Day By Day

I just realized I last posted almost a month ago! I had no intention of being absent from my blog for nearly a month.

The truth is, just a little over a month ago this pregnancy (and life in general) became really, really difficult. :( For those of you that are involved in my every day "real" life, this will be old news to you. I just wanted to document this time in my life on the blog so I can look back at it some day and know how I was really doing.

Around 26 weeks pregnant, I was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes. I know I'm not the first or the last woman to be diagnosed with GD, in fact a friend of mine just recently had her baby and shared about her life with GD too.

I knew it would be difficult to follow a very specific and rigid diet (very low carb), but I was unaware of how my life would be completely flipped upside down and consumed with needles.

Right from the start I had to prick my finger to check my blood sugar 4 times a day. Yeah, no fun. It was then that we discovered that diet was not enough to keep my blood sugar down. Even my fasting blood sugar was high every day.

 

 

I knew and still know that I am doing absolutely EVERYTHING I can to keep my blood sugar under control. I have never been this disciplined with diet in my life, and at the request of my Dr, I increased working out (at this point that mostly consists of walking and swimming) from 3 times a week to 5+ times a week.

Still, all of this was not enough so I was put on insulin injections about 2 weeks ago. I'm not going to lie, I was terrified of giving myself an injection every night, but after a while you get used to it. The injections helped to get my fasting numbers down, but I still consistently run a little high after lunch and dinner.

 

I'm eating even less carbs than I'm allowed at most meals, and the proof is in the fact that over the past month I haven't gained any weight. In fact, I've lost some. This is the lowest weight I've been this far in a pregnancy.

I've had multiple Dr's appointments every week, and I get confusing and contradicting information about how best to treat my GD.

The latest news is that I'm looking at the possibility of having to do mealtime insulin instead of just the once a day at bedtime insulin. :( I have mixed feelings about that. On one hand, I really don't want to have to give myself injections all day long on top of checking my blood sugar 4 times a day, but on the other hand I feel at times that I'm starving myself and my baby in order to keep my blood sugar under control. :(

 

This past month has been HARD. Maybe one of the hardest in my life. I have so much fear that this diabetes won't go away after the baby is born (really, it should), and on top of all that I am very big and uncomfortable and chasing a 2 year old wild boy and a 4 year old active girl.

I feel as if the joy of expecting another little one has been completely overshadowed by the difficulties of this pregnancy. At this point, I am just surviving every day and looking forward to holding this baby and letting all of this be in the past.

The good news is that so far my GD has NOT caused my baby to grow too big or put on extra weight, which is one of the biggest concerns.

Needless to say, this has been confirmation that after this baby is born our family is complete. We already thought we'd be done having children after 3, but this experience has been the nail in the coffin. It's official, my body should NOT do this again!

I'm currently 32 weeks pregnant. I'm just hoping I can hang on for another 5+ weeks. I'm constantly praying for strength to make it. I know with God's help, I will.

Thanks for letting me be honest and vulnerable. I know this is not my most cheery post, but sometimes life is just hard.

John 14:1-6

Our little Elliana has really grown and flourished over this past year. Not just emotionally, physically and mentally,  but spiritually too.

While I would love to take credit for her spiritual growth, I have to say that our church has done a lot for Ellie. Our church really takes pride in it's Sunday morning and Wednesday evening classes for little ones. They're always saying that they're not just babysitting kids while we're in church or in our own small groups, but they're really working hard to teach kids the word of God and to know it well.

Caleb and I were first caught off guard and impressed when Ellie came home singing a song that taught her how to sing all of the books in the old testament and in the right order (we still want to get this on video by the way).

A few weeks ago, her Sunday school teacher handed me some flash cards to help Elliana with her latest scripture memorization. Imagine my shock when I sat down to work on this with her and she already had the whole thing memorized! I'm not saying she didn't glance at the flash cards (which by the way she can't read so she's just going off of a picture), but she didn't look at them much.

Am I bragging on my daughter here? Yes! I think most parents would. :) But I'm also bragging on our church. I'm just so happy to see Ellie growing so much and enjoying learning about God and loving him with her whole heart!

Without further ado, I give you Ellie reciting John 14:1-6:

“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. ² In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. ³ If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.⁴ And you know the way where I am going.” ⁵ Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” ⁶ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me."

Spring Break Day 1

After returning home from San Francisco, Caleb had only 1 week of work and then it was spring break!

We always try to fill spring break with something fun, whether it's a big vacation or a small one (more often than not it's a small one).

Last year we took the kids to Denver for a 2 night stay. We didn't want to go to Denver again, and with my pregnancy, we knew we couldn't go too far. So we looked at other in state options and came up with Colorado Springs.

Since we had just come back from a weekend getaway in San Francisco, and we knew that after spring break we had a mini vacation coming up in Breckenridge, we knew the budget would be tight. So, we looked for ways to have fun, but not spend a fortune.

