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So this month we start trying! We don’t really know if it’s going to happen or when. But we’re determined to go into it  having fun and with no expectations.

In the meantime of course my planner brain is working.
I am thinking about all the things I’d like to get done before the first possibility of being pregnant:

• cut my hair
• go to a dentist to make sure all my teeth survived the wisdom teeth extraction just fine :)
• finish some home projects
• CLEAN the house {I’d like to have a clean house in case I get a debilitating morning sickness}
• buy and install a kick ass reverse osmosis water filter
• clean up the garden and explain to the hubby how to take care of it {can’t do garden work due to risk of toxoplasmosis} DONE!
• paint the hallways {yeah like that’s going to happen}

And that’s just the stuff I’d like to do before we get pregnant. Let’s just say that if we don’t get knocked up the first month, I won’t be TOO upset, because it’ll give me one more month to get that stuff done.

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RULES:

1. If you haven’t yet, join the challenge here: GET FIT and GET HEALTHY
2. Every Saturday come back to The Art of Making a Babyand ShutterMama to read the tips on how to be fitter, healthier and more confident.
3. Weekly write a post about your progress, following the questionnaire below, take a self-portrait (optional) and link up with us.
4. Don’t forget to grab the GET FIT challenge button on the sidebar and display it proudly on your blog or GET FIT post.
5. Link your post with Selfie Saturdays if you took your week’s self-portrait.

Vitamin and Mineral Supplements.

In the course of my preparation for pregnancy, one of the topics I did extensive research on was vitamin and mineral supplements.

We all know the importance of taking daily vitamins, especially if our diet leaves something to be desired. Now supplementation it’s not as simple as pop a pill each morning if you want to do it right.

There’s vitamin toxicity to pay attention to, minerals mashing together in all the wrong ways and negating each other, proper absorption, etc etc…

Here’re a few important fact everyone taking a supplement needs to know. This is especially useful to pregnant women or those TTCing, because having proper nutrients in your body is crucial:

There are certain minerals and foods that prevent absoption of others and vitamins that aid in absoption. You need to know that to get the maximum  out of your vitamins.

• Pretty much anything interferes with iron absorption, so if your goal is to make sure you have plenty of iron in your stores, read the following:
            -do NOT mix calcium rich foods with iron rich foods, the same goes for supplements. Take iron and calcium supplement at least 2 hours apart.
            -do NOT drink tea after eating an iron rich food or taking an iron supplement.
            -the easiest way is to make sure you take an iron supplement completely separate with iron rich food
            – take vitamin C with iron for best absorption.If you’re a vegetarian, great sources of iron include: beans/lentils,some nuts, spinach, collard greens. Make sure to add some of those at every meal.
• If you’re taking an iron supplement, make sure to take zinc and copper with it. Iron supplements interfere with the absorption of copper, which in turn is very closely related to zinc. So if you’re taking copper, you need to supplement it with zinc and visa versa. Since excess of one will give you a deficiency of the other So since iron interferes with copper and copper interferes with zinc, you need to take all three to make sure you’re even. In nature it’s done automatically, most foods high in iron are also high in zinc and copper. Never exceed 100% of DV an any of these minerals, because of it’s close relation and intricate balance system.
• Calcium is best absorbed with Vitamins D. Most  Calcium supplements have vitamin D in it, just make sure it doesn’t exceed 50% DV, since vitamin D has a toxicity level.
• It’s hard to get enough DHA in a pill form and it’s pretty expensive so look for a morning cereal that is a good source of Omega-3s and load up on some avocado and walnuts.
• FOLIC ACID: TAKE IT!!!! Please please please, if you are of childbearing age and not infertile, please take a folic acid supplement, even if you’re not “planning” any more kids. Neural tube develops during the first 27 days of pregnancy, well before most women even know they’re pregnant. Folic acid can prevent most neural tube defects in a baby as long as you take it before and during the first month of pregnancy. Unless you’re like me and plan pregnancies that meticulously, the last thing you’d want is to get pregnant, not know it for a month and miss that 30 day window.

If you’re pregnant or planning to get pregnant:

NEVER EVER (unless advised by a doctor) exceed 100% of DV on any supplement. It’s hard because most over the counter prenatals stuff 200-300%DV of vitamins in it to appeal to the less educated women thinking they’re getting a better value. You are NOT! You should be getting plenty from food, so all you need to do is create a safety net.

Fat soluble vitamins get packed away in your fat thus making it possible to create a toxicity hardful to a fetus if you don’t know what you’re doing.

