Wow, life is as busy as ever but in my brilliance I have packed the camera cables somewhere and now I can’t find them. They are either in my house somewhere or in a box on a boat in the middle of the Pacific *hopefully* on their way here.
Oh well, this does give me a chance to catch up a little on my blogging. So here we go...
October 2010
It is amazing to me how babies seem to slide into childhood right beneath your nose but without being seen. This month I noticed my baby was not much of a baby anymore. She loves to play outside, go to “school” (a mommy-and-me class we go to), and paint. Everyday seems to fly by quicker than the last and these moments spill through my fingers like water. Oh, how I adore this little girl of mine.
Speaking of little girls, little munchkin #2 is ticking along, doing her thing. I had to do a glucose test this month which was not fun. Taking a glucose test in the US wasn’t a thrill but it wasn’t a big deal either. They had me swallow a small cup of McDonald’s orange drink-esque stuff, sit around for 30 minutes or so and then take my vitals. Well, here’s how they do it in Indonesia.
First, I have to go to a laboratory. I guess most doctor’s offices are not equipped to do their own lab work so they send their patients off to a third party and then ask the patient to bring back the results. Hmmm...okay. I go in and in my best Indonesian explain that I need to take a glucose test. After some pointing at my belly and other gestures and such they get the idea. They then tell me to come back the next day...after NOT EATING for 12 hours. HUH??!!! I tried to tell her that that was ridiculous, how could I fast while pregnant? She gives me a smile, awkward laugh and says nothing. *sigh* Indonesians are so non-confrontational that they laugh in awkward situations and don’t address the matter in question head on. Great. So I called the consulate’s doctor and asked him to speak to the nice lady. He talks to her and then tells me that I did understand them correctly. I reminded him that I am pregnant and NEED to eat. (Hungry pregnant ladies are a scarrrrrrrry sight!) He said this is how you do the test. I assured him that there were other (better!) ways. The consulate contracted doctor said this is how all the labs and hospitals do it but that he would call the Embassy’s doctor (an American guy) in Jakarta and call me back. Several minutes later he called back and confirmed that I did not need to starve myself and my unborn child for such a long period of time. I asked him to communicate this to the lab nurse. They went back and forth on the phone for some time and apparently came to a negotiated time of 4 hours. Not ideal but I could live with that. I was then given a small plastic bag and sent on my merry way.
I got home and looked at the bag. It looked like crack. There were no labels or instructions. What did I do with it? How did I know it was safe? I called Dan and we figured it was okay. I mixed it up with some water and drank it down. Ewwwwwwwwwww! I think it was pure glucose. I do not have a sweet tooth at all and this reinforced that distaste. Anyway, 4 hours later I went back and had my blood taken and I am glad to say that I and chickpea are fine and I am not secretly selling all of our prized possessions to fund my new drug habit. ;)
Click HERE for some other shots from other trips about town.
P.S. I would LOVE to include more pics IN the post but it seems that this is ridiculously hard and/or time consuming to do. Am I missing something? How to I upload a bunch of pictures at once and intersperse them easily amidst the text?
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