Kris and I went to my diabetic counseling session yesterday.  We got all the information on why this happens (stupid hormones!), how to treat it and how to monitor it.  I now have a blood test monitor and I have to check and record my blood glucose levels four times a day.  I also have a diet plan that I must follow that restricts how many carb servings per meal I can have.  Want to do something really nice for me now?  Get me some nuts, cheese, etc. to eat!  I’ll be hitting the grocery store tomorrow to stock the house with proteins and fats for snacks instead of carbs.  I have a follow up appointment next Friday afternoon to review my first week on the new diet and any higher than allowed blood readings.  For those interested, my morning (fasting) number needs to be between 60 and 95.  And my 2 hours after each meal number needs to be less than 120.  That may sound low for any type 2 diabetics out there but the dietitian assured us that these are the correct number for use in gestational diabetics.  Being the super organized, nerdy engineer type that I am, I’ve already created a spreadsheet to track my meals and how many carb servings I’m having at each one.  I’ll bring this to my follow up appointment next week.  I also have a handy-dandy little notebook (OMG – Blues Clues flashback) to track my blood readings in that I’ll also bring in next week and to every doctor appointment the rest of this pregnancy.  My goal?  Control this with diet so I don’t have to do insulin shots.  I hear that gets harder as the pregnancy goes longer thanks to those darn hormones again.  I’ll also be talking to my midwives at my next appointment about what this could mean at the very end – induce earlier?  I’m kind of hoping for an April 20th induction now!  (My hospital will not do any inductions before 39 weeks which equals April 20th and no elective inductions before 40 weeks but now that I have this complication, maybe, just maybe, they’d induce earlier??  That’s what I want to ask them anyway.  Just trying to avoid the 10 pound baby this time!)

Let’s see…other news.  The kids got all packed up for Breezy Point last night.  Annika is so excited to go she can hardly contain herself.  She is all about the swimming.  Me?  I’m nervous about that.  I’ve never had them in a pool without either Kris or I right there next to them.  I’m sure Nana and Papa will be very diligent about life vest use and sticking close, etc. but I am a paranoid mother and will worry about them all weekend anyway.  It’s what I do you know.

It’s been a busy weekend for us.  Yesterday morning I put the kids’ clean laundry away and cleaned both their rooms.  And that completely wore me out and I ended up taking an hour or so nap.  I can definitely tell I’m older during this pregnancy.  My body gets sore and tired much more quickly than previous times.  I suppose it doesn’t help that both James and Annika want me to carry them sometimes.  I’ve had to say no to both of them on occasion.  I’m just too tired to do so!

After lunch yesterday I quickly ran to Target and purchased a booster seat car seat for Annika.  She’s still been riding in her Britax Marathon car seat in the truck.  James rides in one too.  We decided that she’d sit in a booster in the back seat of the truck when the baby came.  James could stay in the Marathon and the baby, obviously, would use the infant bucket.  Then, when the baby outgrew the bucket (around six months or so based on Annika and James’ growth patterns) he will use Annika’s old Marathon.  That’s the strategy anyway.  So why did I rush out yesterday to purchase a booster?  Because Kris and I decided that we’d have a little one on one time with the kids yesterday and we needed to use both vehicles to do so.  So I bought a booster so Annika could ride in the back seat of the car with me while Kris took James in the truck.  And where did we go?  Annika and I went to the movies.  We finally saw The Princess And The Frog.  Annika’s been asking to see it forever.  We shared a big bucket of popcorn and an enormous pop and she munched while sitting on the edge of her seat the entire time.  Towards the end she snuggled into me and I held her for a bit.  She giggled her little head off in the car though.  She thought it was so neat to ride in the car!

Kris and James went to the Mall of America to the Lego store.  That was after playing Legos at home for a bit after us pesky girls left (and leaving their Lego mess all over the bedroom floor!).  The mall was insanely busy so they didn’t even stay to play in the free Lego play area.  Instead they went to Target, bought a couple things for dinner and a small Lego toy for James.  He wanted a red truck and Kris found him one.

