Being a grandmother is wonderful.

I went to Sweden and stayed with my son's family for a couple of weeks.  While
I was there, his daughter was born.

There is nothing quite like the sensation of holding one's grandchild.  It coms
with all the same overwhelming joy as holding one's own child for the first
time, but without the stress.  We worry about our kids, but our childrens'
children we can enjoy knowing that we have raised our chjildren well and the
baby will be fine.  Not a luxury we have with our own.

Bella is, of course, the most beautiful child ever born!  <grin>  

...and yet ... 

I got a bit of a shock four days after she was born.

I discovered that she will have an aunt or uncle about 8 months younger than
she is.

Yow!

Ironically, the baby is due on Corey's 21st birthday.  (Which is also Wanja's
22nd birthday.  Wanja is Bella's mother.

My head is spinning, and I don't think it's all morning sickness...

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Oh good grief!  I must say that my first response is outright laughter, but
it is tempered by the empathy of thinking about what it would mean to me to
be starting all over again with another child.  What a mixed blessing!

Mixed blessing indeed.

I'm not entirely unhappy about it. There are solutions to that state of
affairs.  But I am seriously sobered and disconcerted.

So many new factors to worry about.  I was a SAHM with my first litter and that
just isn't an option this time, so I get to figure out how to nurse and work
full time.  I get to fuss with child care at least part time.  I get to
exp[lain to my boss that I took this holiday to go meet my grandchild and next
year's holiday will be used as maternity leave.  That's kind of embarrassing,
no matter how welcome the child is.

I am getting pretty antique for toddler chasing.  (Thank Gods she's due to be a
Taurus so I have a prayer of keeping up!)

And I can't help but wonder how this old body is going to cope with
pregnancy...the sciatica that waited until month seven with other two has
started already in week 8.  Ouch.  This bodes ill.

...and yet, all reason aside, I'm extremely excited and can't wait to meet this
little one.

Congrats! How very exciting :)

Congratulations!

Thanks!

Valerie, you said you were showing by three weeks with Kendra ... literally?
It's hard to be sure given my shape, but it seems to me that I'm showing
already at 8 weeks.  Trousers that fit fine nine weeks ago are painfully tight
...

Congratulations Misti!

Thanks, Mooncat.

I have my first doctor's appt today.  That should be exciting.  I expect to
pee in a cup or give blood or something.  I'm kind of hoping they'll schedule
a sonogram, so I can see that everything is OK...but I'd be real surprised
if they did that today.  (I think my doctor has her doubts that I'm actuially
pregnant at my age.  <laugh>

congrats, and good luck misti

Thanks, Iggy.

Well, I am now well ensconced in the Very High Risk obstetrical clinic at UM.
I go in once a week and e-mail and call reports in at least one other time
per week.  

I've had a sonogram and seen the wee hitchhiker, who at point strongly
resembled a squirmy shrimp.  ;)  

All is well, adn I'm beginning to need far less sleep than I had.  

wow. that has to be very strange. i was thinking about this today -- that i
am very happy being the grandmother and i don't want to go back to being a
mother again. but i'm glad for you, since it seems that you really want to
do both grandmother and mother gigs. that's very cool. best wishes for a
healthy and happy pregnancy and birth.

What makes you Very High Risk - the diabetes?

I think age too. 

My sister in law had her first (only) baby at age about 43.  Delivery was
about 1/2 hour from the time she reached the hospital.  
She made sure to get lots of exercise during pregnancy, swimming daily.

Some people are very lucky in that they can do that. Others have problems.
I'd certainly be very cautious if I were to get pregnant at my age (46).

It's a whole series of things, Sindi.  The diabetes, my age, my size, the fact
that I had to go off my epilepsy medication.

For all that they call me "high risk", though, everything has been going very
smoothly.  It is taking some time to get the insulin to the right doasage and
adjusting my synthroid seems to be an ongoing project ... but other than that,
this has been a very, very easy pregnancy so far.  (She says with confidence,
heaind into hre seconf trimester!  <g>)

I know a lot of people think I'm off my gourd for wanting to do the Mamma
thing again along side the Grandma thing ... but really, it feels (after the
initial embarrassment at getting "caught" at my age) like the most natural
thing in the world.

The hardest part about the pregnancy so far has been the rection of my best
friend.  Although she's trying very, very hard to be happy for me, shje can't
really.  She seems sure that this pregnancy is going to be, if not fatal, then
seriously injurious to my health.  The doctors don't seem to agree and so far
I feel healthy as a horse!  Then again, she also said the other night that
if she were in my shoes, she'd be looking for the nearest tall building to
throw herself off.  I feel bad for her, really.  This pregnancy seems to be
disrupting her life far more than mine, so far.  *sigh*  Fortunately there
are a lot of people around me who are as happy for me as I am for myself. 
Yeahj, it's a little wierd to have a baby a year after you have your first
grandchild.  Yeah, keeping this pregnancy healthy is a bit more work than it
would have been (was) at 20 ... but there are so many advantages, too.  And
Rod is so supportive and enthusiastic ... like a day dream lover!  How could
I not be happy to finally be having that third child I'd tried so hard to give
up on?

