THE REST OF THE STORY

Sorry it's taken so long to post this! Here's the rest of the story, as well as some pictures. The one of me is at the 40-week mark - i.e. 4 weeks after the baby was born.

It kind of all started on Friday, May 22nd. My obstetrician was very interested in taking the baby out ASAP because my blood pressure was continuing to go up, and we were worried that (among other things) this was putting my eyes at risk of retinal haemorrhages because of my diabetic retinopathy. But on the 22nd, the baby was only at 36 weeks, so there was a risk that the baby’s lungs were not sufficiently developed at this point (apparently it takes a baby of a diabetic mother longer than usual to develop). To check this, I had an amniocentesis (a big long needle stuck in my belly – actually not as bad as it sounds), and then I had to wait at the hospital for the results to find out if she was ready to come out. The test showed that her lungs weren’t quite developed, so the doctor sent me away and we scheduled a c-section for the following Monday (the 25th), with doctor’s orders being bed-rest for the weekend.

Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans…. As it turned out, my body wanted the baby out sooner than my doctor did. At noon on Saturday (May 23rd) I got a very bad retinal haemorrhage. It was very scary. I could actually see blood seeping into the vitreous of my eye and clouding my vision. It looked like a spatter of blood everywhere I looked. Definitely one of the scariest things I’ve experienced. I made a few calls – to my nurse friend, to Health Links, to my “retinopathy mentor”, and finally to my obstetrician….at home. He was adamant that he wanted the baby out ASAP, and said he’d make some calls to find a hospital with room and a doctor with time to do a c-section. Within about 20 min. he called me back to tell me to go to the Women’s Hospital and he’d meet me there (on his day off) as soon as he’d dropped his daughter off at a friend’s house. (This man is my hero….I truly truly love Dr. Alaa Awadalla. He has a heart of gold.)

So we got to the hospital and waited for the last of my food to digest before they were willing to take me in to surgery. (Ask me sometime about the half-a-pickle story…ugh.) By early evening I was in the OR and by 7:30pm (or 7:41pm, depending on who you ask), Freya (pronounced FRAY-a) Naomi was born! The c-section went remarkably well…especially for someone woozy and squeamish like me. My husband actually watched part of it, and saw Freya get yanked out by her little bum. Oh yeah…for those of you who don’t know, I had to have a c-section because Freya was breech, but also because my ophthalmologist was worried what pushing a baby out would do to my eyes. So a c-section was a clear choice. I got to see my little girl for all of 3 seconds before she was whisked off to be poked and prodded and tested and monitored. Judging by her deep purple colour, I’m pretty sure that was the safest option for her. She was beautiful, though – even with only 3 seconds and bright purple, I knew she was beautiful! Later in recovery I was able to spend about 10 minutes with her, and then they brought her down to the Intermediate Care Nursery (one step up from the Neonatal ICU), which was her home for the next three weeks.

For those of you interested in the “stats”, Freya was 8 lbs 9 oz, and almost 22” long. Pretty big for 36 weeks, but I’m told that’s common for babies of diabetic mothers (even with well-controlled diabetes like mine). Her eyes are blue (for now) and her hair is black (for now…so was mine when I was born, and look what happened).

I was in the hospital until the following Wednesday. The recovery from the c-section has gone very well. Before long I was actually feeling pretty good and having very little pain, but I did definitely have to take things slowly for a while. My blood pressure stayed high for a number of days until I got on some new meds for it, but it is finally made it’s way down. (I’m just weaning off of the last of my meds now.) After-the-fact now, we’ve realized that I had pre-eclampsia – pretty scary. It’s actually quite shocking how swollen I was, now that I’m back to a reasonable post-pregnancy weight. In the first 4 weeks after Freya was born, I lost 40lbs – some of which was baby and amniotic fluid, obviously, but a large portion of which was water weight. I lost 20lbs in my 4 days at the hospital, and the next 20lbs at home in the next few weeks. (It takes a lot of peeing to lose that much water weight….trust me!) My eye got a bit worse for a few days (almost certainly related to the still-high blood pressure), but has settled down since. It is still a mess to look through, but the blood is slowly dissipating. My friend who has had a similar experience has told me that it may take a number of months to go away altogether, but that hopefully it will. I had an appointment with my ophthalmologist soon after the c-section and he wanted to wait and see if it goes away on its own, but there is a procedure (vitrectomy) that he can do if it doesn’t. It’s not a very fun one, though, and the recovery time is pretty long, so he didn’t want to do it now with everything else that is going on in my life. It doesn’t sound like there’s a huge risk of permanent damage if we leave it to see if it goes away on its own, so that’s definitely my preference. As of my most recent appointment with him, he is seeing improvement too, and is very comfortable just waiting for it to clear up on its own. Whew!

