Fun appointment

I had my appointment yesterday with the endocrinologist so I can start taking my blood sugar levels. It was going to be a pretty busy day, I had the appointment at 9:20 and then had to head to Hartford as we were hosting a fundraiser for the Senate President. I had gone shopping the night before so I had all the beer, wine and paper supplies for the event in my car, and had already organized the ad book and most of the paperwork needed for the 4 pm fundraiser so I wasn't worried too much about time.

Until, at about 9:50 as I was sitting in the doctor's office and start feeling not quite right. I ask for a glass of water, but it doesn't help and I continue to get that clammy feeling and feel like I might pass out. They take my blood pressure, which was 118/64 when I came in, and it was down to 90/54. My normal blood pressure is 100/60 so I'm not sure how much lower 90/54 is, but they were concerned. They give me a little bit of orange soda to try to make me feel better and it does for a minute but as soon as the APRN starts talking about stuff again...I start feeling sick again. Finally I just had to lay down for about 15-20 minutes until I was back to normal. The nurse told me not to go to work, and John had to pick me up for the doctor's office because she didn't think I could drive. What a mess.

So I had to call work, my boss picked up all the stuff from John, which was so nice of him and Vicki (our office manager) had to take over for me here. Everything worked out fine, fortunately I was pretty organized. It pays not to wait for the last minute to do stuff :).

It was nice to have a day off though, I really didn't do anything and my body felt so relaxed and recovered. None of that late day/evening soreness and tiredness that I am used to. I even went on a cleaning spree before Brian H. came over to "move furniture." Brian was going to help move some stuff down to the garage and out of the soon to be nursery, but the rain never stopped so he had to settle for a couple Sam Lights. So Jenn H., if you are reading this and hear that Bri needs to "move furniture", you're welcome to join him next time!

As for my levels, I think I'm doing pretty good. At least so far...so hopefully it continues this way and I am able to stay off insulin. The nurse recommended pretty much the same diet as I was already doing, so now I'll just find out if the food I'm selecting are the right choices. Apparently all carbs aren't equal. It's still hard to fight off the cookie urge, especially when there are some tasty ones left over from last night from Congress Rotesserie...yuuuum. Oh well...Only 9 1/2 weeks left....

Baby Dreams

So I think last night was the first time I actually had a dream where I saw the baby. I think it was a girl, but not positive. I actually had two dreams.

First I had a dream that I was going to have the baby on Monday. I went in for an appointment and they did an internal and said, wow look at that you're 3 cm dilated! Looks like you're going to have your baby on Monday. I freaked out and said that can't be, I'm not ready...the baby isn't ready...it needs to be in there longer. Then I looked down and could see that I had dropped, my belly was way way down. But they didn't seem concerned at all that the baby would only be 30 weeks. I started crying and didn't know what to do, I was going to call John but for some reason I couldn't and got all overwhelmed because I knew I had stuff going on at work this coming week and so much stuff wasn't done. And I didn't want to walk anywhere or do anything that would encourage labor so I was just stuck in the waiting room at the doctor's office. Then my logic started setting in and said, well how come you aren't admitting me now to slow down the labor and putting me on bed rest? They still didn't care. Baby was coming on Monday.

So then, later on I had a dream that I was somewhere with Vicky and Becca, who is about 15 months old, and I was trying to put both of the babies in the backseat of my car with the car seats, but they weren't installed correctly...they were only tied in with a seatbelt and the LATCH wasn't connected at all. Fortunatley Vicky knew how to fix it. But then my baby was just on the seat with a seatbelt at one point, and its butt kept falling through the crack into the trunk, very strange. Finally, both babies were in their car seats and I realized I hadn't nursed in a while and my baby was hungry but I could tell that Vicky was getting frustrated with me because I was taking so long to do everything. Finally I said we could just go home and I would feed the baby there and hoped the baby would be ok until then. Baby wasn't crying but just looked really weak and I was afraid I was hurting it by not feeding it right then. I think that's about when I woke up.

Very strange indeed. I think the first one stems from the conversation with my boss yesterday where he said he figured by about the 2nd week of September I'll be completely miserable driving back and forth and will want to go part-time, and he thinks I'll end up delivering 3 weeks early. Yikes...oh and he thinks I'm having a boy. I guess the other one is also just a fear of not being ready and the fear of being a mom and doing everything right...needless to say it doesn't make for a good nights sleep.

