Another month gone by? Seriously. I do feel like we're getting a handle on things at home though so I guess it could be worse. Anyway, onward to the monthly recap.
Books Read:
Hypnobirthing by Marie Mongan
Birthing From Within by Pam Englund
Mindful Birthing by Nancy Bardacke - still in progress
(do we sense a theme here?)
Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
Movies watched at home:
Oranges
Lars and the Real Girl
This Is The End
Reservoir Dogs
Movies watched in theatre:
None - but plan to in November for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. It will probably be the last movie we see in the theatre before little guy gets here
On TV:
Finished The Sopranos and Orange is the New Black
Usual favorites - Modern Family, Parks and Rec, HIMYM, Parenthood, New Girl, etc. The Walking Dead started again so we picked that back up
Restaurants visited:
Red Lobster
Barley Johns
The Bachelor Farmer
Five Guys
Sarna's
(not letting GD get me down!)
Shopping:
Hit up the Just Between Friends Baby and Kid Consignment sale with my mom and got a few items for both me and baby
Other adventures:
Saw Josh Groban with my mom, started cleaning and organizing at home more in prep for baby but also to clean up a bit in general
Baby stuff:
Took another childbirth class, finished cleaning out baby's room, set up the crib, had three showers with family and friends, starting to wash clothes and decorate. We'll be 34 weeks tomorrow. Getting closer to the homestretch. I'll be having an ultrasound next week both because they do it for GD patients at this point, but they also feel I'm measuring small, so we're checking to see what's going on in there. Applied for maternity leave. Slowly crossing off my "to do" lists!
10/31/13
10/18/13
The good things
So yesterday was one of those days, I had a bad moment, I wrote it out here because sometimes that helps, but then I talked it out loud with my mom later and so I then came back and took it down from here. It doesn't need to be here for the world to see. Everything is much better today so that's all that matters. The sun is shining and I'm feeling pretty good.
In the spirit of that I have decided it's finally time to highlight the highs so far of this pregnancy. They would be as follows:
-Any time we've had an ultrasound. It has helped me feel much more connected to this little being inside of me when I have actually been able to see him moving around on the screen. My favorite was at one of the first trimester screens when they check for signs of downs syndrome or other disorders (fairly routine, though you can opt out) and he was moving around almost too much for the tech to get a scan and was even standing on his head at times. The results still came back fine on that test in spite of his active craziness!
- Until the GD diagnosis, re-discovering my love for a good, real sugar soda. No high fructose corn syrup for this gal. I forgot how good an ice cold root beer can be though or how tasty real ginger ale is or even a cherry soda. I didn't overdo it - that's not how you get GD by the way - but it was a nice treat now and then especially this summer. I miss it a little, but actually since it's been colder it hasn't sounded quite as good now, so it works out!
- Finding out that he was a HE. I pretty much knew from the start this was going to be a boy, I just had this feeling, but the day of the ultrasound was very exciting and we didn't have to wait long into the scan - they found his boy bits right away.
- People opening doors for you or offering to help with stuff. Sometimes I don't like all the attention, but some days I get to work and my hands are full and having someone offer to hold the door just makes my day.
- Baby showers. I had my mom's family's shower a couple of weeks ago, I have one with Nate's family tomorrow, one with my girlfriends next Friday and yet another one in mid-November with Praise Project. This kid will be so spoiled, but we are so blessed. I love it all.
- Interactions with the very kind and wonderful staff at my clinic. They are seriously some of the nicest people from the front desk to the nurses to the lab and pretty much all of the OB's we've seen, save for the one who scared the crap out of us at the first appointment. Obviously, I support Fairview as a place of employment, but I would recommend Allina to someone just based on the good experiences I've had.
- Maternity clothes. Yeah are we surprised I'd find a positive in having shop for clothes? I have enjoyed it simply for the fact that I challenged myself to find things at the consignment store and thrift store and have only bought a handful of things brand new. And it's been kind of fun to dress the bump. And PS - maternity jeans are so way comfy, I almost don't want to give them up after the fact!
- Feeling him move. It took longer for me to feel movement for the first time as my placenta is anterior - at the front of my belly so it acts like a cushion between baby and me. The moves felt odd at first but now I enjoy them. I know he's doing ok and it makes me smile. My favorite is watching it when I'm taking a bath or something - it's so crazy to see these ripples and pokes but I love it. It makes me laugh.
