Woo-hoo! I can hardly believe that I'm almost done with my second trimester! :D Just a few more looooooong weeks until my daughter is here! My, how she's grown already!
Certain risk factors increase your chances of getting gestational diabetes: having had gestational diabetes in a previous pregnancy, having Type II diabetes in the family and being overweight. In my case, I had two strikes against me as my father's side of the family has many cases of Type II and I'm overweight. I never even got to the three hour test. My one hour blood sugar was so high that I was referred directly to the gestational diabetes program at my hospital. I took the test on Monday, got the results back on Tuesday and have been under the new regime of strict diet, exercise and testing my blood sugar four times a day since Wednesday.
In the grand scheme of things, it's really not all that bad -- it just takes a lot of getting used to. To go from eating as I always did to a super strict diet took a lot of getting used to. On Wednesday morning, I could have sugar and by Wednesday afternoon, I couldn't have any! All meals were to be eaten on a schedule, all to be followed by a period of exercise and a finger stick blood sugar test. All the changes made my head spin.
I was particularly depressed on Friday afternoon because it seemed like my blood sugar just wouldn't get under the numbers that were set for me and it looked like having to use insulin (ie. shooting myself) was going to be another part of this new regime. My dietitian still isn't happy with my blood sugar levels so I'm seeing an endocrinologist tomorrow. I'm hoping against hope that insulin isn't needed but if it is, it's a small price to pay for a healthy baby.
Thanksgiving was celebrated at my parents house this year to a fairly small crowd: my parents, my sister and her fiance C as well as my husband, myself and our dog. Yes, I'm the crazy nut that brings my dog to family gatherings. Miyuki loves my parents house as well as their big yard where she gets to romp around. My husband and I especially like it because my parents have carpet only in the living room and Miyuki tends to skid all over the rest of the house. It's so funny to watch because she's totally excitable and gets even worse when she realizes she has no traction.
The food was excellent, with the savories prepared by my sister. Turkey, stuffing, veggies, potatoes, sweet potatoes, appetizers. Yum. I brought the dessert: pumpkin pie, pecan pie and flan. Unfortunately, my flan turned out a bit bitter as I over caramelized the sugar. Drat. :( All in all, it was a relaxing Thanksgiving.
On our way home from my parents house, we passed a Best Buy. It was only 5:30PM on Thursday evening and people were already lined up, waiting in line. The parking lot was already half full! People are absolutely insane, I tell you! The husband and I also pondered our own shopping trip to Fry's if we could find a deal on computer components since he's insisting I need a new computer. Alas, there were no truly good deals to be had as far as what we're looking for so we didn't go.
I've got mixed feelings about Black Friday. Don't get me wrong: I love a good deal but I can't do the whole "get up at the buttcrack of dawn" thing to buy something. My sleep is just too important to me. (Read: I am lazy.) Moreover, I've been one of the poor saps at Mervyns working the Black Friday shift. 4:00AM in the morning for a retail job is inhumane. Worse, Fry's employees (like my friend) have a disgusting shift: 4:30AM to 11:30PM. Granted there's two breaks and a 2 hour lunch but can we say exploitive? Damn.
At the same time there's the "Buy Nothing" movement which I think is equally ridiculous. My husband and I aren't gift givers per se. We share what we have when we can and both eschew the idea of obligatory gifts. In our minds, obligatory gifts are stupid and wasteful and in the end, only take up space. But still we buy what we want which isn't always what we need but that just makes us the average American. But it seems to me that many of the "Buy Nothing" campaign like to harp on how disgusting American consumerism is. In some ways, I can see where they are coming from but in other ways, I think they take it too far.
In the end, everyone does what's best for them. Today, I may go shopping after work. Or I may not. It doesn't matter to me. All I know that it's absolutely GORGEOUS here in the Bay Area today. Beautiful blue sky, crisp cool weather. It'd be a shame to spend all day insane, shopping. (I'm inside all day, working, but that's not something I can help.)
We had our 20w ultrasound earlier today. The baby was stubborn and refused to move into all the positions the sonographer needed so we'll have to go in to get a second ultrasound next week.
But we were able to determine the gender! The baby is officially a baby girl and her name is Seraphine Grace Ngoc (Surname). Her middle names are my middle name and my husband's middle name :)
I hit the big halfway point (20w) on Friday. I can hardly believe it's almost halfway over! Only twenty more weeks until I get to hold my baby. It's an awesome and terrifying thought.