29 Weeks

Here's my latest belly shot. I'm not sure that I look that much bigger than last time, but the doctor tells me its perfect. So that's all I care about.

I just got back from my doctor appointment. It took forever for them to see me!!!! I am used to going in the morning and I'm one of the first appointments, but today I was at 4 pm and it as 4:50 before they took me. Ugh. But its a Tuesday, so they were happy to actually be done a little after 5 :). The doctor expressed his frustration that we aren't able to get me into a see a specialist faster, they finally got me an appointment for Friday, September 1st which is still 9 days away. He did recommend that I call to see if the dietician or a nurse could see me and train me on how to take my sugar levels before next Friday so at least I can get started. I'll still have to meet with the actual doctor next Friday, but its a start. When I got home I actually had a message from the specialist, so we'll see what they have to say tomorrow.

It looks like I will be at the doctor quite a bit. I am already into my 2 week visits (which is normal, they told me last time I went I would start 2 week visits next time), and then at 34 weeks I think he said he would begin non-stress tests weekly, unless I have to go on insulin. Then non-stress would begin at 32 weeks, weekly. And I can expect an u/s every three weeks to make sure the baby isn't growing too fast...so I'm not sure when that begins, because there aren't that many weeks left! And he told me to expect to go to the specialist weekly, at least at the beginning so they can check my levels.

Besides all that, he said the baby seems great. Still measuring on target, and the heartbeat is still pretty fast so he predicts its a girl. The baby has turned so I'm not breech anymore (I was at my 20w u/s). The head is down, butt is on my left side and legs are on the right. But I think the butt switches sides because the hard lump moves. Baby was moving all over the place when he was trying to get a heartbeat, which I guess is a good thing.

Now if I can just get Tigger and Mountain Kitty to stop fighting life will be good. They have taken to actually chasing each other around the neighborhood, ok, more like Mountain Kitty chasing Tigger, rather than just his regular stalking.

It's Official

I told one of my bosses today that I plan to take at least a year off. We've been talking about for a long time and over the weekend John asked me when I planned to tell them I was taking a year off. So I figured since she was in, I might as well get it over with. She handled it pretty well....I can't believe I'm really not going to be working next session. It seems strange to even think about not being there, but hopefully I like staying home. I am sure I will. I never thought I would be a stay at home mom, but I am looking forward to it. Now I just can't wait for the little one to actually be here :).

Time is going by so fast though, and from what I've read there is a chance that I could deliver earlier than my due date because of gestational diabetes. I guess babies tend to grow faster, so a lot of times they come early or the doctor induces you at 38 or 39 weeks to avoid a large baby. I guess we'll see...

I'm still waiting to hear from the doctor about seeing a specialist. I called this afternoon and they were still having a hard time getting me into see someone in a relatively quick timeframe. You would think that doctors would have slots just for patients with gestational diabetes, but I guess that would make too much sense.

Good news first....

The good news is that we had an ultrasound on Wednesday and the kidneys actually shrunk so the baby is no longer considered a risk. Yeah :)! It was measuring right on target, heart beat was 155 bpm and they estimate the baby weighs about 2 pounds, 9 ounces right now. They told me that meant the baby was in the 35th percentile. I asked if that was ok, and she said yep, you don't want to have too big of a baby. I agree.

So on to the bad news. I failed my 3 hour glucose test which means I have gestational diabetes. I guess it doesn't surprise me that much. I know that my fasting levels were normal, and I think the tests that show whether or not I've had a problem for long than now came back ok as well so it should just be gestational which means it will go away shortly after the baby is delivered.

I will find out much more next week when I have my regular appointment on Tuesday and they are trying to get me into see a specialist so I can learn how to test my blood sugar levels and also more about an appropriate diet for me. For now, I have to do a revised South Beach type diet, I guess more along the lines of Phase 2 from what I've been reading so I can still have the right kinds of fruits and right kinds of carbs (not like the beginning when you cut out everything for 2 weeks to lose weight.) But it's a little more difficult, since I have to limit juices now, but can't have regular soda and can only have 1 diet drink a day (nutrasweet and splenda aren't recommended when you are pregnant.) So I'm not sure what that means I can drink other than water, and I'm going to keep drinking my milk because I know I need calcium. And I'm not sure what the story is with sugar free snacks, because a lot of them use nutrasweet or splenda as sweetners as well. I've already begun making a list of questions to take with me to the doctor.