- Strengthening my bond with Nate. Seriously as I have said over and over - he has been my rock through this whole experience and I feel like we're closer than ever. I have enjoyed our birthing classes because of how almost intimate it's been for us and this new journey is just so much more exciting and exhilarating than I ever thought possible and the baby isn't even here yet. I know it won't always be easy, but I know we can do this as long as we are together. I can't imagine loving him more than I do right now and yet I love him more every day as we get closer to this birth. Yeah I'm sappy and mushy and whatever, but he is simply the best.
I'm pretty much in a good place right now. I'm experiencing minor pregnancy discomforts that are typical of the third trimester - namely I have trouble getting comfortable and staying asleep at night - but those are so minor really. I still can't believe I never was sick and that the worst of the worst was really getting GD - and even that hasn't been bad. I hope this is a sign of things to come for motherhood as well, but I know you can only really go one day at a time, so that's my plan!
In the spirit of that I have decided it's finally time to highlight the highs so far of this pregnancy. They would be as follows:
-Any time we've had an ultrasound. It has helped me feel much more connected to this little being inside of me when I have actually been able to see him moving around on the screen. My favorite was at one of the first trimester screens when they check for signs of downs syndrome or other disorders (fairly routine, though you can opt out) and he was moving around almost too much for the tech to get a scan and was even standing on his head at times. The results still came back fine on that test in spite of his active craziness!
- Until the GD diagnosis, re-discovering my love for a good, real sugar soda. No high fructose corn syrup for this gal. I forgot how good an ice cold root beer can be though or how tasty real ginger ale is or even a cherry soda. I didn't overdo it - that's not how you get GD by the way - but it was a nice treat now and then especially this summer. I miss it a little, but actually since it's been colder it hasn't sounded quite as good now, so it works out!
- Finding out that he was a HE. I pretty much knew from the start this was going to be a boy, I just had this feeling, but the day of the ultrasound was very exciting and we didn't have to wait long into the scan - they found his boy bits right away.
- People opening doors for you or offering to help with stuff. Sometimes I don't like all the attention, but some days I get to work and my hands are full and having someone offer to hold the door just makes my day.
- Baby showers. I had my mom's family's shower a couple of weeks ago, I have one with Nate's family tomorrow, one with my girlfriends next Friday and yet another one in mid-November with Praise Project. This kid will be so spoiled, but we are so blessed. I love it all.
- Interactions with the very kind and wonderful staff at my clinic. They are seriously some of the nicest people from the front desk to the nurses to the lab and pretty much all of the OB's we've seen, save for the one who scared the crap out of us at the first appointment. Obviously, I support Fairview as a place of employment, but I would recommend Allina to someone just based on the good experiences I've had.
- Maternity clothes. Yeah are we surprised I'd find a positive in having shop for clothes? I have enjoyed it simply for the fact that I challenged myself to find things at the consignment store and thrift store and have only bought a handful of things brand new. And it's been kind of fun to dress the bump. And PS - maternity jeans are so way comfy, I almost don't want to give them up after the fact!
- Feeling him move. It took longer for me to feel movement for the first time as my placenta is anterior - at the front of my belly so it acts like a cushion between baby and me. The moves felt odd at first but now I enjoy them. I know he's doing ok and it makes me smile. My favorite is watching it when I'm taking a bath or something - it's so crazy to see these ripples and pokes but I love it. It makes me laugh.
- Strengthening my bond with Nate. Seriously as I have said over and over - he has been my rock through this whole experience and I feel like we're closer than ever. I have enjoyed our birthing classes because of how almost intimate it's been for us and this new journey is just so much more exciting and exhilarating than I ever thought possible and the baby isn't even here yet. I know it won't always be easy, but I know we can do this as long as we are together. I can't imagine loving him more than I do right now and yet I love him more every day as we get closer to this birth. Yeah I'm sappy and mushy and whatever, but he is simply the best.
I'm pretty much in a good place right now. I'm experiencing minor pregnancy discomforts that are typical of the third trimester - namely I have trouble getting comfortable and staying asleep at night - but those are so minor really. I still can't believe I never was sick and that the worst of the worst was really getting GD - and even that hasn't been bad. I hope this is a sign of things to come for motherhood as well, but I know you can only really go one day at a time, so that's my plan!
10/4/13
My GD story
So I mentioned I'd blog about the highest of the highs and lowest of the lows in this pregnancy. Fortunately the lows have been few - once I got past the initial shock and weirdly dark place I was in when I first found out I was expecting, the lows really were nothing big. There was the doctor that sent us into a blind panic when he couldn't find the heartbeat at 12 weeks, sending us for an ultrasound and having everything be just fine. There was getting summoned for Jury Duty at the end of June and still being in the thick of my crazy hunger - but then not having to go in but one day and being released early. There was the day I slipped on some collapsed boxes in the baby's room and kind of fell - thankfully not hard. But for the most part, those are all pretty piddly things. The low that brought my world to a crashing halt came about two weeks ago.
