pregnancy #2 bucket list - 3rd trimester edition

I have so many things to catch this blog up on - that "transportation extravaganza" through San Francisco in August, our first trip to Disneyland last month, and of course, Halloween shenanigans - but before I do that (and I'm not totally dragging my heels here - Neal just uploaded pics this past weekend), I thought it might be fun (or possibly anxiety-producing) to check on my pregnancy #2 bucket list that I posted over a year ago, way before I was even pregnant again. With less than three months to go, let's see how I'm doing, shall we?

1. find a primary care doc and have a good old-fashioned physical 

Check! Twice! Well, kinda. I finally picked a PCP in January or so and had a complete physical then, with everything checking out. I recently picked yet another PCP with Kaiser but honestly, since I'm seeing my ob/gyn at least once a month and have already had a flu shot, I doubt I'll need to see my new doc until I'm post-partum.

2. lose a wee bit more weight

Check! But a lot of good it did me. Thanks to marathon training and post-marathon weight shed, I was possibly close to 10 pounds lighter heading into this pregnancy than I was when I became pregnant with Elias. That said, I think I've made up for it as I'm right about where I was, weight-wise, this time in my pregnancy with Elias. And I'm feeling it. Things started off pretty well, especially with the possibly gestational diabetes diet, but adjusting to Neal's schedule changes in August and into September proved to be a not so great turning point for my prenatal exercise routine. My day solo with Elias before and after school is longer and yet I feel like I have less time to work, work out, etc. while he's away. And getting up at 5:30 to sneak that workout in as I was doing before getting pregnant hasn't been an option for awhile. I need all the sleep I can get. Hopefully losing the baby weight won't be too much harder than it was with Elias.

3. hair

Ugh, hair. I guess I'm kind of rocking "the true 'mom hair' eternal ponytail", as I pointed out in my last post, but I also seem to be cutting it shorter and shorter with each stylist visit. I'm sure most women enjoy this rare perk of pregnancy - fuller hair - but it's kinda driving me crazy as I spend 15-20 minutes fussing with it every morning, whether I aim to "do my hair" that morning or not. That may not sound like much time to most women but ideally, on weekdays, I'd like to shower, put some sort of product in it, scrunch it to make the waves work for me, and call it a day. At this point I figure I have two more appointments to get it right before baby #2 arrives. Wish me luck!

4. get a pedicure

Check! A few times!

5. cut out coffee, splenda, limit artificial stuff like Fresca, etc.

Hmm. Yeah, not so much. I cut out coffee and Splenda for awhile and have pretty successfully limited my Fresca habit but after a few weeks of feeling unbelievably groggy and mildly cranky during the first trimester, I reintroduced a cup of half-caff to my morning routine. And I use Splenda. I guess I'm banking on research so far being correct in that a little Splenda (and caffeine) is harmless because it seems to go hand-in-hand with my coffee habit.

6. have professional family photos taken

Kinda. Turns out we did get some decent pics out of an extended family photo shoot in southern California last Labor Day weekend, shortly after I wrote my original post. It'd be nice to have something more recent, but with a kid who continues to shy away from non-candid photography and not feeling so photogenic myself these days, I think that'll have to do until we're a party of 4.

7. cats!

Nope. We've still got 'em. And they still drive me crazy. One is pretty mellow. She's crazy in a typically crazy cat way but less vocal. It's actually sort of charming, if you're into cats. And she's the healthy one. The only possible caveat with her is that she sleeps in our room, usually on our bed, with us. I'm not sure how this will translate to the baby sleeping in our room for the first few months. Xander, on the other hand, is as neurotic as they come, with a handful of mysterious physical ailments to boot. Most recently there's been a fair amount of digestive issues, from both ends, dare I  get a little graphic here. I'm going to be dealing with a lot of bodily fluids again pretty soon without having to clean up after a geriatric cat. And the meowing. He meows incessantly, for mysterious reasons. And the shedding. I was vacuuming sometimes every other day before I finally plunked down a hundred bucks or so to have them both groomed (they're both medium to long-haired). Much better. We may just have to budget for that sort of thing 2 to 3 times per year. It's cheaper than therapy, right?

8. finish room makeovers and other house stuff

We've actually made some progress on this one! Our room will probably have to wait until later, although I have picked out a paint color and still hope to have Neal (and a helper of some sort, ideally) rearrange the furniture before the baby's born. But the bathrooms are coming along. We hired a handyman and his crew to re-tile both bathroom floors (desperately needed in one, despite being remodeled just 5 to 7 years before we bought the house), plus the entryway, and replaced everything but the toilet in the 1/2 bath that connects to our room (yay, Ikea!). We're working with what we have in the main bathroom, replacing only the light fixture in there, adding an exhaust fan in a couple of weeks, and generally embracing a "transitional" style, mixing our more contemporary tastes with the fairly traditional cabinets, etc. I repainted the wainscoting this past weekend and it took me about four days to feel recovered from that (spending two hours on tedious paint work immediately after cleaning the entire house is officially too much...my back, it was not happy). So I'm not sure how realistic this goal is, but with a paint color finally picked out, I'm hoping to repaint both bathrooms before Thanksgiving.

9. go through all Eli's baby stuff 

Not even close. This is on the post-Thanksgiving to do list. You know, the one that overlaps with holiday shenanigans and the period when Eli's school will be closed for two weeks. No problem!

10. go on vacation!

Check! I wasn't sure if we were going to be able to swing it after Neal's unemployment and, now that he has a job, wanting to save every hour of vacation time for when baby #2 arrives, but we decided to go for it and snuck away to Disneyland for three days last month. Exhausting, but fun, and I'm so glad we were able to do that with Elias and as a family of three before we're unofficially on house arrest again for awhile. More on that trip in the next one or two posts.

11. buy a minivan 

Check! This was actually the only thing crossed off the list when I originally posted it, having recently ditched our 15 year old, 180,000+ miles Mazda Protege for a Mazda 5. Other than kinda crappy gas mileage (I think it averages out at around 20-21 mpg, translating to us spending sometimes four times what we were spending on gas before, partly due to gas prices increasing over the past couple of years, partly due to our fuel efficiency going down considerably with this change), I still really like it. When baby #2 arrives in January, we'll still have an optional third row for Grandma Joanne or whoever else might visit. Or, of course, that extra cargo space for strollers, groceries, etc. No complaints there and so far, we continue to be a one-car family, which is something of a lifelong goal for me.

