And Now Back to Your Regularly Scheduled Blogging

Oi. The end of the year and beginning of this has been absolutely CRAZY!

The kids loved their Christmas presents, which I'm thrilled about. Of course they got spoiled by other family members, too.

We had a great Christmas, albeit stressful with driving all across the state to visit everyone.

New Years was brought in with our annual Watch Night Service. We were there for seven hours (yes, that long), but it felt like 2. The worship was AMAZING - exactly what I needed to cleanse my soul before the new year - and our bishop preached. He is just phenomenal. He has so much wisdom and knowledge and is so prayerful and lead of God that you could listen to his sermons 100s of times and not catch every nuance. He spoke for 3 hours and didn't finish and I honestly wanted him to keep going. But, it was almost midnight and our tradition is to take communion at the start of the year as a consecration.

So, at 11:59, I happily took communion. And at 12:01 I was in the bathroom throwing up. Woo hoo.

We slept in as much as the kids would allow on the 1st and just had a family day.

January 2nd brought a trip to the ER for severe abdominal pain. Drum is fine, but my intestinal system isn't functioning properly and isn't processing anything. A few hours spent there and I get sent home with the condition to come back if the pain hasn't calmed down by the end of the week.

Friday brought the second trip to the ER. Since I have a bicornuate uterus with a history of preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, and pre-term labor, we have to be extra cautious about anything and everything.

Sunday was the 6th, which starts carnival season, so we went to the French bakery to get a king cake after church and started to take down our Christmas decorations.

Monday brought a trip to specialist #2, which still has me vexed. The specialist talked to my midwives and my OB and got me a referral into see them and figure out what the problem is. I get there any only see the NP, who was the most condescending person EVER. I'm usually very forgiving and let things roll off my back but.. if I weren't a Christian, I could have popped her one. She told me that there was nothing that they could do and they wouldn't even look at me since I was pregnant and my OB should have told me that. My question, is if my OB should have told me that and you knew you wouldn't see me, why did you tell him to get me a referral and get over there ASAP to figure out what was wrong. And then charge me $225 before insurance, which means I may get another bill later. Yay.

Today I finally caught ahold of the company who is supposed to be providing my weekly progesterone shots. I was supposed to start taking them two weeks ago. I still haven't received them. They tell me that the meds cost $15,000. Yes, you read that right,  15K! And that my insurance would only cover $12,000 of that, leaving me with $3000 to pay. And the money had to be paid up front before they would deliver the first dose.

I don't know about you, but I don't just have 3K to just hand over without a second thought. I asked if there was anything we could do about that. I was transferred to the actual manufacturer and had to answer a whole bunch of questions. I told them I couldn't pay 3k today, especially seeing two midwives, one OB, and two specialists who all have their own bills. They put me on hold and got a manager and then asked me if I could afford $25 a vial, and a vial should last about a month. That is a whole lot better than $3,000 if you ask me. So, the manufacturer is going to absorb the rest of the cost and tell the providing company who will then ship me the medicine next week - three weeks after I was supposed to start.

I've been advised to reduce as much stress and get as much off of my plate as I can since my body is having such a hard time with this pregnancy. Bless my husband, he's been doing the dishes, the laundry, dinner, and giving the kids a bath most nights. I have to do prenatal yoga and take regular detox baths as well.

My baby crew (midwives, doctor, and specialist) have also gone form the big goal of getting me to full term to go to month-by-month goals. That in and of itself is pretty terrifying. Imagine having your midwife tell you that instead of focusing on getting you to full term, they're just gonna worry about getting you to 20 weeks, then 24, then 28. They're doing it so that as the issues arise, they can give them the attention they deserve to try to keep Drum and me as healthy as possible for as long as possible.

But, it's hard. And its rough trying to decipher what pains I should rush to the ER for and what pains are normal. Coz, sometimes pregnancy is just rough. But with a slew of complications, all of the lines get blurred.

So, I spend most of my days playing with the kids, nesting as much as I can (and getting fussed at later for it) and resting. At least I have something shiny to look at while I rest. My sweet hubby spoiled me and bought me a new watch. My old leather watchband was falling apart after three years of daily wear and the face was all scratched up. So, I got my birthday present a week early. It's more function than form, but he did get me a pretty little one.

I go see the midwife again next week, and in Jesus' name it'll all be alright. At this point, I'm just trying to be calm and stand on faith that God will take care of us. He knows what He's doing.