I don't know if you have used Hotwire before, but it's my new best friend! We used Hotwire to book a hotel and ended up with this amazing hotel for just $55 per night. Score!

The hotel had everything we REALLY wanted, which first and foremost was a pool, a free, HOT breakfast (by the way, one of the best breakfasts I've ever had for free at a hotel), and a large public area where the kids could burn some energy if they were getting cabin fever in the hotel room.

I highly recommend using Hotwire if you're willing to take a gamble on which hotel you end up with. No matter the hotel, you always get the best bang for your buck.

Anyway, on Tuesday of spring break we packed up the car and told the kids we had  a surprise for them. We hadn't told them about any of our plans and we just drove straight to the hotel. It's so fun to surprise the kids with quick getaways like this.

Once we got to the hotel, we swam in the pool for a while and then headed to the room to change for dinner.

I had done some research before we left on family friendly restaurants in the area, and I kept coming back to this place called iT'Z. We'd never been there before but it looked like a good place so we checked it out.

Boy am I glad we did! IT'Z is an all you can eat, pizza, pasta, salad and dessert buffet place with many, many games and rides for kids of all ages. When I was explaining it to my sister Courtney, she said "Oh, so like a Chuck E Cheese?"

This was WAY cleaner and better than Chuck E Cheese! The food was better, the facility was much cleaner, and we were surprised by how many free rides and other fun stuff was available for the little ones. Here's the kicker, since we were there on a Tuesday night, dinner cost half as much as usual. Dinner for the 4 of us cost only $9.00! Ethan was free, but still. Crazy!

Also, there were 4 separate dining rooms each with their own theme. I don't remember all of the rooms, but I remember one was made to be look and feel like a drive-in. We ended up in the cartoon room where they had cartoons playing while we ate. I'm not usually a fan of eating and watching movies/TV, but it helped to entertain our squirmy 2 year old. 

After dinner, our kids had a blast sliding down slides, jumping in the jump castle, and riding the free rides.

I think we only spent maybe $5 on other games and rides but we could have easily not spent anything.

When it was time to leave, the kids did NOT want to go. It's a good thing we left when we did though because these two were TIRED! Once we got back to the hotel room, both kids were out within 10 minutes. 

Home Sweet Home!

March went by so fast that it's almost a blur. If you read my previous post, you know why. We were gone more weekends than we were home, and I learned that there actually IS such a thing as too much vacation.

Don't hear me wrong, we had a wonderful time everywhere we went and we made some great memories, but after a while you get tired of living out of suitcases and sleeping in beds that aren't your own.

I won't try and put all of our mini-vacations from the past month into one post (that would not only get long, but boring) so I'm just going to try and catch up on this ol' blog of ours and recap 1 or 2 at a time.

The first weekend we spent away from home was in San Francisco from March 8-10. The reason for the trip was to visit with Caleb's Grandma Jeannette and family. The family is going through his grandparents house and to get it ready to sell since Caleb's grandma recently moved into an assisted living home. Caleb's parents flew and spent the weekend with us.

Since this trip was meant to be mostly working on the home, we decided it would be best to leave Ellie and Ethan behind with my sister and brother-in-law. No matter how much I know how important it is for young moms (and dads) to get away, and no matter how much I crave a break, it's still hard for me to leave my little ones behind. The moment I'm away from them, I miss them and while I'm away almost everything reminds me of them. It did help to know they were in good hands.

We left Colorado very early in the morning and arrived in San Francisco about mid-morning. Friday morning/ early afternoon was our only time for "playing" that weekend so we tried to make the most of it.

We headed to Fisherman's Wharf via good old fashioned cable cars and enjoyed a really nice lunch right by the ocean. It was wonderful!

I'd never had a salmon club sandwich before, so when I saw that on the menu I simply had to try it. I love salmon, and I love a good club sandwich. It sounded like the perfect combination to me. It was every bit as delicious as I had hoped! Just look how beautiful it was!

After lunch we headed to Ghirardelli for the best hot fudge sundaes you have ever had. Simply heavenly!

After Ghirardelli we spent some time window shopping and walking around Fisherman's Wharf before meeting up with Caleb's Aunt and Uncle for dinner. We enjoyed a small walk on the beach and taking in the beautiful views too.

 After dinner, we went to Caleb's grandma's house where we spent that evening and the next day helping to sort through the house and pack up what we wanted from the house.

That evening we picked up Grandma Jeannette from her home and had dinner at his Aunt and Uncle's gorgeous home. It was wonderful to spend time with his grandma!

The next morning we woke up, went to church and flew home to see our babies. It was SO good to see them! San Francisco was a short, but necessary trip with a little fun mixed in. :)

I'm going to try and recap the other 3 mini-trips soon.

In other unrelated news,  I'm really excited about this marriage series that my sister and several other bloggers are doing. I think it's going to be a great series and I really enjoyed reading yesterday's posts. Obviously I'm a big fan and dedicated follower of Jenn's blog (I have been since the very beginning), but I'm also a new, big fan of Shay's blog. Shay is Sean Lowe's (last season of The Bachelor) sister. I already knew I liked Sean, but I may like his sister even more! I love that they are outspoken Christians!

