21 Weeks

Today marks 21 weeks, and I ushered in this week with a bang. . .literally. I took a massive fall in the shower this morning. I had jumped out of the shower to lock the door behind my husband (who, I could tell by the lack of the sound of the lock turning in the door, had forgotten to lock the door behind him when he left this morning), and when I stepped back in, I slipped. We have a very beautiful, but very sharp, wooden molding on the side of the tub, and as one foot slipped out from under me in the tub, the other leg came crashing down on the side of the molding, and then slid along it. I ended up landing entirely in the tub, with one knee bent under me at an odd angle. Baby is fine, but my leg is a mess. There are bruises and scrapes down one calf and down my foot, and it hurts to walk on. I am nothing, if not graceful. Thankfully, I landed the way I did, and not in a way that hurt the baby.

Otherwise, things have been going really well.

Weight: +13 pounds overall (I seem to have lost 1.5 pounds from last week; not sure why).

I found a great sale at www.bab.ycatalog.com on the bedding that we picked out, and they were having free shipping as well, so on Monday I bought it (it was $40 cheaper than in my local store). It got here today, which I thought was super quick! I totally love it. It's a mix of polka dots and stripes, sort of bright green and chocolate brown. Hopefully, it will match the wall color.

And, we've hired a doula. After all of my research and agonizing over who to contact, a number of the doulas didn't even respond to my inquiries. Two were already booked, and two were available. One of those that was available gave such a lackluster response that I excluded her. So, we only got one response back that I really liked. We traded emails and then talked on the phone for a long while, and I liked her, but I wasn't sure what T. would think. We set up an appointment for this past week so that he could meet her in person. He's been pretty lukewarm on the whole doula thing. . .he didn't really understand what she could do for us, or why it might be beneficial to have her there. So, I explained to him that we'd meet with her, and then we'd talk about it, and then we'd let her know. But he must've REALLY liked her, because toward the end of the meeting, he told her she was definitely hired! She seems terrific, and it gives me peace of mind to know that she's on this journey with us. It makes me feel like I'm more likely to avoid the interventions that I don't want, and to have the kind of birth that I really do want.

The only question that remains is whether we'll be able to use our Heal.th Sav.ings Account to pay for the doula. Under the IRS reg's, I think it's a qualified expense. But when I contacted my benefits company, they initially denied my request. I asked them to provide a legal basis for their determination, and cited the parts of the IRS reg that I believe support my request, and received a response back--from the woman who denied my claim--saying that they were now considering it, but the person who "had all the answers" was out of the office. I found it a little disturbing that they would just deny it out of hand, and then when I pushed it, all of a sudden, they were at a loss. On the bright side, at least they are considering it, and hopefully they will see things my way!