Thanksgiving clot

So! Thanksgiving. It was lovely, although it didn't go quite as expected. Still, for the most part, relaxing and enjoyable. And the FOOD.

We didn't prepare anything in advance--just decided what to cook, bought the ingredients, and figured we'd do all the cooking the day of. Since there were no guests, the timing of the meal didn't really matter, and we figured we were bound to mess up one or two of the dishes.

But we didn't! Everything was delicious, and doing all the cooking the day of wasn't stressful at all--it turned out to be fun. There was Yorkshire pudding, which I realize is more of a Christmas dish, but it is so yummy that it seems it should really be made as often as possible. (Plus, it's really easy to make.)


There was also homemade lemon meringue pie, which blows store-bought pie out of the water, if I do say so myself.


And there was a ton of other food, all incredibly tasty.


After dinner was when things took a turn for the unexpected. We went for a walk to work off at least a few of those gravy calories, and when we got home I sat down to take off my shoes and inadvertently brushed my left leg against my right leg in the process, and felt an incredible searing pain in my right leg. So I had a look, and my inner right calf was hard and swollen and kind of red and blue and very, very painful and tender to the touch.

So, I called my midwife. I figured she would tell me it was nothing, but I thought I should check since I know that pregnant women are at increased risk for blood clots (due to extra estrogen in the system plus the pressure of the uterus on some important arteries). And the midwife did say that it was most likely nothing, but she wanted me to come to the hospital to get checked out just to be sure.

Luckily, she sent me to Labor & Delivery rather than the ER, so I didn't have to pay my insurance's $100 ER copay, and there was no waiting. They brought me into triage as soon as I arrived, checked my vitals (all normal), and hooked me up to the fetal monitor, which allowed us to hear that Piglet was doing just fine as well.

Then began a four-hour process of nurses, midwife, ultrasound tech, radiologist, OB resident, and maternal-fetal medicine specialist. There are so many ASPECTS to diagnosing a blood clot, I had no idea. Also, did you know that when you have a suspected blood clot, they ultrasound your entire leg to check for additional blood clots, and it's surprisingly painful? They push that wand really hard on your inner thigh in order to check all the veins through to the other side of your leg, and I am not used to that much pressure on my inner thigh. It hurt! Warm-up for childbirth, I guess?

Anyway, the whole thing wasn't as scary as it sounds because I was convinced the whole time that it was all fine, just a varicose vein or something, so I really wasn't worried. When it turned out that I did, in fact, have a blood clot, I was more surprised than anyone else. Luckily, it wasn't the scary kind of deep vein blood clot that you read all those dire warnings about. Mine was very small, and was classified as superficial venous thrombosis, which means it was in the surface vein system, where there was no possibility that it could travel to my lungs or heart the way a deep vein clot could. Superficial clots can be painful (and it was, believe me), but they aren't dangerous. Also, it was in a varicose vein (which I didn't even know was varicose!), so apparently that made the symptoms worse.

So! Four hours after we arrived, we were told that yes, there's a blood clot; no, there's nothing to worry about; and no, there's nothing we're going to do about it. Then we were allowed to leave. By now, a few days later, the pain and swelling are pretty much gone, though my calf does have a giant, nasty-looking bruise at it (maybe from the blood from the swollen area dissipating?), but I will thoughtfully refrain from posting a photo of the bruise here.

The midwife did say that if I experience similar symptoms again, I should come back to have it checked out again, and that it was good that I came in, and the fact that there turned out to actually be a blood clot made me feel validated about the whole thing, even though there turned out to be no treatment necessary. And, it was nice that if it had to happen on Thanksgiving, it was a nice, low-key Thanksgiving and didn't involve us sprinting out the door leaving piles of worried extended family members behind.

Also, it was interesting to see how the whole Labor & Delivery triage and admission process worked. But still, here's hoping I won't be back there until I'm actually in labor.

Pregnancy compliments

I love the compliments you get when you're pregnant.

