Being Approved and Being Reprieved

Rob is IN. He was approved as a chaplain candidate during the June boards. He hopes to do a practicum this fall (probably beginning in mid to late October), then hopefully attend CHOBLC (CHaplain Officers' Basic Leadership Course) in January. We're not really looking forward to him being away for almost five months out of the next year, but we are incredibly excited about the opportunity for him to move one step closer to his goal: active duty Army chaplaincy. I guess the silver lining is it will allow us to emotionally prepare for the possibility of his deployment once he goes active duty. At least this time he won't be overseas, we can be in constant contact, and no one will be shooting at him or trying to blow him up! :)

I saw my doctor on Thursday, and received good news. He expressed his shock that I had developed gestational diabetes, given my reasonable weight prior to becoming pregnant, my reasonable weight gain during pregnancy, my lack of family history, and my prior uncomplicated pregnancy with Nathaniel. He said my diabetes is very mild, and he thinks we should be able to completely control it with diet. I shared what I have learned about a diabetic diet, and he said, "Looks like you saved yourself a trip to the dietician." Basically, I'm limiting my carb intake, trying to dramatically reduce my intake of refined sugar, and trying to eat more fruits and vegetables. (Basically, eating like I SHOULD, I guess...) Because I am a dessert fiend, I had to ask about "cheating" a little bit, and he assured me that I was allowed to have an occasional treat, such as a bowl of ice cream: just not every day. I don't have to check my blood sugar at home. They may check it in the office when I go in, but he didn't think home monitoring would be worthwhile: just sensible diet changes.

Because of the gestational diabetes, although it is mild, it is very likely that the baby may grow more rapidly, which could complicate delivery. During my next regular, scheduled office visit (Friday), we're going to discuss closely monitoring Benjamin's size. If he is getting too big, the doctor may induce labor before my due date. Nathaniel was born about nine days before his due date, and he was 7 pounds 10 ounces. I would love it if the second baby was about the same size. (A co-worker told me his mother had diabetes, and he was 11 pounds 4 ounces. Yikes!)

Another fun thing that happened this week was our time with Rob's sister and her kids. Rob's sister, who lives in upstate New York, has been doing some traveling with her two children while her husband is deployed. They spent the afternoon and evening with us yesterday, and Nat LOVED seeing his cousins. Our niece is 10 (I should probably say 10 1/2), and our nephew is 7 - getting close to 8. Nat wanted to ride his bike, sword fight, dance, play with trains, and climb all over both of them. He loves his aunt and cousins (and uncle, who he missed), although he doesn't get to see them very often. It was good to spend time with them and hear about how God is working in their lives during this difficult time.

We're now looking forward to one more week of work before vacation. We plan to head to Tennessee to see Rob's parents during the week of the 4th of July. Nat is excited about getting to drive Grampy's tractor, and he often mentions fireworks. When we recently attended a baseball game, they set off a couple during the national anthem, and he was a little freaked out by the noise. He didn't cry, but often told me at random times for the next couple days, "I crying - the fireworks." Hopefully we'll be a little farther away from the fireworks on the 4th of July so he can enjoy them. Maybe we'll bring some ear plugs just in case...

Happy Anniversary. No Dessert

Rob and I celebrated our anniversary this week. Usually, we celebrate by going out to dinner and I splurge and order dessert. Sometimes we even just go out for dessert, since that's my favorite part of the meal, anyway. We had a very nice anniversary, and we did go out to eat. Nathaniel ate a hot dog and applesauce (that's what he wanted, when presented with all the available options at Applebees), Rob ordered steak fajitas, and I ordered some sort of lean chicken dish with rice pilaf and a corn and black bean salsa. No dessert for me. So why does this dessert fiend pass up going out for something decadent? It begins last Thursday.

Last Thursday I had some blood drawn for testing, which is generally done again at this point in the pregnancy. I had blood drawn once earlier in the pregnancy, as well. That first test, although they drew quite a bit of blood, was a pretty simple blood test. You show up, bare your arm, and they draw several cylinders of blood. Straight forward. The routine 28-week blood test wasn't as fun. I was instructed not to eat after dinner, and in the morning, I drank a 10 ounce bottle of something that tasted like McDonald's 'orange drink' made about triple strength. I stopped by the lab an hour later (on my way to work) and had another couple cylinders of blood drawn. My first blood test, done a couple months ago, revealed that my red blood cell count was a bit low. I was encouraged to make sure I took my prenatal vitamin daily. The test last week revealed that I'm now no longer borderline anemic: I have definitely developed anemia. I guess that explains why I've been so tired. They also didn't like my blood glucose levels. Guess what that meant: more blood work.

