Me & My Bump

Photos of me, mum, dad and my mother-in-law at the end of September after Peter & I had lunch with both parents during dad's one week fly-by visit to the States during lunar Thanksgiving 추석. I saw my mother-in-law quickly fixing her make-up using a near-by car's window when she thought no one was looking so I was a bit more persistent with her and she 'succumbed'. Father-in-law kept on resisting so he's not in any of the pics but I think he secretly did want to be in one and I regret not having insisted just one more time... I think he would've 'succumbed' eventually in a very typically Korean way.

I'm wearing my new fall / winter maternity clothes as none of the clothes I brought from the UK fits me at the mo. ;)

Gestational diabetes confirmed and I have a 2 hour appointment at O'Connor Hospital on Monday, 22 October. I think it's a clinic they run for expectant mums with gestational diabetes rather than a 1:1 appointment 'cause they have a name for it: "Sweet Success". We were actually shown the clinic when we went for our maternity ward / floor tour last week but I didn't pay much attention to it - wish I had now! I don't think the Good Samaritan Hospital (our other option for delivery) has a specialist clinic area for gestational diabetes but it's something I'll need to find out as it's now become a must-have for us.

Lots of love,
Jenny

Gestational Diabetes?!

I had a phone call from my Obs & Gynae doc this morning to say that my glucose tolerance blood test results just came in and that my blood glucose level is extremely high. He said that 140 is considered normal but mine was something like 192. If my results had been just a bit over 140 they would've asked me to go take the 3-hour test just in case but as they were so high there was no need to. He said that the fact that I'd had lunch right before taking the test wouldn't have made a significant difference either. :(

A bit from the www:

Gestational Diabetes Screening: Glucose Challenge Test
(1 hour after a 50-gram glucose drink)
Less than 140* mg/dL (7.8 mmol/L) Normal glucose tolerance
140* mg/dL (7.8 mmol/L) and over Abnormal, needs OGTT (see below)
* Some use a cutoff of >130 mg/dL (7.2 mmol/L) because that identifies 90% of women with gestational diabetes, compared to 80% identified using the threshold of >140 mg/dL (7.8 mmol/L).

Gestational Diabetes Diagnostic: OGTT
(100-gram glucose drink)
Fasting* 95 mg/dL (5.3 mmol/L)
1 hour after glucose load* 180 mg/dL (10.0 mmol/L)
2 hours after glucose load* 155 mg/dL (8.6 mmol/L)
3 hours after glucose load* ** 140 mg/dL (7.8 mmol/L)
* If two or more values are above the criteria, gestational diabetes is diagnosed.
** A 75-gram glucose load may be used, although this method is not as well validated as the 100-gram OGTT; the 3-hour sample is not drawn if 75 grams is used.

So I've been doing a bit of reading on gestational diabetes this morning and I'm actually in the very low-risk category but somehow... It's been one thing after another with my pregnancy and as Peter once said I've been "over-achieving" (morning sickness went on longer than 90% of average pregnant women, ending up in A&E / ER, etc) but this is the most worrying of the lot as it may affect Sara(h) while she's in the womb, during the birth, after birth and beyond for both of us. Only 2-7% of expectant mothers develop gestational diabetes, which apparently makes it one of the most common health problems of pregnancy but with my medical history, my family's medical history, and everything else considered the chances of me ending up with gestational diabetes were lower than low... There's a higher risk of stillbirth, of me needing a c-section, of my developing pre-eclampsia (was involved in a clinical trial with women with pre-eclampsia - it's not nice at all!!!), and 2/3 of women who have gestational diabetes have it again during future pregnancies and usually go on to develop Type II diabetes within 5 years after delivery amongst other things! Sara(h) has a higher chance of developing childhood & adulthood obesity and of developing diabetes too - poor thing!

My Obs & Gynae doc will be setting up appointments for me attend a clinic for pregnant women with gestational diabetes so I can learn as much as poss about it and start regulating my diet and exercise appropriately as too much exercise can be just as bad as too little. *Sigh...*

Only Peter and mum know so far... I haven't even told Peter's parents yet. There's a very slight chance that it might be a false alarm and our doc said that he'd get the lab to re-check my results but...

