Laughing with Sarah

A week ago, I was at a conference in Des Moines. A lovely 48 hours hanging out with other pastor-types, talking about social justice, worshiping together, and even finding time to sneak off and eat at Zombie Burger (yum!). Woke up Tuesday morning in my hotel room with a little bit of a sore throat and not much voice. Which made me nervous, because Matt's been sick with some flu for a couple weeks now. But I powered through the rest of the conference, survived the ride home from Des Moines (four hours in a car...and feeling worse with each hour that passed.) By the time Tuesday evening rolled around, I was feeling terrible. Chilled, exhausted, slight fever, sore throat. Yuck. Wednesday morning, still felt the same, so decided to do the responsible thing and go to the doctor. I have never been one to just head off to the doctor the second I get sick. I'm always good for waiting things out. But since EVERY pregnancy book and website says "if you come down with flu symptoms...

We are so officially in the third trimester, I can't quite believe it. Last Tuesday evening, the church council officially approved my maternity leave, and with an overwhelmingly excited, supportive attitude. I feel blessed. Two days ago, I received my shower invitation in the mail - which made everything feel that much more real! Weird to think that people are now actively browsing and buying off of the registries that I spent so much time putting together, trying to keep myself occupied and sane during the slow second trimester. Hedgehogs are cute. Then today was my first every-two-week OB appointment (instead of the previous once-a-month schedule). I always feel pretty happy after appointments, but especially after today's. There was just a lot of good going on. After last time, when I'd gained a whole bunch of weight out of nowhere, I didn't gain anything measurable in the last two weeks. I think that having an appointment right after the Minnesota State F...

Time is flying by! 29 weeks 3 days

Yesterday was my three hour glucose tolerance test, the follow-up to my abnormal one hour screening, and the test that would diagnose me (or not) with gestational diabetes. I'll admit, I was pretty bummed out after last week's one hour failure. I have half a blog post written moping about my frustration. Partly because I had no clue that I'd even be at risk, partly because I hate that there is judgment surrounding things like gestational diabetes, partly because it is frustrating to think that there is nothing I can do, one way or the other, to make my pancreas and my placenta play nicely together. I took the weekend to make peace with the possibility. I read lots and lots about suggested GD diets, and started thinking more intentionally about the types of foods that I eat, when I eat them, and what modifications I could make to be healthier. I came to understand GD not as a disease I might have, but simply a lifestyle modification to keep my baby and me healthy. Shifti...

There's nothing quite like waking up and drinking the equivalent of a giant, melted, orange popsicle for breakfast: Yes, today was my one hour glucose tolerance test. Which means that I had to wake up, drink the whole bottle of orange sugar drink in five minutes, record the time I finished, and then show up to the clinic for a blood draw exactly one hour later. This is a preliminary screening test for gestational diabetes. The drink itself was sugary, and gave me instant heartburn, but otherwise, not so bad. The first half of the bottle was definitely easier to get down than the second half. After that, I felt a little spinny from the sugar...or perhaps just from the anxiety of the forthcoming blood draw (haven't had one in quite a while). The blood draw wasn't bad - two vials, but quick - and afterwards, I didn't feel terrible, but ran to McDonald's for a protein-heavy Egg McMuffin anyway. During the wait between blood draw and my regular check-up appointment,...