Road Trip and Doctor's Visits

It's been a while... again... and there's tons to report so let's cut to the chase, eh?

ROAD TRIP!!!

Well Road Trip and a half actually.

We began the first weekend of July with a trip to Hamilton for a wedding. Dad was in the wedding party. It was a long, warm day but really no one could have asked for nicer weather. The Bride was beautiful, no one in the party melted from the heat, and the flower girl did extremely well putting up with all that stuff during the day. Well behaved children at weddings always fascinate me... but the ones who are actually in the wedding are brilliant.


We left Hamilton around 1:00ish... getting home for 2:30am. We managed to get a little sleep before packing up and heading out to the Nation's Capital.

A slightly more than scenic route (dang the 400 extension) got us to Ottawa at a relatively decent hour... only about an hour later than we had planned (dang those backroads that look like they'll take you some place useful). I started the day off with puffy feet and high sugars that only got worse as we drove, but the stops we made were good for keeping the rise to a minimum. The Jellyfish seemed to enjoy the ride. Fairly quiet most of the way there.

We stayed at a friend's place in Ottawa. There were four of us sharing a bachelor apartment for all of about three days. The poor resident cat. He was a little put out - mostly with me. I will track down a cat as soon as I see one just to pet it and love it and call it George and never ever let it go... really they love it, they just don't understand that at the time. Anyhoo, it was nice catching up again. We don't get to see our friend in Ottawa very much. The gestational diabetic diet was thrown completely out the window while we were there and the swelling in my feet went down just as we were ready to get in the car to come home.

We went to the War Museum. I haven't been there since Grade 8. It's in a new building now. It's in a very nice new building now. Stunning really. We went to the National Gallery mostly so I could see the Renoir Landscapes exhibit. In a fashion true only to me, I bought the souvenir book... of the Portraits exhibit. I'm really quite talented at going to an exhibit and buying something that will remind me of it in a roundabout way. I was first introduced to Impressionism in High School. We went on a tour of the Barnes Exhibit when it made its tour stop in Toronto. We went there to see a visual art form from a foundation that ordinarily doesn't tour. It was stunning to see. Because we were students we got to see an instructional video before we went in. I bought the soundtrack.

Yep. That's me.

Our last day in Ottawa we made one final stop at the coolest toy store ever, Mrs. Tiggy Winkles. Bought a few things we didn't really need. Then we went to Moe’s World Famous Newport Restaurant for lunch. This is the self-declared official world headquarters for the Elvis Sighting Society. Apparently, Elvis didn't die. He moved to some small town outside of Ottawa. Anyway, good food, good times.

As we left the Newport for our car (parked a few blocks away), the Heavens opened. It absolutely poured rain on us as we ran back to the car. Now, I understand the Mythbusters have shown us that running or walking in the rain gets you equally wet. However, when it's pouring all you really want to do is get to your destination faster. So we weren't trying to prove anything by running. We just wanted to get out of the wet. As we were then piling in the car to head home, we dried off somewhere on the far side of Algonquin Park. It was pleasant.

The drive home was significantly less scenic than the drive up. No confusing highways on that route. :)

So...

We made it home the Wednesday night of that week. There was an appointment at the Diabetes Education Clinc/Centre (herein known as DEC). This was the day I was FINALLY put on insulin. I was given my own brand new pens and my own starter cartridge of both N (long-acting) and Humalog (fast acting).

So, after a fair bit of tweaking we have managed to bring the sugars into line. For the most part. I may have mentioned this before, but it bears repeating: We need to keep my sugars at a strict level to prevent the baby from being too big. A big baby that has been exposed to high sugars for too long has a bunch of things that could go wrong with it: Shoulder dystocia - Head is delivered fine, but shoulders are too big and break during delivery. It could also have troubles regulating its own sugars at birth - they would be too low. The baby would crash. Really we are trying very hard to keep the infant out of the NICU as best we can. I would like to be able to hold the Jelly when it's born, not look at it through a window or hear about it from Dad.

The day following the trip to the DEC we went to an Ultrasound. Mostly to check on the development of the placenta, which I presume isn't a huge issue because nobody's telling me about it. We did learn the Jelly is measuring a week and a half large for its gestational age. The Jelly's head is huge now... taking up most of the monitor.