Overall, not too shabby, eh? In other pregnancy related news, I'm 29 weeks today, one week into the third trimester. I passed the glucose drink test last month with flying colors, meaning I'm offically off the hook for gestational diabetes. That was fun. And pointless. Yes, I learned a lot about nutrition and stuff but has that kept me from over-indulging during this pregnancy? Unfortunately, no. I'm a little obsessed with food, actually, and can't seem to stop baking stuff. I just baked some oatmeal sunflower seed chocolate chip bars today, actually, justifying this by pretending like they're granola bars, something I make almost every week for Eli's school lunch and my own snacking needs (not exactly low calorie but pretty healthy, full of things like oats, nut butter, nuts, chia seeds, flax meal, etc.). These things, on the other hand - they're called cookie bars, for crying out loud. And yet...

But, anyway, I happily hopped off the GD wagon (and then ate my way through Disneyland the next weekend!). Everything else continues to look good although I have received one friendly reminder about the rate of my weight gain in September. I gained 10 pounds in 5 weeks but as of my last appointment I was back to about 1 pound per week over the four weeks prior, and suspect things will continue to slow down slightly since, despite all this baking, I'm already at that point where a kid's meal makes me feel unbelievably, miserably full. My stomach is in my chest it seems. So that has helped as well as curbing post-4yo-bedtime snacking most evenings. And all that painting! That's gotta burn a few calories, right?

road trippin' - a.k.a a meltdown a day...or two

For Eli's preschool summer closure this year (they only close for a week each summer, which will be a major adjustment when we transition to public school next year), we were originally planning to visit family in southern California then make our first trip to Disneyland on the way home north.  But between Neal's 11 or so weeks of unemployment and the fact that, by the time Eli's summer school break came around he'd only been at his new job for a couple of weeks, that trip obviously got canceled.  I had to take the week off anyway, however, and antsy to get a break from Bay Area life (our last trip was to Connecticut for Thanksgiving last year!) and with the added bonus of giving Neal a little break from the family routine as he settled into his new job, outside and an hour from home, each way, I decided to take Elias on a little road trip.  We visited family in Carson City and Winnemucca, Nevada, then drove home through Yosemite's Tioga Pass, stopping in Groveland, about a half-hour west of Yosemite, to rendez-vous with Eli's BFF Hazel.

Our first stop, however, was the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield, only about an hour outside the Bay Area.  We've driven by countless times and, especially with child in tow the past four years, I've always wondered about the factory tour.

Despite being only an hour into our 6-day/5-night adventure, Elias had a total melt-down when he passed on and then missed altogether the photo opportunity with the giant, stuffed jelly bean. As far as Elias is concerned, structured fun like this is no fun at all. And this is a thing lately - missing an opportunity to do something that won't necessarily be an option forever, or for very long, for that matter, only to be upset when it passes. They hand out jelly bean samples immediately after that part of the tour, however, so we were able to recover slightly, but not for long. When we got in the factory itself we were so far behind the group that we could barely squeeze in for a good view, Elias refused to wear his hat, mine kept falling off, etc. When the tour guide came over and told me we both had to keep our hats on throughout the tour, I was done.  I carried Elias out kicking and screaming (although we did manage to make it through the gift shop!). My reaction was, in a word, "whatever." I wasn't going to buy the jelly bean photo, anyway.

The rest of the first leg of the trip was fairly uneventful.  Elias overall did really well in the car, alternating between books, his LeapFrog Tag Reader, DVDs, music, and basically doing nothing from time to time.  I took 50 south of Tahoe rather than 80 north of Tahoe and through Reno, which I don't think I'll ever do again.  The drive was fine (and lovely and all that) but getting through South Lake Tahoe and Stateline (including a spontaneous and unplanned - but relatively brief, thankfully - detour north along Tahoe's west shore) took about an hour!  We rolled into Carson City a bit before 4 p.m. - a little later than I'd hoped but not bad considering the number of stops we made.

After settling in to my Aunt Robin's guest room we hit Mills Park, where I remember at least one excellent 4th of July fireworks display during my childhood (you know I have a thing for small-town fireworks displays), then had dinner at Tito's (in the end we ate Mexican food for about half of our meals).

Most of the pictures I took of Elias, clearly not in a picture-taking mood this trip, were of his back, like the one above, or with an expression like this, protesting my constant documenting.

On Friday we drove to Animal Ark, an animal sanctuary north of Reno. It was hot, hot, hot that day so we only lasted about an hour or so before driving back through Reno to Virginia City.

A little history break: I often say I "grew up" in Reno but that's not really true.  What I should say is that many of my earliest memories are from the period we lived in Carson City and Reno - between ages 2/3 and 6/7ish.  We lived in a couple of different apartments in both Carson City and Reno with my Aunt Robin and my cousin Eric.  In fact, in our apartment in Reno, when I was in kindergarten, my brother, my cousin, and I (I being the only girl of the cousins - my mom has four sisters - and the youngest of the three of us) shared a room.  Overall I didn't care for sharing a room with two boys, even then, but man, I have some great memories from that time-period. Talk about "free range" kids. But I digress.  Between kindergarten and first grade my mom, my brother, and I moved into an apartment of our own, with a bedroom for each of us. It was during the spring of that year that my mom remarried my step-Dad and we moved to Virginia. And then to Germany, and then England, and back to Germany again.  But still I feel like my first stage of growing up, at least, took place in Carson City/Reno.

When I was in first grade, my Mom and step-Dad got hitched in Virginia City. I hadn't been back since I was a teenager and I remembered there being a train so I thought it would be a win-win to take Elias there. Other than walking up and down the main street looking for a good, smoke-free spot for lunch, our main mission was to ride the train to and from Gold Hill - a 35 minute round-trip train ride (You can take the train all the way from Carson City but it's an hour and a half. Each way. Too much sitting for us, this trip at least.).

