There's nothing quite like waking up and drinking the equivalent of a giant, melted, orange popsicle for breakfast:
Yes, today was my one hour glucose tolerance test. Which means that I had to wake up, drink the whole bottle of orange sugar drink in five minutes, record the time I finished, and then show up to the clinic for a blood draw exactly one hour later. This is a preliminary screening test for gestational diabetes.
The drink itself was sugary, and gave me instant heartburn, but otherwise, not so bad. The first half of the bottle was definitely easier to get down than the second half. After that, I felt a little spinny from the sugar...or perhaps just from the anxiety of the forthcoming blood draw (haven't had one in quite a while). The blood draw wasn't bad - two vials, but quick - and afterwards, I didn't feel terrible, but ran to McDonald's for a protein-heavy Egg McMuffin anyway. During the wait between blood draw and my regular check-up appointment, I sprouted a mild headache (which is still lingering even now, a few hours later), but really, felt pretty good.
Back at the clinic for my regular appointment, Matt and I took bets on my weight gain, and for once, I won. Not sure that it's a good thing that I won...I had guessed a gain of about six and a half pounds since last time, he had guessed just shy of five. Turns out I gained nearly seven pounds since my last visit, four weeks ago! I laughed at my victory over Matt...but truthfully, felt a little disheartened. I know that I've been eating like crap these last weeks. I also know that we're in major baby growth spurt territory. But still. Even if the weight gain was all baby, I still need to be healthier.
This puts my weight gain thus far at around 18 pounds, which my doctor is really happy with. I'm still well within normal range, and am on target to gain about 30 pounds total, which is perfectly in the middle of my recommended 25-35 pound total gain. Hedgehog's heartbeat was a good 140, and at least for the moment, it seems that hedgehog is head-down, though there's still plenty of room for flipping and flopping around, so position doesn't mean too much yet.
Other fun things? At the end of my appointment, we schedule ALL THE REST of my regular OB appointments. We've now moved to an every-two-weeks schedule for September and October, and then a once-a-week schedule in November. We are in the third trimester and flying toward the end.
Unfortunately, my appointment wasn't ALL good news. I learned that I failed my one hour glucose test. I was shocked. My doctor seemed a little surprised, but not overly worried, but I think that we both were feeing the same "man, things were going so smoothly, why did things have to get complicated?" feeling. I tried to sneak a peek at the lab results he was holding, and I think I saw that my one hour level was 166, when normal range is below 140.
Today's test result doesn't mean anything in particular yet, except that I need to do the repeat three hour glucose test sometime in the next week. They will do a fasting blood draw first thing in the morning, then make me drink the stuff, and then draw blood after one hour, two hours, and three hours to see in more detail how my body is processing the glucose.
Rational brain knows that lots of people fail the one hour but pass the three hour. Rational brain knows that even failing the three hour likely won't mean anything for me besides diet and exercise modification from now until the end of the pregnancy. Rational brain knows that there isn't really anything I could have done to prevent this, and that my weight gain has nothing to do with it, and even my poor eating habits aren't really to blame.
Emotionally, though, I'm a mess. I'm feeling discouraged by my weight gain. I'm feeling guilty for eating so poorly, and especially for all the (delicious!) junk I ate at the state fair this past weekend. I feel like I should have been able to prevent this. I feel like I've failed myself and my baby. I dread a morning of four blood draws without getting to eat anything until it's all done. I fear that I'm being judged, somehow. Mostly, I am just so so disappointed. And I don't care if its beyond my control, I still feel like a failure.
So I've closed the door in my office, turned on the air conditioner and some music, and am laying low for a while. Trying to be a little productive, trying to give myself a little space to mope, letting myself get a little teary, in hopes that soon enough, I'll get it all out of my system and can then return to being a functional, social, normal, productive human being.
