*Sigh* Yesterday was a rough day. Well, it had a rough start.
Baby was SUPPOSED to show us whether he (it's not necessarily a he, I'll explain later) is a he or a she. Didn't happen. Nope, baby is beautiful, healthy, perfectly-proportioned stubborn little thing. Eh, I might have guessed that, it's my kid afterall. I'll remember this when he keeps mouthing off to me at 12.
OH, the he thing: Bob's idea. On even numbered dates, baby is a he. On odds, a she. Simple as that. I know, sounds weird. Well you try calling your baby, your child, your little sweetie pie an
"IT" for months and see how you like it. Today, baby's a he.

We had the disappointment of not finding out, and that was bad enough. But then we got other crappy news heaped on us, and it was pretty much one of those "stop the world I want to get off" moments.

The perinatologist looked at my blood sugar records, and as of today, I have to start taking an insulin pill (thank god no shots yet!) before dinner and before bed (because pregnancy hormones are highest at night and in the morning, hence higher blood sugar then). And because this pill can sometimes cause low blood sugar in quick bursts, which causes fainting (yeah, great. Get me my smelling salts!), I now have to wear - that's right! A medic alert bracelet stating that I'm diabetic and pregnant. Such fun. BUT I have also have to carry around a bag of candy in case I have an episode of low blood sugar. Mmm, gummy bears!

Of course, there's more. More than grandma jewelry and possible fainting? Yeah, its gets better:

Now we're not extremely concerned about this, it's just a precaution for baby's sake, but:
There's always a possibility with gestational diabetes that the mother actually had diabetes in a milder form before she got pregnant, and it was just never caught. Babies with diabetic mothers run a higher risk for birth defects, particularly heart defects. Yeah, yikes. SO baby has a fetal echo cardiogram on August 1st to check for heart abnormalities. Because we had a strong heartbeat right from the beginning, and I never showed any cause for worry with the -ahem - urine sugar tests in early pregnancy, they're not freaking out. The diabetes may very well just go away after that baby's born. Then there's also the possibility that it won't, which also sometimes happens after you've been insulin-resistant for so many months. And you have a higher likelyhood of developing diabetes later in life. But I now know exactly what goes into that, and that doesn't scare me much now. Watching carbs really isn't that hard. Somtimes I can't believe it's time to eat again. And it's not like you can just say, "oh, I'm not hungry, I'll eat later. Baby and blood sugar monitor say "no, you will eat NOW!".

So yeah, fun stuff galore. To sum up, everything's ok, I'm eating VERY well, I get to wear 'special' jewelry and carry around candy, and oh, yeah, stick myself 4 times a day. That's a part I won't miss, assuming I get rid of this crapola disorder.

Tomorrow my sis is visiting, which is nice. Of course it means I finally have to clean our floors, which have been left dirty for weeks because every day Bob (and Max) are trampling in dirt and sand from working on the deck.

The deck, by the way, is almost done. Bob put half the railings up tonight, and the rest will be done tomorrow.

Whew. My sugar was 79 before I ate my early-nighttime snack. Yes, I have two now, because apparently you have to eat after you take your sugar and again before bed, when you take the the insulin. I felt all woozy and shakey before I had those grapes and cheese. My body must think I'm nuts, frankly. All this sugar up and down crap, the baby kicking and poking, and I swear to God I still have caffeine withdraw.

OH well. Time to put it to bed. After I eat 5 triscuits with red pepper hummus. Good for the protein. Oh, God, I've turned into one of those label-reading food counting freaks!