Also the week following the c-section (while I was still in the hospital), my husband came down with strep throat, so that really complicated things for a while, and also kept him from being able to see Freya, which was very difficult. Thankfully he got onto antibiotics very quickly and was feeling better in a few days, and was able to visit at the hospital again.

Freya was in the hospital for just over three weeks. Because she was early, and because she’s an IDM (infant of a diabetic mother), she had a bit of maturing to do before she could come home. Because her lungs weren’t sufficiently developed, she needed to be monitored constantly to ensure she was getting enough oxygen. She didn’t often completely stop breathing, but she did often breathe too shallowly. She had an oxygen tube in her nose for a number of days. She was also jaundiced (also common for an IDM), which made her very sleepy. Between the breathing problems and the sleepiness, she also had a lot of trouble feeding – often she couldn’t stay awake long enough to finish and needed to be tube-fed (a really tiny tube that goes down her throat to her stomach – didn’t seem to bother her at all). When she was awake enough to eat, she sometimes had problems coordinating the “suck-swallow-breathe” process, and unfortunately sometimes forgot the oh-so-important “breathe” step. She needed to have 3 good days before she could come home. The neonatologist kept saying that she was progressing really well and he had no concerns. It was just an exercise in patience.

We went to the hospital for a number of hours every day to visit Freya. Some days she was really sleepy and we just cuddled her and fed her if she was awake enough. Other times she was quite awake and we could watch her make funny faces and grab at anything that gets near her hands. When we weren’t at the hospital, we were both really trying to relax and get our health back (and my blood pressure down). Our friends and family were so very supportive! We really really appreciate all the support we have received.

On June 15th Freya finally came home from the hospital! It was interesting getting “used to” having a newborn when she was 3 weeks old already, but we were SO GLAD to finally have her home. Since then we have really been enjoying getting to know her better. She definitely has some fussy moments, but she sleeps very well at night and she is usually pretty easy to calm down during the day when she does fuss. It helps that she’s starting to get into a bit of a routine with her naps so I know how to work around them. We really feel more like a normal family with a new baby now, and are starting to put some of the less pleasant aspects of the experience behind us.

So it’s been an interesting ride. Not the one that we’d hoped to have, but we were able to make the most of it and stay positive for the most part. We realized throughout those difficult first weeks that in a short while life would be back to normal (well, new-baby “normal” anyway), and that this would all just be part of the story – which now it is. When it comes right down to it, we really are very lucky.

So I guess that's the end of my story here. If there's one thing I've learned through all of this it's that good control of your diabetes is IMPERATIVE during pregnancy...but that things can go wrong even with good control, and it's important not to beat yourself up about it if they do. (Is that one thing or three things?) A diabetic pregnancy IS riskier than a non-diabetic pregnancy - for mother and baby - but in my mind it's still DEFINITELY worth the risk. When it comes down to it, my bloodpressure is going down now, my eye is going to heal, and my beautiful baby girl is healthy at home. Everything that went wrong is/was temporary. We'll definitely have to have some serious discussions with my doctors (my OB, my endo, and my ophtho) before we decide if we want to have another one, but it's definitely not out of the question. These problems we've dealt with were a small price to pay to end up with our beautiful daughter.

