Shealy TV Cribs: Baby Girl

We had hoped to have our little girl's room completely done by now, but there was a problem with the headboard on the crib when Cy tried to put it together a couple weeks ago. Cy called the manufacturer and they ended up saying they would need to send us a whole new headboard but that it could take a few weeks. We were really glad that we started working on the room so far ahead of time. We were pleasantly surprised when we got a call yesterday saying that the headboard would be delivered. Cy finished putting the crib together last night, and this morning I put all the sheets, bumpers, and ruffle on. It looks fantastic! I can't wait until we have a little baby girl to put in the beautiful crib!

An Update on the Glucose Nightmare

Well I met with a nurse this morning and I'm kind of frustrated again because it turns out I technically only failed 1 of the 3 tests, and the 1 I failed I failed only slightly. Apparently the other one in question was supposed to be 155 or less and mine was exactly 155, so they decided to call that one a fail. They kept reassuring me that they don't think I really have a problem and this is more precautionary than anything, which mostly just frustrated me, since if that is the case, I don't see why I need to spend tons of money on diabetic supplies and prick my finger 4 times a day. While I was in there, she had me go ahead and do a finger prick to get me familiar with the machine. They want me to be at 100 or less first thing in the morning, and 120 or less after meals. My reading this morning was 100. She seemed surprised when I told her I had already eaten breakfast. I understand that the glucola test is the standard way they test for diabetes, but it's not like I sit around and drink 100 straight grams of concentrated sugar all the time. . .or ever.

Okay. . .enough ranting. I understand they just want to play it safe for me and the baby, so I'm going to try to deal with it. If my sugar levels were through the roof, I think it might actually be easier to deal with, but since I don't technically have diabetes, this is just kind of annoying. But I will do what they say and hopefully our baby will be healthy. Is it time for her to be born yet?

Why I Hate My Genes

Unfortunately, my doctor's office called this afternoon to let me know that after being stuck like a human pincushion for 3+ hours yesterday morning, 2 of my 4 glucose tests were "slightly elevated." Due to me being "borderline," I am going to have to go on a special diabetic diet and begin monitoring my glucose levels via finger pricking.

Honestly, I know that I could stand to eat a bit healthier anyway so this is probably a good thing. (Sadly, this means no more Cadbury eggs.) And they did say that since I am just "borderline," if the diet is working, they will re-evaluate. With my family history, it's not really that surprising that this would be an issue - I was just hoping maybe I could avoid those particular pesky genes! Apparently this is not the case.

I was pretty bummed when I first got the phone call, but I am trying to have a positive attitude about it. First of all, I definitely want to do whatever is best for the baby. That is the big picture here. Also, since I do have the family history, it will be good for me to learn a specific diet to help control diabetes. Even if the problem does go away after I have the baby, it will still be good to have a good diet in place to keep me from developing diabetes in the future. At least that's what I'm going to keep telling myself over the next couple of months every time I have to prick my finger. . .

29 Weeks (ish)

Yesterday, I had a regular doctor's appointment/follow up after my illness. They had me at 29 weeks 1 day yesterday (I just go with whatever they tell me, because they have gotten me so confused with their strange little calculations.) I also had to do a gestational diabetes screening test. Instead of doing the full test, my doctor's office does some sort of abbreviated version of it. Apparently this method has a very high failure rate, and a large percentage of the women end up having to then go take the full three hour test anyway. Sadly, I fell into this category. My iron was supposed to be 11. Mine was 10.5. My sugar was supposed to be 135 or less. Mine was 139. I was close enough that they don't think I actually have a problem, but since I wasn't actually in the range, I still have to take the longer test. Which means I have to set aside 3-4 hours one morning, fast for 8 hours prior, and go sit at Lab Corp or somewhere for many hours and drink some more nasty glucola. Oh well. I wish they would have just done this in the first place, but whatever. (Also, who does a blood sugar test at 2 in the afternoon?) I am not concerned about the results, since I was so close to being in range anyway, and also since I had had nothing but jello and fruit juice for a week prior, due to being sick.

Anyway. . .the rest of the appointment was good. I measured 27 cm., which is under, but still in range for 29 weeks. The baby's heartbeat was strong in the 150's as usual, and of course, the doctor had to hunt her down because she kept moving. Now that I am moving into the third trimester, I will start going for appointments every two weeks. I will be seeing a different doctor the next few times, as my own doctor is going on maternity leave herself.

Excepting the failed glucose test (which I am sure will turn out fine with a more legitimate test), everything was looking great. I posted a picture of my 29 1/2 week tummy above (which I feel like is just ginormous). We are getting closer to the little one's arrival!

Under the Weather (and not the snow)

This past week ended up being a rough week for the Shealy family. It started out fine - went to church on Sunday, felt pretty good. Then Monday morning I started feeling a little queasy. I felt progressively worse throughout the day. By dinnertime on Monday, I was feeling pretty bad. I thought maybe I was just a little dizzy from using the computer too much (I had been working on some noveling most of the day), so we took a (really cold) walk in hopes that the fresh air would help. It didn't. I was feeling so bad by the time we sat down to dinner that I couldn't eat anything at all.

I tried to just lie down and take it easy, but I just kept feeling worse. Around 7, I started vomiting uncontrollably. (It was way worse than this but I won't get into that because it was quite gross.) Anyway, I couldn't stop throwing up and I couldn't get anything down at all, not even water. Then I nearly passed out. . . a couple of times. Cy called my doctor's office and at first they were going to try to prescribe a nausea medicine, but then when I couldn't get anything down at all, and I was passing out on the floor, they said I should probably just come in to the hospital.

