Wordless Wednesday

Meet My 2 New Friends!

Mr. Meter and Mr. Stick are my 2 newest friends!  I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes yesterday!  No fun, but definitely something I can handle.  I say this after meeting with a diabetes counselor for 2 hours this morning.  Yesterday I might as well have been diagnosed with an incurable disease, or so conveyed my lovely Debbie Downer of an OB nurse when she gave me the news!

However, as of now I am happy to report that I will not have to give up sugar, starches or iced cookies from the Kroger bakery.  Just a few tweaks to WHEN I consume them is all I need based on my numbers.

For you savvy Glucose People, here were my results:

Fasting 74 (suppose to be under 95) PASSED

2nd stick 200 (suppose to be under 180) FAILED

3rd stick 159 (suppose to be under 155) FAILED

4th stick 67 (suppose to be under 140) PASSED

The counselor said I am just barely a patient, which was great news to someone who likes Kroger's frosted sugar cookies.

I will from here on out until the baby comes, need to monitor my ketones (urine levels) each morning and play with my 2 new friends pictured above to test my sugar levels 4X a day.

I'm confident that this is now not a death sentence for me as I had once thought yesterday morning!

Wordless Wednesday

Glucose Test

Last Wednesday I went for my routine glucose test that you have to do while pregnant.  I ate a very bland breakfast and dinner the night before (it was not a fasting test) and drank my glucose drink.  The drink was not that bad, I was able to choose a lemon/line flavor (not like the one pictured below) and it was actually okay.  You have to drink it within 30 minutes of your appointment and you have to finish it in 5 minutes.  You check your clock every second making sure you are not breaking the rules!

After drinking the drink, I waiting in the waiting area of my OB's office for Dracula the nurse to come.  She drew the vial of blood and then I was on my way.

On Friday she called to say, 'Do you have a minute?' which made my heart drop.  I had failed the test.  Visions of glucose meters, no more sugar and blood ran through my head.  Now I had to do the 1/2 day glucose test complete with not one but 4 blood draws!  Imagine my luck?!

Yesterday was D Day.  This time I had to fast from midnight the night before.  I arrived at the office at 8:00 to pick up my death certificate lab slip and I headed up to the dungeon of death the lab. 

The 'guy' who did the first draw was a complete jerk, I'm just going to be honest.  He announced into the lobby, 'Ivey, have a seat in station 2', as if I was about to experience a ride on the space shuttle.

He had as much personality and compassion as the keyboard I'm typing on!  I gave him my speech about 'don't tell me when you are going to stick me, please just do it because I'm terrified of needles and have a tendency to pass out'.  This is not the lab tech below, but the face I got after my prepared speech.

Once he stuck me, I realized this guy was just a janitor who had snuck in and stolen clothing of a lab tech.  (or at least that's what I rationalized when it felt like my arm was on fire and that he'd done it on purpose)!

I was literally crying my eyes out as he was drawing the blood.  Not out loud, just tears streaming.  No sympathy from the janitor lab guy.  As he finished, I'm thinking, 'surely he didn't see me crying, that's why he's being so cold, he doesn't realize it'.  NOPE  He handed me the tasty bottle of orange toxic sludge glucose and told me to drink it within 5 minutes and then come back in an hour for another blood draw.  He was looking right at me as I wiped away the tears!

The second blood draw came around and it was clear someone had said something to him or perhaps he thought about it after I left!  He did the second stick and it was not too bad and he said, 'Okay see you in another hour.'  Which for him, was quite the pleasant statement!  It must have killed him! 

I came back the third time and a girl called me back.  I was thinking, 'whew!  nothing against men, but geez louise!'  I sat down and she said, 'Hi, I'm (have no idea what her name was) and it is my first day, so bear with me!'  I threw my hands up and said, 'No way...sorry, I was bawling on my first stick this a.m., I need someone else.'  She said, 'I'm just kidding!'  NOT AMUSED I said, 'Don't do that to people, it is not funny!'  She apologized and I didn't even feel her needle go in.  I said, 'Okay, I'm finished right?'  She informed me there was one more stick to be done at 11:35 and that I needed to come back, then I could go have a 'tasty lunch'.  I don't like the word 'tasty' by the way.

I returned at 11:35 for the final blood draw and it was Mr. Happy again.  He said, 'Well last one!'  As if I didn't know that already.  He did the final stick after he ripped the tape off my other arm and when I say ripped, I mean RIPPED off the tape!