Another thing for those of you considering having a baby to keep in mind when you read about my experience is that I have had diabetes for almost 30 years now...with quite badly controlled diabetes for a large number of those years, and neither the technology (i.e. pumps) nor the medicine (i.e. super fast-acting insulins), nor the knowledge to better control it. I had complications (i.e. retinopathy) going into this pregnancy already. If I didn't, chances are this would have gone much more smoothly. So keep in mind that my experience will not necessarily be your experience....but also that good diabetes control during pregnancy will significantly reduce your risks of having some of the complications I did.

So, I guess this is my last post, unless I feel inspired to write more at some point. Please do feel free to email me anytime, though, particularly if you have any more questions.... pregnantbethany@gmail.com.

Thanks for reading!

And finally, here are some pictures:

WEEK 40 - OH MY OH MY

Sorry for the long delay in posting.

Long story short...Freya (pronounced FRAY-a) Naomi was born on May 23rd by unscheduled c-section because my bloodpressure problems ended up causing a pretty major retinal bleed (of the proliferative vessels in my left eye) and my doctor wanted her OUT as soon I told him. It's actually looking like I may have developed pre-eclampsia by the end of the pregnancy.

After just over three weeks in the Intermediate Care Nursery at the hospital due to underdeveloped lungs and some problems feeding, Freya is now home with us as of Monday, June 15th. We are thrilled to have her home and are happy not to have to go to the hospital to visit her anymore!

I will post a more comprehensive explanation in the future, but as you can imagine things are a bit crazy here these days. :)

WEEK 36 - NO BABY YET

Well, no baby today. Her lungs aren’t quite ready. The amniocentesis went really well, but we weren’t able to get the results until around 4pm so we waited around the hospital ALL day. I was on a fetal monitor most of the time and it showed that the baby is doing GREAT! Very very healthy and strong! (And getting chubby, per the fetal assessment.) We do have some good fetal assessment pictures, but I have to try to be quick on the computer now because my feet/legs are really swollen and need to be up, so I won’t be able to post them.

All of my bloodtest results re: bloodpressure came back fine, so that was good. My bp is coming down a bit, but not enough to make my doctor happy, so he’s upped my meds again. Interestingly, I was also having Braxton-Hicks contractions ALL day. Wouldn’t that be interesting if I just ended up going into labour over the weekend now….

So the plan now is that I’m on virtual bedrest for the weekend (instructed to only do boring things), taking more bp meds, and then going in for a c-section at 9:15am on Monday morning. No amnio this time – we just take her out. Her lungs were almost ready, so by Monday they should be close enough.

So, by Monday at 10:30am, we should have a daughter!

I'll post again when I can!

WEEK 35 - TOMORROW???

Quick update!

The baby is probably (HOPEFULLY) coming out TOMORROW!

Long story short, my blood pressure is not going down, even with meds. So my obstetrician wants the baby out as soon as it's safe for her to come out. He's worried about the potential impact on my retinopathy. The amniocentesis tomorrow morning will determine if her lungs are developed enough for her to come out.

So I get the amnio at 9:30am, and then I'm supposed to stay at the hospital to wait for the results (3-4 hours). I'm also not supposed to eat anything after breakfast, in case we're good to go for the c-section. While I'm waiting for those results, I'm also supposed to get some bloodwork done regarding the high blood pressure (my understanding is that they're checking for pre-eclampsia, even though I don't have all the symptoms). The good news is, my blood pressure should go down within a few days of the baby coming out. So by 12:30 or 1:30 we should know the results of the amnio. My obstetrician is at the hospital all day tomorrow, so when he gets the results, he's going to meet with us. If the results are good, I go to get prepped for surgery and hopefully by 2:30 or 3:30 I'm having a c-section, and hopefully by 3:30 or 4:30 we have a brand new baby! (Of course, nothing goes as quickly as anticipated, so it could be longer.) If the baby's lungs are not sufficiently developed, then, according to my obstetrician, we "wait a few days"....which I'm guessing puts us at Monday or Tuesday. I REALLY hope it's tomorrow, though. I just want to get this over and done with and meet our baby!!!

So, it might be a while until my next post, but I'll update you all as soon as possible - with pictures!

