I caved. Induction date is set.

For a month now I have been evading my Doctor when she has mentioned induction. I have had 2 growth ultrasounds in that time b/c of my gestational diabetes and the baby is measuring pretty accurately for where they are supposed to be with the exception of a big head. My diabetes is 100% diet controlled and my A1C levels came back great. Still, the standard of care is an induction at 39 weeks. I am very conflicted about all of this, but scheduled the induction with the hopes that baby will come on their own before Monday. Both Archie and Fletcher were born before 39 weeks so the odds are good...I hope. Also, the induction is scheduled at 8 p.m. I actually laughed when my nurse said it was so mom could get in a night of rest while the pitocin took effect. Has anyone ever actually been able to rest during pitocin induced contractions? At least she she was able to realize what a load she was feeding me and laughed as well.

In other news, G&G R. are here!! Can I say what a relief it is to know that I can go into labor now and the boys will be well cared for. That is always my biggest concern about going into labor with other kids at home. We had a back-up plan, but nobody wants to go into labor at 2 a.m. and immediately worry about waking up their older child(ren), getting them ready, and taking them to a sitters house. Now we just get to wake up G&G and let them know we are leaving. I am so thankful for family!

Dave's birthday was on Monday. He is now at the ripe old age of 32! We went to dinner at Sweet Tomatoes and then had cake that I bought at Rheinlander Bakery, which also sells low carb, sugar free pastries! I had my first truly sweet dessert since my GD diagnosis. The Raspberry Mousse pastry was sinfully delicious. The Pistachio Almond Cream one was actually a little too sweet for me. That has never happened to me before. On the bright side, it did not spike my blood sugar so I will call that a win. For his birthday gifts I got Dave a coffee shop gift card so he can get out of the house during the day and work there for a bit if he wants. I also made him some wall art using my handy Silhouette Cameo. Not terribly exciting gifts, but I hope he had a great day regardless.

The boys are loving having G&G here. They are going to the park, getting to fall asleep with them, reading stories, playing Lego, and just getting spoiled in general. When we went to the bakery they each got to pick out a cookie. I had them ask the gentleman helping us all by themselves and they were both so polite. Totally worth the sugar crash later...almost!

 It is not the greatest picture, but you get the idea.

 Archie with his piggy cookie. Appropriate.

 Fletcher and his baseball cookie.

Dave's Boston Cream Pie Birthday "cake"

4 weeks until my due date

I am 36 weeks today. My oldest was born at 37 weeks and my 2nd at 38 weeks, 2 days so I am not expecting to make it to my due date. I don't think my OB wants me to either and since I do not want an induction I am keeping my fingers crossed. The standard of care for a woman with gestational diabetes is to induce around 39 weeks. However, since mine is diet controlled and the baby is not measuring large, if I make it that far I will decline an induction unless the baby is in distress.

36 week belly

My 2 hour post prandial's have been kind of low lately and I have had ketones in my urine. I stopped documenting everything I ate last week and I think that I have been carb starving myself which would explain both problems. It is so hard to find that happy balance between too many and too few carbohydrates. By the time I figure this whole diet out the baby will be born and I won't have diabetes anymore. It is kind of frustrating really. I go in two times/week for my non stress tests and I have weekly appt's with my OB. We have always teetered between wanting 3 or 4 kids. With this whole gestational diabetes this time around though, I am thinking 3 might be our magic number. On the bright side, I started off each pregnancy around the same weight and ended each one 50 lbs. heavier. This pregnancy, I have only gained 25 lbs.and have been holding steady for almost 10 weeks. Not being able to indulge in ANY pregnancy craving sure does help curb the weight gain. I had french fries for the first time since my diagnosis and my blood sugar levels were the highest they have been yet. It was my reality check.

Trail mix keeps them occupied during my NSTs.