The next day (a Saturday) we got to go the hospital for a non-stress test. These are fun. For the uneducated, they monitor the Jelly's heart rate reactions to movement. The Mommy is strapped to a couple of monitors that detect wee jellyfish's heart rate and Mommy's contractions. Whenever Mommy feels movement, she has a clicker to play with. This helps the very educated doctor and nurse type people see how reactive the wee jelly is. Meaning, the heart rate should go up when movement occurs. Just like when we exercsie. This fun continues for 40 minutes to an hour. Now, the problem with my and my Jellyfish is that neither of us is a morning person. The appointment was scheduled for 8:45am. We both fell asleep... those beds are really comfy. Nice pillows. So the first nurse asked if there had been any movement. I said, "no. But if we wait 'til 8:45pm, we won't be able to get the kid to sit still." We agreed to give it time. The second nurse wanted to give me orange juice to get the Jelly moving. Sometimes this works for them. The first nurse looked at me, then looked at Nursie #2 and said, "she's here for gestational diabetes, so maybe a popsicle or juice isn't a good idea..." Nursie #2 said to me, "oh. What works for you?" Nurse 1 and I both said, "evening." So nursie #2 performed some abdominal pressing and kneading... really I'm sure Jelly felt like a loaf of bread by the time we were done. This worked. Jelly kicked and fussed and turned and made the doctor types happy so we could leave.

I get to go for more ultrasounds (two more) before Jelly's expected arrival date. To keep an eye on how Jelly's doin' health wise. I'll be sure to keep you informed of that.

Sooooo...

In other news:

We have ordered the bedroom furniture for the Jelly's room. But it's on backorder 'til about the middle of September. Fortunately we have a dresser and a bassinet, so Jelly'll have a place to sleep. Of course, if the middle of September gets here and the stuff still isn't available, we'll have to come up with a plan B. However, at the moment I have my heart set on the stuff we ordered.
We'll see how that goes.

Some of the Jelly's toys are being broken in by its older cousin. He loves them to pieces. It's good to know they'll work.

Mat leave starts in two weeks! I can hardly wait... It's getting harder to make it through the day at work now. I'm hitting that third trimester fatigue. Nothing a little caffeine can't help, but by the time I get home I'm even more exhausted than I remember being in the first trimester. Ah well, I'll give it my all for the last two weeks - gotta' get as much money as possible. Of course there will be more appointments, but they shouldn't interfere too much. I just hope I can stay healthy enough to make it through. Yeah, the morning sickness is still there. Tossed up just before the last appointment with the OB. That was fun. Heartburn is getting worse (I'll probably live).

Prenatal classes have begun. There are only two classes. The first one dealt with what to expect during labour and some breathing/pain coping exercises. These were ... well ... goofy. From what I've been hearing, they're always goofy. It's really hard to fake sincerity at the best of times. Especially when you need to be sincere about relaxing and you find the whole thing funny. I still don't think the background music was necessary - relaxation music. complete with flutes and crashing waves.

Ah well, at the next one we'll get to learn about interventions in delivery - drugs, tools, and surgery.

That's about it for now. The shower is next week after the last prenatal class so there'll be lots to talk about then too.

Until next time!

Ciao!

-HLC

Been a while, eh?

Where has the time gone?

I find myself asking this question a lot lately. I've also learned from people who know a thing or two about these things that I'm not going to stop asking it any time soon.

When you plan a pregnancy you know your life is going to change forever. As soon as you consciously stop taking that little pill or using that patch or whatever it is you do, you know things are going to be different from now on. The thing is, you don't really notice the change all that quickly. Especially if you, like me, have been blessed with the longest pregnancy in history - meaning you saw that pretty little positive sign waaaaaaaay early. Like two weeks in. Then you're forced to tell everyone you see on a daily basis that you're pregnant because the morning sickness is so bad you can't use the "traffic was bad" excuse every single day. So, when you've got to tell people at 6 weeks that you're pregnant instead of the usual recommended 3 months, it really does seem like you've been pregnant FOREVER.

So you take each day as it comes and you try not to count weeks in the beginning because they're moving sooooo slowly.

Then before you know it, it's July and your waist line has FINALLY decided to disappear so all of a sudden your clothes don't fit, and you're diagnosed with gestational diabetes, and there's something kind of weird with the shape of the placenta (nothing that any of the professionals seem to be too worried about) and you're seeing specialists pretty much once a week and it's only going to get more crazy and you suddenly realize...

WE HAVEN'T STARTED THE NURSERY YET!
(fixed recently - the room is painted a lovely shade of gender-neutral green)

THE HOUSE IS A MESS! HOW ARE WE EVER GOING TO BRING A CHILD INTO THIS FILTHY EXCUSE FOR A DWELLING?! DON'T THEY TAKE CHILDRE AWAY FROM PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN THIS KIND OF SQUALOR?!
(it's not really that bad. This is a totally hormonal reaction to an otherwise normal situation)

Speaking of hormonal reactions... we're suffering from a new symptom... Sudden fits of tears. Not the kind where you get a little weepy at the end of a movie. Not the type you get during a cute commercial (that Pampers Sensitive Wipes kid is ADORABLE!). No no, these are the type where one minute you're calmly minding your own business and the next, for no reason whatsoever, you burst into an all-out noisy sob. Crying so hard you couldn't possibly explain to anyone what's wrong with you. Thank the hairy gods that I've been alone during all of these attacks. As much as I have faith in him, I don't believe Dad could handle it. This isn't meant as a dig. Guys as a rule just don't understand this kind of hormonal crying. Even the sensitive ones. I don't expect them to understand. They don't have estrogen overload. Lucky them? poor them? Who knows. But again, things could be a lot worse.

