Had my regular 2-week OB visit yesterday. Everything looks good except the fact I gained 7 lbs in 2 weeks. Not so good. My feet have been swelling like crazy and I'm starting to feel like my legs are swelling, too. I've been watching my salt consumption for the past couple of weeks or so, but apparantly not carefully enough. The doctor didn't seem alarmed, but I know if things continue the same, then she will be. Her suggestions: limit salt (doing that), drink lots of water (doing that, although I may try to drink more. I'm already at 8-10 glasses a day, so I don't know if I can handle any more), and lie down on my left side for 1-2 hours every day. That's the toughie. I sleep mostly on my left side since it's better for my reflux than sleeping on my right. If I go home and lie down, then I'll eat dinner an hour later which will mean more reflux at bedtime (and I'm already up at least 2 or 3 times a night for Tums). If I lie down for an hour after eating, I'll have horrendous reflux.

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Best Friend (I've blogged a good bit about her in the past, but am too lazy to go through the archives) and her husband are trying to get pregnant. I'm a horrible person because I just can't get all that excited for them. They've been trying for about 6 months or so with no luck. Her gyn is doing tests and she seems to be ovulating although she has a cyst and possibly endo. I do feel bad about those - I've dealt with cysts before (they hurt like hell when they rupture), and she may need exploratory surgery to see if she indeed has endo.

The reasons I can't get excited are as follows:

Their little girl was a surprise. BF had gone of bc pills due to blood pressure problems, and they didn't like any of the alternatives, so they used NOTHING. She got pregnant within a couple months of stopping bc. She was miserable during the whole pregnancy and made sure everyone knew about it. I'm not saying pregnancy is all roses, but I think her main problem was that she and hubby were comepletely not ready to be parents. I understand her needing to go off the pill, but if you're not ready for a kid, you really ought to use some sort of protection.

They have big money issues. Always complaining about bills, collection agencies, or their daughter's medical bills. It's only going to get worse with another child. And I'll hear all about it. Then when her parents bail them out of yet another maxed out credit card, I'll her about how "guilty" she feels that her parents have bailed them yet again.

They bugged the ever-living shit out of hubby and me for at least a year or two before we decided to try and start a family. Every time I saw or talked to them, the first words out of their mouths were "So, when are you guys having a baybeeeee?" They even got their daughter in on the act. Nothing warms the cockles of your heart like a 3 year old asking if you're pregnant yet.

One small consolation: their daughter really wants a little brother. She tells them so all the time and even has a name picked out. She also announced it to everyone at the last party we were at. BF was mortified and I had to stifle a laugh. It didn't bother her any to do the same thing to me.

Things have been relatively calm on the homefront...so not much blog material lately.

Lily seems fully recovered from her surgery 2 weeks ago. Other than the Frankenstein scar on her belly, you'd never know she had surgery. Starting tonight, we'll resume our daily walks. She's been so unhappy without them. The other night she sat up and begged to be walked. I felt like a meany for not taking her. We also found out she has doggy acne. We've been noticing lumps all over her body and at first thought they were tick bites (she gets similar lumps from them.) Nope, the vet says she has clogged sebacious glands aka zits.

Hubby is out of town this week for a homicide investigations class. I'm worried about being in the 3rd trimester with him gone, but at least he's only a few hours away and we have a list of friends I can call if necessary. Mom may even spend a night or two with me, although I'm not sure how well her roommate will handle it. It may not be worth the trouble.

Last night I had difficulty sleeping. It's weird not to have Hubby in the house, I wasn't feeling well with lovely intestinal cramps, and at one point, one of the cats woke me up and scared the bejeesus out of me. I woke up to weird staccato meows - she rarely meows unless hungry or upset, and a strange crinkling sound. I was afraid she was sick or distressed and had visions of another emergency vet visit. I bolted up in bed and realized she had sat down next to the bed purring. She had dragged her toy mouse into the bedroom for me and apparantly was announcing her catch. The weird sound was the bell on the mouse's tail dragging across the hallway tile.

The most recent big even was getting maced. Not directly, but close enough. Hubby and I were at another couple's house when it happened. Their son was in the den and started coughing and sneezing. The dad went to check on him, assuming he had sprayed some sort of cleaner. He told the kid to get to the shower and get ready for bed. Shortly after, the rest of us started sneezing and coughing, so the dad went back to the other room for further investigation. The "cleaner" turned out to be pepper spray/mace combo. And this isn't the first time the kid has maced himself.

Lily seems to be doing fine after her big surgery. Honestly, I can't believe it. She has a good 8" long scar on her belly and acts as if nothing happened. She was a little sleepy the first couple of days, but has been running around and launching on and off the furniture without any trouble. We've even taken her for walkies around the block because she was so pitifully begging to go.

