Every Day is a New Adventure

Early in my pregnancy, a co-worker asked how I was doing and said that he had heard from pregnant friends that "Every day is a new adventure for a pregnant woman." At the time, every day of my pregnancy was the same, and so I had no idea what he was talking about.

Now I do.

Some days, I feel like I could tackle the world. Other days, I feel like this cartoon.

Which brings me to the adventures of this week.

My latest glucose screening test showed elevated blood sugars, which can be a sign of gestational diabetes. Tomorrow I must do a three hour glucose screen. That involves fasting overnight, drinking a really sugary solution and then not eating for three hours before they suck FIVE vials of blood from my veins. Telling a pregnant person not to eat is like telling a bird not to fly. So I'm not looking forward to that three hour timeframe.

And it sounds like gestational diabetes is not CAUSED by consuming too much sugar (i.e., my beloved Red Hots). Its just caused by the body incorrectly processing the food/whatever I've consumed. But, its not gestational diabetes just yet ... so let's all think happy thoughts!

The other adventure in the Lucero household this week was me getting sick. Started off with a day of what seemed like really bad allergies. By Tuesday night, I was a blubbering mess and poor Jonathan wanted to help, but couldn't. I made it to work on Wednesday, but when I hit the point of being practically delirious, Jonathan had to take me home. When I woke up from my nap, I had a fever (a bad thing while pregnant). So it was into a cool bath for me and a call to the doctor. My sweet Jonathan ran out and got me Tylenol for the fever and a prescription of antibiotics. I do love that man!

Jonathan leaves on Sunday for D.C. He'll be gone for two weeks. I hope its an uneventful two weeks for the baby and me. If not, you'll get to read all about it on this blog.

Stay tuned!

Jennifer

The Baby at 28 Weeks

Week 28: Dream, Dream, Dream

Are you dreaming about your baby? Your baby may be dreaming about you, too. Brain wave activity measured in a developing fetus shows different sleep cycles, including the rapid eye movement phase, the stage when dreaming occurs.

By now, your baby, who weighs in at about two and a half pounds and stands — or rather lies — at almost 16 inches (measured head to toe) has added blinking to his or her growing bag of tricks. (Outside in the real world, blinking is necessary to help keep foreign objects out of the eyes.) Other impressive new talents being added to your baby's roster include coughing, more intense sucking, and, perhaps most important, better breathing.

The good news is that babies born this week, though premature, have an excellent prognosis because their lungs have reached the point (for the most part) of maturity — so you too can breathe a little easier now. Of course, it's still best if a baby doesn't check out of that uterine hotel just yet — there's still a lot of growing and maturing to do over the next 12 weeks.