34 week appointment

I just got back from my 34 week appointment.  Things are looking great, and the doctor said my pregnancy is progressing nicely.  Which is always good to hear!

I had to go in again two hours after I ate lunch to have my blood sugars tested, but they came out fine.  The doctor said this means I don't have gestational diabetes (which I thought we'd already determined) but he wants me to keep eating healthy.  Which is pretty much a no brainer.  I think my body is loving the fact that I'm giving it better fuel to burn.  I hope to continue the trend long after the baby is born!

Blood pressure is fine, although I was a bit freaked out over the number: 142/62.  The doctor told me it's the number on the bottom that concerns him the most, and since I was coming into their office in the middle of a stressful work day, he wasn't concerned about my numbers.

I'm still measuring a week ahead, but the doctor isn't concerned about that either.  And he's equally not concerned by the fact that I now weigh 2 pounds less then when I conceived.  So either everything is going great, or my doctor takes to much x.anax. 

Things that made me smile this week

• Minute Maid Light Lemonade.  Soo good, and refreshing with the heat.  And also a great treat at the end of a long day!
• My fur baby Moo.  He follows me everywhere lately, even on all of my bathroom trips, although he gets locked out.  He's started sticking his paw under the door when I'm in there.  Makes me smile every time!
• My Nook.  I love being able to carry 20+ books around with me wherever I go.  
• My Zune.  Without music I'm pretty sure I'd turn into a grumpy, mean spirited person.
• Anything related to Anna.  But that's a given.
• Being told by a lady at work and another one at my pharmacy that I look amazing.  Totally made my week, because I'll be honest here, I don't feel like I look amazing.  I feel fine physically, but I don't know how well that translates to what everyone else sees.  
• Cold baths.  Absolute heaven!  By the end of the day I feel overheated and swollen, and a nice cold bath makes me feel so much better!  Plus as I'm laying there reading my Nook, I can look over at the door and see paws sticking under the door.  Who wouldn't smile seeing that?
• Watermelon anything.  Fresh watermelon, watermelon sorbet, watermelon bubble gum.  Yummy!  And the price on the fresh watermelon is going down, which is really helping my budget as I've been eating it non-stop since January.

What's made you smile this week?

My Third Summer as a Popsicle Pusher

So begins another summer.  Last week I went to the store and bought a giant box of otter pops, and I know it isn't the last box I'll buy this summer.  What started out as a great way to get a certain little boy to leave my house, has morphed into a summer tradition.  And the kids all know it.  I am, for better or worse, The Popsicle Lady.

This year, the popsicles came with rules.  First rule is that they can't come up and bug me incesantly about getting a popsicle.  I'm hoping that the kids respect this rule, but I'm not certain they will.  The second rule is that I will no longer hand out popsicles to any of the kids if I find any of my flowers picked.  I'm hoping the lure of the popsicle mixed with kid peer pressure will save my blossoms.

Back story on the flowers:  I've been getting home from work each night to find my flowers picked and then abandoned in my driveway to wither and die.  It's one thing if you are picking my flowers to take home to your mom, but to pick them and just let them die?  Anger.

Anywho, there are two new little kids in our circle that moved in over the winter.  They didn't know about the popsicles, and we so excited to get them.  So excited in fact, that they took out my trash cans and helped me weed the front yard.

All this time I've been going about it the wrong way.  I was using the popsicles as a way to get the kids to leave, when I could have been using them to get yardwork done!  What have I been thinking?

Spoiled? Yes. But also incredibly grateful.

I had a baby shower last Saturday.  It was beautiful and fantastic and so surreal.  I couldn't believe how many people were there to help me celebrate my little miracle.

My friend threw the shower, and it was so well put together.  I'm still waiting on pictures to be emailed to me, but when I have them I'll make sure to post some.  I swear this friend could be a party planner (I don't know why I was so surprised actually. . . .She was the one who planned my wedding, and it was fabulous as well!)

When my friend was planning the shower she asked about what I would and would not like.  The only rule I gave her?  To not be too baby focused.  I know, tough rule.  But the infertile that's still inside me couldn't stand that my shower might hurt someone else.

All together, it was a nice shower.  No dorky baby shower games (although there were games), the food was wonderful (so they tell me, I just ate the watermelon), and the people who showed up made me smile.

I'll post pictures when I get them.

Oh, and as to why I'm spoiled?  This shower was one of three.  My next shower is July 16, and the final shower is August 5th.  Yeah, I'm spoiled, but so incredibly grateful for the opportunity to be spoiled!

