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....

What's Next?

It's been over a month since my last entry - again.  Today marks what would have been the one month birthday of my darling baby boy.  I don't have the heart, or control of the emotions, to re-write all that has happened with my angel, but he has left us.  He is no longer in pain.  You can read his story and his battle at www.caringbridge.org/visit/BadenScot. 

My doctor has helped with getting my emotions under control with some new medications.  The anxiety and the depression are under better control - it's not easy to deal with in the slightest.  So I've decided to focus on taking care of myself more. 

I've given up on using my gym membership.  Maybe if there was a gym on this side of town, I wouldn't have as much of an issue actually GOING.  But warming up the car, driving across town and fighting traffic, just gives me another reason to procrastinate.  The time of day is another reason to procrastinate - I'd either have to go early in the morning before hubby goes to work, or at night after he gets home.  Lately he's been putting in more overtime to make up for the time he took off with my hospital stay and the funeral.  This includes working Saturdays.  He's also making up for me not working since we decided, especially with the holidays, that I'm taking off the rest of the year.  (Partly because of my surgery, partly because people just don't have the money for shows during Christmas.)  I can't take the kids with me, and I can't afford to pay for a sitter just so I can go.

I'm going to try something a little different.  My hubby got me a Wii Fit 2 1/2 years ago as a present.  I hate to say it hasn't been used as much as I had planned to use it.  I've started getting into a habit of making it part of my daily routine this past week though!!  That is my new plan - to put in 30 minutes most days of the week, if not more.  I'm on Day 5 right now and have been doing pretty good so far!!  Yesterday I also started doing the dance workout setting on the Wii using Beau's Disney Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) and the dance mat.  It gives the option of choosing to burn a certain number of calories or going for a time, and I use the time option.  15 minutes yesterday and 30 today.  The first 3 days I started with the Fit, I was doing the Fit 2 times per day.  Yesterday and today I did one workout on the DDR and one with the Fit (I only did half of my Fit workout so far - I'm going to do some more when Scraps goes down for a nap...)

So where is my weight-loss effort sitting at right now?  When Baden was born, I was still down 6 pounds from my start weight.  I went back to TOPS on Dec 1 and my loss for the day was 20 pounds.  Last week, Dec 8, I did gain back a little bit - I was up 2 3/4 pounds.  But I also wasn't eating the best and drinking a TON of Coke every day.  I'm getting that back into moderation again.  Let's see how this week goes!!

Weekly Appts

We're at that point now - we are going to Rochester weekly to monitor baby.  The last couple weeks have been typical, and crazy.  After failing the glucose test and being diagnosed with gestational diabetes, Dr R had me meet with a diabetic specialist nurse and a dietitian.  I had to monitor my blood sugar for the next week until I went in to see him again too.  For some unknown reason, even though I've been very adamant about adhering to the strict carb count they put me on, my morning blood sugars were still high.  Throughout the day there were a few times here and there that they would spike again.  Dr R wasn't very happy with this last week when I went back for my checkup. (He said that most people cheat and don't fill in their real numbers on the chart - he was happy to see that I was!)


I'm still monitoring my sugars 4 times a day and now I'm also taking a pill every evening to help control my blood sugar.  Since I've been on it, my morning sugars have been right on target!  My fasting level is supposed to be under 95 (right when I get up in the morning) and then under 120 when I check it 2 hours after each meal.  They are very strict on exactly how many grams of carbs I'm to have for each meal and for snacks 3 times per day.  It's been hard to stick with, especially since I LOVE pasta and mashed potatoes.  The big surprise to me was that there are carbs in milk and yogurt but not in cheese.  There is also a list of veggies that have carbs and count against me.  So glad green beans aren't on that list since they're my favorite :)  Cooking has been a bit of a challenge for me, but I've been doing some experimenting, which has been coming out pretty good for the most part!


At my last appt, doc also gave me a prescription heart burn medication.  I've been having such awful heartburn that wakes me up in the middle of the night, I feel like I'm going to be sick!  Thankfully this medication has been working really well :)  Almost no heartburn since I started it. 


