Letter to My Hallie: 6 Months

Sweet, sweet Hallie,

It is IMPOSSIBLE that you are already 6 months old. With each of my babies, time has flown by ever faster, and I can't seem to catch it. 

What all have you been up to this month? A LOT! For a fourth, and a pandemic-era baby, you're leading a pretty full life.

You took your second road trip- this time to Boone! We went to Boone over Valentine's weekend to visit Bo in her new apartment. Nana and Poppy were there, too, so we did it up right, celebrating Valentine's Day and Claire's birthday. You were a DREAM in the car and slept like a CHAMP in the pack-n-play while there. I was so very proud of you!

We have been loving listening to you babble, laugh, and giggle. You are such a happy girl, constantly waiting to be delighted. Even when you're tired, you try your very hardest to keep smiling at us. 

Brynna has taken on the role of Chief Hallie Minder, and you both love it. She ALWAYS wants to be near you and takes such good care of you. You light up when you see her, and you happily let her kiss and hug and poke all over you (I do my level best to keep her from poking your eyes). 

You love to be tickled, which is excellent, because Daddy is a world-class baby tickler. 

We tried you out on solid food this month. At best, you are marginally interested so far. That's ok. You have time! Your first bite was applesauce on February 20. You've also tried avocado and banana. There was no strategy behind those choices; it's just what we were eating and thought you might like.

You've also moved into cloth diapers this month. I've had to shore up my diaper laundering, as you and Brynnie are using them now. I think that the move into cloth diapers is true initiation into the clan. 

You absolutely delight our very souls. We could not possibly have imagined the joy that you would bring to us, Hallie!

Love you,

Mommy

We also pulled out the jump-up for you!

Trumpkin was delighted!

Lily made sure you were properly looked after.

You've really grown to love the jump-up!

I love this one- you're making a face that looks *just* like a baby picture of mine!

23 Weeks

24 Weeks

25 Weeks

6 Months

Costume change!

Some nitty gritty of of navigating my GDM

I mentioned that with my first round of gdm (with Lily), I was sent to see a nutritionist. She was very nice, but she didn't really give me a lot of hands-on, practical, day-to-day solutions. She gave me a list of snack and meal ideas, but it wasn't very, um, varied (it gave one sample day of meals. I had 7 weeks of diabetic dieting ahead of me and needed more than 3 meal options.), and it included a lot of foods with artificial sweeteners (which give me migraines). 

In the end, I left with a glucometer kit and a decent amount of frustration and confusion. Example of confusion: she told me to increase my daily calorie intake but also told me not to gain more than 5 pounds for the rest of my pregnancy. If you've had a baby before, you know that the end is when you put on weight pretty quickly because of the baby growing and, usually, decreased physical activity because of how uncomfortable you are. She did not explain to me how this was supposed to work. I cried a little more because I just didn't know what to do (and yes, I tried asking clarifying questions, but it didn't earn me any better explanations). 

Eventually, though, I stopped crying and buckled down to figure things out on my own. 

One thing I did learn from the nutritionist that gave me a place to start was that I could have 2 servings of carbs at breakfast, 3 at lunch, and 4 at supper. I also learned that I needed a mid-morning snack, mid-afternoon snack, and pre-bedtime snack (1 serving of carbs at each snack). I started looking into nutritional information on foods I usually eat and began keeping track of how much of what I could eat. One tool that I found to be extremely valuable was using the app My Fitness Pal, which is a free food diary. I had used it to keep track of my calories when I was pregnant with/losing weight after Claire, but I knew it would also tell me how many carbs per portion, as well. Any time I was about to eat anything, I plugged it into My Fitness Pal and checked the carbs per portion. It was empowering, dramatic as that sounds. Having that tool allowed me to eat normal foods/what everyone else was eating...I just had to calculate the correct portions.

One VERY VALUABLE piece of information that I learned from my research that wasn't explained well to me at my meeting with the nutritionist was the significance of balancing carbs with proteins AND fats (she only talked about proteins). This is crucial (and was why she increased my caloric intake), because the protein-fat-carb balance is what determines how well your body can break down glucose. If you don't have enough protein AND fat, your body can't break down glucose slowly enough to keep your blood sugar stable. Additionally, you do actually need to eat carbs. Cutting them out or even down too far doesn't give your body what it needs to fuel, and your body tries to compensate in unhealthy ways. The important part is knowing how to balance everything.