We had a baby shower this weekend. Both our moms were there - hubby's mom drove down for the weekend just to come. It was so nice to have them both there although I wish Dad and Stepmom could have made it, too. Since his mom was there, there's no way his dad and stepmom would come. I wish they'd all get over it already, but I guess they never will. I enjoyed hanging out with everyone and had a chance to talk with the wife of one of hubby's coworkers who is also due around the same time as me. We don't know each other that well, but she seems like a real sweetheart. We're both having similar discomforts, so it was fun to talk about all that.

I'm finding that I'm cranky almost all the time now. I wonder if it's because I'm not sleeping well (I'm up at least 3 or 4 times a night now to pee or take antacids) or if it's just "hormones". I'm trying really hard to be pleasant but I nearly lost it yesterday at the gas station when a jackass pumped gas into his SUV with the motor running. Um, they have signs all over the place that tell you to turn the damn engine off.

My big event yesterday, though, was calling in a possible drug dealer. As I was leaving work, I noticed a suspicious looking guy hanging around outside the parking lot. Work is in a fairly rough neighborhood with a history of drugs, so I wasn't all that surprised. As I drove out, he leaned over (my windows were open) and said something like "Hey baby" whole holding his hand out. He had a baggie of something, and I kept driving. Once I got about a mile away, I called it in to the Sheriff's Office. Who knows if anything happened, or if the guy was even still there, but we've had 2 situations in the past 6 months where we've been ordered to lock down work while the cops look for armed suspects in the area. I'm getting damn tired of it.

Yay!! Lily is on her way home. Hubby just called and she's doing really well. She was so excited to see him, that she dragged the vet tech over to him. She also was able to hop into the car all by herself (she has a build like a basset hound, so it's a jump). Our only care instructions are to try to get her to rest for the next 2 weeks (Haha. She's a hyper mutt.) and not to bathe her during that time. We also have to be careful of viral infections. I'm bummed that we won't get our evening walkies for her recuperation period as I'm sure she will be, too. She absolutely loves her walkies.

The vet showed hubby the piece of toy from her intestine. Apparently is was a pretty good chunk. I hope she's learned what not to eat.

How could I have forgotten to post about Lazy Coworker (LC)? The drama continues...

Every year, LC takes approximately one month off to work for his family's business. It's a pretty sweet deal since most employers wouldn't be so accomodating. Last year he got into a bit of trouble for using unofficial comp time during his vacation. We were techinically supposed to record any overtime on our timecards and it would be officially accrued. Boss allowed us to keep an informal log of comp time instead of reporting it and then deduct any time we'd take off. Last year, the personnel office got wind of it and told LC he couldn't do that anymore.

This year we switched over to a computer-based timecard system mid-year, so LC began recording his comp time officially once we switched over. But he had about 2 weeks of "unofficial" comp time from the first half of the year, and Boss wanted him to use that up.

Well, personnel got wind of it again this year and called us on it. Boss and I discussed the situation and changed LC's time to vacation time and will make other arrangements for him to get the comp owed to him (which I personally think is an exaggerated amount. But I can't prove it).

That's not the big issue, although he had already been warned by personnel last year.

This issue is that LC also works part-time for 2 other bosses. Personnel notified me that on one of the positions he entered in time as if he's working while he's on vacation. I checked the other position and sure enough, he entered time there as well. So he's trying to get paid for time he won't be working - to the tune of about 40 hours - a week's worth of pay. I don't know if personnel is aware that he fudged on both jobs, and I don't feel it's my place to rat him out, but I am soooo tempted to bring it to the other boss's attention. I'm sick and tired of LC's bullshit. He cops an attitude when I or another person ask him to help us. The other coworker has caught him out driving around town when he's supposed to be at work. He's lied to one of the other bosses about being at work when he wasn't (and probably has to our boss, too).

The clincher: when checking to make sure if he had enough vacation time to cover his month off (he does - to the tune of about 200 hours - last year he claimed he didn't have enough hours, so I don't know where they magically appeared from) I also saw his pay stub. That stinker is bringing home as much money as I am. Granted, he's "working" the extra part time positions (although I very much doubt he's putting in the hours he claims to be), but I have an MS and busted my ass to get where I am. I'm not sure if he even has a high school diploma, slacks off at work, and cops a 'tude, and gets away with it all.

I am feeling so fucking overwhelmed.

Lily had her surgery and seems to have pulled through OK. Her spleen was very enlarged and needed removal. The vet doesn't have a clear idea as to why, so it will be biopsied. He was afraid it would rupture if he left it in, which could have led to severe internal bleeding and death. He also found a piece of the toy in her colon and removed that as well. The estimated cost (given before surgery) ranged from $250-$500+, so we asked if we could make payments if it ends up at the higher range (which looks probable). The vet said he'd keep costs down as much as possible. I'm feeling bad, like we're scamming the vet, but we just finished paying $600 to the OB in September (which she required 3 months in advance of the due date) and we still owe $1000 of our $1500 deposit to the maternity hospital. Plus the $400 deposit to the anesthesiologist in case I need an epidural (I'm praying I don't).

