GTT is normal

I passed my three-hour glucose tolerance test with flying colours.

Here are my numbers:

Fasting rate: 4.7
1 hour: 9.4
2 hour: 7.8
3 hour: 6.6

Let's celebrate with cake!

"The Video"

Went to the first prenatal class last Tuesday. We'll be there every Tuesday night at Mt. Sinai for the next six weeks. Big class (about 12 or 13 couples), all having our first time babies, and surprisingly, I don't think I'm the oldest!

We had to wear nametags that say "Hello, my name is..." and we had to go around the room introducing ourselves, plus tell everyone our due date (April 10) and traits we want to pass on to the baby (mom's social skills and dad's math skills -- because the other way around will be really tragic!). Should be a fun class. There were at least two other couples expecting around our due date. I eyed them suspiciously and checked out the women's bellies to see if I can gauge how likely they are to deliver on due date. I can see they will be our main competition for the private rooms. Anyhoo, I guess we can't really plan around these things. I learnt that night that only 5% of women actually deliver on their due date. The range is two weeks before to one week after.

After the break (room full of pregnant women so lots of pee breaks worked in the session), they turned down the lights and showed us "THE VIDEO." Hmmm. That was interesting. Certainly motivated me to do my Kegels.

Orange Pop

Minor setback: My glucose test from last Tuesday came back a little high so I have to go back for more tests in a couple of weeks.

I think I can explain it, though. I forgot about the glucose test completely and I had an unusually high sugar day. Started out with a banana in my cereal for breakfast, then had a muffin during a meeting in the morning, followed by sushi rice for lunch and capped with a nice slice of double-chocolate cake for dessert (co-worker had a birthday). I had the cake just one hour before drinking the orange pop concoction (200 mLs of pure glucose --- yeach!)

I guess the glucose level cutoff is 7.7 and my results came back at 9.5. It might just be a little bleep, but now I have to wait another couple of weeks to be reassured that all is well. In the meantime, I have to watch what I eat.

Nesting

My office is slowly morphing into the baby room.

Before: my office
- three bookshelves full of books
- huge desk with various piles for personal and work files
- filing cabinet
- office chair
- guest chair
- cat litter box

After: baby's room
- crib
- change table
- desk
- small bookshelf
- small dresser
- cute curtains
- cute nautical theme murals on the wall
- maybe a glider chair for me

The "after" picture is what we're hoping to get in the next few weeks. Priority is to get the cat stuff out of there as soon as possible -- we don't want the cats getting all territorial on the baby.

Unfortunately, moving the furnishings out of my office means moving it elsewhere and in this case, it means moving it to Jon's office. So step 1 in the transformation of the room really is to clean up Jon's office.

In the meantime, we just got back from a trip to Ottawa where we picked up a whole lot of stuff from Joan and Phil. We have baby crib and change table as well as a playpen and a whole bunch of other paraphernelia. There's also bags of baby clothes on the floor that I can't wait to get into the baby dresser!

The "e" words

Now that I'm in the third trimester, a change has come over me. I am getting this false sense of courage and flipping ahead to the later chapters of the pregnancy books where the "e" words like "episiotomy" and "epidural" are making an appearance on a regular basis. These chapters also contain the more graphic pictures and the play by play about the "journey" the baby will take through a series of tunnels in my body.

Perhaps false sense of courage is a little negative. I guess it's more like an acceptance that the growing baby inside me really has no way out except through my body cavities, whether natural or artificial (as in a c-section, I mean). Besides, I guess I have come to accept that so many other women before me have endured this before so it can't be that scary.

I do notice that there is silence among the sisterhood about exactly what happens during the birth. The pain thing is glossed over and the focus is more on the reward, i.e. a shiny new baby. Are they waiting for me to ask them how it really went? If I did, will they give me an honest answer or is there a sisterhood pact regarding the limits of the details that one can reveal?

I'm getting braver, but apparently not brave enough to ask the right questions yet.

Dreams

The anxiety dreams are starting.

I dreamt that I was just getting ready for bed after feeding the baby and the cats and as soon as I got under the covers, I realized: "OMG, I forgot to feed the dog!" It wouldn't have been so bad but in my dream it turned out I forgot to do so for two whole days!!

So then I had to rush downstairs to the basement where the dog was and sure enough, she is down to almost no water and completely without food. I felt terrible and I couldn't believe I had done that. And then I was rationalizing why I forgot to feed her -- it was because I was so busy, thinking about other things and because I haven't gone to the basement, and because the dog was quiet the entire time. It was just the worst feeling ever.

Just in case anyone thinks that I was especially cruel to my old beast (poor thing died March 26, 2004 from the big C), I should clarify that the whole time I had her, I think I forgot to feed her once and only once. And that wasn't even my fault! (I left a note for someone else to feed her because I had a meeting after work. Sure enough I got home late that night and found that the dog was salivating in front of me as I ate and I realized that someone did not read the note.) Sheesh. So there. That's the only time I neglected to feed her on time. Honest, I would neglect my own needs first before I neglect any of my pets!

Now I'm paranoid that once we have the baby I will forget to feed her/him or leave her/him propped up in a car seat on the roof of the car like a steaming cup of Starbucks coffee.

Quiet Christmas

There seems to be a theme to the Christmas card greetings we received this year:

"Enjoy your Christmas -- it will be your last quiet one!"
"Next Christmas will be sooo different for you."
"You have no idea how your life is going to change."
"Get some sleep while you can."

I get the sense that people are trying to tell us something. Ya think?

In any case, it really was a nice quiet Christmas. Just lots of good food with great friends. We played the pregnancy card and managed to get Christmas eve dinner, Christmas dinner and New Year's eve dinner invitations. We were also sent home with leftovers after the Christmas dinner so I didn't have to worry about a meal for Boxing Day. The only cooking that was done here was for a pancake breakfast both on Christmas and New Years. And that was just fine.

I thought for sure I gained at least 10 pounds because I suddenly felt heavier and looked a lot bigger, but overall, I think I gained one pound. I guess I'm just getting ummm, heavier and a lot bigger!