Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Resistance is futile? HA!

Last night, I went to a church activity for the women. I made brownies to help with the needed refreshments. The place was swimming in cookies, brownies, and cake.

But I didn't eat a crumb of it! HA! Take THAT, sugar cravings!!

Normally, I'd've inhaled at least one of each kind of dessert. Staying away from the sweets knowing they'll spike my blood sugar is hard, but oh my gosh is it possible and empowering. It's not worth the health of my baby or sabotaging these good habits I've started.

I still crave sweets. All. The. Time. I saw a craisin on the floor once. I wanted it more than anything. (Granted, a single craisin wouldn't do anything, but a single serving has more carbs in it than I'm allowed to eat in one meal).

Ladies, you can do it. You can control this. And if you can't, even after all you can do, it's going to be okay. Trust me, even my doctor didn't think I could maintain healthy blood sugar levels without insulin.

Wanna see what my three-hour test numbers were? Of course you do!

Fasting: 80 (Normal is below 95, so this one was actually good).
Drink melted otter pop juice.
One hour test: 191 (normal is below 140)
Two hour test: 192 (normal is below 120)
Three hour test: 162 (not sure what normal is on this one, but I was over)

NOT good.

But I'm doing it! It IS possible. You can do it too. You will see amazing things happen. You'll feel better, you'll miss cookies, you'll hit and miss, you'll make mistakes, you'll learn, and you'll conquer.

And when it's all over, you'll let yourself have a chocolate shake because pregnancy is hard and childbirth is hard.

Speaking of childbirth...I've got my day scheduled! On March 15th, 2017, my little Miss will be born!

Spare me the Ides of March jokes. It's nerve-wracking enough as it is going under a knife. Caesar would know.

Oh dang. I did it, didn't I?

Saturday, February 4, 2017

Gestational Diabetes: week one complete

I'm telling you, this is both a blessing and a curse.

Things I miss:
Chocolate.
Muffins.
Sub Sandwiches (but I don't really eat those much during pregnancy anyway because of the stupid listeria scare with the deli meat. Ugh).
Ice cream with hot fudge.
Brownies.
Rolls.
Crackers.
Pasta.

Things I don't miss:
Extra pounds.

I'm serious. Since starting my gd diet, I've LOST weight. Which, technically speaking, isn't encouraged during pregnancy. But I'd already gained a little too much, so with the weight that came off, I'm just about where I should be weight-gain-wise. And since I have to follow the diet for the next five-and-a-half weeks (or 38 days, if I get to schedule the c-section on the day I want. But who's counting?), only the baby is going to gain weight.

So far, baby girl seems to be doing great. At my last appointment, the doctor did an NST (non-stress test, which was non-stressful for the baby, but since I couldn't find a sitter for my two boys, they were in the room vying for full view of Octonauts on the iPad. Mom was a little stressed). Her movement and heart rate were perfect. She's very wiggly, which is very reassuring to this high-anxiety mama.

The doctor was VERY pleased with my numbers this week. I only had 1 reading over the limit (165. The two-hour glucose limit is 120) and it was because I had a bowl of canned chunky chicken noodle soup and five, yes FIVE Ritz crackers. Every other time, my numbers have been awesome just with diet and light exercise. He did say it might be harder to control as I get closer to my due date and the placenta gets bigger. We'll see.

For now, I'm going to keep at it and indulge in a few of the things I AM allowed:

1. Surprise, surprise, cereal!! I have to measure out less than a full serving and I have to eat it with almond milk but this is seriously no big deal for me. I get my Cheerios and a huge plate of scrambled eggs. Hooray!!

2. A late night snack. I'm not kidding, they TELL you that you NEED a snack before bed in order to keep your morning numbers low. Woo hoo!!! And my go-to snack of choice? Oikos vanilla greek yogurt! It's SO yummy, has tons of protein, and even with the sugar, my morning numbers have always been normal (and the doctor said those are the hardest to control, so yay!).

3. All. The. Almond. Butter. I. Want. I'm allergic to peanut butter so I eat almond butter instead. Sometimes a spoonful to hold me over between snack and meal time. It's the best.

On to week two.