More interesting things: I'm still not on insulin. I've got one of those pregnancy induced rashes on my hand. Itchy as ... itchy as ... At times I've tried to rip the skin off my hand. But again, it could be a lot worse. It's only on my hand.

We've had a prenatal class. That was exciting. The purpose of this class was to give us some pointers for dealing with the first three weeks after bringing baby home... with a slight glossing over of how to breastfeed. ... details on that after.

All of the Dads in the group got to diaper, dress, and swaddle a baby doll ... Cabbage Patch Kids all 'round! The Mommies were supposed to sit with their feet up and watch. So, once again I got out of diaper details. Dad's changed a few of the nephew's diapers while I remain firmly at ... none.

We learned about what newborns really look like (puffy, sometimes squashed, little lizards). We learned about practices that are no longer cool to follow. Things that were fine when we were babies but have since fallen out of style. Things like rectal thermometers (good, wasn't trying to do that) and nasal aspirators... Of course, the item our instructor held up as an example of a nasal aspirator was actually a bulb syringe. Totally different beast. Bulb syringes are for putting things in generally, not taking them out. Of course, generally babies don't like the pressure change from a nasal aspirator and quite frankly, I don't blame them. I kept my mouth shut at this point because most of the people in the room were ready to pop any day now and probably already knew what they should do about baby snot. (this class is an adjunct to regular classes, so people due in July, August, and September were there) I did open my mouth when we got to the types of thermometers. Forehead strip - not all that accurate. Especially on infants. Yeah, I know, but they are fun to play with. Rectal - no. Glass - never. Digital - use them under the arm. Fine by me. Ear - pretty good but be careful. Forehead that function like an ear... not accurate on infants, public health doesn't recommend them. The woman beside me went first. She said, "those work fine." I said, "yes they do. There are different instructions for infants. You have to read these carefully." So in a moment of what is this woman on about? we shot her down. We let her tell us that baby powder has fallen out of style. We let her tell us that if we really want to use powder then use cornstarch. We let her tell us that baby powder is made out of wood chips (ordinarily baby powder is made from talc. Talc is a mineral not terribly unlike the chalk used on blackboards that doesn't often grow on trees. Also if they use wood chips it doesn't mean there are chunks of wood in the powder). But the forehead thing, we couldn't let that go. Hey, sometimes you have to draw a line.

Now on to the breastfeeding bit.

GRATUITOUS CREEPINESS ALERT!

This was instructed via a video... well, half a video. The class ended before the video did. It was an old video. The quality of video tape deteriorates after a few years. This one had deteriorated. It was narrated by a doctor of something, presumably obstetrics. He was an elderly man. He clearly knew what he was talking about. I mean, he had a "Dr." in front of his name, he wore glasses, had a plaid dishcloth like shirt and he may or may not have been wearing a lab coat. Obviously he was an expert. Anyhoo, we saw many images of what babies should look like when they're latching on. We saw many closeups of women's engorged ready to feed breasts. We saw altogether too many of these shots with the old man's hands in them. We saw his hand, hand-expressing some milk from a nipple. Hand expressing itself is not that creepy. It would have been less creepy if a woman's hand had been doing it. Unfortunately we got to see a slightly (okay very) wrinkled hand on a deteriorated video doing it. Due to the state of the video the hand looked dirty. I know I wasn't the only woman in the room with a horrified look on my face. Most of the guys were laughing - hey, what else do you do when you're nervous in a room full of pregnant women? There was just something inherently skeazy about the whole video. In fact, it was so creepy I'm not sure if any of us came out of it with any useful information.

GRATUITOUS CREEPINESS ENDED!

In other news, we did have our first baby shower. The Jellyfish has many good friends already. We got some clothes and layette stuff that will be most useful. I love those little no-scratch mitts. We got some very nice onesies and a lovely penguin outfit. It's a shirt with a penguin on it. Not a costume. But that would be good too. I get the feeling Jelly will hate penguins. We got a sampler of Dr. Seuss stories. We'll start reading those very soon. We have our very own infant-to-toddler rocker. Excellent little chairs brought to you by the people at Fisher-Price. We also received a lovely gift... A studio size, upright piano. The Jelly will have music in its life and this piano is a lovely way to begin. Pianos are a great place to start. They're the perfect combination of string and percussion instrument. As soon as the kid can reach the keyboard, we'll start plunkin'.

That's about it for now. The Morning Sickness Monster hasn't left entirely yet, but I have so many other things to worry about I'm not giving it that much thought lately.

So we'll leave for now. We have a wedding this weekend and another road trip on Sunday so there'll be lots to talk about. Must go get some exercise now.

Ciao!

-HLC