We love vegetables!!

This is Gabriel with zucchini on his face. It's his favorite vegetable - also the first one we tried. He just loves it. He's not making a super happy face right here, but that's mainly the effect of the camera, not the food. So, yes, we are eating veggies now, so far just zucchini and carrots. We just started the carrots a few days ago, but we've been doing zucchini for a couple of weeks. And we've given up on rice cereal. It is just too boring. Now we're eating oatmeal instead, and later this week we'll try a multi-grain cereal. Gabriel is also getting better at drinking water, both out of a real cup and a sippy cup. Yesterday I gave him diluted juice for the first time. One of the moms in my PEPS group suggested pear juice for constipation, so that's what we're trying. When I mentioned constipation in the last post, I was being naive - he was not constipated then. Now I know the difference! So anyway, hopefully the juice will help . . .
I don't really have any pictures this week unfortunately, my camera needs batteries before I can get any new ones from it to the computer. Fun things are happening besides vegetables though . . . we've discovered clapping!! Clapping is Gabriel's new favorite thing. And it really is the cutest thing in the world to see. I've started doing some baby signs with him, and now we're working on waving. He just loves doing things with his hands, and watching my hands. He also LOVES getting into EVERYTHING!! He can't even crawl, yet he manages to get into everything within reach, and many things that are just barely out of reach. He is working really hard on figuring out this crawling thing, so we really need to start paying attention to what's around him. I think Gabriel is going to be a very very entertaining (and a little bit difficult) little mover!
Another thing that happened since my last post was that we turned six months old!! So there was a doctor's visit, which went fine. Gabriel is right about average for both height and weight (oddly enough he's just above for weight, just below for height). He's about 18 lbs and a little over 26" long/tall. His head circumference is still well above average though, which I find amusing. He just needs a big head to hold that large brain of his!
And what post would be complete without a sleep update? Well at least we are getting good naps!! And night time sleep is a little bit better, but that's mainly because I've just completely given in. Which is a good thing. Sometimes you just have to let go and admit that you have no control over a situation (or person!). So when Gabriel simply will not stay asleep on his own in his crib, I just sleep with him. Unfortunately our bed is not big enough for the three of us, so this means Gabriel and I sleep on the couch, which is actually very comfortable, more so than the two of us in the bed. I'm also trying out sleeping in his room, on the recliner, when he is sleeping in his crib. This hasn't seemed to make a difference so far, however. Last night we actually got our longest stretch of sleep in ages, I think it was close to six hours! Of course it was on the couch, with Gabriel in my arms, but still. I read something by a mom who was going through a similar thing with her baby, and she said that she had to just stop worrying about the bad habits that the books told her she would be creating, and just give her baby what she needed. And it worked fine for her. So that's what I'm trying to do. If Gabriel needs to sleep with me for a little bit, I can do that. His sleeping habits will get better some day. I know they will . . .
Sorry for the super-boring pictureless post! I promise more pictures next time.

developing

Gabriel has done a whole lot of developing since he was five weeks old. He's been talking a bunch since he was under two months old, I don't remember exactly when he started babbling. He just continues to talk to us, and he loves conversing. He's been smiling a bunch since about six weeks. He laughs now, and giggles. He loves when Daddy plays with him, he gets the biggest smiles and laughs when he gets tickled. He also enjoys being sung to, and occasionally seems to want to sing along. He definitely has a good amount of cranky time, in addition to his happy times. Teething is bothering him, in addition to his gassiness and reflux. He's pretty difficult when he's cranky, he's hard to make happy. Handing him off sometimes helps, as does sleep, but not always. Gabriel kind of goes back and forth between being happy and cranky.
As far as physical development goes, Gabriel is sort of going out of order. He does really well at holding his head up when he's on his tummy, but he has yet to roll over. He's rolled over a few times from his back to his tummy, but only when he's on a foam wedge that props him up on his back. So that doesn't really count. But he is sitting up. I'm not kidding. The "normal" age for sitting up unsupported is six and a half months. He just started doing this last week. And it was only a week or so that he spent sitting up in the "tripod" position, where he holds himself up with his arms. He still does that, but he also totally sits up on his own. Its crazy. I took this video when he started doing it the other day. It was so completely unexpected that I think I sound kind of surprised in the video.
So we are all on target for development, and a little bit ahead in some areas. The no rolling over thing is a little off, but often babies are slower on that stuff these days, since they don't sleep on their stomachs.
Also, we went to the doctor last week for Gabriel's four-month check up. He weighs 15 lbs, 11 oz, and is a little over 25 inches long. Both of those values are just above average. His head circumference is quite a bit higher though. So proportionally, his head is a bit bigger than normal for his age. The doctor says he looks great. We talked about starting solid foods, but I've been a little bit resistant. I may start sometime soon anyway. It's supposed to help with reflux, and he's been struggling with that more lately (rather than growing out of it, like he should be). So we may be trying out some rice cereal soon.

