Christmas 2011

This year we traveled to Richmond, VA for Christmas. We arrived around 1:30pm on Christmas Eve. All of my immediate family was already at my parents' house when we arrived. We enjoyed visiting with the family and ate our traditional Chick-Fil-A nuggets for dinner. Several of us attended the Christmas Eve service at church.

The kids were allowed to open one gift on Christmas Eve, so they opened their Christmas pajamas.

The kids then made reindeer cookies for Santa.

All the adults stayed up late to help Santa when he arrived.

The kids got way too much for Christmas, but we all had a fun time opening gifts and Uncle Vince had fun putting some of the toys together.

Vince out did himself this year. I got diamond earrings, a new Sony camera (it even takes 3D pictures!!!), and my Kitchenaid ice cream maker attachment. I can't wait to make some homemade ice cream. Billy drew my name this year and gave me a really nice Coach purse. It's very pretty.

We also got some cute things for the baby from Santa such as a teddy bear, toy, knit booties, knit hat & blanket, frog towel, and a few other things. Vince got a new outdoor patio heater, surround sound system, shirts, and some car parts.

For Christmas lunch, mom invited over their friends, Tom & Louise. We had a ham, turkey, and all the fixings.

We gave dad a new bamboo cane. He is able to get around the house with it pretty well.

We all played bingo Christmas night. This time we had some cash prizes so even the older kids were really into it. The day after Christmas, the guys helped dad install his electric winch to hoist things into the attic.

Elise's birthday is December 28, so the day before that, we celebrated with her.

Week 28 Visit

Tomorrow I'll be 28 weeks pregnant! Yesterday we went to my OB to get a growth ultrasound done. I invited Vince's parents so they could see it in person. Vince did a great job getting the video of the ultrasound. The baby had hiccups during the ultrasound. He also opened his mouth some and was moving his feet down near his head. I put the video here on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K16AjkG3OGg&list=UUm59VTzUXFL0AdV57mUNZXA&index=1&feature=plcp
The tech printed out some great pictures. My favorite is the picture of his face.

I've gained a total of 14 pounds. The baby's heart rate was 133. He is now 2.5 pounds and in the 44th percentile (which is right on target). He's not measuring too big, which is great since I have gestational diabetes. My blood pressure and protein levels were great. I asked the doctor again about swelling feet and she said some people just swell. She also gave me a copy of my medical records in case we travel. It's much easier to take them with me than to have to call and try to get them later. They also told me I have to count kicks every day. In a 2 hour period, I have to feel him kick or move 10 times. Yesterday he kicked 10 times in a 30 second period, so I think he's going to beat the curve on that one.

I go back in 3 weeks for my next visit at 31 weeks and another growth ultrasound. Then after that, I have to go once a week.

Gestational Diabetes

Since I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes, I had to go to a 2 hour class last Friday at the Endocrynoligist's office. The first part of the class went over the meaning of gestational diabetes and then we each got a One Touch blood sugar monitor. There were 3 other girls in the class with me. The nurse showed us how to change out the needle, prick our finger, and use the machine to get our score. I have to prick my finger in the morning before eating and score below 95. I then have to prick it 2 hours after each main meal and score below 120. Since Friday, I have been under the limit each time. This first time I did it, it had to be under 120 since it was after lunch. I got a 95.

The second half of the class was taught by the dietician. She went over how to count carbs and how many we could have for each meal or snack. We can have 30 carbs for breakfast, 45 for lunch, and 45 for dinner. Then we can have 3 snacks at 15 carbs each. She went over portion sizes and what kinds of foods are good or bad & how to read a food label. She said to just monitor our numbers and if we are getting too high or over our limit, then to cut back on carbs. If we have a lot of wiggle room, then we can add more carbs. If I go way over even cutting back carbs, then I would have to go on insulin. My goal is to control the diabetes with my diet & so far, I'm right on track!

Photo Shoot

Last weekend my friend Jessie took lots of picture of Vince & me in the field behind our back yard and the local playground. We had a great photo shoot and Jessie did a fabulous job with us.

