Gestational Diabetes Success!

I am lucky that my pregnancy has gone smoothly and the only major issue has been the diabetes. Don't get me wrong, I realize completely that this is not a huge deal. But I will admit I'm a bit of a sugar addict. In fact I come from a family of sugar addicts! The best way to describe my family's relationship to sugar is Christmas cookie decorating. First it starts out like a fun time actually decorating the cookies and setting them aside, but after just a few cookies it turns into more of a chips and salsa time. We just dip the cookies in the icing and eat them. In fact after my baby shower we had leftover cupcakes and I actually had one at each meal. It's bad.... We just love sugar! And of course you can imagine how many times we quote Elf, "We try to stick to the four main food groups, Candy, Candy Canes, Candy Corns, and Syrup."

Anyways, so when I was told I had gestational diabetes and sugar was now a "no no" I did panic. Seriously I panicked. I was about seven months along and I had only cried two times before in my pregnancy, one time after having morning sickness all day, the second time I had gotten a different doctor who said some pretty awful things (I better not see her ever again...). But when I had to change my diet and cut out sugar I cried....a lot. I had no energy, I felt hungry all the time, I couldn't figure out what to eat without sugar in it. It was so discouraging. One day I ate a salad thinking that was the safest thing, yeah....I forgot that dressing has sugar and I spiked my blood sugar. It was so discouraging. But I am happy to say, I have figured it out!!! It's all about portions!! It has taken about a month, but I know how to balance my meals so that I can enjoy a roll with my dinner, or cheerios in the morning. This is definitely not a pleasant diet, but I'm not longer crying because I feel so hungry and I can't figure out what I'm allowed to eat. My dietitian said, "Now after you have the baby we do encourage you to stick with this diet because it's a really healthy lifestyle." I actually laughed out loud. No I will not be continuing this diet. I will definitely change the amount of sugar I eat every day and be more aware of my food choices, but I will definitely let myself enjoy a normal sized brownie every now and then!

I am so excited for my son to be born and cuddle him, but I'm also so excited to send my wonderful husband to go get me a fat piece of chocolate cake for me to enjoy! Some girls have a list of things to pack for the hospital, I have a list of foods I want to have after the baby gets here. Some people told me that this diet will end up totally changing me and I won't miss sugar by the end of it. FALSE. I definitely miss sugar, but I will change the amount of sugar I eat, and I'll try to reconsider getting fries with my burger.

Well to all the girls out there struggling to figure out gestational diabetes, good luck, I feel your pain!

Are you ready??

"Are you ready??" is about the most asked question I get, and to be honest the answer is, "...well I don't know..." I mean I probably have plenty of onesies, we have a crib, diapers are ready to go, and now we are just waiting for the baby. But even with all of the stuff I still don't feel "ready." How do you get ready anyways?? I have read a couple of books, I used to babysit for other people, but can you really ever be ready for your own baby?? I'm not panicking just yet, but there have been several nights where I lay there and think about the 5 billion things my books haven't covered. Usually I'm the person who is pretty carefree and doesn't need much of a plan beforehand, but I finally looked at my husband and said, "uhhh I really do not know what I'm doing...." Thankfully he just replied that we will figure it out as we go along. Cue the sigh of relief!...kind of, I might still be a little anxious. 

Anyways, last week we had maternity photos done and I LOVE the pictures!! Greene Label Photography did an amazing job! I debated whether or not to get them done, but I'm so glad I did, it's a great memory to hold on to. 

I can't begin to explain how blessed I am to have a husband who keeps me calm when I wake him up in the middle of the night with my ridiculous worries. He has been so great! We can't wait to meet our little man in less than a month!! God has been so good throughout this pregnancy and we are so blessed!

34 weeks - Happy Thanksgiving

This has been such a productive past couple of weeks! My mom came in last week to help me paint the nursery, we had the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving, Jared and I finished up the nursery, got Christmas decorations up, and today I have maternity photos! the nursery looks wonderful! Unfortunately the rest of my house is in need of a deep cleaning....

O'side Turkey Trot 2014 (although I think I should have called it the Gobble Waddle)

Anyways here's a couple pictures of the nursery!

I'm so happy with how it turned out! Not too shabby for being on a tight budget!

I think my favorite thing is the Bible verse above the crib. It took forever to make and hand paint all the letters, but I love it!

So far I have been feeling really good! One night I had some strong contractions, but I went to bed and they were gone when I woke up in the morning. Jared is leaving to the field soon, and once he gets home the baby could be here anytime! That's so crazy to think about! I still think he won't come until January 10th, but who knows!

