Woo hoo! 30 weeks! Hitting the 30s makes it feel like the end is in sight! Which I am happy about because I don't love pregnancy. But the end is approaching!
Baby size: He's the size of a head of cabbage this week. Last week he was the size of a butternut squash. The vegetable comparisons are so weird and seem to flip from length to mass or something.Here are some bump pics, which I apparently only take at doctor appts, hence the mask! I'm 28 weeks on the left and 30 on the right. I feel so huge - I'm close to as big as I ever got with Paul. Eeks. But my belly is measuring on track and the baby was measuring 2 weeks ahead at my 28 week ultrasound so my doctor said the size of my belly is healthy/normal.
Sex of the baby: boy!
Name progress: We have 2 in mind and are leaning toward 1 but haven't made a final decision.
Symptoms/RA management: My RA management has been ok. I got a flare in my foot over the weekend so had to bump up my prednisone. But overall, I'm feeling pretty good all things considered. The baby is moving a TON! I can often feel a foot or something pushing out by the top of my belly. It's kind of crazy to feel that and something I did not feel with Paul! I'm definitely getting short of breath very easily and have a hard time getting a full breath of air when sitting on the couch so I guess he's already lowering my lung capacity!
Gestational diabetes management: Eh. This has been tough and I've had some tears this week. Overall it's going fine. I have only had 2 high blood sugars - both times I had not eaten much carbs so they kind of surprised me. But I had ketones in my urine over the weekend which means I'm not eating enough carbs and I lost 3 pounds this week. My doctor isn't too concerned about the weight loss as long as it doesn't continue and I keep feeling baby move. But if I can't eat enough carbs to maintain/gain weight, I might need to go on insulin which I'm really hoping to avoid as it requires more monitoring and increases the chances that the baby will need to go to the NICU. I think I'm eating pretty similarly to how I ate when I was pregnant with Paul but I guess even being 2 years older can impact how my body handles prednisone/the lower carb diet.
Recent/upcoming appointments: I had my 30 week appointment on Tuesday and everything looked good. We talked about my blood sugar/ketone issue and will take a wait and see approach. Starting at 32 weeks, I have weekly ultrasounds, biophysical profiles, and non-stress tests so they can make sure the baby's growth isn't impacted by my super low carb diet. I'm not looking forward to those appointments as they will be a good 1-1.5 hours but it's unavoidable with all my complications.
Sleep: It's been pretty good. I have bouts of insomnia about 1-3 nights/week but overall it's not terrible. I live for weekend naps, though!
Cravings/favorite foods and aversions: My new favorite "treat" is Fairlife chocolate milk. I drank this during Paul's pregnancy. It has a lot of protein and fat (more than typical milk as it's filtered many times) to offset the carbs and it is so thick and delicious! I stopped drinking my coffee with creamer as there are carbs in my fat free french vanilla creamer. So instead I treat myself to a whole milk latte with 2 pumps of sugar free vanilla syrup about once/week. I tested my blood sugar after having one and didn't have any issues so this is my go to 'treat' for the rest of pregnancy.
Exercise: I'm still sticking to walks - I shoot for 1 45 minute walk on week days and 1-2 hours of walking between 2 walks with Paul on the weekends as we usually take walks/go to the park or creek in the morning and afternoon.
Recent baby prep/decisions: Nadda! I don't think we'll do anything more with his room until after the baby is born as Phil uses it as an office when he works from home. The baby will sleep in our room until around 3 months, so we really don't need to do anything else in his room, besides move the changing table in there, until February.
Mood: Meh. I cried a bit this week out of frustration over the gestational diabetes thing. Pregnancy hormones don't help. It's just hard to be on a really restrictive diet and spend so much time thinking about it. I keep reminding myself I only have to do this for 9 more weeks, but that can feel long at times. But GD frustration aside, I'm doing pretty well all things considered.
Recent/upcoming appointments: I had my 30 week appointment on Tuesday and everything looked good. We talked about my blood sugar/ketone issue and will take a wait and see approach. Starting at 32 weeks, I have weekly ultrasounds, biophysical profiles, and non-stress tests so they can make sure the baby's growth isn't impacted by my super low carb diet. I'm not looking forward to those appointments as they will be a good 1-1.5 hours but it's unavoidable with all my complications.
Sleep: It's been pretty good. I have bouts of insomnia about 1-3 nights/week but overall it's not terrible. I live for weekend naps, though!
Cravings/favorite foods and aversions: My new favorite "treat" is Fairlife chocolate milk. I drank this during Paul's pregnancy. It has a lot of protein and fat (more than typical milk as it's filtered many times) to offset the carbs and it is so thick and delicious! I stopped drinking my coffee with creamer as there are carbs in my fat free french vanilla creamer. So instead I treat myself to a whole milk latte with 2 pumps of sugar free vanilla syrup about once/week. I tested my blood sugar after having one and didn't have any issues so this is my go to 'treat' for the rest of pregnancy.
Exercise: I'm still sticking to walks - I shoot for 1 45 minute walk on week days and 1-2 hours of walking between 2 walks with Paul on the weekends as we usually take walks/go to the park or creek in the morning and afternoon.