THIS IS IMPORTANT INFORMATION TO SHARE WITH SOMEONE NEW TO DIABETES. This bit of education was the key for me in figuring out how to keep my levels normal and balanced. Note: when a diabetic's glucose numbers are off, it makes you feel quite awful and very unlike yourself. This stands for if they are too high or too low. Headaches, nausea (in addition to pregnancy nausea), blurry vision, weakness, foggy headed-ness. I actually also get a tell-tale feeling in my chest when my glucose is too high. It feels like a pressure/higher heart rate. I can almost always predict when my glucose is too high, thanks to this.

For women with gdm in the state of North Carolina, the medical standards for "normal" glucose levels are 90 or below after fasting and 120 or below 2 hours after meals. My fasting numbers are super sketchy this second time around, but I usually have no problem keeping my post-prandial numbers under 120. Part of managing this includes a fairly strict eating schedule that I keep to: 
1. breakfast
2. snack 2 hours later
3. lunch
4. snack 2 hours later
5. supper
6. snack at bedtime
7. potential extra snack if it's a longer evening- it's pretty important to have a snack AT bedtime to give your body something to help stabilize things while you sleep

It's very hobbit-ish.

The important thing to keep in focus while eating a diabetic diet is carbohydrate portion control. The nutritionist allotted me 2 carbs for breakfast, 3 carbs for lunch, and 4 at dinner + 1 portion at each snack time. 15 grams of carbohydrates is roughly one serving. Those 15 grams look different from food to food, though, which takes a little learning. Examples:
Apple: half of an apple
Tortilla chips: ~7-8 chips (some brands are 9-11 chips)
Bread: one slice
Pasta: ~1/4 cup cooked
Grapes: ~10-12 grapes
Strawberries: one cup
Banana: half of a banana

After a while, calculating carb amounts became much easier for me, and I began to have quite a list of foods' carb counts memorized and didn't have to think so hard. Keeping my post-prandial (after meals) glucose numbers within the right range (under 120) became easier and more doable. I did feel sad that when I'd want to eat 2 pieces of pizzas...I could only eat one (and usually skip the crust). Or that I couldn't eat the same desserts as everyone. But, the the fact that I could still eat pizza, pasta, and Mexican food (in limited portions) was really encouraging and normalizing.

When I was going through gdm with Lily, I had difficulty controlling my fasting numbers until I learned a little trick: I started eating avocado toast before bed as my nighttime snack. Avocados are an excellent source of fat for diabetics. The fat content is so high that it broke down the glucose of the bread/toast slowly enough to keep my numbers stable. It was like magic! Once I started that routine, my numbers almost never went unchecked. This pregnancy is different, though, and even avocado toast can't do it without medication to help (and, I've been super sick after eating avocados on several occasions, so I can't really stomach it anyway. Such a BUMMER.).

I pretty quickly found a few things that would adversely affect my numbers on any given day: stress, nausea, headaches/migraines, hormonal surges. If I had a migraine overnight, my glucose numbers would be higher in the morning. If I was feeling stressed about something, my numbers would be elevated, regardless of what I ate. If I had a day where I just didn't feel well, my numbers would run higher throughout the day. There is no hard-and-fast solution for diet-controlled diabetes, because there are going to be factors you can't control. It took me a while to realize that and to give myself a pass; at the beginning, I would find myself stressing that I had done something wrong in managing my sugar, and the next thing I knew, my glucose was even higher. Once I began letting myself off the hook for things I couldn't control, my stress lowered and, overall, helped my sugar stay more stable.

Also, physical activity and exercise can help lower your glucose. Now, if you're 30-something weeks pregnant, having Braxton-Hicks all day and fighting sciatic nerve pain, this isn't going to be your best solution for glucose control. Likewise, if you're 18 weeks pregnant, constantly on the verge of nausea, and fighting several migraines each week, you can't depend on exercise to do your work for you...diet is super important, guys.

I wish that when I had visited the nutritionist she had shared more of these details with me. It took me weeks to pull together all of this information and figure out tangible solutions for myself. I also wished I'd known that this diabetic lifestyle is not fully formulaic; it ebbs and flows, because our bodies are constantly moving, changing, and doing things. Thankfully, I went into my second diabetic pregnancy with so much more knowledge and a lot less fear. Don't get me wrong- I was BUMMED. It is lousy to face Thanksgiving and Christmas knowing that you can't eat just whatever you want. Or that you can't eat half a sleeve of crackers when you're feeling nauseated. Or that you can't drink Coke when you're feeling headache-y/migraine-y. But it's doable. And not the train wreck I was convinced it would be.