27 Weeks

I'm officially in my third trimester today. Today is 12/14/11. I'm due on 3/14/12. So just 3 more months to go. We are getting the house ready more each week for our new baby boy. Thanks to my friends Qiong and Kaye, we've gotten lots of baby things already.

For the last several days, my ankles have been skinny. I've been following my no sugar diet as well as keeping my feet propped up anytime I can prop them up. My symptoms this week have included a bloody nose (although these have not been daily anymore, so I'm glad they're slacking off), swollen fingers, feet, etc. Even my watch is getting tight on my wrist now and it was very loose. The bottom of my feet hurt when I stand, even when not swollen. They just feel kind of bruised. They feel better when I'm walking instead of just standing in place. I still have the acid reflux, but Zantac is working great.

I have leg cramps at night some, but none as severe as a couple of weeks ago. Funny thing about the leg cramps is that I was eating a banana a day to help them, but since bananas are high in sugar, I can't eat them and the leg cramps have lessened a lot. And one of my favorite symptoms is that the baby moves all the time. I can tell when he's awake and moving or kicking.

This week has been busy for baking, but is now starting to slack off some. My hands and wrists need a few days break. I've also wrapped up most all of my Christmas shopping. I'm so ready for a week long vacation from work and cooking. It will be nice to just relax and sleep in late. Or in my case, wake up two times and get to go back to sleep.

And just to have some pictures in this post, I filtered these from the past few weekends.

Elephant Feet

This past weekend is somewhat of a blur. I need a weekend to recover from my weekend. On Friday evening, I got my hair done at the salon. I was in the chair for about 3 hours with my feet dangling down. Apparantly when your body is producing 25% more blood & fluids for a baby, all the fluids go to your feet if they dangle. My shoes kept feeling tighter & tighter throughout the evening. Mind you, I was wearing a size 6 shoe, which is one size bigger than my normal size 5, so if they were getting tight, I knew I was in for it. Vince's reaction was priceless when he helped me get my socks off that night. It didn't even look like a human foot.

So on Saturday morning, I decided to keep my feet propped up as much as possbile. I still managed to bake a cake, make cake pops, and make Rolo brownie bites for Vince's work party that evening. I also finished decorating and delivered a large cake to the Big Brother Big Sister Christmas party that day.

As our afternoon break, my friend Jessie came over to do our first photo shoot (besides the pics from our wedding). We spent a nice afternoon outdoors taking some pictures. I can't wait to see them! Jessie is due 2 months before me so we were one of her last photo shoots before she has her baby in January. I had Vince get a picture of our baby bumps. Thanks Jessie!

That evening, we attended Vince's work party. The food was catered by the Rose Cottage. It was so good. The desserts were catered by me (of which I had none due to not being able to have sugar). We had a great time and enjoyed visiting with folks and watching people try to sing karaoke. I forgot to take any pictures.

On Sunday, I started baking 300 cupcakes that I have to do for Mary Black Hospital. They are kicking off a new robotics program so they wanted robot themed cupcakes. I baked for several hours and then Vince & I took a break and went to my friend Qiong's house. She has a 4 year old boy and gave us lots of baby items. We got a swing, 2 sitting activity things, a baby carrier, and more. Thanks Qiong!!!

I then came back and baked some more and then took another break to go to my book club party. We each took a book for our dirty Santa game. We were supposed to read The Night Circus. I got about 200 pages read. Only one girl finished the book. We are a very poor book club. None of us read the book last month, but we have a fun time talking. We also took some pictures at the Hyatt in Greenville.

Dawn & I are due 2 days apart. She's carrying twins (boy & girl). We posed for our (almost) 27 week picture.

This is Dawn with her husband Eric. I went to Tennessee Tech University with both of them. They now live in Easley.

These are some of the girls in the book club. 2 of them were missing due to other committments.

Our gangster pose.

And one of my favorite pictures. Can you spot me creeping in this picture?

By Sunday night, this is what my table looked like with the 300 cupcakes ready for decoration.

