Seriously in love....

....this is the first time I've had an ultrasound past the 20 week mark and let me tell you, it was amazing!! We had an ultrasound this morning to check Claire's size and make sure there wasn't too much amniotic fluid in there. We did this mostly because I've elected not to check my sugar levels. I think I had a steady tear streaming down my cheek because I was just so overcome by the awesomeness of it. She's completely healthy. The tech got some really good profile shots and also a shot of Claire's little girl part. There is no mistaking that this is a little girl we're having, LOL!! Then she got a picture of her face. Oh my Lord. Absolutely amazing!! You could see that her little eyes were closed and her full little mouth!! And her cheeks are so chubby!! I am absolutely in love with this little girl!! It's amazing to see her at 31 weeks and know she's amazingly healthy!! The doctor called me back this afternoon to let me know that the ultrasound went awesome. She weighs 3lbs 14oz right now and she's in the 50-75th percentile as far as size goes!! YAY!! I think she'll be smaller than Libby!!! I was afraid I'd have a bigger baby this time since they say that's how it usually goes. Libby was 8lbs 10oz....I think Claire might not reach 8lbs. That's alright by me - as long as she's a healthy baby girl!! One more little tidbit...I've lost another 2 pounds. I'm only up by a pound now!!! Sheesh!! The doctor said she can tell I'm sticking with my low sugar/carb diet since I'm still losing. It's amazing the difference that it makes!! Oh well, she's not worried about it as long as Claire is still healthy!!

I have some serious scrapping to do this weekend!! Christy alone is putting out 3 kits this weekend!! Ayeyeye!! I'm ready to get my scrap on tonight!! Well, we're off to eat dinner now. More later!!

xoxo

FOBTY 10/9/2008

Your Ice Cream Personality:

You like to think of yourself as a fairly modest person. And it's true that you don't talk yourself up... but you're also pretty happy with who you are. You are incredibly cautious. You rather miss out on something than make a mistake. No one would ever call you wild... but they would call you responsible. You are a somewhat open minded person, but deep down you're fairly conservative. You don't like trying new things very much. And if you do find something new you like, you stick with it. You are a natural multitasker. You feel alive when you're doing more than one thing at a time. You can be a big dramatic and over the top sometimes. You are bold in every way

The Ice Cream Personality Test

It's all about stress (and non-stress) today!!

So that's kind of what today seemed to be about. To preface....Monday morning it was announced that Citigroup was going to buy the banking division of Wachovia Corp. Okay. The bank was in trouble, so that's good to get that liability off our hands. Well, trading on Wachovia's stock had to be halted because the price of the stock went under $1.00 a share!! Yikes!!! So the big concern all week has been are we going to be an independent brokerage firm or is someone else going to come along and buy us out? With the price of the stock so low, it would really only be a matter of time before someone snatched us up. So fast forward to this morning. We get to work and Nate calls and lets me know that the deal with Citi is off and that Wells Fargo is buying ALL of Wachovia Corp, including the securities side and Evergreen investments. They've made an agreement to keep the home office in St. Louis. That's awesome news. Wells Fargo is the only AAA rated bank (by Moody's and S&P) in the country. They're an awesome company and definitely a company I would be proud to work for. A couple of hours later we hear the deal is off and that Citi was going to contest this because Wachovia signed a loose agreement (not contract, mind you) that they wouldn't have any talks with any other outside parties. Apparently there's no "break-up" fee if they decided not to go with the deal. The FDIC says they're backing the Citi deal, yet they are also saying they're exploring all proposals. I think a lot of people are freaked out, but I'm still not. I really don't have any qualms about this whole thing going through because the FDIC is required by law to find the least costly resolution to taxpayers. The deal with Wells Fargo wouldn't require any backing by the FDIC, whereas with the Citi deal the FDIC would be responsible for anything that exceeds the 42 billions dollars in losses that Citi would absorb. That could be quite a chunk of change when you consider that Wachovia's loan portfolio is 312 billion dollars. I think it's a crappy deal because with the bailout plan being passed, Citi would be able to sell Wachovia's distressed mortgage-related assets to the government for a profit. So that's what it's all about. That's what it's always about - the money. What a bunch of bunk. Never did I think I would devote so much of a blog post to something I find so incredibly boring, but this is pretty huge and completely affects us since we both work for Wachovia. It just sucks being in limbo - knowing that we'll get bought out somehow, but not knowing by whom or what the conditions might be. Oh well. It does no good to worry about it. There's absolutely nothing we can do but hold on tight - it's gonna be a bumpy ride!! :)

Speaking of stress, I went for my first non stress test tonight. I had never had one before and it was a piece of cake. It's funny that the doctor's are so overreactive about the blood pressure thing because my second blood pressure reading tonight was 118/71. The nurse said that the doctor's there do have a tendency to make mountains out of molehills. I'll say!! She said a lot of times you might have a couple of high readings and that will earn you 2 NST's a week till you deliver!! Sheesh!! It was actually a pretty comforting thing though to be able to hear Claire's heartbeat for a good 20 minutes!! So calming!!

