being pregnant has its perks

The other day, I was driving home from the hospital, exhausted. About 5 miles away from home, I got a flat tire. Luckily it blew right as I was approaching an exit, so I took the off-ramp and pulled right into the gas station so that I could change the tire in a parking lot as opposed to the side of the road. (Don't worry Dad, I didn't drive very far on the rim...). I was so thankful that my dad had taught me how to change a tire. I opened up the trunk and found the donut and the jack and started jacking up the car- yup, in 90 degree weather, in my dress clothes, 6 months pregnant. I got the car jacked up and returned to the trunk to retrieve the tire iron, but couldn't find it anywhere in the trunk. So, I searched the rest of the car, and when nothing turned up, I went inside the gas station and asked the clerk for a tire iron. She let me borrow the one out of her car- one of those 4-sized ones. Unfortunately, none of the four sizes matched the bolts on the Kia's tire. Jordan had left a socket set in the trunk, so I tried to find one that would match the bolts, but came up short. Just as I was about to do the panic thing, a woman and a mechanic walked up to the car. The woman said, "I was in the store and the cashier said that there was a pregnant woman out here changing a tire. I thought, 'Oh, no- that won't do!' so I grabbed this mechanic who had stopped here for gas and put two and two together." So, the mechanic assessed the situation, went to his car for his tire iron and tools, but again, couldn't find any way to get the uniquely-sized bolts off the tire. Then the woman suggested that she call her boyfriend, who lived a mile away, to come over with his tools. So, a few minutes later, her boyfriend arrived, tools in hand, and he and the mechanic changed my tire for me. Then they packed everything up in the trunk and gave me thorough instructions as to how to get home on back country roads so I could avoid the 70mph speed limit highway. It just makes me so happy to know that there are genuinely kind, good-hearted people out there! Jordan was a little surprised when he called later and after asking me what I was up to, heard me reply, "Oh, nothing, just driving home on a donut since I got a flat tire. No biggie." ;)

In other news, I finished my hematology rotation on Friday. I really liked that service, but I'm excited to be moving on to general Internal Medicine for the next four weeks. I'll be at the VA hospital, which should be quite a unique experience. Then I switch to Family Medicine for 8 weeks and then the baby comes! Ah!

Speaking of the baby, today Jordan and I went to register at Pottery Barn Kids and Babies R Us. We went to PBK first, and it was awesome. They had so much cute (albeit insanely expensive) stuff! Jordan was a good sport and really participated. We were most excited about the Dr. Seuss-themed bathroom set. By the time we made it to Babies R Us, we were tired. As some of you know, that place is like Disneyland- all the different areas are color-coded and there's only about a bagillion versions of every product in the store. We started to get burned out pretty quickly, and ended up bypassing major areas of the store. I think we'll have to go back. It would be really helpful to take someone who's had a baby with us- we had no idea what supplies we would need, particularly on the medicine and toiletries row. However, we were THRILLED to discover that Babies R Us carries the g diapers- the cross between a disposable and a cloth diaper- that we are planning to use. They only had the starter kits (with 2 gender neutral diapers) and one girl-specific and one boy-specific diaper, so we'll have to look for other cute diapers on their website.

Since I have the entire weekend off (hooray!) I'm trying to unpack and help us get settled into the house, which we LOVE! Once it's not cluttered with boxes, I'll take some photos and upload them. For now, here's a shot of the outside of the house, taken from my phone (please excuse the rain spots too; it was taken through the window):


Another thing that I've been trying desperately to capture on film is the baby kicking. Sometimes it kicks so hard that you can actually see it, rather than just feeling it. Jordan loves it. I can't wait for the dogs to catch it sometime so we can see their reaction.

This week has also involved some weird dreams. One involved the baby climbing out of my belly button, along with its three siblings (3 boys and 1 girl, total). They could all talk. Another one involved me arriving at the hospital only to find out that they had discontinued the use of epidurals. Ah!

Well, I'm off to go put my feet up and relax- for once!