31 Weeks

It's time for another weekly update, and just for Mom, here's the weekly belly picture! This is 31 weeks, 3 days: Well, it's been another eventful week. We went back to the doctor on Monday morning for another checkup. Somehow I'd only gained a little over a pound in a month. I'm not sure how that happened, since I've pretty much been eating like a horse for the last month. I did get some crummy news, though. Nothing bad about Sprout...just an inconvenience for me, really. About a month ago, I took the 3-hour glucose tolerance test and passed. But on Monday, Dr. Basham told me that at my last two appointments, there was sugar in my urine, so she said that it's obvious that my body isn't processing sugar like it should. So...she said that even though I'm "not technically a gestational diabetic" I need to put the kibosh on the sugar for the duration of the pregnancy. It's been tough to adjust to, because I really have a sweet tooth. Before I got pregnant, I used Splenda a lot to keep my calorie count down. Once we started trying to get pregnant again, I quit using artificial sweeteners completely. That means I was using sugar, and probably more than I should. (I know that some artificial sweeteners are supposed to be okay during pregnancy, but I'm just really cautious about it.) So now, I've pretty much cut sweets out of the diet completely. That even means that I don't have my morning cup of decaf coffee anymore...because I just can't drink it black. Oh well...it's no big deal. If it'll keep Sprout healthy (and prevent him/her from getting too big!) I'll lay off the sugar for 9 more weeks. It'll be good for me.

Empowered Birth was great on Monday night. We talked about delivering the baby and the placenta, and it was such good information. Angela, our instructor, used to be an elementary school teacher, and I bet she was awesome at it. She does a wonderful job of using a wide variety of teaching methods to get her point across. Who would have thought that a balloon and some contact paper would perfectly illustrate how a woman's body expels the placenta?! We practiced various pushing positions, which I think will be super-helpful...if David and I can remember any of them when the time comes. I'll have to remember to put our binder in the hospital bag! I'm really looking forward to next week's class, because we'll be talking about medical interventions and how to be an advocate for yourself. She's already given us some good tips for communicating with medical professionals so that they'll see you as a rational person instead of an overprotective parent. I think we'll also be talking about writing a birth plan, which is something I've been giving a lot of thought to. I know that births don't usually go according to a plan, but I certainly plan to give the medical staff some guidelines for what we'd prefer in terms of our baby's birth.

We also had a hospital class this week...this one was led by a pediatrician and talked about newborn procedures, etc. It was really informative, too. We're going to an open house next Tuesday to meet with a group of pediatricians in LaGrange to see if that's where we'll be taking Sprout. This practice comes highly recommended, and it's really conveniently located, so I'm hoping that David and I both like them.

I've put the second coat of paint on Sprout's quote, and it's looking really good (especially if you're not too close to it). I'm debating on whether or not I can get by without putting a third coat on. Hopefully so.

Tomorrow is my first shower, and I'm super-excited. My aunt and sister are giving this shower, which will be friends and my side of the family. I have no idea how many people will be there, but it will be nice to see everyone. I've honestly been overwhelmed by the amount of love that people have already shown to little Sprout! It feels so good to know that so many people love our baby already. The poor kid will be so stinkin' spoiled that David and I won't be able to do anything with him or her! :)

In other news, I think we've FINALLY decided on names! Whew. What a relief. That's been stressing me out...but part of me thinks that there still might be a change if he/she doesn't "look" like the name we've picked. We'll just have to see!