Belly Laughs!

Time to spice up things a bit.

In the sense of  bringing in a little bit more color and imagery to my blog! :)

Here are a few funny/interesting pictures I have come across that I just want to share with you all. Some are old, some are new maybe. Some I may have shared on facebook. I really got these from a variety of places, facebook, instagram, pinterest, my pregnancy apps on my phone... you name it!

 Here's a funny pregnancy announcement... I find this hysterical, and what makes it even funnier Zhenya actually offered to do something like this when we were thinking of a creative way to announce our pregnancy on facebook. We never did anything creative than post a status really, but here ya go...

This is how I felt in the beginning of the pregnancy. I knew there was SOMETHING there but you really had to look to see it. Although now STILL, you can't always tell I am pregnant and depending on what I am wearing,  I have some sort of a small bump,  but this can apply nowadays too.... 

The next two photos... well... how do I put this... if you know Zhenya you will get the joke right away... if you don't  all you really need to know is that he just LOVES ( more like obsessed!) with video games. These two photos are a look into my future....

And additional note for the next photo... The first time I saw the photo and showed my hubby, the day before someone actually gave us a baby carrier. We were discussing how we were going to use it, that I would be shopping in Wal-Mart and Zhenya will wear baby and walk around with me as I shop. After seeing this photo he has other plans for using the baby carrier...

This one I just find amusing. We've actually also discussed about how we are going to have such a large milk supply after I have the baby that we won't ever have to buy milk again. We also teased on one of our friends that when he comes over for tea or coffee we won't tell him that we will be serving him breast milk! Ha! So very relatable as well...

This one speaks for itself. Cute, funny... but in the end you know it's the truth... :)

That is all I have for now! I'll try keeping an eye out for more entertaining or interesting photos to post every now and then, to make the blog a little more colorful!

Belly Shot: 19 Weeks!

Here is this week's belly shot since I was sick and missed out on last week. 

                                        19 weeks belly shot!

Also, just for fun here is a comparison shot with 17 weeks and 19 weeks:

17 weeks  & 19 weeks

Hospitalized: The Story Behind it All (Part 2)

Alrighty, time to continue where I left off.  If you haven’t read part one, you can read the beginning of the story by clicking on PART ONE, because I am just going to continue on from where I left off.

 A couple thoughts I didn’t mention in part one was how all of this was affecting the baby. I probably sound like such an egocentric person, but the whole time I kept asking them. I was really concerned about having a fever, especially when it spiked to 103. I know they warn pregnant women about putting your body at high temperatures, to avoid saunas or hot jacuzzis because bringing your body to a certain hot temperature is not good. Having a fever you can’t really control made me very, very nervous! This was one of the reasons I would take Tylenol immediately after feeling a fever coming, even if it was as low as 100 degrees. They assured me everything was fine, and in addition to checking up on me every 4 hours and giving me Tylenol, checking my blood pressure and such. They were also checking on baby’s heart rate every 4 hours. That was very soothing to hear and despite everything it would always calm me down that baby is doing okay. I requested an ultrasound on baby but they said it was unnecessary; only an ultrasound on my kidneys and bladder was done, other than that they were just checking the heartbeat.

Back to the story…

Friday

Friday was basically the same, I didn’t get much sleep that night- oh this reminds me. Dr. Deaver! He was on the night shift again- the same doctor that said it is not big deal when I called at night. I asked the nurse if there is something they can give me for sleep that doesn’t interact with everything else I am taking. She told me doctor was busy but would be free in an hour. After an hour passes I call them and she said he is with a patient and will ask again once he is done. About 30 minutes later I stumble to the front desk down the hall and ask the nurse again and she apologizes tell me she has asked the doctor many times already and he hasn’t given her an answer yet. I ask if I can speak to him and she motions to me he is sitting diagonal from her. I call him about 5 times before he responds. When I ask him about the medication he is quiet for like a minute before he responds. Asks my name about 5 more times and then there is a long awkward silence. Nurse comes back and asks me if I asked him and I said I think so, and we both look at him awaiting some sort of response. He finally speaks up and says he told my nurse she can give it to me. She is standing behind his back motioning her head to a no and mouthing the words “ No you didn’t,” then he calls her over and says he put in an order for it and she can go ahead and give it to me. So I got my sleeping pill finally, but in the end he’s a jerk and I did not like him. And from what I saw nurses there don’t like him as much either. The next night I asked the nurse if he was on shift again, and she responded that he wasn’t, I said “ Yay!!” and she says “ yeah, we  kind of all said that, but you didn’t hear that from me!” So, I wasn’t the only person with a not so kind impression of him!

They ended up increasing my Tylenol amount. Instead of giving me 2 pills of 325 mg (which was less than what I was taking at home, made sense to why they weren’t kicking in as fast) they started giving me 2 pills of 500 mg ( which was the dose I was taking at home.) But--- stronger dose meant that they don’t give it to me every 4 hours; they give it to me every 6 hours, which sucked. Because for some apparent reason no matter the dose my body starting brewing up a fever on a schedule- every 3-4 hours. The first few times they gave me the stronger dose every 4 hours, and since they have they had to technically skip a dose so I don’t go over the amount I am supposed to take in a day. They obviously didn’t do that but decided to give me something else. This was all decided at night. That night my fever peaked and my nurse must have been busy with another patient and the other nurses did not know the schedule I was on. I was already waiting for my time to get my Tylenol and was probably annoying, buzzing them every 15 minutes, but they finally brought me something – but it was an ibuprofen. I was concerned because I was told by everyone and read everywhere to avoid ibuprofen during pregnancy. So I reconfirmed with the nurse and she said yes, they advise to avoid it but they are giving this to me as a onetime thing because they can’t give me Tylenol  so I don’t overdose the daily amount.

I probably got only 45 minutes of sleep during the night and fell asleep around 6 am. At this point I was very tired and a few times nurses came in to check  on me like they usually do, and then shifts changed so the new doctors and new nurses came to introduce themselves, but I was just so out of it and sleepy I heard their voices and saw their faces very vaguely.

I woke up around 11am maybe and breakfast has been waiting for me already since 7 am. I was not feverish for the first time, although the 4 hour mark was definitely passed, but I still had pains so when they brought my Tylenol, I did not refuse it. I also began feeling a new pain. Aside from my back and side pain, my stomach right under my chest was feeling uncomfortable. Aside from it all, I had an appetite throughout all of this. But right under my chest it felt like my stomach, itself, was in pain and pressure and bloated. Like someone took an air pump and blew me up. And every time I ate it would make it worse. As if everything I was eating was just staying right there in my tummy.  Here comes some TMI stuff… at this point I haven’t gone #2 in 2 days for sure, but it did not feel like regular constipation.  Usually the pressure would be much lower in my digestive system and I would have the urge to go just nothing would come out. In this case it was just this painful bloated feeling, ugh not any fun adding on to everything else. They started giving me 2 different kinds of stool softeners and milk of magnesia, stuff that is safe to take and apparently supposed to make me go. It didn’t work for me that day, that’s for sure.

After taking the ibuprofen, I was fever free all day. Although, I still had bad pains, I was getting excited the antibiotics were kicking in and doing the job. On another bright note I got some visitors Friday too! Our friends Arseniy and Emelia surprised us and came in for a visit. Here’s another famous shot of my hubby’s that I will share with you (I look somewhat decent here as opposed to the other picture when I’m burning up from a fever, friends always make everything better anyway!)

So, at this point it is looking like I am starting to feel better…. Until 6pm hits. There come the wonderful chills again. It was a slowly rising fever, I think I hit about 101, and they gave me my Tylenol at 6:45, which brought it down. I guess the ibuprofen may have worked stronger and better than Tylenol keeping me fever free for 12 hours, I don’t know why else I was fever free when obviously it hit me again.