I'm hoping to post some actual meals and snacks that I eat regularly, so that if anyone needs some concrete ideas at any point. Maybe before this baby is born...

Shall we chat about diabetes?

Oh, diabetes.

I did not have gestational diabetes when I was pregnant with Claire, so I was floored when I found that I had tested positive for gdm ("gestational diabetes mellitus" is the official name; "gdm" is the official abbreviation) when I was pregnant with Lily. I absolutely did not see it coming and was very upset about it (I blame it on the hormones). It was just so overwhelming. There were no indicators in my regular life that would point toward diabetes. How do you even start living a diabetic lifestyle? Especially when nauseated, hungry, not hungry, craving specific foods, only wanting carbs? HOW? 

Those were only a few of my many questions.

I wrote about it a little bit here and here the first time around. I was sent to a session with a nutritionist at that time which was mostly unhelpful, so I dug in to do my own research (I was an English major, so I am very comfortable with research, guys.). I gathered some really helpful, basic information about how diabetes and a diabetic diet work and then cobbled together several go-to snack options and learned how to manage my carbs during meals. I managed my blood sugar incredibly well, according to my doctor. This kept me and Lily healthy, kept Lily's birth weight to a reasonable/healthy weight (6 lbs, 15 oz), reduced/eliminated her risk of jaundice due to diabetes, and kept my weight gain in check (I only gained 2 pounds in the last 7 weeks of pregnancy). It wasn't the most fun, but I found a groove to making it manageable (and that didn't involve lots of sugar-free foods).

In normal pregnancies, doctors (or midwives) test for gdm at the beginning of the 3rd trimester. This is because it's around that point in pregnancy that the placenta begins producing hormones that can interfere with your glucose/insulin balance. When you deliver your baby/placenta, your body usually returns to normal (i.e. non-diabetic). Because each pregnancy involves a different placenta, you can end up not having gdm with one but having it with another (me, case-in-point). However, once you've had gdm, your chance of developing it again is remarkably higher. It's standard practice for OBs to run an early glucose test for women who have previously had gdm (me) at the end of the first trimester with subsequent pregnancies. 

So, I took an early test at 13 weeks. I failed my 1-hour on the early test, but rather than going back for the 3-hour follow-up test, I opted to start the diet and regularly check my sugar for a week and then go back for an assessment appointment. I was still so nauseated and fighting so many migraines that I knew having to fast for and then take the 3-hour test was a disaster waiting to happen. I also knew that the chances of me passing the 3-hour test, based on my glucose reading after the first + my history with gdm, were very low. Everyone was fine with that plan, so that's how we proceeded. I've been on a diabetic diet and checking my glucose 4 times/day since 13 weeks (this includes over Thanksgiving and Christmas). I'm currently 31 weeks, so I've been doing this for a while at this point.

During my Lily pregnancy, I was able to completely manage my diabetes with diet only. This time, my body is responding differently. During the day, I can manage my diabetes very easily with my diet, thanks to all the info about counting/portioning/balancing I gleaned last time. Normal protocol is that a woman with gdm checks her blood sugar 4 times a day: when she wakes up/before eating (fasting) and then 2 hours after each main meal (post-prandial). My fasting numbers have been my problem this time. I can't control my glucose while I'm sleeping (obviously...because I'm not snacking on a time frame while I'm sleeping). Fasting numbers are particularly important because they gauge a little more accurately how your body does regulating glucose and insulin on its own. So, my higher fasting numbers have led to me taking medication this time around.

I started out on a lower dose of metformin right at Christmas time, and it managed all of my numbers really well. Around the time I crossed the third trimester threshold, though, it became less effective, and my fasting numbers, particularly, started creeping back up. My theory is that this happened because that's around the time that the placenta begins producing the complicating hormones in earnest. My doctors recently upped my dosage for a little while to see if that will take care of things. If it doesn't help significantly, we move onto insulin until delivery (shots...every day...groan). I'll try to keep you posted.

Technically, my status as Type A-2 GDM (medication-dependent) classifies me as "high risk" (I didn't know this for quite a while), which means that I get extra ultrasounds as we near the end of pregnancy. They're having me go in for 3 extra ultrasounds to check on the baby's growth and fluid levels- just to make sure that the insulin imbalance isn't negatively impacting her environment. Around the 36 week ultrasound, they'll look at whether or not they'll want to deliver at 38 weeks, rather than 39. 

