blueberries and new babes

We went to the Girdwood Blueberry festival this weekend. We made the hour drive (with Emmett screaming most of the way) mainly to see our friends Cyrus and Tina and to meet their brand new babe, Joya. She was so adorable and tiny. She weighed 6lbs 14oz at birth, which is the same as our Mr. E. I cannot believe that he was ever that small or frail. No wonder I was scared of him when he was so new. I remember having friends visit when he was new and they commented about how they couldn’t believe that their daughter (who was 4 months old) was ever that small. At the time, I remember thinking that their baby was huge. Now, I’m sure Emmett seems huge. It all comes full circle.

The blueberry festival looked fun. It is probably really enjoyable for people with children old enough to pick berries. There were TONS of children, all running around with blue stained faces and appearing happy. The drive back was also filled with screaming by Emmett for the entire trip back. Poor Guy.

Sunday, we had an awesome day. It was rainy out, so we smoked some ribs, and did some cooking for the week. I’ve heard that babies sense when you are about to lose it and turn their acts around at the last second. True, of our lad. Whereas, Saturday he was grouchy, and couldn’t sleep unless he was being held, Sunday he was mellow and took naps like a champ. And we had a terrific day.

He had his 4 month check-up last Wednesday, which included some vaccines. This is probably what led to most of the fussiness. On Thursday, his daycare teacher called me to tell me he had a fever and needed to be picked up. His “fever” was 98.6, which she insisted was a fever for a baby and that he should also stay home on Friday. I didn’t know much about these things so I took him home and looked into it. It turns out a temperature isn’t a fever for a baby unless it is 100.1 or higher. I’m not sure where the miscommunication was. Aaron stayed home with him on Friday. Daddy daycare!

updates! updates!

Well, I’m a horrible blogger. I’ve thought about trying to update the blog on everything that has happened in our lives since mid-June. But that would lead to more procrastination…

So in short:

Emmett started daycare. He didn’t want/take bottles. For the first two weeks I had to go back and forth from work to daycare to feed him. After this he started taking bottles, but then threw a nursing strike. Sigh. This has also resolved itself.

My parents came to visit. It was great to see them, and ultimately much easier than flying to the Midwest, renting a car, and driving 5 hours to Kansas. This coincided with Emmett starting daycare so it was nice to be able to cry to my mom about that. I was really excited to introduce them to Emmett.

I started work again. I thought this would be horrible. But, it wasn’t bad. I would still prefer to spend all day with my little boy, but ultimately for now daycare it is. I think being a mother has helped me put aside work stress. Ultimately, little work things that used to stress me out I have a new attitude about. The do not matter to me anymore. It’s only a very small part of my day. And not an important part at that.

Aaron has done a few stints of field work. I feel like I just recently became ok with his stints away from home and used the time to watch shows he would hate and enjoy food he would dislike (olives, popcorn, pickles). Having a child makes fieldwork just awful again. It is hard work being a single parent. Kudos to all of you out there, seriously. It takes a lot of energy and isn’t for the faint of heart.

Chris and Rachel our friends from our Seattle days came to visit us. It was so great to see them both. I can’t believe I haven’t seen them in 5 years. That’s downright silly. But, you know how it is with good friends, how you can just pick right back up where you left off? I love that. I wish I could move all of our Seattle group up here (or at least, have us all live in the same spot again). It’s hard work making friends when you are adults.

We went on our first camp trip with Emmett this weekend. We went to the Lake Louise area. We didn’t stay in the campground, for fear of annoying other campers with cries. But it was great to watch Emmett. He is so curious and wants to look at absolutely everything. He also gets a little attitude when you try to prevent him from getting the absolute best view. We all had a lot of fun, and I think Emmett loved it. It was really hard to put him down to sleep at his normal 6:30pm bedtime. It doesn’t get dark here until after 11 and he was, let’s say, very reluctant to go to sleep. After 2 hours he finally crashed. He had his own tent that was set up in the vestibule of our tent (trust me, he was safe and warm). The highlight of the trip, for me, was when he woke up in the middle of the night and I unzipped our tent to get him, he saw me and the look on his face was an incredible mixture of happiness and excitement almost as if to say, “Mom! You’re here?! Isn’t this awesome!!” It melted my heart and made my night.

Aaron was hired on permanently here at AVO. This is really great for us, because we can finally settle down in one spot at least for the foreseeable future. No more moving every 2-5 years. We are excited to stay, and I would say lucky. But Aaron is terrific at his job, so whereas there might be a bit of luck involved, a large majority of it is talent and hard work.

