Perinatologist appointment

I am back from my perinatologist appointment. I hadn't expected it to take this long and was dying of hunger on my home...my blood sugar was 82! Good I suppose, but I don't feel too well below 90..

Anyway, so I got to the 4th floor and was so lost...I sure hope that all Maternity patients take a tour before they come to deliver! LOL. There were no signs to get to admitting but eventually I must have looked so pathetic that someone came up and asked me if I was lost. I found admitting and then the nurses station and all was well.

I went in for my ultrasound. This was my first abdominal ultrasound and they hadn't told me to drink a lot of water beforehand or anything, so I had assumed it would have been an internal. But, it seemed to work out OK for the sonographer. I couldn't make out very much, it wasn't near as easy to see the baby for me, but he was able to do what he needed to do. The baby was right on target measuring at 11w3d which is exactly what I am, so I was happy. The heart rate was 167 which also seemed good. He was happy and I went back to the waiting room for the perinatologist.

I waited quite a long time for that appointment, about 30 minutes or so, but eventually she came and got me. We went over my blood workup for clotting disorders and she agreed that she thinks my clotting incident 10 years ago was just a freak thing brought on by circumstance. No need for Heparin, yeah!

We talked about the switch in my diabetes meds and I asked her about the switch to glyburide that my OB wants to do on Friday. She disagreed and said that the "standard" protocol at the specialty maternal diabetes clinic is to use a combo of Metformin and insulin. I say "standard" because it is not at all standard, but really rather experimental. What she explained, though, to ME made sense. She said the Metformin helps the insulin resistance so that I can accept and use properly the insulin. The glyburide on the other hand makes you produce more insulin, but doesn't address the issue of my insulin resistance. We decided I would go back to testing 6 times a day, fax her the numbers on Thursday afternoon and she would consult with the head doctor of the maternal diabetes clinic and call me OB with their recommendation in time for my appointment on Friday.

My own take, from what I have read, is that insulin is definitely going to be the best way to go. However, she said they like to admit you (to the hospital) for a couple days while you learn to adjust your insulin...she did mention she would look into the possibility of doing that on a weekend...

As for the blood pressure, it was high today at 132/76 which was just not good. It has her concerned about my pressure and wants to watch it with my OB and possibly change medications or increase my dosage (but I am already on a rather high dosage).

I should expect to see this doctor at least monthly if we are able to monitor the diabetes by fax instead of going into the clinic every two weeks and then every week in the last trimester. I was able to set my next three appointments, all at 3 pm which was wonderful! So I now have the date of the big all important ultrasound...confirmation of gender should happen (unless baby doesn't cooperate) on October 17th. That date can't get here fast enough!

ETA: I am sorry to disappoint you all, but I did not get an ultrasound picture this time :( I assume it is because it was so hard to see anything that way.

Beware my wrath

Actually, I am praying fervently for all of you in the way of Hurricane Katrina. It is a bit weird hearing my name on the TV constantly, and never anything good said about it. LOL. I hope that everyone stays safe and warm tonight.

Human zoo exhibit?

What the...????

ooo..puzzles!!

Yeah, I am a geek and love my puzzles. :) Yesterday on the Early Show they talked about this puzzle type game "soduko" or "sudoku" or something like that...Anyway, of course I had to see if I can find some on the net, and I haven't been able to stop playing since! LOL. I am so addicted...although, I went from easy, medium and now am having a rough time at hard...so if I get too frustrated I may need to take a break because my stomach gets all tied up in knots when I concentrate too hard. LOL

In other news, I FINALLY got a hold of the perinatalogist's office and was able to set an appointment on Monday. I will get another ultrasound and then meet with the doctor...will be a busy week next week with the doctor's appointments (I also have my follow-up with the OB on Friday) and school starting (no kids until after Labour day) and everything...should finally get my out of summer lazy rut. LOL.

Diabetes and pregnancy

I was bored tonight and was cruising all the different pregnancy boards when I came across a high risk pregnancy board which made me start to think. It seemed that people were either being taken off the Metformin with no substitute (usually PCOSers and not diabetics) or people were switched to insulin.

