Asking for Punishment: Pregnant, Gallbladder Attacks and Potty Training


As most of you know I'm about 30.5 weeks pregnant with baby number 2. A couple of weekends ago, Nate and I were on our way to a trivia fundraiser at the local Lutheran high school. Being pregnant, I really wanted some McDonald's, specifically fries. Let's be honest, there are few things in life that are better than McDonald's fries when you're pregnant. So, we got some nuggets and fries and then went to Walmart to pick up snacks for the trivia afternoon. Nate got some kettle corn and I got my favorite Sour Cream and Cheddar Ruffles potato chips and some chocolate covered pretzels. Now, I sat there all afternoon at trivia pigging out like all pregnant women have license to do. Was this wise? No, but I'm pregnant and I'll do what I want and no one will say anything. What a glorious world!



So, we finish trivia, go home and I make some homemade Mac and Cheese for Zoe, Nate, my mom, my sister and myself. About 30 minutes after consumption of the delicious Mac and Cheese I start to get chest pains. Now, I was under the impression that these pains were heartburn, I had had them twice before during this pregnancy. The first time, I thought I was dying and I googled, "symptoms of a heart attack". I was later told by my husband if I feel the need to google anything about a heart attack or life threatening illness in the middle of the night, in the future, I really need to wake him up and go to the hospital. I was being stubborn though because before we changed insurance our ER copay was $400. My cheap self was NOT paying that for what appeared at the time to be heartburn. The second time, I threw up almost right after the pain started and it was gone. Also, just thought it was intense heartburn. So, back to the post Mac and Cheese chest pains. After an hour of pretty intense pain, Nate and I decided that I should probably go to the hospital. Our new insurance has a $120 ER copay which is much easier to swallow.

So in my snowflake pajama pants, Cardinals T-Shirt and Fitz's Rootbeer hoodie, we head to the hospital. When we got to the hospital, I kept apologizing to everyone there that I looked like that of a hobo roaming the aisles of Walmart.  In the car, I am having trouble breathing because of the insane pain. It was like getting the wind knocked out of me over and over again. It was terrible. Plus, my poor husband is freezing from the cold car and thinks I might be dying. He's really a wonderful man for all I put him through. After monitoring the baby, they decided that they should do an ultrasound of my gallbladder. Several hours later, it was discovered that I have gallstones. I will probably need this removed after the baby comes, until then I need to avoid all fat in foods. ALL FAT? Are you kidding me? Now, I am not a skinny person. My body has been trying to get me skinny for years, so it finally decided to create its own version of scared straight. Currently, I am really avoiding fat. I went to this awesome hole-in-the-wall bar and grill last weekend and watched everyone order steak and fried fish. I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich. Scared straight works people. I have never passed up a fried food experience in my life, but, I do not want that pain again. So, here I am, pregnant and learning how to eat healthy. To quote Dana Carvey as the Church Lady, "Well isn't this special?"

If that isn't crazy enough, I decided two days later, let's give potty training a try. So not only am I completely terrified to eat anything, I'm going to enter one of the most stressful parts of parenting. You want to know how long the potty training experiment lasted? 5 days. After three accidents two days in a row, we decided that maybe Zoe isn't ready for potty training and we'll give it a go later. She doesn't have to be potty trained until she goes to school in the fall. Plus, getting up and down off the bathroom floor at 30 weeks pregnant is like a 30 minute aerobic exercise.

Other than all of that, things are good. The baby seems to be growing well. I had been blaming all of my pregnancy discomfort on this kid, turns out it was my silly gallbladder. Poor kid. We are really looking forward to meeting our new little baby. Yes, the gender is still a secret and so are the names. Zoe is starting to own this big sister role. She likes to talk to the baby and give my belly kisses. She especially likes to make sounds by blowing on my belly. It's pretty cute. At night she'll say, "Goodnight baby, I your big sister." *cue the tears* When my sister was here, we both started crying.


Please excuse my stretch marks and blindingly white skin. My stomach hasn't seen the light of day in about 20 years.


Big sister Zoe!

That's all for now. God is good.

3 comments

  1. What a wonderful blog! We are praying for you all.

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  2. I had the same thing with Annabeth's pregnancy! I thought I was just a baby and couldn't handle heartburn. When she was about 8 months old, Mark rushed me to the ER (I also thought I was having a heart attack) I had my gallbladder out that week! I strongly encourage you to keep avoiding the fatty foods - hard to do but worth not having the pain! Also, look into having it out once Baby #2 is here. There are other UGH! side effects to not having a gallbladder but they beat the pain of the attacks!

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