Abby was ready for school this morning and while she was waiting for Daddy, she and Nathan played in the warm sunshine that was streaming through the front door. They have been fussing a bit more lately but equally as much, they have been giggling and playing together a lot. We are doing our best to instill an understanding of the specialness of the love of siblings and they display it beautifully… most of the time.

“This is just a call to let you know that we have your C-Section scheduled for Wednesday April the 30th at 1:30 pm. Please arrive 2 hours prior to that time.”

How weird is that? KNOWING what time I will be having this baby? It’s just plain WEIRD. (And a bit exciting!) And how awesome is it that I don’t have to be there at, like, 4 am!

Had my *weekly* biophysical profile yesterday. (I am SO thankful I signed up for the short term disability through work this time around! All that “extra” money is gonna come in handy after all these tests!)

Baby is doing GREAT! It had the hiccups something fierce and I could actually FEEL it breathing today! It felt like a dog panting. When I went into the ultrasound room, I asked Lena (the tech) about it because I was kind of worried about it – I had been feeling it the whole time in the waiting room. She said, “no – that’s actually a GOOD thing!” I don’t recall feeling that with Abby or Nathan.

Strong heartbeat today, too!

No weight estimate, though. She said estimating it weekly can lend to more error than accuracy because it’s always “within a pound” and so estimating every week is not something that they do. But lots of movement and activity, which is exactly what they were looking for!

I never actually got to see Dr. Macey. I waited for an hour before realizing that he was running HOURS behind (several women were going to the receptionist and asking about his schedule and when I discovered that they had arrived hours BEFORE me, I decided to just ask if I could return on Friday (for me *weekly* non-stress test. I was given the OK by the nurse to leave.

Dr. Macey called me later that afternoon to review the BPP with me and said that all was fine and we discussed a date for the C_Section. He said he would check the schedule for the 30th.

So maybe Friday, we’ll have a DATE!

Also, KNOWING that I will have this baby the last week in April or before is a totally different thing, too. There’s not the waiting, the anticipating, the negotiating with the baby in utero, the FREAKING OUT AND BEGGING GOD TO JUST MAKE MY LABOR START, (the humor), no wondering what the labor process will be like, etc. Instead, I will be scheduled, go in, be cut open, sewn up and that will be that. (Please, let it be that simple. Please.) I did know with Nathan that we would have to evict him, but I figured it would be of the chemical sort, not the surgical sort. Part of me is sad about having another C-Section (yes, I know some folks think it’s totally weird that I *want* to go into labor and try to have this baby naturally) but I know that with my history and with what we have been dealing with as far as the gestational diabetes, it’s the right thing to do. If I DID go into labor on my own, I would have to be hooked up to all kinds of monitors, have insulin the whole time, and that’s just not how I would want things to be. (I’d like to labor at home as long as I could and then go in but that’s never been an option for me and I don’t guess I will ever get to experience that.) I’m resigned to the fact that a C-Section is the best {safest} way to go and I have a resolute peace about it.

Anyhoo – enough of my rambling…. You wanna read Abby and Nathan’s stories? (I know that there’s at least *one* of you out there who doesn’t want to read this as you’ve recently mentioned that you’re not crazy about hearing all the nitty gritty details of labor and birth – you know who you are ) – so if you’re reading this, just enjoy the pictures and the video.)

By the way, there’s nothing “graphic”, of course, in the video or pictures – just lots of photos of their first few moments.

For those of you who DO like reading that kind of stuff, here you go:

Abby 10.27.03 and her VIDEO

Nathan 5.11.06 and more (with pics!) HERE

*** Click on the image to see some video of today’s test. All the little thumps you’ll hear in the background are the baby HICCUPING! The loudest hiccups ever!

So I had *another* doc appointment today. (Can you tell that all these “non-stress-tests”are STRESSING ME OUT?) Today’s results: the baby is FINE. Better than fine. GREAT! And guess what? I have *another* biophysical profile on Monday! And I am sure the results will be FINE!

Some protocol somewhere says that that “if you don’t want to get sued in the event that something goes wrong, make pregnant women who have gestational diabetes and are being treated with medication come in twice a week and have tests that will run up their medical bills.” So, from here ’till the baby comes, This is what I will be doing on Mondays and Fridays while Nana is here. (I personally think this is the doc’s way of trying to wear me down and consent to an even EARLIER C-Section, but who knows.)

Can you tell I’m a tad irked at having to spend all this time at the doc’s office? Oh well, better safe than sorry, as they say.

It *is* kind of neat getting to lay still and listen to this baby swim around and to see it on the ultrasound so I guess I’ll focus on the positives. )

I could literally hear the fluid swishing around in there whenever the baby would move (which happened to be A LOT today!) Be sure to click on the image above to hear it!

Can I just tell you? I am starting to FREAK OUT A LITTLE BIT???

We spent yesterday cleaning out my closet – organizing clothes, purging things, rearranging. Bruce got the big storage bins down and we sorted our winter / summer wardrobes and put BAGS of stuff in my car to go to goodwill and to the maternity “stash” that we keep at a friend’s house for expectant mamas. So, task one: {the closet} can be checked off the list. (That is, until Abby decides she wants to play dress up in there, then it gets all messed up again and I have to start ALL OVER.) This was the most pressing chore because the baby’s bassinet will go in there for a while. (Please don’t call Child Protective Services – It’s a pretty big closet :smile.) I have a friend who is going to loan me a changing table and a rocking chair for our bedroom. (We’re still using the changing table in Nathan’s room and I have a big comfy chair in there that we still use for bedtimes with him.)

