Tweet

When you have successfully cleaned the kitchen to the point where it hasn’t been for weeks.

I feel like today is Monday. I like Mondays because it gives me a fresh start. With work, planning, goals.
Yesterday i missed the whole day but napping for 5 hours, from 11 to 4.
Who the hell naps for 5 hours? I think my body thinks I’m in training for pregnancy-from what I hear napping becomes a daily occurrence.

Today, though it’s not Monday, I’m full of goals and objectives. I will write in separate post about what i decided to do about work but for now while I have 2 months before TTCing I will do as much as I can without stressing out.

Hope you are all having a fab Tuesday ( not to be mistaken for a FAT Tuesday- noone wants that)

Tweet

Why the picture of my two adorable black kitties, Travis and Casper?

My test for toxoplasmosis antibodies came back. And despite the fact that I grew up with a ton of cats and currently have 4 adorable kitties, I am still NOT immune!

What’s a girl gotta do to get some toxo immunity?

Toxoplasmosis gets transferred from infected meat/animals to humans through their feces or raw/undercooked meat. My cats are indoors but they occasionally run outside.
So now, to my great pleasure, my cat litter duties were transferred to my lovely husband who is not thrilled by the 12 months lying ahead but will do what it takes! Kudos to supportive hubbies!

According to some sources, there’s a very small risk of infecting your baby if you contract the infection within a few months before becoming pregnant. If you know that you’ve been infected recently, some experts suggest waiting for six months before trying to conceive. Congenital toxoplasmosis can affect your baby’s brain, causing problems such as mental or motor developmental delays, cerebral palsy, and epilepsy. It can affect other organs too, most commonly the eyes, leading to visual impairment and sometimes blindness.

So as always I’d like to NOT take a risk. Especially considering that darned weakened immune system of a pregnant woman. I tell ya, nature always finds a way to get things done, but damned if it finds the most convenient or best way. So to all us preggos or preggos to be, as if morning sickness, sore boobs, cramps, mood swings, growing belly ( and subsequently growing ass), bad skin are not enough, we’re gifted with a immune system of a 90 year old HIV infected grandma for good 9 months. Thank you, thank you very much Mother Nature!

Oh and did I mention having to squeeze a watermelon out of your hoohaa?
Wonderful!

Tweet

Part I
Part II

Vaccinations

Being up to date on certain vaccinations is an important step in pre-conception care. Most of us have had all the vaccines necessary administered back when we were kids, but there are a few that might need a refresher.
One of the reasons why it was important for me to get it all out of the way before I get pregnant is because certain vaccines contain live viruses and can be potentially harmful to a pregnant weakened immune system. But specifically because of that weakened immune system it is important to make sure you are up to date and won’t catch some nasty chicken pox and step on a rusty nail ( Yikes! I still remember my childhood’s best friend going for a swim in a muddy lake and stepping right through a long rusty nail. The nail went all the way through her foot and stuck out from the top. Ew!).

So about a week ago I got my Tdap vaccine ( tetanus plus some) and my flu vaccine just in case. I have not had a flu or a cold in such a long time due to living in sunny Florida. The only few times I got sick were when “Northerners” (damn you!) brought the sickness with them while visiting us. When I am pregnant and my immune system can’t keep up with the onset of all kind of bacteria, the last thing my body needs is having no immunity to flu virus. Especially considering that having flu a certain time during pregnancy is known to cause miscarriages and horrible birth defect. Thank you, sir, not gonna happen!

My doctor advised me that I need to research which vaccine I got when i was a kid and also when I immigrated to US over 8 years ago. After spending 3 hours on the internet trying to figure out what they vaccinated for back then, I decided that the only thing missing was Hep A and Chicken pox ( which i could have been vaccinated against as a kid). So on my last visit  to my OB, we did a titer test to see if i had antibodies for all Hepatitis and chicken pox. Still waiting for the results.

STD Testing: Ok, this is a sort of awkward subject, but here we go. In my 8 years of being an adult, I have never been tested against STDs. And that was not because I didn’t ask. Oh no, I insisted. Me, the eternal perfectionist and health control freak. I asked and begged but the answer was always the same: “You’re not in the high risk category!” or “This would be unnecessary testing!”. Screw that! Unnecessary testing my ass! Why can’t one be proactive about one’s health? If there was more “unnecessary testing” maybe we would all be healthier and less money would be spent on health care.
But I digress… So finally I insisted that I get tested against every STD in the book. I mean if i had never been tested, how do i know that there isn’t smth sitting there waiting for me to get pregnant and then  BAM! “Hello some weird unknown disease that is going to make my pregnant life hell and make me eat evil antibiotics or worse- ruin my baby!”
Ok i know I’m exagerating, but it’s true- some STDs can cause miscarriages and other cause inflammation which is harmful to babies as well, and then there’re those antibiotics :)

So the results should be back next week! he-he

What? Come on! I had a wild time too!

Update: all the results came back negative :)

Part IV- Choosing Doctor and Hospital

Tweet

Read Preconception part I here

November  was a month away when I realized that there was no way I could be ready to start trying. So we decided to postpone it 3 more months to allow adequate time for 3 months of “off the pill” cycle and finish up the more mundane planning tasks.

