Two Months To Go... Again!
Back when I had two months to go in my pregnancy with Luke, I wrote a post about it. Since I did one with him, I decided it would be a nice time for an update. Just for comparison... Pregnant with Luke on the left and Anna on the right...
So... What's happening these days?
- Since Luke was such a big baby, we are trying to keep an extra close watch on Anna's size. I went last week for my 30 week appointment and we had an ultrasound to check on her size. I was 30 weeks and 2 days and she was measuring 31 weeks. My fundal height was measuring at 29 1/2 weeks. So right now we have no reason to be concerned. I'm glad she's not looking big at this point, but this doesn't give me much reassurance because my boys never looked remotely big until a few days before they were born.
- I declined taking the glucose tolerance test that tests for gestational diabetes for two reasons. First, it makes me feel absolutely horrible. The various doses of sugar in that drink are a shock to my system and makes me feel terrible. Second, the glucose tolerance tests only tests your sugar where you are when you take it. It does not tell you if you will develop gestational diabetes later in your pregnancy. Since we don't know what has caused my babies to be big, we want to make sure that we don't miss a late onset. For that reason, I checked my sugars 4 times a day (fasting and two hours after each meal) for several weeks. During the first week, even balancing carbs and protein and not eating anything with refined sugar, a few of my numbers were borderline. I don't want to be even close to borderline. So I bought the book Real Food for Gestational Diabetes and read it and I'm following her suggestions which is a very low carb diet - I don't eat grains (rice, pasta, bread, corn), I only have minimal fruit (maybe one small apple or a couple of berries a day), and no refined sugar. So what do I eat? Meat, tons of veggies, lots of cheese, and plain Greek yogurt (most carbs are taken out in the process to become Greek yogurt). Is it hard to stay on this diet? YES! But, since I've been on this diet (for about 3 weeks) my sugar numbers are very low. My fasting numbers went from the upper 90s (you want them to be below 95 and ideally below 90) to the 70s. My after meals numbers went from the 100s-110s and occasionally 120s (you want them below 120) down to the 80s and 90s. An added bonus is that I've only gained about one pound in the past four weeks. Some examples of my favorite modified meals these days:
- Plain Greek yogurt with plain almonds and 2-3 strawberries (I eat this for breakfast or a bedtime snack)
- Any pasta dish is now amazing with zoodles (zucchini noodles rather than a grain based noodle)
- I eat my Thai food in a lettuce wrap or over cucumbers rather than rice
- Taco salads or chili
- We got BBQ takeout the other night and I had a salad with it with cucumbers, tomatoes, and feta
Sometimes I get bored and it's hard because you have to be prepared when it comes to food... you can't just eat a sandwich or grab a piece of pizza on your way out of Costco. But it's worth it. Also - I have cheated occasionally. I went out to dinner with some girls last week and I got sweet potatoes as a side to my meal and I had a piece of peanut butter pie! The book I read and my care providers have assured me that a splurge occasionally will not add pounds of weight to my baby.
- I'm still exercising 30 minutes - 1 hour almost daily. My routine in the gym is getting more difficult though. It's hard to do squats and lunges with weights! I have no problem working out my arms, but I'm beginning to feel the weight of a baby in my legs. Today I decided to swim laps rather than my regular routine and it felt great. I'm guessing that I'll be in the pool more as the pregnancy progresses. Since it's so nice in the evenings, we try to go on a walk as a family after dinner too. The boys like watching me do squats and lunges from their stroller view. They are usually encouraging!
- One of my goals was to gain less weight this time around. I've started out all my pregnancies at about the same weight. At this point with Luke, I had gained over 30 pounds. As of now, I have gained 15 pounds. I think it will be so nice to not have to deal with as much weight loss after I have her. And I'm really hoping that less weight gain will help me to feel better overall and hopefully make her smaller?! Wishful thinking, probably.
- I have had some pretty intense mid back pain recently. It hurts. Bad. By the time I put my kids down for a nap at 1:00, I have to lay down too and I've been napping at least 2 hours each day this week. Thankfully, my boys must be worn out too because both of them have been sleeping 3 or more hours this week. It is an incredible blessing to get to rest in the middle of the day. By the time evening comes, I'm so worn out and my back is killing me. I hate it, because I'd like to clean the kitchen, do some laundry, and pick up the house, but it physically makes me want to cry. Thankfully, Ray has been stepping up and doing most of this for me. I went to the chiropractor for the first time today in order to get Anna in optimal position (she was breech as of last week) and to hopefully get some back relief. My back does feel a little better today but I think it may take going a few more times to see more of a difference.
- She moves a ton and it's very reassuring. I treasure these movements more than anything else in pregnancy.
- I'm trying to nest and there's so much I want to do before she arrives! We need to remodel our guest bathroom (we've already done the master) and Ray and his dad do all the work themselves, so it takes a lot of work on the weekends to get this done. I want to do some decorations for Anna's room. I want to do a couple of new things in James's and Luke's room - that's right - they sleep in the same room now! I want to clean, organize, throw stuff away... all that normal nesting stuff... but at the same time I'm very tired and I know that the main priority is taking care of my body because that 's taking care of the baby.
- I still do have anxiety about shoulder dystocia happening again. How can you not think of it once you've gone through something that traumatic? But I'm thankful for wonderful care providers and I really do keep thinking that this baby girl is going to be smaller. I mean... I can't keep making them bigger and bigger, can I?!
