Wednesday, June 27, 2007

I Went Back to the Store and Some Pregnancy Complaints

Well, I went back to the store yesterday and asked to speak with the manager after I scanned the store and did not see the woman who offended me. A woman who turned out to be the assistant manager said she could help me.

I explained the situation and what the woman had said and she informed me that the woman who was "helping" me was actually the store owner. Oh my! This assistant manager was very nice and told me that sometimes the owner lacks tact in her interaction with clients and other employees. She said that she didn't want to come to the owners defense but she thought that in the store owners mind she probably thought she was being funny and making a joke. The assistant manager was very apologetic and totally understood why the owner's comment was so offensive. She was also very thankful that I came back to the store to inform them of my complaint rather than bad mouthing the store or never shopping there again. (I never said I would go back to the store to shop though.) At the end of our conversation she said that she would slap the owner around for me. Apparently the owner was in Chicago.

I hope that they do tell her what happened and why I was offended by her comments. I can understand why it would be a difficult conversation for them to have with their boss but they would really be doing her a favor. I was a little disappointed that the owner wasn't there to talk to directly but I did feel better after I left the store.

Some pregnancy news......

I "failed" (anyone else hate that word?) my one hour glucose test and have to take the 3 hour test tomorrow. I have read that 85-94% of women who take the 3 hour test pass it so there is a good chance that I don't have gestational diabetes. When I went to my appointment yesterday and did my urine dip the test strip said that I was dumping glucose in my urine which has never happened before. I have been doing some research on the gestational diabetes issue and I don't feel very concerned about it. Apparently it became a standard test to give to pregnant women based on some studies that had very poor variables and control. The standard treatment (cutting out sugar and in some cases eliminating calories) has not proven to lower c-section rates or large for gestational age babies (LGA). I'll let you know how the test goes.

Also my blood count is a little lower than the midwives would prefer. It has to be at least a 9 to birth at the birth center and mine is a 10.1. I am increasing my iron supplement and have added chlorophyll to my diet. Chlorophyll is a blood builder and I add 1 Tbsp. of the concentrate to water or juice and drink it. It doesn't taste bad at all--in fact it kind of tastes like green tea. Chlorophyll is good for your blood count and for helping moms not lose a lot of blood after the baby comes. Hopefully with the increase of Floradix (liquid iron supplement that doesn't cause all the typical side effects aka constipation :() and the addition of chlorophyll my hemocrit numbers will increase.

(This picture is where I wanted to be last night as I was falling asleep)

Lastly, it has been very warm up here--warmer here than in Dallas ironically and our bedroom should be called the oven. Jon and I have 2 clocks in our room that have the indoor temp. on them and even with the air conditioner turned on Jon's clock says the room is 90 and mine says it is 85 degrees in here. Jon's clock is by the window and mine is more in the middle of the room. Needless to say I did not sleep with any covers last night and contemplated sleeping on the bathroom floor because it has tile and felt cold to the touch. I think part of the problem is that there seems to be only 1 air vent for our bedroom that used to be 2 bedrooms and someone knocked a wall out between the rooms to make one large room. The other problem is that the two windows in our room face the sun and have some very thin roman shades on them from IKEA. They do absolutely NOTHING to block out any heat. The other downer is that it seems as though the people we bought the house from decided to take down the ceiling fans and put in some "modern" track lighting so there are no ceiling fans in the room of hot torture! Why someone would take out ceiling fans in the hottest rooms of the house is beyond me. You are currently reading the rants of a very pregnant, very hot momma that finds herself contemplating either sleeping on the bathroom floor or perhaps even the basement because it is so much cooler down there. I know the weather is supposed to go back down to the low 80's rather than the low to mid 90's but I am pretty sure that in July and August there will be more 90 degree weather and I will only be getting more pregnant and more HOT. Imagine in your head some major weeping and gnashing of teeth! We decided that we are putting up some blackout curtains on the windows to hopefully keep out some of the heat.

A small praise....I finally found my missing box of spices! Woo-hoo! Somehow it got moved down into the basement and a small investigation on my part led me to find the mysterious missing box. I was greatly relieved! Still missing is a pot lid and a corning ware dish....

9 comments:

Kelsey said...

