Hypoglycemia, Anemia, and a few other things too

I haven't posted in a while because things have been a bit rough at our house.  Gemma recovered fully from her freak rash within a week but then immediately started a cold and cough which the rest of us then caught as well.  Gemma spent 3 straight weeks being sick, moving from one illness to another (GI bug, rash, respiratory bug).  Here's hoping she gets at least a solid week of being healthy now.

I was feeling really bad last week too.  I wasn't sure if it was just the lingering affects of the respiratory bug or some weird pregnancy thing or what, but I could hardly get up without feeling like I was about to pass out.  I went to the OB on Thursday and I am still having a very hard time stabilizing my blood sugar - it's still dropping too low.  My doctor suggested eating more in general, including more protein and more complex carbs (Cy interpreted this to mean that I needed to eat a supersize fry at every meal).  I talked with her about checking my blood sugar at the 1 hr. mark instead of the 2 hr. mark so that I could snack sooner if needed.  She predicted that I might find that my blood sugar is spiking too high at the 1 hr. but then my body is producing too much insulin, causing it to bottom out by the 2 hr. mark.  I've started checking my blood sugar 1 hour after eating and surprisingly, this does not seem to be the case.  For the most part, it's surprisingly low even at the 1 hr. mark.  I have had 2 mornings in a row though that it has spiked too high at the 1 hr. after breakfast, even eating fairly low-carb.  So it seems like maybe it just spikes when I eat after fasting overnight and then stabilizes for the rest of the day.  Which explains why I can never pass a glucola test.  But checking after 1 hr. has allowed me to kind of just graze all day and while I'm not happy about this from the aspect of potential weight gain, it has stabilized my blood sugar and kept me feeling a bit better.

While I was at the OB, I also asked them to check my iron again.  About a month ago when I had my diabetes test, they said my iron was a little low but then they never checked it again.  I have been trying to eat some of the iron-rich foods they recommended regularly, but when they checked it again, it had dropped from 11.1 to 10.2 so they decided to start me on an iron supplement.  Hopefully between the iron boost and the constant eating :( I can get stabilized and start feeling better.

In other news, my 2010 NaNoWriMo novel, Lunatics and Lycanthropy, made it through to the second round of this year's Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.  I was surprised and pleased by this since I wasn't going to enter this year due to having no time to prepare but decided it would be silly not to enter.  I threw everything together the afternoon before entries were due.  I'm not expecting to win but it will still be a good experience just like last year.  I am hard at work rewriting my 2011 Nano novel which I would like to enter in next year's contest, or possibly submit to an agent/publisher.  I will be running out of free time to do anything very soon but maybe I can pick it back up in a few months when I start getting some sleep again...

The baby's room is basically done now and I think we've finally settled on a name (which is still a secret).

Gemma has finished learning her colors and is OBSESSED with them.  She points out every color she sees and is so excited about dropping her new knowledge on everyone around her.  She still struggles with orange and brown (she has trouble saying these, and somehow brown comes out sounding oddly like "moo") but is solid on everything else.

And now she is having a random tantrum about something and so I'm wrapping up this post.  Ah, life with a two year old and a newborn is going to be such an adventure...