Hello Third Trimester & a Linkup

Hello third trimester!  I can’t believe that I’m officially in the third trimester.  It’s gone by so fast, and feels like just yesterday I took those 3 pregnancy tests.  We’re getting closer to the end of this pregnancy, it’s the final countdown.  Bebe is the size of an eggplant right now.  My father in law laughed when I first said bebe is the size of whatever fruit or vegetable it was at that time.  Now whenever my husband calls his father I tell him to tell his dad what fruit/vegetable the bebe is that week.  Let’s get into a little more about how life has been going lately.  In addition I’ll go over how the third trimester has been treating me.  Trust me when I say, once we get towards the end of this post, you’re in for a doozy.

Related:  Taking a stroll down memory lane with the pregnancy announcement.

Dress: SHEIN // Shoes:  Boohoo // Bag:  Amazon // Earrings:  Amazon

THIRD TRIMESTER: THE GOOD & BAD

Now that I’m in the third trimester, I look very pregnant haha.  My brother in law said that I’m carrying very well and I’m still very active.  He’s correct that I’m still very active, because at work I’m the same way that I have always been.  The third trimester has not slowed me down, at least not yet.  I have been getting tired much faster now than before.  Everyone’s noticed that the third trimester has made me a little sassier, but only when it’s called for.  I have gotten much bigger, and this belly grows more and more every day.  Now that I’m in the third trimester I’m seeing my doctor every two weeks instead of every four weeks.  In addition I’m seeing my neurologist as well.  They need to monitor my medication levels since bebe is making my levels drop.

Related:  My Youtube setup is changing again because of the nursery.

Dress: SHEIN // Shoes:  Boohoo // Bag:  Amazon // Earrings:  Amazon

BREATHING ISSUES UPDATE

If you remember me talking about my breathing issues a few weeks back, I’m still experiencing those.  My doctor said it’s normal during pregnancy to have shortness or breathe.  Especially because I have a history with asthma it will happen.  She told me that if my regular inhaler isn’t helping or I’m using it a lot, that she’ll prescribe me something else for it.

Dress: SHEIN // Shoes:  Boohoo // Bag:  Amazon // Earrings:  Amazon

LOTS OF MOVEMENT

Bebe has been moving a lot and I’m looking forward to more movement in the third trimester.  The movements are more and more visible on the outside now, so I can’t wait to see the really big movements.  So far I can count on one hand how many times it’s been really noticeable and looking like an alien trying to escape.

Hat: Etsy (more linked below) // Schitt’s Creek Onesies 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (more linked below)

FIRST BEBE GIFT FROM A FRIEND

My youtube bestie, Alanda from The Recovering Hunbot sent me these adorable onesies and hat as a bebe and mama gift.  One of my customers got us Nightmare Before Christmas gifts as well, but this is the first friend who sent me something and she knows how much I’ve been wanting Schitt’s Creek onesies haha.

HATS:

ONESIES:

 

Dress: SHEIN // Shoes:  Boohoo // Bag:  Amazon // Earrings:  Amazon

LEG CRAMPING

I’ve always struggled with charlie horses and leg cramping prior to pregnancy, but pregnancy has made it worse.  The other night I had a cramp that somehow escalated to a pulled muscle in my calf.  I laughed about it because what else can you really do in that situation haha.  I’m sure it’ll get worse as the third trimester progresses.

Related:  A message to everyone only telling me the bad about pregnancy and motherhood.

Dress: SHEIN // Shoes:  Boohoo // Bag:  Amazon // Earrings:  Amazon

GLUCOSE TEST UPDATE

Well, after doing my little experiment that was approved by my doctor, I failed the retake of the first glucose tolerance test.  Today is when I go for the 3 hour test.  Depending on when you’re reading this, I may have already finished the test.  My retake showed that I was 30 points higher than the original test.  Tomorrow is my next appointment with my OBGYN so I’m going to ask why it was so severely high if I had been eating healthier and not over indulging in gummy bears and taco bell.

One of my friends and a subscriber who just so happens to be a nurse sent me some great resources saying that GD has little to nothing to do with diet and mostly everything to do with the placenta.  While others tell me it is based on diet.  Clearly something is going on and there is an issue so regardless, I’m taking the 3 hour test, and following what my doctor decides is best for bebe.  As long as the bebe is healthy, that is the only thing I care about.  If I have to pump myself with insulin and prick my finger throughout the day to test my glucose, I’m 100000% ok with that.  Since I’m in the third trimester, there’s not much time left so if I need to change anything, it’ll only be for a short period of time.

Related:  Eating healthier during this pregnancy.

Dress: SHEIN // Shoes:  Boohoo // Bag:  Amazon // Earrings:  Amazon

THIS ETSY SELLER HAS THE BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE

If you remember a few weeks ago I wrote about how I had changed the appearance of my blog and the Etsy shop I bought the template from was really great and helpful.  Well, I started experiencing issues with the theme and decided to reach out to the Etsy shop.  To be completely honest, I wasn’t expecting any help because I’ve had bad experiences in the past with other Etsy sellers.  However, this shop owner got back to me within the hour and worked with me for two days.  She even created a tutorial that she uploaded onto Youtube to help with the issue I was having on my particular blog.  I did update my review on my purchase to include that amazing customer service testimonial.  She was so incredibly helpful, and I cannot say enough good things about this Etsy shop and their customer service.

Related:  A few changes on the blog.

Dress: SHEIN // Shoes:  Boohoo // Bag:  Amazon // Earrings:  Amazon

THE CUSTOMER IS NOT ALWAYS RIGHT

Wait until y’all hear about what happened at our shop last week.  I want to preface this with I have worked in customer service for over a decade both in a retail setting, and office setting.  Which means, I have a lot of patience and I do have a customer service voice.  I’ve had shoes thrown at me in a retail setting, a man got really mad and almost broke the door at the Subway I worked at because we ran out of meatballs, and in an office setting I had even worse run ins with customers because they hid behind their phones so they had more confidence in how horrible they were towards me.  With that said, I’m no stranger to being a human punching bag.

