A Rough Couple Weeks

It’s been a rough couple weeks for us. The week before last, my Grandma passed away relatively suddenly. I had only just gone to see her the weekend before, which was both good and upsetting that life can change so quickly. She was hospitalized after becoming ill the following evening. Grandma aspirated into her lungs during a procedure and developed pneumonia which ended up being too much for her. We took her off the ventilator and she passed peacefully. I spent most of my weekend then at her house with family, going through pictures, and making the memorial boards for her.

I am disappointed and sad that she will not be around to meet our baby. The weekend prior, we had just been talking about how she needed to be patient with her wrist which she had broken recently and let it heal so that she could hold the baby. She didn’t tell me, but told my aunt and uncle that after she saw me and the way I was carrying, she thought it is a girl. It was hard seeing her the previous weekend, fairly helpless without the use of her wrist, but harder and still somewhat weird to think that she will never be in that house again.

The same week, I took a gestational diabetes test. I had failed the hour long screening test at the doctor’s office, and had to go to the hospital to take the three hour test. Brian decided to spend the entire time with me which was very nice to have company. They take your blood after fasting, and then every hour for three hours after drinking the glucose solution. It came out that I do have gestational diabetes. My fasting numbers were normal, the first hour was barely normal, but the following two were undoubtedly abnormal.

So far, this hasn’t affected my diet too much, simply because I haven’t been able to meet with the diabetes counselor yet. They weren’t able to schedule me until nearly two weeks after diagnosis. I am seeing the counselor and taking a class tomorrow morning. The doctor told me that I will be given a meter which I will use to take my blood sugar levels two hours after every meal. At my next appointment two weeks from now, we will look at my levels and determine whether the diabetes can be controlled with diet alone or if medication is needed.

The diabetes is disappointing, because I very much like my carbs and sugar! So hopefully things will be back to normal shortly after baby Peapod is born.

This past weekend I spent at my parents’ and helped my sister get ready for Homecoming dance for her Senior year. Holly had a lovely dress and I straightened her hair and did her make up! It was a lot of fun and she had a blast for her first dance. On Sunday, I went to an old friend’s new house, Katie, who is also pregnant and due two weeks after me. We had a get together with a bunch of us old high school friends, which was great. Katie’s nursery is an antique and monkey theme (Monkeys were her husband’s choice!)

My nursery is just about finished; we have hung up all our photos upstairs finally and included the baby room pictures. So soon we should be able to take photos! All I need is a mattress, so that I can properly show off the bedding.

Recently I have been getting a lot of questions about names! So far, Brian has been willing to tell me what he really doesn’t like, but has not shared his favorite names. So the names I have picked so far haven’t been officially approved. However, we have decided on middle names. If it’s a boy, the middle name will be Charles after his grandfather; if it’s a girl the middle name with either be Rose (my own middle name) or Eleanor (after my grandma on my mom’s side). I did debate briefly about using my recently passed Grandma’s name which is Genevieve, but right now I am leaning away from it, for a couple reasons. 1) She hated her name and always said that and 2) I am not sure I could hear the name without feeling sad about it right now.

That’s all for now! As soon as I hook up my camera I’ll have a few more pictures of Grandma’s memorial boards and her house; I’m also waiting on some nice photos of my sister in her Homecoming dress!

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Weekend

This weekend has been lonelier for me because Brian is mini-vacationing with his friends. This Thursday-Sunday, he has spent touring distilleries of whiskey in Tennessee and Kentucky. Meanwhile, I have been working and visiting my grandma.

I kept myself busy in Thursday and had dinner with a friend, Teresa, who I haven’t seen in a long time. On Friday, I RedBoxed a couple movies that were on my list (but not Brian’s, haha!). I saw Prince of Persia, and The Backup Plan. I thought both were pretty good, and entertaining. Sasha has been very good with Brian away, though I am sure she misses having him home too!

