Sausages

No, I'm not trying to make my carniverous friends drool. My feet have now decided it's time to swell to the size of sausages. I knew swollen feet came with pregnancy, and I suppose I'm lucky it took this long for it to happen, but I have no shoes to wear!! I wore flip flops today, but that's not necessarily a good choice for Irish weather. I might have to get out and buy an oversized pair of shoes I can wear for the rest of the pregnancy.

On a different note, I think I've an alien in my belly. Either that or a disco dancer. Good Lord!!!

24 Hours Out

What a thrill when the diabetes midwife told me I could go home last night! I almost cried! I was starting to get really fed up with being in the hospital... and so BORED! But they let me out about 5pm last night. Sweet freedom! I've been home now just over 24 hours and have been doing the diet and insulin here. So far so good, though sometimes I think my bloods are higher than they should be. I still have to work at getting a good balance on my plate and watch out for too many carbs. It's kind of like a pseudo-Atkins going on, though I can have more varied fruits, I would say. I've got some Easter candy in the freezer for baby's birthday! Can't WAIT! Not only to actually eat chocolate again, but to finally hold my baby.

Does Not Go With Toothpaste

I just went into the bathroom to brush my teeth. I back out and there's a diet yogurt waiting for me, which I'm not supposed to skip. Blech! Toothpaste and yogurt with fake sugar taste! Noooooo!!!!

Celtic Chocolate

So, is it bad that I don't want to ask my dietician about this 'no sugar added' chocolate I found in fear that she gives it the 'no go'? It's SO good!!!

The Day Thus Far

Well, I spent the night in the hospital, waking up throughout the night, as expected. You'd think they'd make hospital beds more comfortable! I spent the day taking my blood sugar levels, eating and talking to midwifes and diabetic specialists. I had a baby scan, which was good, and they measured the weight and size of baby. At the moment, baby is on the high side of average...phew! It's possible that waiting any longer to deal with the GD would make baby pack on the weight. So baby is about 5 pounds 10 oz at the moment, though that's a best guess as my bigger belly makes it more difficult to be accurate.

BUT, heartbeat is still good and there's plenty of movement! The little poop even started the scan head down, but decided to go transverse part way through, and was breech by the time I was back in my bed with the midwives trying to find the heartbeat for a monitoring session! I THINK baby's back to being head down, as there seems to be more butt above my naval at the moment. :)

I had a few meetings with the diabetic midwife who showed myself and the other newly diagnosed mums how to use the insulin pens and when and where to use them. We learned about going hypoglycemic as well...which I remember oh so vividly from when my previous flatmate Mike used to go hypo on me and I'd have to stuff glucose gel into his mouth. I'm planning on managing a bit more accurately than that though.

Last convo with the D.M. found that I'm not going to have to start off with insulin injections 4 times a day, but just in the morning, and then a long acting one at night, which is nice. It's likely though, that as the pregnancy progesses, my hormones will increase, making the need for more insulin likely. But it's a start. I'm anxious to get started to make sure I'm doing right by baby.

Bloodsucking Fiends

Hello from the Coombe Maternity Hospital in Dublin!

No, I haven't had the baby yet, I've been admitted to the hospital for a blood sugar series. Basically, they take a vial of blood once before and after each meal for 24. I also have to do a finger prick to test my blood sugar eat time as well and keep track in a glucose diary. This will help the endocrinologist decide if I need insulin and if so, how much. I'm assuming I'll have to have insulin as the diabetic chief midwife lady, Ethna, has already handed me loads of information on insulin... and these people generally know before the doctors do!

So far, I've been stuck 6 times in a vein in my left arm. Two of those sticks didn't work, but just added to the track marks being left. Apparently, my veins are superficial... which is fine by me as long as the rest of me is not!

I've decided, as an homage to my stay here, that I'm going to wild release a Christopher Moore book, 'Bloodsucking Fiends' somewhere in the hospital sometime tomorrow. A kind of good humored nod to my stay here. Hmm, maybe it's poetic that I chose to bring with me the Twilight series number three book 'Eclipse' to read while here?? I still have one more vial of blood to go tonight, and then two in the morning!

