At 9:22 this morning my cell phone rang. The caller ID on the screen indicated that it was my OB/GYN’s office calling. With my appointment only a day away, it could only mean one thing: my 3-hour fasting glucose tolerance test came back positive for gestational diabetes.

I answered the phone and steeled myself for the news.

“Your results came in this morning,” the nurse began. “Your levels were elevated…”

She went on to tell me that they scheduled me for an appointment next week with the Fetal Diagnostic Center at Kapiolani Medical Center and enrolled me in the Sweeter Choice Program which includes a 4-hour class on how to manage my gestational diabetes. One thing I am grateful for is the support and education that is available to expectant mothers these days.

From the Kapiolani Medical Center website:

What is diabetes?
Diabetes is a condition that impairs the body’s ability to use sugar and as a result increases your risk for health problems, such as heart disease, kidney disease, and atherosclerosis. As a diabetic, you should be under a doctor’s care and should regularly monitor your blood sugar levels.

Prenatal Care
Prenatal care is important for all pregnant women. As a woman with diabetes, it is particularly important for you because you are at increased risk for complications during pregnancy. Diabetic women tend to give birth to larger babies, and therefore are more likely to need a Caesarean section. There is also an increased chance that your baby will be born with low blood sugar levels and may need to be treated in the intensive care unit following delivery.

Can you minimize the complications associated with diabetes?
You can prevent many of the complications associated with diabetes simply by controlling your blood sugar levels during pregnancy. To control your blood sugar levels you will need to modify your diet, exercise regularly, and you may need to take insulin.

Needless to say, I’m bummed. Truthfully, I’d rather become a vegetarian than have to adhere to a diabetic diet. Taming my sweet tooth is going to be the toughest part of this ordeal, but perhaps this will force me to make wiser eating choices and prompt me to exercise more often (i.e., daily). Now it’s not going to be something that’s just good to do, but it’s now something that I MUST do.

I’ll be keeping a daily food diary and exercise log at the team Health & Fitness blog that I’ve been neglecting. Perhaps this will keep me from cheating (too much) on my diet. Day #1 is already posted.

On Saturday, the Dancing Fools attended the Rissho Kosei Kai bon dance in Pacific Palisades. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate and I ended up having to take shelter under my big golf umbrella several times throughout the night. Perhaps it was the rain that kept the crowd fairly small this year as well. However, they still managed to sell out of the grilled mochi before I was able to buy an order. At least I was able to enjoy a bowl of oden — which is one of RKK’s specialties.

The photos posted here were taken by Derek and Taro, who came equipped with camera gear that would make any photog do a double-take. I, on the other hand, was too preoccupied during the drier moments of the evening, then deterred by the rain once I realized that I was missing some great photo ops. We still have a few more bon dances on the schedule that I’ll be able to attend, so hopefully I will be able to muster the energy and motivation to do a videolog or two before the end of this year’s bon dance season.

At 30 weeks pregnant, I’m still dancing.

I took the day off today to get my 3-hour glucose tolerance test done. When I arrived at the Diagnostic Labs in my neighborhood, they advised me that my last blood draw would cut into their lunch hour and that I would need to wait 15 minutes so that they could draw my blood when they re-opened the lab. Hey, what’s another 15 minutes when I’ve already fasted a good 14 hours (17 hours by the end of the test)? So, I sat there for 15 minutes, reading “Your Baby’s First Year: Week by Week.” At precisely 9:45, the lab technician asked me which flavor of glucola I preferred, orange or lime, and poured me a cup of the chilled sugar-laden drink. She advised me that I had five minutes to drink the entire bottle, so I tanked 100 grams of the orange syrupy drink in two minutes flat.

Just as I was taking my last sip, the lab technician came back, looking harried. “Did you already drink it all?”

“I’m done now,” I answered and drank the last of it.

“I’m SO sorry!” she exclaimed. Uh-oh. “I didn’t realize it, but we had to do a fasting blood draw first.”

I stared blankly at her, my heart sinking in my chest as I held the empty cup in my hand. “So… you mean I have to come back again?”