I do believe we need to let go of this “the customer is always right” mentality.  The customer is not always right.  Are they right sometimes?  Yes, but not all the time.  This saying just rewards bad behavior.  That’s why we have so many Karens with a capital K in the world.  We’ve rewarded bad behavior so much that customers expect to ask for the manager and get what they want.  Well, the beauty of owning your own business, is you make the rules and if a customer is being rude, you can tell them to leave.  However, if we did actually do something wrong we will own up to it and take care of the customer.  I’m referring to the customers who are just downright assholes.  Let me tell you about two customers in particular.

Related:  Working in customer service storytime.

Dress: SHEIN // Shoes:  Boohoo // Bag:  Amazon // Earrings:  Amazon

THE PRETEND VETERAN

This first customer I’m going to talk about is very entitled.  She also has a history with the previous owner.  Let’s put it this way, she came in for an oil change and came back saying that her radio stopped working and it was because of the oil change.  It doesn’t take rocket science to know that these two things have nothing to do with one another.  One of the guys said the radio wasn’t on or working when the customer pulled in to begin with. They knew this because they had to adjust the car for the customer.

Needless to say, the previous owner just replaced her radio because she kept yelling about it and he caved.  Again, rewarding bad behavior.  She came into the shop a few months ago for an oil change and she told me she is prior military because we do offer a military discount.  My brother in law who is an owner of the shop, is a veteran.  One of our employees pulled me to the side and said she was never in the military and the dog tags that she claims are real were ones she had made at the mall.  This employee wouldn’t lie about something like this and he knows pretty much everyone in town.

When I learned about this information I asked her for her military ID in order to receive the discount.  She couldn’t provide it to me and came up with some BS excuse that once you leave you don’t get one.  I told her that’s not true, I know you have a card that shows you’re a veteran.  We live in a military town for god’s sake.  The only time (that I’m aware of) where you don’t get an ID is if you’re dishonorably discharged.  She tried to argue with me about it and when it came time to pay, she wouldn’t give me her card right away.  When I gave her her receipt she told me that she was going to tell her dad to never come there again and that they bring 7 cars to our shop, which is not true yet again.

She came back in last week for an oil change.  When she came in she asked to speak to the boss man and pointed at one of our employees.  I asked her what it was in regards to.  She started talking about how she is entitled to the military discount.  Her exact words were “I know that you guys are under new ownership, but I used to get discounts from the last owner, so I want a discount.”

That’s when I told her, well, the person you pointed to is one of our employees, the boss man is right over there and I pointed to my husband.  She gave my husband an attitude and he told her to leave.  The last owner (who hasn’t owned this shop since August of 2019) let way too many things slide with problematic customers.

Dress: SHEIN // Shoes:  Boohoo // Bag:  Amazon // Earrings:  Amazon

THE REPEAT OFFENDER

This one is a doozy.  On Friday morning we had a woman who pulled into the driveway leading up to the bay.  However, she was half in the driveway and half blocking the rest of the driveway for other cars to pull in.  We told her we had to guide her into the shop and she just kept yelling out of her window.  We weren’t able to hear anything because there’s a highway next to the shop.  She eventually started to drive into the shop.

While she was driving into the shop I kept telling her to pay attention to the technician who was guiding her in and she wasn’t paying attention to him at all she was looking at me.  This customer ended up almost hitting our employee and he jumped out of the way.  That’s when I started to yell “stop the car, stop the car, ma’am stop the car!”  She still wasn’t paying attention and was trying to talk to me and almost hit the car in front of her which was another customer’s car.  After that happened, she was so angry with me for whatever reason.  She had an attitude that I first told her to pay attention to the tech and then I told her to stop the car.  She ended up leaving the shop so angry.

It gets worse though because she came back later on in the day.

This time around she just started driving into the shop and I yelled for her to stop the car because she was very close to hitting the corner of the grate.  You can pop your tire on those if you hit it at the right angle.  I’ll be honest, I didn’t know it was her until I walked up to the window and saw her face.  She had such an attitude towards me the entire time.  Even though one of our other techs yelled at her to stop driving into the shop as well.  I’m not sure why she was so rude to just me and was nice to everyone else, but before she left, Karen with a capital K asked what my name was.

Of course I gave her my name.  However, I so badly wanted to follow up with “are you going to try and call corporate and get a hold of my husband and try to get me fired?”  I figured that would only add fuel to the fire so I kept my cool and bit my tongue.  The worst she can do is leave a Google review, but that’s ok.  I know that I did nothing wrong.  I was looking out for the safety of one of my employees, a customer’s car, and even her car so that she wouldn’t pop a tire.  Maybe she was having a bad day and she decided to let her frustrations out on a very clearly pregnant woman (I swear, I’ve popped more within the third trimester).

THIS HAPPENS A LOT

These run ins that we have with customers is a normal occurrence.  It’s nothing new.  I know they may sound extreme but it wasn’t until I started working in the shop that I saw just how unhinged and rude people are.  A lot of the times I have issues with the older men.  This is because they’re stuck in the old days where it was thought that women don’t belong in a shop.  One of them even flat out told me that women don’t belong in a shop.  He also didn’t know the difference between synthetic, high mileage, and standard oil.  Which I found very comical and ironic.

Related:  You know you work in an office when…

Dress: SHEIN // Shoes:  Boohoo // Bag:  Amazon // Earrings:  Amazon

LET’S MOVE ONTO THE LINKUP

With all of that said, let’s move on to the linkup!