I know many had it worse that I do but this pregnancy has been HARD. With C, I had an aversion to pizza and that’s it, no being sick AT ALL. Oh and cankles well into the third trimester.
With no. 2, I am still nauseous even in my second trimester. While I don’t have my head down the bowl puking my guts, this whole feeling-like-hurling thing is new to me. My palette has gone nuts; nothing I eat seem to satisfy my unidentifiable cravings. I have lost a few pounds because of these afflictions.
The medical care which I am paying A LOT MORE for is crap. The American medical system is the worst I have ever dealt with when compared to HK and SG. When I was pregnant with C, I was working for Macquarie which had a Cigna International plan for all non-local employees. I paid a grand total of HKD 6,667 (for an upgrade to a super duper coverage) to have all my scans, delivery fees and hospital bills covered. There was even pre-biling which enabled me to walk out of Hotel Matilda Hospital (I had a private room with a terrace that had 2 sun lounges up on the peak) without paying a single cent.
In the States, I have paid about USD 1,500 to date on top of my monthly insurance payments. I still have to pay another USD 1,000 out-of-pocket costs before full coverage kicks in.
Costs aside, I miss my obgyn. Dr. Edmund Hon has the best bedside manner of any doctor I have ever seen; he is comforting and never once felt pre-natal vitamins (other than folic acid) was essential as long as I eat a balanced diet.
I don’t know if it’s an American thing, the doctors seem overly keen to promote certain brands of multi-vits (must be the kickbacks from the drug companies). Their bedside manners are NON-EXISTENT. And despite paying a shit load of money (hello $30 for a pee test, $50 to draw my blood), they don’t offer you an ultrasound at every visit (“oh the sonographer is not in today”). I cannot believe they go to med school and cannot operate an ultrasound machine and has to wait for a specialist. WTF!
Guess what? I had to go to a different diagnostics clinic to get my nuchal transluceny and blood test done. The sonographer there disagreed with the EDD I was given by the obgyn but Miss I-am-just-an-obgyn didn’t think there was a need to revised the EDD. Oh well.
Onto better thoughts, we have names! Our detailed scan is in 2.5 weeks, we will hopefully find out if baby will be a Callen or Ava (current front runner for a girl’s name because Mr. P thinks Colette is too French).
Can’t wait!
Modern Nomads 
i like colette! its such a pretty name!
I think so too 🙂
Oh i like Colette! Hope u feeling better babes…
Thanks dear!
Sorry to hear about a harder second pregnancy but it’ll be worth it! I’m surprised you had to shell out so much out of pocket already. I think the american medical system is broken, but for my first pregnancy, I think I had a copay of $20 for initial visit and the rest was all covered. For my second one, the insurance went up and was charging me ultrasound copays so I ended up with $100 out of pocket. Maybe your insurance has different tiers? I would call up the insurance company to see if all your extra copays could’ve been avoided. Sometimes, they charge you if you do it at the doctors office or at certain labs. That really sounds like a lot out of pocket!
Hmm… I think it’s a case of my firm having crap insurance 😦
Unfortunately my max out of pocket is 2800 before full coverage kicks in.
No surprise with the medicare in US – I’ve heard atrocious stories from people and I don’t envy you. However, Ava is a beautiful name. I’ve got a girlfriend that has a Ava 🙂 It’s becoming quite popular, at least here in down under.
It’s harder this time with a girl’s name. Hard to come up with something as unique as Clover. It wasn’t even up for discussion at that time. I told the husband even before we learnt the sex that if it’s a girl her name is Clover full.stop. 🙂