I don't mean like, "Oh, you're glowing!" or "Look at your adorable belly!" and so on. Or even the ever charming "You look tired" (though who am I kidding, that's not a compliment, it's just a comment, and not a very nice one, either).

I mean the pregnancy-specific comments that would normally mean nothing to you, but suddenly matter. Like when your midwife tells you that you have a great cervix. Or your birthing instructor tells you that you have a marvelously flexible pelvis. Or the ultrasound tech tells you that you have a great baby who has already gotten himself into the perfect birthing position. And so forth.

All true compliments, by the way, received recently. And the funny thing is that they mean SO MUCH to me. Like, I am inordinately proud of my cervix--not proud of it as in like, "Oh I am awesome I do such a great job with my cervix"--because it is totally outside of my control--but I am so happy that the state of my cervix means that I am a very low risk for preterm labor. And I am very happy that my head-down, sideways-facing baby is in a good position for birth. And I am thrilled that my flexible pelvis means that I should be able to move him around as necessary during labor. And eight months ago these things would have meant nothing to me at all.

The ultrasound was yesterday, by the way, and it went great--very healthy-looking, active baby measuring right on schedule in the 59th percentile, no concerns about the kidneys whatsoever. Also, it was so cool to have an ultrasound this far along because everything was so visible and well-developed. We could see the spine, with all the vertebrae and the ribs extending out. And the femur, perfectly shaped instead of just a blurry white line. And the kidneys weren't just indistinct black dots--they were actually shaped like kidneys.

And--this was the coolest part--we could see the baby BLINKING. The tech zeroed in on his face and we could SEE the eyes opening and closing. Eyes closed--light gray eyelids. Eyes open--big dark eyes. I mean, what we were actually seeing was just the wetness of the eyes, since fluid shows up black in ultrasounds, but they LOOKED like big dark eyes. And you could see the blinking. I didn't believe it at first--I thought I was imagining things--so I said to the tech, "Is he... BLINKING?" And it must be an unusual thing to see, because the tech seemed surprised too: he said, "Um, actually... I think he is!" and then we watched for a few more moments and he definitely was. So. Cool.

I just think it's amazing that something like BLINKING can become so meaningful with a pregnancy. Our baby BLINKS. Just like every other human in the world! But it is still awesome and miraculous when you see it for yourself. Just like how every parent thinks their baby is the cutest in the world, and even if they are only of average cuteness (and let's face it, even an averagely cute baby is still really freaking adorable), the parent can't see that the kid isn't the cutest ever to exist, which is how so many thousands of average-looking baby photos get submitted to cutest baby contests and so on.

I can see why some people roll their eyes at parents like that, parents who seem to have lost their perspective entirely and can go on and on about their baby for hours and did you see how he CRAWLED? And my god he laughed SO HARD that time I sneezed! He is a GENIUS, didn't you know? And it's all perfectly normal and mundane stuff to everyone else.

But I think it's AWESOME that you, as a parent, can care so much about this stuff. That you can be so blinded by love for your child that you think every single regular little boring thing he does is amazing and new. That just looking at him, you can't fathom that anyone else would disagree that he is the cutest, most beautiful, most amazing and wonderful child ever to exist. Because it's so OBVIOUS.

It might be annoying to everyone else, but damn, I look forward to feeling that way.

(Though I do hope to keep most of the ridiculous gushing for people who care, like Torsten, rather than boring everyone in sight with it. But I make no promises.)

By the way, to people who are sick of hearing me talk about pregnancy: I wrote another post just now, about something completely unrelated to pregnancy and babies in any way, and Torsten put the kibosh on it. And he was right do so, I think. But this is what I'm left with, and so this is what you get. Funny how pregnancy goes from the big secret that you can't talk to anyone about to the one safe area that you can talk endlessly about with anyone.

Two months

Today marks exactly two months until my due date. Which is fun! (Though, curiously, my pregnancy journal says that next week--as in, the one that starts on Tuesday, when I will be 32 weeks--marks one month to go. Eight weeks seems like a very long month to me--unless it is somehow psychic and knows that Piglet will be arriving early? Which, please please please no.)

