Yummy apple slices with peanut butter!

It’s a great snack (and healthy too!) for adults and children alike.  It’s definitely a good pregnancy snack (especially if you have gestational diabetes – this satisfies your carb/protein ratio!)

As much as I love these two together, sometimes it can be hard to dip slices into the peanut butter.  Or, it falls off after you swipe some on.

My tip: put the peanut butter in the microwave for a few seconds to get it melty.

It makes the perfect dipping sauce then!

I like to put 2 tablespoons of peanut butter in the microwave for 15-20 seconds.  You can do more or less time to get to your desired level of melty goodness.

Enjoy!

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It’s no fair that I’m not going to the fair.

See, this weekend is our County Fair, which we usually go to each year.  Admission is free, so we can wander around and grab carny food.  Usually we go to the Demolition Derby, which is lots of fun… especially when the school buses crash into each other!

This year I opted out of going because I know with the sun and heat, I will be uncomfortable.  I know the bleachers will be killer on my back as well.  And yuck – port-a-potties… especially when you have to pee all. the. time.

But most of all – I need to resist the temptation of the fried foods.

Every year at the fair I get a funnel cake.

Mmmm.

Warm, tasty funnel cake topped with warm apple slices, powdered sugar, cinnamon, and whipped cream.

Deeeelicious.

But oh-so-bad for my gestational diabetes.  Most of my favorite foods I can still have small portions of…. but you can’t JUST have one bite of funnel cake.

I guess this needs to be added to my list o’ foods I want after I deliver.

The State Fair will also be around soon and I’ll be opting out of it for most of the same reasons but mainly because it’s too much walking with unhealthy food (which is a nice treat if you aren’t counting carbs…) for the price of admission.  So, we’ll save a few bucks this year.

*dreams of fried dough*

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I have got to stop procrastinating and write about this already.  Heck, dealing with gestational diabetes (aka GD) is one of the reasons I wanted to blog about my pregnancy.  It seems like there is a lot of misinformation and even NON-information out there, either that or a lot of pregnant women just aren’t paying attention.

Hey, I admit to suffering from pregnancy brain, but I retain information about serious stuff that can negatively affect my baby.

So as my pregnancy has progressed, I keep putting off writing about GD and end up thinking omg, where to start? And here we are – at the beginning.

Like many pregnant women, I had an overwhelming desire to devour pregnancy books like there’s no tomorrow.  A lot of them have chapters upon chapters dedicated to telling you what you can’t do, what you shouldn’t do, and all the horrible things that can happen to your little one before they arrive.

High risk complications can be scary to read about.  Gestational diabetes is a high risk complication.  It’s one of the most common complications.
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Back to see the dresses, huh?  I’m finding it waaaay too much fun to shop for a little girl.  Brian is also starting to find shopping for her to be quite fun.  It is for now though… I doubt it’ll be as fun as she reaches her teenage years.

This was the very first “girl” outfit I bought after the 20 week ultrasound.

Socks with daisies and headbands to help make sure people have no question about whether our baldy princess is  a girl or not.  (Maybe she’ll have some hair, but teeny tiny babies can’t have ponytails or pigtails yet!)  And yes, those socks were on clearance.  Yeah, baby, yeah!
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So, we (well, mostly I) started to buy a few outfits here and there before we knew we were having a girl.  Now that we know we’re having a girl, we’ve purchased fewer gender neutral items and more girly stuff.  There’s still plenty of gender neutral baby apparel and gear out there that I love though!

I thought I’d share some of the things we’ve gotten for baby girl so far.  So, this post will be picture heavy.  Actually, I might have to split this up into a series… I have a LOT of photos!

I found this giraffe at Carter’s Outlet.  On the other side is the windup for it to play music.  So soft and adorable!

Duckies and froggies – can’t ever go wrong with those!  Before knowing this lil one is a girl, I had decided in the store that the frog sleeper would be the take home outfit.

This is a matching nursing gown for me and a gown and hat for baby.  This will be our hospital outfit.

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I hadn’t been aware of this blog until today when I saw it mentioned a couple times on Facebook and Twitter, but it is uber cute.  I almost want to steal the idea when babygirl arrives later this year!  So if you haven’t checked out Mila’s Daydreams yet, go take a peek.  Be warned though – your cheeks may hurt from smiling and oohing and ahhing so much!

This morning I was able to experience something amazing.  For several minutes I could actually see my belly bounce and move as babygirl kicked and punched.

I’ve thought I’ve seen my belly jump a few times when I’d feel quite a powerful karate chop, but I hadn’t known for sure.  Usually I’d see my belly quake out of the corner of my eye and then she wouldn’t do it again for awhile.

But this morning…

Oh man, she was trying to punch and kick her way out of my belly like the Kool-Aid man.  
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It’s normal to have worries and fears throughout pregnancy.  Especially as a first time mom, there’s a lot of unknowns out there.  I do know that some of the things I’m fearful of or worry about are out of my control, some are in my control, and most things will work out just fine.

But… I can’t help but think about them here and there.

Especially when I’m having an emotional roller coaster of a day.  Sometimes it comes out of seemingly no where!

I developed this list when responding to a thread in one of the birthclub groups I’m a part of on Babycenter.  It felt kinda good to put the list “in writing” so these fears aren’t just aimlessly bouncing around in my head.

I’m afraid I’ll struggle with breastfeeding.

I’m afraid of any risks and complications associated with me having gestational diabetes and how it could negatively affect babygirl.

I’m afraid I’ll be laid off around the time I start my leave which will mean I can’t use sick time to pay for most of it and also means Aflac short term disability won’t kick in (contract is up at that time so depends on all that stuff).

I’m afraid we won’t be able to afford daycare and that I will have to settle for one that makes me nervous.

I’m afraid I won’t want to go back to work but won’t be able to afford being a SAHM.

I’m afraid of SIDS.

I’m afraid I’ll back off too much in an effort to not appear OVER protective and someone will do something stupid that will hurt her – like drop her on her head or something.

I’m afraid that I’ll pick and choose the least effective combination of advice and methods.  There is SO much information out there on how to care for a baby; how to feed them; how to get them to sleep; how to respond to them…. and a lot of conflicting information.  But even conflicting information doesn’t really sound like one way is harmful or better than another.  It’s a lot to sort through.

I’m afraid… I am going to stop my list there.