17 Weeks!

Another week has come and gone and I really can't believe it. This pregnancy is flying by at a much quicker speed than the first one. We are 2 weeks away from our next ultrasound that will tell us if Baby Goofy is a boy or girl. TWO! How is that even possible?





Baby size: Onion.
Any symptoms?  weak gag reflex. I coughed and got sick right as we were leaving to go to church Sunday and we were actually going to be early. Headaches every single day. The pure exhaustion has reduced to a normal level of tiredness.
Cravings? pizza. I only caved once and got a single slice Thursday while I was out running errands.
Favorite part this week? Not feeling as tired is definitely my favorite. Also got my progesterone shot mess figured out.
Least favorite part this week? getting sick before church
Boy or Girl? We find out on 10/27!!
Names? As of right now, Baby Goofy. I'll let you guess who picked that one out ;)




Let's start with a funny story that our babysitter shared with us after church on Sunday. She told us that she has known for about 2 months that we were having another baby but never said anything. A couple of weeks after we found out, I had her watch Tucker one night while Danny was working so I could go out to eat with some girlfriends. As she was getting Tucker ready for bed, she asked him to go get his toothbrush. He went off to the bathroom and returned with one of the pregnancy tests! I had been storing the few that I had taken in one of the drawers. I was in shock and disbelief that we were actually pregnant so I held onto them for a while. So, she finally got to share that story with us on Sunday.

Now for my progesterone shot/health insurance nightmare. I'm sharing this in case anyone runs into this in the future. I can't be the only one.

My OB informed me after I had Tucker that in my next pregnancy/pregnancies I would receive weekly progesterone injections from 16-36 weeks to help prevent preterm labor. Great, anything to help. About 3 weeks ago, my OB's office called with news that our health insurance doesn't cover the medication. There are no alternatives as they were recently banned by the FDA. Recently as in end of 2015 or beginning of 2016. I forget. There is only ONE option and my insurance doesn't cover it. I called the drug company, Makena, to ask how much each injection costs: $4,000. The rep failed to mention its $4,000 per order and each order contains 5 injections. Either way, $4,000 was financially impossible. They offer financial assistance, which I qualified for and said I'll take it. I didn't bother appealing insurance because that could have taken months and I only had about a week to find a solution. This was the Friday of that week.

The next Thursday my OB's office called again and said there is a problem with my assistance. In order to receive the assistance, I had to file an appeal with my health insurance. That would have been nice to know a week ago since I now had 5 days until the 16 week mark. My OB was able to get an emergency vial sent to her office so I could begin the injections as planned. I was able to find a fax number for urgent appeals through my health insurance. I faxed that over on Friday morning and from that point my health insurance company had 72 hours to respond. If my appeal was approved then I only had to pay $100/order. If it was denied, then I received the medication for free.

The next Friday (we are now up to last week), I call to get an update since I hadn't heard anything and it has now been a week. After being put through the ringer by people not knowing what they are talking about, I find out my appeal was approved. Finally getting somewhere. I give my consent to pharmacy to allow my OB's office to schedule shipment and give my credit card info. It's all settled!

Yesterday my OB's office calls telling  me I need to call and give consent and a credit card for my $100 copay. I tell them I already have, I gave them my credit card, the Makena rep gave them my assistance info and the pharmacy told me to call my OBs office and tell them to order my medication. The nurse was returning my call. She said she is going to call them back and tell them this. She found out that the pharmacy rep had given her the completely wrong information and that it was another patient who needed to do all that.

As of right now, it is all settled. Finally.

So, here is rundown of what to do if you need Makena injections and your insurance doesn't cover them.
1. File an urgent appeal with your insurance company. Not a regular appeal. Get the info for the Urgent Appeals department. Go ahead and do this first since it takes a few days. It is a medical appeal and not a prescription appeal even though it is a medication.
2. Call Makena to see how much assistance you are eligible for. This was done in about 5-10 minutes.
3. When the appeal has been approved or denied, get the information back to Makena and its all gravy from there.

