Yep, it's been a while. I've been a little busy lately with the content of the my last post and I've had to let blogging (and a whole lot of other things) fall by the wayside.
I don't know if it's still a regular interview question or not but "Where do you see yourself in five years?" certainly is a classic one. I was thinking about that this morning as I strolled around the neighborhood with my almost one-year-old baby. (Just a few more days 'til he turns one—yikes!) Five years ago this week, I think, my husband and I were in North Carolina house-hunting for our impending move to the state. Did I think I'd have a one-year-old baby five years from then? Uh, no, can't say that I did.
I think there's value in planning for tomorrow (and potential dire consequences if we don't), but I don't think it's necessary to try and guess where we might be five years from now. For all we know Christ may return by then, as he says in Matthew 25:13: "“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour." God also makes it clear we should keep our focus on today in Matthew 6:34: "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself." With a one-year-old baby in tow that sounds like good advice to me.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Monday, July 25, 2011
Announcing Kidlet
Kidlet was successfully launched at 08:49 EDT, 23 July 2011. The 52 cm., 3.6 kg. (20.5", 7 lb. 14 oz.) payload was within optimal operational specifications and is functioning normally. The delivery vehicle was recovered in the nominal drop zone without incident and is being refurbished for the continuing mission.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Waiting
I'm officially in the waiting period now and I have to admit, it's a little boring.
My due date is now three days away. No signs of labor yet and based on my last appointment and the fact that statistically first babies are often late there's a good chance I'm going to see my due date still pregnant, though I'm still hoping I won't. The reason is we were told a while ago that due to my "advanced maternal age" (their term, not mine!) there's a higher risk of the placenta deteriorating and becoming less efficient faster once the due date passes, so they probably won't let me go more than a few days past my due date before inducing me. At first I thought this was a fine idea, but now I've become a little less enthused with the idea of being induced—especially if it's starting out cold turkey with no natural signs of labor at all—and I'd much rather start things out naturally if I possibly can. As always no one has asked me, though, and there's not much I can do other than my main conversation with kidlet now being, "Out, out, out!"
On the bright side I am very glad to have been able to do things on my terms up until now. I stopped working two weeks before my due date and was able to complete things at work on my schedule without any complications (pregnancy-related or otherwise), which besides making things easier on me made things much easier on the people taking over for me as well. And while it doesn't always feel like it, I know overall I've had a relatively uncomplicated pregnancy compared to some, and I'm very thankful for that. (Dealing with acid reflux every night and having hugely swollen legs and feet for the past four months doesn't always feel particularly uncomplicated—nor did getting sick every two months for the first six months of the pregnancy—but so far everything I've dealt with has only affected me, not kidlet, which I guess is relatively uncomplicated in pregnancy terms.)
So, I wait. I know it's getting closer with every passing day by definition; I'm trying to find comfort in that. I'm definitely enjoying having an empty calendar right now, being able to rest and take naps and watch TV whenever I want to (mainly a few afternoon Food Network programs I like), and not having any schedule or real responsibilities right now. I had a lot I wanted to get done last week and since kidlet didn't come then I had time to do it, so now I really have nothing pressing on my plate that I feel I have to do; not a bad place to be in when I do eventually get to this labor/delivery thing. I hear it can start suddenly on its own at any time... I'm waiting!
My due date is now three days away. No signs of labor yet and based on my last appointment and the fact that statistically first babies are often late there's a good chance I'm going to see my due date still pregnant, though I'm still hoping I won't. The reason is we were told a while ago that due to my "advanced maternal age" (their term, not mine!) there's a higher risk of the placenta deteriorating and becoming less efficient faster once the due date passes, so they probably won't let me go more than a few days past my due date before inducing me. At first I thought this was a fine idea, but now I've become a little less enthused with the idea of being induced—especially if it's starting out cold turkey with no natural signs of labor at all—and I'd much rather start things out naturally if I possibly can. As always no one has asked me, though, and there's not much I can do other than my main conversation with kidlet now being, "Out, out, out!"