Two weeks old

Gabriel turned two weeks old yesterday - it already seems like he's been with us for longer than that!! It has been a rather momentous two weeks, I suppose.
We're all doing well, just getting used to the sleep schedule. Of which there isn't really one. I was running just fine on five hours a night (divided, depending on his feeding schedule), but now I'm starting to feel the effects more. It will still be a while before he's even sleeping for five hours straight, so I suppose I just need to get used to it. It's not so bad, since I can try and take naps during the day. The worst is when Gabriel won't go to sleep and we can't figure out why. That usually happens when we're trying to go to bed, around midnight or so. Last night he decided he was going to stay up until 3am, for no particular reason. Usually its more like 2, if he does it. Otherwise he just goes down after I feed him, and we're able to get to sleep. I think it's only been once that he's decided to stay awake after a later feeding - although granted I am all muddled when that happens, from lack of sleep, so I could be forgetting instances.
For a week or so Gabriel seemed to be doing this cluster feeding thing that was really tiring. It seemed like he just wanted to eat constantly, which was really draining for me. When you're breastfeeding, the baby can eat as often as he needs to, so if he thinks he's hungry, he should be fed. It just gets tiring after a while. For the past few days its been a little more normal, but supposedly he'll have another growth spurt at three weeks, so we'll be in for more heavy feeding I suppose. My milk has totally come in, so I'm no longer worried about him getting enough food from me.
We took Gabriel to the doctor last week, when he was nine days old. She weighed him again, and he has passed his birth weight, which is good news. He was just under eight pounds. That puts him in the 25th percentile for his weight, but he is in the 50th percentile for both his length and head circumference, so I suppose he just needs to continue to put on weight. Which I am quite sure he has been doing. He got a clean bill of health from the pediatrician, and won't see her again until he is two months old. The next day we took him back to the hospital for a final series of metabolic tests. We haven't seen any results, but the pediatrician is supposed to call us when she gets them. They took a ton of blood for these, poor little guy.
In other big news, Gabriel's umbilical cord just fell off this afternoon!! It was looking very uncomfortable, so I'm glad it's off now.
We've taken Gabriel out on two walks this week in his stroller, when the sun is out. He doesn't really seem to know what to make of these adventures. I'll have to take a picture of his face the next time we go - it really is hilarious, very pensive. And George seems to have totally mellowed out concerning Gabriel. No more barking when he hears him cry. He really enjoys sniffing Gabriel whenever he gets the chance - I think he's still trying to figure things out a little bit.
Those are the updates I can think of right now. I've included more recent pictures, although not in any particular order (this last picture is of Gabriel with his Grandma Mary, who is staying with us this week). I'll experiment with uploading videos as well - not really sure how that works on blogger, we may have to put them on youtube first. I brought home a stack of books from the library today, all on newborn care and development. We'll see if any of those prove useful to our new life with the little guy.

Welcome to the world, Gabriel Joseph West!!

