Whew. 33 Weeks already. Is had certainly crept up on me. I can’t even believe I only have five to seven weeks left. Eight at the very most. There was a point when it seemed like this day would never come. Now I sit here, watching myself grow bigger and bigger, feeling my baby thump and thud inside my stomach, and know that I will get to meet her very soon. It is just so incredibly amazing. Here is my 33 week belly shot:
And the close-up:
There is a butt (or possibly a head–is it bad that I can’t tell the difference?) poking out of my stomach just under my right rib. I can push on it and it goes away…and then pops right out again. This is all well and good, but I gotta say it makes my stomach look (and feel!) quite lop-sided.
Just thought you ought to know…
I had my 32 week doctor’s appt this morning and have this to report back:
Urine: Normal: no protein, no sugar (yea!)
Weight: lost 1 lb since last appt (back to 6 lbs total gain)
Blood Pressure: Nice and low
Baby’s Heartbeat: Normal, in the 180s
Measuring: right where I am suppose to be
I was worried once I got on the scale and realized I lost a pound, but my doctor says that at this point it is fine. She thinks it is because of the new diet and added exercise, not that there is something wrong. We are going to watch my weight and make sure I don’t lose too much or she will recommend I bump up my caloric intake a little more.
I showed her my blood test results and she was very impressed. I have a few that are a little high, but I can usually contribute that to something I ate (Damn you Beaterville strawberry jam, you are going to do me in!) or less exercise on a certain day. Overall, she gave me a pat on the back and said she understands how hard it is and said I am making the transition wonderfully.
I have a regular appt set for two weeks from now and she thinks that will be sufficient. But we did schedule an ultrasound appointment for about three weeks away just to check on baby Ana’s growth. We want to make sure she isn’t getting too big in there, even if Mama isn’t here on the outside.
All signs are pointing toward the end of this pregnancy. My daily pregnancy emails all talk about preparing for birth and how I am just about done cookin’ my little one. Even my pregnancy tracker on my blog mentions how the baby is turning head down in preparation for birth. Things are suddenly feeling very, very real. So Simeon and I got our butts in gear yesterday and cleared out the “guest room” and made it into our “nursery.”
We were a little worried about all the furniture assembly because we have heard some horror stories about broken/missing pieces or instructions that make no sense whatsoever. But luckily our assembly went smoothly and before we knew it, we had created a room for our baby.
We have all the bedding, bumpers, etc. that follow our star and moon theme (Pottery Barn Kids, My Friend the Moon), but we haven’t bought a crib mattress yet, so that part can wait. Plus I don’t want our cats getting too cozy in there and claiming it as their own before Ana even has a chance to sleep in there. I will post the final pictures once we have the little details completed. For now, what you see is what you get.
Now that we have the new dresser (which we will also use as the changing table) put together I can start washing and sorting all the little clothes we have started to acquire…and let me tell you there is a TON. Already this girl has a bigger (and better, I might add) wardrobe than I do!
All the nursery pictures (the before and after) as well as the furniture assembly pictures are here. And to fully round (ha ha ha!) things out, here is the belly shot for 32 weeks.
And the ever popular close-up:
On Sunday Simeon and I gathered up all of our loyal friends, pulled on our rain coats and hiking books and headed out to the farm. Lakeview Farm, that is. We got lost in the corn maze (damn you, flower!), enjoyed some lovely fall treats, and picked out our very own pumpkins at the pumpkin patch. Oh and don’t forget about the boat ride across the lake and the train ride back!
We didn’t let a little rain stop us from enjoying one of my favorite activites of the year. For me, the fabulous fall festivities bring friends and family closer together and allows everyone to be a kid again. If that doesn’t sound like a perfect day, I don’t know what does.
Then (almost) everyone headed back to our house where I was simmering a huge pot of chili and baking corn bread to warm everyone up from the inside out. Once we were fed (and dry again) we set forth on carving our pumpkin masterpieces.
You can check out all the pictures from our adventure here.
I met with a dietician again last night to follow-up from my first class. She wanted to check on my food journal and glucose levels and compare them to see if I needed to change anything. She said I was doing really well and thought I really understood the program….however she wanted to make an adjustment by introducing Diaetostat. She wanted to add more food (just like I thought she would) but wanted to add it in another meal (not at all like I thought). My current feeding schedule (look at me already sounding like I have a baby!) is this:
7:30am Breakfast
10:30am Morning Snack
1:00pm Lunch
3:30pm Afternoon Snack
6:30pm Dinner
9:30pm Bedtime Snack
You tell me where I am gonna fit in another meal! So then she says, “I imagine you get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom…could you just have another meal then?” I am sure the look on my face said surely you must be joking. She then pointed out that it was just one thing we could try to keep my blood sugar level through the night, since ten hours is a long time to go without food. I explained that I was already struggling with having to eat so close to bed, but I would give it a try if it would help.
