Glucose 75mg (2 hour) pregnancy test! A brief explanation

May 31^st 2011 (25 weeks 4 days)

Hey Noah!

How’s life in the womb today? You are not being very active right now so I’m assuming that you are finally sleeping. It was a rough day today. We had to wake up early after fasting for 12 hours. We were still tired and everything but we do what we have to do. Once we got up we left for the hospital to redo the lovely glucose test. You remember that test, don’t you? So, this time around it was actually much better. We were more people (9) and Mommy felt super sick at the beginning (just like last time) but after 30-45 minutes we were good. I think that once the sugar actually goes through your system, you are fine. We had that huge rush of energy and we were feeling REALLY good. I mean, jumping around everywhere. We had to remain sitting down though, so we did that. So, Mommy will write to you later but for now she will explain to other people how our test went. Love you baby! Take care in there!!!

Now, for those who are curious as if why I did the 2 hour glucose test right away and the process of the test, here are some answers.

First, here, in Canada (not sure how it works outside the country), there are a few conditions that obliges you to take a glucose test. Here are some of them: diabetes in close relatives, being overweight, being over 25, if you already had gestational diabetes and a few other conditions. Being overweight and having both parents with type 2 diabetes, I had to undergo the 2 hour glucose test also called an Oral glucose tolerance test. So, technically, instead of starting off with the 1 hour glucose test that wouldn’t be as precise, we went straight away with the 2 hour test which is more demanding but that gives out more details on your sugar level. Glucose tests are usually done between 24-28 weeks of pregnancy (did mine at 25 weeks). Sometimes, women have to do more than one glucose test during pregnancy (earlier on if you’ve already had diabetes before (or if you’re high risk) or later on if your glucose test comes back positive). 

In my specific case I was told to fast for 12 hours and not take any un-prescribed medication (vitamins…) but- ladies take my advice- if you have diclectin (nausea medication for pregnancy) TAKE IT! Even if you weren’t nauseous since week 18, TAKE IT! 

The length of the test is 2 hours during which you get blood work done every hour (3 times in total). Here is more details about the process: you are part of a little group (5 people in my first group and 9 in my second) and you have to get blood work done before starting the test (blood work #1). The nurse will start by pricking your finger to find out your sugar level. At that point, being pregnant and fasting, it should be between 3.9- 5.5 mmol/L in Canada or 70 to 99 mg/dL in the USA.  Then, another nurse will have blood work done (one tube). 

Then, you return to the waiting room and wait for everyone to be done their test. Once that’s done, the nurse will bring the famous orange liquid that you have to drink (glucose intake). It’s 75mg of pure sugar and honestly, it’s not that bad. I might want to point out that I have a sweet tooth but from what I had heard, I was expecting this REALLY disgusting drink….Not really. I’m quite sure I can reproduce the taste of it actually. Take some Crush (pop) and open it. Leave it in the fridge for 24 hours and TADAM! So it tastes like flat orange liquor. You must drink that in 3-5 minutes. After drinking that, you can’t sleep (it will make the glucose intake take longer to digest) and you can’t walk around too much (it will false the results by increasing the time to digest.) The nurse will also tell you that during the day you should avoid drinking/ eating sugar (carbs, fruits, sweet veggies, sugar!) you should stick to proteins considering the lovely drink took 100% of the normal intake in sugar for a day. Then, you have to wait 1 hour. *if you do not feel good go tell the nurse RIGHT away.* Don’t wait for yourself to throw up or don’t let yourself get too sick. If you throw up, you will have to restart the test another day (and that TOTALLY sucks). 

After an hour (counted from when you had the drink given to you), the nurse will call you to have some more blood work done (blood work #2) it’s one tube (usually). At that point, your sugar level should be less than 7.8 mmol/L or 140 mg/dL. It actually has to remain under that number until the end. Here is the thing: you won’t know on the spot. Only when you get your results. 

Then, after another hour (total of two hours), you get your last blood work (blood work #3). After that, you are free to go! So that’s it for the test. By the end of this test, your level of sugar should be back to the pre-glucose level. So, in my case, when they pricked my finger, I was at 4.5 mmol/L (81 mg/dL), thus, after 2 hours, I should be around that level. If I am a bit higher it could be pre-diabetes and if above 7.8 mmol/L or 140 mg/dL it’s diabetes. In reality, if your level of diabetes when they prick your finger is 5.4 it’s not at all catastrophic. As long as it remains below 7.8mmol/L or 140 mg/dL at all time and that it comes back to 5.4 after. I hope that’s clear….