Anyway! Two months to go! Much preparation! All sorts of fun things! I wouldn't say that I'm nesting, per se, but I have been very efficient recently. Stuff that's been going on:

• The nursery is pretty much all set up. The crib mattress arrived yesterday. All the other furniture is in place. We're ordering the blinds this weekend. We need to get a couple more things--a mattress cover, a crib skirt--and wash a few things and hang the art and then it will be done! Complete, and ready to show off. And you guys, not to brag, but it is AWESOME. It came together SO well and I love it SO much. It is probably my favorite room in the house. (It is definitely Montana's favorite room in the house.)
• We did the baby safety class last night. Now we are all set on infant CPR, babyproofing, SIDS prevention, and so on. The number one goal of parenting is not to kill the child, right? (Is anyone else thinking of that scene from Sex and the City where Steve chickens out about taking care of the baby while Miranda is in Atlantic City, and she says to him, "Look, we're both afraid we're going to kill the baby. That's a given. But we made an agreement this week. Monday to Friday, I try not to kill him. Saturday and Sunday, you try not to kill him"? No? Just me?) ANYWAY, this class helped us make great strides in our hopes that we will, in fact, NOT kill our baby. So that's something.
• We scheduled a family photo shoot for mid-December. Call it maternity photos, call it what you want--we're hoping for some lovely photos of us, the dog, and the belly, all with an outdoor Colorado backdrop. Yes, we may freeze at Red Rocks in December. The damn pictures better be worth it. Luckily, Piglet has a nice amniotic sac to keep him warm.
• I have had my eye on a specific diaper bag for weeks. This thing normally retails from $45 to $55 (the price seems to fluctuate). Then last week I noticed that it was on super sale at Macy's for Veterans Day. It was $30! And my mom had, and generously allowed me to use, a coupon for $10 off $30. So I ended up getting it for $28, including tax and shipping, instead of the $50 I'd been thinking we'd have to pay. And you guys, this BAG. It has clips so you can hang it from the stroller handles where it will actually be accessible. It closes with a magnet so you can open it one-handed. It has all sorts of convenient pockets, including some that are insulated for holding bottles. It comes with a folding changing pad. It is GLORIOUS. And yes, I am HAPPY to be at a point in my life where I get so excited over a diaper bag.
• We selected a pediatrician practice and interviewed them over the phone. Then I noticed that their website said that expectant parents should call to schedule a "prenatal visit"--a tour plus Q&A with one of their doctors. When I called several weeks ago, I was informed that they were already booked solid until after my due date. This did not make me so thrilled about how easy it will be to get appointments with them--though they did insist that it is easy and always will be--so I was thinking about just sort of crashing one of the tours and hoping they wouldn't send us away, just to get more of a feel for them. But then I called back a few days ago to see if there had been any cancellations, and they decided to schedule extra dates to accommodate demand, and gave us our first choice of time slots. So now we are booked in for a tour that we will not, in fact, have to crash.
  
• We have what should be our final ultrasound (the last follow-up on the kidney non-issue, plus a chance for them to make sure Piglet is growing on schedule, which they like to do for lap-band patients at 32 weeks anyway) on Monday. I'm looking forward to it! But it is more than a little crazy that this will likely be the last time we see him until he is BORN.
  

Thanksgiving feast

So, when I had my small moment of panic over Thanksgiving, you guys were so great! And supportive! And had such good advice! And I totally got over the hump and now I am actually rather looking forward to a Thanksgiving with just the two (and a half) of us. And to making a turkey and all the trimmings.

Upon the suggestion from a couple of you (which I thought was GREAT), we looked into volunteering somewhere on Thanksgiving day, but it appears, unless I just suck at my research, that volunteering on Thanksgiving is actually a rather popular thing to do? The Denver Rescue Mission had a thing saying exactly what date and time they would start accepting volunteers, and then very shortly after that they said they were full, and everywhere else seems to be in a similar situation. Which is fine... I thought it was a good idea, but it also sounds nice to just have a peaceful, relaxing day at home, too.