That's right, he's here!! Our beautiful little boy was born on Tuesday, January 5th, at 2:39 in the afternoon. He weighed seven pounds, twelve ounces, and is twenty and a half inches long. He really is the most beautiful baby boy ever!! I have lots of pictures already. I'll post some here. I'm going to try to keep this updated as much as possible, but obviously its taken me almost a week to get this post up, so we'll see how that actually goes.
Gabriel is doing really well, after getting off to a rather rough start. I will do a separate post to tell all about his birth. The short story is that I ended up needing a Cesarean section to deliver, but the only effect he really suffered from that was having more amniotic fluid in his digestive system than usual. He spent the first day or so spitting that up. He passed all of his blood sugar tests, for which we were grateful. However, on Thursday, the day we were supposed to leave the hospital, we were noticing that his lips and mouth were really dry - his lips were even sticking together! None of the nurses really noticed this when they checked him. Robert pointed it out to his pediatrician when she came by for her second visit. She realized that Gabriel must be really dehydrated. She ordered that we put him on formula supplements to get him rehydrated. They also weighed him, and he had already lost ten percent of his birth weight, which is the most they want to see babies lose. I think it usually takes them three or four days to get to that point though, and then they start putting on weight again. Our little Gabriel was simply not getting enough to eat!! I felt like I was feeding a lot, so it was probably my breast milk that wasn't getting enough hydration and nutrients to him, and not his inability to feed. He was so super fussy those first two days in the hospital. He was really gassy, so we thought that was the main problem, but as soon as we started getting formula into him, he began to feel better. We waited for a few extra hours at the hospital, hoping for a wet diaper (which he hadn't had for 24 hours), but eventually they just sent us home, with a promise we would see the pediatrician in the morning.
On Friday morning we got our wet diaper, finally. The pediatrician was relieved, and so were we. Gabriel was obviously feeling better as well! On Saturday we had a visit with the lactation consultant, and we learned that Gabriel had gained back five ounces! He was eating so much, but its obvious that he knew what he wanted. The visit with the consultant showed that as of Saturday, my breast milk still was not providing quite a full meal for Gabriel, although my milk started coming in. She told me what I could do to help it along, and already its helping. We didn't give any formula supplements at all last night, because Gabriel didn't seem to be hungry after breastfeeding. Sometimes he eats so much more than the "typical" amount per feeding, but I think that if he's hungry, he needs to eat! He knows what his body needs better than my books do. I am glad that my own supply is starting to be enough for him though.
Life with Gabriel is lovely. It seems to consist of constantly feeding for me, but I know that there are other things going on as well. He's started sleeping a little more, and he has nice long quiet alert periods that he likes to spend staring at his daddy's face. We still have some frustration with feeding, as he hasn't gotten the hang of latching on down to perfection yet. But for a baby who is less than a week old, I think he's doing wonderfully. We also are still trying to figure out a lot of his crying signals. He still seems to be really gassy, so he almost always needs to be burped. That makes him unhappy, but sometimes its hard to figure out that's what he needs. Otherwise he's a lovely, happy baby.
Okay, this is the longest post ever, but I'll finish up by saying that George has been home with Gabriel for a little more than a day, and he seems to be doing okay. For the most part the only thing that upsets him is when Gabriel cries. Not every time - throughout the night George just kind of comes over and checks on him. But sometimes it really startles him, especially if Gabriel is asleep in the other room. Then when George hears him cry he freaks out and runs into the other room barking and growling. Gabriel doesn't seem to mind (he's already crying, after all), but it's still not great to have the dog running over and barking in his face. George calms down really quick when this happens, but it sort of mystifies us. I'm sure he'll figure it out eventually. Otherwise, he's really cute around Gabriel. He'll usually come over and check him out if he's on somebody's lap, getting close enough to sniff his ear. It's hard to tell what he thinks of the whole thing. He knows that he's no longer allowed on our bed, and this change doesn't seem to bother him too much. We'll keep an eye on how things progress as Gabriel gets bigger.
I'll try to do another post tomorrow, telling Gabriel's birth story. Also, I have to mention that having my mom around has been amazing. She leaves tomorrow. This post is already super long, so I'm stopping now. (Here is a link to the Picasa web album I've created - I'll be updating it as regularly as I can, so check there for pictures!)

This is it!!

