Plans are good

I am so glad I waited to write this until this afternoon. Earlier, I was a complete mess. After the meeting with the OB yesterday, we made a plan, which was good, but then that raised all these other issues that had me freaked out.

At the appointment we talked about when to do the cerclage. He told me he wanted to do it around 12 weeks, which is next week. The surgery date was set that day! I had my pre-op appointment today and they put the cerclage in next Wednesday the 14th. The nurse made a mistake and told us it was Tuesday initially. Even though I was expecting it, I was a little scared because it seemed so soon! Wednesday makes me feel a little better because it seems less urgent. I don't know if that makes much sense. Still, it's exciting, right? We have a plan that will hopefully result in a healthy and happy pregnancy. He did say he wasn't concerned about the SCH but I don't know if I should tell him to monitor it or not. The bleeding comes and goes and it's not too much but I'm afraid if the clot were to get any bigger that it could cause problems, like partial to full placental abruption. Scary.

The not so pleasant part of the conversation was when he told me he wanted me on modified bed rest after the procedure until my 16 week check-up. What? 4 weeks of bed rest? Wow. I was a stressing myself out earlier because I wasn't sure how we were going to survive on one income and if I would qualify for short-term disability. Andrew and I took some perks off our phone plan, reduced Netflix (I didn't want to cancel because I'll need some movies to watch on bed rest!), reduced some other extra services that we don't need to spend money on, and I submitted an application to consolidate my student loans which will reduce monthly payments by $150 (almost 50%).

Well, turns out I would have qualified for short-term, at 60% pay, but luckily I worked it out with my supervisors that I can work from home. It will be a bunch of boring data entry stuff, but at least I will still be getting paid and have something to occupy my time all day. Plus, it will be good that we have the same income but are saving money after all the other expenses we cut out. Especially after the ~$2100 out of pocket the cerclage procedure is going to cost. Yikes! Well, by the time the baby comes we will have paid the deductible and reached the out of pocket maximum, so baby will be paid for. Gotta look at the positive!

I am so relieved and glad we have plans in place. We're going to get the cerclage in place so we have a healthy baby in October and I can work from home, at least for 4 weeks, so we can still have 2 incomes. After that I can go on short-term disability if I have to and I'll have earned vacation and sick leave to take by then if need be. The future is looking bright!