So that leaves only, you know, the meal itself. We purchased a turkey at Costco, a reasonably sized one that will allow us to stuff it and cook it and eat leftovers, but not so much that we won't be able to fit the entire thing into our freezer, you know? I like the advice from many of you about cooking it upside down to preserve moistness, and my dad offered lots of great tips, so that was very helpful. And I think it's starting to come together in my head a little bit.

Here's what's on the menu (and by "menu" I mean "list that is currently only in my head and that I haven't yet discussed with Torsten"):

• Turkey
• Stuffing
• Mashed potatoes
• Gravy
• Yorkshire pudding
• Vegetable
• Dessert

Luckily, this is where you guys come in! As you can see, some of those are rather... vague. Like "vegetable"? I don't really like yams or peas, which seem to be traditional Thanksgiving side dishes. What other vegetables do you like to eat on Thanksgiving? Are they traditions or do they evolve over time? Bonus if you have a link to a specific recipe that you like!

Also, the turkey is pretty straightforward, and it sounds like stuffing can be done without a recipe, and the same with gravy and mashed potatoes, and my dad is sending me his Yorkshire pudding recipe. But... are there recipes you like for any of those things? Anything that's worth trying and sticking to rather than just winging it?

And dessert, oh god. I don't tend to like autumnal desserts much. I think that's the issue. I don't like pumpkin, I don't like cinnamon, I am not a huge fan of pie in general. I like cakes and cookies and brownies and ice cream. My taste is not refined, apparently. But given that, what would be a good Thanksgiving dessert? Maybe we should have two--one Thanksgiving-y and one less traditional? What dessert do you like to have on Thanksgiving? What will you be making this year (if anything)?

Seriously, basically I want to hear all about your Thanksgiving plans, where you're going, who you're celebrating with, what you plan to eat, what recipes you like, what has been a failure in the past. And no real worries about making too much food for two people--this is also our planned starting point for freezing food to eat once Piglet is here. So really, the more, the better!

Surrounded, in the best possible way

This weekend was an excellent reminder of the fact that I have a lovely, charming network of friends here in Denver. And that if it weren't for my blog, that network basically wouldn't exist. Seriously, if it weren't for amazing bloggy women, I would literally have like three friends in Denver.

But! I have more than three friends! And one of them, Emily, thoughtfully offered to throw me a baby shower, and it happened this past weekend. And many others, including Jeni, Rosie, Kath, Emily, and Penny (as well as a few people who aren't, shall we say, up on social media, and who I therefore can't link to) attended.

And you guys, it was awesome. I was a little nervous because I don't have so much experience with baby showers (in fact, I have never attended one other than my own), and I wasn't too sure about being the center of attention, and also most of the people there had never met each other, and I just wasn't sure how it was all going to come together. But there was no need to worry, because it turned out wonderfully. People seemed to have a lot in common, and they all chatted freely, and Emily had done a wonderful job organizing the whole thing, down to a cute game (not tacky--no sticking your face in fake dirty diapers) and a delicious spread (including chicken chili, guacamole with pomegranate seeds, and delicious cupcakes--all homemade!).

Also, not to blame pregnancy for, I don't know, everything? But it feels like either we are busy or I am exhausted a lot, and our schedule feels like it fills up really fast between prenatal appointments and childbirth classes and infant CPR class and so on and so forth, and so it had been longer than I would have liked since I had seen some of these people, and it was so wonderful to get to catch up with all of them, and now hopefully we will be able to find the time to get together with everyone at least one more time before Piglet is born, and of course again afterward.

And the gifts! People were so generous and their gifts were so thoughtful. Some people bought stuff off the registry, some gave other things, some did a combination of both--and every single thing we received was lovely and amazing and useful and touching. I would describe some of the stuff we received, but I would certainly forget something by mistake and I don't want to omit anyone, because all the gifts were really amazing. So let's just say that now I feel much more prepared to, you know, have a baby, and the nursery is much closer to being complete (and then I will finally show photos! I swear!).

