25 months, 2 weeks old – pumpkin carving, first time trick or treating, insulin

Pumpkin carving!

25 months, 2 weeks old:

November 2: This week started with a desire for cleaning out the laundry room. We were able to do it in the free time of over two days and felt so satisfying to throw stuff out. I think this must be my nesting instinct kicking in!
Speaking of prepping for the new one, we do have mostly all our hospital bag stuff ready. We just need to wash the newborn clothes (free of stains) and then put everything together. I found my disposable adult diapers too that I used for postpartum last time, so that’s ready too.
The little girl came down with a bit of a congestion and cold lately again. She was starting to cough a little bit but we know it’s not COVID. I tested negative and so did grandma.
We had bought two medium-sized pumpkins from our visit to Carma Farms and we finally had time to carve them this past Thursday. I thought bb would be more interested in playing with the pumpkin seeds, but she was mostly just an onlooker and didn’t really participate fully with the scooping out of seeds and goop. She did like watching us carve out the pumpkins though. This was my first time carving a pumpkin since first year in university! Even though we did it last year at a friend’s house, I didn’t even take a knife in my hand to carve anything lol
We had a friend and their family visit us and we set out the bassinet in the family room in case they wanted to use it for their baby. Bb was curious about the bassinet and we told her that “dou dou” will be using it.
She was actually quite lethargic right before the friends came over and I thought she was just being shy. However, it turns out that she was already coming down with something and she actually passed out in DH’s arms right during dinnertime which is very unusual of her. It was unfortunate because she wasn’t able to play with the 3-year-old who came to visit. It was funny that the 3-year-old actually mimicked bb’s slothy and clingy behaviour too. Bb had a mild fever too which luckily went away. Since that night, bb hasn’t been feeling the best.
Bb fell asleep in DH’s arms again the next day during the afternoon. She is more easily tired since she’s battling a cold of some sort.
This year for Halloween, I decided to have her dress up as Minnie Mouse. There weren’t really anything else we wanted her to be and this was an easy costume. DH made the Minnie Mouse headband on one of my headbands and it looked so amazing. The unfortunate part was that bb didn’t want to wear it at all. Finally on the night of Halloween though, we were able to coax/trick her into wearing it by having her wear a hat first before slipping the headband on. She couldn’t pull it off since she didn’t know it was on her head already. We also had her wear her Minnie Mouse overalls/apron over her coat to complete the look.
We didn’t practise the routine of going up to the door, ringing the doorbell, and then saying “trick or treat” ahead of time. We just went with it and bb followed along. She wasn’t comfortable saying the words or even ringing the doorbell. We received the treats on her behalf. DH was Woody and I had a little skeleton baby printout on my belly. One of the people handing out candy complimented on how we all dressed up as a family, which I really appreciated. An older lady also gave us an extra treat once she saw my belly and also said “Congratulations” which was really nice.
DH commented on how much fun I seemed to be having during the trick or treating process, and it’s true — I really enjoyed it. It’s been decades since I went out as a kid going from door to door in the neighbourhood for treats. It was really fun and everyone is so nice. We collected quite the loot too. Lots of candy bars, bags of chips, gummies, chocolates. ^_^
Bb wanted to eat a bag of Doritos right away when we got home and we did let her. The other candies and sweets though, those we will save for ourselves or give away whatever we don’t eat. No sweets for this little toddler yet.
Bb was a little afraid at some of the Halloween decor at some of the houses.
The real terror of Halloween this year came in the evening at home for me when DH drove grandma to the airport for her flight at 1 a.m. (which meant a 9ish p.m. check-in). We were all finished dinner and I was hoping that bb would go to bed at a decent time. But I guess she was not used to the door knocking we did and didn’t have enough of her own independent play time (or going to the playground recently) and acted out severely. She wouldn’t go upstairs to her bedroom to sleep at all. She refused to go with me and asked for her dad. Unfortunately, the check-in process at the airport also took way longer than necessary because the destination city was experiencing weather concerns so they couldn’t check anyone in until 11 p.m. Bb hasn’t stayed to 11 p.m. ever, I think. It was so tough. She actually cried for an entire hour because she didn’t want to sleep or go upstairs with me. She also didn’t want to go upstairs to drink her milk and persisted in wanting to drink it downstairs. I relented for a long time before I let her and after she finished it, she unfortunately threw up everything including the grapes she had earlier on to the floor because she was still crying. Sigh. It was so tough. Eventually bb cried and curled up on the sofa and cried to sleep that way out of exhaustion. DH came home at midnight and carried her to sleep upstairs. What a tough evening. I was pretty upset too because she threw up and I hate it whenever she does because she doesn’t eat enough as it is (I always want her to eat more).