On the bright side I am very glad to have been able to do things on my terms up until now. I stopped working two weeks before my due date and was able to complete things at work on my schedule without any complications (pregnancy-related or otherwise), which besides making things easier on me made things much easier on the people taking over for me as well. And while it doesn't always feel like it, I know overall I've had a relatively uncomplicated pregnancy compared to some, and I'm very thankful for that. (Dealing with acid reflux every night and having hugely swollen legs and feet for the past four months doesn't always feel particularly uncomplicated—nor did getting sick every two months for the first six months of the pregnancy—but so far everything I've dealt with has only affected me, not kidlet, which I guess is relatively uncomplicated in pregnancy terms.)
So, I wait. I know it's getting closer with every passing day by definition; I'm trying to find comfort in that. I'm definitely enjoying having an empty calendar right now, being able to rest and take naps and watch TV whenever I want to (mainly a few afternoon Food Network programs I like), and not having any schedule or real responsibilities right now. I had a lot I wanted to get done last week and since kidlet didn't come then I had time to do it, so now I really have nothing pressing on my plate that I feel I have to do; not a bad place to be in when I do eventually get to this labor/delivery thing. I hear it can start suddenly on its own at any time... I'm waiting!
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
A Pre-Existing Condition
I hate medical insurance.
Don't get me wrong, I like having medical insurance, I just hate dealing with it. Recently I had to change insurance plans and switch to my hubby's plan. This happened to coincide with my last day of work though it didn't actually have anything to do with my job (other than my not having an employer's plan to switch to), it had to do with my extended student benefits ending. Since I'm getting ready to pop a kid out any day now it's kind of important that I have medical insurance when that happens. I've dealt with changing plans before so I worked with hubby and got him (and his HR person) the necessary paperwork to prove I was losing coverage on my existing plan, otherwise known in the medical insurance world as a qualifying event. In another twist of coincidence the timing coincided with hubby's plan's open enrollment period, but the qualifying event ensured that didn't matter and I could go on it regardless of the plan's regularly scheduled enrollment period.
The other thing tied to a qualifying event is continuous coverage, which is required to keep new insurance plans from slapping a "pre-existing condition waiting period" on you. In case you hadn't heard pregnancy is a pre-existing condition from an insurance company's point-of-view, and taking on a new member and immediately having to pay for a delivery isn't something insurance companies particularly want to do. I knew this and tried VERY HARD to supply the paperwork to hubby's HR person to make sure the pre-existing condition period would get waived... And sure enough today we received a letter from the insurance company saying based on their records I have a one-year waiting period for pre-existing conditions. SIGH. Hubby talked to his HR person and it appears somehow somewhere lines got crossed and the paperwork he gave her was just to get me on the plan, now we have to submit separate paperwork to the insurance company to deal with the pre-existing condition mess. Thankfully I know enough about medical insurance to keep any piece of paper I ever receive that says "Certificate of Insurance" on it, so I put everything together and tomorrow proof that I've had continuous coverage for the past 3 years will be going out in the mail. (Technically I only need to prove continuous coverage for 1 year but I'm going for overkill just because.) Even though we're dealing with it, based on the timing of everything I'd bet you real money that the paperwork won't be processed in time (since insurance companies aren't exactly known for lightning fast reflexes when it comes to processing paperwork), claims will be denied and we'll have to call everyone everywhere and tell them to resubmit claims and process everything again. I can't wait.
Don't get me wrong, I like having medical insurance, I just hate dealing with it. Recently I had to change insurance plans and switch to my hubby's plan. This happened to coincide with my last day of work though it didn't actually have anything to do with my job (other than my not having an employer's plan to switch to), it had to do with my extended student benefits ending. Since I'm getting ready to pop a kid out any day now it's kind of important that I have medical insurance when that happens. I've dealt with changing plans before so I worked with hubby and got him (and his HR person) the necessary paperwork to prove I was losing coverage on my existing plan, otherwise known in the medical insurance world as a qualifying event. In another twist of coincidence the timing coincided with hubby's plan's open enrollment period, but the qualifying event ensured that didn't matter and I could go on it regardless of the plan's regularly scheduled enrollment period.