Hopefully I am able to keep my levels at a normal range by changing my diet without having to go on insulin. That is definitely a motivating factor in eating the right way, that's for sure.

So that's it...I'll be doing so low carb grocery shopping today :). We are also going to Tile America to pick out tile for the bathroom so John can start tiling. Tomorrow is going to be a rainy day so I see lots of cleaning and organizing in my future.

New Hampshire

Here we are on the Kancamagus Highway at one of the Scenic Overlooks. It was very pretty. It was so nice to get away for a few days, even though it went by really fast.


And it was fun to see all the kids. We went to Polar Caves, the Flume and Story Land. Woohoo :)! Preparing for all the fun kid things we'll get to do once the baby arrives! Here are a couple pictures, John, Elizabeth and Thomas on the Bamboo Chute and John and Sadie on the Observation Deck at Polar Coaster.






Things are going ok here. On Wednesday before we left I went to take my 1 hour glucose screening test. I passed the fasting portion but I failed the 1 hour test so I need to go back today for the 3 hour. Hopefully it goes well. I haven't had any carbs since yesterday morning, and I figure if the bagel yesterday morning really affects it that much I probably do have a problem. Ugh, I'm already hungry though. This is going to be a long morning. My test isn't for another 55 minutes.

Tomorrow we are going for our follow-up ultrasound at the hospital to make sure the kidneys are still doing alright. Hopefully all is ok in there. Baby is definitely growing, I can tell by the lovely stretch marks I have. I've been putting some cream on them, but I'm not sure it's preventing anymore. I guess they say they can get pretty itchy after a while, so cream is good for them anyway.

So it's a busy week here, and a busy week at work as well. There are two fundraisers I am working on, one Thursday and another Friday. Thursday's is coming together well, now we just need to get a few more people to Friday's event.

Our 1st Anniversary

Time goes by so fast. A year ago at this time, we were outside Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church for our receiving line....it was a beautiful day last year and another beautiful day today! Our wedding was so much fun, I miss it sometimes....I wish we could do it all over again. Everyone was so happy and having a great time. It's not very often that you are able to have all of the special people in your life in one place at one time.

Our big anniversary plans? We've been taking it easy, watching the Red Sox game. Looks like they might actually pull off a win today. Then we are going to dinner at Carmen Anthony's. Neither one of us have ever been there so I hope it is good, everyone says it is. We had thought about going to Block Island for the day, but honestly I'm happy we decided not to go. Baby has been kicking me an awful lot and I've been getting tired. So a day of doing nothing is perfect.

I thought about trying on my wedding dress....but something tells me it wouldn't fit right now. I guess the goal is to have it fit again next year :). I'll just have to settle for the defrosted wedding cake. I already tried the frosting and it tasted yummy.

And Happy Anniversary to everyone else: Amy & Chris, August 5th; Mr. & Mrs. Hannan, August 6th; Dan & Dawn, August 8th; and Mary & Matt, August 10th!

98 more days....

Yes, we have passed the 100 day mark! I can barely believe it. I remember when we passed the 100 day mark when we were planning for the wedding and the next thing I knew we were in Hawaii....

My appointment last week went well. Everything seemed normal, I gained 4 pounds. My weight gain hasn't been too bad, but I have to admit seeing it creep up and up is very scary. I'm already motivated to get to the gym. The gym we go to has babysitting facilities, $1.50 an hour! How great is that? So once the baby is 3 months, I'll be able to go there in the mornings or John and I can both go after work. At least I can talk a good game now, we'll see how I feel when we actually get there :).

Here is a picture of the crib (or at least one similar) we hope to get. There are so many decisions to make about furniture and baby gear, but I think we are almost done. Maybe. Now we just need to empty the guest room and turn it into a nursery! We'll be working on that a little bit tonight. We have the dumpster for one more day and then the roofer is taking it away, does that mean he will actually be done with the roof? I'm not holding my breath.

