Do you have any allergies?

I’m thinking that I might be able to add hospitals to that list. Well I went to the maternity department here in Napier today so they could check my blood pressure and get this it’s even more normal than what it was on saturday. (120/75 – for those that are curious)

My theory is that I must be allergic to hospitals because everytime I go to one my blood pressure goes up. The maternity depeartment in Napier isn’t actually a hospital, it’s more like a clinic, so therefore not as stressful.

Tonight I head off to another one of my positive birth classes. Now some poeple might think these to be hooky kooky but I’ve found these to be really helpful. They’ve not only helped prepare me for the birth (we’ll soon see how effective that will be) but the relaxation mediative exercises have helped me to cope with all the stresses of the pregnancy. Especially all the unexpected complications. In a way it’s made not just my pelvis and body more flexible and prepared but my mind too.

Scan and clinic appointments comming up on wednesday so I will hopefully update after that

If it doesn’t rain, it pours!

Well I ended up in hospital yet again and after some really serious convincing I managed to escape this afternoon. Here’s how it happened:

I went in on wednesday for a diabetes clinic appointment, on the way I got a severe pain in my chest that ran up to my shoulder. So when we went in to see the diabetes specialist we told them about the pain, they took my blood pressure which was pretty high. After taking some blood and doing some tests to rule out blood clots.

They ruled out the blood clots, but still worried about what caused the chest pains and the higher blood pressure they were pretty concerned about pre-eclampsia.  Apparently due to having gestational diabetes it makes me even higher risk for this.

I was told this morning that if my blood pressure hadn’t gone down further than it had already then I would have to stay another night. (which of course I was dreading – I’d already read through 2 magazines (That’s Life! And Reader’s Digest) and 2 books, played Tetris on a mini hand-held game till my thumbs were sore) Luckily after lunch, a small walk away from the ward followed by a lovely massage from my darling Krzysiek and a nap, my blood pressure was at an acceptable level.

I do however have to go into the hospital tomorrow to get it checked again, then again on monday. I think it’s a small sacrifice to make in order to be allowed my freedom.

Even the darkest cloud can have a silver lining…

Well I’m pretty used to the fact that I have to inject insulin 4 times a day and test my blood 4 times a day (was 6 times for a while).

This week I go see the specialist (one of the many that I get to see) at the  hospital as well as having a scan to see how big this baby has got.  Apparently they want me to deliver the baby around 38 weeks so if I haven’t gone into labour before then I will be induced.  Well the good thing is I’m not going to go overdue!!

Well that’s my little silver lining anyway.  So that would make my approx deliver time about the 29th of April.  Though once 36 weeks rolls around (15th April), I’m going to start trying to use ‘natural’ induction methods.  If I can get this baby out on my own without too much interferance from the hospital I will.

If this is Wednesday the 12th, I hate to think if tomorrow was Friday!!

I went to the clinic at the maternity ward today, saw a diabetes specialist .  The specialist also believes I have polysystic ovaries.  Which I kinda agree with since I had issues with my cycle before I got pregnant.

I’ve been put on Metformin which is an oral anti diabetes drug, but since it can take a few weeks for it to get into my system fully, I’ve also been give insulin that I have to inject 4 times a day.  It’s kinda freaky doing it and it often hurts, I’ve only injected myself 3 times so I’m hoping it will hurt less and less.

I have a fast acting insulin just before a meal, and then I take a long
lasting one before bed. I still have to prick my finger 4 times a day to test the
blood sugar levels.  So I stab myself with little needles 8 times a day!

To add  to todays little excitement, I also got stung by a bee, which of course is not great cause I’m highly allergic to them.  Luckily though the bee stung me right on my planar wart (ingrown wart on the sole of my foot) so I didn’t get as much venom and the stinger didn’t stay in my foot.  I wasn’t even sure it was a bee at first until after I went inside and my foot got numb.

So poor Krzys who worked worked last night and stay up till 11.30am this morning to come with me to the hospital got dragged out of bed at 3pm to take me to the Doctors,
my breathing didn’t get too bad and my throat didn’t swell too much so it was just a minor reaction this time thankfully, but I’m not allowed to take antihystamines
since i’m pregnant so I am nursing my foot and the swelling as best as possible.

I have it but I don’t….

