Mothers Day & school

Yesterday was my 3rd Mothers Day and my first being a mother of TWO!!! It was a pretty low-key affair. We basically stayed indoors all day. Jon made all the meals and got me a card. We watched Toy Story 3 and The Princess & the Frog to help keep Liam placated and entertained. Dinner was steaks, baked potato, and roasted asparagus. I will probably go get a pedicure or a hair cut or something as a mommy gift to myself.

On Saturday, I took Colin all the way down to Roseville very very early in the morning because I had to do my glucose tolerance test to see if my diabetes has gone away. I had to fast for 8-10 hours overnight and I just barely passed the fasting glucose. I still don't know what my 2-hour result is. Colin and I are also participating in a study about gestational diabetes/diabetes. So I had all my measurements taken; height, weight, waist, BMI. And then Colin got measured (basically the same thing). He's only 6 weeks and he's now 11lbs and 22.4". Wow! Then afterward, I took my mom and grandmother out for lunch at Spaghetti Factory. Granny kept sneaking glances at Colin about every 3 minutes. When we went back to Granny's house, I fixed her email and her Facebook page for her. She kept falling asleep in the easy chair and talking in her sleep. It was very funny.

I got some pics uploaded from Liam's milkshake adventure if you want to go back and view them. I have to admit, they are frickin' ADORABLE (and I'm not just saying that because he's my sweet little man).

And now, our big milestone . . . Liam went off to preschool this morning. The school is on the opposite corner of our block. He's as big as the 4y/o kids but of course he's 32m. He'll be going from 7:30-12:30 every weekday and we plan to keep it up over the summer. He didn't want to wake up this morning, but he did eat his breakfast and get dressed with ease. We walked him there and he immediately ran into the preschool room and began playing with the toy cars. He couldn't have cared less if we were there; he only cried when Jon tried to get a hug goodbye because he didn't want to stop playing. I think it's gonna be so great for him. I'm really excited.

32 weeks

So here we are with 2 months left. I don't know which seems shorter or freaks me out more in terms of leaving my classroom unprepared. 8 weeks? 2 months? Either way, I'm still hoping to work up until I go into labor or my doctors refuse to let me work. And either way, it freaks me out because I'm so busy and focused just trying to get my lessons for the next month all squared away and pull off our school's first medieval festival that I haven't had time to put a schedule of lessons for long-term (and as yet undetermined) substitute. Things were so much easier when I knew I was having my baby in the summer. This not knowing thing is awful in the middle of the school year. I go to the doc on Wednesday.

So here's some updates:
Baby B still has no potential names.

He is now the size of a squash, but what does that mean? I know he's definitely bigger than any summer variety squash (like zucchini or crook neck). But does it mean he weighs the same as a squash or that he's the length of a squash? Acorn squash are small but dense. Is he a spaghetti squash? a butternut? (I love butternut squash). All this talk of squash is making me nostalgic - acorn squash puree was Liam's very first solid food!

Home scale says I'm only slightly up from my pre-preggo weight. Only about 1-2 lbs on avg. I made a specific point to ask my high-risk clinic nurse when she called a couple weeks ago for my blood sugar report. My doctor hasn't said anything about the weight. The nurse said that if I'm eating right (following my diabetic diet), snacking frequently, and not feeling hungry or deprived then it's okay to not gain weight. She said I was overweight to begin with (I know) and that the doctor would probably only want a 15lb gain overall. She also reminded me the fastest gain will be in the last 2 months, when I'll probably gain 1lb. week.

Speaking of diet . . . I've been bad lately. I've been sneaking in sugary snacks here and there and everywhere. So this last week I decided I needed to monitor my sugars more than my required 3x week. The worst thing is that my fasting glucose levels have been sneaking up. They're supposed to be <100 and preferably <90. Well, this week I've had several levels higher than 90 and the last two days were just over 100. I'm gonna get in trouble. I MUST have a late night snack of only protein!!!

Aches? The sciatica is easing. A lot in fact. At the beginning of last week it was so bad that I could barely stand. But I think I've finally gotten used to the new mattress (which is heavenly by the way). Since about Wednesday, the pain has just gone away. Ahhhh! I did get some stretching ideas from a coworker who is seeing a PT for his sciatica. They help when I do feel some twinging.