Between the heat and the walking, I think we were all pretty beat at this point.

Hot and tired.

Relaxing and enjoying the ride with snuggle buddies, including a Kit Fox stuffed animal - Eli's souvenir from the Animal Ark (and now he wants a "souvenir" everywhere we go).

What time is it? It's meltdown time! Not surprisingly, between the change in routine, the time in the car, the walking, the heat, and the fact that neither of us slept all that well most of the trip all resulted in approximately one to two meltdowns per day, often because we were eating later than usual. The image above, I believe, is after he'd mostly recovered (but was still pouting a bit) from one of them, brought on by the fact that I wouldn't buy him a generic train in the gift shop (what, postcards aren't good enough for you, kid?).  Elias continued his recovery in the car.  By the time we got home none of us was up for much else so we ordered pizza (Wally's, in case you're ever in Carson City - it only gets 3 stars on Yelp and maybe it was because I was so tired and hungry by the time it arrived, but I thought it was damn good pizza).

Saturday morning we hit the road once again, driving north about three hours to Winnemucca, where my maternal grandparents lived for years (I don't have those house-I-grew-up-in memories or attachments so many people have but I do remember the two houses they lived in very well), my Aunt Jolina still lives (and my Aunt Karen was visiting at the time), and where my Mom is buried.  Oh, the summers I spent in Winnemucca as a teenager and recent high school grad, getting into staying out of trouble with my Mom's youngest sister!  But I hadn't been since 2000 so I was anxious to visit, despite the detour adding six hours of driving to our road trip. 

We had lunch at Chihuahua's (Mexican meal #2), site of Saturday's epic meltdown, complete with horizontal tantrum, on the ground, at the entrance of the restaurant.  But again, once he ate, he was, mostly, just fine.  From there we went to a purse party (like Tupperware, but purses), which, surprisingly, was just the thing Elias needed - no driving, no walking, shaded from the heat, with nobody bugging him or asking him to do anything in particular, and a bag of toys belonging to one of the party host's grandson of about the same age. 

After the party, we went back to my Aunt Jolina's house, where Elias discovered a little red wagon and helped harvest some cherry tomatoes.  Nobody was hungry after our late lunch but, lest we have another missed meal-induced tantrum, Elias had a snack of microwave mac 'n' cheese (just one of the food items I'd packed in our three - yes three - bags of groceries).  After that we went to Burger King (it's a bit of an inside joke...you had to be there) for the most over-the-top sundaes ever, then watched the sunset with Grandma Cathy, at the cemetary where she's buried.  Is that weird?  It didn't seem to be at the time and Elias is very matter of fact about the whole thing at this age - Grandma Cathy died a long time ago and that's where she's buried. Which is sad, but true.

On Sunday, after burning off a little energy and filling up on 2nd breakfast (for us, anyway), we headed to Groveland, our longest leg of the trip at about seven hours in the car, with not a whole lot between Winnemucca and the California border.  Elias was great. I was worried at times about the kinds of memories we were making on this trip, with a couple of pretty tense moments just about every day, but at one point as we were getting back in the car after a bathroom pit stop Elias thanked me for taking him on this fun road trip and gave me a great big hug. Awwww!

I didn't take any pictures during this leg of the drive.  And honestly, there's not much between Winnemucca and Yosemite, especially since we took a route that bypasses Reno and Carson City altogether.  We stopped in Hawthorne and after driving through the entire town, backtracked for a late lunch/early dinner at McDonald's, where Elias was thrilled to enjoy his very first Happy Meal. We've only been to MacDo's a handful of times, primarily for breakfast and ice cream, and yet it's like there's some innate coveting of the Happy Meal.  Of course, not long after that we crossed into California and passed through Mono Lake, where there were lots of cute options for stopping and grabbing a snack but after about four hours of driving and passing almost nothing, I didn't want to press our luck.

We then spent twenty bucks to drive through Yosemite.  I was just thrilled they not only accepted but preferred credit cards at the toll booth, having completely spaced on getting cash before we left Winnemucca!  Tioga Pass is indeed lovely but mostly lost on a tired 4 year old.  And long. Man, I thought we'd never get through Yosemite.  And then when we finally did we still had about 30 miles to Groveland, where we had reserved a small cabin for the last two nights of our trip at Yosemite Pines RV Resort.  We didn't settle in to our cabin until almost 8 so dinner that night consisted of popsicles we bought at the little general store upon checking in. We were also a bit surprised to discover that our "basic" cabins didn't have private bathrooms, something that wasn't totally clear on the website (she even mentioned it - "Oh, did you reserve online? If you had called in we would have told you." What, no webmaster?).  The communal bathrooms were a short walk from the cabin so in the end it wasn't a huge deal but not totally ideal, especially since I almost always wake up at night to go to the bathroom.  Somehow I didn't need to the two nights we were there but it was a mad dash each morning once Elias was up.  It was also tricky taking a shower, since Elias didn't want to come in with me, but I didn't feel comfortable leaving him alone in the cabin, either.  Instead, that first night, desperate for a shower after a long, dusty drive, he wandered the bathroom, violating the privacy of probably everyone who happened to come in during that time, including two German girls who, well, didn't seem to care much.

Otherwise, that night was by far our best night of sleep. I think it helped immensely that we each had our own bed, Elias taking the top bunk while I slept on the bottom. Even so, while he'd clearly been reacting to something in Nevada - the heat, the dry air, the smoke from nearby wildfires, the sage brush, or some crazy combination? - his congestion was suddenly mostly gone at the cabin and therefore his breathing at night - downright snoring at times - much quieter. After pre-breakfast, shown above, we headed into the little town of Groveland for a more substantial meal and picked up a couple of sandwiches from a deli on the way back to the cabin for lunch later that day.

We shared a yummy breakfast burrito and downright decadent maple cinnamon roll at Dori's Tea Cottage in Groveland. While I had absolutely no cell phone reception the entire time we were there, the cabins did offer free wifi so I was able to look up breakfast joints on my laptop while Elias watched TV that morning.