At 10pm I started burning up like crazy again, the bad news was I wasn’t due for my next Tylenol until 12:30! At this point there was a new doctor on shift- Dr. Grahm. I asked the nurse if there was something she could do, like give me a smaller dose of Tylenol or something. She measured my fever and it was 103.5, the highest it ever was so far. After a few minutes Dr. Grahm comes into my room and introduces himself. He asks me to tell him myself what the heck is going on with me. So I tell him everything, and with more questioning I ended up sharing my whole health history with him really, starting from my stomach issues and inflammatory bowel stuff ( if you haven’t read my old post thoroughly discussing my health you can do it HERE) to all my deficiencies, anemia and thyroid stuff- everything basically. He started thinking that this may not be a kidney infection after all. He thinks that with taking antibiotics for a few days already I should be feeling better by now, and yet I am still laying here with pains and a high fever. He said he wants another blood sample and urine sample and wants to further examine me, and possibly look into the pain below my chest, that could be a pancreas or gallbladder issue. At this point he offered to give me stronger meds- Percocets, which he told me, are safe to take, and if I need to I will be able to take them every 4 hours and they would help much more with the pain.

The moment Dr. Grahm left the room, Zhenya and I both exchange looks and say “Wow!” at the same time. The way he took his time to listen, asked questions, double checked everything and isn’t close-minded about thinking it is only a kidney infection and that’s it, was amazing. You can tell he obviously cared compared to Dr. Deaver the night before. We were very happy how he approached the situation, and honestly took time to talk to me. He was amazing!

Saturday

I probably got my first Percocet around 1 am, my fever was just horrible. Surprisingly within 20 minutes of taking I  go through an amazing change. It instantly brings the fever down and I slowly start feeling the pain go away. Once it completely kicked in, for the first time I actually felt NO PAIN at all! With the Tylenol, it would bring my fever down and ease the pain, but not take it all away, pain would still be there it would just make it more tolerable.

Zhenya was passed out, and I was just feeling wonderful for the first time ever. They also came in and gave me a Benadryl to help me sleep, the night before they gave me some pill but it did not work for me.  While waiting for that to kick in I suddenly got an appetite, devoured a bagel with cream cheese and skyped with my dad who was online at the time updating him about everything.

Dr. Grahm came into my room at some point before I passed out telling me my urine came out clean, and is showing the UTI is gone. He also said that he is thinking it is not a kidney infection anymore because the thing that indicated that was the high white blood cell count that they mentioned which was 14,800 and he told me that is high for a regular person, but for a pregnant woman anything 15,000 or under is normal, so that could be an either/or situation. His offers at this point were as following : 1. I do have a kidney infection antibiotics are working it’s just my symptoms are lagging and a bit behind,  2. The pain below my chest, could indicate  something wrong with my pancreas or gallbladder ( blood results would be ready in the morning), 3. It’s just a really bad cold/ virus (which sounds absurd to me because of the high fevers and severe pains!) Basically I had me a case of mystery diagnosis, and they were starting from square one to figure out what’s up.

I passed out at 2:30, and woke up at 5 because the nurse came in to do her regular check on me. I was fever free, but was feeling the strong pains again. I was able to fall back asleep and in the morning, a new doctor and nurse came in at one point, I am not sure of the time because everything was a blur. She said my urine and blood came back clean. There is nothing wrong with my pancreas or gallbladder. So it brings us down to 2 choices, kidney infection just longer or a virus. She told me they want to keep me until tomorrow morning, see how I am feeling for the rest of the day and take it from there.

I was in desperate need of a shower. The past 2 nights I sweated so much post-fever, I had to change my robe 3-4 times. And let me just remind you, we were not prepared to stay overnight. I had my outfit I came in and I brought my pj’s with me just to be more comfortable. I kept changing my tank top/ undershirt with my pj t-shirt every  time I sweated through it and had it dry and then wear it again. Not to mention I’ve had one pair of underwear the whole time and my hair was just nasty, ew- I know (but I ended up washing my underwear that day!) I asked them if I can take a shower. They disconnected me from my dear friend- the IV (that’s what the nurses and I started calling it, because I would take that darn thing everywhere with me if I were to go for a walk or go pee.) Water was chilly, so it was a quick shower, but after I got out, we had issues with my IV. It somehow got turned or something but it was really painful and the nurse ended up taking it out and had to re-poke me. Not to mention at this point I have already been poked 4 times! One time in the ER with an attempt to hook up an IV, one succeeded IV, and 2 times with my blood being drawn.

 Oh, boy… attempting to re-hook the IV was not  fun. She poked me 3 separate times, and all 3 times were extremely painful. Usually it only hurts when the needle pokes through, afterwards it goes away and there is no pain… not in this case. After the third time, it was painful to move my hand; she put ice on it and asked me to wait it out maybe it will get better so she doesn’t have to poke me again. After about 20 minutes it did get better, but was still limited to moving it certain ways- I was willing to suck it up instead of getting poked again!

The rest of the day was me being fever free, just having pains. Since about 10 am I started refusing the Percocets to see if I have a fever brewing. They seemed to be working fine, I felt the pain but it was tolerable like with the Tylenol. Evening time came and I was still going fever free, although to be honest I was very much anticipating it to happen. 

They gave me another double dose of the stool softeners and more milk of magnesia. After a couple of hours I still haven’t gone and this was day #3 already without going. She gave me some suppository basically this waxy thing to put up there to help me go. It stung a little but within 15 minutes I was running to the bathroom! Yay! Haha, it might sound strange but after not going for 3 days this made me happy, although it did not ease any of the pressure or pain in my upper tummy. Later that day I started having diarrhea. Don’t know if it was something health related or maybe those stool softeners and milk of magnesia just finally kicked in!

When Dr. Grahm came back on shift he came into my room and basically said he thinks it’s a very bad virus, not a kidney infection. He says technically they are supposed to keep me 24 hours fever free, and at this point it was a few hours short so it’s “cheating”, but he says we can basically go home. First, we thought about it and wanted to stay until the morning, just in case a fever would come and I and the baby would be monitored. Then, we thought about it more and it was already 10pm at this point and I didn’t feel a fever brewing, and might get more rest at home. So we decided to go home since there wasn’t really a reason to stay. He told me he was going to give me a prescription for Percocets to go home, although I won’t be able to get them til the next day, they gave me one dose right before I left to help me through the night. We left, and arrived home about 12:30. Before the meds kicked in I was still in bad pain, walking down the halls I had to take my time and take baby steps because everything was in pain. In the car the meds kicked in and I was feeling wonderful again!

Sunday

 Technically I am already home at this point, but I will include it in my hospital story anyway to help sum things up. Since I haven’t been sleeping at night, my sleep schedule was screwed up. I didn’t fall asleep until 3:30, but for the first time that week, I slept until 11:30 the next day, and it was wonderful. I woke up in udder pain and took 2 extra strength Tylenols.  Zhenya went to the pharmacy to fill my prescription and they weren’t able to because Dr. Grahm accidentally wrote 2012 for the date and my birth year as 1981 not 1991  :( Long story short, I called the birthing center and the midwife there not knowing my story or my history was telling me she is briefly looking at my case and says I don’t need them at all and that pregnancy has a lot of pains to begin with and that labor is going to be a lot worse. Even though she had the authority to help and work with us to get it fixed, she refused to. So I have been taking Tylenols all day and although they didn’t take ALL the pain away they made things more tolerable.

Today, I can say I am feeling better. I woke up this morning after a full night of sleep, with pains, but they were not as intense and as strong as they were before. So I am definitely getting better!!!

