A Sweet Surprise

Well blow me over! I just called my doctor's office to find out the definitive results of the 1-hour glucose tolerance test that I took last week. The doc told me at that time that no news would be good news, but since I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes during my first pregnancy (you can re-read all about that fun experience here and here) — and there is very high likelihood that once diagnosed, it will reoccur in future pregnancies (rates vary from between 30-70%, although I was thinking it was even higher than that) — I was fully expecting to receive a call back that I had tested high and needed to come back in for the 3-hour test. But after a week went by and I hadn't heard anything, I decided to call them.

Low and behold — I tested well within the normal blood sugar range. Normal is anywhere between 65-139 and my results were 87! EIGHTY-SEVEN!!!!

Picture me doing a wild little happy dance right about now. I am SO shocked! And pleased!

I can take absolutely no credit for these "normal" results since, instead of keeping my sugar/carbohydrate intake on the straight-and-narrow in preparation for the test, I decided to go the other route and gobble up all the sweet treats that came my way in the past few weeks, knowing that I would surely miss them when I had to give them all up on account of my pending diet.

I have to say, I was always a little suspicious of the results of my previous glucose tolerance tests as I didn't fit the profile for the typical person with gestational diabetes. And now, I am even more confident that there may have been some kind of fluke in the tests the last time around.

Regardless, I will say that going on a special, restrictive diet for the last 10 weeks of my pregnancy (well, actually only about 8 weeks since Owen came early) was, in the long run, a very good thing for me. I effectively ENDED my weight gain at that point. I maxed out at a gain of only 20 pounds, which made it easier to shed those baby pounds after O was born. And, despite the doctors' concerns about him being a big baby (which is a common problem for babies born to moms with gestational diabetes), Owen was only 6 pounds, 4 ounces at birth. Granted, he was nearly two weeks early, but I also attribute his small size to my healthy diet. And since he was born via c-section, it didn't really matter all that much how big he was (within reason), but because I'm hoping to deliver this baby via VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean), I would really appreciate another little tot.

So, all this to say that I am excited not to have to get the ol' glucose monitor out of storage in preparation for the 4x-per-day finger sticks. Or to have to follow a strict low carbohydrate diet. However, I really should take it easy on the sweets and think of this little blessing as a gentle reminder to keep myself (and baby girl) as healthy as possible.

In other news, we will be painting the new nursery TONIGHT! More details to come on that transformation. I have all kinds of ideas in my head, so it's exciting to start putting some of them into motion.

And, on the potty training front, we have taken a hiatus for the time being, due to Owen being diagnosed with a bacterial infection. I think it's called impetigo (though that was not specifically what the pediatrician called it) and it has nothing to do with potty training — other than the fact that his antibiotic may (and did) give him diarrhea. But dealing with that and getting our house completely disinfected the past two days has been about as much as I can handle; vigilantly watching for accidents on top of that might have just pushed me over the edge. Also, I was reading up on it a little bit and decided that, although he's definitely showing signs of readiness (and to some degree, a bit of progress, actually), I don't want to push anything. So, I will consider the past week a good introductory period for Owen, and will resume full-on "training" in another few weeks (or whenever the time feels right).