What with all the nausea and vomiting, migraines, and diabetes, I'm just livin' it up over here during pregnancy. It's a regular par-tay. The good news is that I've put on a reasonably low amount of weight (and then crash-lost some on three occasions, thanks to having stomach viruses/migraines). That will be helpful when I'm trying to fit back into my non-maternity pants. Silver lining?

I'll probably do a post or two about the specifics of what I eat and how I count carbs/fats/proteins at some point. I had a lot of trouble finding a really helpful breakdown of information my first time through, so I'm going to do my part to help a sister out, should someone in need of information about gdm stumble across my blog. All under the heading of "I'm not a professional- don't sue me," of course. :) 

Our hat trick.

Yep. We're having a baby! Wait...that's not what you were expecting with "hat trick?"

From the middle of September until, well, still ongoing, I've been preeeeetty sick. At this point, that's a pregnancy staple for me, and I've learned to accept it. We're all very excited, though (well, Lily doesn't really understand, but everyone else is excited.). I'm currently 20 weeks, which for me is actually slightly over halfway- this will be my second scheduled c-section (3rd overall)- so they'll do it at 39 weeks. My official due date is May 12th (the day after my birthday!), but the c-section will be scheduled for the week before. So...maybe Cinco de Mayo? Brad knows I'll expect queso in the recovery room should this be the case. He's hoping for May the 4th (be with her...). 

Shall we do a few FAQ's?

Have you been as sick this time as in the past?
Absolutely. It's what I do, guys. So far, I've been struggling with really debilitating migraines (several each week), constant quaking nausea, my fair share of vomiting, and...diabetes (I'll actually write more about this later. It's a whole thing.). Bleh. I'm 3 for 3 in pregnancy-induced, migraine-related trips to the ER for a few hours of fluids and phenergan. I'll have a migraine that makes me start vomiting, which means I can't keep my pain medication down, which means the migraine persists, which means I keep vomiting until I'm extremely dehydrated, which fuels the migraine...and I end up in a cycle I can't break out of. Hopefully, I've gotten it out of the way and won't have to do it again this pregnancy. BUT I have to give a shout out to Kieler, the amazingly talented wizard of a nurse who got my IV started in about 5 seconds with zero trauma to me. I was so dehydrated that I had absolutely no hope that he could get a vein in one go (this was not my first rodeo, y'all. Unfortunately, I know how this goes.), and I was steeling myself for lots of attempts, lots of discomfort, and lots of bruising (all while fighting a raging migraine and nausea). He was MAGICAL, I tell you. I'm going to ask if they'll bring him up from the ER just to start my IV when I have the baby. I'm sure that won't be a problem, right?

If you've been so sick, how have you managed taking care of things/the girls/your life?

Thankfully, we have some really great friends and a particularly fabulous mom and mother-in-law who have bent over backwards to take care of me and the girls (and Brad by extension) many days and weeks this fall. I was all but bedridden for a few stretches of time and fairly useless much of the rest of the time, and our moms kept things going. We are SO GRATEFUL.

Is Claire excited?
Of course. Have you met Claire? Excited is her default.

Are you concerned about Lily as a middle child?
No. Have you met Lily? She'll be just fine.

Are you going to convert your guest room to a kids' bedroom?
No. Please come stay with us in confidence that you will have a bed. In a room without children.

Do you want a boy this time?
Guys, that's such an awkward question. I wanted whatever I got (because, ya know, that part is determined before I even know anything about the baby's existence so I have no control, no say). Happy either way. But, I do want to go on record as saying that I have never felt that I would be cheated by having a third daughter. Of course parenting a boy would be fun and an adventure and so different than parenting girls. But I never want any daughter of mine to feel like they were inferior or weren't wanted (and celebrated) because they're not a boy. Much like Anne Shirley.

And on that note, we found out gender on the 21st, and we're having a...

That's our actual hat trick: 3 girls in a row! We are nothing if not consistent. I think we're pretty lucky to get to raise 3 women to love the Lord, love others, and do good work in this world. 

And no, we have no idea what we'll name her. We couldn't name Lily until we were holding her, so there's no telling if/when this baby will be named. 

Cover up.

Claire is officially in her cloth diapers (well, at least most of the time). She actually has been for over a month now. The verdict? We love them. Truly. 

(So, this post is about diapers. That may interest some of you, but there's a good chance a lot of you won't care. It won't hurt my feelings if you don't want to read it. I get that. Come back later...I promise not to write about diapers regularly. Probably. We'll see.)

