Don't Know Whether to Laugh or Cry

I am so pissed/upset/frustrated right now. Before I get to the juicy stuff, let me provide some background...

My MIL and FIL just left after having visited for 1 week. It went fairly well, but my usual limit with the inlaws is about 4 days till I get really anxious and annoyed around them. The problem, as you may have mused, is primarily with my MIL. She's very different than the mother I grew up with, and for lack of a better descriptor, she MOTHERS the hell out of you! She essentially took over my home, and did all our laundry, all the cooking, and yes, even swept out our garage. The woman is a very high-energy individual, and although I'm very thankful that she did some of these things to help out the pregnant lady, it was just...a...bit...much. I'm 32 years old and have been taking care of myself just fine all these years, thank you very much. She has such different standards to how a house should be kept that she probably marveled at how DH and I manage to get by. But whatever, I was able to cope. And now they are gone, so I am decompressing from the visit.

Friday, we had our monthly checkup with the OB. He said that the 20-week u/s showed placenta previa, where the placenta blocks the opening of the cervix. This I already knew, based on the news we'd gotten at the actual u/s appointment. I've done a little bit of consulting with Dr. Google on this, and was reassured by the fact that 90% of all previas diagnosed in the 2nd trimester resolved on their own as the uterus continues to grow. So I wasn't too worried about this, until our OB took a rather cautious tone and surprised us with his recommendations - no sex, no travel, limited exercise. Seriously?!?! WTF???

Apparently the primary concern with this condition is the danger of the placenta separating from the uterine wall, which would cause me to hemmorrage. Of course, this could be life-threatening to both mother and baby. Air travel does not increase the chances, but his concern was that if this were to hit me while I was in the air, I might not be able to get the proper medical attention soon enough. We have a scheduled trip coming up in a few weeks, so this was a real blow to us. We were intending to go see my husband's family, including a sick uncle who has been ill for some time. We haven't made our final decision, but right now we're leaning towards just hubby going on the trip, and me staying home.

Later that day, I do more research on the condition, and what I read was scary enough for me to stop reading. I had a minor breakdown with hubby, and confessed about how scared I was for baby and I. I just wish I could fast-forward to my u/s that is supposed to happen in 7 weeks to see whether this condition resolves itself or not. If it does not, it could mean stopping work early, and severely limiting activitiy to the point of bed rest. Sigh...at least everything is ok with baby, and I feel her moving on a daily basis now. She is my bundle of joy already and I haven't even met her yet.

So tonight, SIL calls. I don't remember if I've gotten into the topic that is she on my blog, but she is quite the handful. In a nutshell, she's a bit socially inept, and has quite a naive/abrasive personality to boot. Hubby can't stand that she doesn't take accountability for her actions, and MIL constantly defends her and tells everyone how much better she's gotten. From my perspective, she's a spoiled brat who should be dealt with more honestly when it comes to family communications. But this would mean dipping my toes too far into the politics of DH's family, and I just don't have the energy or desire to do so at this point in my life, if ever.

First of all, I didn't feel like talking to her, so I moaned to myself when I heard hubby offer me up to her. I had emailed a bunch of pics from the 20 week u/s, and she launches into the conversation with, "I see your baby has a cyst in her brain, too". WTF???? She goes on to explain that her first baby had one detected in her u/s, and that they had to check other stuff to make sure he would not be mentally affected. It turns out he was ok, though, but they'll watch for it with her 2nd baby. I told her that my doctor had never mentioned this with my baby, but SIL was quite sure she saw it on the u/s I sent her (like she's an expert), but reassured me that the OB "probably didn't say anything to us because he didn't want us to worry".

At this point I'm about ready to grab her neck through the phone and strangle her. I shifted the conversation, and told her we still needed to figure out our travel plans. She and her husband are going on this trip as well, and she made light of my diagnosis and said she didn't think I needed to worry about traveling. I think she said something along the lines of, "It's not like you're going to be running laps around the plane or anything." I reminded her about my doctor's orders NOT to travel, but she continued on. I just cut her off and said, we still need to figure things out.

I got off the phone with her quickly at that point, and shared the conversation with my husband. I wondered aloud if she was just trying to be a manipulative b*tch or whether she truly was as clueless as someone in that position would have to be. I've been pretty upset the rest of the night, and am upset now because I let her get to me so much.

I think I just need to decompress from the inlaws for a good while, and not talk to them anytime soon. My family is so much more laid back, and I am so thankful for the support I receive from them. One of these days, though...I may just have to blow up at MIL or SIL. Thus far, it hasn't happened, but I do quite amuse myself playing various scenarios through my head.