34 Weeks

30 Weeks - Happy Halloween!

What a crazy past couple of weeks!!! I tested positive for gestational diabetes so I have met with dietitians about my new diet. No sweets, restricted carbs, restricted fruit, restricted protein, and all the vegetables I want. It's a bit tough, especially with all the holidays. On top of my rabbit food diet, I have to test my blood 4 times a day and log everything I eat. It's definitely not fun.

I can tell the baby is starting to run out of room, its pretty fun seeing a foot pushing out. But its not much fun when he decides to press into my ribs, that gets a bit uncomfortable.

For Halloween Jared and I dressed up like Bleeker and Juno! We had a good time handing out candy (even though I couldn't eat any of it....).

28 weeks

Everyone told me when I got pregnant that I should make sure to cherish every moment with our baby, because time flies! But, they failed to tell me how fast time would fly during my pregnancy also! I can't believe I'm 28 weeks already!

I got back from my trip to St. Louis and I'm already missing home! I love being back with my husband, but I do miss being around my family. I had a blast at my showers! It was so much fun going through all my presents. Now That I'm back home I have had fun sorting through everything and putting it away in the nursery.

Now that I'm home I really have to start getting ready for Jack! My mom is coming out in a few weeks to help me get everything together. We are going to sort through everything so that she can help me figure out what else I need, and she is going to help me paint the nursery!

Speaking of my mom, at my shower she gave me Jack's baby quilt!!!

How beautiful are these??? The one with elephants has a fuzzy backing and then she used the extra fabric to make the other quilt! I have such a talented mom!!

This week Chance wanted to be in the picture. And of course in honor of fall I had to break out some flannel! Hopefully this week I'll get the nursery looking a bit better and I'll take some pictures!

26 Weeks

Apparently I can't do everything by myself anymore.... I never wanted to be one of those girls that was constantly asking for help. People have been so sweet and have offered help and I turn it down and just do things myself. But this week I was in the car and tossed my purse in the seat behind me, later I reached back for it and my dad said, "wait I'll get it!" Of course I turned down the help and stretched to the seat behind me to grab my giant purse. No big deal right? Wrong. Apparently something as simple as turning to grab my bag totally pulled something in my back. I was down for the day. Thankfully it was a quick fix and felt better the next day. But I have realized I do need help every now and then.

On a positive note; I'm in town visiting my family!!! It has been so refreshing! Being so far away is tough!! I think missing Christmas for the first time is going to be really hard... I have been busy every single day! I made a list of things that I miss doing in St. Louis and I have been checking things off my list every day! Once I'm back home I'll take time to post some photos from all my adventures and make a lovely post about why St. Louis is so great!

I'm 26 weeks and I have to say, this pregnancy is going fast! I know once I get closer to the end, I'll be way more uncomfortable and I'll probably be anxious to get it over with. But right now I just can't believe how fast it's going! Do I really only have 14 weeks left?? Baby J should be about 2 lbs now and is moving around like crazy! I love getting to lay down and watch all his kicks and movements. I mean it's weird, but it's pretty fun to watch!

Here's my 26 week picture! Overalls courtesy of my wonderful husband! I have to say overalls are the best! I don't have to worry about my pants constantly falling down!

24 weeks

What a week this has been! I have been getting ready for my trip back home to visit my family, which I'm so excited for!! This week I had a check up that didn't go as well as I had hoped. My doctor was called away and the doctor that replaced her was, how should I say it.....terrible. She led us to believe that something was wrong with the baby, when it ended up being nothing. Being pregnant is stressful and scary on it's own, having a doctor scare me even more was absolutely not helpful. But a follow up ultrasound showed that everything was normal and baby and I are healthy (praise the Lord!!)! 

My clothes are starting to get a bit tight.... Jared even said to me, "Uh.... how about we go to target and get you a couple new tops.." after seeing me struggle to find something to wear. He was so nice and got me a new dress and sweater to wear while I'm on my trip! 

Here's the dress he got me!

We got the dresser moved upstairs into the nursery! I'm still working on how to decorate but I'm excited to put it all together in November when my mom comes out to help me paint! Time seems to be going so quick! In only a few months our baby boy will be here!

Over Halfway!

It seems really crazy to me that in about 4 months we will get to meet our baby boy! This week I went out and bought Baby J some new clothes at Carter's big 50% off sale, and I bought myself a few outfits that will fit when I'm even further along.

This was my bargain find of the week! $15 maxi dress! It's nice and stretchy so I will be able to wear it for a while!

This week I have been really low on energy. I go out and run a couple errands and when I get home I completely crash! My back has been aching a little bit, but nothing horrible. But besides that I have been feeling great! In a couple of weeks I get to fly home to visit my family!