Went to the diabetes clinic today.  They gave me a monitor and a needle device to pick my finger with to test my blood sugar levels four times a day.  I also found out that yes I did fail my Gloucose tolerance test, but guess how much I failed by??? 0.1! yes 0.1!!! that’s like missing out on getting top prize in the lottery by 1 number! It’s like I brought ticket number 127 and 129 and the winning number was 128!

Still they want me to make myself bleed four times a day and test the level.  Better than I expected though.

The good news is though if I wasn’t pregnant I have the sugar levels of a normal non-diabetic person., because I am pregnant they want me to have lower blood sugars than what is ‘normal’ *rolls eyes*

I’m hoping I score more levels in their ‘happy’ range so I can either stop testing, or keep testing without having to take medication.  (apparently I can’t cheat either, my niece reminded me of a feature that the test machines have of keeping a record of the results as she found out through my mother’s one)

Failed!

Well I failed my glucose tolerance test.  Which means I have gestational diabetes.  I have to see a specialist on Wednesday sometime.

I need to sit there for how long???

Well I failed my polycose glucose tests.  When you are pregnant it’s kind of a test you really don’t want to fail, like failing your STD tests – ok maybe not quite that bad.  This means I now have to go for a glucose tolerance test.  I have to drink yet more sweet stuff, sit at the lab doing nothing for 2-3 hours while they stick a needle in me every hour to see how my body is coping with the sugary crap they made me drink.  (Hmm makes me think of some medievil torture procedure)  So right now I’m seriously thinking about what fun things I can do to amuse myself as I sit there staring at the walls.

Well cover me in feathers and call me mother duck!

Yeh ok I’m nesting.  Trying to get baby’s room ready, clothes clean etc etc.  Well after the possibility that I might have been in pre-term labour the other night I figure that I need to actually have a bit more prepared than what I have already.

Things I still need to do:

• Paint chest of drawers
• Wash baby clothes
• Buy things like nappies, baby bath, baby bag, cot blankets etc (making a list of things that will be needed when baby comes home as opposed to things I can buy a few days/weeks/months down the track.
• Make some frozen dinners so I won’t have to cook when I get out of hospital
• Get some more nighties for me to wear in hospital
• Tidy all the junk that’s still sitting in baby’s room
• Set up change table
• Pack mine and baby’s bag for hospital

Those are just the things I can think of right now.  I’m sure that there’s more that have slipped my mind since I already forget most things.

Did it feel like a contraction? IDK never had one before!!!!

Last night I was in a bit of pain, nothing too hard for me to handle, but my loving darling was worried and made me ring the midwife.  Well that just started the ball rolling on a new ball game….

Jo wanted me to go out to the hospital just in case it was pre-term labour.   I get to the hospital and lay on a bed to be hooked up to a machine to measure baby’s heartrate and my uterus for movement (aka contractions).  I soon figured that the large number going between 120 and 180 was the baby’s heart rate and the other number that went between 15 and 50 was my uterus.

They got me to pee in a cup (a decent sized one for a change!) and took my blood, did my blood pressure checked my mouth, eyes, temperture then asked a series of questions.   By this time it was getting late and Krzys needed to go to work, not wanting to leave me there alone he insisted that he call someone to come sit with me.  We rang our close family friend, Denise, to come sit with me.

After they’d run their night of tests I was left to attempt to sleep with a hottie and panadol.   By morning I was already bored of the place, not expecting that they’d keep me in I hadn’t taken a thing with me.  Krzys arrived just before breakfast (straight after work) with some clean clothes and toiletries.  The poor man he was so exhausted after working all night and being worried about me that he fell asleep in the chair at the hospital.  Finally I convinced him to go home to sleep.

The results from everything (bar the pee test) came back pointing to an infection, but just to be sure I’m having a scan done tomorrow just to check everything else.  I convinced them I was well enough to go home (heh suckers), so prompted escaped shortly after 10am.

To shower or not to shower

Baby shower that is.  Well I was really hoping to have one.  Let me start with my own little selfish reasons as to why I wanted one:

• Good chance for me tocatch up with all my mates while I’m still in a pre-mummy state
• Chance for some good laughs with close friends
• Get some help towards getting baby gear – (which due to Krzys and I having no surviving parents will have to purchase everything for ourselves on a income slightly above that of welfare)

Reasons why I’m not having one:

• Seems no one can be fucked organing one for me