Last night I told Kris I was feeling the need to start getting ready for this baby.  He told me to go ahead and nest away.  He wasn’t quite as excited when I told him I needed his help.  Today after church I put him to work.  We completely re-arranged both kids’ rooms.  Now Annika’s room has the bunk beds in it for both her and James to share.  We brought up an extra dresser from the basement and put it in one of the closets in Annika’s room.  That will be James’ dresser.  Annika will keep her dresser that she was using.  I moved Annika’s clothes and James’ clothes from their closets into the closet on the left side in Annika’s room.  That one has both an upper and a lower bar for hanging.  That double closet in her room is coming in handy now!  I was also able to fit two laundry baskets for their dirty laundry and a Rubbermaid tub (toy box) in the closet.  It’s stuffed to the gills but also workable.  We also moved the train table from James’ room into their room too.  The room is full but there’s still some room for them to play on the floor too.

Then in James’ room we have James’ current dresser, the glider and ottoman, the crib (still in Toddler bed form), Annika’s doll house and the bookcase with all their books.  This will be the nursery and we’ll get the crib turned back into a crib in the next couple weeks.  It feels good to have the rooms rearranged though.  That was the hard part.

My plan for next weekend when Kris and the kids are gone at Breezy Point with Nana and Papa is to wash and re-arrange clothes.  I’ll move James’ clothes from his current dresser to his new dresser.  And I’ll wash all the baby clothes (I’ve already sorted through everything that I have) and blankets and crib bedding and get all that put away in the now-vacated dresser in James’ room and in the now empty closet.  I’ll have to take stock once all the clothing is sorted and hung or put in the dresser.  If I think I’m low on anything (sleepers, onesies, outfits, socks, etc.) then I’ll have to make a list and do a bit of shopping.  Oh, and I’ll have the crib bedding washed so when Kris gets a chance to change the crib back to a crib, the bedding will be ready.

Then I’ll have to get the car seat out of the basement and washed up, set up the mini-co-sleeper and wash that up, buy some itty bitty diapers and decide and maybe purchase a going home from the hospital outfit for the babe.  Oh, and pack a hospital bag.  Or at least decide what’s going in my hospital bag.  I’ll be 31 weeks on Tuesday so it’s probably time to get all this stuff rolling.

The kids think their new room is awesome.  Annika even asked when it was bedtime because she’s excited to sleep in the top bunk.  She proclaimed this the best day ever.  They’ve both been up and down and up and down the ladder to sit in the top bunk.  Kris and I are both nervous about that upper bunk.  The ladder can be slippery, especially when wearing socks.  But the kids are super excited and that’s good.

I took pictures of the process today and the nearly complete rooms.  I plan on uploading pictures this week so look out for them soon!

Tuesday I had my 30 week doctor’s appointment.  I am 75% done with this pregnancy!  The appointment lasted all of five minutes.  They’re pretty routine at this point.  Weight are blood pressure are both OK.  Any questions?  No.  OK, hop up on the table and we’ll measure your belly and listen to the heartbeat.  Belly is measuring 31 weeks (there is margin in that so that’s OK) and heartbeat was at 150bpm.  And done.  I go back in two weeks for another five minute check.  I told you about the three hour glucose test, right?  I took that a few weeks ago and didn’t pass or fail the test.  Of the 4 readings if you have 2 high then it’s an automatic fail and if you have 0 high then it’s an automatic pass.  I had 1 high – and get to re-take the test.  Oh, and my 1 high reading?  Was a 157 when the cut off was 155.  So close!  Anyway, I scheduled that test for tomorrow morning so once again I’ll pack up my book and my cross-stitching and sit in a waiting room for three hours.  It’s going to be a blast!  Not.  Let’s just hope that this time I come in with 0 high readings, OK?

The kids are SUPER excited to go to Breezy Point next weekend with Nana and Papa.  The other night we had a swimsuit/swim trunk fashion show to make sure their suits still fit from last summer.  Bonus for me is they do – Annika has 3 suits and James has 2 trunks that they can take with them.  After the fashion show they had to keep their favorite ones on and play “Breezy Point.”  They took all blue blankets and made a big “pool” on the floor with them where they would go swimming.  Then they took all the blankets and pillows off Annika’s bed and drug them down to the stairwell landing and that was where they “slept” at Breezy Point.  Back and forth between swimming and sleeping they went.  Last night when I got home from work Annika was back in a swimming suit.  Apparently she just likes wearing them now.  So silly!

