Better get busy!

I know it's been a while - again - and I know I keep saying it, but I'm really trying to make an effort to schedule my blogging in.  There are SO MANY things I would love to share other than just on facebook, so many things I think could be helpful to others if only I could get them put in writing.

Many of my friends warn me that maybe I need to slow down a little bit and take a step back from some of the things I'm doing.  I know it would be crazy to bite off any more right now!  

My appointments for Baby are currently bi-weekly.  Can't believe Tuesday will put me at 20 weeks!!  19 more to go!!  It's no fun having gestational diabetes, pricking my finger 4 times a day (when I remember to do it!), taking pills 2 times per day, and closely monitoring my food (most of the time!! lol!!)  I'm having my A1C tested again on Monday.  My 2 hours post-meal blood sugars are coming back fine, but my fasting is still too high.  Doc said I may end up on insulin injections before the end of my pregnancy.  Because of the diabetes, I was also told that I will not be going to my due date, which is April 1.  If I don't go on my own before, I'm going to be induced during my 39th week.  That means March 25th or later.  Beau is really hoping for earlier.  She wants to share her birthday with her little "sister" on March 24.  (Or so she says - we're not finding out what we're having :) )  The concern of going to my due date is having too big of a baby.  Hopefully he/she isn't too big!!  And hopefully my VBAC goes without a hitch!  Monday afternoon my hubby and I are going in for my next ultrasound.  Can't wait to see the little stinker who's been kicking me :)

Homeschooling has been a little bit trying lately.  Scrappy has very interest in his spelling words, yet he loves trying to read to me.  Last weekend he read book 9 of Cat and Rat to me - such a proud Mommy moment!!  I try explaining that the more spelling words he learns, the more he's going to be able to read.  I don't spend much time focusing on sight words - I'd rather he knows how to spell them out.  We've also been working on basic addition and starting on subtraction.  He does really well with his shapes, colors, and number.  Sometimes, though, it's just hard to get him to focus because he is too busy wanting to do other things.  I try to get at least 20 minutes, if not an hour, of reading in most days.  I signed him up for the Book It! program through Pizza Hut.  We set a goal of 480 minutes per month, or 8 hours.  I've been working on a lot of hands-on learning stuff with him.  Last week we made butter from heavy cream.  It was a learning experience for both of us.

Got our heavy cream, jar, and lid.

Filling the jar about half full.

Making sure we have the right amount.

Put the lid on and shake, shake, shake!!

Our first attempt was with cold cream which, of course, resulted in - WHIPPED CREAM.  After shaking for 20 minutes, we realized we weren't getting any butter, so Google to the rescue! Missed one important step - the cream had to be brought to room temperature :)  Our next batch turned out better, although it still wasn't quite right, but was really good on bread with our goulash at supper time! 

We have a whole bunch of other fun projects we're planning on.  We're using the book Colonial Kids: An Activity Guide to Life in the New World for our current lessons. (Have I mentioned how much I LOVE the public library??)  I got about a dozen books about Thanksgiving, Pilgrims, and Colonial times, along with some other 'fun reading' books.  We try to get to the library about once a week, and this week we got the closest we ever have to the book limit.  We have 45 of a possible 50 books checked out!  To try to keep track of them, I try to return any we've read any time my husband or I will be going by the library.  I'm glad they have a drop box because they aren't open Friday or Saturday and only open a couple hours on Sunday.  I'm going to try to post more of these as we go!!

Of course, every week I still have my TOPS meetings.  And I LOVE my TOPS group :)  A few of my friends there are a little bit concerned about my lack of weight gain with this pregnancy.  Lack of weight gain?  I should say, with my weight LOSS.  At almost 20 weeks, I am down about 13 pounds right now.  My doctors aren't concerned since we have frequent ultrasounds.  I wouldn't be too sad if it keeps up either!  I'm less than 10 pounds from my lowest TOPS weight so far.  I'm going to try really hard to keep it off this time!  We have group walks scheduled 2x per week.  I try to get to them.  I hope to make it to more of them and hoping we get the stroller fixed.  One of the tires won't hold air, but I can't find the leak.  Hopefully hubby can fix it soon!

Every other week I'm busy with Girl Scouts still.  I'm a little disappointed with a few of the girls I have because it doesn't seem like they all want to be there and they don't want to put in the effort.  At the level I teach, the girls are responsible for completing their own badges.  They can do as many of as few badges as they want.