Weirdest moment this week was watching B spin somersaults around my belly. Jon got one of those weird-cool kicks out of it. I just liked watching him go-go-go. He's very active. Doctor said last time that this one might be our athlete...great.

Cravings? Many, but all things I really shouldn't have. Ice cream. Candy. The best was my idea was lays potato chips dipped in See's chocolate.

Happy news

Keeping you in the dark on the happy news for a moment, I just have to say my little Yam is being so cute right now. He's recently just reached the point where his little characters "talk" to each other. Right now his sitting at the coffee table with a construction worker, a cow, and a jeep and they are having the most intriguing conversation. Occasionally, the cow hops on the jeep . . . I didn't know cows could drive.

Okay, so my happy news. . . This morning when I woke up, I did NOT have to take my fasting blood glucose. Yup, it's not a day I have to check my sugars. I called in my glucose levels to the perinatal high-risk clinic last night and yes, I got a bit of a chastising with one of my fasting level being 100 (they want them <100, <90 is even better) but I totally understand that my night-time snack was heavy on fruit and milk (all carbs - no protein). I didn't even admit to the cookie I had :) But after that, she told me that my levels have been so good lately that I can now reduce my number of stabbings to 3x/week. Yup, Tues, Thurs, and Sat. I'll still have to check fasting and after all meals; at least it's only 12 stabbings instead of 28! Of course, the first Thursday this time in Thanksgiving! But she told me I could check on Friday instead (well, I'll check on Thursday because we're doing Thanksgiving dinner with my family on Friday as my mom has to work on Thursday). Hooray!

plans for prepping

What are you trying to do to prep your body for pregnancy?

I'm trying to drop a few pounds. I gained about 41 during my last pregnancy and lost about 35 of it, but over the course of the last 20 months I've gotten lazy and complacent. I'm back to about 30 lbs over my pre-preggo weight. I got PG almosti mmediately after getting my BMI under 25% last time. Hoping for that again. I'm getting more exercise. I used to be a dancer. I used to be so flexible and lean. Now I'm stiff and my back hurts all the time (from sitting on my rump). I'm trying to walk at least 25 minutes everyday and I've added in a 5 minute stretching routine before bed or waking in the morning. I think it's time to get back to Wii Fit.

I'm going to talk to my doc about anti-depressants before conception. I'm in a bad way; it's a miasma of functional depression. I've lived with depression almost half of my life and pregnancy was the only time I've ever felt "happy" but I take no joy in most things and am so hard on myself that I need to change things soon.

I'm eating better. Cutting out "white" carbs like refined and processed foods, white flour, sugar, etc. Added in a ton of whole grains, protein, and more veggies/salad/fruit. Let me say that so far (two weeks) it's working and I've lost 7 lbs and am not cravings carbs as much as I was 2 weeks ago. Also not eating after 8:30pm so sometimes I end up missing dessert after I put DS to bed. Oh well.

I'm switching to half-caff coffee and am going to limit my coffee to 2 travel mugs max and gradually wean off (hoping to be down to 1 cup by end of school year in 6 weeks). I realized last week I drink sometimes 6-8 cups and usually 3 travel mugs during work week.

I'm cutting my alcohol intake. I also realized I was drinking 2 drinks a night on a regular basis. Limit to 1 and this should also help my carb cutting too.

Getting DH to the doctor was helpful too. He's our SAHD and I don't think DS has gotten the best of care in the recent few months, but he's avoided the doc like a typical man for the last 5 years. DH also has depression and realized he has high cholesterol now. He's gotten on medication for the depression and I've made the diet change affect him too. Good news, he's lost 5 lbs too.

birthday bash

Fun weekend was had. It was Jon's 35th birthday on Sunday so I took it easy on my diet change. Saturday I let him sleep in as late as he wanted, but alas he got up early to go visit his dad in Fair Oaks. There he found his passport (phew! our trip is in 2 months and we're going into Canada). Then we spent the day enjoying bad television and eating fried food. One of my favorite things in the whole world is a deep fried pickle!!! Have you ever had one? They're the bestest. Then I had ice cream and several glasses of wine (only 2, but I was using our large tumblers which are about 10oz).