There, I think you are caught up. Hopefully, updating now won’t seem like such a major chore. 

daycare update

we officially started daycare this week. we are only going for a few hours-half day this week to try to adjust. he had been at the daycare for 4-5 hours yesterday, and we got a call from the daycare teacher. she was concerned because he had been crying most of the day, and not really eating or sleeping. i would like to think that this is harder on me than for him; however, he does have a few problems:

1. he hates eating from a bottle. he is what you would call a "boob" man
2. the daycare isn't allowed to swaddle babies (a law). he is only used to sleeping while swaddled, and will constantly wake himself up and have really small naps un-swaddled.
3. this week has been unusually hot. apparently our babe overheats really easily and sweats, which leads to crying

poor guy, it seems like it might take awhile for him to get used to it. aaron is gone for 10 days so we can't really practice bottles without him (babies smell their mothers milk and generally will not accept a bottle from her). we have been practicing swaddling him at home with one arm out, to try to gently transition him to sleeping without the swaddle.

any mamas out there have any other ideas to help the process? the ladies at the daycare do seem really sweet and nice. i do trust them. i've heard that it can take a few weeks for little ones to get used to daycare. it just makes me sad when i go there to pick him up, he seems so sad and vacant. once we get home and play he goes back to normal.

birthday swag

thanks for all the birthday love, everybody. aaron surprised me with a 3.5 oval dutch oven from le creuset. 

i'm in love. 

sew sugar pie

my dear friend, nichole, has her own company called sew sugar pie. check out her etsy page here. she is so super talented and sweet. she sent a large package a while back to spoil us.

she doesn't just make baby gear either. she also has sweet scarves and headbands for the ladies. she sent me two scarves (not pictured) that i adore. i've received several compliments on them. 

go check out her store and spoil yourself or your favorite babe.

attention working mamas

thanks so much for your concern and kind words for emmett. good news. the meds have started working and he is doing much better. he is almost like a new baby. seriously.

which brings me to my next topic. in a few short weeks (actually 17 days) i have to go back to work and the little guy goes to daycare. the thought has been bothering me for awhile, and has actually caused a few panic attacks as of late. those of you that have done this...do you have any pointers? i understand lots of moms are very excited to go back to work and have conversations with adults, yada, yada, yada. i'm not one of them, not even remotely.

to make things worse, aaron will be off doing field work on my first few days back, so i have to navigate it all by myself. i understand that in a few months this will not even be an issue. but it brings me a lot of tears now.

how do i leave this guy?

first bout of illness

well it had to happen, our little guy isn't feeling too well.

it started probably about a week ago in wisconsin. occasionally he would pull himself off, while breastfeeding and start crying. he also started to insist upon being carried only vertically. seriously, any position that wasn't straight up and down would set him off.

when you haven't had a baby before, you aren't sure what is normal. did this seem weird? yes - but so does yellow seedy poop, and that, as it turns out, is normal.

the crying during nursing got progressively worse, so we took him in to the doctor on sunday. emmett has acid reflux. the little valve near his stomach isn't closing as is should so he get stomach acid in his esophagus that can be really painful. this isn't uncommon in babies and it usually fixes itself by 6-9 months.

he now has some medicine, but it might take a few days for it to start working. also, we might have to tweak the dose, or change medicines all together if this one doesn't work. so we are still in for a few rough days.

i can handle a fussy baby, but once you know he isn't being fussy - that he is actually in pain. it makes the whole thing really hard to endure.

also, until the medicine works, i'm having to get really creative in terms of trying to find a nursing position that is best for him. so far, this has resulted in sore back and arms.

but this cutie is worth it.

journey to wisconsin

for quite awhile, we didn't know if we would be able to attend greg's (aaron's dad) wedding. we wanted to see everyone. but we really really didn't want to make 5 flights and drive all over wisconsin with a 5 week old. also there was a part of me that was really nervous to parent in front of people. everyone has different view on so many things (pacifiers, bed times, crying, breast feeding, etc). i was scared that someone would think i wasn't doing a good job.

in the end we decided to go. greg doesn't get married too often, we wanted to introduce our family to emmett, and also then we wouldn't have to think about travel for at least another year. 

the flight over was a red-eye, but emmett was a champ. he slept the entire way in aaron's arms. unfortunately, neither aaron nor i got an sleep that night.

