It’s been a busy week already! I went to my 32 week checkup on Monday and Zoey was doing great. My doctor was a bit concerned with my blood glucose levels. My fasting numbers have been consistently high for weeks now. It’s likely that the steroid that I’ve been taking for the PUPPPS is causing that increase, but we still want to try to control it. She gave me a prescription for a drug called Glyburide that will hopefully work out but I guess we’ll wait a week and see how I do.
It was a little funny when the Dr. was looking at my chart of glucose numbers. I’m a bit of a spreadsheet nut as some of you may know and since I have Excel on my phone, I found it easiest to keep track of my numbers using a spreadsheet and then I just emailed it to myself to format and analyze the data on my computer. Well, sometimes I get a little carried away with my spreadsheets. I used conditional formatting to highlight the numbers when they are out of range. Then I added a percentage of readings that were above the limit and an average fasting and post-meal number. Then I decided to create a graph that shows the trend in my readings for both fasting and an average post-meal per day number. I admit, overkill, but still cool to me. Well the Dr. LOVED it! LOL She said that she wished that she could require all of her patients to do it that way and said that it was the best tracking sheet she’d ever seen of any of her patients. My coworkers got a good laugh at it and joked that at least we know that I’m in the right job.
So now that my GDM needs active management rather than just watching what I eat and exercising more, my Dr. decided that I should start weekly non-stress tests. I had my first test this morning and it was pretty quick and painless. First they do an ultrasound to look at the baby’s position and look for any irregularities. Then they measure the amount of amniotic fluid surrounding the baby by looking at the pockets in each “corner” of uterus. It’s basically an educated guess but gives a pretty good idea. Then they hook me up to two monitors to look at the baby’s heart rate and measure my contractions. As long as the baby has a steady baseline hb and it goes up ~15 bpm with movement and then decreases then I pass the test and I’m good to go.
This morning’s test went well. She is head down so I don’t have to try to move her luckily! The amniotic fluid level should be between 10 and 22 and I was at 13 which is perfectly normal. The baseline hb was about 140 and fluctuated normally with movement about 4 times during the 30 minute test so I passed. I also found out that I was having fairly regular but very small contractions the whole time I was there. I couldn’t feel any of it but apparently Zoey could because that’s when she would move. It was kinda cool to watch. I didn’t realize that those small contractions could start so soon, but I guess my uterus is just practicing and getting nice and strong so it can push the baby out in a few weeks.
There will be more updates soon I’m sure. I have a baby shower on Sunday, another checkup on Monday and likely another non-stress test on Wednesday…
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