Greetings from Austin – October 6, 29-30 weeks

We’ve been really fortunate. Given my age, I was a little worried about how I would handle pregnancy. Really and truly, it hasn’t been that bad. There’s some heartburn and fatigue, but generally, I feel fine. At 20 weeks our ultrasound looked good, and the baby has been active, routinely nudging at me off and on throughout the day. At every appointment, my stats have been consistently good. All that to say that we’ve gotten really used to the idea that I was going to have a nice, uncomplicated pregnancy. This past week, we were introduced to our first complication.

I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. (Please read more here if you’re interested.) I didn’t even see this one coming. My diet is generally good, and while my exercising has been a bit inconsistent, it’s not been bad. My weight prior to pregnancy was normal, and my gain so far has been good. Prior to this, my blood sugars have always been decidedly normal. I went into the glucose tolerance test believing it was a formality. I had borderline numbers on the 1-hour test, so I took the 3-hour test. I didn’t fail by much, but fail I did.

The good news is that hopefully I can control it with diet and exercise, and we’ll go back to enjoying an otherwise uncomplicated pregnancy. I’m told that if I can keep my blood sugar within acceptable levels, there’s no reason for us to change how we manage the rest of the pregnancy or labor and delivery. If I can keep my blood sugar in line, the baby should be healthy and normally sized when she’s born. Also, it’s most likely that this will go away once I’m not pregnant anymore.

I have decided not to go into the bad news, because most of it shouldn’t be relevant. I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to keep this under control and that everyone will come out healthy and happy at the end. If nothing else, this will force us to be a little more aware of how we’re composing meals and what the ramifications of our lazy takeout nights are.

My step-mother Carol pointed out recently that I hadn’t posted pictures in a while. I have a few “belly pictures” from the last month or so. Yesterday, we decided to take this show on the road. We went to a place in Austin called Graffiti Park and took a few photos. Plus, as seen above, we couldn’t resist taking a photo in front of the “Greetings from Austin” painting that graces all the tourist literature.

August 20, 22-23 weeks

September 9, 25-26 weeks

Graffiti Park – October 6, 29-30 weeks

Graffiti Park – October 6th, 29-30 weeks

It should come as no surprise to anyone that knows us that food is an important part of our lives. I love to cook, and we both love to eat. It would make me happy if we could raise a kid who was willing to eat lots of different things and also understood that not all her food comes in pre-packaged, highly processed form. In an effort to educate myself on how that might be accomplished, I recently read French Kids Eat Everything, by Karen Le Billon.

It is not my intention to write a full review of this book. Instead, I’d like to make note of some of the things I found interesting.

In this book, Le Billon proposes 10 food rules that are meant to help raise happy, healthy eaters. Some of these seem like they might be good advice for the rest of us as well. The need to offer a variety of foods and cook whole foods as much as possible has already been on my mind.

One thing I found interesting though is that the French believe that teaching a kid how to eat is as important as teaching grammar or math. They consider it the parents’ job to ensure that their child knows how to eat properly. The parents, not the kids, are in charge of deciding what will be eaten and when, and contrary to what seems to be the norm these days, snacking is kept to a minimum or eliminated altogether. It’s okay to feel hungry between meals; it helps kids to learn to listen to their bodies, to understand when they need food and when they do not.

Early in their budding eating careers, kids are offered a variety of foods, to the point of having pureed “soups” thinned and served in their bottles. If something is pushed away a time or two, the parents simply keep offering the foods noting that the child just hasn’t tasted it enough to like it yet. They’re training their children’s palates. I personally don’t know if I will have the patience for that, but it’s an interesting notion regardless.

Offering treats as a reward or withholding food as punishment is simply not done. Eating is not to be considered an emotional affair. Meals have a logical progression: first the salad, then the main course, then the dessert. Instead of threatening to not serve dessert to convince a kid to eat his vegetables, it’s simply not possible to serve dessert till through with the main course.

Families eat together in France, and they converse at the table, generally taking their time to get through a meal. Food is not mere fuel. It is enjoyed and discussed, lingered over. Le Billon points out that it’s not just eating that the kids who share a meal with grown-ups are learning, it’s also the art of conversation, what the news of the day is, how to disagree without being offensive, how to be polite. They’re learning to enjoy the meal. Also, taking things slowly and savoring their food allows them time to realize they’re full before they’re completely, gluttonously stuffed.

I want to try some of these things out and see if we can raise our kid to be a good eater. Those who are already parents are probably laughing at me right now, and I’m sure I’ll learn the hard way that she may sometimes have a stronger will than I do. For now though, I’m going to stick with the notion that we are in charge of making sure she learns how to eat well. We’ll just see how it goes.