30 Weeks!

The baby is now 3/4 of the way cooked, and I am hoping August will be here before I know it. It has been a difficult week. On Monday I found out that I have gestational diabetes. My doctor referred me to a specialist, and Ryan and I spent 2 hours on Thursday talking with her and the nurse. For those of you who do not know, gestational diabetes is just like diabetes but it occurs during pregnancy. With all of the changes going on ,the body is not able to produce enough insulin, and with this there is a risk that the baby can grow too large or even worse. The good news is that typically it goes away immediately after the baby is born. What this means for me is no sweets or chocolate, and I really have to watch my carbs. This is particularly difficult for me as my favorite foods are pasta, potatoes, and chocolate. At this point I am testing my blood sugar 4 times per day, and am hoping to be able to control my levels with diet and not have to take insulin. I think in the long run everything will be alright (I only have 2 months to go) but initially it has been very challenging and frustrating. I am having to spend a lot more time planning out all of my meals and snacks. I find that I am often still hungry after meals, but do not know what else I am allowed to eat. I am not sure how I am going to make it through the whole summer without ice cream, but I just want to make sure that the baby stays healthy. The good thing about all of this is that we got to have an extra ultrasound this week, and the doctor says the baby looks perfect. The only concern was that there is an increased amount of amniotic fluid, which occurs when glucose levels have been too high. The doctor told us that the baby weights 3lbs 11oz! If anyone has any knowledge about gestational diabetes that they would be willing to share, I would love to hear it.

Bonus of the week, our chair came in for the nursery!!! I am so excited about it, that I am sitting in it right now to type my blog. The rest of the furniture should be here in the next week or so. Ryan and I are so excited to get everything set up!

Babymoon!

Sorry this post is a little late, but we have been out of town for a week. I am now 28 weeks 5 days, and we just got back from our wonderful babymoon! We started with three days in Chicago, and were blessed with beautiful weather. We stayed downtown and enjoyed a boat tour on the river, the Art Institute, Millennium Park, Lincoln Park Zoo, Jersey Boys, and lots of great food. I am sure all the walking was good exercise for me, but my feet were swollen and I was spent by bedtime each night.

On Friday between our drive from Chicago to the lake we stopped in Elkhart and Ryan got a new car! He is pretty excited about all the room on the backseat. We spent the rest of the weekend at the lake, and it was nice to be able to relax and not be on my feet. I am really not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow after a week off.

26 Weeks and 1 Day!

My excitement for the week is that I finally bought a maternity swim suit for work. For those of you who don't know, I do aquatic physical therapy and am in the pool two days a week. Up until this point I had just been wearing old stretched out faded suits. It really got to the point where they were no longer working, and I finally broke down and got one that fits my growing belly! Black with white polka dots...I guess it is cute if you can call a maternity swim suit cute.

Also in exciting news this week, Ryan started to paint the nursery! He had some great help on Saturday from Lisa, Cal, and Justin Cripe. They helped to move everything out of the bedroom (which is now taking over my living room) and then got to work painting. I think they may have had a little bit too much fun with the primer! The nursery is now all painted except for the trim, which Ryan is going to finish this weekend. Also this weekend we are going to order the crib and other furniture for the nursery! It is so much fun to start getting everything ready for the baby. To top things off Ryan and I have only 2 weeks left until our vacation!!!

24 Weeks

We are now at 24 weeks, and at the start of the sixth month! The baby is about 11 inches long and 1.5 pounds, the size of a papaya. This post is a couple of days past 24 weeks, but the weather has been so nice it was easy to get side tracked! It was a very exciting week because Ryan finally was able to feel the baby kick! The baby is definitely kicking more these days, and now I can watch my belly and actually see it move.

Just to give you an update on all the our friends that are (were) pregnant right now...since February 11 we know 12 babies that have been born! All seem to be doing great and I really enjoy seeing pictures of them and how much they change in a matter of weeks! There are still 11 more babies to come in the next several months!

This weekend was lots of fun, and I got to meet a couple of these new babies! On Saturday I got to see Amber at her Gold Canyon Candles open house! As an added bonus, Ashley and baby Audrey were there as well! Saturday night Ryan and I went to meet Blake Libey. Ryan got to test out his skills with the boppy pillow, and I think he is going to love it!

Ryan, Blake, and the Boppy during the 30 minutes that Blake was not crying.

22 Weeks!

Baby Linstromberg is 22 weeks! My belly is growing, and the baby is now kicking. It is a really awesome feeling, except when the baby thinks it is fun to kick my bladder. Ryan has been trying very hard to feel the baby kick, but the baby does not seem to be cooperating.

I am very excited about the birth of Blake Libey on Tuesday! Congratulations to Kamie and Justin, and I am thinking with a 10lb 5oz baby they skipped newborn and went straight to toddler!

It has also been a very sad week for me. On Wednesday morning my Grandma passed away. She was so excited about the baby, and I am so sad that she did not make it to August to meet her first great grandchild. My whole family had a wonderful time celebrating her 90th birthday in December. Her birthday was the last time I was able to see her, and it was such a blessing that we had an excellent visit. I will be leaving in the morning to drive with my family to Ohio for the funeral. She will be greatly missed!

Half Way There!!!

We are now at 20 weeks out of 40, so half way to meeting Baby Linstromberg! The baby is now the size of a cantaloupe, and at 6.5 inches long continues to grow everyday. It seems to be getting harder for people to miss the fact that I am pregnant now. Patients at work are now asking me if I am pregnant (so I must be past the stage where people just think I am getting fat). Also at work I seem to be having difficulty fitting into my swimsuit! I do aquatic physical therapy two days a week, and my suit does not want to stretch anymore. So I guess my two options are buying a new maternity suit, or turing the old one around so the opening is in the front???

Last weekend it was great to have a little PT school reunion at Tess and Laythen's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding, and it was a blast seeing everyone. Ryan tried to be funny on the dance floor pushing as hard as he could to make his stomach look bigger than mine...I do not think it worked. I am so excited to see which one of my PT girls is pregnant next!

18 Weeks

Baby Linstromberg is now 18 weeks, and we have started our 5th month. We are almost half way there! The baby is now the size of a sweet potato and is 5.5 inches long. This has been a very busy week. On Wednesday I had an EKG and some blood work done since my heart rate has been too high. All the tests came back normal, so I guess my body is just busy pumping lots of blood to the baby. Also on Wednesday we went to the hospital for our ultrasound. We made it very clear that we did not want to know the sex of the baby, so every time the ultrasound tech was near "that region" she would tell us to look away. It was a lot more fun than the last ultrasound since it actually looks like a baby now. We keep going back and forth about whether the baby is a boy or a girl. The baby's heart rate was 137bpm...so if you think that is an accurate test then I guess we will be having a boy. We will be so happy with a boy or a girl, I am just hoping for a healthy baby that is not 9 pounds like all my friends seem to be having lately.

Our little sweet potato/ Am I a boy or girl?

Baby's face/ Baby putting hand up to face




Bottoms of baby's feet/ Baby's leg and foot (upside down)