Gestational Diabetes

Having gestational diabetes (GD) sucks. It's a common pregnancy problem. According to the UCSF Medical Center, approximately 7% of pregnant women develop gestational diabetes. First time pregnant women are typically not tested until around 28 weeks gestation. I was tested at 12 weeks because I had GD with Brynlee. 

Let me just say, the whole entire GD (pun intended) process sucks. It's not just testing my blood sugar 4 times a day. It goes like this: I take my fasting blood sugar when I wake up before I have eaten or had anything to drink, but after I have put in my contacts. I have to eat 3 meals a day plus 3 snacks a day. I have to remember the exact time I put breakfast in my mouth and remember to test my blood sugar 2 hours later. I do the same for lunch and dinner. I have to eat less than 45g carbs for meals and 15-30g carbs for the three snacks. I have to force myself to eat an evening snack or else my fasting blood sugar level is a little elevated in the morning. For fasting blood sugar, my number has to be no higher than 95. Last night, I did not eat an evening snack (I started blood sugars today) and when I woke up today, my stomach hurt, I felt icky, and my blood sugar level was 93. Borderline. So I have to make myself eat something in the evening. I have to write these numbers down and keep track of them. I also have to keep track of my food so I know what food affects my blood sugar levels and what to avoid. At the end of each week, I have to email my numbers to the nurse practitioner at the high risk OB's office. Fun stuff.

Luckily, I use MyFitnessPal to input my food. I love that I can use the app and just scan bar codes. This morning for lunch, I made a bowl of tuna with a piece of bread. I just scanned all of the ingredients. Tuna, mustard, mayo, relish, hard boiled egg, and a piece of bread. Easy peasy. I also like that it saves my frequent foods so I can just check mark them and use them again. I can also build recipes on MFP. Sure, MFP is more for weightloss and maintenance, but it works for what I need right now.

I found this awesome app today called Glucose Buddy. It's so neat! I am using it to track my blood sugar numbers. It's so awesome. I can even email the numbers to myself and it sends it like a spreadsheet. I can also email it directly to the Nurse Practitioner through the app. Sweeeeeeeet.

Glucose Buddy app on iphone

Easy logging of blood sugars

Easy e-mail feature

I am so happy I found this! With Brynlee, I had a little mini journal and I would write everything in there. Then I would type up the numbers in a spreadsheet to show my doctor at my appointments, but by the time I was diagnosed, I was seeing my OB biweekly and then it was even more frequent with once a week appointments and NSTs. This method should be much easier than that! I am all about making life more easy and more organized.

Having GD sucks, but I know that keeping myself on track will be better for this little baby. Less than 5 weeks and we'll know what color to paint the nursery. :)

13 Weeks

My oh my, how time flies. 13 weeks, it is. I had my appointment yesterday with my OB. Things are going well! The nurse had to dig a bit to find the baby's heart beat, but that's because he/she is all nestled in my pelvic bone. My vitals are good and I talked to my doctor about my horrendous headaches. She suggested adding a little caffeine when I first feel a headache coming on. I stopped drinking coffee weeks ago thanks to the heartburn. I do drink diet coke from time to time, but not often. She also suggested taking Tylenol PM when I have an evening headache that may prevent me from being able to sleep. I did that last night and let me just say I feel refreshed today and I only got up twice to use the bathroom. (Usually I get up anywhere between 6-10 times a night...seriously...no joke.) My next appointment with her is at 17 weeks on July 28th. It feels like it will be here before I know it.

I've lost 4 lbs thanks to Joey making me eat protein and veggies for dinner. Haha! Actually, it's been nice. Dinner is SO easy these days. He usually prepares the meat and I throw us together some veggies. Last night, we had fish and okra tomato stew. My mom used to make okra tomato stew and I always loved it. I still do. I put Cajun seasoning in our's though and made it spicy. I just cooked minced garlic and frozen okra in the skillet for about 6 minutes and then I added a can of diced tomatoes (with juice) and a can of rotel tomatoes (with juice). I seasoned with garlic powder, salt, pepper, and Cajun seasoning. I let it simmer for about 20 minutes and viola! Yum. Of course, the picture doesn't look awesome.

I brought a big, yummy salad for lunch today. Lettuce, tomatoes, black olives, shredded carrots, broccoli, shredded cheese, egg, turkey cubes, and olive oil vinaigrette dressing. I also brought an apple with peanut butter. I've been drinking at least 70 oz of water during the work day plus a bottle of water or mixed berry green tea for dinner. Doctor said I am getting plenty of fluids and to keep it up.

I see the high risk OB again today at 9:30am. I guess I am just going to see all of the doctors in the office. I saw one doctor the first time, I see a different doctor today, and my visit on Aug 5th will be with a different doctor because "my" doctor will be on vacation that week. Today's appointment is to get my prescriptions for the supplies I need to monitor my blood sugar levels. I did the 1 hour glucose test on 6/24 and I failed it (I knew I would). They were going to have me do the 3 hour, but I insisted on just letting me skip it (it made me horribly sick with Brynlee) and just diagnosing me as having gestational diabetes. My OB agreed with that when I talked to her yesterday. So I go in today to meet with the doctor or whoever for them to tell me how many carbs I should eat at each meal. I am hoping it's not a long appointment since I am leaving work in the middle of the morning to go to this.

It's weird for me to be seeing a high risk OB. I didn't have to do that with Brynlee. When I was diagnosed with GD around 28 weeks, I was just sent to the diabetes educator at the hospital for one session. They showed me how to use the glucose monitor, talked to me about carbs, and how much I should eat. That was all. I didn't have to continue seeing the lady. I was still considered high risk, but GD is very common. I just wrote down what I ate every day and checked my blood sugar 4 times a day. I would bring my journal and glucose monitor to my appointments with my OB so he could check to see how I was doing. No big deal. I know I am going to be so tired of pricking my fingers by the time the baby is born though. It really, really sucks to prick your fingers 4 times a day. It hurts. Your fingers get really sore. But it's only temporary. I won't have to do this forever and I know it's for the good of the baby. I'd never want to hurt him or her.

Other than feeling tired (but I am starting to get a little bit more energy), I am doing pretty well. :)