The weather was hot enough to turn the air on those two days, I was happy to see it cool off today. I went to visit grandma today and was telling her about it, she didn’t realize it was close to 90 on Thursday and Friday because she hasn’t been out of the house since her surgery on her broken wrist from the last fall. The pins in her arm don’t look as bad as expected, because the arm was bandaged up. She certainly isn’t young anymore, but she has two very nice almost-nurse ladies taking good care of her.

Brian should be back tomorrow evening which is good. He will be coming with me to my glucose test Tuesday morning for part of the time. This past Tuesday, I took a glucose level (and anemia) screening test which was to test for gestational diabetes. I failed the screening, so I now I have to take the 3 hours test at the hospital. Doctor said that about 10% of women fail the screening test, and only 10% of that 10% actually have a problem. So odds are in my favor! I read up on the test, and it sounds like they will be drawing my blood four times. I also have to fast for 12 hours in advance, so I will undoubtedly be starving by the time it’s over! Hopefully, there will be no passing out. I’ve taken the morning off work entirely, so since it’s at 7 am I should have some time afterwards to walk around the mall before going to work the afternoon.

Baby is moving a lot more noticeably now, and occasionally uncomfortable. At my last appointment, the doctor said I had only gained 2 pounds, which seems really low! I swear I have grown twice the size I was in the past month! I finally put up my tree wall decal, which is super cute. Next doctor’s appointment is in three weeks, then I will be on the two week appointment schedule!

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Room Layouts and Colds

Last week was a bit hectic and not so much fun; I worked late on Wednesday night, until almost 8:30, which is quite a bit more than my usual 7:30-4:30 days. I think also consequently my little cold developed into a bigger cold, and I was pretty miserable by Friday/Saturday.

Brian and Melissa and the my in-laws went to see his grandma (and some extended family) on Saturday without me. His grandma is doing very well, which is nice to hear after the ups and downs this year! Becky made a fantastic lasagna, which they were nice enough to give me leftovers šŸ™‚

While he was gone, I attempted to put up my yellow & green owl & bird decal, which is pretty much the reason why I didn’t feel like we have to paint, and which was the base around the entire nursery theme (it was the very first thing I purchased, during a big sale). Of course, nothing goes quite as planned. I purchased it in June and so when the edges kept unpeeling and not sticking correctly, I got upset since we’re well past the return policy time period! However, on Sunday they emailed me back and since June, they have switched their decal material; they believe the new material will stick to my walls no problem. They have a long shipping period, so it will be a while before I get it. In another 2-3 weeks I will be able to try the new decal. They are allowing me to keep the old one though, so I am thinking of things we could do with it. Brian suggested we could spray on a better adhesive, so I might fill a couple picture frames with some pieces of it. As a last resort, if the new one doesn’t work, I’ll be using it to trace and paint a similar picture instead.

Sunday I started to feel better, and I’m pretty much good to go now, except for the awful sounding cough I have, which is pretty much snot drainage in my lungs. And if that’s TMI then you’ve never had a proper cold!

We did end up keeping the changing table which pretty closely matches the crib! It is made out of real wood (except for the shelves) and even has the nice curves that make it look as if it were made to go with our crib! So recently I spent some time on layouts in the room. I went back and forth, we tried a couple different ones.

Baby Room Layouts First Time

Baby Room Layouts Second Time

Last nice, I decided to try one of Brian’s original suggestions (hopefully he won’t rub it in too much), to put the crib along the wall near the closet. Initially I was against this, because the crib sticks out pretty far and will partially block one of the closet doors. However when we actually did it, I found that I wasn’t that bothered by it at all, the closet is still very easily accessible. The room is much more opened up by this move, so I think this is how it will stay!

Baby Room Layout Final

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Chicago and Peapod

A couple weekends ago, Brian and I went on our “baby moon” to Chicago. The idea is you go on one last fling to relax and spend time together before baby gets here. I particularly wanted to go before walking around gets to be no fun! As it was, I still was far more tired than I would’ve been without the extra baby weight. The walking took it’s toll, but it was well worth it!

