The Verdict Is In

It seems I failed the three-hour glucose test as well. Sigh. My doctor's office is going to make me an appointment with a endocrinologist, who can tell me more, including how severe my condition is and what we need to do going further. Even though gestational diabetes only affects 4% of pregnant Americans... Latin Americans are at higher risk, and you can have genetic disposition to it as well (my mom had it with Teryn). So there you go.

I found out about this around 5:15, and was kinda bummed when Jason got home from work a half hour later. Halle and I were already planning to go with Jason to his volleyball game up in Viera tonight since it was an early game, so I didn't have a whole lot of time to think about it or research it. We went to the game and then afterwards Jason surprised me by taking me to the Avenues to let me pick out a new maternity top at Motherhood Maternity, while he and Halle went to Baby Gap to pick something out for Elena. How sweet is that? Then we tried Shane's Rib Shack because I figured I could find something there to eat, and I did.. I had a pork sandwich (minus the bread) and green beans and a water. It actually felt good to not eat the bread, fries, or sugary drink. Wish I had that kind of will power without the threat of making my baby overproduce insulin. :)

After all that, we decided to drive down to Jason's parents' house. They're diabetes experts and had some recipe books for me to look at. Jason's dad also has one of those self-tests to test your blood sugar. He nearly freaked when he saw how low my blood sugar is (it was 84, the lowest of the four of us.. we all tested). He laughed and said I had nothing to worry about. (Normal after a meal is anything under 120, and normal after fasting is anything under 95.. so 84 after a meal was fantastic). After doing some research, I realize that I obviously have G.D. based on the three-hour glucose results, but its very likely that simple dietary changes (like not choosing sugary drinks and bread and fries) is probably all I'm going to need to do to stay healthy. If this diagnosis makes me start excercising regularly and making smarter food choices, and the baby and I turn out to be just fine, then maybe its just the kick-in-the-pants I needed and all is well.

I'll definitely update the blog after I see the endo.

One last shout out to my sweet husband for the wonderful way he made me feel tonight. :)

My Little Artist

Today Halle was playing on this drawing tablet and exclaimed, "A fishy!" I had the camera out (taking pics of her new room) so I turned and snapped a picture of her drawing. Then I looked at what she drew.
That really DOES look like a fishy! I'm sure she didn't set out to draw a fish, but I'm still impressed. :)

Chicken Fajita Pizza

This is my favorite of the three recipes I've tried so far. The seasoning was quite tasty (and sooo simple). I ate mine with some sour cream on top; Jason ate his with some zesty ranch sauce. We both enjoyed it. I used Pillsbury refrigerated pizza crust classic, and wasn't overly impressed with it. I'd try a different pizza crust next time. But the flavor of the chicken and veggies was really good. Of course, you could just as easily serve the chicken, veggies, salsa and cheese atop some tortilla shells or a baked potato or tortilla chips or any number of other starchy foods. :)

New Recipes

I'm bored of the same old same old around here, so I've decided to try these recipes. They all seem like easy weeknight meals, and they've all received great reviews from allrecipes.com. I'm posting them here so I have a place to go to easily find the recipes all week, and I figured someone else might find something worth trying here too. I'll update the post after trying the recipes to let you know if we enjoyed them. :)

• Soy Garlic Steak *This was pretty tasty, although it didn't quite live up to my expectation for it. There are so many other ways we enjoy steak, that I probably wouldn't make this again.
  
• Easy Baked Tilapia & Veggies *Had this Thursday night. The fish was ok, but the veggies didn't cook well. I don't really recommend this one.
• Pesto Chicken Florentine
• Chicken Fajita Pizza *This was pretty good! See blog post above for more details.
  
• Tasty Orange Pork Chops *These were delicious! Next time I'd probably throw something in there to make them a little spicy too, but the flavor was very, very good. We ate them with Caribbean rice and corn on the cob, and it was a wonderful dinner.
  

Also, if anyone has some suggestions for their favorite veggie side dishes, I'd love to hear them!