-Do not take vitamin A in any form but beta-carotene, that includes milk and animal products that have a decent amount of vitamin A in retinoid form. High doses of vitamin A causes birth defect and it’s easy to go over board if you’re a meat eater and take supplements
-Watch your vitamin D intake.
- Vitamin E has been linked with heart defects at birth. That is even vitamin E taken before pregnancy at as low as 2/3 of recommended daily value (DV). Now since, oil has lot of vitamin E, I suspect those finding might have had something to do with women who ate lots of oily foods that are already bad for the baby. But we can’t know for sure, and these are my personal speculations. I am not taking any vitamin E supplement, since we get plenty through oil use and nuts.

Folic acid is a MUST before you’re even pregnant.
Supplemental iron is helpful taken before pregnancy so that you go into it with your stores full of iron.
Unless you eat lots of fruits and veggies ( and I do mean lots and varied, making up most of your meals), you might not need to supplement A,C or K vitamins, since you get plenty from fruits and veggies.

Since everything tend to interfere with everything and you can’t take more than 100% of the certain type of vitamin..bla bla bla… I found the best way to make it easy is to buy each supplement separately and take them in batches:

iron+C+zinc+copper= 1st batch
Calcium+D= 2nd batch
Folic+ B+DHA+other= 3rd batch

So there you have it!

Now, my entry for week 12

1. Height: 5’11″, weight: 134 lb

2. Your fitness challenge(s) for this week: 30 minutes of pilates every other day + 30 minutes of cardio ( rollerblading, running, swimming or treadmill) every other day+20 sit-ups every hour for 8 hours on cardio days. Special exercises designed for pregnancy to increase flexibility (daily) + Kegels (twice daily). A total of about an hour or more of physical activity a day.

3. Your health challenge(s) for this week: My eating habits are close to perfect, however I could improve on my water intake. My goal will be 8 glasses of water daily + continue eating the way I do now. Start snacking more during the day to prepare for the first trimester of morning sickness.

• Fitness: It was awesome. I did everything I set out to do. Worked out daily. I feel it’s starting to become a habit, one that I will not want to give up. Yesterday, hubby and I even did both strength and cardio and abs in one day, even though we’re supposed to do cardio/strength every other day.
• Water: I’m back to my KleenKanteen bottle and being hydrated.
• Food:Food intake was perfect. Nothing to complain about.
  5. Failures and slip-ups: Can’t say anything here. I’m getting in the groove and getting stronger.

6. Weekly challenge wisdom: It’s true that they say it takes a while to form a habit, but once that habit forms it becomes a joy to do the most mundane things.
 
7. Advice to fellow GET FIT members: Stick with it! It will get better But if you give up now, it’ll NEVER get better. You will always start and stop and start and stop and get nowhere, or give up and continue living unhealthy and overweight.

{for more shots, go to my photography blog, Selfie Magic}

LINK UP:

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We’re both super busy with work. It’s a great feeling- I love working and being busy.

For a while there, I liked the idea of being a stay at home mom- no work or money worries, just cooking, cleaning, blogging, picture taking and taking care of the baby. And for some people it might work, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that I really need to work to feel fulfilled.

So we had a few discussions about what it’s going to be like when we have an infant, how we’re going to deal with it. Hubby might like the old-timey idea of being a bread winner and having his wife “barefoot-and-pregnant”, but even he realizes that everything would fall apart at work without me. I’m the client relationship manager and the marketer and the processor and the paper pusher, among other things. And those are the things you just can’t teach. You either hate it or love it, have it or not. I do, he doesn’t.

He does other things fabulously though, but we both know that as soon as I am gone, those things will go by way side and while the processing and administrative stuff can be neglected for a while without huge consequences, the marketing and the client relationships are something that needs to be done daily for as long as you need your business running, or soon it’ll slow down to a turtle walk.

He can’t be a stay at home dad for those reasons as well, besides the fact that I’d never in a million years trade time with my baby for career. We’re lucky we have options!

We sort of decided that we will BOTH be stay-at-home parents ( since we mostly work from home). We will make sure that we are home 100% of the time, except for client meetings and showings and we share the duties equally. Since our fully equipped home office is right next to the room that will be a nursery, we will attend to our newborn, based on turns and/or whoever is available at the moment. Tentatively, we decided Andrew will have the diaper duty and I will be doing breastfeeding in the very beginning, since newborns tend to pee/poop and eat at the same rate. And evenings and weekends will be spent as a family.

Right now our cooking/cleaning has pretty much the same agreement. We do it all together, unless one person is less busy than another. But we really end up waiting for the other person to free up so that we could go make lunch/dinner together. Hubby is more active in the morning, making breakfasts, I’m usually the dinner person. So we’ll see how it works with the baby.
Plus I am really hoping my mom, who’s recently retired, will be here for the first 3+ months. She’s a HUGE help! I love having her around, she doesn’t mind helping with cooking and cleaning and is a super loving person. I’d trust her 100% with our baby not just from the safety standpoint but knowing that she would give him/her all the attention and love a new baby needs, because she was a terrific mom to us and grandma to my niece and nephew.

