BIG Boy

Yesterday afternoon I met with a Nurse Practitioner first. She said that I haven't been officially diagnosed with gestational diabetes, but that she will make that determination after seeing my blood sugar levels for one week. I am to eat as I normally would and check my levels four times a day (first thing in the morning and then 2 hours after each meal). If my levels aren't good (greater than 95 for the first one and greater than 120 for the other three), then I'll meet with a dietician and be placed on a diet. If that's not enough to get my glucose levels where they want them to be, then she'll give me a prescription for an oral medication. If I am diagnosed as having gestational diabetes, I will need to go to the OB two times a week starting at 32 weeks (which I'll hit a week from today). One appointment will be for a non-stress test, and the other will be for an ultrasound. I enjoy ultrasounds, but I can't say I would enjoy going to the doctor 2 times a week for several weeks. I am hoping I am not labeled as having GD. I was unable to successfully do my fasting blood check this morning. I went through 6 strips and pricked my fingers about 8 times before I gave up in frustration. It only took me 2 strips and 2 stabs to get a reading 2 hours after breakfast, and it was less than 120 (117) even though I ate a higher carb breakfast than I normally do. I had cereal (granola) whereas at home I usually have a sugar free yogurt plus an English muffin or small Lender's bagel. Hopefully I'll continue to have good readings, and hopefully I'll get better at using these strips. It's bad enough to use 4 in one day; I'd already put drops of blood on 8 strips today by 9:30am!

My second appointment was with a nurse who trained me on using the glucometer. I didn't have any trouble using it that first try. I am not sure why it's been so much harder for me today. Then I had an ultrasound, which I wasn't expecting. The sonographer was unable to get any good pictures as he was face down the whole time (he isn't breech any more) and also he was in constant motion. He actually moved the wand she was using. Almost all of his measurements (length of his leg bone and such) were between the 92nd and 98th percentile! That has never been true of Nadia. His weight was "only" in the 82nd percentile. I know they aren't totally accurate in predicting weight from an ultrasound, but they estimated that he weighed 4lb 11oz. Considering Nadia weighed 5lbs 5oz a week after she was born, that sounds really big to me! They said he's measuring about 2 1/2 weeks ahead of where I actually am. It seems like Ian is going to be bigger than his sister was. I guess I won't be needing preemie or newborn size clothes for him - we'll just start out with 0-3 months this time unless he comes really early. I bought some diapers for him recently, and I didn't buy the newborn size that I used with Nadia at first. I guessed maybe he'd start out with size 1.

I am to enter my glucose levels online and the NP will review them and write me a message once a week. If I ever enter a value under 60 or over 200 she will contact me sooner than that. Hopefully she'll tell me next week that I can stop testing. She said she thinks that maybe I had GD with my last pregnancy even though I passed the one hour screening in light of the polyhydramous I had (excess amniotic fluid) and the fact that Nadia's blood sugar was low after she was born. The good news is that as of tomorrow it will be less than 8 weeks until Ian is due to be born so even if I am officially labeled as having GD, I won't be pricking my fingers that long and of course it's all 100% worth it!!! The doctor said the bright spot wasn't as bright yesterday on his heart (I asked), but he said it often waxes and wanes so you can't read much into that. He said that with my age + the bright spot he'd put the risk at 1% that Ian has Down's syndrome. That was very reassuring as my OB made it seem like the risk was much higher than that.

As for weight gain, I had gained 3 lbs in 2.5 weeks so that's much better than the previous time when I gained 7lbs in 3 weeks. I've gained 28 lbs since the egg retrieval, and I now weigh 3 lbs more than when I gave birth to Nadia. I've never weighed this much in my life, and unfortunately I know I'm not done gaining. I'm still hoping not to gain more than 35 lbs total. I gained 33 lbs total by 36 weeks with Nadia. If I do go on the GD diet, that should help keep my weight gain in check.

Nadia and I made it safely to Maryland last night. I'm speaking tomorrow at the conference at the convention center in DC. Thankfully Nadia slept for a good portion of our trip down here even though I left earlier than her bedtime (since I'm not a safe driver past 9pm). Hopefully she'll be a good girl for my mom tomorrow as she'll be watching her while I'm at the conference all day.