Alanna Risse

I thought I was totally done with errands but I ended up going on more today. It’s nice to be able to get so much done during the day now that I’m not working, but yesterday I tried to stay home and work on art. I had the same plans for today but my body is showing more signs that I’m getting close to going into labor, so I panicked and had to run out for more stuff.

It’s been really nice working on the hexagon quilt for Juniper so I wanted to get the rest of the material I needed to finish it. I decided to make it crib sized so she can use it until she gets her big girl bed (our crib converts to a toddler bed). Since my sewing machine is back from the shop and working well, I feel more inspired to do more sewing and I wanted to have everything I needed here. So that meant a trek out to Fabric Depot. I stopped at Columbia Art on the way to replace a pen, but they didn’t have the kind I needed. After Fabric Depot I ran by Portland Nursery to get a branch cutter so we can whack down some of the bamboo threatening to take over the yard. Then I stopped at New Seasons for milk, snacks, and vitamins. I am completely bored with my food options and am dreaming of slices of pizza.

Tonight Tom is taking me to Noble Rot for dinner. Might be our last adult only meal out for a long while. My latest prediction is that I’ll be in labor by the weekend. We’ll see if I’m right. If I’m wrong, it means we get to enjoy the Killingsworth street festival in our neighborhood. If I’m right, it means the midwives will have nowhere to park, and forget laboring on the porch, our street will be heavy with foot traffic.

Well, it looks like it’s nap time.

Hey Alanna, you’re 9 months pregnant. You don’t need to worry about building a portfolio or feel like everything you produce is fantastic and ready for the public. All you have to do is make marks on paper and keep reading and thinking. There’s no pressure to perform right now, just use this time to play and maybe come with some fresh ideas. It’s ok to be rusty. You’ll get back into the swing of things when you and the baby settle into a rhythm. You’ll figure it out, you’re not a slacker.

I’m in the final stretches. Saturday I had tons of contractions and was starting to feel like a ticking time bomb. The Braxton-Hicks contractions can commonly go on for a week or longer, so I wasn’t feeling like I was about to go into labor, but Tom wanted me to call the midwives before I went to bed just in case. I didn’t and it was fine. I gave them an update on Sunday morning. Things slowed down Sunday and today. Still contractions but not as intense of close together as Saturday. Though things get a little uncomfortable in late afternoon/evening. I’m doing my best to get as much sleep at night as possible. The muscles get so tight it’s hard to get comfortable. Still I’ve managed to have some pretty good nights of sleep.

We had a fun, mellow weekend. Seemed like there was more stuff to do than we ended up doing. Sunday we went to a beer fest/craft sale at the Portland nursery and saw our old neighbors. We went to Chez Machin for dinner on Hawthorne. It was super yummy. I want to go back there. Sunday morning was dog park fun and in the afternoon we picked up a baby swing from our realtor. Super sweet of him to think of us. Saturday we went to lunch at my friend Casey’s and hung out in her backyard. That was so fun, we just continued the day by hanging out in our own backyard. We did carious things around the house and had a nice rib dinner.

Last week went by so fast. My hips were really buggin’ me so I slowed down a lot and wasn’t doing as much walking. I was super tired too so there were lots of naps. I have a little more energy this week. Seems so strange I’m already starting week three of no work. If I had taken a vacation, it would have already been over by now. I’ve been so busy getting house stuff done, and there always feels like there is more and more to do. I know it’s going to be a challenge being self motivated about work once the baby arrives and we settle into a schedule. I’m going to have to make sure I carve out time for work every day. Otherwise, it’ll just turn into errand after errand and chore after chore and all the days will just fly by without any work getting accomplished. Self paced work with a tiny baby at home will be interesting to say the least.

I still don’t feel like I’m about to have a baby and become a mother. It’s too abstract. I’m just going to have to take it day by day. I still feel good, though Saturday with all the contractions and pressure on my pelvis, it was very hard to get up off the ground when I sat down. But still tying my shoes, still picking stuff off the ground, still feeling mobile, I just can’t walk very fast or I get pains in my hip.

I’m definitely having trouble adjusting to “down time.” I realize I need breaks and I take them, but it isn’t 5 minutes before I want to get up and do something else. I’m not good at “idle.” I got a little bit of drawing done, not as much as I wanted, but I got a lot of quilting done. Quilting is turning out to be a good idle time activity.

When you get pregnant, people like to tell you all the terrible things that are going to happen to you. Your boobs are going to get all big and saggy, your feet are going to swell up, you’re going to be an emotional wreck, you won’t have any energy to do anything, you’ll gain a million pounds which you won’t loose after the baby is born, you won’t be able to sleep, the list goes on and on. So much of this hasn’t been true for me. And so I wonder, off all the terrible things they like to tell you about labor and having a new baby, how many of those are not going to happen for us either.

People say, go to the movies because you’ll never get to go to the movies again, they tell you your life as you know it is over. They tell you your dog is going to turn into Kujo. I’ve met people who haven’t gone on a date in 6 years. I look around Portland and I all see are happy parents with happy small babies, enjoying the world. They don’t look like slaves, they don’t look miserable and tired. So what gives? Why is it that people love to be so negative? I just don’t get it. It’s life, life changes, and having a baby means a different lifestyle than not having a baby. But we’re nearly 40 years old, we don’t enjoy partying all night long at night clubs, or snorting coke off of hooker’s backs. We live to go out to dinner, we like to make art and music, we like to watch movies at home, we like parks and hikes. How are these things incompatible with baby? Sure, we won’t get to see as much live music, but our interest in live shows isn’t what it once was, we’ll be quite happy getting the occasional sitter so we can go see some music. Tom is still going to play music, I’m still going to make art and go to sewing groups.

So I say this to all those newly pregnant people out there. Don’t listen to all the negative nancys. Who knows why they have a stick up their ass, but life goes on, it changes, evolves, and that’s great. Embrace it for however it turns out. Your pregnancy will be what it is, it will probably surprise you. Mine didn’t turn out at all like what I thought. I expected to feel huge, and not get sleep, and be all swollen, and never get to poop, and feel too tired to do anything. I didn’t expect to feel so comfortable in my body, even so late in the game. I certainly didn’t expect I’d have to go on this diabetes diet and how that would change me. I look in the mirror and I think hey, I look kinda cute. I have stretch marks, that’s probably the one thing I did expect that came true. But it’s ok, I can live with them. I was never swimsuit model material anyway.

