gestational diabetes test

I took the gestational diabetes test yesterday. I know that people said not to alter my diet leading up to the test since it wouldn't make a difference, but I had stopped eating extra sugar (no sweet tea, no sodas, no desserts, no granola bars, no yogurt, etc) since Friday. For breakfast that morning, I only ate 4 slices of 40 calorie toast with butter and water was the only thing I drank.

When I got to the dr office, they took my usually stats - BP was 105/70 and my weight was 193.5 - which was great b/c I had only gained 2 pounds last month! I'm glad b/c I haven't worked out as much over the last month with all the pains. Then I had to drink some weird super sugary orange stuff - all in 2 minutes. I was worried b/c my stomach was upset and I was afraid that I'd throw up, but thankfully, the orange drink wasn't nasty like most people said it was. I had to wait exactly an hour then have my blood drawn for them to test.

In the meantime, I met with a midwife for my monthly visit and everything is still progressing like normal. My stomach measures the correct size and Kirby's heartbeat is strong. He's still moving around a lot in there - she had a hard time at first getting him to stay still long enough to read his heartbeat. :) My main questions for her were about how to manage the pain. The lower back pain has made things really difficult, and I'm really scared about what's going to happen for the next 3 months if I'm hurting this much already. Hopefully, I'm able to find ways to manage the pain without taking too many meds (I haven't taken any yet). I have a maternity belt that I wear sometimes (it's not comfortable for me to wear all the time b/c it cuts into my pre-pregnancy fat rolls :P ) and I have the pool on the back deck, which feels wonderful while I'm in it. She also suggested a heating pad for my back and cushier shoes (I mostly wear ballet flats to work, but I wear cushy tennis shoes on the weekends).

I was asked to be apart of another study while I was there. This one is to determine genetics and the environments effects on the baby. Since I was getting my blood drawn for the diabetes test (and also HIV, for some weird reason), they just took 2 extra vials of blood for the study. I answered some questions and the next time I go back for a dr appt I'm going to fill out a more detailed survey of my history and how I live. During labor, they want to take one more vial of blood and a small sample of the placenta and cord blood to compare to the blood taken yesterday for their study. I told the girl I didn't mind being a part of the study b/c I was already going to be poked for something else, but if it was something separate then she could forget it! In return for participation, I got a gift bag with notepads, a pen, and later I'll get $20. Certainly nothing worth the trouble, but I feel good helping out someone's study if it helps them stop illnesses in other children that are based on our surrounding environment. Hopefully, this study is better run than the last study (which I thought was a crock b/c the questions were written so poorly).

I ended up waiting 10 minutes past my 1 hour limit for getting my blood drawn b/c the lab tech was with someone for a *really* long time. At the time, I was getting nervous b/c the nurse drilled it into me that I needed to get my blood drawn after an hour. Once I was finally called in, I asked the tech and she said that it was ok for me to be 10 minutes later. Whew - b/c I didn't want to have to do that test again!

I called this morning for my test results and I PASSED! :) The nurse said my levels were 122 and that I was fine. I looked it up online, and I think they tend to send people over 140 on to the 3 hour test. I'm SO glad I don't have to do the 3 hour test b/c that would require fasting and 4 blood draws. Blech!

Our next appointment is August 4th - we'll have a regular dr appointment and we'll also have another ultrasound. They want to look at his head to see if the cysts are going away, but also to measure him and see if he's the right size. I'm also going to ask that they check for neural tube defects (like Spina Bifada) since the CVS test didn't test for those defects.

In other baby news, 2 nights ago was the second time that Gary was able to feel Kirby moving around in there. He was quite the kicker that night so there was no mistaking what was going on in there.:)