A touch of the G.D.

I have been fortunate in that everything about my pregnancy has been average and normal. Even my aches and pains are typical. Last month I went through a ritual every pregnant woman dreads – glucose screening. Basically this is a test to check your body’s response to sugar because pregnancy hormones can inhibit one’s ability to produce insulin, right when you need a lot of it. This leads to gestational diabetes in about 4% of pregnancies.

I just barely failed the first test, so I had to take another, longer test involving fasting overnight, drinking a sugar solution, and having my blood tested hourly (while I continued to fast) for three hours. This would be pretty unpleasant for anyone, but not eating while pregnant is no joke! I was mentally wrecked for the entire day.

Two of my four glucose scores on the second test fell just outside the healthy range, which means the midwives diagnosed me with gestational diabetes. Interestingly, the local hospital has a slightly higher threshold, and don’t consider me to have G.D. This just shows what a borderline case it have, which is good – it means that I can almost certainly manage my blood sugar by eating better and increasing my physical activity.

However this prescription – “be more healthy, duh!” – isn’t as simple than it seems, since being pregnant makes eating complicated (squished stomach, heartburn, etc.) and also makes exercise more of a challenge (out of breath, sore joints, off balance, etc.). But I have made some changes, and I think they’re paying off. I have cut down on carbs, and replaced simple ones with complex (or as one midwife said: “don’t eat anything white”). I have drastically reduced the sweets, which I had been eating mostly to fill in my increased need for calories. And I try to waddle around the neighborhood more often, although the weather and my pubic symphysis have not been cooperative of late.

Unfortunately, this healthy eating has further lowered the number of calories I get which has the nutritionist telling me to eat more food, especially fats! So, today I obliged with a Carolina blue sundae, followed by a lengthy walk around CostCo (whose gates have recently been opened to me). I do what I can…