After that we waited for BFF Hazel to arrive with her family.  They were a bit shy with one another at first, not surprising as it had been about four months since we last saw her. Both were about two inches taller.  But the shyness quickly wore off and it was truly the highlight of the trip for Elias (no offense to any family reading, of course).

We spent most of that day together in the pool, where, with the assistance of a pool noodle and Hazel's "floaties" Elias was able to "swim" mostly unassisted.  After a lukewarm session of six swim lessons back at home, he could not get enough of the pool here.  After several hours in the pool, we convinced the kids to get cleaned up (during which Elias had a meltdown in the pool, not wanting to get out) in preparation for dinner in town (where he had yet another meltdown on the way - it was already after 7, after all).  In spite of back-to-back meltdowns, however, Elias did pretty well the rest of the evening, even sitting and smiling for the adorable picture above.

We had breakfast - and more playtime - with our friends at their "rig" the next morning before heading home.  At under three hours, the drive home was the shortest leg of the trip. We rolled into town with enough time to unpack and unwind before Neal got home.  I'm so very glad we got to experience this adventure together - probably the last time I'll be able to enjoy this kind of one-on-one time with Elias for awhile - but I was equally glad to be home!

it's a...

...GIRL! Due to a recent change in health insurance our original anatomy ultrasound last week had to be canceled, but - bless the good folks at Kaiser - I was able to get in pretty quickly once our new coverage started on September 1st and all of my records were transferred over.  We found out yesterday that not only are all systems go and looking delightfully "normal", but baby G version 2.0 is a girl! We're pretty excited. I won't lie - I had a slight preference that I was blaming my "hunch" on that this one would be a girl. That said, I'd made my peace with the idea of a little brother for Elias well before we even started trying.  I really struggled with that about a year or so ago - feeling such a strong preference for a girl that I wasn't sure I even wanted to try because the thought of being disappointed for even a second if #2 was a boy made me unbelievably sad for the theoretical little guy who didn't even exist yet! And as soon as I felt that way I realized, of course, I'd be happy - and our family would be complete - either way. Boy or girl, baby #2 would surely be an entirely different little personality and bundle of joyful moments and frustrating challenges. And indeed, there was a part of me that was a little sad yesterday that Elias won't have a little brother.  The bottom line is there are surely pros and cons either way and not admitting to myself that I may have had a slight preference wouldn't change the fact that I did, even if very slight. But enough tell, how about a little show?

Her cute little skeletal face. Our ultrasound tech told us about how most couples see the abdominal area and exclaim, "oh, look, how cute - the face!" But see there in the top right corner? She even labeled the images for us, including a "GIRL!!!" image with an arrow to the evidence that we'll leave off the internets.

Her profile. It's interesting to look back at Eli's ultrasound images and see how they compare.  His images are a lot fuzzier (as I've said before, what a difference 4 1/2 years makes - I was amazed at the resolution of the images on the screen) but his forehead and nose look a lot different to me - rounder with a little dip and then a total mama's-side-of-the-family-somewhat pig-like little button nose.  I wonder if baby G v 2.0 will have Neal's nose?

Profile again, close-up. Fingers! Four of 'em and a thumb, perhaps in the mouth?

Baby feet!

Anyway, backing up a bit, yes, we have health insurance! It's a beautiful thing when you've gone without for even a month (we never did make it through the MediCal application process - man, what a run-around that is but that's for another post entirely. Dear MediCal social worker - "self employed" does not equal independently wealthy. Trust me.). Neal got a job offer in early August and adjusting to having my co-parent work outside the home with an hour commute each way is another topic for another post altogether (and really, how spoiled have we been all of Eli's life - both parents working from home is overall not all it's cracked up to be but I do miss the extra time and flexibility - and both of us being present - in our morning and afternoon/evening routines). But we have health insurance and we were able to switch to Kaiser, which we had when we lived here 8 years ago.  In fact, they still had us in their records (I even had to update my maiden name to my married name reminding me what a drag that whole thing was!) and had me assigned to the ob/gyn I had before.  I looked up reviews on her obstetrics skills (since I was more of a gyn-only gal back then) and they were good so I was relieved to not have to look for a new doctor.  I met with her last week and she essentially "put the kibosh", as a friend suggested a new doctor might, on the whole gestational diabetes incident.  She gave me the option of continuing to monitor my blood sugar from time to time or enjoying the glucose drink at my next, 24 week, appointment in early October. It's funny because that was the one pro my previous ob/gyn and nurse practitioner kept pointing out - that at least now I wouldn't have to do that nasty sugar drink. As if that's worse than pricking yourself up to four times per day and writing down absolutely everything you eat. Oh, and avoiding carbohydrates when maybe you don't need to. Thanks, but I'll take a little flat orange soda over all that any day. So we'll see if I pass that test and go from there. In a word, my old/new doc thinks that the early test and sending me to the "sweet success" program based on a borderline result was "overkill." 

Otherwise, I'm feeling pretty good these days, smack dab in the middle of the second trimester.  I started feeling definite little kicks and squirms at 19 weeks on the dot (which, it turns out after looking back at previous blog posts, is almost exactly when I felt definite movement with Elias - I thought he was earlier but I guess not!). Occasionally I'll have some discomfort sleeping, partly because my hips will begin hurting early in the morning and partly because our bed is just not well-suited for side sleepers. Occasionally this over the top pregnancy pillow makes for a good night but when it doesn't I put a pillow on either side, one between my knees and under my belly and one behind my back to keep me from rolling over. I continue to wake up on my back but I figure at least I'm angled a bit toward my left side by that pillow. Poor Neal.

And how is Elias taking this news? Pretty well. He was pretty excited when we told him yesterday and has been saying all along that he wanted a baby sister. When we'd tell him it might be a baby brother he seemed keen on that too and had a simple solution: let's have one of each! Sorry, my friend, but mama is of the "two and through" school of thought. Anyway, here's a picture I just came across from a trip to Habitot months ago.

That's right, big brother. Get ready to be mama's little helper!

