The pregnancy has definitely been front and center in my life as I entered the third trimester. It’s been a difficult one, and on top of the GDM diagnosis I recently wrote about, I’ve had some other puzzling test results lately that have caused concern. I’ve also been once again diagnosed with Intrahepatic Cholestasis of Pregnancy (ICP), which I am not surprised about since I had it with the last pregnancy and there was a 60% chance of it happening again. Thankfully, it just means that I’m going in for non-stress tests twice a week, starting last week, and then induced again at 37 weeks, which was a good experience for me last time. That means the new kiddo is scheduled to come in early December. I also started long-acting insulin this past week over night to control my fasting glucose levels.
Still, regular life continues too!
The high holy days concluded a few weeks ago with Yom Kippur, on September 28th. As I mentioned in my last post, observing these holidays remotely has been a different experience, but it turns out Yom Kippur wasn’t that much different. Last year we attended Rosh Hashanah family services as guests at a congregation in Philadelphia, but I got sick just before Yom Kippur and it prevented us from traveling back to California in time to attend services as planned in person in San Francisco. As a result, Yom Kippur was observed via a live stream from a synagogue in Philadelphia. This year we did the same, only from home in California and a new stream from our home congregation in San Francisco. I guess the silver lining to all of this is that attending services at home with a toddler, while pregnant, is a lot easier than going there in person! But it was still sad not being there.
Then on September 29th I had my birthday! I ended up taking the day off from work, making it a four day weekend. I’d been working a lot lately, and I really needed a little down time to rest and catch up on some personal project work. I did make a couple requests for my birthday though: pizza and cake. The family came through, I had my over-priced east-coast style pizza for lunch, and before Adam went to bed we all enjoyed a little birthday celebration, complete with cake, flowers, presents, and balloons (I think the balloons were more for Adam though!). It was also a good thing I didn’t wait on the pizza and cake, I enjoyed them in blissful ignorance of the upcoming GDM diagnosis.
Adam is continuing to grow as he rapidly approaches turning two years old in January. The daily challenge has been keeping him happy while we’re all still stuck at home, and frequently inside with the smokey air that continued into October. His latest new toy is a Brio-style train table, so he has more trains and a spot to play with them on, which he loves. The other new addition is a toddler stool that can be used to more easily wash his hands and brush his teeth at the sink, something he’s really excited about and my pregnant self is grateful for, as picking him up to wash up was becoming increasingly difficult as he gets bigger and I get later into the pregnancy. In mid-October the smoke finally started to disappear around here, so we’re now able to bring him outside more often, now it’s just a few mornings and afternoons here and there where we’re stuck indoors. Still, at this point I really struggle with the energy for more than 20 minutes at a time, so I’m thankful for our au pair who takes him out often, and MJ who will often take him out for evening walks.
Adam helps me build his toddler stool
On a personal project note, as September wound down, so did the PSIGenix IRC Network. It’s the network my ex-husband linked to as a home for a now-defunct social channel we used to have. I stayed on as an administrator when he de-linked and moved on, but it was now time for everyone to move on. Traffic to most IRC networks has been dropping for over a decade now, and the remaining key stakeholders were no longer interested in running it. I have enough server resources that I could have swooped in and rescued it, but as loyal as I am to IRC, I didn’t want the burden of running a network anymore either. On October 1st, with a heavy heart, we shut down the servers and I moved my personal channel over to Freenode.
I mentioned the solar work happening on our house in my last general post back in September. Progress is being made! The physical work is pretty much done (just some painting and patching to do). We’ve passed the first inspection so we’re now just waiting on the operation certificate, which could take another few weeks and require another inspection from a different agency. Still, it really is cool to walk into the garage and see that lovely array of Powerwalls!
This week we also had some electrical work done. It desperately needed to be done, but was incredibly disruptive as a whole chunk of wiring needed to be replaced in the kitchen, access of which was gained by cutting holes in the wall of the family room. The family room is where Adam spends a large chunk of time, and between that room, the kitchen itself, and where our dining room table was, we had to get creative with our lunch plans. It was a great opportunity though, we got to try out the new convertible bench-to-picnic-table set that we assembled last week! They aren’t the most beautiful of outdoor furniture, but they were inexpensive, flat-pack shipped for free, and were easy to assemble. It’ll get us by until we are able to tackle the landscape remodel on our five-year plan. Plus, I actually quite like them for now! We had a lovely little picnic lunch.
And then we assembled even MORE furniture! As my bedtime routine gets longer with my third trimester, with glucose checks, insulin injection, and blood pressure check, standing in my bathroom the whole time was getting tiresome. My bathroom has a lovely vanity, which I never bought a stool for, until last week! It’s funny that I’d never bought one until now, but I don’t do make-up and my bathroom time was historically short. In just a couple days of use, it’s already so worth it. As exhausted as I am by the end of the day, I don’t dread the routine as much as I did a few days ago. Plus, Adam helped me assemble it, and gave it the first test drive!
Looking out at the next month, and assuming all goes according to plan, I’m still at work for the next couple weeks. I have four events on my schedule, obviously a higher load than I’d have if the events were in person! But one of the unexpected gifts of COVID-19 and virtual events is the flexibility to do more events this late in my pregnancy. September and October were similarly busy for me, and I’m glad I’ve been able to keep my participation up for so long. My last day at work will actually be presenting at SeaGL on Saturday, November 14th, which is particularly amusing for me because SeaGL was also the last conference I did before Adam was born! Of course I traveled to Seattle for that one. The rest of my time at work is being spent getting logistical stuff squared away and making sure a large chunk of my work is triaged while I’m out for a few months. I’m actually finding it a little tough to leave work behind, but this bonding time with family is so important to me, and sleep deprivation with a newborn is no joke!