So after yesterday I think they took this many vials of blood, but I can't be sure, I was too busy looking at the stupid pet pictures on either side of the lab chair that were suppose to make me feel good about visiting Dracula's Lair the lab!

I get the results in 24 to 48 hours according to Mr. Personality. 

Wordless Wednesday

GiGi and Poppa Visit

This weekend GiGi and Poppa came up to take some furniture off our hands. 

The first day they were here they did a puppet show for Caden complete with Tigger from Winnie the Pooh and 'ssssss' the snake.  *You all met sssss in the post with Mom wearing him!  

They have recently opened a Cabela's close to our house so we took Poppa for a shopping trip!  Here is Poppa pointing out the huge catfish to Caden.  Caden was all sorts of confused because he thought that Bella would be there!  Makes sense considering the name of the place!

I'm so glad our Cade Man is so friendly to everyone, whether they are human or not!  He walked up to each mannequin and said 'Hello, I'm Caden Ivey!  Nice to meet ya!'

We took this one when we were about to leave the store!  I thought he looked so cute in it and NO, we didn't buy it!

We had a nice visit with GiGi and Poppa.  GiGi finally found a 6 quart ice cream maker to buy.  She had been looking for a long time and Cabela's happened to have one!  We made ice cream Friday night and it was delicious!

Now if Caden and I can get over our sinus infections, we will be doing well!  We were out all last week sick!  Fortunately he can take medication that I cannot!  We took him to the Dr 2X in the last 2 weeks and he finally got the children's equivalent of a Zpak and he's on his way now!

Braden's Birthday Party

Saturday afternoon Tim and I took Caden to the Musuem at Fair Park for Caden's friend Braden's 4th Birthday Party.  Caden had such a great time learning about dinosaurs!

Here they are making a door hanger craft with dinosaurs on it.

After the craft, everyone went downstairs to go on a dinosaur dig!  Caden had a great time with the shovel and brushes 'digging' for dinosaurs! 

Here is another picture of them all.  The boy in the brown shirt standing up by Caden is Braden.  I can't believe I didn't get a better picture of the birthday boy! 

After the 'dig' it was time to eat dinosaur cupcakes!  Caden enjoyed the green icing as you can tell!   

After the party we were able to explore the museum on our own, so we walked around a few of the exhibits.  I had been telling Tim earlier that morning that I was super hot and out of breath.  HELLO PREGNANCY IN THE SUMMER!  But we explored this one area that had an infared scan of your body where you could see the heat radiating from you.  Let's just say Caden and Tim were pretty green and my whole body was red and on fire!  It was crazy!

Here's Caden in some sort of suit.  Sorry, I'm not much of a 'plaque' reader! 



Ssssss the Snake

Last weekend when Caden and I headed to Conroe, Caden insisted on bringing his new snake, named 'Ssssss' to show GiGi.  

GiGi thought it would make a lovely scarf and posed for this hilarious picture!  Not sure if you can tell, but she is wearing lime green under the white blouse.  I think Ssssss matches her perfectly!

New Curtains

Grammie came over today and brought Caden some CARS curtains for his room!  It matches perfectly with his new bedding and room!  He loves them!  Thank you Grammie!

Children's Aquarium at Fair Park

Today Tim and I took Caden to the Children's Aquarium at Fair Park and met up with a few of his classmates and their parents.  Caden was the only boy but he had a blast running with the gals!

Here he is with Tabitha looking at a horseshoe crab!

I love the look on his face as the shark passed by!

Very cool fish!

Silly face time!  Peyton, Caden, Reagan, Tabitha and Payton's sister Riley.

Playing with the octopus tentacles.

This eel was completely still and laying on the bottom and Caden started pounding on the glass and he came alive!  It scared him to death, but then he ran back over there to watch him swim.

Alligator Snapping Turtle.  This thing was bigger than Caden!

Albino Alligators

I love this close up that Tim took of him.  Looks pretty mean!

Hanging out with the horseshoe crab again!

Posing by the swordfish!

Daddy and Caden got to pet Stingrays!  Caden had such a great time doing this!  He touched tons of them and was so excited!  They were very friendly and would swim right up to the top of the water.

I think this one was trying to kiss Cade Man! :)

Family pic!

More stingray fun!

Saying goodbye to his friend Tabitha!  We had such a great time!

At the gift shop we bought him a set that had a whale, shark, dolphin, walrus, octopus, squid, etc so after our naps, Caden and Daddy played with them in the pool! 

Daddy would throw them into the jet stream and Caden would chase them all around!