A recap

OK, so I've been a slacker. I'm sure I won't be able to capture the true essence of the last three months in retrospect, but I will give a good effort. I'll even start with the most recent news, so that those of you who don't care about old news don't have to scroll!



I think my biggest observation about new parenting is that the learning curve just sucks. Because no matter how much your friends try and tell you, they just can't remember everything you may need to know. Invariably, you learn the tricks people have forgotten far too late to put them to good use as much as possible. For example: I never realized the sheer genius of the FLOOR. It took me until about week 7 or 8 to realize that when you have a fussy baby who is kicking in your arms, it just means that he wants to exercise. And, at this age, if you put him on the floor, he isn't going anywhere...you just have to make sure you are supervising. Had I only known - oh the hours of frustration for both of us that could have been solved by some good floor time! And, now, it's almost too late! Casey has started to roll over from his tummy to his back, so I'm sure my days of him staying in one place on the floor are soon over. But, it's very exciting to watch him roll away!



He is also smiling all the time. It is nice to have a happy baby most of the time, to make up for the meltdowns that invariably happen towards the end of the day when he is trying to sleep.



He is also finally settling into some good patterns. He has grown out of his midnight feeding, and most nights sleeps from around 10:30 to 4am - which gives us a decent stretch of sleep. More so for me, since Robert generally takes that middle of the night feeding, and I get up with him at 6am or so and stay awake to feed him and play with him.



The other life changing moment for us was when he started playing with the toys attached to his bouncy chair. All of a sudden, the chair was no longer just a safe restrained location, but also a developmental tool. Gone were the times of me using the chair to just take a quick shower, now we are in the land of play, where he enjoys his time much more. He is also enjoying bath time much more now that we have moved from sponge baths to immersion baths. The first real bath took some adjusting, but ever since, he has shown that he does enjoy the warm water.



I haven't quite forgotten the first month (as people say you do), but the really hard time of those first few weeks is starting to seem like such a short time in comparison to the fun we've had with him this last month or so. I find it highly unfortunate that around the time you really get the hang of taking care of your infant, it is time to go back to work. That said, I still think that the first month or so was the hardest thing I've ever done. It didn't help that I had a c-section and TWO instances of pregnancy rash after delivery. Yes, you heard right, pregnancy rash. ALL OVER - head to toe. And, it wasn't just a few hives here and there...the hives merged and joined together to become their own large islands of rash.



We started Casey in daycare for 1/2 days this week. By Friday, he was back to his normal napping routine, and seems to enjoy himself there. We shall see how next week goes, when we move to full time. I am very sad to not have him to myself all day long anymore. It's definitely been hard dropping him off and going to kill time before I go back to pick him up, since I wish I could just play with him all day. But, I know the importance of transition time, and know that I just can't drop him off the first day I go back to work for a full day. Next week, I will kill time by cleaning the house, doing projects and getting a haircut. It will be the first time in 3 months that I have had entire days to myself without the baby. I'm not sure what I will do.



Well, I am off to feed the little man and tuck him in for the night. Hopefully, we will get a good night sleep! The next post will include pictures, I promise.

and now we wait

Well, the waiting stage has officially begun. I have hit the date at which I need to start burning through vacation time at the office, so I'm officially off work. I have only taken 5.5 vacation days so far this year, so you can imagine it's been a while since I really had some time for relaxing. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with myself.

Today, at least, I have the distraction of house cleaners being here. Yes, many of you with kids are probably laughing, since most of you got a huge burst of energy and cleaned your OWN houses. Thankfully for my husband and the pending bundle of joy and messiness, I know my limits. I imagine that even with the tremendous burst of energy I have today, I wouldn't come anywhere close to the ability level of the Molly Maids, so, here they are. Apparently it does really take over 1/2 hour to do a REALLY thorough job in the glorified powder room we call a bathroom. Who knew?

I will probably use my new found energy to bake some cookies to take to the hospital for after the baby is born. Although, fruit is still higher up on the craving list than baked goods. I had hoped that the craving would pass after a few weeks without any, but alas, as I was adding a few grapes to my chicken salad, I realized that no, in fact, it is STILL all I want. I had to stop myself before consuming the whole bag and completely spiking my blood sugar. I think we will be pre-washing the rest of the grapes to go to the hospital with us.

Speaking of which, knock on wood, we will be inducing on Thursday if we haven't had the baby by then. I think my doctors have decided to take pity on me, as we've had a few false alarms over the past two weeks. Apparently I'm one of the lucky women who feel all of the warm up contractions - isn't that special? But, that is all contingent on space availability at the hospital. Of course, everyone tells me that once you have an inducement date on the calendar, you almost always have the baby before that date. But, I am definitely starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and am totally ok if I have to hold out until Thursday. Wish us luck.

3 more weeks!

Things I have learned this week:
1. When the baby starts to drop, and moves off your stomach, all of a sudden, the diabetic diet just isn't quite enough food. And you're hungry...all...the...time. Is this what it is like to be a hungry pregnant woman?
2. One day, you feel like you have the work transition under control, and the next, you realize it's just not possible to get it all done.
3. Not everyone enjoys the internal furnace. Even when you want it to happen so you can survive 46 degree weather without buying a maternity coat.

