tomorrow (today now, actually) is our last full day in new port richey. early wednesday morning we'll pick up the moving truck and load it (and andy's dad's truck, and andy's car) with our boxes and furniture and cats and selves and head out.

i am stressed out about every aspect of moving- the chaos of our current apartment, the transport (and possible destruction) of all of my possessions, the fact that i am going to be driving andy's car to orlando alone, getting everything up the incredibly narrow staircase at our new place, and of course, figuring out how the hell everything is going to fit in an apartment that is half the size of our current place. andy is much less stressed than i am, but that's his nature.

i hope these next few days go by quickly and easily.

i really need to post more frequently, it would prevent long rambling posts (like this one).

the level II ultrasound at tampa general went incredibly well, if you exclude the part where andy and i got lost in a parking garage. really though, trying to drive anywhere near the hospital was horrible. who puts a hospital on an island?

anyway, my absurdly awesome friend ashley and her very nearly one year old daughter evie accompanied us to the ultrasound which was really exciting. the sonographer was easily the nicest medical professional that i've encountered thus far in my pregnancy (but i guess that isn't saying much). she went out of her way to explain what we were seeing on the screen, chatted with us, and- to my absolute surprise- showed us the baby in 4D! i had suspicions that, being a higher quality machine, it would have the capabilities but i just assumed that since the scan was for pretty specific medical purposes we wouldn't get such an opportunity. it was amazing. and beyond all of that she gave us seven photos, including 3D.

isn't he handsome?

on the orlando front- we have an apartment! it's smaller than what we're used to but it's cute and affordable and only a mile from UCF. we couldn't ask for more. as andy is meant to start working on the 30th we couldn't wait till the first of february to start a lease, but luckily the current tenant was already intending to leave early and we were able to buy the last week of his rent. it's ours starting the 22nd.

our current apartment is a complete mess of boxes and there are these strange bare patches- there's nothing on the refrigerator door, our tall bookshelf is gone (it wouldn't have survived the move), shelves are bare. the strange combination of clutter and complete lack of clutter is really bizarre to me.

stressssss.

andy has been officially hired at the best buy in waterford lakes and is set to start on the 30th. this means that we need to move by then. we are about 75% sure that we have an apartment but everything is so short notice and jfdsaklda. i hate moving.

my appointment at tampa general is on monday, and the follow up for that as well as my next regular doctor's appointment are towards the end of this month- at which point we'll already be in orlando, and will have to come back to npr solely for the appointments. so that's kind of inconvenient.

i don't even know. picture?

22w4d
my last day at target.

it has been a while since i last posted. a lot has been going on and every time i sit down to write it all up i get impatient with the length of it and abandon the task altogether.

so, a summary:

-went to the ER with the worst migraine of my life and no peripheral vision in my left eye. turned out to be an "atypical ocular migraine" and i was sent home with a prescription for vicodin that i never filled.
-the hunt for a place to live in orlando is ongoing. we found a really lovely little apartment that we could afford but it doesn't look like we're going to get it due to andy's best buy transfer not being complete. sigh.
-christmas was nice and, overall, uneventful.

yesterday at 1pm was anatomy scan attempt 2. it went much better than attempt 1. the sonographer was a bit friendlier, took lots of measurements and photos, and confirmed that we are indeed having a boy. after waiting to see the midwife for nearly an hour she greeted us with "so what's going on with baby's kidneys?"

um, excuse me? we were not aware that anything was going on with his kidneys.

apparently the sonographer thought that she spotted fluid around- or in, or on, i honestly don't even know- the baby's kidneys, and there was also something mentioned about dilation. now this all may seem imprecise, but this is literally the extent of the information that we were able to glean from the midwife. (eta: his kidneys were mildly dilated.) she had no idea that the sonographer hadn't mentioned this to us, nor did she know what any of it implied. which was incredibly frustrating, because obviously we had no fucking clue what it implied either.

we were hurried out- i barely had time to tell her about my trip to the ER, let alone ask any questions like i should have the opportunity to do at my monthly doctor's appointment- and sent up to the front desk to schedule my next appointment, as well as an appointment at tampa general for a level 2 ultrasound. apparently pasco county is completely devoid of decent ultrasound machines and perinatologists. the midwife went off to find some kind of literature for me but returned empty handed, stating that she didn't want to freak me out.

i was not freaking out before that.

at this point it was nearly 2:30 and i was meant work 3-9. i thought that i was holding myself together fairly well until, right after arriving at work, my supervisor asked if i was alright and i immediately started bawling. i hid in the women's room for half an hour and then went home.

anyway, the internet has since told me that this kidney issue is common in boys and usually resolves itself by birth, so i'm feeling pretty reassured. the midwife probably should have just told me these things in the first place, but apparently she thinks i'm a moron.

beyond these events, we also had to deal with several thousand dollars worth of stolen electronics (not ours, but i don't want to go too much into it) & the investigation that went along with it, and the madhouse that was our apartment building following the death of one of our neighbors.

it was a very eventful day.

21w
sorry about the gross mirror.

suddenly, belly

19w4d

had a conversation with someone at my doctor's office today. it went sort of like this:

me: "hi, my name is lyndsey ward- well actually it's not, but medicaid says it still is so that's how you guys know me. i had an anatomy scan on thursday and it sucked."

her: "anatomy scan? what is that? do you mean a well woman exam? i don't even see you in our system. lyndsey wood, right?"

me: "no. no, my name is not lyndsey wood. ward, w-a-r-d. i am eighteen weeks pregnant and i mean the big mid-pregnancy ultrasound during which my baby's organs and size and whatnot are checked."

her: "uh, hold on, i need a chart or i will have no idea what you're talking about ever."

(five minutes of midi waiting music)

her: "hey, that ultrasound you're talking about? that happens between 18-22 weeks, you haven't had that yet."

me: "that's what i'm saying, but your stupid technician is that one that called it that. i was 17 weeks and three days, they said it was cool. they said i wasn't getting another ultrasound."

her: "they were wrong. see, it even says your next appointment is on a thursday, that's when the ultrasound tech is here."

me: "i asked for a thursday."

her: "no, this proves that we knew what we were doing the whole time! see you in three weeks!"


so, as you can see, it was finally, FINALLY, decided that i would be receiving another ultrasound at my next appointment on the 30th. she said she was putting a note in my chart about it to be sure, and that's good enough for me- charts are law in a doctor's office, right?

in other news, i look exactly the same- if not a smidge smaller- than i did last week. what is this?

18w