fun & sugar free?

This pregnancy has been quite different than my last.  Last time I gained 60 pounds.  At about this time in my pregnancy I was probably up by at least 40 pounds.  This time, going into my last 10 weeks I’ve gained 17 pounds.

Woohoo me!

This time the ‘morning sickness’ lasted much longer.  I’ve been more tired, sleep is harder to come by and the back aches and just all around body aches are killing me.  Then to top it all off I came in a few points (2, actually) high on my glucose test which grants me with the awesomeness that is gestational diabetes.

Woohoo me.

The glucose test is by far one of the most unfun things about pregnancy.  If you’ve never had it, let me tell you about it.  You go in sometime during the day, preferably before you’ve eaten anything.  You get to drink this sugary sweet drink either in orange flavor or lemon lime flavor.  Then you sit and wait around for an hour and then they draw blood to see what your glucose levels are.  If you’re lucky enough to pass that yipee!  If not, you have to go back for the dreaded three hour test.

This time you have to eat half a sandwich and a glass of milk around 10 p.m. the night before your test.  Then you have to make sure that you eat nothing for at least eight hours, but no more than 10.  You hightail it over to the lab and they draw blood to show your levels after fasting.  Then they give you the lovely drink (which really isn’t that bad.  Think flat orange soda) and you sit around for an hour and they draw your blood.  Then you sit around for another hour and draw your blood and then the whole thing repeats itself one more time.

I got to do both of these.  Then six months after the baby’s born I go back in to do a two hour test to see if the diabetes has stuck around.  See, with your body producing so many hormones while your pregnant sometimes your pancreas just can’t keep up and there goes your glucose levels.  Most often it lasts only the duration of the pregnancy, but for some it can become a permanent condition.

So I got this little gadget.

It’s my glucose meter.  It’s not really as fun of a gadget as say my camera or iPad, but it’s got parts and pieces and stabs me every few hours.  What could be more fun than that?

Today I had my appointment with a diabetes nurse and a dietician to go over how to use my meter and what kinds of meals I should be eating.  Not so fun, but not so bad either.  Today was my first day checking my blood.  I have to check in the morning before breakfast and then an hour after each meal.  All of my checks were well below the max levels so I’m a happy camper.  I didn’t do too much to change my diet today except for staying away from soda.  Go figure.  Biggest Loser was right!

Ray also sent me an app that lets me track my counts and the times I test so I don’t have to make sure I always have this booklet that they gave me.  Every Monday at a certain time a nurse will call me to get all my readings for the week, answer any questions and check on my kick counts for the baby.

So yeah, way different pregnancy this time.  But eh, what are you going to do?  This will force me not to become a giant blimp by the end of the pregnancy and eat better.  Maybe I’ll become one of those heath nut weirdos.  Well, I did discover sugar free Oreos today (they are AMAZING!) so that probably won’t really happen, but who know, right?