Town Hall Protests

And, intelligent democracy collapses.

Because all I do is sit around and read and study Arabic some, I don't have many life updates to report on. I did go to some museums the other day, but I've had enough of those posts. So instead I'm going all political.

I have been very happy with the health care debate up to this point. No, the results haven't been all that promising yet, and no, President Obama hasn't taken a good lead in explaining what needs to happen to Americans, but, nontheless the debate was intelligent and rigorous. Everyone was looking for solutions and talking about options. The American people were not going to settle for just plugging up holes in the system, they were actually looking for real solutions and smart change, demanding that everyone be insured and that costs go down, both of which are reasonable, if not simple, expectations. An ad-hoc bill came out of congress that maybe was a step in the right direction, maybe not. People weren't satisfied. So more intelligent debate ensued, people began to focus more on cutting the costs of health care. Some of the real issues, like problems with American lifestyle that were driving up costs weren't talked about enough, but they were making more frequent appearances.

And then congress recessed and cable TV got boring and the crazies came out. The main problem the town hall protests is that it is mob rule. Nothing is accomplished, which is just what the people protesting want. That's my main beef. Intelligent debate has broken down. Let's not settle for that. Let's reject fear mongering. See the sign up there: "I'm not going to discuss my end of life options with anyone." Seriously? No general care physicians? No specialists? I know, if you're not willing to pay out of pocket for what is for most people expensive end-of-life care, you are most assuredly going to talk to your insurance company about it. And do you know what your best chance of getting it paid for is? Medicare. From the government. Come on America, we're better than that. No, finding a solution for our health care problems wont be easy. No, it probably wont be fast. But it has to happen. And it isn't going to happen on its own. We decided to just let things be in the Clinton years and things have just gotten worse. Things have to change, and it is going to take all of us actually thinking and talking about it, not shouting and carrying signs that don't really mean anything to get it done.

That's my other beef. This was the first picture that came up when I searched "health care town hall protests." Or maybe the second. Everyone in this picture is older and obese. According to this and this obesity is not, if the number one cause for increase in health care prices, certainly among them. Now, I'm not hating on fat people, but when insuring you costs 25% percent more than insuring the non-obese, a few more signs saying "Sorry America, for making health care more expensive" might be apporpriate. And insuring older people isn't cheap either. I'm not saying older people and obese people shouldn't have a voice in health care, I would just like them to recognize that they'll be the first ones to be dropped (after poor people, who seem pretty uniformly on the side of reform, or at least realize they are dependent on the government for health care, unlike all these old people seem to) if we don't do something about fixing health care. The only reason that their health care costs aren't bankrupting them is because they are either already on government run care or are insured through their employer, who are more and more refusing to pay for more expensive health care. I want the obese and the old insured, I just hate to see them fighting against the only way that they'll get insured. And also, I think the government is best suited for providing incentives for better health and lowered obesity, a further reason for government to be more involved in health care.

In summation: Please, please America. I was so proud of you for being trying to be thoughtful and intelligent about this issue early on, let's not quit now.

Before the preterm labor shenanignans....

we had a ward picnic. It was quite a delight.

Another boring update

Still pregnant. Going off the drugs tomorrow when my mom gets here. Planning on having a baby. See if all goes according to (new) plan.



I've been thinking...
Do you think the hospital will let me fill up a baby pool in my hospital room to labor in? It's a really big room, there's space for it. Hm, I wonder. Maybe I should just do it anyways? What's the worst that could happen?

What's in a name?

Our baby has no name. This is worrisome, as he might be heading here any day now. We've been calling him Theodore since before we even knew he was a boy, it was just his fetus name and was never going to stick. But the more I try out names on my belly, the more they sound weird and I can't just shake Theodore. But I really don't like it as a name for a child, mostly because I'm afraid he'd become Ted and that reminds me of the lawyer on Scrubs and I can't have my child becoming a nervous awkward a capella-singing wreck.

Meanwhile... does anyone know of a good pediatrician in Provo? I want one that won't push vaccinations (we're getting some, just not all) and that will be open to homeopathic remedies. I just want to find someone and line up something since we'll be bringing a preemie home on a flight in a few weeks.

Bed rest is awesome!

No, not really. It actually kind of sucks. I'm not much of a resty kind of person. I'm bad at relaxing. Now I'm being forced too because I want a healthy baby. And I know it's going to be worth it but it's so. hard.

This was my mom's threat about staying down until next week: "Do you want to breastfeed??"

Yes, yes, I do. And I know it will be infinitely harder with a preemie. So here I lay.

The worst thing for me though is making people do stuff for me. I'm bad at accepting help, and even worse at asking for it. When I do, I feel like I'm nagging. I like taking care of people and am a bad recipient of such care. I know Tim wants to do it, but when he's sitting there reading or studying Arabic, the hardest thing for me to do is demand a glass of water or a back rub. But I know I have to, and I'm learning valuable lessons about service and humility.

