Melanie ~ look at me with starry eyes...

Interesting, a friend back home just posted that she has to go straight to the 3 hour gestational diabetes test, that the midwives back home are no longer doing the 1 hour one because it is too flawed in both directions. I knew that most people who tested positive were actually negative, but had no idea so many people who tested negative were actually positive.

I'm surprised they are doing this before the midwives down here.

I'm at full term now, at 37 weeks. I'm still expecting that I'll go to 40 weeks or longer. That being said, I'm pretty sure we should think about installing the carseat soon, just in case.

After 7 days of doing my blood sugar testing, I'm fairly sure I don't have gestational diabetes. Yesterday, with fourth of July, my fasting sugars were 80 (which is pretty much average for me), my 2 hour after breakfast was 109 (I go between 100 and 113), my 2 hour after lunch was 104 (I go between 89 and 110, but usually in the 80's or 90's), and my 2 hour after dinner was 107 (I go between 105 and 114). Last night I went over on my carbs, with dinner, by about 20 (oops) and my numbers were still good, even though I mostly had carbs and just a bit of protein.

This is with me eating more carbs than I usually would. Before, my snack was almost always a greek yogurt, now I'm adding in 2 snacks of fruit and other carbs. I see the GD counselor tomorrow, I'm curious to see what she will say. They don't want my blood sugars to be over 120, if I do have GD, and reading, I see that they get more concerned if you can't keep your sugars under 200. I'm sticking near the 100's with food. Here's hoping the midwives can SEE.


Tim came and hung out with me in the pool yesterday, which was nice. I enjoyed my days with him. I'm looking forward to this weekend though, Reagan will be back. I'm going to take her and we'll go get pedicures at some point. I figure nice nails are a good thing in labour. We are also going to see Mary Poppins in DC, and going out to dinner, thanks to Tim's hard work (since he got an extra bonus from his company for his hard work, basically a night out on the town).

This week I'm just planning on lots of pool time. I pulled a muscle on the right side, to match the one on my right side. Walking is not fun. Sitting is not fun. Trying to move in bed is almost impossible without fully sitting up and trying not to cry. Last weeks of pregnancy are AWESOME. :P Man, I can't wait to meet this baby!

I think I'm going to buy an airhorn and use it every time my midwives are being alarmists. Today the midwife was sweet, but almost made me cry when she said she heard things had been a mess lately. Then she told me my urine was perfect, no spilled sugars, no protein, no nothing bad. Then asked if we had set up my stress tests for the baby. I asked their favourite question: "WHY".

She didn't have a why, but asked me if the other midwife had mentioned it, and I said no, and she said "well, lets look at your blood sugar and blood pressure and then see if we should plan them".

My blood pressure was 116/68, so I'd say that's a no, and then when I tested my blood sugars, after a kind of crappy meal and a half sweet iced tea, and they were fine, I'd say that no, I won't be going in for stress tests at THIRTY SIX WEEKS WHEN NOTHING IS WRONG WITH MY PREGNANCY.

I told the midwife I was a bit swollen but she said I looked fine and said "Melanie, you actually have ankle bones, do you know how few ankle bones I see these days?" hah


After my appointment, I met vitainpalus, and her daughter, at the Dulles Town Center mall. We went for lunch, unfortunately the restaurant we wanted to go to was closed, so food court it was! Heh.. I enjoyed my chick-fil-a. I found a "you're a big sister" card for Reagan at Hallmark, it's a bit young, but they are almost impossible to find! Nice to hang out with them again, enjoyable company, then I was off to my gestational diabetes class!

Turns out that the nutrition class had nothing to offer, was the most basic nutrition class I had ever been to, but honestly, when you see people walking into your GD class with sodas, you have to wonder how educated they are about it.

I felt a little ragey being there, I hate being "diagnosed" without actually being diagnosed, I had to go into the bathroom and talk myself down into a better attitude. I did get my blood testing kit for free, and when I checked my blood sugars, they were under the limit. They want us to be no higher than 120 and I was at 118, and had a pretty junky lunch. The nutritionist made up a plan for me and I have to eat more carbs that I usually do, which I find kind of odd. They also didn't care what proteins we ate, they only focused on the carbs, and I thought they would talk about balanced diets. I have to add in a second snack, I have to eat 3 meals and 3 snacks a day, and test my blood 4 times a day. I go back in a week and if all looks good, I don't have to go back again, just keep track on my own.

When I got bored, I just watched my belly move. Baby was active. Baby is always active. Everyone else was 15 weeks pregnant, 20 weeks.. 30.

All the things they said we'd have to watch out by my stage of the pregnancy are fine with me. No real swelling, baby isn't big, no ketones in urine (although I do have to check every morning now). Hopefully things will continue in this way and they will continue to back the eff off.

I have to admit, once I actually got past the fear of pricking my finger, it was pretty cool to see the numbers, it appeals to me, keeping track of numbers with my health.