One thing I will mind losing when I get pregnant though – my friends and our weekend boat and beach outings. I had to bite my tongue when they were making plans for May, because there is possibility I won’t be able to go again until I have the baby if I get pregnant in May. It is definitely going to be hard to resist the temptation to go see people, especially with how they just don’t get why on earth I’d limit human contact during the pregnancy ( lowered immune system during pregnancy+germs+toxins=not a risk I care to take ).

J. (pictured below) even volunteered to be our baby’s Naples grandpa, so it’ll be extra hard to say no to him when he wants us to come by.
(both our families are far away, but we already lined up our 1 st set of stand-in grandparents and working on second starting with J.)

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This week I was trying to examine why on earth I am having doubts about having kids.
I mean we had already discussed it all and decided that the time is now and that we’re ready emotionally ( while we really weren’t ready before… at all) and that we want kids.

Then why all of a sudden I am having doubts and fears?

Well, fears are understandable…
Unless you turn off your thinking cap, I don’t think anyone who’s never had kids can safely say “Hell yeah it’s gonna be easy and I’m looking forward to it”. That’s not a realistic expectation. And some women find out that the hard way. The most important thing of this whole journey for me has been preparedness: mental, emotional, financial, physical.

If you think about it, those who just decide they want kids, toss birth control and get pregnant are doing it the right way from the stand point of not over thinking it ( though I am sure they could improve from the preparedness stand point). Not too much time to think, analyze, decide if they REALLY want it, or if it’s just a whim and they don’t realize how hard it can be. Because once you’re pregnant, there’s no way back. You love the child growing inside of you more than anything.

So what I’m concerned with are the doubts.
I’ve always been a kid lover, like insane lover. I enjoy being with kids, I prefer a kid’s company to an adult. I’ve always known I will be having kids, but the time had to be right. I never had a NEED to have kids though. Like, you know, where i just HAVE TO have a baby right now. It was more of a logical thing: I want to have children, I want to give them all I have, I want to do attachment parenting, love them to death, teach them all I have to teach. Not having kids was never an option. Everyone knows kid-less couples are miserable. Or are they?

Recently I read an article talking about how it turns out that based on multiple different studies, people without kids are HAPPIER than people with kids. And that parents really have a lot of unhappiness they don’t like display ( for obvious reasons) and that the “reward of parenting” isn’t a reward at all, like most like to believe.

That sort of took me back! I always thought that for my happiness I need to have kids, and now they’re telling me that I will be more miserable when I have them. I mean I love my life, the way it is now, what I do, my hobbies, my family. Why would I want to change that, ruin that?

So all that got mixed in my head into this mush of thoughts and feelings and doubts… and I keep thinking and discussing it with hubby. I am a super analytical person, very logical and straight forward. I am sure that can be seen in my approach to pregnancy and parenthood. If you have read my blog from the beginning, you know the amount of preparation I’ve gone through to make sure everything is as perfect as it can be, before we start TTCing.
So it’s completely normal for me to logically analyze whether life with a baby is better than life without. I have my doubts, concerns and fears, but at the same time I try to keep it in my head that they say that it changes so much when you get pregnant, have a baby. That’s it’s no longer a decision, it just is….

And i think I believe that, because when I think …like really think and imagine having a kid that I love more than anything, and being pregnant, I can see that glimmer of all-consuming love and happiness.

So I guess it’s natural to be a little bit scared. I mean, anyone going into their first pregnancy without any kind of fear is a fool, because they must not realize the importance and grandeur of creating a life. It’s natural to worry about lifestyles changing, never having time, financial matters. I always see mothers with 2-3 kids and they look exhausted, they smile at you and pretend they’re ok, but I see how fed up their are with diapers and bottles and constant 24/7 attention. So I want to be prepared for that, I want to know what I’m signing up for. I want to do this because I’ve debated the positives and negatives and decided that former outweigh the latter. I want to go into this knowing with certainty that I am ready and I will take it whether it’s good or bad. Because if I know now with my logical mind, then when I’m finally pregnant, then there’ll be no doubts whatsoever.