Before all of this happened, I felt like my life was getting too easy and I was coasting. I began asking Heavenly Father for trials to teach me more about myself and help me to become a better servant. I know all of this is an answer to that prayer, and I'm doing my best to frame it that way and not complain but rather embrace the little things that are blessings: the fact that Lauren and her family happened to move here, that I actually ended up at the hospital in the first place because otherwise I would've had no idea I was even in labor until it was too late to stop it. That our baby is still healthy and kicking up a storm. That we have wonderful medical care available to us at no cost to us. There are so many good things, and I'm just trying to focus exclusively on them and not so much on the suck-y things like missing a dear friend's wedding and having to pay for another plane ticket.

And because once upon a time I said I would never wear a hospital gown, and would definitely never be hooked up to an EFM:

A boring update

As for news, we're just hanging out at Cait's sisters house, reading books and watching movies. Cait has to stay in bed and take medicine that doesn't make her feel good if she doesn't want the baby to come. We have to keep convincing her that she doesn't want the baby to come. That we stay in DC for the baby to be born seems more likely every day. Thanks everyone who gave us advice. The flight just seemed to risky for the benefits. I'm also glad we're here because Lauren can be the one to nag Cait about staying reclined, because she speaks from experience. I would feel tempted to give in and let Cait go swimming if it was just me that had to fight her cabin fever.

That's it. I'll post some pictures of some of the things we did before Cait's cervix started dialating and some of the things I've been doing since, so that Cait can have vicarious touristy experiences.

Falafel

The other night, Tim made some yummy falafel.






You can find the recipe here.

Night out on the town

After getting shot down on reporting that Cait had died or that the baby was born, I am only left with the truth.

Everything is fine. Cait spent the night in the hospital because her contractions were coming every ten minutes or so and got pretty intense. She was also dilated 3 cm or so, but seemed to be staying at that point without any movement. Cait's sister Lauren was there, giving us lots of good and experienced advice, because all three of her births have started early. After a little debate, we decided to stay the night in the hospital, eating so-so food and watching boring TV. They checked her out periodically and kept her on fluids through an IV. She is still having contractions, but they prescribed her some medicine to lessen those.

We're now facing the tough decision on when we should head back to Utah. Our options are:

1-Fly out tomorrow while we still can.

2-Take the anti-contraciton medicine, see if the contractions stabilize and fly out on the 8th, our original date.

3-Wait to have the baby, maybe taking the medicine to keep the baby in a little longer or maybe just letting him come. 34 weeks is right on that edge. We would stay with Lauren til that happened.

Let us know if you have any advice. We're torn right now. Either way, we're having a baby! That'll be cool.

This is not a test

Actually, maybe it is. But Cait is in the hospital again. It seems like Theodore just really wants to come out and get a different name. Keep the baby and Cait in your prayers.

An ode to Tim and other people who are great

Not really an ode. Just a big whoppin' thanks for being such an awesome husband and provider of material goods to our family this summer. As you know, I'm on an unpaid internship (besides the little grant money I mustered up) and so Tim has taken to working a dead-end job at crazy hours at Target. Ok, it's not really a dead-end job because he's actually good at it and would probably be able to work his way up in the ranks to manager of a whole Super Target if he really wanted to. I know it's been rough on him though, and he rarely complains about walking an hour to work at 5 in the morning. I'm grateful for it though, he's worked full-time and because of that we've been able to save up quite a bit over the course of the summer, when we thought we'd be spending quite a bit. And if you know me at all, you know I like to save. I'm trying to be less frugal though, especially for Tim's sake. I can be a kind of psycho money saver.

We read the other day that the number one reason couples fight in the third trimester of pregnancy is over budget/finances. Well, we not only do not fight about it, Tim actually pressures me into buying baby stuff (like, a diaper pail). I must say though, another reason we probably don't argue about money and baby stuff is because we've been incredibly lucky to have well-timed our baby having to correspond with my sister's baby growing out of things. We've ended up with all the free baby clothes we could possibly need, a Medela breast pump and bottles, a Papasun baby seat, a travel system with car seat and stroller, a bumbo seat as well as a slew of miscellaneous items. Lauren's pretty awesome. And then there's all the people that have given us free stuff as well: Devin is giving us his couches, Tim's parents just bought a new bed and offered us their old one, and a friend of my cousin in Salt Lake gave us a high chair. So, I imagine having a baby is more expensive and stresfful when you're not the recipient of so much goodwill from the world. We are very, very blessed.

Funny tale: the other night we went to Trader Joe's to grab some victuals for dinner. We ended up with strawberries, cherries, expensive carrot juice, and two organic fair-trade chocolate bars. We got home and as Tim took everything out he looked at it and said "nice work, you bought things impulsively!" Yeah, and it was like, fruit.