He or She Guessing Tactics

Mom has had an inexplicable feeling for some time now that Bif is a boy - a sentiment shared by both Grandma R. and Grandma Jane. But each day brings more uncertainty on that instinctual feeling. Take, for example, this "published" list of ways to help solidify guesses at Bif's gender:

• you didn't experience morning sickness in early pregnancy - AHH, NO
• your baby's heart rate is less than 140 bpm - YES, EXCEPT AFTER MOM SNEEZES
• you are carrying the extra weight out front - OH YAH
• your belly looks like a basketball rather than a watermelon - NO
• you are carrying low - YES
• you are craving salty and sour foods - NO
• you are craving protein (meats and cheese) - NO, UNLESS MILK COUNTS, BUT AS I NOW KNOW MILK is BOTH a PROTEIN and a CARB
• your feet are colder than they were before pregnancy - NO
• your leg hair grew faster during pregnancy - YES
• your hands are very dry - NO
• your pillow faces North, rather than South, when you sleep - a) WHAT's a NORTH-FACING PILLOW? b) WHAT IF YOUR PILLOW FACES EAST or WEST????
• Dad is gaining weight right along with you - NO
• pregnancy has you looking better than ever - OK
• your urine is dark (rather than light) yellow - NEITHER - THEY'RE FORGETTING ABOUT WHAT INTERESTING COLOURS ONE GETS WHEN ON IRON SUPPLEMENTS
• your nose is spreading - THANK GOODNESS, NO
• you hang your wedding ring over your belly and it moves in circles, rather than from side to side - YES, BUT THERE WAS A WIND WARNING ISSUED AT THE TIME HERE IN BC
• you are having headaches - NO
• you add your age at the time of conception and the number for the month you conceived and the sum is an even number - YES

So, the tally is 7 YESs and 9 NOs. Therefore its a girl? To add fuel to that fire, according to the Chinese Gender Chart (http://mypage.direct.ca/j/jfeng/gender.htm), Bif is a girl. Although I do take statistical issue (i.e., binomial distribution) with the fact that, for example, all babies born to Moms who were 21 at the time of a Feb through Dec conception were girls. Furthermore, as Dad says, each item in the list above is probably correct 50% of the time.

New Full-Time Job - For Real

Dad's strategy of requesting a french immersion placement for his last B.Ed. practicum paid off. Here's how things have transpired since his graduation (ooh, opportunity for another photo) last Friday:

• Friday (of graduation), Dad sees a job posting (in fact, the only current posting District-wide) for a full-time replacement french immersion Grade 5/6 class
• Monday, Dad drops off his application at the school district office
• Wednesday (10am), Dad gets a call from the school principal for an interview request
• Wednesday (2pm), Dad goes to interview
• Wednesday (5:05pm), Dad gets offered the job
• Wednesday (5:05:01pm), Dad accepts offer
• Thursday (8am), Dad starts work

Seems the ~$1000 Nikon camera that Dad has been eyeing for over a year now will be purchased in time for Bif's Birth.

Towards Two Incomes

Inclement weather got in the way of a complete Bif Day last week (see previous post); prenatal class was cancelled. Back to School Part 6 will have to wait until the New Year. Also on Bif Day last week, Mom had another severe attack of Pregnancy Brain - a story worth telling. We'll start with that and get it out of the way....

Mom agreed to sub as a cellist in a string trio for a musician friend's father's funeral at 1pm on Bif Day. Mom was dropped off at St. Andrews United at 12:50pm, at which time large wet snow had started to fall. When she couldn't get in the church, she knew something was wrong. The Nice Lady in the church office phoned St. Andrews Presbyterian to confirm that there was a 1pm funeral there. Mom did not have a car, and the correct church was on the other side of town. Nice Lady turned nicer by offering to give dripping wet Mom, cello, and stand a ride to the correct church. By this time, the slippery snow had accumulated enough that a regular 15-minute trip now took 30. We arrived half way through the Eulogy, with enough time to lower the blood pressure before taking stage to honour a very accomplished Doctor and Mathematician. Phew!

After this rather stressful event, ever etched in memory by some wacky blood glucose records, Bif, Dad, Mom, and Grandma Jane went to our midwife appointment. Since our regular midwife was otherwise occupied, we got to officially introduce ourselves to the partner midwife, who was great. The appointment was long because we came armed with a long list of questions, mostly regarding gestational diabetes. Although labour/delivery will be slightly more complicated (more monitoring required), this condition doesn't preclude future midwifery care for Bif unless the insulin stage is reached. It also doesn't relegate us to OB-care for a future pregnancy. All good things to hear. So, again, was Bif's heartbeat.

The next day, Bif proudly attended Convocation, where Dad received his Bachelor of Education degree. Mom, Grandma Jane, Grandma R. and Opa were there to celebrate with us. Here is a photo taken Friday Dec 15th after the ceremony. Three business days since graduation, and Dad has already received a call for an interview for a full-time teaching job. Way to go, Dad!

New Job Update

Mom, Dad, and Grandma Jane met with the Diabetes Nurse and Dietician today for a one-week follow-up appointment. After reviewing diet and blood glucose records, they had some very encouraging words to say. In general, they were more concerned with the too-low numbers than the too-high numbers. So Mom celebrated with a ting-a-ling. She will, however, need to continue monitoring blood sugar values 7 times per day for another week. If all seems well thereafter, the 7 tests/day turn into 7 tests every other day. Just in time for Xmas :-)

Bif Day continues. The three of us are off to our midwife appointment, followed by prenatal class.