Good news for Kris this week!  He started his new job on Monday.  He’s been in training for it for about a month now but Monday was his first night with an actual client and making actual money.  The hours are pretty limited right now, at least until they assign another client or two to him.  In fact, he’ll probably bring home less money from this job on a weekly basis, at least in the short term, than he will from unemployment!  Ah well.  It’s still money and we’ll still stick it in savings to use as tuition next year anyway.  I wonder if this will reduce his unemployment income (since the hours/pay are limited) or if it will end them.  I guess we’ll see!

I don’t want to hear any complaining!  I finished this post Monday night as promised and when I went to publish I noticed my wireless internet connection had gone missing.  Nothing I did brought it back and by then it was past my bed time and I was tired and crabby.  I lost about half of this entry and said screw it and went to bed instead.  Back now to your update:

Argh!  The blog was back down a few times today.  Kris replaced filed and was able to get it back up and running.  I’ve changed he password, updated to the latest 2.9.2 WordPress version and well, we’re hoping for the best.

That last post was my draft that I started last week and didn’t get finished.  Kris posted it this morning to make sure the blog was functioning correctly.  Now it’s time to finish the rest of it.

Mathias was home for a visit from late January through the Monday after the Super Bowl.  I was able to see him several times which, of course, was AWESOME!  I could write all sorts of things here about him because even though he has my blog bookmarked on his iPhone, he never checks it.  How rude!  Doesn’t he want to know what I’m doing all the time every day?  Whatev little bro!  OK, so he flew in on Friday the 29th and I picked him up at the airport.  I could tell right away things were not going well for him.  Besides battling a nasty stomach bug, his flights had been screwed up due to weather and then his luggage didn’t make his re-scheduled connecting flight.  It was a long day for the guy.  And then we took him out to dinner with Kris, Krystle, Pierce and myself.  We went to the Bloomington Chop House (yum!!!) and we all had a great dinner.  Mathias?  Still battling a touchy stomach?  Did not have as much fun.  Boo!  After dinner we came back to our house where Grandpa and Marcia were watching the kids.  We all sat around for a while waiting for the airlines to call Mathias.  His luggage had screwed up his plans for the evenings (which involved seeing friends after dinner with his sisters) so he was still sullen (and not feeling well).  When the airlines called at 10pm to say they had his luggage and would drive it out to Dad’s house then we all disbanded for the evening.  Mathias went to Dad’s to wait for his luggage, Dad and Marcia had already left to call it a night and Krystle and Pierce went back to their house.  And then I fell into bed, exhausted.

And then I didn’t talk to Mathias until Thursday!  He was in the sate that whole week but I didn’t see him once!  He was hanging with friends in Alex, chilling at Dad’s house and I was BUSY at work that week getting ready for a big review on Thursday.  Luckily I was able to see him four days in a row then.  Thursday we congregated at Krystle and Pierce’s house for dinner.  The kids were out of their minds playing with the dogs.  Krystle and Pierce made an awesome dinner (I mean really, when he pile of shredded cheese going into the potatoes is just as big as the pile of potatoes?  Those potatoes are going to be good!).  And then we sat around the rest of the evening.  Mathias made the “mistake” of laying down on the floor on his stomach.  Pretty soon he had dogs licking his ears, children tickling his feet and sitting on his back.  Basically Krystle and I let the dogs and kids terrorize him for a good hour or so.  And we laughed the whole time.  What can I say?  It’s funny!  He probably didn’t think it was quite as funny as we did but whatever.

The next day was James’ birthday.  I took the day off and spent it with James and Mathias.  We met Mathias at the mall at 1pm and he spent the rest of the day with me, doing a bit of shopping, hanging at our house, singing Happy Birthday to James (you knew that already), eating dinner with us, etc.  Later that night Krystle and Pierce came over and we watched a couple movies until Kris got home from football practice.  Then we sat down and played a couple games together.  That was really fun and the later it got, the more silly we got.

