Celebration Week!

The first week of August is always exciting for us as I celebrate a birthday and then we celebrate our anniversary! Garry got me some wonderful cards and a massage certificate for my birthday, which will be coming in handy sometime within the next year after going through the stresses and joys of being a mom.
I couldn't help but be joyful when I considered all that our loving Father has blessed us with over the past four years of our marriage. God provided both of us with the perseverance to graduate from college, opened doors for a solid career at KPMG for Garry and teaching opportunities for me with Omaha Public Schools, provided us with the money smarts to save up and plan for buying a house, helped our moving process go smoothly, and now has blessed us richly with the responsibility of becoming parents in a very short seven weeks. Praise be to our God from whom all blessings flow!
To celebrate, we went to 94/95 Sports Grille which is a gourmet sports-themed restaurant and bar out in West Omaha. We made it in time for happy hour so we got an appetizer for half price. My food was pretty good and Garry loved his pizza. Afterward we went to Target to do some preliminary registering for baby. Whew. I think half of our registery ended up being books because I got really excited about those.

My chicken roulade and potato. Yum.

My wonderful husband enjoying his food--even if he doesn't enjoy my documenting!
Garry has been hard at work on our crib, which is turning out to be more of a task than we originally anticipated...but at least it has given Garry an excuse to buy some man toys, like his new De Walt power hand sander. We bought our eco-friendly primer and paint for when the original paint is all stripped. I am excited to see the crib turn to a beautiful white for our baby!

Garry and his new sander

Three "finished" sides

Baby's Second Wedding!

One of my brothers is now a husband! We had a nice time seeing a lot of family for Jordan and Andrea's wedding on July 31, and I was super happy that baby didn't move around too much or kick me when I was singing during the ceremony. Here are some picturs of our time at the wedding! Black dresses seem to hide 32 week pregnancies pretty well, if anyone needs a formal dress for a fancy occasion. This dress is courtesy of friend Liz from church, and I'm SO glad she let me borrow it.


Family Picture!


Future Grandma and Grandpa, Uncle Jordan, Uncle Nathan, and Aunt Nicole


The beautiful bride and new sister-in-law!

Sugary update

Although I haven't officially heard back from the lab about the last bloodwork that was done to figure out how well my kidneys are working, I'm assuming no news is good news as far as taking action for the problem. I did my own research online and talked to a couple doctors and a dietitian that I know and they said that it is normal for some pregnant women's kidneys to not filter out the sugar from the endocrine system. It should go away after baby is born, so I just have to continue to watch what I eat. Although, with a birthday and anniversary this week, I might cheat a little bit and have a tiny little sweet something extra. Except that I cheated this past weekend with my brother's wedding and had some cheesecake. Eight more weeks and then I hopefully won't have to worry about it anymore and we will have a healthy baby as a result of not a lot of sweets!

A Few Answers

This morning I went in for my blood draws so that they could run my tests for my blood sugar. Thankfully, both of those are fine so there is not a problem with my body producing insulin to get the sugars into my bloodstream and cells. However, the midwife was still concerned that my kidneys are spilling sugar into my urine, so now I have to go back tomorrow to get my blood drawn again to check and make sure my kidneys are doing what they are supposed to be doing. In the mean time, I need to stay away from any sort of refined sugar and carbs, so only whole grain items, no juice or soda, and make sure I am exercising at least 30 minutes, 5 days a week. Now that I am back from vacation, I can focus all my efforts on eating right and exercising and hopefully that will help baby and me be a healthy pair. Now I just have to hope my kidneys are fine. I'm going to be super proactive today about what I eat so that when my blood is drawn tomorrow, my system will be in great shape.

Sugar problems...

I am now 31 weeks, so only 9 more to go before baby comes, LORD willing. I had an appointment at the midwives this morning to have a routine checkup on me and baby. However, the appointment was not so routine in that my urine sample came back with an extremely high level of sugar in it AGAIN. The frustrating thing is that I didn't have any sugary things at all before the appointment. I had gained almost four pounds when I am supposed to keep it at two pounds between appointments, but I was expecting more weight gain since I had just been on vacation for 12 days. However, my uterus measured at 33 cm when it should only have been about 31, so the midwife is concerned that baby is growing too much in a bad way because of the sugar. Tomorrow morning I have a fasting blood test followed immediately by another glucose test to check again for gestational diabetes. If I have GD, oh well. I just want to find out what is causing so much sugar in my system so that we can fix it. So hopefully the tests tomorrow provide clear answers for what we need to do next to keep baby and me healthy. We will pray for wisdom for the medical professionals so they know exactly what to do for baby and for peace and patience as we figure this out.

California!

Garry and I spent our summer vacation in the Central Valley of California visiting Garry's family and friends. Garry was also the best man in good friend Brian's wedding, so he was able to spend some time visiting with him as well. We had a nice time swimming, taking a day trip to the coast to visit Justin and Kerrin, and then partying at the wedding. The weather was nice and sunny, but with that sun came temps of 103 degrees. I made sure I drank my weight in water every day and anywhere I went I had my pink waterbottle with me, so that helped. Baby did very well on the trip, and so did I with not too much swelling in my feet. I only had one day where I had some uncomfortable contractions, but nothing too unbearable and nothing to trigger a California baby. I tried to be good about taking pictures this time to document the last time with our family before we have a baby with us! Kerrin and I at the coast with our matching baby bumps! I am 30 weeks and she is 26. Ah, swimming at the Riezebos pool!

Future Aunt Melissa and me at the wedding reception rehearsal Garry and future Uncle Brandon, age 6! Melissa and future Aunt Rachelle so pretty at the wedding! A little blurry, but Garry and me at the reception.

Good news...and disappointing news

I had another checkup today. The midwife looked over my chart and made some comments about how it was GREAT that we didn't have to worry about gestational diabetes, and that my homoglobin levels in the blood were really good. My uterus is measuring right on track where it should be for 29 weeks at 29 cm. My weight gain is okay...I gained about a pound and a half each week and I should only be doing a pound, so I need to make sure I keep exercising. I was very encouraged and then on my way out the door, the nurse came and said that I was spilling sugar in my urine sample. I had only had a tiny cookie that morning about 2 hours before the appointment, but apparently there was a lot of sugar in my system. The midwife said to cut back on sweets...pretty much avoid them so that baby doesn't get too fat. So no more cookies or ice cream or sweetness for me for the next 11 weeks. Boo. Oh well. I can have some to celebrate when my healthy baby comes! So if I am visiting you anytime soon: HIDE THE SWEETS so I am not tempted to indulge.

Another good happening was some success at finding gender neutral but still cute onsies! And a couple bibs. And a new friend!




This picture is sort of deceptive, but the seal is bigger than baby will be when baby is born. But it is so cute!