Week 27 & 5 Day: Glucose Challenge Screening

Today was my monthly OB appointment and they tested me for a glucose challenge screening.  Seems like my recent OB visits always fall in right after holidays, ugghhh!   

What is Glucose Testing?
This test is performed early in the third trimester (usually 24-28 weeks) to determine how well your body is processing sugars.  If your glucose levels are too high, you may have the potential to develop "Gestational Diabetes". 
Some of the effects of diabetes on the fetus are:  Heart defects and defects of the respiratory system, large sized baby, a baby with low blood sugar level, a baby with possible risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, death, etc. (Death scares me!!!!!)  

 

The one I had today was called "Glucose Challenge Screening".  I drank a sugary liquid (tasted kinda like an orange coolaid) at home an hour before my OB appointment.  I was instructed to drink it within 5-10 minutes. They took 2 b/w samples.  They will call me next day if the result isn't good.  Then, I will need to do a a follow-up test called "Glucose Tolerance Testing". 

 

While waiting in the OB's office, a magazine had an article about this testing and listed "Are you at risk?", so I read it.  Looks like I have some risk factors....

 

You are at higher risk for GD if you:

- Are black, hispanic, Asian, Native American or Pacific Islander

- Are older than 25

- Have a family history of type II diabetes

- Have a personal history of prediabetes or gestational diabetes

- Have had a very large baby or a still birth in a previous pregnancy

- Have a prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) of 30 or highter. 

- Gain excess weight in your first trimester, esp. if you start your pregnancy overweight

- Drink 5 or more sugar-sweetened sodas a week before conceiving

- Have a gum disease

- Are a frequent snorer



Glucose Coolaid



FX for a good result!  My baby's HB was excellent so my next OB appointment is a month away.  I am now in the 3rd trimmester and it makes me so happy that it has been an uneventful pregnancy!  So proud of my baby girl and I hope she keeps growing healthy!!!!   

Week 26 & 3 Days: Almost Christmas

I knew December was going to fly by, but I cannot believe that Christmas is only a week away!

Holiday Traditions:
Since I met my DH, I have been doing more Xmasy stuff.  He LOVEs Christmas and so do I :) 

• Shows - Every year, we go see Xmas play and/or ballet.  We went to see Nutcracker last weekend are going to see Christmas Carol this Friday.  I love love them both!!  One year, I bought tickets for Trans Siberian Orchestra without knowing what they really are.  I thought they played Xmas classical music, so I invited in-laws for this event.  OMG....they were rock band rocking Xmas songs!!!  They were awesome, but I think my in-laws must've had a heart attack!   
• Train display - There are a couple of places in Cincinnati to see some awesome train & Christmas displays.  This year, I bought a groupon deal for a place called Entertrainment Junction in West Chester, so I am excited to check it out.
• Christmas ornament - We buy a new ornament every year to put on our tree.  It typically means something...something which represents special about the year.  Since there were multiple events, I decided to order a personalized ornament from Shutterfly.  It looks like a cube and I could put several pictures, so I put the baby's u/s, house in progress, our vacation place pictures. 
• Xmas card - Shutterfly is my goto website for a photo related items.  Usually, my pets are the model, but I think it will be our new baby next year!  How exciting!!!!
• Gift exchange - We make a big breakfast on the morning of Eve and open our presents!  I cannot wait him to open my presents!!!!  

Onesie Exchange: 
What a great idea and fun thing to do!  jmorta04 from PAIF posted about doing an onesie exchange, so I signed up.  Several girls signed up for this event and Elfster picks your exchange buddy.  We are supposed to mail an onesie with a personal message card, so I sent out mine early this week and looks like my exchange buddy got it today :)

Also, I received mine from Jackiejoey530 last night!!!  It was a package of girly 3 onesies and they are sooo adorable!!!  I will always remember about this special gift when my baby girl wears them.    

This event warmed my heart.  Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!!!! 

Special Onesies from Secret Santa :)

Week 25 & 6 Days: First Experiences!

Today, I am going to write about some of my new experiences this week!

Chiropractic:
Soooo....my butt muscle pain (a.k.a. sciatic nerve pain) isn't going anywhere and I feel like it's getting worse, so I thought about trying to see a chiropractor for the first time in my life.  I had a first assessment appointment this Wednesday and I was very curious what they would do....