Well, not a whole lot else going on here. Since I got the NST out of the way tonight, we don't have to go tomorrow. YAY!! Anywho, this is a WAY boring entry, but that's okay - I'm entitled to those every now and then. Or always, LOL!! Just planning on scrapping and hanging out this weekend. YAY!! Oh and one more teensy tiny thing before I go....

It's NUCLEAR NOT NOOKYALER. Seriously!!! (okay, I feel better!!)

FOBTY 10/2/2008 and some new layouts!!

Today's FOBTY is all about favorite fast foods. I have to say that currently my most favorite fast food is Taco Bell. I have been craving it like crazy lately!! I am having nachos from there tonight. This will be the second time this week. What can I say? Sometimes you have cravings and you just have to give in!! :)

Well Libby decided she wants to watch Veggie Tales, so that gives me a few minutes to show off my latest layouts!! :)

First of all, let me just start by saying that YAY!! It's October!! What a great month!! Nate and I will be married 5 years on the 17th!! I can't believe it's been that long already!! It's been 5 wonderfully amazing years with him!!

Second, I am guesting for Lauren Grier this month!! I just love her and her funky style, so this is exciting!! I'm also still guesting for Kay Miller this month. It is going to be so hard to say goodbye to her team!! I have LOVED creating for her this past month!! She's amazing!!

Third, I have a new creative team!! Long story short, miss Robin Carlton has been very busy with running the Sweet Shoppe that she hasn't felt like she's been able to devote to us the kind of time she thinks her team deserves, so she and Manda have merged their teams. It's a SUPER bonus for all of us girls because now we all get to play with both designer's creations!! I am very excited about this and feel SO extremely lucky to be a part of this!!

So here are the latest pages I've done!!

The first is using Kristin CB and Manda Bean's Foodies!!


Next using Kristin CB's Goody Two Shoes:


Using Christy and Susan's I Want to Be:


Using Robin and Zoe's A Little Bit Flirty:


Using Heather Roselli's Cat's Meow:


Using Lauren Grier's And I Love You:


Using Kay Miller's Miami Pink:


Using Sara Amarie's Sweet Silly Monkey:


Using Kay Miller's Hey Girlfriends:


Using Manda Bean and Dani's A Very Merry Unbirthday:


And one final page using Gina's new Halloween kit, Hocus Pocus!! :)


Phew!!! That's a lot of layouts!! Well, time for me to get going. It's almost Friday and I'm THRILLED!!! So ready for the weekend!! I have my first Non Stress Test this weekend. Yippee Skippy!! Shouldn't be too bad though - I just have to sit there. Alright, Happy Thursday to ya and have fun watching the Vice Presidential debates if that's what your evening includes. :)

Oh. My. Word.

I just don't know what else to say!!! What is a girl to do?? The new releases at the Sweet Shoppe are positively gorgeous this week!! I am SO lucky to get to play with so many of them for my CTs!! All I want to do now is just sit and scrap. Too bad we have such a busy day planned. First we have my doctor's appointment - oh joy!! Then we're picking up the Libster and then going to Belleville to the eye doctor to pick out Nate's new glasses. We'll get to see my mom while we're there so that's a good thing!! Then we're off to Circuit City (or Walmart or some place like that) to get a cooling pad for my laptop. It has been running so hot lately and it worries me. I've had lots of people recommend getting a cooling pad, so that's exactly what I'm going to do!! Then we have to go pick up some pictures that I had printed. My new cube at work is HUGE now and I have really tall walls, so more room for more pictures!! :) I think I'm really going to end up liking this new cube. Well at least for the next 2 months or so, lol. Then I'll hardly see it at all!! Anywho, that's our day in a nutshell. It will be nice to just hang out tonight and tomorrow. I have a feeling Nate will be doing a lot of studying since he has his insurance and annuities exam on Tuesday.

