Wednesday, February 27, 2013

36 weeks pregnant

I'm almost 37 weeks now, but we've been crazy busy with home renovations, working on some of our rental units, and dealing with sick kids.

Pelvic instability has hit. I can feel my joints loosening, especially the symphysis pubis. Whenever I get up from sitting or lying down, I have to do belly dance hip circles before I can move. I also ran into major sleep issues about 10 days ago: inability to fall back asleep after 3 or 4 am. I finally gave in and started taking a half dose of Unisom 3 days ago, and it's made a tremendous difference. I feel like a normal, functional person again. I haven't had any of the weird breathing issues I had during Inga's pregnancy, thank goodness.

Eric was gone all last week doing book readings and classroom workshops. He has another trip scheduled for the end of next week, getting back March 10th, and I've been realizing more and more how much I do NOT want him to be gone. He's had this trip planned for a year now, and back when I was barely pregnant, having him leave for a few days didn't seem that big of a deal. After all, I've barely come to mental grips that I'm actually having a baby. I'll be almost 38 1/2 weeks when he gets back. I had Zari at 38 weeks, so it's entirely possible for me to have a baby when he's away. I've expressed very strongly how I would really rather he not be gone, but I have to accept the reality of his being away. I just called my younger brother, and he said he could come down and help out while Eric's gone. Then my mom found out and said, "There's no way you should be alone this far in your pregnancy! I will come help out while Eric is gone." (I hadn't even thought to ask her, since I figured she'd be too busy with work.)

All I can do now is hope and pray that I won't have the baby until he gets back.

The baby has been hanging out ROT/ROP recently. Still quite active and tons of movement up front and/or stretching my belly from side to side. Zari and Dio love to feel the baby squirm and kick and hiccup. Inga knows to say that there's a "baby inside Mama belly"--not sure how much of that she really understands, though. She found a container full of newborn socks and soft fabric shoes, and she's been carrying them around all day, exclaiming in a high-pitched voice, "baby shoes! baby socks!"

One of the big stressors I had to deal with while Eric was gone was evicting a family from one of our rentals. They moved in and didn't pay another penny of rent, ever. So we went through the whole eviction process...and then they didn't move out on the designated day.They gave excuse after excuse, but still they wouldn't leave. Finally I got them out 2 weeks past their eviction date and went by to pick up the keys. They had already left the apartment by time I arrived, probably because they had completely trashed the apartment in just 3 short months.

I hauled out almost 10 huge trash bags full of oozing garbage (mainly dirty diapers), slipping on the kitchen floor several times from the liquid nastiness. They left behind rooms full of old furniture. The carpets were covered in a thick layer of dirt and dried up food. Worst of all, every wall in the house was ruined. They had let their kids draw all over the walls with permanent marker, crayon, pen, and nail polish. They had thrown raw eggs and melted wax against the walls and on the carpets. They had also tossed cups full of soda and kool-aid onto the walls and let the liquids drip down and dry, leaving sticky streaks everywhere. And imagine the insect infestation as a result of them living like that...




It felt like a slap in the face, since we had just renovated the apartment from top to bottom. I've spent hours and hours scrubbing down walls, carrying down furniture, vacuuming carpets, and smashing bugs, with Dio and Inga in tow. Ugh. Ugh. I CANNOT understand how people can live like that. We've had to completely repaint the apartment--no small task in a 3-bedroom, 1,000 square foot space. (We hired someone, since I've been too busy painting and tiling at our own house.) It's almost done now. Next up: having the carpets deep cleaned.

I'm sorry, but having 3 small children is NO excuse for treating an apartment like that. For the place to be that badly damaged, the parents had to be not only allowing this behavior, but encouraging it.

~~ deep breath ~~

I really need some cheering up after that fiasco. How about sending me something for my virtual Blessingway? It's not too late, and you can always send it by email as well as snail mail. Here's the invite again, in case you missed it the first time. I'd love to hear from you :)


12 comments:

  1. I'm so sorry about your tenants. Chances are, they not only lived like that, they decided to take revenge for being evicted. Ugh. People like that...

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    1. My thought was that they probably don't live like that so much as they spent those last two weeks really sticking it to you :( So sorry you had to deal with it, especially at this time :(

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  2. Oh I hate pelvic instability. I'm just now feeling like my hips are back together and it's so wonderful to feel like I can walk and even run again!

    And yeah... tenants! I don't think I ever want to be a landlord. I try very hard to keep our place reasonable. It's sometimes a mess when the landlords visit and I hope they don't get too upset. But we take out the garbage and clean off all writing that happens on the walls (which we discourage, I promise).

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  3. That damage to your apartment is one of the most disgraceful and disrespectful things I have ever seen. It never ceases to shock me how humans can treat other humans (and their property), I'm so sorry you've had to deal with that at the end of your pregnancy.

    On a lighter note, not long to go now! Have you and Eric chosen baby names?

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  4. We've had to evict a tenant or two, and we've had to deal with damage and trash/furniture left behind, but never like that. I'm so sorry this happened to you!
    I hope that the rest of your pregnancy will be blessed with peace!

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  5. I will certainly send you something, and it will get there before the babe comes since I happen to live not too far from you, in Champaign, IL! Here's to a better week and less garbage.

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  6. That's terrible! Do renters there not have to give a first/last month rent and a security/damage deposit and have to give references? I suppose small-claims court is a waste of time since they probably don't have any money anyway. But they should've, somehow, be forced to clean up. Did they leave a forwarding address for mail? I'd be tempted to rat on them to their new tenants...and also maybe CPS since there were children living in that mess :(

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  7. I feel so sad for those kids, whose parents are teaching them a toxic lifestyle. I remember when we applied for our first apartment in Los Angeles a decade ago, we had to have references and provide the phone numbers of our previous landlords. When we became apartment managers, we ALWAYS called those numbers. Despite careful screening, sometimes you end up with deceitful tenants. Some people are just skunks.

    Wishing you rest, cooperative kids, and a smooth transition to 4!

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  8. Here, they do give a 1 month security deposit, references, rental history, etc. They were (supposedly) first-time renters coming in from out of state--so a bit questionable--but their reference that I called was quite positive. So even when you call and check things, you just never know. They moved back in with their parents (far away from here) and really there's not much we can do at this point. I am going to see about reporting the eviction so that it goes onto their credit/rental history.

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  9. I'm so sorry, the damage to the apartment would be horrendous under any circumstances, but this far pregnant, is even more horrible.

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  10. I can't imagine have to live without my husband so close to giving birth! You're a brave woman.

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    1. Not brave! It's not like *I* chose this at all. I've expressed as strongly as I can that I would rather have him here...but what else can I do, right?

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