We committed to the cloth diapering route before Bear was born*, and I won't lie that we were a taddy bit apprehensive about how it would go. We decided to go with cloth because of the financial savings we calculated. In the long run, it's a substantial amount. Even with having to pay per load that we wash (I crunched a lot of numbers. Huge headache, for sure.), we would save over $1,000 if she potty trains before she's 3. That's just a savings that we couldn't ignore. 

We went with this brand. Our diapers are one-size/all-in-ones. The one-size thing should allow her to grow into them without us having to upgrade to a bigger size (i.e. buy more diapers). I will say that this original plan didn't work out for us for the first couple of months because Claire is so not even a little bit chubby. The diapers swallowed her for quite a while, which probably actually worked out for the best, since my post-delivery recovery took a bit longer than anticipated and learning the cloth diaper routine took a few days of figuring. 

The all-in-one part of the diaper  means that our diapers don't have removable inserts; we weren't too enthused about having to reach into a dirty diaper and remove an insert. We did get a few of those, but I stitched those suckers in so that we avoid the reaching-yucky-gross situation. I stitched them on just one end of the diaper so that we can pull the clean insert out to dry after going through the wash. Oh yes...we're committed to avoiding contact with dirty inserts.

We were so blessed to have been given most of our diapers and then gift cards that we used to pad out our number. Currently, we have 23 diapers. Because of needing to pay $2.00 per load washed, we wanted to make sure that we filled out each load as much as possible. We've gotten our washing system worked out to where we wash 20 or 21 at a time. The diapers are supposed to air dry (which we do with all of our clothes anyway, except for specific situations), so we have to wait a bit for that to happen after each wash cycle. If we wash in the evening and dry overnight, we can usually get by with just 2 diapers during that time. If we have to wait for them to dry during the day, we sometimes dip into our disposable diaper stash. (We definitely have disposables on hand at all times for situations like drying diapers or going out for a while or when she has a diaper rash and we need to use creams that aren't compatible with the materials in the cloth diapers.**).

When it comes time to clean and wash them, we have a fairly simple system. First, we installed a life-saving sprayer. It's a sprayer (like the kind in a kitchen sink) that hooks up to the water supply on the toilet. When she has a dirty diaper, we take it to the bathroom, spray it off into the toilet, and flush. We are big fans of this process. It gets the diaper really cleaned off prior to washing. After spraying, we drop them in our wet bag (we got this one) where they hang out until laundry day (we wash diapers twice/week). The wet bag does an awesome job of containing odors. For washing, we just dump the wet bag into the machine (every few washes, we drop the bag itself in, too). We recently discussed how much those steps have NOT inconvenienced our lives. It's a little shocking, really, how easy it's been. 

This is what the diaper looks like: lots of snaps! The two rows across the top allow for size adjustment around her waist. Currently, it's still pretty tight on our thin wee one. The three lower rows that are more spread apart are for adjusting the length. You may have guessed this, but yes, she's still in the shortest length. See what it looks like here:

When you open it up all the way, you have these two flaps that overlap each other, covering all the bases. So far, we've had no blow outs with the cloth diapers...that cannot be said of our disposables, unfortunately. Right, Kat?

These are the four colors that we have. We have exactly one pink one (although, I think it's adorable), 3 green ones, 5 yellow ones, and the rest are white. At first, we thought we wanted a bunch of fun colors, but we actually really like our white ones. They go with everything. #winning

This is one of the ways that we dry the diapers. Classy, right? There's a dehumidifier in our hallway, and that helps dry them SO quickly. I sort of stumbled across that solution accidentally and am so glad I did. #stillwinning

Here's Bearsy modeling one of her diapers while she was way of the wild. So cute, right? #winningthemostever

Anyway, that's the rundown on the diaper situation. We're really happy with them. Like, a lot. Yay.

*Please don't hear me making any commentary on anyone's diapering choices. We're big fans of both cloth and disposables and don't judge anyone on their diapering preferences. I've just gotten a lot of questions on how the cloth diapering is progressing and thought I'd tell you about it. Go forth and diaper as you see fit! No judgment here!
**Incidentally, we realize that there are natural options and organic brands of diaper rash cream that we could invest in, but we really like a specific brand and are willing to put her in disposables for a day or so for it to take effect. We are also aware that repetitive diaper rash should be checked into, and we're on it with our pediatrician, so no worries! 

OMG girl strikes again.

