me, me, me

--Whelp, here we are. Seven months pregnant. Less than two months until baby. Six weeks until end of internship. And really, truly, cannot wait for both events to arrive. I am really excited for the baby to get here, in fact, almost surprised at how much I cannot wait for her to be born, but I suspect that part of that is related to the fact that when the baby is born I will finally be done with the internship. And that will be nothing but a happy day.

--The way everything has worked out with internship and being pregnant has been very fortuitous. For example, being in the third trimester means a lot more doctor appointments. Next week I start non-stress tests twice a week and will have to take off a little early for all of those appointments. If I was in clinical or community rotations, missing those hours would have been a lot more of a big deal, but with the food service rotation, I can work on my projects at home to make up hours.

--I bought myself some maternity clothes yesterday. It was kind of a splurge, but all I can say is I am really happy to have more than one pair of maternity pants that actually fits well. And a tank top that will go all the way over my belly.

--I have liked the food service rotation a lot more than I had thought I would a year ago. It is actually pretty fun--I am working at the district office of a local school district, doing a lot of managerial and administrative stuff, but also getting a lot of time in the schools. For example, last week I spent a few hours with a manager at one school trying out different smoothie combinations on a new Vitamix blender for a smoothie program they are doing at breakfast. That was nothing but a good time.

--Of course, I also have had to make a lot more phone calls this rotation, which is not my favorite thing in the world. 

--Also, I'm pretty sure I have gained a pound every other day the past couple weeks. Again, not my favorite thing in the world. Is it too early to chalk it up to water retention?

CGM

I know you are all dying to hear about my cgm (saying "continuous glucose monitor" starts to be a mouthful). And even if you aren't on the edge of your seats waiting for all the details, well, I am dying to tell everyone about it, so here we go.

My diabetes rotation for the internship was great, if for no other reason than they let me try out a bunch of cool diabetes gadgets, including a cgm. I only wore it for 5 days or so, but I really loved it and was convinced I should get one, especially since I am pregnant. I remember last pregnancy thinking a cgm would have been very helpful. Also my current doctor's opinion is that a cgm is a necessity more than a luxury in pregnancy, but you know, whatever.

So, what does it do? Basically it is super handy dandy.
--There is another site on my stomach that has a small tube under the skin (that is taken out and changed regularly), which reads and transmits my blood sugar level every five minutes.
--The device that receives the data doesn't just show you the latest number, it shows you a graph that you can expand to show up to the latest 24 hours.
--It tells you how fast your blood sugar is rising or falling (or if it is staying relatively constant). So you can see if you are dropping fast or whatnot.
--It alarms if you go too high or too low (I have mine set to alarm me if I go below 80 or above 150).
--It has some other features too, that I haven't really used yet. When you go to the doctor they can download the past month, two months, whatever.
--So it reduces the need for lots of blood sugar testing during the day. You still have to check your blood at least twice to calibrate the cgm. They say technically you shouldn't treat highs or lows based on what the sensor says, but... I kind of ignore that most of the time.

So you can see, when this picture was taken, my current BG was 127, you can see the angled down arrow which means I was dropping slightly, and you can see the graph for the past 3 hours. Nifty eh?

So, there are essentially two companies that make CGM currently: medtronic and dexcom. I tried out the medtronic in October, but I actually ended up buying the dexcom. The medtronic was great because it sends the data to my pump, so you have everything on one device. The dexcom sends the data to a separate little device, so you have to carry around another thing with you. That was a major pull for me to get a medtronic, but there were three big reasons I went with dexcom:

1. It is more accurate. There is always some lag time between your real blood sugar level and what it says on the cgm when your blood sugar is rising or falling, especially if it is changing rapidly. (When it is not changing, or not changing fast, there is almost no discrepancy). However, the dexcom is more accurate than the medtronic. That was the clincher for me. Accuracy is kind of a big deal.
2. Inserting the sites are less painful on the dexcom compared to the medtronic. Even if I have been sticking myself regularly for over 15 years, its not like that means it doesn't hurt.
3. Sites on the dexcom supposedly last longer than the medtronic. They say the dexcom will last from 10-14 days, whereas the medtronic lasts up to 7.


