Back to work...

Last night I was really unable to sleep. I tossed and turned. I was both nervous and excited. I ended up getting out of bed around 5am to go into Ayla's room and watch her sleep. I think all babies are so sweet to look at while they sleep. Ayla will actually make facial expressions, some smiling and others she frowns as much as she possibly can before crying - both equally cute. So, I sat in there for about half an hour and then fed her. I went back to bed and proceeded to watch Mike sleep until my alarm went off. I thought about this whole experience and how truly AMAZING it has been. Without sounding like I am on a soapbox....some of life's biggest hurdles yield life's biggest rewards. I thought about using the word obstacle instead of hurdle but obstacle sounds too big, hurdles seem big, but with some effort and skill can be jumped. My hurdles were health issues, my reward is my beautiful Baby and wonderful little family.
I did not write about this during my pregnancy because I was going through it, and without a happy ending, I was not emotionally ready to share. In my family fertility was defiantly an issue I was worried about but luckily for us we conceived. I was extremely ill for my first 4 months of pregnancy(I actually lost 15 pounds during this time). I want to be clear here....I mean literally going to work everyday and puking before meetings (not fun and bad breath, haha). Oh poor me right... well besides many other less than wonderful things happening with test scares and so on, I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. Any of you who have been pregnant know you take a glucose tolerance test where you drink a Gatorade like sugar drink and then wait for an hour and test your blood sugar. I took this test and almost passed out. I was shaking. It felt like I had about 10 shots of tequila in 5 minutes (not pleasant to say the least). You are supposed to score under 140...my result 201. I took diabetes classes, had a nutritionist, and wrote down everything I ate or drink as well as counted grams of everything. I also had to test my blood sugar 4 times (a simple pick on the finger) a day while injecting myself 4 times a day with insulin in the abdomen. All of this really sucked because before this I was scared of needles. Overcame that fear! I also have a major thyroid problem that added insult to injury when it comes to a women's weight. I gained right around 30 pounds in my pregnancy (I think 7 of those were in the last week). The point of me sharing this is simple, each of these things were hurdles. They were NOT pleasant however necessary evils for me to go through to have the family I have always wanted. I think this really can apply to everyone as we all have our own type of hurdle to leap over. WOW...let me catch my breath. So my latest hurdle is coming back to work and thankfully this has been more of a step. I love my work, I love my boss and I work for a great company so this was really a no brainer. I dropped Ayla off at 8:15am at grandma Allocco's. Neither Ayla or I cried (way to go me). I picked her up at 4:30pm and she was so happy. She played with new toys and seems to have had so much fun. I really had a renewed focus while at work as I view every minute as time to be productive. My first day back (today) I sent out around 70 emails announcing my return with pictures of my little darling. I have had an overwhelmingly great response. I could not be happier with this decision. Here is to hurdles. They really make us stronger, wiser, and more interesting people.