Calling all the Pregnant PS''ers

[Kaleigh]

Hello ladies! Mind if I join you?

I had my 15 week checkup yesterday and baby is growing right on track, plus I'm sporting a teeny bump, so I finally feel ready to join you ladies! Yippee!! my OB was just planning to do a doppler yesterday, and for what felt like the longest two minutes of my life, he could NOT find that heartbeat! I'm sure he could hear mine, it was pounding out of my chest... so scary. He gave up and did an ultrasound, and there was the cheeky little monkey, lying on it's side facing the screen, with enough gall to give me a wave. Little bugger MY EDD is December 5th.
I know a few names from the TTC/JBP threads, and I'm looking very forward to getting to know the rest of you lovely mammas-to-be!

Congrats..So very happy for you!!!!

 

[PetitiePoire]

Sorry for a short post, but I have a question.

I've been reading about epidurals and how they can cause a decrease in blood pressure. I don't really know what's normal, but mine is always between 9 and 10 at the doctor. I guess that's 90 and 100- with normal being 120? Does that make sense? So, if mine is that much lower normally what will happen with an epidural? It's just crossed my mind and has me worried. The doctors haven't said anything, but I feel like things are missed all the time. Any ideas or thoughts?

 

[Dandi]

Thanks Kaleigh!!

Petite, we do tons of spinals and epidurals at work, and yes they can lower your blood pressure (spinals more than epidurals), but it's really common, and the anaesthetists and midwives are always armed with ways of dealing with it. If your BP is low they can either turn the rate of the infusion down, lie you a bit flatter if your block isn't too high, or treat your BP with IV drugs. You'd be constantly attached to a drip to keep your blood volume up, and bolus doses of IV fluid can be given if your BP drops. I see plently of women who have working epidurals with little or no change to their BP, so no guarantees of it even having a negative effect.

I wouldn't be concerned about having one or being denied one, if your BP was low for reasons like blood loss or shock, that's good reason not to have one. My BP sits around 120 usually, so I would feel revolting with a drop to 80 or so, but because yours is typically low, a drop like that may not affect you as much. Have a chat to your midwife/dr about it, but in your situation I wouldn't be too worried, hon.

 

[PetitiePoire]

Dandiandi- thank you so much! That really helped to reassure me. I guess with labor approaching I've started worrying about every little thing. Congrats on 15 weeks! Ultrasounds are the best so I'm glad you dr pulled it out and you got to see your little one! welcome to the big girl thread too! Time seems to fly over here.

 

[Missy0483]

Hi everyone! I haven't checked in on here in a while. Things are going pretty well for us! We were having some sleepless nights. Blake was up basically every hour! But last night he had a 2 hour stretch and a 3 hour stretch of sleep!!! He also had his 1 week pediatrician appointment yesterday. Everything is good, but he somehow managed to lose 5oz since being discharged from the hospital so he was down to 6lbs 15oz. I think he has his Dad's metabolism already. DH eats all the time and never gains weight! But anyway, we go back in a week for a weight recheck. I've also had a couple times where Blake peed on me haha. That's about it for us!

 

[amc80]

Strategies for passing the Glucose Tolerance Test - Please Share!

All I did was have a balanced dinner the night before at a normal time (around 7) and then I didn't eat after that. I think I had fajitas, including chips, so it's not like I was not eaten carbs. I did make sure to not have dessert.

 

[monkeyprincess]

Dandi, welcome! Great to have some new faces around here as a lot of ladies just had their babies or are about to! So glad everything is going so well, despite the temporary scare with the heartbeat!

Dani, I did exercise the night before the spotting/staining incident, but I do that almost everyday, so I don't think I particularly exerted myself. And a big no to your other question. DH is terrified he will somehow hurt the baby (confident, huh?), so we've had very little action since conceiving this little guy. No chance of that happening the rest of this pregnancy now! So anyway, I have no idea what caused the spotting.

AFM, we have arrived, and I'm so excited to have a few relaxing days. No spotting since that one time yesterday morning, and little man's got a nice strong heartbeat, so I feel a little better. Just going to take it easy and hope it was an isolated incident. Off to the pool! Enjoy the rest of the week and have a good weekend everyone!

 

[lliang_chi]

PP, I have normally low blood pressure like you. I"m usually cracking 100 (106 or 109) but often times in the 90s also. I didn't notice anything when I got my epidural. Your midwife/docs have been taking your BP every time you've gone in for an appt, so they should be well aware that you have lower BP. Anyway, Dandi is an expert and she said not to worry too. Good luck!

Dandi! Congrats on hitting 15wks!!!!

