My Oma and Meeting Our Insurance Deductibles

Tuesday after my OB appointment, my dad called me from Florida to tell me that my grandmother had passed away. He was visiting her there last week when she got sick, and it became clear pretty quickly that she wasn't going to recover. Oma was 89 years old (we were planning a big family reunion party for her 90th this summer) and lived a very full life, but we will miss her. She is finally with my Opa, who we have been missing for ten years, and Ma - her mother - who we have been missing for twenty years. I wish I could be there for my dad. I am now planning a reunion in Wisconsin this summer with his side of the family to celebrate her life. I have been wanting to scan in some pictures of her to share, but that will have to wait until I get my scanner hooked up (and since that involves moving the printer/fax/scanner across the house, Davis will have to do it for me, and I am trying to limit is honey do list - he is having to do way too much already!)

At my OB appointment Tuesday, my sweet doctor walked in and asked how I was doing and I opened my mouth and said "I'm tired" and promptly burst into tears. I'd been having contractions for three days straight. Then my blood pressure was up and she decided to run some labs to make sure I wasn't getting preeclampsia, and then she told me that I just earned myself twice a week appointments with her.

Thankfully my appointment today was much better. My contractions finally settled down last night and have been very sporatic today, so I felt like I got a little break. My blood pressure was down and my labs came back normal. And my cervix hasn't changed. And tomorrow I'm 33 weeks - just one week from the coveted 34 weeks! My next appointment is Tuesday, hopefully another quick and uneventful one with no tears.

But it's hard not to get a little spooked by the beginning of this year. We are two weeks into 2010 and
-my father-in-law was hospitalized with sepsis (he is okay),
-his mother broke her wrist (she is okay),
-I have been put on bed rest for preterm labor,
-I have a kidney stone,
-Amelia was diagnosed with an astigmatism yesterday and will probably need glasses,
-my grandmother got pneumonia and died,
-Sophia got her very first ear infection,
-and tonight Amelia is in the Emergency Room with her daddy because she is having trouble breathing.*

I keep telling myself we're just getting it all out of the way and meeting our deductibles (my dad also totaled his car and a pipe burst and flooded his whole house while he was in Florida) at the beginning of the year.

I promised some pictures, so here's all I have to share - this afternoon this is what was on either side of me as I worked from bed



*Amelia has unfortunately inherited my asthma. The girls both have had a fever virus with a cough this week, but tonight Amelia just couldn't stop coughing. At first she just coughed until she threw up. I gave her some cough medicine and fixed her some warm chamomile tea with lemon and lots of honey. She kept coughing and coughing and coughing. Then her little fingers and mouth started turning blue and when I lifted her shirt she was retracting - that was enough for me to send her packing. I'm sure she'll get a breathing treatment and be okay.

All of my troubles seem so small as the images from Haiti flow through my mind. I wanted to share a few ways I know of to help...

-Send a $10 Donation by Texting ‘Haiti’ to 90999 this goes to the Red Cross and shows up on your next phone bill. I did this, but sometimes during these times the Red Cross gets so many donations, they cannot get them out fast enough. So here are some other charities that I love.

-Architecture for Humanity uses skilled architects (my mother is an architect and for her birthday I usually give to this charity in her name) and other experts to help rebuild in areas like Haiti, and they are making plans to do so already. You can find out more and donate at http://www.architectureforhumanity.org/

-God's Littlest Angels is an awesome orphanage in Haiti that I have grown to love over the past five years. I first discovered them when I was trying to find a place to donate all the formula samples I got while pregnant with Sophia. Although they were thankfully not directly affected by the quake, I am sure they will feel the effects in the coming weeks and months, unfortunately. You can find out more and donate here http://glahaiti.org/