Next step is to get my blood pressure down.  Normally it's about 120/80 or a little lower, but when I'm pregnant it usually runs about 110/70 or somewhere in that area.  My last appt it was 130/85.  This worried our doc.  He said if the top # gets above 140 or the bottom goes over 90, they're going to look at inducing me at 34 weeks (I'm 32 right now.)  With the complications we've had, high blood pressure is coming out to be the final straw.  If we do go early, though, we suspect very few complications other than the echogenic bowel issue.  In the last ultrasound, the baby was practicing 'breathing,' so the lungs are looking good.  Based on the ultrasound, the baby weighed in at about 4 pounds 7 ounces.  That's a huge jump in 2 weeks from the 3 pounds 4 ounces they estimated then!!


Tomorrow we go in again.  Our weekly appts are non-stress test, ultrasound, and meet with the OB.  We'll be meeting with a couple others besides the one we've been seeing.  My sister has to work, so we are going to have to take Scrappy with us.  Beau has school, but we'll be able to drop her off and pick her up since we don't have to be in Roch until 930 and we'll be done before noon.  Hubs is planning to try to get to work in the afternoon if we get back in time.  Maybe then he won't have to work as long on Saturday.  I know he needs to make up the time, it just seems like I hardly see him when Sunday is the only day he's home because we always have so much to do.  It would be great to have a day to just relax and spend time together.


Since this is the number one question I'm asked: As of Thursday, my total weight change with this pregnancy:  Down 11.25 pounds still.  I've been asked often if I'm having twins.  I suppose since the baby is gaining weight and I've overall been losing weight, my baby belly seems to be protruding a bit more than with the other two.  My darling hubby told me that from the back he can't really even tell I'm pregnant cuz I seem to be carrying it all in my belly up front.  He's so sweet :)

Just Livin' Life...

I do well with my blogging for a while, then I notice I have some big gaps in my entries.  Life gets in the way at times.  I just don't seem to realize how much and how often life happens :)  The last month has been a little chaotic, but when isn't it when you have two crazy kids running your house?? LOL!

We spent a week with sickness going through the house.  Beau had strep and an ear infection.  Scrappy caught a bad cold and had a sore throat.  Hubs ended up with an awful head cold, bad enough that it kept him home from work for a day.  In the middle of all that, we still went to a benefit for our friend who has terminal cancer.  We didn't stay long, but we did make it there.  After everyone else had gotten over being sick, I got hit with a head cold.  My balance is horrid as it is just from the pregnancy.  Add the vertigo that comes with severely clogged sinuses does not help.  And the additional dizziness, which we thought was from low blood sugar from what the doctors said.

My weekends have been super busy with the kids and with hubs working Saturdays and church and Sunday school on Sundays.  It's been so busy that I even gave away the 10 gallons of tomatoes that I had picked a week ago with the intention of making spaghetti sauce.  I still have 3 bags and a box of apples sitting on the table out back that I haven't had time to do yet.  From my dizzy spells, I've decided it's something I can't do if hubs isn't here.  Maybe this weekend I'll have a chance to do at least some of them.  On Sunday that is, since he's going in to work on Saturday.  My car has decided it doesn't wanna work right - almost sounds like the spark plugs are misfiring or maybe something with the fuel injectors, but it shakes and jerks so awful when it's idling.  He's going to see if he can figure out what's wrong with it.

An update on baby:  My last appointment, on Tuesday, baby weighed in at about 3 pounds 4 ounces.  My previous appointment baby was about 2 pounds, so he/she is growing really well!!  We still see echogenic bowel, but we weren't too surprised by that.  The blood pocket is still there too.  When I went to TOPS yesterday, I finally gained 2 pounds.  Doc said I SHOULD be gaining about 1/2-1 pound per week and baby should be gaining 1/4-1/2 pound per week.

Shortly after we got home, the doctor's office called.  It's never a good thing when the call after you leave....  I had my blood tests and glucose screening done, so they were calling with the results.  My hemoglobin is about 12.4, which is great since I'm normally borderline anemic.  My thyroid levels were good too, so that means the higher dose of levothyroxin is working just as it should be doing. 

