32 Weeks 4 Days

How far along?: 32 Weeks and 4 days. Only 7.5 weeks to go. Doesn't seem real.

Total weight gain/loss: Three weeks ago I had gained 23 pounds. Haven't been weighed since then

Stretch marks?: Nope, not yet. Keep those fingers crossed.

Sleep: It's getting more and more harder to roll over. I'm getting to where I need to grab a hold of something to help me roll. Jarrod has been good with helping me with that. Still getting up to pee every night.

Best moment this week: During an ultrasound, watching my little girl stick her leg up over her head and grab a hold of her toes with her little hand.

Movement: She's not a big time mover. Every time I go in for my monitoring (once a week) they have to give me cold water to get her going. She normally moves all night though. Definitely has her daddy in her.

Food cravings: Oh my, where does the list begin. Anything sweet, since I can't have any of it. Cravings that are allowed on my diet, ice. I LOVE to chomp on ice.

Labor Signs: The braxton hicks have started in. Luckily there aren't too many that the doctors are worried.

Belly button in or out?: Still in, but slowly getting more shallow.

What I miss: Sweets, bread, muffins, ice cream, you get the idea.

What I am looking forward to: Knowing what my baby girl is going to look like, and knowing what we are going to end up naming her =)

What I am NOT looking forward to: Labor! Being at home indoors while I get use to the new lifestyle.

Weekly Wisdom: Make sure you have a great partner at home to help you as you get further along. Everyday chores just wear you out and take all your energy. And, Lamaze class is great, even if you do end up with an epidural.

Milestones: Hitting that 8 week mark. For some reason, it always thought that once I got there, then I was close.

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

So, it’s been a couple weeks since I’ve updated on here, so I thought I should probably get around to doing that. How’s my life been these couple of weeks? I’m glad you asked. We’ll start with the pleasant stuff first. I had my baby shower this weekend (pictures coming soon, I promise) and it was wonderful. There was a great turnout and it was amazing to see all the people there who are excited to see baby sug arrive in October. Speaking of baby sug, she’s been kicking around a lot and I still can’t over how much I love to feel this. My mom and sisters got to feel her for the first time this weekend too and it was such a joy for them to get to share in this excitement.

As for the not so fun stuff, I hate gestational diabetes. No, I abhor it…okay, so I know this means the same thing but the latter just seems to fit better for my situation. A little background: before I was pregnant I was a pretty healthy eater. Organic fruits, vegetable, whole grains, not too many sweets. I tried to be healthy as I could. Once I got pregnant, I craved everything that was “bad” for me. I wanted sugar, and I wanted it all the time. And I thought, you know what Jamie, as long as you don’t eat it all day long you deserve to have a little indulgence and so I did. And then BAM I get hit with this cruel, cruel disease. Now, I not only can’t have the sweets, I can’t even eat the healthy whole grains that I use to eat. Jarrod and I went to a little coffee shop the other day and I got my typical decaf latte (with no sugar) and I look across the room and here’s this lonely guy on his laptop eating probably the worlds best chocolate muffin known to man. Y’know the one, all chocolate with chocolate chips on top. I almost laughed, because here he is, in his own little world probably doing something work related on his computer, mindlessly eating this bundle of goodness with no clue that 3 tables over is an 8 month pregnant woman who wants nothing but to walk over, take the muffin, shove it in her mouth (think cookie monster) and then politely walk away. Instead, I just sat there calmly sipping my latte with a grin on my face (and maybe a little drool.)

Last complaint, I promise. I feel very lucky to not be experiencing much back pain, but oh…my…goodness. Just about every other day, I feel as if a 300-pd man is standing on my pelvis. Now I know baby sug is getting bigger and the pressure is sure to increase, but I mean there are some days I can’t even walk it’s so bad. I explained it to Jarrod like this: imagine someone kicking you as hard as they can in the groin. Now, get up and walk. This is what I feel most days. They tell me it’s normal, but I just don’t know. I just tell myself, it’s increasing my pain tolerance and I can normally deal with it.

