Devin's Journal

I've been far more emotional during this pregnancy than I was the first time around. And lately it has not been pretty as I am dealing with the stress of finishing up work, attending a zillion appointments, worrying about premature labor and blood sugar levels and whether or not my son is getting enough attention and the fact that my house is a mess and.....

You get my point.

So, I've been a bit weepy and pathetic (and, truth be told, likely a bit difficult to live with). But a couple of things happened since Christmas that have cheered me tremendously: my husband gave me diamond earrings and my dad sent me flowers.

I'd show you the earrings but I haven't been able to bring myself to take them out of my ears since the moment I got them. At some point, I'll have to, and then I'll take a picture.

These are the flowers. This is the picture I took when they arrived and they have only gotten lovelier. Also? The vase is extremely cool (and green is my favorite color despite the fact that Dax keeps insisting that pink is).

Dax has also been charming and adorable and cuddly and that helps, too. When he is behaving like a little troll beastie it makes being excited about having another one just the teensiest bit challenging. But lately he has just been fabulous, as if he wishes to remind me that fantastic things await us when this little one arrives.

Posted by michelle at 08:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This morning during fetal monitoring I noticed that I was having some contractions. I didn't pay much attention to it until the nurse told me that they were coming every six minutes. After a brief debate over whether they should send me to labor and delivery they sent me on my way with instructions to take it easy and drink lots of water. Oh, yeah...and to go to L&D if they didn't stop.

That was a few hours ago and they haven't stopped. So I called L&D and a lovely woman named Mindy told me to stay put for now but to watch for contractions coming more frequently or becoming stronger. I'm very thankful this didn't happen the first time around because I think that would have freaked me right on out. As it is, I don't think I'm going into labor anytime soon. In fact, Cat just timed a couple and they seem to be getting further apart.

Besides, this birthday is already taken. My nephew, Peter, is celebrating today. So, yeah. This baby is just going to have to wait.

Posted by michelle at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Let's just cut right to it....exactly as I expected I now have to do nightly insulin shots. I'm fairly annoyed about it if only because it is yet one more thing that I have to schedule into my already crazy life. Maternity leave can not come soon enough.

So, the baby now weighs somewhere around 4 3/4 pounds or, as Baby Center says, about the same as an average canteloupe. We'll get a fairly good idea on January 3rd how big he really is because I'll be having an ultrasound then. They need to check to see if he's getting too big. They did this with Dax a couple weeks before he was born and they estimated his size pretty closely. They said he was around 7 pounds, 14 ounces and he was 7 pounds, 4 ounces when he made his debut. Let's hope his baby brother follows in his footsteps and doesn't get too big.

Since I have to do insulin now I have about 80 million appointments to attend. Ok, fine, I'm exaggerating. I only have three a week. I'm so grateful that I'm only working on Monday and I'm off the rest of the week (but wouldn't you just know that I have an appointment on Monday, too). My last week of work will require me to juggle my last minute transition activities and a whopping FOUR appointments (because of the ultrasound). Let's not forget that I also have to eat at scheduled times and test my blood at scheduled times. Eeep!

Hope everyone has a very, very merry Christmas. Please eat some extra cookies for me. :)

Posted by michelle at 04:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Baby Center says:

"This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds (heft a pineapple) and has passed the 17-inch mark. He's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and his skeleton is hardening. The bones in his skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for him to fit through the birth canal. (The pressure on the head during birth is so intense that many babies are born with a conehead-like appearance.) These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as his brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood."

As for me, I've been testing my blood sugar four times a day with mostly good results. The frustrating thing is that I am consistently failing my fasting levels. This happened with the first pregnancy as well and that's how I found myself on insulin. Soooo...yeah. Pretty sure I know what awaits me at my next appointment.

My maternity leave will be beginning soon. January 4th is my last day of work. Thankfully, I also have time off the week of Christmas so the number of working days between now and freedom is in the single digits. Yay!

Posted by michelle at 01:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I celebrated week 32 by repeating the three hour glucose tolerance test and failing it spectacularly.

Ooops.

This is exactly when I failed with Dax, too. So I am assuming the upcoming activites will be the same....next week should bring an appointment in the clinic where I'll get my handy dandy monitor and start poking myself in the finger several times a day to keep track of my blood sugar.

Pardon me while I go off and mope just a bit.

Posted by michelle at 07:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)