So, I did a google search and EVERYTHING I read said that oral medications should not be used in pregnancy, insulin should always be the substitute. The scary thing is that all of these articles (on mostly reputable medical sites) talked about the biggest risk of damage to the fetus is in the first trimester...which is quickly coming to an end to me.

Anyway, so my OB had said that she wanted to switch me to a drug and since I had no idea how to spell it, it took a long time to find it, but I have now. It is called glyburide. There was like ONE study that said that it seemed to be safe in pregnancy, but at the end of the summary (I didn't find the actual study..just summaries of it on a couple sites), it almost always had an editorial comment that insulin is best unless in a strictly controlled study in which the participant is well aware of possible consequences.

So, what do I do? I don't WANT to deal with insulin, it is not my first choice for sure. However, it sure sounds to me like it is a safer choice. Should I lobby for it at my follow-up with the OB next Friday which is when she planned to switch me from the Metformin?

Babies!

Congratulations Debbie! and Welcome to the world Max! :) I am so excited for you both...now the journey truly begins!

Today, I had a little baby excitement of my own. I was motivated to exercise because my blood sugar was higher than it should have been BEFORE I ate dinner (I blame my friend K...it was the chocolate milk I had to have..LOL) and I had to eat, so I was really panicked. So, I had my dinner and then walked to Kmart and back. Of course, you can't walk to Kmart without going in and buying baby clothes when they are on sale for 3 and 4 dollars, can you? LOL. Yeah, I didn't think so. :) I bought three adorable girl outfits..let's hope Acu-gen is right! :)

When I came back, I felt like I had run a marathon...clearly my summer lazy butt has not done good things to me...LOL. I decided to relax in front of the computer and pretty much immediately after I sat down, in came a message on Freecycle for an infant car seat. I emailed her right away, she replied, and I am now the proud owner of a car seat.

All of a sudden, it feels kind of real...I may have a baby in March! :)

Oh! and my after dinner blood sugar was AMAZING, 107 (granted I was about 15-20 minutes late because I had to run to pick up the car seat...but still. I think right at the 2 hour mark it HAD to be below the 120 which is my new 2 hour post-prandial goal)

First OB appointment

Well, I am back from my first OB appointment. She seemed nice enough and the appointment itself probably only took about 15-20 minutes. She told me I was a "very high risk" pregnancy (I already knew that...though I don't think I am as high risk as she is making me out to be...). In light of this, she has referred me to see the perinatalogist there at the clinic. I don't know when that appointment will be, hopefully soon. She has also referred me to a diabetic clinic which I think is just another nutritionist...last time was not too helpful so I hope this one is better.

She said that around 20 weeks (maybe a bit later) or so, she might want me to come in once (or twice!!!!) a week for fetal monitoring...yeah for the monitoring, boo on the extra appointments.

She is taking me off my Metformin (gasp!!) at 12 weeks and switching to some other medicine I have never heard of...glyderide or something like that. Hopefully I can keep my sugars controlled enough (under 140 one hour after eating, under 120 two hours after eating, and under 90 fasting...I feel sick under 90 so that freaks me out a bit...), if not, I will move to insulin.

The perinatalogist may put me on Heparin because of my previous blood clot issues..but I doubt it. I think she (my OB) was just being overly cautious. It was so very long ago and there were so many confounding variables that noone really knows why I had the clots, but I have done the tests since then and do not have a clotting disorder.

Finally, she said that I may have to deliver in Seattle at the university because while they do have an excellent neonatal unit here, they do not have a good ICU or anything for women. There is a unit like that in my town, but in the other part of the hospital and she thought it might be best to do it all in the same place. Again, I really don't think I am nearly as high risk as she is making me out to be...but I guess we will see. Better safe than sorry, I suppose.

