Friday, August 14, 2009
Test Results
Got my letter in the mail today- my gestational diabetes test came back completely normal! Yay! I can keep eating the way I have been which included s'mores with homemade marshmallows on Wednesday!
Weeks Nine, Ten & Eleven
Week Nine
Week 10: 3 of the shirts say- Grandma loves me, Daddy loves me, Mommy loves me
Week Eleven
Thursday, August 13, 2009
One lamp down, one (or two) more to go- updated
UPDATE: I added some glass beads to the base and think it looks much more finished, plus is heavy enough to not tip over easily.The lamp is on the chocolate sheep skin we picked up on our Montana vacation which we will use as a rug in the nursery. It's so soft I am sure the baby will love tummy time on it- as long as his neck is strong enough that he can keep his face out of the tickling fuzziness.
I still have two other lamp shades that I am considering matching to other bottle lamps for the nursery...just need Tim to finish up that last drink of scotch! I'd do it myself if I wasn't pregnant since it is one of my favorite scotches, but I need to be good for at least another 3 months.
Pregnancy "woes"
Woes in quotes since I so far I have had the world's easiest pregnancy.
My symptoms have included to date:
first trimester
-extra tired, with two incidents of feeling like I would pass out- the first standing in line at the Post Office where it was extra warm and I was behind a person who smelled like they hadn't bathed in a few weeks- the second on the train going to the airport where it was also very warm and the cars were swaying.
second trimester
-2 nights of acid reflux, with one incident of feeling like I would faint while standing in line for lunch (I think I was just overly hungry), and the appearance of chloasma on my upper lip, and one time sneezing while talking and walking and peeing my pants a bit :)
third trimester
-acid indigestion has just begun this past week after I eat- so I take some Tums (though I probably just need to eat smaller, more frequent meals), and Tim noticed this past weekend my new "linea nigra" (Before pregnancy, there was a line called the linea alba running from your belly button to your pubic bone. You probably didn't notice it, though, because it was the same color as the rest of your skin. www.babycenter.com). I'm also getting up between 1-4 times a night to pee- though averaging 2- pretty much at the end of each sleep cycle= every 3 hours, thus I am also a bit more tired now than I was during the second trimester.
I think I am having a couple Braxton Hicks contractions each day, but don't really know how to identify them, just a tightening of my lower abdomen occasionally.
My symptoms have included to date:
first trimester
-extra tired, with two incidents of feeling like I would pass out- the first standing in line at the Post Office where it was extra warm and I was behind a person who smelled like they hadn't bathed in a few weeks- the second on the train going to the airport where it was also very warm and the cars were swaying.
second trimester
-2 nights of acid reflux, with one incident of feeling like I would faint while standing in line for lunch (I think I was just overly hungry), and the appearance of chloasma on my upper lip, and one time sneezing while talking and walking and peeing my pants a bit :)
third trimester
-acid indigestion has just begun this past week after I eat- so I take some Tums (though I probably just need to eat smaller, more frequent meals), and Tim noticed this past weekend my new "linea nigra" (Before pregnancy, there was a line called the linea alba running from your belly button to your pubic bone. You probably didn't notice it, though, because it was the same color as the rest of your skin. www.babycenter.com). I'm also getting up between 1-4 times a night to pee- though averaging 2- pretty much at the end of each sleep cycle= every 3 hours, thus I am also a bit more tired now than I was during the second trimester.
I think I am having a couple Braxton Hicks contractions each day, but don't really know how to identify them, just a tightening of my lower abdomen occasionally.
Rocker update
The rocker is officially ordered- we got it in an medium gray Alpaca herringbone upholstery fabric.
When it comes (8-10weeks) I'll post a picture.
28 week appointment
Yesterday morning was my gestational diabetes and anemia test day. I refrigerated the orange Glucola the evening before and drank it in the car on the way to my appointment. Since I normally eat breakfast I was quite hungry and feeling a bit nauseous after about 15 minutes post orange drink. (This stuff tastes EXACTLY like the unfrozen Freeze Pops of childhood- so not terrible but by no means good.)