Check out the marriage series if you haven't already.



And in other totally unrelated news, while we were at the family cabin a few weeks ago, Nate and Amanda (Caleb's brother and sister-in-law) captured a few maternity shots of me. Nate and Amanda started a photography business a little over a year ago called The Shalom Imaginative and I think they are quite talented. :) It's a great perk to have photographers in the family! Here are just a few of my favorite shots:

Happy Spring everyone! I'm hoping to not be so absent from the blog this month. :)

March Madness

It's March 1st! That means the two longest and coldest months of the year are over-YAY!!

Our March is going to be crazy busy. For all of you basketball lovers, I'm afraid that I will not be referring to basketball's March madness in this post. Sorry.

First and foremost, I can't go on without sharing the amazing, wonderful news that Jenn and Courtney already shared on their blogs.

This past Wednesday my Dad was officially declared CANCER FREE! I can't even tell you how much joy this brings to m! I've actually had moments when I've been crying tears of joy over this wonderful news. God is so good! I couldn't help but think of this quote when I was thinking of the journey our family has been on this year;

Okay, so maybe it's a bit of a stretch to use that quote with this situation, but I LOVE this quote from Lord of the Rings. I couldn't help but post the whole quote below. :)

"It's like in the great stories Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end it's only a passing thing this shadow, even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines it'll shine out the clearer!"

Now I'm getting off topic. All I can say is, Dad, you're my hero and I'm so thankful that we get to have you around for many, many more years (Lord willing). :)

Now, back to the insanity that is this month. Caleb and I have so much planned that my head is spinning a bit. We're going from trying to fill weekends that are wide open to having so much going on I don't know how we'll manage it all. 

Next weekend I have to leave my babies for 3 days and Caleb and I are flying with his parents to San Francisco to visit his Grandma Janette, aunts, uncles and cousins. It's been a while since we've been to California to visit his family and it's past time considering our grandmothers are getting well into their 90s and we don't know how much time we have left with them. It will be a fun time.

It's always so bittersweet leaving my babes behind. On one hand, I know I could use a break and enjoy some time alone(ish) with the hubby and enjoy some adult time. On the other hand, I always miss them terribly and almost everything, EVERYTHING makes me think of them and what they're doing.  In this case the statement of "absence makes the heart grow fonder" completely applies to me. It helps to know they'll be in good hands with my sister Alli and my mom.

Then, after we return home from that trip, Caleb will have 1 week of work and then it's his spring break. On Sunday the 17th we'll be going to my sister Alli's house for a gender reveal party. Alli and Brian are expecting their first baby just weeks after our little one is born. It should be a lot of fun!

We always try to do something fun with the kids during spring break even if it's not a huge vacation. Last year we got a hotel and spent a couple days and nights in Denver.

We can't go too far this year due to my pregnancy, and we didn't want to do Denver again, so we are surprising the kids with a couple of days and nights in Colorado Springs.

We plan on going to see Focus on the Family (they have some great play rooms, a huge slide, and an old fashioned soda shoppe),

And we want to check out this indoor play area called Monkey Bizness. It's supposed to be a lot like the Cool Beans play place that I blogged about last month only even bigger and better.

 

In between doing those activities I'm sure we'll spend some time at the hotel, swimming in the pool. :)

After we get home from that mini-vacation we'll be heading up to the family cabin for the weekend to see Caleb's brother and SIL. Or as the kids call them "Uncle Nate and Aunt Amanda". Nate and Amanda live out of state and we only get to see them about 3-4 times a year. When they're in town, they love to spend time at the cabin and we enjoy an excuse to get up there too. :) Ellie's had a special bond with them ever since she was a flower girl in their wedding almost 2 years ago so she's really excited to see them. :)

Then, once spring break is over Caleb returns to work for 4 days and then we're off to Breckenridge for a vacation with my side of the family. We'll be gone over the Easter weekend. 

That's 4 sisters and their husbands, my parents, my 3 nieces and 1 nephew, and our 2 kids all staying in the same home. If you counted that's 16 people all under one roof!

It helps that the house we're staying in is large and beautiful (although I hope it's not so beautiful that we destroy it-ha!). 

My family never, I mean NEVER takes a vacation together so I'm REALLY hoping it goes well and that we still like each other when the weekend is over. 

On top of all of the traveling and having fun, we have SIX birthdays to celebrate in March. We have my sister Alli's, then my nephew Nehemiah, then my BIL Jon, then Ethan's 2nd birthday, then my FIL Duncan and my BIL Brian share a birthday at the end of the month. Oy vey!

And then, when it's all said and done it will be April. Whew! I'm exhausted just from writing this post. It's a lot of fun, but a lot of craziness. And a lot of spending. I hope we survive it all. ;)