27 Weeks - Back to work I go...high ho...high ho....

I am 27 weeks today. Tomorrow is my first day of my third trimester. I'm so happy and thankful that we have made it this far without incident. I was looking forward to being able to relax at home and focus on giving these babies all that I could without worry of my dizzy spells, contractions and pelvic pressure sending me home to lay down, etc....HOWEVER my disability company and apparently now my DR's office see differently. I can honestly say yesterday was on my top 10 days of complete and utter frustration. My DR's nurse called me on Tuesday morning double checking my FMLA/disability paperwork I had sent in. She wanted me to be aware of the FMLA running out before my maternity leave was up and the whole no promise of job thing. Understood. Then she said she was a little confused because she didn't understand why I couldn't take a taxi to work. I'm like WHAT??!! Ok first off - I live in the suburbs - not even within city limits...do we get taxis out here?? Second I thought the price of gas was bad - I can't even imagine the price of a taxi to come all the way out here and get me, take me to work, and bring me home. I just was totally caught off guard by that statement. Apparently the only thing that my DR put on my "No Work" note was that I could no longer drive due to my stomach being too large. WHAT??!!! Apparently the dizzy spells, blacking out, swelling, heart racing, etc......... was not included in there. There is no way that my disability company would approve that. They would laugh. They're actually probably laughing now. SO I went over everything that was said in the appointment to take me off work and she said she'd talk to my DR and go ahead and take me out but she couldn't guarantee it would get approved. SO I sat on pins and needles all day Tuesday and Wednesday morning. Finally I sucked it up and called to speak to her again because my stress level was outrageous and I had tons of contractions Tuesday night. LOVE how stress brings those suckers on...and it looks like I have many more to come because my stress level is just going to go up and up and up...read more about that later. Anyway - I called her back to find out what she ended up putting on the paperwork. She said the DR didn't think the other things warranted a medical condition to take me out of work - he thought I drove for a living. What?!!! It says in my file that I work at a desk! At this point I just started balling out of frustration. If he would not further document the paperwork there was no way disability was going to approve me and I just lost out on 6 days of pay! I'm completely disgusted at this point and not even sure what to do. I was depending on getting disability pay - we were not ready for my salary to be 0 at this point. SO she tried talking to him again and when she called back she basically said that he didn't think I needed to see a neurologist so I could go ahead and go back to work today. OH MY GOODNESS!!!! If this was his decision then why did he take me out of work last week??!!! She said - think on the positive note - at least your cervix is still long and the babies are doing well (yes that is all positive). She said it's just a matter of time before I'm out. Yes - like when I'm in the hospital??!! As you can tell I'm still just a little upset about the whole thing. TO make matters EVEN better.... the account that I work for just closed. I handled the Lehman Brothers account and I'm sure you've all heard the horrors that have been going on. SO everyone on my account is super stressed and no one knows what is going on so I'm SO excited to go back to the stress of that. Apparently everyone is retraining to a completely different computer system and to new accounts. SO at least it sounds like I still have a job - thank goodness. BUT that means LOTS of training and focusing and stress. All hard to do when you're light-headed 90% of the day and don't sleep much at night so you can barely keep your eyes open anyway. Staring at a computer training program sounds like it will definitely keep me awake (yeah right!). This post is a little bitter. Sorry....venting. SO one of my good friends at work mentioned that she has been put on an account based in the UK and the shift would be 3:30am - 11:30am. At first I thought - holy cow what crappy hours!! THEN I thought - hey - those are the hours I'm actually awake and kind of have energy! SO I called my boss and requested that one. We'll see if I get it or not. It would be nice for my energy level and sleeping schedule however I still have the whole driving issue. I guess I'll just be driving on my tippy toes until I'm finally taken out for real and at least there isn't much traffic at those hours. How frustrating! SO back to work I go this morning. I'm SO excited - I can't even put it into words. ;-)

SO now that I'm done venting. I'll try to think happy thoughts for a few minutes. The babies seem to be doing well. I'll be glad to go in next Wednesday and see for myself how they are growing. I don't know if I'm super excited to be going into the office that I'm so frustrated with right now but I am looking forward to seeing the babies and checking out that cervix that is SOOOOO wonderful. I'm trying not to be sarcastic...it just seems like it's all about the cervix and no one could care less how I actually feel. Back to happy thoughts. :-) SO babies are moving around a lot and I'm anxious to see if they are still transverse or what position they are in now. It's a complete guessing game. I have no clue.

Babies Fetal Development for week 27:
Your not-so-tiny-anymore brilliant baby(about 2 pounds and 14.5 inches long!) is slowly rotating in preparation to “head out.” Obviously, this doesn’t happen overnight, but when you start to feel an unfamiliar pressure on your cervix, you’ll know you’ve got a fully flipped baby locked and loaded for the countdown to their birthday! Even now, at the beginning of the third trimester, their little lungs are already capable of breathing air while the pulmonary vascular system can provide sufficient gas exchange and the central nervous system can generally regulate rhythmic breathing as well as their basal body temperature. For what it’s worth, at this point in a healthy pregnancy a premature child (with intensive care) could easily win on the show: “Survivor: The Early Years.”

Here's the belly pics for the week. I don't think I've grown too much this week. I suppose one day it will hit me. I think I actually lost 1-2 lbs this week. Strange!


**Quick Update** - called my disability company this morning (why didn't I think of that yesterday) to let them know what my DR said and that I was just going back to work. They told me they were reviewing my claim today and to just hold off because maybe it will get approved. I'm SO praying like crazy. She said even if it doesn't I still need a Release to Work form filled out by my Doctor before I can step foot in the office. SO I wait some more. I left a message for the woman who does the reviewing and asked her to call me because I have concerns and need to find out if it's approved ASAP. I also called my DR's office again and told them what's going on and the nice lady I've been dealing with said to cross our fingers it just goes through but they'll be happy to do the release form if need be. This is SO frustrating.