Appointment with the Dietitian

It wasn't as bad as I thought. The Dietitian I am seeing is Bilinda Norman, and she was super nice. They gave me a cute, PINK meter and I have to check my blood sugar 4 times a day. Once in the morning as soon as I get up and then 2 hours after every meal. I also have to keep a log of everything I eat.  And I have to limit my carbs, which isn't going to be easy but at least I get to have some!  She gave me a neat book that has a lot of restaurants and it lists the values of the food items that they serve. It's very interesting! Like did you know there are LESS carbs in a Chick-Fil-A, regular fried chicken sandwich than one of their grilled chicken wraps?! Who would have thought??

The whole appointment was very informative. The reasons why it's important to keep your blood sugar regulated was eye opening. Gestational diabetes has little or no effects on the mother, it all has to do with the baby. The most worrisome are the baby gaining too much weight (which can also lead to respiratory problems and also require a C-section delivery) and then it can more importantly lead to complications, like hypoglycemia,  after birth. Did you know that the baby doesn't receive any insulin while in the womb? Their bodies won't start producing that until after they are born. But they do get all the sugar that you are eating and drinking.  As soon as the cord is cut after birth the baby's pancreas starts producing insulin. The amount produced is based on the amount of sugar their little body is expecting to receive based on what they have gotten while in the womb, which can be dangerous. I wish they would tell us all this stuff at the beginning!  Maybe I wouldn't have indulged in as many milkshakes and dingdongs!  Oh and by the way, there is no way to prevent this from happening. It almost always a problem brought on by pregnancy hormones. So, all the lettuce and exercise in the world, while it doesn't hurt, doesn't mean you won't develop gestational diabetes. And Bilinda was pretty confident that once I deliver my blood sugar levels will all normalize and I won't have any lingering problems.

I am supposed to take my readings from last night and this morning and afternoon and email Bilinda later and see what she says. So far all my readings have been low. Hopefully my readings will stay in an acceptable level and I won't have to do anything else. In fact if all goes well I might not even have to go back, I will just stay in contact with her by phone and email.

Just say a little prayer that this doesn't get any worse and that maybe it will just be a bump in the road!