My new years resolution is to be better at blogging. I want to remember what goes on in our lives especially after we have the baby. So this is my attempt at catching people up with at least the last month! ☺ The last post is new too, so if you want to hear about our appliance issues go and read!
I am soooo incredibly thankful for my husband. I know, huge shock, someone being thankful for the person they chose to spend eternity with. But at this moment I would have a VERY hard time continuing on without him.
Last Monday, December 13th I had to take the 1 hour glucose test to see if I have gestational diabetes. I had no idea that I needed to go in fasting. None of the paperwork said so. So I stopped on my way home from work, drank the nasty orange flavored sugar drink and then headed home. Brett brought me back an hour later to have my blood drawn.
On Tuesday, I had a call from Group Health saying that my level was way too high and that I would have to come in ASAP for the 3 hour glucose test where you absolutely have to fast at least 8 hours. Basically you come in when they open, have your blood drawn, drink another one of those sugar drinks, wait an hour, blood drawn again, wait an hour, blood drawn again, and then wait another hour to have your blood drawn one final time. So 4 times total. Very brutal for someone who gets very sick when having her blood drawn.
I was worried sick about this test all week. The soonest I could do it was this Monday, December 20th. I KNEW it was going to be bad and that I was NOT going to feel well when the whole thing was over. My poor husband was pretty much obligated to go sit with me in the waiting room during this whole process. He was so good about it and did whatever he could to keep my mind off of what I was doing. He went and bought me a Subway sandwich because I definitely needed it when the testing was all over. I felt so incredibly weak!! It was awful!
That is one of the reasons I am so thankful for him. The next few are because of his support when I was actually diagnosed with gestational diabetes. He was very willing to go talk to the diabetes specialist with me and listen to what would be required of me for the rest of the pregnancy. He has been helping me try to figure out what to eat all 6 times I am supposed to eat each day. I have to do a blood test 4 times a day. At first I just wasn’t having any luck with it because I was doing it wrong. I actually poked myself 13 times on Wednesday morning because it kept saying that I was not giving enough blood. I finally went into the pharmacy Thursday morning and asked what I was doing wrong. She showed me how it worked and I felt soooo dumb! The diabetes specialist was not clear on just how the strips read the blood. Anyway, I know how to do it now, so I am having no more issues with it. I still flinch a little when I poke myself, but it isn’t too bad.
Side Note: Thank you Gina, Lydia, and Heather for giving me advice to get more blood out when I thought that was the problem!
Tuesday night after I was diagnosed, I really broke down. The stress of it all had been building and building and then I had some high readings even after we tried really hard to follow the meal plan. I was pretty hysterical for about 10 minutes while Brett just held me. I was terrified of hurting our baby boy. I was angry at the fact that even though Brett was going to help, it was entirely on my shoulders. If I screwed up, then anything that happened to the baby was MY fault. Not anyone else’s…MINE. SOO scary! I knew that the time was coming when decisions would be made that would affect our son’s life, but I thought it would happen in March when both of us would be at fault! Lol.
Brett did a great job of calming me down and talking me through everything. He pointed out that anything that could happen to the baby was completely fixable and not too serious. Of course we want our baby to be as healthy as possible with NO problems, but with what Drs can do nowadays, there is no point in me worrying endlessly about his health. Especially because I am going to do everything I can to make sure he is OK. I just have to trust the Lord and my Dr.
I am feeling slightly better about the whole situation now. I am finding that most of the foods I love I can still have. Just not as much of it. It is all about portion sizes. I can’t eat whenever I want which has been slightly frustrating. Of course, the other part that I find HIGHLY annoying (especially this time of year) is that I cannot have sweets. Well I can, but I have to sacrifice real food for it and go for a really long walk afterwards (I already have to do 30 minutes a day, so it would need to be more than that.) It is HIGHLY recommended that I avoid them altogether until I deliver. I have already decided there will be a couple of exceptions to this – I need to have at least one sugar cookie and I will also have cake at my showers. That is just how it will be. But I will not eat anything else like that which means that after I deliver my glucose levels will be really high because I will be getting my chocolate fix!! Brett will probably just bring my stocking candy to the hospital for me. ☺
So the point of the post is that without Brett, I don’t think I could do this. He is constantly checking up on me even when he is at work. He calls to find out what I have been eating and what my levels are. He is also checking on my walking time to be sure I am doing my 30 minutes. I am thankful I have someone I have to report to just to give me more incentive to do it all. It is a lot to take in, but I am getting better at it. Luckily by the time I go back to school I will have it all down so I can easily continue all this and do my job.
