ER

Scott and I made a trip to the ER last night at 10:30 pm. Don't worry...the pregnant lady wasn't the one admitted. My husband, though he might kill me for writing about this, cut off one of his skin tags and it wouldn't stop bleeding. Scott has many skin tags. Some are in irritating areas that eventually just needed to go. So a few weeks ago we went to Walmart and bought some over-the-counter "freeze off" stuff. Normally, a dermatologist or a physician would do this for you, but Scott doesn't visit his doctor often. So Scott tested the stuff on a skin tag located between his shoulder and neck. Not a very sensitive spot for Scott, so it was a good place to start. It certainly wasn't a miracle treatment, but after one or two "freezing" applications, the skin tag puffed up (like a marshmallow does when you put it in the microwave), then shriveled and then died off. I can't remember if Scott "assisted" that first skin tag or not, but a couple of nights ago, he wanted to get rid of another skin tag. This time, though, it didn't shrivel up and die, and it became increasingly bothersome, so Scott cut it off. Now, not to give a false impression here, Scott had cut off a skin tag before. Once you freeze it, the skin almost cauterizes itself so when it is cut, Scott basically was only cutting off the dead skin that failed to fall away from his body. No drama there. This time, however, the skin tag was larger and more resistant to the freezing compound and it didn't cauterize itself. But there was no way to know that ahead of time. So, bandaid after bandaid and soaked-through gauze pad after soaked-through gauze pad led to a mildly panicked Jaime. After 4 hours of changing his dressings and applying pressure to no avail, I wanted to go to the ER. The doctor almost laughed when Scott said he had an "accute case of the stupids" and then proceeded to tell us this was his first "i cut myself on purpose" case. He gave Scott a shot of something to stop the bleeding and within 20 minutes he did finally stop bleeding. We had to wait another 40 minutes just to get a bandaid and our discharge papers, so we didn't get back home until 12:30 am. But I was relieved that my hubby was not bleeding anymore and slept quite soundly thanks to that lovely shot!

kicking

OK, so there's no such thing as a "light flutter" in my pregnancy. I waited and waited to feel my baby boy move inside me. I was told that I should start feeling him around 19 weeks. Nope. Not me. By 22 weeks I was starting to panick until a friend of mine told she didn't feel her baby move until 25 weeks. And of course, I got a lot of "oh, the baby moved but you probably thought it was gas". Not me. I paid attention hardcore to the happenings inside my belly, and I am certain I didn't feel any movement. And finally, this week, week 23, I felt my baby move. And there's no mistaking it. And there was NO light flutter for this mom! My baby waited patiently until he was strong and mighty before making his move. He wanted to make his mark the first time out. He pushed down hard right on my full bladder. I almost peed my pants. And since that moment, he continues to choose him moments wisely (or untimely as I see it) to put his full force into my bladder. I will not complain though. It's so miraculous feeling him inside me knowing he's kicking and moving and growing. I wouldn't change that for the world, even if it means I now travel with a second pair of underwear and pants in case of accidents. :)

Travelers

I've been at my new job, working for Travelers Insurance in downtown Hartford for 2 weeks now. It's a large company, approx 33,000 employees. What does this mean? STABILITY! yeah! It also means that I have a LOT to learn and many subject matter experts available to me for many, many, many projects. What do I do here, you ask? It's actually kind of cool. I basically build Computer based training courses on safety because I'm in the Risk Control business section of Travelers. My department is responsible for building CD-Rom e-learning courses that are self-paced so that our clients can gather information based on safety guidelines and procedures they should follow at their business. Sounds boring, but I've learned a lot about fire safety and water leaks and biohazzard polutants in just 2 weeks. Our clients can take these courses to lower their insurance premiums with us. My dept. also builds internal training to keep Fire Investigators and other "field" officers up-to-date on the latest guidelines and restrictions out there in many facets of our insurance industry. OK, that's boring to read, I know.

It's been a crazy transition. Going from working at home in my sweatpants to finding maternity clothes that are dressy enough for the office environment here. Going from driving no where to driving in downtown Hartford, parking in a parking garage and then walking a couple blocks to work. From eating cereal for lunch at 2 pm to preparing my lunch a day ahead of time and making sure I pack enough nutrients for my growing baby boy.

And the job itself is SO different. There are So many resources here and projects are completely really fast. I'm used to doing everything myself and being on ONE project for 3-5 months. Now, I have to manage my projects, dividing up the work between graphics and audio scripts and videos and development. Can you believe my group goes out to client sites and takes video on, let's say, "the proper way to load a flatbed truck"? How odd and cool is that? There are so many departments here that I can be here 15 years and still use the sentence "what do THEY do?".