Wednesday, August 23, 2017

19 weeks pregnant

I am 19 weeks pregnant - almost halfway! I can feel the baby move all the time now - how exciting is that!

Pardon the selfies - my kids only know how to take unflattering pictures of me

At my prenatal appointment yesterday, it took several minutes to find the baby's heart beat. After last month's scare, that would have been nerve-wrecking, but thankfully I had just felt the baby moving right as we started. My midwife was finally able to track the baby's heartbeat down. It got a lot louder and easier to hear if I pushed by bellybutton up, suggesting that for the first time ever, my placenta is attached at the front of my uterus, rather than facing the spine. This is not a risk factor, just different. It explains how the baby's heart beat can be difficult to find if (s)he is hiding behind the placenta.

It might explain the spotting last month, since my rambunctious little boys have accidentally plopped onto my pregnant belly when I am on the sofa. With the placenta right there, it could be more susceptible to blood vessels breaking, so I will be extremely careful not to let that happen again. I also explained it to the boys, and got a very gentle belly rub from Stephen instead. The placenta being in the front might also explain why with this pregnancy, I immediately did not feel comfortable lying on my stomach to sleep, even long before my belly popped out. 

I am feeling and doing great. My biggest gripe the last couple of weeks has been living like an Amish person: lots of kids with limited modern conveniences. I'm exaggerating, of course.

- The internet at my house has been dial-up speed to non-existent. After two extensive service calls, that has finally been fixed.

- My van has been in the shop for over two weeks, except when I took it out to take it on the Pastor's Wives Retreat. First, the front a/c had died completely after the a/c blower motor burned out. When it did, it burned a bunch of stuff around it, all of which needed to be repaired. When I finally went to pick it up a week later, only one day before the retreat, I noticed the back a/c was not working normal now. I told them I would have to bring it back after the trip to get that figured out. Turns out, the a/c unit in the back was having issues with cooling and airflow. The shop got the broken parts removed, but Nissan is hopelessly backordered on one particular part. As in, they are waiting for it to come off the assembly line and ship, once they get all the other (older) orders caught up!! I kept being promised Monday, then Tuesday, then tomorrow, all while I had no van for the third week. Yesterday I finally told them to button the van back up as is, with now zero a/c in the back, and to call me when the part finally does come in to finish the repair. At least I have a set of (hot) wheels now, even though I won't be able to take the kids to anywhere but church in it (it's less than a half mile). All the repairs are covered by Geico's extended mechanical breakdown insurance. When we bought our van new a few years ago, it only came with warranty for the first 35k miles (Nissan now offers 100k miles on it). Geico suggested we add the mechanical breakdown add-on, and boy, am I glad I did! It only adds a couple of bucks each month, and has saved us thousands of dollars in repairs. So huge shout-out to Geico! Every claim we have had with them has been easy and straightforward, with zero hassles. We are customers for life!

- My washer has been making funny sounds for the last couple of weeks. Being a busy mom, I had not taken the time to call in the warranty since it was still working. Then one night, the dishwasher died with an explosion that blew the breaker, followed by horrible electrical burn stench. Pleasant - not! I'm glad my husband and I were still up so he could unplug it, make sure there was no internal fire, and reset the breaker. Both appliances were purchased from the same place, so I called in both warranties at the same time. A tech came out yesterday, confirming the dishwasher is toast and the washer needs major repairs. He could not give me an estimate of when the replacement/repairs would happen. So for the time being, I am doing dishes by hand, though relying heavily on paper plates and cups to at least cut down on the volume. The washer is still limping along, and the tech said it was fine to keep using it, so at least there's that. 

It's funny how much we get used to modern conveniences! It will be nice to have all my things working right again, hopefully sooner rather than later. 

Lesson learned: In a large family, buy new, and pay extra for extended warranty. My husband is too busy to play handyman and car mechanic, and I depend on equipment being in working order to keep life running smoothly. Since we use everything at near-commercial levels, those warranties WILL come in handy, and save much money and headaches in the long run. 

17 comments:

  1. My placenta was on the front with JT and the Dr. could not find the heartbeat at one appointment and had to do an ultrasound. It also took much longer to feel him kicking and I felt it much less than with Finn.

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  2. It's so much fun when everything in the home goes bonkers. Our dishwasher motor blew as well. I'm doing dishes by hand till we purchase a new one. We have a gas stove and our oven no longer works. Thankfully the stove top works fine and we have a counter convection oven so I've been doing all my baking in that for now. The washer and dryer keep acting up and our repair guy just told us it'll be best to replace them. Our down stairs bathroom toilet started leaking, but thankfully now fixed although the toilet will soon need to be replaced since we've had it since the house was built so that means 3 toilets need replacing. All this in the same week it's fantastic. My husband and I just looked at each other and laughed and prayed that nothing would happen to the fridge. Hahahaha

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  3. What adventures you're having - wow!! :)

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  4. How do you look that good for baby #10 :)

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  5. So pretty. I'm glad you're feeling good this time!

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  6. I can relate! I've never had a car or a dishwasher! However I only have one child so far (until January!), I cannot imagine doing dishes for 10 people three times a day! I don't even own ten plates, lol!

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  7. Could you do another Q&A soon, please and thank you .

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  8. Could you please do a Q&A soon, thank you.

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  9. Screw your country, Germany, Mrs Anderson, because they legalised "gay" marriage!!!!! I hope it bothers you! :)

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    1. KJV I believe Ms. Anderson isn't German. She was living and working in Bavaria when she met her future spouse. I think her original ethnicity in Hungarian. "Szuszanna" is not a German name!

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  10. You look beautiful! You take good pictures of yourself. lol

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  11. Hi! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your great info! Wondering if you would do a blog post or comment about how you keep your children safe at church and in the community. For example, if they wanted to play with neighborhood friends, etc. Do you use a buddy system? I don't want to be paranoid but I don't like leaving my daughter out of my sight. We seem to have the same philosophies, so I would love any insights. Congrats on the latest pregnancy!

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  12. Zsuzsanna,

    I was curious if you are still cloth diapering? If so, how is it going and can you share any tips for washing the diapers?

    Jessica

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  13. Is this going to be your 10th children?

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  14. I just want to thank you and your family for opening my Eyes. I pray for you and the children and your husband daily. I can't believe how my life has changed because of youtube and a sermon from your husband. God bless you!

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  15. I have had 3 pregnancies with placenta in that position. Those were my quickest & easiest births. Might be a coincidence, but here's hoping! I will be interested to see how it all works out!!

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