And to all you negative nancys, guess what? My feet aren’t swollen at all, my wedding rings are still on, I can still touch my toes and tie my shoes, I feel great, I get decent sleep most nights, I don’t feel emotional or moody, I’m still getting lots done around the house, I’m still exercising, and I’m not afraid of labor. Sorry to disappoint you.

So here I am, nearing week 38. I’m having lots of braxton-hicks contractions but I still feel like I have a while to cook. I am not impatiently waiting for this pregnancy to be over. Strangely, I’ve kind of enjoyed it, and I’m sad at the idea it might be the last time I’m pregnant. Not that sad though, because I don’t think I could take another 9 months of beans.

I’ve been nervous about Heather coming. I started to panic about the birth, that maybe I wouldn’t want anyone but Tom and the midwives around. I talked about it with a coupe friends. But when I talked to Tom, he brought me back down to earth. Heather is totally willing and able to step back if I need her to. She just wants to be here to see this child enter the world… my child. I think I was just getting all worked up in my mind about the labor, and how intense it might be. I started feeling like having anyone else here would make me feel like I was a freak show. But I feel more calm about it now. I want her here and she wants so badly to be here. And with all things in life, you just go through it one steps at a time, and you ask for what you need, when you need it, and sometimes there are moments when you need to summon up some extra strength and courage. But mostly, you just let yourself be in the moment. I’m excited I get to do this. I’m proud I chose a home birth and I’m so thankful it appears I’ll actually get to have one. I want to have this baby on my own time and I want Tom to be the one to help me through it. We have so much faith in our midwives and that is such a wonderful feeling, knowing you are in the most capable of hands. And it’s a powerful feeling knowing that they believe I am totally capable of birthing my own child. Can’t believe we get to give birth to our child in our amazing house!

Here we go! 37 weeks! Which is considered full term. Feels like a huge relief. It also feels a little strange that I’m so close to having my baby. I don’t feel 3 weeks away from my due date. I still feel very mobile and active. All the things people told me, like to get a pair of slip ons because you won’t be able to tie your shoes or that my ankles would be swollen, or that I wouldn’t be able to sleep or eat more than a handful of food, or that I’d be too exhausted to do anything, they aren’t true for me. Sure, I’m waaaay more tired now, and some days I need killer 2 hour naps that completely wipe me out, but I’m still getting lots done. I’m able to swim laps, though very slowly, and shaving my legs is not a problem. It’s harder to pick things up off the ground when I’m sitting in a chair, but when I’m standing up, the ground is still a totally accessible region of my world. I think much of this has to do with this gestational diabetes diet. I just haven’t had any swelling. I haven’t gained much either, so although my belly is pretty huge, the rest of me is actually a bit smaller. So although I hate this diet, and I want some rice, I want some toast, and I want some cereal, I’m happy that I feel as good as I do. I wouldn’t call it a fair trade, but I’m thankful for it none-the-less.

That said, my leg is going to fall right out of the socket. My ligaments in my hips are so stretched out. It hurts A LOT when things go wiggy. It seems to happen most often in the mornings, so Saturday at the dog park, I had to go sit in the car halfway through. Sunday I completely opted out of the dog park. I have to walk pretty slowly a lot of the time and be careful. Some times of the day, like afternoon and evening, it happens less often. But when it happens, it sucks. Not having to sit in a chair all day seems to be helping, and in general, my body feels much better now that I don’t have to sit all day. So I’m thankful to be done with work.

Speaking of work, now that I’m done with my web developer job, I’m trying to get the art juices flowing. It’s hard balancing it with all the rest of the stuff I want/need to get done before the baby arrives. I definitely have less energy and just get less done during the day, but I started a few small drawings last week and hope to get them done by the end of the week. I’m hoping to squeeze in one more Last Thursday before the baby comes, and then, as soon as she and I are ready to hit the town, I want to do a weekly gallery trip. She’s going to grow up in galleries. I know it’s going to be hard to get large projects done so I may take this week to get some smaller paper cut, so I always have something small to work on, when I have the energy.

We’re excited and freaked out that we are about to become parents. You spend so much time in pregnancy mode, it’s really hard to imagine the next phase. I understand that I’m about to become a mother, but I don’t really understand, I don’t think you can. It feels really abstract still. So today I’m going to focus on making diaper covers and diapers.

I went to a sewing studio yesterday with my favorite Meetup group. I haven’t been able to go to very many of them and I’m sad about that. I’m hoping that after Juniper is born, the sewing studio can become my regular baby free afternoon and give Tom some time alone with our little girl. Sounds like a very good plan. I wonder what our lives are going to be like in the next year. Every single thing I do now, I think about how things are going to change in just a few weeks. It’s exciting and scary.

July 9 – 25, 2010
Land Art Gallery
3925 N Mississippi Ave
landpdx.com

Can’t believe it’s the end of my first “free” week. I’ve done so much, despite being exhausted. No cramps so I think Juniper is staying put for a while.

I got to the pool twice this week. Feels good to be in the water. I somehow stretched out my left ankle, it hurts quite a bit, so walking has been kept to a minimum until it calms down. And my right hip still threatens to expel my right leg at any given moment. My ligaments are really stretched out and sometimes it feels like my leg is going to fall right out of the socket. Walking around in the pool should help strengthen my muscles and help with the ligament pain… or so I hope. It was a good thing I finished up with work because I’m experiencing whole new levels of exhaustion… where I suddenly need to go to sleep for 2 hours, and after I wake up, it takes me a good hour to recover. They are the craziest, super heavy naps. I feel like I’m magnetized to the bed.

This week I framed and matted 11 drawings/prints, hung art, painted shelves, washed sheets and towels getting ready for baby, got some fabric, went to an awesome Portland Modern Quilt Guild Meeting, bought an origami book for Juniper’s mobile, swam twice, did some weeding, picked raspberries, and ate about 500 times (so tired of feeding myself). It’s been a nice week for getting caught up with the to do list. My drawings are staring at me, but I think today I will work on origami and sew some diaper covers. And I want to finally finish our honeymoon quilt. I’m procrastinating on those drawings. There’s just all these things I want to get done and I know once I start on the drawings, they’ll suck me in.

It feels good to be free, but I still don’t believe I’m actually done being a web developer. It’s a little scary, not knowing what exactly I’ll be doing for income, but I’ve got time to figure it out. There’s a lot of great inspiration out there. I swing from feeling like anything is possible, to feeling like it won’t work out. I don’t know where the negative feelings come from, maybe a disbelief that I could actually make a living out of art. I’m totally open and ready for hard work, I don’t see why I have feelings of doubt, but they are there. Better to acknowledge them and dispel them. If I pretend they aren’t there, they might just creep in and make a mess of my life.