Honestly, even though it is still in question whether or not it is a cold/ virus gone bad or a kidney infection and the doctor thinks it’s a virus… I still think it was a kidney infection. Why? Because I have never had such intense pains and such high fevers with a cold. I think it was a kidney infection that my body just did not respond to healing as fast and took a little longer. Whatever it was, I am happy I am home, I am happy baby is okay and I am happy I am getting better.  I am planning to feel completely restored in a day or two and get back to work this week.

Thank you everyone who was thinking and praying for us during this time, it was a very scary experience because I had baby on my mind the whole time. I am glad everything worked out and so thankful for the quality care I received at Bassett! Once again makes me happy I switched and I look forward to giving birth there in June :)

The end.  ;-)

Hospitalized: The Story Behind it All (Part I)

So this week, has been seriously one of the worst weeks of all for my pregnancy. There are so many details to my hospital experience (not all bad actually!) that I am just going to cut to the chase.

Monday

It all started on Monday, I woke up feeling a little bit down to what seemed to be a cold. Surprise, surprise! I haven’t been sick in over a month and kept thinking about how lucky I was especially with my awesome immune system BEFORE pregnancy. It started out with a slight runny nose and sore throat. By the end of the day my sore throat got so much worse, the pain was unbearable. I’ve had many sore throats before in the past but none were as painful as this one. It was hard to even move my neck because everything was so swollen and sore, forget about swallowing. I started gargling salt water like crazy, upping the doses of vitamin C anyway I can (berries, oranges, tea with lemon and honey) and just drinking a lot. I started to get concerned it could be strep throat.

Tuesday

On Tuesday, I called my primary care provider in the morning to schedule an appointment. I was already feeling very run down the day before and this day wasn’t any better. I got lucky because on Tuesday he works in the Ilion office, which was wonderful that I didn’t have to drive to New Hartford especially since the weather was not the best. At this point I started having uncomfortable pains in my lower back, very slight, but they were constant that day and would not go away. My urgency to go to the bathroom also bothered me that day which I just happened to share with him (and good thing I did, although I thought this was just more fun pregnancy symptoms.)  He did a influenza swab test (not very pleasant, they stick a long q-tip up both your nostrils and swab them,) a strep throat swab, and a urine test for a possible UTI (urinary tract infection/ bladder infection.) The strep throat test they were able to tell me was negative, which was alright since my throat started to feel magnificently better that very morning ( the salt water gargling must have done the trick,) but everything else had to wait until the lab could report the results. That day did not get any better for me. My lower back pains started getting much more intense and not tolerable. I would not be able to find a comfortable position to sit, lay or stand in. I started soaking in hot baths which would help relieve some of the pain, and of course taking Tylenol as often as I could. That night was horrible. I woke up every 3-4 hours from the horrid back pain, take the Tylenol and try to fall back asleep again and not do too well with that until the Tylenol would kick in.

Wednesday

This was not an easy day for me. I had a last minute college orientation day. Not to get too off track with the story, but I applied to Utica College this semester in hopes of going back to school, and it took forever for them give me my acceptance letter. When they did they were asking for a $200 tuition deposit, which I asked if they can waive. Then it turned out my FAFSA was not filled out for this term and they were not able to approve a waiver until they have my financial info. I filled that out ASAP, and was calling them several times a week finding out if they received my info, keeping in mind classes are probably starting soon and I still don’t have a schedule set. Anyway, they finally received my info on Tuesday, and told me on Tuesday to come in for orientation on Wednesday and that classes start Thursday, no big deal!!!! So, I had no choice but to go to this thing to get my schedule and finances and all the other fun stuff figured out – the day before classes start.  Which later on, ended up being a waste because of how money and schedule stuff worked out, we decided to skip out on this semester and  go for it in the fall, because with the way I have been sick it would be choosing between my health or good grades at this point. And I think with how things are going, it is better for me to have a healthy and as stress free pregnancy as possible (that’s the short version of my college story.)

Back to Wednesday! I had about 4 hours of sleep, and the pain in my back got worse now on my sides, extending to my middle back and on my lower stomach putting pressure on my bladder. I started thinking this really might be a UTI, but was also questioning it because I was told by others usually doctors tell you on the spot. The urgency to go that night was bad too, I got up 4 times feeling like I really had to go and nothing was really coming out. But I took my bottle of Tylenol and went to the stupid college orientation thing. Which, I assumed would a couple of hours of just getting my schedule, student ID and such. Well, I get there, and there is a whole program planned until 4pm.  Great. Good thing I had my Tylenol, but even with that, walking all day with my pains getting worse was not a fun experience at all.

During the orientation thing, I get a missed call from the doctor’s office, which I immediately call back, and guess what I do in fact have a UTI!  I asked them if the pains I am having are related with a UTI and they told me they are. This made me happy, simply because I had an answer and knew what the problem was; it wasn’t a matter of questioning anymore, just a matter of getting better.

 I got out of the orientation thing around 5; at this point my pains were so intense I am not even sure how I drove myself home. My hubby picked up my antibiotics for me, so I took them immediately after coming home and then went straight to the bathroom to soak in hot water. Which wasn’t working as effectively as it did the day before. I started looking online about UTI’s and pregnancy and all that fun stuff, and didn’t really see the symptoms of these really bad back pains. I have never had a UTI before of course, so I wouldn’t know, but I also spoke with some other people and I know when others have had UTI’s they really just had a burning feeling and the really bad urgencies of going. What I found about the pains is if it gets serious it could lead to a kidney infection. This is where I got worried. So I call Bassett and tell them about my symptoms to this point, and the woman I spoke to told me that everything can be just UTI related and to just drink lots of fluids, cranberry juice, use a heating pad, and keep taking my antibiotic and Tylenol. As long as I don’t have a fever or chills then the antibiotic should kick in 24-48 hours after taking it and should start making me feel better.

So, I sent my dearest Zhenya to Wal-Mart since I was in such excruciating pain that  Tylenol wasn’t completely taking care of and hot baths weren’t soothing as much. He bought me some natural cranberry juice, more Tylenol and a heating pad. I started chugging the cranberry juice, which was a bad idea, I guess baby didn’t like it as much, because I had a meal right before it and I ended up puking up only the cranberry juice. That night, I turned on my heating pad, took my Tylenol, and took some Benadryl to help me sleep and passed out at 11pm.

 I woke up at 3:15 am with extreme pain and to add to it all, chills and what seemed to be a fever. I barely make my way out of bed to check my temperature, which ended up being only 100, but I felt it was getting worse, I take a Tylenol immediately. I really start to worry with the thought of a Kidney infection running through my mind. I wake Zhenya up and tell him, and we decide for me to call Bassett and see what they say, if they offer that it is so serious to come to the emergency room now. I call, and the nurses there speak to the doctor who is on the shift at the time, Dr. Deaver, who says a fever of 100 is nothing and because it has been less than 24 hours of me taking antibiotics I should just keep doing what I am doing. Okay, if you say so doctor.

A little off track- 15 minutes after waking up we hear a loud horn beeping outside. Like someone is blowing their car horn but just holding it. We look outside, and Zhenya suddenly runs outside and discovers it’s OUR car!!! He tries to get it to stop by turning it on, looking at the hood- nothing. He runs upstairs to get his tools and runs back down to dismantle the battery and then the car shuts up. It was -27 degrees Fahrenheit that night, and I guess some water must have  froze and was pushing on some sensor or something making the horn blow. Let’s just say his 6:30 drive to work in the morning was a very loud one too, and lasted for about 15 minutes until the car fully warmed up. All of Ilion must have been woken up that night, and in the end now our horn doesn’t work at all. Gotta love winter.