the next day we stayed at aaron's brother, justin's apt. we hung out with justin, and his girlfriend, julia. that night was awful. emmett woke up at 2 am and didn't go back to sleep until 9am. blarg.

the next day we drove to egg harbor, the location of the wedding. we had a nice hotel room all to ourselves at the landmark. we had our only real time with greg and karla that night. we ate dinner together at the cookery. that night emmett gave us a bit of a fright by sleeping until 4am. as nice as that sounds we didn't sleep as well as we should have because we were scared something was wrong.

the next day aaron went golfing with the males of the family, while i stayed in our hotel room. we rested a bit, and then julia, rachael (aaron's sister), and caitlin (our niece) dropped by. we hung out and chatted for a bit. rachael was fairly enamored with her new nephew. at one point i said "it's time to feed emmett" to which, caitlin (who is 3) grabbed a french fry and tried to feed it to him. i had to explain that little babies can't eat french fries, they can only have milk. she was very interested in the process and while i was trying to discreetly nurse, she lifted my shirt up for the whole room and asked where the milk was. that even we celebrated bob's (aaron's grandfather) 80th birthday with a fish boil at the white gull inn. here we met the entire wech clan. i love seeing all the wechs together it makes me really happy, the only problem is that when there is that many people by the end of the night i usually feel like i haven't had the chance to really talk to anybody. there was also a bonfire to cap off the night, aaron attended but emmett and i headed to bed and were no shows.

the next day was pretty lazy for us. we stayed holed up in our hotel room. did some laundry, ironed our clothes, etc. in preparation for the wedding that night. the wedding was at the beautiful horsehoe bay golf club. emmett started fussing at the very begining of the ceremony so aaron took up for a bit of a walk. as caitlin (flower girl) was walking down the aisle, i grabbed my phone to take a photo and noticed an urgent text from aaron.

emmett was hungry. i quickly found them and aaron went back to the ceremony. i fed emmett and missed the entire wedding. next came about 45 minutes of family photos followed by some mingling and hors d'oeuvres. we passed emmett around and chatted with various aunts, uncles, and cousins. the dinner was wonderful (i had the tenderloin, aaron had the stuffed trout). more chatting, some funny toasts. followed by dancing. i really wish i could share some photos with you, but honestly i'm really bad about capturing moments. i usually prefer to just be in the moment and not hassle with photos, then i'm always upset that there aren't any photos. i did manage one shot: a four generational wech photo (with aunt michelle photo bombing in the background).

sunday we left egg harbor and headed to green bay to aaron's mother's house. sunday and monday were spent chatting it up with jean and bob and letting them meet their grandson. 

tuesday, we packed up again, and headed back to madison to justin's house. we spent the last couple of nights there. hanging out with justin, julia, and caitlin. 

thursday we took 3 flights to get back home. we were exhausted. any remnants of a schedule that emmett was on was shattered. but it was great to see everyone, and really at this point it's probably easier to travel with a 5 week old vs a 2 year old. 

i also think that this trip helped to make everyday things with emmett seem easier. the grocery store no longer seems like a challenge.

the first two weeks

i expected the worst with pregnancy. i had heard all kinds of horror stories, and was prepared to be miserable, especially towards the end. i was delightfully surprised at how ok it was. the worst part for me was that it somewhat forced me to into the limelight a bit more than i would like. and the annoying comments after my due date came and went. overall not bad, and some parts were...gasp...pleasant.

i was not, however prepared for the first two weeks of having a newborn. i knew it would be hard. but i failed to realize how hard. i knew i would be sleep deprived, but i had no idea to what extent. i didn't even think about the huge part that hormones would play.

there were days that i functioned on 1 hour of sleep in a whole day. every decision felt like it could alter his entire life, i was a sobbing mess that didn't feel capable of the huge responsibility in front of me. he was (is) so small and precious, how in the world am i supposed to take care of him and know what to do? poor aaron, was so patient (with us both).

things i have learned about motherhood:

1. motherhood can be heavy. the love is unlike anything you have experienced before. and though that sounds pleasant, it is also incredibly overwhelming. days start and end with the saddest cries you have ever heard that bring you to a panic. normally a capable person, i found myself googling every single thing "is green poop normal for a newborn?" or "how to get your newborn to sleep in his bassinet" and feeling like i wasn't good enough because i didn't know the answer to any of it.