It's pretty much routine now that every pregnant woman is screened for Gestational Diabetes around the 28th week of pregnancy. So I set my appointment up for the Tuesday of that week and while I wasn't looking forward to going in and drinking the 50g glucose drink because of horror stories I'd heard, I figured, I'll suck it up and do it and it's all going to turn out just fine. I was almost a little cocky about it because I thought, I have a pretty darn good diet, this is going to be no problem.
So I showed up at 7:00 am on the day of my appointment. I brought a straw at recommendations from others and they gave me the choice of orange or lemon/lime to drink. I chose the lemon/lime and it was not bad at all, kind of like flat Sprite or 7Up. I downed that sucker in about two minutes and then set about my 1 hour waiting time. The time went pretty fast, I played Candy Crush and read a little and then I was called back for my blood draw. After that was my routine OB appointment. I saw my nurse practitioner and she pulled up my results and said "unfortunately, your blood sugar was a little high, and it's either pass or fail, so we'll have to have you come in and do the three hour test." I was a little disappointed but after I got home I heard from so many people who were like "oh yeah, I failed the one hour, but passed the three hour" So I thought, ok, this can still turn out all right.
I managed to get an appointment that Thursday, so only two days later. In that amount of time I kind of did a sugar fast - which was really quite silly. I shouldn't have been trying to "cheat" that test. I was also a little more apprehensive about the next test, they double the amount of glucose you drink from 50g to 100g and you have to fast the night before - so you're doing it on a completely empty stomach. I knew more than one mom who reported getting sick from this test - and they still make you come back until you can keep it down. Not to mention - you have to sit there for three hours and have your blood drawn four times. We all know Beth does not do well with blood draws. Thankfully my lab techs are quite awesome at this clinic, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
I packed my laptop, my book, some snacks to eat as soon as I was allowed and planned to just take the whole day off of work in case I needed to go home and crash. Once again I got to the clinic nice and early. They took my blood right away and had no problem. I was given my lovely drink once again. It took a little longer to get it down - much thicker in this concentration. But I downed the whole thing and the worst I ever felt was slightly lightheaded, but that was about it. I sat in the waiting room and watched Dancing with the Stars on my laptop, played some games, did some Facebook and the three hours went faster than I thought they would. I'm sure it helped that I had to go back to the lab once an hour for my blood draws. The lab techs really were good though, they only had trouble getting a vein once, I was quite impressed. At the last draw I asked if I would get my results via MyChart later in the day as I usually did - and the lab tech said "um, no, we'll have you wait in the waiting room and someone will be out to talk to you." That was the first sign something wasn't right.
I had to wait way too long for someone to come out, but they were pretty busy that day. Finally a nurse came and said "well unfortunately we do need to set you up with diabetic counseling." At this point I pretty much knew that was the news. She told me to wait and someone from scheduling would be right with me. So now I'm kind of just trying to keep it together - my mind is in overdrive and I just wanted to talk to Nate. I was able to meet with the scheduler who got me set up in the next available diabetic class, which sadly was a week away from that point. She even complemented me on how well I was handling the news - I'm like, Lady if you only knew what was going through my head right now.
I practically ran to my car at this point and got Nate on the phone and as soon as he answered I was full out sobbing. He couldn't understand me very well. I know I was babbling about things that seem so pointless now but was all I could think about right then - no cookies, no orange juice, no apple pie. He asked me to meet him for lunch so we could talk in person. He's a smart man that one. Of course after we talked he helped me see it was not my fault, it was nothing we couldn't handle and that it would only be for a couple of months. He's a rockstar.
We blindly started following the dietary guidelines we could find online for the next week until I got to go to my class. The nice diabetic educators were so awesome - again they stressed that while there are definite risk factors to getting GD, sometimes it's just that our hormones are wacky and don't know how to deal with the sugars from eating carbs. They broke the diet plan down into a very simple regiment - basically showing how to spread your carbs out throughout your day. They also taught us how to take our blood sugar which is not nearly as daunting as it sounds.
So, just one week in and I'm happy to report I'm doing very well. I had a follow up visit yesterday and they said "your numbers are wonderful, keep doing what you're doing and you'll have a healthy remainder of pregnancy and a healthy baby!" So I'm feeling good and confident and I know that I've got this. And there are only 10 weeks to go until this little guy shows up. It's totally manageable. And I think this new diet has actually helped me feel pretty darn good too.