So here I go on my new adventure. Here’s the start of a new quilt:

Here’s the great used origami book I found at Powell’s:

And here’s the upholstery fabric I got to cover the organ bench:

Here are Angela’s drawings finally in frames:

Some Tiny Showcase prints added to my studio wall:

Imin Yeh’s print:

Don’t know why the matte turned out so yellow in the photo, it’s just a warm antique white.

An amazing moth in our raspberry bushes:

One more week to go before I hit the big 3-7. I’ll be considered full term next week and I’ll feel a huge relief. Nothing major has happened since that one day a week ago where I had cramps and back pain for 4-5 hours, but it’s made me very nervous about every little tweaky feeling I have in my belly. I’m hoping she doesn’t come early. I want her to fatten up a bit. Newborns loose a little weight after birth so the longer she stays in, the better… just don’t stay in TOO long. According to BabyCenter.com, my baby is gaining about an ounce a day right now. She’s almost 6 pounds and more than 18 inches long.

Speaking of weight, I thought I was starting to finally gain but turns out it was just a fluke, I’m down again. I’ve gained a net of 11 pounds and am still loosing. I eat and eat and eat. Amazing what a few carbs can do. I dream of bowls of cereal and I’ve been saying that’s what I want for my special postpartum meal. All the baby hardware in you weighs between 25 and 35 pounds (baby, water, placenta, blood, etc), so I figure I’ve lost between 20 and 30 pounds. Can’t believe I’m sad about that, but I am. I just wanted to have a normal pregnancy. The positive thing is that baby gets all the nutrition first, so in the end, as long as I keep trying, we should wind up with a healthy weight baby and a leaner mom. Since women who have gestational diabetes have a 50% chance of developing type 2 diabetes in the next 5-10 years, a jump start on a little weight loss has got to be a good thing. So all I can do is keep eating, stay positive, and hope I can hold onto as much of those 11 pounds as I can.

Other than the weight loss and the painful hip, I feel great. Lots of energy, I’m still really mobile and getting lots done. No swelling, my wedding rings fit better now than they did before I was pregnant. I have noticed when I lay down for naps, I go into a crazy deep, 2 hour sleep. Yesterday it felt like I had to wake myself up from inside of a dream. It takes a long time to get out of bed after a nap like that. I haven’t slept like that since I was a kid.

I finished up work last Friday and I’m so thankful to not have to sit in front of a computer all day. My hip was killing me from stretched out ligaments and lack of exercise, and now it seems to be getting better already. Lots of pool time this week, to try and strengthen my hips so it doesn’t feel like my leg is going to fall out of the socket.

I’ve been gathering up all the supplies needed for our home birth. Plus our friend is coming, so I needed another set of sheets. The medical kit is ordered, the extra towels and sheets are washed, I got extra pillows, and I just need to get a few more little things. I went on a marathon Ikea trip yesterday, I’m definitely in some sort of crazy, uncontrollable shopping mood, which is pretty abnormal for me. I got more shelves for the baby room, a laundry basket, a very adorable nightlight for mid-nite breastfeeding, and all sorts of towels and washcloths and linens, and a random assortment of household items. I was shopping as if I’m never going to be able to leave my house again. We’ve been washing the cloth prefold diapers, trying to get them worn in, and I’m going to get back to making diapers this week. I might make another swaddle blanket too while I’m at it. The midwives come to the house on Thursday for an in-home visit so they can scope out the joint.

Well, it’s been two hours since my giant three egg omelet with sausage. Time for second breakfast.

Today is my first official day as an ex-web developer. I spent the day gathering baby stuff and frames for art. We have a million drawings and prints that have been impatiently awaiting mattes and frames. We had run out of wall space and we knew we were moving soon, so I’ve just been keeping them safely together in a portfolio. Today I measured a bunch of them and bought a whole bunch of frames. Tomorrow I buy matte board, then Summer and I are having a matte cutting party. Such good stuff waiting to adorn our walls. I’ve got two drawings from Angela, a cool-ass chicken print from Imin, and some tiny showcase pieces from Lisa Solomon and Marci Washington, to name a few.

I’ve been thinking about pieces I was working on, pieces I started, new ideas, old ideas, just thinking a lot. Last week ended kind of weird, no feeling of doneness, so today I’m trying to get into the mode. I can’t really believe my job is over and it’s time to start focusing on my art now. It seems like a dream that I might wake up from at any moment. The last few months, I had no energy for anything other than my day job, sleeping and eating. Now I have potentially 4 weeks to get going on some ideas before the baby arrives.

I checked in on my sewing meet up group, a group I love, but one that I never seem to be able to get to. I’m going this week. I’m going to get going on lots of things. Get my mind thinking about art again, it seems like it’s been so long. I’m pulling out some favorite books. My painting studio in the basement is still full of boxes, but I’m starting to feel a glimmer of hope that it will soon be unburied. Tom says it isn’t as bad as it looks. Easy for him to say, those boxes are full of unfinished paintings. I need to make painting racks and go through my art supply boxes. It feels like a mountain.

So… deep sigh of relief for being done with my web developer job, and a big inhale as I leap off that cliff into the unknown.

Oh boy, let’s see. Lots going on. So I’m 34 days from my due date. I’m starting to feel the ill effects of pregnancy. Sore tailbone, tired, sore, sore, tired, and tired. Harder to tie shoes, harder to pick things up off the ground when I’m sitting in a chair. Laborious things like putting records on the turntable no longer hold any interest to me. Tom’s been a great help around the house lately. I’ve tended to be much better at talking about the things that need to get done than actually doing them. That’s not like me at all. I’ve paired down to the bare essentials. Bed, food, couch, shower, bath. I try to get Tom to drive whenever possible. I’m walking more slowly, and getting out of bed more slowly.

I had a scare on Sunday. I woke up with cramp-like pains that slowly got worse over a period of about 4-5 hours. The pain got bad enough to produce tears, and I was hunched over our chair with a million pillows to support my belly for a couple hours. Early contractions. Not good, not good. She’s too little still. She needs to stay in there at least a couple more weeks. So I need to remove all stress from my life. Sitting in front of a computer for hours at a time is probably the worse thing I can do for my belly. It feels all compressed and uncomfortable, and whenever I stand up, I feel the ill effects. So I told my work this morning, I need to take a backseat asap.

