Monday, November 23, 2009

What to Expect: Week 30

November 23, 2009

Week friggin' 30.

Seriously? Only 10 weeks to go? How did this happen? It feels like just yesterday that we were buying pregnancy tests in bulk and obsessing over fertility windows, and now I'm as big as a house and I'm waddling. (Yes, I'm waddling. Aaron said that yesterday, and I tried to argue with him, but then I realized today that I have a subtle, yet distinct, waddle to my gait. You were right, honey. And you suck. :)

Last week was a bit of a doozie. I had the pleasure of enduring the 1 hour glucose tolerance test, failing it, then sitting for the 3 hour version two days later. And then I found out I failed that one, too, which means that I officially have gestational diabetes. (Click the link for more info.) Basically, all of the hormones being produced by the placenta are interfering with my insulin's ability to control my blood sugar. The plan of attack is to modify my diet to control my blood sugar levels.

I'm going to take a class next week and see a dietitian to develop a new eating plan that involves a lot less sugar and a lot fewer carbs. I'm not really worried about the carb part because I've read that they'll just tell me to eat whole grains, which I already do exclusively. However, I am worried they're going to take away my ability to eat fruit which is NOT going to be pretty - I'm basically addicted to apples and oranges. The worst part is that I'm going to have to check my blood sugar levels throughout the day, which means I'll be pricking my finger. Yippee.

The good news is that my body should go back to handling my blood sugar normally after the baby is born. There is a slight chance that I'll develop Type 2 diabetes later in life, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. In the grand scheme of things, this isn't the greatest thing to happen, but it's definitely manageable, and it's far better than other problems I could be having. And, hey, I'll only have to deal with it for 10 more weeks!

Friday, November 20, 2009

Twitter Account

I just sent this out as an email, but I wanted to add it to the blog in case I missed anyone.....

I know there are a lot of people who are going to want to know what's happening when the "big day" finally arrives, and I've been trying to figure out the best way to pass along information to everyone regarding Addison Frances' arrival. Something that doesn't involve 1,000 phone calls a minute or carrier pigeons or some sort of radio broadcast. I have decided to set up a Twitter account that I will use to pass along information when I'm in labor. I am new to Twitter, and I'm sure many of you are, too. Here is some basic info about Twitter:

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications.

Someone (probably my sister) will be updating it for me - I'll have much more important things to do - but this way everyone can get updates (without all that pigeon poop!) We'll let you know in the week or so before she's due how things are progressing, notify you when I'm officially in labor, and we'll give you updates on contractions, dilation and effacement. If this makes you uncomfortable, then this Twitter feed is NOT for you!!! We will post some pictures along the way, and when she finally arrives, we'll give you all the stats (time, weight, length) and a picture of her cute little face.

To see my Twitter updates online, go to http://twitter.com/kautzbaby

If you would like to follow my Twitter account and receive all of my Tweets as a cell phone text message, you will have to sign up for Twitter (which is easy to do, and you can always cancel it later) and then follow the instructions here:
http://help.twitter.com/forums/10711/entries/14020

More info about getting Twitter updates via text can be found here:
http://help.twitter.com/forums/10711/entries/14020

Please let me know if you have any questions or have any trouble accessing my Twitter feed. I won't be "tweeting" much until it's closer to the due date, but I do hope that if there are any kinks, we'll have them worked out by then, so let me know if you're having a problem. 76 days and counting........

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

What To Expect: Weeks 27 and 28.... and now 29

November 17, 2009
I started to write a blog entry last week, and this is how far I got:

As of this week, the baby is weighing in at around 2.5 pounds and is around 16 inches long. She's definitely become a mover - one night last week she was kicking so hard that Aaron and I could see my stomach move.
Yep, one whole paragraph, people. My brain is not working these days. Well, it's not working at full capacity, and any of the brain power I do have has been reserved for things like writing a thesis and assembling 1,234,000 pieces of IKEA furniture (blog about that to follow sometime this century) and thinking about (ahem, freaking out about) the fact that I have to give birth in 11 weeks - or less!

However, one part of my brain that is working is the part that gets annoyed. For example, a girl in one of my classes yesterday asked me if my baby was planned, and when I told her that, in fact, she was, this girl began to question my judgement as to the timing. Because it apparently didn't make sense to her that if the baby had been planned, why I had picked what she felt was a bad time to have her (the middle of the semester - GASP! ) Because you can pick the exact time you have a baby like you schedule a haircut. Because my life decisions should be based on what a casual school acquaintance thinks.

I thought I was going to have an aneurism right in the middle of class! I did wind up asking her, "Well, when exactly do you think would be a good time to have my baby?" but besides that I kept my cool in front of her. Then called Melissa and two of my friends to bitch about it. I want to call that girl's mom and tell her that she failed at raising a child with acceptable manners.

So, it's another week later on the blog entries, and now our little kicker is the size of a squash. And not a summer squash, people - a 2.5 lb to 3.8 lb beast of a squash. She's definitely quite mobile, and sometimes I'll jump when one of her big moves catches me by surprise.

I haven't gotten really huge yet, so I'm still enjoying the baby belly. In fact, every day at least 2 or 3 times I'll think about how sad I'll be when I'm not pregnant anymore. The times I really notice that my body has changed in a negative way are when I try to do things that were once easy for me and have now become difficult. Example: two weekends ago, I was involved in coordinating a wedding for my friend, Lani, down in Winter Park. I'm used to catering and doing weddings, being up and on my feet for 18 hours straight, no problem. However, by 3:00 the day of the wedding, I thought my feet were literally going to fall off - and I hadn't even been doing the manual labor that I usually wind up doing! It was a tough realization.

Getting up and down is also kind of a chore. When I go from sitting or laying to standing, it usually involves a grunt or two. This provided Aaron with never-ending enjoyment when I was up and down, up and down, up and down, assembling furniture this past week. He thought it was hilarious and started imitating my huffs and puffs and groans. Needless to say, I did not find his imitations amusing. (When our friend, Dan, asked him if he was going to do that in the delivery room, too, Aaron responded, "Absolutely!" I think we all know that's not true, but it was funny that he thought he could get away with it!)

Here are some pictures from the wedding weekend so you can see how the belly is doing!


Monday, November 9, 2009

IKEA preview

So, this is what I did yesterday.... Full story to follow.


(That's two flatbed carts FULL plus 1 shopping cart, btw. Approximately 900 lbs of furniture.)