"It’s Tuesday, 9:38am and I’m holed up in the doctor’s office again. I’ve got bandages on the inside creases of both my elbows a result of multiple blood draws. The glucose screening test I took a couple weeks ago came back a little elevated so now I’m being subjected to the 3-hour test to determine if I have developed gestational diabetes. Fasting began last night after dinner, I arrived at the doctor’s office around 8am and they took the first round of blood (left arm). I then had to drink a concentrated glucose solution that contains 100 grams of sugar (on an empty stomach - YIKES!), sat in the waiting room for an hour while feeling a bit queasy, then had more blood drawn (right arm). I’m now waiting another hour, they will take blood from the left arm again, wait one more hour… guess what happens after that? They take my blood! The samples are sent out so I won’t know if I have gestational diabetes until they get around to contacting me. On the upside of ingesting the syrupy concoction, it made Izaak squirm around and get out of my ribs for now, a very welcome reprieve. I brought with Joe’s laptop in order to help pass the time.
I’m currently 30 weeks pregnant. It is almost amusing that perfect strangers have no qualms about letting their eyes pop after they demand to know my due date and seem to take pleasure in exclaiming that I must be having quite a large baby! I don’t want to jinx it, but at least I haven’t been man-handled out in public yet. My-belly-being-groped is one of my main fears, right up there with having-my-water-break-at-work. I supposed it is comforting that I look pregnant rather than bloated; I really do have an excuse for the shape I'm in! I noticed yesterday that the overall roundness seems a little lower than it’s been and I think I’m having a little easier time breathing as result. I may have mentioned that my mini-squirmer takes great pleasure in sticking his toes in my ribs so a break from the rib tickling would be a treat.
I’ve been pretty low on energy again (wait, did I ever get any energy back?!) but still working on getting the nursery in order... slowly. I found some chair cushions for the rocking chair finally; they look great and didn’t break the bank- thank you, Ross Dress for Less! I also found an affordable diaper bag at Ross, nothing fancy but looks like it’ll accomplish its intended function. The cashier informed me that they had a Juicy Couture diaper bag if I was interested, only $119.99… I passed in favor of the $11.99 less-fun-but-more-practical bag. Do you know how many diapers I can buy with that?? Speaking of, I’ve been stocking up on boxes of diapers and assorted items here are there, in hopes of spreading the costs out and making things more manageable. Not to mention that it gives me a feeling of being in control, if only just a little bit!! I’m having a terrible time finding a dresser/changing table that: (a) goes with the nursery, (b) is affordable, and (c) isn’t a piece of garbage. I’ve checked all the usual suspects: Babies R Us, Target, Walmart, JC Penney, a couple furniture stores, Craigslist, hit up some garage sales, etc… No dice. There’s still more places to look though so I’ll keep on trucking. No rush really, he doesn’t have to have a dresser right away, and I think he’ll forgive us if that piece of furniture hasn’t arrived by the time he does. A breast-pump is another purchase that needs to happen soon. Looking at the Medela Pump-In-Style, big bucks but it's supposedly the one to get in terms of efficiency and whatnot.
I realized over the weekend that I’ve mentally prepared pretty well for pregnancy (finally!) but am still fairly clueless about what to do when the baby arrives! Where can I get a handbook?! After a mini-panic attack, I regained my composure (and remembered that breathing is a good idea), then tried to placate myself with the fact that we’ll figure things out as we go along and that I saved a gift card to Barnes & Noble from Christmastime with the intention of stocking up on some child-rearing tomes. “Worry” is another pregnancy by-product that I hadn’t quite factored in! Things will be fine, things will be fine, things will be fine…
Joe is heading to Kentucky with Zambelli Fireworks to help set up for Thunder Over Louisville starting on Friday. He’s scheduled to be gone for about 12 days. I’m not thrilled he’s going to be gone so long, regardless of being preggo or not. I think this will be the longest we’ve ever been apart, no fun! But he does enjoy doing the set up and it gives him a little vacay from his desk job so I’m doing my best to be gracious about it. I dragged him to a symphony performance of one of my favorite orchestral pieces, Gustav Holst’s The Planets, last Friday. Figured it would be a fun thing to do before the baby arrives, just guessing that we’ll be more inclined to stay home rather than set up a babysitter most of the time. It was a nice performance, though I think the guy with the cymbals was off at least half the time. It was at a church and we had balcony seats, pews actually. Not terribly comfortable but cushioned at least. I’ve got to get a full-sized keyboard one of these days, I miss “tinkling the ivories”.
My time is nearly up at the doctor’s office for today...yay!! Cross your fingers for good results! Off to work, I have hours to make up now so I’ll be there until about 7 this evening and will post this later on."
It's now Thursday, well Friday if you want to get technical since it's after midnight. Why am I still up, you ask? Exhausted? Yes, but I'm just not tired enough to sleep yet. Tossing and turning takes up a lot of energy when you're lugging around all this extra poundage in the middle of your body! I haven't heard back from the doctor's office yet, I'll try to call them tomorrow. I'm a little concerned about the results because Izaak has measured on the larger side and I felt like complete garbage after the test. "Sweating profusely" while driving with the window down on a 60-degree day isn't normal for me. We'll deal with whatever comes of the results. I've come to terms with the fact that "it isn't my fault" if gestational diabetes is in the picture and I'll have to adjust my diet and make more time for exercise if that's the case.
By the way, according to the lady that works behind the deli counter at the grocery store, Izaak should arrive sooner than the doctor has predicted, specifically "around May 5 or 6th". I'm sure her medical degree has been very useful at her current meat slicing/sandwich assembling job.
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