Speaking of work, I just read an article on CNN.com about Wachovia. Lovely. I have no idea what this means for Wachovia Securities if Wachovia Bank goes through a merger. I really prefer not to think about it now. There's just so much bad stuff going on right now in the economy that it's scary to think about.

I watched the Presidential debate last night. I'm not big on foreign policy - don't know much about it, so it wasn't too easy to keep my attention focused on the debate. I wasn't all that impressed with either side to be honest. It didn't make me feel any more strongly about McCain and it didn't make me feel any less strongly about Obama. But really, nothing is going to change the fact that I'm voting for McCain. I don't necessarily agree with both parties on a lot of issues, so I'm letting my social beliefs do the deciding for me. All I know is I'm already really tired of hearing all of the political talk and there is still what - 38 or 39 days left till the election? Oy vey!!

Okay now on to the fun stuff!! Sweet Shoppe Saturday!!!! Just check out what I've gotten from my CTs this week. We'll start with Libby's new kit Ghouls Just Want to Have Fun. It's actually a girly-ish Halloween kit!! There are never any Halloween kits with pink in them and this one is perfect!!

I just love the name of the kit too - too funny!! Here's the page I did with it last night (the only page I got done last night!!)

Isn't the picture adorable?? I can't believe it was taken nearly 2 years ago. I just want to eat those cheeks up!!!

Next up we have a new collab from Zoe and Robin!! This the first time they've done a collab, and I think they need to think about doing another one!! I just LOVE how this one turned out!!

Moving on....Christy teamed up with ScrapKitchen Designs this week to bring another bright and funky kit:

(I'm kind of hurrying through these now because Claire Bear is kicking me like crazy - I think it's time for breakfast)

Next we have an absolutely GORGEOUS new kit from Kay. My jaw dropped when I saw the preview a few days ago and I've been itching to scrap with it!!

Gosh, I just love that kit!! *sigh*

Finally, Kristin CB was busy this week working on a fun collab with Manda Bean. Check out this cuteness!!

And then she put out a jaw-droppingly gorgeous kit!! I'm itching to play with this one too!!

Wow. I love it when my designers do girly kits!! :) I'm in Hog Heaven this week!!

Okay, stomach is growling now, I have to wrap this up!! Have a wonderful Saturday!! :)

xoxo

What's been going on this week.

