Baby’s Coming Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is D-day for baby boy Ballast #2!!!  Time went by so quickly; I cannot believe nine months went by like a finger snap.  Tomorrow, May 16, baby boy Ballast #2 will be exactly 38 weeks old in my tummy.

For the most part, this pregnancy has been uneventful except for two things.  The first one was starting on a weekly progesterone shot at 20 weeks and the second one was getting a gestational diabetes diagnoses at 24 weeks.  The progesterone shot was a precautionary measure against pre-term labor.  Believe it or not, when Paul was 33 weeks in-utero and I’ve gone to the doctor for my regular check-up, I was laboring with contractions 3-5 minutes apart but not even feeling any of it.  So the doctor sent me to the hospital where I spent a weekend resting and getting loads of powerful meds to stop the contractions as well as speed up the growth of Paul’s lungs in case my body decided to push through with delivering a baby.  Thankfully, within 24 hours, my contractions were almost gone and I was ordered on bed rest for two weeks after dismissal from the hospital.

This time, my doctor wanted to make baby stays in my womb for as long as he needs to finish growing; hence, the progesterone shots.  I’ll spare you the details but I’ll tell you this much: for one like me who thinks I have such a high pain tolerance level, some of those shots I got were just downright painful!  And it’s largely due to the humongous size of the needle I got poked with – every…single…time.  Not to mention that the medicine itself if as thick as oil, literally sesame oil!  Anyways, I was glad when week 35 came along and I bid adieu to that medicine.

As for my gestational diabetes (GD) diagnoses…well, I did not expect that at all.  I didn’t have it with Paul so it came as a surprise when I failed both my one-hour and two-hour tests.  For a staunch rice-eater, this was not welcome news for me at all!  But on to learning, it is.  I took a GD class where the educators essentially taught us how to monitor our carb intake based on a recommended diet that’s meant to help lower our glucose levels.  I pricked my little fingers four times a day to measure my blood sugar levels, logged every single thing I ate with the exact carb servings, and studied and adjusted food choices for better and lower blood sugar reading results.  It was a daunting task at first but I think that was mostly due to denial on my part that I cannot anymore consume as much rice and bread and pasta as my heart so desired.  Once I got over that mental hurdle, picking foods and limiting my carb servings to the recommended amount was not a big deal anymore.  My after-meal readings were consistently normal but my fasting readings were still 10-20 points higher than normal.  My doctor put me on two medications that helped significantly lower my fasting levels and in a few days.  I am looking forward to retiring the blood sugar monitoring in less than 24 hours!

The good news is that I’ve learned and relearned better and healthier ways of eating just enough carbs that my body needs.  Truth be told, after my first trimester of eating nothing but crackers and broth, I craved and cooked my favorite Filipino snack of all time – guinataan tambo-tambong.  That’s an exotic word for sticky rice balls with tapioca pearls, bananas, jack fruit and four types of root crops – sweet potatoes, purple yams, Japanese sweet potatoes, and taro root – all cooked in sweetened coconut milk.  Right there is carb fest for ya!  And I ate a bowful of that thing for breakfast, morning snack, lunch, and nighttime snack on top of regular meals with rice for the whole month of January!  Okay, that’s an exaggeration but I ate a lot, to be sure!  I don’t think this is why I got GD – but I think my risk factors were pretty high, especially after discovering that it runs in the family.  I now have, under my belt, 12 weeks of healthy eating practice and it’s been quite literally good for me.  My weight gain was kept at only 27 pounds with Baby #2 as opposed to 40 lbs. previously with Paul.  Most of my current weight gain went to the bump and baby and I’m not as bloated rolly-polly all around.  I intend to keep this way of eating post-delivery, though I’ll be first to admit, I want that big bowl of spaghetti with my own Filipino sauce in the freezer already waiting to be thawed and used as soon as I get the go-ahead to eat a full meal.

I’ve heard it said that having GD could be a blessing in disguise in that one can adjust and make lifestyle changes post-pregnancy to keep oneself from the onset of adult Type 2 diabetes, which, apparently is the case with 65% of women diagnosed with GD during pregnancy five to ten years after initial GD diagnoses.  That’s not something I want to have in my future so prevention is what I am aiming for at this point in my life.

And how about Paul’s reaction to all these changes ahead?  To say that he is excited to be a big brother is an understatement!!!  He CANNOT wait to meet his little brother!  Everyday, without fail, he sings to baby, talks to him, and he rubs my belly every five minutes.  For the last three weeks he’s been saying, “I wish baby is here already!”  I’ve loved watching him love on his little brother and affectionately say, “I love you, baby” to my tummy, to which he, assuming baby’s voice, responds by saying, “I love you too, Kuya (Filipino word for big brother)!”

We’ve had some very interesting conversations about how baby came to be in my tummy.  At the beginning of the pregnancy, this exchange happened quite often:

P: Mommy, how did baby get in your tummy?
Me: Well, we prayed to God and asked that He give us another baby, if He wanted that to happen for us. And he did.
P: But how did baby get in your tummy?
Me:  Baby started as a teeny tiny speck in my belly and then he grew and grew and grew.
P: Ya, but how did that little dot get in your tummy?

Yada…yada…yada…

Recently, our conversation went like this:

P: Mommy, do boys have babies too?
Me: Nope, just the girls. 
P: Oh, just girls like you?
Me: Yes.  Mommy is a girl and I married Daddy, who is a boy.  Mommy and Daddy love each other and we asked God to give us a baby and He did.
P: Oh, I get it!  Here’s how it happens.  When a boy and a girl get married, God put a baby in the girl’s mouth and then it grows into a baby in the girl’s belly!

Yada…yada…yada…

We have brought Paul to at least three of the ultrasound appointments for baby and he has seen baby do his thing in my belly through the tv screen.  He still talks about how baby winked at him one time.  Baby really was opening and closing his eyes – a fascinating thing to witness even for both Hubby and me.  Then he remembers baby giving big brother a flying kiss – baby has, in fact, puckered his lips while his one hand was moving quick from one end of the screen to the other in front of his face.  Paul never fails to mention those two images when folks ask him about his baby brother.

As for the baby’s name…well, tomorrow you will know.  I tell you, though, choosing a name this time around was not easy.  We knew right away with Paul that we wanted him called that name but with Baby #2, we couldn’t decide for two to three months if the name we picked was “it.”  But we do now have one picked; we’re just not telling yet.  We even let Paul in on the secret just three weeks ago but we told him it’s our little family secret for now.  I feel bad putting that burden on a four-year-old but to our surprise, he has shown quite the maturity to keeping a secret.  There were at least three instances with me present when folks asked about baby’s name and Paul was quick to say, “We can’t tell because it’s a surprise!”  He mentioned once that one of his teachers had asked about baby’s name but he didn’t tell his teacher because “it’s a surprise!”

I asked him yesterday morning what he is most excited about when baby comes out in just two more days and he said, “seeing him!”  I asked him this morning if he’s excited to meet baby tomorrow and he said, “I am VERY excited!”

Well, like Paul, I can’t wait to meet our new little man in a couple more hours!!  Do pray for a safe c-section delivery tomorrow and for enough strength and health for the whole family!