Nursery

This week I got paint samples for the nursery and Jared and I are still like different ones! I have also been collecting fun prints to hang on the wall for over the dresser. I made one of the prints and I love how it turned out, so I thought I would share!

Of course my watermark won't be on it!

20 Week Ultrasound

I had my 20 week ultrasound this week! I was so bummed Jared couldn't come since he's in the field. Baby did great! He stayed nice and still until the end and I'm pretty sure he got tired of being poked at and started wiggling like crazy! I think one of the coolest things I got to see was his tiny little heart! The ultrasound could show all the different chambers and everything. It's especially cool knowing he is only about 6 in and only 12 oz so it's incredible that we can see all that on such a tiny baby. They said he is for sure a boy! Thank goodness because I already took the tags off his new clothes!

Another thing this week, he has been moving and stretching out a lot! I can feel when he stretches because my stomach gets really really tight where he's pushing. When I try and push back he feels so strong it's incredible! Of course after a few times it's getting to the point where I wish he would stop haha. I can't imagine what that will be like when he gets bigger!

Baby looks healthy and when Jared gets back I'll have him take my 20 week picture!

DIY Pinwheel Mobile

Let's talk crib mobiles. Of course with Pinterest I found a million cute ideas, but of course being the crazy first time mom I decided to do a little research into mobiles. Mobiles are made to not only help stimulate your baby, but also sooth them. That completely contradicts itself, but it's true. While the fun colors and movement can stimulate your bay as they watch it, when they are sleepy the repetitive motion helps sooth them. Now how to choose what mobile I wanted....  I didn't like the ones in the stores...they were mostly bright colors stuffed animals, I was not a fan. I found tons on Pinterest that looked gorgeous from my eye level, but then I started thinking about what baby would be looking at. 

For example, I loved this simple mobile, but then I thought about what baby would be looking at and it seemed pretty boring. So I kept looking.

I finally found a Pinwheel mobile that I loved! Now to start crafting! I thought I would throw together a little tutorial on how I made the pinwheel mobile. 

Supplies:

12" wooden embroidery hoop

String (make sure it's the color you want because you will see it!)

Craft paper (Pick patterns or colors that match the nursery)

Glue stick

Hot Glue

Small Buttons

To pick out my paper I went to Michaels and bought a pad of scrapbooking paper so that I knew all the colors would coordinate. 

First cut your paper into 6.5" squares and glue (with a glue stick) the white sides together so that there is a fun print on each side. Next use a ruler or a straight edge and draw 2 diagonal lines from corner to corner to make an X on the square of paper. Cut from the corners towards the middle, but stop about an inch and a half away from the center. 

Now to make the pinwheel you are going to only glue down the right side of each triangle to the middle. Take the first corner and put a little bit of hot glue and press it onto the middle, continue all the way around. I then glued a small button in the middle to make it look a little cuter. 

Now this next part is a little confusing and I definitely just had to experiment a little to see what worked best. Take the inside hoop of the embroidery hoop and mark where you want each pinwheel to hang. I did 5 pinwheel around the outside. Then take the string and wrap it around the hoop a little and put a dap of glue on the inside to help secure it. Then trim the string leaving about 15 inches, enough to tied them all together in the middle. Do this at each of the markings. 

Once you have all the strings on, tie them in the middle of the hoop, this is where the center pinwheel will hang from. Now to fasten the pinwheels to the hoop! Measure what length you want the pinwheel to hang and cut a piece of string four times that length, yes I said four times! So if you want it to hang 7" down, you will cut a piece of string to 28". Double the string over and put it through a button and tie the button in the middle of the string. Then glue the button to the middle of the top side of the pinwheel. 

Then all you have to do is hot glue the top of the strings to the inside of the embroidery hoop where you wrapped the other string. 

I know that last bit was confusing! Sorry. You don't have to do exactly what I did, you might find a way to do this that is much simpler! 

But this is how mine turned out!

I personally love it! I tried to take more pictures, but the pinwheels like to spin so much it was kind of difficult, so I took a couple of videos to show you what it looked like! Sorry the mobile is on a hanger in a doorway, we haven't painted yet, so I haven't hung it up in it's official place quite yet. 

Anyways, I hope you all try this, I think it would be perfect for a boy or girl room! The spinning pinwheels are so much fun for baby to lay down and watch!