I think the most important thing to remember in order to keep things in perspective is that most mums with gestational diabetes have natural births without too many complications and have healthy babies.

Please continue to pray for us, especially our health, that there will be no complications during the next couple of months.

Prayerfully yours on a nostalgic, lovely, rainy day in San Jose,
Jenny

Her name is...

I didn't realise till after I posted the blog below that I completely assumed that everyone knew Little Miss Oh's name but that I hadn't written anything about it! Oops!!! Sorry~!

So while we were at one of the Youth Summer Retreats (think it was the Sr. High one) was when we decided on the name Sara(h). We'd been m-ing & r-ing about names since we found out I was pregnant and then concentrating on a girly name since we found out in July but on that day in August, Peter asked me what I thought of the name Sara(h) and I was completely gobsmacked! I'd been thinking of the name for the past few days but hadn't mentioned anything to him yet as I wanted to go thru all of the pros and cons in my head first and hadn't quite finished but he actually mentioned it first! Needless to say we were both very happy to have found a name that we both liked. :) The only thing that's undecided is whether or not we're going to spell it with an 'h' at the end! I prefer with, he prefers without. I think I'm starting to sway towards without but don't tell him I said that. ;)

As of I think last week, Little Miss Oh also has a Korean name which will be her middle name - Juhee. 'Ju' as in 'all around' and 'hee' as in 'happiness / joy' so her name means 'one gives happiness / joy to all around [her]'.

Miss Sara(h) Juhee Oh. :)

After I wrote my previous blog I also realised that I forgot to mention that another reason why I've been so busy is because my house in the UK is finally in the process of being sold and I had a lot of paperwork to complete! It's been a bit of a pain as the tenant refused to pay rent during the last few months she was living there and then left suddenly but the estate agents didn't even tell me that she'd left! So I was here in the US becoming increasingly frustrated at the fact that I wasn't receiving any rental income and then I find out... Anyway... The nightmare's nearly over now - I think?!?!?!

Another thing I left off the previous posting re things I need to do: study for and take the DMV (US equivalent of the DVLA) driver license tests. I need to take both the theory and practical tests, or as they call it here, 'written' and 'driving' tests, as mine is from outside the US. Even within the US if your license is from a different state, you're required to take the practical again in order to be issued a CA driver license. I was supposed to have taken it within a certain number of days after becoming a resident of CA and I've gone past it but I don't they really care. I'll definitely be taking both of them soon though as I need it for ID purposes as well!!!

Going to write separate blog updates for a couple of other things...

Lots of love,
Jenny

Sorry!!!

Wow... I can't believe I went through Aug & Sep without a simple blog update! So sorry!!!

Quick summary of August:
1st week - Stopped having morning sickness - hurrah!!! :)
2nd week - Jr High (6th - 8th "grades", as in 6th - 8th year students or similar to) Retreat ("camp") from 7th - 10th.
3rd week - Sr High (9th - 12th "grades") Retreat from 14th - 17th.
4th week - High School Registration period for two brothers so lots to prepare (forms to fill in / check, cheques to write, classes / teachers to confirm, buy uniforms, back-to-school stuff, etc). Mum finally returned from Korea after her stay was unexpectedly extended from 2 to 4 weeks. Peter started using Facebook!
5th week - Korean School Teachers' Orientation on 26th, Peter had to preach for the Wed night Korean service on 29th. Started packing our stuff and on 1st September...

After living at mum's in Almaden for months, we moved out on 1st September back to our place in Sunnyvale. My morning sickness was gone, I was able to eat, cook, etc and mum was over her jetlag so we moved out. I cried the first night. :)

