There’s a bit of a bump there

Suffice it to say, it wasn’t my day today. The morning wasn’t such a great one. Note to self: Do not go anywhere near a Dunkin Donuts at 8:45 in the morning. That place is a madhouse.

I had another doctor’s appointment this afternoon, at which I found out I had gained five pounds. I know it’s okay for me to gain weight during pregnancy, but I have never gained five pounds in a month before. I’m going to really have to watch my eating and my exercising from here on out, since I don’t want to gain more than 20-25 pounds. That’s the recommended gain for an overweight woman.

Then again, I’ve only gained six pounds since I got pregnant, so I suppose I’m doing just fine. I just can’t be packing on five pounds every single month, that’s all.

I had a student nurse take my blood pressure today. She got 118/68, which sounded a wee bit high for me during pregnancy. Another nurse came in to check her and got 108/70, which is more like it. I was surprised the experienced nurse chastised the student nurse for not getting the right number right in front of me. I mean, she is a student. She’s still learning.

I also tried to talk to my doctor about being tired all the time. She sort of blew me off by saying, “That’s to be expected,” and kept putting information into the laptop she carries with her at all times. She’s a very busy and somewhat brusque woman, so there isn’t much time to discuss issues with her. I don’t know if it’s because she’s over-scheduled or because she assumes I know everything since this isn’t my first pregnancy. She did write me a prescription for iron pills. Of course, I could just buy them at Wal-Mart, but the Navy will give them to me free. And “free” is my favorite price!

I miss my hospital in Washington. I was seen at the naval hospital because the civilian hospital no longer took my insurance, which meant I couldn’t deliver there, so no OBs would take me on as a patient. It turned out to be the very best thing. I was seen by nurse-midwives who took their time with me at all my appointments and answered all my questions. Delivering was a great experience, especially because the only two males in the room were my husband and a male nurse as part of the pediatric team. It’s not that I have anything against males; I just felt like I was giving birth the way women had for centuries, surrounded by other women giving encouragement. Of course, I had the benefit of modern medicine and an epidural. I am not one to shun modern conveniences!

I asked today if my OB will be the one delivering me, and she said there were several other OBs that were on call for births. That surprised me since my OB is in practice by herself, so I wasn’t expecting to be delivered by anyone else. It does make sense since no one can be on-call 24/7, but I am going to have to figure out how to meet these other OBs. I don’t want to meet them when they’re staring up my lady parts trying to determine if the baby is starting to crown.

Anyhow.

Did you know it was a gorgeous day today??? It got up to 70º and felt almost like summer! We decided to go wander around Jamestown, on the neighboring island of Conanicut. We were treated to the wonderful courteousness New England drivers are known for: Kurt was rewarded for doing the speed limit in a small town by having the driver behind us rev his engine and accelerate till he was right on our tail, then back off and do it all over again. When we had to stop because there was a cop in the middle of the road protecting a man down a manhole, we were flipped off by said driver. We finally turned off onto another street to do more exploring, and the man gave us a friendly good-bye middle-finger salute. Nice.

But aside from that, it was really fun exploring the island. I got some great shots today, which always cheers me up. Kurt got a good one of my baby bump; you can actually see it now!

Behold!

You can see that my bump now sticks out farther than my bosom, which is saying something. I must be pregnant!!! Imagine that.