A Day in the Life of a Pregnant Infertile Diabetic Anemic with Sub-Clinical Hypothyroidism, Bad Shoulders and Achy Knees

12:50 am: wake up to pee (it's after midnight, it is a new day, right?!)

4:30 am: wake up and debate getting up to pee. Go pee

7:00 am: alarm goes off, get up and take Levoxyl for my thyroid first thing because it's best an hour before food. Go pee on a stick to test for Ketones. Yup. I've got them. FAIL

7:30 am: cook breakfast as prescribed by my new diabetes diet - two eggs on two pieces of whole wheat toast, which felt like way too much food and gave me heart burn. Yay!

7:45 am: set timer for an hour to remind me to test my blood sugar.

8:00 am: shower

8:30 am: fix hair and make-up

8:45 am: test blood sugar. 158. FAIL. (I'm going to end up on insulin, I just f'ing know it!)

9:00 am: grab snacks for the day and head out the door to physical therapy

9:30 am: physical therapy

10:00 am: drive to work, log in 1 - 1.5 hours of PTO

10:30 am: eat morning snack - greek yogurt with fruit, on my new diet plan, but has already been my standard mid-morning snack for most of pregnancy

12:00 pm: walk across the street to meet friends for lunch. try to figure out what on the menu I can eat. some kind of salad with chicken, but I have to make sure I get a carb in there somehow too...bean! there's an arugula salad with white beans!

12:45 pm: finish lunch, set timer for an hour

1:30 am: get in car and drive to the hospital (back in the vicinity of where I was this morning for therapy) to meet with the dietitian at the diabetes clinic

1:50 pm: arrive at hospital, check blood sugar in car in parking garage before entering. 143 FAIL!

2:00 pm: appointment with dietitian

2:30 pm: drive back to work. log another 1.5 hours of PTO. so much for having extra vacation time to apply to my maternity leave

3:30 pm: eat afternoon snack

6:00 pm: leave work, head to grocery store to buy food for new diet

7:00 pm: home from store. prepare dinner

7:30 pm: eat dinner. take two iron supplements (with food, not with dairy, not with pre-natal, not near levoxyl)

7:45 pm: finish dinner. set timer for one hour. finish painting stripes in Luigi's room.

8:45 pm: test blood sugar. 118. Pass! Finally. But I swear it's only because I didn't eat the second ear of corn I was supposed to in order to get 45g of carbs, and only had 30g instead. Honestly, it's hard to consume enough food to get enough carbs and protein and limitless vegetables.

9:00 pm: eat night time snack (vanilla ice cream is allowed!), sit down to watch a bit of so you think you can dance. (I'm loving Cole) completely forget to do any more physical therapy exercises.

10:00 pm: get ready for bed. take pre-natal, stool softener as preventative measure against all the extra iron, and usually a tums.

10:45 pm: fall asleep

That was yesterday.

And in general, my week went a little something like this:

Monday: physical therapy, work
Tuesday: meet the nurse at the diabetes clinic to learn how to test blood sugar
Wednesday: (described above) physical therapy, work, meet the dietitian, work
Thursday: work, follow-up with the physiatrist who prescribed the physical therapy in the first place, work
Friday: work. no medical appointments. for real?

Next week, so far I only have two physcial therapy appointments and one GD clinic appointment. Of course, two of them are on Monday. I think I'm beginning to loose track of where I am and where I am supposed to be.

Today, I'm doing much better with the sugar readings. Only one fail so far by 3 points, and no keytones. But man, my little finger jabby thing and I are not getting along. Until after breakfast this morning, I've had to try repeatedly to get a big enough finger prick to get enough blood to not get an error. It's freaking frustrating! But, I've had two successful tests in a row, so maybe just maybe, I'm getting the hang of it. I keep thinking to myself, this should be no big deal. I did daily injections for three straight months to get Luigi in my belly. You'd think a little finger prick wouldn't send me over the edge. But, it did! It's a little bit evil. I'm telling you. But I will win. I'm determined. After all, I am in infertile.

Twenty Eight Weeks

Little man, we've only got about twelve weeks to go. That is really blowing my mind. I remember when I first found out I was pregnant, how long it felt to get through the first twelve weeks. But I have a feeling now, they are going to fly right by.