Weekend Recap

Boy we had a productive weekend and I am paying for it today.

Friday night when I got home with Tucker, our neighbors came over to hang out. The boys played in the sandbox for nearly the entire hour. It was nice to just sit and chat with his mom. I love having neighbors that are our age with kids the same age. Their little boy is 5 months younger than Tucker and their youngest will be about 9 months older than Baby Goofy (We're embracing the name Tucker picked out until we know what we're having and can decide on an official one).

They headed home as the weather cooled. It was past the point of cooking dinner, so I ran to Subway for salads while Danny did bath time. We ate, Danny left for a bit to hang out at his old fire station, Tucker went to bed, and I caught up on Grey's Anatomy.

Saturday was surprisingly productive. I woke up when Danny did to go teach and couldn't go back to sleep due to an extremely high level of hunger. Tucker woke up a little bit later and we snuggled while watching Paw Patrol. After an episode or two, Tuck and I got to work. We cleaned out his old closet and moved his hanging clothes to his dresser that is in his new room. I started clearing things out and purging for a rummage that I'm participating in this weekend. I thought I'd only have a couple of boxes of things. I'm at 5 or 6.

Once Danny got home, I showered and we headed to a pumpkin patch because the weather was perfect. Tucker fell asleep as we were paying for our McDonalds lunch after declaring he wanted "barbeque sauce and chicken nuggets in a box." He scarfed all 6 nuggets down and was extremely disappointed when he reached in the box and they were gone haha. His top priority when we arrived was finding a pumpkin. He almost wouldn't let me pee before we got on the hay ride to go out to the pumpkin patch.

 

After walking all over the pumpkin area, which was much larger than what you can see in the picture above, he found the perfect pumpkins. Not kidding, it took him 20 minutes I think. He would find one, try to lift it and if he couldn't pick it up then it wasn't the one. No matter how many times we explained that he can get one that he can't carry, he wanted to be able to carry it himself. He picked one up and once he realized it was really heavy, he dropped it... right on my toes. Of course this happened as a wagon full of people was driving by so I was their hay ride entertainment.  We let him get 2, one for him and one for Baby Goofy. My mom went with us so we actually have family pictures thanks to her!

This place had all kinds of other activities. They had 2 bouncing pillows (one for small children and one for big children), a blow up caterpillar with slides and things inside, bikes, camel rides, pony rides, pumpkin shooting, a playground and a maze for little kids made out of hay bales.

They also had apple slushies. So. Good! They had deep fried pizza balls that I really wanted to try but I resisted.

We had a great time at this pumpkin patch (Stony Creek Farms if you're in the central Indiana area) and will be going back!

Sunday was more work. We went to church and afterwards Danny, Tucker and Danny's mom went to a war re-enactment thing. I'm not into it and Danny forbids me from going when pregnant since I can't walk much. Totally fine with me. While they were gone I went to the grocery and cleaned out toys while the child was gone. I was able to get rid of 1 large tote full of stuff and took it to my father-in-law's house where the rummage will be. They were home when I got home and Tucker and I rested since I was beat and on my own for the next few hours! The rest of the day was spent meal prepping, pricing things, and more meal prepping. When Danny got home I informed him that I was done and not moving for the rest of the night. And I did just that.

Catching Up: August

Last month of the "catch up" then I have to actually come up with things to write about haha.

August was another fun month!

We kicked off the month by celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary. We had dinner at Bru Burger I had just eaten there 2 days before but had to have their nachos again. We stopped at my mom's on the way home to visit and pick up our awesome anniversary gift.  She had a similar sign made for my brother's wedding with their song on it and had one made for Danny and I with one of our songs.

Tucker started looking like a 5 year old.

We got to see Baby Goofy for the first time!

We also started potty training. Right in the middle of the house.

He has done really well with it! He had peeing in the potty down in about a week. Poop is a different story, but that's always been a hot mess for him.

I turned 27! I spent the day in the rain keeping score at a softball tournament benefiting an old teammate's mom. I had a lot of fun and loved every minute of it. When it was over, it was time for cake. Danny special ordered an apple cake from a lady in town and it was delicious and so rich. I couldn't even eat dinner.