Yesterday I felt pretty good, just a little crampy, but I think things are mostly calming down in my abdominal region. This morning I felt really tight, so I took a walk and a bath. I’m feeling much better now. But I’m nervous, and I want to go sit in the pool down the street. My brain is telling me to sever all commitments so that I can focus on getting my body to feel better. In general I do not feel good.

I think she moved and I can’t tell which end is up anymore. Seems like her head is on the right side of my abdomen instead of straight down like it’s been. This worries me too. Time for yoga and swimming would make me feel so much better.

We got our car seat and I ordered our stroller from REI. Tom got the bed set he had his heart set on and Juniper’s room looks pretty darn cute. Tom’s sister sent us a blankie that is now permanently attached to the glider as far as I’m concerned.

I think I gained a couple pounds! So I think things are in good shape as far as weight goes. As long as I can either stay the same or gain each week I’ll feel better. I had been loosing weight there for a while.

I think Mississippi is getting anxious. She destroyed my Danskos last night. A couple nights ago she ate 5 crayons that were left out after our baby shower. She rarely ever actually destroys things. She destroyed a pair of Tom’s slippers ages and ages ago, but this is a strange new behavior for her. I wonder if she knows what’s coming.

I have to eat constantly to try and maintain my weight. Since I’ve cut out all simple carbs and have limited my grains to almost nothing, it’s hard getting enough calories to gain weight. So I have a smorgasbord of snacks on hand. Here are the foods that get me through the day.

Nuts
Almonds, cashews, walnuts, pecans. I throw them on salads, eat them alone, or enjoy spoonfuls of almond or peanut butter. I keep a bag of cashews in my purse for emergency snacks.

Beans
Beans, beans, the magical fruit. I have on hand Kidneys, garbanzos, black beans, canelinni beans, refried beans, black eyed peas, and pintos. I make batches of chili, three beans salads with beets, serve them alongside meats, have them refried with eggs in the morning, eat bean soups. Canelinni bean salad with lemon juice, bell peppers and tomatoes is one of my favorites.

Cheeses
Mini baby belle cheeses are perfect for on the go snacks. A variety of cheeses before dinner is a good way to get more calories in. Goat cheese goes in eggs and quiches, cheddar on top of everything.

Yogurt and Cottage Cheese
Plain Greek yogurt and cottage cheese keep me going all day. I eat it straight out of the container to save on dishes. Cottage cheese is the one thing I haven’t yet gotten sick of. It was a favorite food of mine as a kid and I can’t seem to ever get enough of it. I switch to the whole fat variety, trying to squeeze in more calories.

Meats
Boneless chicken breast, cubed, marinated in lemon and grilled, is the perfect snack to have around. Great on salads, great chopped up into a chicken salad with lots of mayo and celery, great as a finger food. Bacon is a good addition to anything. I throw it on salads, cook it with fava beans or black eyed peas, and have it with eggs. Ribs with my homemade, sugar free dry rub have been a great treat. We buy the huge packs of pork short ribs and cook them one rack at a time. I can pretty much almost eat a whole rack to myself. Ground Italian sausage is great for adding to my scrambles when I get so sick of eggs.

Veggies
snack veggies are really hitting the spot right now. I cut bell peppers in half, de-seed them and chomp on them. I love eating whole tomatoes or cherry tomatoes. Lightly blanched green beans are great, and can be added to garbanzos and kidneys for a three bean salad. Radishes are rad, whole carrots are great in the car. I eat Toby’s Tofu spread on celery sticks. Coleslaw has been a good friend. To make it, shred cabbage and carrot with mayonnaise, buttermilk, a little mustard, rice vinegar, salt and pepper. Pack into a container and let sit for 24 hours. Great alongside anything really, or straight out of the container.

Eggs
When I first got pregnant, I thought, I hope I don’t have an aversion to eggs, because I love them. Now, I eat about 2 dozen eggs a week and I am so sick of them. It’s sad. After the baby is born, I’m going to treat myself to some nice fried eggs on toast and restore my love affair of the egg. I guess fried egg over beans is good, might have to switch my morning scramble to a morning fry. I keep a bowl of boiled eggs in the fridge for a quick snack or to add to green salads.

Grains
I’ve found that I just can’t have bread. Not even a single slice. But I’m finding a small portion of grains, like a 1/3 of a cup at night is fine, and may even improve my morning fasting glucose numbers. My favorite right now is bulgar cooked with chicken stock and a little bit of butter. It’s so nutty. I’ve heard that sprouted grains have less carbs so I’m going to try that. I like buckwheat, I may start there. I also have a ton of wheat berries, which are great additions to green salads of tossing into all kinds of other hearty bean and vegetable salads.

Lattes
I found out milk is pretty sugary, so I’ve been advised to avoid it early in the day when my numbers tend to be worse. I have a decaf latte every afternoon and it’s my special treat for the day. I do a double shot of espresso and probably only about a half cup of milk.

Iced Teas
Water gets really boring. I came up with my own fake root beer concoction. I steep a healthy amount of loose sarsaparilla and a little star anise in boiling water for several hours. To that I add a small amount of stevia and some pure vanilla extract (hmm, guess I could brew vanilla bean along with the tea instead). I serve half tea, half sparkling water over ice. Very root beery and refreshing. My other favorite tea is “pregnancy tea” raspberry, nettle, alfalfa, oat straw, with lots of fresh mint leaves from the garden, steeped for a long time, like 8 hours. Very refreshing and it;s supposed to help with all sorts of common pregnancy issues like muscle soreness.

The key to my low glucose numbers has been to eat very, very few grains, and when I do eat them, they are whole grains only, no breads, eat something every 2 hours, and get lots of walks in, three a day if I can.

This weekend was our Baby Shower! My friend Mo did a bang up job, distributing onsies to people so they could decorate them. It was a good turnout and everyone had a good time. No scary baby shower games like sniffing melted candy bars in diapers, trying to figure out which candy bar it is. Just friends and laughs and food. Most of which I couldn’t eat. But the good part was, it meant I didn’t have to keep most of the leftovers. I did somehow manage to end up with 24 hamburger buns that I can’t eat. They are taking up space in my freezer. Do you want them? They are so carb heavy, I probably won’t even be able to eat them after the baby is born. They are insanely huge and fluffy, so if you’re into that sort of thing, they’re all yours.