…thanks for reading…

30 weeks

Not every pregnant woman will do this, but since I've had some family members and friends say they wanted to see the "pregnant belly" and I have not found any stretch marks yet, I figured I would go ahead and post these. 'Cuz if they stretch marks come, it's safe to say there won't be anymore bare belly shots. I was exactly 30 weeks here:

Gestational Diabetes

Well, I went in for my 30 weeks appointment on Thursday and the doc gave me the news. I failed my 3 hour glucose test, which means I now have gestational diabetes (diabetes you get only during pregnancy.) He told me that it was something that I could control with my diet but that I had to see a specialist on Friday to go over all the nitty gritty. So Friday morning Jarrod and I got up early (Jarrod got to go with me) and headed to the new doctors office. Now, I'll preface with saying that I love my doctor. While he's a little short on time when I see him, his nontraditional ideas on vitamins and vaccines and shots are on point with how Jarrod and I feel, but his office is pretty much the same as any other doctors office. When we walked into the new place, I felt like I was walking into a spa. There was a fountain in the lobby and probably the most comfortable furniture I have ever sat in. I guess when your considered "high risk" they want you as comfortable as possible. So I get all signed in and they take me back to do an ultrasound. I was only expecting a sit down with a doctor to go over my new 'diet' but any chance I get to see baby sug is quite alright with me. It was amazing as always to get to see her moving around in there. Her face is starting to fill out some and she was head down! Lets hope she stays like that. We even got to see some hair sprouts coming out of her head. The lady said this is when hair first starts to grow so it was so cool to see. Now if only we knew what color it was going to be =). After the ultrasound they hooked me up to a fetal monitor to watch for movement and contractions. I was on this for like 30 min. It was so neat to see her little heart beat raise a bit as she started moving. At first she was a bit quiet and the lady brought in this stimulator device that she said she could put on my belly to wake little girl up if she stayed quiet too long. As soon as she showed it to me, baby sug started kicking up a storm as if saying "alright, I'm awake! Just don't put that thing near me!" It was hilarious. The doc finally came in and told me all the things I could and couldn't eat and told me that yes, I am going to have to test my blood sugar 4 times a day. But, to my surprise the prick of the needle wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. He also went over all my results from the morning and gave me a 10 out of 10. He said the babies weight is in the 50 percentile (perfect), the amount of amniotic fluid in my uterus is perfect (diabetes can cause too much fluid) and the heartbeat and movement was perfect. They tested my blood sugar while I was there and it was 88 (anything below 120 is good) so they said I'll pretty much be just fine as long as I keep to the diet they give me. But, I do have to see them once a week to go through all the tests again. Fine with me. I love seeing my little girl during ultrasounds and the fetal heart monitoring will just ease all my concerns that I might have.
Oh, and the doctor said I could have sugar free ice cream, but I just haven't brought myself to do it yet.

...thanks for reading...

Not Pregnancy Related

So, this post has nothing to do with the pregnancy but I just had to put it on here. We went to a wedding this past weekend in Chicago. It was a beautiful wedding and I really enjoyed visiting Chi-town. I got to go to two of my favorite places in Chicago, IKEA and Caribou Coffee. Best coffee ever...even in the decaf version.
Today's post stems from the funniest thing I saw all weekend. We were at the reception for the wedding. Jarrod, my sister, and I were all sitting at one of the tables watching all the dancers get their groove on. The DJ was playing a complete random mix of music (mostly all requests). For example, he went from "Mustang Sally" to the Chicken dance song (seriously, that song needs to be banned from all speakers). Well, the song "I kissed a girl" came on. At this point, most of the 'older' adults left the dance floor and the younger crowd came up to dance. All of a sudden Jarrod bursts out laughing. I asked him what was so funny and he just said "turn around." I look across the room and sitting at one of the tables is a white-headed man somewhere, in his 60's-70's singing the song. Now, I'm not talking about just bouncing his head to the beat, he knew every single word, chorus and verse! I mean, it wouldn't have surprised me one bit if he had gotten up and joined the rest of the 'youngin's" on the dance floor. We wanted to get a video but there was just no sly way of doing it, but I guarantee you would have laughed right along with us.

i said no pregnancy news, but I took my 3hour glucose test this morning (not fun!). I post the results when I hear them.

...thanks for reading...