2. motherhood is like a sisterhood. no joke. before i was a mom, if i heard someone was expecting i would tell them congratulations and buy them a gift. that was it. simple. i have been floored by the way that other mothers have been so generous. offering to go to the store, bringing us food, asking how i'm feeling. bringing flowers. offering words of encouragement, support, and understanding. the support has been overwhelming from mothers far and near. i can not wait to pay it forward to the next newbie.

things are getting better. i am way less hormonal and crazy, and i'm averaging about 5-6 hours of sleep a night (not consecutive, but still way better). emmett has brought such love and joy to our house and i am forever thankful he is ours. motherhood will always be hard, i know, but the rewards are even greater.

introducing emmett joshua wech

our sweet boy, emmett joshua, was born two weeks late on friday, april 3rd, at 6:58pm. he was 6lbs 14 oz and was 20.5 inches long. everyone is doing well. we are happy, healthy, sleep deprived and in love.

that's the abbreviated version. if you want the long story see below. 

labor officially started on tuesday. the midwives checked me and i was only a 1/2 cm dialated after being a week and a half late. trish, our midwife and friend, gave us the option of trying a catheter to get the ball rolling. it was inserted in the morning and by 2:30pm contractions had started. they kept going until midnight. then they stopped. 

we went back to the midwives the next day. i was 3cm dialated and they gave me herbs, dieter tea and told me to pump as a way to bring about contractions. nothing happened when i was trying these methods, but contractions started on their own again around midnight and lasted until 7:30am. just long enough to not get any sleep. 

that morning the lora, one of the midwives, checked and I was 4cm dialated. she did a membrane sweep and sent me home. contractions started for the last time that thursday morning at 11:30. they continued the entire day and into the night. 

by 3am they had became so intense that my screams woke aaron up. he helped me get in the shower which helped a lot with the pain...until we ran out of hot water. he then surprised me with jelly beans he had sneakily purchased for the occasion (i couldn't have any sweets the last 14 weeks due to gestational diabetes). i suffered through another hour of contractions then got back in the shower after our hot water was replenished. soon after, the contractions got to the magical 4 minutes apart stage and we got to call the birth center. i remember as we left our house that it was incredibly weird to know that the next time i came home i would be a mother. 

when we got to the birth center it was about 6:30am on friday. friday was our two week mark, so at the end of the day we would risk out of the birth center and have to go to the hospital to be induced. i had been in labor around 33 hours total. karin, the midwife on call checked me and i was still just 4cm dialated. no progress from the day before. this news broke my spirit. i sobbed. i hadn't slept in two days, the contractions were unbearable and i was no closer than i had been the day before. i sat in a warm bath at the birth center while aaron tried to console me. 

trish, our friend and coincidentally also a midwife, arrived around 9am. she gave us our options: i could take some ambian and try to sleep, go to the hospital and try some morphine, or go to the hospital and get an epidural and get induced. aaron and i talked. i really really wanted to get an epidural and be induced, but i felt like a failure for giving up on natural childbirth. he and trish both reassured me that i gave it a solid effort for 3 days. there was no failure. i felt so relieved at that. we then headed to the hospital. 

the epidural took about an hour to get, but our nurse, jena, gave me something lovely to help me relax until then. after the epidural was in place, aaron and i both slept for about 4-5 hours. trish then came back to check on me. after a quick look, she said it was time to push - i was at 10 cm!  at this point i was in disbelief. the entire thing felt like i was in a movie.

the pushing began around 4:30pm. trish, jena, aaron and i were the only ones in the room. trish was a terrific coach. aaron held my leg, held my hand, and got me all the water i wanted. after about 2.5 hours of pushing, emmett joshua wech was born!

i was concerned right away, as he was quiet and there were no screams. also there was suddenly a team of nicu doctors in the room. they explained that emmett had meconium in his lungs, and they needed to be vacummed out. sure enough, less than a minute later, aaron was placing him on my chest. i was crying and shaking so hard. he was perfect and healthy.

he was named after my great uncle, emmett, which is also my father's middle name. and josh, aaron's brother.

