At our last check-up, I had the 1-hour glucose test that determines if I have Gestational Diabetes. For those not familiar: you go to a lab, they give you this super sweet orange drink that you have to down within 5 minutes (yuck!), then you have to sit there for 1 hour. They then draw your blood to check the amount of glucose in your blood. I have had GD before (very slightly) with my 1st pregnancy. With my other pregnancies, I did the 1-hour glucose test first thing in the morning after fasting for 8-12 hours. For this time around, they told me to do the glucose test at my normal check-up, which was at 2:00 in the afternoon. They said I did not need to fast. I thought that was strange, but I went with it. I had a light lunch about 2 hours before my appointment. Sure enough, when they got the results back, my glucose level was too high so they wanted me to go back to a lab and do a 3-hour glucose test. 3 HOURS!
This time I fasted for 12 hours. I made an appointment for 8:15am at a lab near my eldest girl's school - which is the farthest from our home, about 10-15 minutes away; this gave me enough time to drop all the kids off at school, yet it was early enough so that I could eat something when the test was done before noon and still pick-up my son from preschool. I prepared. I packed snacks for after the test. I packed books to read and journals to write in. I got the kids up early and dropped them off at school 15 minutes earlier than normal to ensure I was not late for my appointment. I walked-in right on time.... and then I realized I forgot my lab slip at home. DOH! By the time I sped (and by sped, I mean drive very carefully within the legal limits and obey all traffic laws) home, got my slip, sped back to the lab & checked-in, it had been 45 minutes. It was now 9:00am and they had other patients in front of me. Surely patients who were on time for their appointments. Before they gave me the gross sugar drink they had to take my fasting blood draw. By the time they did that and then I finished the drink, it was 9:15am. This was the official start-time of the test. This determined that they would draw my blood every hour for 3 hours at exactly 15 minutes past the top of the hour. This also meant that I lost a whole entire hour because I forgot the lab slip at home. One hour does not sound like a big deal, but when you are pregnant and have already been fasting for 12 hours, this matters! This also meant that I wouldn't be done until 12:15 and preschool ended at 12:00. Luckily, the preschool was okay with me being late. I was mad at myself, but there was nothing I could do about it. I waited, I read, I wrote, I Facebooked, I Pinterest-ed. I was forced to listen to an elderly woman and her son talk about her stool samples... in detail. Finally, after both of my arms were nice & bruised, I was released. After 16 hours of not eating, my granola bar tasted like heaven.... wait, I lie. I think I inhaled it too fast to even taste it.
So a week later, I had not heard from the doctor's office. I called for my results and was told that technically, I passed the test. PHEW! They said that one of my four blood draws was on the high side, but that in order to be diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes, two needed to be high. So, I don't have GD but I should still be careful about what I eat. I just need to watch my refined & natural sugar intake and up my protein & fiber.
I saw that acupuncturist I mentioned in my last post (I was "gifted" 5 sessions) this morning! I can already tell a difference in my allergies and she said the problem in my back is so compressed and been there for so long (pregnancy didn't cause it, just makes it more noticeable) that it can be fixed, but will take a bit longer. She said I need to up my water intake & she also said I need more protien... red meat in particular - so I had a burger for lunch!
In other news, the parents came over a few weeks ago for dinner to meet our kids! The kids had really been looking forward to this - who were these mysterious people that were keeping their baby in Mommy's tummy?! Although our 3 kids (all different ages & comprehension levels) understood this process for the most part, I think it just helped them to put faces to who the baby belongs to. We had such a great visit and wonderful conversation. The kids really felt at ease and they were trying to show off their best tricks & toys. :) After the parents left, the kids said how nice they thought the parents were. I even asked our 4yo boy "Do you think they will be a good Mommy & Daddy to their baby in my tummy?" - he replied "Yes, they will be nice!". I feel blessed that the parents understand how important it is for my kids to feel involved.
Here are some belly shots from this morning...
I also wanted to leave you with a few recent news articles about surrogacy... I get alerted about surrogacy in the news from my agency and other resources that I have "liked" on Facebook. Just some interesting reads, if you are so inclined... :)
Thanks for reading!
Valentine :)
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