http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/1130LavaLamp30-ON.html

What tipped me off?

Chia Pet commercials!

This hasn't been the easiest of years - a complicated pregnancy and losing a beloved pet top the list of difficult things to deal with, and yet….

There is a lot to be thankful for:

being pregnant after all the years of trying with a healthy baby (just got to keep her in there 5 1/2 more weeks or so).

growing ever closer and bonding with my husband…he has had to shoulder a lot of burdens since I've been pregnant and there has barely been a peep out of him - he just does what needs to be done and is there for me as much as he can be.

family (on both sides) who love and support all three of us.

friends who encourage and help and step up when we need them to.

and even though I was stuck at home in bed for Thanksgiving and couldn't go to the family get together, we still had 'Mom's Takeout" Thanksgiving dinner, and of course the best part is that I was at HOME and not stuck in the hospital.

All in all, that's a lot to be thankful for.

My thoughts are with those in the armed forces that are away from their loved ones this year. May they be out of harm's way and with their families next year.

If I hear one more person talk about "red states" and "blue states" as if everyone in either voted one way and the "red states" are a bunch of uneducated hicks I am going to SCREAM.

Guess what stupid people who say that…people in the "red states" voted for the "blue guy' and people in the "blue states" voted for the "red guy", so GET OVER IT. The reason the "red guy" won was because the "blue guy" didn't convince enough people it was time to make a change.

Besides, we "red people" had to put up with Bill Clinton for 8 years, so maybe this is payback to all the "blue people" who voted for HIM. I could certainly (if I felt like it, but I don't at the moment) make an argument that were it not for HIS administration's screw ups in the beginning of the Osama Bin Laden era, we might not be in the position we are in now.

Anyway, the point of all this really is, that we are NOT blue states and red states, rather we are the UNITED States. And whether or not we always agree with each other, we are countrymen, the election is OVER, and we just need to MOVE ON. So, you know, whine about it again in 2008.

(Yes Syndromes this was political. However, I'm pregnant, on bedrest, fed up and needed to vent, so there. :P)

Well, I was on quite a roll posting every day and I thought I was finally going to have a month where I made my goal, but things conspired against me and that obviously isn't going to happen.

Friday evening I started having contractions and called the doctor who sent me to Labor & Delivery to get checked out. I didn't even realize how MANY contractions I was having but apparently quite a few of them and so they started giving me stuff to get them under control. The big gun in controlling pre-term labor is Magnesium Sulfate - very very nasty stuff which I bet any woman who has ever had to have it will attest to. They tell you that it makes you feel like you have the flu, but I would say it is much worse than that. For me, it didn't make me sick as it does other people, but it did a huge number on my psyche. I felt hopeless and emotional and was just a wreck - I cried every time Mike left. Luckily I only had to be on it for just over 48 hours. A friend of mine was on it for three weeks. UGH. Anyway, they got the contractions under control and switched me to a different medication in pill form, then watched me for about 24 hours and finally let me out of "jail" so I could come home. Home means bedrest until baby comes, but I'd rather be on bedrest in MY bed in MY room in MY house than at the hospital hooked up to IVs and monitors and all that stuff.

Mike is slowing down his work schedule so he can be home to take care of me a lot more which monetarily is not going to be great for us, but somehow we'll manage. Always do. He spent yesterday getting the bedroom set up with a fridge, bed tray to eat on, and of course, one of my computers so I'm not cut off from the world! Anyway, the best part is being home with my hubby and my doggies. Please pray or whatever it is you do that I can stay here until the baby is born.

In other news, due to the gestational diabetes I have started checking my blood sugar 4 times a day. It is totally unnatural to deliberately poke yourself with a needle. WRONG WRONG WRONG I can't wait for all of this to be over (but not until baby has been in there long enough!!!). :)

Thanks to all the veterans and those who are in the service now devoted to protecting our freedom. Your sacrifices are appreciated and not forgotten.

