What a Difference Two Years Four Months Makes

I had my gestational diabetes test on Tuesday. It was exactly two years and four months since I had done the same test for LD's pregnancy. With LD I scored 137 on a scale of 70-140, but since a lot of doctors use a smaller cut-off I insisted on the 3 hour test just to be sure I was ok. I was but my doc did insist on a dietary change. Results this time: a not even registering on the standard range 66. We have shifted our eating habits, especially in the last month of so. We are trying to eat at home nearly every meal, where before we were eating out almost daily if not twice a day. I have no idea if that has any impact on something like gestational diabetes but something is surely different this time. I was anemic with LD and this time I'm not too. I feel healthier and that is huge for me. Last pregnancy I weighed 131 pounds by this point, this pregnancy 124.7. Of course running after a toddler is probably one of the most effective workouts out there. CJ's heart sounded great and I am measuring right on track. He has a regular routine of movements throughout the day that keep me reassured all is well in the womb. DH put his head on my belly to try to listen to his heart the other night and got a swift kick to the head. That's my boy. :) He asked how I can get any sleep with all that moving going on in there. I'm not really sure. It isn't disruptive to me. I find it soothing. Even the kicks to the ribs and the somewhat jarring kicks to the vagina, which my OB assured me are totally CJ.

I have been having trouble falling asleep but it isn't due to movement. It's the realization that in 3 months, less than 14 weeks, less than 95 days, we will have a newborn in the house. Honestly I feel so completely unprepared. Like I did when we were expecting LD. Like I have no idea how to take care of a newborn. Even though I took care of LD and we all made it through just fine. It feels like that was so, so, so long ago and surely newborns must have changed since then. I've been searching for a diaper bag after realizing the one we used with LD, for the first 6 months when I actually carried it, wouldn't fit the things I should probably be carrying around for a newborn and a toddler. Then I realized I can't even remember what I need to carry around for a newborn. Seriously. I can't remember how to pack a diaper bag for a newborn. I can't remember how to swaddle a newborn. This was all just two years ago and yet I can't remember. I imagine we'll be out and about much more since LD has playdates with his friends and I want to keep him engaged and entertained as much as I try to now. So I think the diaper bag will be essential. Maybe I'm fixated on the diaper bag to help keep my mind off other things that could really freak me out if I think about them. Like how I will be spending the night away from LD when I'm in the hospital with CJ. I've never spent the night away from him. The other night I was imagining that as soon as we are in the recovery room with CJ all swaddled in his bassinet I'm going to lose my crap and want LD there with us. I know the hospital is no place for a two year old, really. My mom will be here and she'll take great care of him, and I'm also insisting that if there's a bedtime involved where I've already had CJ DH must come home and take care of LD. I don't want his life too disrupted. I ordered a diaper bag this morning so I guess it's time to find something else to do to keep my mind busy. Off to research what you're supposed to even put in a diaper bag for a newborn. ;)

Double Digits

I never meant to go so long between posts, but if you're following from my other blog you know I've pretty much fallen off the face of the earth over there too. We've reached viability and we're in the double digit countdown to the due date. I'm spending lots of time focused on all the things I'll need to handle two kiddos. Diaper bags, double strollers, comfy place for baby to sleep while toddler tears up the house... I'm partly experienced and partly swimming in uncharted waters. I've done the baby stages before, but the mother-of-two stuff I'm completely unfamiliar with. I told DH that the second baby should be cheaper because we kept so many of the things we used with the first one, especially since they're both boys so we have clothes already. That turned into a big old fat lie rather quickly. I think I've spent as much on CJ as I did on LD by this point. I can't help it that they make baby shopping so much fun, even LD enjoys it and has picked out tons of stuff for his new "brofer". Part of me feels like this pregnancy is creeping by like my pregnancy with LD did, and the other part feels like it's going pretty quickly. I'm so ready to meet CJ and wish I could send time into warp speed to December. But another part of me wants to savor these moments. We know CJ will be our last so the next three(!!!!) months are my last three months to ever be pregnant. I realized tonight we should probably make a decision about the hospital soon. Our choice is between the hospital we chose not to have LD at, which is only 10 minutes away or a hospital 20-30 minutes away that we toured at the beginning of the pregnancy. We liked the farther hospital when we had the tour and we had pretty much made up our minds to birth there. But I've heard the closer hospital has gotten better since we researched it in 2010. All or almost all of the moms in our playgroup delivered there and none had anything negative to say about the hospital so I'm wondering if we should plan to go to the closer hospital. Technically my labor with LD was quick. I was ready to push 6 hours after my water broke on its own. Of course the doctor was unavailable so I had to labor down for a while. Since they say second labors are usually quicker I'm wondering if we'll have time to get to the further hospital. My doctor suggested registering at both hospitals and just seeing how things go when I go into labor. The hospital we delivered LD at is actually halfway between us and the further hospital, so if we had to stop there because it was time to push I guess I'd get my wish to deliver at the same hospital. I agonized over this decision last time so I'm not surprised to find myself unsure of what to do this time. It all worked out fine in the end last time, so I'm hoping it will this time as well. So much to do and now we're in the double digit countdown.