3 Hour Glucose Test - Passed!

I had my 3 hour glucose test today and I am so, so happy to report that I passed! The test was not fun and I absolutely would recommend you try and not screw up your 1 hour test so you don't have to take it.

For the 3 hour test, you have to come in fasting. I stopped eating at about 8:30pm but didn't make it to the lab until 10:15am. This made my first fasting draw 10:30 and set me up for an 11:40, 12:40 and 1:40 draw. That's an obscene amount of time to go without eating when you're pregnant.

This time they gave me a choice between the orange Glucola or the Fruit Punch. I'd probably recommend the Fruit Punch but they're both gross, especially since I stopped drinking soda and other sugary drinks at least 4 years ago. The 3 hour drink is twice as sugary as the 1 hour, 100 grams of glucose instead of 50g, and man do you feel that extra glucose. If you can, try to get a cold bottle since it burns a lot going down when it's warm.

For me, the hardest parts were the beginning and the end.  In the first 15 minutes after downing the drink I had a really tough time not throwing it up. I came really, really close and felt awful but the tech was watching me pretty close and kept telling me I'd have to come back and do the test over if I couldn't keep it down. That was enough incentive for me, I took shallow breaths, small sips of water and that sucker stayed down.

Three hours, three more blood draws and a bruised arm later, I was really not okay. Sweaty, clammy, shaky, a little dizzy when I stood up. I had E pick me up from the lab and immediately go for food where I practically inhaled bread, a Caesar salad, and half a Fettuccine Alfredo with chicken. My hands didn't stop shaking until about half way through the pasta and it took a few hours after for me to feel normal again. 

 

Most importantly though, I passed! And it wasn't even a close pass, I passed with plenty of room to spare. Now I have something concrete to point to when people complain about my 'big' baby :)

1 Hour Glucose Test

Ugh and double ugh. I had my 1 hour glucose test this morning and flunked it. Under the original guidelines, I passed no problem but they've changed the cut off and now I have to take the miserable 3 hour test. I can already feel them digging around in my arm looking for my teensy, pain in the tush veins.

I'm 28 weeks and at my appointment this morning baby looked great. Heartbeat is strong, baby is active, blood pressure is low and I still haven't gained any weight. I'm sure they're going to make me take the 3 hour glucose test in the next few days and then the next official appointment is in 2 weeks since we've now made it to the third trimester.

Gestational Diabetes usually pops up towards the end of pregnancy when the placenta produces too many insulin-blocking hormones. This raises your blood sugar which can lead to baby getting excess glucose and growing larger. The placenta produces insulin-blocking hormones normally, but you don't have an issue until it produces them in such high levels that your blood sugar is too high after every meal.

My family has a history of big babies, almost all our full term littles are over 8lbs. Only my sister, who is tiny and petite as an adult, was full term at 7 and change. There's no family history of diabetes, gestational diabetes or any other pregnancy complication. They're just bigger kiddos who grow mostly grow into average adults.

I'm sure I will pass the 3 hour test, but I really, really hope they don't try to use this test as an opportunity to complain about baby's size -_- 

6 weeks 6 days - Intake Appointment

Oh man, this is one I'm typing up through some serious queasiness. Even though it's super early, S asked me to pick a hospital and pre-register so I could get on the calendar for prenatal appointments. The hospital choice was a difficult one, more difficult I think because of our location. We live about 5 minutes from Kaiser A. They're a smaller Kaiser but I absolutely love my OB, who is the head of the department there. Unfortunately, they don't really have a rated NICU (it's not even on the state list) and my OB is the only OB I'd want to deliver with there. S wants me very much to deliver and receive care at Kaiser B.

Kaiser B is about 30 min - 1 hour from our house which is a pain in the butt. It's a larger Kaiser with what is considered to be the best labor and delivery unit and a NICU. I had originally planed to go with my awesome OB at Kaiser A but after weighing all the options, it seemed like a better and safer bet to go with Kaiser B, even if it means giving up my beloved OB. The chances of actually delivering with your OB aren't great and I'd be pretty upset if I couldn't have her. S is a Nurse Midwife at Kaiser B and her partner midwife is also supposedly wonderful along with the OBs. If I have any sort of emergency, I can always go to the closer Kaiser A but everything scheduled will take place at Kaiser B.

The next step was actually making the appointment which was mentally harder than it should have been. It felt a lot like tempting fate and I was really hesitant to make those kinds of plans with a pregnancy this new, but I finally went ahead and had my intake appointment today.

This appointment started out with lots of questions answered via tablet. They were mostly basic pregnancy and health questions so it was kind of cool to get them out of the way without wasting my face to face time with the nurse. Once I got to her, we were able to focus entirely on our story and the calendar.  Holy balls was S right about the calendar.

After explaining about our IVF journey and briefly discussing the available prenatal screening options, the nurse opened up "THE CALENDAR" and proceeded to book me for the next 4 months. And she wasn't just booking me to get ahead, there were practically no appointments left for the date ranges I needed! I asked to try and have my appointments with S but she was only available for my July and August appointments. I also needed an OB since I'm not delivering with my wonderful Kaiser A one, so this nurse booked me with the head of this labor and delivery unit. Then, since I'm over 25 and I'm an even chubbier chubster than usual thanks to IVF, the nurse had me take the gestational diabetes screening test.

(Source)

OMG this stuff was disgusting. It tastes like some sort of burning, chemical orange soda and is in no way, shape or form morning sickness friendly. It's now been over 6 hours since I drank it and I still feel sicker to my stomach than normal, and my intestines are making all sorts of angry noises. I somehow managed to choke it down and not vomit, finished up the appointment and then went to have my blood drawn an hour after the drink. I guess the nurse didn't see my previously updated STD panel in my chart that I just did for the clinic so she ordered another full panel along with the glucose and urine test. 10 vials of blood after drinking the Glucola and not being able to drink water or throw up? Not fun. 

My next appointment with Kaiser is in just a week or so to have my physical and first Kaiser ultrasound. Luckily, we won't actually have to wait that long to see our little bean since our next clinic appointment is this weekend.  Two ultrasounds in less than a week? We're going to get spoiled :) This time I just need to remember to ask E to get some video footage for me.