Hubby was just called back out after being home a whopping 20 minutes. The fuckers at his work called the house again after he left. That's what his cell that we pay out the ass for and the work pager are for. Don't call the house at 11 pm. I was trying to sleep which now won't happen. Thanks a bunch.

Hubby and I both have been stressed about money. He's talking about picking up more work details when the baby is born, which seems like a good idea. We'll need the money for childcare and to pay off the hospital/doctor bills. What I'm getting annoyed about is his little comments about how he doesn't think we can afford a couple months of me going back part time before I go back to full time. Here's the deal: I have enough leave time to take 3 paid months off. From what I've heard from all my mom friends, I'll need it. Then I plan to use FMLA and go back half-time (at half pay) for a couple of months to transition back into full-time work. Hubby is very stressed about this and brings it up every so often. I'm so damn tired of it since I tend to be more conservative about spending money - he's usually the spender. This is one time when I know I'll need recuperation time and I'm gettting shit for it. Never mind that most of the maternity clothes I've bought, including the goddamn maternity bras I've had to buy because my regular underwire bras were digging into my ribs, have come out of my allotted spending money. Never mind that there have been several paychecks lately where I've spend only part of my spending money and used the rest for bills. (Not to say that I'm perfect and always strictly stick to our budget, but I really try.) This past weekend he bought a router and router table out of his spending money. He admits it was more than his allotted amount, but never actually said how much. Somehow his spending money seems to stretch a lot further than mine. I don't even want to mention the router to him because I know he'll offer to take it back, I'll say no, then I'll feel like the shitty bad mommy for not letting him have his fun toy. Yet two fucking months of half pay in order for me to cope with going back to work and being separated from the baby are this big sore spot for him.

Then there's the stress about the actual labor and delivery. Hubby did go to most of the birthing classes with me, but I don't know how much of it he really learned/payed attention to. I'm going to need his support, but I'm not really sure how much he'll be able to give. We're supposed to do a relaxation exercise every day and I don't even know the last time we did it. He will give me back rubs or foot rubs when I ask, but it usually seems like a big hassle for him. Never mind that my feet are swollen and hurt and I can only fit into 1 pair of shoes now. Never mind that my hip joints and legs hurt most of the night because of the strain of lying on my sides. And never mind that those relaxation techniques we're supposed to do may keep me from needing pain meds during delivery. Pain meds that I want to avoid.

That was a load off. Maybe now I'll be able to go back to sleep.

Hubby, if you read this: don't bring it up. I've had enough talk about the money situation. I'm cranky tonight and I'm sure I'll have a better perspective tomorrow. But the next time you want to mention my leave time think about it first.

Hubby spoke to the vet a little while ago. Lily is going in for exploratory surgery. Poor little (well, not-so-little) mutt. The vet said her spleen felt enlarged and also wants to make sure she doesn't have an intestinal blockage left over from last week's toy eating. As far as the spleen goes, he said it could have twisted and interrupted the blood supply, or she could have a growth of some sort. He doesn't feel that cancer is likely since she's in good health and is on the heavy side.

We're keeping fingers and paws crossed that all will be OK.

Poor doggie.

Hubby called the boarding place last Monday and they were not at all helpful or friendly. Their response to her belly welts was "Well, maybe she had a reaction to something here. You can bring her back for the vet to check." When hubby asked if they would do the check for free, since Lily went in sans welts, they said no. So we won't use them again. And we're 99.9% sure the welts are from fire ants, not a "reaction". If they have a fire ant problem in their kennel area, they need to take care of it. Period.

Monday morning, we woke up to a very sick Lily. She had torn apart and eaten one of her squeaky toys sometime in the night and it made her very sick. I took her down to our usual vet and she spent the day under observation. Luckily by the end of the day she was all better, was able to eat and poop, and came home with medicine to help keep the tummy spasms down.

She was fine all week.

Until yesterday. We woke up again to a very, very sick Lily. I can't believe how much puke a 60-lb dog can produce. It's nasty. And we need to rent a steam cleaner. I got so grossed out, I had to put her out on the porch for a few hours. She proceeded to puke all over the porch, but at least we can hose it off. This time around we don't know what made her so sick. She's still on the tummy meds, but threw both doses back up. We gave her Kaopectate (at the vet's suggestion) and it didn't work. The only guesses we made are that either A) someone accidentally fed her something like chocolate on Saturday night when we had friends over or B) she has a tick-borne illness. Hubby and I pulled a tick off her on Saturday, after hubby accidentally squished the tick while trying to extract it. I know ticks can regurgitate nasties into their host when traumatized, but I don't know if 15 hours is a long enough incubation period for said nasties to cause symptoms.

So, back to the vet again today. Fingers are crossed.