A Fun and Busy Week

This past week I have been to California, Cedar City, and had two baby showers! To say the least it has been quite a busy week, but so much fun. I left for California last week to spend a few days with my family before my sister and her family went back to Washington and to have a baby shower. The baby shower was really great. It was mostly my family (aunts, grandma, cousins etc) and a few of my high school friends. It was really nice seeing everyone and we got a lot of great things for the baby. I was especially excited that we got a stroller and a swing!
While in California, my family and I spent two days down at the beach in Santa Cruz. We went to the mystery spot (it was really crazy and hard to keep my balance being 32 weeks pregnant), spent an afternoon at the beach, and went on a steam train through the red woods.
I flew back Sunday afternoon, just to leave again Sunday evening for a business trip to Cedar City. This was my first ever business trip and my first time staying alone in a hotel. I felt very grown up.
To follow up all of that excitement, my good friends and neighbors threw me a baby shower the Thursday that I got back. There were some friends from our ward and from school that came and once again we got great gifts. Our little girl is going to look so cute with all of the adorable clothes she has gotten. I feel very lucky to have such great family and friends that have given us so much. I am finally feeling a little prepared for this baby.
The other exciting news of the week is that this was Adam's last week of work! He is so excited to start school next week and I am very proud of him.

A Little Good News, A Little Bad News

These past few weeks have been quite a roller coaster. To start off with the good news...I passed my exam for registered dietitians, which means that after five years of school and a year of an internship, I am finally a Registered Dietitian! I am so happy to finally be done and feel like school is behind me. Also, it is pretty fun to have credentials behind my name now (Janelle Connell, RD).

Now for the not so great news...At 26 weeks I had my routine glucose tolerance test done. I was not worried about this at all, but to my surprise the test came back with not great results. So then I had to go back and do a 3-hour tolerance test, consisting of me fasting for 12 hours the night before, then spending about 4 hours at the doctor's the next day still without any food. The second time around, the results were not any better and I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes.

The funny thing about being a dietitian is that things like this are kind of a double edged sword. On one hand I am very grateful to have the knowledge that I have so that I can manage this, but on the other hand I also know all of the potential complications and risks to me and the baby which makes me worry that much more.

After getting the diagnosis, I had to try to work things out for my treatment between the diabetes clinic, my doctor, and my insurance, which to say the least was a huge headache. After a few days of being so frustrated and not getting anywhere, I decide I would just manage this myself. I am lucky to work where I do because I was able to get a glucose meter and test trips to start monitoring my blood sugar levels.

So now I follow a pretty strict diet and watch my carbs and sugars, which means no more treats (so hard for a pregnant lady). Although I've taught a diabetic diet a million times, it is definitely a different thing to have to follow one. I struggle every day with feeling like I don't have enough choices of things to eat, but I am definitely gaining sympathy for those people that I counsel on managing their diabetes. I also test my blood sugars about five times a day and try to exercise regularly to keep my levels down.

Needless to say, I will be quite happy when the baby comes and I can go back to eating normally, but for not I am grateful for the knowledge that I have to manage this and keep our baby healthy. On a positive note...I just had another doctor's appointment and only gained 1 pound in the past 5 weeks during a time that is normally a growth spurt and most women gain 7 pounds. So all of my healthy eating is paying off.

Also, here is a picture of our garden. It has really taken off. We are getting tons of zucchini right now, so that's what we've been eating the past few weeks. I am looking forward to the tomatoes to ripen.

Latest Happenings

We have been quite busy lately. I always thought that once the internship was over things would slow down, but that is definitely not the case. We have both been spending our free time working on the baby's room and studying (I will be taking the registered dietitian exam soon and Adam has to take a placement test for when he starts back up at UVU). We still try to have a little fun though when we get the chance.

For the fourth of July, we went to the Oakley rodeo (a tradition that we do every year) with Adam's family. We went up early to bbq at his aunt's house with the family and cousins and then spent the evening at the rodeo and watching fireworks. Of course I tried out a new dessert for the bbq and it was pretty good. I made something called a cheery crunch (I think). It was pretty much like a cherry crisp but had a layer on the bottom and the top so that you could cut it up into bars.


As far as an update on the baby...I am now 28 weeks along and getting bigger every day. The baby kicks like crazy and it can be quite distracting while I'm sitting in a meeting, but I love it none the less. Even though we have less than three months to go, it still feels like forever away. I'm sure the next month or so will fly by fast though.