Sunday I also wanted to let him sleep in late but, silly man, he got up at 10am. We had ice cream cake (per request) for breakfast. When Liam got up from his lunch, we drove into Davis and dined outside on sushi and teriyaki. Then we strolled around a little arboretum and Liam had a blast grabbing and crushing plants. More ice cream cake in the evening.

So my diet detour caught up with me this morning. Oops. I gained about 1 1/2 lbs. Back to whole grains and protein and water this week (well maybe one more slice of ice cream cake). One of the best things from this weekend . . . Jon gave me the go ahead to call my doctor and set up an appointment to remove my Mirena. We're are officially going in "pre-heat the oven" mode. :)

Get Younger - Day 1

So today is the day I began. I'm trying to get "younger" based on the things I posted previously in my list of advice from Real Age. Would be happy to have 6 years added and to be my own age, but if I can add a couple more years in the process, why not.

Here's the skinny...
206 lbs.
28.7 BMI
42" waist
size 16 pants

So I was watching Dr. Oz the other day (this is why I hate Spring Break, I watch crappy ass daytime TV) and he had a show about diet based on your genetics. I thought this was kinda cool. The one thing I learned is . . . I should be on a low-carb diet. No I didn't have any genetic screening done, I just base this assumption on the "typical dinner" that he showed for each diet and the one my body went zOMG-shproing!!! for was the low-carbohydrate dinner. So I looked into it and thought about it and read up on it online and decided that I need to do a "lower" carbohydrate diet. So I'm cutting back on white foods, processed carbs, and too much sugar in general. I'll be adding more brown grains, lean meat, and fruit/veg into my daily intake. I wasn't about to do a diet like Atkins or South Beach because I don't think I could put my body/mind through that kind of strain of depleting it of its major energy source. I'm just gonna reduce the energy as I change of. Think of it as my body's conversion to bio-diesel.

Other things that are definite immediate on my list...

• drive the speed limit (Even on the boring ol' interstate on my way to/from work)
• floss
• reduced alcohol to 1 drink/day
• talk with friends & family more often...actually talk (hey guess what, my dad stopped by today totally unannounced)
• take multi-vitamin
• stretch daily
• walk daily

Here's a cool fact: distilled liquor has had all the sugars evaporated out of it so therefor a rum & diet coke is a no-carb drink!!! And I thought my mom was just fooling herself when she tried to do Atkins while living in the Virgin Islands.

I'll let you know how it works out.

OMG I'm Old

So I've been thinking about trying for another baby and know there will need to be some changes in my lifestyle to get prepared. With Husbter going to the doctor for checkups this week and getting come blood tests done et al, it's more on my brain. So I logged back on to my Real Age account. My age versus my real age actually increased by a whole year and I'm now 36.6 y/o (according to my body and my lifestyle) rather than my 30.58 years. I joined an online group dedicated to lowering your age in 8 weeks (coincidentally the time between now and our cruise for my belated 30th birthday trip).

So, in the interest of full disclosure. Here's is my list of things I need to do to reduce my age:

1. get HDL cholesterol levels checked
2. talk w/ doc about depression meds/therapy classes
3. reduced speed when driving
4. don't talk on phone while driving - even hands free
5. reduced alcoholic drinks to 1/day
6. floss every day
7. talk with friends and family more often
8. take multi-vitamin/supplements: folate 700iu, vitamin E 400iu, vitamin C 1200mg
9. reduce red meant to 1-2 servings/week
10. more omega-3 fatty acids (2+ fish servings/week)
11. more potassium-rich foods 3000mg/day
12. more whole grains 6-11 servings/day
13. diversity in diet
14. eat a rainbow
15. 90 minutes of weight training/week (13 min/day)
16. 210 minutes of cardio/week (30 min/day)
17. shed extra weight (5% is a good start)
18. 30 min/week of stretching (5 min/day)
19. then add 10 more minutes/week of exercise