This past Friday I went into my OB's office for my 1 hour glucose test. I have been kinda worried about this one ever since I read the book on twin pregnancies that said there is a much higher risk of GD for women with twins. However, my OB wasn't too concerned and said that I could wait until my next appointment at 28 weeks before taking the test.
Well, as it turns out, the twin book was right and I should have listened to my gut and taken the test earlier. I failed so spectacularly - my levels were 196 (non-fasting) and they want you under 135 - that my OB decided to just skip the 3-hour test and send me straight to the nutritionist.
So I'm now on a GD diet plan and testing myself 4 times a day. I must say it's a bit of a bummer - one of my only food pleasures left was fresh fruit, and I now have to restrict that severely along with all the other foods I like (bread, pasta, rice, potatoes). Boo hoo.
I also cannot STAND doing the finger prick testing. For some reason I am finding it 10 times more difficult/frustrating than doing the IVF shots. Despite soaking my hands in hot water, rubbing my fingertips to get more blood into them, etc. I can only seem to get enough blood out of them about 1/3 of the time. This means I have to prick my finger an average of 3x per try, which is really annoying - I have already wasted a ton of test strips and lancets, and they ain't cheap!
The good news is that since I started testing 2 days ago, my blood levels are almost all under target (<100 fasting, <120 non-fasting). The two levels that were over target were 121 and 124 (non-fasting) so they were only borderline over. Hoping this means that diet will solve the problem, and I won't have to do insulin. I also hope it means that my GD isn't really that bad, and hasn't had any negative effects on the babies. That part scares me, since we didn't catch this until relatively late.
In other news, my mom was here last week and we had a really lovely time. I don't think we've actually spent a week alone together as adults ever. Seeing me healthy (GD excepted!) and happy quelled a lot of her anxieties, and I think she was very surprised to see how active I still am despite the size of this belly!
I am now 28, going on 29, weeks and in my third trimester! So happy to have made it to this milestone. My OB said that she was very relieved that we were past the scariest time (24 - 28 weeks). While of course we want the babies to cook much, much longer it's nice to know that every week that goes by puts us more in the safe zone.
Our apartment is slowly filling up with gifts from the baby shower that I have nowhere to store. I am in the process of getting a closet for the nursery built, and it can't come too soon! I also have new windows and drapes coming, as well as all of the nursery furniture/gear - it's going to be a bit of a hectic time getting all of these things coordinated. My biggest fear is that the new windows are not going to make it in time - my installer gave me a date of Oct 9th, which is just before my due date and I'm very nervous about how that is going to turn out! I may be asking for trouble.
I am getting a bit more uncomfortable now, and I can see that these last couple months are not going to be quite as smooth sailing as the past few have been. The belly is definitely slowing me down more - I get out of breath and experience rapid heart beats much more when I walk around now. My nose is always stuffy, and my husband has been teasing me about how much I snore at night now (he's one to talk, by the way!) My hands and feet have also started to get numb and tingly because of all of the fluids/swelling. But despite this I'm still doing pretty well - praying that I feel this good as long as possible!
I hope everyone is doing well - am SO SO happy for Sunflower and Jen and their recent BFPs! And I have my fingers, toes, and everything crossed for MyFertilityBlog's upcoming cycle in Denver - everybody please send her best wishes!
