Thanks, Mom!

My mom is SO talented! She sewed many of my baby clothes when I was a little one, and my prom dress. She's created BEAUTIFUL quilts - several of which are in my house now, one of them is on Evvie's wall. When I told her I was planning to use cloth diapers, and showed her how cute they are now, she said "I think I can do that!". So I bought her a couple of patterns, and boy did she go to town! I have something like 15 diapers that she made for Evvie - and they're all adorable! Today in the mail, I received a package from my mom. In it, I found:

A blue tiered dress with coordinating fleece hoodie

A diaper to match:
And socks and a hair bow, also to match:

Also in the package were a diaper cover and bows that can be interchanged on the headband/bow that is shown above! Genius! And, she says there are matching pants to come. Evvie is so lucky to have a grammy who loves her so much already, and who knows how to sew to boot! I'm very proud of the creations she's made and look forward to future goodies!! Thanks again, mom! I love you!

Progress?

Thanks to all who were concerned after that last post. To give you some closure, here's how it ended: Scott and I walked up and down the stairs at 1 am and did yoga at 2 am and those two things (probably combined with the gallon of insulin I took) brought my blood sugar crashing down nicely to a 40-something in the middle of the night. At least I wasn't high any more.

Now, onto this week. I'm 37 weeks pregnant! Yay! That means I've passed the first alarming milestone for Diabetics Who Don't Want to be Induced Way Too Early - I got past 36 weeks! Wahoo! I'm having weekly non-stress tests, all of which have gone swimmingly so far. The nurses keep telling me how good of a girl Evvie is because she passes them with flying colors each week. But, I already knew that.

I also have a weekly "AFI" which uses ultrasound to see how much fluid is around the little one. So far, so good here too.

The most exciting news (for me) is that I've been having a few contractions! Like 1-2 per day! And I'm not just talking about the Braxton Hicks ones that I've been having for months - these are honest to goodness pre-labor, practice contractions! w00t! This is good news. Hopefully, HOPEFULLY!!!, it means that this little girl will decide to come sometime BEFORE the dreaded induction - likely to be set between August 14 and 17 (I'm pushing for the 17th. Or 18th. Or maybe 20th, but it's more likely closer to the 14th - boo.). We might actually get to experience labor as it was meant to be experienced - without drugs to make it harder (i.e. induction) or "easier" (i.e. epidural)! We might get to follow our plan of laboring at home (using the Bradley Method for those who are interested) for as long as possible and only going to the hospital for the actual pushing part! We might get to feel almost normal and not like a "special case" with lots of caveats on what is and isn't allowed due to diabetes.

To encourage this dreamy possibility, we've been walking a lot this week. And drinking Red Raspberry Leaf tea. And doing yoga. And walking some more. Because that's what the books say will help encourage and support a good labor. So, while we're not ready for her JUST yet (unless she really wants to come now - then that'd be OK), we're doing a lot to try to encourage her to start making her way into the world.

And, by the way, I'm hoping she'll come on August 7. Her great great grandmother for whom she was (will be?) named was born on August 7 and I think it would be a super cool coincidence. Plus 7 is a prime number, and I like that.

Sometimes, things just get wonky.

Tonight, my good friend and college roommate (for 4 years!), FAC, had a Harry Potter Party celebrating the release of the new movie. She had "Golden Snitches" (mini corndogs), "magical pizza" (because she thought the snitches didn't turn out well...but they did), "Cheesy Grubs" (cheese curls), and my favorite - Cornelius Fudge (It's a little nutty) (she thought of that, not me). Scott and I went to the pre-movie party and enjoyed ourselves, spending time with some good friends. I ate freely - enjoying a couple of slices of pizza, a snitch or two, a piece of fudge, and a cupcake (supplied by Liz who dressed as a Golden Snitch!). All was delicious.

On the way to the party, I remembered I only had a little bit of insulin left in my pump, so I pulled out my stash of insulin and reservoir set from my purse, refilled, and as I was putting the pieces together heard a weird "pop!" sound. I didn't notice anything wrong, so didn't think anything more of it.

Then, we got home from the party and I tested my blood sugar. 378 mg/dl. Crap. So, I bolused something ridiculous like 16 units (thanks, pregnancy, for making me more resistant to insulin!) and waited. And an hour later, I was 386 mg/dl. Dammit. I'm sorry, baby Evelyn. At this point, I changed the tubing of my pump, thinking that was where the problem lay. I was wrong. 45 minutes later, and I'm in the 350 mg/dl range. So, I changed my entire pump set - reservoir, tubing, and infusion set, and give myself another huge slug of insulin, hoping that it will get my blood sugar back in range. By the way, at this point, it's around midnight, and I was ready for bed at 9:45 when we got home from the party! At 12:20 I test again, and it's down to 318 mg/dl. Going in the right direction, right? One would think. Now, it's 1:15 am. I'm totally exhausted, and my stinking blood sugar is still 332 mg/dl. That's 3 hours of being HIGH - way higher than I should be, especially while pregnant. I'm feeling guilty, nauseous, tired, and defeated. I just want the insulin to work. I just want to go to bed. Most of all, I just want my baby to be healthy.

Hopefully my blood sugar will come down soon, and then I can go to bed. Hopefully I haven't caused too much damage either to myself or to my unborn daughter.

She's growing!

16 weeks:

22 weeks:

34 weeks (this past Sunday):

5 weeks until our due date! Let's hope she hangs out for at least 3 or 4 more weeks, and that the doctors let her hang out that long! :)