The boys have been both a riot and rioting lately. Archie is learning how to push Fletcher's buttons and it is the cause of many a headache around here. However, they have their moments when they are cooperating, talking with each other, and helping each other out that gives me hope. They love playing games on our phones, tablets, and computers so I can get some down time when we have had a really trying day or when late 3rd trimester fatigue kicks in. This past week is when I have really started to slow down. It has also been the week in which I have done the most work. I noticed ants in the family room a few days ago and have been a cleaning kick b/c I hate bugs! I also washed the baby swing, bouncer, car seat, car seat bases, and the two boxes of baby toys we still had packed away. The newborn cloth diapers are clean and folded, all the clothes are hanging up in the closet and Dave painted the nursery. I need to wash the bottles next. I think we finally realized that the birth of this child could happen any day at this point.

Happily blowing bubbles

Showing off his Duplo creation.

Today was Dave's first day at his new work from home job. He had a 5 hour lunch meeting with his Colorado contact/co-worker and came home really excited about his work. The boys even played in the basement without bugging him. He will still need to find some good places to work outside the home for those days when his headphones aren't cutting it, but I think he will be happier overall with this new change. I am very excited to have him around. Not because I am expecting him to help much during the day, but it is just going to be comforting having him here while I deal with 3 kids all day. I've gotten used to him after all these years!

I have been crafting like crazy lately. I made 4 art canvasses for the kids rooms, am making a name plaque for the new baby, I made closet dividers for the nursery, working on a project for Dave's birthday, making some cards, and want to get started on a mobile for the nursery. I love, love, love my Silhouette Cameo! I can finally imagine a project and complete it with the help of my die cutting machine.

 This is a bad iPhone photo of the unfinished canvas. Same with the photo below. I apologize. 

Once the nursery gets a little more put together then I will post more photos. The pale grey with white trim on the walls looks fantastic too!

That's all I've got for now. Sorry my posts have been more pregnancy related lately. It is forefront on my mind.

A vegetarian gestational diabetic's breakfast

Mediterranean Omelet

Breakfast is probably the hardest meal of the day for me. People on a lower carb diet will tell you to carb load in the morning so your body has all day to process them. That is probably the worst advice for a diabetic. I belong to a great online support group full of women in my predicament and we all need to be so careful at breakfast. After a night of fasting/sleeping our bodies just aren't equipped to handle to carbs, complex or simple, in the morning. Fruit is typically a no go as well. For me personally, anything over 15 carbs for breakfast and I chance spiking my sugars. If you take a look at the bread currently on your counter, chances are likely that it has just about that many carbs per slice. So what is a diabetic that doesn't eat meat supposed to do? The answer is eggs, eggs, and more eggs.

Goat Cheese, Sausage, & Veggie Omelet with Avocado

Eggs deserve their own paragraph I think. Here is a funny story. When I was pregnant with Fletcher I completely lost my taste for eggs. I used to eat them all of the time and then one day the thought of them made me want to vomit. I continued to dislike eggs for almost 2 years. Boiled, fried, scrambled, poached, over easy, quiches, and omelets all made me gag. The only way I could tolerate them was well hidden in baked goods. However, sometime early in my 2nd trimester of this current pregnancy, I started to crave eggs again. After an almost 2 year hiatus my body said, "Hey, these things aren't so bad". Boy I am ever lucky it did because I have to eat eggs every single morning until this baby is born. Of course, being pregnant I cannot have any runny parts of my egg so I need to eat them fried, boiled, scrambled, and well cooked. I am totally sick of eggs by the way. I did make those ricotta almond meal pancakes but they are high in fat and slightly time consuming to make therefore not ideal for those hurried weekday mornings.

No Crust Vegetable Quiche

I have become quite adept at making omelets though. This morning I had a Mediterranean themed omelet, some mornings I go festive with a south of the border flair, and sometimes I just steam some spinach with fresh garden veggies and toss them on top. During our vacation I got to eat hotel scrambled eggs AND hard boiled eggs in the same meal. Hotels across middle American serve the most carb and meat heavy breakfasts ever! Needless to say, after this baby is born I want to have a huge stack of buttery pancakes with syrup, fresh fruit, and maybe even whipped cream. I will still continue to eat healthier, but that is the one indulgence I am really looking forward to.

