Diabetes/Nutritional Counseling

Talking with the diabetes and the nutritional counselors helped a lot today. When Matt and I went to the pharmacy to pick up my prescription it was a little nerve wracking. I had never had a prescription in such a huge bag before! I didn't want to look all crazy, so we waited until we got to the car before we opened the bag. I got a One Touch Ultra Blood Glucose System (the diabetes counselor later upgraded me for free to a One Touch Ultra 2 Glucose System) plus a box of test strips and a box of lancets (scary needle pricker things). I had to pick up the supplies before we went to speak with the counselors because the diabetes counselors' job is to teach us how to use the system. So away we went to the hospital to speak with them. We met the diabetes counselor, Kandice first. She ran us through the set up of the machine and a little on what Gestational Diabetes means. Before she got too into it, another girl showed up for the "class" with her boyfriend. She also has Gestational Diabetes. After Kandice caught her up, it was time for the moment of truth. She taught us how to load up the lancets, and how to put the test strips into the machine. She gave us tips on how to get the blood flowing to our finger tips, also said that we need to prick the sides of our finger tips and not the tips themselves. Now it was up to us to just do it. Let me say, it wasn't as bad as I thought. Sort of like a TB test. Anyway, the other girl's results came up on her meter sooner because I was trying to figure out how to get the blood onto the strip. Her results were something like 140. Then when mine came up, I was 93! Anything over 120 is bad, so I was doing good today before the appointment!

Talking with the nutritionist was very informative. I'm glad they have a person like that to help because if you would have handed me a bunch of papers full of information, I would have been so overwhelmed. She explained things pretty well. It also helped that Matt was there because I can't remember much anymore, and she said some things that even now I don't remember, but Matt does. This is why I bring him to all this stuff! I thought that I was going to have to watch my sugar intake, but come to find out it's carb intake that matters. So the diet I'm on is pretty strict with carbs but nothing else. I can eat a high calorie food, such as cheese, because it doesn't have enough carbs to count. My days will consist of this:

Blood test first thing in the morning
Breakfast with 2 carb servings
2 hours after my first bite of breakfast I do a blood test again
Mid morning snack with 2 carb servings
Lunch with 2 carb servings
2 hours after my first bite of lunch I do a blood test again
Afternoon snack with 2 carb servings
Dinner with 3 carb servings
2 hours after my first bite of dinner I do the last blood test of the day
Bed time snack with 3 carb servings

I have to eat like this every day.

You might be wondering what a "carb serving" is. Well, it's 15g of carbohydrates. So if you look at a label and see that one serving of the food is 24g of carbs it's almost 2 carb servings. There are some foods that are "free" such as the less starchy veggies like broccoli, carrots, lettuce, etc. Other "free" foods are condiments, mayo, salad dressings, meats, fats, etc. It's strange that in this calories and fat don't matter, but carbs do. The reason why they have one more carb serving at dinner and bed time snack is because, for some reason, pregnant women's hormones go down at night, so we are able to tolerate more carbs.

The whole process is going to be tough, but I know I can do it. I don't have a choice. Matt is helping out a lot with the math side of this. I'm having a hard time figuring out what I can eat and how much. I know it will get easier, but for now it's pretty confusing to me. Tonight I did my first test without a trained professional watching me. Two hours after dinner I tested and I was at 117. I'm concerned that I was too close to 120, but I'm told that as long as I don't go over 120 I'm just fine.

She did say too that I might be going to the doctor more often because of this. The baby will have to be tested a lot after she is born while we are in the hospital, to make sure her blood sugar is normal. Also, she will have to be seen three days after we leave the hospital to check her blood sugar again. I'm unclear right now on what I will have to do after delivery. I might be monitored for awhile still, but overall I should be ok afterwards. The nutritionist told us that she knows women who had GD that ordered every carb on the menu after they delivered their babies because they had gone so long watching carbs. I hope I will be one of those women!! Only time will tell. I will keep everyone updated on how things progress.

Also I added a new name poll, don't forget to vote!!


Here are some pics I took of Matt with Chloe tonight. He decided it was time to start practicing on her for when the baby is born. He has been carrying her around, supporting her neck (much to her dismay) and tonight he put a onsie on her (again, to her dismay)...it was funny though!