After meeting with her, I went to make all my appointments (a follow up with her in 2 weeks, the perinatalogist consult and the diabetic consult). The peri and diabetic consults require my documents to be sent there before they can schedule them...sounded iffy whether I would get a time outside of teaching...But the worst was making an appointment with her. Two weeks from today she was booked solid pretty much for the entire week. The only appointment available during that week (2weeks from today to 3 weeks from today) was a morning appointment on Friday. Luckily, that day is not a teacher contract day (oddly our days are Tues-Thurs that week). However, it has me very worried for future appointments. I can not afford to take off a sick day every time I have an appointment...I live in the States and the only way I can get ANY pay for my maternity leave is to use my sick leave while I am out...and I only have 7 weeks of sick leave, none if I use a day everytime for an appointment. So, I am seriously considering just switching back to my old OB, or one in his clinic, which is in Seattle. I have always been able to make afternoon appointments there...

9w6d ultrasound 001

9w6d ultrasound 001
Originally uploaded by kajohn345.

So cool. You can see the little arms and legs! And I saw movement! Still measuring small, even a couple more days behind this time, but the OB said from the start she wasn't a great sonographer and not to worry. :)

Exciting times

It is an exciting day on my blogroll. Two possible births happening today! One, unfortunately, is "unplugged" as she has left for the hospital to be induced, the other, at home chugging the castor oil to get things moving. So much excitement!

In other news, I have moved just about everything out of my old classroom except for the 8 boxes I packed and am secretly hoping the custodians move for me and a shelf full of textbooks that I have no idea where to put right now since the guy in the room I have moved into has not come in to pack up his shelves...

Monday I had an appointment with the OB nurse. It was just a history appointment, but by her pregnancy wheel, I am due two days later, so, March 19th. I was a bit sad not to be having a leprechaun anymore, but I am not going to change my ticker since FF is set by my ovulation day. I am looking forward to my first OB appointment tomorrow morning. Why, I am not too sure, just to touch base again with my little one I guess. Surely, she will do something that will reassure me she is still alive, an ultrasound would be nice. I doubt you can hear the heartbeat yet with all my padding...

Great trip!

I am home from my brief vacation to the Island. It was a great success!

I had planned to take the 11:00 ferry but after a very sleepless night, I didn't wake up as early as I had hoped, so I finally got my stuff together and onto the 1:00 ferry. In front of me on the ferry was the strangest thing I have ever seen...A car with what I thought was duct tape, but figured out later was some kind of protective film over the hood, trunk and roof of the car...it was so weird. But that wasn't all...on the back bumper there were three little strips of this protective film each topped with three big pieces of styrofoam...And finally, everything inside the car was covered in plastic...EVERYTHING, seats, steering wheel, doors...it was so very very weird.

But, I digress. I got off the ferry and quickly and easily navigated myself to my friend's house. It was very nice to see her after seeing her once, about 3-4 years ago, in 8 years. We visited for a little while and then headed downtown to check out the many bookstores. Later, we had dinner at this quaint little restaurant and then headed back to her house. And then, I was ecstatic to find another word game lover, and we played Boggle until the wee hours of the morning! I was in heaven. :)

On Friday, I slept in quite late after staying up late with no nap the day before! After breakfast, we headed into the city to visit my favourite places: the university bookstore, the breakwater and the inner harbour. I found about 5 or 6 books that I thought would be great for my classroom, for silent reading, including one I think I will read first, hehe. Next, we took the long scenic route along beach drive to the breakwater. I didn't see any parking spots and was starting to get hungry so we just kept driving and found a place to park near the harbour. Soon after we got out of the car, I realized I really needed to eat, so we passed right by the harbour and walked to the mall to get some lunch. I checked my blood and it was really low...it was 70, I can't believe how low it was only about 2 and a half hours after breakfast! After lunch, we enjoyed a nice stroll through the harbour, but had wasted most of our time on the parking meter with lunch, so we soon headed back. Besides, we had to start preparing for our dinner guests.

We drove back out to my friend's city, stopping at a farm to pick up some fresh corn and then at a grocery store for other food items. I made my infamous broccoli salad (you may remember my obsession last summer!...somewhere in the archives is the recipe) and then we played a little Boggle until our guests arrived.

