Oh Sugar!

At around my 24th week, I, like almost all preggo women had to do my glucose test, aka, the nasty sugary orange drink test. This tested if I would have gestational diabetes. GD is more common in certain ethnic groups and I happen to be one of them.

Wikipedia defines Gestational Diabetes (GD) as:

Gestational diabetes (or gestational diabetes mellitus, GDM) is a condition in which women without previously diagnosed diabetes exhibit high blood glucose levels during pregnancy (especially during third trimester of pregnancy).

Gestational diabetes generally has few symptoms and it is most commonly diagnosed by screening during pregnancy. Diagnostic tests detect inappropriately high levels of glucose in blood samples. Gestational diabetes affects 3-10% of pregnancies, depending on the population studied.^[2]

Babies born to mothers with gestational diabetes are typically at increased risk of problems such as being large for gestational age (which may lead to delivery complications), low blood sugar, and jaundice. Gestational diabetes is a treatable condition and women who have adequate control of glucose levels can effectively decrease these risks.

At first, I also defined it as being a pain in the ass, but after the a few hours I realized this could be a blessing in disguise. My placenta was blocking my insulin production, so if left unmonitored my high blood sugar could result in me giving birth to a giant baby; something I did not look forward to pushing out. So my test came back positive, I knew this would go away after I gave birth and after the placenta was out of me but while preggo I was going to have to monitor what I ate, Sour dough dipped in balsamic and garlic olive oil and crazy no amounts of fresh white pasta for me, cupcakes were now put on the "maybe just half" list and trips to Bulk Barn for sugary snacks have now been shelved. As mentioned in previous posts, my body was no longer my own. I had a baby to take care of and that was priority number 1. So to limit and control sugar and complex carbs may be annoying but in the end if I have a healthy baby it's all worth it so I don't mind shelving chocolate for the next 3 months. I am really luck however, this baby has been craving all the good stuff, fruits, veggies and hardly any red meat. However, I did now have to control my fruit intake. I had to go from eating 5 servings of fruit alone to only 2. Bye bye apple and pear combo in the morning, Baby likes apples.

As much of a pain in the ass it is to test my blood sugar I see this as sort of a blessing. I've always loved food and loved carbs. Bread, white, crusty bread was always a favorite; but I know how bad it is for you too. Plus, all I have to do is control what I eat, at least I don't have to use medication or worse, inject my self in the ass with insulin. One of my fears was to gain a crazy amount of weight with this pregnancy. With the possibility of Gestational Diabetes a controlled diet has helped me control that. As of my last OB appointment (4 weeks ago) I had gained a total of 16 Lbs; today's visit I lost 7 off that. So entering my third trimester I'm going in healthier, not heavier (by much), but of course we'll see what the next 10 weeks will bring. In a few weeks I'll find out how big this baby is (and maybe the sex) and monitor it's growth. Cross your fingers its not a turkey! For my VaJJ's sake I'll cross my fingers and toes!