The next day was James’ birthday party.  At 3pm most of our family gathered at our house to celebrate our little man turning three.  Dusty and Carrie couldn’t make it (I was sad about that, the day seemed incomplete without them) and neither could either of the Great Grandparents, but the rest of us showered James with affection (and a mountain of presents) and yummy food.  James said he wanted a train cake so that’s what we made him.  We got made our frosting from scratch and got out the food coloring and decorating supplies and everything.  I think he liked it.  Kris made chili that turned out way spicier than he anticipated.  He loved it, of course, but the rest of us were downing milk, scooping on the cheese and sour cream and doing what we could to eat it!  OK, some people went back for seconds but I think they’re gluttons for punishment.  I got half way through my bowl and had to stop there.  Yikes!  The rest of the food was good though and being hungry was definitely not a worry.  Jamesy received tons of nice gifts including a kickball game, some clothes, a race car game, farm animals, police Legos, Corvette car, , helicopter toy, Thomas train toys, etc.  He was spoiled!  Oh, and he got a bike from us.  At first I think he was afraid of the bike.  He agreed to sit on it though and then Grandpa Dan pushed him around a little bit and as long as Grandpa was holding on, James thought it was fun.  And he’s asked us to push him around the house a few times since then.  I’m sure this summer he’ll be riding it around the driveway.  When it was time for cake, James and Annika each put candles in the cake and after I lit them we all sang, of course.  And then James blew the candles out one by one.  Three breaths for three candles.  Works for me!  I was just glad he wasn’t afraid or shy and actually blew them.  He was proud of himself.  It was a very nice afternoon.  And it’s a good thing I have another baby to look forward too because if James was my last one I think I would have been a weepy mess at him turning 3.  He is such a little boy now!  No more toddler poochy belly. He has thin, little boy legs.  The only thing pudgy/baby-like on him are his fingers.  The rest of him looks all little boy.  Sniff!  At least he still loves cuddling and snuggling with his mama.  We do that every night at bedtime and several time during the day.  I’ll be very sad when he decides he’s too big for that.  Please tell me I have years before that happens though!

The day after that was the Super Bowl.  Since we don’t have our big screen TV yet (maybe in a couple months – just need to save up a bit more cash), we all congregated at Grandpa and Marcia’s house.  The kids love going there and playing with all the Legos and other toys.  Occasionally Annika would stand up in front of the TV and then she would quickly get told to sit down or move to the side – we had commercials to watch!  I’m sure she was confused as she doesn’t normally get that reaction at home!  We all laughed at the Betty White commercial.  Some of the others though?  Really?  Like the Dodge “Take a Stand” one?  Well, if you think actually having to go to a job and help with household chores are so out of the realm of what you should be expected to do then I’ve got something to say to you.  Luckily my husband doesn’t think that way.  Have you seen the spoof of that commercial given from a female perspective?  It’s hilarious.  Go search it out on YouTube.  Anyway, it was nice just hanging out with the fam again.

Other fun things since my last update:

Wild game with Amanda.  Very rarely do I get to go out with just my girlfriends and especially with just Amanda.  Must have something to do with husbands and kids and stuff.  Heh.  Anyway, Amanda invited me to the Wild game with her last Friday night and it was so fun!  We cheered for the Wild, chatted about life and went through all the players names looking for potential baby boy names.  (Mikko anyone?  It’s growing on me! )

Saturday was my cousin Anna’s wedding.  Annika was so excited to wear a dress and go dancing.  I don’t know where she gets that from!  And she was super excited to see Grandpa and Marcia (who didn’t end up making it) and Auntie Shelly and Uncle Dale.  As soon as the music started she was out there on the dance floor with Uncle Dale and James.  And she was hardly off the dance floor all night long.  She’d rotate between Grandpa, James, Uncle Dale and Uncle Pierce.  Daddy and I had to guilt her into dancing with each of us just once.  Sheesh!  (Uh, and we’re great parents BTW.  Heh.)  When James had enough he climbed into my arms, buried his face into the crook of my elbow and went to sleep.  Annika was not done yet though.  She danced a few more times and then we had to carry her out of the place with tears streaming down her face.  She wanted just one more dance.  We probably could have granted her that if we had known that’s what she wanted.  Ah well, she got over it and was asleep fairly quickly.