Our guests were friends from our university days. We hadn't seen them in over 8 years and I really didn't know what to expect. Two were actually friends of mine from high school who eventually had moved out to Victoria at some point during my university years, one a friend of one of the kids I babysat for years, and the other a friend I had made in my first year of university. They arrived and we visited, everyone having many drinks but me...LOL, and we ate some delicious homemade hamburgers, chicken breast, salad, corn and broccoli salad. We visited some more, they all drank some more, and then absolutely out of the blue unexpectedly, two of them walked outside. They never said thank you for dinner, they never said good bye, they just left. I was (and continue to be) quite shocked at the rudeness of it all. As the other two were leaving, they invited us back to their place for more drinks, and we were decided to head back into the city to join them. We went back and the boys absolutely ignored us, but we enjoyed a nice visit and lots of booze (water for me, of course) with A. The boys got ready to head out to the bar, and we decided it was time to head back home. I had had another long day/late night with no nap. When we got in, we both crashed.

On Saturday, we spent the morning visiting, and playing a couple more hours of Boggle, and then it was time to head home. On the way home, I just reveled in how much I love the ferry ride. I sat out on the deck, with the wind in my hair, watching the ocean and the islands as we went by...It's funny, I accepted my job here because I wanted to stay near the ocean, but I never see it out here...only when I decided to head out to Victoria.

In all, it was a wonderful trip and I hope to do it again before the baby comes as my friend is not too fond of kids.;) LOL

Sleepless in Seattle...

Yep, that is me right now. There are a couple possible reasons: the DQ blizzard I ate but shouldn't have that is slowly churning in my stomach, the impending vacation to Victoria which will include a visit with someone who hasn't spoken to me in 8 years, current friendship woes which have made me reflect once again on past abrupt ends to friendships...

As I lay in bed for the past 3 hours trying to fall asleep so that I can wake up rested and ready to head out to the ferry, I have written countless blog postings in my head, but now that I have finally gotten up, I can't really remember any of them.

So, I guess I am doomed to surf aimlessly around the internet for a little while then once again try to fall asleep. I will catch you all when I return from my brief vacation.

Summer is fast coming to an end...

Yes, once again, my summer is coming to an end much quicker than my summer to do list is being completed. LOL. I suspect that will get worse every summer from now on with someone else vying for my attention during the summer days. :)

A couple weeks ago, I received a phone call from the principal of my school telling me that I was probably moving my classroom. He prefaced this with "good news, bad news", but really it is about 95% good news. I will be moving to a room with windows! LOL. Even better, I will be next to the other Spanish teacher, which come on, just MAKES SENSE. Especially since we share a lot of resources.

Last Friday, on the way home from the ultrasound, I stopped at the school to confirm the move. yes, I am moving to that room, but the person moving out of my new room is very reluctant to leave. They have no idea when he will pack his things up. Add to this that the person moving into my old room is very eager to move...and I am stuck in the middle. I had told this person I would pack things up this week, but then I got an email from our new Spanish teacher who wanted to meet to talk about planning. He is a brand spanking new teacher and seems quite nervous about planning. So, really, I need access to all of my things for our meeting tomorrow. Oh, how fun.

For those of you who have asked, school for teachers starts Aug 30th and the students come after Labour day. My greatest fear is that the teacher whose room I am moving into won't come move out of his room until then....that will really freak me out as all of my time will be devoted to moving and unpacking rather than planning and photocopying...

Results are in...

and Acu-gen says pink is the colour for me. ;)

8w0d ultrasound

8w0d ultrasound 002
Originally uploaded by kajohn345.