In other big news, Eli and I enjoyed a mama-son road trip during the latter part of his preschool closure last month and a little into the following week.  I'm still waiting for Neal to upload my pics to our Picasa account so I'll write about that later. Earlier in his week off, before we hit the road, we enjoyed a "transportation extravaganza" to and through San Francisco, taking BART to the city, the cable car to Ghirardelli Square, the street car back to the Embarcardero, and BARTing back home with Neal after dinner downtown. That reminded me of the time we took the ferry to San Francisco during his winter break last year and how I never blogged about that. So I leave you with a few images from that adventure until I have time to write again about our more recent excursions.

Here he is waiting for the ferry at Oakland's Jack London Square. I'm trying to remember just what he packed in his backpack...

Cheese! (Kind of.)

Have snacks, will ferry.

A toddler's view of San Francisco.

Chairs that spin!

And, after snacking our way through the ferry building, our return trip home. I'll be bugging Neal to upload all my road trip pics this weekend so stay tuned for another update next week or so!

GD my placenta!

After nearly two weeks of jotting down every meal and snack and recording my blood sugar four times a day like the good student that I am, I had a follow-up appointment this morning with both a perinatologist and dietitian.  The good news is my numbers are "beautiful," in the dietitian's words.  Just a couple of days into recording I called the dietitian because I was worried my numbers were too low.  While the fasting blood sugar taken first thing in the morning before breakfast is usually between 75 and 85 (within their desired range of 60 to 90), my one-hour-after-eating numbers have only twice even made it into their range of 100-130, usually between 80 and 95.  Numbers do not appear to be creeping up at this point, rather bouncing around between those ranges, even with a few "experiments" and generally relaxing the restriction on carbohydrates. 

The bad news is I've got a lot of pregnancy to go and as the perinatologist in particular pointed out, I need to be psychologically prepared for those numbers, especially the morning fasting blood sugar, which is notoriously hardest to control with diet and exercise alone, to go up as I get further along and the placenta continues to grow.  While I have enjoyed being less strict with the diet over the past week or so, and have to admit I was pretty anxious for about a week after being told I'd "failed" the early gestational diabetes screen, in hindsight I'm actually glad I was on the diet for a couple of weeks before beginning to monitor my blood sugar four times each day.  I think, had I seen these low numbers early on, I wouldn't have taken the diagnosis as seriously and would have "experimented" a lot more.  As it is, the three small meals + three snacks, all the while watching my carbs in general and my sugar intake in particular, has already become a bit of a habit.  I'll admit that part of me was really hoping they'd let me off the hook, at least until the glucose tolerance test (the "sugar drink") normally administered between 24 and 28 weeks and go from there.  But I think particularly because it's so early, they want me to continue to monitor my blood sugar levels, but only twice a day, and stick to the somewhat relaxed diet as much as possible between now and my next appointment in one month.

So for anyone coming to this blog by way of searching for gestational diabetes (something I did a lot those first few days), here's what I've found to be helpful.  First a GD cheat "sheet":

As far as GD is concerned, you've got your carbohydrates and your proteins; fats and non-starchy veggies are "free" (you can have that double-double from In 'n' Out but order it protein style or discard the top half of the bun - it's a little like entering opposite land, at least for pregnant women, I think because they don't want to tell you that, basically, you can't eat anything). 15 grams of carbs = 1 serving. Carbs include the obvious: breads, grains, and cereals - and the not so obvious: milk/dairy, fruit, and starchy vegetables. You can subtract grams of fiber from overall grams of carbohydrates for an adjusted serving size; for sugar alcohols (in sugar-free items), subtract half (i.e. if an item has 14 total grams of carbs including 8 grams of sugar alcohols, you'll subtract 4 of those grams for an adjusted serving size of 10 grams of carbs or 2/3 serving).

Protein is your friend. Protein slows down the sugar so balancing carbs and proteins is key. 1 ounce of protein = 1 serving. Think eggs, meat, of course, nuts/seeds, nut butters (good luck if you have a nut allergy...or if you're vegan, for that matter), cottage cheese, fish/tuna, soy/tofu, and cheese.

For breakfast and snacks, I try to have 1 to 2 servings of carbs plus at least 2 servings of protein (1 for snacks). For lunch and dinner, I can have 2 to 3 servings of carbs and at least 3 servings of protein.  Packing in that much protein is harder than it sounds, not because I don't like all the protein products, but because they take a little more effort to prepare and eat.  Carbs are quick and easy, unfortunately.

A typical (A+ kind of) day would go something like this:

7:15 am - breakfast: 2 multi-grain waffles (I like the Trader Joe's variety) with 1 tbsp. almond butter, 1/4 cup chopped pecans, and sugar-free syrup, plus scrambled eggs with a little bit of cheese.

9 am - snack (the dietitian wants me to eat every 2 to 3 hours - not a problem for me but I guess this might be hard for non-snackers): small homemade granola bar (I analyzed my recipe and each bar contains 4 grams of sugar from honey - still technically a no-no, but I figured I'd try it and see how my numbers looked...they were fine), 1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese, and 1/2 nectarine. 

{Digression} - I forgot to add that you're not allowed cold cereal - ever - nor should you have dairy or fruit first thing in the morning.  Additionally, you should never have dairy (milk, yogurt - cheese is usually okay) and fruit together in one meal or snack.  That said, I haven't had a problem with combining things like Greek yogurt (much higher protein content than regular yogurt) or a soft cheese like cottage cheese with fruit, thankfully (because who can eat plain Greek yogurt? not me).  I've also been able to have cereal for breakfast, so long as I include some protein (nuts in the cereal, eggs or turkey bacon on the side, etc.), without it affecting my blood sugar levels. For now at least.

12:45 pm - lunch: turkey/cheddar/pesto wheat wrap with 1 ounce potato chips and 1/2 apple (as with Elias, I've had a consistent craving for potato chips this pregnancy, something I rarely eat otherwise; sweets are my vice!)

