Final Countdown
Well, we're officially at 38 weeks! I wasn't sure if we would see 38 weeks due to all of the complications we've experienced the last few months, and although I wake up every single morning thinking "GET OUT OF ME", I know the longer we can keep her in there cooking, the better. Now that I'm officially on maternity leave and have spent the last two weeks getting all of our shit together, I finally have time to do a little blogging, cooking and baking, sending out thank you cards for all of Baby Girl's gifts, and most importantly, resting and relaxing!
So, I thought with us now being in the final countdown, there's no better time to recap my first pregnancy journey.
Getting Pregnant:
If you would've asked me 6+ years ago if I wanted kids, I'd very quickly respond "absolutely not." I had no interest in children or bearing my own. Fast forward to 2012 when my younger sister's first son was born, and those thoughts and feelings did a complete 180. I wanted a baby. We kept putting it off though because we became engaged in 2013, married in 2014, moved across the country in 2015 (and then the whole broken foot thing), so the timing was never right. Finally in November last year we decided there will never be a "good time". I had a Paraguard IUD so I had to get that removed first (btw, I loved Paraguard and will be getting another as soon as I can...highly recommend it as a form of non-hormonal birth control). In typical Kim fashion, I learned everything I could about ovulating and getting pregnant. My OBGYN told me I needed to look for "egg-white" cervical mucus...that was the key signal that I was fertile and ready to go. Y'all, I'm being dead serious when I say every time I took a piss, I checked for egg-white cervical mucus, and sometimes would call Dennis into the bathroom and make him inspect it with me..."Does it look like egg whites to you? It's not very stretchy, it's supposed to be stretchy." It was so comical and god bless him for being so patient with me and my crazy antics. I definitely made getting pregnant a task. We found out on a Friday in January we were pregnant and couldn't have been more excited.
First Trimester:
The happiness and excitement did NOT last long though. Within a week I had my head in the toilet EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. I didn't have morning sickness...I had all day and night sickness. It was completely debilitating. I felt like I was experiencing the worst hangover of my life 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with no relief. The worst part was that I had to travel to New York for work a few days after it started. How the hell was I going to manage flying for 6 hours without constantly vomiting in the airplane bathroom? How could I function at all during meetings with buyers? I wasn't looking forward to the trip and begged Dennis to not make me go (like he had any kind of say in it lol). I couldn't see my OB until I got back, and she prescribed Diclegis and another anti-nausea med that should only be taken sporadically when I felt really bad. Thankfully, once I got those in my system, I started feeling better....not 100%, but enough to function like a human being. My energy levels were non-existent. I slept any and every chance I could get. Bedtime was 7:30pm and I easily slept a full 12 hours like a corpse every night.
Second Trimester:
Once I finally hit the second trimester, I was expecting all of my nausea to magically disappear and get this wave of energy back. Nope. Didn't happen. The nausea finally went away around week 18, a good six weeks into my second trimester, and I finally got my energy back around that time as well. Thinking back, I probably had about two weeks of feeling good with no issues, then May comes and the SPD reared it's ugly head (you can read all about that here). A month later in June, I took the glucose test to check for Gestational Diabetes. The results showed I was border line, and my OB wasn't too concerned. She recommended that I attend GD counseling at the hospital though, just so I had the knowledge and a chance to meet with a nutritionist. They gave me a monitor and I started checking my sugar four times a day and keeping a food log. Within a month, I noticed my a.m. fasting glucose levels were much higher than they should be (target range is 70-90 mg/dL and I was averaging over 115 mg/dL). Even though my post-meal levels were within range, I tried adjusting my diet and started eating bedtime snacks in hopes to reduce my morning fasting numbers. Didn't work. We tried everything: strictly protein bedtime snack, carb & protein bedtime snack, carb-only snack...checking my sugar before even getting out of bed in the a.m....nothing was budging the numbers. And here I thought the second trimester was supposed to be the "honeymoon" trimester. Wishful thinking.
Third Trimester:
My OB then became really concerned because if you can't get GD under control, it puts the baby at an increased risk for stillbirth. Also, since Baby Girl and I share blood, her sugar levels match whatever mine are...but my insulin doesn't cross the placenta and she has to make her own to bring her sugar levels down. Which means if our sugar levels are high when she's born, her body will have an abundant amount of insulin and she could go into a coma. Scary shit; I cried for days. We started twice-weekly biophysical profiles and nonstress tests with my OB, and I started seeing a great endocrinologist, who continues to this day reassuring me that it's nothing I'm directly doing...it's just my body and how it's reacting to pregnancy. She also let me know that I will 100% have GD with future pregnancies and the risk of becoming a type 2 diabetic later in life has increased (great...I shouldn't be surprised...it runs on both sides of my family). My OB advised if we couldn't get my sugars down, she'd induce me to reduce all of the risks affecting Baby Girl. Which is why I mentioned earlier that I wasn't sure if we'd even see 38 weeks at the rate we were going. So my endo was pretty aggressive with treatment...we started insulin right away and I had weekly appointments so she could make tweaks and adjustments until we found the sweet spot (no pun intended). As for the bpp and nonstress tests, we had a few scares along the way. There were a handful of days that Baby Girl wasn't showing movement and heart-rate fluctuations, which is a sign that she may not have been receiving adequate oxygen. Again, tears for days...I was on such an emotional roller coaster. Then throw work bullshit on top of all of that...ugh...the past couple of months have been a nightmare. To say I was stressed was an understatement. But thankfully each appointment we continue to get good news and everything is looking much better. Since we've finally gotten my sugars under control, we're letting nature do it's thing and just waiting on Baby Girl to decide when she's ready; although, my OB has stressed she will NOT let me go past 40 weeks...so let's hope Baby Girl isn't stubborn and wants to stay in longer.
I'm so relieved and happy to finally be out on leave so I can rest and unwind and focus on us. Dennis and I have pretty much gotten everything together and ready...we're now just not-so-patiently waiting on her =)
Here are some pics from the past 38 weeks...
Oh, and for those of you wondering, the red spots on my leg in the header image are from my nightly insulin injections =( Just another wonderful side effect of having Gestational Diabetes. Oh, and I also forgot to mention that the nausea and vomiting are back with a vengeance! Apparently I have zero room left in my abdomen between Baby Girl and my own internal organs. Is it true that the more difficult pregnancy you have the easier actual labor will be? Y'all, please cross your fingers, toes, and anything else for me!
