18th September 2008

This is No Bun - This is a Slow Roasting Turkey in the Oven 1 reply

It’s 6:37 a.m. EST - and I’m up in the nursery.  Lucky, the dog, is underneath the daybed - kinda funny to watch her tunnel under the daybed as she isn’t exactly small.  I’m hungry but I can’t eat anything.  Today, this morning, I have a glucose test - which is a regularly scheduled test for gestational diabetes.  I’ve been a little nervous about gestational diabetes, and while my last weigh-in showed I had only gained 17 pounds during pregnancy, which was at 6 1/2 months, I’m feeling quite big in the past two weeks.  Any time I have a test, I worry for a week prior to the test about the results.  Most of the time, the results overcome any worries I have had and I wonder why I get so worked up about some of these things.

People ask me how I feel - and I can say that I’m feeling big.  Sometimes, a little out of sorts.  A friend of mine told me the other day that he ate an entire box of chocolate donuts and he wasn’t feeling so great.  I hadn’t eaten in a few hours, and I told him, no more like guaranteed him, that my stomach was still bigger than his, no matter what.  In the past week or so, I feel like it’s taking more energy to do things, simple things at times.  It is true that at 29 gestational weeks of pregnancy, Melina girl is 15 inches or so, and that’s alot to have in your belly.  For most of you who have laptops, imagine a laptop in your tummy.  That might be a little uncomfortable, yes?  

At night, turning over from side to side is no longer a simple roll-over.  You can’t lay on your back when you’re pregnant, as it can cut air supply to the baby and cause your own blood pressure to drop.  You of course can’t lay on your tummy.  You can lay on either side, but as your belly grows, that’s a lot of pressure that you put on your side joints (hips, shoulders, and everything else in between).  You become uncomfortable often.  In fact, a pregnant masseuse I went to in Salt Lake City said as I was getting a massage, said it’s okay if you are comfortable for a minute, and then a minute later need to change positions because that dream position is no longer comfortable. 

So, I’ve equated my sleeping disposition to feeling like a slow-roasting turkey in the oven.  Forget the old saying ‘ you’ve got a bun in the oven!  That’s true, but for the first or second trimester, you feel that way - little baby bump - all cute and all.  Then, in the third trimester, you begin to feel more like you have a truck in the oven, - oh n0, I meant, a turkey in the oven.  LOL.

Turkey sounds better, right?

Laptop, turkey, truck - what’s the difference?

Little Melina - well she is moving often.  When I went to Salt Lake City for a consulting project at the end of August, she began to move a lot.  I thought she was in trouble.  My wonderful sister-in-law, Lilly advised me to check my blood pressure and said it would be an indicator of whether other things were in trouble.  My blood pressure was just fine.  I learned that week, in retrospect, after reading The Pregnancy Journal, that Melina should be moving a lot around the hours of 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.  She likes to move most when I’m sitting in a slightly reclined position, with legs out in front of me. 

People ask me if it hurts when she kicks or moves.  Not yet, I can say that.  If you want to know more about what it feels like when a baby moves inside of you?  Well, sorry for those I might offend here, but you read this far down so it’s your own fault.  It feels like a little silent toot - ya know - like a little “toot, toot” inside your belly.  I get a tickle out of it, because it’s like my belly is “far-t-ing”.   Sometimes, when she moves a lot or stretches out up to my rib cage, after eating something delicious, I just have to laugh at her movement.  It’s a good feeling.  How people say that they didn’t know they were pregnant and delivered a baby in the bathroom kinda thing - ya know, you hear those stories once a year or so  - they are lying!  ;-)

I can tell when I turn over to baste my turkey, at night, about every 30-45 minutes, that sometimes Melina is not happy with my turn.  I’ve been typically very comfortable on the right side, despite the fact that left-side lying is better for blood flow to the baby because of the vena cava vein ( I think ).  But I also know that Melina has something rather hard on the right side of my uterus, perhaps her head?, and sometimes that shift does not do something right for her, as we progress into the 8th month of pregnancy.

Anyway, I have more to write about my wonderful baby shower that my friends and I had back on the 7th of September.  More on that to come.

3rd September 2008

Pitbull Palin Packs Powerful Punch as GOP VP Candidate Tonight 3 replies

Wow! Holy cannolis! Did you get the privilege of watching GOP VP Candidate, Sarah Palin, on TV tonight?

Sarah Palin Addresses GOP Convention Tonight
Courtesy: Cnn.com

I wanted to watch this woman, as a maverick, as a mom to be, as a hard-hitting, tough cookie to see what she had to say. I did not know much about her, other than the skeletons in the closet that the media made her out to have. She didn’t sidestep any media issue brought up (her family, her accomplishments, who she might have alienated in her goals to have a slimmer government budget), or her goals in laying pipeline for natural gas. She clearly addressed each issue with a feisty tone in her voice, looked straight into the camera, and fought back.

I imagine there were a few unsettled stomachs in the audience as she held nothing back. I imagine there are certainly more than just a few people she continues to piss off - as most mavericks do just that. Ew - can you imagine the Democratic fever tonight to fight back? Ouch. I imagine there are some special interest groups that don’t care for her either. Ouch. But mavericks and change leaders often get things done, despite having a few people along the way that don’t care for them. It takes a lot of energy to be a maverick. It takes courage, chutzpah, risk, and the willingness to stand alone on a topic at times. But if the end result is achieved and it serves “the greater good”, then a maverick might think it was worth it, as others might in the long run.

I have one issue to bring up though - her energy and environmental statements. I’ll gladly hear why we should do more with natural gas, but nuclear, drilling for oil, and clean coal? Clean coal? Is there such a thing? Wind and solar power needs to be addressed more clearly, more rapidly as clean solutions. What are you planning to do? Drill into wildlife reserves, at what risks, at what environmental cost? I’m not sure I like rhetoric about environment, but I’d like to know specifically what McCain/Palin plan to do with drilling, natural gas, and cleaner solutions for producing energy - and I’m not convinced AEP.com (my former employer where I tested positive for morphine from eating poppy seed bread back in 1996 and lost my job, regained it, only to lose it again on another odd un-founded charge) can produce clean energy in the near future. I have seen AEP in the news recently with respect to the energy crisis, and producing clean energy and whether or not wind power can be distributed.

I want to know more about these issues - but I do appreciate a smart, talented, well-spoken, feisty woman who chooses to charge through public service which can’t be easy to say the least. I was undecided until tonight, but I’ve edged closer to McCain/Palin as a result of this woman’s speech. I’m not there yet, but closer. You still have to prove some environmental concerns to me, and we have to know more about Iraq and what we plan to do there - but I’m anxious to learn more. Thanks, Gov. Palin, GOP VP Candidate for adding some tangible excitement to this race. Last night’s convention coverage was a bore - but tonight - wow - you packed it in - and all I can say to that, is “Go Get ‘Em Girl!”