter is born, he is already expressing how hard my job as a full-time mom will be. I know I'm blessed to have a husband who understands how much work just being a mom really is!)
Even though I've done plenty of babysitting, been around friends with kiddos, and spent quite a lot of time helping my sister with my nephew, I'm apprehensive as well. I'm not clueless about what babies are like, but I've never had to care for one 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I'm the kind of person that is always trying to prepare for the worst. So while I'm aware of the complete life-change, exhaustion, frustration, possible depression, and feelings of being overwhelmed that our daughter will bring, I'm trying really hard to balance that with the positives. I'm trying hard to be in the mindset that our daughter as a newborn, as an infant, even as a toddler, will be a time period that flies by. I'm just not sure exactly how hard it will be to remain grateful for the little moments and notice precious details once we're in the thick of caring for an infant.
It's difficult to express how grateful we are for this little miracle. Mostly, I think adding a child to our family after so many years of being "just us two" will require a major adjustment period. When I think of the big picture (adding a child, maybe eventually more children, to our family), I'm so grateful and excited. Despite the major adjustment and lack of experience, we can't help but think how fun it's going to be to have more people to share life with as a family.
That baby care class last night also kind of lit a fire under us. I'm at the 35-week mark now. Although I sense that this little girl will go almost full-term, I guess I don't know for sure. Some things, like organizing all the baby shower gifts, washing clothes, purchasing necessities like diapers, setting up the bassinet and installing the car seat, really need to get done! Please let us still have five more weeks to get ready!
Last night at baby care class, I let John practice on the plastic baby: diapering, bathing, swaddling. The entire time I reminded him that our real-life daughter would be crying, screaming, wiggling and/or flailing her appendages around while he tried to accomplish those tasks. Not sure if that helped his confidence at all, but I proceeded to remind him that he's a very smart person capable of learning new things. His experience with babies is almost zero.
(And now, even before our daughter is born, he is already expressing how hard my job as a full-time mom will be. I know I'm blessed to have a husband who understands how much work just being a mom really is!)
Even though I've done plenty of babysitting, been around friends with kiddos, and spent quite a lot of time helping my sister with my nephew, I'm apprehensive as well. I'm not clueless about what babies are like, but I've never had to care for one 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I'm the kind of person that is always trying to prepare for the worst. So while I'm aware of the complete life-change, exhaustion, frustration, possible depression, and feelings of being overwhelmed that our daughter will bring, I'm trying really hard to balance that with the positives. I'm trying hard to be in the mindset that our daughter as a newborn, as an infant, even as a toddler, will be a time period that flies by. I'm just not sure exactly how hard it will be to remain grateful for the little moments and notice precious details once we're in the thick of caring for an infant.
It's difficult to express how grateful we are for this little miracle. Mostly, I think adding a child to our family after so many years of being "just us two" will require a major adjustment period. When I think of the big picture (adding a child, maybe eventually more children, to our family), I'm so grateful and excited. Despite the major adjustment and lack of experience, we can't help but think how fun it's going to be to have more people to share life with as a family.
That baby care class last night also kind of lit a fire under us. I'm at the 35-week mark now. Although I sense that this little girl will go almost full-term, I guess I don't know for sure. Some things, like organizing all the baby shower gifts, washing clothes, purchasing necessities like diapers, setting up the bassinet and installing the car seat, really need to get done! Please let us still have five more weeks to get ready!
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