3 pm - snack: one serving peanut butter pretzels with one babybell cheese

6 pm - dinner: 3 pieces of Trader Joe's frozen spinach pizza with a side chicken caesar salad (frozen pizza is usually light on toppings, so you can boost the protein content by adding meat and cheese - or getting pizza out, where toppings aren't usually a problem; passing on the crust will help keep the overall carbs in check)

9 pm - snack: Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich (these things are ridiculously good); I'm also a big fan of the popcorn/candy/Fresca combo in the evening, but obviously the candy is out.  Chocolate covered almonds (no candy coating) don't seem to bother me at this point, oddly, but a possible alternative in the future might be those cocoa dusted almonds.  Additionally, we use coconut oil and Himalayan salt (both of which you can find at TJs) to stove-top pop our popcorn (I say we as if I ever make it - that would be Neal's job), both of which have various, supposed health benefits. And hey, if not, the coconut oil will make your house smell like the beach and Himalayan salt is pink!

The evening snack is actually pretty important as it helps to control that fasting blood sugar level the next morning (something about how if you go more than 10 hours without eating your liver produces more glucose, thereby ironically increasing your blood sugar level despite the long fast between dinner and breakfast). So, yes, a lot of eating has been going on around here.  I think eating every 2 to 3 hours is key - as soon as I'm peckish, it's time to eat again so I'm never really all that hungry.  And if I'm never ravenous, I'm less likely to go for the easiest snack on hand, or snacking while preparing a meal, etc.  I actually lost weight the first week or so, but I was up about a pound the next week.

I rounded out the epic morning of prenatal medical appointments (on this, our last day of private medical insurance...hello, Medi-Cal!) with my monthly visit to my OB/GYN, getting to hear the baby's heartbeat not once, but twice this morning.  That never gets old, does it?  The 20 week, sex-revealing ultrasound has been scheduled for early September, so stay tuned for that announcement, as well as other pregnancy and kiddo shenanigans in the meantime, I'm sure.

the 4th day of July (and all the other ones, too)

I thought this blog post would be about the 4th of July holiday but as it stands, we didn't do much! Or, at least, we didn't do much documenting.  Since the 4th fell on a Wednesday, and with our memories of Bay Area fireworks displays being hardly worth the hassle in terms of driving, camping out for hours in advance, and battling traffic to get home, we decided to forego any formal fireworks display this year (and sadly, the DIY fireworks are completely banned in most Bay Area cities).  I had work to do the next day and Neal had jobs to apply to so to school Eli went.  Imagine staying up 4 to 5 hours past your normal "bedtime" only to be expected to wake up at your usual time and head to work as if it was just another weekday.  So yeah, keeping Elias up until 11 or so on a weeknight is not such a good idea.  Instead, the highlight of the day was checking out the family-friendly afternoon celebration at Oakland's Jack London Square, with requisite firetruck:

...and bouncy house:

Backing up a bit, we celebrated Neal's birthday the weekend before with equally inexpensive activities like an easy hike in Redwood Regional Park.

Is it just me or does Elias look impossibly kid-like and grown-up in this picture?

This is how at least a portion of all family hikes goes.  With Neal's birthday and 4th of July so close together, we made a decision that whenever possible in the future, even if all we can afford is rustic camping, we're just going to go on vacation for both. Or in the very least, take the day after off.

Other July photo highlights include mysterious preschool shenanigans, above (I'm not sure what they were doing here - some sort of group walker?), as well as slightly creepy preschool art projects, below.

Also this month we wrapped up our first year of informal soccer fun with fellow preschool buddies with a potluck and medal ceremony a couple of weeks ago.

For the first time all year, this "practice" ended with a scrimmage and Elias was one of several kids completely mystified by the concept of putting all the drills together in a team sport game format. There were basically two groups of kids - one group that moved en masse around the ball, and one group that stood there dazed and confused.  Plus the one or two kids with actual soccer experience who stood ground as goalies.

Finally, this past weekend we pretended we were on vacation here at home after a last-minute offer to spend the weekend at Neal's family's cabin at Donner Lake didn't quite work out (a minimum three hour drive there and back for less than 24 hours of R&R didn't quite seem worth it in the end).  We temporarily relaxed our austerity measures and enjoyed lunch at Alameda's version of the food truck craze Off the Grid, had ice cream a couple of times (more on the supposed gestational diabetes and "experiments" like these after tomorrow's follow-up appointment with the dietitian), including trying out the unbelievably-priced $2 ice cream sandwiches at Cream, and spent the entire afternoon at Crown Memorial Beach. Now if we could just do that for an entire week, preferably away from Oakland. Sigh.

I'm sorry, I'm just a little pregnant here

Yep, you read that right. Eli will be a big brother in January!  This information is barely public and I've already had to send one of these apology cards.  I blame being pregnant on top of 2012 being, so far, pretty much the most stressful 6-month period of my life. Ever. Hopefully the recipient understands.  Backing up, however, as I feel I must always preface this announcement by explaining that no, we didn't decide to get pregnant after the primary wage-earner in the family lost his job - it happened right before. And by the time we sensed that things were brewing at work and put family planning on hold, it was too late.  After I wrote this post last summer, we decided we'd starting trying for baby #2 this spring.  Training for the Oakland Marathon figured in perfectly, one of several last hurrah's, if you will, before surrendering to pregnancy, nursing (with any luck), and the general chaos of having a newborn, infant, and then toddler (plus Elias, of course). After I completed the marathon in late March, it was baby-making open season.  And it didn't take long, which, despite the timing not being perfect for now at least, I'm pretty grateful for.

So how has this pregnancy compared to my pregnancy with Elias?  Wow, what a difference four and a half years makes!  I took an early test on the day we got the news that Neal was being "let go" (I didn't think I was pregnant since we hadn't tried for too long, but I wanted to be sure because if I wasn't you better believe I was going to enjoy a beer that night). It seems I enjoy coordinating big life events, good or bad, having tested for Elias on my 30th birthday.  But Neal and I were happy.  Eight weeks later, with severance (and health insurance coverage) officially over, I'm feeling much more stressed about the whole thing now, but the excitement of the pregnancy still somewhat tempers the crappy situation that is unemployment.  Two days later, however, I experienced some spotting, something I never experienced during my entire pregnancy with Elias.  In hindsight I'm guessing (and my ob/gyn agrees) that this was probably implantation bleeding, but because I'd taken that crazy early test and gotten a faint positive (and didn't think you could have a positive pregnancy test until after implantation), I feared the worst (chemical pregnancy, blighted ovum, etc.).  While the spotting only lasted the afternoon, I was on edge for several more days until I tested again and got another positive result, this time presenting a much darker line than the first.  Even so, I was extremely guarded about the whole thing until our first prenatal appointment around 7 weeks.  Seeing the heartbeat reassured me only slightly.  When I saw the heartbeat again at my 10 week appointment I started to breathe a little easier.  I don't remember being nearly this anxious with Elias.

