Friday, February 20, 2009

Ballet Your Brains Out

Finally, the moment I have been waiting for since I learned I was the mother of a girl.... the Ballerina stage!!!
When I was three I spent about 6 months in a Fairy Princess Costume- a glittery tutu and wand combo, complete with one of my Mom's beauty queen tiaras. Awesome!
Josie got a tutu for Christmas and wasn't paying much attention to it... until she saw some ballerinas on Sesame Street. Now its all tutu all the time! She even wears it to her play classes and the rec center, to Russ's mortification. She puts it on over her clothes, then breaks out her new pair of jellies (which she thinks make her a better dancer, and who am I to disagree?)
See below for the photo montage of her sweet ballet skills!

Josie practices a pirouette-- what grace!

Josie tries one of the fancy leg lifts she saw on Sesame Street--- no ballet pole in the Johnson house, but I guess anything to hold on to will do. That's what all the ballerina's say.

A little tip-toe action. Is it funnier that she looks a little drunk doing all this? Or weird?



Temporarily distracted by climbing into her new box/fort to hide. Oh well, all good things must come to an end.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

36 weeks and counting


In case anyone wants to track progress... the baby is getting bigger!!! I am excited to have made it past the date they were originally going to induce. Now the doctor's say they will try and get me to 39 weeks... which is March 16. Stay tuned!

Friday, February 6, 2009

Queen Josephine of the Mountain

My favorite part about working from home (besides sweatpants and easy access to good coffee) is being a fly on the wall and watching Josie and Russ in their regular routine.
Today I was working and could hear Josie squealing and having fun outside in the snow. After watching out the window, I couldn't resist the cuteness, so I went outside to snap a few pictures.

The snow plows made a huge snow pile that Josie had a blast climbing on. Russ declared her "Queen Josephine of the Mountain" and she was loving it!

My two little snow bunnies!

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Weird Science

I know I should be watching the Super Bowl right now, but I can't bring myself to care. The closest I have come to thinking about football today was reading about Jessica Simpson's amazing weight gain since dating Tony Romo. Now that's excitement!

So with that, I figured I would update everyone on the latest in my pregnancy saga. Things have gone from bad to worse. Or worse, to the most worst. But fear not! I am still being positive. More on that later.

Anyway, last Sunday night I had my worst sugar low yet. Russ and I were watching a movie when I suddenly started shaking. It took 24 oz. of juice (as opposed to the usual 4) and three hours of non-stop eating before the doctors where confident I would be fine. Then on my way home from work on Tuesday, my sugar dropped again and I almost crashed my car. Enough was enough!

Long story short, I spent most of this week having millions of tests done to figure out why I am so unbelievably sensitive to insulin. And here is the result of Chicago's finest in medical care: They don't know!

I am a case they have never seen before. When I don't take insulin, my blood sugar is way too high. When I take it, it gets better--- but then an hour or two later, it drops. They came up with the conclusion that something must be wrong with the baby- yikes! They took me off insulin completely, put me back on bed rest again, and did a million tests on the baby.

Here's the good news- results say the baby is totally fine. Better than fine! But here is the bad news- they still don't know what's up with my diabetes. So they are going to monitor me really closely, and as soon as it looks like the baby's lungs are developed they are going to induce me-- I could be having the baby in as little as three weeks!

Which brings me back to being positive. This ordeal is almost over, I can see the end of the road over the next hill. And with all the tests, I got to see the baby on all kinds of cool high-tech ultrasound machines, so I could see the stinkers sweet little face and see it moving around in there. And now I have even received a bonus by not having to wait the full 7 weeks to be done with this. Thinking about holding this baby so soon is helping me remember that I'm doing this to have a baby, not just because I'm a medical oddity and living in hell for the fun of it. So how's that for turning the frown upside down?

So next on the list- survive the next three weeks. Then its all babies and chocolate cake! Holla!

Saturday, January 31, 2009

P.S.

Hee hee hee... Touchdown!


Thursday, January 22, 2009

Turn that frown upside down!

Okay folks, in honor of Barack Obama, here is some change I can believe in. I am determined to be positive!! In my quest to enjoy pregnancy more, I have learned to embrace new kinds of cheese- a delicious no-carb snack- and have discovered that the fancy-shmancy gourmet pringles are only 1/2 carb per chip. Amazing!
Also, today I was running very late to a meeting in downtown Chicago, and was driving around and around a parking garage, only to discover a special parking area for expectant mothers right next to the elevators! It was better than being handicapped! So how's that for a positive attitude?

I also realized I have not posted any pictures of my belly. So now its time to play a new game I like to call "Beach Ball, Not a Beach Ball?"

Mommy and Numero Dos, aged 32 weeks!

And the answer is: Not a beach ball!
Only 8 weeks to go...

Saturday, January 3, 2009

What's not to love?

Being pregnant is a miracle, right?

This is what I tell myself every day. I am 29 weeks pregnant, so only about 10 weeks to go. But I'm having some trouble loving this of late. Please allow me a few moments to share.

About 2 months ago, I had an unusually busy day at work and ended up spending that night in the hospital. The doctors told us we were losing the baby, and it was the worst night of my life. The next day at a check-up, despite some real problems, it turns out the nurse had just had an incredibly poor bedside manner, and the baby was going to be fine.

Fast forward to the week after that, when at a check-up the doctor said "tricked you! The baby is not fine afterall!" and put me back into a panic and onto semi-bed rest. The baby had dropped and I had contractions if I did anything but lay on my back. I had to start working from home/bed twice a week. When I was at the office, I had to spend part of my day lying on a little bed in my office. I have had very little human contact in weeks and am starting to go a little stir crazy.

Now lets move to week 27. I failed my diabetes test BIG TIME. Now I can do nothing and eat nothing. But this miracle gets even more exciting! Regardless of the strictness of my diet, the "second pregnancy" syndrome is giving me high blood sugar all day long. So yesterday (Friday) they put me on insulin. Now I give myself shots in the leg twice a day, and everyone that knows me knows how tough I am when it comes to needles. (Although, it always surprises you how tough you can be when you have to.)

Today was my first full day on insulin. I ate breakfast and everything seemed fine. A little later Russ, Josie and I were taking down Christmas decorations when I suddenly felt faint, sweaty and cold. Russ was weirded out and suggested I test my blood sugar. It was super low and we got scared. I drank some juice and soon my blood was where it should be and I felt better.

About an hour later I was doing some more cleaning when suddenly I felt very bad. I stumbled to the kitchen to get some food and then collapsed. I was shaking and couldn't talk. Russ helped me take my blood sugar and it was even lower than before- in the very scary range. Then he helped me drink juice while I was shaking like crazy- it was like something out of a movie. We called the doctor and they told us what to do, but it took me several hours until I was normal again.

I had to give myself another shot at dinner, and the same thing repeated itself about an hour later, but luckily not as bad. The doctor said you have to experiment with insulin until you find the right doses. Great, because I love being a science project and sugar lows feel terrific!

I am so thankful for my husband who has helped me with all of this. Whoever said marriage is a team sport was definitely right. Poor Russ! He is amazing though, and managed to help me and keep Josie from getting scared when she was so confused about what was happening.

Oh, and I forgot to mention-- this morning I realized I was coming down with the flu.

I know that pregnancy is a miracle and being a mother is a wonderful experience. And considering how many people can't get pregnant or lose their babies, I feel like an absolute a$$hole for complaining for even one minute. But I will admit this just once, then never speak of it again--- I am REALLY ready to be done being pregnant.