Update on the Gestational Diabetes

About a month ago I failed my 1 hour GD test.  And I realized that I haven't updated you guys on what's happened since then.

The following week I took my 3 hour test.  Longest 3 hours of my life.  The glucose drink was thicker and sweeter then it was for the 1 hour test.  It was hard to drink, and hard to keep down the first hour of the test.  Overall, the test wasn't as bad as I'd feared or as good as I'd hoped.  But I survived it.

When I received the results, I had failed the second hour blood draw, but passed the other three.  So I'm now on a "we'll just pretend like you have gestational diabetes, even though you didn't completely fail the 3 hour test" diet.  The only plus side to this, is that if I feel like I must cheat (like with the really yummy cupcake at my shower Saturday) I don't feel horrible. 

Otherwise, I'm cutting way back on sugar and carbs, and have been told to increase my protein substantially.  Boo.  Me and protein have not been friends throughout this pregnancy.  I can't say that I've had many cravings other than watermelon, but I have definitely had aversions, and anything with meat has been unable to be eaten.  But I'm sucking it up in the name of a healthier me and a healthier baby.

At my last check up appointment the doctor had me eat a normal lunch and come in two hours later to have my blood sugar tested.  And it was normal.  Now he wants me to do it again at my next appointment in two weeks.  Hopefully all is well that time too.

So short version: I don't have gestational diabetes, but I'm pretending I do.

I knew that pregnancy came with it's own special kind of body changes.  I was expecting most of them.  The stretch marks I wear like stripes of accomplishment, even when I whine about them.  The leaky boobs mean that my body is trying to make food for the little one.  The big stomach is her safe haven for the next nine weeks.  I can even get used to the stranger ones, like my normal freckles turning into huge spots, or the itchy rash that I cannot get to leave my elbows.  Honestly, if that's what it takes to make this baby, I'll deal with it!

But then Sunday happened.  And quite honestly, I think I found a pregnancy change that I'm not loving.  I was driving home from The Husbands parents, and I kept getting this hair falling into my eye.  I'd take off my sunglasses, brush my eye, pull my hair back, and then two minutes later, that same hair is back.  Since I was driving, I couldn't find the offender and deal with it, so I waited until we got home and grabbed a mirror to find the evil hair.

It was my eyebrow.  I had a three inch hair growing out of my eyebrow.  WTF?  How is that normal, even pregnancy normal?  And three inches?  I've been walking around with old man hair in my eyebrows for how long?  AACK! 

So, since I'm not going to claim that my body would do something like that without the benefit of pregnancy, we are going to call this a nasty pregnancy symptom, and hope that it never ever comes back.

The Things People Say. . .

I've reached a point in my pregnancy where I am obviously pregnant.  I've passed the "Is she just gaining weight? Maybe she's fat" stage and entered into a whole new unknown.  It the place where complete strangers feel it's appropriate to comment on my size, my weight, my tummy roundness, and anything else they can.

The conversation ususally goes something like this:

Stranger: So, when are you due?
Me: August
Stranger: Ooohhhhh (then looks at stomach again)
Me: Yep
Stranger: Are you sure there's just one in there?
Me: Yep (but what I really want to say is some snappy comeback about them making judgments about my weight)
Stranger: That baby's gonna be huge then!
Me: Well the doctor is fine with her growth, so I'm not worried
Stranger then usually lapses into a story about a friends brothers cousins ex wife who had a kid who was huge and how it totally wrecked her body/mind/car etc.

Yeah, thanks stranger.  I find your knowledge about me being pregnant just as helpful as all that information you spouted regarding infertility.  I mean, doesn't everyone trust other peoples advice more than that of their health care provider?

Then last week at work, a male coworker comes up and asks me, "So, how much weight have you gained?"  First off, none of your damn business.  And second, I haven't actually gained any weight.  How do people think that this is an ok question to ask? 

And finally, I have to complain a bit about the little kids in my neighborhood.  Every single time I step outside, one of the brats kids says "Wow, your tummy is HUGE!"  Is it bad of me that I want to respond with something to make them run inside and cry?  Probably.

Honestly though, even though these people annoy me, and I will complain about them (because I'm a top notch complainer, just ask The Husband) a big part of me is thrilled that people are recognizing I'm pregnant.  And if they don't understand exactly how much of a miracle I consider all of this, it's their loss.  Because I'm loving it.