The whole thing was just wonderful, down to and including the stray dog that Emily rescued that morning who spent most of the shower in her back yard, barking and scratching at the door and digging holes in the garden and generally being a nuisance (but I'm told that it had a happy ending and the dog was reunited with its owner). I had such a good time and I left feeling happy and loved and supported and, you know, generally schmoopy.

When we moved to Denver I wasn't sure how our social network would come together, given that we both work out of our homes and didn't know anyone here when we arrived. And it is amazing to me how nicely it has all played out, and how many fabulous people we've met since we moved here. And I feel so glad that Piglet will be born into this network, and that even before he's born, there are so many people who love him and care about him already.

In conclusion, Denver is awesome, and so is blogging. So, thank you.

Trying to raise a multilingual child

People keep asking us how we're going to do the German thing with Piglet. And I tell them... we're going to raise a multicultural kid. One way or another. The specifics are a little fuzzy. We're just starting to hash them out. It's an interesting thing to try to figure out.

The most important thing to us in raising this child to be truly multicultural is for him to be able to have a meaningful relationship with his grandparents, not just my parents who conveniently live in the same country, but Torsten's parents as well. The relationship with my parents will be easier--they live closer (though not exactly close), they visit more frequently, they are more accessible. But the relationship with Torsten's parents is equally important. And that's what will take more work.

Of course we also just sort of generally want Piglet to have a sense of where he comes from, of what it means to be from more than one country, of the heritage and ancestry that are behind him, of how this family came to be. And the benefits of being raised bilingual seem pretty extensive. But the grandparent thing is the number one motivator.

So, since Torsten's parents don't speak English, Piglet has to be bilingual. I've read a couple books about this; there's no real consensus on the one perfect way to do it, but everyone agrees that any effort you can put in to help your child be bilingual is certainly worth it, even if it's imperfect. And honestly I don't think we can say that we'll do X or Y to ensure that Piglet is a fluent German speaker, because a lot of it will depend on how things go.

(As an aside, one thing that the research I've read says: first children are more fluent in the second language than subsequent children. The reasons for this seem to be complex, but are likely a combination of the parents having less time for quality verbal interaction with their kids when they have more than one child, and the second child spending more time interacting verbally with the sibling whose own second language skills are already imperfect. So I guess this means we should try to set the bar high with Piglet, in hopes that a future sibling will also be fluent, even if not quite at the same level?)

Anyway, our basic plan is: I will speak to Piglet in English and Torsten will speak to Piglet in German. Pretty much all the time. When we are together as a family, since I don't speak German, Torsten and I will speak English to each other. But if he's talking to Piglet, hopefully he will speak German, even if I'm there too, even if he has to translate for me if it's something that I needed to hear too.

I think it's clear that since Torsten and I speak only English together, and we live in an English-dominant country, that Piglet will just be exposed to more English than German, and his English will be better than his German. But the goal is for him to be pretty much completely fluent in German, even if his vocabulary isn't as nuanced as it is in English, and even if he makes grammatical errors when speaking.

We also hope that he will be able to read and write in German. We will ask Torsten's parents to bring us a bunch of German-language baby stuff, and eventually as we start traveling to Germany with Piglet we will try to collect German games and music and whatnot. In the meantime I think we're going to suck up the shipping charges and order a few German board books from amazon.de to get us started, so Torsten can read to Piglet in German from day 1. And we'll use our internet radio and Rhapsody subscription to play German kids' music, too.

Other plans: visits from Torsten's parents. Skype chats with Torsten's parents. Visits to Germany. Possibly when Piglet is older, visits to Torsten's parents without us, to spend a few weeks in Germany in a situation where he will genuinely have to speak German all the time. Possibly insisting that Piglet speak to Torsten in German, once he's a bit older (like elementary school age), but we'll see about that. A general attempt to expose him to as much German as possible on the theory that the English exposure will take care of itself. So lots of books in German, conversations in German, games in German, encouragement to write in German.