But, all's not THAT bad. I ended up with a PRIVATE room (loving my health insurance right now). I've heard the public ward can be a bit difficult to deal with and that it's hard to get any sleep. So I'm quite chuffed to have a room all to myself where I don't have to worry about leaving my purse unattended while I go to the bathroom. Also, I got to hear baby's heartbeat today. They strapped me to the baby heartbeat monitoring machine, so I got a nice 20 minutes of locomotive sounding beats to lull me into a trance. Midwife Rosanne said it looked good.

My blood pressure was up, though, but I am attributing this to being in hospital, a bit weary and nervous for what they'll say tomorrow. It probably didn't help that I was listening to baby's heartbeat, which is much faster. My second BP was lower, and my last one was MUCH better, 128/86...though I don't like the 86, that's still higher than usual for me.

Rob came for a visit and I send him off about 45 minutes ago to go home and get some food. I'm hoping to be out by about noon tomorrow, but I'm now not holding my breath. From what I understand, they want to also do a scan to check baby's weight, and then if Dr. Endocrinologist decides I need insulin, I may have to stay another night to make sure I react fine to it.

So that's the story at the moment! At least I have nice new comfy clothes from Motherhood to wear (thanks to Tara's mum for bringing them to me!).

Battle of the Nursing Bras- Part III

It's been a while since I've reviewed a bra, so let me get back into the swing of things. This week's bra is the plus size sports soft cup with no underwire. This bra is $20.98 from Motherhood.

I have to say, in general, I really like wearing this bra. It's very comfortable and I don't feel I have to adjust it very much. The t-back makes me feel very secure. My husband found it extremely functional and un-sexy, though. And the straps ride a bit closer to your neck, so you can wear scoop necklines with this bra. But if it's comfort and support you're going for, then I'd recommend this bra. Can I give it two boobs up?

This bra does come with plastic clasps for ease of breast feeding, but they are the same clasps on our previous bra. So basically, it'll take more practice before I'll ever be able to expose myself with one hand.

So, how did Ms. Bog Standard fair:

Comfort- 5
Support- 4.5
Need For Adjustment-4
Sex Appeal/ Attractiveness- 1
Ease of Breast Exposing- 3.5

Total-18 points

Update

Ok, so I've been crap lately at keeping updates! This past month has been hectic and life is finally (temporarily, I suppose) settling down. Rob and I moved into our new PHAT apartment, overlooking the mountains as well as Dublin City Centre. It's pretty amazing. Rob's birthday was last weekend as well, and we had a birthday party/ housewarming in our new flat. I'm hoping the weather warms up soon so we can begin enjoying our balcony.

Though we're moved in, we're still not unpacked, and now that I'm 7 months out, I'm tired a lot of the time, especially when I come home from work. I'm blessed to have such a wonderful husband who is doing the majority of the unpacking. I really need to start helping out more. Where is this whole "nesting" thing? Shouldn't I have it by now?? Sure, I have a desire for things to get done, but not the energy to do them myself! Not good, I know.

So yesterday I had a glucose tolerance test...the 3 hour one. I assumed I'd have one at 28 weeks, which is standard, but that never happened. My doctor decided to err on the side of caution and order one. My blood pressure had been fine, which is great, but I he wanted to make sure the whole sugar thing was alright as well.

Well...I failed the test. I like to think that maybe I was just eating too many white carbs and had too much sugar the past week. But for now, I'm on a no sugar added diet. Luckily, the endocrinologist feels that the levels of sugar in my blood were only slightly elevated, so I don't have to go on insulin...Thank God! Of course, this might change come Tuesday as they are going to retest me. So, hopefully this week of eating properly and cutting out sugar as much as possible will show that keeping this up will be all I need to do to curb my blood sugar level.

This does mean, though, that I will more than likely be induced prior to my due date. I've got just under 8 weeks to go (eek!), and often, those of us in this situation will deliver between 38-39 weeks. Which means my parents will be here for a full 2 weeks with the baby! Yippie! Always looking at the bright side, eh?

So I had a conversation with the dietician this morning and am pretty on ball with everything. I have to eat similarly to Weight Watchers, which is fairly easy for me, I just have to look out for hidden sugars. She told me that sugar substitutes are fine, but I'm not too sure about that. I'll try to limit that to Splenda and sucralose as the other fake sugars scare me, especially in regards to baby. Luckily, corn tortillas are OK! Hurray for crunchy tacos!! I do have to limit my milk intake, as the lactose isn't great. That stinks as my main craving is milk, but well, you do what you have to do. Baby needs me to get back on the ball and stay healthy, so that's what I'm going to do.