Abby’s Saturday // Two Hundred And Seventeen

Highlight of the Week

I finally had a chance to take Braelynn’s official 3 1/2 year old portraits this week!! Since she has a January/winter birthday, doing portraits around her birthday are always going to be just kinda blah. They basically have to be indoors & let’s face it: things just aren’t as fun inside as they are outside! So, from the beginning, I set it in my head that I would make sure that every summer (around her “half birthday”) we did a “fun” photo shoot. And I’ve done that every year now! This year has just been tricky – we’ve had more grey & rainy days than we’ve had nice sunny days – and I really wanted a nice glow sunny day for what I had planned in my head! Then, add in all the days we’ve traveled this year & then we were on vacation 2 weeks ago – finding a day has been a challenge! This week though, as I was leaving the house for my 1-hour glucose test (more on that below), I realized that the day was going to be beautiful & I quickly ran around the house, gathering what I needed, and bam! We made it happen! I love the photos – stay tuned to see what fun we had!

Yes, This Happened

• I am now 27 weeks pregnant & baby boy weighs approximately as much as a head of cauliflower.
• So, funny story about this week’s Abby’s Saturday photo: Behind our garage, all of these “weeds” suddenly exploded with these cute white flowers! And since Braelynn was wearing this fancy dress after her photo shoot this week, I suggested we take Abby & Braelynn out back for a cute photo with the white flowers! All was going well, until, Braelynn started picking the flowers. That gave me an idea! What if she picked a whole bunch & threw them in the air? That’d be fun, right? So, I helped her gather up a big fistful of flowers annnnddddd – suddenly she threw them all to the ground & started crying. And those cries quickly turned into sobs. Obviously something was wrong – and as she held out her finger – Derrick & I saw that she had been stung by a bee. Talk about feeling terrible! I honestly don’t know how it even happened, because I was picking most of the flowers & handing them to her! But, there you go: first bee sting, and it’s all on account of an Abby’s Saturday photo.
• We keep getting our neighbor’s mail. And, when it’s just a “piece” of mail every 2-3 weeks, it’s not that big of a deal to run it over to their house. However! This week we got a mattress delivered to our door (you know, one of those memory foam mail-order mattresses that seem to be advertised everywhere these days?) I’m not going to lie, if it had been a King size, I might have been tempted to simply keep it (not really, but maybe). Thankfully, I have a big strong husband who was able to carry the thing next door & do the post office’s job for them.

Feeling Blessed

Want some cold-hard honesty? I’m not really feeling all that “blessed” this week.
Like I mentioned above, I had my 1-hour glucose test this week. If you haven’t been pregnant recently or close to someone who has been, the 1-hour glucose test is a screening to determine whether you are at risk for gestational diabetes or not. I was really nervous going into the test (without really being sure why I was nervous) & got the call on Friday afternoon that I failed the test. Apparently the “magic number” they want your blood sugar to be at after drinking a bottle of liquid sugar is 140 and my blood sugar came in at 150. This means that I now need to go in & take the 3-hour actual gestational diabetes test. It’s brutal not only because it’s long, but because you have to take it after fasting overnight (and if you haven’t been pregnant recently – eating is kind of a necessity).
So, needless to say, my night last night was sent into quite the tailspin. I got the call while I was driving up to Derrick’s parent’s house & my plan had been to spend a week with them. Ever since we moved home to Pittsburgh, I have been spending a week in the Twin Tiers in the fall to do portraits for my existing clients & friends up here (and just in case you’re wondering, I do not publicly advertise my time nor do I open my time to new clients – this is just me serving the families who have trusted me with their family photography for 8+ years). And last night was spent rearranging all of those sessions so that I could head home early & take that 3-hour test. Thankfully, everyone has been super flexible & understanding & everything has fallen into place perfectly.
I know in the grand scheme of things, it’s super minor, but I was simply crushed by the news. Devastated. Because here’s the deal: I don’t fail things. Give me a test, a goal, a deadline & I will crush it. I pass tests with flying colors & A+’s. That’s just my personality & who I am. So, to take this test & “fail” – I really don’t know how to handle it.
I am confident that in a few months, I’ll be able to look back & say – there was a reason for all of this. There is a reason I need to cut my trip short & head home early. There is a reason I need to take this 3-hour test (& maybe that reason is because I really do have gestational diabetes – a condition that definitely has risks for both the Mother & baby). I don’t know what those reasons are right now in the middle of everything, but I know God has a plan & a purpose for all of this & one day, I’ll be able to look back & say: “God was in control & He knew what He was doing.”
So, even though it’s upsetting, I’m looking forward to having some answers next week. It’s just another way that this pregnancy has been completely different than my first! I really appreciate your prayers as I officially head into my 3rd trimester next week and the possibility of having gestational diabetes.