Sugar Tests

Most of my Dr. appointments have been pretty uninteresting so far. Just the regular stuff. The one before my most recent one though, was a little different. I took the one hour sugar test. Blegh. Drinking 5 oz. of sugar syrup is NOT healthy. I failed that test. My Dr. said that that was a test to see if I could possibly have gestational diabetes. Since I failed that meant I had to have the three hour test to make sure I didn't have it. So this past Monday my wonderful husband drove me to Tuscaloosa. He took me 'cause after the first test I felt pretty yucky (probably the crash after the sugar high they likely gave me :P), and Mrs. Tracy said sometimes the three hour test can be worse. I wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything for six hours before the test (my Dr. did say I could have water), then they pricked my finger and made me drink even more sugar syrup than the last time. I could feel myself getting light-headed. Then I sat for an hour, got another finger prick which they checked and said I'd passed, and sat for another hour. Then ANOTHER finger prick, and I passed that one too, so I didn't have to stay for the last one. Josh bought me lunch and we went home. :) I took a longer nap that day than I've taken in a long time. I repeat: that much sugar at one time CANNOT be good for someone's system.   

I'm planning on doing a baby bump post soon. I haven't taken a ton of pics, but I thought it might be fun to put them all in order. A 'baby bump progress' post. :)

The other thing I'm working on is fixing up the guest room so it can be the nursery. There's been a lot of rearranging; hopefully that'll be done soon. Maybe I'll do a post about that too. 

Healthy Strawberry Icee

Thought I'd share this recipe I just 'created'. It's so easy and quick I'm sure somebody's come up with it already, but I've never heard of it, so please don't sue me for plagiarism if you're that person. :P

5 Minute Strawberry Icee

Four or five frozen strawberries
1 1/2 - 2 Tbsp Honey depending on how sweet you want it
Enough seltzer water to blend

Put everything in a blender (I used a magic bullet), and blend 'till the strawberries are pulverized. If it gets too thick to blend add some more seltzer. If you didn't add too much seltzer you should end up with a slushy, barely fizzy strawberry drink that tastes a lot like an Icee. Enjoy!

Baby News

Guess what? He kicked!! WOO-HOO! XD

Baby made my day last week. I was laying on my side Sunday morning and all of a sudden felt these little thumping kicks against the side that was on the bed. I think I've felt something similar before, but it wasn't near as strong as these were, so I was never SURE of what I was feeling. Those three or four little thumps seemed to open the floodgates. Now that I know what to look for (and now that he's gotten so much stronger) I feel him move pretty often. His favorite time to move is at night between 9:00 and 10:30, sometimes closer to 11:00. I think I read somewhere that babies sleep during the day and are awake at night, so that would make sense.

It was pretty cool to feel him, but I felt bad for Josh. He was excited for me since he knew how badly I'd wanted to feel baby move (he'd actually started including that as a prayer request in our night-time prayers :) ), but it was hard for him to fully appreciate since he couldn't actually feel him himself. He wasn't upset or anything; I was the one all anxious for him to really EXPERIENCE what I was describing, but I tried to be patient. Then, I think it was Thursday, I was looking at my tummy while I felt junior moving and I SAW him! Like, I actually saw my belly poke out a little when he moved. :D So then I thought 'If I can see that then maybe Josh could feel it!', but baby didn't move much that day, so I forgot to try.

Then, last night I was laying on my back, and Josh had his arm on my belly and baby kicked. It felt way stronger than usual because of the pressure from Josh's arm, so I quickly asked if he had felt anything. 'No,' he says, and I start thinking it must just feel strong to me. But Josh moved his hand over were I said the moving was to see if that helped. Baby kicked again and 'Hey, I felt it that time!' Woo-Hoo! I was so excited! You would think baby knew his Daddy was there 'cause he started kicking and wriggling up a storm. Josh is like 'What's he doing in there, dancing?!' which made me laugh (I also was giggling a little before that 'cause I was so happy) and Josh says 'Wait, don't do that, it messes it up' so I tried to hold it in. :)

All that in one week! Once he got started baby didn't waste time. :) It's so wonderful to feel life inside me; it makes it more real.

