37 weeks and ITCHING for delivery!

It is Thursday, August 28 and today marks Joshua reaching full term, meaning that he can safely come any time now.  Crisi feels pretty confident that he is a “September baby” and won’t be making his appearance until after Labor Day, but there are certainly skeptics among our family and friends.   They might be right if she keeps pushing herself like she has been.  For instance, she mowed the lawn yesterday in the 85 degree heat.  I’m pretty sure all the neighbors think I’m quite a slave driver after seeing her out there.

We’re very anxious to meet the Jellybean and Crisi is literally ITCHING to have him out of her.  Her belly itches all the time as her skin is stretching to accomodate his growing size and movement into the birth canal.  She’s using every lotion, oil, body butter and cold pack she can get her hands on to try to alleviate the itch, but sometimes it just seems like a losing battle.  But that appears to be the most major complaint, so I think we’re in good shape.

The tests they do at the specialist’s office twice a week are all consistently coming back perfect and he looks like a healthy, active baby.

As we get down to these last few days and weeks, we’re getting the camera out more and more.  I’ve posted some pictures of our recent day trip around some of our favorite haunts in Saint Augustine, as well as a couple of Crisi’s belly around the house.

We hope you all are doing fantastic and we’ll continue to update more frequently as we get closer to the big day!

Trav

The things I miss because of Gestational Diabetes

A lot of people have asked me what I’ve had to omit from my life to comply with my special diet for the G.D. that makes it so difficult at times.   These things have been hard to give up, not only because they are some of my normal favorites, but mostly because pregnancy has made me want some of them even more.  One can only thank God that they haven’t taken away Barbecue; but honestly, barbecue WITHOUT sweet tea is almost not barbecue at all.

Here’s a brief sampling of foods and drinks I miss and can’t wait to have again after Josh is born.  (p.s. anyone who wants to bring treats from this list to the hospital is automatically on the list to become Josh’s favorite Aunt or Uncle.)

xoxo,  Crisi

Icy cold fountain Coca Cola
Chocolate Milk
Potato Salad from Sticky Fingers
Rice – white rice or sticky rice
Raisins
Sweet Tea
Breadsticks from Olive Garden
Hot off the rollers Krispy Kreme Doughnuts
“My UPs”  – Breakfast of eggs and hashbrowns with ketchUP and pancakes with syrUP
Cold Stone Creamery
Gnocchi from Maggiano’s
Sweet Tea
Chocolate Custard with sprinkles (aka jimmies) from Rita’s
Loaded mashed potatoes
Oreo Shake from The Loop
Corn on the Cob
Macaroni and Cheese
Cinnabon
7-Layer Bar from Starbucks
Fruit Salad
Apple Juice
Cheese Danish
Did I mention Sweet Tea?
Fettucine Alfredo
Heath bar Blizzard from Dairy Queen
M & M’s
Godiva Champagne Truffles
Banana Spring Rolls from PF Changs
Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookies
Handtossed Pizza Hut Pizza
Devil’s Food Cake with fudge icing
Raisinettes

We’re ready for Josh!!

Today is Sunday, August 24 and we’ve got less than 4 weeks left before our precious baby boy will make his long awaited appearance and come home to join our family.  After some long nights of doing laundry and lots of use of Trav’s laser level, the nursery is finally complete and we are ready for him to come home….well, at least as far as having all our gear ready.

In other news, we weathered Tropical Storm Fay unscathed; we never even lost power.  Trav’s mom, Anna, came with her dog Moose since her house at the beach lost power on the first day of the storm.  We played games and watched the Olympics and were pretty entertained watching the trees across the pond whip around in the wind.

As far as how I’m doing with the gestational diabetes, we haven’t quite got it down to a science yet.  My body has become more insulin resistant, which means that the perinatologist has put me on a very low dose of oral medication twice a day to regulate my sugar levels.  That’s great, except that sometimes the pill makes my blood sugar plummet, making me kind of clammy and shaky until I get some food.  This also means that I have to start seeing the specialist twice a week for them to check the baby’s heart rate and growth more frequently.  We were able to get in to see the doctor just before Fay rolled into town and we got to have another Level II Ultrasound.  The good news is that Joshua looks fantastic.  He’s a big boy – 6 lbs, 14 ounces at 36 weeks – but big babies run in Trav’s family and the tech assured us that this did NOT look like growth due to diabetes because he doesn’t have any warning signs, like his stomach being bigger than everything else or an increase in amniotic fluid.  So we’re very pleased to say that everything is looking perfect as we head into these last couple of weeks.

I’ve included some pictures we took around the house of our handy work.  We hope you all are doing super and we look forward to keeping you posted in these final 24 days till Jellybean makes his debut on the world.

Crisi 🙂

Six Weeks To Go!!!

Welcome back.  Today is Thursday, August 7, and we only have six more weeks to go.  I suspect that those weeks will fly by and then we’ll have a brand new bouncing baby boy.  We’re super excited.

Also in recent news, my sister Makaela just had her baby, Brady Patrick, and he’s super cute.  And my sister-in-law Shari is also pregnant, due around Valentine’s Day 2009.  And my other sister Lori just had a baby girl in the last year.  Lots of babies in our family will make the cousins all near the same age, which we think will be a whole lot of fun in the coming years.

Crisi is doing well for the most part.  She’s having contractions (the Braxton-Hicks “fake” contractions) more often now.  Today it happened seven times.  Her stomach becomes rock hard and it looks extremely uncomfortable.  She just waits for it to pass and then keeps on trucking.  Other than that, the Jellybean seems to be constantly moving around inside her belly, trying to find a comfortable spot to settle into.

She has done a fantastic job sticking to her new diet and is keeping the gestational diabetes under control.  That’s great because it means we won’t have to do the insulin.  Lord knows I didn’t want to stick her with a needle, and I know she wants to do it less than I do.

Here’s a quick video that shows some of the highlights from the 4D Ultrasound that we had a few weeks ago.  It also shows the baby’s belly with hiccups from another recent ultrasound.  And then there’s a couple of pictures of us preparing the room and furniture for the Jellybean.

We hope you are all doing well.