The dream would be a school that does German immersion, too. There are a few options for that in Denver, but they are all expensive, new, and/or very, very small. We don't have to worry about this for awhile, so we'll see how things shake out once we're ready to start looking into schools for real, but if Piglet could have even a year or two of German-language preschool, that would already be great. And before then... maybe a German speaking nanny or babysitter? We definitely don't want an au pair, but if there were some sort of caretaker who could speak with him in German, that would be great.

I do wonder how it will be for Torsten to suddenly switch to speaking German so often. His English, though accented, is completely fluent, but when his parents come to visit and he speaks German a lot, he definitely starts formulating English sentences with German-style construction. Hopefully the need to switch back and forth so frequently will help him avoid this habit... like maybe his mind will learn to more quickly differentiate between the two? I really don't know.

I also wonder... like, I very much look forward to seeing Torsten interact with the baby as a dad. And of course that will be the case no matter what language they're interacting with. But I wonder if it will be weird or hard for me to hear him saying things to the baby that I don't understand. That there won't be cute little comments and pet names that I can listen to and smile over.

But I am choosing to be optimistic about this, and assume that I will learn some German along with Piglet, and also that comments along the lines of, "Who's a cute baby? YOU'RE a cute baby!" will be unmistakable, even if they're said in German.

And we do want to be flexible about this. We don't want to tie ourselves in knots and make ourselves miserable trying to make this work. But we are determined that this child will speak German, and it's up to us to make that happen, and make it fit into our lives. I have high hopes.

Waiting for reality

Yesterday afternoon I experienced my first no-doubt-about-it Braxton Hicks contractions. I've had things that could have been that before, sort of general vague crampy feelings that aren't round ligament pain but aren't exactly contractions, but yesterday? The sensation fit the description to a tee. There were just two or three of them, but they finally showed me the difference between a cramp and a contraction. As in, these came in waves, rolls of clenching, and after 30-60 seconds, disappeared. They didn't hurt, at all, but they gave me an idea of how an actual contraction will be, at least as far as coming and going is concerned, if not in terms of the actual physical pain.

So! Pregnancy milestone! Braxton Hicks, right on schedule, as I will be 30 weeks along tomorrow. Crazy to think that at some point in the nearish future (hopefully not too near), there will be REAL contractions that will result in a real birth and then a real baby.

I know, I've mentioned that before, the whole OMG REAL BABY thing, but it still hasn't quite locked in my head that in 10ish weeks, there will be a baby, a real one, the kind who screams and eats and poops and does everything else babies are supposed to do except, I don't know, sleep? I mean not that I am expecting a really challenging baby but I am also not expecting the really easy kind of baby, in fact I don't really have any specific expectations about what kind of baby Piglet will be since it seems like it's a complete and total crapshoot, and also if there's one thing I've learned from reading blogs it's that even if your baby SEEMS like a great easy round-the-clock sleeper those first couple weeks, he won't necessarily STAY that way so if he sleeps well at first that does not mean we can smugly announce that we have the World's Best Baby and subsequently declare ourselves the World's Best Parents.

But still, you know. The idea of not sleeping and the actual grueling exhausting emotional wringer of really not sleeping are two very different things, and even though I know there will be sleep deprivation I don't know if it's really possible to wrap your mind about what the reality of that will actually be like.

And that's OK. I mean part of the reason why certain feelings--pain, love, heartbreak--are so intense when you experience them is because they can't be summoned at will. Even if you have experienced them before it is impossible to remember the true sensation of them in their entirety when you aren't experiencing them anymore. And that's what makes them so strong when they do happen. And what allows us to go back for more of certain things, like, I don't know, having more than one kid, knowing what we're getting ourselves into but still not really being able to recapture the pinnacle of the worst moments.

But you also can't recapture the pinnacle of the best moments, and from what I hear it's all more than worth it, and I am just hoping that the intangible, the swollen loving overwhelmingness of it, will indeed be enough to carry us through the tough parts.