You have to have your blood drawn exactly 1 hours after finishing the drink- so I got to my appointment a half hour early to make sure I'd be there in time.
The nurse pulled me back, took my blood pressure (98/58), weight (157lbs- my home scale had said 154 that morning), then told me to wait in the room for Stephanie (my favorite midwife so far).
Stephanie popped her head into the room exactly one hour since I finished the Glucola and asked if I'd had my blood drawn yet- with my answer of 'No' she took me to get it drawn.
The nurse who was in charge of drawing blood was...a bit socially awkward. I greeted her brightly (thinking that as soon as my blood was drawn I could eat my half a peanut butter and apricot jam sandwich waiting for me in my purse) and she said a rather flat 'morning' back. I sat down and asked her how many blood draws she does a day (doesn't everyone like being asked about their day and job?) and she responded with another flat 'I dont' know, I don't keep count'. So I gave up trying to make conversation. She proceeded to put on the band on my upper arm and gave me a foam ball to squeeze.
Now normally I have no problems with needles or getting blood drawn, but when she put the needle in my arm it REALLY stung- and THEN she couldn't find the vein. I don't know how it is supposed to go when they don't hit a vein right away, but I would have preferred her to remove the needle and try going in again. Instead she proceeded to swish the needle around under the skin with REALLY stung and was more painful than I would have anticipated. After about a minute of this (I was breaking out into a cold sweat and feeling like I would pass out at this point) she finally withdrew the needle and moved to my left arm- while saying with a less flat tone- even bordering on surprised 'You aren't even bleeding!'
I was worried that the left arm would go like the first and I would truly faint, but luckily it worked much faster to get the two vials of blood.
Thankfully she let me sit there for about 2 minutes - to stop the cold sweat and pass the feeling of faintness. Then I went back to the exam room and gobbled my sandwich.
Stephanie checked my fundus height- right on track at 28cm. Listened to the heartbeat- he kicked her doppler and we could hear his heartbeat speed up.
And I asked her "How much have I gained?"
"20lbs"
"Ah! tell J (last appointment's midwife) to do her math more carefully- she told me I had gained 27lbs already last time!"
"oh! No, you are right on track- you could gain a lb a week from now on and still be fine"
So this appointment went much better.
I should hear this week or early next the outcomes of the glucose and anemia tests.
Next appointment is Sept. 3rd- normal appointment at 31 weeks.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Rocker
This is the rocker we are leaning towards and will try to go see today during the lunch hour. We had found a upholstered swivel/rocker that we thought might do, and even brought home 6 fabric samples to look at in the nursery- but didn't love any of the fabrics so we hadn't ordered it. That hesitation was a good thing because the more I thought about the chair the less I was sure about it since when I had sat in it at the showroom it was comfortable, large enough to accommodate a sideways held nursing child and small enough not to loom in our rather small nursery- BUT the back of the chair didn't come up to my head height- so I was just imagining getting very frustrated at 1, 3, and 5 in the morning while nursing and not being able to let my head rest on something.
The rocker pictured above has many fabric options and fits pretty much my list of requirement: higher back height, upholstered for sitting comfort, wide enough to fit a child sideways, visually small enough not to take over the nursery. The only thing it doesn't have is upholstered arms since I don't really want to knock my poor child's head, but I am planning on just draping a small blanket over the arm as needed.
I also love that it is a true rocker- I grew up with a few traditional wooden rockers of my mom's so I have a soft spot for them.
Fishing
Yesterday we did go fishing at Watson Mill Bridge State Park that has a beautiful single lane covered bridge you have to go across to get into the park. The stream is pretty small and the water was surprisingly warm after the chilly glacier waters of Montana. It was just cool enough to make the air temperature bearable (on our drive home we passed a banks temp sign that said it was 100- but I think it must have been a bit high).
This is the Coosa bass we were targeting. Tim caught 4 or 5 in our 2.5hours of fishing and I got two bites- hooked one but didn't land it. I probably should have had higher numbers but I was busy with taking pictures and seeking out shady spots to sit and rest for a minute.