Wish us luck! I know we're in good hands!

WEEK 35 - TO AMNIO OR NOT TO AMNIO

I figured a mid-week update was in order this week, given the current up-in-the-air state of affairs. :)

First of all, my husband and I got lots done this weekend in preparation for the baby - her room is almost completely ready now and all her clothes are washed (some of which may actually be too small when she comes out, the way it's going). So we're starting to feel quite ready.

Today was another fetal assessment. My obstetrician assumed they would do an amniocentesis at this one, but they didn't. They said that there was virtually no way the baby's lungs would be ready already - particuarly because often babies of diabetic mothers do take a little longer to mature - so there was no point in doing an amnio yet. Instead, we have one scheduled for Friday morning, at which point the baby will be 36 weeks. So no baby this week (barring the unforeseen), but perhaps next week.

The doctor at fetal assessment was actually quite happy with the results of the fetal assessment. They baby's still big (almost 8 lbs now), but she's steady at the 90th percentile - not still rising, so that's good. Everything else about her looks great - heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, brain, etc. She's not showing any signs of problems. In fact, her responsiveness to touch (she kicked the ultrasound machine numerous times), and the practice-breathing she's doing are very good signs of both physical and mental developement, so that's good to hear. We even saw her make sucking motions with her mouth! So there's definitely no cause for immediate concern, but we/they definitely want to keep an eye on her.

The resident doctor doing the fetal assessment said that the baby had moved since last week. She's still breech and her head is still in the same place, but instead of having her back along my right side, her back is now along my ribs and left side. How she has room to move around in there, I have no idea! That said, she also mentioned that I have a LOT of amniotic fluid in there, which is part of why I have gotten so big and uncomfortable, and also part of why I'm having so much swelling in my legs/feet - I guess my heavy belly puts a lot of pressure on the veins in my hips and doesn't let things flow around between my legs and my body the way they're supposed to, so it all gets stopped up in my legs. Fun fun.

It's interesting with all these doctors' appointments how often I'm hearing phrases that start with "babies of diabetic mothers often..." or "babies of diabetic mothers usually...." It's starting to get a bit old, honestly. I keep feeling like I need to say, "But I'm a WELL-CONTROLLED diabetic mother!" I keep feeling lumped in with all the poorly controlled diabetic moms they see - and if good control really does make a difference during pregnancy, I shouldn't have to feel like that! It was especially frustrating today because I actually had high bloodsugar when I went in there. It was just "one of those things". I guess I underestimated my carbs at lunch, or haven't been active enough today, or the stress of the appointment got to me....but before I went in, I was 14.0. I took a correction bolus, so at a break in the appointment I quickly checked it to make sure it was coming down, but not too fast. It was still 14.0 for some unknown reason. Of course the resident doctor wanted to know what my bloodsugar was and why it was that high, and of course "I don't know - it's just one of those things. I'm almost never this high! (I'm really not!)" just doesn't cut it. Instead, I get a note in my file. Super. :P Then, of course, when I say "but I'm well-controlled, so these 'diabetic mother' comments shouldn't all apply to me" I feel like I have no way to back that up. I'll tell them what my A1C is, and they ask, "Ok, but what's your bloodsugar like right now?" or "Ok, but what is your bloodsugar usually?" Huh? Really? Define "usually". Do we mean an hour after I ate, or when I first wake up in the morning?? I truly don't feel like they get it. So when I get the "most diabetic mothers" spiel, I just smile and nod, and make a mental note to discuss this with the people who actually understand me and my diabetes control - i.e. my endocrinologist, my CDE (Michelle), my doula (who has been Type 1 for as long as me), etc. Anyway - it's just another hurdle, I suppose. Ok, rant over :)

So, for now we're still in this "wait-and-see" mode. I'll post an update after Friday's amnio.

Here are two pictures from today's F.A. They're both a nose & lips shot. Look at those lips!

WEEK 34 - A WHOLE LOT OF APPOINTMENTS....AND SOME CHANGING PLANS

Ok blog-readers, this could be a long one. I had lots of appointments this week, and some fairly significant potential changes have resulted....

