27 - my age in weeks

It's been my first week of not sleeping through the night. I've woken up regularly at about 4am from just laying on the one side the whole time. I've been sleeping only on my left since the big ultrasound because the technician was telling me about the flexible/squishable vein on the right and the hard/un-closeable artery on the left. I trust that's true, but I wonder now about whether or not it makes a difference to Pea ... now that I'm tired <=). I've made it this far sleeping well, though! OH, and everyone at school is talking in thematic weeks, as teachers often do, and there are only 2-3 more major topics before CHRISTMAS already, not to mention only a couple of weeks until Thanksgiving. It's all very exciting anyway, but I'm particularly excited about the holidays this year ... everything's about to be so different!

I'm otherwise still feeling great, walking lots, and eating (hopefully) well. It's still tough to find time to plan for Pea with school, classes, home, and Dylan, but I'm determined to do a registry this weekend at Target! Some friends are throwing me a baby shower here in 2 weeks, and I don't have anything registered ... hmm.

Here we are this Tuesday the 25th:

And here we 3 are last Saturday on the Mississippi:

(Peter turned 25 this week, and Mom'll be 60! =) )

26 and counting ...down already?

Things are going just fine, kicking along well here, and I don't have much to say. Dylan and I enjoyed a nice weekend out and about - St. Thomas football game, Harry Potter at the dollar theater =), and friends over for lunch on Sunday - it was lovely! I'm feeling bigger and slower - we had a field trip this week that showed us lots of hills and stairs - but I love getting to move. Walking to and from school the 25 minutes each way has been a big stress-reliever. So, thank you for your prayers - they're being answered. Nothing big to report =). Love from MN!

So, a mom from last year's class told me that they're already finding homes for the kittens born to their cat this week, but she wants to wait until the kittens are 12 weeks. "So, that's January 7th." Insert my jaw-dropping gasp here ... I've been so busy counting UP to 26 weeks, that I hadn't thought of counting DOWN only 14 more weeks til Pea's arrival. Whoa!

Healthy at 25!

No gestational diabetes here! Apparently it's common to have one "abnormal" level drawn, and it can be discounted especially if it's the first one after the drink, which mine was (the middle 161 draw was nothing, they said...). Then with the extra low level drawn last, they told me I'm in the clear =). Good. Pea can continue to enjoy pasta, potatoes, fruit. I will, however, still watch how I'm eating; I'd only stop eating once I was stuffed, so I'll settle for sufficiently full now and just eat more often. All this speaking of food and eating makes me want to share a weight update: I've hit 120lbs - first time ever; previous record was 118lbs in Germany in 2002-3.

We spent this Tuesday evening at IKEA, followed, of course, by a Swedish meatball dinner. Once things are put together, I'll post a picture of that, too. As for now, here's me & Pea at 25 weeks:

My "sort-of" results

Well, I spent today from 8:30-noon at the doctor doing round-2 of the glucose test. I began fasting last night at 8:45pm and had soup today at 12:30 - maaan, I was hungry! Anyway, I got two sticks in each arm: one before drinking the sweet drink (equivalent to 2.5 cans of Coke!!) then one on the hour for the next three hours. Here's what the levels should've been and what mine were:
goal                      actual
<95                         78
<180                     188
<155                     161
<140                       59

As you can see, there's a massive difference in those last two; that's because it dawned on me that I never sit still for 3 hours straight doing nothing, so I took a little walk. Of course that'll change things - if your body actually uses what's in there, things will even out. I'm only upset now that I didn't think of getting some fresh air in the first place. So, once again, I feel like this test could've turned out differently. Anyway, since the middle two levels are elevated, they have to send my blood in for even more detailed work, and I should hear tomorrow. In any case, I'm not in a horrible position, and Dylan'll help me manage.

It bothers me because I didn't think that I would be in a diabetes danger-zone, and I certainly don't want to give Pea a higher risk of developing Type I just because I had too many carbs while pregnant; so we'll adjust to whatever Dr. Anderson recommends for a diet. C'est la vie.

Sigh...

I failed the glucose test I took this morning, so now I have to go in again on Monday for a more intense glucose test to see if I actually do have or somehow only feigned having gestational diabetes. Sigh.

It goes like this: to test everyone for gestational diabetes, I had to drink a 10oz super-sweet drink on an empty stomach this morning before having blood drawn an hour later. The levels came back too high, so now I have to do the next step on Monday. The idea is that if you pass today's test, you definitely don't have it, but if you fail, which I did (evidently not by much), they observe the change in you more closely. 

So, Monday will go as such: they draw my blood pre-sweet drink. Then, I have a similar 10oz drink, only with even more sugar, on an empty stomach before having blood drawn the following hour, then again a second hour after that, then lastly the third hour after that. If at any of those times they can determine that I for-sure do not have it, I can go (and eat!) ... otherwise I'm there until about 12:30pm (with nothing in my stomach but that drink since dinner the night before). Me and Pea, hungry we'll be!

Anyway, I was pretty bummed to hear that; not that I even know what sort of effect it could have on Pea yet, but you think you're doing all these things right ... then there's this other thing that just - happens. I don't know for sure if I have this kind of diabetes, and if I end up having it, hopefully we'll be able to minimize any side-effects. That was today.

On an up-note, Nana has definitely had Pea in mind at Walker's book fair, I've been told ;)! Thanks, Nana =)!

24 weeks - Getting Better All the Tii-ii-me

Beatles reference. Anyone?

It's been a pretty good week, actually - balancing Pea (sometimes literally), school (3rd grade), school (St. Thomas), home, and Dylan, too. Part of it is due to my concession of a few things I just can't do anymore - like run around the school during "breaks" to get errands done. I've always been grateful for our native-German education students (placed here for one year as interns), but Miriam has been extra-helpful around here lately. Relieving! Then, I've also just plain reduced my to-do list; not because I ticked everything off, but because I know it'll never all be finished ... so why stress about it? So, my to-do list lately has included actual tasks needing doing (copies, emails, dishes, etc) instead of the big picture stuff (curriculum planning, new idea brainstorming, interior decorating, etc). If time allows for it, I'll do that stuff then.

All this means that I've had more just-be-at-home time; and I've been enjoying my walk to and from school more, as well. I even got to enjoy last weekend just sitting outside, reading while Dylan studied. I'm sure it doesn't hurt that the weather has been ultra-cooperative lately! It's October already, and it was 86 degrees today - wow! Hell-O, Indian Summer. I just love the heat so much, so having the warmth along with the beautiful fall colors everywhere has been really uplifting. (It still gets chilly overnight, and I have to walk to school with a jacket even if it's 80 come 3pm ... so the colors have still changed.)

I've also taken more time to read for Friday nights' Communion and Liberation gatherings, which has given me much needed time to focus on my faith-life. That's been a huge help, I think, and gives me a good chance to re-focus during the week if I catch myself feeling overwhelmed or over-tired like the past couple of weeks.

To go along with all of the lovely weather, here are TWO photos in skirts and bare legs =) from Tuesday and Wednesday.

Prayers for Pea! Hopping around like a busy little baby!