Since pretty much all I do is watch tv all day, unless I have a dr's appointment, or go to church, today was a nice day because I got to do something I'd never done before. My little 3 year old goddaughter had her first mini-dance recital. There were 2 year olds and 3 year olds. She is in the ballet class, and the 2 year olds were in music and movement classes. All I can say is, their teacher is a saint. They are absolutely adorable, but getting them to stay on task and focus is a MAJOR job. It will be fun to watch her develop her skills as she gets older though. And it was fun to imagine my little munchkin doing that someday! I never got to go to dance classes, because my parents thought all dancing was wrong according to the Bible. Personally, I love to dance, and I think my old church was a bit too strict on their interpretation of that one! After all, there was a lot of dancing and instrument playing in the Bible. Oh well. My little one's life will be a bit different from mine I imagine.

Okay the two things in the title have little to do with each other, but they were the two things I was focused on today. I am having Braxton Hicks contractions but they are not making the baby stressed so I'm not supposed to worry. Okayyyyy. Braxton Hicks are actually what your body does to practice for labor. Fascinating huh? I also got some of my diabetic training today. I've been on food plans before, but they weren't quite as crucial as this is. I really have to keep my blood sugar consistent or it could cause problems for both me and the baby. I will start measuring blood sugar next week. This week I had the steroid shots to mature the baby's lungs in case she comes early and those make your blood sugar skyrocket, so I am trying to ease myself into the eating this week. It's not a BAD thing to watch carbs and sugar, it's just hard to really seriously have to watch calories and exchanges and all that.

I guess to me DIABETES is like a four-letter word since both of my parents have (had) it and I have always made it a goal of mine to do everything I can to make sure I don't get it. Genetics are somewhat against me, but at least I can control outside influences like food and exercise. Of course, exercise right now is a problem since I'm supposed to be taking it easy. But any activity is good, so I've been told to try and do a 10 minute walk versus a 20 minute walk. I could probably do that walking around our 2 acres. :)

Anyway, the good part is we're in the home stretch so it's only a few weeks and then hopefully the diabetes will go back to where it came from (hell in a handbasket as far as I'm concerned) and I can be less diligent about the food stuff.

This baby better be worth all this! I'm sure she will. :)

We had an ultrasound today to check on our little wiggler. We can't check growth until next week because ultrasounds are not accurate enough to check more often than every three weeks or so. Anyway, they looked at heartbeat, movement, and breathing, except she wasn't breathing for the first 10 minutes. (Apparently, babies in utero do not breathe all the time, they just practice breathing on and off, so nothing abnormal.) So we were watching and waiting to see if she would breathe, but still nothing happened. Finally, my husband scooted his chair up to my tummy and told her to breathe. Guess what? She actually did it! I don't know if it was a total coincidence or not, but she does seem to react to her daddy's voice. She's definitely gonna be a daddy's girl!! And imagine understanding English already! She's an early achiever. :D

In amongst all the whining and morning sickness and swelling feet and backaches, sometimes the immenseness of what is going on inside you really hits you.

I was thinking today that I finally understand that immeasurable bond between a mother and a child that she carried in her body. No one can ever be that close to me or has been except my own mother and no one will ever be as close to my daughter as I am except someday her own child. To actually nurture a tiny living thing from just a speck to a breathing, crying, sentient being is most likely the greatest thing I will ever do. This is the most important job I've ever had or will ever have. And even as a teacher, in a few short weeks, I will have the most important student I've ever had, the one that I will make the most impact on in my entire life.

Even thinking somewhat scientifically, this baby carries the DNA of all my ancestors and of all my descendants and also that of my husband's. So for these few short months (even though they seem long - in the grand scheme of things, it's really the blink of an eye) I have my entire past and my entire future inside of me.

This baby is my immortality. Seems like a lot for a tiny little thing whose only means of communication for the first little bit of her life will be to cry. But even that, if you think about, is amazing. You don't have to teach a baby to communicate. She knows instinctively what to do. Just like sitting up, rolling over, crawling, walking…those instincts are built in. It's just a matter of when it happens. I am awed by the greatness of the creation of life. It is so huge, and there is so much going on inside of me, yet I don't have to do anything special. I'm really just a vessel, and God's great plan just keeps on working and growing and developing inside of me.

Sometimes it feels like really hard work because I feel miserable or I hurt or I'm scared that something is wrong, but really, really, the hard part of being a parent is not what happens before birth, but after. To raise a child that has values, that is loving, that is independent, that has self-esteem, that will make a contribution to the world whether great or small, that will someday be a parent herself and feel these feelings that I have felt. It's terrifying, yet at the same time exhilarating. The greatest adventure of my life will be beginning soon. May I be the parent my little angel deserves.