We spent Friday at the Aquarium, had lunch at the Goose Island bar/micro brew/pub and went to dinner at a nice Italian family style restaurant. Saturday we spent at the Field Museum most of the day and ate real Chicago deep dish pizza for lunch and a tasty French dinner. Sunday we went to the Planetarium, which I of course promptly fell asleep in. In between we walked the Navy Pier, saw fireworks, walked the Magnificent Mile and putzed around Millennium Park. We had a great time!

Us in Chicago 2010

See more pictures of our Chicago trip >

The baby is moving all the time now, poking around and making flips in my belly. Brian felt the baby move for the first time a couple weeks ago, and since then has felt it a couple more times. For some reason, Peapod is sleeping when Brian is around! But it moves all day long at the office, which is pretty distracting.

We recently purchased our crib and glider. The glider my parents are graciously gifting us. The baby better be a rocker like me! Brian teased me recently that we would probably have a baby that doesn’t want to be rocked. Sitting still would be impossibly hard for me! The crib is lighter than we originally wanted to go, it is a honey natural color. The glider is an ebony with light olive fabric. Combined, I have a non-matching room! This was a little difficult to move past for me, since I am big on matching. However, the quality of both pieces more than makes up for the color difficulties.

Currently, we’re trying to find a matching honey colored changing table. If we cannot find one that matches, we’ll probably switch to dark wood in the hopes that it looks like we mismatched on purpose, the glider and changing table would be dark! The oak dresser that was Brian’s as a child we are going to refinish in the lighter honey color, and change out the handles and hopefully the drawer tracks as well. However, Brian is working hard on his shed, so until the weather turns the baby dresser is taking a back seat!

The baby’s room is coming along nicely; we have curtains, the crib and a glider, which must be the most important pieces, right!? Meanwhile, Brian’s mom is planning the baby shower for November 7. We are having it nearby; the previous owners of our house moved to a complex down the road and their HOA includes a very nice party room which we will be using. I’m very excited. The time is just flying by! It won’t be long before we are having the shower and putting finishing touches on Peapod’s room. Maybe somewhere in this time I can get Brian to look at a few baby names šŸ˜‰

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Baby and Sasha Updates

Sasha is doing well! She got her cone off and the toe is finally looking healed or nearly so. We had a small scare because we had to get the bandage off early, her toe was staying too moist which was concerning obviously if it had continued so. So the first time we saw the toe it was not has healed as I would’ve liked it to be and looked very raw. Sasha did not like her cone either. It took her a day or so to get used to lying down in it and not running into things as much. Brian bought car door protector things which we put on the raw plastic on the outside of the cone as a bumper because she was scratching things up!

It was very nice visiting with Tyler, he stayed an extra day so I took that day off and we watched movies. I had a lot of fun, it was nice to take a day off for once. I don’t have a lot of spare days now at this point, I am trying to save them for maternity leave. I can use 5 PTO days on maternity leave, which I intend on trying to do so that is one less week I have to take unpaid.

Tuesday we had our ultrasound, which would’ve been the gender one had we decided to find out. But we didn’t! The technician even made us look away when she examined the legs, so we never got a hint. It’ll be a big suprise! It may have been our last ultrasound, I don’t know if they’ll do another one. Everything is good with Peapod, it has a four chamber heart that is functioning properly, and kidneys and bladder that look good. 2 arms, 2 legs, 2 hands and 2 feet! I have a really cute picture of a foot. We got to see the spine and other bones, and the head of course. I have a creeper photo of the face looking at us, but it looks like an alien. I told Brian it looked like him hahahaha. We had the ultrasound at 18 weeks and 5 days, and I measured exactly 18 weeks and 5 days, so the due date will remain at Dec. 23, which is mildly disappointing for my anti-Christmas complaints.