Anyway, here are some of the breakfast recipes that I am basing some of my breakfast meals from:

Asparagus - Cheese Omelet

Breakfast Skillet - This with veggie sausage and tofu instead of real meat and potatoes. It also brings the carb load to an acceptable limit.

Huevos Rancheros - No tortilla chips and watch the portion control on the black beans as the carbs can add up.

Mushroom Scrambled Eggs

Poblano Tofu Scramble

Provencal Omelet

Father's Day projects and pancakes!

I meant to post this awhile ago. On Father's Day I experimented with an almond meal pancake recipe. Although I am typically a savory breakfast person, we usually have a pancake/waffle day on the weekends. Since I cannot have more than about 15 carbs for breakfast without spiking my blood sugar, pancakes are out for the most part. I found a recipe for almond flour and ricotta pancakes. They are high in fat and protein b/c of the egg, almonds, and ricotta but they actually kind of fulfilled my pancake craving. Since I didn't have coconut flour or lemon seltzer water I used coconut flakes and sparkling lemon lime water that I had in the fridge. They are no substitute for the huge pancake stack I am planning on devouring after this baby is born, but they will hold me over!

For Dave's Father's Day gifts I busted out my Silhouette Cameo. Since I haven't had too much time for scrapbooking, it is nice to get some craftiness in every now and again. The card idea just kind of came to me and I was glad that I still had some vellum laying around b/c it turned out really neat looking. Archer colored the paper before I cut it with my Cameo. I used Archiver's new Memory Lab to edit the photo on the inside of the card. The little box on the bottom I found in the Silhouette Studio shape store and then filled it with Dave's favorite candy. I also got him a cord organizer from Amazon. 

Vacation

It has been quite awhile since my last post. We took a 10 day vacation back east and things are just now settling down. This was our second big road trip in the last few months and the boys did so much better this time around. A lot has to do with how and what I packed. When we drove to Texas in March, I packed a huge variety of snacks and so many toys with lots of pieces. The magnets got thrown on the floor, the crayons got eaten, thrown, broken, and stuck in car seats, the snacks were too sugary and there were too many choices for the boys. We spent half the trip picking things up, searching for the last piece of the puzzle, and breaking up fights about snacks. This time I wizened up and packed much differently. Toys needed 2 or less pieces, the options were far fewer but more enticing, and we were also less accommodating in fetching thrown toys. Their snack buckets had about 5 options and those were all the snacks I brought. I also packed  a lot more fruit and veggies. This trip was longer than our first, but more successful. We are hopeful for more road trips in our future.

We got to see lots of family this trip and it was great. The boys are remembering their cousins, Aunts, and Uncles and get excited to see them. We made a short stop to visit Aunt Amy, Uncle Chris, and their cousin and then we headed to MI for a family reunion with most of their Aunts and Uncles from my side of the family. The kids has a great time playing together and it was nice to have the extra helping hands around too! They got to play in a huge sandbox my brother built, drink slushies, swim in the pond, play in Grandmas basement playroom, and spend hours with their cousins. I got to see my parents, siblings, cousins, Aunts, Uncles, Grandma, best friend, and lots of my cousins kids that I have never met before. It was nice.

Dave driving a tractor and filling up the huge sandbox. "Best vacation ever!"

Archie enjoyed his 2nd time in the lake much better.

The best of the bunch. Dave looks beat!

Sisters being silly. 

The hardest part was really watching what I ate because of my gestational diabetes. Since most foods did not have the nutritional information readily available, I had to be conservative in what and how much I ate. I don't think I ate enough honestly as my weight stayed the same from my last Dr. appt., but at least I didn't overdo it and spike my sugars too much over and over. The humidity was also killer! The first few days in the Midwest I had a persistent headache. It was most likely a combo of the heat, humidity, and not drinking enough water. I forgot how sticky that extra moisture makes you feel. Getting back to my dry, high altitude was a welcome change even if our swamp cooler broke in 95 degree heat!