Fortunately, since we had gone through the ob/gyn on call, they were able to admit me pretty quickly through the ER. And when the lady at the front desk watched me stumbling to the bathroom right next to her little window and throw up repeatedly as soon as we got to the waiting room, she had them take me back before we even finished the paperwork. (I don't blame her.)

Anyway. . .they got me in quick and got an IV in me. They put a doppler on my stomach to monitor the baby. I nearly passed out again and there was a really scary moment when my drop in blood pressure made the baby's heart rate fall a bit. I had to wear an oxygen mask for a little while until she perked back up. But it wasn't long before she was busy trying to kick the doppler off my tummy though - she is way stronger than I am!

Long story short, I had some sort of really awful GI bug. I ended up having to spend about 24 hours in the hospital and have about 4 IV bags of fluid before I started getting hydrated again. Even after they released me, I was in bed for several more days and still wasn't able to eat anything solid for quite a while. Now, nearly a week later, I think I am finally starting to feel like myself again. . .well, my "pregnant self" again at least, which is certainly not the same as feeling "back to normal."

It was a really scary experience, but I am doing better and the baby was doing great the whole rest of the time. The o.b. nurses were great - it actually was good to get to meet some of them and see how great they are - that made me feel a bit better about the big scary upcoming birth. . .a little. The hope now is that I can stay healthy until the baby comes!

Snow. . .in Charleston!

We started hearing rumors yesterday afternoon that we were supposed to have a snowstorm in Charleston. Cy and I were of course, extremely skeptical. Snow in Charleston? As if! Imagine our surprise when the rain quickly turned to snow as soon as the sun went down. We were so shocked we just kept looking outside and watching it. The flakes were huge, and even more surprising was the fact that the snow actually was sticking to the ground! When we woke up this morning, we had a solid several inches of snow covering everything. Although the snow will probably melt today, it was crazy to get to see some snow in Charleston. Possibly even a once in a lifetime event. Too bad our baby girl wasn't here yet to enjoy what could be her one & only snow!

My Book!

I was pleasantly surprised when I went to get the mail this weekend and there was a book-shaped package. Book-shaped packages appear at our house on a regular basis, but for once I didn't know what this one was - I couldn't remember ordering a book this time. I opened it up, and. . .there was my book! I wasn't expecting it until the end of this month, but they got it to me in just a few days. And it looks fantastic! We were both so excited to see it! Cy is reading it right now, and he seems to be really enjoying it! There are already several other readers waiting in line to read it when he is done too. I'm starting to feel like a real author! :)

More Random Baby Stuff (What Else?)

This weekend we determined that we would go to Target and Babies R Us and finish up our baby registry. It was quite overwhelming for me (stuff like that gets me really frazzled), but somehow we managed to get it all done. The best part of it was that instead of just registering for everything, we ended up buying a lot of stuff. A lot of it was stuff that we knew we absolutely needed, so we didn't want to rely on someone else buying it for us at some point (like a mattress for the crib). And at each place, we picked out a few outfits because they were just so cute we had to have them!

Even though our baby will not be born for about three more months, she has already acquired quite a wardrobe. She is going to be the best dressed baby girl in town!At Christmas, when my parents were here, they brought me my old cradle from when I was a baby. My mom and I were going to go pick out new bedding for it together, but I saw this adorable cream and pink colored set at Babies R Us yesterday and it was on clearance and the last one, so I snatched it up! I also got a snazzy diaper bag for me that looks super functional. (Cy already bought himself a diaper bag/backpack pretty much the day after we found out I was pregnant.)
And here is the stroller/car seat system we picked out. We have heard lots of good things about this Chicco travel system. We got an extra base for the car seat too, so we can have one in each car and not have to hassle with switching - we just pop the baby in & out! Now that we have all this stuff, it is getting so much harder to wait for her to get here!

Baby Furniture, Part 1

Last night, Cy and I put together the baby's changing table. (It ended up having to be a team effort, because of course, the instructions were categorically unhelpful.) In the end, we got it together and it looks great. I even put a pack of diapers on the shelf to get it all ready for her. We also moved the glider into the room. We are getting closer every day! Pretty soon all we will be missing from the room is the baby herself!

Novel = Flowers + Chocolate

Today I reached a huge milestone: I finally finished a novel (well, novella really), fully edited it, and submitted it for a proof copy! Because I reached the 50,000 word goal this past NaNoWriMo, CreateSpace had a special promo code for me to upload my novel and receive a free proof copy. Although they have offered this in the past, I have never successfully finished writing any of my novels, let alone embark on the editing process. . .until now, that is!

This past NaNoWriMo was the first year I actually completed the storyline of the novel within the 50,000 words. I've spent the past month editing the completed novel. And I've spent the past two days in an epic battle trying to format the PDF file of the finished book to fit the 6x9 cover I created. I finally figured it out, and ordered the proof today. It has already shipped, and will be here soon! I was able to use one of my photographs as the cover art, and to write my own synopsis and author bio for the back. I'll be sure to post pictures of me with my printed book when it arrives!

To congratulate me on reaching my goal, Cy surprised me with flowers and chocolate when he got home from work today. He is the best!