Thursday

After taking another Tylenol at 3:15 that morning it made my chills and fever go away almost instantly, but couldn’t completely go back to sleep until about five. At 6:45 I was burning up again. I check my temperature again and this time it was 101. I take my Tylenol and call Bassett again, and this time there is a midwife working there, that was really kind to me and told me to come into the emergency room and they would take it from there. So Zhenya comes home from his first shift around 9:30 am, asks for the rest of the day off and we head out to the hospital. Although I am on Tylenol, it brings down my fever and some of the pain, but not all the pain so I am still miserable in the midst of all this.

We arrive at Bassett around 11:30, and even though I feel like complete poop I am stunned by how clean, nice it looks and how amazing the service is! We wait literally only 5 minutes in the ER. They take me in, give me my own room- in the ER, with my own bathroom, and immediately start doing testing on me. At this point my Tylenol was slowly starting to wear off and I could feel that I am getting a fever again. I started out with a 99 degree fever, I kept asking for Tylenol but they were assuring me it wasn’t a fever yet. They hooked me up to IV for fluids, took some blood, (after a couple of attempts, ) and ordered an ultrasound on my kidneys. During all this my pains are getting much worse since I am off Tylenol, and I’m getting warmer. They ended up checking me 2 more times, first was a fever of 101, and then finally when I reached 103, did they realize I AM burning up and decided to give me Tylenol!

When the results come back, they say I do have a kidney infection. The blood test shows a high white blood cell count which apparently means there is an infection. Then Dr. Chanana who was the OB on shift at the time and the gyn I went to see the first time after switching to Bassett ( although she did not remember me) came in to evaluate me and advised me to get admitted. This was probably the only time we really “waited.” We were waiting for a room to clear up so they can take me up to the birthing center where I would be taken care of. I am just comparing my experience at the hospital I was at in Brooklyn. We come in; they put me in a bed in the hallway if there isn’t a little place where they call a “room” which is basically just a curtain in front of you. There are crazy people all around, bums and drug addicts having God knows what sickness. And you wait for 5 or more hours just to get some sort or attention or testing done. Here it was NOT like that, everything is so clean and they were right on  the dot with getting testing done and so many different nurses would come by and just always be near to make sure how I was doing, it was amazing. They even gave me and Zhenya lunch and took my order for dinner like I was in a restaurant or something. IT was just WOW.

When the time came they took me up to the third floor which is the birthing center and basically put me into one of the rooms I am going to be in when I give birth. WOW! Zhenya took a variety of pictures of me throughout all this and I was yelling most of the time but I am actually going to make use of two of them in my blog. But here is a shot of me feeling miserable in our room.

It was really nice, big room, with a couch, TV, and actually comfortable bed with a remote I can control the TV, lights, and walkie talkie the nurses over for any reason. Not to mention we have our own bathroom with a shower. Just wow.

At this point my pains were really bad, they would go down a bit when they would give me Tylenol and be a little more tolerable, but would not go away at all. And my fever was at it every 3-4 hours, so they were giving me Tylenol every 4 hours on the dot.  They ended up increasing the Tylenol dose to a higher one, but said that would have to be given every 6 hours. They also added an antibiotic once a day through my IV, different from the one I was taking orally for the UTI. We weren’t really expecting nor prepared to stay overnight, so it caught us off guard, and were definitely surprised we stayed for how long we stayed.

To be continued, it's getting late and I am off to bed. Part two will be up tomorrow.

19 Weeks Update : A Quick Overview

Quick is probably the last thing you would expect especially from my last update, but no worries I am not blowing off my blog. I just have SO much to share, to the extent that I have broken it down to a couple or several posts in my head already.

If you are friends with me on facebook or have been updated with my recent experiences you would know that I spent the 2^nd half of this week in the hospital. And that itself is a big story, so I am going to dedicate a whole separate post for that.

As far as pregnancy changes and just making a little weekly synopsis, I would definitely have to say this has been the worst week ever. Not to be a “Debbie-Downer” but with pregnancy comes the truth: there are good and bad moments. The 19^th week was not fun due to my fun hospital visits, and let’s just say I hope from this point on no week is as bad as this one was and of course not worse.

Anyway, back to where I attempted to start, as far as changes go, I’ve felt more baby movement, not as distinct as last week, but I think the way I was feeling and health had a lot to do with that. On Wednesday, I remember significantly I felt baby “kick” it wasn’t a gas bubble or bubble explosion or a little pop, it was a legit hi-mama-I’m-kicking kind of kick. I was actually at my college orientation sitting to speak with my advisor and I felt nice hard kicks inside. I tried not to giggle out loud as much and not to look like a silly person, especially since  practically no one was really able to tell I was pregnant in the way I was dressed that day, and it probably looked weird with me sitting there with my hand over my belly and just laughing for no apparent reason. It’s ok, people can think I am weird- I’m cool with that :)

Another change I’ve noticed, and I am telling you this happened seriously OVERNIGHT! My belly button is changing! I anticipated it to, it is not a surprise, and was very curious to watch it slowly evolve just like my belly, but I didn’t expect to see a significant change- literally overnight. I noticed this Saturday actually, from different angles and from different positions I am in, it looks different. I don’t have a full outie  ( in case anyone doesn’t know or would like to know, I am in fact an innie :)) But- it looks like the bottom half of it is closing up. When I lay with pillows propped under me, kind of in this half laying and half sitting position, it’s slightly visible. Standing up, you can definitely tell the difference. When I am sitting straight up and the more my upper body bends to my knees, the more closed my belly button looks- so weird. But, if I am laying straight, flat on my back, it’s suddenly completely open not looking like it’s it closing at all. Very, very strange. Other gradual changes I’ve noticed with it prior to what I noticed up until now is that it is more hollow. Like someone opened it up and made it wider, which is strange now that is looks like it is closing up, Ha! But theoretically it makes sense. It gets wider because it is stretching due to growing baby and stomach, and now it seems like it is closing because I am growing more hence pushing on it from the inside kind of making it look “swollen” hence the “swollen” part of it  is giving a “closing” look. I don’t know, I aint a specialist at this just my thoughts and theories! Lastly, the other weird thing is I had a beauty mark inside my belly button, not too deep, but definitely inside where you can see when it from just looking. Now- it’s moved completely out of my belly button and is outside of it!  If this aint proof I am not growing don’t know what else is (aside from the other hundreds of symptoms and visible changes ;))

That is basically it, this week has been a big blur due to being sick and hospitalized, and it is kind of hard to recall everything, especially when most of the concentration is on the hospital part of it which I promise will be up shortly.

Other than that, ultrasound appointment is getting closer, making me more anxious and excited! We actually saw baby briefly in the hospital when they did an ultrasound of my bladder and kidneys. A quick glimpse, but baby is SO big compared to the previous ultrasounds. No, I haven’t shared them yet; I have been waiting for an approval from my hubby because he thinks it is weird to publically share that. Sigh, I am working on it. If I don’t post my other ones, I think I am very close to him okaying for me to post the upcoming ultrasound. So we shall see. ;)

That is all for now, and the hospital update will be up soon. Since I am writing this at night, I will most likely this up tomorrow, and both of these 2 will be posted probably the same day since I am tired right now and blabbing about nonsense.  In any case, thank you for reading! Byeee!

18 Week (late) Update: More Movement, Bassett Appointment& Ultrasound Date Set!

I am not on track this week, and finally pushed myself to jot down a few things, but not even sure if I will finish today to post this, so it might even more late than it already is.