I got the white shirt in MT and it's got that built in bug repellent and is very light weight (wore it thinking I wouldn't need to put on as much sunscreen if more of me was covered up). However it was so hot an humid I HAD TO GET IT OFF my belly. I had just hiked up my shorts before Tim took this picture, I should have left them sagging b/c my belly looks much bigger that way since the shorts were pulled away from my legs in the front when hiked up.
6 months and 4 days pregnant.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Last far away vacation pre-baby
My midwife advised me not to travel more than 2 hrs from the hospital after 28 weeks so this past week, July 25th-Aug 2nd, (in my 26th week) Tim and I went to Montana to fish while we still had the freedom.Originally (pre-pregnancy) we were thinking of floating the Smith river with would entail 5 nights of camping at night and floating in a boat and wading during the day to fish. Once I got pregnant I thought 5 nights of camping at 6 months pregnant didn't sound so great so we switched to fishing out of a comfy lodge at Spotted Bear Ranch for 4 days of fishing/5 nights.
The above picture was the first day of fishing- we got down to the Spotted Bear River after about a 2 or 3 mile hike- on which we saw fresh black bear tracks and ...poop. Didn't see the bear though (thankfully!). This was my first fish, not a bad size for the type of stream and fish.
Then at the end of about 6 hours of wade fishing we hiked the 3 miles back. Not bad for a pregnant lady!
The second day of hiking and wade fishing we had to go down a steep 'path' (and I use that label loosely) it was at least a 60% grade- not exaggerating- and about a 500 ft descent.It started to rain that day - with much accompanying thunder- so we ditched out of the stream (hence the pants wet up to my thighs) and our guide made a small fire to keep us warm during the rain.
The third day Tim and I float fished- in a comfy raft with seats that had back supports. I caught at least 14 fish.
Still can see one toe poking out!
Obviously no proper bathroom in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, but this worked just fine and was more beautiful by far than the average outhouse.
Deep down under
This morning I had a list of about 10 tasks for Tim and I to get through: fix toilet, weed front yard, put on mailbox numbers, paint front door and back door, paint stoop, , etc- so that tomorrow we can go fishing and to a movie.
We started with the toilet that had been leaking from the tank into the toilet (needed a new flapper)for about 2 weeks and was progressively getting worse. But in order to fix it with the new flapper, arm and float we needed to turn off the water to the house because the valve to just the toilet leaked quite a lot when we shut it off (so it too had to be replaced).
I had gone to Lowe's earlier this week and got the toilet insides but hadn't picked up the valve b/c I realized when I got there I didn't know the size or if we had copper or galvanized pipes. So today Tim went under the house in search of the main shut off- and found it- quite far under the crawl space by the furnace (where there is about 30 inches between the dirt floor and the floor of the house). It was here that he discovered the main vent from the furnace to the front of the house had COMPLETELY fallen off. We had been wondering for months why our crawl space was so nice and cool all the time (and had found a couple of vents into the house that needed to be better positioned and taped up) and why the front of the house was always so darn hot!
So I went to Lowe's (having not bathed yet- which if you know me you know that I shower before I exercise because I feel gross otherwise so this is a big step for me- AND wearing the t-shirt I wore yesterday and slept in- I looked AWESOME) and got both the needed valve for the toilet and some extra long zip ties to reattach the vent to furnace. Good thing the zip ties were sold in a large pack. When I got back Tim said he needed my help to hold the vent/duct thing while he got the zip tie on. This entailed me crawling under the house 6 months pregnant trying not to slide on my belly under all the air conditioning stuff hanging down from the floor above which only left about 20inches of clearance. We got the main issue resolved. Tim turned back on the water- the toilet now working perfectly. At this point I was back up in the bathroom to make sure our new valve did not also leak (since we had to use the existing compression ring instead of a new one since the copper pipe was cut so close to the floor we could cut it off and replace it with a new one). And then I heard Tim from under the house yell up that he needed some more zip ties and help because he looked around more under the crawl space and saw that even further under the house (now less than 30inches space high) there was another duct work problem where a y-junction had completely fallen down and wasn't attached to the ducts leading to the front two rooms. So in I crawled in again with the extra zip ties to where Tim was assessing the best thing to do and we fixed that as well.
