8 Months and Plug'n Along

Friday 02/12 officially marks the 8 month mark but today we had our 8 month check up. I told Sean he better come with me as I have a million questions and I'm bound to forget something in translation. He took the day off, chilled with the dog, and then I picked him up for our afternoon at the doctors office.

4:30pm rolled around and we made it right on time. They greeted us and swiftly took us straight on back.

Vitals
BP - 110/70 - same exact thing as it has been for months now - I guess I'm a regular :)
Weight - we won't mention what that was but we're doing fine

Next stop, exam room #1.
After the nurse made sure to check my urine for proteins (which came out fine by the way) Dr. Linsey quickly made his entrance without any delay.

With my list of questions in hand he quickly questioned how things were going and if anything was a concern or a problem since our last visit. I told him everything seemed fine but then the brain started thinking...oh yeah I have some issues I wanted to talk to him about.

1st issue - Pain in the pubic bone area making it sometimes very difficult to walk. He then questioned if I did a lot of standing on my feet. I told him nope, I sit at my desk all day. Basically it came down to suck it up and lay down when needed and limit your walking. Just as I thought. Bummer :( Only a few more months I have to keep telling myself and I'll start on my road to recovery.

2nd issue - Diabetes. As some of you might know I've been monitored since about 12 weeks for gestational diabetes because I refused to take another test when the 2nd test/drink would not go down. I have been perfectly fine score wise up until about week 30. Around week 30 my scores were creeping up, and fast. My fasting scores were now above normal as well as my after meal scores. I knew something was up when my very strict diet wasn't doing the trick. With a phone call to my diabetic counselor and discussing my options, it was finally decided between my OB, Dr. Linsey and my counselor to try some medication to see if that would help since it was clearly going up, and I was stressing out.

With one more attempt to give the diet one more try I gave it a whirl but it was not doing the trick. My scores were still very high for me. So I caved and picked up my RX at the pharmacy and started meds the next day.

The counselor advised that it could potentially be hard on a tummy causing pain and digestion issues and would take about 2-3 days to get the full effect of the medication.

In just a few days I was starting to notice a difference and was VERY pleased with the outcome. My fasting scores were back to normal, and my after meal scores were normal as long as I didn't go hog wild with the carbs and sugars.

***Note: What basically happens as I've been told, is that during pregnancy the placenta makes hormones. At some point my placentas hormones started getting too high and started to attack my insulin which helps to rid the body of it's sugar and excess sugars go to the baby and can cause excessive weight to the baby, and other complications. With a natural delivery being what I'm shooting for, this was a cause for concern.

So going back to my conversation with Dr. Linsey, Sean asked the Dr. that once Jack is here what are the chances that this would not go away or medication and monitoring would be necessary. Dr Linsey stated that once the placenta was removed the likelyhood of having an issue was little to none. However they would continue to monitor the fasting and after meal scores a few times a week for 2 weeks to make sure, and then call it a day.

He also advised that after a few months he would send me in for a mini glucose test to make sure I back on track (yup that means a small sugar drink) and then about once a year they would send me in for a fasting blood score to make sure I am not truly a "diabetic." Dr. Linsey stated that about 50% of gestational diabetics go on to become normal diabetics to that is why they go on to monitor so closely.

3rd Issue: Circumcision for Mr. Jack. Yup we had a few questions about that. We wanted to confirm that it would be either Dr. Linsey or Dr. Zepata doing the procedure and he confirmed that yes he would 24 hours after birth. I also had a quick question about care of the wound and bath time. He assured me that I would be sent home with paperwork to remind me of all that information but basically says that sponge baths are what we're going to be doing until the wound heals and the cord falls off.

4th Issue: Anxiety - As most of you know I have suffered for years with Anxiety and with the stress of having a child, delivery, and time at home with Jack I wanted to be prepared that should something medication wise be needed in order to help out, we would be ok to take that while nursing. Doc gave me the A-ok and said to give him a call should things need to be prescribed.

We also touched on post partum depression and Sean inquired about some of the warning signs to look out for should I not be able to detect them or become overwhelmed as it seems likely that with a history of anxiety it would be more likely that it would creep up on me more than someone who doesn't have a history. I felt more comfortable getting that out in the open with Dr. Linsey after we discussed it. He was very comforting and said it's very normal. Thank goodness for a doctor who has been around for so long and has seen everything.

5th Issue - Disability paperwork - I've been working on this all week with my work trying to get things squared away before I go out in 3 week (eek 3 weeks). There is so much to know, and do, and time lines to have this set of paperwork in and this other set of paperwork over there. It's VERY hard to keep things straight when you have a prego brain so I'm trying my best to keep things in order. Fingers crossed nothing gets forgotten or delayed. But I had to ask a few questions about when things needed to be turned in and obtain the state disability forms so I can turn those in when my next appt.

6th Issue - Fluid level - with the concern brought up on our last appt, I wanted to make sure that the concern was addressed. Dr. Linsey started feeling around and says that I'm just fine and Jacks levels feel great b/c he can feel all the parts of his body.

He also confirmed that he is still head down, body is on the left side of my body and his feet and such are on my right side (just where I feel them ALL THE TIME).

I almost forgot about the fun stuff :)

During this time the doc checked my size and Jacks heartbeat.

Size = 32 (remember normal is plus or minus 2 either way of the weeks that you are - I'm exactly 32 on friday so he's measuring just on target)
Heartbeat = 155 bpm - nice and healthy

I think that is it for this visit. Sorry for all the info but this is for my knowledge as well as anyone else who wants to read about it. :) Until next time...