I blame the hormones for me being a mopey mess over both my failed test and weight gain. So I'm going to sign off and take some time to get over myself. But first, this week's picture:
Yes, today was my one hour glucose tolerance test. Which means that I had to wake up, drink the whole bottle of orange sugar drink in five minutes, record the time I finished, and then show up to the clinic for a blood draw exactly one hour later. This is a preliminary screening test for gestational diabetes.
The drink itself was sugary, and gave me instant heartburn, but otherwise, not so bad. The first half of the bottle was definitely easier to get down than the second half. After that, I felt a little spinny from the sugar...or perhaps just from the anxiety of the forthcoming blood draw (haven't had one in quite a while). The blood draw wasn't bad - two vials, but quick - and afterwards, I didn't feel terrible, but ran to McDonald's for a protein-heavy Egg McMuffin anyway. During the wait between blood draw and my regular check-up appointment, I sprouted a mild headache (which is still lingering even now, a few hours later), but really, felt pretty good.
Back at the clinic for my regular appointment, Matt and I took bets on my weight gain, and for once, I won. Not sure that it's a good thing that I won...I had guessed a gain of about six and a half pounds since last time, he had guessed just shy of five. Turns out I gained nearly seven pounds since my last visit, four weeks ago! I laughed at my victory over Matt...but truthfully, felt a little disheartened. I know that I've been eating like crap these last weeks. I also know that we're in major baby growth spurt territory. But still. Even if the weight gain was all baby, I still need to be healthier.
This puts my weight gain thus far at around 18 pounds, which my doctor is really happy with. I'm still well within normal range, and am on target to gain about 30 pounds total, which is perfectly in the middle of my recommended 25-35 pound total gain. Hedgehog's heartbeat was a good 140, and at least for the moment, it seems that hedgehog is head-down, though there's still plenty of room for flipping and flopping around, so position doesn't mean too much yet.
Other fun things? At the end of my appointment, we schedule ALL THE REST of my regular OB appointments. We've now moved to an every-two-weeks schedule for September and October, and then a once-a-week schedule in November. We are in the third trimester and flying toward the end.
Unfortunately, my appointment wasn't ALL good news. I learned that I failed my one hour glucose test. I was shocked. My doctor seemed a little surprised, but not overly worried, but I think that we both were feeing the same "man, things were going so smoothly, why did things have to get complicated?" feeling. I tried to sneak a peek at the lab results he was holding, and I think I saw that my one hour level was 166, when normal range is below 140.
Today's test result doesn't mean anything in particular yet, except that I need to do the repeat three hour glucose test sometime in the next week. They will do a fasting blood draw first thing in the morning, then make me drink the stuff, and then draw blood after one hour, two hours, and three hours to see in more detail how my body is processing the glucose.
Rational brain knows that lots of people fail the one hour but pass the three hour. Rational brain knows that even failing the three hour likely won't mean anything for me besides diet and exercise modification from now until the end of the pregnancy. Rational brain knows that there isn't really anything I could have done to prevent this, and that my weight gain has nothing to do with it, and even my poor eating habits aren't really to blame.
Emotionally, though, I'm a mess. I'm feeling discouraged by my weight gain. I'm feeling guilty for eating so poorly, and especially for all the (delicious!) junk I ate at the state fair this past weekend. I feel like I should have been able to prevent this. I feel like I've failed myself and my baby. I dread a morning of four blood draws without getting to eat anything until it's all done. I fear that I'm being judged, somehow. Mostly, I am just so so disappointed. And I don't care if its beyond my control, I still feel like a failure.
So I've closed the door in my office, turned on the air conditioner and some music, and am laying low for a while. Trying to be a little productive, trying to give myself a little space to mope, letting myself get a little teary, in hopes that soon enough, I'll get it all out of my system and can then return to being a functional, social, normal, productive human being.
I blame the hormones for me being a mopey mess over both my failed test and weight gain. So I'm going to sign off and take some time to get over myself. But first, this week's picture:
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| 28 weeks 3 days |
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