If it was possible, I am even more excited for the birth of this baby boy. I am 29 weeks now and am hoping I don’t have to wait too long for this madness to stop! I don’t want him to come too early, but whatever the Lord feels is best I will agree with!
Have a Merry Christmas everyone!
Friday, December 24, 2010
The Appliance Conundrum
Our dryer decided to go out on us in the beginning of December. Luckily we had already decided to get the gas line installed, so that meant we could start looking for a gas dryer. Well, that turned into a desire to get a new washer as well because we found a good deal on both of them. We had also been talking about buying a new range since the gas line was going to be installed. So last Monday, December 13th, we headed off to Tacoma to the Sears Outlet store so that we could buy our new range. We had been talking about doing this for sooooo long and we finally found the perfect unit. It is a gas range with a double oven. The bottom (larger) oven is convection and will not be used as often as the smaller top oven will. I do not have to bend down too much to use the top oven. That is going to be very nice for my back.
We had the washer, dryer, and range all delivered on Thursday, December 16th. Not a single one of those appliances were actually installed. Very frustrating, especially with the washer and dryer. The only reason they could not be installed is because we needed a new dryer hose. Ours was plastic, we needed an aluminum one. That can be fixed pretty easily, Brett went under the house and replaced it. He wasn’t happy about doing it, but he did and then it was done. Theoretically, we should have been able to hook up the dryer and use it that night. We couldn’t do that and you know why? The Sears guys were seriously trying to get out of doing work! They had the washer and dryer in the wrong places, the pedestals were still in their boxes, and they took our washer hoses! I have absolutely NO idea why they didn’t set up the washer as there was no reason whatsoever it could not be installed. They basically looked and said whoops, you have the wrong hose, too bad. Call us to come back when you have that fixed and left.
Did I mention they even delivered the wrong dryer to begin with? IDIOTS!
My mom called Sears to see if they could come Friday to hook us up. She was told Sunday was the earliest time they could get someone out there. I was NOT happy with that and spent almost an hour with customer service and then a manager trying to get another install time since it was CLEARLY their fault we were left in this mess! I made it VERY clear to the manager that the reason I was angry is because the installers were absolutely trying to do the least amount of work possible and that they definitely needed a talking to. I hope they had a very uncomfortable meeting with their supervisor and were given some kind of punishment. I was able to get us Saturday evening which was a little better than Sunday.
Now to the range. The gas would not work first of all. We thought it was a problem with the gas line – turned out to be a safety feature we did not know how to turn off (we discovered this Friday night). Lol. Anyway, we called the people who installed our gas line because of the gas not working and because the line direction needed to be changed so that the range could go back against the wall further. So the guy came out on Friday and fixed the line. The gas worked just fine when he left. I came home from work and tried to use it, gas would not work. My mom came home and discovered the little safety feature. We were all excited and we started talking about making sugar cookies. (YUM. Man, I wish we would have been able to make them at this point!)
Then it happened. Our range started making the loudest and most obnoxious noise I have ever heard. The only way we could turn it off was by completely unplugging the range. So then we started researching on the web and searching through the manuals for any help in solving the mystery of the wonderful noise. We found nothing. Absolutely nothing. So then I got to get on the phone AGAIN to call Sears. Of course it took forever, but I finally was able to make an appointment for a tech to come out on Saturday to see what the problem was. Of course I had all kinds of plans Saturday morning that I had to cancel, but this was important!
I woke up early Saturday morning because I had to pee. This happens quite frequently now. It is the curse of the pregnant woman. I noticed immediately that my clock was off since I always check the time. I thought it was the extension cord since I had been having issues with it. So I went into the bathroom and tried to turn on the lights. They didn’t turn on. The power was off. I normally don’t mind having the power out. It helps keep me thankful for power ☺. This morning though was such a bad time for the power to be off!!
The technician called and said he was on his way around 9:45. I let him know that the power was off and I didn’t know what he could do to help us. He said he would come anyway and see what he could do. When he got here the power was still off, but based on my description, he had a pretty good idea of what the problem was. So he ordered the part for us. He was a little nervous about doing so since the part was about $325. Luckily, the lights turned on around this point and he was able to almost definitely confirm it was the solenoid. He told me the part would be delivered to our house and that the soonest someone could come back to install it would be JANUARY THIRD! I was resigned to not have any appliances in my house working so I just agreed and said goodbye.
