A test not to fail

Well, I had my monthly appointment yesterday and have mixed news. Despite continued morning sickness everything seems normal in terms of growth. My belly is the size it should be, baby seems to be getting enough nutrients and both his heartbeat and my blood pressure seem fine. The bad news is that I have to take the 1 hour GTT or gestational diabetes screen test. This is something I had wished to avoid.

Apparently, it is recommended to test for GTT if you have sugar in your urine. At this stage in the pregnancy, increased hormone levels necessary for the baby are sometimes hard for the mother's body to process. For some unknown reason, some women develop gestational diabetes. My nurse and doctor both told me not to fail the 1 hour test! My doctor said that if I failed the test I would have to go back for a confirmation test that is 3 hours long. If that confirmed that I have developed GTT then my life will be hell from now till the end of the pregnancy [apparently a monitored diet and weekly tests help to monitor the condition until the end of the pregnancy and it usually goes away once the placenta is expelled].

Scary stuff right? Now I'm trying not to get too concerned until I get the results back from the test [should be a day or two after I take it in the first week of January]. I've done some more research and have found that the 1st test is more accurate than the urine test and can rule a lot of people out right there. Sometimes you find out that you are okay at the 2nd test. My main concern at the moment is how do you pass a test that you can't really prepare for. My nurse told me to cut back on carbs and starches and to eat more protein rich foods. Okay. I thought that I had been doing that. I wondered if it was the occasional piece of chocolate or cookie that skewed the test results but I found out online that this is not the case.

So, I now prepare for a test that really can't be prepared for and hope that I pass. I'm going to have to really watch my diet over the next few weeks and make sure I get plenty of exercise. At least this cuts back on my Christmas chores - I had planned on starting to bake some cookies and treats next week but now I think I will avoid all temptation and leave that for next year.

It also means Don and I have to get it together a bit more and stop ordering take out so often. Now that my crunch time has passed [mostly] and Don is off from work as of Friday I expect this won't be a time-management issue but more of a "get-off-the-couch-and-cook" kind of thing. Or maybe it will be more like a hide-husband's-computer-game kind of thing.

Well - off to work.