26 weeks

Tomorrow, in lieu of participating in picture day with Evelyn at our Toddler Group Co-op, I will be at my midwife's office. (Chris will attend Toddler Group in my stead-- it is a parent-tot class, not a drop-off situation). I like meeting with my midwife and chatting and checking in with Baby-on-board, but I'm not particularly excited about the glucose screen tomorrow. I didn't have any problems with this screening (for gestational diabetes) during my pregnancy with Evelyn and the orange drink that I need to polish off in under five minutes beforehand is no big deal.

The main issue is the blood draw. I've gotten much better with age, but I really do not like having blood drawn. I have to look away and breathe deeply. I joke with the midwife (or in other instances, the lab technician or nurse) and try to distract myself from the task at hand because otherwise I become pretty faint. Feeling faint isn't exactly fun for anyone, but it is especially not fun during pregnancy! All of this glucose screening talk reminds me that I meant to incorporate more grains and protein into my diet yesterday and today. The thing to remember about pregnancy (and mothering a toddler) is that fatigue is just par for the course . . . and guess what quickly wakes me up, if only momentarily? Chocolate. Hello Godiva dark chocolate raspberry bar! In my defense, the rest of today consisted mainly a gluten-free kids' cereal, yogurt with granola, chicken sausage, rice, and zucchini. . . not too bad. OK, and there may or may not have been about six gluten-free chocolate chip mini cookies at some point. Bring on the glucose tolerance test!

Here's what 26 weeks looks like (front and side shots):





Pay no attention to the "monterey white" patch on the otherwise terra-cotta colored wall. I've recently decided that I really don't like this accent wall and it needs to be much lighter and more "crisp" . . . I'm working on it.