Anywhoozle, I could go on and give an even more detailed analysis with more observations and likes/dislikes, blah blah blah, but I think I will call it quits here. My final thought it that when all is said and done it turned out to be not that expensive, and it is helpful and useful and accurate (at least, accurate enough to be helpful and useful). I'm a fan!

26 weeks, almost

I am so bad at taking regular belly shots. Oh well. Life goes on. I'll be 26 weeks on Monday. Almost to the 3rd trimester! And I don't want to hear "you don't even hardly look pregnant!" Every so often someone still tells me that. Thanks,  but what I want to hear now is that I totally look way pregnant. Because I certainly feel very pregnant! :) I enjoyed Nathan telling me almost every day over Christmas how big my belly was getting. 

Play pretend

Natalie got a few fun new toys for Christmas,  including a little doll and some play food and dishes. What has been really cute is I haven't really seen her play pretend a lot before but she totally got into it without any real prompting or teaching from us. One of the cutest things ever was watching her try to feed her little dolly.

oh my oh my oh dinosaurs

A few candid shots from playing dinosaurs this morning. It's just too bad you can't capture Natalie's "rawrs" on a still picture.

 

THE pregnancy craving

I remember this distinctly last time I was pregnant: I was super excited for Thanksgiving. Like I kept thinking about turkey, gravy, stuffing, rolls, potatoes, etc for a couple of weeks before hand. Then there was a year where Natalie was a baby, and although I was excited for Thanksgiving, I didn't find myself so incredibly super duper stoked for it. Then this year rolls around. For 2-3 weeks beforehand I was craving all the Thanksgiving fixings.

This time though, the craving didn't stop after the Thanksgiving meal was finished. In fact, although we had somewhere between 2-3 Thanksgiving type meals during that weekend, I was still craving turkey. and gravy. and potatoes. and rolls. and sweet potato casserole. and stuffing. Oh the stuffing. If I had to pick a favorite Thanksgiving food, it would probably be homemade stuffing.

So the Sunday following Thanksgiving we pulled out of the freezer the turkey we had bought earlier that week and originally had been planning to save for a while. The following Saturday (this past Saturday if anyone is keeping track) we cooked up that hunk of meat. And then we really went all out. First we ate half of one turkey breast that afternoon. Then we made turkey soup. Then we made all the fixings that we love and adore: the gravy, the potatoes, the stuffing, the sweet potatoes, and we have been eating leftovers of it all since then.

Here's the problem though. We are almost out of turkey, but I am not anywhere close from being sick of this meal. Matthew suggested that we should buy another turkey and cook it up and just keep going... and you know what, I think that is a fantastic idea.

Maybe by January I will have gotten my fill of turkey??? Hopefully at the very latest by the time baby girl decides to show her face. Oh have you all heard? We are having a girl!

life as it is

Before we say anything else, I have a belly. And a picture:

Please forgive the quality of the picture. And my hair. Something weird is definitely going on up top there. Anyway I am very excited to finally start showing. It makes me feel like I am for reals pregnant. It just seems like it takes many weeks and many pounds before anything starts happening in the rotundness department so I'm pretty excited about what I've got going on. I'm 17 weeks and 5 days today, but who's counting?

Besides the belly, pregnancy is fine. I am still pretty tired (lame) and I've definitely had a voracious appetite. It is interesting comparing this pregnancy with the last one. I feel hungrier now, and more needing to fulfill random cravings immediately. I've also had more aches and pains and dizziness earlier. However, one HUGE HUGE HUGE awesome difference this time compared to last time is that I have not yet had to deal with a lot of insulin resistance. Last time I feel like it started right around 14 weeks, and here I am at almost 18 with basically no difference in insulin needs and resistance. That is amazing and makes everything feel so much easier.  I was concerned for a little while that maybe that meant something wasn't going right with the baby, but everything looked fine at the last appt and the doctor isn't worried, so I am just going to take it and enjoy it while it lasts.

As far as life goes, Natalie still only says "no" without prompting and we're still trying to get her to expand her vocabulary. Matthew still enjoys teaching high school physics, although I don't understand how anyone could enjoy teaching high school. And I'm still doing my internship. So, not a lot new. I did recently finish my entire clinical rotation, so that's pretty awesome. I'm now doing community at WIC which is fun too. And I'm just about halfway done with the entire internship. Sweet!

a week off

I have finished two whole rotations of my internship--one at a hospital, and one at an outpatient diabetes clinic-- and now I have one whole glorious week off. I am SO excited. I'm going to sleep in, take a nap with Natalie every day, and spend lots of time playing with my baby and reminding her that her mommy in fact does exist.