I love the onsies, they are so super cute. What a great idea. They are still hanging up in the living room because I don’t want to take them down. We got lots of very adorable loot too. Funny thing was, all the wrapping was in green, same color as Juniper’s room. Green is obviously the new black. We got some fundage for our stroller so I can’t wait to get down to Segal’s and plop down some loot on our Bob stroller. Gotta get Mississippi used to it before the baby comes, she’s got a problem with strollers, wheelchairs, bikes, scooters, and skateboards. Basically anything with wheels.

We had guests from Bend, our old neighbor from our last house came, some of Tom’s band mates, the Guru crew, and even my friend Marc who I’ve known since I was 20. Oh! and Gus, who I’ve known since I was 18. Gus wins!

Here is my advertisement to drink water.

Here are me and Summer comparing our nose butts.

So… 6 more weeks. I’m loosing weight. I eat and eat, and I can’t seem to gain. I’ve lost about a pound and a half in the last month. This bums me out. I never thought in a million years I’d be bummed about loosing weight. But I have a net gain of 12 pounds right now and I’m supposed to be gaining a pound a week, I seem to be instead loosing a pound a week. A healthy weight gain for pregnancy is between 25-35 pounds. I’m essentially on an atkins diet, so it’s really hard to get enough calories to gain weight, especially with my added caloric needs. I spend all my energy trying to eat more and get some good walks in. I really need this job to end. Things aren’t looking very optimistic that I’ll be out of here by the end of next week, but I NEED to leave my job. They’ll just have to figure it out. My tailbone hurts, my stomach hurts, I need some time in the pool, I need more rest, more exercise, more food.

Aside from how good I am at bitching, I mostly feel pretty good. My stomach has been sore, Juniper is really pushing and poking at my belly and the hernia gets painful when she does that. Wait, I wasn’t going to complain anymore! So yeah, feeling pretty good, except for that tailbone, and the belly, and some roids. No swelling in my feet or anything, no headaches, I mostly have good energy except for in the early evenings, when I’m finally done with work and should be swimming or doing yoga. My windows of opportunity for exercise are closing earlier and earlier. I couldn’t take my after dinner walk last night. I turned back and let Tom go one without me, and went home and cried on the couch. Yep! I’m doing great! Couldn’t be better! No complaining here!

My belly is growing quickly these days. My shirts are riding up a little more lately and I’m thankful for Bell Bands. Six more weeks and hopefully six more pounds. On the good side, Juniper gets all the nutrients first, so it should all be ok, I’ll just emerge a more leaner mommy. Right? Everything’s going to be ok. I see the midwives this Thursday so they can reassure me about the weight situation. My fasting numbers are slowly getting better. Those were the only ones that have been bad. I have been trying the recommendations of the dietitian, which happily involved a few fruits and grains. But I’m discovering I just can’t have any bread or potatoes, those are big sugar bombs for me. I’m still experimenting with grains, a little with dinner doesn’t seem to hurt, might even be helping. Morning and afternoon grains seem to be a bad idea. I’m slowly starting to see patterns. I’m really curious to see what my glucose levels are after the pregnancy. I know my fasting numbers will probably go back to normal because I take a fasting test every year. But I wonder what numbers I’ll have after a normal meal with carbs.

Juniper, you are very rambunctious inside my tummy, we’re getting very excited to meet you. Dad especially is getting excited to meet his little girl. We were trying to come up with the perfect genetic combination from the both of us. Hopefully you’ll get Tom’s eyes and my teeth, Tom’s immune system and my hair. Well, the hair part is debatable. Hopefully you won’t start going grey at age 12. Anyway, hope you’re enjoying it in there.

7 weeks to go. Holy Shmoly. My belly has taken on weird new dimensions. I’m starting to stress. I feel time ticking away. They’ve been trying to hire a replacement for me at work. He signed today and it’s official. I means I probably won’t have to work through July 15th, and that means more than 3 weeks off before my due date. This is such a huge relief. I want to focus on my health and I don’t have enough energy right now to do everything. I want to enjoy my pregnancy too, and not just stare at a computer all day long, sitting on my butt. So that might be happening sooner rather than later. Last night and this morning I was a big stress ball because I thought things weren’t moving forward with the new hire, it had been 10 days since I’d heard anything. But bam, there you go, things are actually happening.

This weekend I tortured myself by going into La Petite Provence on Alberta St to get a coffee. Don’t worry, I didn’t eat anything. Mostly I just wished I could touch stuff and smell it. They had these HUGE free samples on the counter that were pretty torturous, but mostly I was happy just looking. I swear, after the baby is born, I’m going to have to do a “pump-and-dump” with some sugary treat, because I don’t want my baby getting a giant sugar overload, she has a high risk of having temporary hypoglycemia right after she’s born. But yeah, so tempted to do the pump and dump. I don’t even care about alcohol right now, I just want a little ice cream. Like one spoonful… mmmm so delicious and creamy. I love you very much, baby.

I went and saw a dietitian yesterday. She told me I should be very proud of myself for the work I’ve done to get my glucose levels down. She thought my morning numbers might be higher because I’m not getting a diverse enough diet, so she wrote me up a very nice plan that involves minimal grains/breads/rices and even some fruit. I had a dinner roll last night. It was soooooo good. But today at lunch I had 2 slices of bread and I didn’t like my glucose numbers afterward. Lunchtime 2 slices should theoretically be fine, but it definitely affected my numbers so I’m going to reign it back in. No reason to go hog wild with the bread. Just being able to have a little bit makes me day so much better. So I continue to play with my numbers. The bottom line from the dietitian was: 1. Eat at regular times every day. 2. exercise major muscle groups 3 times every day, preferably after meals. 3. Cut out the stress. Here’s hoping all this helps get that fasting number down.

If I were having a hospital birth, I’d have been given pills or shots along with diet and exercise. The dietitian said with numbers as bad as mine were for the three hour glucose test, she would have assumed they would have put me straight onto meds, but my food journal numbers tell a totally different story. I think maybe it was good for her to see what a huge difference diet can make. And so I cautiously nibble on fruit and breads. I was ok without them, so I only want them if they help me. I feel proud of myself that I’ve been able to keep it up as well as I have, and I’ve only gotten sad or run down on rare occasions. But man, when I do feel run down, when I can’t figure out what to eat all day, and I can’t seem to get enough calories, come dinner time, I’m a mess. I can barely find the strength to cook and feed myself. It’s hard keeping this diet up day after day.