My next appointment will be my sugar test to check me for gestational diabetes. Hopefully that goes well, I am going next Wednesday, the 9th. Then we head to New Hampshire for a few days, and get to go to Story Land with Avery and Sadie! I can't wait :).

Sorry I have been MIA lately. The week just flew by! Here is the picture of my latest belly shot at 25 weeks. I've been having some trouble uploading photos, but finally got this one up here. I can't even believe I only have 14 1/2 weeks left to go! There is still so much to do.

But we are making progress. The closet in what will soon be a nursery is almost all cleaned out, well other than my clothes of course, they need to go somewhere! But all the shelves are cleared off and all the stuff is off the floor so there is actually room to put baby stuff. Yeah :)! I've been researching cribs for the past week or two and think I've limited it down to 3 choices. John and I will go to USA Baby over the weekend to see what he thinks. The ones I like will take 8-10 weeks for delivery, so we need to order it soon!

I have my monthly appointment today, so we'll see how everything is going. I don't expect much of a change from last month. I think I've gained another 3 or 4 pounds, which I think is normal. Hopefully :).

And we are getting our new refrigerator today! I am very excited about that. It's going to have so much room in it! Now we just need a new stove, dishwasher and dryer and we'll be all set :).

Aches and pains

By the end of the day today my legs and my back were killing me! I couldn't wait to get home and lay on the couch. I didn't do anything overly strenuous, so I guess this is just one of those pregnancy things. I took a tylenol a while ago but it doesn't seem to be helping. It seems like my cough might finally be going away, I only woke up once or twice last night coughing. The past few nights I was up non-stop coughing and had to attempt sleeping sitting up. I am the only person who can catch bronchitis in the middle of the summer.

I am still in search of furniture for the nursery that I like. I found what I am looking for, but from what I've read the brand isn't very reliable. I like the look of it, but it has bad reviews as far as quality. I guess that is why it was somewhat affordable. I can understand it not lasting forever, but if its going to arrive with missing parts or already looking used or damaged, that doesn't work for me.

It seems like the heat wave has ended for now, it's actually pleasant in the house tonight. It was so nice to come home from work yesterday and jump in the pool. It cooled John and I down and we weren't forced into the bedroom at 7:30 pm like we were Monday night.

Ok, time to find something for dinner. Not really hungry considering I'm all achy.

Summer is here

Oh yeah, it's hot. I have some sort of cough/sore throat thing going on, aggrevated by my asthma which has been flaring up with all this humidity. Not so much fun. I am going to the doctor this afternoon though, so hopefully I will get a refill on my inhaler and I'll be good to go. I'd like to be home right now either sleeping in the air conditioning or in my King Kool Lounger.

Last night I went to register at Babies R Us with Vicky, it was fun but it took up a lot of energy! It was nice to have someone who already knows what is going on tell me what I need :). You would be amazed how difficult it is to decide on some of these things...who would think picking out a stroller would be more difficult than choosing a name for the baby?

The baby has been kicking like crazy lately, especially right before I go to bed. Two nights ago it was moving around a lot, so I had John try to feel again and he finally did. He was excited, I don't think he believed the kick last week was real. But it can get going for 5 or 10 minutes now, which is much more than before. It used to just be 2 or 3 movements and then gone...it still catches me off guard though, especially if I'm in a meeting and all a sudden I feel the squirming. I just hope I'm not making funny faces!

Hopefully I feel better tomorrow so I can get some stuff done around the house and then head out to the pool!

The fun and not so fun never ends

Since I've been back from the beach, I still haven't been able to swim in our pool. Fortunately, it hasn't been TOO hot after work, so I haven't been too upset about it. We've had a nice breeze the past few afternoons. I am really hoping the pool guys came today, I meant to call to make sure we were on the schedule and forgot.

Yesterday I ended up going back to the doctor, I woke up with some spotting. I haven't had any since week 10 or 11, so I figured I should call to find out what was going on. The doctor had me come in right away to make sure the cervix wasn't starting to dilate or there was a separation of the placenta from the uterus, but all is well. Cervix is still tight and no separation, so the cervix was irritated some how. Maybe it was from that crazy game of croquet and all the dancing over the weekend.