41 weeks and a few days

the last preggo shot

41 weeks and 4 days and i'm still pregnant. this doesn't really alarm or bother aaron or i, but we are in the minority. everyday there are emails and texts from concerned family, friends, and coworkers. i understand that people are concerned. but we are not, not until the midwives are. they assure us that things are perfectly healthy and normal. they conducted a non-stress test to make sure there is enough water, and the placenta is healthy. a-ok on both fronts. 

he has a few more days to make his way out on his own, otherwise we will be induced by saturday. it's so weird to think that in a few days we will be meeting him and our lives will change forever. i can't really imagine what such a life changing event will be like. 

can i tell you that the absolute worst thing about pregancy has been? at 41 weeks, going to work and dealing with comments from absolutely everybody. the boss, co-workers, other offices..."what are you still doing here?" "no baby, what's wrong?" "you should do this, this or this" "how far dialated are you?" blarg. please just let me work. i know the intentions are good. but every. single. day. so annoying.

in other, non-baby news, aaron and i had a great date night last night. we saw kumiko: the treasure hunter at the bear's tooth last night and had a yummy dinner. the movie was excellent - the last time we went out to see a movie, just the two of us was well over a year ago. not something we do routinely, but it was a nice way to spend one of our last nights as just a family of 2. 

just waiting

still no news yet from our little wechlet. the official due date was 20 march. i was pretty sure we would be late though. most first borns are late, so i'm not concerned, at least for right now. The little guy is part aaron and probably saw 20 march as a "soft deadline". at two weeks past due we will risk out of the birth center - but that is a long way off.

my biggest concern is that on sunday i woke up with a sore throat. which today is worse. i'm actually staying home sick from work. mostly because i feel like crap, but also because i'm trying to get as much rest as possible so that i can beat this thing  quicker. i can't imaging going into labor or having a newborn with a cold. blarg.

cold medicines don't cure the cold, just help the symptoms. but half of them i can't have due to pregnancy, the other half i can't have due to the gestational diabetes. i am left with sugar free cough drops, tea, and sleep.

sweet husband

yesterday, aaron drove me home from our doctor's appointment. he said he needed to do a few more things at work so he took the car.

i meanwhile got started doing a few chores around the house, and eventually my prenatal pilates. aaron came home when i was partway done. when i was done working out, i noticed these little beauties.

beautiful, right? i was so happy and very chit-chatty. aaron told me i should take a shower from my workout. when i came out, i noticed this

not only did he buy me (us) wine and stocked our barren shelves. he had used my wine app (vino) that i used to review wines (you don't have a wine app? that sounds like a personal problem). he screen shot my top nine reviewed wines and went to several different stores to get them all. he is incredible. i thanked him profusely, he said "you carried a baby for nine months, i could at least go to a few stores to get wine". 

39 weeks

i can not believe it has been 39 weeks already. time has flown. but the proof is in the photo.

people tell me everyday how ready i must be and how done i must feel. but it really hasn't been that bad, which is why i feel sort of in denial that he will be here any day now. i keep thinking it will be a few weeks away, but it could be anywhere from today to 10 days or so. 

to pass the time, aaron and i are just relaxing on the weekends and evenings. this is our last time as a family of 2 and though we are excited for our new "wechlet" (thanks theresa and mark!) who knows when we will have quiet time as a couple again. and sleep. really cherishing the sleep. 

last weekend was our first weekend in a long time, where we haven't been out crazily buying things, or putting things together. the cold prevented us from going outside much (1 degree). it was almost boring, but so nice. we watched basketball, and napped. 

i'm not sure how fast i will update the blog once our lil man comes. but i will update it eventually, with photos. cut me some slack.

sew what? a blanket

after my last few easy crafts, i had to sew a wee blanket too. a friend has been promising a blanket, but it won't be ready in time. i sewed this one up in a few hours. it was so ridiculously easy. i sort of want to make 50.

sewing crafts

i'm not too much of a sewer. i make quilts, but that is mostly sewing in a straight line - which i have mastered. i have tried more advanced things like skirts, and sometimes they work out and other times not. sewing patterns have their own intimidating language that sometimes leaves me in tears.

however, there are lots of useful things that you can make with only straight lines and not a lot of work.

behold burp cloths

i used the purlbee's tutorial found here for oxford burp cloths. pretty simple and only took a few hours.

and also a monster laundry bag. that will surely make laundry more fun, right? well, it couldn't hurt.

aaron picked out the fabric, which i loved. i used the instructions found on the momtastic website.

both projects were so easy, cheap, and useful that i want to sew more! any other easy useful projects?

week 36

it's been awhile since my last update. that's because there hasn't been too much going on over here. at least not things that make for interesting reading.

