Throughout pregnancy and childbirth a few annoying things happen that you dread, but one of the things it taught me was God puts good in everything. Two such things that happened in my pregnancy were having an impaired glucose tolerance and my cesarean. My experiences are not at all anything horrible, and much worse things can and do happen during pregnancy, but many women might end up with these issues and they do tend to upset you (believe me) so hopefully this might serve as some reassurance.
Impaired Glucose Tolerance
Towards the end of my second trimester they did some glucose testing and found that I had impaired glucose tolerance. Even though my results were pretty borderline, this was treated as full blown gestational diabetes. Despite my protests and all my research into the fact that this was all nonsense, I was put on a strict no sugar, low carb diet and was exercising three times a week. With a masters due before the end of the pregnancy, this was frustrating times as it was very time consuming, and tiring. Additionally, I had to monitor my blood four times a day and even minor exceedances would have the endocrinologist threatening to put me on insulin which I was very scared of because of complications that it might introduce into my delivery. Also, I just couldn't have the same kind of fun most pregnant ladies have in terms of eating during pregnancy. And lets face it, that kinda sucked.
In the end though, I didn't gain nearly as much as I know I would have during the pregnancy, and managed to get the weight off pretty quickly after childbirth. Also because I was swimming 3x a week, I didn't get as sluggish towards the end of the pregnancy, which is what allowed to get my graduate studies finished. Also it just taught me about just how much sugar we as a culture regularly consume, and hopefully I'll take that with me and try my best to avoid diabetes in the future.
Cesarean Section
There was no where in my mind I had even considered that I was going to get a c-section. It hadn't happened in my family before, so why would it happen to me right? Wrong. Since nothing about my pregnancy was like anyone in my family, I don't know why this logic seemed to make sense to me.
After 36 hours and a total failure to progress beyond 6cm, I was told I needed a c-section. I agreed pretty readily as I was completely exhausted at this point and had no idea how I'd have any energy to push even if I did make it to 10cm. My fear of the c-section was mainly taking care of a baby and recovering. How was I going to do it? I'd never had surgery before, and it sounded extremely painful. And yes, it was. At the end of the day though, I'm grateful to have such a great family that took really good care of me, they helped me a lot and I managed to get through two very difficult things at the same time (taking care of a brand new newborn, and recovering from surgery). What's more is my husband really stepped up, and I like to think it really helped in strengthening the bond between him and little N (our daughter).
Now I just need to figure out the upside of stretchmarks....
Impaired Glucose Tolerance
Towards the end of my second trimester they did some glucose testing and found that I had impaired glucose tolerance. Even though my results were pretty borderline, this was treated as full blown gestational diabetes. Despite my protests and all my research into the fact that this was all nonsense, I was put on a strict no sugar, low carb diet and was exercising three times a week. With a masters due before the end of the pregnancy, this was frustrating times as it was very time consuming, and tiring. Additionally, I had to monitor my blood four times a day and even minor exceedances would have the endocrinologist threatening to put me on insulin which I was very scared of because of complications that it might introduce into my delivery. Also, I just couldn't have the same kind of fun most pregnant ladies have in terms of eating during pregnancy. And lets face it, that kinda sucked.
In the end though, I didn't gain nearly as much as I know I would have during the pregnancy, and managed to get the weight off pretty quickly after childbirth. Also because I was swimming 3x a week, I didn't get as sluggish towards the end of the pregnancy, which is what allowed to get my graduate studies finished. Also it just taught me about just how much sugar we as a culture regularly consume, and hopefully I'll take that with me and try my best to avoid diabetes in the future.
Cesarean Section
There was no where in my mind I had even considered that I was going to get a c-section. It hadn't happened in my family before, so why would it happen to me right? Wrong. Since nothing about my pregnancy was like anyone in my family, I don't know why this logic seemed to make sense to me.
After 36 hours and a total failure to progress beyond 6cm, I was told I needed a c-section. I agreed pretty readily as I was completely exhausted at this point and had no idea how I'd have any energy to push even if I did make it to 10cm. My fear of the c-section was mainly taking care of a baby and recovering. How was I going to do it? I'd never had surgery before, and it sounded extremely painful. And yes, it was. At the end of the day though, I'm grateful to have such a great family that took really good care of me, they helped me a lot and I managed to get through two very difficult things at the same time (taking care of a brand new newborn, and recovering from surgery). What's more is my husband really stepped up, and I like to think it really helped in strengthening the bond between him and little N (our daughter).
Now I just need to figure out the upside of stretchmarks....
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