My bathroom cabinets, kitchen cabinets, work area upstairs and closet upstairs are in serious need of organization. The windows in my dining room look like someone smeared mud on them. Exactly *why* it is that I feel like I can not bring a baby home to a house with dirty windows and unorganized bathroom cabinets, I can’t quite say, but all I know is that I NEED TO HAVE THOSE THINGS DONE BEFORE I FEEL OK HAVING THIS BABY! :lol

Also – Baby clothes: I have 3 bags of clothes for a baby boy but, um, I don’t know if I am having a baby boy or girl! I need to find some things to take to the hospital. I need to pack MY hospital bag. Ugh, I need a to do list.

I feel like this go ’round I am so unprepared. Probably because I just have so little energy to actually DO things to GET prepared. Lots of people have offered to come over and help me but I’ve said “no, I’m fine, thanks!” – Be warned, offerers of help, I may start taking you up on it. Or I may just call you begging.

(I guess this is what they call “nesting”, huh?)

First off – Here’s a picture of me. In a doctor’s office. I should just go camp out on West End, no?

And yes, I know – My belly is HUGE. Believe it or not, I have not gained as much weight as I did in my first 2 pregnancies though – Not yet anyway. Probably due to the lack of sugar cookie dough consumption and only *diet, low sugar* root beer floats, but that’s just a guess.

Today – I met a new doctor. I went to see an endocrinologist to discuss the issues I am having regulating my blood sugar and the issues I am having with the medicine that Dr. M. has me on.

So that Bruce could stay with the kids while I was gone and so that I could return home at a relatively decent time and get some work done, I requested the earliest time slot – 8 am – and was asked to arrive early to fill out paperwork, which (miraculously) I did. And guess what? The doctor didn’t come in to see me until TEN MINUTES ‘TILL NINE. I have to say, I am pretty patient with doctors, I know they’re busy, they get behind seeing other folks, some issues are more pressing than mine, etc. but I was her FIRST APPOINTMENT OF THE DAY. Why on earth did it take her so long to come in and see me and WHY did they ask me to arrive early if she was going to wait 50 minutes to come and see me?

So, enough ranting. Oh wait – I forgot to mention, I asked them to call in my prescription (because after all they had kept me so late and now I was going to have to wait at the pharmacy) and they said “SURE!” and of COURSE, when I got to the pharmacy they said, “No, no one has called anything in for you this morning!” I know I don’t have M.D. behind my name but who do these people think they are that their time is so much more valuable than mine?

Ok, now really, I’m done ranting.

The doc basically told me to eat the way I’ve been eating, take only half of the dose of glyburide that I have been taking, and she prescribed a new med for me – its a carbohydrate blocker that does not absorb into the blood stream – it works “at the intestine” and keeps the carbohydrates from…. well… from doing something with insulin and all that jazz.

This is stressing me out.

I want some ice cream. And a coke. And some chocolate cake. And some cookie dough. And… a healthy baby (which precludes me from partaking in all of the above).

*sigh*

Oh well – in the grand scheme of things, this is so minor. Just Monday, I stumbled across THIS BLOG and was quite humbled and convicted about all the fretting I have been doing as of late. This family has been through a tremendous journey and on Monday, they lost their precious baby just 2 hours after birth. Their faith and love for God through it all has been so beautiful. To sum it up, this has been the attitude of this marvelous woman:

“So I pray…
Bring me joy, bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings You glory
And I know there’ll be days
When this life brings me pain
But if that’s what it takes to praise You
Jesus, bring the rain.

Holy, holy, holy
Holy, holy, holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Is the Lord God Almighty”

Oh that I would have that kind of faith.

…what I was doing when I blogged this photo?

(Answer: I was waiting for the doc to come visit me – This is something that I will be doing a lot of in the days ahead, I suppose. He now wants to start seeing me two times per week AND he wants me to go see an endocrinologist because I am not tolerating the medicine that he gave me to help regulate my blood sugar. Oh! Did I mention that I had a reading of 50 during church yesterday and almost passed out? We don’t go to that kind of church! Passing out would NOT have been a good thing! Ah, Fun times!)

The Good News: I did have a biophysical profile today and all was very normal. Good fluid levels, normal range as far as weight gain (for me AND the baby who now weighs an estimated 6.4 pounds). We could see that the baby has quite a bit of hair and heard the very strong heartbeat!

CLICK THE PICTURE BELOW TO SEE SOME ULTRASOUND FOOTAGE!

**If you can not get the above video to load, click HERE to watch it on youtube!

When I woke up this morning, my FASTING blood sugar level was 127 – That’s high considering I had not eaten since 9pm the night before. So….. I took a glyburide. I had not been taking these because they were making me feel nauseas AND I read somewhere that they “can cause possible fetal harm if you are close to your due date” so I had stopped taking them and was planning to talk with Doc M. on Monday. BUT – due to the fact that my fasting level was so high, I thought it best to go ahead and take one. I ate breakfast – oatmeal, blueberries, eggs, walnuts – and when I took my blood sugar in church (I started feeling a bit faint and thought I should check it) IT WAS 51! Um, that’s pretty low.

I walked out of the auditorium and drank a cup of coffee loaded with sugar and a bagel. Needless to say within 1 hour, my sugar was almost 180.

Off and on all day I felt really nauseas and was having what felt like heart palpitations (I realized later that I had scarfed down a cup of regular coffee – something I have not done in MONTHS so I am sure that was the reason for the rapid heartbeat.)

I talked to the doc on call and he basically said “Well, if you don’t lose consciousness, you’ll probably be fine” (to which I replied, “So you’re saying if I am unconscious, to give you a call back?”)

I’ve not really been overly worried about the gestational diabetes thing until this point but am starting to fret somewhat. I know that God is in control and am trusting Him to keep this baby safe and healthy. If you could take some time out of your day to pray for this wee one growing inside me, I’d be much obliged. Thanks!

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