I am now 34 weeks pregnant and cannot believe how close we are to delivering. My oldest was born at 37 weeks exactly which means I could have a baby in as few as 3 weeks and at most 5 weeks. I now have weekly NSTs (non stress tests) and at 37 weeks they will become biweekly. My appts will also become weekly once I am 36 weeks. The nurses and receptionists know me by name now! My nurse is also fantastic with the boys. My normally shy Fletcher will go with her to get toys and let me do my own thing. They have also been great playing while I am hooked up the monitors for my NSTs. On the flip side, the nursery is not painted, clothes are not washed, the swing, car seat, bouncy chair, and pack n' play all need a good washing,  and we still need to agree on a boys name if this one comes out XY. I am feeling the time crunch.

In other news, Dave has accepted a new position with a new company starting in two weeks. He is very happy since he will be doing what he loves to do - programming...a lot! I am selfishly very excited too since this is a work from home job. I am fully aware that he needs to be able to work uninterrupted and it will actually be quite difficult for me to keep the boys away from Daddy while he is working. However, it also gives me the flexibility to make Dr. appts and have Dave either come with us or watch the boys while I am gone. It also means that his hours aren't strictly 9-5 so he can do some things that would be harder for him to get done if he had to be at work during certain times. Once things settle down a bit, he is going to look for a place that rents desks for people that work from home. He will probably also head out to the library or coffee shop some days to work too. I think he is excited b/c it will feel like he is in college again and Dave loved college!

I am not sure if I mentioned before about Dewey peeing in the house. I am thankful, in a weird way, that he ended up having a urinary tract infection. That is way more easy to treat than a behavioral issue. He is on a 2 week course of antibiotics and once we are sure they worked we are going to get someone in to clean our carpets. I am looking forward to having the basement not stink anymore! In other dog news, they managed to get out of our yard this past weekend after a big storm knocked out a fence slat that we didn't notice. They must have been out about 30 minutes before we noticed they were missing. They are tagged and micro chipped, but that doesn't stop you from imagining the worst case scenario. Luckily, karma repayed us for all those times we have gone after stray dogs and found their owners for them. They were only a few cul-de-sacs away and together. Piper was getting some loving from the people that found them, but Dewey was evading capture like the little turd that he is. Another advantage of Dave working from home is that he can slowly start replacing our fence in the morning before he "goes to work".

We are getting stuff done!

The last two days have been pretty productive around here. I am not sure that I would call it nesting b/c my baseboards are still dirty and I don't care, but things are getting done. Yesterday Dave and a co-worker/friend drove down to the Springs and emptied out our storage unit. A lot of the baby stuff was down there along with a majority of our DVDs. I was really missing my Pride & Prejudice! While they were gone, our sitter came over to watch the boys while I was able to work without interruption. I cleaned the kitchen, baked some mini muffins, sanded and painted a nightstand, worked on art for the babies room, and cleaned some more. The boys were having a ball with their sitter which was nice too. 

Today we cleaned some more. I sprinkled the basement carpets with baking soda and let it sit for an hour. Dewey has been peeing down there and upstairs as I discovered today. Dave is going to make a vet appointment because this is not typical behavior for him and if he has an infection I want it to get taken care of ASAP. Also, this means we will need to get the carpets cleaned before the baby arrives. I spent half the morning scrubbing six different pee spots that I found. The joys of pet ownership. 

 Dewey the Menace

Anyway, today Dave worked in the yard a bit but his allergies were really acting up. I am so glad that I don't have seasonal allergies! He looked miserable poor guy. I finished painting the nightstand for the nursery and now need to wait a few days before putting on a few coats of polyurethane. It was an old Sauder telephone stand that my Grandma gave me years ago. Solid a rock, but an awful faux wood finish. It looks fantastic already plus I bought a cute little owl know for the door. 