I’m getting so excited to meet Juniper. Tom and I were wondering what she’ll be like. I know one thing, she’s going to have lots of energy, she is so squirmy. Can’t believe it’s just 6 weeks, 5 days now til my due date. I’m of course fine to wait but something tells me she’s going to be right on time. Your first baby is on average 8 days past your due date, this one seems like she’s going to hit the gate right at the sound of the bell.

This weekend is the baby shower! Wonder if anyone is coming. Wonder if I’ll be able to eat anything at all. Wonder if it’ll be a fun party. What am I going to wear?

I finally died my hair with henna. I’ve never used henna before. I got the red color. It is RED, so red, brassy orangy red. I’m now a carrot top. Pics someday…

So… we had to redo our sewer line. The best case scenario was that it would cost about $2400. If the water line got in the way or was damaged, it was going to be $1400 more. Turns out, through a series of unfortunate circumstances, our final bill totals more like $6200. Yikes. Not knowing this a couple weeks ago, we went out and bought some stuff. Stuff we could have lived with out, but stuff we wanted pretty bad, or maybe *I* wanted pretty bad. The first item on the want want list is this lovely glider chair:

It swivels, it glides, it reclines, it is water/stain resistant. I’d been looking on craigslist for one, but the used ones seemed to be ugly and seemed to be priced pretty high still. We got this one for a little over $500. I think it’s going to be in our home for many, many years. It will probably move to our bedroom if we ever pry it from our kid’s room.

Second item on the want, want list was a gas stove to replace our old electric stove. Our stove worked, it worked ok actually, but it was starting to get on my nerves. The oven temp wasn’t digital and the nature of the knobs meant you really had no idea what temperature you were setting the oven too, also nothing to alert you that the oven was preheated. This makes bread baking very challenging. It makes any baking challenging. I also can’t stand those stupid electric coils, the pans are always wobbly on them and you end up with one side of the pan collecting all the juices while the other side is dry. This stove has 5 burners, a flat work surface, self cleaning oven, and digital controls. Me very happy.

This is what wound up happening to our garage and basement. When we got the initial estimate, it sounded like they’d just need to break up one square of concrete outside the garage, get the city to do some work in the alley, and just meet up the new sewer pipe in the alley. Turns out the water pipe was directly above the sewer line so they had to redo that, and they had to dig out the entire garage to get to it. Then as they were digging, they discovered we have Class “c” soil under our garage, very unstable. A city worker actually fell into a sink hole as he was working on the alley portion. So in order to save our 102 year old garage, they had to stop digging, and go into the basement in order to lay the pipe in. To be honest the whole description of work makes my head spin. Our water line was 60+ years old and the pipe was very corroded, probably only had a couple years left, especially after having to be disturbed by all the sewer work, so c’est la vive. But ouch, lots of money.

So now we have a new chair, a new stove, a new water line, a new sewer line, and a very damaged bank account, once that was supposed to help us get through my quitting my job to go and have a baby. Oops. Good thing our CSA is paid for.

But enough house stuff. I had an ultrasound on Tuesday. This is Juniper at 32 weeks, 2 days:

All is good, good organs, good position, good size, no chord around the neck. She showed off for us pretty good and I got to see her open and close her mouth a couple times. I feel 100 times better knowing she’s dong good in there. I met with the midwives yesterday and they are not at all concerned with my diabetes, my numbers look good and they have no reason to refer me out to a doctor. So we’re still full speed ahead with the home birth. Go Juniper! You will not be made of sugar and spice.

Ay yay yay. It’s been a crazy week. The results from my 3 hours glucose tolerance test were bad, and worst of all, the morning fasting number was bad. I definitely have gestational diabetes. I’ve been monitoring my glucose for a little over a week now and I’m having trouble getting that morning fasting number down. The good part is, the rest of the numbers are well within normal range just sticking to my diet. The bad part is, the morning number is the hardest to control. I’ve been researching and trying things out, and making a million phone calls. Yesterday morning I had come to accept that I will probably have to transfer to a Doctor, and forgo my homebirth, but after talking to the midwives, and talking to dietitians, there is still hope. My midwives have complete faith that we can figure this out. I had a great conversation with a dietitian at OHSU and hope to get in to see her on Wednesday. She was very understanding and it sounds like she’s creative, knowledgeable, and very willing to exhaust all other options before advising me to go on medication. My morning numbers aren’t that high, so there’s a good chance we can figure this out. In the meantime, I’m checking my glucose levels all the time, trying to get a good picture of what’s going on. Tomorrow I have an ultrasound to check the baby’s size and make sure everything looks good. I can’t wait to see her again.

My midwives have been amazing with all this. They have so much faith in me, and I really need that right now. They’ve been calling around, trying to find all the help they can get. They are amazing human beings. I don’t know how to thank them enough for all their help and encouragement.

I had a bad, bad, bad appointment with a naturopath last week. She was supposed to help me with my nutrition. Instead she told me to keep up the good work, go on the Paleo diet, and take some pills that frankly I think are probably dangerous for me to be taking along with my prenatals (don’t worry, I’m not taking them). She then put acupuncture needles in some emotional points and asked me to tell her what was really bothering me. Before I knew it, I was talking about my mother’s death and the whole appointment turned into an exercise in grief expression. And let me tell you, I do not need any help expressing my grief. So I left there all red eyed and sad, with no more idea about how to get my gestational diabetes under control than when I got there. And she wants me to see her every week. I think not. I think I’m very done with her. To be honest, I feel like she manipulated my emotional state in order to suit her own agendas, of which she seemed to have many. Sadly none of her agendas seemed to have anything to do with helping me lower my glucose numbers. Anyway, that didn’t work.

The things I’ve found out this week are that I probably have what is called “Dawn Phenomenon”. My body is dumping lots of glucose into my system in the early morning and because I’m not making enough insulin, my glucose numbers are too high. I’m trying Chromium, Vanadium, apple cider vinegar, exercise three times a day. I’m experimenting with what happens when I have a bedtime snack vs none, eating in the middle of the night or not, waking up early, testing my glucose in the middle of the night.

We still haven’t found a replacement for me at work. I am now attempting to hold down an 8 hr a day job, eat every 2 hours, exercise 3 times a day, not stress, get lots of sleep, research gestational diabetes, take care of the dog, and make a million appointments. I can’t do this for much longer. I think it’s time to have a talk with work. I have 8 weeks til the baby gets here and I’m not risking her to diabetes just for a few more weeks of work. I need to focus on this.