I chose this chiropractor because it looks like she works with pregnant women a lot, so I felt good about her.  She was very nice when I met her.  She asked several questions regarding my health and the pain.  Whenever a physician or chiropractor ask "Have you recently had a major surgery?"  I always say "I am not sure if it's considered a "major surgery", but I did have an IVF to conceive this baby.  At this point, I am not sure if there is any difference b/w a natural conception and conception via ART, but I want to let them know my history just in case.       

After the assessment, she asked me to stand in front of a wall and she took pictures via her iPad (High tech!).  She ran the pictures through some assessment software and printed out the result.  Then she asked me to do certain postures/movements to see if anything hurts my buttock.  According to her, my hip isn't aligned.  I could tell from the printout.  It also showed that I am bending a little more forward than the standard.  She said my shoulders are stiff, so she asked what I do for work.  This all make sense to me!  I mostly sit in front of my computer at work and my work desk is too low, so I usually have to bend forward a little.  When I go get a massage, they always tell me that I have a stiff shoulder. 

Then, she said "I am going to adjust your hip".  I had to lay down with my belly down, so I was a bit nervous, but she used a special pillow to cushion my belly.  She pushed down my hip and it didn't hurt!  She also cracked my spine a little and that wasn't bad at all.  I am going back next week for a re-check.

Babysitting:       
As I mentioned earlier in my blog, my BFF has a newborn baby and she is almost 3 months (Time flies)!  She is taking 3 months off, but she & her DH are struggling little bit with communicating each other, so I suggested that 2 of them go on a date and we will watch the baby one night!  My DH and I have never babysat an infant before.  We both have nephews/nieces, but they don't live nearby, so we don't get to babysit them. 

We are babysitting her tonight and we are both so excited for our first opportunity to be with the baby girl.  We hope we can change her diaper, feed and swaddle and play with her.  My BFF tells me how important it is to swaddle her baby to calm her down, so I decided to watch YouTube videos on "How to Swaddle" & "How to Change a Diaper".  Thanks to the recent technology and free education from YouTube!!!  I used a piece of tissue and my medicine bottle to practice swaddle.  I got it and I feel like a super nanny LOL


My first swaddled baby LOL

Xmas Cards:
Yay, they have been ordered via Shutterfly and I am sending out the last batch out today!  I always make our Xmas cards by using Shutterfly and have been using our pets as Xmas models.  Xmas cards are not new to me, but mentioning about our future baby girl is totally a new experience!!!

Cannot wait to meet you, my sweet pea!!

Week 24 & Day 5: Pushing!

I am PUSHING!!!! 
Not that I am pushing the baby out obviously, but I am pushing myself to get a lot of must-to-do items done in December.

I wish I could get started on nursery....but we are currently living a small apartment and waiting for our new house to be built.  We go over to our new house every weekend to see the progress and are so excited but looks like we won't be able to get into a new house until Feb!!

HOWEVER, there are still tons of important things I can get started on, so I am hoping to get a lot of important things done this months.

• Baby birthing class:  We signed up for 4 classes total:  Lamaze one-day, breast feeding, save a baby & Baby care basics.  We've taken 2 so far, so I feel great!!  I was a bit hesitant if we are taking those classes too early and I might forget, but they gave us a good outline and I jotted down some notes, so I have a cheat sheet!  Plus, I will be surrounded by a nurse, lactation consultant, doctor on my big day, so I feel good about birthing procedures.  Oh, I also pre-registered with my hospital :)  It's recommended to avoid going through paper work when we rush into a hospital on our big day! 

• Day care:  After much consideration, I decided to go back to full time after 6 weeks of my maternity leave.  I was shocked to find out that my company pays $0 during my maternity leave!!  It's relatively a small company and most of employees are men, so what can I do.....  I know how fast 6 weeks go by and my baby will still be small, but this is the decision I made.  Great news is...I successfully negotiated with my boss to let me work from home twice a week, which puts me a need for 3 days day care service.  I am so thankful for this option!  I actually started on a day care investigation since last month.  I already visited 3 facilities and am between 2 places to choose from.  Choosing a day care isn't an easy decision, so I decided to have my DH to visit those 2 places with me next week.  It will probably next May when my little precious starts going to a day care, but picking a place this early isn't early according to my research!  Popular places book up pretty fast and I don't want to be on a waiting list.  I will go into the details once we complete the visit.  

• Pediatrician:  My bump check list reminds me to start interviewing one!  I asked my OB for referral, so I got a list.  I just made an appointment for a meet-the-doctors with one place.  Their website looked nice and read some good reviews from angieslist.com. (Yes, I am a subscriber and have been using this site to find good doctors, realtors, etc)  I need to research what questions are appropriate to ask though.