An Online Education

I know I've posted before about Halle's love of Ella videos, but its funny how much she actually learns from these videos. Although Annabelle has shown her several times what hanging is in person, Halle really had no interest in it. After watching Ella hang in her kitchen a few times, Halle decided she loves hanging. And always says "Ella hangs!" when she does. She also went back to eating in her high chair because Ella eats in her high chair and every time she eats spaghetti (which she calls "yeti"), she mentions that Ella eats yeti too. So Liz, if you get some videos of Ella eating green beans or broccoli, or counting from 1-10 without skipping 4 and 5*, let me know. :)

Halle's great at cleaning up her toys and peeing and pooping on the potty, so if you want some videos of that, I'll be happy to return the favor. :)

*As a side note, Halle can count up to 16 now, but ALWAYS ALWAYS skips 4 and 5, no matter how many times we correct her. She also knows about half of her letters thanks to Annabelle's influence!

Doctor's Appointment

At my doctor's appointment today I learned that:

1. I failed the one-hour glucose test. I have to go in tomorrow for the three-hour test.
   
2. My iron is low.
3. I'm showing signs of a painless UTI which I've had before and although wonderfully painless, the antibiotics to treat it last a week and have to be taken twice a day on an empty stomach. There are strict rules about how many hours you can eat before and after, so an entire week of scheduling my meals around pills. Pretty annoying. But this particular type of UTI is dangerous for the baby so we have to make sure I don't have it during labor or I can pass it along.
4. I'm measuring 3 weeks big. Could be nothing, or could be another sign that I have gestational diabetes.
   
5. This was the week I had to pay my portion of the doctor's costs ($300).
6. I've gained 25 pounds already.
   

But the best thing I learned today:
All these Braxton Hicks contractions have not affected my cervix yet, and I am not in preterm labor. Woohoo!

For the Love of Backyardigans

Halle is one serious Backyardigans fanatic. She just adores the show and the characters and over the many months, she hasn't lost the love. One thing she does that blows my mind... she listens to the Go, Go, Go! (from the Racing Day episode) song on cd in the car and can identify which character is singing. She excitedly screams the name of the character singing at the moment (and if two characters are singing together, she names them both!). Her latest favorite episodes are Movers of Arabia and Samurai Pie. She asks for them over and over. I'm excited because I FINALLY got her to pose for a picture wearing her chef's hat because Tyrone wears one throughout the Samurai Pie episode. Thanks, Tyrone!

See some more adorable pictures from today in my gallery. :)

Pumpin' It Up

The girls had a great time today at Pump It Up! It was Halle's first time, and she was predictably timid. She was too scared to do the slides or obstacle course by herself. She let Keri and Erica take her down the slides, but she would only do the obstacle course with me (and that was NOT easy for me to do!). There was one part of the obstacle course where I had to scale an inflatable wall with Halle in my arms, and that was quite the challenge. But it was worth it, because then we were at the top of the big slide, and we went down together and Halle really seemed to enjoy that. Halle's favorite part was bouncing in the bounce house with Annabelle though. She could run around and bounce and feel safe hanging out on her own, so that was great. Annabelle ran around the whole place like an old pro, and you could tell she really enjoyed every bit of it. I can't tell you how happy I am that these girls get along so well and have so much fun together. It still amazes me that Keri and I ended up getting pregnant so close together. What a blessing it has been for these girls to have each other in their lives!

This video really captures Halle's experience at Pump It Up today. She was scared, but she still had fun! More photos are up in my gallery, too.

6 Months (Almost)

I'll actually hit the 6 month mark on Sunday, but Erica took this great profile shot of me today against the red wall at Pump It Up, and I love it! One of my favorite pregnant pictures so far! :)

Pictures of Halle and Annabelle at Pump It Up are on their way. Stay tuned...

Braxton Hicks

The Braxton Hicks have come on pretty strong this week. Everything I've read on the web says its normal and nothing to worry about, and I'm sure that's true. But I can't help but worry since the doctors told me I'm at risk of preterm labor (because Halle was born early and the contractions started early with her too). And I passed up the chance to have progesterone shots every week to help prevent preterm labor, so nothing like that added guilt to stir up the pot. I'm only at 26 weeks. I still have 11 weeks to go.

She's also had the hiccups quite a bit lately and when she's active, boy is she active. It's like there's a little soccer game going on inside me. Being pregnant is crazy.

Thank You!

Thank you, Gallers, for Halle's adorable "I'm an American Idol fan!" outfit. :) She wore it to school today, and I made her take this picture before dropping her off. She was still tired and the sun was in her eyes, but hey, she's smiling! This picture also captures her new obsession of holding her pants or shorts up as high on her legs as she can. This started last week with pants. All of a sudden she hates wearing pants and holds them up all day long (confirmed by her teacher who said she even stood on the playground holding up her pants instead of playing for half an hour!). Now this morning she started doing it with these shorts. Kids are crazy. :) Anyway, thanks again!!!

