Top of the third

Warning: I'm going to be kind of all over the place with this post. I haven't written in a long time and there is A LOT of catching up to do.

First, I'm at 32 weeks as of Wednesday- that means 8 WEEKS LEFT!!! Give or take 2 weeks, of course. (Crap, that means it could be 6 weeks...)

This is what the beginningish of the third trimester is leaving me looking like:

Yup, it's attractive. 

Week 7 was the first week we took a picture. That was around the time I was thinking I was about 20 pounds overweight. Ha!

Week 13 was the last week of the 1st trimester. I was bloated, but still weighed the same.

Week 28 was the end of the 2nd trimester (about 2 weeks after our San Diego trip) and I was up about 17 pounds.

Now, I'm up 19 pounds, but definitely feeling HEAVY. I attempted push ups yesterday and although my upper body strength has always left something to be desired, I used to be able to do 25 at a time. Yesterday I could do 2 sets of 5. And that belly was getting close to the ground!


Working Out
Why yes, I've still been going to the gym. I stopped recording my workouts on here, but I'm pretty much in the same routine as before- elliptical 3 days a week, classes 3 days a week. I have had to tone down my intensity and I've been having to take a lot more water breaks, but I'm still working. Brian and I have been going on nightly walks with Kevin too, and that's been nice and relaxing.

MY BODY- the good, the bad, and the ugly
I'm going to go out of order here and start with the ugly because- knock on wood- there hasn't been much ugly. Sure, I'm gaining weight, but it's pretty much all in my stomach. My group ex instructor keeps telling me that you can't tell I'm prego from behind, so that's nice. But that weight in the front sure does make it difficult to bend over. And get out of bed. And slouch. So then onto the good...



It's still early, but no stretch marks or weird lines yet. My innie belly button has remained tucked in- again, nice. Especially since it's getting HOT and I'm planning on wearing a bikini still. I will say this though- my belly button is stretching out a bit, so it's bigger. But that just makes it easier to clean! Overall, I've been having a pretty mellow pregnancy. Until 2 weeks ago. So here's the bad...

Gestational Diabetes
I will admit that I don't always make the healthiest food choices. What, there are donuts at our meeting? It doesn't matter if I just ate breakfast at home. Oh, you say you want chocolate chip pancakes? Right-o. Should we order dessert? Why, of course we should. Dumb question.

But I have always been healthy. I exercise, my blood pressure has always been stellar, I've never had an overnight stay in the hospital. I am aware of what I eat, but I have never enjoyed counting calories or paying attention to my carb vs protein intake.

Well, on May 4th, I got a wake up call. 

Let's go back to November. I had to take a routine glucose test. You have to drink a sugary orange drink and then your blood gets drawn an hour later. The result has to be under 130 mg/dl. Mine was 111. Good.

In the meantime, I've been eating my standard food. I didn't really even have much of an appetite until maybe a month ago. Around week 28, they want you to go back to test again, just to make sure. No problem.

I should have known something was different. The first test, I felt fine. This time around, I felt gross. My head hurt, my stomach hurt. I had to put on my little sea bands that I got for our cruise to prevent motion sickness. (I've kept them in my purse this entire pregnancy.) I haven't had to use them since the first trimester. (Still not sure if they work, but I never threw up, so I'll take it!)

Anyway, Brian said it's probably because I needed to eat. He was probably right because as soon as I did, I felt better. I should have taken that debacle as a sign, but again- I've never had any major medical problems and my last test was fine.

Well, my results came back- 160! That's 30 mg/dl over the limit. No good.

So I had to take a 3 hour glucose test. And yes, that's about as miserable as it sounds. 

You drink another sugar drink with even more sugar. You give blood once before the drink is consumed, and then once every hour on the hour after that- 4 blood tests total. 

I was mostly worried about being bored, but it was the day after my final defense, and I had some editing to do, so I sat in the lobby of the hospital, editing my thesis, waiting to have my blood drawn.

My test scores came out like this:

Component	Your result	Standard range	Units
GLUCOSE, FASTING, PRE 100 G GLUCOSE PO, SER/PLAS	95	<95	mg/dL
GLUCOSE 1H POST 100 G GLUCOSE PO	174	<180	mg/dL
GLUCOSE 2H POST 100 G GLUCOSE PO	154	<155	mg/dL
GLUCOSE 3H POST 100 G GLUCOSE PO	123	<140	mg/dL

Not so bad, right? Wrong. That first score of 95- that's not good. They want you under 95. I was right at 95, so that means I was 1 point too high. And that left me with a diagnosis of borderline gestational diabetes. I'll go into more detail about all this in another post. 

Here's the quick version though- I'm on a pretty strict diet, I have to pee on a stick every morning to check for ketones, and I have to prick my finger 4 (FOUR!!!) times a day. But again, more on that later.

For now, here's a picture of Kevin cuddling his future baby sister...

 He's going to be an excellent brother.


I'll be back soon with more updates!