 

[amc80]

And now, a me-centered vent post -

I'm having one of those days where everything snowballs and the pregnancy hormones win. I woke up around 4am with horrible heartburn that wouldn't go away. Then my brain decided to wake up and I started stressing about stuff...just general, normal, adult life stuff. As a result, I was never able to fall back asleep. It's now 2pm and the heartburn is STILL here. Keep in mind I am already on Zantac 75 twice a day, plus I've taken about 6 tums so far. So that further pi$$es me off, which stresses me out, which I'm sure all plays into the heartburn. I went home at lunch to take a nap and just ended up CRYING the whole time. I watched Teen Mom which always makes me feel better (Because seriously, if those idiots can do it then I have nothing to worry about). But then I would randomly start thinking about how stressed I am and such and the crying would start again. I did stop at McDonald's on the way back to work and get an ice cream cone, which has been the highlight of my day to this point. Oh, and of course when I'm stressing out all I can think about is how it's not good for the baby and the potential for it to end up in preterm contractions. Which stresses me out more. Repeat.

I know tomorrow will be better, but for now, it seems like today will never end.

 

[JGator]

AMC, I am right there with you on the heart burn, and I also had a sleepless night on Sunday. I take Zantac 75 at least twice a day. I suggest trying yoga as it helped me with my stress earlier this week. I have been doing it nightly and the breathing and stretching has really calmed my anxiety.

 

[fleur-de-lis]

Strategies for passing the Glucose Tolerance Test - Please Share!

I have to have my GTT (again) in 3 weeks. At my last visit I saw my result and it was 133 with a cutoff of 140 - so I'm really wanting to do wahtever I can to have the best chance of passing this time too.

Last time I did the test in the afternoon, so I had eaten that day, although very low carb (eggs, salad, almonds only)

This time my appt is at 8am so I can be on a true fast.

Can anyone explain the premise behind carb loading before the test - and the timing of that? I assume you'd load to get your system primed for processing lots of sugar, but do it far enough away from the test to have time to eat low carb/ exercise so that muscle and liver glycogen can be as empty as possible for the test.

Please start sending the 'passing test' dust to me in advance!

Miss RachelK,

Eat 150 carbs a day for each of the three days before the test, divided fairly evenly among meals; fast 12 hours before test.

The three days before is to wake up your insulin-producing systems to processing sugars; the 12 hour fast is to get it as low as possible before the test begins.

Also, hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. Drink water like it's going out of style.

HTH!

 

[amc80]

Ugh, well I think my contractions are back. I've had about 8 of them in the past hour. I guess I'll be calling the doc in the morning...annoying because I already have an appointment first thing Monday morning. Hopefully a good night sleep will calm them down!

 

[JaneSmith]

Strategies for passing the Glucose Tolerance Test - Please Share!

I have to have my GTT (again) in 3 weeks. At my last visit I saw my result and it was 133 with a cutoff of 140 - so I'm really wanting to do wahtever I can to have the best chance of passing this time too.

Last time I did the test in the afternoon, so I had eaten that day, although very low carb (eggs, salad, almonds only)

This time my appt is at 8am so I can be on a true fast.

Can anyone explain the premise behind carb loading before the test - and the timing of that? I assume you'd load to get your system primed for processing lots of sugar, but do it far enough away from the test to have time to eat low carb/ exercise so that muscle and liver glycogen can be as empty as possible for the test.

Please start sending the 'passing test' dust to me in advance!

Hi, I stumbled on this after doing a PS search for eternity rings.
I know this will sound ironic coming from a stranger on the Internet, but here goes:
Please don't take medical advice from strangers on the Internet. Please don't try to 'beat the test'. The glucose tolerance test is administered for good reason, to help catch gestational diabetes. I understand completely about being apprehensive, but don't do anything weird to try to fudge the test. Especially do not 'drink water like its going out of style', as ingesting many liters more than required can upset your electrolyte balance; not to mention make you pee a lot, and what pregnant woman needs that?
Good luck with your test.

 

[fleur-de-lis]

Strategies for passing the Glucose Tolerance Test - Please Share!

I have to have my GTT (again) in 3 weeks. At my last visit I saw my result and it was 133 with a cutoff of 140 - so I'm really wanting to do wahtever I can to have the best chance of passing this time too.

Last time I did the test in the afternoon, so I had eaten that day, although very low carb (eggs, salad, almonds only)

This time my appt is at 8am so I can be on a true fast.

Can anyone explain the premise behind carb loading before the test - and the timing of that? I assume you'd load to get your system primed for processing lots of sugar, but do it far enough away from the test to have time to eat low carb/ exercise so that muscle and liver glycogen can be as empty as possible for the test.

Please start sending the 'passing test' dust to me in advance!