Brian likes the fact that I have a little belly now and he rubs it, but no kicking yet! There have been a couple times where I thought maybe I felt something, but it did not repeat often enough for me to be confident that that was it. The doctors said by next appointment I should be feeling it, but even then it won’t be all the time because it’s still really small. I am almost to the halfway point though, which is bizarre! Really just bizarre all the way around that by December we will have a little family.

We toured the two options we had for hospitals last week. The practice said I can go with either Akron General or Akron City; both take the same amount of time to get to (about 40-45 minutes). We chose Akron City because they had bathrooms in every post partum room. Akron General had different post partum rooms (we only saw one of them, but the ladies description said that some had bathrooms in the hall!). Otherwise the hospitals were about the same. Akron General is supposed to be getting new rooms soon, but can’t guarantee when or even if I would get a new room when I deliver, so Akron City it is! I think the buildings are around the same age, but City looks newer also.

The way it works is that I will go into a labor/delivery/recovery room and then to a post partum room after I’ve recovered initially from the birth. As far as care goes, they seem to offer the same level of care. Akron General is directly connected to Akron Children’s for any serious issues, but Akron City takes care of everything except a couple long term care type of things, and then they send them to Akron Children’s too. So that’s not an issue either.

I, like usual, am impatient to be planning and doing things. I am trying not to buy much. I bought my bedding set, because it was not something I could register for, but I keep second guessing myself cause bedding is so expensive. Brian’s mom is looking at planning a baby shower in October, I am shooting for later October so my mom and Holly can spendĀ  more time here. Holly runs until later in October. That’s all for now… cheerio.

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Baby Updates etc

Today, the baby must be growing exponentially. I have been crampy for most of the day. Yesterday, I went to my 16 week doctor’s appointment. They’ve been once a month – I had one at 8 weeks (Ultrasound), 12 weeks (heartbeat) and yesterday I only got to hear the heartbeat again. It’s been the most uneventful appointment so far. But Brian got to hear the heartbeat for the first time, and he was grinning, so it wasn’t a complete waste!

Next one is at 19 weeks on July 27, and is an ultrasound. This is also the appointment where, if we want to, we can find out the gender. We are officially leaning toward not finding out. Mainly Brian has been talking to people who are recommending we leave it a surprise. It’s really okay though, I think it would be helpful in keeping me from buying too many clothing items ahead of time. Newborns live in onesies and pajamas and stuff like that anyway.

Tyler is coming to visit this weekend which will be really nice. He hasn’t see the house yet and I’m sure Sasha will be excited to see him (well she gets excited for everyone). Brian and I spent last weekend nice and leisurely, since we had to keep Sasha calmer. We had to get her toe amputated on Friday. She had ripped a toenail out a few weeks ago when my parents came to visit and it never grew back or healed over properly. So when we went in for a check up on Tuesday, they told us the toe needed to come off so it could heal. The toe is on her back leg, like a pinky toe. At least it is not a weight-bearing toe, and she has already recovered quite a bit since Friday! She scratched at her ear last night with her bandaged foot like she didn’t even notice, it was funny. The foot will stay bandaged for another 5 days or so, unless it’s looking really good and then they’ll take it off early. We get it changed every 3 days or so.

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Peapod

So after weeks of waiting for my parents to come up and see the house, we are finally able to share the good news!Ā Brian and IĀ are having a baby. We are at nearly 14 weeks and are due Dec. 23, 2010. Hopefully it won’t be a Christmas baby… haha. My mom is excited since it is due the day after her birthday. Wouldn’t it be neat if Peapod was born on the same day?

We aren’t sure yet if we’re going to find out the gender yet. Brian and IĀ keep switching – first IĀ didn’t want to find out, and he did, then it was the other way around! We’ll see, we have a couple months yet to figure out what we want to do. That ultrasound is week 20. We already had our first ultrasound at 8 weeks. IĀ think there’s a lot of cute clothes out there though that are gender specific…

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