Our prize from the Bellies to Babies fair, turns out the other winner beat us to the pink prize! Still, lots of nice stuff inside, even if some of it is blue.
I am really doing my best to enjoy this last pregnancy, but I gotta tell ya, this little girl inside me is not making it easy! Or maybe it's just because I am getting too old to be having babies! In any case, probably good reinforcement for stopping once the girl-child arrives.
Jordan rocks out
Okay, I have been in the closet a bit about this, but I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes around 28 weeks or so, something I didn't have with Jordan. It's really not so bad, the eating right part isn't too hard; it's the poking, blood-letting, strict scheduling and monitoring that are a right pain in the arse. And I got super frustrated two weeks in, when I was doing everything by the book and still getting high numbers. When the doc reviewed my results she decided to put me on insulin, and things have been better ever since. They have been gradually increasing my dosage, but it appears that this is pretty much normal as my hormones increase up until the 36th or 37th week or pregnancy. Though I have been impressed the last few days, all of my numbers have been on target, even with our Canadian Thanksgiving Dinner (including pumpkin pie, cheesecake and other naughty carbs) this weekend! So, we are eating better in general around here, and I have to shoot up before breakfast and dinner. I've gotten rather desensitized to putting a needle into myself these days, even though the first time took me a good 5 minutes to work up the nerve. I know I am in the high-risk category for Type 2 Diabetes, as not only am I overweight, and asian, but also have a family history, but I do hope that I am in the 98th percentile of women for whom the gestational version goes away immediately after baby is born. Going through this does give me impetus to try to eat healthier in future, I do not want to have to deal with this every day for the rest of my life!
My belly at 33 weeks
Of course, this isn't all! Last Thursday as I was preparing my Thanksgiving pies, I started to have some really bad back pain. I called up Chris at work to complain, it wasn't quite like the back pain which caused me to leave work -- not spasmy. It felt a lot like the lower back pain I'd get if I were PMSing, only much worse. He told me to stop all my housework and to put my feet up. I did that and popped a Tylenol and felt quite a bit better, but by the time I got Jordy home from daycare it was starting up again and getting much worse. So I called Chris again and told him to high-tail it home. I just lay there moaning on the couch as Jordan wrecked the place. We managed to get the little dude fed and put to bed before I gave in and called the Nurse Hotline to find out if we were in pre-term labour. I was in pain all the way around my lower back and belly and feeling nauseaus, and though I didn't feel clearly defined contractions I definitely had some tightening going on. They told us to go to the ER. So we called our neighbour Sandy and she came over to listen to the baby monitor until Mark and Aida could get here from New Westminster (thanks everyone!) And then we headed out.
Me with Aida, before Thanksgiving Dinner
We got to the hospital and went up to Labour and Delivery and they asked me way too many questions in an annoyingly repetitive fashion, strapped a fetal heart rate monitor onto me and that device that measures contractions. There weren't any contractions and baby seemed to be, "happy as a clam" in there (nurse Trina's words.) The doc on duty suspected that I may be having some kidney issues, so she told everyone in my little room she wanted them to hold me so she could hit me. Sounds funny now, and to be fair to her, she did say exactly what she was about to do, but damn! I leaned forward onto Chris and a resident, Trina removed all my equipment and then Doc slapped me on my right flank as though I just dissed her poor dead mama! I think I may have jumped outta bed if I wasn't being restrained. She asked if it hurt and I replied indignantly that, "yes!" it did! She did the same to the other side and it wasn't even half as bad. After which followed all kinds of wisecracks about how mean they are there and that they were supposed to make me feel better, not smack me around. In the end they asked me to pee in a cup, a request I complied with and after which I promptly tossed my cookies! Well, I did feel better after that, but it turns out that there was some blood in the sample, which drew the concern that I may have a kidney stone or other blockage. They asked me to stay overnight and hooked up an IV to try to flush my renal system with fluids and encourage any possible stones to come out. Then they ordered an ultrasound for the next day. I sent Chris home around 11:30, no point in both of us sleeping poorly, plus I didn't want Jordan to wake up without Daddy if I could avoid it. It was not a bad stay in hospital, just boring as I had nothing to entertain me during my time awake until Chris and Jordy came for a visit the next morning. The ultrasound didn't happen until after lunch, and then I had to wait for the doctor on duty to speak with a specialist about next steps. Turns out they couldn't locate a stone, but there was also a baby in the way of their view of one of the ureters and it did appear that my right kidney was enlarged, a sign that there was some fluid backing up. They told me that it really isn't uncommon for pregnant to experience this with the uterus pressing on the ureters as the baby got larger, it's called pregnancy hydronephrosis, another condition which tends to vanish once delivered of a baby. Without an actual stone to remove, there was really nothing they could do for me, except send me home after a 20 hour stay, with the warning that if I felt this way again I needed to rush back and get some hospital grade pain-relief. I asked if there was anything I could do to help prevent recurrence and the answer was no. Great. I had some pain on that side again in the wee hours this morning, but after some Tylenol it does seem to be better now, but I admit I am nervous about it, particularly as Chris is out of town for work again later this week. We do have our good friends and neighbours to rely on should I need them, and the onset doesn't seem to be too fast to allow for some planning, so we are hoping for the best.
My new dining table and server!
Gobble gobble!
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