tear duct plugs, anyone?

here is a self portrait, taken lately on one of my solo walks around the pond. it's been getting chillier and the other day it actually RAINED!!! i am so ready for winter. so, it's thursday afternoon and i'm supposed to be working my preggo butt off, but here i sit at home thanks to a lovely bout of diarrea i've been experiencing. i probably would have gone to work anyhow, but my husband (the smarter one of the two of us) pointed out that i wouldn't be much help if i had to keep running to the bathroom every 10 minutes. not to mention that the ladie's room at work is currently being worked on because of a leak, so THAT would not be a good thing. so i made about a million phone calls to smooth everything out, then went to the grocery store looking for kaopectate, which is apparently the only thing a pregnant woman can take for this sort of issue. they didn't carry that brand, so i came home with coconut instead to make those yummy unbaked cookies i remeber so well from pioneer girls. as for my issue, it's already getting better and i'd rather let it solve itself on it's own that take any kind of medication that could affect my baby.

speaking of medication affecting my baby, i had the eye doctor's visit from HELL the other day! about a month ago i decided that i should get my eyes checked one last time before losing my medical coverage from work. simple, right? just go in, get checked, order new contacts, and i'm done. well, i think that since that first appointment, i've been back a total of 5 times. this eye doctor, though a very nice man, is slightly peculiar. during my first visit, he had my head in that contraption where they peer at the inside of your eyes with your chin in a little slot and he stopped in the middle and said "just a moment", went to the next door down the hall, and i could totally hear him going to the bathroom and flushing the toilet, all while i was just sitting there with my head in the thing! the most disturbing part about this was that i did not hear him wash his hands. i had to go back in to get some sort of glaucoma test. then i had to go back to try on my trial lenses, then back for him to see how they fit, then finally i went back on tuesday because my new lenses were in. easy, peasy, pick up the contacts and go, right? so wrong. i go in to pick up my contacts and he asks if he can look at my eyes AGAIN. so i go into the little dark room that was becoming very familiar to me and he puts my head in that same contraption and looks at my eyes and declares that i have dry eye. and that i really should get plugs put into my tear ducts. while he's telling me this, he puts some sort of drops into my eyes that make them feel all cottony, then he leaves the room. so there i am, sitting in a sort of daze, blinking my cottony eyes and wondering how in the heck he is going to put plugs in my tear ducts. i didn't have to wonder too long because he came back with some tiny tweezers and who knows what else and decided to tell me at that point that what he had put in my eyes was anesthesia because "this procedure tends to hurt". i really should have thrown a fit at that point because he never asked nor told me that he was going to anesthetize my eyes and isn't that NOT GOOD for a pregnant lady? but he was the one holding the instruments of torture, so i decided so sit still and pray that it would be over soon. so, he takes his tweezers picks up something very small and tells me not to blink and proceeds to insert it into my tear duct. the worst part was not that it felt like he was poking a needle into my eye. the worst part was that his hand was shaking VERY badly. he said something about having just had a caffeinated drink that he shouldn't have had. and he wasn't joking. so basically, it took about 15 minutes to insert what felt like needles into 3 of my 4 tear ducts. the 4th one apparently wouldn't go in, so he made an appointment for me to come in tomorrow to get that one done. even while writing this out, i can't quite believe what all happened. once i had fled to the safety of my car, i called josh in tears (some tears because my eyes were watering so bad, but also real sad tears) and told him all that had occured. i really think that they could make my experience into a type of horror movie. thankfully, these plugs are only temporary and dissolve after about a week. and no, i am NOT going back in tomorrow to have him attempt to insert one into my last tear duct. i have my contacts and i am NOT going back any time soon.

we had our first birthing class on tuesday at the hospital where we'll be delivering. though the class was quite lengthy at 2 1/2 hours, we both found it very interesting. out of the 10 couples in the class, 8 of us are expecting boys, 1 is expecting a girl and 1 couple isn't going to find out. the instructor had some good tips for leg cramps and sciatica that i've found helpful. next week we get to tour the delivery area of the hospital.

on sunday i'll be 28 weeks along, which is officially the start of my third trimester! will post a proper belly shot for you then. i know i keep saying this, but time sure is flying...i can't believe my baby ticker is already down to double digits!