Usually this is the trimester when I start becoming nostalgic and not wanting the pregnancy to end. But this pregnancy has been quite
The past couple of weeks has seen the Tews family going through a huge change of diet, no thanks to this thing called "gestational diabetes".
This is the first time I got diagnosed with it even though its my third pregnancy. It's been a huge bummer because gone are the days when I can simply fry some beehoon (thin rice vermicelli) or have some fried rice. Actually gone are the days when I can eat something without thinking twice about it.
These days, I have to prick my poor fingers 6 times (!!!) a day, once before and once after every.single.meal.
It also means that I can't just eat whenever and whatever I want. I have to space out my meals and have my light 1st and 2nd breakfast, light lunch, tea break, light dinner and light snack before bed.
On weekends, I can't just go to any place to eat out anymore because the usual case is that one is served way more carbs than proteins. Recently, I had a make-up course (it was my birthday present) and I forgot to bring my lunch with me! The course went from 12 - 6pm and I only had a small pretzel with butter as a snack (refreshments provided by the make-up artist).
Needless to say, I was so famished and delirious from hunger by dinner time. But having a small pretzel for lunch doesn't mean that I could compensate by having a bigger dinner! I still had to keep to my sugar limit. We met some friends and ate out, so I ordered some Indian chicken and vegetable curry with less rice and treated myself to 5 pieces of sushi. Only 5!
But my sugar level went through the roof! Sob! So no more sushi / Japanese sticky rice for me either!
Usually on weekends, hub and I take turns to sleep in. Or to be fair, the hub usually lets the pregnant whale sleep in more. BUT, these days, I'm unable to sleep in because I'm too hungry! And if I skip breakfast, I'll more likely still be hungry after lunch since I can't up my carb intake for lunch. It has crossed my mind to just pop a banana and just go to back to bed, but at this point, I can't just do that because I will feel bad that I didn't check my blood sugar. :S
On the bright side, this is usually not a permanent condition. The majority of pregnant women no longer have diabetes once their babies are born and by God's grace, I shall be part of that 95% majority.
Another silver lining is that the hub has lost 5 kg already because of my efforts to decrease carbs in my homecooked meals. I have also lost 1-2kg, which is really not too bad a thing, especially cos I probably gained some weight just from the incessant eating in London.
This is the only silver lining really. If I look at this as a weight loss / weight control program, it would help me to feel better about being in this predicament. I feel like I'm in the kitchen ALL the time! I cook for lunch and dinner and even on weekends.
The thing that makes it hard is that I still have to cook for my children too. And they need their carbs. And Asian food, with its huge amount of rice doesn't cut it right now. I have to cook at least 2 main courses for Asian meals and that equates to more time too.
So far, my sugar levels have been pretty good. The one-hour limit after meals is 140 and my sugar levels have been hovering at about 110-120, with the occasional spikes. So that gives me more leeway in case my sugar levels do increase with increasing insulin needs as the pregnancy progresses. Again, I'm trusting God that this GD will not deterioriate and this is as bad as it would get.
Sam has been so ultra sweet during this period. Here's our usual conversation.
Sam: Why are you pricking your finger?
Me: Because I want to control my blood sugar levels and make sure that baby is growing well.
Sam: Is it ouch-ah? (painful)
Me: Yes, sometimes.
Sam: Awww, Mummy.
(After I have pricked my finger)
Sam: So how? What's the number?
(I will read the number together with him and practise his recognition of numbers).
I'm happy to say that after the first 10 days of monitoring my blood sugar levels, my specialist said that my levels have been pretty good so she allowed me to monitor it every second day. And instead of 6 finger pricks per day, I only have to prick my finger 4 times per day now.
Phew! That gives me so much relief!
These days, I sorta know what to to cook such that my sugar levels stay within the limit. It's still hard when we go out on weekends, because experimenting with "outside" food usually spikes my sugar levels.
We were looking at some cars today and had to pop by Subway cos there was no other choice. I obediently chose to have wholemeal bread to go with my teriyaki chicken sub (instead of my usual cheese oregano) and despite not wanting to finish the whole thing, I was too hungry to hold back. My sugar level was exactly at 140!
And since we were out and about the entire day, I only managed to cook dinner by 8pm and by then was so famished, so I ate quite a fair bit of rice. My sugar level hit 138, just below the 140 limit. Argh.
And the "best" part of being a control-freak me, I usually prick my finger more than once to get a more accurate result. But it bugs me that my results can sometimes fluctuate up to 10 points!
Well, let's just hope that I got less than 10 weeks of this GD! And after that, may it be adios to GD for the rest of my life!
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| A bump pix at almost 30 weeks |
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