Quick summary of September:
Really busy with Korean School - Had to quit though 'cause it was so exhausting physically and mentally. My heart wanted to teach 'cause I love the kids and I love teaching but I wasn't able to cope with the workload so found a replacement and quit. I also didn't think it'd be fair on the students to have a fatigued not-as-well-prepared-as-she-should be teacher. I was still involved with a lot of the more exec stuff as mum's Headmistress ("Principal") but my workload was much less than when I was teaching.
Really busy with church Youth work - We started having two-hourly(-ish) gatherings with parents and students from each grade. It took a lot of coordinating, preparation, asking very nicely for "favours" and a lot of energy too. It was the first time we'd tried this kind of meeting so the first meetings in particular were very experimental but the outcomes for all of them (so far, they're still going on!) have been really positive. Only a couple more left! A lot of additional work has come out of it but it's all good stuff and stuff I'm excited about doing! :) My only worry is about possibly letting the parents down and not being able to get things done as quickly as they'd like. A lot of parents seem to think that pastors & wives have superhuman powers and have more hours in the day than everybody else. If only! :)
Really busy with my Permanent Residency / Change of Status US visa docs - So complicated and so expensive! The fees for the forms came to a total of 1,365 USD but that doesn't include the cost of taking passport photos (paid 40 USD for 8 passport photos and that's a bargain!!! average 10 USD for 2 passport photos, funny size too!), blood tests & vaccinations (about 200 USD), medical examinations (about 100 USD), printing, photocopies, etc... I'm very happy to be able to say that on 4 Oct I finally sent everything (all labeled and in order of course :)) so I'll hopefully hear back from them with good news very soon! There are a couple more medical things I need to have completed once I've had baby Sara(h) but otherwise, they hopefully have everything they need. It should take 3-6 months for my Permanent Residency approval to come through and then approx 2 years thereafter for my Citizenship to be approved - I think.
Other things that kept me busy (not in any particular order) - trying to organise / make more home-ly our 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom condo; dad visited for a week; sister's boyfriend visiting for 1 day from Dallas, Texas to ask dad for his permission to marry my sister; 2-hourly quilting classes Thurs mornings (bit of sth for myself), 2-hourly Childbirth Preparation classes Mon evenings; met with a rep from the IMB (International Missions Board) re Peter & I going out on long-term missions soon, application, etc; Peter sick for a week; usual cooking, cleaning, etc.

We've had a busy start to October too as I set up appointments with various carpet companies so we've had people around to measure and sell us their stuff! We've narrowed it down to two of four options now and so hopefully we'll be able to get our new carpet soon so it can settle before Miss Oh arrives. :) Weekend just gone was packed with a wedding, chauffeuring my brother around, two grade-specific gatherings, and two PTA (Parent Teacher Association) meetings involving all of the parents with children in the Youth group. Monday (yesterday) we just vegged! :)

Quilting classes are almost over now (so sad... :() and our Childbirth Prep classes are almost over now too (birth's getting closer - eek!) but I think this month's going to be pretty hectic with the new carpet coming in, trying to get rid of as much of our stuff as possible to make room for lots of baby stuff & prepare for our eventual move abroad, finishing the Korean School yearbook, producing a directory / phone book for the Youth group, getting the ball rolling on the Youth yearbook, organising Miss Oh's baby shower in mid-November, starting to look at all far-too-many options for all the things we need to buy before she's born or soon thereafter, pick photos for our wedding album (still haven't done it so still don't have an album!), send last remaining wedding thank you cards (appalling I know...), etc. I think I've covered most of the big things.

I've started interpreting (real-time!) on Sunday for the non-Koreans who attend our Korean service at church. It was really scary the first time but I'm starting to get used to it and am hoping to start enjoying it soon too. :) They've asked me to do it until Sara(h)'s born with the hopes that they'll be able to find someone else by then. The lady who's been doing it apparently wants a break which is perfectly understandable as it's adrenaline-rushing brain-numbing high-concentration work!

In terms of the pregnancy, I was able to eat with no worries for a few weeks and then started experiencing heartburn, indigestion, nausea, feeling "gassy" (problems with wind), and breathlessness so I've started being more careful again about what and how much I eat during each meal. I hadn't had any vomiting for about 10 weeks but then I vomited today so... :( Hope it's not the beginning of another bout of vomiting!

Miss Sara(h) Oh is healthy, very busy kicking mum when she's not sleeping but a bit on the small side. According to her size, at last measurement during our Sept appt, her due date is 2 Jan, nearly 2 weeks later than the original due date of 22 Dec. Apparently 1st babies are usually born late too but we'll see... Peter and I are both hoping for mid Dec for various reasons. :)

It's such a nice feeling updating my blog! :) Will definitely have to do it more regularly now that I don't need to worry about being kicked out of the US or having to do more work 'cause I didn't get my application in on time.

Love you and miss you lots,
Jenny