Speaking of the weekend, Lisa's wedding was fabulous! And I am so jealous that they are in France right now. I would so love to take another real vacation before the baby comes, but I'm just not sure where to or when we would fit it in. John is trying to save up his time for maternity leave, which is more important but vacation sounds so lovely.

Other than that, baby is doing well. Lots of movement these days. We had our first class at the hospital last night, it was pretty good although I wish we had introduced ourselves to some of the other couples. As it turns out, the couple next to us lives in Hamden, we followed each other home. All I know is their names are Abby and Rudy...not much to go on. Maybe we'll run into them somewhere else.

Week at the Beach

I am finally home after spending the past 6 days at the beach, what a nice break! It was the usual fun, along with a Girls Beach Day to celebrate Lisa's last week as a single chick. Yup, she's getting married on Sunday! Woohoo. And, we got to meet Nolan in person! That was quite a treat. He was so well behaved, and it was nice to see Amy as well :).

John also felt movement for the first time while we were down there, it was nice to be able to just relax and have nothing to do so we were able to lay in bed and one morning little peanut was pretty active. Movement has become much more regular over the past week, and John finally felt it. He thought it was me pushing, but it wasn't :).

It is so nice that it is summer, I just wish I could go in the pool! The filter is broken again, and the stupid pool people never get it right. They are supposed to come back tomorrow to fix it, but that means we have to wait another day to shock and vacuum. Maybe we can swim Sunday morning before the wedding?

Tigger went to camp while we were at the beach and was so happy I was home. He slept next to me all night which is rare, he usually can't be bothered. I guess he does love me after all.

Oh, and I had my monthly appointment last week, I've only gained 13 pounds which isn't too bad. We have our first class at the hospital next Tuesday night, I hope we get a tour at that one. And I finally started registering a little bit, and Vicky has agreed to go with me to register for all the little stuff....I figured someone with a little bit of experience might be useful!

Belly shots

Ya know, belly shots has such a different meaning these days. Still fun but in a much different sort of way......

Here is the latest. One on its own and the progression, 12 weeks, 17 weeks and 21 weeks. Yup, it's growing!

Everything is Good

We just got back from our Level II ultrasound at the hospital. Here are the pictures of the ultrasound, the baby wouldn't look at us but we have a nice shot of its arm and hand. The doctor was very nice, and it was comforting to know that a doctor was taking all the measurements. Not that the tech doesn't know what is going on, but at least the doctor can determine if there is a problem or not rather than passing on information to someone else to look at. The baby's kidneys are measuring perfect today, each about 4.5 millimeters. He said anything above 5 millimeters is when they start to be concerned, so we are excellent. And all of the other measurements are also on target for my due date, they all looked between 20 w 3 days and 21 w 5 days. I am 21 weeks and 2 days today. He is having us come back in 8 weeks just to make sure everything is still looking good. He said if this were my first ultrasound and he got those results, he wouldn't think anything of it but since they were a little big at the first one he thought it would be best to check on them in 8 weeks.

So that was a big relief. I go to my obgyn on Friday for my monthly check up to see how much weight I've gained...eeks.

Madge Rocked!

Amazing amazing amazing! Wonderful show! We were in for a little bit of a surprise when we found out that there was NO AIR CONDITIONING!!!!! Apparently it "affects her voice" and doesn't have air at any of her concerts, and despite the fact that we were watching the show from the rafters, we still had a wonderful time. We certainly weren't disappointed. Though I'm laughing as I'm reading some of the reviews from people on the courant.com website. People complaining because she didn't do an encore...she does the SAME show at every concert...and although I had thought Holiday was on that list and it hadn't been played yet, I was wrong and we got the whole show. And people complaining because she was controversial, she sang Live to Tell from a big silver cross and had foul language. Um, SHE'S MADONNA!!! What do you expect??? I wouldn't expect any less :). Here is the set list:

Future Lovers / I Feel Love (Medley)
Get Together
Like A Virgin
Jump
Live To Tell
Forbidden Love
Issac
Sorry
Like It Or Not
Sorry Remix (Video Interlude)
I Love New York
Let It Will Be
Ray Of Light
Drowned World/Substitute For Love
Paradise (Not For Me)
Music / Disco Inferno (Medley)
La Isla Bonita
Erotica/You Thrill Me
ucky Star
Hung Up

The Biggest Star

I thought a change in music was appropriate to prepare for the big concert Sunday night! That's right, I was recipient of the "Best Sister of the Year" award after buying tickets for Melissa and I to go see Madonna in Hartford. Can't wait for the show!