With the excitement of last weekend bringing your second cousin A a bit early, getting ready for your arrival has become our top priority. This weekend had been saved on the calendar for awhile as painting weekend. With the deck/shed project, and getting your room ready, we've taken on a lot of home improvement projects this summer. And with you in my belly, I haven't been a huge help to your Daddy. So, two months ago, when he saw that a few of his coworkers had offered up a day of handyman labor as part of a charity raffle at his company, he was determined to win. He stuffed that box with about $40 worth of tickets, which turned out to be about 24 entries. There were only 3 other tickets in there when he entered. Daddy doesn't mess around. Anyway, the first two helpers were scheduled to come paint, and also to work a bit on the shed under the deck. We were thrilled to have the extra help!

It took all week to prepare the room. Clearing it out, taping, spackling, sanding, demolishing the old shelf and hanging rod in the closet to we can put in a new more practical and flexible system. And it turned into a family affair. Friday night, Uncle J and Gramma G were over to help with the final prep, so that when our helpers arrived on Saturday morning, all we had to do was paint! I think you wanted to be a part of all the excitement, because you seem to be having a dance party in my belly these days. It's one of the coolest feelings in the world.

Luigi, cauliflower and Chinese cabbage seem to be the vegetables of the week. I don't do much with cauliflower, but Daddy's side of the family always makes a smashed cauliflower dish for holiday dinners which is sort of like mashed potatoes. We'll see if you like it. I like the potatoes much better myself.

All right, I realize I am totally lame, two weeks without photos, and this time I can't even say that week 28 is on the camera. I need to sneak it in tonight amongst a ton of other things. But I'm forming a "Belly Shots - Behind the Scenes" post to make up for it. I promise! Not to mention a post on a week in the life of a pregnant-infertile-diabetic-anemic with sub-clinical hypothyroidism who is in physical therapy for her rotator impingement and her chondomalacia patella (achy knees). And if one more person tells me that the business is good practice for life as a parent, I'm going to smack them! 

Memorable Moment Monday

I don't have any cute baby photos to share yet, but this weekend was all about getting Luigi's room ready. The base color is on all of the walls. We just have two more colors to do on the stripes (which between two coats on each, could take all our evenings this week!). I'm loving the way it it turning out!

(PS - All good New Englanders will notice the ever present Dunkin' Donuts Iced Coffee cup in the top right corner. It's a staple). 

Memorable Moment Monday

Fat and Old

I had two strikes against me going into this pregnancy. I'm borderline obese according to my BMI and I'm 37 years old. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised that I do in fact have gestational diabetes.

I'm waiting now to hear from the GD clinic to get an appointment to meet with the dietician and endocrinologist to learn how to eat (which quite honestly, just give me an easy diet to follow, but please don't make me cook too much. I'm so in uninventive about eating and not much of a cook) and to check my sugar. Looks like that will be four times a day. More needle pricks. Oh joy.

I'm just so sad about this. But it was probably inevitable. I would have needed to live life quite differently for the last several years if I was going to do anything to avoid this.

Now I'm just worried that Luigi will come early. Of course, I'm so excited to meet him, but I have so much to do. And I really want some time off work before he gets here. I don't want any surprises. Wasn't getting pregnant enough of a roller coaster? Can't things just be simple now.

Yup. Just feeling fat and old.

Sugar High

A late night at Cirque du Soliel (which was awesome) followed by an early morning after a bad night of sleep, no food, minimal water and a sugar high makes for a really pleasant morning. Five minutes til last blood draw and food! Wish me luck!!

Twenty Seven Weeks

Luigi, this has been an eventful week. You're second cousin was born this week, unexpectedly early. He was supposed to arrive only three weeks before you. The good news is that he is doing great. But, my little head of Califlower, I don't want you getting any ideas. Daddy and I want you to stay put until you are supposed to get here in October...for your own benefit as well as ours. We have way too much to do, little man.

But, we are making progress, as always. We purchased the paint for your room, and even squeaked out a late Sunday night of painting the trim after a very busy weekend. We're painting the walls next weekend, and determined that if we painted the trim first, we'll have less taping to do. We'll see how it goes! I also finished sanding your dresser, so I can start painting that as well. Aside from your room, we started to look into daycare for when I will unfortunately have to go back to work some time next spring. There are a lot of options, and it's all a bit overwhelming. I wish I was able to stay home with you full time, but we want to to be able to work on your college fund and be able to have family adventures. I'm hoping you'll make some good friends in the (hopefully only three days a week) time you'll be spending in someone else's care.