Hi, I stumbled on this after doing a PS search for eternity rings.
I know this will sound ironic coming from a stranger on the Internet, but here goes:
Please don't take medical advice from strangers on the Internet. Please don't try to 'beat the test'. The glucose tolerance test is administered for good reason, to help catch gestational diabetes. I understand completely about being apprehensive, but don't do anything weird to try to fudge the test. Especially do not 'drink water like its going out of style', as ingesting many liters more than required can upset your electrolyte balance; not to mention make you pee a lot, and what pregnant woman needs that?
Good luck with your test.

Hi JaneSmith,

Though I agree with you on your general premise (i.e. receiving medical advice from a qualified and licensed medical practitioner is better than blindly trusting posts on the interwebs from potentially unreliable sources), there are so many questions during this time that receiving a framework in short order can indeed be helpful, especially in situations where one's own doctor has omitted information which other (or most) doctors tell their patients-- different doctors provide different levels of care, unfortunately.

The 3 standards I've listed above are from the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. They do not "fudge" the test, but failure to follow any of those three protocols lead to false positives, which I'm sure MissRachelK hopes to avoid.

MissRachelK, if you prefer source material (and who doesn't when they're pregnant?) detailing the "why's" of each:

1. The 150g carb for three days before test in order to avoid false positives, from NIH:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/e...ez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

2. Fasting for 8-12 hours before oral glucose test, from the Mayo Clinic:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/prediabetes/DS00624/DSECTION=tests-and-diagnosis

3. Dehydration-- a common issue with pregnant women--and its impact on blood glucose levels, as explained by livestrong:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/239458-how-does-dehydration-affect-blood-glucose-levels/

MissRachelK, hopefully this longer answer explains the "whys" of my earlier shorthand. The three points I listed to you earlier are not to game the test, but reduce the number of false positives, and I hope my hyperbolic shorthand of "drink water like it's going out of style" wasn't as confusing for you. Of course, call your doctor to confirm any information you read over the internet as to its applicability to your situation, whether it's from a NIH publication, the MayoClinic website, or just a friendly voice on an unrelated hobbiest forum. And good luck on the test!

 

[missrachelk]

thanks fleur de lis. I totally understood your advice and love the extra info! I always take anything I find on the internet with a grain of salt, so there's no need to worry about scaring anyone or undue influence. We come here to ask questions and seek advice so a warning not to seek medical advice on the internet is fairly out of place here IMO. We all know that most of us aren't physicians and that our own caregivers will have the best info for our particular case.

So the increased carbs for 3 days is right up until the night before the test when the fast begins? And is this 150 EXTRA grams of carms, or 150 total? Some places I've read online suggest 150g in addition to you regular diet.

My midwives have already talked with me about afsting when it isn't technically required for the 1 hour test, so they understand a desire to get the best result possible. I think if you really have GD no matter what you do you'll fail. But if you do the wrong things you may well not have GD but you can easily fail.

 

[fleur-de-lis]

150 total. It's to prevent the false positives that a paleo, low-carb, or temporarily "different from expected/commonplace" diet elicits, and 150 is considered ample, but not excessive.

In way of layman explanation (so ask your doctor/endocrinologist for more info), as for the proper fast, it's to make sure the start point is a natural low point, which a 8-12 hour fast brings in people with normal blood sugar response. As way of example (and using approximated numbers because of biologic principle difficulties in estimations), a normal person might have a fasting glucose of 83mg/dL, it spikes into the 150s 45 minutes after eating, 120 an hour after eating, 105 two hours after eating, and stays at 95 thereafter for the next few hours until the next meal in a couple of hours. If the normal/healthy body responds to a 50 g glucose test by being elevated by elevating by ~40mg/dL at the one hour mark and the pass/fail line is either 130 or 140, the properly fasted person (83+40=123) passes; the same, i.e. non-GDM, person would fail with some practitioners even if it's been hours since they've eaten (95+40=135) and fail miserably if they had just eaten because their midwife failed to mention the need to fast (150+40= 190, big fail). So it's best to start with that 83, or 77, or whatever your lowest number of the day is.

In contrast, someone who either started out with insulin resistance/production problems, or whose placenta's hormones have begun to compromise the mother's ability to process sugar, might have a swing of 80 points (or more) at the test at the test and will fail the test and whether their starting blood glucose is 83 or 95. Or they may have a fasting glucose of 125 like some GDM mothers do, so once again, they have a diabetic condition in pregnancy and will swing way over the 140 cutoff. In either of these cases, it's good to have the test and fail it, because proper medical intervention can follow.

These measures listed above just prevent a loss of a few points here and few points there to add up to a "just barely failed" result in the 140s or low 150s in a healthy person, and ergo why it makes sense to follow them. Wow, this has been wordy...anyhow, HTH!

 

[missrachelk]

thanks again FDL! I'm hoping having the first test in the afternoon, even with it being several hours since my last meal, contributed to my 132 result. Here's hoping for that again this time (my pffice uses a 140 cutoff).

