I was "sugar and spice and everything nice" until...

...I received my first glucose screening test results on Wednesday, which showed that I was "abnormal" and had an elevated glucose level. Goodbye waffles, potatoes, milkshakes, and cravings. Today I took a three-hour glucose tolerance test, which is a test administered to determine if you have type 2 diabetes or gestational diabetes. After reading several articles, I learned that I have a predisposition for gestational diabetes because my family members had type 2 diabetes and I'm Asian. I will find out the test results sometime next week. It's frustrating to receive this news since I had only gained three pounds, or one pound per week, in the last three weeks, and I have continued to exercise regularly. Somewhere online I read that if I have gestational diabetes, I have a 50% chance of developing type 2 diabetes later on...just great. I should just be really thinking about baby's health, I know. If you're a thin, fit person (except for being pregnant now) like me and wondering why you might be pre-diabetic, you can click on this article. To send you off in a better mood, just imagine Mary Lagdameo carrying a 13-lb baby and click on this article

28 weeks!

We did it, baby and I are into our 3rd trimester! Yesterday after Mass, Paul and I ate at the Ye Old Waffle Shop in Chapel Hill. After a day of yoga and detox, I was hungry for some carbohydrates! I had a lazy Sunday and spent my time selecting photos from our baby shower and weekend trips to print before baby arrives. I hope I can keep up with printing photos since I know that these keepsakes will last a lifetime. My best bud, Julianna, who spent her summer in Mongolia, called in the evening to catch up. The pic of her & me was taken in an apple orchard in MN, 2012.

Yoga mama

Today is around the 6th year anniversary of the opening of Franklin Street Yoga. Lori, the owner, taught 14 of the 20 classes when she opened the studio; she now teaches 6 of 30+ classes, such an inspiration to start your own business and become successful! After my class this morning, she offered fresh fruit and cupcakes to her students! Hope baby didn't get too tied up in there, or should I say 'tired out'?

Don't drink the water...

if you live in Baity Hill and do not want to have kids. Last night, Paul and I volunteered in a "Playing Out" event in our university housing neighborhood, Baity Hill. Paul donned a bright orange vest and assisted with re-routing traffic away from the designated play area, while I handed out bags of popcorn to babies, kids and adults (who doesn't love freshly popped popcorn?). While chatting with another volunteer, he mentioned that if you lived at Baity Hill and were thinking about having kids, you'd have them-- it's "in the water." I couldn't believe the sheer number of babies and kids at the event and introduced myself to a few parents, who were all excited for our pregnancy. From bubbles to balls to bicycles, our little one will have plenty of activities and kids to play with at Baity Hill!

Typing is easier than handwriting

My husband mentioned a few months ago that students can barely write in cursive anymore. I tried to handwrite my experiences as a first-time pregnant women in a journal he gave me, but I no longer have the hand strength to continue. At least I have a few pages of reflections in cursive that I can look back on after baby is born. While coming to the end of my second trimester, I feel the little that baby and I have accomplished is worth documenting. Since we learned about our pregnancy in early March, our picture of our little one has gone from a Sourpatch kid/Pac-man kid to a third of his final size, about 2 lbs. If baby M. were a Pac-man, he'd finish the whole board and more. Between waking up in the middle of the night hungry and feeling unsatiated every three or four hours, we've eaten through boxes of crackers, bushels of fruit, and tons of other fibrous materials. To keep myself from deteriorating and instead strive for a Duchess of Cambridge-like appearance, I've continued to walk and practice yoga, and I even threw in a few stair repeats and a Vinyasa class to keep things fresh. Truthfully, though, this has been a trying time for me. Many have been fortunate and haven't had nausea and vomiting or tailbone pain, but these are some of the not-so-pretty symptoms that I had in the 1st and 2nd trimesters. I find myself out of breath after a 30 minute walk. I can't sleep through the whole night without having to get up and pee. And, sometimes I just worry, will baby be ok??? (Should I change the title of my blog? I searched bizarre numerology websites to find any special meaning behind '27' then realized, I am 27 weeks pregnant!!! I guess I'll keep it '27'!)