This week for me (not last week, but the current one) has not been a good one at all, but I will save all that for my 19 week update in my next post. As much as my 18^th week HAS been positive from what I remember it being, and I am NOT positive at all right now, I will try to keep this post accurately positive as the week was itself.

Last week there weren’t any drastic changes really that occurred. I mentioned last time that I thought I felt the baby move, I can freely say my “ thoughts” were definitely accurate as proved by this past week. I’ve felt baby move more often and stronger. This happened almost every other day, I believe. This always makes me happy and super smiley. Nothing too crazy to the point where you can see it or feel it if you put your hand on my belly, but I can DEFINITELY feel baby moving, and can distinctly tell it is not  gas or anything of the sorts.

I also had my first Bassett appointment last week. It went relatively well, no mistakes… yet :) I vented to the doctor I had about my previous doctors so now they have to have higher standards for me (which was Dr. Chanana for anyone reading this and familiar with Cooperstown and its doctor’s.) She was an Indian lady. Someone told me she was “weird and quick” so I had my guard up for her. She was ok, but then again this was my first appointment and I came in with a lot of medical history and issues that needed to be evaluated, so maybe even if you tried you couldn’t really be “weird” or “quick” ;-) 

I obviously did NOT have an ultrasound, boo-hoo! I was really hoping I would, but on the bright side the ultrasound has been set! I will have my anatomy scan on February 6^th, which is two weeks from today. That day can’t come soon enough! As you all know, I am way too impatient and have wanted to know since the day I became pregnant! Baby better cooperate and have his or her legs open, because I don’t know what I will do if I walk out the doctor’s office on February 6^th without knowing the gender!!! LOL!

That is pretty much it for week 18. I am keeping it short and sweet… or just boring. Or since I am late in writing this I already forgot most of the stuff that happened last week, oh well. In my next post you will understand and know why I am just being blah and not my typical jittery, happy self (although I am putting an effort to perceive so in writing!)

Not sure if I will post a belly shot for this week, I am just not feeling up for it, and since tomorrow is Thursday the week is almost over and it will kind of be in the middle of the 18^th and 19^th week, so I might as well skip a week!

Thank you for anyone who reads, and hopefully in my next post I will be back to my old self and although I will have a lot to say that isn’t positive exactly, I will have more stories to share than today!

PS: I did finish the post today ( in regards to one my first sentences, so it won’t be “as” late ;-))

Belly Shot: 17 weeks!

                                                     

                                                                 Belly at 17 weeks!

17 Weeks Update: Baby Movement, Less Nausea & Vitamin D Levels

I am 17 weeks pregnant today, yay!!! :D Pregnancy was really crawling in the beginning, and now it seems to be speeding up just a little. Still taking forever, but we are getting somewhere! :)

One of the BIG things that happened this week is I think I felt the baby move! I don’t like using the words “I think” but I don’t want to say YES for sure since I really don’t know haha. Well, on Tuesday of last week was the first time I thought I felt movement. It felt like a gas bubble explosion, except usual gas is followed by other gas bubbles and then actually… comes out :P. (start getting used to my TMI posts.) This time it was one pop in one place. I felt that a couple times. So I take out my Doppler and try to see if I can hear some movement, and I am pretty sure I did!!! I wouldn’t move the Doppler an inch anywhere once I located the heartbeat, and I heard some swishing noise, like a fish swimming through liquid. I also heard little taps on the Doppler, and at one point I couldn’t hear the heartbeat so I think baby moved away from me :) Later in the week, on Friday is when I was more sure of myself that it was baby movement. Once again, the same sensations… and then this tiny bit stronger POP happened and it made me giggle because it was so sudden, unexpected and ticklish. Hehe. At that point I pretty much figured this HAS to be baby. Can’t wait for the movements to be more distinct and stronger… this is getting fun!

Nausea! You know every time I brag about how I HAVEN’T thrown up, I always end up throwing up! But this week, is a world record! I have not thrown up since last Sunday… but then I went and ruined my record by throwing up yesterday (Sunday.) Regardless, that is still very good for me, whole week nausea free!!! Hopefully second trimester can get a swing of things quicker already so I can start feeling wonderful as everyone claims to feel at this point!

As far as weight, I am not sure yet if this is a true increase in weight yet, or the typical 1-2 pound jump from day to day which always goes back to solid 131 pounds. The beginning of this week, I was weighed at my primary care provider’s appointment and I was 132.8. Right now, I actually paused for a second and went to go weigh myself to be exact, I weigh 133.5. So… MAYBE I am starting to gain something; I have no idea… but no dramatic change yet. Although my appetite is definitely picking up, which is a good thing, so hopefully my weight will pick up now as well?

As far as my health, I complained about the cyst I apparently have in my previous post, nothing new on that yet. I will see what my new gyn says tomorrow when I finally have my Bassett appointment! I got some good advice from a friend the other day about a natural supplement to take to make the cyst go away on its own- Iodoral (an iodine supplement.) The funny part is, before I even mentioned anything about my thyroid I was told that my cyst could be related with a thyroid dysfunction- ding ding!! Regardless, I ordered these iodine supplement pills and once they come in I will start taking them, and maybe they will put my thyroid back in order and make my cyst disappear, I have nothing to lose.

In addition, I received a phone call today from my primary doctor’s secretary. When I had my appointment last week, I asked him if I should still be taking my vitamin D- good thing I asked. He did blood work on my vit d, iron and potassium (I told him about my heart pains from the week before, which I haven’t had this week at all.) Secretary calls me today and tells me to IMMEDIATELY stop taking the vitamin D supplements. Great, my initial reaction wasn’t a great one, especially since my primary doctor has mentioned to me several times already that the low dose of vitamin D that I have been taking is a good dose to take, anything else is too high and can be harmful to the pregnancy. Oh boy. So I start asking the nurse this information, if this means some harm has been done. Her initial reaction was “you’re pregnant?” Ahhhh!!!!  Anyway, she didn’t provide me with any useful info, she basically just said to ask my gyn about it and told me my level was 121.9 (whatever that is supposed to mean)which is apparently high. Well then, good thing I just randomly asked my doctor is my vitamin D levels were ok by any chance since I have been taking them since August. Last week at my appointment, he claimed it usually takes about a year for the levels to normalize but “just in case” he will do  blood work. Mmmhmm… a year! Good thing he did this “just in case” blood test. Man! These doctors… seriously!

As far as my heart pains, I haven’t had them this week, but my doctor did an EKG test which nothing abnormal came up. He also told me it could acid reflux, which I told him I haven’t had any acid reflux or any heartburn at all. So he said he would check my potassium levels but told me it is probably nothing serious.

Back to the vitamin D, I looked up the effects of what too much vitamin D can do and this is what I found “Too much vitamin during pregnancy can cause headache, nausea, vomiting, constipation, weight loss, weakness, poor appetite, confusion and bone pain. Vitamin D toxicity affects bone development and neurological function of developing baby.”

Well one thing I can say is… my headaches have been treacherous this week. I haven’t mentioned that because headaches seem to be such a minor symptom and can be caused by a million things, but this could be one possible reason. Nausea- well, I’m pregnant so it is unfair to judge. Constipation, I am taking Iron supplements which could be the cause of my occasional constipation. Weight loss- maybe!!! Weakness- well I am tired, but that is pregnancy related, right? I don’t know, but I don’t like this at all and doctors are just pissing me off more and more! grr!!!  And my baby better be okay in there, because just because you losers keep screwing up we shouldn’t have t suffer! OK, small venting session finished.

Other than that, that sums up my last week. I have not taken a weekly belly shot yet, but intend to do so, because I definitely want to start keeping a weekly collection of my belly photos. Later on, I will then make a collage of my slowly growing belly, which will be fun! :) Regardless, there will be a belly shot up soon!I will make Zhenya take a picture of me! :) Which may or may not look any different than last weeks, but oh well!