So I thought I would do one last update since it looks like I will probably not be updating for a while . . .
We were waiting all week, trying to encourage my body to go into labor, but that wasn't really happening. I've been in early labor for a few days, having contractions and what-not, but nothing regular or even very strong. I kept getting totally frustrated.
We had a doctor's appointment this morning, and she checked me as well as doing an ultrasound. She said that my cervix seems just about the same as two weeks ago, which was seriously disappointing. I expected to be pretty effaced from all the activity that's been going on, but apparently no such luck. However, I am dilated one centimeter! So my body is doing something, I suppose. So while she was checking me, the doctor said, well you'll definitely have this baby sometime this week. Then she did the ultrasound. She said everything looked great, except for my "very mature placenta". That seemed to be pretty serious to her. So after looking at everything, she said, "okay get dressed, I'm going to call the labor wing, and let you know what they say." It looks like they are okay to check me in tonight, so we're going in!
We'll be admitted at 6pm tonight, and they'll start a cytotec induction. That's the same thing she was going to have done three weeks ago when she first brought up induction. It's supposedly the gentlest, most natural way to induce (according to my doctor) - plus it directly works on the cervix, rather than going through an IV. It also does not require monitoring after the initial six hours, which other induction methods do. The doctor is pretty sure that this will put me into real labor, since I'm already in early labor, and we won't have to do any more augmentation. But she is going to do the lowest pitocin level induction if necessary. Either way, we should have a baby tomorrow sometime!
I'm hoping the cytotec does its thing, or that I go into real labor in the next few hours (which is a real possibility). We may have a baby in the very early hours of the morning, if things move along quickly, but it will probably be further along in the morning. So this is super exciting for us!! We will post pictures as soon as we get around to it . . .

Almost there - with pictures!

These will probably be the last pictures of my pregnant tummy, which is exciting for everyone! I had Robert take two, so you can see the difference - I feel like I don't look as huge when I'm clothed. He also took these pictures from sitting down, which makes them a little off, but overall they're a fairly accurate depiction of how large I am. I even developed a few stretch marks here at the end, just in the last couple of weeks. They are just hiding below my belly button, which means that I can't really see them - even in a mirror they're difficult for me to find. The only ones I can see are a fairly amusing "x" that has appeared atop the scar from my naval piercing. That was looking odd enough without the stretch marks.
After the past couple of weeks excitement about when the doctor would decide to induce, it now seems that she has decided that my body can handle itself. This going back and forth is making me a little nuts, but I can't really complain, since I would like to be able to go into labor naturally, if my body will do so. I guess that just shows how well I've done over the past few weeks, in terms of keeping my blood sugar under control and what-not. It's still not great, but Gabriel is still doing fantastic, and the doctor is no longer as worried about either of us suffering terrible side effects. I don't even have to go to the hospital for extra monitoring this week! Now I just get to hope I go into labor this week. My due date is this Saturday, and I don't believe the doctor will let me wait for labor on my own after next Monday. And we are ready for this baby! We really thought that she would want to induce early this week, so we are pretty good to go. My mom is flying in tonight, so that she can be here for the birth. I'm glad we'll have at least a day or two with her without the baby, because she'll be able to help me look at the baby's room with new eyes, and hopefully figure out how to organize it a little better, I think.
So we should all think labor-ful thoughts for me this week! I have been feeling stronger contractions since early this morning, but still nothing regular, or even strong enough to pay much attention to. Maybe we'll get a New Year's baby after all!
And just for fun, I thought I would include a picture of our little Christmas tree, and the other member of our small family, George. We had a lovely Christmas just with our own small bunch. I missed seeing all of our family as we are so used to, but it was nice to be able to be relaxed and just focused on ourselves for this year. As I mentioned before, we feel as though Gabriel is already here enjoying it all with us. We are so ready for him!! Soon . . . and maybe by the next time I post it will be with a new baby to show you!

Whew! That was a close one!

As some of you may already have heard, I almost had a baby this weekend! Because of all the stuff going on with my body (see last post) the doctor was concerned that we would run into complications that could affect the baby. So far he looks great, and he is considered full-term as of this weekend, so she was not worried about him being born early. She felt that the risks of complications were higher than the risks of inducing labor. But when she examined me, she discovered that my body is no where near ready for labor, even being induced. She was still going to go ahead and do it, but after conferring on it with some of her colleagues, she decided that the monitoring we are already doing is enough to catch anything that might be going on with me or the baby.
So, probably no pre-Christmas baby for us, which we are grateful for. At least I am - I knew I was not ready. There is the potential that my body could still go into labor on its own, but that's unlikely I think. Or after our visit on Monday, she could still potentially decide that we need to have the baby this week - but I doubt it. She still wants me to have the baby early, but she's giving my body more time to get there as well. That way even with induction it will remain a more "natural" birth experience. So I'm thinking weekend after Christmas, when he'll be at 39 weeks.
Also, my brother told me a funny story that I want to share. He was talking to his daughter (who's about two and a half) about me being pregnant and having a baby, and he asked her, "What's the baby's name?" Her response? "Bacon."

