Pregnancy update: 32 weeks

Both kids are sleeping and I have some internet time finally. Eric is picking up more sheetrock and plumbing supplies this evening. I have sheetrock dust and wood splinters all over my clothes from working on the bathroom today.

The baby is squirming and sticking its foot right below my solar plexus. Like during Dio's pregnancy, I'm feeling almost all movements in the front. Lots of squirms and punches near my lower abdomen and hipbones and pubic bone, bigger kicks and stretches up near my ribs.

For those of you who are curious, I chose the prental Rhogam shot. I kept going back and forth on it, and finally I decided to do it  for a number of reasons: First off, my mind kept coming back to it, unlike other pregnancies. I also will be doing a lot of physical labor during the next few weeks of renovations. Of course I'm not planning on banging on my stomach with a 2x4! I also haven't had any sort of reaction to the postpartum shots. I feel like I could really have gone either way, and finally it was time to just make a choice and move on.

About blood sugar levels: I've implemented nutritional and exercise changes and spoken with a dietitian--the one who teaches GD classes recommended by my midwife--over the phone about ideas for lowering my fasting BG levels. She agreed that before fretting any further about my levels, it would be wise to check the calibration of the glucometer and to get new test strips. I picked those supplies up at the pharmacy last week and might test fasting levels next week for 4-5 days to see how I'm doing. Here is a summary of the changes I've made:

• Increased my protein intake, trying to ensure every meal or snack has some protein-rich food. I have to say, though, that I feel like I'm always eating nuts, fish, eggs, chicken, &/or cheese and am getting a bit tired of them! 
• Decreased my carbohydrate intake somewhat, cut out all simple carbs (which I didn't eat much of anyway) and focused on eating only complex carbs 
• Continued eating moderate amounts of fruits and generous amounts of vegetables, especially non-starchy ones (my favorites are dark leafy greens, green beans, and broccoli)
• Continued eating 3 meals & 3 snacks a day. When I'm pregnant or breastfeeding, I have to eat every few hours. Which is probably a good thing for keeping blood sugars more stable. 
• Added a 20-min walk after lunch & about an hour before bedtime (I originally was going after dinner, but the dietitian said pushing the walk a bit later would help my fasting levels more). In the mornings, I often go to the gym, bring the kids to the indoor track, or run errands on foot with the kids. 
• Okay, I admit: I do eat dark chocolate (85%), maybe 1/2 to 1 rectangle a day. A rectangle has 8 grams of carbs--4 of which are sugar and 3 of which are fiber. Not terrible, and enough to keep me sane! It's funny--70% dark chocolate now tastes too sweet. Okay, I also fess up to eating the occasional piece of marzipan during the Christmas season...

I've been enjoying my frequent walks. Not the trudging through snow and ice part--the temperatures haven't gone above freezing for the past month now--but the twice-daily segments of quiet, alone time. I've listened my way through all of the Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog podcasts and am now listening to the Momotics radio shows. Today I heard Dr. Stuart Fischbein discuss VBAC and preventing cesarean sections.

I really, really want to finish our bathroom renovation before Eric starts teaching again in mid-January. This baby could realistically come any time in February (although I'm not holding my breath for the first two weeks of that month) and I want to have a totally finished bathroom ready for when the baby arrives. Not to mention a jacuzzi tub to relax in while I'm still pregnant!

I still feel like I haven't given this pregnancy/baby enough attention, but what can you do with two little children and normal life to live? I just converted my Hypnobabies CDs to mp3s and am uploading them onto my mp3 player as I type. Listening every evening will give me more time to focus on this new baby (if I can actually stay awake!).

Speaking of sleeping...it's been a real challenge. Last week I had two nights in a row where I woke up in the middle of the night--4 am the first night and 2 am the next--and simply couldn't get back to sleep. At all. Despite having taken a Unisom both nights. This has happened on and off during this pregnancy (but never before). I was desperate after the second night of very little sleep: sobbing over my breakfast cereal, crying inconsolably at night when I was trying to sleep. Zari was quite disturbed. It's not like me at all. I mean, I didn't cry at my wedding or even when my kids were born. So it's really, really serious when I start randomly sobbing all over the place.

Thankfully I've been sleeping better since those two horrible nights. As an experiment, Eric started sleeping upstairs in the spare bed in Zari's room. Wow--what an amazing difference that made! He is a really restless sleeper starting around 4 am. Every time he rolls over or pulls on the blankets (often every 10-15 minutes), I wake up. And then I'm so uncomfortable with the aching pressure points on my hips that I have to move around and fluff up my pillows and roll to the other side. With Eric gone, I sleep almost as well the second half of the night as the first half. So I don't think he'll be sleeping in our bed until the baby is born. Sad but true--my sleep takes first priority.

Belly pictures coming tomorrow!