I Survived

So last week I had my monthly prenatal appointment and I was NOT looking forward to it. This one was my glucose test. If you don't know, that means I had to drink a nasty orange, sugary drink, then wait for an hour and get my blood drawn to check my sugar levels and see if I have Gestational Diabetes. I was dreading that test because I hate getting my blood taken and I was pretty sure I was going to fail it and have to do the longer test. And of course I was right. I failed by 2 points. Just barely over the line. So today I took the day off work to go in and take the 3 hour glucose test, which means fasting and then drinking one nasty orange drink and getting 4 blood draws in 3 hours. Yuck!

Last week I kept asking Carl, "They wouldn't really tell a pregnant lady she can't have sugar 4 days before Christmas would they?" That would be the cruelest form of punishment. So for the last week I have been going back and forth between trying not to eat anything sugary (which is hard in a week full of Christmas parties) just in case I did have it, and wanting to eat all the sugar in sight because I knew I might not be able to for the next three months! 

This morning finally came and I went in for the dreaded test. They took my blood as soon as I got there and I passed part one right away. Then they made me drink the nasty drink, which was much nastier this time - I think I had a different kind because this one was making me cringe and gag and the last one didn't bother me at all. Then I sat in the lobby for an hour and went in for the 2nd blood draw. Passed it! Another hour in the waiting room and the 3rd blood draw. By this time I was starting to feel sick and  like I might pass out. I was out of arms to poke for this one so they tried to take it from the first one, but my arm was all swollen and bruised so they had to take it from the same one as last time. But I passed it! And since I passed the first three with flying colors, I got to go home and skip the last hour and the 4th blood draw. Merry Christmas Me!

Now I would do anything for this baby, so if I hadn't passed I would have gladly gone on the low sugar and low carb diet they would have given me. And I probably only would have complained when everyone else was enjoying all my Christmas baking while I watched. But thankfully, he loves his Mommy, and I don't have too. He just made me fail the first one to toughen my up a little and get me more used to needles.

I celebrated my good news by going home and eating a truffle.

Surviving A Blizzard Hagen Style

I started the weekend by joining thousands of other people at the grocery store Friday after work so that I wouldn't have to go anywhere Saturday. I don't know if I have ever seen a grocery store that crowded - it was ridiculous. But I got everything I needed and didn't have to leave my house during the crazy snowstorm. Mission accomplished. We also went to Dave and Buster's to do something different for a date night. If you know us very well at all you know that I lose almost every game I play against Carl. But I'm usually pretty good at Air Hockey! Not this time. I have now added it to the list of things I can't win at. It's getting to be a very long list. I blame it on being pregnant.

On Saturday we woke up to the realization that not only was there already almost a foot of snow outside, but it was supposed to keep snowing all day and our snowblower was at the shop getting fixed! So my poor, but wonderful husband spent over 5 hours outside in the freezing cold. He spent 3 hours shoveling half of our driveway and then a snowplow came by and immediately covered the end of it up again, which added another hour. And then, because he's a rock star and super awesome, he spent at least another hour helping the old man across the street with his driveway. And I stood inside taking pictures of him through the window. (I know. It was a rough day for me.)

This is Carl staring down the snowplow driver before he hurled snow at him and his freshly cleaned driveway.

The driver was not intimidated. This is Carl running away from the 15 foot wall of snow coming his way.

From inside my cozy warm house, where I was not allowed to help shovel, I thought it was a beautiful day and I loved the snow. We celebrated having half of a cleared driveway with a pot roast, homemade bread and our favorite sweet potatoe casserole. See, I did a little more than just take pictures that day.

And then we watched a movie by the fireplace. I thought many times that day about how thankful I was for a warm house, warm blankets and a warm fireplace. And also warm hot chocolate. What a blessing to have a safe, warm house to live in!

And the good news is, we got our snowblower back today and it only took Carl 35 minutes to do the rest of the driveway and the sidewalk to our front door!

It Broke!

My baby ticker is broken. According to the fruit chart he has been the size of a papaya for three weeks now. And I can gaurantee he has grown in the last three weeks. Or at least I have. I'm trying to fix it, but apparently my internet is also broken and only lets me do certain things, like complain about it. But it doesn't let me fix it. I want to know what fruits I've been missing!

The Things People Say

One of the things I have found most entertaining about being pregnant is the things people say about it! I would never ask some one if they were pregnant in those early stages, so I was shocked at how many people were not afraid and just said what they were thinking. It kind of brings their true personalities and lack of tactfulness to light. There were a couple people what asked other people about it instead of me, which is better than asking me and being wrong. But not most people. These are some of my favorite quotes from the last 2 months. Most of them were when I was not showing very much yet. Or at least I thought it still seemed questionable.