“I’m SO sorry!” she said again. “We can’t do the test today because if I draw your blood now, your levels will be high. So you’d have to fast again for 12 hours… umm… and even if you did, we couldn’t do the draw today because we close…blah blah blah…” she went on, but I wasn’t listening by this time.

“Aw, man… I took the day off just to take this test,” I sighed.

“I’m SO sorry!” she went on to apologize profusely. She looked genuinely sorry, and it’s not in my nature to give people a hard time anyway. Besides, I could complain until I’m blue in the face, but it won’t change the fact that I couldn’t take the test today and there’s nothing that could be done to change that — so, why waste my breath?

“Okay, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then,” I said and went to have breakfast at Zippy’s — with 100 grams of glucose unnecessarily coursing through my veins.

Being the uninhibited blogger that I am, I always meant to document my pregnancy thoroughly and candidly. Somehow that didn’t happen early on, but with approximately 9 more weeks to go, I suppose it’s better late than never.

Ironically, while I am pretty transparent when describing anything about my life, from my struggles with infertility to graphic descriptions about my medical procedures, I am pretty modest and conservative when it comes to photos of myself. This is the barest you’ll ever see me, but in my opinion, being pregnant makes it okay to show more than a little midriff.

As I eagerly anticipate my maternity photo shoot this Saturday with Lisa of Windward Skies Photography, I did a search on Flickr and searched for maternity pictures. As you would imagine, thousands came up: 40,022 to be exact. It made me wonder what my own bare belly would look like in pixels, so on a whim, I took out my little Canon p&s and took some standard bathroom mirror shots. The photo above is the result of that little impromptu self-portrait session.

Somehow, I feel much larger than I appear in the photo. Since I entered my third trimester, it seems that I am growing exponentially. People have started to make comments about how big I’ve gotten, seemingly overnight.

Today, a co-worker gave me an endearing new nickname, “Roadblock,” since I was standing in the aisle and he claims that I was taking up all the space that he couldn’t pass, so he had to take a detour.

My belly button is threatening to become an outie. If you watch it long enough, Baby Champuru will put on a show for you, making my piko change shape and dance around. It’s actually quite entertaining and I’ll admit that there are times when I will just sit in a chair and literally gaze at my navel when Baby Champuru is particularly active.

I took the day off tomorrow to take care of my 3-hour glucose tolerance test and a dental appointment. I am praying that I don’t have gestational diabetes, because that would really put a damper on the rest of my pregnancy. I’d hate to have to cut out my favorite local fruits (pineapple, papaya, mangoes, bananas, and watermelon) as well as the only thing I’ve been craving lately, which is ice cream. Enjoying those refreshing treats makes being pregnant during the hottest time of the year bearable. Somehow celery sticks just don’t hit the spot like a li hing shave ice does.

I can’t believe how packed my schedule has become in recent weeks. As we get ready for the new addition to our family, it seems that there is simply not enough time in the day to get everything done. This weekend was a good example of that.

On Friday after work, Hubby and I drove to Kapolei for another pediatrician interview (2 of 4). After that, we had dinner, then went to Best Buy to pick up a laptop, wireless router, and printer for my in-laws. Then we went to their house to set it up, which took a couple of hours before we were able to finally go home and collapse into bed.

On Saturday, I slept in and got a later start than I had intended. We headed to Diagnostic Labs to get my 3-hour glucose tolerance test done, but discovered that they closed at 12:00 noon and we arrived at 9:30 — which would put us past the closing time for my last blood draw, so that was a disappointing no-go. Instead, we went to Zippy’s for breakfast to literally break my 13-1/2 hour fast, before heading out to the Baby Emporium for their big “Pink & Blue Sale.”

We purchased the crib, antibacterial mattress, and 3-drawer dresser/changing table at Baby Emporium, dropping a good $812. We had anticipated spending $1000-$1200 for the baby furniture, so I guess we’re in good shape. This is what we purchased:

Million Dollar Baby - Annabelle Crib (espresso)

Million Dollar Baby - Annabelle 3-drawer changer (espresso)

Since we drove my car, we couldn’t take home the furniture that day, but will go back to pick it up with Hubby’s truck sometime in the next week or two. It is a relief to have the baby furniture purchased. Next steps will be cleanup of the “nursery,” pick up he furniture, and assembly. Admittedly, we’re still far from having the nursery ready for Baby Champuru, but at least it’s a start.

