Weird Pregnancy Dreams

I think I've had about one with every pregnancy, but I was wondering where the dream for this one was. I had it last night. I can't remember it in detail, of course, but I was traveling around with my baby. However, the baby hadn't really been born yet (I swear I had a similar one with Ali? where I decided he didn't need a car seat in the taxi because he wasn't actually born yet.) This time, the baby was out, but I was going to have to go to the birth center in a few weeks and actually go through the labor since I hadn't yet.
Where do these come from? Are they about the baby being reality?
This morning I "got" to do a 3 hour glucose tolerance test. I did the one hour last week before my 26 week visit. I had to drink a horrible drink and then have blood drawn an hour later. I wasn't supposed to eat for 2 hours before the drink. This time, I couldn't eat or drink anything after midnight. Then I got to the center when it opened and had a baseline blood test drawn and THEN drank the horrible drink- over ice, luckily. An hour later they drew blood, then an hour after that, and one more time. I was really worried about not being able to eat or drink for that long since I wake up parched and ravenous in the morning, but it wasn't too bad. I slept on a comfy couch in the birthing room and read magazines between blood draws. But I think, now that I've had my coffee and lunch, that I'm going to head off for another siesta before my chiro appointment.
I'll get the results tomorrow. I'm not to worried about having gestational diabetes. I've gained a bit more weight than with the other kids, but really not that much. I think I lost a few pounds in the first 3 months- and I've gained about 18 lbs by now. With both L and A I gained 20 total, I think.

Good News/Bad News

The good news is that I finally tackled my closet yesterday and can now see the very dusty floor. The bad news is that I threw my back out- probably by sitting on a stool instead of just squatting. I was afraid my legs would be sore today if I didn't use a stool, but now I'm thinking that would be better than this.
I have history of lower back pain that leads into sciatic pain, and it seems I'm headed in that direction. The midwife told me on my first visit that I shouldn't do my core strengthening exercises, which are what I usually turn to in this kind of situation, but just visit a chiropractor. Luckily my primary care physician agreed to give me a reference without my having to go in, but I couldn't get an appointment till tomorrow. So, since I'm not sure how much that will help, and tomorrow is busy, I googled back exercises while pregnant and learned I could do a couple while pregnant. I also found a heating pad and got that on today.
Tomorrow night I'm shooting 6th grade graduation (Leila seemed to think that very violent, but really, they asked me to!) I have to be able to move around a bit for that. I'm hoping the chiro is a miracle worker!

Grownup nightmare

I awoke from a bad dream last night, my mind racing. I was at the Dr.'s office when the pediatrician called to say that we had no insurance.
I knew we'd received new cards at the beginning of the school year. Had I forgotten to send in the proper forms? Had I paid the premium? Would they let me sign up late, or would we all have to wait a year to be eligible?
As I woke up further, I realized we were covered. Whew!

Sick and tired

No, really. I'm sick and tired. Actually, yesterday was worse.
On Sunday afternoon, I realized I hadn't seen Ali for a while, and I found him asleep on my bed. When I leaned over to check on him, I got a whiff of a bad smell on his breath, and he was really hot. The poor kid had a stomach flu. His fever got a little higher, but responded to medicine, and he threw up a couple more times- very neatly, though! (I love it when the kids get older and the sick doesn't go all over the bed and me.)
He was sick again in the middle of the night, but in the morning woke up pretty cheerfully. He didn't feel great, but much better than the day before.
"Well, my brain is better. Yesterday it was bad," he told me.
Later he said that "his brain, his head, his skull" had been bad the day before.
He settled in for a day on the couch with gatorade, saltines, and cartoons. When I got home, early, because I was wiped out and dizzy, he was pretty fine.
Today he's back at school. I feel better, but I've lost my voice. People have been sick with various things lately, so we aren't sure what we have, but it's possible that my woes are simply allergies, as ragweek is doing it's damndest.

