Here’s a belly shot of me at 24 weeks (last week). I’m at 24 wks and 3 of 7 days today, according to the hospital’s calendar. I can’t believe that in a few short weeks I’ll be in the third trimester already (27wks)! As you can see, the baby bump is WELL pronounced! I (luckily) don’t seem to be gaining much weight in other areas, although my face is rounder and fuller. I shouldn’t complain, because I’ve only gained around 10 lbs so far. It seems the baby is burning off what I eat, and the rest of my fat is slowly migrating to my midsection from the other areas on my body.
Speaking of what I eat and what the baby is doing…
Think this looks scary? I did, last week when they gave it to me. My glucose levels were high so I had to go in and speak with a dietician. If I understood what they said, at the 2nd glucose test, the 75g one, you have to fast over night then go in and have your blood taken. Then you drink 75g of this nasty, orange-soda-resembling, syrupy liquid. Then you wait an hour, then they take your blood again. Then you wait ANOTHER hour, and they take your blood again. Then you get to go home and pig out ‘cus you are so hungry at this point.
I had done that test a few weeks ago, after having done the 50g test on Jan 9th (at the 50g you only do no fasting, drink 50g of the stuff, wait an hour and do 1 blood test. It’s to see if you need to bother going for the 75g.) My levels were slighly high, so I had to go for the 75g. Now, here’s how I believe it breaks down. If 2 or more of your results from the 75g are high, (so 2 or 3 out of 3) then you are considered as having Gestational Diabetes. If only 1 of the 3 blood tests comes back as being high, then you have Impaired Glucose Tolerance. I could be wrong, but I believe the nurse told me that IGT doesn’t have as high risks as GD, for example it is more likely to go away after you give birth, and it doesn’t have as high a risk of you getting Type II Diabetes later on in life. I’m not 100% sure about that, though. In any case, I have IGT. My initial test, after fasting over night, was high.
Last Monday I was given that lovely little kit up there, and an rx for lancets, test strips and keytone testing sticks, met with a dietician, and found out that for the rest of the pregnancy I need to test 4 times a day: first thing in the morning, 1 hr after breakfast, 1 hr after lunch and 1 hr after supper. I also need to eat 3 full meals and 3 snacks a day- hard for me right now ‘cus I’ve had NO appetite since being pregnant.
Anyways, my baby’s health is the most important thing, so for the last week I’ve been following this plan, recording what I eat and my sugar levels (although I did make myself a new form in Excel because theirs was NOT user-friendly to me and I knew I could do better). I was pleasantly surprised to find out that pricking my fingers to test doesn’t actually hurt at all, although if I look closely at my fingertips I can see a bunch of fading red dots.
I thought I was doing ok.
Trust me…that kit up there does NOT look scary at all when you are faced with this:
Yeah. Insulin.
Turns out I have been doing a great job at watching what I eat. My daytime levels are great. Unfortunately my first-thing-in-the-morning levels have been high for 4 of the 7 days I tested. This means my body is not producing enough insulin while it is fasting (overnight while I sleep). I thought that meant I wasn’t eating enough at my bedtime snack, or maybe I was eating too much…how do I fix that? Well, apparently it has nothing to do with what I eat. It’s just how my body reacts to being pregnant. You know, the nurse, the doctor and the dietician all tried to make it clear to me that it’s not my fault, it has nothing to do with what I have eaten, or my lifestyle, or the fact that I was overweight, or anything. It’s just how my body reacts. But still…I can’t help but feel like I failed. Like I did something wrong and put my baby’s health at risk. Let me tell you I was not happy to find out I have to give myself nightly injections, and nearly started crying in front of the doctor.
So the nurse showed me how to load the syringe, flick out the air bubbles, and told me how to inject it. (As an aside- I wonder why I was given an actual syringe and not a trigger-type gun thingy like the finger-pricking tester? Wouldn’t that be easier for someone who has never injected themselves with anything?) She couldn’t show me how to actually inject it because I have to do it at night before going to bed, after my bedtime snack. Tonight I get to try it out for the first time.
Apparently you can inject on the outsides of either thigh, or the fleshy part on the back of your arm, or the stomach. Now, even though I have the easiest time “pinching an inch” on my stomach, the thought that there is a baby in there does NOT have me wanting to “shoot up” there. Plus I heard it hurts more on the stomach. I have an easy time squishing my upper arm against the back of a chair to find a fleshy spot, but once I have it pinched I no longer have a hand to inject with! (I guess I could keep my arm pushed against the chair to hold the skin up and shoot with the other hand, but that’s a little too awkward for me to contemplate at the moment). That leaves the outside of either leg. I can’t really pinch anything on my legs but I guess I’ll figure it out tonight. I’ve asked Yannick to be home for moral support but I don’t know how well that will go since the only thing he’s *afraid* of is needles. (I’m sorry. He’s a man. He’s not afraid, he just doesn’t like them. Forget I said anything about being afraid.)
I’m sure that once I do it once it will be fine, and that the buildup is scarier than actually sticking that thing into my leg. Yeah. By tomorrow I’ll be laughing. Unfortunately I have to get through tonight first. I try to tell myself…I did an amnio…I can do this! (I just wasn’t the one holding the needle during the amnio…)
I’ll post a follow-up tomorrow and let you know how it goes. Let’s see if I can get some knitting done tonight and forget about it for a bit.
and 
jeloca.com 