1. From a Dad at school who did know I was pregnant - "Wow, you're really putting on some chub there."
2. A parent shouted down the hallway crowded with people, "Are you pregnant?!" She's lucky she was right because with people everywhere it would have been really awkward if I wasn't.
3. "Wow. You're....growing."
4. From a Dad who saw me in the lobby, "You're not pregnant are you?! Are you pregnant? Oh, good."
5. A mom I hadn't seen in awhile - "Oh, congratulations! Wait. Right?"
6. Oh my gosh, are you pregnant? Where did that come from? You didn't look pregnant yesterday. Seriously, how did that happen?!"
7. "You are so pregnant now!"
8. My friend at church who just pointed at my stomach and laughed - "Baby!" :=)
9. And my all time favorite, from the mom in my class with no filter.  During conferences she said, "My only concern is that you got pregnant and you're leaving. You're husband did not consult with us before he knocked you up!"
10. "Wow, you popped!" That is the comment I heard at LEAST 5-6 times everyday last week. And they're right, it became a lot more obvious really quickly.

Here's the proof - the baby is growing!

23 Weeks

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of my very favorite times of the year for quite a few reasons. It means that I can decorate for Christmas! I get to spend lots of time with my family and it remninds me of the many things I have to be thankful for.

This year we did lots of traveling, as usual. My parents were able to come from Kansas and stayed at our house from Monday to Friday and it was great to see them. We also got to hang out with Jeff, Jacob and Emma during that time. Thursday we went to New Ulm and spent the day with my Dad's family. And Friday we went to Grand Meadow to see my Mom's family. Carl and I went from there to Colfax to be with his family. Three excellent Thanksgiving meals in two days! I'm not quite sure if my baby bump is bigger this week because of the baby or the food... But we had a great time seeing everyone and were blessed with excellent driving weather. I think the highlight was playing Telephone Pictionary - you have not played that game until you have played it with my family! I laughed so hard it hurt and still couldn't stop. I love it! It was sad to say goodbye to my parents at the end of it all, but we will get to see them in just one month when we go to Kansas!

And now for all the things I"m thankful for. Carl and I both have amazing families and we are so grateful for that. We could not have asked for better parents or siblings - they are the best! I'm also thankful for a warm place to live and an incredible husband to share it with. At our wedding we had some one sing "When God Made You". One of the lines is "When God made you he must have been thinking about me." And I believe it - he couldn't have made a better husband for me! :-) And now we are not only thankful, but also excited beyond belief that God has given us a baby to add to our family and bring into our home. We can't wait to meet our little guy and feel so blessed to have him already!

We're Having A...

...Cantaloupe, apparently. According to my fruit ticker anyway. Really?! Cantaloupes are huge! How did it go from a mango to a cantaloupe in one week?!

And on to the belly bump pictures - we forgot week 17. We're really not very good at remembering to take these, but here are the ones we have.

18 Weeks

This was a somewhat lumpy stage. I was pretty convinced my other organs were fighting the baby for the front position. I was really hoping the baby would win and it finally did. I'm glad that's over!

19 Weeks

And Today - 20 Weeks

And now, for the news you really care about. We had our 20 week appointment today and it was awesome! I think I've said this before, but I used to hate going to the doctor, and now I love it! I told the ultrasound lady that I didn't want her to be done, I wanted to stay longer. Even getting my finger pricked and a flu shot couldn't ruin that doctor's appointment for me. We got to see our baby! And it's a boy! And most importantly, he's perfectly healthy in every way. The lady said he was a very active baby and at one point she had to give up on getting a look at the lips, chin and nose and go back to it later. First she said he was being camera shy because he kept turning his head. Then he kept covering his face up and flailing his arms around. She said, "Well, now Baby's getting feisty!" Later, when the doctor tried to listen to the heartbeat, we could only hear bits of it between wild kicks. :-) So watch out us. We're going to have a crazy baby on our hands in a few months! We also got to see him laying with his head on his hand, sucking his thumb, waving and covering his ears with both hands. So cute! And that boy can kick. It still just feels like little butterflies or bubbles to me, but those little arms and lege were flying when we were watching him today! Oh, and just because I'm proud of him for passing all his little tests today I'll brag and tell you that he's now 13 oz., and according to the doctor, has a beautiful spine and everything else is perfect too. Good job Baby Boy! :-)

Fun With Pumpkins

I will be honest and say that I really don't like Halloween. I can't stand all the previews for horror movies and all the creepy costumes, and especially the house across the street with all the nasty decorations and the creepy lady serving things out of a cauldron in her driveway. But I love seeing all the cute kids and their costumes and I love carving pumpkins! Carl and I always carve pumpklins together. He usually prints off some design to carve and makes something cool like a pirate or something. But I refuse to cheat and I always make my own. And Carl's is always perfect and mine is not. I try to make it really cute and sweet looking and most of the time it ends up being the scary one. This year Carl didn't print off anything, he did it all on his own and it is of course, still perfect. I decided to make a really cute pumpkin that teaches about shapes (Yes, I know I'm a nerd). And guess what? It's creepy. Carl told me it looks like something out of a Tim Burton movie. What can I say? I am artistically challenged. But we had a lot of fun and they looked cute sitting in our windows when all the trick-or-treaters came!

And. if you hadn't noticed, the stem on my pumpkin looks like an iguana sitting on my shoulder. Gross!