Sunday since my Uncle Dave and Aunt Darleen and cousin Grant were still in town from the wedding festivities we went over to my Aunt Joyce and Uncle Mark’s house to spend more time with them.  I had a fantastic time visiting with them and my cousin Liz who was in town from San Diego.  I miss them all so much!  The kids had a great time playing with another set of new-to-them toys and of course Grandpa and Marcia and Dale and Shelly again too.  Parties like that are so nice for Kris and I!  We get to sit back and relax for a minute while others entertain our children!

OK, last story for now and then I’ll wrap this up.  Last night I came downstairs to find Annika and Kris snuggled up on the couch.  While cute all on it’s own, what made this extra special is that Annika was reading a “Biscuit” book to Kris.  He had to help her sound out a couple words but otherwise she did it all on her own!  Now, I don’t know if she was actually reading or reciting from memory the book but I was impressed nonetheless.  After she finished that one she got a different Biscuit book from her room and started reading through that one too with me.  A few pages into the second book she’d had enough and started getting silly.  “Little” turned into “Leap” and then she dissolved into giggles.  Hearing her belly laugh is one of the greatest things ever.  I think she’ll be ready for kindergarten in the fall.  She can count to 100 and read simple Level 1 books.  I’m so proud of my baby girl!

OK, enough.  I’ll post this now and hope the site stays up long enough for you to read it!

Sorry the blog was down there for a few days.  I’m not sure if it was a virus, hacker or something else but a re-install of WordPress seems to have fixed the problem.  Oh, and a new theme since I was still getting *warnings!* with the old theme.  Hope you like it!

So, where were we.  Hmm, let’s see, I’m 29 weeks pregnant now.  I did not pass or fail the 3 hour glucose tolerance test so, lucky me, I get to take it again.  To fail you have to have 2 of 4 readings be high.  To pass you have to have 0 of 4 readings be high.  Yep, I had 1 of 4 readings high.  My 2 hour blood draw came in at 157.  The cut off is 155.  Missed it by two points!  At my next doctor’s appointment (on the 16th) my midwife is going to give me my lab papers and then I get to schedule and take the test again.  Whee!  Not.  Oh well.  Otherwise everything continues to go very well with this pregnancy.  The baby is very active.  Last night as I sat by Annika for a couple minutes at bed time I put her hand on my belly.  And the baby cooperated and gave her a good, big kick.  She was so excited.  I told her it was the baby telling her good night.  She never has much patience to sit still long enough to feel the baby so doing it at bedtime is a good time.

Last week was James’ 3rd birthday.  I took the day off work to spend with him (and Uncle Mathias but more on that in a minute).  We played.  We went to Target.  We just had a normal day at home.  It was nice.  We didn’t do much to really celebrate the day.  I sang Happy Birthday to him in the morning when we got up.  And I bought some cupcakes on the way home from picking Annika up from preschool and we had those as a pre-dinner snack.  Another round of Happy Birthday was sung, this time with Annika, Kris and Uncle Mathias.  The real birthday celebration was Saturday at his party.

Also on James’ birthday was his 3 year well child check up.  His weight is 34.8 pounds.  The nurse entered 34.0 into her handy-dandy computer and that calculated his % as 73% or something.  Since he was actually a little more than 34.0 his percentage is a little more than that too.  His height I can’t remember (I’ll try to update this when I have the sheet of paper in front of me with it written down) but it was at 50%.  The doctor did a full examination and deemed him in perfect health.  We talked a bit about potty training and eating vegetables and teeth brushing and then we were off to play games!  With prizes!  Otherwise known as  a hearing and vision test with stickers.  James passed both with flying colors and the nurse remarked that he actually had quite good hearing.  Then why, WHY, does he completely ignore me when I tell him to pick up his toys?  To go to his room?  To come here, stop that, etc.?  Oh yeah – because he’s three!  (And male! Heh.)