AFM it's a home improvement weekend! We recently had the 2 bedroms with carpet measured for hardwood, after deciding to go with lumber liquidators. We went and chose the wood today and are really happy with them so far! Much more reasonable and easier to deal with than the other national chain we had come out and estimate for us. Tomorrow is paint day for the nursery before we get the floors done - who cares about a few spills when the carpet's going to be taken out in a few weeks anyway? I'm also off to Ace today to get their free quart of paint to hopefully re-color my kitchen (it's red with white paneling, and red is jsut not my color. I'm thinking of doing a royal / navy blue)

DH and I are also both on countdown mode for our babymoon to Savannah! One week from today we'll be all checked into our B&B, enjoying afternoon coffee and brownies!

I hope everyone is having a great pre-father's day!

Best wishes to all of the brand new Dads - Mr Monarch, Missy, Merry and Knuzite!

 

[MuffDog]

Girls - just a me centred pop by to let you know that my son arrived early this morning weighing in at 8 lbs exactly. I'm exhausted but am already in love. Pretty great fathers day gift if you ask me! Details and pics to follow.

 

[stephbolt]

Congratulations Muffdog! Can't wait to hear more and see pictures!

 

[Puppmom]

Muffdog, that's wonderful! Your DH must be on cloud nine!

 

[dani13]

CONGRATULATIONS, MUFF!!!! Can't wait to hear more about it!!!! Hope you and baby boy are doing well!!!

 

[monkeyprincess]

Muff congratulations! Cannot wait to see your beautiful baby and hear which name you chose! You can't top making your DH a daddy on Father's Day. What clever timing

 

[mayerling]

Congratulations, Muffdog!

 

[Kunzite]

Congrats Muff!

 

[monarch64]

Congrats MuffDog! Way to go on the timing! Can't wait to see pics.

MissRachelK, how nice of you to extend Father's Day wishes to the new daddies, Mr. Monarch thanks you!

Happy Father's Day to all the new dads and soon-to-be dads!

 

[PetitiePoire]

Congratulations Muffdog!! What wonderful timing! I'm so excited to hear your story. I've been checking non stop to see if you've had your little one so I'm thrilled to hear the news!

 

[lulu66]

just popping in for a big "HELLO!" never made it to the "just barely pregnant thread" & i think i'm past that now

i'm 13wks & 2 doc appts in. during the u/s last appt the little one was cartwheeling & somersaulting and we got a peek, doc's pretty sure it's a little boy. a bit early to tell at 12wks, so we will verify at the next appt but he said his early predictions are usually correct. he did point out that i have placentia previa (where the placenta is blocking the baby's exit), which right now means a c-section and that i'm on pelvic rest for the remainder of the pregnancy. (the hubs is not too happy about this, but we are both focused on keeping the little one safe in here! so, it's a small sacrifice to make.) i'd love to hear other experiences from ladies who've been on pelvic rest for a large part of their pregnancy. i'm worried about losing/neglecting the intimacy of our marriage.

on a funny note: i was speaking with my mom & she was telling me all her birth stories (3 c-sections). when she told her mother that she was going to have to have a c-section with me (the oldest), grandma replied, "oh, that's the cadillac of child birth, that's what all the movie stars do!" LOL. i cracked up!

ETA: i think i cross-posted with muffdog.....CONGRATS on the arrival of your little one! can't wait for a pic or two!

 

[amc80]

Muff, big congrats!!!

Lulu- honestly, I wouldn't be too worried about pelvic rest. Between the nausea, growing belly, and things getting really swollen down there, we have only done it a handful of times since I've been preggo anyway. We just recently had a talk about it because it was really bothering me...both in terms of me wanting some action plus feeling like a bad wife. We basically decided to give up until after the baby is born. It sounds pretty pathetic...but our last attempt was so awkward and didn't feel particularly great anyway. Not to mention I've had some preterm contractions and it's really not worth the risk.

 

[lulu66]

Lulu- honestly, I wouldn't be too worried about pelvic rest. Between the nausea, growing belly, and things getting really swollen down there, we have only done it a handful of times since I've been preggo anyway. We just recently had a talk about it because it was really bothering me...both in terms of me wanting some action plus feeling like a bad wife. We basically decided to give up until after the baby is born. It sounds pretty pathetic...but our last attempt was so awkward and didn't feel particularly great anyway. Not to mention I've had some preterm contractions and it's really not worth the risk.

that's kinda what i was thinking for me...but it does make me feel guilty & like a bad wife, though. our doc said personally, he & his wife were on pelvic rest from wk 20 on & suggested cold showers to the hubs

 

[Missy0483]

Congrats Muffdog!!!! What's his name??