Tomorrow is my appointment with Bassett, and I am hoping for an ultrasound, well first to see about this stupid cyst and secondly maybe we can finally found out who are little baby is!! Ahh! If that does happen there will definitely be a separate post for that! But for now, I shall conclude my post here! Thank you for reading!  :D

Pregnancy Collages

My blog needs more photos, so I'm sharing a couple. :)


                                        Merry Christmas From The Poznyak Family!!!

                          This one is going to be a keeper for a baby book I am yet to start...

Medical records reveal something new...

I am forewarning you all; this is going to be a very angry-venting post. This pertains to my “EX” doctors, which yesterday once again re-convinced me and reassured me I am in fact making the right decision to switch.  If you haven’t heard the story of my doctor dilemma you can find out all the wonderful details in this post by clicking here.

As you all know, I have my first appointment with my new gyn next week. I didn’t give much information to them over the phone so right now they are under the impression “I just found out I’m pregnant.” So, I requested my medical records from my previous gyn to bring to my appointment next week (history and all testing done up to now.) I go to the doctor’s office yesterday (I had an appointment with my primary care provider) and my medical records were ready to pick up. As I am sitting there waiting to be called, I open up the large manila envelope with all my records and just start reading through to see what I was given. Half of the stuff is abbreviated in doctor language and it hard to understand but for the most part you get an idea of what everything is. Well, let me say those records sure did reveal a lot of new and interesting things I did not know about my health.

It turns out I have a small cyst on my right ovary. To me this is obviously shocking news… not even the fact that I have a CYST but also the fact that this is how I am finding out! This cyst has been found and known about since November… since before my first prenatal appointment even. I am shocked… disgusted… and so angry beyond words. There was a distinct paragraph written in full sentences, that I recognized from my first prenatal appointment. The way Slocum Dickson runs things is they do a summary of the appointment/patient, any concerns, complaints or medical history discussed, they write up a small synopsis basically for that day. I remember sitting in the office, towards the end of the appointment, and she was typing this little summary. This was when she first mentioned there was a small bleed in my uterus found in one of my ultrasounds (don’t remember if I have mentioned this before, but they found a bleed, very small, no big deal they said and would do an additional ultrasound later to see if it is getting bigger or being absorbed) and as she told me about this bleed, thoroughly discussed it with me, she started writing her little summary and I remember her typing and saying out loud parts of what she was typing. In my medical records, I received a copy of this synopsis, and see the very same summary from that day, and in that summary is a statement about a cyst found on my ovary.

No one mentioned it to me at ALL. I just… I don’t understand it. If I wouldn’t have received my medical records would this have remained a secret? I just… my head doesn’t wrap around this at all.  Just like I don’t understand how they could have let me walk around with 2 infections for a whole month before telling me about it and putting me on treatment only then.

The other thing I found, which is no big deal really, but once again they just decided to disclose this information from me. The bleed I spoke of earlier, at my first appointment I was told they ordered an additional ultrasound to check it out to see if it is something serious or not and once again would tell me if they find something.  I wanted to ask the doctor about the sonogram (even though I assumed everything was ok since I never heard from them) but he ran through my whole appointment in a matter of 10 minutes. The additional ultrasound they did indicated there is still a bleed there. The bleed is a little smaller than it was the first time (I had my primary care provider digest all these medical records for me yesterday since he has access to them) which is a good sign. He says that means it is still there, but it is being absorbed. He said it takes about 3 months for it to be absorbed. Okay, maybe it’s not a big deal, but telling me about this would be nice, ya know?

I started doing some research on cysts and pregnancy. A lot of the sites say it’s no big deal if it’s small, doctor’s just have to monitor it during pregnancy (monitor- HA.) Some have had large ones and had to have them removed during pregnancy. Some had ruptured ones which could stimulate miscarriage or early labor and of course lots of pain. I will mention this to my new gyn next week at my appointment and see what she says.

There really isn’t much more to say, I am just in shock, confused and not pleased at all. I am once again SO happy to be seeing another doctor. And don’t recommend anyone to go see Dr. Schlair or Julia Ross in Slocum Dickson. As you can see, I have been TOTALLY screwed over by them. Venting is done… for now ;) 

16 weeks update

I think starting with this post I am going to be getting into a regular regime of posting weekly updates, which was my original plan to keep track of all the fun changes and experiences occurring during pregnancy :) In addition, of course any specific topics that clearly need a whole post of their own :)

I am 16 weeks and 1 day pregnant today.  4 months, woohoo! And I have to say the one big thing that really caught my eye this week is my belly. I’ve been looking at my belly so much ever since I found out I was pregnant. I’ve been wanting to be “fat” , for so long.  It’s just one of those first things you wait for… to have a bump! So, I’ve been literally looking at my belly  every day, several times a day, taking pictures in different lightings, from different angles, wearing different clothing, hopefully maybe there is SOME physical sign of a bump. And to me, at some points, it did look like I had maybe a “bump” but it wasn’t really obvious and you really had to look and use your imagination to see something, haha! I’ve been taking gradual photos too, even though you can’t see anything, now I’ve put them together side by side and you can see a slight gradual grow, which is pretty cool.

Anyway, this week…I don’t know how…but literally…just one day I woke up and BAM- I suddenly have a bump. This is totally not the way I expected this to happen. :) I was waiting for slow transition of growth, but no (at least it seems to me) I just exploded one day and suddenly look pregnant! And this is great! Finally the day I’ve been waiting for! I made Zhenya take some “professional” photos of me, because all my photos of me and my belly were taking via phone, and I just wanted something of better quality. If you are friends with me on face book  I posted all of them on there and shared a couple here too. I’ll admit it, I’m obsessed. Now that there is a prominent bump, I am looking at it, touching it, poking it, rubbing it  and making Zhenya do all this too, haha) even more!

While still on the topic of my belly, another thing I noticed this week is being uncomfortable while laying down. I read laying on your back is not good during pregnancy( for long periods of time), especially when you get larger, because the extra weight pushes down on some  main artery or something like that, and it could basically interfere with blood flow. Scary thought, especially since you can’t really control how you sleep at night. My issue is just being uncomfortable. Lying on my back helps with the back pain. So, I don’t completely avoid that position. What it feels like to me after a few minutes is like someone is sitting on me, pushing down on me basically and makes me want to go the bathroom most of the time. So I turn over and take turns lying on my side. Lying on my side also kind of feels funky. When I make a shift like from lying on my back to one side, or from one side to another, I feel this weird pressure. It is almost like my stomach weight is shifting from side to another with my change of position. It’s really hard to explain, but it feels very strange. Obviously, I am not huge yet, and can only imagine what is yet to come, ha!

Despite the fact I obviously gained something in my body because I have a belly and feel heavier I still weigh 131 pounds- 9 pounds less than pre-pregnancy. Right now, (this is thanks to all my lovely pregnancy apps I have on my phone giving me daily and weekly updates on changes happening to my body and the baby) baby is the size of an avocado, and my uterus in whole is the size of a melon! WOW! That- right there is pretty amazing! I remember reading all these apps and from the beginning these associations were so small, like a pen tip, or a sesame seed and slowly a raspberry and a blueberry- but this is some big stuff we are talking about! And you would expect some weight gain with that… not me! I know my one friend mentioned (she was pregnant with twins) she did not gain a lot of weight during her pregnancy and she was obviously very, VERY pregnant towards the end of her pregnancy. After she gave birth she weighed less than what she did pre-pregnancy. So she was gaining and losing weight at the same time. Who knows, maybe that’s what’s happening to me?