When I'm not doing that, I'm going to pick up with doing everything that has gotten pushed to the wayside in the hectic-ness of everything now. All I'm saying is, working 8 hours a day (plus the 2+ hours driving time per day for my diabetes rotation), working on homework and projects at night, and then add in always feeling tired and exhausted from being pregnant... well... let's just say that things like picking up after myself, or cleaning, or making dinner, or doing just about anything else that doesn't involve a nap or sitting like a blob on the couch has been pushed to the wayside.

Despite all that, I have loved doing this internship. It really has been very enjoyable. It's nice to know that after years of school you really do like what you have chosen to do. And after this last rotation at the diabetes clinic, I am thinking seriously that being a diabetes educator is what I would like to do. We'll see though.

A few more details about pregnancy. I'm just about 14 weeks along, and so I'm starting the second trimester. I'm hoping to start feeling more "normal" soon. So far this pregnancy has been a little different from the last one. I haven't been as nausous, in fact, I haven't really had any nausea to speak of, which is a huge blessing. I have been a lot more emotional, though. And I have had a lot more cravings. I'm due April 22nd. My last day of the internship is April 4th. Considering that with Natalie they induced me at 37 weeks, and knowing that there is no way they will let me go beyond 39 weeks, it is very likely I will have the baby within a week of finishing. Yipes!

When Expiration Dates Sneak Up On You

 So don't you just hate it when things expire before you use them.  Sometimes I wish things would just wait in stasis until you were ready for them. For instance, probably our biggest food waste is vegetables, fruit, and leftovers going bad before we use them. That, or the amount of food Natalie throws on the floor. :) We actually try really hard to not let produce spoil, but it seems like some of it always hides in the corner of the crisper, or you just can't use those last couple green onions, or eat the last few grapes before they get squishy. Gross.

I think the stuff on the left used to be parsley?

Then there is the problem of coupons. I have a love/hate relationship with coupons. I love it when they get me free things or good prices on things I want (like 60 cents off the gallons of ice cream at Smith's). But then I feel that there are just as many times that they are for things that I probably wouldn't buy but then I feel that I need to because they're cheaper. Matthew is more susceptible to those than me; in fact, he's the only one who is susceptible. I just toss those ones and I have to try and convince Matthew to, too. Still, when there are good ones it's sad when they go bad because you forgot about them. For instance, recently we had a coupon for an oil change discount and Matthew noticed that it expired on 9/25, you guessed it, that day. So, we didn't have time to go do it. It's so much better when coupons don't expire. Matthew recently turned in a coupon for Apple-Cinnamon Cheerios from the 90's. More coupons should be like that!

  If things are going to expire, it's nice if they tell you in advance. That way you have some time to get used to the idea and make plans. Natalie was kind enough to help us out with this, which is good because this is something else that seems like it is expiring faster than I would have expected:

She has the "coy" look down pat.

P.S. We're in the market for boy names (just in case). Feel free to make suggestions, just know it will likely be rejected. :)

the best birthday present of all

Several of weeks ago it was my birthday. I got one of the best birthday presents ever--Matthew was able to suddenly start working full time. The school where he had gotten a job teaching physics one hour a day (so a very part-time job with a very part-time salary) suddenly offered him a job teaching physics full time between two schools. So instead of hourly wages he is a salaried teacher, with benefits... really great benefits, actually.

This really felt like such an amazing blessing. Instead of barely making things meet with his hourly wage plus like 4 other part time jobs between the two of us, now we actually are spending less than we are making. So we can save money. What a novel idea.

A teacher's salary is actually really amazingly low, but right now, to us, it feels like we are on top of the world. The only downside is that now instead of Matthew taking care of Natalie during the day, we had to find child care for her. But we feel like we have a good situation going for her--Matthew's cousin is watching her, and Natalie seems to have a great time at their house.

Last but not least, I want to talk about my birthday cake. I just think it is fun to make over the top decadent cakes. This one, entitled "Seven Sins Chocolate Cake" did not disappoint:

 

You can find the recipe for it here.