So that’s where that’s at. We played with diapers this week:

The ones I’m making are clear winners on the stuffed animals, though it’s hard to tell how they’ll work out on actual human babies. Fingers crossed they work out, because they are pretty neat.

We love our baby class. It’s every Sunday night for 6 weeks and this week was week two. We practiced laboring positions and I got lots of back rubs from Tom. What is there not to like? It’s been really informative and fun and I look forward to it every week.

Here’s me:

Despite getting quite large, and sporting all kinds of terrible stretch marks, I am always worried about not gaining weight. I seem to be staying at the same weight for some time now, though every time I think that, I go to see the midwives and I’ve somehow managed to put on a couple more pounds, so I think I’m still doing good. I’ve been on a modified diet since April and a really restrictive diet since May 28th. It feels like all I do is cook and forage for food.

I know I shouldn’t beat myself up about this, but I am. I feel bad for every tiny bit of sugar I had early on in my pregnancy. I wish I could take it all back. I know my baby is going to be ok, I know I’m going to be able to keep my glucose numbers under control, but right now I feel like every french fry, every bit of honey in my tea, that delicious huckleberry milkshake I had in Hood River, the occasional sodas, the skinny cow ice cream sandwiches, were all bad for my baby. I feel so sorry for it all. So baby, I’m sorry if I put you at risk. We have 9 weeks to go and they are going to be the healthiest weeks in my life.

Nine more weeks and counting. Strangers are starting to ask me when I’m due. So I must be finally past that is-she-fat-or-pregnant? phase. I still don’t feel big, although I think I probably look big. I feel like I’m looking at a funhouse mirror when I look at my reflection.

It’s been an easy hard pregnancy. I feel pretty good, but the potential gestational diabetes and the hernia are hard. Personal stuff has been hard. Work has been hard. And when I look back, I think, “yeah, that was a hard time in my life” and I give myself a pat on the back for being such a trooper. At the same time, I look back and I think “wow, that was easy, so much easier than I’d imagined.” I haven’t turned into a hormonal monster, I feel very active and mobile, I am in love with my husband, we love our house, and I’ve generally really enjoyed being pregnant. But this may be the only time in my life I will be pregnant and I am starting to feel those regrets, like wishing I could have had more time for swimming and yoga, more time for relaxing and reading, more quality time with Tom. But we bought a beautiful house and it’s really coming together, so I have much to be thankful for. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to look for and buy a house after having a kid. So all in all, it’s been a fun, hard working time so far.

I took the 3 hour glucose tolerance test on Monday. Uck, horrible. I had fooled myself into believing that it wasn’t going to be that bad, but it was, it was terrible. I felt awful for the rest of the day. I’m concerned because the tech did a blood sample at the start of the test to make sure I was in a safe range to chug all that glucose, without running the risk of going into a coma or something. My fasting glucose was high, way higher than it’s been when I’ve been testing it at home. I don’t understand what’s up with that. So I don’t have very high hopes that I passed the test. And that is pretty damn depressing. I had a terrible day Monday. Terrible terrible. And my computer wasn’t working well, work was all screwed up and I ended up frustrated, angry and depressed.

Tuesday, since work was slow, they told me to take the rest of the day off. I took Mississippi to the dog park to run some energy out of her, then took myself to the Hoyt Arboretum. I hadn’t been there yet. It’s one of those Portland places that’s been on the list, I just hadn’t gotten to it yet. I did a 3 mile hike. It was hard! I’m so much slower now than I was a couple months ago. It still felt great to be outside in the trees. I feel out of shape and wish I had kept up with a regular exercise schedule for the whole pregnancy. There are only so many hours in a day I suppose, and since many days require a nap, there’s not much I can do. I just try hard, and that’s all I can do.

We got our Green Mountain diapers in the mail yesterday and now I want to have a diaper changing party with Tom. Maybe tonight after dinner. Gonna round up all the baby sized stuffed animals in the house. We still probably only have less than half the diapers we need, but I won’t start freaking out about that until July. Maybe all those recommendations for the number of needed diapers are just way over the top. I feel like being dangerous and finding out the hard way.

The highly restrictive diet continues, and I miss carbs. I live off of veggies, meat, beans, dairy and nuts. I try to keep it interesting, but generally everything is heavy. Sure, lots of veggies are great, but it’s been hard to get enough calories, so they end up being paired with heavier stuff, which takes all the fun out of a nice light veggie dish. I feel hungry all the time. It’s not like a ‘hungry, grumbly stomach, I need to eat’ kind of feeling. It’s more like a ‘I can’t stand to eat another bite but I feel like I’m hungry down to my bones’ kind of feeling. I have trouble deciding what to eat, because I’m not hungry, but I am hungry. I have to make myself eat all the time when I don’t want to. I guess I’m doing ok though weight-wise. I thought I’d lost weight but at the last appointment they told me I’d gained 2 pounds. I really feel like they skipped last month’s weight on my chart somehow, but Tom swears they didn’t. I had a taste of Tom’s chinese onion pancake last night and I wanted to cry. It might have been the best thing I’ve ever tasted. And I can now taste even the slightest amount of sugar in things. I’m highly sensitive to the taste of it now.

I got a glucose monitor for home and my levels so far always seem to be normal. So either the diet is working or the monitor doesn’t work or the lab and my midwives are trying to torture me for the fun of it. We’ll see how the test results are and if things look ok, I will add some carbs very slowly, and track how I react to them with the home glucose monitor.

They are finally interviewing people to take over my job. There’s just one month to go before I’m supposed to be done. There’s so much work to be done between then and now, but this week I’m in waiting mode. Waiting for deliverables. I’ve been cleaning up my code and writing a document for my replacement, so everything is in one place for them. I’m very excited to start the next phase in my life and I wish it could start right now. It’s going to be a very, very long month.

We started our baby class and it’s great. Lots of fun. It’s a small class too, which is nice. The two other families are really nice and I look forward to spending the next few weeks with them.

I know I should take a picture. Maybe I’ll try later today.

