Dr. Visit (July 20, 2012)

Today, I went back to my doctor for a visit to check on the baby as well as discuss the results of the tests she ordered the last time I was there. My weight was 143.20 lbs. and my belly measured 27 cm. I was getting bigger every week, but it was a nice steady progression. I have to admit that I had been feeling really tight and solid, though. I think that I was at my skin's limit for that stretch period, and I was needing to do some more stretching of my belly. It was just hard to imagine that I would get bigger than this, but I know that the baby has to get bigger, which means so do I! :)

Dr. M put the little machine on my belly to listen to the heartbeat, which was strong by my standards (140s). She also measured my belly before she mentioned he communication with MFM at the hospital. Apparently, MFM wanted me to have some other tests to rule out some issues. My doctor was surprised when I told her that this was all news to me. They had made it seem that nothing was really wrong when I left the hospital on the 11th, so I wasn't sure what was going on. Dr. M thought it might be a good idea to be on the safe side and retest my glucose levels when I'm 32 weeks. We talked about another visit in 2 weeks. She also told me that the tests that were taken the last time I was there all came back negative. I didn't have any viruses nor did I have diabetes. I guess it is good that they are taking procautions, but this pregnancy seems to be going as smooth as ever. I'm finding that working in the garden isn't such a pain, though I do have back pain from time to time. I still go to the chiropractor, which helps, but the growing baby and changing of my body seem to be more of the cause for this pain than the occasional weed pulling in the yard.

Maternal-Fetal Medicine (July 11, 2012)

To be completely honest, I was a bit nervous about this visit. Since I had to come back to get the baby's heart checked, I couldn't help but wonder if there was something wrong with him. I was worried that they would discover something sad, but I had to know. I also didn't know the results of the blood work from last week, so I didn't know if it was me who was making my son sick by eating too much sugar. I still didn't believe that I was a diabetic, because I could test my own blood sugar with my monitor, but I still didn't know for sure what was going on with my son.

At this visit, the tech did a full test on the baby's heart, which meant measuring the size of the valves and checking the blood flow and such. She also looked at the other organs. She said that he looked fine from her point-of-view. I didn't meet with Dr. K, but instead I met with the other doctor in the office. He was equally as pleasant, and he was pleased by what the results showed. The baby seemed in good shape. The only real issue was that there was still lots of extra fluid around the baby, which could just be the way things were with my body. He didn't seem worried so much about the fluid as Dr. K was last time, but hee still thought that it would be good for me to come in one more time to get the fluid levels checked just to be on the safe side. I made another appointment for August 3rd.

Glucose Test and Dr. Visit

Today, I went in this morning to get my blood sugar tested to see if I had gestational diabetes. On Sunday night of this week, I found out that my test strips were expired and weren't working right. What threw me off was when I felt weird and wanted to do a test. The machine read 162, which has never happened to me before in my life. I waited two minutes and tested again. It then read 102. I knew that something was off when I tested myself another 3 times, and all the results were drastically different. I called my mom, who asked me to see if the strips were expired. They were. I went to Hilander to get new strips, but since they were bought out by Schnucks, they no longer carried my tester or strips. I was told that I could get them online. I tried that on Monday morning, and I couldn't figure it out. It was when I noticed a customer service number on the bottle of strips that I found out from the lady who answered the phone that Target might be another option. I went to Target that night when Dennis got off of work to get some new strips and test myself before my blood test the next day at the doctor's office. I didn't see that I was diabetic, since my numbers never go too high. I was eating more sugar over the past couple of months due to a very active sweet tooth! :) I wasn't sure if the added sugar would make me a diabetic, but I doubted it.

At the doctor's office, I took my glucose test first since it would take the most time. I had to go back to the lab area and drink a fruit punch drink as fast as possible. It wasn't horrible, but drinking it so fast didn't make it taste any better. I weighed in at 141.20 lbs., which wasn't too bad. My belly measured 25 cm, and the baby's heartrate was 137. Everything seemed very normal. The doctor wanted to run a few more tests on me to rule out any other issues that could occur with the pregnancy. Some of them were to test for viruses, and they could be done by testing blood and urine. I didn't give the blood for the glucose test yet, since I was waiting for the fruit punch to sink it, so I could get all the blood drawn for both tests at once. This was a good thing, since I don't like needles. I also had to pee in a cup. The results from these tests would take about 2 weeks to get back, so she told me to schedule my next appointment on the 20th. This way, I would also be able to discuss with her what had happened at my appointment with Maternal-Fetal Medicine on the 11th. The results from this visit and the one to MFM would all be available by the 20th. After giving blood and urine, I was done.