Thoughts on Ironing

It's not that I hate to iron. It's that I can count the number of times I saw my mom do it while I was growing up, so it really did not seem like an important area to excel in. We were more of a "toss it in the dryer with a wet towel" type of family. I will iron my own wrinkly clothes, but I do not generally iron Noel's because he tends to decide which shirt he wants to wear at 10:58 when we are supposed to leave the house at 11. I tend to pre-iron my clothes knowing that I will want to wear them in the near future.

One thing I do not iron is my scrubs. Actually I did once because the armpit area was soo wrinkly it was uncomfortable. The other day I grabbed one of my favorite tops out of the clean laundry bag. I could tell it was on the wrinkly side, so I did the ol' brush down the front with water and it looked semi-decent to me afterward. Note: this was after a week long vacation where I had done the laundry for Noel so he could have clean work jackets while I was gone. The dear man left it all in the bag (which means next time I will not do it for him, I really hate wrinkled sheets). He took out what he needed, which left my scrub top in a sad state. Later at work I heard two of my Filipina coworkers giggling behind me, "planchadora" was all I caught, which made me laugh because "planchar" is Spanish for "to iron." I tried to explain that I was just back from vacation and hubby hadn't put away the laundry for a week. Although I guess I am to blame as I did have other scrub top options available.

My top only made it til dinner when a piece of potato skydived back into my bowl and splattered my white wrinkly scrub top with little red fleckles. It just wasn't salvagable as red in the hospital generally means blood. At least I got a free small yet oversized hospital scrub top out of it, great for when I actually get a baby belly. Belly pictures forthcoming, I'm sick and avoiding the camera...

Selfish placenta

I just talked to my midwife. Turns out despite my best red bean eating habits and taking those terrible ferrous sulfate pills everyday I only managed to get my hematocrit to 34 (and I ate a hamburger 2 hours before the blood draw!). Normal hematocrit for a regular women who does not have to share her blood supply with a selfish placenta would be 36-44. And with little me at 34 all this selfishness means mine will keep dropping (and it's never been higher than 35 to begin with, damn anemia).

At the hospital we don't give blood transfusions unless your hematocrit is 21 (whopping difference from 21). For those who don't know hematocrit is the portion of blood that is made up of red blood cells.  Its counterpart hemoglobin is what carries oxygen around the your blood. It one is down the other is to. Vitamin C helps increase their absorption from foods (meat or veggies). In pregnancy blood volume increases by 50% and the body needs alot of hemoglobin and hemotocrit to make all the new blood.  At the hospital we call them H&H. But for my patients are in the hospital, recovering from surgery, with bags of blood readily available. They are not growing babies.

So off I go to now take TWO iron pills a day (with calcium to increase absorption), invest in black strap molasses (supposedly the best bang for your buck iron-wise), and edamame (the highest iron of all veggies I can find). Wish my already slow intestines good luck :(  I say selfish placenta because it is still so much bigger than Panchito.