Recent baby prep/decisions: Nadda! I don't think we'll do anything more with his room until after the baby is born as Phil uses it as an office when he works from home. The baby will sleep in our room until around 3 months, so we really don't need to do anything else in his room, besides move the changing table in there, until February.
Mood: Meh. I cried a bit this week out of frustration over the gestational diabetes thing. Pregnancy hormones don't help. It's just hard to be on a really restrictive diet and spend so much time thinking about it. I keep reminding myself I only have to do this for 9 more weeks, but that can feel long at times. But GD frustration aside, I'm doing pretty well all things considered.
My C-section got scheduled for December 3rd so the baby will be here 9 weeks from today! And yes, I am totally counting down the days until his arrival!
The GD sounds frustrating but everyting else seems really good. I see NO relationship between a cabbage and a butternut squash. How do you even compare?
ReplyDeleteYour GD is GD unfair :( - as you're doing all the right things, and it's so out of your control! I feel so bad for you with this :(
ReplyDeleteYay December 3!!! I don't blame you for counting down the days...
Those stress tests sound like a lot!! I'm glad that you have an anterior placenta this time so you can feel the baby kick better. That will help with those, I assume?
Did you ever get leg cramps with your pregnancies in the 2nd tri? I have heard so much about that, but (knock on wood) have seemed to steer clear of them still!
I am glad you got the date scheduled! That is probably a big relief and it does give you something to look forward to! Not that you weren't looking forward, but it is nice to have a concrete date to put on the calendar!
ReplyDeleteKeep your chin up regarding the GD...hopefully those couple of high readings were just a fluke and with regular exercise and stuff, you will keep your readings down in general. It is interesting that you had ketones AND a high reading as those two seem to contradict each other! I am sure your body is extra sensitive to everything due to the hormones though, so maybe it is normal to fluctuate a little?
Ugh, I'm sorry your GD has been so frustrating so far. Hopefully your body just needs time to adjust. That is just so annoying to have to deal with when you're doing enough, growing a human! Ack.
ReplyDeleteDecember 3rd! You have a date - hooray. :)
I'm sorry the GD has been hard. I think I would be super frustrated with that, too!! But just keep focusing on the 9 more weeks thing. And, remember...other than that, you are doing awesome! And you look adorable, so there's always that. :) You seem super tough, so I know you can do this. Don't worry about shedding some tears...I think that's totally normal. Pregnancy wreaks havoc on our emotions anyway. And yay for a date! Asher's birthday is December 2nd. He was due on December 7th but he came early. I'm kind of glad, because every time I would say my due date was December 7th, someone would say "A Day that will live in infamy....(Pearl Harbor)." So I'm glad we got away from that date. LOL!
ReplyDeleteHooray for December 3rd! I don't blame you for having some frustration tears over the diet.
ReplyDeleteHi! I am a Type 1 and if you want a delicious iced treat from Starbucks...
ReplyDeleteIced Passion Tea
No classic
Sugar Free Vanilla
Heavy Whipping Cream
It is very well known to not affect BG at all. And you will be surprised at how amazing it is. Youll second guess the carbs! It is amazing!!!
Let the tears roll. Diabetes is such a frustrating disease.
I'm so sorry. Diabetes sucks. It really, really does. Here's hoping that things stabilize, you find your equilibrium with carbs vs. fat vs. protein, and that all of the upcoming scans, tests, and follow up point to a healthy baby and a healthy mom.
ReplyDeleteTears are more than understandable... you have a chronic illness, a complicated pregnancy, and oh yeah... we're still in the middle of a pandemic. I'd likely be in tears every dang day. Hang in there, and take care of yourself, too, okay?
You're a trouper with all the complications you are dealing with. Especially while also dealing with regular pregnancy blahs! Keep treating yourself any way you can - you deserve it.
ReplyDeleteUgh, I can only imagine that the GD is no fun... but hang in there, you'll get through it.
ReplyDeleteI'd be interested to know how you go about deciding on a name. Finding a name for a future child has always been an interesting thought exercise for me (even though I'll most likely not have the opportunity to actually ever have to follow through with it).
I think you look awesome but can understand feeling like you can't believe how big your belly is if you are similar in size to what you were with Paul!
ReplyDeleteI have been trying really hard to eat lower carb the last few months as it just makes me feel better. I was starting to get really bloated and uncomfortable this summer if I ate too many carbs. I even experienced with keto for a couple of weeks but it was a tough one (less than 25 G of carbs a day!!) and while I felt good doing it it made my workouts feel really really difficult. I had a couple of runs where I thought I was going to pass out or puke. So now I aim to hit around 50 - 60 G of carbs a day. I just had a tall 1 pump pumpkin spice latte yesterday with heavy cream and it was so decadent and delicious!! So I would recommend trying that if you want to go even lower carb than the whole milk. MFP told me the whole milk was around 18 G of carbs so still high when I'm trying to stick to around 50 a day!
Sorry to hear about the tears. I can imagine how frustrating this whole diet thing would be. I have no idea how many carbs or how much protein I get, and the though of calculating that stuff seems overwhelming. I really hope you can avoid insulin. Thinking of you!
ReplyDelete