On my actual birthday, Tucker and I went to Target where we had our first public pee accident. We happened to be there to pick up his reward for doing so well with potty training. We still got the toy so he didn't think he was being punished for having an accident.  Thankfully we had just arrived so I didn't have to abandon my cart. We got it cleaned up, changed clothes and went on our way. I now know that "I want to go home" really means "I need to pee right now" Tucker stayed all night at my moms and I ate my weight in (cooked) sushi for dinner.

Tucker stayed with my mom since Danny and I were leaving the next day for our adults only camping trip with my BFF and her hubby. We went to the Indiana Dunes for 3 nights. 

The first night we visited the beach and climbed up a dune and it was then I realized how out of shape I had gotten over the summer. 

 

The next day we took the train into Chicago. 

We walked. Visited popular landmarks.

Walked to Dylan's Candy Bar. They had champagne gummies and I could have spent a fortune in there.

We ate at Giordano's for lunch. So freaking good. We have one in Indy but it just seems to taste better when you're actually eating it in Chicago.

We walked some more.

Visited the Navy Pier.

 

And walked back to the train. In case you didn't catch that, we walked a lot. 10 miles to be exact. I was noticeably wore out at the end of the day!

We walked a lot less the next day and went shopping at the nearby outlet mall since it was raining and we couldn't spend the day at the beach. Danny did what any man should do while his wife is in Coach.

We had a great trip with our friends! They have a little boy who is about 18 months younger than Tucker. Hopefully we can bring the kids one day!

That was August!

16 Weeks!

In true second child form, bumpdates for this kid are starting 7 weeks later than they did with the first born. I'm going to blame the blogging break and not myself directly. I'm going to keep the questions the same as last time.

Baby size: Avocado
Any symptoms?  weak gag reflex which caused me to throw up yesterday. so tired. some heartburn. my bra has to come off as soon as I walk in the door. I think I took it off before my shoes yesterday.
Cravings? steamed white rice. soup.
Favorite part this week? I've started to feel some flutters!!!
Least favorite part this week? getting sick before breakfast yesterday
Boy or Girl? We find out on 10/27!!
Names? As of right now, Baby Goofy. I'll let you guess who picked that one out ;)






I'll use this first bumpdate as a pregnancy catch up.

I was very nauseous, all day, from 5 weeks until about 9 weeks. Then just after lunch and at night for a couple of weeks. Then just at night for a couple more weeks. The nausea was replaced by gagging though so that's been interesting. I can probably count on both hands the number of times I've brushed my teeth at night in the last 8 weeks because of it.

Physically I have been okay. I continued walking until through 9 weeks while we were on vacation with friends. That wore me out and I took a break from walking, which was good since I had some bleeding the next week proving that I had overdone it. I have had 2 bleeding episodes which have landed me on pelvic rest again as a result of a placenta previa. I had this with Tucker so I know the drill, but its harder this time. It is affecting me physically and mentally. My muscles are sore from sitting and laying down so much and I feel a lot of guilt because I can't pick Tucker up or do much around the house other than cook and fold clothes. I'm limited to one outing per day other than work per recommendation of my sister-in-law, which is a good rule of thumb. I've been behaving though and haven't had any bleeding or spotting for almost 2 weeks.

Emotionally this pregnancy has been tough for obvious reasons. I think you're on high alert a little more when it isn't your first rodeo, but even more so when you've experience a miscarriage. I don't remember being nervous before appointments with Tucker like I have been this time. I barely slept the night before our ultrasound in August. Now that I am a couple of weeks into the second trimester, my worries have eased some.

I haven't completely dropped the ball on documenting this pregnancy. I've been sending pictures almost every week to my BFF Shelby so she can keep tabs on the bump. She was almost pissed with Tucker when my bump didn't really arrive until about 22 weeks. 

That's how its been going so far. I start progesterone injections this week, maybe today even. That has been an ordeal too. When the health insurance hell that I'm in regarding those ends, I will share the story because its ridiculous.