The other thing tied to a qualifying event is continuous coverage, which is required to keep new insurance plans from slapping a "pre-existing condition waiting period" on you. In case you hadn't heard pregnancy is a pre-existing condition from an insurance company's point-of-view, and taking on a new member and immediately having to pay for a delivery isn't something insurance companies particularly want to do. I knew this and tried VERY HARD to supply the paperwork to hubby's HR person to make sure the pre-existing condition period would get waived... And sure enough today we received a letter from the insurance company saying based on their records I have a one-year waiting period for pre-existing conditions. SIGH. Hubby talked to his HR person and it appears somehow somewhere lines got crossed and the paperwork he gave her was just to get me on the plan, now we have to submit separate paperwork to the insurance company to deal with the pre-existing condition mess. Thankfully I know enough about medical insurance to keep any piece of paper I ever receive that says "Certificate of Insurance" on it, so I put everything together and tomorrow proof that I've had continuous coverage for the past 3 years will be going out in the mail. (Technically I only need to prove continuous coverage for 1 year but I'm going for overkill just because.) Even though we're dealing with it, based on the timing of everything I'd bet you real money that the paperwork won't be processed in time (since insurance companies aren't exactly known for lightning fast reflexes when it comes to processing paperwork), claims will be denied and we'll have to call everyone everywhere and tell them to resubmit claims and process everything again. I can't wait.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Oh, Come On!
Hubby and I started our day at 7:00 this morning visiting a couple of garage sales in our neighborhood. I got an email on our neighborhood list yesterday about some multi-family sales with baby stuff going on today around the corner from us, and since hubby had to leave before 7:30 for a work-related training thing today that meant hitting them when they started, which isn't a bad thing for garage sales, anyway. The last time there were garage sales hubby ended up bringing home a bunch of great stuff for only a few dollars (things like toys and a diaper pail and a toilet trainer, which we'll need eventually), so we wanted to take the opportunity to try again. We got some more toys, a grocery cart cover for Kidlet to sit in, and a couple books, which the woman said to just take. When we thanked her I pointed to my stomach and said, "He thanks you, too." She said, "Oh, I hadn't noticed!" I'm 3 weeks away from my due date now so her comment elicited the title of this post from me: "Oh, come on!" I know I haven't shown much through the entire pregnancy—at 7 months I was standing in front of someone at work and mentioned something about being pregnant and he said, "What, you're pregnant?"—but come on, surely I look pregnant and not just fat by now! Sigh.
For those of you who aren't aware being 3 weeks from my due date means I am now considered full-term—or will be as of tomorrow, to be exact. That's a HUGE milestone and a huge relief: It means if anything happened now I could be induced without having to worry about having a preterm baby, and it means I could safely go into labor naturally myself at any time. Not that anyone has asked me and I know I have no control over it whatsoever, but it'd be really nice if Kidlet decided to be born naturally between 39 and 40 weeks, that'd be perfect. Again, not that anyone is asking me, but his coming before 38 weeks would be very inconvenient: That'd be next week, which is my last week of work (yay!) and hubby is on closing shift through the July 4th weekend at the park so he could be a little harder to reach if I really need him. (I plan to have the park superintendent's home phone number with me over the holiday weekend in case I can't reach him, just in case anyone is wondering.) It'd also be nice to have a real week off from everything after I'm done with work, so if Kidlet waits until a little closer to my due date that'd be nice. As the doctor we saw yesterday said, at this point everything is going well so we'll just see what happens.
For those of you who aren't aware being 3 weeks from my due date means I am now considered full-term—or will be as of tomorrow, to be exact. That's a HUGE milestone and a huge relief: It means if anything happened now I could be induced without having to worry about having a preterm baby, and it means I could safely go into labor naturally myself at any time. Not that anyone has asked me and I know I have no control over it whatsoever, but it'd be really nice if Kidlet decided to be born naturally between 39 and 40 weeks, that'd be perfect. Again, not that anyone is asking me, but his coming before 38 weeks would be very inconvenient: That'd be next week, which is my last week of work (yay!) and hubby is on closing shift through the July 4th weekend at the park so he could be a little harder to reach if I really need him. (I plan to have the park superintendent's home phone number with me over the holiday weekend in case I can't reach him, just in case anyone is wondering.) It'd also be nice to have a real week off from everything after I'm done with work, so if Kidlet waits until a little closer to my due date that'd be nice. As the doctor we saw yesterday said, at this point everything is going well so we'll just see what happens.
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