Glucose

So, you might remember me mentioning me having a glucose tolerance test done a few weeks ago. This is a routine test they do on pregnant women somewhere between 24 and 28 weeks. It involves going in and drinking this cup of really sugary stuff. It is kind of like thick, flat, orange pop (there are other flavors, but that's what mine was). Then you have to wait an hour in the clinic while not drinking, eating, or chewing gum. At the end of an hour, they draw your blood and send it to the lab to see how your body processes the sugar. The concern is whether or not you have gestational diabetes. Our clinic only calls you if you have an abnormal result, so I was relieved to not get a call. I seriously feel like I eat and drink a ton of sugar these days, so I was a little worried. Not so worried that there was something wrong with me or the baby, but just worried that I was going to have to stop eating sugar!

At my routine appointment last week I gave them my urine sample and when the nurse examined the little strip they stick in the cup, she had to consult with the chart on the bottle to read it. After all these visits, I knew that something was up because normally they don't have to look at a cheat sheet. So, when I went in to see the midwife, I asked her what was up with my sample. She said that I had some sugar in my urine and asked me if I had anything sweet for lunch that day. I quickly remembered the Swiss Cake Roll I had just ingested earlier that afternoon (and didn't remember until later that I had a pop for lunch, too!) and confessed to her. She said, "See you can't hide anything from us!" She said my nutritious snack was probably what triggered the result. I said, "I'm assuming that I passed the glucose test or you guys would have called, right?" She consulted my chart and said that I was at 136 and their cut-off for concern is 140, so I "barely passed." (I'm not sure what the units of this measurement are, but if you care, you are probably related to the medical profession and you don't need it explained to you anyhow, right?)

So, what was her recommendation? The midwife said, "I'm not going to tell you what to do, but if you want a big baby, go ahead and keep eating the Swiss Cake Rolls. But if you don't want to give birth to a huge baby, I would suggest cutting back on the concentrated sugar in your diet."

Of course, now I am craving sugar in everything. I am just trying to cut back and not completely eliminate it from my diet and see what they say at my next appointment in two weeks. But like most things, when somebody tells you not to do something, it just kind of makes you think about doing it. I'm trying to be a good little pregnant lady and eat healthy, but it's not any fun! Especially since I never finished that box of Swiss Cake Rolls and they are just calling out to me! One more day can't hurt, right?