After doing the test almost twice (threw up during my first test) here is what I recommend:

-          Eat a lot before the 12 hour fasting. Don’t stuff yourself but eat a little more than usual because 12 hours is a LONG time to go without eating. Last time I stopped eating 14 hours before the test and I was REALLY week. This time, I was fine.

-          Drink tons of water during the evening before the test, during the night and before leaving for your test. If you are dehydrated you become dizzy which is pretty bad because your head starts spinning and you want to vomit.

-          Bring a snack for right after the test. Although you might not feel hungry anymore, your body needs something to eat. I would suggest nuts or a yogurt. If you want, you can also stop at the cafeteria of the hospital or at a little store and grab something to eat.

-          If you feel dizzy, ask the nurse to stay there a bit longer after you grab something to eat and if you’re still feeling dizzy, don’t drive! 

Well, I think that’s it ladies. To summarize it all, don’t be afraid. It goes well quite fast after the first hour. It’s not the most pleasant thing I’ve done but I’ve had worse happening to me and I know it’s for my good and for Noah’s good. I will keep you updated on the results. Thanks for reading! And good luck on your tests. 

24 weeks of Noah and glucose (yucky) test!

27^th of May 2011 (25 weeks)

Hi Baby Noah!

I certainly hope you are comfortable in there! I bet it’s warm and lovely. I try all my best for it to be a safe spot for you. So, our week started off really well! We had a busy week, so it went by fast. Sunday was out last week end giving catechism, so we had a little party to celebrate the end of it. It was really good, we had really good food there!! I will miss teaching catechism next year but it`s more important for me to take good care of you and breastfeed you. It would be impossible if I gave catechism. Of course, nothing is guaranteed. We might end up not breastfeeding but still, passing almost 3 hours at church with a newborn is too hard for a new parent. Maybe when you’ll be one! We also helped Sonia out with her wedding favors on Sunday. We went to l’Essor and we packed all the favors and did all the bonbonnieres that she was going to need for the wedding. Oh, I also forgot, on Saturday we went to the CIM conference thing for society. It’s about mining and society, it was really fun! We went with Daddy (of course) but also with grandma. It was really fun to look around and get to see some real objects that are used in mines. Grandma was actually thrilled, I wasn’t sure she was going to enjoy it but she ended up liking it.  So that was fun!

Except that, our week was pretty boring. We had an exam on Wednesday and we had homework to give in on Monday, so we did that. The exam was fairly easy but to be honest with you, I couldn’t care less of school right now all I think about is you. Also, on Thursday we went to pray the rosary with Linda. It was fun to finally have some time out and to pray at a beautiful church. We didn’t get to talk much to her though because Mommy had to leave early.

Then today we had to do an awful-oh so awful- test. It was our test for gestational diabetes. Like Mommy has a family history if diabetes, she needed to get the 2 hour test done right away (instead of the 1 hour one). So, Daddy was kind enough to come with me and we went in, everything was good. The thing is that I had to fast for 12 hours. So, I didn`t eat for 12 hours, I woke up at 4 am because I was starving and when we got there, the first thing they ask you to do is to get blood work done. So fine, we did that. Then, we have to drink that cold liquid that resembles Crush (orange pop). It really wasn’t bad but Mommy wasn’t feeling well, so it didn’t help at all. I suddenly started feeling really bad and I knew it had to come out. It was so spontaneous though…I barely had time to realize that I was going to throw up. So, the test was over. Once you throw up you need to restart. We need to rebook another appointment to do that –oh how awful- test.

The rest of the day was pretty fun though. Daddy and I napped for a LONG time when we got home and we went shopping for maternity clothes. Mommy can’t really fit in her shirts anymore…So we got some cute shirts and some cute jeans…We summed the day up by eating a White Magnum. I’ve been pretty good with those. One a week!

That’s about it for now Little Noah! We’ll get to see you in 3D/4D on june 18^th!!! So excited!

Mommy and Daddy love you a lot, take care of yourself in there!!

Keep baking!!!!!

23 Week of Little Bean!!!

18^th of May 2011 (23 weeks 5 days)

Hi Noah!!

How’s my baby doing? I think we’re doing fairly well. We are learning to know each other more every day. Some days I know you are more active because I drink more, other days you’re lazier because you have moved a lot the day before. I am able to feel you a lot every day. I can know when you wake up and when you are resting. It’s funny because when you were smaller, I couldn’t feel you kick but I could feel you when you would lie on the bottom of my stomach. You were smaller than my hand. You still lie down the same way, I am not sure why but I guess it feels comfortable to you. Now, you take up two of my hands though. It’s impressive to see how much you’ve grown in so little time. I’m so proud of you although I know you’ve done it all by yourself. I’m just here for, well you know, keep you alive. Actually, the truth is that right now you are viable by yourself. You technically could live outside of me. I don’t want that to happen just yet. I know your survival is the most important right now but so is the fact that you will be healthy. If you were born now, there could be a lot of damage done and we want to avoid that. There are still many cases where children born prematurely grow up just like normal children do. To make it short and sweet; even if you’ve reach viability- try to keep baking. We’re getting there!!