Week 19 Update:

This has been a tough week. Like I posted I was redoing a dresser for the baby's nursery. Unfortunately some bad advice from a Lowe's worked ruined all the hard work I put into it. He gave me a polyurethane to "seal" my dresser. Too bad that "sealer" ended up yellowing the dresser and even bead up and dripped off some parts. It was horrible. All that hard work out the window. I wanted to cry. I got my money back for the polyurethane and decided to just avoid the dresser for a while. A few days later I took a deep breath and started sanding. We reprimed and repainted the whole thing. I'm not thrilled with the outcome, you can still see where the poly ruined some of it. I will for sure post a picture once all the drawers are in.

So to help me get out of my cranky funk, we decided to completely clear out the office to turn it into the nursery! That took some work! It was my sewing room, and I'm a pretty messy person, so it was quite the task cleaning it all. But we got it done and moved the crib, chair, and some other small things into the room. Next up to get paint samples and figure out what color to paint!

Week 19: I'm feeling pretty good! My back has been sore, but it's not horrible yet. I'm starting to feel like everything I eat is just sticking to my stomach now. Jared got to feel the baby kick a couple weeks ago, but it doesn't happen very often because every time he puts his hand on my stomach the baby stops! I have my big 20 week ultrasound next week, and I'm hoping they still say it's a boy. I'm looking forward to that, and I'm also looking forward to flying in and visiting my family!

This is me at 18 weeks! I don't have one from this week, sorry!

Dresser Redo

As you saw in my last post I got the cutest white crib! So I really wanted a dresser to match. To bad those are super expensive..... So I kept my eye out on resale pages for a dresser that was in nice condition that I could just repaint to match. I would have gone with a free dresser, but those usually come with broken parts and I'm not handy enough to fix all that. So I found a gorgeous dresser for $100 on a resale page. $100 seems like a lot, but considering its a huge dresser, in perfect condition, it was a deal.

So after getting our crib, I matched the creams at Lowe's and got some wonderful primer and we started working on it!

Here's what we started with.

And here's my wonderful husband helping me prime!

Tonight we got all the primer done and a coat of paint! So tomorrow I'm hoping to get a couple more coats of paint on.

Beyond Blessed

As a Christian I believe God provides for our needs. Sometimes I have a hard time realizing he provides even for the littlest things that seem pretty minor in the grand scheme of things. But after this weekend I must say, he does take care of even the minor things!

Friday afternoon, Jared and I decided to go to Ikea. We wanted to shop around and also look at the crib I picked out online to see if I really liked it. I LOVED the crib! It was so perfect. It was white like I wanted, simple, and in the budget! $99!! Plus the $50 crib mattress, so altogether that was a bargain! I checked the tagged and it was out of stock. I wasn't worried, there was a store up near LA, I was sure they would have it.

We got home and I got online to check if the LA store had the crib. Nope, sold out. I started to panic a little when a lovely little pop up said I could just order it online! Perfect! So I did, and then another pop up, "Sorry but the item in your cart is sold out and unavailable." NO!!! I started checking all the stores for availability, nothing! This crib was sold out! I was so upset, then I realized I was being ridiculous, they had the same crib but in a natural wood color, getting a white crib wasn't a big deal. It was definitely a WANT and not a NEED. I NEED a crib, I just WANTED a white crib.

Saturday morning I was feeling bummed but realized, that having a pinterest perfect nursery wasn't all that important. I wanted a healthy baby, and it would be okay if he had a different color crib. I decided to just hop on Craig's List to check there just in case. I had been checking for the past few months with no luck. I scrolled, and scrolled, and scrolled some more. Suddenly I saw it! The exact white crib I wanted for $80! I text the lady as fast as I could to check if she still had it, and she did!!

We went over to her house to check it out. I kid you not, that crib was in mint condition! The family had only used it a couple times for when friends were visiting. She was so nice she sold me not only the crib, but the mattress, mattress protector, mattress pad, a changing pad, and several sets of sheets, all for $80!!

Can you believe that?? If that crib had been available at Ikea, I would have gone and spent $150 on just a crib and mattress! But I got all of that and way more for HALF the cost! So part of me doubted God really cared what type of crib I got, but I honestly think he provided this crib for us! It might seem silly, but that's what I believe!

The crib has been approved by Chance.

Was that a......

KICK?! I think it was...... Yesterday I was laying down after eating and felt a funny feeling, like a muscle in my stomach twitching. I kind of figured that's what it was and then today after I ate I felt it again, but this time a little more to the right. So I tried to pay attention a little more and sure enough it moves around, but I kept feeling it! I'm pretty sure that was a tiny little baby kick!

It is so weird, and all at the same time so fun! This week has definitely been a hard week. Our house is slightly miserable with not AC, mosquitoes are eating me alive, and I just haven't been a happy camper. But this definitely makes me feel much better!