Musings of a Multi-Cultural Mind

So today marks our first Thanksgiving together as man and wife!  Though it definitely was a different vibe for us this year, as neither of our families were in town, and my out-of-control gestational diabetes makes the traditional Thanksgiving dinner limited to turkey only for me.  What's the point without all the goodness of mashed potatoes, stuffing, and pumpkin pie?  Or even a good buttered roll?  Just adding those to my list of things to eat after I pop this kid out - even if its just Boston Market or microwave dinners!  :)  So today we just opted for home made tom kha soup(Thai coconut chicken soup) and a movie date.  I know we're a little childish, but we watched Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Disney's Moana.  I've been saying for years Disney should do something based off of Polynesian mythology - really there are so many great trickster characters, and Maui's a great one. And I love Dwayne the Rock, and thought they did a nice...

So here we are, at nearly 30 weeks, and it has already been an interesting start to the 3rd trimester.  As I mentioned in my previous post, I failed (miserably) at the glucose tolerance test, and despite all my denial, blood tests after fasting and normal meals without sugary items still showed that I do indeed have a problem.  My OB and the diabetes nurse & dietitian spelled it out for me in a clearer way.  Basically, after around week 25, the placenta starts to crank out even more fancy hormones, and your pancreas is required to produce 3 times as much insulin as normal.  And if you don't eat regularly, your liver decides to dump a bunch of sugar into your system because it thinks you need the energy, which in turn the pancreas battles by making more insulin.  So there can be a lot of internal spikes and crashes going on that can be dangerous for the baby, possibly resulting in preeclampsia/blood pressure spikes, higher birth weights, premature labor, or w...

I'm so frustrated with doctors!  I'm 7 months pregnant, but before I even became pregnant I started my case for disability.  I had been on Cymbalta for a year and it wasn't helping me, but then I got fired from my job (I suspect because of several of my Fibro issues) and lost my insurance and couldn't afford Cymbalta anymore and went through several horrifying months of withdrawal that nearly killed me.  I decided then that I didn't want to go on any more of the Fibro approved meds until there was better proof that they work and better research.  Heck, just from reading many of the posts on my support group and blogs I've found through Pinterest it's obvious nothing works or if it does, it doesn't last. I've worked my butt off for 20+ years and of course it kills me to give up my career but my body is telling me enough is enough.  Applying for disability was always the last option but I don't know what type of work I could even do.  Anything phys...

And I meant that title pretty literally!  Its been a couple of crazy weeks, all starting the week of my husband's birthday.  We were attending a funeral for the mom of my husband's friend, and it was pretty hot out and we had been standing in the sun for awhile when I started to get a bout of dizziness and vertigo.  Its a strange feeling - I just started sweating profusely, my heart started pounding, and my eyes started to get all fuzzy.  I guess I'm not all that obviously pregnant still, so since nobody wanted to relinquish their seat to the fainting preggers my husband's dad guided us over to a shady spot further away from the ceremony.  So after sitting on top of a grave in the shade covered in ants for awhile and drinking water I felt much better.  But getting back up off the ground again was a challenge, and my back wasn't too happy!  That didn't stop me the next day though when I decided to move around furniture and baby items that had been s...

So as I've mentioned before, I come from a mixed background of Persian, Hawaiian, & Italian (and I think a little Irish, Dutch, & German mixed in there from my maternal grandma.)  But I grew up in a completely English speaking household (if you still count ghetto slang and pidgin as English).  See, my grandma never learned to speak Italian from her immigrant father because like many old school immigrants, they really wanted their children to be fully American.  Funny thing is - my grandma learned a lot of Hawaiian from her mother-in-law and she did pass that along to me when I took an interest in languages later.  My grandparents separated and divorced when I was very young, but memories I do have of my grandfather from a young age were of him teaching me to count in Hawaiian and Japanese.  He had been in the navy for many years and sometimes even now in his mid-80s, he surprises me with phrases in Japanese, Vietnamese, and Korean that he still remembers...

So the other day we got to have our anatomy scan ultrasound and I gotta say, it was the coolest thing we've seen in our pregnancy so far.  Its the one where they spend about an hour on your ultrasound doing all the measurements and checking all the major organs for proper development, and usually the one where most people find out the baby's sex.  Of course I had already found out via blood test at around week 12 since they do that for us old as f* moms over 35 (haha.)  But no doubt about it, in between his constant leg pumps and tendencies to moon the screen, we could see clearly we are having a boy. Already this kid has got so much energy and personality.  And rhythm!  The way he was pumping his legs and fists, we wonder if he's destined to be a drummer.  And the way he'd move his mouth in reaction to the technician prodding my belly to try to get him to turn over.... was that attitude I detected?  We're gonna have a character on our hands, just ...

Now I'm almost at 19 weeks in my pregnancy and finally starting to feel a bit better.  I lost 15 lbs and still a bit nauseous, but I have been eating well and even doing a little cooking.  I have to laugh a bit because just doing little chores around the house or cooking makes me so happy these days you'd think I accomplished something big like building the damn house or something.   But that is just the reality sometimes with a chronic illness - when you've been down for awhile, the simplest, silliest things can feel great. And those times I get down, I just try to remember -- I'm a freaking warrior!  I got off of my dangerous Fibromyalgia meds, and at that point in my illness, doctors were going to put me on just as dangerous narcotics & opiates (the same kinds that killed Prince and Michael Jackson!) but I refused and powered through.  And every time the pain gets tough or I struggle, I think of that and think of how I have to be strong for my son and f...