See, what I figured out is that my feelings are being muddied up by the wait. We thought we were going to start TTCing in November, so we started preparing in August, but things took a lot longer than we thought, specifically my maternity coverage and my wisdom teeth, so in November, we counted out three months and were going to start by Feb ( surely the insurance would come through by then). And now, it’s March, finally the insurance is through ( supposedly), and now we have to wait the 30 day waiting period, plus skipping April, puts us at May, which is about 30 days away ( wow, actually sooner than I thought). I have ALL this time to think and to doubt it all… But then I force myself to imagine that the insurance is a go, and we can start trying tomorrow, and I have this awesome excitement inside of me…cautious and scared excitement, but an excitement nevertheless. Like, OMG, we’re really doing it and how cool is it!!!!

So there we have it , friends. It’s the darn wait, since August, that has been freaking me out all along. The wait! Because when you put me right up to it, I am excited!

{oh and also I am reading countless pregnancy books… yes, already, i want to know what to expect and what to prepare for…. and they’re freaking me out with all the complications and such. Just yesterday i finished a chapter on stillbirth. Yikes!}

So now a few days after I’ve written this post, after talking to moms, getting their feedback ( THANK YOU!), i feel more confident about what to expect and that it is truly what I want.
{hubby also helped me out a bit. While he’s not a kid person and doesn’t display crazy excitement like most men don’t, when i was doubting it all, he was there to tell me that it’s what he wants too. Which is always nice}

{the baby in the pictures is my friend’s baby}

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You guys will NOT believe this SHIT!

So I am all pumped about my new health insurance policy with maternity option being issued effective March 1st, so that we can start trying in May (03.01 + 30 days before conception= April, which would put me at due date over New Year’s Eve, so May was the plan)….

I spend hours thinking about receiving policy documents in the mail so that I can review all the benefits and marvel at how good it is ( yeah I am weird that way)…

Today, I wake up early to get in some last minutes studying for my exam, drive to the exam site, take 25 minutes out of the allowed 1 hour 30 minutes to pass it, drive home singing The All American Rejects, and check the mail to see the package from Blue Cross and Blue Shield with my new policy documents…

I skip back to the house, tear the envelope open and dig in….

After about 10 minutes of looking through it, I am starting to get worried because I do not see the MATERNITY benefit ANYWHERE on there. I start to panic. I call BCBS membership services, who cheerfully inform me that I am IN FACT CORRECT and there IS NOT a maternity benefit on the policy.

I AM FURIOUS!!!!!! I am so angry the words can’t describe it!

I spent 6(!!!) MONTHS , literally 6 months working on this policy, following up, making corrections, dealing with my somewhat incompetent agent, signing, mailing, faxing, etc.

And now I am informed that it’s not freaking there!

I’ve spent the last 5 hours of what should have been a good day on the phone with BCBS trying to figure this out.
I get different answers from different people within different departments.

I am too tired at this point to be able to recap what I am being told by all these people and I doubt you’d care.

Tomorrow a supervisor is supposed to look into it even further, but for now I am bummed. Majorly Utterly Bummed.

I am tired of pushing this whole baby making business month by month…not because I can’t wait to have babies. To be honest  I just simply want to get it over with. Get pregnant and THEN deal with whether I think babies is a good idea. Because if I am forced to think about it too much longer, I might decide against it :) LOL {ok, for those really dumb ones on thebump.com- THAT WAS SARCASM)

And I simply don’t believe in unplanned pregnancies.  Turning off your brain and logic and just getting pregnant is not my cup of tea. There’s too many things that can be done better if they’re planned properly when it comes to pregnancy and babies. To simply ignore that is silly.

To read more about my extensive preparation for pregnancy, click here

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Do you guys LOVE getting mail?
Like going to the box and finding something there that is not junk?

Well, today I finally got an official acknowledgement from Blue Cross and Blue Shield that my new health insurance policy ( with maternity option) is going to start on March 1st!

That means that with my wisdom teeth gone and the insurance in force starting March 1, there is nothing holding us back from ditching birth control ( YIKES!) and doin’  THE NASTY!!!!

Well, except the 30 days waiting period before conception after the coverage starts ( but do we have to concentrate on that?). So the actual date WILL be April 1st like originally expected. But now it’s confirmed!

My thoughts on all this:

1. OMG Am I ready? I’m not ready! I don’t think I am ready! Shiiiiiit!!!!!  *breathe…*

2. Am I sure there isn’t something else I haven’t taken care of that I should prior to TTCing? (Vaccines-check! Pre-conception tests, blood work and physical- check! Can his boys swim?-YES! Dental work- check! A year of prenatals- check! Perfect eating habits- Check! Good fitness level- check! Maternity Coverage- (YAY!) MASSIVE CHECK! Ovulation schedule- Check! 3 pre-conception books and 5 pregnancy books read- CHECK! WOW I think I HAVE done it all! You can read about it here)

3.Do i want this? Is it time?  Am I sure? Shiiiiit!!! *breathe….*

4.  If we conceive in April (I know, long shot) according to my ovulation calendar, my due date would be around New Year’s. Not a good thing! Should we postpone it 1 month?