Back to School - Part 5 of 6

"Disturbing" was the word Dad used, after sleeping on it, to describe yesterday's prenatal class on Medical Options. Judging by fellow classmates' facial expressions, that would be a good descriptor for it. It's quite easy to hear the words "epidural" or "forceps" or "C-section" or "induction" as descriptors in birth stories you may have been lucky (>ahem<) to hear from friends/family. It is a step up to read about them. But wow, is it ever a few steps up to *see* the materials they use for these procedures! Especially that balloon catheter...and this being a family-rated blog, that is all we'll say. Of course, we recognize it is much better for the pysche to see these instruments now rather than when in actual labour (particularly for Dad - Mom probably won't care too much at the time). On the pleasantness scale, next week's topic is quite the other extreme: "Your Newborn."

New Full-Time Job

Mom and Dad went to the diabetes clinic yesterday. First we saw the nurse, who gave us a tutorial in how to monitor blood glucose levels. Mom will have to test and record the values seven (!) times per day. (For some reason, the thought of getting a needle to the back, i.e., epidural, is not nearly as scary as it used to be...) She will also need to exercise after every meal. After a roughly 30 minute visit to the nurse, we saw the dietician, who reviewed Mom's food diary from the past few days and made some suggested changes. It's of course very much like a diet of someone with Type II, except there's an objective to gain weight hence the 6 meals per day.

This whole situation has prompted a couple other things to happen, besides a general improvement to both Mom and Dad's diet. Firstly, Grandma Jane will be modifying her ting-a-ling recipe this Christmas to beef up the peanut content and exlude the corn flakes in favour of bran flakes. Secondly, Mom contacted her Benefits expert at work. Not only are all the diabetes necessities (strips, needles, ketone strips) covered by work benefits, but so is a private postpartum room at the hospital.

Mom and Dad will go back to the clinic next week for a one-week review of blood glucose levels. If all goes well, Mom can cut her tests down to four times per day. As the baby and placenta grow, Mom's pancreas gets less and less efficient at producing insulin. If a diet/exercise program continues to work well, insulin injections will not be needed (there are no approved oral med treatments for GDM). So there are several big incentives to make this work.

In the nurse's words, managing blood glucose levels is a full-time job. Mom does not really know how she could have possibly done this on top of her 14-hr work day. Yet another reason to be thankful for the recent end to the Fall semester, and a light Spring. That is not to say that Xmas is going to be easy. Those nanaimo bars, chocolates, egg nog, shortbread cookies, donuts, pakoras, chips, and cupcakes at yesterday's Faculty Christmas party *looked* really good. Although the thought of extra turkey with gravy doesn't sound so bad.

Type Two and a Half?

No easy way to say it; Mom failed the 3-hour test, making the diagnosis of gestational diabetes official. Apparently only 2%-4% of pregnancies have this complication, so Mom was a bit surprised given that she only matches 2 of the 6 high-risk categories. She has spent some time trying to do research on the topic, though there is a lot of conflicting information out there, as well as some controversies surrounding the tolerance testing procedure.

Some of the risks to Mom if left untreated: a long, difficult delivery of a big (>10 lb) baby, a C-section delivery, an early delivery, no Xmas cookies at all.

Some of the risks to Bif if left untreated: a premature birth, a long difficult birth, being born obese, a sugar crash shortly after birth, extended jaundice, respiratory distress syndrome, and a higher chance of developing Type II diabetes later in life.

Some comforting points: none of the above apply if the condition is treated with a blood sugar regulation program of some kind (i.e., diet/exercise or insulin); most treated GD women go on to have normal and healthy babies; Mom's blood sugar regulation mechanisms return to normal after the birth; there is nothing Mom could have done to predict/prevent this (it is a placental-hormone problem associated with uncontrollable high risk factors, like age, family history, ethnicity, etc.), thus self-criticism of diet, exercise, weight-gain, and work-stress up to this point in the pregnancy is a waste of time.

Now what? The midwife has referred Mom to a dietician who will develop a tailored meal plan, and a nurse who will go over the monitoring procedures. This appointment takes place tomorrow. In the meantime, no juice, pop, or sweets, or milk outside of meal time. Weight loss is not allowed. Eat 6 small balanced meals per day.

Back to School - Part 4 of 6

The lastest prenatal class was on Relaxation and Breathing, although there wasn't much content in the way of relaxation. In fact, Mom found the content of this class to mimic almost exactly what is in Chapter 8 of Pregnancy Childbirth and the Newborn by Simkin, Whalley, and Keppler. This is by far Mom's favourite pregnancy book, in that it does not talk down to the reader and it forgoes detail on the endless symptoms-by-trimester in favour of elaborative writings on the important stuff, like coping with childbirth pain.

In class, after watching a video on methods for coping with back labour, each couple learned and practiced the different types of breathing suggested for getting through the different levels of contractions. This was complete with props: ice-packs-between-hands to "simulate" less painful contractions and clothes-pins-on-ear-lobes to "simulate" the more painful ones. Mom was not good at distracting herself from the pain induced by the latter prop and therefore feels slightly less confident than before about getting through labour. Dad, on the other hand, was quite good at the breathing/distraction thing, leading Mom to decide that Dad should be the one to give birth. Anyway, perhaps next week's class on "Medical Options" will revive Mom's confidence a bit.