I spent my morning at the hospital today for a variety of pregnancy related tests & injections. One of the things they were testing for was Gestational Diabetes and I thought having been given very little information in the lead up about what to expect from the glucose tolerance test I might share my experience here on the blog for anyone else who might be about to have the glucose test themselves.

So, to start with you have to fast from the night before. I was instructed to stop eating and drinking anything other than water from 8pm last night in preparation for my appointment this morning. I actually ended up fasting for much longer as we were struck by the dreaded sickness bug yesterday and there was no way any food was going to stay in anyway. However by morning I was absolutely starving.

I was called by the nurse who took my details before taking the first round of bloods. Because I was having additional tests today too, she took six vials of blood but from what she was saying, only one of them at this stage was for the glucose tolerance test. She actually managed to get blood from the first vein she tried too which NEVER happens in my case so this part was all pretty straight forward. Once everything was labelled up she handed me a little cup filled with bright yellow liquid to drink. Basically, it’s a super sugary solution which you have to drink to see how it reacts with your body. She was desperately trying to convince me that it really wouldn’t taste as bad as it looked but after the first mouthful I was already struggling a bit. The only way I can describe it is to say it tastes like those fizzy peach sweets you get, but in a gloopy liquidised form with about ten extra spoonfulls of sugar added. It took me a few minutes to finish as the consistency was just so thick, but once I’d finished she told me to head back to the waiting room and that she’d call me in exactly two hours to take further bloods which would indicate whether my body has reacted well or not to the liquid.

I;d been warned that the two hour wait would be a long and boring one, so armed myself with an actual book and the iPad so I could get some work done. By the time an hour had passed, I was starting to flag and so were all the other Mum to be’s who were also waiting to be able to eat and drink something other than luminous gloop. I was quite relieved when they called me back in to finalise the glucose test, though the nurse found it a lot harder to draw blood this time so I was in there for quite a while.

Once this last bit and the other injections etc I needed to have for the other tests were done though, I was finally allowed to eat and go home. Overall, the test wasn’t too bad and certainly nothing to build myself up over I get the results tomorrow so fingers crossed there’s no sign of diabetes but we’ll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it.

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This last fortnight has been a super busy one. As well as the usual day to day madness raising a toddler brings I have been busy work wise too – a wedding I’ve been working on for the last few months came around so I had loads of prep to do in the lead up and then me and Libby spent the day decorating the venue and hosting guests. It was such a beautiful day but I was absolutely exhausted by the end. We also threw the kids in our family a little Halloween party last week too. Safe to say I’m hanging up my party planning shoes for a couple of weeks to recover.

Symptoms

Baby brain is in full swing and I’m finding myself forgetting so much stuff. I’m having to set reminders for reminders just to make sure I get to where I need to be. SPD is still kicking my butt on bad days but thankfully it seems to come on for a couple of days and then ease a little for a couple. I’m feeling constantly as though I’ve eaten a huge roast dinner so I’m snacking more than eating meals during the day and just making sure I have a healthy dinner in the evenings. I think where baby is lying quite low, its making my tummy feel so incredibly heavy and often he sits on nerves which make everything quite uncomfortable! I’m wondering if I might be slightly anaemic as I’m getting really breathless at times so I’m going to have a chat to my midwife next time I see her and in the mean time try and eat lots of iron rich foods.

Monitoring Movements

I’ve started monitoring movements on the Kicks Count App and my kicks count Kick Counter wristband. He’s a constant wriggler so it can be quite hard some days to differentiate between movement sessions but keeping an eye on what he’s up to means I’ll be able to report any changes to my midwife and therefore just make sure all is okay.

Midwife appointment

I saw my midwife last week and according to her all is well. He has a super strong heartbeat and unlike last time around, I’ve got spot on blood pressure. I’m booked in to have the diabetes test at the end of this month because I have grandparents on both sides who are diabetic and I’ve also got my Anti D injections on the same day. I’ve had my flu jab too.

Trying to stay (be more) active

I’ve found that the more gentle exercise I do the better my SPD is so I’ve been making a point of going out walking with Florence at least once a day, even if it’s just a quick pop to the local shop or a wander to the park behind where we live. We’ve had Sean home a lot more than usual this week as the site he’s working on isn’t ready for the next stage yet so that’s meant I’ve been able to be a bit more productive and we’ve not been so trapped indoors so we’ve had a few days out too.

What’s Baby Up To?

Over the last couple of weeks baby has steadily begun to gain weight and fat. According to baby centre he should weight around 1 2/3lbs and is now the length of a spring onion! That explains the movements that make either side of my belly pop out at the same time! It’s likely now that he can hear both mine and other’s voices and I’m almost certain he reacts to Florence’s cry as it seems to be then when he wriggle around the most. Apparently his testicles are also starting to make their way down to his scrotum which could take 2 or 3 months! He’s also been practicing ‘breathing’ where he’s inhaling and exhaling small amounts of amniotic fluid.

That’s all for this fortnights update and it’s the last one of my second trimester! It seems a bit crazy that next time I’ll be writing an update like this we’ll be at the beginning of the third trimester and only 12 weeks away from due date! This pregnancy has flown by already.

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