Gestational diabetes

Last week I was officially diagnosed with gestational diabetes. This was a big shock to me since there is not a history of diabetes in my family and I have not gained an excessive amount of weight during this pregnancy. My OBGYN scheduled an appointment for me at the Diabetes Center yesterday. It was quite an extensive appointment. 3 hours later I had met with a dietician, nurse, PA and physician to educate me on managing gestational diabetes. I will be checking my blood sugars 4 times each day and checking urine each morning for keytones. The dietician outlined a specific carb diet for me and made a few edits in my current eating habits. They have me eating every 2-3 hours; focusing mainly on the number of carbs in each meal or snack. I definitely feel full all the time. One hour after each meal I have to check my blood sugar and make sure the result is less than 130. All blood sugars must be recorded and called into the diabetes center each week. If there are 3 high readings in a row they will be putting me on insulin. I definitely do NOT want that to happen so I'm going to do my best to follow this diet. They recommended a great website called www.calorieking.com You can pretty much put in any food or restaurant and it will pull up the nutrional information.
My next appointment at the diabetes center is in one month. Who knows, maybe if all my sugars are low they will back off a little on the testing.
Countdown to Brooke's arrival is 56 days. Once she is born the diet and testing can stop, hooray!!!
Thank you to everyone for your prayers and encouragement. I apprciate all the support.

A new Holiday called Springsgiving

Keith enjoyed deep frying the turkey at Thanksgiving so much this year that he was looking for a reason to do it again. He came up with the idea of hosting an event at our house called Springsgiving. He invited all the podiatry residents and their families and asked them to bring a spring side.
He was so excited to go to the sporting goods store last week and pick out his very own deep fryer. We bought 2 turkeys and buffalo wings for the Springsgiving feast. We had a wonderful turnout on Saturday; 4 of the families were able to attend. They brought delicious spring salads, fruit, and desserts. I had the wonderful experience of learning how to butcher the buffalo wings. Who knew the wings needed to be separated into three parts before cooking. Anyway, Keith explained that all I had to do was fine the tendon, break the bones there and hack the wing into three pieces. At first it was kind of gross and difficult but by the end I was seeing my future as a top notch butcher. I think some of our guests were a little worried to see me hacking the wings with a giant knife. In the end the wings came out great. Keith injected one of the turkeys with butter creole and the other turkey with butter jalepeno. They were both delicious; but I liked the jalepeno the best.
We were sad that the weather was pretty chilly on Saturday. The kids put on their jackets and played a little football anyway. Next time we'll be breaking out the bocce set for sure!
The dogs; Mason and Jackson, were absent for most of this event. They were getting haircuts at the groomer. I picked them up late in the afternoon and was very entertained by their super short summer haircuts. Mason reminds me of a giant white rat; with the cutest face of course.
I am stealing pictures of SPringsgiving directly off my friend Jess' blog. She takes such great pictures so I didn't even get my camera out. Thanks Jess! She was also so sweet to take all my chocolate and sweets so I would not be tempted to eat them. I was recently diagnosed with gestational diabetes; more about that later.
Thanks to everyone for a great Springsgiving! We'll have to do it again next year!

28th Birthday

I turned 28 last Friday. This was my first birthday since high school that I have not been in Texas. Keith did a really good job to make it special. He asked me to be ready to go at 4:30 and would not tell me where we were going. He picked me up and we went to see Date Night at a cute little theatre. I was very touched that he chose this movie because he REALLY wants to see hot tub time machine.
After the movie we went to a very cool modern japanese/thai place for dinner. This baby sits so high up and doesn't allow me to eat very much food at a time. So, keith and I split Calamari, Red Curry Corn soup, and this cod/pork noodle dish. It was delicious!
We were both super tired after dinner so we just came back to the house. My friend Rodney sent a birthday party in a box so we got out the candles and the swiss rolls. I pretended that the swiss rolls were a birthday cake and it worked pretty well. Thanks Rodney!
I was very touched by all the cards, texts, and birthday calls that I got from friends and family. Thank you everyone for remembering. You helped to make a birthday far from home a special day.