5. Man, we’ll get to have so much sex!!!!! I always want more sex than hubby. But I am not normal. I want to make this thing fun and not stress out about babies since all the planning is done and now it’s all about luck!

6.What am I thinking? I am not even recovered from my teeth surgery. Ay! It hurts…. :(

7.I still can’t believe that all the items on my Pre-conception to do list are done. It took a year of passive planning and 6 months of active planning to get fully ready for this, with the worst things being dental work and switching the health plan to the one with maternity coverage ( did I tell you BCBS health insurance sales people are morons and I had to literally research everything on my own and get answers from managers of managers? It was like pulling teeth)

And maybe soon, closer to the actuall start of TTCing I’ll tell you what we’re going to do to try and maximize our chances of having a girl.

Are you excited for us or what?

{self-portrait}

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So my final step in preparation for pregnancy has been completed.
Or will be when I stop looking like a chipmunk.
I’m still waiting on the maternity coverage to get issued, but it’s supposed to start March 1st as far as I know.

The thing that weighed heavily on me was the whole wisdom teeth ordeal. I knew I had to get them out before pregnancy, since they’re all impacted. The price was an issue. $2800 just to pull 4 of my teeth. Yikes!
I had finally found a dentist that accepts both my dental plans, so my out-of-pocket so far has been $585, which isn’t miserable.
The problem was I really didn’t like him that much. He was weird and treated me like I was ten, asking questions that you’d only ask a little kid to keep him entertained. He had no bedside manner ( is there such a thing as bedside manner when it comes to dentists?) and was just downright strange.
It’s like he didn’t listen to a word I was saying and was moving soooo slow, and  kept repeating:
-”We’ll get to that!” 
- “No! Answer my damn questions!”

So after the first visit I was seriously debating scrapping this whole wisdom tooth idea and if they get infected during pregnancy, then so be it. The alternative was to pay $2800, or to get them  out with this weirdo!
Later as I discussed it with my husband who had been present at the initial appointment, we had come to a conclusion that the doctor HAD to be Asperger’s. He was just not normal in the way he talked, was so focused on this one thing he knew and just didn’t make any sense or listen to us. Now, people with Asperger’s tend to be really good at the one thing that they do, so I figured the fact that he’s a weirdo doesn’t mean he isn’t a good oral surgeon. So after a few hours googling him and talking to his receptionist, I decided that what the hell, the guy had been in business for 21 years, and all he does is pull teeth!
Oh by the way, another thing that irked me about his office is {brace yourself}
THEY DON’T DO EMAIL! or anything digital for that matter!
They still do Xrays in FILM! I volunteered to email them my panoramic X-rays from the previous dentist, so that I wasn’t charged an additional $150. AGAIN!
And I couldn’t because they have no access to email or anywhere they can download it from. He was blown away that i showed him my panoramic Xrays on my iphone and could zoom in :)

That just blows my mind! I love technology and to think that some businesses don’t email…I’m sorry that’s just absurd.

Anyways, I’m getting sidetracked…

I decided that I really needed the damn teeth out, because otherwise I’m sure they’d drive me crazy in the future, especially when pregnant. I sucked it up and went for my scheduled appointment yesterday.

It wasn’t THAT bad. Or I just have sedative induced amnesia. It kind of felt like getting a root canal done or something similar. A few times he had to REALLY pull and that sucked, but I was kind of loopy so it didn’t bother me that much.
The first day the pain was manageable. I took half the Vicodin pill they gave me before bed, since it was starting to really hurt and I woke up towards the morning to go to the bathroom and suddenly felt really nauseous and  collapsed.
I felt like a huge wave of heat hit me and sucked ALL the energy from me and then I had broken in sweat and “fell” on the floor. Hubby was there by then, since he heard me almost throw up ( sorry for the details), and covered me with the blanket as I lay on the floor. I’m telling you I have never felt anything like this in my life. The absolute lack of strength and energy that made it impossible to stand…it was crazy.
Hubby told me that my blood pressure must have suddenly dropped because of the sedative and the Vicodin combined with the fact that I hadn’t eaten or drank a thing since 10 pm the night before my surgery.
That made me want not to take any more Vicodin even more, and I don’t like strong pain killers to begin with.

I’ve been on 800 mg of Ibuprofen every six hours since then and have felt quite a great deal of pain, but honestly I’d rather suffer than take Vicodin again.