A work in progress

For dinner I made a lentil loaf, mustard greens from our garden, and chopped up a watermelon. My blood sugar levels have been great so I am doing something right. We took a walk afterwards in the 80+ degree heat. I was definitely dragging, but the only time my sugar spiked was when I ate fruit with dinner and did not take a walk. Yesterday I made two mini muffin recipes. One was from the diabetic living and it was vanilla cake donut muffins and the other was a healthy mini muffin recipe I found online. The vanilla cake donuts I made in my mini muffin tin and I used regular brown sugar, but I did not put the cinnamon and truvia mix on top. The other mini muffins I used applesauce in place of the juice, added about 2 Tablespoons of unsweetened almond milk to thin the batter, and did 1/2 cup blueberries and 1/2 cup diced apples. I also replaced one egg with egg beaters and baked them in a mini muffin tin at 350 F for 15 minutes. Neither of them spiked my sugar either! It is so nice have a glucometer so now I can be a little more adventurous in my eating. Before I got it I had absolutely no added sugar for over a week and I am a dessert girl. 

my mini muffins

In the past 2ish months we have been making changes with how we handle the boys' tantrums, eating habits, and general behavior. They are eating their meals much better since we switched to only 1 snack in between meals. The snack is also way more healthy than before. They now get cottage cheese with fruit, yogurt with cinnamon and flax, apples with peanut butter, pretzels with hummus, cheese and crackers, etc.. Gone are the days of processed foods for snacking. This also means they are eating their breakfast, lunch, and dinner too. They are eating lentil loaf, quinoa with tahini and spinach, beets, and all the other healthy meals I have been cooking. It is a far cry from Archie throwing up food that he didn't like and Fletcher running away from the table after two bites. 

I also read the book "1-2-3 Magic" by Thomas Phelan. It's funny because I talked with Grandma about it and she was like, "Isn't counting how everyone does it?" I am surprised at how effective it is and how i am yelling far less than I used to on a daily basis. Most times they stop at the count at 2 and they usually only get time outs when they physically hurt someone because that is an automatic 3. We have seen the biggest improvement in Fletcher. He is still a handful, but at least I don't feel like I am constantly treading water with him anymore. They are both good boys though. Right now Archie is sharing his most favorite toys with his baby brother. They are very sweet with each sometimes. 

 Fletcher is allowed iPad access again. 

"drink like a big boy" 

Playing at the new park

He is getting so big!

Say hello to my little friend...

...the Glucometer!

 

I finally met with my Dr. a week and half after getting my gestational diabetes diagnosis. It turns out that 2 of my 4 blood draws during the 3 hours test were abnormal. My fasting was high and my 2 hour draw was high. The 1 hour and 3 hours were withing normal range though. We talked about my diet, the fact that I had lost 4 lbs., and the size of the baby, which is right on track for 30 weeks. She told me it sounds like I am doing everything right and that my diagnosis shouldn't be a huge concern if I keep up with my current lifestyle. She gave me a glucometer, but only wants me to test twice/day and will call me in a week to see what my numbers have been. Based on that information she will decide what to do after that. If the numbers look good then she will only have be testing my blood sugars every other day to make sure they are on track.

I have tested my BSLs (blood sugar levels) 6 times so far. Only 1 draw has been over the recommended limit by 7 mg/dl. The others were in the 70s and 80s. The high draw came after a meal in which I normally wouldn't have had an apple with, but I cut one up for the boys and ate the other half. I also didn't take my walk immediately after dinner like normal either. Knowing what certain foods are doing to my body is quite fascinating. However, knowing how much additional test strips cost, even with insurance, has limited my curiosity to two times/day. I am testing my fasting level in the morning and then alternating which meal I test 2 hours postprandial (after eating). With my levels being so much under the recommended 120 mg/dl at 2 hours postprandial, I am thinking that I have been too conservative with my carbs.

Despite things looking pretty good, I am still going to be getting NSTs (non stress tests) at every bimonthly appointment, 1-2 more ultrasounds to check the growth of the baby, and my Dr. doesn't want me to go past 39 weeks. If I don't go into labor naturally before then, however, I may fight her on that because if the size of the baby is looking normal then I don't see a need to be induced. Since my boys were born at 37 and 38 weeks, respectively, I am not too worried that this LO will wait much past 39 weeks anyway.

