Week 20 - It's a BOY!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Hope you had a great day with lots of family, lots of food, and lots of fun!

We woke up early this morning to do the Turkey Trot down at Reid Park. Since about 2 years ago when I started working on my health we've done their cross-country 5k to benefit Toys 4 Tots. This year I decided to walk the 1.5 mile 'fun run'. It's a nice little tradition that gets our metabolism in gear for the rest of the day. It was nice to still be able to participate even though I am 5 months pregnant! And I'm so thankful that John just kept my leisurely pace with me to keep me company and encourage me to keep going. It's neat to be able to say that was baby's first race!

We are now into Week 20! That is half-way to BABY TIME!!!!

Baby size update: 10 inches long head-to-toe and 12 ounces. About the size of a banana!

It's hard to imagine that we are now officially over the half way mark and on our way down the hill racing towards labor and having a baby in our arms. Freaky! It still seems a little surreal. I felt a few strong kicks this week, but they aren't reliable yet. Maybe as the kicks getharder it'll get more real to me, but I know some women who didn't "get" it until they handed them their baby in the hospital.

In any case, we are passing the midway point and now it's all racing downhill to the finish line!!! I'm sure it will come faster than we expect, especially with the holidays speeding it along over the next month.

We got to see the baby on ultrasound last Friday!!! Gave us a thumbs up from the inside so I guess everything I'm doing is keeping baby happy in there. And everything looked like it was developing just as its supposed to! Yahoo!!!!

John didn't sleep the night before. Half anticipation and excitement, half worry.It was the first time he had been able to make it to an ultrasound appointment. He just went and sat down next to the monitor and wouldn'ttake his eyes off the screen. For the next hour or so after the appointment he was just in stunned silence. Think it kinda overwhelmed him a bit.

And big news is.... IT'S A BOY!!!!!!

I'm so glad my mother's intuition was right on target! I've been thinking 'boy, boy, boy' all along while everyone else guessed girl. For some reason that's not what I felt...and I was RIGHT!!! :-D

We sawhis little penis in the ultrasound bright as day. No mistaking we are having a bouncing baby boy in a few short months. We are so excited we are having a SON!!!

So now that he has reached the halfway point its time for us to kick preparations into high gear. Last weekend Idove into the boxes of clothes our friends gave us. They had 2 boys and I just had a great time going through the cute little clothes. I seperated them by sizes and filled our tiny dresser pretty quickly. Their generosity has us pretty much set on clothes for a while, with some pretty cute stuff. (Though I'm sure we'll get more.)

So now the goal is that I need to focus on all the other baby stuff. I set up a baby registry at Babies R Us just to kinda keep track of everything I still need. I'm still adjusting a little bit but if ya wanna take a look just go to their website at:
http://www.babiesrus.com/ControllerServlet?registryNumber=67278533&target=search

We are continuing to plow through random boxes in our closet throwing things away, getting rid of stuff, and finding a place for things that are important to us. Ever since the ultrasound John has just been a little ball of energy. He's been waking up early and staying up late going through all his random computer parts and wires and figuring out what he can part with to aid in preparing for his son.

It's an exciting time in our house and our lives. Only 20 weeks left until our son joins it! I'm sure the weeks will fly by!

Photos included:
Turkey Trot morning
Ultrasound-Baby smiling
Ultrasound-Thumbs up
Jen's belly at 20 weeks pregnant - and somehow the scale says I've only gained 5 lbs?!?!

Baby update week 19

This Friday we have our next ultrasound and should be able to tell whether our baby is a boy or a girl!!! I am excited and counting down the days! Baby is about the size of a zucchini. It weighs about 8 1/2 ounces, and measures 6 inches. Baby's brain is busy designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch.

The women at work said I "popped" this last week. Frankly I think I popped a little earlier and was just good at hiding it cause I had practice hiding my belly being overweight for so many years. But it was still fun to hear! I even got my first belly pat! :-D

I still feel pretty good. I am slowing down though. I think I was under the impression that I would be a Superwoman and pregnancy wouldn't slow me down. All those other people just like to whine a lot...right??? But I absolutely am noticing where being pregnant stops me in my tracks in some ways.