So for those, who have not gotten their wisdom teeth out yet, it’s not as scary as it seems. The whole process is pretty painless, it’s the recovery afterwards that can be a bitch, but still manageable.
I had all 4 teeth out at the same time, so all four surfaces of my mouth hurt. I am running a low grade fever and look like a total chipmunk, but my doctor said it’s completely normal.
I have no numbness or any other complications that we are always warned about.

All things considered I am happy I got it done and the dentist turned out to be pretty good and responsive despite his lack of social skills.

Picture below: me looking like a chipmunk {photoshopped, but that’s pretty much what I look like right now}

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Baby Making Update or lack thereof.

We haven’t even started. The maternity insurance was supposed to come any day now and then we have 30 days of a waiting period before we can even start trying. So for now, it’s all about practice if you know what I mean.

I am still trying to figure out the whole wisdom teeth business. I want to remove them prior to getting pregnant, so that I didn’t have to deal with any infections of anything, since they’re partially impacted. However, the bill for that is $2700 ( Yikes!). That’s a freaking baby’s room full of expensive furniture and toys. You know it amazes me that they want THAT much to take something out of me. It’s my freaking teeth, just pull them! Well, put to me to sleep first and then pull them.

Anyone ever had their wisdom teeth out? Share!

So for that purpose alone, I got a supplemental dental policy with a limit of $1000. So now I have two policies with a combined limit of $1750. That’s leaves me with $1000 out of pocket which is doable.
Except for when I went to schedule my surgery, my dentist told me that they no longer accept BCBS! Oops!
Back to square one of finding an oral surgeon. I call about three or four offices off of BCBS website and I get snooty receptionists with their annoying bitchy nasal voices telling me that they only accept this type of insurance, or they can only use 1 insurance policy, which sounds like bull to me. What does it matter to them? If both insurance policies coordinate benefits, why do they care?

Finally, I get a really nice receptionist named Evelyn, willing to help me out. She volunteered to call BCBS claims department and get whatever info she can regarding how this is going to work. Eventually I get a call back informing me that one policy is considering them out of network and will only pay like 400 bucks out of $1000. Not going to work. Nope.
So I go back to BCBS website and specify the particular type of a plan I have in hopes of finding a dentist who’s in network. Nada! Not a single oral surgeon is IN Network! That’s bull! What’s the point of the policy then?

I call my agent and tell him that he sold me a policy without participating dentists :) and that I need to switch to the Plus plan. Well the truth is there are plenty of dentists, just not oral surgeons on this plan. He informs me that it’s a one form change! I jump from joy! End credits.

So it looks like when I switch to the Plus plan I can go with the surgeon at that nice girl Evelyn’s office and get most of my wisdom teeth charges covered. YAY to that!

Also the agent informed me that our new health insurance policy that we’re switching to has been underwritten and they’re including an pre-existing condition exclusion writer. Say whaaaah? Those money grubbing sons of a female dog wanted to exclude this one condition on my hubby’s part that is comparable to excluding a fucking cold!
“Oops, sorry, you got a flu this year! We’ll be issuing a policy with an exclusion writer for a flu because it’s a pre-existing condition”.
I, of course, immediately went to my trusty Internets to find some kind of law ( because there’s GOTTA BE ONE AGAINST THAT) that says they can’t do that! There IS a HIPAA law that says that if you haven’t had a lapse in coverage  and are switching to a new one, they can’t exclude pre-existing conditions. Well, it turns out it only applies to group plans ( plans through your employer), not individual plans, which again seems ridiculous to me. The new Obama Health Care reform has done many good things ( including better maternity coverage) and one of the most anticipated changes for many people will go into effect in 2014, which is no exclusions or denial of coverage allowed due to pre-existing conditions. I gotta tell you, that Obama Health Care reform has done MANY great things. I cannot believe that there are people out there who want to repeal it. Our American health care is one of the worst health care systems EVER. I lived in Russia, and I can say the health care system there sucks ass, but it’s way better than in US. If you’d like to read about the GREAT changes that the Affordable Care Act  has brought and will continue bringing, as long as republicans don’t get their way, click here.
I never thought it was an issue for us, cuz we’re really healthy and young, but I also didn’t expect them to be so petty with it came to issues like that. I mean if my husband had a mole cut out out of preventative reasons, does it mean you should now exclude anything related to skin cancer ( that’s not the issue, I’m just giving an example)? I truly think that people ( not politicians) that want the Health Care Reform repealed are either VERY selfish or simply don’t understand the reform and have never dealt with insurance companies the way self-employed people (us) or people with conditions have to deal.

