Not so cute as a (sick) toddler

My husband is sick. He has a fever, sore throat, and the beginnings of a cold.

Yes, I am of course, deeply sympathetic. However, I'd prefer to emote that sympathy from a safe distance.

Except, that when my husband gets sick he wants to cuddle. He wants me to give him backrubs. He wants to share my water bottle. I am deeply paranoid of getting sick at this exact moment. I do however feel like this paranoia is partially justified by:
- my utter inability to take any of the cold medicene he is so liberally indulging in
- the immense amount of work I need to finish before Thanksgiving
- that slight risk that I might still be sick when I go into labor
- feeling a bit slow/out of breath anyway

Needless to say he is feeling terribly neglected at the moment, and I am feeling more than slightly peeved at him. I do hope he feels better soon ... for both of us.

This is really normal?

I know, I've had a basically symptom and complication-free pregnancy thus far (except for the dreaded GD and the sleepiest baby ever, but neither is particularly serious) and I'm not writing to complain, but just wondering ...

Is it really normal to get out of breath and feel like you're going to faint? I find that this has been happening for the past several days, mostly in the mornings. Dr. Google indicates it could either be the baby squashing my lungs or anemia, but I'm already on the maximum dose of iron. Any suggestions for how to deal with this? I am more than a bit nervous about fainting on the streets of NYC, and since I don't look all that pregnant people very rarely offer me a place to sit ...

And speaking of which, I have an event every evening next week and the week after. And a million deadlines before December 1st. Oh yeah, plus prepping for the spring. The great benefit of being a graduate student is that I can control my own schedule. The downside? No time off and no adjustments in my deadlines for 'the rest of my life.' Fun, eh?

Update: In response to Melissia's detailed questions, I tend to get dizzy and out of breath most often in the morning when walking around, but definitely not doing anything too intense. I'm sure it's not low blood sugar because I test my blood sugar pretty often and I've never had a low. I also drink at least a liter of water before leaving my apartment in the morning, so I doubt I'm dehydrated (and then I squirm all the way to my desk). My blood pressure has also always been normal, although I know GD puts me at much higher risk of pre-eclampsia. Also no headaches in weeks. I guess I'm a bit puzzled because it tends to be around the same time of day and not when I'm doing my most intense activities (usually running around late afternoon for me). I did mention it to my midwife, but she was as ever unconcerned and said it was probably just the baby squashing my lungs - but I'm not sure why that would only bother me at a specific time of day. She also assured me that first-time babies rarely 'drop' until right before labor, so I shouldn't expect any relief for weeks ...

Very pleased with my husband

I had a bit of frustrating day between waiting several hours for our radiators to be fixed (off! just turn them all off! I cannot stand another night in the sauna) to a super-flaky woman on craigslist (we need another bookshelf - only 3 boxes left to unpack) ...

and since JD couldn't quite fix those problems by the time he got home at 9 pm he decided to indulge me entirely and set up the crib. In our bedroom. Complete with mattress and sheets. And it looks fabulous (it's the Emil.y mini crib, found on craigslist).*

And despite my MIL's rather extreme skepticism about the need for 'organic' products for our baby (don't worry, the only thing I felt strongly about being organic was the crib mattress) she purchased not only an organic crib mattress but also two organic cotton sheets for us. So nice.

Ok, back to work. I need to finish something by midnight.

* Yes, I know it's a bit obsessive to do this sort of thing so early, but I wanted to.

Can't say I'm devastated

to find out that JD missed the registration deadline for spring classes. So no night classes until the fall (by which point I will be safely away in Europe).

And why do they have to repeat in every childbirth class that two of the signs of early labor are flu-like symptoms and diarrhea? Really? I feel like that's been my life every day this week, and it would be so much easier to just ignore if there weren't this lurking idea in the back of my head that this might just be it ... of course, with no other signs of the baby being in any way ready to come out at 34.5 weeks, I know this is just paranoia. And now that we have a crib mattress, carseat and doula, I'm guessing we're as ready as we're going to get.

In other news, my little casual baby shower brunch (hosted by a friend, but at my apartment) seems to have grown a bit. I just posted 28 invitations, albeit only 10 days in advance. Super-rude, I know, but everyone is local (and by local, at least 10 of the addresses were within 5 blocks of our place) and we've told almost everyone in person. We'll see how this goes.

appointment overload

It was inevitable that I was going to accidentally miss an appointment given my current rather intense schedule of midwife visits, GD consults, ultrasounds, childbirth classes, etc. but why did it have to be the once a month pediatrician meet and greet? I know it's silly, but in order to be released 'early' from the hospital our pediatrician has to give the ok, and I want to talk to him about it in advance ... all of which could have been discussed yesterday night. Or sometime after my due date. Argh!!!

And why couldn't I have accidentally forgotten my GD consult today? Since they actually forgot to enter me into the computer and thus made me wait 2+ hours to be seen even though I had a signed slip from the receptionist with my appointment time on it ...

In which the absurdity of my life is highlighted yet again

JD started a new job last Monday. He had a week of orientation so today was his first full day in his division. It apparently started with a meeting with one of his bosses, who told him that 'there are a few classes we'd like you to take this spring if you want to stay in this division' (which he does). The guy then gave him what I presume was meant to be a sympathetic pep talk about how hard it will be to take classes in addition to working full time 'with a new wife and baby' and suggested he might consider switching foci.

I heard about this at about 8 pm when JD called from a bar. He was clearly more than a bit nervous about my response. But honestly and truly I just laughed. If JD and his boss somehow think that a couple of hours of night classes are going to make the difference between sanity and chaos in our lives, they have to be kidding. Between adjusting to a new baby, working a full-time job in addition to being a full-time graduate student, commuting to a city 4 hours away for said job, preparing to leave the country again in May ... really, I don't see this as our greatest challenge.

Needless to say, JD sounded much relieved that I do not plan to stomp my feet and insist that he switch divisions. And the two friends I bumped into tonight were both horrified that I had not 'stood up for myself.' But really, looking at the list above our life is just so out of control I don't see this as pushing us over the tipping point. We're long past said tipping point.

Pure bliss

I feel like I've been a bit too whiny on my blog recently. Really, I'm doing fine. I just tend to turn to the internets (and my faithful readers) when I need support.

But 3 absolutely lovely things happened on Sunday:

1. I got a half hour massage from JD during our childbirth class.
2. We finally took our wedding photos to be framed.
3. I went with JD to buy coffee and convinced the poor, baffled high school kid serving us to give me 4 (exactly 4) dark-chocolate covered coffee beans. So delicious. Add those to my list of January binge foods.

Now if only I could finish my work for the day ...