We are officially registered!

Last night we went to Burlington Coat Factory/Baby Depot and finished our registry. It took us about an hour to find everything we wanted. When we took the gun back to the registration desk, it wouldn't download the information to the computer. So then I spent 15 more minutes running around with the sales clerk trying to remember everything we had registered for. By the time we got back to the desk our original list had downloaded. I was really glad because we had 33 items the 1st time and I only remembered about 20 of them.

Also, we lucked out and found that our bedding set was on sale 30% off so we decided to go ahead and buy it! $100 seems like a lot for a baby comforter that will never get used, but I really wanted it and I'm glad we got it. In case you don't remember, here is a picture of the set we chose.

This picture eerily resembles what our nursery is going to look like. The color of the crib is the same, the walls are almost the same blue, the trim will be white, and the floor is hardwood.

He's going to be a great dad!

For Christmas this year, Rod and I bought our Little Brother a remote control Hummer. I wasn't convinced, but Rod was sure he would love it. Boy did he ever! When we gave it to him, he was jumping up and down saying "no way!".

Rod thought it would be fun to use his little sports car to race Blake's Hummer. It was only 17 degrees out, so I thought we would have to wait until our next visit to be able for them to actually play with their cars.

Well, I was wrong again. Rod used his brilliantly creative mind to come up with a great solution. We drove to the local community college and parked in an empty parking lot. We left the SUV running while they opened the back and sat inside the trunk. It worked great! They were able to stay warm while still racing their cars. We spent at least 45 minutes there before the batteries gave in to the cold weather.

I just know our son is going to have a fun childhood filled with lots of crazy adventures planned by his dad! :)

Happy Early Christmas to ME!

Guess what I got as an early present? 12 weeks of a special diet and sticking my finger every day. Yep...I have gestational diabetes.

I am disappointed but not surprised. Based on my first blood test, I knew the levels were pretty high but of course I was hoping that was just a fluke. The doctor called me yesterday to say that two of the tests showed that I was over the limit and the 3rd was right on the line. The next step is for me to see an Endocrinologist to learn how to test my blood every day and to talk about ways to control my sugar levels with diet.

From reading online, I know the GD diet is similar to a typical diabetic diet. The idea is to keep carb intake low. Unfortunately, the difference with GD is that I will not be able to have "sugar free" stuff because it often contains aspartame or other ingredients that are not proven safe in pregnancy. Between the GD diet, what I can eat that doesn't cause me heartburn, and being a vegetarian, I'm going to have to be very creative in thinking about what foods I can actually eat over the next 12 weeks.

At first I was feeling really bad like I had done something wrong. My loving husband did some research for me to find out that the casue of GD is actually a hormone the placenta makes that blocks the effects of insulin in my body. The major problem it can cause to the baby if left untreated is "macrosomia" which basically means that baby will be fat. Big babies can have trouble during the birthing process which lead to shoulder injuries. Because the baby's pancreas tries to help out and make extra insulin, it can also cause the baby to have low glucose levels at birth causing breathing problems.

Obviously, I'm willing to do whatever I need to do to keep the baby safe. But I sure am going to miss my buddy carb!

I finally got around to uploading some pictures...

On Saturday evening 12/6 Rod was home for the first time that whole weekend. Because he was feeling slightly guilty for being so busy, he said he wanted to spend the evening doing whatever I wanted to do. I had been asking him to go with me to Target so we could start our registry and prior to this date he kept thinking of reasons not to go. But he couldn't get out of it this time! He actually ended up enjoying the process (partly because of the cool little scanning gun they give you) and said he didn't know why he had been dreading it. We still have to register at Burlington Coat Factory, but I still have to figure out how I am going to guilt him into that one!


Last weekend we completed one of our family Christmas traditions (decorating the tree at Mom's house). Rod took this picture of me and my sisters in front of the finished tree.


One evening last week I was sitting in the computer chair when Smeagol jumped up on my lap. He sat in this position listening to the baby for a long time. We thought it was cute and had to share this picture with you despite all the junk in the background.

Thanks for looking! :)

Thanks for the positive thoughts!

I had my glucose tolerance test this morning and it wasn't quite as bad as I imagined thanks to your support.

