Dietitian visit

This past Thursday, Jeff and I met with the dietitian at the Maternal Fetal Medicine Department at Toledo Hospital. It was well worth the hour long visit. After turning in my food journal that I was told to keep for a couple of days, she helped to construct a food plan that would balance the carbs, meats, veggies, and fats that I should consume in a day. More importantly she broke this down to each meal and snack time. I now know what to eat at each meal...and how to make it through the holidays without overloading on carbs and desserts (although it still will be tempting to go overboard!). A diabetic diet really isn't as hard as I thought it would be. I'm also thankful that I won't be needing to monitor my blood sugar at this time (thank you to all of you who offered help with monitoring!). My doctor is confident that if I am able to manage my sugar alone with diet, we won't need to start monitoring at home. My next appointment with the doctor is December 8th, so I'm counting on a good appointment!

My 28th week pregnancy belly shot is taken in my OSU work scrubs. I've given up wearing dress clothes to work and now strictly wear scrubs. They are large and comfortable! It's almost like working in pajamas. You can see Garth in the background. He's recuperating from surgery.. he had a couple of fatty tumors removed. We've now nicknamed him 'mummy man'.

Diabetes

As most previous pregnant women know, doctors test for diabetes around the 26Th week of pregnancy- as pregnancy can interfere with a woman's sugar levels, making her temporarily diabetic. The test is actually a screening for the 'real' test... which isn't much fun. The screening consists of drinking a sweet orange drink and waiting one hour for a blood draw. If the results show that your sugar is nice and low, you are off the hook. But if you 'don't pass' your diabetes screening test, then you get to have the 'big test'. After failing my one-hour screening test, I was off to the big four-hour glucose tolerance test.

So, this past Monday, after fasting overnight, I went to the lab. This time, I got to drink a fruit punch flavored drink (Glucola) with so much sugar that I swear a straw could stand upright in the bottle! I had one blood draw before my yummy (ha!) drink and then three more each hour afterward. Needless to say, it wasn't very much fun but luckily I found out that the lab had free wireless for my computer:)

Yesterday my results came in. I had failed again but not by much. I will be seeing a dietitian to help me construct a healthy low carb/ no sugar diet. While my doctor isn't quick to diagnose me with gestational diabetes, my results are still disappointing... especially with all the upcoming pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes! But, I am eager to do whatever I need to as untreated gestational diabetes can lead to excessively big babies who may be difficult to deliver. But worse, many women with gestational diabetes will become diabetic again later in life... something I never want to have!