So Close!

First, some apologies about not posting for so long. I've been meaning to, but we've been having some serious issues with our internet connection. Robert is working on it, so hopefully soon it will be totally fixed.
Lots of big news, mainly, little Gabriel may be coming into our world a little earlier than we'd thought! Last week at my doctor's appointment, my doctor decided to get super concerned about the fact that I am still having glucose show up in my urine. In addition to that I am still putting on more weight than I really should be. Those two things combined made her go, "Okay, you know what, I don't care if your gestational diabetes test came back normal all those weeks ago, we're going to do something about this." Like I've said before, I am a relatively healthy eater - not great, I do have my weaknesses, but I really shouldn't still be having these issues if everything is normal. So she did some more bloodwork. They also did some bloodwork to see if there was anything going on with my gallbladder and liver, because that constant pain I have had in my ribs has gotten much much worse recently. I've had a few times where its seriously made me a little bit incoherent and panicky, it gets so bad, and I have to lie down to make it go away. And apparently, that is where my gallbladder and liver are! So she just wanted to make sure they were functioning properly.
When the results came back, everything looked fine except for my blood sugar levels. I had already made an appointment with a dietitian to put me on a meal plan to handle my blood sugar levels. When I saw her, she also showed me how to check my blood sugar levels with a little meter, so now I'm poking myself in the finger four times a day to get a record for my doctor. After the blood results came back, my doctor said she was basically treating me as though I have gestational diabetes. So I had to go to the hospital on Saturday so they could do some monitoring of the baby. They did what they call a non-stress test, where they make sure his heart rate is fine and that he's moving. They are also looking to see accelerations in heart rate with the movement, because that shows that his blood is properly oxygenated (I think). Gabriel did fine, but had a little trouble with the acceleration part. According to their protocol, they have to see certain signs before they can let me leave, so I was sort of stuck there until he had another heart rate acceleration. Thankfully he did, and then they had to call my doctor for her to authorize my release. That was when I realized that if they didn't like something that they saw, they would just check me in, call the doctor, and I'd be having a baby! It was a little eye-opening.
On Monday I had an ultrasound, just to make sure that the baby looked good - there were a variety of measurements the doctor was looking for that would tell her whether or not he was suffering from my excess blood sugar. I was very glad to hear that the doctor thinks he looks great - she is not worried about him at all, right now. However, I will be very closely monitored for the next couple of weeks until my due date, and I have a feeling that the doctor will not be interested in waiting beyond that for this baby. Until my due date (so for the next three weeks or so) I'll be going to the hospital once a week for non-stress tests (my next one is on Friday), and getting an ultrasound every Monday morning with my doctor. When we made the appointments for the ultrasounds, the receptionist said, "She likes to do these in the morning, in case you need to head to the hospital afterward."
So, at any of these visits, basically, the doctor could potentially decide that she doesn't like what she's seeing, and I could be checked into the hospital to have the baby. Presumably there won't be any emergencies, and he can be induced, rather than requiring a c-section. But I'm really not sure. She also started me on a medication to lower my blood sugar, because even with my diet changes (which are honestly not that much), it's not where she would like to see it. I have one more final project for this semester, which is not due until Sunday, but which I am planning on getting done tomorrow or Friday at the latest. I would like to get it done tomorrow, so that when I check into the hospital for my test on Friday, I have no worries, at least where school is concerned. After that, I am obviously going to make sure the baby's room is ready, and that we're ready for him whenever he comes!!
I'm not worried, I think the baby will be okay no matter what happens - the doctor is being super extra cautious right now just to make sure that's the case. It's just a little strange to think that it may happen this way! And I want to reiterate that the doctor does not think that he is in any trouble right now, and in fact, he looks fantastic. I think it's me, and what my body could still potentially do to him, that they're a little worried about. Thank goodness gestational diabetes goes away after pregnancy! Now I know the value of taking care of myself so I don't get type 2 diabetes in the future. It is seriously no fun. Oh, and I will try to post a picture soon! I am rather large, as you might imagine.