Sorry for getting behind again; it's been an unexpected kind of week. I'll try to catch up a bit soon.

Does anyone remember this girl from my glucose test? If not, take a second and refresh your memory on how my glucose test ended up being a little more involved and far less professionally-handled than anticipated.

I'll wait.

Remember her now? Good. Fast forward to Wednesday of this week. I had a doctor's appointment/weekly check up. My doctor wanted to run a few tests (nobody panic...things are under observation and I'm being taken good care of) and sent me down to the lab. I was going down to have blood taken and be given supplies to take home for a 24-hour urine collection (I realize that's not very glamorous or ladylike, but it's necessary to the story. I really don't try to overshare the medical stuff).

I gave the phlebotomist my orders, and she took my blood without incident (that I know of...), had me sign the paperwork, and told me I could go. Here's the conversation that ensued*:

Me: Oh, my doctor also mentioned I would need supplies for a 24-hour urine collection.

OMGGirl: (blank stare) Uh...well, I have four different kinds of jugs for that. Which one do you need?

Me: (thinking: I don't know! Isn't that what they pay you for?) Um, I'm not sure. She wants to check for protein.

OMGGirl: (picks up a couple different kinds of the collection jugs and holds them out to me) Well, we have this one that has thus-in-so in it and this one that has such-and-such chemical in it and this other one with this-other-substance and this one that's plain. Which one do you want?

Me: (thinking: um, I don't particularly WANT any of them, and I definitely don't KNOW which I need. Seriously...that's YOUR job!) I have no idea. Is it not on my orders? 

OMGGirl: Um, no. Do you think your doctor will put it in the computer?

Me: I don't know...

OMGGirl: Hmm...(mutters to herself, weighing different jugs in her hands)...I'll just give you this one. 

*If I hadn't been rather shaken by the information my doctor had just given me and if my mom hadn't been on the phone with my dad, explaining the situation, one of us would have said, "Why don't you call my doctor or check with a lab supervisor about the proper container?" Unfortunately, I was sort of shocked and wasn't thinking as clearly as hindsight later allowed. 

Later that night, Brad and I ended up in Labor and Delivery to have a few additional tests done, and before sending me home, the nurse asked me if I'd been given the proper equipment for my urine test. I told her my story about the lab experience. She rolled her eyes, made a few choice comments about people who don't know what they're doing, and gave me the proper equipment, including a hat, which had not been given to me previously. Not sure how OMGGirl was planning on my accuracy of collection without the hat...I had no idea I was supposed to have one.

Here's hoping any future lab visits are on her day off.

Cloth Diapers for Claire

You may know this, but if you don't: Boston College is a private Jesuit (Society of Jesus/ Catholic monastic order) university.

Bet ya didn't see that first sentence coming after reading the title of this post, did ya?

Seriously, though, it does tie in with the cloth diapering thing.

Brad is in classes and is friends with quite a few men who are part of the Jesuit brotherhood. We've gotten to know several of them over the past few months; they're really nice guys and have invited us over for meals, given us free tickets to sporting events at BC, and even gave us a ride to the airport at Christmas. So, last week, we had two of them over for dinner at our house (two different nights). Funnily enough, with both guys, we somehow ended up talking about our diapering plans (they introduced the topic...we don't just offer it up as prime chatting fodder on a regular basis. Unless you're related to us or close enough to have that conversation.). 

This brings me to our actual diapering plans. We decided a while back to give cloth diapers a whirl. We live in Boston, which is a very green/environmentally-aware locale, but that's not our primary motivation (although, what a nice perk, right?). We literally sat down with a calculator and projected time tables for Claire's diapering needs. We based all of our numbers on how long we're anticipating being here (currently: through Brad's graduation in May 2014...plus a few summer months), an average of how many disposables we would go through a week, how many times a week we'd pay (in quarters) to do loads of diaper laundry, plus start-up costs of acquiring the diapers...you know. The usual.

Our final cost calculations pretty much made the decision for us. It was a massive number. And, since we're on a graduate school budget and living in a rather pricey city, we like the look of discounts.

After the calculations, we narrowed down our choices of brands and styles. The winner was/is Bum Genius Freetime All-In-One One Size Snap Closure (what a mouthful). Our reasoning?

* I read about one zillion reviews of various brands, and this one seemed to fit our preferences best overall.

* We really like the idea of "all-in-one," which means that Claire's diapers won't have inserts to put in or take out. When there's a dirty diaper, we'll rinse it out and put the entire diaper in the washing machine. We like our laundry straightforward like that.

