Wednesday, September 22, 2010

I'm Not Discounting Ebola Yet

Finally back from all the High Holiday hoopla and the Bataan Death March that was our tour of the hospital where (knock on wood) we'll be delivering  [the maternity ward is a very short walk, but they made us hike over to the hospital wing 4,000 miles away where they'll be storing overflow post-partum cases.  They are anticipating an overflow due to all the babies who are about to be born because Keyzer Snowze happened 9 months ago, and apparently people who have sex during blizzards get babies.  (Silly rabbit, that's what cures IF)].

I had my second appointment yesterday with my new practice of midwives and it went really well.  Blood pressure is good; weight is good; baby is head down and is measuring right on time.  I'm spilling a little glucose, but the nurse thinks that's more attributable to the Starbucks Hot Chocolate I had yesterday morning, then anything to really worry about.

I also got a flu shot.  About three hours later, my throat started hurting and I started feeling really congested.  I've never had this kind of reaction to the flu shot before, so I'm thinking it's just the coincidental onset of a cold.  Or Ebola.  Cause you never know.  Now I have to hunt down whoever gave me this cold/Ebola  and kill them, since that's a proportional response.  (I just heard one of the admins coughing, so he and my MIL (who's had a cold since Rosh Hashanah) are now the prime suspects).

Speaking of the lack of proportional responses, my MIL and SIL seem bound and determined to keep me in the middle of their never-ending battle, with each complaining about the other to me.  I think they are both acting like immature hotheads, and I mean that in the most diplomatic way possible.  I do think that each of them would benefit from actually learning the lesson that it's possible to convey the same message in many different ways, some more offensive than others.  Given what I think is the generalized lack of understanding of conversational and social cues from undiagnosed and untreated Asperger's going on here, it's unlikely that either will learn this lesson, and that both people will invariably select the most offensive statement to use on any given occasion.

In other news, as I discussed with Calliope, LJ and Mel the other day, I'm now having nightmares related to my worries about SIL and her crazy intolerant very strong opinions on everything hand washing and the fact that her immediate family does not use any antibacterial products (which I'm OK with) and does not wash their hands with soap (which I'm not OK with).  One of the bloggers on Who Wants to Know recently did a post on these signs that you hang on a stroller or car seat to discourage random people with unwashed hands from touching the baby.  A little extreme?  Perhaps.  Would SIL respect the sign or my requests?  Given her previous behavior, that's a bit doubtful.  Suggestions for how to handle this would be appreciated.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

i had a rule that went: you want to touch my baby? you gotta wash yiour hands. and everyone moaned about it, but no kid got sick, so let them gripe away

Jessica White said...

Tell'em too bad: Your kid, your rules. We did the same thing and didn't have a sick kid for 6 months.

I'm glad you're doing well: Not too much longer now :-)

Quiet Dreams said...

Your baby, your rules. ;)

Clare said...

Hope the cold shifts and it's really not ebola... :)

Clare said...

Hope the cold shifts and it's really not ebola... :)

Mindy said...

Thanks for the comment. I'm hoping the same thing.

Also, hope you feel better soon. As for the hand washing -- after having a 32-weeker the first time around we were pretty type A about handwashing and using antibacterial gel with both kids. Fortunately for me, my husband is not at all afraid of confrontation, and he's more of a germphobe that me to begin with, so I never had to be the heavy -- he was always first to tell people they had to wash. Good luck. In-laws can be such fun. ;]

Meghan said...

Sorry it's taken me forever to comment.

As for the baby touching, when she was super little, anytime we went out I would make sure she had on the shirts with mittens so her hands were covered. This way no one could touch her. Then, as she outgrew those, it rolled into winter, when she was again, naturally wearing mittens. I was fine with people touching her head/cheeks (well not really fine but I tolerated it) but the hands always bugged me because the always go straight into their mouths.

And I read your post about the hospital tour....yikes! Sure do hope it means they'll still have private rooms available. And I'm glad you found a midwife practice that you like. You're near the end now...good luck!!

N said...

I ditto what quiet dreams says. The first thing I learned when having my daughter is that you are thier best advocate. So be upfront and clear. Good luck!

SassyCupcakes said...

It's been a while. I hope you're going well.