So we’ve decided that we don’t want to deal with exclusions and that hubby will stay on our old policy and I will get a new one, since the only reason we’re switching is to add a better maternity benefit.
So if everything gets switched over properly and on time, the new policy will go in effect March 1st, which means we can only start trying for a baby effective April 1st. 
Things keep getting postponed, which sucks. But it’s better to have everything in place and insured than to mindlessly get knocked up and then deal with the consequences.

That’s my story and I am sticking to it.

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I spent half the day today watching this amazing man Jim live and play in a real lion’s den. This guy, who owns (???) a wildlife refuge and rehabilitates wild animals that were injured or are unwanted, is running out of money and is holding  sort of an unconventional  ”fundraiser”. He will spend the whole month of January living, sleeping and playing in a cage with two 250 pound  lions, 1 year old Ed and 2 year old Lea. This man is amazing , because he has such a rapport going with the animals. He plays with them, feeds them, wrestles with them, pats them on the back, kisses them all over their face and mouth. It’s really adorable to watch.  He’s doing a live video stream for the whole month while he’s in the cage for people to watch and hopefully donate money. His teenage daughter Chelsey brings him food and helps around the refuge, feeding other animals. She’s not allowed in the cage with the lions because they’re too big now. But up until recently she was caring for them too. Little Ed is really missing her. So this evening I actually saw him feeding the lions. The cats were roaring and growling waiting for food. It’s such a sight, so humbling! I recommend you go and watch them play  on his website, where you can also donate some money. The lions love him to death and it’s just adorable to see them interact. An article and a TV spot about it here.{this picture is not of the lions mentioned above}

Also, we assembled my new drum set and I’ve been killing it playing along to Green Day’s “21 Guns” and Pink’s “Who Knew”, solely because they’re the easiest songs to play to and I semi-knew the beat from my Rock Band drums days. Pretty cool I gotta tell you, pretty cool!

Aside from lion watching and drum playing, I started my new exercise program (in addition to my daily pilates), designed specifically to increase strength and endurance of the muscles necessary for pregnancy, labor and recovery. I did a fitness test to see where my muscles are at and everything was above par ( abs, lower back, upper back, shoulders, legs, thighs, arms), except for ankles (whaaaat?) and PC muscles ( the figure eight that encompasses your urethra,vagina and anus- excuse my bluntness). In order to have strong PC muscles, that would be very beneficial in labor and recovery, you’d have to be able to “hold” it for at least 10 seconds. I’ve never done kegels before and I guess it shows. The good news is that  the muscle is easy to train. So there I go, squeezing my vageygey any chance I get.

…….
It was kind of funny, because DH and I were working out and while he was doing some man arm exercises, I stood on my hands and knees and started doing my kegels. After a while, I look at him with a smirk and ask: “Hey, do you know what I am doing?”, cuz really it didn’t look like I was doing anything besides standing on my hands and knees. How would he know that I am working my vagina muscles??? :)
And he goes:” Squeezing IT?”
We both burst out laughing! I guess there will be a lot more grosser things we’ll be going through during pregnancy than my husband “guessing” that I’m working out his favorite part of my body.
…….

Ok, here’s a test for ya’ll fit ladies out there. Apparently I have weak (-er?) ankles, the punishment for which will be me tripping and spraying my ankles when I get as big as a hippopotamus on fast food. I want to know if it’s just my weak spot or if it’s really something most of us seem to  have in an underdeveloped state ( my hubby couldn’t do it either). Would you all please squat for me?  No, I won’t make you squeeze your lady parts. We’re talking about ankles here. Squat if you can and then sit in the squatting position for at least 15 seconds while ( and THIS IS KEY!) making sure that your HEELS are flat on the floor. So, you cannot be on your toes! That doesn’t count. Only flat on your heels for 15 seconds. Can anyone do it? Anyone?

If you can, I envy your flexible strong ankles

For those who are interested ( whether you are or are not planning on having a baby in the next year or two), I will attempt to post a scan of the pre-pregnancy strength and flexibility test. I wish I had read this book, like, a year ago, and now I’d be walking around with a strong crotch that could suffocate an elephant and ankles that  allow me to sit in a squatting position for hours….you know…in case I have to take a dump in the middle of the road and I’m experiencing some pregnancy induced “blockage”.

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Please don’t forget to VOTE daily!