Daddy and I did manage to sneak in a little bit of fun this weekend too. I think recreation and down time are just as important to being productive and getting tasks done. We have to remember to take time to appreciate the life we work so hard for. We went to visit Cousin A in the hospital, just hours before her son was born, and then spent the rest of the evening in Boston. We went to Faneuil Hall for dinner. It's in downtown Boston, near the harbor. It's a bit touristy, but there is always great people watching, street performers, and shopping. We had dinner on the patio of one of the restaurants and had a great time watching all the people go by. It was a great way to make note of a lot of strollers too, since we still haven't picked one out for you!

Then, we walked across the street to the waterfront by the Aquarium. There are lots of boats for whale watching, and other tours of the harbor. We will definitely take you on them some day. We also got to see the seals outside the aquarium. We didn't go inside. We'll save that for you. But it was really fun to spend some time out in Boston, and remember, that it's right in our back yard. We don't get there nearly enough. I hope your arrival with change that. The next day, we drove through Revere Beach and tried to see the sandcastle competition that happens there every year. We couldn't find a spot to park that was close enough for me to manage in the 90 degree heat, but maybe next year, we can take you and park a little further away. I know you will just love soaking in all the sights around the great city we live in! I can't wait to see how you'll react and find out what interests you. I love you little man.

A's Baby is Here!

He arrived on Saturday night, and is doing really well. 4lbs 4oz and breathing on his own but not eating. They plan to keep him until sometime around his due date of 9/20.

It was crazy because hubby and I went to visit A in the hospital that day and left her at about 4:30. She'd been having contractions every 8 minutes that she really couldn't talk through, but for some reason, I didn't pick up on that. They had told her earlier that she was actively dilating further and it could be as much as four weeks until the would induces given that her water was already broken. The baby was born four hours later! Craziness. (my secret confession? I'm glad it's not a girl. I'd be jealous!)

So glad they are all doing ok!

Now, I get to start physical therapy for my shoulders (in the waiting room now). Fun times. And I almost fell down the stairs last night during one of trips to pee. We live in a split level and i have to go down half a flight to get to the bathroom. Now my ankle hurts. Awesome!

Update on Cousin A

Apparently A's water broke last night. It's a slow trickle at least, but that does mean it can't be long now. They are trying to keep the baby in for at least 48 hours so the steroids can help it's lungs. Poor girl. We're going to try to visit her tomorrow night, or Saturday if she's up for it. They told her it could take up to two weeks, but that feels really optimistic to me.

Can you believe that her MIL thinks she'll still be able to attend her shower a week from Saturday if the baby is born in the next few days? That blows my mind. A is going to be living at the hospital for the next 1-2 months hanging out in the NICU I would imagine. People are insane. The backup plan, is to still have the shower and have the 2 grandmothers open the gifts. Seriously!?! That event should be the farthest thing from anyone's mind right now. All the focus should be on sending positive thoughts that the baby makes it out safely.

So, friends who had had long hospital stays, what can we bring to A that will make her hospital stay more comfortable?

Ups and Downs

When I left the house yesterday, I was feeling so good. I was wearing one of my favorite maternity tops with my comfy black yoga pants that still work for work. Hubby really liked my outfit. People keep telling me that I look great. And I was starting to believe it. Somehow, I think pregnancy suits my size 14/16 body. My normal pugginess is stretched into an elegant bump. I've been lucky enough to have clear skin, and no signs of swelling yet. I actually acknowledged feeling good about my body as I headed out to have my blood drawn after drinking all that damn sugar. (Which, by the way, wasn't bad at all. I had a fruit punch flavor that tasted exactly like kool aid.)

Then, during my visit with the OB, she asked if I had any questions. And I really didn't. I feel like everything is moving along just fine. We've already talked about my sleep and shoulder issues and I'm implementing the solutions. (Benadryl every few nights for sleep, starting physical therapy next week for shoulders). But wait...should I have questions? Am I a bad mother because I don't have questions? Or is it a reaction to the over abundance of information I have taken in from this community?

By the way, she started to tell me about what type of contractions require a phone call to her. "But I haven't had any yet," I said. "Between now and your appointment at 30 weeks, you just might." Was her reply. Holy crap!

Then, I saw that 146 result, and I just knew it wasn't good. It was confirmed later in the day when I finally heard back from the nurse. I'm waiting again to hear when she can schedule me for the 3 hour test. I really, really hope I don't have GD. I can't even tell you how failing the screening test just took the wind right out of the sails of my positive body image that I had only a few hours to embrace. It left me feeling tired, sad, fat and lazy. I'm still feeling in a funk today. I asked Hubby not to share this news with his mom, because his cousin A who is three weeks ahead of me (and who's shower I finally officially declined) has GD and is having a really hard time. And since MIL keeps talking about it with us, I can only imagine that she would discuss my situation with her mother and sister if she were to know.