- Since Luke was such a big baby, we are trying to keep an extra close watch on Anna's size. I went last week for my 30 week appointment and we had an ultrasound to check on her size. I was 30 weeks and 2 days and she was measuring 31 weeks. My fundal height was measuring at 29 1/2 weeks. So right now we have no reason to be concerned. I'm glad she's not looking big at this point, but this doesn't give me much reassurance because my boys never looked remotely big until a few days before they were born.
- I declined taking the glucose tolerance test that tests for gestational diabetes for two reasons. First, it makes me feel absolutely horrible. The various doses of sugar in that drink are a shock to my system and makes me feel terrible. Second, the glucose tolerance tests only tests your sugar where you are when you take it. It does not tell you if you will develop gestational diabetes later in your pregnancy. Since we don't know what has caused my babies to be big, we want to make sure that we don't miss a late onset. For that reason, I checked my sugars 4 times a day (fasting and two hours after each meal) for several weeks. During the first week, even balancing carbs and protein and not eating anything with refined sugar, a few of my numbers were borderline. I don't want to be even close to borderline. So I bought the book Real Food for Gestational Diabetes and read it and I'm following her suggestions which is a very low carb diet - I don't eat grains (rice, pasta, bread, corn), I only have minimal fruit (maybe one small apple or a couple of berries a day), and no refined sugar. So what do I eat? Meat, tons of veggies, lots of cheese, and plain Greek yogurt (most carbs are taken out in the process to become Greek yogurt). Is it hard to stay on this diet? YES! But, since I've been on this diet (for about 3 weeks) my sugar numbers are very low. My fasting numbers went from the upper 90s (you want them to be below 95 and ideally below 90) to the 70s. My after meals numbers went from the 100s-110s and occasionally 120s (you want them below 120) down to the 80s and 90s. An added bonus is that I've only gained about one pound in the past four weeks. Some examples of my favorite modified meals these days:
- Plain Greek yogurt with plain almonds and 2-3 strawberries (I eat this for breakfast or a bedtime snack)
- Any pasta dish is now amazing with zoodles (zucchini noodles rather than a grain based noodle)
- I eat my Thai food in a lettuce wrap or over cucumbers rather than rice
- Taco salads or chili
- We got BBQ takeout the other night and I had a salad with it with cucumbers, tomatoes, and feta
Sometimes I get bored and it's hard because you have to be prepared when it comes to food... you can't just eat a sandwich or grab a piece of pizza on your way out of Costco. But it's worth it. Also - I have cheated occasionally. I went out to dinner with some girls last week and I got sweet potatoes as a side to my meal and I had a piece of peanut butter pie! The book I read and my care providers have assured me that a splurge occasionally will not add pounds of weight to my baby.
- I'm still exercising 30 minutes - 1 hour almost daily. My routine in the gym is getting more difficult though. It's hard to do squats and lunges with weights! I have no problem working out my arms, but I'm beginning to feel the weight of a baby in my legs. Today I decided to swim laps rather than my regular routine and it felt great. I'm guessing that I'll be in the pool more as the pregnancy progresses. Since it's so nice in the evenings, we try to go on a walk as a family after dinner too. The boys like watching me do squats and lunges from their stroller view. They are usually encouraging!
- One of my goals was to gain less weight this time around. I've started out all my pregnancies at about the same weight. At this point with Luke, I had gained over 30 pounds. As of now, I have gained 15 pounds. I think it will be so nice to not have to deal with as much weight loss after I have her. And I'm really hoping that less weight gain will help me to feel better overall and hopefully make her smaller?! Wishful thinking, probably.
- I have had some pretty intense mid back pain recently. It hurts. Bad. By the time I put my kids down for a nap at 1:00, I have to lay down too and I've been napping at least 2 hours each day this week. Thankfully, my boys must be worn out too because both of them have been sleeping 3 or more hours this week. It is an incredible blessing to get to rest in the middle of the day. By the time evening comes, I'm so worn out and my back is killing me. I hate it, because I'd like to clean the kitchen, do some laundry, and pick up the house, but it physically makes me want to cry. Thankfully, Ray has been stepping up and doing most of this for me. I went to the chiropractor for the first time today in order to get Anna in optimal position (she was breech as of last week) and to hopefully get some back relief. My back does feel a little better today but I think it may take going a few more times to see more of a difference.
- She moves a ton and it's very reassuring. I treasure these movements more than anything else in pregnancy.
- I'm trying to nest and there's so much I want to do before she arrives! We need to remodel our guest bathroom (we've already done the master) and Ray and his dad do all the work themselves, so it takes a lot of work on the weekends to get this done. I want to do some decorations for Anna's room. I want to do a couple of new things in James's and Luke's room - that's right - they sleep in the same room now! I want to clean, organize, throw stuff away... all that normal nesting stuff... but at the same time I'm very tired and I know that the main priority is taking care of my body because that 's taking care of the baby.
- I still do have anxiety about shoulder dystocia happening again. How can you not think of it once you've gone through something that traumatic? But I'm thankful for wonderful care providers and I really do keep thinking that this baby girl is going to be smaller. I mean... I can't keep making them bigger and bigger, can I?!
It seems all my blog posts are about pregnancy these days. But my sweet boys really are my world. Are these boys ready to be sweet big brothers? James talks about baby Anna a lot - he knows she's already part of the family. When he hugs and kisses me, he always hugs and kisses Anna too. Luke, however, is clueless. It will be interesting to see how they are once she's actually on the outside.
My main prayer... please, God, please, let this baby be a small 8 pounder who arrives without issues!
Hopefully it really is only 2 months or less until she's here!
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