So I have been very quiet lately and there's a pretty good reason for it. I ended up taking my 3 hour glucose test on Monday. I will preface by saying that nothing makes me more nervous than having blood drawn. I hate needles, I hate blood. Yuck. Enough said. I was already extremely apprehensive about this test because I had to take it twice during my pregnancy with Libby. The first time I took it, I threw up before the last blood draw. I ended up passing with one number elevated. So I have been doing SO much research on the subject of GD and the treatment of GD. I have been really watching what I've been eating. The morning of the test, I was a bit difficult. I tried to remain optimistic, but it's hard when you know that you're doing something that could potentially make you sick and to know you're going to be poked like a pin cushion. I got a call from the doctor's office on Wednesday. The nurse told me that the doctor said that my numbers are too high and that I have GD. What?? I was truly shocked. My fasting number was elevated and the 3 hour draw was 143 and they wanted it to be under 140. I'm sorry, that means that I have GD???? I find it hard to believe that there is no room to bend a little bit. The doctor wasn't even going to talk to me about it. You know what's worse? I had to ask them for my numbers. She wasn't even going to tell me. She just told me that I had it and that a dietician and diabetic educator would be calling me to schedule a meeting time. Talk about being upset. So I am just supposed to be a compliant "sheep" and say 'okay'??? Sorry, that's not how I work. I had no idea how quickly the dietitian would call me. She said that they had an appointment opening at 9 am the next day. I told her that I was still reeling from the news and that there was no way I was going to be able to make it in on such short notice. She said that the doctors like us to go in as soon as possible to get the treatment started. I'm sorry. Us? I guess I'm being lumped in with all other people with GD regardless of the severity of it. So my doctor didn't even bother to discuss this with me. That doesn't set well with me. I don't like doctor's who make you feel like you're constantly doing something wrong. I have felt like this the entire pregnancy. Let me start by saying that I am not one of those people who can't talk myself down from stress. I dealt with unusually high blood pressure readings in the beginning of this pregnancy. Mostly because this was a new doctor's office and I didn't know the doctors - it was just an unusual situation for me. So the more comfortable I got the better my readings were. Well when I was 14 weeks, another one of the doctors told me that she was going to label me as chronic hypertension. The only time I have had blood pressure problems was when I had just had Libby. My blood pressure got very high, but it went away about 10-12 weeks after I had her. No biggie. That's something that can happen post partum. I was extremely upset that she labeled me as such, when I had never been to this office before. How would she even know if I had blood pressure problems or not?? So she told me that at 28 weeks I would have to start doing NSTs twice a week. Well I'm now 29 weeks and I have yet to have one because my readings have been okay. They're going to check again tomorrow and probably start those soon. They said that my pressure is still too high for this point in my pregnancy. Whatever. I have also been questioned by another one of the doctors there as to why I'm not gaining weight. I've gained a total of 4 pounds this pregnancy. I am eating, not feeling sick. I can't explain it. I haven't been eating lots of sweets and I've cut out most sugar, so that could be a huge reason. So it seems that no matter what, they're always scrutinizing me and I feel like I can't do things right. So naturally, all of these events this week have made me feel even worse. It is just so hard to believe that they're not even willing to talk to me about my options. The dietitian told me that I would have to come up with a meal plan and begin pricking my finger 4 times a day to keep my GD in check. I find this to be unacceptable. If I am just borderline GD, then I will NOT be pricking my finger 4 times a day. I think the psychological side effects would be far worse for both Claire and myself if I did go along and do exactly what they're wanting me to do. Nate and I have done our research and we both feel that it's best that I just choose a diet and exercise plan that keep my numbers in check. I don't feel like they have my best interest in mind. I think that a lot of it is the fact that the hospital is a business. My doctors sending me to a dietitian and a diabetic educator gives the hospital business. They're making money off of me. I have also read about doctors that prefer women to have smaller babies. I think that's another thing. It's easier for them if I give birth to a baby that's smaller. I'm sorry, but Libby was 8lbs 10oz and she and I are both perfectly healthy. She did have jaundice, but a huge part of that had to do with our blood types conflicting. I think they called it Coombs? I can't remember. Anywho. Yes, I have done my research. I think that God is watching over us and I truly don't feel this particular medical intervention to be necessary. I have a doctor's appointment in the morning and we plan on laying it all our for her there. I know they won't be happy with my decision, but it's my body, it's my life and my pregnancy. I am in charge here and I will decide what is best for my baby and me. I don't feel like this added strain is what is best for either of us. I even read that with the finger prick, that the blood sugar level results can be off sometimes by as much as 10 points. I will not sit there and be stressed out all the time wondering if the testing is truly accurate. I have read articles written from relatively impartial points of view and also written from very partial points of view. It's all about scaring you into listening to and doing absolutely everything your doctor says. Doctor's are human, they make mistakes. The GTT is widely criticized anyway because it's so inaccurate. There are so many different factors involved. So many different scales used. I plan on using my better judgment here. It's a decision that Nate and I have talked at great lengths about. As Claire's parents we feel that not doing the treatment of something so borderline is the best option. Now if my numbers had been at least 8-10 points above where they should be then I would definitely consider treatment, but when I know that stress can affect these results, I am not going to let myself get freaked out. I will not let these doctors push me around. I have changed my diet. I will be changing it even more by adding more protein. I will begin exercising to help with my blood sugar levels. Exercise can work wonders for that. Like I said, I feel that God is truly watching over us and we'll know if we need to make changes. I know this is long, but I have SO much to say about this subject. It has been on my mind constantly and it's time that I get it off my chest and here on my blog. Tomorrow's appointment will be over soon enough and I'll feel much better. I think my biggest fear is them thinking that I am being a careless mother. That is definitely not the case. If I didn't care, I wouldn't be researching the subject so extensively. I know they won't be happy with me, but you know what? I'm not all that happy with them either, so I guess we'll call it Even Stevens. :)

Not much else to report here. Nate and I got to leave work about 45 minutes early today because it was moving day for some of us in my department. They told us that when the IT people came around and told us to start shutting our machines down, there was no reason for us to be there anymore. Cool!! So at 3:15 they came around and we were gone!!

I have so many scrap pages to share that I haven't lately, but that will have to wait till another day. I do have to say that I am LOVING what my CTs are putting out this week!! Wowza!! How lucky am I???

Well, Nate's going to be home soon. He had to help his buddy move a little bit of furniture. Nate's mom and dad are keeping Libby tonight since we're not bringing her to the appointment with us tomorrow. I am going to scrap and watch the Presidential debate. Then Nate and I will just be hanging out the rest of the evening. And I'm out. :)

FOBTY 9/25/2008

84 words

Speedtest