Then the bad news - I failed my glucose test.  Dr Rose has said that 140 and under is considered to be 'normal', 141-189 is 'inconclusive' and warrants a retest which is a 3 hour fasting test, and 190+ is considered having gestational diabetes.  Well, I tested in at 191.  Yay, another complication.  For the next week, I'm supposed to log all the food I eat.  They sent a few prescriptions over for me to get filled.  One was for lancets, one for a glucose monitor, and one for test strips.  I go back to Rochester next Thursday to meet with the dietitian and diabetic counselor.  They are going to show me how to check my blood sugars and when I'm supposed to do it.  From the sounds of it, they don't think I'll need medication and I should be able to control it just by what I eat.  We'll see what happens.  Hubs is taking the afternoon off to go with me.

The nurse I spoke with on the phone gave me a 'heads up' on a few other concerns.  When a mom has gestational diabetes, the baby usually has a higher birth weight.  Babies born at term are closer to 10 pounds, which she said can cause complications in itself.  There is a chance of shoulder dysplasia and an increased risk of C-section.  Baby also runs risks from his/her blood sugar dropping after birth and will have to be more closely monitored after birth.  It sounds like I will be going in for weekly appointments after my appointment on Thursday so they can monitor the baby with non-stress tests and to watch the baby's weight and the amount of fluid.  I guess this really isn't such a bad thing since we're getting closer to when the doc figures the baby will come.  As of right now I'm almost 29 weeks.

My wonderfully amazing husband talked to his boss after I called to tell him about my upcoming appointment.  He asked if I wanted him to go with me, and after some discussion, he told me it was best if I don't travel that far alone (it's over an hour drive to see our doctors, but they ARE specialists and some of the best in the country!)  He told his boss that my appointments are going to be weekly.  One of the great things about him working for a small shop is that his boss is much more flexible than most.  His boss has a child with medical issues also, so he's pretty understanding about all this.  He said it's fine, but that hubs is going to have to make up some, if not all, of the time somehow.  So that means he'll probably be working Saturdays, or possibly just staying a couple hours late most nights.  I'm ok with that, especially since he's really doing it for me.  Isn't that just the sweetest thing??  I know I sing his praises quite often, but from my past relationship experiences, most of those 'men' wouldn't have been so supportive.

Speaking of my wonderful husband, I got some 'alone time' out with him on Saturday (after he cleaned up the branch we lost during Thursday's wind storm!)

We had a sitter come for a few hours while we went out for a few hours.  It was his birthday, and there was a big 'We Love You' party for our friend with cancer.  I was the designated driver, obviously.  We went for him to have a few adult beverages and to visit with friends, then out for supper.  We had just asked for a 'to-go' container when the sitter called - Scraps was vomiting :(  She sat with Beau while we took him into Urgent Care since he was already on antibiotics but was still running a fever. 

These past almost 2 weeks, I have be very tired besides dealing with the dizzy spells.  Hopefully after Thursday we can get all of this under control.  But my house is falling apart.  My kitchen is a disaster.  I don't have the energy to get caught up with it.  I've fallen way behind on laundry.  I can barely stay awake enough to do my homework.  I've been doing all my errands right away in the morning after dropping Beau off at school, and by the time I get home I'm completely wiped.

One of my current classes, stress management and wellness, has given me some tools to use to help combat stress.  I've actually been practicing some of the meditation methods and found them useful.  Some are more difficult to do with small children around, but I make due.  I'll be sure to post the ones that are working best :)  I'm actually thinking of using some of the meditation methods for labor when baby comes!  Yes, I'm planning to do this delivery all natural again, so we'll see what happens!

Domestication :)

I have to admit, I love being a housewife.  I love being domesticated.  I love spending an afternoon cooking up a storm to feed my family a good hearty meal.  It's even better when my husband decides he's going to do the dishes for me :)  (Yes it happens quite often too!!  He's the best!!)