I still have nausea but it is not an everyday thing. And every time I say “I am better” I end up hugging the toilet at one point during that day. It is definitely not as bad as it was in the beginning, a constant battle with it. It is just random vomiting moments I can’t explain. This week I threw up on the 31^st, the 4^th and the 6^th. So I don’t know what is going on with that and I’m not sure if I should be worried? I’m not worried but considering the fact nausea is supposed to be gone by now and I am still puking and not gaining weight? I’ll talk to my doctor about it I suppose and see what she will say.

My super exhaustion is also improving. I haven’t had any crazy sleeping days anymore. I had one this week but I think it was just my body on overload from not getting enough sleep the night before, I still get tired but not to the point where I am ready to sleep all day. So hopefully this is also a slow transition into this improvement I am supposed to feel during the second trimester.

Back pain is a big one. I can’t stand for long periods of time, that just kills me, I don’t know why I don’t have a basketball belly yet, but I can’t stand or be in certain sitting positions for a long time or else my back just screams with pain! So I am trying to make that work around my daily routine (like church and work and getting stuff done.)

One very strange symptom I was having this week, much stronger and more often (not even sure if it is pregnancy related) is heart pain. This is a kind of heart pain I’ve never had before. I every now and then I would have a sharp stabbing pain in my heart area, very rarely, but it’s a feeling I am familiar with. This pain is much different. The best way to describe it is this squeezing heart muscle pain. I can feel my heart almost squeezing in, feeling pain as it does it, holding that squeeze ( still very painful) and as it releases the squeeze, I can still feel this pain until it completely releases it then the pain goes away. Very uncomfortable and very unpleasant. I had a little bit of this pain in the previous weeks but it was very rare and I didn't make anything of it. This week I have to say for about two days straight I had it almost nonstop, in addition to other days. I had trouble falling asleep Friday night because of the pain. This pain doesn't come when I am doing something specifically. Sometimes it starts when I am trying to fall sleep, laying calmly in bed, sometimes I am sitting, sometimes I am doing something it’s not associated with any specific movement or position of mine. I’ve read that sometimes pregnant women can have heart palpitations due to the large increase of blood in your body. I definitely have not had that, I don’t know if this pain can also be associated with the increase of blood supply, I don’t know.  I really hope this is no big deal, I am going to mention this to my primary care provider with whom I have an appointment with today, see what he says. If that doesn’t do much good I will mention this to my gyn at my first appointment with her next week.

Other than that, that pretty much sums up last week for me. I have my primary care doctor’s appointment today. For no specific reason, he just wants to keep an eye on me during pregnancy due to all my stomach issues before I got pregnant. I have my monthly thyroid appointment tomorrow; they did blood work last week to see how that is going. And of course, I have my long awaited first gyn appointment next week with Cooperstown, which I am totally psyched for. I will be 17 weeks by then, and hoping maybe they will do an ultrasound and can see if it is a boy or girl because I am just DYING to find out!!!  If not, I know at my next appointment I should know for sure… can’t wait! :)

Belly Shot : 16 Weeks!

                                   16 weeks belly shot!

Switching Doctors

I was planning on writing about this topic since it has been on my mind a lot lately, just wasn't sure when I would. But, it turns out it is no longer an issue and simply a concern I had and is now finally resolved. If you read my recent facebook post today you probably know all about it, but I am going to blog about it here anyway! :)  Plus, after thinking about it a lot lately and discussing this thoroughly with many today... I am all hyped up about this subject and might as well write about it now! Comments and advice are always welcome! :)

So...I have not been exactly happy with my current doctor. At first, it wasn't really a big deal, but then again...  I've only had 3 appointments with her... and him. When we originally moved back upstate and I finally got my health insurance working this is how I went about my doctor decisions. I've seen a doctor under my family's plan before, so I kind of knew SOME doctors around here. But basically, I wanted someone who is not too far and someone who is obviously good and trustworthy. With my primary care provider, it was really a random pick, and with him I am so far happy. I ended up going to Slocum Dickson. For several reasons. First of all, because I went to Slocum Dickson before and I liked it. Secondly they have two offices... one is in Ilion ( which is where we live and a 5 minute walk from our apartment) and the other office is in New Hartford, a 20 min ride. Depending on what doctor you have and where the doctors work, sometimes only in one office, sometimes in both. The thing about Slocum Dickson, it's a "medical group" it has tons of tons of doctors, and to keep it simple I thought I would try to keep everything organized and keep all my doctors in one place. So before I even became pregnant I know I needed a gyn in general, so I basically tried to do some research on my own. Thought I'd try the guy my mom went to (but he doesn't accept my insurance.) Then, I tried to basically look for a female. I know for some this may seem like no big deal, but I honestly rather have a female. And I couldn't find any at all!!! So, I just ended up calling up Slocum Dickson and asked if they can recommend a female gyn. The secretary I spoke to said no problem at all, and referred me…

I had an appointment scheduled with Julia Ross (if this means anything to anyone around here who knows local doctors.) My first visit with her was very pleasant. She kind of looks like that country singer …. Dolly Parton, there you go. Seriously, I was scared at first! :) She is this thin, elderly woman with thing pumped up dyed blonde hair and SO much make up on. Seriously, Dolly Parton’s twin!  Despite how she looked she was very kind and nice and took her time talking to me about everything and I got a very good first impression from her. When I found out I was pregnant, I was scheduled my first prenatal appointment with her. Turns out, she is not a gyn really. She is a nurse practitioner I learned. Which basically means (they have a lot of these I learned in Slocum Dickson) she works in partnership with a doctor, and can see his patients for him in a way. She explained to me, that during my pregnancy I would take turns every other appointment seeing her and seeing the doctor- Dr. Schlair (of course my luck – a MAN.) So this was a surprise… of course not a big deal and not worth leaving right away, maybe this doctor is amazing, but this was the first thing that I frowned upon.

The second thing that caught my attention was my second appointment. I don’t remember if I briefly touched on this in my previous posts, so if I did, I’m sorry for repeating myself :) I arrived at my second prenatal appointment and I meet this Schlair guy. His personality seemed nice… but… he rushed through the whole appointment in a matter of 5-10 minutes. Seriously. It was basically like this “Hi, nice to meet you. Here’s the baby’s heartbeat, here’s your blood pressure, oh by the way we found two infections, we’re prescribing you antibiotics. Alright, we’re all set, have a nice day!” I didn’t even get to process anything at all, and it was only until I left the doctor’s office that I started to process everything and remember the questions I wanted to ask him.

What he told me, was that they found ( sorry if this is TMI) a yeast infection and bacterial vaginosis. He ran through it so fast like it wasn’t really a big deal, one thing I did get a chance to ask was about the yeast infection. Because if you’ve had a yeast infections before you know they aren’t exactly pleasant, and if you have one you usually KNOW you have one. But to me this was news, and I asked him why I had no symptoms and his test results said I have it, and he says sometimes there are noticeable symptoms and sometimes there are not. Alright, I’ll take it… after all he IS the doctor. This is what I did not realize until I left the office… Exactly one month before this appointment I had my first prenatal appointment. At this appointment they did a TON of testing on me. I remember aside from urine and other samples they took 12 tubes of blood out of me! 12!! I had such a bruise after that didn’t go away for about 6 weeks. Anyway, beside the point. They did all this testing and as typically they do, they told me don’t call, if we find something we will call you, if you don’t hear from us everything is okay. I didn’t hear from them, so I assumed everything was okay. Silly me. They did not call me. They apparently found I have these 2 infections but did not bother to call me or to tell me or to put me on treatment. I unknowingly walked around with these 2 infections for a whole MONTH before they told me about it and decided to put me on antibiotics and give me a cream for it. What the heck?!!  That really ticked me off right there. And I did some research, both of those infections are very common during pregnancy and are usually caused by chemical imbalances down there, but bacterial vaginosis can be a risk factor for miscarriage. Oh, wonderful. And they let me just walk around with this for a whole month not treating it. This was really one of the BIG things, and started to get me thinking about changing doctors.