The healing power of money

I've been suffering terribly from sciatic pain since early December. I did physical therapy in January, and though it helped somewhat, the pain was still unbearable at times. Luckily it could easily be controlled with a couple of ibuprofen as opposed to 4 at at time, 3 times a day. So last Thursday I went to the doctor, ready to finallyl get an MRI and maybe some cortison shots. I spent Friday setting up the appointment and giving all my information to the radiology people. They called about 3 times. The last time they let me know exactly how much it was going to cost me. And wouldn't you know it, my cheap skate body finally started healing itself. No way are you going to pay 240 dollars, it said. Although I don't feel 100% yet, I appear to be well on the road to recovery, and certainly far enough along to think that I don't need to pay that much money to be told I'm fine.

I counted my chickens too soon...

Ali complained of an earache Friday morning, and sure 'nuff, it was a full fledged ear infection. The doc said that's pretty normal for the flu to morph into something else like this.
So, it's antibiotic time, and it's been quite a fight. We've had to hold his nose shut and shoot it into his mouth. And then he says it's really not that bad. He did promise to take it without crying tonight, which is good since I won't be here.
Leila has always been super good at taking meds- partly for the dramatic experience of medical treatment, and partly because she understands she needs it.

Healing

Everyone seems almost back to normal health wise. H is still congested and cloggy, but the kids have no fevers and just the residue of colds. My only complaint left is my sciatic nerve issue. After a month of physical therapy, I haven't shown sufficient improvement. It's better than it was, and some days are better than others, but I need to be more mobile. The next step is going back to the dr. and maybe getting an MRI. The PT thought steroids would help. I recoiled at the idea of anything that would produce facial hair, but he assured me that a cortison shot woudldn't. So that's one idea. The other is oral steroids. Those might have hairier side effects.
Maybe next week I'll have something more interesting to write about. But I'll try to avoid the topic of work, which will just raise my stress levels.

What more?

Ali complained this morning-"Somebody woke me up." Then he asked for some water, and I thought- "Oh no. Now he's got a fever." Sure enough, he did. I tried to give him tylenol, but his body rejected it, and the same with ibuprofen. So the poor kid got a wet washcloth on his head.
I got ready for work, and took Leila to school on my way in, but H called later to say he was going to pick her up as she wasn't well.
It was a long day at work. There are a lot of pieces to pick up when you are absent for so long.
But now everyone is asleep, though Ali woke up a while ago, frantic but incoherent. I couldn't tell if he wasn't speaking or if he couldn't (he likes to use nonsense words). Then I realized he probably needed the bathroom, and while I was holding him, that realization was confirmed. (He was wearing a pullup, too, so he just proved he wasn't dehydrated!)
So it's been a long day, at almost the end of a long week. What can happen tomorrow? Dare I ask?

Mental health

It turns out that drinking lots of coffee is good for you!
This is good news, as my family history has dementia/alzheimer's on one side, and heavy coffee drinking on the other. Throw in a crossword puzzle or sudoku, and I should be okay.

the scary side of parenting

warning: not for the squeamish

Leila has had bloody stool several times in the last two weeks. After the second incident, I took her to the dr, and she sent us for a kub x-ray (kidney, uretha, bladder) and then to a gastroenterologist right away. The gas. dr. scheduled a colonoscopy for Monday morning. This means no solid food on Sunday- just jello (and I have to find halal jello!) and clear liquids. She also has to take some clean out assisters. Monday morning we report bright and early for anasthesia and the procedure.
The first dr. was leading toward Meckels Diverticulitus, but the specialist thinks polyps. I wasn't worried too much about this until H got on the internet and got more information about these. Now I'm doing alot of praying and working off putting off worrying about it until we actually know what to worry about.
We've always been so fortunate. Yeah, there have been lots of standard sicknesses, and Ali had jaundice and asthma issues, but still, nothing too serious. I hope this isn't serious either.
It feels totally trivial after that to add that this week was terrible. I worked an 11 hour day on Tuesday and ran all over the campus for the first day of the semester(didn't feel sciatic pain luckily, partly do to the copious amounts of ibuprofen), came home to the news of Leila's stool and a vomiting Ali, and had to leave work early on a busy Wednesday for a dr.'s appt as well as find a sub for Thursday morning- not ideal the second day of class. Thursday and Friday I felt the effects on my sciatic nerve of all the running around. Luckily this morning has been spent in bed- except for making blueberry pancakes- and the rest of the day is birthday parties- Leila has one this afternoon, and I get to go to girl's night out this evening. Yeah! Tomorrow we plan to stay home for the great prep day, so we'll get lots of rest, too.