Sunshine, Showers, and a Valentine

This Mississippi winter weather has been so wishy washy this year. We have had some of the most beautiful sunshiny weather this weekend and today. Makes me itch for flip flops and pedicures! I wasn't planning on spending much time outdoors today since I'm not much on being outside but my plans were changed a bit.
Today is Valentine's Day and I let Bryce stay home from school to spend some time together before Simon gets here. They were having a field trip to the Chinese Restaurant today and being that he has a severe egg allergy and those restaurants ooze egg it helped me make my final decision on whether he would go to school or stay with me. We slept in and folded laundry, had breakfast and played with Ziggy and have just enjoyed each other. Bryce decided he would go ride his bike since the weather is so nice and when he came back inside he let Ziggy out. Now my dear sweet yet demonic dog is not the type to just go outside and then come back home. I think if we were to not try and catch him we would never see him again and I can't imagine why because he is spoiled rotten! So off we go with bologna in hand thinking maybe we could bribe him into coming to us. That didn't work and he kept running faster and faster. Of course this big ole pregnant gal wasn't about to run after a dog that doesn't know how good he really has it. We ended up trying to corner him in everyone's garage and he kept slipping away. About 35 mins later the little boy up the street who is homeschooled was riding his bike and Ziggy started chasing him so I told him to ride to our house. We were able to coax Ziggy into out neighbor's backyard with his friend Buddy and I left him to play for a few minutes while I came back home for the leash. While I was gone he managed to have a rip roaring time in the drainage ditch and mud in their backyard...yes he was covered from head to toe! I got him back home and bathed him and he is napping like nothing ever happened...oh that dog.

Yesterday afternoon we ventured to Hamilton, AL for a surprise birthday party for Eric's grandmother. This lady is the sweetest person I have ever known and has been a wonderful grandmother to me and is also a great friend so naturally I was tickled to celebrate her birthday. My mom and aunt also wanted to surprise her so they made the trip too. We all started piling into her apartment and visited and caught up with family and friends. Eric, his mom, aunt, and cousin went into the activity room next door to set up the tables and food for the party and I stayed with Grandmother to "keep her occupied". They said they were ready so we all filed into the room and everyone grabbed their cameras. I was ready to take a shot of Grandmother as we all yelled surprise. She walked in and nobody said anything...nobody took pictures...they were all very quiet. I turned to see that everyone had their cameras on me because it was not a surprise party for Grandmother...it was a surprise baby shower for me! I am not a crier but I shed a few tears. I couldn't believe that everyone was in on it. Even Tyler's friend Kara was in on it...she was there to do community service for school and cleaned up after the shower. We had cake and finger sandwiches and sang Happy Birthday to Grandmother then Eric and I opened all the gifts that our friends and family had brought for Simon. He got tons of stuff and here I was worried that the baby wouldn't have any clothes but he does now. It was an amazing day and I am so blessed to have such wonderful inlaws that love me and want to do something so special for me.

There is still alot of hours left in this day and I wanna spend as much as I can with my little Bryce so I will leave you with a few pics of the baby shower/birthday party.

Grandmother getting ready to blow out her candles

Ginger, Aunt Donna, Grandmother and Keona

Cody, Eric, Viki, Me, and Kelly enjoying some goodies

Eric helped me open the gifts

Me and Eric and all of Simon's gifts

My mom and Eric's mom

New Diet

I apologize in advance for all the emotional vomit that I am throwing your way in this blog entry...

Well in the last few weeks I have undergone the standard glucose test that all pregnant women take and mine was a little high. They sent me to the hospital last Friday to do a 4 hour glucose monitoring test and they all came back high too so I have officially been dubbed a gestational diabetic. I have so many mixed emotions about this and I know it's not a HUGE disease that could cause birth defects and death etc but still there are some risks and a whole lot of work involved in managing this disease. I will start a 2000 calorie diet this weekend and I go to the diabetes treatment center on Tuesday so they can discuss my diet and train me to use the glucose monitor.

Some of my concerns when it comes to my diet is not so much counting calories and watching what I eat, but it's the fact that my whole life revolves around food...not what am I gonna eat for my next meal kind of revolving its all about what can I prepare for Bryce so that he can have some variety in his daily menu. I spend hours at the grocery store reading labels so that we can avoid any allergens. I spend hours online reading articles about food allergies, eosinophillic diseases and trying to find recipes that are allergy friendly. I get up every morning and cook a homemade breakfast for Bryce not because I spoil him but because we have no other choice, then I spend time packing his lunch box to ensure that he has plenty of choices and a variety of carbs, protiens, calories, etc. Now I will be adding the meal planning for myself along with the extra preparation time to fix two separate meals for breakfast, lunch, and supper, not to mention snacks. I'm so worried about where I am going to find time to do all of this cooking and fit in laundry, keeping a clean house, and not to mention my full time job. The disease doesn't scare me, it's the lack of time and possible exhaustion that scares me.

Diets have always been hard for me not because of my lack of will power because I can muster that up, but because the majority of "healthy" snack alternatives are foods that I myself also have allergies to. Of course I will voice this concern at my appt with the diabetes clinic and surely they will be able to guide me to some other options.

Enough about the diabetes for now I wanted to update on our sweet little Simon today too. I had my 30 week appt today and everything was good (except the blood sugar). My blood pressure was great and my weight gain to date is 16lbs. I hope that weight gain tapers off, but I know it's only gonna get worse. Simon is just a smidge big for his age, he is measuring 31 weeks. I am very nervous about the possibility of him being a high birthweight baby due to the gestational diabetes. Bryce only weighed 7lb8oz and it took pushing for 2 1/2 hours and forceps for him to come into this world. I know God has his hand on all of this and he knows what is best, but I don't want a C section...my doctor assured me that second labors are easier, but I'm still not convinced.

In comparing my pregnancy with Bryce to this pregnancy they have so many similarities yet are so different. I didn't work when I was pregnant with Bryce so if I got tired I napped, if I got hungry I ate and boy did I eat! I had morning sickness for about 26 weeks and then that went straight to indegestion and gall bladder pains. I never felt a contraction until the induced me and I don't remember a whole lot of back and hip pain. Bryce lived in my ribs...I carried him high and straight out. With Simon I have continued to work 4 days a week and I feel like the walking dead on that third and fourth day. I don't often get the chance to nap except on Sundays and don't eat near as much because I don't have time to. I had about 20 weeks of morning sickness which is still a long time, but haven't had very much indigestion and no gall bladder pains. I have been feeling contractions for about 6 weeks now however most of them are not painful. I have tons of back and hip pain and my right leg stays numb mostly due to my previous back surgery. I am also carrying Simon really low and wide this time, don't get me wrong, he sticks out and you can definitely tell I'm pregnant but not as bad as Bryce did.

I am looking forward to the opportunity to raise another child...as big as my belly is and bad as my back aches, I sometimes wonder if it is for real that we are actually gonna have another baby. Only 10 more weeks to go and this world will be blessed with another little Heatherly Boy!