Appointment Update

Hello everybody! :)

My last Dr. appointment (aka my first 'real' appointment) went very uneventfully. Like, VERY uneventfully. :P The most exciting part was the first part: the ultrasound! That was so wonderful! Seeing little Lambert wiggling around in there was downright awe-inspiring. I always thought that Sav-a-Life's idea to provide free ultrasounds to mothers considering abortions was a great idea, but having experienced the feeling of seeing that for myself now I think it's the BEST idea. I nearly cried seeing that little face, those little hands and feet, and knowing that, yes, there really WAS a life in there.

Did we find out the gender? Yes. Are we telling? Yes. Am I going to just TELL you already and stop driving you crazy? Probably. I'm having a bit of trouble letting go of the desire to wait 'till I can post a cute photo announcement. :P

The rest of the appointment was pretty boring. They checked my weight, BMI, and blood pressure then took me to a separate room (I'm assuming those are called exam rooms?) and had me take everything off and get in one of those 'one-size-mostly-covers-all' gowns. (Sorry, TMI?) Then we finally got to meet our Dr.! I was kind of nervous about the soon-to-come examination (and feeling awkward in my gown :P), so I didn't do a great job of getting to know Dr. Greene. You know, getting a 'feel' for her? Fortunately, Josh was there, and I trust his instincts. He got 'good vibes', so that's good enough for me!

She went through all the info about what to eat and what not to eat as well as other healthy pregnancy info, and then told me that since the ultrasound looked so good she didn't need to do a pelvic exam, and since I was so far along she didn't think a pap smear would be a good idea. I also discovered they wouldn't be needing a finger prick 'cause they already took blood last time. (Seriously, that first batch ought to last them a WHILE. :P) That was mostly why the Dr. part of the appointment felt uneventful to me. I was nervous about basically all three of those things and didn't have to get any of them! So it was a GOOD uneventful. ;)       

Oh, btw,

IT'S A BOY!! :) :)

Your misery is ended. (You're welcome. ;) )

Better Late Than Never!

I just realized: I never posted any honeymoon pics! :P Guess I'll do that now.

After the wedding, we went to the Renaissance hotel in Montgomery. A sort of half-way point to the beach house. We ordered room service and I had my first ever crab cakes. Yum!

 

 

This was the view from our window. At one point we saw an old-fashioned horse-drawn carriage go by. :)

 

This is us posing in front of the window before leaving the hotel. We were trying to get a pic with the view, but it was too bright. :P

 

Random rainbow pic. I can't remember when we took this.

 

The sign for our road.

 

Our beach house.

 

We were in recess A. That's the far right section.

 

The view from our beach house.

 

We went straight down to the beach when we got there. It was too late in the day to bother changing into swim stuff, but we got our feet wet. :)

 

Those are my 'wedding flip-flops' my grandmother made for me. So cute!

 

 

Random beach pics.

 

 

First restaurant. We had a list of three or so that had been recommended. I can't remember if this one was on the list or not, but it was pretty good.  

 

First breakfast. The beach house had a very well stocked kitchen, tool-wise.

 

Chillin'.

 

Handsomeness. ;) <3

 

 

Indian Pass Raw Bar. This stuff was SO GOOD. You wouldn't think it to look at the outside of the place though. :P

 

Pretty little spot we found while driving.

 

Of course, we had to build a sand castle. :)

 

At the Sunset Coastal Grill.

 

 

This was our sand castle after a night outside. See were the front got smoothed out by the water? It barely survived! :P

 

And, last but not least, Joe Mama's Pizza. This wasn't on our list, but it was really good. I got a piece of cheesecake and it was some of the best I've ever had!

