New Baby News

Wednesday it was announced that my brother-in-law and his wife are expecting their second child, a girl. Talk about timing with my case of baby fever!

The news broke over Facebook, but since my brother-in-law blocked me, my mother-in-law, and one of my sister-in-laws the news became bottle-necked with my husband serving as newsboy. Yes. Quite the ridiculousness I know.

Anyways, my husband didn't mention anything to me (knowing I was in the throws of baby fever) but his mother called after receiving an email with only an ultrasound video in the body. Kinda left some information to be desired! He caught her up and since I was sitting right beside him, I learned "through the grapevine" the new baby news.

I immediately welled up. I was able to stifle my reaction for the most part. As we were doing errands and had some odd transportation issues that day once he dropped me at my car to drive home I was able to sob it out to my heart's content (while attempting to maintain safe driving visibility!) but apparently my rushed hush-hush sobfest wasn't enough. I ended up trying to call my mother that evening while at Costco and found myself crying amid the seasonal pallets and lawn furniture. Needless to say the voicemail I left was... memorable.

The hubster talked to his mother more that night as well and somehow we found ourselves with the idea that I should email her for advice (since my mom didn't have too much to offer me in way of advice and we thought his mom might know something about baby fever). I emailed my mother-in-law the next day and her words brought me comfort.

In addition to talking and typing out my baby fever emotions, I wanted to do something symbolic the celebrate the new baby in the family and help dispel my jealousy and sadness... So today was "pink mission" and the hubby brought home pink carnations, we found a token of pink cuteness, toasted the new baby with some Roscato wine and devoured a pink-filled cake in a celebratory homage!

We don't feel very much like "Uncle" and "Aunt" but celebrating the new addition (to-be) felt appropriate and satisfying. I wonder if we'll feel our roles more when my siblings have kids? My sister and brother and I have communicated our desire to keep the family close as we get older, having our kids familiar with each other instead of feeling like a family of acquaintances (our extended family isn't terribly disjointed but we felt shorted growing up) so maybe things will feel differently? As it is we're the faceless relatives up north to our current nephew and niece, cards at Christmas and birthdays... Guess we'll just have to see where life takes us. :)

Throbbin' Thursday

Wow, that would be a great title for a fantastically skanky post, huh? But the kinda throbbin' I'm referring to is the type ya take home from a dentist's office!

I had the feeling something would come up at this cleaning. A few months back I felt as if I had broken a filling but since it didn't hurt and I didn't develop any sensitivity I just kept the tooth extra clean and carried on with life. Well, turns out I did break a filling and there are a couple others showing their age.

My hygienist and dentist also talked to me about clenching my jaw and grinding my teeth. This is new for me. I have noticed the habit lately when I'm stressing out and have struggled to stop the clenching. As far what happens in my mouth during the night, I have no idea. But I have noticed that I've had more headaches and neck pain and that my cleaning was much more uncomfortable than usual. The staff related the extra sensitivity to the clenching as well. Delightful!

All that said, my husband is convinced this dentist is a money grubbing airhead and is currently looking for a new dentist that won't jump to fix every cavity they can feasibly fiddle with. So maybe I won't have a drooling day of full-facial numbness in my future after all!

He had a falling out with this dentist several months back and while I was skeptical of his cynicism I'm starting to come around.

I have been spoiled with lovely providers in the past that talked to me in detail about my teeth and what needed to be fixed right away or what could wait or what was borderline. This visit felt like I was a walking inventory of dental dings to the hubby's wallet. Instead of feeling empowered and involved in my care, I felt taken. Thankfully I was able to walk out without scheduling procedures or buying anything but it felt like I was dangerously close to dropping hundreds of dollars on overpriced dental work.

I'm not super familiar with dental insurance and billing and prices, but it seemed a bit steep to me. The hubby concurred and we're shopping around.

Until we find a new dentist I'm hoping that the ache from my cleaning will subside and some stress control will help curtail more clenching. Unfortunately the baby fever I mentioned in my earlier post is ongoing, though improving. The extra emotions and feeling out of control doesn't contribute to a stress-free environment, but we are working through it.

A few extra tears never hurt anybody!