Becoming unweildy

Week 31: Well, the belly is definitely becoming the defining aspect of my experience now. I struggle to roll over in bed at night, am awakened by discomfort in abdomen and hips, get out of breath doing simple things, find it increasingly difficult to work my shoes and socks. (And, you know, find my tiny line of belly fat, way down there almost out of sight, when insulin time rolls around.) Have also had a couple of bouts of nausea that kept me lying on a couch, and every time I stretch in bed I risk triggering a series of leg cramps (at any level of my leg!!)... Plus, Speck's little kicks and roiling have become pretty eye-opening all on their own at times.

At the same time, I find it faintly alarming that we're down to a two-month countdown! The bedroom may be ready, but there's still plenty on the To Do list!

Shoe-drop, part B

(Still Week 30) Looks like it's insulin for me, three times per day for the duration.



Somewhat a relief, as I don't like the idea of following this for another week (we're already two past the test) without doing something to spare Speck the sugar overload and consequent risks (not to mention the prospect of delivering a linebacker). Will take some tweaking, based on my ongoing finger-pricks, to get the doses just right, and I could imagine a need to space my meals more evenly than the default, but still, I should be able to handle this -- am pretty capable with a needle, motivated, and already a high-compliance patient. (I once would have fretted about the possibility of needles, but some of my pre-pregnancy experience involved small injections with the same kind of syringes, so I know they're virtually painless.)

The other shoe drops

Weeks 29-30: Well. I knew that this eye-of-the-hurricane period couldn't last, that the transition into the final weeks' growth spurt and other physical changes would mean some kind of shift in my experience again. But I wasn't really expecting the big news to be this: gestational diabetes. My weight gain is in the target range, my belly is the right size, I'm active (in a lumbering but regular way) and eat mostly healthily, but none of that matters. The hormone surge makes your cells insulin-resistant, and either your pancreas can ramp up insulin production to compensate, or it can't. Apparently mine can't. And that brings all kinds of risks for the baby, from huge size to delivery complications, so we want to get it under control...

So, I got some equipment last week for testing my blood sugar, and then had home visits from an R.N. to explain the concerns and interventions, and from a dietician to lay out a new (and somewhat bizarre) mode of eating that I should follow, in hopes that that (and getting exercise) will be enough. Basically it involves making meals smaller and having more snacks, and also making sure that you never have carbs (bread, milk, fruit) at a time that you don't also have protein. Logical, but not how most people eat. Not least, my morning Cheerios should have eggs alongside, and I'll have cheese cubes or nuts as snacks between every meal, measure down lunch and dinner, blah blah. It's manageable, but means much more attention to food than one would prefer to need. And I'm aware of being hungry much more often, without knowing whether it's a symptom of the diabetes or just the next phase of pregnancy. (The same could be said of any number of belly sensations. meh.)

After a few days of this regulation, I'll report the results (from those many finger-pricks per day) to the nurse and my doctor, and either things will be ok or they'll decide I need insulin shots. I rather suspect the latter, given my early blood readings and the fact that I'm already active, etc., so may not gain much through the lifestyle recommendations. But who knows.

Initially I found this news/diagnosis very depressing. I think I've been rather proud of my general fitness and careful handling of the pregnancy, and this felt like all that had failed, somehow. Also, going from a near-normal period to a medically regimented lifestyle is about the worst transition that could come, short of late-stage morning sickness. But I'm feeling a bit calmer about it all just now, probably from the combination of Spouse's rising to the challenge of helping me figure out meals and snacks that will work with the regimen, plus my natural geeky/scientific tendencies that fit well with the careful blood sugar note-taking, spiffy gizmo involved, etc.


In other news, I've also been warned that the third trimester can bring a return of some first trimester symptoms, including nausea and progesterone-based mood-dampening, which should really dovetail nicely with my new hypochondria and related worries. Looking like a fun stretch ahead!