Last night I sewed instead of working on my paintings. It’s my way of procrastinating. I suppose it could be worse. I could have procrastinated by sitting around, doing nothing. But lately, I just call that being pregnancy tired, and the only thing I can really procrastinate against when I’m “pregnancy tired” is sleeping. But yeah, last night I had energy that should have been used for painting. But things needed sewing anyway. I sewed this table cloth and napkins:

And I sewed some more diapers too. But I have 23 days until my deadline and 4 paintings to finish. I’ve only just barely started two. My energy levels wax and wane with this pregnancy, so when I have energy, which is so very rare after 5pm, I really should be cranking away on these paintings. Looking at charts and graphs about common pregnancy symptoms, it appears I’m scheduled more for tiredness in my third trimester so my hopes of finishing these, while holding down a full time job, doggy class, baby class, and getting all the house/baby stuff done might be unrealistic, but I’ve never missed this deadline. So I’m thinking about that a whole bunch.

Yesterday I had a meltdown. Probably calorie related. It’s been hard getting enough to eat. A bowl of cereal sounds like heaven to me right now. Easy, yummy food that requires no work. Mmmm cereal, I love you. Someday we will be together again and I will treat you with the respect you deserve. My meltdown prevented me from going to my old favorite prenatal yoga class in SE. I had to cry and eat hamburger and take a nap instead. I’m realizing I’m at that use it or loose it stage of pregnancy. And if I don’t get back into a regular stretching and strength routine, I’m gonna regret it.

Now that I’m in a work countdown, I’m starting that list of all the things I’m going to do. Marathon appeared on the list. It’s been bothering me I never completed a full marathon. A half just won’t do, I want the full monty. Mostly the list consists of a regular daily art practice and lots of walks and jogs. Those two activities sound heavenly. I’m feeling really thankful I haven’t gained too much weight because it seems like recovery won’t be that bad. So I guess I’m ok living without cereal for a little while.

My baking scale came in the mail today. I was going to use it for all the fantastic whole grain bread I was going to make, but now I can’t use it for that. I weighed my cottage cheese, just to have something to weigh. It was pretty fun, but not as fun as weighing flour.

But speaking of weights, and waits for that matter, I’m going to do some exercise while I wait for some work assets to be delivered. ttfn. or… Should I paint while I wait? Shall I procrastinate on exercising but painting? Or procrastinate on painting by exercising? Or procrastinate by continuing to blog until I get my assets and I have no time to do either? Hmmm…

Here we go, we’re in the final 10 week count down (give or take). My blood pressure is 120 over 60, I’m steadily gaining 2 pounds a month, I feel fine and I’m still very mobile. I’m on iron supplements and I feel better. Baby is about 3 pounds and about 15.7″ long. Looks like she spends most of her time head down so I think I’m safe from breech. Because of the bad results form the 1 hour glucose test, on the advice of my midwives I’ve completely cut out all grains for now. They say some women are just really sensitive to grains and it’s better to be on the safe side. They’ve seen plenty of women do just fine as long as they cut out the grains. I go in for my three hour glucose screening soon. Today in our monthly appointment my midwife reassured me that often people get bad results from the 1 hour screening and go on to do fine in the 3 hour screening. So I’m trying not to panic too much. If it’s bad and I end up needing insulin, I loose my ability to have a home birth, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that things haven’t gotten that bad. Like I said, I feel fine. I’m totally dedicated to this no grain thing. I want my home birth, this high protein, low carb diet is best for baby, and maybe It’ll spare me from some of those common 8th month issues like swelling.

I’m still moving around quite a bit. I let Tom do all the heavy lifting but I was able to get some gardening done, even moved some buckets of dirt around. I am definitely slower than I was, but I just do little bits at a time and take breaks. I’m still cooking up a storm, cleaning, painting furniture, putting up shelves, all that fun house move-in stuff. I’m sleeping pretty good too. I have to get up once or twice but I get back to sleep pretty quickly. Tom says he’s proud of how well I’m doing. I’m proud too. Despite the issues like glucose, muscle tear, and a sore tailbone, I feel like this pregnancy has been generally pretty easy.

We took Juniper to see Nada Surf and Telekinesis. What a great show. We went early so we could get me a seat and it was so nice getting to stay on my butt the whole time. The little one kicked a lot, so either she hates live music or loves it. We’ve seen Nada Surf many times now. I wanted to tell them I’d seen them with a broken foot a few years ago and now seven months pregnant.

Our friends Gus and Cassie came over for lunch on Saturday and brought over some baby loot. They gave us this jacket, which I wish fit me.

So nice having people over. I made fried chicken, fresh biscuits, coleslaw and yams. The biscuits and yams looked good . I want more dinner parties. I love our new dining room. I wish all the people who came over for dinners in our tiny apartment in San Francisco could all come over for dinner at our new place.

This weekend was me and Tom’s 10th anniversary or being together. He had said we had to drop this anniversary and start using our marriage anniversary but the truth is, it might fall on or very close to our kid’s birthday, so we may end up switching back. Something tells me, even if we don’t have a baby by August 9th, we’re not going to have a whole lot of energy for celebrating. So we sorta celebrated this weekend. And that meant spending some good quality time together and with our dog. Trying to just enjoy the peace and quiet (sans the barking) of our lives right now. It was a really wonderful weekend. I wish it could have been longer.

Happy 30 weeks, little bug. See you in another 10 (ish).

My brother posted a comment on my post about my last glucose test. Here is my response

Scott “Sadly, due to our family history on both sides, we are at risk for type 2 diabetes. This has nothing to do with the diets that mom or dad had us on. ”

It has everything to do with the diets that mom and dad had us on. We learned how to eat from them. Having a healthy diet was even more important to us than others because of our family history. I wouldn’t touch wheat bread with a 10 foot pole. I ate so few fresh vegetables, it’s amazing I didn’t just keel over. I practically lived off of processed cheese food, margarine, and white bread for the first 20 years of my life. I don’t entirely blame them, much of it was just a sign of the times. The food in the 70s sucked. We didn’t eat that differently than most kids around us. But I have had to teach myself how to eat and cook over the years and because of our susceptibility to diabetes I have made it a mission to learn about all those vegetables and grains I was afraid of (or didn’t even know about) as a kid. I’ve struggled with eating disorders; binge eating? Hmmm, where id I learn that behavior? I get tested regularly. I have not had any problems with blood sugar since my early 20s, because I have tried so hard to live a healthier life.

Gestational diabetes is a different horse than type 2 diabetes and if I do develop it, it will probably go away after I give birth. But it is because of our family history and our learned eating habits at young ages that I am more susceptible to it in the first place. The actions I take now greatly improve the chances of my child not ever getting diabetes, just as the choices our parents made and the habits they taught us affected our likelihood of our becoming diabetic at some point in our lives. Yes, it’s in our genes, but it does not mean we have to give up. It is a controllable disease, avoidable even.