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I wouldn’t call myself a hypochondriac. I am more of a “health freak” type. I don’t tend to invent conditions I do not have, but I am very concerned with any health problem I MIGHT have. I often jump online to self-diagnose if something is hurting  or doesn’t feel right, however I don’t go crazy over it and worry excessively. I go to a doctor, i get checked out and every time it’s all fine. I do take my health seriously, I’m one of those people who thinks prevention is the best word in the vocabulary ( as evidenced by my approach to pregnancy and childbirth).
So when, during a pre-conception urine test, they found some protein, I made sure to schedule a follow up appointment  to do another urine test. According to the doctor, protein can sometimes show up in your urine, but that’s fine. However if it shows up consistently, then there’s a problem. After researching it on the internet, i found out that protein in urine can very well be a sign of kidneys not working right. Since it’s the kidneys leaking protein ( they’re supposed to keep something as valuable as that), then there must be a problem there.
I came in for a follow up test and guess what? There was even more protein (+2).
“Oh-oh!”  I thought.
Instantly, recollection of my mom telling me that my grandma died from kidney problems started flooding my mind. Shiiiiiit!!!
While I  hate being unhealthy or having any kind of condition, one thing I hate more is having a GENETIC condition. It just bothers me to high heaven that it’s something 1.) out of my control, 2.) was given to me by someone else ( read: genes), 3.) I can’t do shit to change that.

See, I lead a VERY healthy lifestyle:
I exercise every day
I am a vegetarian
I take vitamins
I do not eat processed food at all
I do not eat sweets (much)
I don’t eat out ( I cook everything at home)
I don’t smoke
I don’t drink ( at all)
I don’t drink coffee
I try to buy organic ( as much as I can and can afford)

So I feel there’s absolutely NO reason there should be ANYTHING wrong with me. EVER :) Or at least for a very long time.
Anyways, the doctor comes in, explains to me that there’s even more protein in my piss  (excuse me!) urine. I mention to him that my grandma DIED from a kidney related condition. He informs me of a genetically dominant polycystic kidney. It sounds familiar. It’s that very type of condition that would drive me nuts. The type of condition that gets worse and worse and something you’d have to live with all your life. The type that puts you on dialysis treatment by age 40. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!
So that freaks me out, of course. Me? On dialysis? No freaking way! Isn’t it only diabetic, old, super overweight people who neglected their health their whole life who go on dialysis? No freaking way!
I drive home. Upset as all get out. Not “crying” upset, but ANGRY upset! Angry at my grandma for dying from a kidney related disease.
My husband, while concerned, tells me to calm down and wait until the good doctor does some tests. In the meantime, I call my mom to ask her what exactly my grandma’s problem was. Of course, in no way do I explain to her what has happened that afternoon and pretend that I’m just curious. My mom is such a worrier ( that’s where I get it from) that I’d never upset her like that without knowing all the facts.

AAAAaaaaaand she tells me it was simple inflammation of kidneys. LOL. Pyelonephritis.  The only reason she passed away from it is because she refused to get treatment ( she was a tough Russian woman from a remote village roughing it out in the big city). OOOhhhhh!! AAaaaahhhhh! Relief! I CAN’T have polycystic kidney! I won’t have to spend my late years on dialysis! My kidneys aren’t expanding and growing cysts! I can have a baby and not pass this genetically dominant condition on!
WOW! As soon as I processed it occurred to me how funny it was that i EVEN thought that I’d have something like that. My family genetic and health history is spotless.  The occasional high blood pressure was due to stupid russian diet high in refined carbs and cholesterol ( those people don’t know what Olive Oil is, and those who do, refuse to use it in favor of vegetable oil (yuck!), citing its taste)
I call the doctor immediately, he cancels the ultrasound that would take a look at my NON-cystic kidneys.

But we still have to investigate what is causing my proteinuria ( fancy word for “some steak in your pee”).
I go for a 24 hour urine test. They hand me THIS JUG! ( I debated on whether I should post this picture here or not, but hell with it! Yeah I peed in it. Yes, without a funnel ( TMI yet?)). I picked it up and had to go through the whole building carrying this HUGE orange PEE JAR! Then I had to pee into it for the next 24 hours and finally drop it off ( FULL!) at the lab. So that wasn’t embarrassing at all. :)

I felt so much better having done that and even better than that, when the results came back completely normal in a few days. I even got a call from my OBGYN on Friday night personally telling me it was ALL fine ( I think he felt a bit responsible for jumping to conclusions and scarying me with a irreversible uncontrollable genetic disease) lol

After I analysed the whole situation and the tests, in addition to doing some research, I found what might have a been the  cause for that scary protein in my urine. I read somewhere that hemp seeds ( the ones that grow pot) excrete albumin ( protein) in high doses. My favorite cereal happens to be organic HEMP SEED CEREAL ( what? hemp seeds are very nutritional and good for you). And every time I went for that urinalysis, I had just finished my morning cereal. And that’s exactly why a 24 hour test showed nothing significant.

So that’s the story of how I “almost inherited” an incurable genetic disease by eating pot.

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