As I get bigger (and bigger) and my due date gets closer and closer, naturally Ana and I have been having more discussions about babies and birth. Nothing I haven’t been able to field yet, but it sure is fascinating to me to see how her mind works. Ana and I had the following conversation while watching A Baby Story on LTC this afternoon:

Ana: Mom… when you have (points at my belly) the baby, will you have to go to the hospital?

Me: Yes.

Ana: But why? Usually the baby just comes out… and you can wash it in the sink.

Me: Well, we could do that, but I would like to have your sister at the hospital. Then we can have a doctor to make sure everything is safe. Then the doctor can check her and weigh her and measure her.

Ana: I don’t think you should go to the doctor. The doctor is scary.

Me: Why would you think that? You love going to the doctor. You love playing doctor. You want to BE a doctor!

Ana: Oh yeah. I forgot. I was just being silly.

I have been feeling pretty good lately. I am still sleeping really well, with the exception of the couple trips to the bathroom in the middle of the night. The lower back pain that was crippling me for the last several weeks has finally started to ease up. I did have one little twinge last night while I was trying to get comfortable to go to bed, but by morning it had mostly disappeared. Sure, I get tired really quickly so I just have to remember to take it easy and take more breaks. Today I cleaned all three bathrooms in our house and I was about ready to slip into a coma from exhaustion afterward. For the most part, it’s been pretty easy to take it easy and I owe all of that to Sim and Ana. They have been amazing helpers and don’t mind picking up my slack (or overlooking the lack of vacuuming).

As for the gestational diabetes, things are going quite well. I am constantly surprised that I am able to remember to test my blood glucose first thing in the morning and two hours after each meal (I have an app on my iPhone that has a reminder, but I have to actually remember to set it for it to work). I think I have only forgotten a couple times when we were out for something special. Otherwise I have been really on top of it. And my post-meal levels have been great. Eating out is the hardest, simply because I have no control over what they put into the food. Most national chains post their nutritional info online, so I can look it up on my phone (you would be surprised at the foods you think are “healthy” in restaurants) but it’s harder with the little “mom and pop” restaurants that we love to frequent. It was tricky at first, remembering which foods I could have and how much, but I am getting pretty good at it now. I think it helps that my stomach is shrinking (or the baby is sitting on it) because I get full so fast now and that has helped tremendously with portion control. My fasting (first thing in the morning) glucose levels have been a bit higher than I would like, but as those aren’t anything I can control (with diet or exercise) there isn’t much I can do about it. I’ve tried eating different things before bed and snacking in the middle of the night when I go to the bathroom but nothing seems to make any difference. I see my doctor on Friday and I will see what she has to say about it during that appointment.

Until then, here is my 29 week belly shot:

As always, any pictures of Baby Bateman 2.0 will be collected here.