Then there's my business.  When I'm not doing one of the above (or even when I am), I'm usually working on something or another for work.  I'm really loving working for myself - REALLY for myself and not doing direct sales and only getting paid a fraction.  Plus at craft shows/vendor fairs, people want the instant gratification of getting their items immediately and I'm able to take custom orders so people get exactly what they want.  So far so good - I'm just hoping over the next couple shows I do that business takes off a little bit more.  I'm still working on building up my inventory a bit and feeling people out for what they are looking for and what is going to sell well.

Scrappy just finished these projects a few minutes ago.

I think it's time we do a bit of reading now.  Mama's gotta get some meal planning done too....

Mixed Emotions

Yesterday's appointments didn't go quite as well as we had hoped for.  I'm riding an emotional roller-coaster right now because of everything going on and all the stress and emotions involved with pregnancy.

My first appointment was for the non-stress test.  They let Scrappy come in with us for this one since he was being pretty mellow.  For those who have never had one, a non-stress test is one where I sit back in a recliner with my feet up.  The nurse puts 2 straps around my   stomach with monitors on them.  One was put at the top of my stomach to monitor for contractions and the other is placed over Baby to monitor movement.  During this I also had a blood pressure cuff on that would periodically monitor my blood pressure.  The test can last anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes, depending on how the baby responds.

We seem to have a pretty stubborn baby.  I was hooked up for the entire 40 minutes. Baby's heart rate was in the lower 150's.  During the test, the nurse monitors how many times the baby moves and what the baby's heart rate does.  The goal is that when baby moves, his/her heart rate is supposed to go over 160 and stay there for a short period.  Baby did NOT want to cooperate.  We listened to hiccups for a while, which was the extent of the movement we were getting.  The nurse pushed on my stomach and had me change positions, rolling over to my left and rolling over to my right side.  I pushed on my stomach.  Scrappy yelled at and talked to Baby and pushed on my stomach.  Daddy pushed and shook and rubbed his hands on my stomach.  In spite of my carb restrictions, I even ate part of a granola bar to see if the sugar was going to get Baby moving.  We got a few kicks here and there, but not a lot.  Baby is most active around supper time and bed time, or really early in the morning and is pretty mellow throughout the day.  I was concerned, though, when I saw what my blood pressure readings were.  Throughout my pregnancy, my bp has been about 110/65-70.  My last appointment, Dr R said it was running a little high.  At this appointment, it varied with the top ranging from 128-138 and the bottom running from 83-92.

My second appointment there were no kids allowed, so Daddy and Scrappy had to wait in the waiting room during that one.  The ultrasound tech didn't do any measurements on how big baby was, just concerned about checking how much fluid there is and a few other measurements the doc needed.  She said Baby was 'face down' so she couldn't get a good profile shot.  But here you can see Baby's face, shoulder, and hand.

Then it was on to my third and last appointment - seeing the doc.  We didn't see my normal doc, but we got to meet another (Dr W), which is good just in case mine isn't there when we go in.  She was very brief and to-the-point.  I don't think we were in the room for more than 10-15 minutes with her.  She looked over my glucose readings since the medication started and looked over the non-stress test and bp results.  She was not happy with my bp being up since it's been so low until recently.  Of course she said she was concerned about pre-eclampsia and now wants me coming in twice per week.  Normally, she said, she wouldn't be so concerned about my bp since it's not horribly high, but because of the gestational diabetes AND the bp, she'd rather I come in more often.  She said if it stays high, she would like to induce me at 36 week.  I told her that Dr R had talked about induction at 34 weeks if it was high.  She didn't agree with that.  But I guess in the end it's up to what the two of them decide.  We're going back to see Dr W on Friday for a follow-up.  I'm not sure how she wants me to handle 2x per week after that since my next 2 appointments after that are on Wednesdays to coincide with Scrappy's.  We'll just have to see what happens.  On the 9th, we're scheduled to see Dr R again.

And after some discussion, my husband and I decided to stop down and change my registration.  We upgraded to a private room.  I'd rather not have someone else's newborn keeping me up all night or have to deal with their family visiting if I wanna nap during the day. 

I guess I'm as ready as I'm every going to be for this baby to come.  I'm kind of nervous because so many things have gone wrong already and I'm afraid of what else can go wrong.  I'm excited to see the little angel that's been kicking and hiccuping and growing in me for the last 32 1/2 weeks.  I'm terrified of the possibility of Baby needing surgery.  But we're seeing some of the best doctors in the country at Mayo.  We just need to put our trust in them....  We really can't do any more to prepare...

I'm getting restless and sore and craving everything I can't eat because of the diabetic diet.  I swear if I could, I'd chug a gallon of high-pulp orange juice right now!!!