28 weeks - good news, bad news

After my 24 week appointment, D. W told me I could come back anytime to do my glucose test so that my results would be ready for my 28 week appointment.  I have had to drink some nasty stuff in my day, so I was a little apprehensive about drinking the glucose.  Thankfully, it went well.  All my girlfriends back home got a choice of what flavor they wanted, but I didn't.  I was given the bottle of lemon-lime and told I had 5 minutes to finish it.  It tasted like flat Sprite and was the consistency of cough syrup.  I got it down in the allotted time and kept it down, thank goodness!  After an hour, I had my blood drawn and then was on my way.  To my surprise, I got a phone call a week later telling me I did not pass but would not have to re-test, that they were going to go ahead and treat me for gestational diabetes.  I was so confused because I had friends who had failed the one hour test but passed the three hour test.  Needless to say, I had a lot of questions when I went for my 28 week appointment.

Dr. G told me the reason I didn't have to re-test was that I failed so fantastically!  Go big or go home, right??  He said that if a woman's sugars are 135-140 after the one hour test, then they do the 3 hour test.  If the sugars are 180-190 after three hours, they treat for gestational diabetes.  My blood sugar after the one hour test was 201.  No need to re-test.  Do not pass go, do not collect $200.  I have gestational diabetes.  I picked up my testing supplies and the nurses taught me how to use them.  I am testing my blood sugar 4 times a day now - first thing in the morning before I eat anything and then one hour after breakfast, lunch and dinner.  I have a sheet where I record my results and I'm also keeping a food journal.  On Tuesday I went to a nutrition class and on Wednesday I met with another OB to go over my results for the last week.  He was not totally pleased.  So I'm going to go back in another week and if my sugars are still high, I'll most likely be put on an oral medication.  It is frustrating because I feel like between my high cholesterol, Crohn's disease and now gestational diabetes, I don't know what to eat anymore.  But I want to have a healthy baby and I hope to avoid a C-section so I'm trying.  Unfortunately, I've craved carbs through my whole pregnancy and now those are the foods I have to avoid.

We also had another ultrasound at 28 weeks.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that baby is now in the head down position!  At 20 weeks and again at 24 weeks baby was still breech so I was glad to see that s/he had turned.  The doctor was finally able to get a good look at the face and the heart.  He is no longer concerned about a cleft lip, which is a relief.  We were also able to see all 4 chambers of the heart, which was good.  I was hoping that this would mean we wouldn't have to go back for any more Level 2 ultrasounds, but no such luck.  Before, the concern was that our baby would be low birth weight because of my Crohn's disease.  Now, the concern is that the baby will get too big because of the gestational diabetes.  I feel like I can't win!  Kyle said maybe they will cancel each other out and we'll have an average size baby.  Sounds good to me!  I'll go back for another ultrasound at 32 weeks and hope Baby W hasn't gotten too big.  They guessed s/he weighed about 2 pounds, 9 ounces at 28 weeks, which is pretty average.  Sometimes, average is good!

At 25 weeks, 3 days, Kyle was finally able to feel the baby move!  We were both pretty excited.  I'd been feeling movement for about a month and he was a little discouraged that he hadn't been able to feel it.  I think this makes it a little more real for both of us now.

Overall, I'm still feeling pretty well.  There are definitely some interesting things that happen to a woman's body during pregnancy, but that's going to have to be another post. 

24 weeks

At 24 weeks, I had an OB appointment and another level 2 ultrasound.  My OB appointment went just fine, but the baby has decided it's fun to hide when we want to hear the heartbeat.  This is not good for Mama's blood pressure!  It also happened at the 20 week appointment.  As soon as the doctor found the heartbeat with the Doppler, the baby would move.  After several tries, Dr. W was able to determine that Baby's heartbeat was between 150-160.  This is about the same as at our 20 week appointment. 

At our ultrasound, the doctor was most interested in getting a good look at baby's face and heart.  He is very minimally concerned that Baby might have a cleft lip.  Because we haven't had a good look at the face yet, it could be that Baby might just have a very pronounced divot between the nose and upper lip.  (I can't remember what that thing is called, maybe it starts with an f?)  Same thing with the heart.  We have seen the heart beating on the ultrasound but the doctor hasn't been able to get a good look at the chambers because of the way Baby is positioned.  As with our 20 week ultrasound, Baby is breech.  Instead of facing my spine, Baby was facing my left side.  And as with the Doppler, Baby thinks it's fun to move when the doctor wants to get a good look at something.  I felt like I should apologize to the doctor for the baby being so uncooperative.  Stubborn already!  I'm afraid this is my payback for being a strong-willed child.  I'm sure my mother is sitting back and having a good laugh!

Overall, Baby looked good and the doctors are not too concerned.  I will go back for another OB appointment, my glucose test and another ultrasound at 28 weeks.  Here's hoping I pass my glucose test and that Baby cooperates for the ultrasound!