Baby Shower

We had a fun baby shower this past Saturday, with just a few friends from the area. I don't have pictures yet, but once I do, I will certainly post them. I am quite sure that there are some very amusing ones.
One of my favorite things about the shower was something that was suggested by my old boss - she said that at her sister's shower, everyone was asked to bring their favorite children's book, to jumpstart the baby's library. I thought this was a fantastic idea, and as a result, I have many lovely books now! My mom is visiting me this weekend, and she also brought me a huge stack of books that we read together when I was a child. Some of the books I remembered very well, and others I had totally forgotten about until I had them in my hands again. Now I just need to organize the baby's room in a way that will allow for books to be put somewhere. We will be buying another book case soon for sure.
Other than books I got some fantastic clothes, a diaper bag (two actually, so I took one back), and some super cute bibs. Showers are fun. :)
In other news, I was trying to remember if I mentioned my doctor's visit this week. I don't think I did. Basically I have a big baby, is what we have decided. I am measuring at 33 inches, which is slightly larger than normal for where I'm at in the pregnancy. I'm doing yoga, and reading tons about natural birth, so hopefully I will have no trouble at all just because he's a little big. Positive thinking is incredibly important when it comes to having a good labor, so I am keeping that up as well! Oh . . . I was going to do a post all about why I am choosing natural labor, and all the stuff I have learned about various types of augmentation of labor, but I think I'll do a separate post about that later.

Miscellaneous post about all the stuff I haven't been posting about

I know, it's been ages since I posted. And I have definitely had stuff to post about too, it is just a matter of laziness, I suppose.
So, first off, I am supposed to post a recent tummy picture, since it's been more than four weeks since the last one, but we haven't taken one yet. So here is a picture of me at about 27 weeks, although you can't really get a good idea about how big I actually am. Not that I'm huge yet, although of course I feel enormous. Secondly, I should report that the baby has been moving a bunch. I know that I've already mentioned that, but seriously! This guy is a jumper. It is incredibly entertaining to watch my body move around with him, really. Although it probably creeps everyone else out. So he seems to be doing well, enjoying life, etc.
I had a doctor's visit on Friday, and as usual, I feel like I'm gaining too much weight. The doctor says it's okay, that I just need to make sure I'm eating right. My cousins were in town this last week, so I spent a few days eating out with family, which makes eating right a little bit more difficult. But I'm trying to get back on track again. I was also really lazy, and not eating right even at home, even though I have all these lovely vegetables to cook with! But like I said, I'm trying harder now. I have gained just about 30 pounds, and 35 is the most that they really want me to gain. And I still have a couple months. So I'll probably be going over that number, but hopefully not by too much.
In further news, we have begun our childbirth classes! So far we have gone to two, but I am most excited about the one that is this next week. We get a tour of the childbirth center on Wednesday! This is very exciting for me. But the class otherwise has been good. It's a small class, with only six other couples (I guess there are usually at least twice that many in a class). There are a lot of Microsoft employees, two of whom work on the XBOX, which we thought was kind of entertaining. We have talked more to one couple in particular, because they have so much in common with us. The husband, Ke, is one of the XBOX guys, the wife, Tao, is a "homemaker" (I prefer stay-at-home mom-to-be, but homemaker was what her husband called her), they share our due date and our doctor! The wife, however, does not speak very much English, so we have mainly talked to the husband. I talked a little bit to another woman this last week, but we still haven't connected much otherwise. So far in the classes we have talked about the labor process, as well as techniques for breathing and relaxing through contractions. Most of us want to go as natural as we can with our birthing process, but we will be talking about pain medication options and that sort of thing in the coming weeks. I have decided that I for sure am not interested in an epidural, but I do want to know a little bit more about other pain management options.
And lastly, another hat, bootie, and mitten set! Someday I may actually make something larger, but for now, these little things are fun, and they are necessary. This set was supposed to be newborn size, however it looks a little bigger to me. Which is a good thing, I suppose, since the baby will not be newborn size forever!