Monday:

Monday was another fetal assessment. Unfortunately my husband was unable to come to this one due to some stuff at work, but my parents happened to be in Winnipeg that day and they were able to join me instead, which was very special for me and for them! We got to see the baby open and close her eyes again, and this time we even got to see a little bit of hair on her head! So cute! She rated very well on everything except her size. As you may recall, 6 weeks ago she was at the 40th percentile, 4 weeks ago she was 60th, 2 weeks ago she was still 60th, but this week she had jumped to 90th! She's 7 lbs already and suddenly growing very fast! This is quite common in babies of diabetic mothers with poor control of their bloodsugars, but since my control is really very good, this was a bit surprising. So we left it as a bit of a wait-and-see...see what my OB says, and see how much more she's grown by next week. (More on that later.) It's good to know, though, that she is otherwise VERY healthy and looking great!

Monday night our doula came over for a meeting and also brought her back-up doula. (Since our doula has 3 small children, she may not be able to be at the hospital for the whole time I need her, in which case she will call on her back-up.) We talked about the change in plans (i.e. to a c-section), and how she will be involved under the new circumstances.

Tuesday:

Tuesday's first appointment was my counsellor from the Youville Diabetes Centre. She gave me a recording of her reading a relaxation exercise (hypnotherapy) to help me relax for my c-section. (As some of you know, I'm a bit nervous about the idea of surgery.) I've listened to it a number of times already and it's really great! I just need to get it embedded in my brain before the c-section so that I can get into that relaxed state without the recording by then.

Tuesday's second appointment was the pre-op appointment at the hospital. It involved some physical checks and a lot of questions, but also gave us a LOT of information about the day of the c-section and the recovery days to follow. It actually made both of us feel a LOT better about the whole thing. I am now much more at ease about the thought of being cut open :)

Wednesday:

Wednesday was my appointment with my endocrinologist. She noted that my blood pressure is still too high. We talked about the frustrations of having my retinopathy resurface and the too-quickly-growing baby, and she encouraged me that I really am doing the best that I can, and that sometimes these things just happen anyway. It was good to hear her say that, because it's easy to feel that these complications are a result of something I'm doing wrong...and that's not the case. It's just the way the cookie's crumbling, unfortunately. (The downside is that it means there's not really anything I can do to change it....) We also talked about bloodsugar management during the pre-op fast and during the surgery itself, and about how my bloodsugar is going change significantly once the baby and the placenta are out. She doesn't want me to stay on my pump during the c-section because of the chance of something happening with it (e.g. occlusion, or it gets pulled out, or something) when nobody will really be in a position to fix it. I can understand that and accept it, even though I cringe at the thought of somebody other than me managing my diabetes. So I'll be on an insulin drip (the hospital's version of a pump) and a glucose drip, and my bloodsugar will be monitored very carefully! I'm hoping to keep the pump attached and just on "suspend" so that as soon as possible afterwards I can get it going again. We'll see how that goes....

Thursday:

Thursday's appointment was a massage. I can't complain about that one. ;) My lower back has been bothering me and the swelling in my feet/legs has been bothering me as well, so this was great! She was able to ease my sore muscles as well as get some of that fluid in my lower extremities moving around. I highly recommend pre-natal massage!! (Especially by Tracie at Ankyo Therapeutic Massage.....there's my plug for her!)

We had intended to go to the hospital's labour & delivery information session Thursday night as well (they hold these once a month), but opted out of that one. We had so many of our questions answered at the pre-op appointment, that we just felt it wasn't necessary and that we'd rather spend the evening at home relaxing.

Friday:

Yesterday was my obstetrician appointment. A couple of things came out of this.

First, my blood pressure is still too high and going up. (After this busy busy week, I'm not surprised!) So he gave me a prescription for baby-safe blood pressure meds. I had hoped to avoid those, but clearly it has become necessary. As an added incentive, I actually had another spot in my eye yesterday, likely indicating another small bleed in my retina. (This is not terribly surprising as the leaky blood vessels take a while after pan-retinal laser treatments to shrivel up.) I'm not overly surprised or concerned at this point, because I'm confident that the laser treatments I had in the last couple of weeks will deal with this in time, but it does make me quite anxious to get my blood pressure down. (As a side note, I think the spot is gone today, which hopefully indicates that the blood cleared up.) I started the pills today, so hopefully they make a difference.