So, again, no eating after dinner on Friday night. I was due at the lab at 8:00 Saturday morning. (What a fantastic way to spend a Saturday morning.) When I arrived, I waited in the lobby for 45 minutes, then went back to the exam room. They did a blood glucose test (a finger prick), drew a cylinder of blood, and then I had to drink another 10 ounce bottle of orange drink. This one was even more syrupy. I'm not sure I'll be drinking orange flavored anything for a while. At 9:45, I had another cylinder of blood drawn. I waited yet another hour, then had one more cylinder drawn. Finally, at 11:45, I had the final cylinder of blood drawn. Have I mentioned that I hate needles? And can I tell you how boring a lab waiting room is? Since it was Saturday, I had to wait to get my results. I called the doctor's office Monday evening and they informed me that I am not only anemic: I have also developed gestational diabetes.

Drama, drama, drama. So now I'm headed back to the doctor and apparently will be meeting with a dietician to discuss managing my new complication: diabetes. The good news is, it generally goes away after delivery. The bad news is, the baby and I are now at a significantly higher risk for developing diabetes later in life. Modifying my diet and getting more exercise will help, but no guarantees: it could come back, anyway. A friend at work had gestational diabetes, and gave me several helpful hints in the mean time. Basically, my favorite foods are now forbidden. No simple carbs. No pancakes or toaster waffles for breakfast. No potatoes. And no dessert.

I'm looking forward to meeting with the doctor tomorrow to discover whether they are going to try to manage the problem with diet, or if I have to go straight to insulin injections. (I think I mentioned how much I hate needles...) I'm hoping that cleaning up my carbs and fat intake will allow me to avoid that. At least it's only another 11-12 weeks. Maybe I'll go out for dessert after the baby comes...

More than Corn

Well, I guess there is more than corn in Indiana. We went to Indiana Beach this weekend (or as Nat says, 'In-ee-ana Beach') to camp with some friends from college. We drove there Friday evening, stayed up late talking around the camp fire, and played hard all day Saturday. Nathaniel had a blast "driving" amusement park vehicles and riding the kiddie rides. We tried to do the water park, but it was a little overwhelming, so we went back to the pool at the campground. We left at about 8:00 on Saturday evening, hoping Nat would fall asleep in the car on the 2-hour drive home. He had played hard outside all day, had been up a little late the previous evening, and had been swimming. Usually in situations like that, he falls asleep on a drive home from the grocery store. No such luck. He was awake until we got home around 10:20. I don't think I've ever seen him so happy to get in his bed and go to sleep.

Now that we're quickly approaching summer, we're starting to wrestle through our plans for this fall. The baby is due sometime around the end of August or beginning of September. Rob is hoping to do a practicum this fall, which will require him to be gone for about four weeks. We're trying to figure out the best four weeks for him to be gone. We'd love for him to be home for two weeks or so after the baby is born before he leaves, and we're hoping for the majority of his absence to be during my maternity leave. Only trouble is, when is that going to be? It would be so much more convenient if we could determine the baby's ETA with a greater level of certainty.

We're also trying to figure out the logistics of his attending Chaplain's Officer's Basic this winter. He hopes to attend in January. At that point, I hope to have cut back to part time at work. Although I'll (hopefully) only be working 2-3 days a week, we'll still have to find child care for those 2-3 days. I'm not crazy about sending either our 2 year-old or a 3 month-old baby to a day care facility, not to mention the expense, and neither of our families live close. If we could afford for me to quit my job, I'd do it in a second, but that's not an option at this point, since Rob is still a full-time student. Even if he could work part time, we'd lose our health care benefits through my employer, and we definitely don't want to be without health insurance at this point in our lives. We've been there and done that a couple times, and had no major health incidents, but that was before kids. Kids make the word "uninsured" a lot scarier than it used to be. At this point, we're hoping that our families will come for some extended visits during that 16 week period. Here's hoping that everyone wants to spend an extended amount of time with the new baby...