Welcome and Rant

Well, I'm on day six of my bedrest. As you may know, I've been struggling with high blood pressure since about 25 weeks. Last week, after a visit to Labor and Delivery for super-high readings, my doctor basically said "forget it." So she put me on bedrest until Baby is here (or until my induction date...whichever comes first). Next week I start weekly non-stress tests and AFIs, which is an ultrasound to check the amniotic fluid. This is to ensure that Baby is still growing like he's supposed to.

It's been going well so far, but today was definitely an off day. I woke up planning on watching part of the Inauguration. Little did I know I'd end up watching close to seven hours of it. Of course, I wasn't just watching it. I also spent a large chunk of the day hitting the refresh button on my email. This is because I've been really anxious about hearing from the Human Resources department of mycompany. A few weeks ago I was put on bedrest for the weekend due to severe swelling, and during that time I talked to the company that handles our short-term disability. I told the agent my last day of work could be January 5th, because I may be on bedrest the following week instead of going to work. He told me that he'd put January 5th as my last day, and if it changed I could just call and let them know. Seemed like no big deal, right? Well, the swelling went down, I went back to work, called the company back, and ended up talking to some rude guy who acted like it was a huge deal to change the date and that I'd done everything all wrong. He finally set up the paperwork for my maternity leave, beginning on March 10th (my induction date).

So, fast forward to last Friday...the doc tells me I'm done for, so I go straight home and email my HR lady, letting her know the situation and asking for guidance as to whether I call the disability company back. After no response from her, I copy another HR girl on the email, knowing I'd gotten quicker responses from her in the past. Still nothing. All this time I'm worrying about my pay, knowing that we really can't afford for me to not get paid for the last few days I've spent at home. So that's how I came to hitting the refresh button every few minutes.

Finally, at precisely 4:46 today, I saw that email I'd been waiting for. I read the email, called the disability company, had a three-minute conversation, and voila. Done. Of course, now after all that anxiousness and worry, I'm back horizontal trying to get my blood pressure down.

Tomorrow has to be better.