* According to all the reviews I read, the snap closures are more durable that the velcro options. I'm all about durability.

* This particular diaper's snap system is designed to be a one-size-fits-all, meaning that she'll grow into them. That part of the equation tends to confuse people at first; there is a fairly extensive system of snaps that will allow us to adjust the size of the diaper based on Claire's size. The snaps will enable us to expand them in width and length as she grows.

We do love efficiency around here. Theoretically, if there are future Boswell babies, we can reuse the same diapers (I read quite a few reviews by people who've successfully done that, too). So far, we have 3 of our diapers (pink, yellow, and white). We'll most definitely be upping that number very shortly. By a lot. The Jesuit friends got quite a kick out of checking out the diapers and figuring out how they work. One of the guys even texted his mom a picture. How funny is that?

We're definitely going into this diapering scene with a flexible mindset. For instance, we realize she'll probably be too small for her cloth diapers for quite a few weeks after she's born. We're cool with that and will have plenty of disposables on hand until she fits. We're also practical in the sense that we know traveling will be easier with disposables, and if anyone is watching Claire and isn't comfortable with the cloth diapers, we'll be sure to have a ready supply of normal diapers for them. We definitely like to consider ourselves reasonable. 

I'll probably keep you posted on our adventure (you know, minus any graphic details). And, if you're in the area and haven't played with the crazy nuances of cloth diapers, you are more than welcome to drop by and figure it out. Or, we could direct you to the Jesuit community and they can explain it to you. :)

A few answers.

So, are you feeling better?
This is a very kind question that I get a lot. I feel sort of snarky when I try to answer it, though. The truth is, I don't have the same intensity of nausea that I had throughout all of first trimester and most of second trimester (that's right...I never experienced that I-feel-awesome-and-have-tons-of-energy phase that lots of women experience during second trimester), but I still deal with persistent nausea every day. I've been on my nausea medication every day of being pregnant. I'm very ready for that to be over. So, I can't really answer the inquiries with a, "I feel great." Because I don't.

Currently, I'm dealing with the nausea (although it is significantly less than it used to be) and headaches. The past few weeks have introduced a lot of joint pain and charlie horses (even though I've upped my potassium and drink over a gallon of water on any given day). I'm also back to being extremely exhausted/sleepy all the time. Sort of like first trimester. It's a bit ridiculous how tired I am. Although, sleeping at night is not happening all that often.

What's your due date?
March 10. Although, the second ultrasound we had indicated that she looked more like a March 15 due date. I'm really hoping for a little bit earlier than that so that she ends up coming while Brad is on Spring Break. How great would that be??

Have you been craving anything?
I haven't been craving things in the sense that I get in "must have NOW" mode; it's more like I've had preferences for some things. For example, until my acid reflux kicked in, I was wanting orange juice every morning. I didn't have to have it, but I wanted some. I think the closest I got to a real craving was on our trek back to New England. We stopped at a Chick-Fil-A in Maryland, and I really wanted an Ice Dream cone after we ate. 

Are you going to read Harry Potter to her?
Not for a while. We'll probably read Narnia together when she's young (as it's written for a younger audience), but I would prefer she wait to read Harry until she's at least the same age as Harry when he begins his saga (i.e. 11). Even then, I'd really like to read it together/discuss it. There's so much depth there, and I would really like to take advantage of those teaching moments. Maybe it'll be a rite of passage or something. :) We'll see. 

How did you pick her name?
We just liked Claire. Her middle name is a family name. 

Do you have everything for her?
We're working on it. We've gotten quite a bit from showers, and we have gift cards that we're planning to put to use for remaining necessities, like the rest of her diapers, her crib, her car seat, etc. We got about $130 worth of items (including a barely-used Baby Bjorn!) for $30, thanks to Craigslist. That was a fun blessing. Craigslist in a city this big and transient is like a gold mine. People just don't have the ability to hang on to things (i.e. don't have garages/attics/basements in which to store things), so they sell them frequently. 

Anyway, those are just a few of the questions that we've gotten many times over. Are there any others floating around that I didn't cover? You already know the answer to "is her nursery ready?" :). 

Have a happy Monday.

The Nursery

Before writing about the actual point of this post, I thought I'd share the first comment I've gotten so far in this pregnancy that had me scoffing a bit in frustration. Saw a gal from church at a gathering last night, and she greeted me with, "That baby's getting big." Then she just walked away.

Scoff of indignation. 

