An update from my appointments today

I had my growth scan this morning and Gabrielle is already one large baby weighing 3lb 12oz at 28+4. (I thought they were wrong at the 4d scan when they said she'd be around 8lb at birth lol!!) Thankfully everything is ok with her and the fluid around her is normal (apparantly you can sometimes end up with excess fluid around her because of gestational diabetes)

We had a busy appointment afterwards and I am being looked after by a diabetic midwife, diabetic nurse, diabetic consultant, obstetric consultant and a dietician so was at the hospital over 3 hours getting sorted out.

I feel better about it all now. I have to try and keep my blood sugars between 4 and 6 when fasting and less than 7.8 2 hours after eating. I have to test 4 times a day with a little pen thing that pricks my finger then I squeeze some blood out onto the end of a tab connected to the meter. After lunch my sugars were 7.2 and after tea they were 5.9!! I am so pleased that my blood sugars were both under the limit, especially the one after my tea which was lovely and consisted of half plate of salad, small jacket potato spread with bertolli spread, small portion of chicken breast) so I can have that again another day.

I am not allowed to snack between meals which I know is my biggest weakness and I will find that hardest. I can have a yogurt or fruit straight after a meal as a desert but not as a snack midway through the afternoon/evening which I find very strange. I surprised myself though by feeling very satisfied after my tea and still am so have skipped the yogurt.

I have to test my sugars 4 times a day sometimes before eating and other times 2 hours after eating and they have to stay within set limits so hopefully I can control it through diet alone.

I will be induced no later than 38 weeks due to Gabrielle's size and at the moment there is no reason why I have to have a caesarean which was really worrying me but if they try to induce me and it doesn't work or she gets distressed then I would end up with one. Hopefully it will work being induced first time as it did with dd and I will be doing all the old wives tales to try and get her out without being induced if possible.

I have another scan in 4 weeks and then will have fortnightly scans to keep an eye on her. I also have to go in for her heartbeat monitoring regularly from 34 weeks and they will check my kidney function then too.

I feel happy now that I know we will be monitored closely and I have appointments practically every week to keep an eye on things.

Hopefully everything will be ok and the gestational diabetes should disappear as soon as I give birth and Gabrielle will have her blood sugars tested within 3-4 hours after being born to make sure her sugars aren't too low. It means I'm now more at risk of developing type 2 diabetes in the future but this has given me a kick up the bum to take care of my diet and lose the weight and get myself in better shape.