With the thought of wanting to change doctors, I shared my thoughts and opinions with a few friends and got some insight on what other options I have and learned a lot of valuable information that really pushed me to make the final decision to switch.

The hospitals.

This is the big thing that really just made me say “I need a new doctor ASAP!” If you know the area, you know that there are a few hospital options as far giving birth. I chose Slocum Dickson because it was close to me, like I mentioned and I knew it was associated with St. Luke’s Hospital which is only a 20 min drive from our apartment. My mother also gave birth in St. Luke’s twice and I don’t remember her complaining about anything and she seemed to have good labor experiences then, so I didn’t see the big deal in going to the Cooperstown hospital ( which is a 45 minute drive from me and everyone, just EVERYONE seemed to go there.) With having second thoughts some people started telling me why they prefer Cooperstown. I mean, after all it does show something when the majority of people choose one hospital over another one.

The policies.

So, what is that I don’t like about St. Luke’s? First of all, you don’t get your own room, you have to share. Maybe not such a big deal to others, and I wouldn’t base my decision SOLELY on this, but it is kind of an inconvenience. Secondly, your husband, spouse, significant other… cannot spend the night! He has to leave at like 10 or 11pm. Now this is a big one for me! Even Zhenya was like… what???? I mean, we aren’t sure yet if he is going to spend the night… probably YES, and  I would LOVE for him to… and what if even he isn’t spending the night but wants to stay later than 10 with me? He can’t! Big no no. Thirdly… another big one. St. Luke’s takes your baby to the nursery from like 12-2 (minimum) mandatorily whether you want that or not! Before I even heard this one, another friend of mine told me that (she gave birth in Cooperstown) even if they suggest taking the baby, they can’t just do that. You are the mother and you make the final decision and if you want the baby there, they can’t take the baby from you. They are required to go by your requests. Apparently, it aint the same at St. Luke’s! The woman who was telling me about  all these fun policies at St. Luke’s, had a bad labor and delivery experience there herself and her friend recently encountered this problem with the baby being taken out of her room when she wanted the baby to stay. They say it’s “hospital policy.” Oh, BS. Seriously.

With taking the baby away, a question arises for me. I asked, what do they do with the baby if the baby is hungry? Feed it formula? What if you’re breastfeeding? Apparently St. Luke’s doesn’t feed the baby during this time. Baby is supposed to be fed before. Not every baby eats every two hours! Some babies eat every 15 mins, some every 30 mins, some every hour! What if the baby wants to eat before the 2 hours? They will not bring the baby to you. Even if baby is crying, hungry… they have to wait the minimum 2 hours… then they will bring the baby to you. This is the part when I was like, ok what is Cooperstown’s number I’m calling NOW . Note: everything I mentioned obviously Cooperstown is the opposite. You get your own room, your hubby can spend the night, and they definitely don’t take your baby from you if you don’t want to! And the reason St. Luke’s takes the baby is because they are afraid the tired mother after labor is too tired that she will fall asleep with the baby in her arms and DROP the baby( ridiculous!) or she won’t respond to the baby. Regardless, the picture became a bit clearer and I started to understand why everyone goes to Bassett in Cooperstown.

Now, okay… So, I make my decision that I obviously need a new doctor… should be easy right? Call up Bassett; pick a doctor or midwife and BAM problem solved. NOT! Nothing is ever simple! :) Life just gets boring apparently if you don’t have obstacles!  I called Bassett, and was completely honest (didn’t see the harm in it) and told them I want to switch care and all that jazz. The woman I spoke to, who is in charge of new OB patients, told me that Bassett has a high volume of pregnant women right now and because I currently have care I need to send them all my records from my current OB and they overlook my situation and make a decision whether to accept or deny me. And this lady emphasized on the fact they HAVE denied people, so it’s not a sure factor I can switch yet. Talk about a bummer! I started to really freak out and worry. At this point, I rather give birth at home than in St. Luke’s. I was really unhappy with my current doctor mishap and the hospital policies and just wanted out. I didn’t know what to do really, but I wanted to get into Bassett whatever it took.

I started thinking… The vibe I got was that because I currently HAVE prenatal care, I can’t just pick and choose what doctors I want to switch to because they have a lot of pregnant women ( whateverrr!) But I am pretty sure they get new pregnant women everyday that find out they are pregnant and they accept them without any issues because they don’t have care to begin with. To me- this was totally unfair. I didn’t want to take the risk of getting a “no” and then never being able to switch, ha... And knowing my luck that is exactly what would have happened! So, I decided to take a different approach and…. Well… basically… LIE. Go ahead judge, I don’t care! :P

So this was my plan. First, I wanted to see if I could go around this and get an appointment another way. Bassett has gyns in Herkimer (10 min drive for me) that I could see but still give birth in Cooperstown. Originally, the first phone call I made was to Cooperstown. So, I thought let me call Herkimer directly and see if I can schedule an appointment there. That was a fail. I called, they transferred me to the women’s health department in Cooperstown, who transferred me back to the original lady I spoke to about switching providers, ha. Luckily this was a 2 week window, and she was not available when I called the 2^nd time (about 2 days ago I believe) so she was supposed to call me back. She did, the next day (yesterday) but this time I was unavailable to pick up. We were basically playing phone tag :) Today, I got the chance to sit down and call her back. I was really nervous about this, because I knew this was the same lady I spoke to 2 weeks ago and I really did not want her to recognize me or remember me, and didn’t want to be put in the uncomfortable position to lie, but obviously I would have if I was put in that situation. When I called her today, I played it cool and basically pulled the “Oh, I just found out I’m pregnant” card on her, kind of. I technically didn’t really lie, I just disclosed information and told her as little as possible to avoid any additional questions. And thank GOD- she scheduled me an appointment with a doctor in Cooperstown without an issue. She asked me if I have a blood test to prove pregnancy, I said I did, and she asked me how far along I was and I said “ I THINK I’m about 15 weeks” heh…so that was my little fibbing part. But other than that, I didn’t say anything extra to her and she didn’t ask any questions. Problem solved!

I can honestly say I was SO excited today and beyond happy that it all worked out. I was really stressing out about this and worrying about not being able to get into Bassett, but honestly this wouldn’t have happened without God’s help that’s for sure.  It’s a big weight off my chest, and I can easily, calmly breathe! My appointment is scheduled for the 15^th this month, and it actually works out because my 3^rd prenatal appointment was originally scheduled that day, but obviously since I am switching doctor’s that won’t be a concern! Ha!

Overall, I am very relieved. Today I started getting a lot of opinions and advice from my mommy/pregnant community on facebook about what doctors are the best in Cooperstown. I got A LOT of opinions!  Which is great because you can’t try out all the doctors out there using a trial and error course on your own. Sometimes you need word of mouth advice to see where to start off. Opinions varied though, some people really liked one doctor, and others didn’t. Regardless I am still open to all opinions and appreciate all the help everyone is giving me! Right now I’m not super concerned about doctors, I mean I know should be… I’m just so happy to have successfully scheduled an appointment with Bassett. Having that peace of mind is already enough!

Well, I am done blabbing. This is my story as far as doctors go. I am hoping I won’t encounter anymore unpleasant situations with doctors and hopefully my experience with Bassett will run more smoothly from here on!