New theme II: The rumba

Week 28: Man, when I first felt Speck kicking, it was a faint flutter that I only gradually learned to distinguish from gas bubbles or other internal shenanigans. Well, no longer! It seems like any time I'm sitting down (i.e., most of the day), she's flipping around in there, sometimes giving me a two-foot rabbit kick, and generally constantly active. Much of this is mighty enough that you could feel it outside my clothes really moving my belly (although the vast majority of the action is still down in the bikini zone, so not really getting shared with the general public). Somewhere between amusing and distracting/annoying. I guess I can expect the motion to feel a bit less wild as the space in there gets tighter (Speck is currently estimated around 2.5 pounds), but of course there will be more muscle behind it too. Not sure whether this is something I look forward to or dread . . .

In other news, appetite remains "normal" by pre-pregnancy standards, indigestion a regular thing (but Tums and Zantac effective), energy generally good (although residual cough and holiday flurry mean I'm not at max, but who ever is?), foot swelling less of a problem, belly tight (almost muscle-achey). More updates as situation changes, heh.

New theme: The Belly

Week 27: Making an entry now with what I forecast will be the increasing theme of the months ahead: my belly taking over my life. It's not that it's so much bigger than a few weeks ago, but it's starting to be a tangible presence in ways that are a little hard to put a finger on. Yes, I'm losing a few more shirts from my repertoire, but a it's more a steady feeling of tightness at the muscle level (not just skin stretch) and a lack of forgiveness after larger meals. Speck is some two pounds now, and going to at least triple that over the next three months, so I suspect that the shifts in available space (for food, air, etc.) will become more noticeable, and there may be shifts in posture and new muscle aches to follow. More when I see how this pans out...

Fighting with myself

Weeks 25-26: Despite having a flu shot the month before, I have some kind of a bad cold or a mild flu that has me coughing incessantly. Sadly, I am Forbidden (again) from many familiar remedies, and Spouse spent some time stalking the obscure back corners of the pharmacy to find drugs from the Allowed list that might provide some relief. (It got bad enough that I had to sleep on the couch where I could prop myself nearly vertical and thus weather some of the phlegmy assaults and coughing fits. meh.) No fever or nausea, but I do have my usual sickness-related decline in appetite, so Speck had to make due with a trickle of bullion, juice, and tea for the worst of it while my feeble immune system tried to get the upper hand.

Pregnancy-specific aspects of this suffering period include not only concerns about my diet (although I've put on enough stores already that I'm sure there was no fetal starvation threatened) but the war between my need to minimize coughing and my desire to minimize heartburn: for example, milk helps with the latter but makes the former worse, and the reverse for, say, lemon tea... Also, night coughing means getting more and more tired, just when I could really use some reserves for the ongoing paint battle, etc., and sometimes I can't get quite a deep enough breath to really get the job done. The only good thing about the timing of all this was that my depleted sick days were somewhat spared because I had already taken off one day in the worst part (for Election Day, which I barely worked) and had planned to work at home a second day that same week, so a couple of low-function work days and one under a quilt got me through. Cough still not gone, after two weeks (and even 10 days of optimistic Amoxicillin use), but I think it's a combination of exhaustion and allergies at this point. Perhaps the Thanksgiving holiday will give me a respite. My rib muscles ache from all the coughing.

The eye of the hurricane

Weeks 22-23: I'm starting to feel better on the hunger front (less urgency less often), ok on energy (although the joint arrival of a contractor and two houseguests threatens that). On the down side, I'm starting to develop more belly, with the result that it gets ever harder to bend over, tie my shoes, etc. On the wacky side, I feel my first kicks, which it takes me a little while to recognize, since they feel more like gas bubbles than anything else. (Or perhaps like a goldfish careening off the sides of the bowl.)

Week 24: The snacking drive is almost entirely gone -- I can now eat meals at my usual (fairly long) intervals, and I don't need a late-night smackerel to make sure I don't wake up hungry in the wee hours. A welcome relief, although I expect a new onslaught of hunger when the big growth spurt hits in the next month or so. Also, I feel almost 95% myself now mentally (although that's a bit susceptible to the distance of memory, heh), taking on household tasks and updating web pages like a new person (probably slightly in excess of what's reasonable, but there's so much to paint!!). Sleep-wise, things are a bit better (with the introduction of Zantac into my evening routine) and also a bit worse (between stiff joints and the return of the nasal drip/cough) . . .