Wisonsin Wedding

Keith and I flew to Wisconsin last weekend for the wedding of a former med school classmate. I was a little nervous about this wedding because it was being held at a waterpark resort. I was not sure that anyone would want to see a 7 month pregnant lady in a swimsuit. Luckily the actual wedding ceremony and reception were in a nice ballroom at the resort.
We had a great time catching up with Keith's old med school friends and roommates. Eveyone is spread out now doing their residencies. We stayed in a condo/apt type place where everyone could hang out. It was really fun. One of the med schools guys is a big Michigan State fan; so it was extra exciting to watch their basketball game on Saturday night. Sadly, they lost by 2 points to Butler.
We really enjoyed spending time with Scholl gang. We will definitely get to see them all next August when Kelly and Brian get married. We'll be heading back to Wisconsin for their wedding. It is crazy to think that we will have a one year old little girl to bring with us. Here are a few pictures of the group at the wedding. I'm very glad that no one brought their camera into the waterpark, ha!

The Chairs

Keith and I decided that we wanted to get a comfy rocker/recliner for when the baby comes. There is definitely not any room in the nursery; so the chair would go in the front room. We looked at chairs in Arizona at the Lazy Boy Gallery. Of course Keith had a chair that he absolutely loved and I had another chair that I loved. We tried to be objective and listen to each other's arguments on why their chair was better. We did not really come to any conclusion in Arizona.
When we got back to Pittsburgh, Keith looked up Lazy Boy Galleries nearby. The closest store was 70 miles away in Ohio. He called ahead and spoke for a long time with a nice salesman. He was willing to make quite a deal if we would purchase both chairs. So, we discussed it and decided it was a pretty great deal.
The next day Keith drove out to Ohio and purchased both chairs. He was able to fit them in our car and bring them home that day. His chair has a home in the basement where our TV is located. This chair has a massager and heat feature. It is also a great recliner that is super comfy. My chair is a very soft oversized leather recliner. It is now sitting in the front room. I have made a point to sit in it daily and take a nap. This might seem like something an elderly person would do, but I don't care. It is a great chair and I'm so happy to have it. Keith is loving his massage chair too.
If you come to visit us you'll have to sit in both chairs and pick your favorite. Here is a picture of my oversized leather chair.

Arizona Visit and Baby Shower

Keith and I had a great visit to Arizona during the last week of March. My mom was a wonderful hostess. She knows how much we like to eat so she had several new recommended places for Keith to choose from. Everything was delicious. Keith and I were talking about our favorite place and it was too hard to pick. Keith was able to play golf with his brother Josh on two of the afternoons. They had great weather. Josh is a second year medical student in Glendale, Arizona. Josh and his wife Steph just moved into an awesome condo in Scottsdale. We LOVE their location!
We did a lot of relaxing along with the eating. It was so much fun to be outside in Phoenix after all our terrible snow and cold in Pittsburgh. On Thursday night we went to dinner with Keith's brother and his wife at a place called Zipps. We wanted to watch some of the MArch Maddness basketball. Little did we know that Zipps was a Kansas State Alumni hang out. It was so much fun to watch Kansas State play Xavier and win after two overtimes. The place was going crazy!
We also got to visit my Aunt and Uncle at their house. It has been over a year since we last saw them. On Saturday we went to lunch with my cousin and his wife Lori. Their kids have gotten so big! Their little girl Jamie is very talkative now. She has the sweetest little voice. They were very patient to sit at the table and behave during our long lunch. It does help that they have these cool leap frog and star wars hand held games. My mom tried to play the star wars game and couldn't even figure out how to start it! ha! We are hoping they will get to come and visit us in Pittsburgh sometime next year.
Sadly, Keith had to fly back early SUnday morning, so he missed seeing everyone at church and the shower. That's the life of a first year resident. I'm just glad he was able to take a few vacation days and come out to ARizona.
The baby shower on Sunday afternoon was so much fun. It was wonderful to see so many of the people that I grew up with. We had a great crowd! Two of the girls I went to high school with are also pregnant right now. We are all due within a month of each other. The hostess at the shower had 2 giant edible arrangements. It was my first experience with a chocolate covered pineapple, so yummy! All the shower treats were great. One of the ladies from church made little cupcakes with pink baby feet. They were cute and tasty. My best friend from junior high made us the most precious baby quilt. She was visiting KEith and I in Pittsburgh when we were trying to decide on a nursery theme. Keith really wanted to combine a penguin and a cowboy theme and have cowboy penguins. He was sold that cowboy penguins were a brilliant idea. I did not so much agree on this point. We ended up deciding on just penguins but Sally remembered our debate and came up with a quilted version of cowboy penguins. You can imagine that Sally's quilt is Keith's favorite baby gift. Thank you Sally!!
I was really sad to leave Arizona last Monday. I wish that we were able to visit more often. I am never able to visit everyone or spend enough time with people. Hopefully we will be visiting soon with baby Brooke.