Other than that, our week was pretty relaxed…we did some homework, some walking, lots of computer, meeting people here and there and of course a midwife appointment! Our week was good and I guess a little boring. Mommy misses Daddy a lot while he’s at school and his schedule can be hard at times to follow. At least he gets some days off. When he gets home we still get to do activities together. We also had a bad surprise recently; remember nausea? It came back. After almost 5 perfect weeks, Mommy started to feel dizzy and nauseous again. Bus rides were terrifying and unpleasant. At that point, Mommy decided to get back on Diclectin. It’s really been helping us so far and it makes us sleep!! I feel so lazy sometimes, we sleep on average 12 hours a day. When Daddy is home though, we sleep less because Mommy wants to spend time with him despite the fact that he wants to sleep…Poor Daddy. Talking about Daddy, I think he is starting to get more into the pregnancy. He can feel my belly get harder and it’s starting to show, so he gets to see you grow at the same time. He likes to make you giggle and he talks to you. I’m sure you recognize his voice because you move when he talks or when he touches you. I’m also certain that you can hear us now because there was a very loud noise in the house and you kicked me really really hard. I know I was sleeping but don’t worry! If something was to happen I would get out…with you obviously. Anyways, guess what? Daddy gave us “me” something very very special yesterday. See when Mommy was a kid, around 8 years old, she went to Europe and she fell in love with…well ice cream. They were the creamiest and sweet type of ice cream she had ever tasted and she really fell for them. They were called White Magnums. Every time Mommy went to Europe, she would have a lot of those. As you may have imagined, it’s sort of expensive to go to Europe just for ice cream and I always had hope that Magnums would be sold here in Canada. It happened! There were Magnums in our grocery stores. When we went, we found the original Magnum, the caramel Magnum and the almond Mangum…Mommy couldn’t care less about those. She wanted her white Magnum!! Nothing to do, they weren’t here yet. Yesterday, as Daddy came home, he had a surprise for me! Yes!! White Magnums!! He found them in another grocery shop by total coincidence. Okay, well for you it might not be a big deal, but for me, that is pregnant with you, EUROPEANS ICE CREAM? My favourite kind!? Yes yes yes!!!! Daddy got them because he knew they would make me happy and I’m so happy he thought about me- well us. Gah! I love that kid- man I mean.

Our midwife appointment was also very good. We went with Titia. On our way there we got sooo sick. I was sure that I was going to pass out of throw up. When we finally got off the bus it was such a good feeling. Honestly, it felt really good to be out of there. Just fresh air seemed to cure it all. Obviously, it wasn’t the case and when we arrived at the midwife place we were still sick. I guess it would have helped if we had a place on the bus but we didn’t.  I can’t wait to show a bit more just for that but I guess it will take a while because see, no one is noticing my bump yet!!! Once we got to the midwife, she told us everything was okay. My uterus is growing and is now at 22cm, which is great! It should be at 23 cm by now. The rest was just chit-chatting here and there about our possibilities for birth and other stuff. We are going to see her again in 4 weeks and we are no longer going to see our OB. Our glucose test is the 27^th of this month. It’s going to be really annoying because we have to fast for 12 hours and we will only get to eat 4 hours later. So hmm, pregnant and 16 hours NOT eating? How fun!!! At least Daddy will be there with us. I wonder how that will go. I really do. If I throw up, we have to do it all over again. I’m confident it will go well though. We don’t have any major signs of diabetes but we do have a history of diabetes in the family and it’s honestly nothing to mess with. Especially not for you. So, we’ll do that test and see how it goes.

We also have a test on the 25^th. It’s going to be so boring…it’s part of life though, right? So, we’ll do that and we’ll get over it.

I can’t wait to see you Baby Noah!!! I love you, take care of yourself until next time we get to see you!!!

Mommy and Daddy love you very much!

Noah and Mommy updates!

10^th may 2011 (22 weeks 4 days)

Hey Noah!!

It’s been a long time since Mommy wrote to you. I’m sorry for that we’ve had a lot of things to do. You know how we finished school, right? Well Mommy decided to take a summer class in order to have one less class to do when Mommy goes back to school. Like that, we’ll be able to spend more time together. So we started a summer class; philosophy of education and we like it Oh how much. It’s really boring but we do what we have to do. We got must of our results for our courses. We did fairly well! I’m sure you helped me through the semester. We only have one result left and it’s actually the hardest test we have taken. So I’m a bit concerned but no matter what the results are, I’ll manage. Thinking about it, we probably did well but Mommy worries.