Second, and more significantly, my doctor is tentatively planning on taking the baby out earlier than anticipated. He is concerned about the fast growth at this stage, as this type of growth in babies of diabetic mothers can sometimes lead to sudden unexplained intrauterine death. Not something we want to risk. He didn't seem worried that she was in imminent danger, but we definitely want to weigh the various risks and take her out as soon as doing so is less risky than leaving her in. What this means is that I will likely have an amniocentesis (i.e. a big long needle stuck into my belly to extract a sample of amniotic fluid) at my fetal assessment next Tuesday (the 19th) to determine if Bud's lungs are sufficiently developed. If they are, she comes out. If they aren't, we wait a few days and then she comes out. (I'm not sure if I'd need another amniocentesis first or not.) I will see my obstetrician either on Tuesday after the F.A./amnio or on Thursday and he will make the decision then. So, in theory I could be having my c-section as early as next Wednesday, but it sounds more likely that it would be Friday or later. By next Friday she'll be 36 weeks, at which point taking her out is very safe (as long as her lungs are okay), but she will likely need to stay in the NICU (Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit) until she's full-term (i.e. 37 weeks), so we may end up coming home without her for a few days (well, nights - our days will be spent in the NICU with her). Obviously that's not what we had wanted, but obviously we want to do what is best (and safest) for her, so we will roll with the punches! It will probably make for some new challenges with bonding and breastfeeding, but at the end of the day we will be able to bring home a healthy baby girl - and THAT's what's important. :) If her lungs are fully developed, she will not be considered "premature", just "pre-term", and we are told that pre-term babies at this stage are just fine in terms of health and development, so it shouldn't have any lasting effects on her. She'll just need a bit more help and observation at the outset.So...that's that. Now we wait and see what happens on Tuesday at the Fetal Assessment and the amniocentesis.

My husband and I have become very aware this week how lucky we are to have all of the fantastic medical support that we do. The appointments are definitely frequent and tiring, but we are so happy with the wonderful team of health professionals we have behind us. This includes our soon-to-be pediatrician, with whom I've already been in contact with, and with whom I'm already VERY impressed! We've often heard "Oh he/she is the best in the city!" about various of our doctors too, which makes us feel EVEN better! The three of us are in very good hands! In spite of these factors that are making a diabetic pregnancy a little complicated, we do feel very very lucky.

Also, after the initial "ohmygoodnesswemighthaveababynextweek" shock from yesterday, my husband and I are VERY excited about the possibility of meeting our little baby sooner than we thought. We can hardly wait!! (And since I'm at the get-her-out-of-me stage, I'm starting to daydream about having my body to myself again...well, mostly.) We whittled down our to-do list to only the must-do-before-she-comes items, and it's really very doable. We're hoping to have most things finished by the end of this weekend, in fact. So it looks like we'll be ready! (And I do use the term "ready" loosely, as I'm not sure if anyone is ever truly ready for this.)

In other news, I have been exhausted this week, but I guess that's not surprising given all those appointments! Also, I haven't been sleeping as well as my belly is just getting so heavy and I've been having a lot of Braxton-Hicks contractions at night which aren't painful but aren't really comfortable either. Plus, now that the baby is so big, anytime she moves around in there I REALLY feel it! (And she still moves around a lot!) On a kind of cute note, she seems to really like her daddy's voice. When he talks to her close-up, she moves around in response to his voice!

Now, a couple of pictures from the fetal assessment, and a few more pictures from the photo shoot with my very talented friend!

