Monday, August 22, 2011

A Day from H - E - Double Hockey Sticks

On Thursday, August 11th, we had our 21 week appointment.  This also so happened to be a day from hell.

It was my first day back to work for preservice.  On my way to work, I was involved in a hit and run accident.  Some jerk behind me wasn't paying attention to what they were doing, so when I stopped at a red light, they didn't.  It seems they missed the two big red lights in front of them.  Thankfully, they didn't hit me hard as it already slow moving traffic, but I definitely felt the car get tapped.  Next thing I know the car swerves around me and runs the red light.  I didn't want to get out to inspect the damage at a busy intersection, so I waited till the light turned green and then pulled off onto a side street. There was a little dent on my bumper - nothing big, but definitely a ding in my otherwise dent less vehicle.  Since I was now running late to my first day of work, I quickly jumped back into my car and continued on my merry way.  My nerves however did not follow suit and I spent the rest of the day with a knot in my stomach (you know the kind where you can literally feel the anxiety and anxiousness twisting itself up into a thousands little knots?).  All I can say is thank God the baby was okay (I made the doctor check me out real good at my appointment later in the day).

On a positive note, I told my coworkers about my pregnancy.  Up until this point I had only told the director, assistant director and administrative assistant.  I really did not want to tell everyone else as I firmly believe in the power of keeping home and work separate, but I also felt as though the kids in my group and their parents had the right to know that their teacher would not be there for the entire year.  So, I told the fellow staff of my room and by the end of the day a majority of the entire center knew (things spread like wildfire in a workplace comprised of only women).  Although it was nice to hear everyone's congratulations and well wishes, it is also made me a little sad because pretty soon the career that I love would be coming to an end.  Mark and I had talked about enrolling the baby in the program, so I could keep working and also be right next door to the baby.  However, the school is not bending on the six units of Solano classes required for employment.  I had thought they had changed this, but I found out the day before from a frantic call from the director that they had indeed not changed this rule and I needed to enroll myself in classes ASAP.  Thus, I think my working days at the Children's Programs are coming to an end unless they offer me full time employment.  While staying at home with the baby sounds like a magnificent idea, a part of me feels guilty for leaving behind the work I was doing with children who desperately needed extra help.  I know my child will grow up just fine, but I'm not so sure of that about a lot of children in my class.  How do you justify putting the needs of one over the needs of many?  I guess that is where my dilemma of being a stay at home mama comes from.

By 1:30pm, I was done for the day and rushed home to pick up Mark.  He was still sleeping as he was coming off of a night shift, but he woke up and we drove over the doctors.  (I can't tell you how convenient it is to have the doctor's office and hospital less than five minutes away.  If it wasn't, we would be late quite a few times).  I went through all of the usual stuff - check-in, weigh in, blood pressure, pulse, temperature and the usual questions (have I had any pain?  any bleeding?  any sudden loss of fluids?).  The doctor came in, asked a few more questions and had me sit down on the exam table.  She then proceeded to hear the baby's heartbeat (She checked it twice since I wanted to make sure nothing was wrong due to the hit and run earlier).  The heartbeat was a steady 147 to 150.  She then used a paper measuring tape to get the fundal height.  I had been waiting for her to do this since all the pregnancy books say that the doctor does this every visit, but this was the first time.  (The military doesn't do a lot of extra stuff, which I'm thankful for because I don't have to pee in a cup every visit.  They only do stuff when it is important to do so.)  My uterus was measuring a little larger than it should be and with the 85% percentile the baby measured at with the ultrasound, she told me to get my glucose test done in the next week to test for gestiantional diabetes.  I said I would go on Monday since that was my last day off before work officially started.

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