There are so much more fun things in life than talking about school. Since vacations started we weren’t able to see our friends a lot. We do keep ourselves busy by taking walks, being online and sleeping a lot. It’s crazy how exhausted I can feel sometimes. We slept 8 hours last night and we napped 5 hours during the day. That makes a total of 13 hours!! That’s more hours asleep than awake. Poor Daddy, he tries to match our hours of sleep but he gets up tired because he got a small 6 hours or less before he has to go to school. Yeah, that’s right, Daddy is back to school. We get to see him more often that way, he doesn’t have a “stable” schedule but at least he isn’t gone from 8-6 like when he’s working. I miss him a lot during the day, specially that now we’re not at school and have less things to do. I try to keep us busy by preparing your arrival, it’s still so early but I’m starting to get things done. I’ve washed all your clothes and placed them in their containers for now. It’s really cute but when we get the furniture we’ll move some of the stuff out of the containers and out to the drawers. Makes sense no? We haven’t started to prepare your nursery yet. We are waiting for summer to start and for Daddy to get some days off. We have to paint the nursery first. So far we’re set on blue but we’re not too sure yet. As for the furniture itself, we have no idea. We know we want a crib and something to put your clothes. As for the rest, we’re really not sure. It doesn’t worry us much as you might imagine. Everything will work out and honestly I’m 100% sure the room will look nice no matter what. Daddy and me will put lots of effort and love in this nursery so it can’t make look bad. Maybe you’ll look at picture of your nursery in 20 years and think: what the hell were you thinking? Haha…I hope not!! Other than that, we have been getting you cloth diapers and some regular diapers. Daddy and I want you to use regular diapers for the first month since you’ll poop a lot and that, from what I heard, it’s impossible to take off from a washable diaper. After that, we want to use cloth diapers. Not only is it less expensive on the long run but it’s also better for the environment. I truly hope you’ll enjoy them because see Mommy doesn’t enjoy doing laundry but she’ll have to either way. Actually, titia is the one who got you the cloth diapers. Grandma and grandpa got you a super cute mobile, the Tiny Love one. It plays Mozart or Bethoveen OR sounds of nature. It can play music up to 20 minutes, that’s great! I hope you’ll enjoy listening to it! It might become your ritual every night. Mommy and Daddy got you a play and exercise mattress. You’ll be able to roll all over it and play.

On the 5^th it was Sonia’s birthday! We had cake! Yum! Sadly, it was the day before going to the doctor (being weighted) so we didn’t eat as much as we wanted (that’s not a bad thing though). We got her a coffee machine…I think she liked it. The next day we had our doctor appointment. Good news! Mommy has just the right amount of proteins in her urine. So, false alarm about proteins in urine. When we took the strip test it did come back with presence of proteins. So the doctor just thinks it will do that during the whole pregnancy but that it is not dangerous. So that’s for that. Your heartbeat was perfect and my uterus (our uterus- recently it’s been your uterus) is measuring just right. Tomorrow we are seeing out midwife so I expect her to say about the same thing…we’ll see. I get more information out of her though hehe. Also, this was Daddy’s first doctor appointment visit with Mommy. He was able to hear your heartbeat. Sadly, he couldn’t make the difference between you moving sound and your actual heartbeat. It is confusing if no one tells you about it but Mommy was a bit far to explain it to him. Hopefully the midwife will tell him more about it but he can’t come tomorrow, so eventually.

Last Sunday was also Mother’s day! Daddy and I had agreed that my first real mother day would be next year with you here with us. Oddly enough, you still manage to get me a card and a gift! I think you planned it with grandma! Either way, thank you! Not only do you make me the happiest mother ever but you also spoil me! Don’t inverse roles here Little one! You also gave me a blanket (for you) and an elephant toy (for you!). It was much appreciated!

Before I let you go, can we talk about something? You know my sciatic nerve? The one of my left leg that you enjoy sitting on and sleeping on? I would REALLY appreciate it if you could stop that. It hurts! I don’t mind you kicking me and everything but I think that since you’re inside of MY body, it would be nice if you could try not to hurt my leg so much that it makes me fall. That’s it. If you wish to continue though, and if it’s really comfortable, I guess you can stay there. Not like I have a choice…

I love you a lot Little Noah!

Daddy and I think about you every day!! We already have so many plans for you!

Take care Little Noah and swim safely away from the sciatic nerve!

Mommy and Daddy