Wiggle Worm

This little one is such a wiggler! He doesn't really seem to be much of a kicker, although sometimes I do get some solid kicks. Mostly he's just moving around a bunch. This morning for the first time I actually felt him in two places at once. He was kicking on my left side, and doing some other calisthenics that I could feel on the right, maybe with his arms. Who knows? It's fun feeling him, but sometimes it makes me wonder what more is to come. I'm sure the little kicks will only get stronger. He also seems to be taking a little bit more advantage of the extra room I've grown in the past couple of weeks. My body has definitely made room for him up higher, but he hasn't been using that space much. I'm sure he'll need it soon.
We had another doctor's visit yesterday, and from now on we'll be seeing her every two weeks. She continues to say everything looks great, even though I was worried I'd get another lecture about weight gain. Listening to his heartbeat is always fun, although he was moving around so much yesterday, you could hear the movements as much as the heart!
So everything's looking fantastic, and we even have a second car now, which we needed for the baby! We still need to do some serious work on the nursery (!! we have a nursery!!), like getting everything out of there and in to storage, and getting the crib and everything situated. But we've got a few months still, thank goodness! And I am still knitting, although I am stuck working on a little hat that is taking forever. Definitely won't be making two of those. Quick and easy patterns are what I want. We'll get more pictures up soon, so you can see how we're growing!

Check-up Day

I saw my doctor for a brief check-up this morning. I got to hear the baby's heart beat some more, which is always fun. She said everything looks fantastic, except . . . sugar is showing up in my urine again. Which is bad. So tomorrow morning I have to drink some stuff after not eating for 8 hours, and then have some blood drawn. This is the gestational diabetes test that they do for everyone, but usually not for another month or so. But because of this stupid sugar, I get to do it early. The other thing I was a little concerned about was my weight, but I seem to be back on track there.
After talking with my mom when she visited last week, I am not that worried about the outcome of this test. My mom said she had the same thing happen to her during her pregnancies, and I tend to take after her quite a bit when it comes to stuff like that. And being diagnosed with gestational diabetes would not be the end of the world, it's just not something that I'm interested in dealing with. The worst part, in my mind, is that it sets up the baby to have problems later in life, like a greater chance of having diabetes himself, or struggling with obesity. Neither of these are things that I would like to put my child at greater risk of having. The doctor said the baby is in the 70th percentile size-wise (gestational diabetes causes bigger babies), but neither Robert or I are small people, so I think that's pretty normal at this point.
All-in-all this whole experience has at least forced me to eat a lot healthier. I really have cut out junk food, and all sorts of goodies, and I've been relying on fruit stuff for my sweets. I've also paid more attention to added sugar in stuff. And I've been eating a lot more whole grains. So it's been good for me. I just hope that everything comes out okay with the tests, and it's not going to be something I have to struggle with for the next four months.

Sugar!!

So I'm in trouble. Apparently I have been eating too many sugary foods, cause I got a lecture from the doctor when I went in for my visit this week. I have never been the kind of person who pays super close attention to what I eat. I figure I eat well, very little fast food (and I like to think the fast food I do eat is not as bad as McDonald's), not very much junk food, lots of vegetables and very little meat. I do love chocolate, and ice cream, so I know I'm not perfect, but still. Now I will have to pay attention to added sugar in stuff, and no more ice cream or other sugar-filled goodies for a while. (/cry)
Other than that the baby seems fine. I will probably start feeling baby move sometime around our next ultrasound, or maybe very soon thereafter. So exciting!! I am sure those updates will be infinitely more interesting.

a visit to the Doctor

We had another brief doctor's appointment on Friday morning. They went over the results of the blood-work they did the week before, which is supposed to check for various birth defects. We are happy to say that everything looks good, but of course we were not expecting any difficulties.
We also got to hear baby's heartbeat again, which was lovely. Not much more to tell, but I promise that at some point soon I will get that ultrasound picture scanned and posted. Oh, and in 6 weeks we will be able to tell what the baby's sex is! We will definitely keep you posted!