Last night I ate a snack before bed in an attempt to keep from being so hungry this morning. Unfortunately, I tend to have weird dreams if I eat right before bed. All night I had dreams about how horrible the test was going to be. At one point I dreamt that they sewed my eyelids shut before drawing my blood so I wouldn't see what they were doing! It was nasty because I could feel the needle and thread going through my eyeball. Ew!!!

Thankfully it wasn't as bad as my dreams. They had to draw my blood a total of 4 times. The first lady was great and it didn't hurt at all. The second lady hurt me a LOT by digging around trying to find my vein. The third time it was drawn by the first lady and didn't hurt at all. The last time was the guy who drew my blood last week. He kept feeling my arm trying to find a vein. When it became obvious he didn't feel confident in finding one, I asked him to have someone else to do it. I felt bad, like I was telling him he didn't know how to do his job. However, it wasn't worth having him probe around my arm looking for a vein. He got another lady to do it and she was great. Hopefully I will only end up with one bad bruise out of the ordeal.

15 hours is a long time for a pregnant lady to go without food. So, as soon as I left the lab I went to my favorite little coffee shop where I bought two sandwiches and a decaf white mocha. I still feel like I could eat an entire Christmas dinner by myself, though.

Waiting Game

Brooke is such a trooper. If I had a little baby all stuffed up inside me I would go nuts! Not because it is weird but because I would be so anxious to get the thing unwrapped. I can't even make it until Christmas without giving away gifts or opening ones that are waiting under the tree. This whole waiting 9 months is getting tough :( However, on the bright side, Brooke and I need the 9 months to come to an agreement on a name. The trouble with us first borns is that we are both stubborn and strive for perfection. I am no help in the process because when I hit a road block I start offering up crazy suggestions like Chandler MacGyver Cruise, or Joey Magnum. With names like these our child will grow up to be either a comedic scientologist bent on using everyday household items to solve life's mysteries, or an underpaid soap star who mooches off a rich man's estate in Hawaii. We better make some progress soon, the waiting game is almost over :)

It's coming along!

During Rod's Thanksgiving break he started working on the nursery (I can't remember if I already mentioned that or not). Anyway, the room was filled with a lot of junk so he spent several hours getting everything out of there. Then he went to Lowe's and got paint matched to the bedding set we picked out.

This picture shows the first coat of paint...looks pretty good, doesn't it?



Sometime during the 8 hours I was at work that day, he decided to tear the carpeting out. Here is a picture of the floors after the carpet was removed. Hopefully over Christmas break he will put the other coat of paint on the walls and clean up the floors.

They're getting a little too needle happy!

Yesterday was my 1 hour glucose screening. The results were already back to my doctor today. It's amazing how quickly results come when you don't want to know the answer. Back in Octiober when I needed to know if I had whooping cough or not it took over a week to get my results back.

Anyway, the cutoff for the glucose level is 140 and mine was 172 which means I have to go back for the lovely 3 hour test where they draw my blood five times. I'm REALLY not looking forward to that because they can only find the vein on my right arm and yesterday it "ran away" from them so I was left with a big bruise.

At least my arm will be decorated with pretty colors for Christmas. :)

Like a kick in the head

Have you ever heard the phrase " I need it like a kick in the head "? Well the other day, after many many months of attempts, I was able to feel the little baby move. I was listening intently, with my ear pressed to my wife's mammoth belly, when suddenly I received a swift kick to the temple. Now under normal circustances I might be a bit offended. But in this instance I thought it was pretty cool. Apparently the little one didn't realize that there is a whole world outside just waiting for his pent up curiosity. I look forward to the day when he gets out. We have so much to do together :)

We need your name suggestions!

OK, so we have had 3 different names picked that that we really liked. Unfortunately, none of those are going to work out.

We would love to hear your suggestions. Maybe you had a name picked out that you planned to use but your husband vetoed it, or perhaps you had all girls and never got to use your boy name. Any ideas you could share would be greatly appreciated!

We will be keeping the final choice as a surprise for when he is born, so I won't be able to announce our decision until then. But, all the names you suggest will definitely be entered in the running for Baby Boy Kerbs.

THANKS!