Sunday, April 15, 2018

Week 30

How far along: 30 weeks – began September 11, 2017.

Size of Baby: Cantaloupe (about 17 inches long, 3.5 pounds)

Milestones: BB's lanugo or "furry coat" that's been helping keep him warm is beginning to fall off since he's putting on plenty of fat to survive without it. From this point on, he'll put on about half a pound a week until he reaches the end of his journey in-utero. His eyes are still developing and his eyesight will be fairly poor until some time after birth. In four weeks, he will have vision that's as strong as it will be at birth. By that time, he will also likely be able to track objects moving horizontally and vertically. He's also making his way into the head-down position he needs to be in for birth.

Best Moment This Week: This has been a week of ups and downs. My shower was absolutely wonderful, and I'm so thankful for all of the support and love Leif, BB, and I received. It was a whirlwind, but I'm glad I got to at least get in a little time with everyone who attended. I took my first gestational diabetes class on Tuesday and learned that there's a lot more that I can eat than I originally thought. Carbs are not only allowed, but required at every meal. I'm supposed to get between 2-4 15g portions of carbs six times a day. The tricky thing is finding the right combination of foods and activity that keep my blood sugar from spiking. The first day of testing, I had two high readings (I'm supposed to call the dietitian if I have three or more), so I removed pretty much everything with more than a little added sugar and started walking 15-30 minutes after eating. This has done wonders and I haven't had a bad test since. There have definitely been some moments of stress, but I'm getting used to it. If I'm unable to consistently keep my levels down, I'll have to start on insulin and get weekly ultrasounds to check BB's growth and fluid, but it seems like I've got a good enough handle on it (fingers crossed). I was told that with just having gestational diabetes in general, they won't let me go beyond my due date, so that rules out any later June birthdays! If the diabetes worsens, they'll have to induce me early.

What I’m Looking Forward To: More and more, I can't wait to meet little BB! I'm happy that I'm taking better care of my health and getting more exercise to help him develop optimally in these last couple months. This weekend, I'm finally going to go through all of the wonderful gifts we got at the shower and start organizing. We finally figured out a good solution to keeping our cats out of the bedroom/baby room - we're going to buy an extra tall pet gate (about 43 inches) that you can step through and if the girls can clear that, we'll stack another plastic baby gate on top. I'm really relieved since we were in limbo and all of our other ideas weren't working out. Once we get the gates ordered and set up, we'll start putting together the few pieces of furniture and equipment, then all we'll need is BB!

What I Miss The Most: Sometimes I miss not having to think about everything I'm eating, but I'd say the bigger pain is testing my blood sugar exactly an hour after my first bite of food. I'm a slow eater, and if I want to get a substantial walk in, I have to shovel everything down pretty quickly. At the same time, I like that my eating patterns have a more consistent rhythm, and I'm still feeling much better since cutting the sugar.  

Symptoms: Last weekend, I had a little scare when I had worsening upper right abdominal pain that they thought could've been preeclampsia. After running some tests, they couldn't tell exactly what it was but suspected that BB keeps repeatedly kicking me in that area. Thankfully, it hasn't been nearly as bad this week. My gastritis has been acting up a little most likely due to the growing pressure on my stomach and my pelvic muscles have been killing me, especially when I get up after lounging for a while, but otherwise, all is well!

Cravings: My favorite gestational diabetes snack has been one piece of whole grain bread with a few tablespoons of crunchy peanut butter with half a sliced banana. I save it for my last snack of the day, so it's something to look forward to! Now that I've cut sugar for the most part, fruit is so much more delicious! I've also been eating more cheese and crackers and berries.

No comments:

Post a Comment