He said he had no intention of telling her. And for more reasons than me just not wanting her to know. You see, I'm 26 and a half weeks. I have made it past the point at which my BIL's baby was lost. I was thinking that maybe now the handful of people in Hubby's family who know, would finally breathe a sigh of relief. No such luck. It turns out that A, who also has placenta previa, was in for probably her 30 week appointment yesterday and they found that her cervix is dilating. I don't know how much. She was put in an ambulance and sent up to a major medical center in Boston to be kept for a week. And they started giving her steroids. Now, I might be wrong, maybe some of you with experience might be able to shed some light on this. But, I'm guessing those are more to beef up a baby that might come early than to do anything to stop what's happening with her. Am I wrong? So, now, MIL is a weepy mess all over again. Even if I wanted to tell her I might have GD, this is clearly not the time. Anyway, please, send positive thoughts that everything is ok with A and her baby. 


To end on an up, I found out recently that my friend T, who's wedding I attended in DC this April, is also expecting. She found out 3 days before her wedding, and is due on New Year's Day. She's been a dear friend since Jr. High, and I couldn't be more excited to share this experience with her. It is significant that she was pregnant before the wedding for several reasons. First of all, she was very Catholic, but her brother is gay, and left the church for the Episcopalians years back. She had some issues pulling together her wedding, and ended up converting there as well. Just knowing how Catholic she was (her dad was studying to be a priest when he met her mother), and that she was already pregnant at her wedding makes me chuckle in a good way. But the most important part is that she's 37, and has struggled with anorexia since high school. She's destined to be a mother, but when she ended a long term relationship in her early 30s, and struggled to meet someone knew, I was worried she'd have trouble realizing that dream. But, because she knew about my situation, she convinced her fiance (early 40s) to start trying before the wedding, because you just never know how long it might take. I'm beyond thrilled that it didn't take long for them. And I'm beyond thrilled that my story made a difference to someone I love.

Fail

I think I failed my glucose screening test. I looked up my results online and I was 146. 140 was the high end of the range. I'm not too worried because my OB said most people who fail by only a few points don actually have GD. But I'm annoyed because now it likely means the three hour test. I'm playing phone tag with the nurse to find out for sure. They specifically don't call with good results. Grrr. I know I haven't been as good at avoiding carbs as I had the intention to be. And I feel like having this test after a week of holiday cookout with corn, potato salad, hamburger buns and desserts just set me up for failure. So, yeah, just annoyed and wishing I had better will power and that carb filled food weren't just so darn quick and easy to prepare. And that I could actually really enjoy salad. Sitting here, munching on almonds, waiting for the phone to ring.

Twenty Six Weeks

Today marks twenty-six weeks or six months of this pregnancy. I can't believe we're two-thirds of the way there, little man. This week was very eventful. It was the 4th of July, which was also your Gramma G's 65th birthday. We had most of Daddy's family over to celebrate, including all three of your great-grandparents on the his side. The day started out very rainy, but the weather came through and the day turned out to be beautiful, if a little bit hot and humid! There was too much food, as is common with your family, including corn on the cob, potato salad and lemonade, which are three things which absolutely must be present at a 4th of July celebration. We had a few sparklers, some party poppers, and some snaps, my cousins and I used to play with at our celebrations, and when you're big enough, I hope you will too!

The 4th is a very important holiday on your Granny's side of the family as well. It was at that time of year that my cousins were always in from Iowa for a few weeks every summer. We would all celebrate together at my Gram & Gramp's house. Gramp would take us on a hay ride. We'd have a cook out, and then a fire with our little fireworks display. Recently, we've tried to get the tradition of getting together with this group of family going again, and are aiming for spending every other year together...which means you'll be with us the next time we do it! I can't wait to see what new traditions we come up with for the day together!

We also got some exciting news this week. My friend T, who's wedding we attended back in April, is also expecting. Her baby is due on New Year's Day. I'm very excited to get to share the rest of my pregnancy with someone who has been a friend for over twenty years! We usually see her when we're visiting Granny for holidays, so hopefully you will get to play with her child when we're all in town in the years to come.