Catching Up: July

Before I get started on our July, I'll do a quick Weekend Recap since it was Danny's birthday weekend!

Friday we scrubbed our plans of dinner out and shopping for clothes for the whole fam since it was rainy and no one really felt good. We got ice cream and take out. I went to be at approximately 7pm. I dozed off on the couch then officially went to bed at 8:30. Mama was tired!

Saturday was Danny's birthday. Tucker and I made him a pie to take to him at work since he had to work on his birthday. And since I delivered treats on his first day at this station, I set the bar pretty high. After we delivered the pie, I once again scrubbed shopping plans due to rain and just being tired still. **Second trimester energy, where you at? Tuck and I hung out at my moms for a bit then headed home.

Sunday was a productive day. We went to church and Tucker went home with Danny's mom from there. Danny and I grocery shopped by ourselves for the first time since 2013. We celebrated Danny and his grandpa's birthdays that night with soup, hot dogs and cake.

We had a nice time, stayed way too late, and left without our kid who went home with Danny's sister and our nieces for the night. I'm starting to wonder if he likes us.

Now onto July.

Danny started his new job on July 3rd. That day we had a family reunion for Danny's side and Tucker had his first sleepover at our house with his cousin Libby. I took them to dinner at the Mexican restaurant.

We decided last minute to go watch fireworks in town. It was rainy so we weren't sure if we'd go or not. I took them in their pj's because I'm the best.

Side story: The 6 year old decided last minute that she had to pee. We ran to the school to go to the bathroom, Tucker decided he needed to pee on the toilet too (we hadn't started potty training at this point) which was interesting since he was wearing a diaper and in order to pee on a toilet while wearing a diaper you basically have to get naked. The floor was wet and muddy and it was just quite a show. As we walked out of the school the fireworks started. I carried BOTH kids back to the car so they could face the fireworks and actually see them, we moved our chairs to sit by my brother and got to sit for all of 5 minutes before the "grand" finale.

Danny worked overtime on the 4th. Second day on the job and was already working OT. We had a cookout at my brother's with my family and our friends before going to our traditional fireworks show.

The next weekend was the big one: the weekend I found out I was pregnant. I had a negative test on Saturday and was really bummed about it, especially since I felt like I was going to get sick at any moment. When I was still feeling nauseous the next day, I decided to pee on one more stick (I've lost count of how many sticks I've peed on in 2016!) and the faintest of lines appeared! It was so faint Danny couldn't even see it. In true Erin fashion, we found out right before we were heading to a birthday party. Life goes on!  It was darker the next day, so I felt good calling the doctor get the ball rolling. Due to my miscarriage last year, I wanted to get everything checked out ASAP. After one round of bloodwork, my OB put me on Prometrium (progesterone) and then after the second blood test she upped my dosage to 2 pills per day so I feel less crazy about calling so soon.

I almost lost my life driving home from Illinois.

I prayed to God for a good hour and a half on the drive home and am so thankful that nothing bad happened. There was a long stretch of time that I couldn't see anything other than the tail lights of the car in front of me. It was one of those storms where you're afraid to keep driving but pulling over is dangerous too. I white knuckled it all the way home. After the storm, I stopped and walked around a Target to calm down. Not kidding.

We went to a family picnic for my mom's work. There was an awesome play ground and I stuffed myself silly. Tucker was the center of attention.

We learned during fair week that Tucker kind of hates rides.

Unless he is with Daddy.

At the end of the month we went on a camping trip to Maumee Bay State Park in Ohio. We stayed for 3 nights and we had a great time!

We spent the mornings at the beach. 

We explored the area in the afternoon so a certain someone would take a nap. 

We had a great time collecting shells in the evening. *Please ignore Tucker's horrible haircut. I didn't do it and the normal girl didn't do it. It bothered me the entire time we were gone!

And we ate plenty of smores! We changed our camping neighbors life when we gave him a smore made with a Reese cup.

We loved it over there and will definitely be going back! 

The was July! It was a fun one.