NST (stands for Nasty Stupid Test)

So I started seeing the doctor this week for my twice a week appointments. I have NSTs (Nonstress Test) twice a week and BPPs (Biophysical Profile) once a week. This is standard practice for high risk pregnancies. Well, I kind of knew what was going to happen in the tests from what I had heard from others and researching online. An NST is basically where they hook you up to a machine and monitor the baby’s movements. The heart rate should increase when the baby moves. The BPP measures the health of your baby and is done by ultrasound.



I started with my NST at 9am. They put a strap around the top of my belly with a round monitor attached to it to monitor movement and another strap down lower with another round monitor to monitor heart rate. I was given a “clicker” to click when I felt movement. I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal, I figured “this kid moves all the time, this will be a breeze.” Boy was I wrong. They hooked my up and the heart rate monitor was so crappy that I had to actually push it into my belly and hold it to get a good reading….for 20 minutes…my hand was cramping. It was awful. She came back to check on me and looked at the results. She said “oh, looks like baby is sleeping.” “We’ll have to do another 5 mintues,” then proceeded to “buzz” my baby to wake him up. She left the room for another 20 minutes. She came back, looked at the test results and left the room. When she returned, she said “you’ll have to see Dr. Koontz after your BPP.” For some reason, I didn’t even ask any questions, I just sat there in stunned, scared silence. She said “we’ll have to monitor you another 10 minutes.” So we continued the fun. She returned and released me to go to my BPP.


The BPP was OK, it was basically just an ultrasound. She did try to poke at the baby to get him to move and he reluctantly kicked, but she said he was asleep. (Obviously he’s not a morning person, just like his mother). I commented that he’s really active from about 11:30pm -1am and tried to laugh it off, all the while feeling like something was wrong. She told me that everything looked fine, but I was scared she was hiding something from me and didn’t want me to freak out. I was seeing the doctor next and she would let him discuss the results with me.


I went to the waiting room to see the doctor, by this point, it was about 10:30am. I checked in and sat down. The nurse called me immediately and then said that Dr. Koontz doesn’t get in until 11am, so I would have to wait. They called me back a little after 11am and there was one appointment ahead of me. I waited in the room, trying not to freak out. He came in and said “everything is fine, they worried you for nothing.” (I love how “chill” my doctor is, it is quite comforting.) He said the BPP was perfect and the NST was fine. “No need to worry.” And that was that.


I checked out and got to the car to call Cary. When I started telling him what happened, I lost it. I started bawling. He was very supportive and said he would never miss an appointment again. I told him that was completely unrealistic as I have to go to the doctor twice a week for at least 2 hours at a time, but I did appreciate the support. :)


I have another NST on Friday, hopefully it will go better, but I doubt it. I read that the baby already has natural sleeping and waking patterns and I think those morning times are his sleep time, so this may be a problem. We’ll see. All I know is that “nonstress test” was one of the most stressFUL tests I have had…Nasty Stupid Test!

Craziness

So, I am now in my 3rd trimester and I will in fact be 29 weeks pregnant tomorrow! (I can’t believe I’m almost to the 30s!) I feel like our house is a complete disaster, maybe because it is?! Actually, I guess it’s not that bad, but it feels worse than it is, maybe because I’m so pregnant and hormonal?


Cary has started to tackle the awful upstairs bathroom and we have to have it done before the baby comes. He has been demolishing the awful “cave shower” and pink and purple tile for a few weeks now. It is something he has been working very hard on, but, like all household projects, always takes longer than you think. I told him we need to set a goal for finishing it and he said “end of January.” Let’s hope so because we can’t move on to the other projects that need to be completed before the baby comes.

We have an awful backroom that was added to our 1920s house sometime, I would guess, in the 70s? It’s got all sorts of issues, but the main one is it is FREEZING! I swear there isn’t any insulation in this room at all and it’s right off the kitchen so the kitchen is also always very cold. The problem is, we need to move Cary’s office back there but we can’t move his office back there until the core temp of the room is above 30 degrees.

Once the backroom is finished we can move his office out of the bedroom downstairs and make that our guestroom. Our current guestroom is upstairs with our bedroom and needs to become the baby’s room. So we can’t get moving on the baby’s room until we get the GIANT bed out of the guest room and moved to the downstairs room which is currently Cary’s office. See how all these projects depend on the one before getting done? See why I’m going crazy!?

In the meantime, I am taking a 75 hour nursing course. It’s a Certified Nursing Assistant Course offered through the American Red Cross. It is a requirement before I can apply to the nursing program (of which the deadline is May 20). I am taking one portion online and must complete it before the beginning of January to be able to take the classroom portion. So, this is what I have been doing in the mornings before work and in the evenings after work. Fun, fun!