By 10:30pm Sunday night. all cupcakes were decorated and boxed up ready for delivery. Tonight I have my ZTA alumnae party at my house. I baked a sugar free apple cake and have cake pops, divinity, and a few cupcakes all ready for it. I'm really hoping the sugar free apple cake tastes great.

26 Weeks

This past week I went to the doctor for my 25 week check up. After failing the 1 hour glucose screening, I went back this week to do the 3 hour glucose test (GTT). I arrived at 8:15am Monday morning. Luckily, I ate a late snack around 10:30pm so I wouldn't be starving first thing in the morning. I watched my sugar all weekend and ate healthy. At 8:35, they pricked my finger for a starting number & gave me the orange drink to chug. I scored 86 as my starting number. Under 90 is considered good. I then proceeded to sit & wait for the next three hours, with them pricking my (same) finger each hour.

At 9:35am, I scored 201. The tolerance was 190. Failed that one (and was starving and thirsty at this point). At 10:35am, I scored 210. The tolerance was 165. Failed number two. At 11:35am, I scored 165. The tolerance was 140. So I officially have gestational diabetes. According to everything online, if you score over 200 on any one of the hours, you have it. The good news is that I got over 100 pages read of my new book The Night Circus that I'm supposed to have read by this Sunday's book club meeting. So far it's a great book, so it's an easy read.

The next step will be for them to refer me to an endocrynologist specialist. They're going to fax them my results and that office will call to schedule an appointment. I haven't heard anything from them yet. My next ultrasound will be at 28 weeks, on Dec 19 at 8am. It will be interesting to see how big the baby has gotten. This week I've had swollen feet almost daily. I also hurt my shoulder by sleeping on it wrong. The chiropractor said my clavicle was out of whack. So I'm trying to sleep better and hope it feels better soon.

My sister Kim had gestational diabetes with all her kids. She controlled it with a special diet and they all turned out fine. So I'm hoping that's all there is to it. I already looked up some good diet plans online so I'm all set. Oh, and since I failed my iron test last week, I made New York strip steak and sweet potatoes for dinner last night! Vince is excited about all the red meat we'll be eating.

Since I have a lot of baking for Christmas parties to do, I knew I wouldn't feel much like cooking dinner over the next few weeks. So last night, I made 10 large ziplocs of crock-pot dinners. I bought the meat, canned goods, and veggies and started chopping and separating into the different bags. I ended up making 4 soups and 6 meals that will be ready to go from the freezer to the crock-pot, seasoning and all. I hope they turn out great!

Christmas at the Biltmore

Vince's Aunt Marie usually hosts an annual Christmas gathering each year at her house. This year, we decided to mix things up a bit and all go to the Biltmore. It also happened to be Vince's mom, Barbara's birthday. I got up early to deliver a cake at 8:30am on Saturday, then we left in two cars from my house around 9:30am. We arrived in time to eat lunch at the Stable Cafe before heading into the house at our 1:00pm entry time.

The Stable Cafe was so good & the service was excellent. As we walked over toward the house entrance, we noticed about 100 people in a very very long line. This was the 1:00pm entry line. I have never seen so many people in line to get in the house in all the 14 years I've been going to the Biltmore. I didn't see how everyone would fit in at one time, but somehow, by 1:15pm, we were all in the house. It was slow and steady inside the house. It took us almost 2 hours to take the tour. After a quick break in the stable courtyard, we decided to go over to Antler Hill Village. There were so many people in line for a bus ride to the car lots, that we decided to walk (and grab a picture).

At Antler Hill Village, I took a picture of the little cousins.

Then I took a quick tour of the Tiffany display, then we found Santa. He was a rather large Santa.

And since we were in Asheville, we drove over to the Grove Park Inn to see some of the gingerbread houses on display. We only saw about 1/2 of them, but the ones we saw gave me lots of good ideas for future cakes. This was a sleigh they had set up in the lobby for a great photo op.

We ended our day by driving back to Spartanburg and eating at Wade's. I had no desserts all day, but we did eat really great food.