33 WEEKS - MORE APPOINTMENTS

So last week Tuesday was my last day of work. I t was pretty weird to leave there, realizing that it would be over a year before I'm back. I was glad that I already had a pretty good idea that my doctor was going to recommend stopping work, because I spent a lot of time the previous week cleaning stuff up and passing my work off to others. I'm still trying to get the hang of this whole "relaxing" thing. Between my numerous appointments (8 this week) and various "baby projects" at home, I have to consciously make an effort to keep things at a reasonable pace and not overdo it. It looks like I may also have to be okay with leaving some of the baby projects until after the baby gets here. Oh well. Keeping relaxed and healthy is the most important thing.

I only had two appointments last week and both were on Thursday. Thursday morning I saw the obstetrician. My blood pressure wasn't as good as last time, but still nothing too scary. (I think my blood pressure now goes up when they check it just because I get nervous about what it will be...) He's still okay with leaving me off meds for now. I see him again this Friday. He gave us a tentative date for the c-section - June 1st (around noon)! He did say it may get pushed to the 2nd, though. He said I should expect to be in the hospital for about 3 days, so that would have me getting home on Thursday the 4th or Friday the 5th, I assume. He also quelled some of my fears about nausea during/after the c-section, saying they have some new drugs that apparently work VERY well to help manage nausea. This was one of my biggest concerns, because I'm a bit phobic about nausea/vomiting. There are a lot of aspects of the c-section that I'm still really not looking forward to, but I've been hearing so many encouraging stories from friends who have had them, so I'm starting to feel a lot better about it. A nd when it comes down to it, even if it's miserable, it's FAST! (The OB said about 35 min!)

The baby is still breech, but obviously this is a moot point - except for the fact that her growing head is really starting to push into my ribs and make it difficult for me to bend over even to put on my socks and shoes! Also, my belly is soooo tight - even the obstetric nurse at the OB's office was commenting on it. I've gained almost 40 lbs now, and very little of that is anywhere other than in my belly (maybe 10 lbs elsewhere, but not more). Given that the baby was 6 lbs at the last fetal assessment, that leaves almost 25 lbs - pretty much all of which is in my belly! Ugh! No wonder my back is sore and my feet are so swollen! I feel like a pin prick to my belly would pop me like a water balloon!

Anyway, the second appointment on Thursday was my second laser treatment for my left eye (i.e. the retinopathy). We didn't get any more of an assessment from the doctor, just the treatment. I got 1400 zaps this time and the ones near the end were VERY painful and left me with a terrible headache for a few hours afterwards. But it was the last set of treatments, so at least it's over now. I see the ophthalmologist again during the last week of May just to assess if there has been any further pregnancy-related damage to my retinas. This will help us in the future if/when we need to assess the risks to my eyes of having another baby. He did say, though, that there is still a lot of "room" to treat my eyes if things did go badly again in the future...but obviously that's not terribly desirable either. We'll just have to take things one step at a time.

My bloodsugars have been a bit of a challenge lately with the stress of my eye treatments, plus making the adjustment to not working anymore. My meal times are different, so I'm finding I get some insulin-stacking between breakfast and supper, plus I'm slightly more active as I putter around the house or take the dog for a walk than I was sitting at my desk at work. Also, my eat-oatmeal-for-breakfast-every-day pact with myself is over. I'm soooooo tired of oatmeal! Ugh! I'm also still having a weird nighttime drop in bloodsugar. I've got my basal rate down to almost nothing at this point, so I'm not even sure where to go with this anymore. It seems like the only thing to really do is to have a bedtime snack every night. That works for me because it seems that I'm always hungry, but it's still a bit of a puzzler. Maybe my endo will have some new ideas for me at this Wednesday's appointment.

On Saturday we hit the big Whyte Ridge Mothers Day Garage Sale. We didn't have anything specific in mind that we wanted, but we came away with some toys and some clothes (all in VERY good condition) for the baby. It was quite a success after walking around for an hour in barely-above-freezing temperatures (there was actually snow on the ground when we woke up)!

I'm attaching a few pictures today that were taken last weekend by a very talented friend of mine! We did a whole "pregnant photo shoot" and I get to see the rest of the pictures tomorrow, so I may add more to next week's blog, but for this week I'm just putting in a few of my favourites. Here they are!