I’ve also never taken so many crying photos or videos of her. These are the moments we don’t want to document and I don’t even want to rewatch them on my phone. But I wanted to share with DH to show what was happening at home. Even he knew that this was unusual for her to behave this poorly. The poor girl also woke up almost every other hour that night for milk or cuddles too.
She had cried so much during the night that when she woke up the next morning, her eyes were so swollen and puffy. She also had a full-on cough by now. She probably irritated her throat so much from all the crying.
She’s been picky with her food lately too.
She can open the fridge by herself and request for “mama milk” (my lactose free 2% milk) which she prefers.
November 2 was also the first time I had her to myself without any help. Since DH was at the office and grandma was away, I had a true day-in-the-life of a stay-at-home mom. It’s not easy. I take it for granted when my mom is always here because there’s always at least one person involved with cooking or caring for bb too — not to mention I’m heavily pregnant diabetic right now with a sick toddler too. We survived the day and the trip to the park helped because she passed out within minutes of pushing her in the stroller. It was a beautiful 15 degree autumn day too and I got in my walk while bb got in a 75-minute nap.
She very cutely danced to Michael Jackson’s Thriller song today when it came on the radio. I didn’t know she was such a fan of it.
Speaking of sickness, my fasting numbers were really out of range this week. They were all above 5.2, the maximum number for fasting. They were in the 5.3 to 5.4 to 5.6 range and I finally got the call from the dietitian on Monday expressing that my fasting numbers were “borderline or above target”. I was scheduled to see the endocrinologist that Monday afternoon. I already knew insulin was the solution. I did appreciate how tender and light the endocrinologist treaded on the topic. He probably sees a lot of hormonal and anxious pregnant ladies with GD who don’t want to hear about more needles or an extra routine in their day. Thankfully, I read all about GD on the Facebook groups that I knew this was coming for me. I tried hard this week to adjust my numbers by taking a second shower at night, by eating what worked for me before (strangely cake and milk), trying to fast less than 8 hours and test earlier, but they all didn’t work, so I knew there was nothing I could do more to get the fasting number down than to have the insulin shots.
The endocrinologist showed me how the Levemir flextouch pen worked but that I needed to speak with the registered nurse for her to further explain to me how it worked. I didn’t want to stay an extra 30 minutes for it so we had the consultation over the phone the next day instead.
It was truthfully a little confusing to learn how to do something physically over the phone, but I was sure I could figure it out. Sure enough, that night, DH and I found a YouTube video which showed very clearly how to administer the insulin. It was clear as day after watching the video! I was so nervous when injecting myself, but it honestly wasn’t bad. It is just as people say: the needle pen is so, so small (4 mm) and I didn’t even feel it go in. My fasting number the next morning was 5.3, still not within range yet, but it’s at least lower than the past couple of days. (It was 5.5 and 5.4 all four days, interestingly enough).
We are concerned that now that I’m on insulin that my chance of getting to 40 weeks is slim (not that I really want to reach 40 weeks anyway) but it might also affect the chances of me giving birth vaginally and without intervention/induction. We’ll have to see what the biophysical profile ultrasound this week tells us about the baby as well. The OB will have to monitor me more if I’m on insulin too.
On the bright side of things, this is something “new” to experience. I’ve never self-injected myself before. There are firsts for everything, I guess.
This little fetus now at 32 weeks is so feisty. He/she doesn’t like anything crushing him/her/intruding in their space. If I’m lying ever so slightly on my belly when I’m sleeping, he/she kicks furiously. When I was reading a book to bb and the board book pages laid against the belly, the baby kicked at it. (Same thing that time when I was doing the test at the hospital after the car accident, the baby kicked the “button” monitors so much.) It’s so interesting to see the difference between the two pregnancies/personalities. This baby really doesn’t like their movement restricted. They’re also prone to touch. Whenever I put my hand on my belly, they almost always respond with kicking or moving.
Tonight, when DH had his head against my belly to listen to him/her, the baby didn’t like that and kicked DH SO hard in the head that even his head moved. It happened twice. DH has felt this little one so many times and with so much more intensity than he did when the first bb was in my belly. I’m going to miss these kicks when the baby is born. There’s no way to bottle it up.
It’s been happening for maybe a month already, but the charley horses come at night for my legs if I don’t drink enough water. I’ve still been getting up at night once a night to pee and when I do, I’ll chug some water to replenish my hydration to reduce the muscle spasms.
Poor bb is coughing and having congestion in her nose. Hope she gets better from this cold soon.
Bb continues this week to ask us about the English equivalent of certain Chinese words. She remembers that “tai yern” is the “sun”! She makes connections between books when she remembers seeing something that’s the same in one book and another.
She really likes reading and always brings us books to read to her every day. I notice that the middle part of her bookshelf is starting to sag too with the number of books she has.