Archive for April, 2010

Last night for the first time Mark was able to feel a real, definitive kick from Little Doodle.  Before last night he may have caught a brief, light grazing of the baby against the womb once or twice, but most of the time Little Doodle would simply stop kicking when Mark tried to feel.  This baby could be doing fetus aerobics for a good solid 20 minutes, but the second Mark would try to place a hand on my bump … all movement would stop until the hand was removed again.

But not last night.  Last night Little Doodle placed a tiny foot right against the palm of Mark’s hand and then gave it several good kicks.  I am so happy Mark finally got to experience that, and he was utterly amazed at how strong Little Doodle is.

I went to log into WoW for the last time today, having made the decision to go ahead and cancel my account, only to find that the account was already closed.  I hadn’t logged in in about a week, but I must’ve canceled the subscription right after renewing for three months, preventing it from automatically billing me. It’s funny, a part of me must’ve known then that any longer wasn’t needed.

This was the last of gaming in my life and I feel ready to move on from it.   MMO gaming has been the biggest hurdle for me over the last 10 years as I’ve slipped in and out of addiction with various titles.  Whilst a part of me will always want to renew that old Everquest account, or read about WoW’s next expansion, I know it’s for the better if I don’t.  I feel free from it, in a way I never have before. I’m not giving these things up because I feel some responsibility to do so now that Little Doodle is about to rock my world, merely I am letting these things go as I feel ready to do so, and ready to move on. I don’t think I’ll ever return to WoW, a part of me feels I “beat the game,” having been there, done that, and got the achievement to boot.

But I am very grateful for the time I spent in WoW, because without it I would’ve never met my husband.  Two people, so perfect for each other, on opposite sides of the globe should so happen to meet in an online game and fall in love.  I am very grateful to have met him, and now we are married and expecting a little one and our love continues to grow.  I also met some really awesome people through our guild as well.

It’s a shame it was already closed though, I guess the gold shall be buried with the characters and not given away lol.

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Mark’s mother sent us this wonderful cot set for Little Doodle! It is filled with colorful and friendly jungle animals.  We love it!

The time is swiftly approaching.  87 days until D-Day.  This week I have produced a rough draft of my Birth Plan, a document which will allow all those involved in my labor and delivery know what I want, what I expect to happen and, should everything go tits up, what my wishes are.   I’m certain on everything that I want… everything except pain relief.

You would think such a question would be a no brainer:  would you like to suffer in pain for God knows how many hours or would you like to be numbed from the waist down?

Answering the question has been at the forefront of my mind for nearly a week now.

On the one hand, I’ve never experienced pain to this magnitude and I haven’t a clue what to expect… which makes it worse.  I’m sure tattoos and piercings cannot hold a candle to the experience.  I cut off the tip of my finger in a meat slicer at the deli I worked in when I was 17, and then years later locked the same damn finger in the car door (yes, locked it IN the car door), both experiences sucked pretty hardcore but again, it’s probably not even a fraction of childbirth.  It scares me to think that I could opt for natural childbirth or at least, opt to “give it a go” without the epidural for a while… and then really need the epidural but be past the “point of no return” where it’s no longer possible to administer it.  I am also afraid of being in the situation and being too fearful of the pain to push.

On the other hand, epidurals are not a “get out of jail free” card either.  You can receive too much, or the epidural in general can impede your ability to push and feel the natural signals from your body.  They can lead to a higher chance of needing an assisted birth, or a C-Section.  They lengthen recovery times after the birth as the drug takes time to wear off.  You cannot move around freely as you will have a catheter in your back and a fetal monitor on your abdomen.

I’ve received alot of advice from alot of people… rarely is anyone ever impartial to the subject.  People have told me to go natural or at least try, and others have said to go for the drugs.  I’ve read online that the pain we experience in childbirth is there for a reason: pain in certain areas will make women change position or move around, which has been proven to correct things like the direction the baby is facing.  Your body knows what needs to be done, and the female of  every species has been doing this since the dawn of time.  I don’t worry about my body, I worry and I fear I am not strong enough mentally or emotionally to handle it.

I also worry that, if I don’t at least try, I may regret never having experienced it.

(Look how freakin’ HAPPY they are!)

Today at work myself and a group of colleagues were in a training session on customer relationship care.  During one point of the training, we listened to some recorded calls from both our Australian and Canadian locations.  As the Canadian calls played, the room was filled with groans and remarks about how cheesy and “over the top” the call sounded, and not just from the Customer Service Reps either, but also from the customers they had serviced.  At one point a remark was made about how one of the Canadian reps sounded like she “was on drugs.”

My reaction? Homesickness.

I had forgotten these past two years what a difference there is in the day to day interactions we have with strangers in the UK vs. America (After all, the Canadian service reps sounded just as the American ones do).  Having worked in customer service roles my whole life, I had forgotten what it was like to hear a customer who was pleasant and bubbly, even if they went over of the top to meet you on the same level of bubbliness you had been trained to posses.  Here is a quote of one of the calls from the Canadian center we listened to (not direct quote, just basic jist):

Customer: “Hello, I was in a store purchasing (something) and my (company omitted) card was declined, just calling to check everything is ok”

Rep: “I am very sorry to hear that!  Let me check on that for you, and I am sorry for any embarrassment the decline caused you!”

Customer: “Oh no need to apologize at all, it was perfectly fine.”

(Cue lovely comparison of Ontario and New York weather whilst rep executes job).

What would that call have sounded like in the UK?  Well, I can tell you, because I get it on a daily basis:

Customer: (harsh tone) “My card’s been declined and I’d like to know why.  This happens all the bloody time, and if you dont tell me what you’re going to do to make up the EMBARASSMENT I experienced at the till with a queue behind me I am GOING TO CANCEL MY CARD AND TELL ALL MY FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES TO NEVER USE YOUR COMPANY.  I AM VERY IMPORTANT I HAVE 200 EMPLOYEES AND THAT”S ALOT OF BUSINESS YOU’LL LOSE BECAUSE I’LL FORCE THEM TO CANCEL THEIR CARDS! AND IM PAYING FOR THIS CALL AS WELL, JUST ANOTHER WAY YOU’RE GETTING MY MONEY! I WANT TO BE COMPENSATED FOR THIS CALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Rep: (cannot speak for he has already hung himself with phone cord)

Yeah, not joking.

It really got me thinking.  You might call  American/Canadian customer services over the top, too bubbly, or even “drugged up,” but I think anyone can read through the two scenarios above and decide which one they would rather be subjected to.  It’s a conscious decision people make when they phone up or deal with literally any other stranger:  they make the choice on how they are going to interact with that person.  And yes, while the over the top voice and language may be borderline fake (but it depends on the person)  I know I would MUCH rather fake niceties with someone than have to interact with someone who was going to let a small inconvenience ruin their ENTIRE LIFE (or act like it anyways). Because, at the end of the day, even pretend nice is better than no nice at all.

I’ve stopped wishing people here in the UK to “Have a good day!” because it isn’t well received.  They don’t know how to handle it or how to respond.  Most just laugh nervously, or mock my accent to someone  else as they put the phone down.  That’s how the British handle things: someone is nice to them and they’d rather mock it and put it down than accept it for what it is… because to do otherwise would force the culture to reflect on how miserable they are and how miserably they treat each other.

So go on and mock the customer service interactions in the USA and Canada… you can have your miserable exchanges and keep them for  yourselves!