Here is a much better picture of the baby. The first one came out very dark, and I added in some features! Yup, this is the baby's first headshot. So cute! John thinks this picture is a little scary, and the baby looks like a skeleton. Maybe it will be born on Halloween?

Everything is going pretty well, I read some more about the kidneys and I'm hoping it isn't anything to worry about. I'm wondering if they just wanted to send us for Level II ultrasound because we didn't have any of the other tests done. Amy and a few other people told me they know other people who have been told this at their ultrasound and everything turned out fine.

I am starting to make some progress in the organization area. Saturday I plan to do a lot more. I don't want to buy any baby stuff until the room is ready. We are holding off at registering for now, Babies R Us is in the process of cutting its ties with Amazon.com so a lot of the major items (including almost every decent car seat) is listed as "unavailable." I guess they aren't really out of stock, but they don't want anyone ordering them through Amazon since it is so close to the conversion. Hopefully after July 1 everything will be back to normal and the registry will be better than it has been in the past.

20 Week Ultrasound

We had our 20 week ultrasound this morning, baby has grown a lot! I will add a picture tonight when I am home. Most things were normal, although the kidneys appear to be on the "high end of normal" so we are going back for a Level 2 ultrasound next Wednesday. The ultrasound tech said it could be nothing, and that they looked normal when she first saw them but then as she kept looking they appeared larger. I guess if they still appear large next week they will continue to monitor them through the pregnancy and at birth they can do a procedure to make sure they are working properly. But she also said that the amniotic fluid level is normal, which means that the kidneys must be working. So that is good. Everything else is measuring normal, baby weights 11 ounces and all of the measurements I saw on the chart had us between 19 and 20 weeks so that is just about perfect. We saw 4 fingers and a thumb on each hand, one of which appeared to be in the mouth. It wasn't straight on, but it looks like we have a thumbsucker already!

I couldn't help but look to see if I could figure out the gender...I'll have to look at some others online and compare them to what I saw...it's just so hard not to speculate. We definitely would have been able to tell though, its legs were wide open when she was measuring the femur, but after that she focused mostly on the heart, brain and the kidneys, probably because they are most important but I also told her we didn't want to know so maybe she stayed away from that area? Who knows.

As for the belly, my belly button decided it wanted to start popping out this morning I guess. We got to the doctor's office and I laid down on the table and John says, "Look at your belly button!" Yikes, it was half way out! It wasn't even like that last night. But I was able to push it back in for now :).

Red Sox vs. Yankees

Here they are! Dan, Dawn, Avery and Sadie...stars of this month's Hoffman Honda Decades Magazine! Don't ask how this happened, something about Dan entering a contest to get free gas or service or something....next thing they know the photographer is on the way to the house to take a picture of them in all their "gear." Don't expect to see them wearing these outfits again anytime soon, they were promptly returned to the local sports shop :). Oh, and just so everyone knows...John and I have already converted Avery to a Sox fan, we're still working on Sadie. For those of you who don't know, Avery (5) and Sadie (almost 2!) are our nephew and niece, Dan is John's brother and Dawn is our sister-in-law.

Well it was a lovely weekend here. A little on the warm side, but it's nice that summer has finally arrived. We bought an air conditioner for the bedroom and that was a nice treat last night. Made sleeping very comfortable.

Saturday was Jenny's shower, my cousin Nate's fiance. It was very nice and she received lots of beautiful presents. Can't wait for their wedding in October, when I will be about 36 weeks! Hopefully we don't have a Staten Island baby!

My 20 week ultrasound is tomorrow. I am very excited to see the little peanut again! It's been so long, even though I've been listening quite often. And its moving around a lot more now, movement has definitely settled in. Hopefully in a week or two John will actually be able to feel it too. The othe day when it was moving around already and I pushed and felt a little a push back...but since the movements don't last that long its hard for him to catch anything yet.

Ok, time to get to work.