I'm having trouble bending over cause of the pressure it puts on my tummy (it doesn't really bend with me) so John has taken over feeding and watering the pets and emptying the dishwasher. I'm tossing and turning in bed trying to get comfortable while making sure I sleep on my side. This past weekend the backaches came on really strong and had me glued to the couch for the morning. John was amazing, he just jumped right into gear and started doing things around the house and taking care of me. I'm so thankful he is around and he has been making the past week or two so much more relaxing and enjoyable.

We began to gut the second bedroom this past weekend in preparation for putting together the nursery. Trash bins are getting full and I have a few boxes of things to sell. I'm eyeing our bedroom closet to donate some clothes to goodwill in the next few weeks. Trying to make room wherever we can. We've still got a lot to do, but this week I finally saw a significant dent in what needs done. Since we find out the sex of the baby on Friday my plans for the weekend are to go through the boxes of clothes are friends have given us and start filling the baby's dresser with the things we will use.

We are having a bit of a hard time with John's new schedule. He got switched to working 11:30am-8pm. This means that my lunch hour is taken super early and spent driving across town. No rest for the pregnant lady mid-day. :-( That is a complete bummer because I could really use some down time. Then by the time I pick him up we end up having dinner just as I'm about to fall asleep. Not exactly the best schedule for a pregnanct diabetic since it screws with mealtimes and such... But you do what you have to do right? It's not impossible, just inconvenient and requires some adjustment. The biggest bummer is that since John works so late it means we can't go to any of the nighttime birthing classes. We will HAVE to figure out something to work around that.

I've been craving Taco Bell A LOT! I could probably eat it every day, though John would never let me. I DID satisfy my pizza craving finally by finding a place that offers a whole wheat crust, Magpie's Pizza. It's a few more bucks than Pizza Hut but it's worth it to get a kick butt pizza I don't have to feel guilty about eating.

I do still think that some pregnant women whine unnecessarily sometimes. I have absolutely no patience with a pregnant woman whining because her husband didn't go get her eggrolls and ice cream at 1am so she wasn't speaking to him for 2 days. I suppose this is because I have to keep such a tight reign on my behaviors to have a healthy baby and I get annoyed with people who just indulge in the ability to "get away" with stuff, whether "eating for two" (which is complete crap) or just being emotional bitches (which is also complete crap). But, thinking about it I think those people didn't want to control their behaviors beforehand, now they just have something to blame it on.

Oh, my other pet peeve is women who are scared of the Gestational Diabetes test they do around week 24. I just roll my eyes and get disgusted that they are so scared to death of getting a positive result. I've had a positive result from Day One. WIMPS!!! :-P

Diabetes Update

I have no real complaints about taking insulin, its just part of the routine and what I need to do so I do it. And I'm beginning to understand how to work with it better and adjust the levels myself. Its funny how mundane and non-challant I feel about it. Needles a couple times a day? Sure, no biggie. :-P

My diabetes educator, Mary Margaret is completely awesome. She eased my mind a little at my last appointment by telling me of a few other diabetic pregnancies she's guided so I know I'm right on track and doing well. I was beginning to get scared at the level of insulin I was reaching but then relaxed when I heard that by the end most pregnant women have doses like 10 times what I'm currently at. I did finally get the fast-acting "meal-time" insulin added to my repertoire, couldn't hold it off forever. In fact, I actually asked for it because I was getting a little nervous without it. Right now its not needed at every meal, just as "insurance" if my number's are running high so I have a way to lower them quickly.

Mary Margaret also raised my prescription levels so I now have HUGE amounts of both insulins at home to see me through for a little while. John and I both feel better and more at ease knowing that we have extra insulin instead of praying that our supply will make it until the next appointment. BONUS: I have permission to take extra insulin and eat some mashed potatos on Thanksgiving!!!! (Simple thrills!!!)

I am SO THANKFUL that of all diseases I could have, I have diabetes which if you are willing to stick yourself a couple times a day you can pretty much compensate for a bad pancreas. I'm glad I live in this day and age and can be taken care of as if there were no risk at all.

Well, thanks for reading. I know I get a little long-winded sometimes, but this is only a little bit of everything that's going on. And I just felt like talking today. I'll probably send another email out later this week when we find out boy/girl!!!! I won't be able to keep it quiet!