On Saturday night, we went to the Rissho Kosei Kai bon dance at Pacific Palisades. Unfortunately, by the time I thought about taking some video, the weather made a turn for the worst and rain came in intermittent drizzles and torrents — sending me running for shelter under my golf umbrella, even in the midst of our Okinawan dance set. I suppose I’m just paranoid, but I really didn’t want to get drenched and risk getting sick. It always seems to rain at Rissho Kosei Kai and in previous years, I’d just wrap a bon dance towel around my head and continue dancing, but since I am with child this year, I am taking more precautions than normal. We didn’t let the rain dampen our spirits though, and a good time was had by all.

Today, after church, I met Mahealani and we got our nails done. Since I have a maternity photo shoot scheduled for next week, I figured that I should have pretty nails for those typical hands-on-tummy pictures. Right after that, Hubby and I zoomed to town for our maternity tour at Queen’s Hospital. An early dinner at Coco Ichibanya and we were finally able to go home to catch up on the mundane, but necessary tasks of laundry and housecleaning.

Now it’s 10:30 pm and I’m only now catching my breath, but it’s time to get psyched up for Monday and hit the sack. Next week is equally busy. Things don’t start slowing down until August, so hopefully Baby Champuru doesn’t plan on making an early entrance.

I should know better. Or I should have knocked on wood when I wrote it.

In a previous entry, I mentioned that I had managed to dodge the bullet on a good number of prenatal discomforts that plague many pregnant women. Well, no sooner than I mentioned that, I was rudely awakened at 3:21 am by searing pain in my right calf. My muscle felt as tight and as round as a baseball.

It’s not so much the pain itself that is difficult to deal with, but the suddenness upon which it comes and in the middle of an otherwise peaceful slumber. I’m sure as I get closer to my due date and sleep becomes more elusive due to physical discomfort and fetal movement, these nighttime leg cramps will really prove to be a bane.

Perhaps it’s my body’s way of waking me up, because when the leg cramp came I was sleeping on my back — which, they say, is a big no-no after the fifth month of pregnancy.

I jumped out of bed, as gracefully as a third trimester gal can at 3 o’clock in the morning, and did calf stretches until it loosened up a bit. Back in bed, I massaged my muscle until the cramp subsided enough for me to fall back asleep. This happened probably within a span of 2 minutes. In another minute or two, I was fast asleep again.

Luckily, I can stay in zombie mode even in the midst of pain, so that I can get back to sleep quickly. I use this technique for my nighttime trips to the bathroom, too — which comes in handy since those trips are much more frequent now. It’s a skill, to be able to stay in a state of semi-sleep, navigating my way through the darkness, doing my business, and falling asleep again in less than 60-seconds flat.

My calf was sore for the next two days following the nighttime cramping episode. I’ve been doing calf stretches before bed ever since. I hope this won’t be a regular occurrence.

I’m starting to get alarmed. I just stopped by Justin & Marsi’s blog and saw that they’ve already purchased and assembled their crib. Marsi is 18 weeks pregnant with twins (congrats!).

*ahem* I’m 30 weeks along and we haven’t even started buying any nursery furniture yet.

I suppose I’ve been thinking that we have lots of time, so I haven’t been rushing to make preparations just yet. (Ten weeks is a lot of time, right?) But, theoretically, Baby Champuru could come at any time. I’m hoping she will be a good girl and will not be too eager to make her grand entrance. But then again, I was due on September 30, but ended up being born on September 6.

This month, our calendar has been absolutely packed. With “Prepared Childbirth” and “Infant Care” classes, OB/GYN appointments, pediatrician interviews, and other miscellaneous appointments, we simply haven’t had the time to make a concerted effort to prepare the nursery.

Baby Emporium is having a big Pink & Blue Sale this weekend, but we have nowhere to put a crib and changing station/dresser. The “nursery” is still our den. We still have a lot of purging to do — and a desk to get rid of.

Things don’t slow down until August, so hopefully Baby Champuru can wait until September. At least wait until I’m on maternity leave!