Size of Baby? The fruit for this week
is a cantaloupe (wow, that’s kind of big!).
He’s anywhere from 10.5 to 11.8 inches long and weighs between 12.7 oz
and 20.8 oz…which is kind of a huge range, don’t you think?? I like to think he’s probably right around a
pound.
Maternity Clothes? Tops
are mostly regular, bottoms are maternity.
Weight Gain? Per my last Dr. appointment, I think
I’d gained about 15 lbs…I believe based on my scale I’m probably right around
16 lbs.
Gender? Boy!
Robert Oscar
Sleep? Sleeping well!
Food Cravings? I have
random moments of cravings…like for some reason at 9:00 in the morning a corn
dog sounds DELICIOUS…or last night I was dreaming about Campbell’s chicken
noodle soup and Ritz crackers…yummmmm.
The only thing is that usually when I’m having these “cravings” I never
go out and get them…
What I Miss? Regular clothes shopping L. So
many cute things out there right now that my pregnant belly can’t fit
into.
Symptoms? I’ve been really lucky to only have heartburn
as a major “symptom.”
Belly Button? It’s still technically an innie but
it’s definitely bumped out a bit.
Best Moment of the
Week? Well, this was technically last week,
but I bought little Robert some clothes for the first time last Saturday! I was at the Gap w/ my sis in law and ended
up buying some wittle bitty khaki corduroy pants, a little navy zip up hoodie,
a blue and white stripped long sleeve shirt, and a green and white stripped set
of pjs with footies. SO CUTE! I stopped myself from buying this…but I was REAL
close. J
Something that’s been on my mind a lot lately is this upcoming glucose
test to check for gestational diabetes. Here’s
a link to an explanation
of Gestational Diabetes, per the America Diabetes Association…and here’s a blurb about it from Robb
Wolf. GD is a legit concern for any
expectant mom, but I’m not 100% thrilled with the way that the medical
community tests for it. The normal
testing protocol is to make the preggo drink 50 grams of glucose (called “glucola”…yum),
wait 1 hour, and then do a blood draw and check blood sugar levels (they
should be below 140 or 130, depending on your doctor’s idea of “passing”). The idea is that once the glucose is in your
system, your body will react and produce insulin to move the glucose from your
blood stream to organs/systems that need it for fuel (or store it in the form of
fat). Now I’m not actually concerned
about the whole storing fat side effect right now, what concerns me is loading
the body up with glucose just to see if you can process a whole bunch of
it. It’s like telling someone with
potential liver problems, “We’re not really sure if your liver can process
alcohol, so in order to test it, go drink 10 shots of vodka and let’s see what
it does to you!” Not ideal.
You may say, “50 grams of glucose?
Shoot, there’s 39 grams of sugar in a can of Coke, that’s nothing!” This is true, however “sugar” does not equal “glucose.” Sugar (sucrose) is a 50/50 combo of glucose
and fructose. Glucose goes straight into
your blood stream, while fructose has to take a little detour down to your
liver to be turned into glucose, so those 39 grams of sugar would not spike
your blood sugar in the same way 39 grams of glucose would do the trick. Plus, most people consume sugars with other
things, like protein, fat or fiber, which also slows down the absorption of the
glucose into the blood stream. So 50
grams of glucose in a short time span can be pretty taxing on one’s system! Since BJ is a Type 1 diabetic, I have been
very exposed to glucose and blood sugar readings and all that fun stuff.
So, I called the doctor’s office (and did some online research) to see if
there were any alternatives to this test.
My doctor’s office basically told me that this test is the standard
medical protocol and I could NOT take it, but I’d have to sign some sort of waiver
and essentially not ever be “tested” for GD.
I asked if it would be possible for the doctor to prescribe blood
glucose test strips (BJ has an old glucometer that he’s not using, and a bunch
of lancets (needles), so really all I need are test strips), so I could test my
blood sugar after every meal for the next month…I figured this would give them
lots of information (more readings are better than one, right?) and it would be
just my normal, everyday diet, so we could see how what I’m already eating
affects me. Unfortunately, they can’t prescribe
me the strips unless they diagnose me with diabetes. L Booo.
And test strips cost anywhere from $105 to $140 for a pack of 100 strips
(if you test 5 times a day, that’s only 20 days worth!)…which is EXPENSIVE!
I do believe that I will end up taking the normal gestational diabetes
screening test, despite my reservations about it, however I want to go to my next doctor’s appointment with some
extra data, so I plan on testing my blood sugar after meals for the next month
anyway. If she looks at that information
and says, “Wow your blood sugars look great, I don’t think we need to take this extra
test!” then yippie! If not, oh well, at
least I tried. I went looking online and
was able to find a pack of 100 strips for $58 on Amazon! Woohoo!!
I ordered them and will be anxiously awaiting their arrival! I am completely fascinated by the human body
and what crazy weird things it can do…I am SO looking forward to testing (and
charting b/c I’m a HUGE nerd) my blood sugar during the next month!
One thing that I was told to do (after I failed my first glucose test and had to do the horrid 3 hour one) was to eat an extra slice of bread each day for 5 days before your test. It helps your body not go into sugar shock.
ReplyDeleteOh, and Baby Gap is addictive. Like bad.
That argyle onesie was super precious! I would have had a hard time not buying it, too! I'm thinking of you and little Robert as you enter this time of stress. Just think about how much harder it could be- remember when you were drinking DP all the time? You've changed your diet so much, Jenni, that I am really crossing my fingers for you that it will be easy and all will be perfect.
ReplyDeleteSo, my experience with the glucose test was that I drank that sick concoction and then they let me sit for longer than an hour - after I told them it had been an hour. They told me it was no good and I'd have to drink it and test again. Well, you can guess how that went over on my pregnant self. Once I saw my doc she explained that they might be changing the testing protocol soon anyway, where it would be detected on one of the many blood tests they already take throughout pregnancy. I hope it's that way if I ever have to do it again.
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