We tried to make the best of it. Brett was constantly joking about how we have enough small appliances that we will do just fine. My mom set up the camp stove right outside our sliding door and we just used that when needed.
The part came yesterday afternoon, and Brett was able to install it when he got home from work. So now our range is working perfectly! Just in time for us to make a nice dinner for Christmas Eve. We already had plans for Christmas day with my mom’s brother and his family since we knew we would have a hard time cooking a nice meal.
It is amazing how grateful you are for something when you’ve been without for so long. (I guess I week isn’t long, but I dare you to try!)
We had the washer, dryer, and range all delivered on Thursday, December 16th. Not a single one of those appliances were actually installed. Very frustrating, especially with the washer and dryer. The only reason they could not be installed is because we needed a new dryer hose. Ours was plastic, we needed an aluminum one. That can be fixed pretty easily, Brett went under the house and replaced it. He wasn’t happy about doing it, but he did and then it was done. Theoretically, we should have been able to hook up the dryer and use it that night. We couldn’t do that and you know why? The Sears guys were seriously trying to get out of doing work! They had the washer and dryer in the wrong places, the pedestals were still in their boxes, and they took our washer hoses! I have absolutely NO idea why they didn’t set up the washer as there was no reason whatsoever it could not be installed. They basically looked and said whoops, you have the wrong hose, too bad. Call us to come back when you have that fixed and left.
Did I mention they even delivered the wrong dryer to begin with? IDIOTS!
My mom called Sears to see if they could come Friday to hook us up. She was told Sunday was the earliest time they could get someone out there. I was NOT happy with that and spent almost an hour with customer service and then a manager trying to get another install time since it was CLEARLY their fault we were left in this mess! I made it VERY clear to the manager that the reason I was angry is because the installers were absolutely trying to do the least amount of work possible and that they definitely needed a talking to. I hope they had a very uncomfortable meeting with their supervisor and were given some kind of punishment. I was able to get us Saturday evening which was a little better than Sunday.
Now to the range. The gas would not work first of all. We thought it was a problem with the gas line – turned out to be a safety feature we did not know how to turn off (we discovered this Friday night). Lol. Anyway, we called the people who installed our gas line because of the gas not working and because the line direction needed to be changed so that the range could go back against the wall further. So the guy came out on Friday and fixed the line. The gas worked just fine when he left. I came home from work and tried to use it, gas would not work. My mom came home and discovered the little safety feature. We were all excited and we started talking about making sugar cookies. (YUM. Man, I wish we would have been able to make them at this point!)
Then it happened. Our range started making the loudest and most obnoxious noise I have ever heard. The only way we could turn it off was by completely unplugging the range. So then we started researching on the web and searching through the manuals for any help in solving the mystery of the wonderful noise. We found nothing. Absolutely nothing. So then I got to get on the phone AGAIN to call Sears. Of course it took forever, but I finally was able to make an appointment for a tech to come out on Saturday to see what the problem was. Of course I had all kinds of plans Saturday morning that I had to cancel, but this was important!
I woke up early Saturday morning because I had to pee. This happens quite frequently now. It is the curse of the pregnant woman. I noticed immediately that my clock was off since I always check the time. I thought it was the extension cord since I had been having issues with it. So I went into the bathroom and tried to turn on the lights. They didn’t turn on. The power was off. I normally don’t mind having the power out. It helps keep me thankful for power ☺. This morning though was such a bad time for the power to be off!!
The technician called and said he was on his way around 9:45. I let him know that the power was off and I didn’t know what he could do to help us. He said he would come anyway and see what he could do. When he got here the power was still off, but based on my description, he had a pretty good idea of what the problem was. So he ordered the part for us. He was a little nervous about doing so since the part was about $325. Luckily, the lights turned on around this point and he was able to almost definitely confirm it was the solenoid. He told me the part would be delivered to our house and that the soonest someone could come back to install it would be JANUARY THIRD! I was resigned to not have any appliances in my house working so I just agreed and said goodbye.
We tried to make the best of it. Brett was constantly joking about how we have enough small appliances that we will do just fine. My mom set up the camp stove right outside our sliding door and we just used that when needed.
The part came yesterday afternoon, and Brett was able to install it when he got home from work. So now our range is working perfectly! Just in time for us to make a nice dinner for Christmas Eve. We already had plans for Christmas day with my mom’s brother and his family since we knew we would have a hard time cooking a nice meal.
It is amazing how grateful you are for something when you’ve been without for so long. (I guess I week isn’t long, but I dare you to try!)
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