<a href="http://lilypie.com"><img src="http://lilypie.com/days/050125/0/23/1/-8" alt="Lilypie Baby Days" border="0" /></a>

My husband has been interested in doing a cast of my pregnant stomach, so I found a <a href="http://www.bellymask.com">place</a> where you could get a kit online for not too much money. So last night, he put plastic over the recliner and a towel so I would be comfortable and proceeded to put plaster gauze all over my torso. Quite a messy job. The baby was squirming and kicking the entire time (first I think from the temperature change and later from the weight as the plaster hardened) and by the time we finished I was covered in Crisco and plaster, but we got it done. I don't know what we are going to do with it now that it's done, but it made my husband happy and he had fun and we got to giggle a little. Now we have a pregnant plaster torso in our room drying. What fun! :)

Well, the test results came back during my appointment and bad news - I have gestational diabetes. So now I will have to watch my carb/sugar intake and take blood sugar readings 4 times a day (that means poking your finger with the little machine). Oh what fun. :P If it can't be controlled with diet and exercise (which I'm not supposed to be doing remember), then I will have to have insulin shots as well. The upside is that it usually goes away after you have the baby, but it is possible that you can develop regular diabetes in the next 5 years after the pregnancy. I, already, being at risk for diabetes since both parents have/had it do not particularly like the sound of it. Oh well, I already knew that once baby came, I would be back on my good healthy eating and working out plan in order to keep the diabetes monster away anyway.

So, my doctor told me to promise him I would not stress. I have a great doctor. He is exactly the right personality for me. I really lucked out in getting him. He was a recommendation from a friend of a friend, and since then, I've heard nothing but good things from other people who either go to him or someone in the practice, so that makes me feel really good. Anyway, I guess you do what you have to do right? And hopefully you end up with a healthy baby in the end.

I can't help wondering though, why all this stuff keeps happening to me? I just wanted a baby. Didn't think that was so much to ask. *sigh* A bit down today.

Maybe, in a way, the loss of the election will be a blessing in disguise for the Edwards family. Now he can focus his attention on the woman he calls the love of his life and her needs as she faces the next phase of her life and dealing with cancer. Who really knows why things happen when they happen or the way they happen, but it is obvious that his family will need him very much right now.

My prayers are with Elizabeth Edwards and the family and I hope for her full recovery.

Deep breath. Election over. Time to get back the really important stuff in my life at the moment. ;)

When you are pregnant, towards the end of your 2nd trimester/beginning of 3rd trimester they check to see if you have gestational diabetes. To do this they give you this stuff to drink (it's like orange soda on sugar steroids) and then an hour later you have blood drawn. If you're glucose is okay, no problem on with the show. If it comes out high (even a little) then you have to take another test. In the second test, you have to fast from midnight the night before (although I've heard different specifics on that one), then go into the lab and have blood drawn to get a baseline. After that, you have to drink another bottle of the orange soda stuff and then go sit and wait for an hour. At that point, you have blood drawn again, then you wait for another hour. Once again, you have blood drawn, and once again you wait for another hour and have blood drawn one more time. So you have to sit at the lab or dr's office depending where you are (my dr's office has a lab) for three hours and get stuck with a needle four times, all the while not being able to drink or eat anything. For those of you who have been pregnant, you will probably agree that this would basically amount to torture. At the end I was a bit shaky. I had been planning to drive myself in order to allow my husband not to waste three hours of working time, but my friend's wife had recently had the test as well (we are due about 9 days apart) and he suggested that I might not feel up to driving myself, so being the good guy that he is, he offered to come and pick me up afterwards. He even showed up with orange juice (his wife's idea to get the blood sugar back up)! What a sweetie. :)

Now I get to go to the doctor from my regular appointment tomorrow and get my test results back. Cross your fingers that they come out okay!

<a href="http://lilypie.com"><img src="http://lilypie.com/days/050125/0/23/1/-8" alt="Lilypie Baby Days" border="0" /></a>

If any of you watched the election returns on NBC, could you please tell me who the bloggers were that they kept going back to? Especially the female. Thank you!