Yuck Yuck Yuck. I hate hot rooms when I'm sleeping and I'm not pregnant! We keep our apartment at 70 degrees for me to sleep comfortably at night and I always wake up hot. I hope you guys can figure out ways to get the room cooler. Could you put in a window A/C unit? We had two in SA, no central cooling system, and they worked so well and our electric bill was way low. Blackout curtains should work, there's also screens that you can buy for the windows that work like tinting to keep the heat out. I see those black screens all over Allen, although, they might be a little expensive.
I'm glad you went back and talked to the store assist. mgr. I'd be too embarrassed too. Hopefully they will talk to her, maybe she has had fertility problems or is just not a sensitive/tactful person. Do you think you might put up pictures of the house when you're done putting it together? It'd be nice to see where you live. I had a student on Monday tell me that she doesn't want to take the glucose test. She said that the midwives at the ABC can't give her a good enough reason to take it... she couldn't tell me what the negatives to having gestational diabetes are other than a bigger baby/higher risk of getting diabetes later in life. Also, why do they want your blood count to be high? What does that affect?
Sorry I wrote a book.
Good to hear how y'all are doing.

Anonymous said...

Well - since it was the owner that approached you - poo poo on her. She should have better customer services skills and at the very least, provide a better example to her employees. That being said, I apologize for my poo poo comment, she may have apologized herself had she realized she came across so negatively. I don't want you to be offended by her, but since it was your only contact, and being the polly anna that i am, i'd like to think she was just having a bad day and would treat you better given another chance. Not that i'm advocating you give her that chance but i'd like to think i'd get a 2nd chance by someone as terrific as you~!

As for as the heat, man hot is hot is hot in TX or PA - so i hope and pray you find relief from that sooner than later.

Love you! Tina

PS - If you name this baby TEX - I can call the last two Teddy and Tex. . . :)joking!

Anonymous said...

That is by the way an awesome picture - is it really you in the cooler? Or do io need better reading glasses?

Tina

mamabrown said...

Hi Hot Pregnant Momma:

So glad you went back to talk to the store personnel. Even though the person was the store owner, she needs a lesson in tact and diplomacy. I hope you feel better about the whole episode because you learned you are not the only one she talks to in that manner.

Well, even though you are pregnant and that usually makes one feel even warmer than normal, the room is warm and I certainly can understand why you want to sleep on the bathroom tile. I wanted to do the same thing when I was pregnant with you. We had a waterbed and I unplugged the heater so I could feel the cold on my back at night. I think I probably froze your poor father to death. Our air conditioner died one Sunday in the late summer while pregnant with you and I could hardly wait until the repairman came and took care of the problem on Monday. I think I filled the tub with cold water to cool off my very hot pregnant body. Maybe before you go to bed you can take a cool shower and cool off before you get in bed. It might help you long enough to fall asleep. I think the heavier curtains is a great idea and will help keep the hot outside where it belongs. Also, if you haven't already done so, turn your fan on a couple of hours before you go to bed to help the air circulate and cool the room. I know it is the hormones making you feel so warm but I surely don't know why we have to feel that way while pregnant. I hope it cools off soon at least at night so you can sleep comfortably. Guess you could make several "ice packs" to place strategically to keep you cool or you could just eat ice chips all night ... or sleep in the bathtub with ice water....or pack ice cream all around you...or put one of those mister hoses like a canopy over your bed...of course you would have quite a mess to clean up in the morning but at least maybe you will be cooler :)

I hope your test comes out just fine tomorrow. Let me know. Love you!

Sharon M said...

It has been SUPER hot here since June rolled around, so I totally sympathize with the pregnancy/summer syndrome. I do wish we had an A/C, even if it didn't keep the room as cool as I would like. Oh well, I guess for now I will have to be satisfied standing in front of the fan on full blast...

Maybe we should plan to have our next one as a spring baby.

amelia said...

Oh Sharon!

I am totally sorry that you are so hot. I know here I can retreat to the basement or at least the first floor where it is significantly cooler and feels more like air conditioning.

Your perspective makes me thankful for what I do have. Again, you definitely get the pregnant props from me. What else do you do to stay cool? I guess I didn't realize that there isn't AC where you are.

Anonymous said...

Hey Janet!

I really like the mist spray idea.
Do you think that comes in a portable version?

Dawn said...

I completely agree with what mamabrown said about the cold showers before bed. When I visited a friend in NYC a few summers ago (pregnant then too), I took a cool shower each night before sleeping in the un-air-conditioned apartment, and it made a HUGE difference. Great tip. I can't even imagine being without AC at this stage. I'm set to have this guy in 10 days and I'm about to pop. Hang in there, Amelia & Sharon!

Anonymous said...

Hey, I sent a message on this earlier but probably clicked the wrong button. But I wanted to say that we had solar screens on our windows at our old place and they really did the trick at keeping heat out. We still got sunlight--not as much as screenless windows--but the insulation was nice. I don't know what they cost, but maybe just for your bedroom windows, the purchase price would be worth the cost of some good sleep before Baby Tex comes!
Hope your tests all go great. Praying for you, Monica