Other things have been different, too.  While I never had to break my nearly decades long no-vomiting streak (the last time I threw up I was 16), I did have low-grade nausea every day until about mid-afternoon.  Prenatal vitamins made it worse so I opted for a regular multi-vitamin plus folic acid supplement for a few weeks until I started feeling better (around 10-11 weeks or so).  The fatigue I remember so well with Elias took a little while longer to present itself this time around but once it did it hit me like a wall.  I'm still pretty sleepy here and there during the day but I'm also not getting the best quality sleep lately so it's hard to say exactly why I'm more tired than usual.  Fatigue was one of those symptoms I've heard can be less extreme in 2nd pregnancies since you're already used to being more tired than you were before having kids.  And I think that's true to some extent.  I don't indulge in naps the way I did the first time, at least not yet.  But I do feel damn tired at some point most days.

The main difference between pregnancies, however, has been an early diagnosis of gestational diabetes.  Since I'm considered AMA this time (advanced maternal age, turning 35 a few months before the baby's due), my doctor recommended a number of tests in addition to the standard first trimester screening, including an early gestational diabetes screen.  The blood test I took measures your hemoglobin A1C, which calculates your average blood sugar level over the past three months.  Mine was 5.9%, which is just within the range for "increased risk" of diabetes.  There was much confusion and disappointment on my end, but after several messages and phone calls with my ob/gyn, nurse practitioner, and dietitian, I finally came to the understanding that, essentially, anything in the pre-diabetic range (5.7-6.4%) is gestational diabetes.  I've already modified my diet (no obvious sweets, no cold cereal or highly processed foods, no dairy/fruit first thing in the morning, etc.), am trying to be more consistent about getting in at least 30 minutes of "movement" a day (as it is I tend to have these bursts of 4 to 5 days of working out then nothing for 2 to 3 days), and as of today have started recording everything I eat in addition to checking my blood sugar levels four times each day.  With about a week and a half of data I'll meet with the perinatologist and dietitian again at the end of the month and go from there.  Hopefully I'll be able to control my blood sugar levels with diet and exercise alone but about half of women diagnosed with GD end up needing medication of some kind - either one of two pills or insulin injections.  Hopefully I don't fall into that category.  I'm cautiously optimistic since I was on the low end of the range but the fact that it's still so early (and the plancenta - the cause of a lot of these hormonal, insulin-blocking problems - has still got a lot of growing to do) worries me since it does tend to get worse as the pregnancy progresses.  And while I do have an increased risk now of developing permanent diabetes after pregnancy, most women are just fine within 6 to 12 weeks after delivery.  I figure if I can avoid sweets (not easy to do with my insatiable sweet tooth) for the next six months, surely some of this will become a lifetime change.  I just want to be able to indulge every once in awhile.  And I'm not sure what's more depressing - the thought of no sweets or no alcohol.  Because you better believe mama is already thinking about her first margarita post-partum!

The good news is that all of the other tests have come back normal.  We had our NT scan last Wednesday and that - the grand finale of the first trimester screening - was a huge relief.  Here's one of several images they captured from that ultrsound.

Here's another - this is my "tiny dancer" shot (look at those long legs!):

It's still a little surreal to me and I don't yet feel as connected to this little creature as I did so early on with Elias, but friends have reassured me that's normal the second time around.  What's interesting is that people treat you differently with baby #2 (and I'm guessing subsequent babies).  I remember once Elias was born and we were dealing with sleep issues, breastfeeding issues, and reflux (man, those first 6-7 months were brutal!), I wondered why nobody had told me just how difficult it really is!  And yet with baby #2 it's as if all bets are off.  People have shared all sorts of horrific details about their experiences with pregnancy #2, baby #2, how child #1 reacted, etc., none of which has been particularly helpful (insightful, yes, helpful, not really).  And yet I suppose I'm getting the honestly I felt was lacking the first time around.  For now, I'm just focused on getting through the next six months! And with everything else going on, I'm definitely tackling the second half of 2012 one day at a time.

holiday wrap-up 2011-2012

Man, could we ever use a vacation! As most of my eleven readers are related to me in some way, this probably won't come as news to you - since about mid-May, Neal's been on the hunt for a new job.  He was lucky to get a decent severance package but we're in week eight of eight of that package and if I think more than about 2 to 3 days in advance, I'll admit I get pretty bummed.  I know it could always be worse, but damn, it sure could be a lot better at the moment.

But enough time sitting on that pity potty. What say we relive some memories of holidays and vacation time spent over the past year!   Okay, okay, so Oktoberfest isn't exactly a holiday but for the second year in a row we checked out Oakland's own Oaktoberfest in the Dimond neighborhood, where Elias, who doesn't usually enjoy soda ("too fizzy"), nevertheless found some merit in his first root beer float.  Cheers!

In the same spirit as Oktoberfest-as-holiday, we celebrated my birthday a couple of weeks later with a dinner at Zza's, where Neal and I had our wedding rehearsal dinner over seven years ago.  I'm not a huge fan of gift-giving holidays (preferring food-centric holidays like Thanksgiving instead), but I do enjoy birthdays (more about Eli's latest anniversary at the end of this post).

Halloween wouldn't be complete without a trip to the pumpkin patch. This year we traveled once again to Livermore to the pumpkin patch we went to the year before. It's a little crazy to look at those pictures and see just how much Elias has grown in a year!

As I mentioned in my last post, Elias celebrated Halloween 2011 as the big bad wolf, with Neal and I standing in as the three little pigs, wearing pig ear headbands, pig snouts, and pig tails, with assistance from a pig finger puppet I kept tucked in my jacket pocket as pig #3.

