I am happy to report that I passed my Glucose Tolerance Test last week. Adrian and I weren't too worried since I'm not that big a fan of sugar. Pretty much the only thing sweet I love is chocolate, and I prefer the dark kind, which has less sugar than the other kinds. Man, that glucose drink was nasty. It was basically flat, bright orange soda. I didn't have any trouble drinking it down, but it gave me a horrible tummy ache (and any kind of pain in my mid-section kinda freaks me out these days). I'm glad I don't have to suffer through the Stage 2 glucose test where you have to be parked in a doctor's office for three hours while they monitor your glucose. I don't think I could take that stuff again.
Jose and Erik (my bro and his boyfriend) came up to visit last weekend. They had a wedding in Maine on Sunday. Jose was so excited to see me and see how much the baby bump has grown. Within minutes of their arrival he bent down to try to hear the heartbeat and was rewarded with a kick in the face! Just like Adrian a few weeks ago. Adrian thinks we're having either a kickboxer or a ninja. As for the baby, I am feeling all kinds of kicks and jabs and rolls. I can feel her hiccuping now, too. It is the strangest thing to see your stomach convulse like that. So trippy. I can also feel her through my tummy when I press down. Though I guess I shouldn't be so pokey because I might be poking her in the eye or the soft spot of her head. Yikes!
The plan for that Saturday was to go strawberry picking. Adrian and I belong to a CSA (community supported agriculture). We're basically members of a farm in Western Massachusetts. Once a week we get local veggies delivered to Boston that were picked that morning. We love it. Click on this link to find out more. This month members were invited to pick-your-own strawberries and peas (shell, snap, sugar) so the four of us drove west to the farm and had a wonderful time picking strawberries and peas. Actually, I only picked about a third of a quart before my back said, "Whoa, stop that!" The peas were easier for me to pick as it required a lot less bending down. The farm also had a tasting of 9 different varieties of strawberries. These farm strawberries are so much sweeter than grocery store strawberries. Here is a photo of me with half of the strawberries we picked. See how the dude behind me is all bent over? Yeah, not so good when you're pregnant. But I'm looking a lot bigger, aren't I?
If you want to see more photos that Jose took of the weekend, click here.
After driving back home, the boys did a lot of furniture moving. We're basically moving the guest bed into the study so that the old guest bedroom will become the nursery. I mostly just tried to stay out of the way. Our next step is to get rid of or donate a lot of junk and then paint the nursery. Things are shaping up in there.
The furniture moving was followed by an awesome Thai dinner. Here are the four of us after stuffing our faces with pad thai, shrimp curry, pork belly and chinese broccoli, and crab fried rice (just to name a few dishes):
Though it may not look like it, I'm actually still exercising. I'm still going to my Step classes at the gym, but I've had to remove the riser from underneath my step and force myself not to do anything too high impact. It's a bit frustrating, though. I really enjoy a good workout and I miss it a lot. However, the thought of depriving my baby of enough air readily puts a stop to any notions of pushing myself too hard. I've read that exercising while pregnant "may" make delivery easier, though I think that's mostly baloney and merely a ruse to keep you from using your pregnancy as an excuse not to exercise. Still, here's hoping there is some truth to it! Now that I'm at the beginning of my 7th month, I am definitely feeling a bit more like a beached whale. It is now more difficult to get out of the couch in our family room, and I am definitely feeling a lot heavier doing my Step classes. I can't believe I've still got 12 weeks left to go. I can't imagine getting any bigger, yet I am always saying that!
We have our birthing class this coming weekend. I am looking forward to it, but I think Adrian regards it with some trepidation. I'm pretty sure he will not want to watch any birthing videos. I try to look at the whole pregnancy/birth process in a more scientific light. The more research, the better, for me anyway. Adrian disagrees. There are just some things he does not want to know about in advance. He also does not understand why conversations about newborns or babies in general always seem to take a scatological turn. We'll find out eventually, won't we?
I am proud to say that this nutty little blog of ours has inspired friends to make their own blog. Joey and Aimee live in Kentucky and are brand-spanking-new parents to adorable twins born the first week of June. They started their blog today after seeing ours. When I start to feel overwhelmed by baby stuff, I think to myself, "At least we're not having twins." (Sorry Joey and Aimee. Better you than us! You guys are handling twins like champs!)
Lastly, I would like to wish my husband and all the Dads reading this blog a belated Happy Father's Day!
