She'd look just like her daddy

if her daddy were Terminator, that is.

At our most recent ultrasound, Evvie was very cooperative in letting the doctor do an echocardiogram on her, and make sure that her heart is perfect (it is). But, again, when we tried to look at her face, she wasn't really up for it. The doc jabbed my belly with the ultrasound wand and Evelyn looked at us for about 10 seconds. I like to think she was glaring at the doctor for disturbing her. The one picture we got, well, it isn't the most becoming.

Here she is, imitating the Governator himself:



It reminds me a lot of this:



I still think she's cute. And if you look closely, it looks like she's smiling at us. Aww :) I can't wait to see what she looks like without the sci-fi special effects. Only about 15 weeks left...I can't believe it!

Which do you want first, the good news or the bad news?

Let's start with the bad news. Remember the dream job I blogged about last year? Well, unfortunately that company was not immune to the economy, and they've had to eliminate my position. My last day was last Friday. Since I'm 6 months pregnant, there's about a .01% chance that anyone else would hire me to do something similar, even if the economy were in better shape. So, that's the bad news.

The good news is that Scott and I have been preparing for my maternity leave and beyond by saving my entire paycheck for the past few months. We're able to survive on his salary without making too many cuts or sacrifices. We have a pretty good emergency fund built up, and with my unemployment pay, we will be able to continue making that grow.

Some more good news is that during my 3rd trimester, I'll be able to take it easy as I need to. All of those doctors appointments won't make me feel guilty for missing so much work. I can visit my family and Scott's without worrying about the time off eating into my maternity leave time.

While I wish the timing had been better, and that the choice had been mine, I'm keeping a surprisingly positive attitude about the whole situation. I will get to be a stay at home mom, at least for a little while. The company has told me that should I want to come back and the position is available, they'll welcome me with open arms. That makes me feel good. So, the future isn't clear, but when is it ever? And though it's not clear, it at least looks bright to me.

Sometimes bad dreams happen for good reasons

The other night, I had a nightmare. I don't remember many of the details, but I know I was being chased, and I had to get to La Push to get Jacob and his friends to help me. I woke up, startled and confused, and decided to test my blood sugar. It was 230 mg/dl. That's high.

I had changed my insulin pump battery just before bed, and when I went to program in a correction bolus, I found that my pump was not working. I freaked a little, and went downstairs, got a coin to open the battery case and removed the battery, and found that I had installed the battery upside down! Of course my pump wasn't working! I corrected my mistake, programmed in a bolus, and made my way back into dream-land completely unencumbered by nightmares.

I have found often that if I wake from a nightmare in the middle of the night, that my blood sugar is usually out of whack. I think the bad dreams are another trigger from my body to my mind, to get me to wake up and fix things. The human body and brain are fascinating and I'm thankful that, despite my obvious malfunction, that other aspects work so well.

Pregnancy update (almost) 21 weeks

21 weeks is 5 months 1 week, over midway through the pregnancy for those keeping track :) I thought I'd fill you all in on how things are going, and I must say - so far, so good. The headaches stopped not long after the last headache post. Otherwise, I've been feeling great. Until this week, when my back started hurting non-stop, but I'm hopeful that that will go away, too. My blood sugars have been relatively easy to control, thanks to my doctor's rapid responsiveness when I send her numbers. She and her CDE, Wendy are great and so supportive - I can't say enough good things about them.

The big news that we got last week is that we're having a girl! We're naming her Evelyn Lily after my great grandmother and Scott's great aunt, respectively. We'll call her "Evvie" for short (pronounced Eh-vie, not Ee-vie). She's perfect in every way - measuring right on target, and I think she has her daddy's ears. We didn't get to see her face or left hand this time, so we go back at the end of April for another sonogram, where they will also do a fetal echo cardiogram.

Lots of people have asked "So, how does diabetes affect the pregnancy?". The biggest effect I've seen it have is the number of appointments. Right now, I go to the endocrinologist once a month, the OB once a month, the perinatologist (high risk OB) about once a month, though this varies based on needs. I also have to see the eye doctor once a trimester. This is a lot more than an average pregnancy requires, and it hasn't even gotten to the hectic time yet, when, starting somewhere around 30-32 weeks (I think), I will have to go to the OB (or perinatologist, depending on how things are going) 2 times per week, and may have to start seeing the endocrinologist weekly. Normal pregnancies get 1-3 sonograms. I had 3 by the time I was 13 weeks along, and once I start going bi-weekly, each visit will be a sonogram. I think it's 100% worth it, though, and am confident that Evvie will be as healthy as possible.

There's a lot more I could say about diabetes and pregnancy, but I'll leave it here for now. I'm sure the 3rd trimester will bring lots of new and exciting blood sugar issues, and I've still got 6 weeks to go until I reach the third trimester!

I'll leave you with an updated picture - from this past Friday.