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We Saw the Heartbeat!
On a different note, Nate and I also met with his retinal specialist today. Things are not good, but we knew that already. He now has tumors in both eyes (before it was just the right), his right retina has detached and his left retina is detaching. However, the good news we got today is that, at least for the time being, no surgery is necessary. They're going to work on the tumors with some advanced laser therapy. This is good, b/c if he'd had to have surgery, he would have had to use sick days that he'd much rather save for when the baby comes. It's also, of course, less invasive and much less painful. It's also very risky, though, which is why they are going to play guinea pig with his right eye. Since he's already mostly blind in that one, if something goes wrong, he won't really lose anything. But if it works really well, they can move on to his good left eye (in spite of everything, his vision in that eye is still 20/25) and hopefully fix it before it gets worse.
Well, that's about it for today. I have my intake appointment with the nurse a week from tomorrow, and my first "real" OB appointment on May 3.
Very Long Weekend
I had to go to some wretched conference called something like "Recovering the US Hispanic Catholic Heritage." Sounds like a laugh riot, eh? It was required for one of my classes to go to "as many sessions" as we could make it to. I took that too literally and decided that, since I had no actual conflicts, I had to go to all of them. So there I was, Friday morning at 9 am. It's the earliest I've been up in awhile, and since I have trouble falling asleep at night (which is why I usually sleep until 10), I was exhausted from the outset. I knew 3 of my 4 fellow grad students wouldn't be there because they had to TA, but I thought the other would. Nope, it turned out he didn't think it was worth getting up that early for. Sheesh, I wish I'd known that counted as a conflict!
So anyway, I sat from 9 until noon listening to papers and discussions I could care less about and feeling awkward b/c I knew no one. Then we had lunch, and then I got an hour break. After that, I got to come back from 2 until 5 for another session. All I can say is, thank goodness we had that ultrasound on Thursday! Because it was so good, I decided to make my pregnancy public, which allowed me to get out of the dinner that was supposed to follow that evening. There was just no way I could have summoned that much energy! I barely made it through the afternoon sessions as it was. For me to have been going from 9 to 9 would have been impossible, especially since none of the activities were particularly energizing!
Saturday was even worse I think. I'm not sure why...perhaps just because I had reached my wits end already. Fortunately, I found out 2 other students were not planning on going to the afternoon sessions, and since both of them had missed the Fri morning sessions, too, I figured I was allowed to leave. I didn't even stick around for the lunch that day, although I was a bit conflicted about it. I felt sort of bad, because it was already paid for, but I would have felt even worse munching on free food, knowing full well I was leaving as soon as it was over.
Anyway, I'm just glad it's over. I'd been dreading it for weeks, especially since I found out I was pregnant and realized what torture it would be.
After Nate picked me up at noon on Sat, we did a little baby shopping. It's a little sad actually. In spite of the fact that South Bend/Mishawaka is about 150,000 people, we have no true baby stores, and Nate and I have already exhausted the baby departments we do have...I'm only 8 weeks! We've checked out Wal-Mart, Target, and K-Mart, as well as the baby sections of Toys R Us, Kay's Merchandise, and Burlington Coat Factory. There is one independent baby shop, but all they sell is clothes!
We really don't know what to do about a crib. We've narrowed it down to 3 brands we're interested in (based on the criteria of being good quality but not too expensive), but none of the shops here have any floor models of them, and none will order them! It so happens that one of the brands has an outlet down near Aunt Cindy's place, so we're thinking we'll go visit her in June and check the place out. If it's a no go, I guess we visit my parents in Chicago and buy one there. I'm just a little anxious, b/c I've read it usually takes retailers 6-8 weeks to get a crib in, so I'd like to make the purchase by my 6th month at the very latest. Oh well, we have to go to Chicago to register anyway (we want to use Babies R Us since almost everyone we know lives near one, and it's on the internet for the rest), so I guess it'll just be a packed weekend if we have to register AND buy a crib!
The only other news I have, which I mentioned earlier, is that I have now made my pregnancy public at school. So far, everyone has been thrilled. It turns out one of my professors (who only received her PhD about 2 years ago) has an 18 month old, which I did not realize, and she was especially thrilled for me. She told me if I ever wanted to talk, just to come see her...that was really nice of her. My fellow grad students are, of course, delighted...I wasn't too worried about their responses, though. And the professor I TA for, who only received his PhD last year and got married last summer, thought the news was great and told me he and his wife want to start trying soon. However, I've yet to hear from the one professor who I have some doubts about how he will react...that should be interesting. Also, I go talk to my Director of Graduate Studies tomorrow to discuss how we will handle the fall. She's kind of a hardnose, BUT she is a mother herself (until I found out about my other professor, I thought this woman was the ONLY woman in the dept. with children), so I'm hoping she'll be sympathetic. Still, I suppose her reaction will largely be based on however she was treated by whatever university she was at when she was pregnant - I sure hope they were nice to her!! Anyway, I hope to reassure her that my pregnancy should cause minimal interference in my TA duties, which will be her biggest concern. Oh well, if she doesn't like it, that's her problem. It's not like she could drive me out of the program or anything. She may not be happy about it (although I hope she will be!), but there's not much she can do about it if she's not.
Finally, I'm waiting to hear from my advisor. I e-mailed him late Friday with the news (he's in New York on a leave this year) because I am going to need to revise my comps schedule a bit (I was supposed to take them in March 2003 - not gonna happen!), and he is the person who needs to grant me approval on that. I don't envision any problems with him, though. He's a really nice guy, and he's quite young and only been married a couple of years, so I imagine he and his wife might be talking about children, too, which should make him very sympathetic. Also, I went out of my way in the e-mail to reassure him that this doesn't change my commitment to the program at all and that I still wholeheartedly intend to finish, but I explained that I'll probably need to slow down for a few months right after the baby is born. However, he does have the power to make my life very difficult if he is displeased, so I hope he reacts the way I expect him to.
Well, I think that pretty much sums up the past few days. I didn't realize I had so much to tell! Thank goodness that conference is over...now if only the semester would end, too! I'll write again once I've met with the DGS and had a response from my advisor.