Delishiono has been updated! New recipes: Zuppa Toscana and omurice :)
As luck would have it, my Canon S200 pretty much gave up the ghost the day after my birthday. I hate asking for presents -- especially expensive ones -- but after my old camera died, I called up my mom and asked if instead of exchanging a necklace they'd gotten for me (which really wasn't my style but it was a nice thought) if they could possibly help me get a replacement camera. As I put it, my dog would have better pictures than the baby at this point! So she talked to my dad and they opted to give me some money towards the camera. It's not the full amount but it's a good hefty sum which takes the sting out of buying the camera. So I danced my happy self down to Best Buy last night and picked up My Precious (Replacement) -- a Canon Rebel XTi!
After seeing that the 40D was "only" $1,500, my husband wanted to know why I wasn't going for that. As tempting as a brand new 40D would be, I really don't need it. I'm not a professional photographer, though I'd love to do that someday as a side job. Nope, the latest prosumer model is perfectly fine for my needs right now which is taking pictures of the three F's: family, friends and food.
I'm so stoked to have another dSLR!! I've missed being able to take good pictures. This time around, I'm really going to try to master some photography techniques and really try to get better at it so that I can take really wonderful pictures of my baby growing up.
Sunday was my birthday. Since this is the last birthday I'll have before becoming a Mommy, I decided to celebrate with lots of good food, friends and family at some nice restaurants since I doubt we'll be seeing these restaurants without a babysitter for a very long time!
Saturday evening was spent with a bunch of friends, new and old, at GocHi in Cupertino, CA. It's a Japanese izakaya or as they bill it "Japanese fusion tapas". It's one of my favorite restaurants because the food is all very good and very innovative. I didn't take any pictures from the night because my battery ran out. Doh! It was great hanging out with a bunch of my friends over some really good food. Regrettably, there was no toro to be had. BOO!!
One of my friends gifted me with some great cupcakes from Teacake Bakeshop in Emeryville, CA. They were originally known for their teacakes (cookies) which I wasn't too impressed with initially. I guess they've followed the current cupcake craze and started in on that as well. Good thing too because their cupcakes are really, really good! My friend got me an assortment: pumpkin, pink velvet and a chocolate cupcake. And then she also got me a wonderful chocolate cupcake topped with a sinful dulce de leche frosting. I normally hate frosting but I love the dulce de leche frosting. YUMMY!!
Sunday was spent with my family at Thanh Long in San Francisco, CA. I had told my mom about a month ago that I had a craving for roasted crab and garlic noodles. I initially wanted to go to PPQ which is another Vietnamese restaurant in the Sunset district which had the same dishes but at lower prices. My mom suggested Thanh Long instead so that's where she made the reservations.
We had two appetizers: coconut shrimp and shrimp toasts. I had originally ordered the GARLIC TOAST but they misheard me. Oops. My husband got the roasted crab; my sister and I both had the butterflied jumbo prawns with garlic noodles; my dad had the Thanh Long snapper; my mom had a eggplant stirfry; and my friend had the Saigon Beef which were pretty much the beef rolls you get at bo bay mon.
The verdict? The food was all lipsmackingly good and the service was exceptionally fast. But the price... oof! Very expensive. I felt bad when the check came around. My sister and I were shocked to see that the prawns were nearly as much as the roasted crab. We should have gotten the roasted crab as that would have been the better deal!
For dessert, my husband and my friend split tempura bananas and we also had the guava cake I'd brought. The guava cake was actually a specialty of a bakery down in San Jose, CA called Aki's Bakery. I loved picking up cakes and what not at Aki's when we lived down in San Jose but hadn't been there since we moved up to the East Bay. Aki's was acquired last year by the same people that own Vienna Bakery & Cafe in Fremont, CA. It was kind of a shock to the Chowhounding community last year and there were concerns that Aki's wouldn't stay the same. But it did and the bonus was that Aki's signature guava cake was now available at Vienna Bakery as well which was great news for me since it is relatively close by. And let me tell you, that cake was yummy!
So that was my food-filled weekend. I decided to take today as my last vacation day off to just enjoy my extended birthday. And I need it to digest all the food! There was so much good food this weekend that I think I over did it. I almost convinced my husband to go to dim sum for lunch on Sunday but he's not a fan of dim sum. I'm glad I didn't now because it really would have been too much of a good thing. I'll get back to healthy eating now since Baby Bump and I don't need anymore fat, salt and sugar! But it sure was fun (and delicious) while it lasted!
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