Today's visit to the OB may be the last time we get an estimate weight before delivery. They only estimate weight every 3 weeks, so, in theory, the next wouldn't be until 39 1/2 weeks, and we can always hope our little guy will have already arrived. As of today, they estimate the baby's weight to be 6lbs even (and they generally say that the ultrasounds are +-1 pound accurate). So, still around the 30th percentile in weight, so that is a good sign!

5 weeks to go!

One of our most recent doctor appointments included a growth check session, which means they use measurements during the ultrasound to estimate the weight of the baby. Somehow, in the miracle of miracles, it is possible that we might have a Presto-sized baby in there, and not a Deal-sized baby. I’m sure that the weight estimates are not the most accurate, but as of this week, the baby is weighing in at a nice 4lbs 7oz, which puts us in the 27th percentile! Yes, you heard it, the 27th percentile. Not that this is a guarantee of a smaller baby, but it is great news for this lady, who is hoping growth continues at this pace. They only check for growth every three weeks, so it will be around the 15th of October when we get another weight estimate.

Thus far, all appears well with baby Deal. Amniotic fluid has been normal levels since about week two of treating the gestational diabetes and the weekly ultrasounds have all been normal to-date. Last week started weekly visits with BOTH doctors. Since I am on the diabetes medicine, my normal OB/GYN wants to begin fetal monitoring this week.

We finished our childbirth classes on Thursday. It is a nice relief to be done with the evening classes, as we now have some time to catch up with friends before the baby joins us. Some of the classes were better than others, but we definitely made a good list of questions to ask our doctor about our labor and delivery.

This picture was taken around 33 weeks. I’m very happy to say that these are the SAME jeans I bought when I bought my very first maternity clothes! It’s gotten colder here, so I’m happy I did actually cave and bought some maternity sweatshirts – I definitely need them!



We are debating whether or not we will be taking the laptop to the hospital to be able to post a blog entry after the delivery. Our hospital only has wi-fi in the cafeteria, not in the rooms. So, we may not be able to post something on the blog until after we get home. But, definitely check facebook, since Robert will at least have his iPod, which will allow us to post an announcement online.

Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining

Two weeks after being diagnosed with gestational diabetes, I'm finding that there is one very exciting BENEFIT to becoming a high risk pregnancy. When they monitor you once a week for tedious things like amniotic fluid levels, etc, you also get the benefit of the weekly ultrasound. Our little cashew continues to hide his face with his arms and hands all the time, but occassionally we get a glimpse of his face. Today, I got to see the little guy yawn for the first time. And, yes, that was cool. I find myself becoming one of those people who gets all gooey over the ultrasound tests.

And, yes, for those of you who are wondering how confident we are that we are having a little baby boy deal, the more recent ultrasounds have shown in much better detail that he is, in fact, a boy. In fact, the ultrasound technician got such a good shot she actually sent us home with a picture and the "boy" label. I'll spare everyone the first nudie picture, and just be happy to say that the cute football clothes we have received are definitely the right gender.

Modern technology is amazing, though. I have found that when you really have a sweet craving, sugar free candy isn't all that bad. Some, however, is better than others. For example, sugar free chocolate malt balls are pretty close to the real thing. Sugar free caramal peanut clusters, however, should never have been made. And, thankfully, Edy's/Dreyers has a new line of low fat, churned sugar free ice cream that is pretty darn good AND counts as a milk serving. And, thanks to my previous cooking habits, I find that our lunches and dinners haven't changed that much since cooking for the diet. Yes, there are some things that are out of the picture (pizza, takeout Chinese, etc), but for the most part, I'm able to cook most things just as before. 2 weeks down, 8 to go!

2 down, 288 to go

OK, so, maybe pricking my finger for blood sugar monitoring was not as bad as I feared. I'm sure I will continue to have a little hesitation, but it will definitely be managable. I have concluded, however, that the nutritionist is a little crazy. I received the meal plan today, and there is NO way I can consume the amount of food they prescribe in one day. First, in order to have the required servings of milk they want you to have when you are pregnant, I have to have it with lunch or dinner. But, here's my challenge, a glass of milk fills me up, almost like a full meal. So, if I drink the milk, I'm almost full by the time I'm only partway through dinner! Same thing with fruit.

The good news is that my numbers are looking good with the diet thus far, so I'm hopeful that this will be easy to keep in check. Then, I'll only have to worry about a large baby because it runs in Robert's family!

The Newest Challenge

Well, I believe my horrific fear of needles is going to go away over the course of the next few weeks. I found out today that I have gestational diabetes, so for the remainder of the pregnancy, I will have the joy of daily blood tests. Although, I hear that now they make kits where you can at least test other parts of the body, and avoid the fingers which are used all day to type.

So, now I have to learn how much of the food that I enjoy cooking will be off limits to me for the next 11 weeks. I am somewhat intrigued by the ability to monitor my own readings, it's like a little science experiment. I guess if I can find something interesting about this situation, it's probably a good thing.

I'll go see the high risk maternal doctor on Thursday, where I will see a dietician and get the "official" rules. I imagine this will also mean more regular sonograms through the rest of the pregnancy in order to track the baby's weight. Hopefully, though, it won't require too many extra doctor visits.

Anyhoo - that's the latest. I'm off to bed as it has been an exhausting day trying to take in all of this information. We'll keep you posted.