Oh yeah, and did you know Christmas is on Saturday? So there’s all that craziness too. So, we have a lot to get done before this baby comes! I hope he stays put for the full 40 weeks. Oh and if you read this and we talk on a regular basis, please don’t ask me how the nursery is coming along…this question really makes me want to scream. :)

Hilarious!

So I haven't laughed this hard in a really long time and I just had to share. My new found friend at "Death of a Pancreas" has created a fantastic video. I'm not sure if it's as funny for someone without Diabetes or a kid with Diabetes, but judge for yourself. I laughed so hard, I cried. Love it! Great Job Joanne! :)

Check out the video here: What Not To Say...The Video

OUCH!!!!

As of yesterday, I am 28 weeks pregnant! Wow! Time has flown since I finished that awful first trimester. My tummy is growing and growing as this baby starts to pack on the pounds.


 I had my monthly OBGYN appointment today. My appointment was at 11:30am and my work schedule begins at 10:30am. Since we still have ice covering every surface in the Louisville area, I asked if I could work from home from 10:30-11am and then go to my appointment and then come into work so I wouldn’t have to be on the icy roads so much. My boss complied. I left the house at 11, which gave me additional time to drive really slow and carefully to my appointment. The only thing is, I should have been more slow and careful before I even got to my car.


I walked out the front door with my snow boots on and my 50 Christmas cards in hand. I was walking so carefully but it didn’t matter. As soon as I stepped on the last step of my front porch, I went flying. Before I even knew what happened I was on the ground with wet jeans. Man, did it hurt! I fell on my left hip and butt area, the contents of my purse spilled out and my cards flew everywhere. I just sat there stunned for a few seconds and then carefully got up and made my way to the grassy area next to the driveway to regain my footing. Did I mention it hurt?! OUCH!


I drove to my appointment and started to worry that I had hurt the baby. At least I was on my way to my OBGYN, so he could make sure everything was ok. I was feeling really shaky and my head began to ache from the jolt of the fall. I almost started to cry, but I was able to hold it together. I got to my appointment and into the office without any trouble.


They called me back for my appointment and I told the nurse about my fall. She said “let’s do a ‘bottoms off’ exam, just to make sure everything is ok.” My doctor didn’t think it was necessary as he explained I am 28 weeks and the baby is still well cushioned in his baby bubble. He said I would be fine and that it would take a bad fall, landing on my belly for it to possibly have caused harm to the baby. He explained that he has seen very bad accidents for the mother where the baby was completely fine. He did say of course that if I experience any bleeding or cramping to go straight to labor and delivery. I felt reassured by his calmness.


When I pulled my pants down to give my urine sample, I found an unpleasant surprise. My pump had completely ripped out when I fell. The pod was still stuck on one side, but the canula was completely disconnected and I had a blood and insulin spot in its place. Lovely! I had extra pods on me but no insulin. I had to drive back home after my appointment to do a new pump site. AHHH!!! As if I wasn’t a wreck already?! Now, I wasn’t getting any insulin. Awesome! Everything ended up being fine, my blood sugar was actually still dropping from breakfast, but man, I just didn’t need that!


My weight, blood pressure and urine sample all looked good. My doctor informed me that he would see me in two weeks for a full ultrasound and appointment. After that appointment, I will be seeing him twice a week for non-stress tests and biophysical profiles. He said that complications in high risk pregnancies usually creep up at the end of pregnancy and since he will be seeing me twice a week, those complications won’t sneak up on us. That is a very comforting thought. I needed a comforting thought after the day I had. :)

Uncomfortable

I am almost 28 weeks pregnant and I am starting to get uncomfortable. This kid is kicking, moving and grooving all the time now…not that I should be surprised, he is related to my husband. :) My skin is itchy because of the stretching skin and he is constantly elbowing me, head butting me or maybe just “butting” me. He is turning summersaults in there! It’s so crazy to be feeling all of it.

 

I am having trouble getting comfortable at all. Sitting at my desk at work, my belly is in the way as I try to get closer to my desk. When I’m lying down to sleep at night, I am incredibly uncomfortable. I hate lying on my sides. I am a back sleeper and I am still constantly waking up on my back. When I do lie on my sides, I wake up because my hip hurts and roll to my other side. My stomach is so much bigger now that it needs support of its own. I can’t seem to find the right support for it; each pillow either seems too soft or too big. Between being uncomfortable and waking up to my CGM vibrating (false alarms, bad sensor that I just can’t seem to pull out and give up on) and peeing, I doubt I sleep more than 1 hour at a time without waking. I don’t feel like I’m getting a good rest.

