All things considered, I've had fairly easy pregnancies and this one hasn't been that different. I haven't had morning sickness in my last two pregnancies and after suffering through it once, I'm VERY thankful for that! My record of "easy" pregnancies came crashing down this time when in the beginning of my third trimester I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. It's by no means an "end of the world" type diagnosis, but it does complicate things a bit the further along I get with the constant monitoring and a ton more appointments to attend. The positive thing is that the baby is perfectly fine all cozy in my womb, albeit BIG, but healthy and fine. I'm going to be honest and say that I was in complete denial about this diagnosis when I left my hospital's Diabetes Lifecare unit after my first appointment. I had very similar test results from the one and three hour glucose tolerance tests this pregnancy and last pregnancy and yet last pregnancy I was given the "you're borderline watch your carb intake" speech by my OB and sent on my way. This time I was given the diagnosis and sent off to another set of doctors and nurses for monitoring. Then, I started to take my blood sugars which involves a teeny tiny needle and four sticks a day in any finger I choose at the time. One stick is right when I get up in the morning (a fasting number) and the other three are two hours after my main meals of the day (breakfast, lunch, and dinner). My denial ended when all my readings were coming back high except my after breakfast number. Then I began to wonder if I should have gotten the diagnosis last pregnancy...who knows. That ship has certainly sailed.
Most concerning to my new Diabetes nurse were my high fasting numbers. They signified that my body wasn't able to keep up with the placenta's demand for extra insulin for baby. Leaving this untreated could result in a variety of complications such as too much amniotic fluid (baby gets too much sugar and pees out the extra causing extra fluid), preterm labor, larger baby (extra sugars become extra fat making baby super chubby), early maturing placenta, high blood pressure, etc. I was shocked when she told me I'd need to go on insulin and I needed to come in right away for an appointment to learn how to administer it. I was even more shocked that once I got there and she had further reviewed all my sugar readings she decided to put me on insulin TWICE a day as all of my lunch numbers were quite high as well. The insulin shots actually turned out not to be as bad I had envisioned. I use the smallest needle on the market, a nano, and there are no viles and syringes. The insulin dose is in what they call a pen and it is very easy to set up to make sure I get the correct dose. I get a large dose at bedtime before I go to sleep which lasts overnight and then I get a second dose in the morning before I eat breakfast that will help my lunch numbers. The insulin is slow acting and takes 4-5 hours to peak in my system, hence I take the dose at breakfast to help my lunch number at noon.
Now as for the appointments. I love my doctors. All of them. And I definitely appreciate their due diligence, but holy cow do I have to go to a lot of appointments now. Starting at 33 weeks I started twice weekly appointments with my OB. I have an NST (non-stress test) early in the week to make sure baby is reacting well to the uterine environment after kicks and sleep cycles and then every Friday I get another NST, then an ultrasound (alternating between just a simple fluid check and a full biophysical profile), and then meet with my OB. Fridays trio of tests usually takes a total of at least 2 hours!! In addition to those appointments I also have to fax my blood sugar readings to the Diabetes center once a week and I meet with a nurse every other week. I kind of like the extra ultra sounds and getting to see this little one, but having to rearrange my day off to accommodate my appointments and making sure my in-laws can watch my daughter has been challenging. A.R. can't take the time away from work to come help me as then he'd lose out on his paternity leave postpartum. He did come to one ultrasound to see our sweet baby at 32 weeks, though. This baby is BIG. He/she was estimated to be 5lb 4oz at 32w3d and was estimated to be 7lbs at 34w5d. I'm actually not that surprised as that puts baby around 9- 9 1/2 lbs at birth and let's face it, I make big babies: #1 was 9lb 4oz and M was 8lb 6oz. I also have too much amniotic fluid right now. A condition called polyhydramnios which can be due to the gestational diabetes or a bigger baby so I get fluid checks via ultrasound once a week. I like getting to see Baby R 2.0 a little more often.
Posts