Lastly, Luigi, my little English hothouse cucumber (I think that's more of a length, then a size this time, maybe?) I got to go swimming today! I love to swim, and have been dying for an opportunity, especially with all this hear we've been having lately. Daddy and I spent the morning and a local lake, and I spent more than half of the time in the water. It felt really good to float, and take a little bit of your weight off for a bit! I can't wait to bring you back there to play in the sand and splash in the water next summer!

Twenty Five Weeks (and a nursery preview)

This week, Luigi, you are the size of an eggplant! Eggplants are purple (and sometimes white). Have I mentioned yet that purple is my favorite color? Probably a few times. I am bound and determined to find a way to work it into your nursery. I spent a few nights this week sketching up some ideas. Three of your walls will be a pale aqua blue. But the fourth will have a pattern of horizontal stripes pulled from all the colors in your bedding...with the addition of purple. I'm going to sneak some purple into some art work as well. I'm thinking of creating a series of graphic animal faces to frame and hang next to your crib. Daddy really wants you to have some faces to interact with.

This weekend we attended your Great Uncle R's wedding to his long time girlfriend C. Your second wedding already! It was a lovely afternoon, although I was exhausted from not sleeping at all the night before. I think by the time you finally arrive and are keeping me up at night, I will be a pro at sleep deprivation!

We also spent a lot of time out on our deck. We eat dinner out there now every night that we can, even if we cook it inside. Daddy got the stairs finished, and it's so awesome to be able to be able to go down into the yard again. The final finishing touch up top will be a gate at the top of the stairs that Daddy plans to create from left over railing parts. This will give you a great outdoor space to spend time next spring! We're going to have so much fun out there!

*  *  *  

OK, so Miss C is totally on to something with only taking pictures every other week. I do manage to take one every week, just not always on the same day of the week, but I spend a fair amount of time post processing, and just can't seem to fit that part in weekly. But, I do want to finish what I started, so I'll keep updating these weekly posts later when I finally have the photos. 

So, to tide you over, I thought I would share my nursery wall explorations. I'd love to hear what you think so far...(click on the photos to see them a bit bigger). 

First, a mood board of sorts showing the feature wall. The other three walls will be the light aqua color, which is pulled from the bedding. The bedding is Blue the Morning  Zoo from the Land of Nod. The crib is the Hudson from Babyletto, and the curtains are blackout curtains that match the green in the bedding, from many sources online. The rocking chair is an antique Victorian chair I got from my grandparents house. We plan to paint it white and reupholster it, which should be interesting, since we're essentially rebuilding it from scratch. It was literally filled with hay and horsehair! There are two windows in the room. One opposite the feature wall, and one to the left of it. The crib will nestle in between the windows. The last wall, to the right of the door is mostly just the white closet doors. 

OK, so you got it?

The tall chest of drawers is my old piece. It's a sturdy natural maple chest that I've had since I was a teen. We just got a new dresser for our bedroom that finally coordinates with the rest of our furniture. So yes, I have no problem painting natural wood. My first thought was to paint it to match the stripes on the wall, and almost camouflage it in. 

But, then I wasn't sure if it stood out enough. So, I looked at painting each individual drawer it's own color, and something that would intentionally be different than the wall stripe behind it. I think this makes it pop a bit more. 

Lastly, I love the idea of some large scale animal silhouettes that Luigi can relate too, so maybe one would work on the drawers? Especially since we're just not going to end up with a heck of a lot of bare walls at his height. At first I thought I would paint it on. But then I reminded myself about the decals, which will make it much easier to get rid of when we're mature enough to move on from zoo animals. 

The room has hardwood floors, so we want to put down some type of area rug. I am absolutely in love with carpet tiles. They have been awesome with our cats when there is a mess. We just pick it up, spray it off in the sink, let it dry, put it back. This seems like it would be a great feature in a kids room too. Not to mention that they are so easy to move around, change up the pattern, or take with you when you leave. It's pretty much a definite that we will use them here. It's just a matter of if I pick something from FLOR, or from a commercial line and try to use my reps to get me free samples! I'm thinking of creating stripes on the floor with the carpet, that will run parallel to the ones on the wall, almost making it look like the wall stripes folded down onto the floor and across the room. What do you think? Too many stripes? I tend to use a lot of patterns, and mix and match. I always think it might be too much, but it hasn't yet...Maybe a checker board of just two colors, or a solid field with a contrasting boarder?

So friends, let me know what you think. Which dresser do you like best? Thoughts on carpet patterns? Ideas where I can find a fun and colorful graphic zoo animal mobile?

Hope you all have a fantastic fourth!