I know it's early for nesting for this little one.  Actually what I'm doing is preparing.  The plan had been to make a bunch of freezer meals so they can go right from freezer to oven and we can still have yummy home cooked meals every night this winter without much work.  Well, considering my 7 cubic foot freezer is full (and I mean FULL) already, why not do some canning?!  (No, it wasn't originally my idea - it was Opa's).  I have 23 quarts of fresh tomatoes from my Opa's garden that we blanched and froze, plus 8 quarts of green and yellow beans.  Thursday we decided to do 'a few more' tomatoes since he wanted some canned to take on the road.  We ended up with a total of 18 quarts and 18 pints of tomatoes.  I know I could just say 27 quarts, but we did them in both sized jars so we each have 9. 

A lot easier than I thought!!  1 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tsp salt, then add your tomatoes and squish the air out.  Opa told me to be sure there's about 1/2 inch of headroom too.  We kept the juice separate (since the tomatoes had plenty of their own) and he cooked that down for a few hours, skimmed off the water after letting it sit and cool over night, strained out the seeds, and froze it.  Perfect for homemade soup :)

I thought today would be a good day for doing some more canning - the weather was beautiful, in the 70's, and the kids could play outside while I was working in the house.  Hubby was gone, putting some hours at the shop, so it was perfect.  Kids and I went to Farmer's Market (one of my FAVORITE places in the summer and especially the fall!!  Yeah, some stuff is a little more expensive, but you can't beat the freshness!!)  I made the mistake of letting the kids pick out my onions and ended up with one bad one.  But we got 2 good sized bags of apples for $2, 2 pumpkins about the size of volleyballs for $4, a pimento pepper for $0.50, and a couple onions for $1.

Picked the ripe tomatoes and a couple yellow peppers from my garden, so I put tomato sauce on my list.  Found out my cousin absolutely LOVED the pumpkin butter I gave out for Christmas last year, so I promised I'd make her some more.  Beau was begging for homemade applesauce for lunch, and I didn't want to open a jar I'd already sealed, so why not make some more :)  Also decided better use up the ham hocks and ham pieces that were in the freezer so bean and ham soup was added to the list.  And while I'm at it, why not make chicken stock and can some chicken too??

Well, that's NOT what happened :( 

Yes, the applesauce was made, courtesy of my Pampered Chef goodies (since I only had a few apples to do, I didn't get out my apple peeler/corer/slicer, but I DID use my serrated peeler and my apple corer.)  Super easy - I can't say I really have a recipe, since I cook like everyone's grandma - a pinch of this and a pinch of that.  My method?  Once the apples are peeled and cored, I cut them into quarters (since they're small apples), add a little sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and a little water, and cook covered about 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  After that, I remove the lid and cook until desired tenderness, mash with my potato masher, and cook until desired thickness.  A little taste test here and there and maybe a little more sugar or cinnamon.  I don't have a preference for a type of apples (besides free - that always works good for me!!), but I have been getting Wealthy windfalls from FM.  They are a little bruised, but that doesn't matter.  If it's too bad I might cut it out, but so far it's been pretty good!!

While the applesauce was cooking, I started what was going to be tomato sauce but ended up turning into spaghetti sauce.  (I thought it tasted really good when done, just a little sweeter than the canned stuff.)  I started out with blanching and shocking my tomatoes so I could remove the skins.  The tomatoes were pretty firm, so they didn't give off a lot of juice when I did this.  I cut out the stems and threw all the tomatoes into my 4 quart soup pot (it was about 1/3 full), cut a yellow pepper into big chunks and added about 3/4 of that, 1/4 of an onion in big chunks, some Italian seasoning, and about 2 tsp of garlic.  I had to crush the tomatoes down a little at first to get some juice for it to simmer in, then used my immersion blender to chop things up a little more.  I let this all cook a couple hours, sampled (needed a sprinkle of salt to combat the sweetness), then removed this lid to cook down a little more.  I REALLY hate it when the tomato sauce splatters all over the stove, so I went to the Devil Store (WalMart for those who don't know DS) and had gotten a screen to prevent grease splatters for bacon - works great with the tomato sauce too!!!  Didn't can this one - just ended up in the fridge in a Tupperware container.