Here you go! The newest and greatest picture of my little bean...doesn't look so much like a Martian this time, more like a lima bean. LOL:)

Ultrasound #2

OK, so I am back from my ultrasound. Baby is still alive, with a great heartrate of 175 bpm. :) Still measuring small. It was 13.1mm today which puts the length at 7w5d the gestational sac is a little smaller even and only measuring at 7w3d...I thought that was a bit weird. Anyway, the RE came in and told me that it looked good and that I was released to my OB. Also said chances of miscarriage now are 5%, so that is reassuring. :)

My mom called soon after I got home to hear the results. Apparently she went garage saling once again, and this time, found a crib and changing table...LOL. I think she keeps forgetting that we live in different countries, a 15 hour drive apart! LOL. Anyway, she didn't buy them but called to see if I would be interested (for 30 bucks a piece and in maple, I thought, sure!), so she is going to see they still have them this afternoon...this kid is so spoiled;)

I will try to post the ultrasound picture later this afternoon. :)

Thirteen hours

Thirteen hours to my next ultrasound. Can you tell I am a little excited? :)

Apparently, my mother is very excited as well. She went garage sale shopping today and nearly bought a stroller, play pen and swing. LOL. I would have been happy about the playpen and swing, but I do want a particular type of stroller...In the end, she couldn't remember my phone number and when she called directory they gave her the wrong number, so she didn't buy them. This kid is already spoiled and it isn't even an inch long yet. LOL

Thanks for letting me get that out...

It's funny. I had all these worries, and they felt so real. But after I wrote about them all, I realized I was just being silly.

So, last night I wrote in my baby journal. (it's a blank journal by the way because I didn't want to have to leave half blank of the commercially prepared ones with all the slots for "dad"). It felt nice and I think I wrote like 4 pages or something. I had no idea that I hadn't written in there since LAST AUGUST! LOL

Then, this afternoon, I decided to do the acu-gen testing thing. I opened it up and followed the instructions, first registering and paying my $250 lab fee. Next, I opened up the blood collection part. Oh. My. God. I should have opened it first, I would have realized it was impossible without opening a vein somewhere...There were three HUGE circles that were to be "completely" filled. They give you two non reusable lancets in order to this. Two non reusable lancets. Two. Are you kidding me??????? LOL After I poked myself with both, I had about 1/8 of one of the three circles filled.

Thank goodness I am diabetic and had my own lancets. So, I went and grabbed them. I poked and poked and squeezed and squeezed until I had poked every single finger on both sides (you poke on the side of the finger, not the pad) at least 3 times each. I stopped every now and then and cried, literally. I was in so much pain, it felt absolutely impossible that I would ever fill them up. I posted for help on one of the pregnancy boards, but noone was around during that time I guess...(they replied after I was almost finished..saying to poke my toes...how would I do that and get the blood in the right place without touching the paper?? I am not that dextrous or flexible). A little over an hour later, (yes, an HOUR later), I decided that was good enough. I pray that it is.

I found a fedex shipping centre that was still open for another 20 minutes and ran over there as quick as I could. Just made it by two minutes, LOL. I don't think it will go out tonight anyway, but hopefully bright and early in the morning. And now I wait...I suspect I will get the results on Monday. I sure hope there was enough blood on there....

Unnecessary concern...(at least I hope)

You may recall my considering the gender predictor thing. Well, I went ahead and ordered the kit ($25.00) and it arrived today. Technically, I can take it any time now since it said at least 5 weeks past conception which was last Friday, but I can't seem to do it.

I really have no reason to be so worried that this pregnancy won't make it to term, but I am constantly worried. I STILL haven't written in the baby's journal. I just can't imagine writing about a pregnancy and then miscarrying. Wouldn't that be awful?

I continue to have very few "symptoms" of pregnancy. I am frequently tired and today I took TWO naps, and I do have to pee very frequently (which is weird this early isn't it? cause like the baby shouldn't be pushing on the bladder yet or anything...), but that's it. Oh! And the CONSTANT dreams. I mean, I dream every night, a couple different dreams each night separated by trips to the bathroom. Most of the time the dreams are fine, maybe a bit weird but not really scary or anything, but one time I clearly had a miscarriage dream and that REALLY freaked me out...

Friday I will get to see my little martian again. I hope that he/she has grown adequately that noone tells me that it is "measuring a bit small" again. That really has me freaked I guess. I hope that we see the heartbeat again. I hope they give me another picture to place on my fridge...

This will be a long week...