GD

A few weeks ago I went for the gestational diabetes test that the doctor has you do around 24 to 28 weeks. This is the "easy" test where you go in, they give you an orange or fruit punch drink with 50 grams of glucose, you drink it in 5 minutes, you wait an hour, and then they take your blood. If your results come back high (blood sugar over 130) then you are sent to take the second test, which I'll get in to in a second. My first results came back really high so my doctor sent me to do the second, WAY MORE FUN, test a week later.

This test involves you coming in first thing in the morning fasting. They take your blood while fasting and then you have to drink another orange drink. However, this time it has 100 grams of glucose in it instead of the 50 g. For those of you who have never had to drink this "souped up" version...please, let me go into some detail. The first one I drank was not that bad. It tasted, to me, like orange koolaid with a lot of sugar in it. Sweet, but tolerable. The second drink with double the sugar was like drinking thick, Orange syrup. Thanks to some good advise from my friend Mel who had to take the 2nd test too, I brought along a straw. This helped a lot, but every time i had to swallow it was like swallowing a big orange loogie. SICK SICK SICK! Back to the test...so they take your blood fasting, you drink the drink, wait an hour, they take your blood. Then you wait another hour and they take your blood again. THEN, you wait another hour and they take your blood again. And yes...it is 11:30 at this point and I am still fasting. Angry pregnant girl!! Anyway, they send these 4 blood draws off and if 2 or more come back high then you are diagnosed with GD (gestational diabetes)

So after being poked and prodded for over 3 hours I decided that I should have some McDonald's and a REAL coke. That weekend I figured that if these results came back high and I did have GD, then I was going to go out with a bang. So I ate as much sugar as possible that weekend. Very responsible, I know.

As luck would have it, my doctor called me on Tuesday saying that I passed the first 2 tests, but the 3rd and 4th came back high...meaning that I had GD. FUN! So, I did what any other person would do if they found this out...I FREAKED OUT. I had so many questions and concerns and not enough info. Luckily I had a friend who had had it with both pregnancies so I called her and got some good, calming advise. Thanks Chelsea!

So, to sum this all up...
I have to check my blood sugar 4 times a day and my ketones in the morning (pee on a stick). I meet with a diabetes specialist 3 or 4 times for the remainder of the pregnancy and follow a special diet they set me on.

Some questions people have:

Does checking your blood sugar hurt? Not at all. It's just a little inconvenient.

What risk is the baby at? None if I control it. If it goes uncontrolled the baby is at risk for being large or having a low blood sugar when he comes out, but this is in those cases where the mom does not control it.

Will I have to take insulin? no, not if I can control my blood sugar through the diet. So far, so good.

Can you eat any sugar at all? yes, GD is not like normal diabetes. Since you are pregnant you can't cut out all sugar and carbs. I have to eat lots of carbs actually, but smart carbs and in the right portions. If I want a piece of cake, I can have a piece of cake. I just have to make sure I have not gone over my carb allowance for that "meal".

What causes GD? When a mother who does not have diabetes develops a resistance to insulin because of the increased hormones of pregnancy.

whew...that is a long post. Sorry! I am doing great other than that. It really is not all that bad. Inconvenient, yes. But, it will all be worth it in the next few months to come. And yes, it does go away immediately after giving birth.

28 week pics to come this week. Hooray 3rd Trimester!!