<g>  Call me a lunatic ... the further this pregnancy goes, the more
deleriouly happy I get!

And that's FANTASTIC! I am really happy to hear that you're doing well. I hope
and pray that it'll continue that way and that your baby is born healthy.

Glad to hear it's going well.  It seems to me you've got every right to be
happy.

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Yeah, me thinks that too.

Hey, all!

Sorry to have wandered off.  Pregnancy made me sleepyenough that *something*
ahd to give, and I'm afraid socializing online was what gave way for more
sleep.

I entered my ninth month yesterday and still everything is going bautifully.
Well, I did have a bit of a crisis about a month ago, but that resolved
quickly and easily.

It seems that I had been controlling ym blood sugar too tightly.  There isn't
much information out there about very tight blood sugar control in pregnancy.
The problem is usually one of keeping it low enough.  The tools we have today,
though, are refined anough to allow extremely tight control.  Witht he
assistance of my obstetrical endocrioligist, I kept my A1C at about 4.6, just
as I had before I was pregnant.  (The A1C test measures the cumulative average
of blood sugar over the course of three months.  It's used in conjunction with
daily testing to determine how tigtly controll one is keping one's blood sugar
-- specifically, it helps to spot a trend to being either too high or too low
in the periods (like over night) when one isn't testing.  The "average" score
is around 6.)  About a month and a half ago, it was requiring about 600 units
of insulin a day to keep my blood sugar where I was used to it, but I was
indeed doing do virtually all the time.  My OB-Endo was thrilled -- apparently
he had never seen anyone, pregnant or not, who was as coscientious about
testing and treating.  It turns out, though, that it's quite normal and
apaprently even necessary, for one';s blood sugar to rise during pregnancy.
We're less than sure how much is necessary, but...

One morning about 3am, I woke up with a blood sugar of 32.  I felt dreadful,
and it was all I could do to make it to the kitchen to test and eat something.
(I found out at the horpital next morning that a blood sugar of 20 is
typically where one goes into a coma and dies.  Oops.)  In pervious incidents
where I would go uncomfortable low, it took about 15 minutes, a handful of
raisins, and a glass of juice to get back up to around 150 -- the point at
which the symptoms stopped.  This time, though, it kept getting to 60 or so,
and then plummetting again.  It took over an hour and lots and lots of
raisins, juice, and other stuff, to siomply get it as far as 80.  At that
point I was beyond exhausted...and in retrospect, probably still not thinking
clearly, since I went to bed and didn't think to let me husband know so he
could check on me.

When we got up for work next morning, I was having some pretty impressive
contractions, and when I describes my adventure of the night before, a very
pale Rod informed me that I was not going to work, I was going directly to
the hospital.  He also insisted that I etst immediately.  Uh oh.  50.  Normal
is between 80 and 120.  He made a hot fudge sundae for me, and watched as I
ate every bite.  One symptom of a low is that food doesn't taste good, but
I never would have guessed that a hot fudge sundae could taste like sand. 
I took a shower then, and tested again.  Only under these circumstances would
the resulting 320 have been a good thing.  Off we went to the hospital.  While
we waitied in triage, I tested again.  My blood sugar was down to 130.  In
a matter of 30 minutes or so.  We strated to worry again.  (If it continued
to fall at that arte, I'd be in big trouble before they saw me.) 

Fortunately, it lingered for a while once it got to 130.  I was fitted with
some very "fashionale" belts to measure baby's well-being and my contractions,
which, while still uncomfortable, were nowhere near as impressive as they had
been.  Baby was just fine.  The contractions weren't registering much, so I
was sent home for two days on bed rest and told not to take any insulin for
thoset hose trwo days, but to test as usual. Instead of the highs I expected,
my blood sugar was barely over normal.  That concerned the doctors, because
a drop in insulin requirement that darmatic is generally a harbinger of
labour.  I was brought back next day for another set of etsts, and since
everything was fine, I was put on a much lower (60 units) dose of insulin.
That does has continuied to drop over the last six weeks, and we don't know
why...but we made it to the ninth month without premature labour and the baby
is doing great.

I also feel a lot better than I had for the previous many months.  I was
[putting the tiredness down to the fact that I'm not 21 anymore and that it
was bound to be tiring to be pregnant at my age.  Now, however, I have quite
a bit more energy and stamina.  (I still sleep a lot, though, and some damned
pachderm keeps creeping by and swapping feet with me when I'm not paying
attention!)  <laugh>

Anyway, that's my update.
Now to catch up with all of you!

Wow, Misti. How scary! I'm glad you and the baby pulled through that.

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It was scary in the moment, but since I *did* wake up, there was little real
danger.  
And baby and I are fine now.  Today is my last day at work for a while...and
much as I adore my job, I am so ready to put my feet up!  <whew>  This
pregnancy thing is fun, bt a lot more energy consuming than I had remembered.

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And we eventually name him Isaac Timien John ... but we stillc all him Jack.

Jack is a sweet tempered, but rather opinionated little boy.  I'm enjoying
him a lot!

I'm extremely happy for you all!

< Did I already say that?
Oh, well -- two expressions of a good thing are never too many.>

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