My Two Cents on Bragfests

This just popped in my head and I felt like blogging about it right away. I just want to say for the record that I LOVE hearing all you Mommies brag about your kids. I don't know why but I've always felt kind of guilty bragging about Halle, like people don't want to hear about how great my kid is all the time (not that the guilt has always stopped me). :) But it occurred to me that I really enjoy hearing about all the different ways my friends' kids are excelling. I think its completely fascinating how they all excel in different ways, and every time I read about (or witness) some amazing new talent one of the kids has picked up, I instantly want to encourage Halle and see if she is also interested in learning that same trick. Which is great because you don't always know what your child is ready to learn, and its fun and exciting to keep challenging them with new ideas. Not to mention I really do love and support all our kids, not just mine, so I'm proud of them and their successes too!

So Mommies (and Daddies), please keep bragging away!

Happy Birthday, Stacy!

Hope it's a great one!

(Happy Birthday to Biscuit, too, who turns 5 today!)

Babymoonin'

Jason and I decided that instead of planning a real babymoon (vacation without Halle before the new baby arrives), that we would spend the money on new furniture for Halle's room instead. We decided to take advantage of Grandma and Grandpa's offer to watch Halle for the weekend though, and made plans to "babymoon" this weekend by staying home and cleaning out our big back room (which was basically our catch-all room) and enjoying the weekend kid-free.
We originally planned only to eat breakfast with Halle Saturday morning, then drop her off for the weekend (see cute picture of Halle and Jason at breakfast). But it turns out Grandma and Grandpa wanted to take Halle to a petting farm (with pony rides) that was set up at the City Hall right by their house, so we decided to join them for that first.
The petting farm was tiny, but Halle absolutely loved all the animals. I think she enjoyed it more because it wasn't overwhelming. There's just nothing like the look of happiness on your child's face! Jason and I were really glad to have shared that time with Halle before leaving her for the rest of the weekend. We got back to the house a little after noon and immediately started working on the back room. It was a huge effort because the room was packed tight with big things like a gigantic desk, a daybed, (used to have all the workout equipment but we had already moved that out a few weeks ago), and little things like a double-wide closet FULL of all the crap you keep like file cabinets, childhood memorabilia, computer parts, books, etc. We did a great job alternating between being productive and relaxing. We took breaks for naps, meals, and resting. The next morning we slept in (YES!!) and then went right back to it. We got the room and closet completely cleaned out. We did some brainstorming about how we want the room to be painted and organized. We took one last break (Jason napped and I read), then went over to Jason's parents' house to pick up our little girl, eat spaghetti and meat sauce, and watch Bourne Ultimatum. It was an awesome weekend!We ordered Halle's bedroom furniture last week. We got this full daybed, the dresser and nightstand and also the matching bookcase (not shown in the pic above). That furniture should be arriving in 2-3 weeks. Can't wait! Of course, that means we have to finalize our idea and paint the room before it comes, so we have our work cut out for us. I'm really excited about her big-girl, fun, modern room. Although I actually love the way the room looks in the pic above, that's not how we plan to paint/decorate Halle's room. I'm glad this pic is getting saved in my blog though because maybe when she's a little older we can use this as inspiration to paint/decorate her room again. Because this really is fun. Anyway, we'll post pics again when the room is painted and the furniture is in!

Hope everyone has a great week!

Halle's Fortune

Halle's first fortune cookie fortune ever...

"You are a lover of words; someday you will write a book."

Conquering My Fears

**Disclaimer: If you don't have kids, just stop reading now. **

I can now check "take Halle to an outdoor festival that may only have port-a-potties" off my list of things I fear now that she's potty trained. It's amazing how I have to evaluate all my outings now based on when was the last time she went potty, how much has she had to drink, and how close the nearest bathroom will be. Things you never really worried about when they were in diapers. There's always something. But at least she's got it down now and we can actually leave the house.

Halle did of course have to use the port-a-potty as soon as we got there, and it wasn't that bad. (I highly recommend a folding potty seat like this one).

In other potty training news, because I know you're all just dying to hear about it, Halle has finally blessed us with a few #2 accidents. So far only at home, thank goodness, but still. She teased us for like a week and a half thinking it was going to be sooooo easy, then apparently decided all of a sudden that its fun to poop in Elmo panties.

If you don't have kids and you're still reading, hey, I warned you. :)