•  Family car:  My current car isn't a family oriented one....so I am looking into trading-in my car with a mid-sized SUV.  I have to admit that I am a bit biased toward particular makers of a car since I am Japanese.  I cannot help it!!!  We've looked at Toyota, Honda, Mazda, Mini & WV, but number of people including my DH told me at least to take a look at Ford Escape.  I was very skeptical but we went to see it over the thanksgiving weekend and did a test drive.  It took me by a surprise, but I LOVED it.  I will have to test drive some more cars, but so far, I like it very much!  

• Baby registry:  It's work in progress and I am reading reviews of items as I pick, so I don't have much on my registries at BRU & BBB.  When we went to BRU a couple of weeks ago, we quickly got overwhelmed and didn't get much done, so I am asking my bestie for a help!  In fact, we are going to BRU together tomorrow, so I am so excited!!            

Phew....those are my 5 goals to complete during December!!!  Let's push push push.

Week 24 & Day 2: Happy V-Day & First Baby Birthing Class

I am going to shout out...HAPPY V-DAY!!!!  We finally hit this milestone and I cannot be more proud of my little baby girl to reach this milestone.  She is a true tiny rock star who made it here without giving me any complications so far and I cannot stop telling her how proud I am.  We still have many more weeks to go, but thumbs up for the steady progress.

We had our first baby class at Christ Hospital this past Saturday.  The class is called "Lamaze One Day Course".  It usually runs for 6 weeks, but we decided to take an one day course so that we can save some gas money (40 min from our place).  It was nice to see several expectant parents when we entered into the class.  When we introduced ourselves, I noticed that my due date was the latest, so some ladies' bumps were big!  The knowledgeable instructor covered pre & post labor process in the morning ending with 3 birthing videos....that's right...videos right before lunch time!!!  My DH couldn't watch the 2nd one when the actual delivery was happening.  I am glad he didn't because I don't think he could've eaten lunch afterwords! 

We knew some of the stuff already since both of us have been reading books and doing research, but we did learn some new things.  We didn't know....

•  If we knew exactly when a baby was conceived, the due date would be close to 38 weeks.  If we didn't know, they would calculate from the last period date and the due date will be at 40 weeks from there.  I've heard that I would go close to my due date for the first pregnancy, but the instructor said the opposite.  Recently, 2 of my friends went 1-2 weeks early for their first ones.  Hmmmm...I know exactly when my baby was conceived, so I am wondering if I go in earlier.   
• "Does your baby sleep when you sleep and is actively awake and moving while you are awake?"  When she asked this question, me and one other girl was the only ones who raised hands.  Everyone else said, babies kick in the middle of the night and wake them up.  She said, this will most likely be the sleeping pattern after the baby is born.  My baby girl is generally quiet while I am sleeping, so I have never been awaken by her...at least not yet!  It will be awesome if this is true.
• No eating before L&D.  For some reason, I thought I was supposed to eat a lot before L&D to build up my stamina, but she said the opposite.  Less food in the stomach is better because I might vomit food from drugs, so she recommended to have fluid based food such as soup, Popsicle, etc...       

The afternoon session was great.  She went through various Lamaze breathing techniques.  She also taught guys how to give us several massages during contraction.  Everyone had to bring 2 pillows and a blanket, so we were on the floor learning those techniques.  She played relaxing Spa type music in the background and the 20 minutes massage session was incredible!!              

Then she took us on a tour of the L&D facility.  We went inside of the delivery room.  It was actually nicer and less scarier than I thought.  I became little emotional thinking that my baby girl will be delivered in one of these rooms.  The room had a big mirror on the ceiling which is an optional to use.  Personally, I would like to use it to see when my baby comes out.  For some reason, I am not grossed out about it since it's my body and baby, but my DH said "No way".  Yeah, I am afraid that he might pass out, so he had better not look at the mirror when she makes her debut!!  We then looked at a room where we stay for a day or two after the baby is born.  It has a flat screen TV, CD player, chairs and a love seat which becomes a bed, so it looked really nice!  I remembered that my MIL told me that she had to share a room with 4 ladies post delivery when she had her first son.  Crazy thing is....they were all smoking and breast feeding their new born babies!!!  Can you imagine that?  Holy crap, I am glad our baby will be born in a better environment!!!!