we've been going to child birth classes. i've heard many people say that that's a good idea, and others seem to think that child birth is the most natural thing in the world and no one should need a class for it. i like to be as knowledgable as possible when my world is about to change. so i say why not? i have learned some things and it has helped me to feel more prepared.

we have now had 2 baby showers, and have had many packages arrived in the mail that were total surprises. we are so incredibly lucky to have the friends that we do. and we both thank you all for your love and support. i feel a lot like a child a christmas when a package arrives.

last weekend we buckled down and bought most of the things that were on our list of essentials that hadn't been purchased yet (car seat being the most critical) but also dresser, diapers, etc. those things will officially arrive this week. this has drastically reduced my anxiety. i still don't really know how to be a mom, but at least i will have tools that will help me.

each weekend, i've been trying to make a few freezer meals that we can wipe out in the first few weeks after. this has been making the weekends be a bit fuller than normal (purchasing things, throwing 3 extra meals together, etc) but i think it will help pay off in the end. currently we have lasagna roll-ups, italian moose stew, cilantro lime chicken, chili, and black bean & lentil stew.

i'm still not as uncomfortable as i expected to be. i don't sleep as well as i usually do, and the evenings/nights i sometimes get some hip pain. but the very worst i would call it would be mild discomfort. pregnancy comfort level is probably a luck of the draw type deal, for which i have been incredibly lucky. i do the that maintaining a usual exercise routine helps as well. i haven't been running or doing anything really hardcore, but walking during all lunch breaks and doing prenatal exercise videos 4-5 days a week.

i have been fairly surprised at how talkative and nice complete strangers are to you when you are pregnant. people who would never talk to me make random conversations regarding wee baby seamus. asking how far along, gender, etc. and making really sweet comments towards me. (you don't look that far along! be careful out there dear, it's icy! congratulations, honey! - were all said to me be three different people this weekend at REI). fortunately, i haven't had any strangers want to touch my belly, because i wouldn't take too kindly to that.

nice post will hopefully be more crafty .... are you ready? i'm making burp cloths! crazy, right?

week 33

i'm struggling a bit with the posts. i would like to write something other than baby/pregancy posts, lest you think this blog is going to become all about baby and not about us. not that there is anything wrong with that, but it has always bothered me when people have a baby and they no longer write about there lives, you never even see them in their own christmas cards. don't get me wrong, i love getting baby updates, but i also want to get updates about them as well.

the thing is, is that right now, pretty much most of the time is spent getting ready for the little babe to make an appearance. for instance, today, we have a total of 3 appointments (midwife, pediatrician, and birthing class - and yes, these are on top of work schedules).

yes, the cutsie dress is gone

my friend, lauren, threw us a baby shower last thursday at the glacier brewhouse. it was perfect. no games, or decorations. just people and food (and gifts). it was a nice, low key way to celebrate. just our style.

in non-baby related news, we threw a superball party last night. lots of friends came over. no one seemed to care much who one - everyone pretty much disliked both teams, myself included. but a fun way to spend the afternoon.

baby registration

i wasn't going to create a baby registry. it seems a bit weird to ask for things because you are having a baby. especially for us, we married in our backyard, no showers, no presents. that's how we roll.

but i was asked several times about it. and i get it, people genuinely want to help and buy something nice for baby. so i did it... i finally created a registry.

you can find it here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/baby-reg/ref=cm_wl_search_1?ie=UTF8&lid=3ONPLVGBRRU8P

please do not feel obligated to get us a gift, but if you were going to and wanted some guidance as to what would be the most useful, there you go. i'll be adding a bit more to it as i go on.

i do want to thank the friends that have already been so generous. we have had many things gifted to us already (a beautiful sleep sack, moby, baby bjorn, cute outfits, the list goes on). thank you, it really means a lot - and it's so fun envisioning using them.

hawaii

at south point, hawaii

a really lucky thing about aaron's job is that is sometimes takes him to cool places, like hawaii. the last two years he has works a week or so at the hawaii volcano observatory. after work is done, i scamper down to enjoy some sunshine with him. it works well.

we spent a few nights in this yurt. and spent some time swimming and snorkeling at a local beach. we also did the crater rim drive at volcano national park.

on our way to our second rental. we went to the southern most tip of the united states.

in all my splendor

obligatory cutsie pic

after a stop there, we went to Punaluu Black Sand Beach, where you can see sea turtles.

