(almost) 33 weeks.

 I wish I could eat these waffles.  Stupid, stupid waffles. 

The diabetic thing is still on my mind a lot, which makes sense because I'm forced to think about it every couple of hours when I take my blood. Not to mention the constant writing down of everything I eat, measuring food, counting carbs, etc. It's a little stressful. The diet change has gone well though, despite the stress. Eating healthy is much easier than having to eat diabetic though, I will say. A few of you posted your surprise about the quinoa and broccoli causing a blood sugar spike. It has less to do with the quality or healthfulness of the food, but more with how many carbs I'm eating in one sitting and the carb to protein ratio. For example, my blood sugar was too high after dinner a few nights ago after I ate a butternut squash & white bean burger on a bun with some sweet potato fries. Squash, beans, bun and sweet potato all added up to too many carbs for one sitting, even though they are all healthy foods. See the kind of shit I'm dealing with? At least I can eat almost all the soy yogurt I can stand, so that makes me feel a little better.

All of my after meal numbers have pretty much fallen right into place, which the doc is happy with. The problem now is with my morning fasting numbers (before breakfast), which are consistently elevated. This pattern shows that diet alone will not likely change this, as the pregnancy hormones are causing my pancreas to not produce enough insulin at night. So after two weeks of being on the diet, now the doc is adding a low dose (the lowest possible dose to start) of glyburide with dinner to help with the fasting numbers. I would be lying if I said that having to take medicine while pregnant isn't completely crushing me. I feel terrible that genetics and risk factors brought me to this point in my pregnancy, but I do want Luka to be born healthy. If this is the way, then I'll just have to accept it.

This also puts me into the "high risk pregnancy" category, which means I have to go to the doctor once a week, and possibly several times a week come closer to my due date. Each week I will need to do a non-stress test, and the amniotic fluid will be monitored. Too much fluid can cause an early birth, as can too little fluid. Too much fluid is a possibility for a gestational diabetic. As far as how I feel about all this stuff, let's just say that being induced and being hooked to a fetal monitor during labor is not part of my ideal birth plan.

They required me to have an appointment with the staff dietitian today too, which was pleasant and kind of funny. She was informative and nice, and didn't care that I was vegan. She did keep saying "vaygun" though, which caused me to have a slight facial tic. She also suggested I try "soy cheese on toast" as a high protein and calcium rich snack, and I had to politely tell her that no soy cheese on the market is a good source of calcium or protein, they are really just condiments. She was surprised. Anyway, she did help clear up my confusion with carb portions and how many carbs are in certain vegetables. So that was helpful. She went to her car to bring me a pamphlet on vegetarian eating, which turned out to be a Vegetarian Starter Kit from the PCRM. How funny is that?! I wonder where she got her hands on outreach material? Hey, as long as she's giving it out to folks, then I'm happy. Hopefully she has more of them, and didn't waste her only one on a vegetarian of 19 years/vegan for 9 of those years.