So this morning I stumbled out of bed around 2am to use the bathroom and managed to navigate all the animals sleeping on the floor around me without hardly opening my eyes. Then I remembered (how, I have no idea) that I was suppose to have a snack so I walked down to the kitchen. I grabbed a glass from the cupboard and opened the fridge. I could not remember a time when that light was more bright! I grabbed the milk and managed to fill my (8 oz) glass and not even spill. Then I closed the fridge, leaned against the counter and downed my glass. I went with the milk for my first middle of the night snack because that sounded WAY easier than the bean burrito or cheese sandwich the dietician suggested as other options. Feeling like I was doing pretty good I rinsed out my glass and went back to bed….where I was totally awake for the next hour and a half. Apparently my body does not like to do more than pee in the middle of the night or I am totally awake. Then just as I was starting to drift off again, my daughter finally got the snack and was kicking the heck out of me, which kept me awake longer.
All I can say is that I am really glad this is only a temporary condition. I cannot wait to pop this kid out so I eat like a normal person again. Oh and look-out Christmas dinner! I cannot wait for things like rolls, mashed potatoes, stuffing and pie. Oh dear Lord the pie! Mmmmmmm…
Here is my lovely cat, Frodo, curled up sleeping with the Snoogle. See, it is great for the whole family!
Do you all know what today is? It is October 14th. And does that mean anything to you? Cause it sure does to me. It means I have exactly TWO MONTHS until my due date on December 14th. Aaagh! I am officially in my 31st week of pregnancy. Boy those numbers just keep getting scarier every day.
So to help Simeon and I come to terms with this realization we went and bought our crib today. Yes, our child will officially have a place to sleep. No sleeping in a dresser drawer for any daughter of mine! Once we muster up the time and patience required to assemble all the baby furniture and add some of the baby decorations I have been acquiring over the years (yes, years) we will totally have some nursery picture for you. Did you hear that? A NURSERY!
Oh yeah, as promised, here is the belly shot for 31 weeks.
And the ever popular close-up:
I would like you to meet my new best friend. I like to call him Spike. Yep, yep, yep. He is my personal glucometer. This part is the lancing device I press against the side of my finger tip (it hurts less than the actual finger tip, or so they tell me), push the teardrop-shaped (or perhaps it is a blood drop?) button which results in a tiny prick of the finger.
This is the monitor. Once I prick my finger I squeeze just a little bit to get enough blood to apply to the test strip (not shown). The test strip goes into the yellow “docking” area and my blood glucose results are displayed in seconds. My particular monitor keeps track of all my tests, with date and time stamp (although I haven’t figured out how to actually set those yet), calculates averages and with the right software can create all sorts of fancy graphs and charts. Now who wouldn’t love a friend who can do all that??
Best of all, everything I need fits into a tiny little travel case so I can literally carry my friend Spike around with me in my purse all day. Cute, huh?
Last night was my Diabetes Education class. I was going to blog about it last night when it was all fresh in my mind, but my class was from 6:30-8:30pm, clear on the other side of Portland and I had to stop at the store on the way home for some groceries so I could actually attempt to follow my new diet (I’ll get more into that in a bit). By the time I got home it was all I could do to change into pajamas before falling asleep. It was a looooong day.
So I managed to find my class and being the over-achiever that I am, arrived a little early. I walked into this fairly ghetto looking clinic only to find that aside from the teacher (and someone who was being trained to teach this class) I was the only one there. At first I was thinking maybe I was earlier than I thought or, worse yet, that I was in the wrong place. But they quickly assured me I was in the right place, it was just that I was the only one enrolled in this class. I was actually pretty excited about this because it meant I got a one-on-one with the dietician and could ask any questions I had, no matter how stupid they may be.
Overall, I would have to say the class was pretty helpful. As a frequent Internet user (Google, anyone?) and a first-time mother who reads anything on pregnancy she can get her hands on, a lot of the stuff was review. I mean who doesn’t jump online to look something up the minute you are diagnosed? So since I was the only one in class, we got to skip over a lot of the basics and get into the nitty-gritty. They provided me with my own Medisense Precision Xtra glucometer and taught me all about testing my own glucose levels. Surprisingly, I have to test my blood four (!!) times a day. Once first thing in the morning to get a fasting level, then two hours after each of my main meals (breakfast, lunch & dinner). So my little glucometer (it is actually quite cute-I will have to post a picture later since I can’t find a good link to it online) pretty much travels with me all day long. I just have to actually remember to use it!
Then we jumped into the diet portion of the class. I know how to eat healthy, as I have done diets in the past, but learning to eat to balance my blood sugar is going to take a little bit of work. There are some pretty zany rules specific to gestational diabetes (such as no fruit before lunch) due to the ever popular raging pregnancy hormones. There are some, in my opinion, contradictory rules (I can only have 8 oz of milk at a time, yet I can eat endless amounts of cheese) that are going to take some getting use to. For now I just have to stick to my diet book and become best friends with my measuring cups (and, sadly, measuring spoons) for portion control.
I also have to keep a food journal as well as a glucose journal to see how my diet correlates to my blood sugar levels. Then next Monday I have a follow-up with the dietician to see how well I did and if anything needs to be adjusted. At this point it is looking like I might get bumped up to a little bigger food allowance since my blood sugar has been pretty low. But I guess that is better than too high. Then again, maybe not. I don’t know. Eeee.