If I remember correctly, Elias came down with his first (of many) nasty colds and viruses right before Halloween weekend, keeping our usually lengthy celebrations to a minimum, which probably wasn't such a bad thing as we tend to overdo it a bit with these multi-day celebrations, completely burning out before the actual holiday!

We did manage to carve a couple of pumpkins. I'm not sure what Elias is doing here - lounging with the jack-o-lanterns it seems.

As I mentioned in my preschool post, there was a costume parade at school, followed by a "boo-fet".

The parade and boo-fet ended with a bang for Elias.  Still recovering from that bug and after eating way too many treats like the graveyard brownies above, he threw up in the classroom, all over the circle time rug. Yep, that's my kid - the barfer.  Needless to say he came home with me for the rest of the day.

But that didn't keep us from trick-or-treating later that evening.  With full disclosure about Eli's earlier "episode" we headed to Hazel's place for a pizza party and trick-or-treating around their neighborhood.  Elias is still fortunately pretty pleased with a relatively small amount of candy.  I wonder when this whole Halloween/trick-or-treating thing will really kick in.  He was more into it this past year than the year before, but he's just not - not yet, at least - one of those kids that is the first one out the gates, so to speak (candy from strangers, eggs at an Easter egg hunt, etc.).

For Thanksgiving this year we traveled back east to celebrate in Connecticut with my brother and his family.  I've wanted to do this ever since we moved back to California three years ago since, during the four years we were there, we celebrated every Thanksgiving with them (coming back to California for all but one Christmas). The trick to flying anywhere for the holidays is to fly on the holiday, which worked out pretty well since my brother was working on Thanksgiving anyway (firefighter is his day job...I could tell you his other job, but then I'd have to kill you). So we flew on Thursday, and celebrated on Friday.  I snuck in a couple of runs with my sister-in-law, who'd just completed the Marine Corps Marathon for the fourth or fifth time (seriously, I've lost count at this point) a few weeks before our visit, while I had just started training for the Oakland Marathon this past spring.  We also spent a girls' afternoon out shopping with my niece.

Other highlights included riding cousin Alejandro's scooter around the 'hood while sporting cousin Adriana's old helmet. This inspired the gift of his own scooter for Christmas.

Hanging out with Jed, the dog.

Visiting local playgrounds.

A decent hike (three miles or so, round trip...he was carried for at least half of that) in Sleeping Giant State Park...

...the highlight of which is this stone observation tower that resembles a small castle where we stopped for a snack.

And finally, a visit to the Children's Museum in West Hartford, followed by lunch at the only decent Mexican food in New England: Chipotle (I would say I'm kidding but it's kind of true).

Up next? Christmas, my favorite (I'm being just a tiny bit facetious). This year we decided to establish some boundaries, reserving Christmas eve and morning for us only and inviting anyone who cared to visit (i.e. Grandma Joanne) to come up late Christmas morning and spend the rest of the day and night. I don't know how Grandma felt about it but it worked out so well for us.

This year we drove out to a live tree farm and actually cut down our tree, a first for me (something Neal did pretty regularly in his childhood).  I think this is where we went but I honestly can't be sure at this point!  The trees were not cheap, and we ended up with one of the cheaper varieties and, not to complain (I am the person who doesn't care too much for Christmas traditions, after all), but I was never really happy with the tree.  It just didn't look like a Christmas tree.  But Elias didn't seem to mind.

Some Bay Area holiday festivities have become tradition, like checking out the houses and lights along Christmas Tree Lane in nearby Alameda. New this year was a trip to the Oakland Zoo's Zoo Lights with buddies Ivan and Zach.  We went while Neal celebrated his brother's birthday with him down in southern California, but I'd love to do it again this year with the entire family.  The trick, I think, will be to get there right when it opens, hit the train first, pack a picnic dinner (or eat an early dinner before or on the way), and give up any hopes of getting Elias to bed on time that night.  Actually, that's not a bad idea for the entire month of December.

Ah, Christmas eve. My favorite part.  Once again, we had pizza for dinner and checked out the lights at the Mormon Temple.

When we got home Elias got to open one gift (pajamas! what a surprise!) and then we set out some treats for Santa and his reindeer.

The highlights as far as gifts included a drum set (what was Santa thinking, right?!) and a scooter, mentioned above.

Despite how things appear in the image above (Elias checked out in a pile of presents), even when Grandma showed up a bit later, the gift-giving did not feel overwhelming, which was a welcome change from the year before.

Neal made a delicious dinner that evening, including coq au vin and pumpkin pie. Yum.

In April we were invited once again to our friends' folks' house in Sacramento for an Easter egg hunt that continues to be impossible to top when Easter actually rolls around the next week!

We decorated eggs for the first time, which went well enough.  I think about a third of our boiled eggs were cracked before they ever made it into the dye.  Elias continues to get frustrated or bored (not sure which) relatively quickly and then wants us to continue the project.

We had our own very brief egg hunt in our back yard...

...and then we finished the day with a traditional Easter dinner of...fondue? I think we may have started a new tradition!

Ah, finally, we get to Eli's birthday a few weeks ago and the end of this epic, holiday 2011-2012 post!  I wrote a fairly lengthy post about the birthday party shenanigans on my other blog if you're interested in even more reading!

In a nutshell, Elias had a great 4th birthday, celebrated over the course of about four days.  One of the things we gave him was a little cooking set, complete with the apron he's wearing above, helping me make special cookies for his preschool celebration.

For his actual birthday, he lucked out with a school field trip in the morning and the rest of the afternoon spent at home, chilling out, watching a movie, and opening gifts.  We headed to Fenton's for the traditional birthday dinner and sundae-bigger-than-your-head.

This year we had his party at the zoo.  We may have spent a bit more than our home party last year but it was so much less work!  I kept the DIY projects to a minimum and while a few details didn't work out as well as I'd hoped, I was pretty happy with the party overall.  Despite some serious stage fright when it came time to sing happy birthday and blow out the candles (to which Eias replied, "no smiling!"), he seemed to have a really good time.

Holy cow, my baby is 4!