Believe it or not, that's it. This was, as far as I can remember, our last night out, so it's not THAT surprising. We went to a nice little breakfast diner in the Mexico Beach area on the way home the next day. They were good too. :)

(Btw, yes, Josh totally carried me over the threshold when we got home. ;) <3)

Quick Update

I've fallen a bit behind, but the really 'major' appointment is yet to come, so nobody missed too much. ;)

On Thursday the 5th I went for an interview at Partlow, Harbin, and Poist in Tuscaloosa. I didn't actually speak with the Dr., but the nurse I spoke to was able to answer most of my questions satisfactorily. I still felt a little unsure (since I hadn't actually talked to Dr. Greene), so I went home and asked Josh what he thought. He thought it sounded good, so we decided to go with her. We have a Dr.!!

Last Monday (the 16th) we both went in for our first 'official' appointment. Josh and I talked to the same nurse about insurance, payments, and personal info (allergies, family diseases, ect.). They also took a urine sample (to 'confirm' the pregnancy :P), and way more blood than they should EVER need.

And that was it. I still didn't meet the Dr., or get any of the 'usual' first appointment stuff. However, the nurse we talked to scheduled the earliest appointment she could for us to come back and get an ultrasound and, I assume, all the other stuff.

I can't wait to see little baby Lambert!!! The appointment is this Monday. I've been counting the days. Only one and a bit to go!

Our first Dr. Interview

I'm going to try to keep this brief since I really need to start supper here shortly. :) ;)

So, here's how we've been doing 'Dr. picking': I've got a list of 4 Dr.'s; two were recommended, one was sort of indirectly recommended, and the other comes from a practice that was recommended. Getting Dr. recommendations was easy. Making a decision is HARD! Here I am all focused on finding a Dr. who will be supportive of my desire to have a natural birth, and I suddenly realize that I also have to think about distance (P.T. Cruisers aren't exactly known for their fuel efficiency), price of Dr., price of hospital, maternity benefits, whether or not said Dr. and hospital are in our insurance's network.....

This was not going to be as easy as I thought. :P

However, my wonderful husband stepped in when I told him how stressed I was getting and helped me write everything out and organize it on a spreadsheet.

That man speaks my language: organize!

So anyway, after getting it laid out, making a lot of phone calls, and learning a lot about insurance I sort of got the Dr.'s in a hierarchical order in my head. Two of them were sort of competing for 1st place 'till I realized that only one of them gave free interviews.

Guess who we saw first?

That was last Thursday; our first Dr. interview. I went armed with lots of questions, and a wonderful note-taking, financial-questions-asking husband. (Seriously, it was awesome not having to think about the money side of things. That way I could focus on feeling out how she felt about natural birthing.) It didn't take long to see where she stood. She was not only okay with, but wholeheartedly supported almost all the things I wanted to do, as well as things I wasn't as set on having (letting the cord stop pumping before cutting for instance. Would be nice, but not gonna die on that hill)!

However.....

One of the last questions on my list was whether she ever performed abortions. I had debated asking this questions for a couple of reasons. One was that I wasn't sure if someone would actually answer truthfully if they thought I wanted to hear 'no', and another was that I might offend them, especially if the answer was no. But Josh supported me asking, and other women at our church had said it was a good thing to know. I almost didn't 'cause I felt so awkward, but Josh was right there and sort of unknowingly acted as my accountability. He had said he thought we should, so I should.

Sadly, her answer was yes, she had performed abortions in training. So question two was 'How do you feel about that?'. I was really hoping she'd say she wished she hadn't and go on to explain why she thought it was wrong, but she said she believed in a woman's right to chose. *sigh* THAT was disappointing. :P So now she's dropped to the bottom of my mental list.

Fortunately, God knows what He's doing, and He knew exactly how that interview would go. He knows which Dr. we'll ultimately choose, and when. He's got this. :)

Our next interview is this Thursday with a Dr. in Tuscaloosa which is significantly closer than the other one. Our first one was in Birmingham! Looking forward to it, and praying for direction.          

Well, I guess now we know what happens when I set out to write a 'brief' post! :P Thankfully, supper tonight is easy. ;)