Got my bean and ham soup started too!!  Super easy - add 2 bags of dried beans (no, I don't pre-soak mine) and the package of ham hocks and just boil the crap out of it for a few hours until the beans are soft.  Scrape the meat off the bones, discard the rest, add the already-cooked-leftover ham, then can it!  Ended up with 4 quarts.  Unfortunately that was the last thing I made for the day.

I LOVE homemade chicken noodle soup.  My mom and I had canned some chicken and broth a couple years ago and it was really good and makes it easy to make soup whenever I want, and it tastes so much better than using bouillon.  Even though hubs doesn't like chicken noodle soup, I can still use the canned meat to make chicken gravy for biscuits or other things like that - or hot dishes.  Decided I wanted to do that today, but didn't have everything I needed.  Made my shopping list, plus I had to get a few things to make Snicker salad for the family reunion tomorrow. 

I was putting my shopping list into my purse, stepped on a toy that had been left out, and hit the hardwood floor.  Hard.  It hurt.  So, of course, I didn't go anywhere until hubby came home.  Called him, in tears, and told him what happened, plus I was having horrid pains in my side.  Felt a little better by the time he got home, so I convinced him to take me to the store, but went pretty slow.  But I got all my stuff I needed.  Hopefully I'll get my chicken started tomorrow - it takes 2 days to make.  Once I make it, I'll share the 'recipe' since I don't use a real one.  Same thing with the pumpkin butter.  But for now, I'm off to bed.  Hoping to get updated again in a few days, hopefully with some pictures too!!

Oh, and to update the TOPS weigh in and pregnancy weight loss/gain:  I was down 1/2 pound this week, bringing my total loss to 13 1/2 pounds.

Much Needed Family Time

It's been over a week since my last entry....  We were on a family vacation last week :)  It was much needed!!  We left Wednesday night when hubs got home and headed out to Hill City, South Dakota.  I planned ahead and packed a lot of healthy snacks, along with a homemade trail mix that the kids seemed to enjoy.  We did a lot of walking there too, which was great as a family.  It was difficult when Scrappy decided he wanted to be carried.  Daddy carried him most of the time, though.  2 of the days we were there, the weather was crappy - rain and snow.  The other 2 days it was pretty nice - mid 50's and sunshine.

Of course, being gone, I missed a weigh in and a meeting, but it was excused.  Today I was back at the meeting, and a little nervous about how I did.  I mean, I ate pretty good most of the time we were gone, but that order of chili-cheese fries could have bitten me in the butt.  But I only ate about half of the order.  Plus we had an extra walk at the cabin, just exploring the grounds and checking out the stream.

I also rediscovered a game that I had forgotten was a very good workout - that winded me a bit and wore me down!  The game?  Tetherball!  Beau had never played before, so I got to teach her how while Scraps played on the playground equipment.  It was a lot of fun!!  Beau got mad when she accidentally got hit in the face, but she got over it.  Then she started having fun with it too :)

Well, back to the meeting.  I was nervous because I've been feeling HUGE, even though I'm only 8 1/2 weeks pregnant.  But with it not being the first baby, everything gets bigger faster.

The result?? I'm down a whole 3 pounds!! 

I have lost all the weight I gained in that one awful week of retaining water.  I'm back to a total 6 pound weight loss since I started TOPS.

Total weight gained this pregnancy?? 0 pounds.

Oh, I know I'll gain some eventually, but I'm trying to keep it from being an overwhelming amount.  Granted I had normal gains with both my other kids - 31 pounds with my daughter and 36 with my son.  My goal is to not go over 25 with this one.  I still have a few weeks until I see the doctor, so that's something I'll have to discuss with him.  With the nutritionist giving me a 15-25 pound guideline, I think that should be ok....  We'll just have to wait and see what happens!!

Here are a few pictures from our journey :)