Starting with the labor itself. The same way that the watered-down, non-painful Braxton Hicks contractions can give us a very vague, unspecific, blurry concept of what the real thing will be like, other people's stories and our own memories can only give us the general outline but not actually plunge us into the middle of what it will actually be like. And the only way to know what it will actually be like is to do it.

And that's what it's hard to wrap your head around. You can decide to plunge--but that involves getting pregnant and growing a person before you actually get to the part where you have a baby. And in the meantime even though you think you get it, even though everybody tells you, you don't really know. And that's why it still feels so abstract. Even though Piglet kicks me sharply many times a day to remind me of just how real he is.

Banks and diabetes

So. As those of you who follow me on Twitter know, I failed that one-hour glucose test last Friday. The one-hour test is just a screen, not diagnostic, so it's not like failing the test meant that I actually had gestational diabetes, but I didn't take the news so well. As in, I totally started crying and was very upset about it for the rest of the day. What can I say? I never claimed to be reasonable.

Anyway, I did the three-hour test yesterday, and I passed! Which means that I do not have gestational diabetes, and since I am 29 weeks along, I am not in danger of getting it. (Glucose levels peak at 24-28 weeks.) I do not have to take that damn test again and I do not have to worry about GD for the rest of this pregnancy. This is SUCH a relief, I can't even begin to tell you. That three-hour test really freaked me out. Seriously, the night before the test I slept like absolute shit. I actually dreamed about the test several times, and woke up at least once an hour all stressed about it. That combined with the 15 hours of fasting required for the test really made for a less than pleasant experience, but the negative test result more than made up for that.

Still, I have to say, doesn't it seem like there should be a better way to diagnose GD than this test? I mean, starving a pregnant woman for 15+ hours before pumping her full of simple sugar and then waiting for her blood sugar to spike and then crash just doesn't seem like the healthiest approach to this issue, you know?

Also, my blood sugar at the three-hour mark was 65. That is LOW. Luckily I remembered to bring a snack with me to the hospital so that I could stabilize a bit before driving home. I do not think it would have been safe for me to drive home with my blood sugar in the low 60s. By the time I was allowed to eat my snack I was actually shaking. This test should come with a warning! And, even after I had eaten a nice healthy lunch, I was exhausted for the rest of the afternoon, and not just because I had slept poorly the previous night.

Anyway! In other news, that whole mess with Wachovia has been resolved. And by "resolved" I mean that they mailed me back the original check without any explanation of why it was rejected. I called them, and they weren't able to explain why it was rejected, but they were able to clarify that since the original check was mailed back to me, that means the dispute has been closed out and I don't have to worry that they will now try to cash the check, so I am free and clear to have it re-issued without worrying that it will end up getting deposited twice.

So, great, if you want to call that a resolution. Which I do, because it means we're not in limbo anymore, but I am still so disgusted over the whole thing and how it was handled. We are thinking about switching banks--but I'm not sure. How disappointed would Wachovia be to lose a customer that maintains only a free checking account? Does it actually matter to them if we switch? I'm guessing not. So is it worth the hassle on our end to go to another bank? Will we benefit from it? Will another bank actually be better in any way, or are they all the same?

I don't know. And I'm tired just thinking about it, and about changing online bill pays, and my paycheck direct deposit, and ordering new checks, and so on. So I guess for now we will stagnate. And hope that there are no problems with the re-issued check.

And even if there are, at least I don't have gestational diabetes. Perhaps that knowledge will give me the strength to fight with Wachovia again? But please, please, please, don't let it come to that.

Two years in

Two years ago today, this happened:





Cliche as it is, our wedding was one of the best days of my life. And yet, at the same time, things have gotten so much better since then. The things that we've managed to do with our lives in just two years astound me sometimes. It's been fantastic doing them with this amazing, wonderful man. I feel so lucky that I get to live my life with him.

This is our family now, two years in. I am so happy with where we are now. I can't wait to see where we go.