a little about the pregnancy...
and [a lot] about the first week we found out.
about the pregnancy:
- i will be 14 weeks tomorrow, that's 3 1/2 months
- lil' larkin is due july 17th
(though the first estimate was july 3rd, my birthday --
this date change is the difference between the babe having run the marathon, and not)
- i did not know i was pregnant when i was in oklahoma, but, i was pregnant!
- i helped les pick bridesmaids dresses weeks before i was preggers, but how lucky am i that they will actually fit me?
***
about the first week we found out:
monday november 30
my supervisor quit, giving us just five days of notice right as we were heading into our busiest campaign of the year - tax season (for h&r block). i needed sushi for dinner that night IN A BIG WAY to comfort myself. and i drank lots of water, after spending the day before with family + friend david leavitt (in town from france!) drinking and watching the bears. i'm embarassed to say it, but as i ordered a second bloody mary before the first was gone, dave jokingly asked if i was drinking for two. eep. i guess i was. damnit.
tuesday december 1
dad flew home after his thanksgiving visit.
patrick flew to minnesota for work.
and i, with the house to myself, decided maybe i should buy a home pregnancy test, because well, "it'd" been awhile, but that wasn't that abnormal for me, so i wasn't worried. well, it was positive before i even finished peeing. oh. talk about whoops. called patrick and waited until very ending of the conversation to mention anything about it. i told him it didn't necessarily mean i was pregnant. patrick said i was crazy.
wednesday december 2
snuck out of the office for an unplanned dr. appointment, needed to get a blood test. went back to office and tried to pick my completely-disengaged-supervisor's brain, as the days before he'd be gone, with all his campaign knowledge, ticked away. i had a lot of new work to take on in preparation of his absence, and really needed all the background information. he, on the other hand, was much more interested in planning his move to san francisco. i also had to learn how to program code for processing raw data in a system called SAS. eww, not fun. needed him to better teach me so i wouldn't screw up all the data for the client. it is very easy to destroy all the data. therefore a nerve-racking task.
{sample SAS code}
not to mention, i was umm SLIGHTLY distracted by the fact i might be pregnant?! ok obviously, i was in some kind of denial, but as i told patrick, i could have a disease that was altering my hormone production (certain rare medical conditions such as trophoblastic disease, islet-cell tumors), and that it was not a laughing matter. but obviously i was putting my personal issues aside to just buckle down and focus on what needed to get done at work.
thursday december 3
dr. office called and said the test confirmed i was preggo. then they wanted me to come in for more blood tests. what? didn't they just take blood? couldn't they just use that? apparently not. and as it later turns out, they take MUCH MORE blood for this round of testing, but i didn't know.
i was annoyed because they wanted me to come in the next day, which was my last day to learn as much as i could about programming from my supe. i asked if i could come in on monday instead.
at this point, i could hear the "chick is cr-a-zy" thoughts running through the lady's head, and she said it was important that i come in tomorrow so they could see how hormone levels were building, etc. as a solution, they said i could go to a blood lab a little closer to my office that opened at 7:30am if i preferred. so i said ok.
i bought the little puppy card on my way home from work that day to let patrick know i really was pregnant. although he didn't even doubt it for a second.
friday december 4
got to work at 6am and worked until 7:15am.
walked over to the blood lab ... and they didn't have the fax from my doctor, so they wouldn't take my blood. grrrrr!
called my doctor's office as soon as it opened at 9am. nurse listened to my situation, and why i didn't get my blood taken, and said actually she wanted to talk to the doctor. she came back and said since i could be 10 weeks pregnant, the doc actually wanted to see me THAT DAY and they wanted me there at 1:00. uh, not in my plan!! but sounded pretty important.
so, i told my associate director and supe i had to go back to the doctor for a follow up on some tests (telling them nothing else), but that i'd rush back in order to get as much time working with supe. my supe said he'd make sure i finished writing the program before he left.
i went to the doctor's office, and first they took vial after vial of blood.
then they sent me up to the ultrasound office! as the technician was looking around in there, i explained to her that if she couldn't find anything, it was probably because i wasn't as far along as they were thinking i was (turns out i wasn't) but then just then, on the screen, something appeared:
{the black skinny bean thing is the fetal sac and the little turtle-shaped blob inside it is the embryo}
then the speakers started making noises and i said, "what's that?"
the technician said, "why that's your baby's hearbeat."
hmm, so totally not what i was expecting to be doing that day!
not to mention, next step was to head back down and actually see my doctor -- and the hours were passing by, on a very important day at work.
back down with dr. toig, he looked at all the measurements and original hormone levels and said i was almost 8 weeks, not 10 as i technically could have been, and changed the due date from july 3 date to july 17. he said there was a good, healthy, heartbeat and that he wasn't concerned about miscarriage.
i walked out of the office at about a quarter to 4, got in a cab, and got a call from my supervisor.
he said, "hey, i left."
what?
so i said, "what?? you left? are you coming back?"
he said no, he was going to just hang out until people were meeting for happy hour.
i was LIVID.
i was SO PISSED.
i couldn't believe he left without helping me, after all the things he said he'd do before he'd leave. after i put together some semblance of a going away party, when no one else from our h&r block digital team even came (just other analytics and other strategy peeps, but i think direct team members were not happy about the way he was leaving). after giving us only 5 days notice, essentially screwing us over (his timing was essentially a big f-you to the team), he took it another step and personally screwed me over!
then he had the audacity to say, "i thought we finished writing the code" when he, as a smart guy, knew PLAIN F***ING WELL that the code was not at all finished and not at all working correctly.
"oh really? so i should just use the code as it is?" - sarcastic.
"yah" - knowing i was being sarcastic but being smug nonetheless.
"ok i will"
got of the phone, completely overwhelmed by the day's events, and cried.
called patrick in tears.
pulled it together before walking back into work.
sat down at my desk and my associate director said, i got your texts, and i said you didn't have to come back (so nice). i said, well i needed to so that i could finish working with [supervisor], but he just called to say he left. and get this, our associate director didn't even know. they guy didn't even have the courtesy to say goodbye to his own boss on his way out.
***
it was quite a week!
that night patrick brought home some sparkling grape juice (uh, did you know that no one around here knows what martinelli's sparkling apple cider is? hello! i would have loved some of this, but sparkling grape juice did the trick, too) and we sipped bubbly juice on the couch.
howcome no one around here knows what sparkling martinelli's is?
***
--during week 8--
btw, don't tell me i look pregnant here, because this is how i always look!!
consider it a "before" pic!