 On the blood sugar front, I was beginning to wonder if something was wrong because it seems like it’s been a while since I had to increase my basal rates and bolus ratios…until now. It started Saturday night and then Sunday was also a sucky day. I was constantly correcting high sugars, trying to be aggressive but also worrying about “rage bolusing” and going way too low. Well on Monday morning I finally gave in and increased my basal rates by .05 each and up-ed my bolus ratios by 1 each. It seems to be working and I am much more stable now.


It’s so hard to know when your pregnancy is actually causing your insulin needs to increase (as is the normal process for diabetics) or if it was something you ate, or a bad pump site, or a bad pump, or stress, or something you ate that you didn’t carb count correctly. Just too many factors to make changes too quickly. I’m glad to get those sugars down because seeing constantly high numbers can really take a toll on an emotional pregnant woman. It is so easy to get discouraged when you just can’t seem to figure it out quick enough.

 Oh, and since I haven’t been posting very frequently, I did make “A”s in both my classes! YAY! I also had my appointment with the pediatric cardiologist (a standard appointment for women with diabetes since the main birth defect for diabetics is a heart defect) and everything was PERFECT! While we were peaking at him, I asked to see his little boy parts again and the cardiologist complied. He is definitely still a boy! :) I have my next OB appointment on Friday!

Traveling Bolus

Over the Thanksgiving holiday we traveled from Louisville, KY to Gulf Breeze, FL. It’s about a 9 ½ hour trip. It actually took us only a little over 8 hours since we couldn’t leave until I got off work on Wednesday at 7pm. We traveled through the night and arrived about 4:15am! I was so tired when we got there because I couldn’t get comfortable enough (with my big belly in the way) to sleep.


Traveling and eating with diabetes is a pain in the butt. If you pack snacks that you know the carb count for (which I do) then you can time your bolus and have no problems, but bolusing for meals along the way is difficult, especially when all I want is Whataburger (a burger chain that only starts to appear once we get to Alabama). I love Whataburger. It is one of my favorite things and my heart has only grown fonder of it since we don’t have them in Kentucky.

It’s hard enough to figure out a bolus for fast food because all the extra fat can spike your blood sugar hours later. It’s so crazy to think you have it all figured out with a flat, constant sugar showing on your CGM, only to look down 4 hours later and see an upward arrow. So frustrating! Add to this the unknowns of traveling…When will I be hungry? When will we need gas? Do I need to pee, AGAIN!?

I worry when we plan to stop for food because I need to take my insulin 30 minutes before divulging into the bad, yummy food. What if I take my insulin and we have a flat tire before we get food? What if we were to get into an accident? How horrible would that be to take insulin for an 80 carb meal and break down on the side of the road with no food!? Nightmare! I sometimes wait until we have the food in the car and then take my insulin but then I have to wait and my food gets cold and cold fast food is just gross.

I guess the correct answer to all this is to pack the perfect diabetes food with us and not stop for the bad stuff, but get real. I need some self-indulgence every once in a while and I’m not going to let stupid diabetes keep me from enjoying a good Whataburger and fries.

Tis the season for cards...

Christmas cards are one of my favorite parts of the Christmas season. Photocards have always been my favorite kind of Christmas card to send and receive. I love seeing everyone in the pictures, especially the little ones as they get bigger, and the cards themselves just seem to be so much prettier than store-bought cards. There are so many relatives and friends who live far away and who we never get to see and photocards are a great way to make the standard Christmas card seem more special and fun. I have been wanting to do one this year, but with the new baby coming, I was thinking we really need to save money where we can, so I thought about not doing them at all.

Then I got a very pleasant surprise!!! I read in another blog about a promotion that Shutterfly is running. If you blog about your Shutterfly Christmas cards, then you get 50 Christmas cards for free! YAY!!! I am so excited about this! I’ve used Shutterfly in the past, and it has always been super easy to use and the products are always beautiful and professional.

Designing stuff on Shutterfly is so easy to do. You don’t have to be creative or good at graphic design because they handle everything for you. They make it look like you are creative and all “artsy fartsy” but really you are just following the simple steps to design the card. I’ve created Shutterfly calendars and holiday cards in the past, and they always come out looking great.

And the best part is it's super cheap and they always have a bunch of deals going! For instance, right now you get free shipping for spending over $30 (which is easily 2-3 Christmas present worth of stuff) and 20-30% off of almost all of their products. You can find 200 personalized, printed Christmas cards with photos for less than $1 per card and another 600 designer cards that are around $1.50 per card!! Meanwhile you can also spend $3-4 per card (or more) in Hallmark for the mass-produced Christmas cards. That is just ridiculous!

These are my favorites: 

Can’t wait to get started on my cards, I’m running a little behind, but hopefully I will get them out soon! J