our second vrbo rental was slightly more posh and located in puna. we spent our mornings there going to the kapho tide pools, which was possibly my favorite part of the trip. i usually don't like snorkeling because i'm a wuss, and scared of things in the ocean, or of big waves swallowing me, or drinking sea water. none of those things happened here. bliss.

we also saw our good friends, wes and jenni, and their two beautiful children. it was really fun to catch up and be entertained by coen and marin. 

there were also a few late afternoons spent watching for whales by the coast (we saw a few!). all in all, it was a beautiful trip. and probably the last one with only the 2 of us for awhile.

byron glacier

we also took the kids (paul and sara) to see byron glacier. we hadn't been there before, so it was new to us as well. one of the really awesome things about living in alaska is that a short drive, and a small hike can bring you to really beautiful places.

the view from the drive over to the glacier

the hike was really short 1.5-2 miles, perhaps. all flat. and then you got to the glacier...

yurting with paul and sara

aaron's brother, paul and his girlfriend, sara came to visit us for a week over christmas. i had met sara twice, but only for brief moments, and i hadn't properly hung out with paul in a long time. so it was really nice to get some quality time with them.

on christmas eve, we hiked 2 miles to a yurt in the woods. rapid camp yurt. the hike in was easy, and beautiful. see?

once we got there, we promptly started a fire in the cute wood stove. it took an hour or so, but the yurt slowly started warming up. once it was warm, it was never cold again. in fact, the yurt felt downright tropical. we occasionally stepped outside to cool off. 

our christmas eve dinner consisted of pork and pumpkin chili, which was delicious, and cheese and crackers, of course. 

we welcomed christmas morning with breakfast burritos and then packed out of the yurt and headed back to the eagle river nature center. 

week 28

technically, week 28 was last week. we were busy with christmas, having company, going to a yurt. all the normal christmasy things.

but, i didn't want to skip this week, because it had our first minor bump (pardon the pun) in the road. 

at 28 weeks i was given the glucose screening, which measures your blood sugar. it involved drinking a super sweet beverage and having my blood drawn once. the cut off was 140, and mine came back 149. 

this isn't a big deal, and it turns out lots of people fail the screening. those people are given a test. a much more sugary drink, and 4 blood draws (1 fasting, and then 1 per hour, for 3 hours). i was given this test as well. my numbers came back and i failed 2 out of 4. this means i have gestational diabetes.

i found out the day after christmas. we were all planning to go to powerline pass to look around and take pictures (aaron, his brother, paul, and paul's girlfriend, sara). paul and sara were in the car, and aaron and i were heading out when i got the call from the nurse. i think i took the news pretty well while we were on the phone, but immediately started crying when i got off. i couldn't help feeling like i had let our little guy down in some way. this, of course, isn't rational - but pregnant ladies are not always inclined to be rational. i quickly dried my tears and went to powerline pass as though nothing was wrong. in fact, i don't think paul or sara ever realized i even got this diagnosis.

i went to a dietician, who assured me that i did absolutely nothing wrong. gestational diabetes just happens. if left unchecked, gd can lead to much larger babies, and therefor c-sections, premature labor, and other complications. however, we caught it so all we have to do to avoid complications is to keep my blood sugar in check.

this surprisingly doesn't effect my diet too much. i don't drink sodas, juice, or eat fast food anyway. and i already exercise.  basically i have to eat three meals and three snacks spaced out throughout the day. i also have to measure how many carbs i eat in one sitting (1-2 for breakfast and snacks, and 2-3 for lunch and dinner) and be sure to balance the carbs with protein. this requires a little thinking at times, and is sometimes inconvenient, but a small price to pay.

the other part of this is the actual measuring of the blood sugar. i was given a diabetes testing kit. i have to prick my finger 4 times a day until the end of my pregnancy (1 fasting in the morning, and 1 time after each meal) and using the test strips measure my blood sugar. i had heard horror stories on the internet about how bad the finger pricks were, but in my experience it was nothing. not bad at all. 

i have been measuring my blood sugar for 4 or 5 days now, and can say that it has been completely normal. not one high reading, in fact, they are all relatively low. which means we have this in check. if we are unable to control my blood sugar with diet alone, then i would have to give myself insulin injections. it doesn't look like i will have to do that, thankfully.

basically, i wanted to put this out there, in case some other preggo lady runs across this, while frantically googling "gestational diabetes". you and your baby will be ok. it's slightly inconvenient, but not that bad. you did nothing wrong, promise.