So really, the leaking toilet has probably saved us gobs of cash on air conditioning, and we found it while I am still able to crawl around under the house, and now I won't boil in the front rooms! It's been a good morning-though so far all we've gotten done on the list is the fix toilet and mailbox numbers- the weeding and the painting will have to wait until this evening or tomorrow.
It's been one of those weeks of lots of house and car ownership hassles- the wagon needed a new bulb in the headlamp and new tires, the house had a HUGE limp on the roof when we got home from vacation so that brought visits from both the tree guys and the roofing guys...ah, the joys of ownership!
After Tim gets back from getting his haircut we go to pick up our car (which needed 4 new tires- one had been slowly leaking for a few months and every week the light would come on and we'd get out the bicycle pump and put more air in-I counted this as part of my exercise) and then we get to go to finish picking out a rocker for the nursery!
We started with the toilet that had been leaking from the tank into the toilet (needed a new flapper)for about 2 weeks and was progressively getting worse. But in order to fix it with the new flapper, arm and float we needed to turn off the water to the house because the valve to just the toilet leaked quite a lot when we shut it off (so it too had to be replaced).
I had gone to Lowe's earlier this week and got the toilet insides but hadn't picked up the valve b/c I realized when I got there I didn't know the size or if we had copper or galvanized pipes. So today Tim went under the house in search of the main shut off- and found it- quite far under the crawl space by the furnace (where there is about 30 inches between the dirt floor and the floor of the house). It was here that he discovered the main vent from the furnace to the front of the house had COMPLETELY fallen off. We had been wondering for months why our crawl space was so nice and cool all the time (and had found a couple of vents into the house that needed to be better positioned and taped up) and why the front of the house was always so darn hot!
So I went to Lowe's (having not bathed yet- which if you know me you know that I shower before I exercise because I feel gross otherwise so this is a big step for me- AND wearing the t-shirt I wore yesterday and slept in- I looked AWESOME) and got both the needed valve for the toilet and some extra long zip ties to reattach the vent to furnace. Good thing the zip ties were sold in a large pack. When I got back Tim said he needed my help to hold the vent/duct thing while he got the zip tie on. This entailed me crawling under the house 6 months pregnant trying not to slide on my belly under all the air conditioning stuff hanging down from the floor above which only left about 20inches of clearance. We got the main issue resolved. Tim turned back on the water- the toilet now working perfectly. At this point I was back up in the bathroom to make sure our new valve did not also leak (since we had to use the existing compression ring instead of a new one since the copper pipe was cut so close to the floor we could cut it off and replace it with a new one). And then I heard Tim from under the house yell up that he needed some more zip ties and help because he looked around more under the crawl space and saw that even further under the house (now less than 30inches space high) there was another duct work problem where a y-junction had completely fallen down and wasn't attached to the ducts leading to the front two rooms. So in I crawled in again with the extra zip ties to where Tim was assessing the best thing to do and we fixed that as well.
So really, the leaking toilet has probably saved us gobs of cash on air conditioning, and we found it while I am still able to crawl around under the house, and now I won't boil in the front rooms! It's been a good morning-though so far all we've gotten done on the list is the fix toilet and mailbox numbers- the weeding and the painting will have to wait until this evening or tomorrow.
It's been one of those weeks of lots of house and car ownership hassles- the wagon needed a new bulb in the headlamp and new tires, the house had a HUGE limp on the roof when we got home from vacation so that brought visits from both the tree guys and the roofing guys...ah, the joys of ownership!
After Tim gets back from getting his haircut we go to pick up our car (which needed 4 new tires- one had been slowly leaking for a few months and every week the light would come on and we'd get out the bicycle pump and put more air in-I counted this as part of my exercise) and then we get to go to finish picking out a rocker for the nursery!
Monday, August 3, 2009
25 Week Appointment
Before I left for vacation on Montana I had my 25th week appointment.
It had the normal blood pressure (110/70), pee in a cup (just for you, Aunt Merry!), and weight...
A bit to say about the weight.