I am finding some great recipes for diabetes online and am thoroughly enjoying some of these new dishes I never would have found otherwise. For dinner last night I made Penne with Walnuts and Peppers and wilted mustard greens from our garden. They were delicious! My night time snack was a ricotta cheese spread in 1/2 a roll up with blueberries. Dinner two nights ago was Black Bean Salad in a pita with hummus with Roasted Snap Peas. We have been eating so well since this diagnosis!

30 weeks

Gestational Diabetes

I still do not meet with my Doctor until next week so I am trying to learn all I can about gestational diabetes/diabetes in general on my own. Luckily, I belong to a pregnancy board for other August moms and there are a few women also with a GD diagnosis that have been helping. Since I do not have a glucometer yet, I really have no idea what different foods are affecting my blood sugar levels. However, I do know approximately how many carbs I should be eating at each meal and snack. I know that my snacks should have both a protein and carb. I know that I need to be walking at least 30 minutes every day.

I am avoiding all sweets until I know if my body can handle them at all. There are women on my board who eat a pudding at night and it doesn't affect their morning fasting numbers, but I am too scared to do that yet. I did make frozen yogurt pops today though that only have 3.5 g of carbs, 1.3 grams of protein, and 4.5 g of sugar. I pureed 8 small strawberries, 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt, and 1 packet of Truvia to make 5 frozen yogurt pops. I am kind of excited about trying one later!

I have been logging all my food, water intake, and exercise in both a paper journal and on my phone. I use the LoseIt! app on my phone because it figures out all the nutritional information of my food. The paper journal is so it is easier to look back at my foods once I get my glucometer to see what I should be eating less of, more of, etc... I will say that eating smaller meals and snacks every 2-3 hours really isn't as bad as I was anticipating. It actually keeps me from ever being starving. My snacks are getting a little boring already, but I am hoping a nutritionist can help me get some more variety into my diet. Here is a sampling of what I have eating lately.

Breakfast

• scrambled egg with salsa and avocado
• scrambled egg with spinach, tomato, onion, and bell peppers
• 1/2 whole grain English muffin with 1 T peanut putter and a veggie sausage

Lunch

• Sandwich Wrap using Flatout Flatbread (high protein, low carb, awesome!)
• faux chicken salad with cashews and I load on the veggies
• veggie salami with spinach, avocado, tomato, cucumber, onion, and a little Italian dressing.
• Spinach salad with lots of veggies, pumpkin seeds, goat cheese and Italian dressing. This is great since our garden is starting to produce baby spinach. 

Dinner

• Crustless Quiche - I didn't have egg substitute so I used 2 whole eggs and 2 vegan "eggs" (2 T flax meal in 6 T hot water). The quiche was a little watery so I will use the egg substitute next time. Flavor was good though. This was served with a side of cumin beets.
• Fresh Tomato Sandwich with Roasted Cauliflower and white beans
• Quinoa with Broccoli and Tofu Stir Fry

Snacks

• Cottage cheese with fruit
• Nuts and string cheese
• Small fruit and some pretzels
• Veggie salami with goat cheese and tortilla chips
• Plain Greek yogurt with cinnamon and berries

Crustless Quiche

Like I said, I am still only a few days in so I am hoping after the next week or so I can learn more, get more snack ideas, and become better adept and knowing what I can and should not eat. I am also hoping that when I meet with my Doctor my levels will look good and she will think that I am on the right track. Thanks for bearing with me on this new journey of diabetic living. I know it is only temporary, however, if I do not continue eating better and exercising after this baby is born, I have a 40-60% chance of getting diabetes within 5-15 years. If I do continue then I only have a 25% chance and I like those odds a lot better. Granted, I have seen the percentages vary depending on what study and website and read, but the idea is the same. Stay healthy, stay active, deliver a healthy baby, stay healthy, stay active, stay diabetes free. Sounds like a good plan to me!

It's been a long couple of days.