We've been working hard on the baby's room. It was quite a task to clean out the office and finding a spot for everything that was in there, but once it was done it felt good to finally have things organized. We painted the room yellow and put together the crib and bedding. These pictures aren't the greatest, but it looks pretty cute.

We were going to build a changing table/dress, but ended up finding this antique changing table on KSL for a great price. We refinished it in green and it looks great in the room. My next project is to sew the drapes. The fabric for the drapes just arrived so hopefully I can finish them in the next few weeks. After that I just need to sew a slip cover for the club chair in the room, paint the standing picture frame and add the decorative touches.

Happy Birthday Adam

Adam turned 29 on Friday, so of course we spent the week celebrating. On Monday we had a birthday dinner with his family at Texas Road House. On Thursday I made him a homemade cherry pie. Cherry pie is his favorite so I make sure to make him one every year. On Friday we went out to dinner, just the two of us, for a birthday date. Since we both worked on Friday, I promised him that Saturday could be his day to do whatever he wants and I wouldn't bug him about doing chores or yard work. He of course took the day to play his new playstation3 (his birthday present). Later that night we had a few friends over for bithday cake and ice cream.
Adam is not very excited about only having one more year until he turns 30, but I am convinced that 29 will be a great year for him. There are a lot of exciting changes happening this year with the baby coming, Adam will be starting school full time in the fall, and he is going back to doing real estate full time. With so many changes, the next 12 months will be crazy, but definitely in a good way.

Just documenting the baby bump so far. Only 4 more months to go!

Quick Visit to Cali and Starting a New Job

Last Friday I finally finished my internship and so Adam and I decided to go on a quick little trip down to California to see my family. We drove all day Friday, spent Saturday and Sunday there, and then came back Monday. This was our first road trip with Ellie and we were a little nervous at how she would do, but she ended up doing really great and just slept most of the time we were driving.
On Saturday, we all went to I Fly, an indoor sky diving place. Of course I could not participate being pregnant so I hung out with our niece and nephew and cheered on the rest of the family while they were in the wind tunnel. Adam had tons of fun flying and it was a blast to watch him. I will definitely try it out one day when I'm not pregnant.

Later that day we headed over to Babies R' Us where my mom and sister helped us register for all of the things we will need. While it was so helpful to get their insight (since I don't know what I'm doing), I do have to say that it was a bit overwhelming thinking of all the things we need to get before the little girl gets here.
On Sunday we went to church and mostly just relaxed. We took Ellie to the dog park twice that day and she loved it. I really wish we had a dog park close by. Sunday night we had an early birthday party for Adam with all of his favorite foods, including a birthday cake.

We were only able to take a quick little trip because I started my new job on Tuesday. I am working as the health coach for the Educators Mutual Insurance wellness program. In general, I will be providing consultations on nutrition, exercise, weight loss, disease prevention etc. to participants in the wellness program. I am really excited about the job and think it will be a great fit for me.

We are having a girl!

I just had my 20 week appointment and found out that we are having a girl! This is shocking to me because I was completely convinced that we were having a boy. I just figured by how much the baby kicks me that it must be a crazy little boy in there...but I was definitely wrong.

The ultrasound was awesome. They had a huge flat screen that we were able to watch on, which was nice because we were able to see all of the different body parts really well. Right away the woman doing the ultrasound knew it was a girl because the baby was sitting with her legs spread wide open.

Throughout the entire ultrasound our little baby was moving around like crazy (I think she takes after her dad, he was an energetic little kid). Most of the time she had her legs up by her head. We were able to get really clear shots of her heart, spine, and brain and everything looks great! The baby weighs 11 oz and seems to be just the right size for 20 weeks.

After the ultrasound I met with my doctor. I have gained a total of about 6 lbs. and everything is looking good. They sent us home with tons of pictures from the ultrasound and a DVD. We even got a special picture for each set of grandparents.

It was so fun getting to finally see our little girl and we can't wait until she comes. Now we can begin all of the work on the nursery!

Moab

Last weekend we went on our annual trip down to Moab. Each year we go with Adam's aunt, uncle, and cousins for a weekend of rock crawling. This is one of Adam's favorite weekends of the year. Luckily this year the weather was pretty nice. Unfortunately, I had to miss out on Friday since I had class, but I met everyone down there Friday night and spent Saturday on the trails.
Adam has put so much work into the Samurai, so it always does really well and feels so much safer. Between all of the jeeps, we had a few broken parts and scratches, but that is typical for a Moab trip.
In other news, Adam bought me a new vacuum (the dyson DC14) for mothers day. Finally all of the Ellie hair is out of my house!