I wanted to tell her that, actually, I managed not to gain a. single. ounce. over the holidays. Four weeks in the South, for goodness' sake, and didn't gain an ounce. I also wanted to let her know she was being that typical person that pregnant women mock for being insensitive (you know...kind of like me right at this moment. She should maybe read this for some tips.). I didn't say anything, though. Partly because she walked away and partly because I couldn't think fast enough. And, partly because I didn't want to be rude. Golly. On second thought, a sassy comeback in Boston isn't really considered rude like it would be in the South. I have to keep reminding myself that this is a much more assertive culture; I should let things roll off more easily. But, my emotions are all over the place, so that's not so easy to remember all the time. 

Anyway.

We've gotten quite a lot of questions about Claire's nursery. Things like "what colors/theme are you using?" and "have you finished it yet?" We always feel a little bit awkward answering that line of questioning, because the truth is that she doesn't exactly get a nursery.

That sounds bad, doesn't it?

What that means is that our apartment (while spacious and awesome for Boston) doesn't lend itself to having an actual nursery like most set-ups in non-city dwellings. We have a room that will serve as part office/study area, guest room, extra storage, and baby area. We're getting creative and crafty in making that space as functional as we can, but we can't really turn it entirely into a nursery.

The good news is that she won't care or remember it.

We're going to be getting her a mini-crib (because a full-size crib won't actually fit in "her" room) that is on wheels, so that it can be moved from room to room as needed. Brad likes to say that the whole apartment will be her nursery. So cute, he is. We have been decluttering, shifting, and rearranging things (like out-of-season clothing, Christmas decorations, boxes of miscellany) in order to begin organizing her stuff into what we hope will be a functional setup for everyone. We are planning to put up some "art" and to make the room baby-like, to the best of our ability. However, don't plan on seeing lots of adorable pictures of her "nursery." We wish we could do more Pinterest-y cute things, but on top of the space and multi-purposeness of the room, it's the room in our apartment that used to be a recording studio. This means that we're working with a lot of fixtures and elements that we can't really change, move, or alter. Perhaps we could do more to cover things up or camouflage, but because the area is so...compact?...we want to be careful not to clutter it up too much either.

Do have I have you sufficiently confused? Sorry about that. I'm actually going to go back there and sort through some boxes while you attempt to figure out the babble I just wrote. :)

"OMG! Are you serious??"

Not the words you want to hear from the phlebotomist who has a needle stuck in your arm, right?

I had my glucose test last Friday. I'm one of those pregnant gals who a) still combats fierce nausea daily (despite the fact that I'm third trimester) and b) needs a light snack every hour-and-a-half to two hours in order to help keep the nausea in check (in addition to my anti-nausea medicine). So, having to fast prior to my glucose test was fairly torturous. Brad was a sweetheart and ordered a taxi so that I wouldn't have to ride on the train (Karen, Kat, and Breanne- back me up: that will make you nauseous even if you're not already feeling sick!), and we made sure to get there a few minutes before the lab opened so that we could be first in line. This lab doesn't really take appointments; you just show up, and it's first come, first served. Drat us...we were second in line. Overachievers.

When it was my turn, the lab tech started out by taking my pre-glucose sample, and I thought it was a little much to take four vials. Apparently, her supervisor agreed. This was the conversation that ensued (while the tourniquet was still tightly in place and the needle was in my arm):

Supervisor: "Did you just take four vials?"

Lab tech: "Yeah...was I not supposed to?" (um, that's not comforting...)

Supervisor: "No. She's here for a glucose test. You only need two." pauses...reads vial labels. "And, you used up all of the vials for her whole test."

LT: "OMG! Are you serious??"

Supervisor: "Yeah."

So, there I sat. Taking great comfort from the fact that the lab tech a) did not know what was going on and b) felt the need to have this full, very informal discussion right in front of me. I'm assuming they got everything worked out after that. I drank my gross glucose drink and felt even worse than I already did. We waited for an hour for my second blood test and then waited for another hour for the last one. Brad did homework. I tried to do things on my Kindle...but mostly just felt lousy and pitiful.

During the third blood test, I thought my arm was going to fall off from the pressure of the tourniquet while she thumped all over my arm to find a different vein. I may or may not have had little tiny tears well up because of that tourniquet...

Thankfully, it was finally over and we were able to go home. Even better was that I passed my glucose test, meaning I don't have gestational diabetes AND don't have to do the glucose test again. I'm probably equally happy about those two results. :)