I received the results of my 3 hour glucose test yesterday and they were not great. I have gestational diabetes. Luckily they are confident that it can be controlled by diet, but it is a lot of information to process and it needs to be taken seriously. I am confused, sad, scared, determined, researching, and trying to stay positive. My next appointment isn't for over a week so I a feel like I will just be treading water until then. We already don't keep any white/processed grains in the house and haven't for at least 2 years. I only buy whole grain/whole wheat bread, pasta, flour, rice, etc... We eat quinoa, put flax in everything, use nutritional yeast, cook with beans and tofu, and it takes us almost 6-8 months to use what little sugar I buy. I am just not sure how I am supposed to eat now since it seems like I am already doing the right things. Hopefully I can get an appointment with a dietitian b/c this is a daunting task to take on by myself. The risk of me getting diabetes later in life just increased too so I want to see what long term changes I can make so that doesn't happen.

I had to laugh talking with the nurse on the phone last night. She told me no juice, which we never keep in the  house until earlier this week. I was told to take my iron pill with orange juice and now I am being told to stop drinking orange juice and instead take my iron pill with a vitamin C pill. It was just the cherry on top of a long, difficult week.

In other news, Archie had his PreK evaluation today. They gave us the worksheet that they used to test them and it was pretty spot on to his strengths and weaknesses. Dave said that he got really sad when he had to leave. Less than 3 months though and he will be going 5 days/week. While they were at the evaluation, Fletcher and I took a walk. This diabetes diagnoses has me more serious about taking walks at least 5 days/week now. We went to the open space down the street and saw ducks and birds. All the prairie dogs were hiding though. I took Archie to this same park after his swimming class last week and he called them "fairy dogs". I almost loathed to correct him because it was so cute hearing him call them by that name. We did learn that prairie dogs make sounds like birds which was interesting.

 28 weeks

1 hour glucose test = fail

The dreaded 1 hour glucose test given around the 28th week of pregnancy came and went last week. There is nothing like breaking a 12 hour fast by drinking 50 grams of glucose, sitting in a Dr's office for an hour, and then getting your blood drawn. That is, until you fail that test and you go back in to drink double the amount of glucose and get your blood drawn 4 times over the course of 3 hours. I failed my 1 hour when I was pregnant with Fletcher and passed the 3 hour. Looks like I failed the 1 hour yet again and am going back tomorrow for the 3 hour test. It is rare that I get 3 hours to myself and I would much rather spend that time eating a leisurely lunch, shopping the bulk foods section without yelling at kids to keep their grubby hands off the food, or even reading a book in bed while the kids are out with Dad. Instead, my 3 hours will be spent fighting nausea, the shakes, headaches, and trying to get comfortable in a waiting room chair.

I am one of those people that actually enjoys pregnancy. Yes I get morning sickness in the first trimester, heartburn, hemorrhoids (sorry if you didn't want to know that), round ligament pain, nerve pains, PUPPS rash, heat rash, and all those other glamorous side effects of pregnancy. However, I love the kicks, rolls, hiccups, knowledge and where and what my kid is up to all the time, the weekly belly pictures, pants with belly panels, and body pillows. I even love the middle of the night panic when your water breaks and you realize you are about to have a baby. One thing I really hate though, are all the tests done during pregnancy. I get why they are done and I am not one to eschew modern medicine, but sometimes I feel like they add more stress as opposed to give piece of mind.

The word  fail implies that you aren't good enough. I know that I cannot help how my body processes sugar during pregnancy. That is the logical half. The other part though is berating myself and wonders what I could have done differently. Also, a diagnosis of gestational diabetes means that both me and my baby would be at higher risk for developing diabetes later on in life. Add that knowledge onto my already fragile hormonal reactions and it makes for quite the disappointment. Luckily Dave is super supportive and has a job that is very flexible. There is no way I could take this test with my kids in tow.

They also found out that I am anemic so I get to take iron supplements on top of my prenatal and DHA pills. They also suggested I stock up on colace because of the undesirable side effects of extra iron intake. Some days I want time to slow down before this baby arrives. Days like today, however, I am looking forward to the next 10-12 weeks flying by! That was nice to get off my chest.