Moral of the story - what turned out to be the lowest low has somehow turned around to be kind of a high. I'll take it.
It's pretty much routine now that every pregnant woman is screened for Gestational Diabetes around the 28th week of pregnancy. So I set my appointment up for the Tuesday of that week and while I wasn't looking forward to going in and drinking the 50g glucose drink because of horror stories I'd heard, I figured, I'll suck it up and do it and it's all going to turn out just fine. I was almost a little cocky about it because I thought, I have a pretty darn good diet, this is going to be no problem.
So I showed up at 7:00 am on the day of my appointment. I brought a straw at recommendations from others and they gave me the choice of orange or lemon/lime to drink. I chose the lemon/lime and it was not bad at all, kind of like flat Sprite or 7Up. I downed that sucker in about two minutes and then set about my 1 hour waiting time. The time went pretty fast, I played Candy Crush and read a little and then I was called back for my blood draw. After that was my routine OB appointment. I saw my nurse practitioner and she pulled up my results and said "unfortunately, your blood sugar was a little high, and it's either pass or fail, so we'll have to have you come in and do the three hour test." I was a little disappointed but after I got home I heard from so many people who were like "oh yeah, I failed the one hour, but passed the three hour" So I thought, ok, this can still turn out all right.
I managed to get an appointment that Thursday, so only two days later. In that amount of time I kind of did a sugar fast - which was really quite silly. I shouldn't have been trying to "cheat" that test. I was also a little more apprehensive about the next test, they double the amount of glucose you drink from 50g to 100g and you have to fast the night before - so you're doing it on a completely empty stomach. I knew more than one mom who reported getting sick from this test - and they still make you come back until you can keep it down. Not to mention - you have to sit there for three hours and have your blood drawn four times. We all know Beth does not do well with blood draws. Thankfully my lab techs are quite awesome at this clinic, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
I packed my laptop, my book, some snacks to eat as soon as I was allowed and planned to just take the whole day off of work in case I needed to go home and crash. Once again I got to the clinic nice and early. They took my blood right away and had no problem. I was given my lovely drink once again. It took a little longer to get it down - much thicker in this concentration. But I downed the whole thing and the worst I ever felt was slightly lightheaded, but that was about it. I sat in the waiting room and watched Dancing with the Stars on my laptop, played some games, did some Facebook and the three hours went faster than I thought they would. I'm sure it helped that I had to go back to the lab once an hour for my blood draws. The lab techs really were good though, they only had trouble getting a vein once, I was quite impressed. At the last draw I asked if I would get my results via MyChart later in the day as I usually did - and the lab tech said "um, no, we'll have you wait in the waiting room and someone will be out to talk to you." That was the first sign something wasn't right.
I had to wait way too long for someone to come out, but they were pretty busy that day. Finally a nurse came and said "well unfortunately we do need to set you up with diabetic counseling." At this point I pretty much knew that was the news. She told me to wait and someone from scheduling would be right with me. So now I'm kind of just trying to keep it together - my mind is in overdrive and I just wanted to talk to Nate. I was able to meet with the scheduler who got me set up in the next available diabetic class, which sadly was a week away from that point. She even complemented me on how well I was handling the news - I'm like, Lady if you only knew what was going through my head right now.
I practically ran to my car at this point and got Nate on the phone and as soon as he answered I was full out sobbing. He couldn't understand me very well. I know I was babbling about things that seem so pointless now but was all I could think about right then - no cookies, no orange juice, no apple pie. He asked me to meet him for lunch so we could talk in person. He's a smart man that one. Of course after we talked he helped me see it was not my fault, it was nothing we couldn't handle and that it would only be for a couple of months. He's a rockstar.
We blindly started following the dietary guidelines we could find online for the next week until I got to go to my class. The nice diabetic educators were so awesome - again they stressed that while there are definite risk factors to getting GD, sometimes it's just that our hormones are wacky and don't know how to deal with the sugars from eating carbs. They broke the diet plan down into a very simple regiment - basically showing how to spread your carbs out throughout your day. They also taught us how to take our blood sugar which is not nearly as daunting as it sounds.
So, just one week in and I'm happy to report I'm doing very well. I had a follow up visit yesterday and they said "your numbers are wonderful, keep doing what you're doing and you'll have a healthy remainder of pregnancy and a healthy baby!" So I'm feeling good and confident and I know that I've got this. And there are only 10 weeks to go until this little guy shows up. It's totally manageable. And I think this new diet has actually helped me feel pretty darn good too.
Moral of the story - what turned out to be the lowest low has somehow turned around to be kind of a high. I'll take it.
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