Maternity Coverage:I HATE health insurance companies. I think they’re are some of the most rotten companies on the planet, bent on doing nothing but finding way to deny claims and cover nothing. I had been with Humana a while back and it was miserable. A year ago I switched BCBS and have been relatively happy with the coverage. However, it came time to add materity coverage. The deal with maternity coverage is that you have to start it 30 days before conception or nothing will be covered. When I called BCBS, I found out that my particular policy only had 1 option for maternity, and a very sucky one, if you ask me ($2500 deductible and then 50% co-insurance- SAY WHAT?). I might as well go and pay it all out of pocket.
Then I was educated about a new plan that just came out under Obama Care ( YAY for Obama!). And by educated, I meant , I was told one exists but the salespeople answering the photo were too dumb to explain it to me and to know what’s covered. The excuse was “It’s a new plan!” – I don’t care- I’m not going to sign up for something you can’t even tell me details about.

Finally after 5 phone calls ( seriously), i was told that the plan, in fact has a co-pay of $35 for the first prenatal visit and then every other visit is free, until I get admitted for delivery and at that point it’s $150/day at the hospital. That’s seriously kick ass! It costs an additional $217 a month, but in my book it’s well worth it.

So all paperwork was filled out and mailed out, however based on the incometency of everyone I encountered at the sale call center of BCBS, I don’t expect it to be “fast-tracked”. So there I sit and wait for 6-8 weeks of promised time to have my policy underwritten and issued. Bummer!

As it’s looking now, the policy will be issued some time in January, hopefully right in time for February conception, in case we do indeed get pregnant the first month ( which of course I don’t think will happen)

That being said about health insurance, I had also tried taking care of dental insurance ( switched plans) and I am waiting again… for the policy to be issued so that i could go get my wisdom teeth extracted before the end of the year and also my pre-conception cleaning done.
You might ask why i need to worry about my wisdom teeth… Well, two of them are partially impacted, which means they’re breading ground for bacteria. The last thing I want to happen when I get pregnant is have one of my wisdom teeth get infected and need antibiotics or worse, extraction.

My goal  is to have a completely clean, calm healthy body going into conception: no inflammations, no antibiotics, no toxins.  That is why I am making sure that any possible complication is forseen and taken care of.

Which brings me to:

Vaccinations and Testing

Tweet

I was reading about environmental toxins last night and one of the things that jumped out at me was pesticides on golf courses. It said due to constant spraying schedules of golf courses it’s best to avoid buying a house on a golf course if you’re planning to get pregnant. Well, shit… What am I supposed to do now? We live very much on a golf course! I am already going to impose a home arrest and now I can’t even walk in my own yard???

Note to self: get their spraying schedule.

Tweet

So the first step to our pre-conception pre was a doctor’s visit.
However, in reality, it started long before that. Initially, the plan was to start trying in Nov 2010, so that if things worked right away, we’d have an August baby. We don’t believe in Horoscopes, however there’s some truth to horoscope signs and we are both Leo ( me, the textbook Leo, and AJ, a more influenced by environment and upbringing Leo), so we thought it’ be cool to have another Leo in our family.

What November date meant for us was starting our 3 month preconception plan in August.  At that point we were still not 100% sure that we are going to want a baby yet.
The annual/pre-conception physical/blood work for AJ came and went, with good results.
We had already given up red meat at that point and were deep into reading 4 different pre-conception books ( I will do a post about each one of them, and my opinion).
I had also started prenatals and scheduled my dental check up.

The one thing that seemed daunting to me more than others was finding the right OB. We had moved here 2 years ago and I’ve gone to three different Gynos, none of which I liked one bit. My criteria was pretty fair though: men only, preferably younger (though that wasn’t as important), very well updated on medical news and very progressive. I had been a working model in and out of NYC and I needed to make sure that I don’t get bothered by periods, so a doctor progressive enough to think it’s ok to skip period on the pill was necessary. Anyone else, I didn’t even care to talk to.

Another matter of concern for me was my wisdom teeth. Mine needed to be gone. And more importantly, they now needed to be gone before I get pregnant (god forbid I’d have one get infected while pregnant).  The quote was for $3000 for all 4 teeth. Oh the joy of lousy dental plans that cap you at $750/year.

Slowly I kept changing my diet to fit what i was reading in the preconception books.
Alcohol went first, coffee followed. I was aware that i was probably still way more than 3 month beyond the conception date, but it didn’t hurt to start early.

Chicken went next, replaced by more plant protein like peas, beans and whole grains.
We had already been eating a ton of veggies and fruits, but it helped to add beans/peas and whole grains ( I am fan of fresh foods)

I was still on the pill and wasn’t gonna give up my life without periods until absolutely necessary which is 3 months before.

PART II

Tweet

It all started like this:

After 7.5 years of marriage we decided that i might be time to have a kid. We had done some travelling, worked hard, partied harder, had fun together, had fun with friends. We had gotten 4 cats, a huge house with 5 bedrooms, a SUV that could fit 5 people. I had had a chance to work as a model in New York and Miami for a few years ( stopped right before i was gonna get shipped off to Europe). We had survived the toughest financial times during the great recession and now…  Well there was nothing else fun left to do, but start a family.

Isn’t it this phrase funny: “start a family”? Doesn’t starting a family constitute 2 people committing to each other( getting married or other)? Then why do we say “start a family” when we mean having a first kid… It’s a bit funny, I think.

We’ve HAD “a family” for 8 years. Now it’s time to take it to the next level.

Up until recently neither on of us was emotionally ready for a baby. We didn’t feel the need for one ( we both wanted kids, but sometime in the future) yet. Didn’t see what the rush was. And then in the last, I would say, year things changed. For both of us. We felt ready…just like that: all of sudden and at the same time.

So here we are, embarking on a journey we don’t fully understand with best hopes and as much knowledge as one can read up from a million books we are reading.

Welcome to my pre-, during and post- baby journal. Have a nice read!