It had been 5 weeks since my last appointment and according to my scale at home I had gained 5lbs... not the ideal 1/2 lb. per week I desire, but not totally out of control (at least I thought since all the babycenter.com info says a lb a week is average for most women).
So since I had the previous experience with the faulty/mean scales at the practice I was a bit apprehensive (especially since Jill who had also used these midwives had said one of the midwives, J, is a nutrition nazi and got after her for gaining a bit of weight at one point.)
So I did indeed have J as my midwife and she did indeed get after me. According to their scales I had gained 7lbs and she did the math quickly in her head and said I had gained 27lbs already! In the room with us was a midwife in training and they both started in on me about what I was eating- and I actually eat quite well and pretty darned balanced. But when I answered what I normally ate for snacks and said it was fruit (not cookies, ice cream or chips) she said 'fruit is full of sugar! You need to be snacking on high protein and veggies'
Now I realize this doesn't sound all that mean or overwhelming, but to me when I was ganged up on by the older nutrition nazi and the younger nazi in training I was totally overwhelmed feeling like I had to defend myself and getting very flustered.
I almost cried- and actually my eyes did get a bit teared up.
And THEN, when I was finally done and back in the car headed home I did the math myself and realized J had done it a bit too quickly because according to their scales I had only gained 16lbs! If only I could have done the math during the appointment.
My next appointment is Aug. 12 at 9:30 in the morning. It is the one where they will test me for gestational diabetes. They gave me some kind of orange glucose drink that I have to drink all of it within a 5 minute time period exactly 1 hour before my appointment. So I guess I'll be drinking it in the car since I also have to be at the appointment 15 minutes ahead of time so they can be sure to time the drawing of my blood perfectly.
Unfortunately, the vacation that Tim and I just went on was at a Montana fishing lodge which had the former chef for George H. W. Bush- so GREAT food and huge portions to aid the fisherman throughout the day keep high energy.
I'm pretty sure that some of that high energy got stored on me for future use so I'll be dreading the scales once again.
It had the normal blood pressure (110/70), pee in a cup (just for you, Aunt Merry!), and weight...
A bit to say about the weight.
It had been 5 weeks since my last appointment and according to my scale at home I had gained 5lbs... not the ideal 1/2 lb. per week I desire, but not totally out of control (at least I thought since all the babycenter.com info says a lb a week is average for most women).
So since I had the previous experience with the faulty/mean scales at the practice I was a bit apprehensive (especially since Jill who had also used these midwives had said one of the midwives, J, is a nutrition nazi and got after her for gaining a bit of weight at one point.)
So I did indeed have J as my midwife and she did indeed get after me. According to their scales I had gained 7lbs and she did the math quickly in her head and said I had gained 27lbs already! In the room with us was a midwife in training and they both started in on me about what I was eating- and I actually eat quite well and pretty darned balanced. But when I answered what I normally ate for snacks and said it was fruit (not cookies, ice cream or chips) she said 'fruit is full of sugar! You need to be snacking on high protein and veggies'
Now I realize this doesn't sound all that mean or overwhelming, but to me when I was ganged up on by the older nutrition nazi and the younger nazi in training I was totally overwhelmed feeling like I had to defend myself and getting very flustered.
I almost cried- and actually my eyes did get a bit teared up.
And THEN, when I was finally done and back in the car headed home I did the math myself and realized J had done it a bit too quickly because according to their scales I had only gained 16lbs! If only I could have done the math during the appointment.
My next appointment is Aug. 12 at 9:30 in the morning. It is the one where they will test me for gestational diabetes. They gave me some kind of orange glucose drink that I have to drink all of it within a 5 minute time period exactly 1 hour before my appointment. So I guess I'll be drinking it in the car since I also have to be at the appointment 15 minutes ahead of time so they can be sure to time the drawing of my blood perfectly.
Unfortunately, the vacation that Tim and I just went on was at a Montana fishing lodge which had the former chef for George H. W. Bush- so GREAT food and huge portions to aid the fisherman throughout the day keep high energy.
I'm pretty sure that some of that high energy got stored on me for future use so I'll be dreading the scales once again.
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