Bank Holiday Update

It's Bank Holiday Monday in the UK, so hubby and I both have the day off work. Hurrah! I've actually been off work since last Thursday, using up some annual leave, and I'm not going back until next Monday, which is a huge luxury. As I said in my earlier post, S could only take a couple of days off with me, so this has been a bit of a staycation, allowing me to catch up with all kinds of errands (which has actually been more fun than I thought it would be). For the last few days now I've been doing what can only be described as a very belated spring clean. I've been tidying up cupboards, emptying the few remaining boxes from when we moved in (two years ago, the shame!), and vacuuming like a demon. Mum says I must be nesting, but it's a little early in her opinion - in her experience it usually hits at 38 weeks! Maybe, but at 38 weeks I'd be the size of a house, whereas at the moment I can still crawl around the floors on my hands and knees, and I can still fit under the beds :) S has also been brilliant - I found him mopping all our wooden floors on Saturday!

Not much to update on the pregnancy front. I'm really looking forwards to my appointment on Thursday when I'll get to see Dr Inspiring and his crew, and can ask the gazillion questions I'm collecting. Most of all, I guess I just want to know what the next few months will hold, medical appointment-wise. How often will I need to attend the clinic, when, and what for? I remember at my first appointment they waved a schedule at me and briefly explained that this was the shape of things to come, but now I want to get my hands on that piece of paper!!! I'll be six weeks when I go to the clinic. When I spoke to Dr I last week he said something vague about it maybe being too early to see a heartbeat on an ultrasound, so I don't know if I'll have one or if they'll wait. It's a weird feeling at the moment - I know I'm pregnant, but still can't quite believe it! I'm doing everything I need to, diabetes-wise, and my 7 day meter average has now come down to 6.6 mmol/l, which is where I'd like it to be (and round about where it was when I had my last fab HbA1c). I guess I just need a little reassurance that all's okay, so far. My breasts are still very tender (I drove over a pothole last week and... ouch!), and I've continued to need to go to the loo more often than usual, although I'm starting to get more used to that, and don't notice as much. I'm also not sleeping through the night - I usually have to get up to go to the loo at around 4am-5am, so I take the opportunity to check my blood sugars and have a little correction dose if necessary. My overnight sugars have been pretty good the last week or so, which is brilliant, as that's where I always struggle the most.* The other slightly weird thing is that I've lost weight since I found out I was pregnant - 4 lbs by this morning. I guess that's because all my energy's going into making a healthy placenta? I have been pretty tired too, so it's been lovely to have a few days off to catch up on some sleep.

I did go to see my own GP on Thursday, to let him know the news and to sort out one or two things. He was thrilled for me, which was really nice. He's also been a huge support, what with checking my rubella status and folate levels, arranging regular HbA1cs and referring me to Dr Inspiring's clinic. We agreed that I'd delay my smear, as the histology clinic struggle to read samples from pregnant ladies. He also upped my repeat prescription for Levemir, as I seem to need more of it that I did of the Lantus. Finally he printed off a letter letting me know how to register with the surgery's midwife. He seems to think that my care will be shared between the diabetes/obstetrics clinic up at the hospital, and my GP practice. I'm not so sure he's right on this one, so I'm going to wait to talk to Dr I and co on Thursday before I do anything more in that regard.

The one thing I am doing a lot of is reading pregnancy books and websites and trying to digest as much as I possibly can. Cheryl Alkon's book (Balancing Pregnancy with Pre-existing Diabetes) is fabulously reassuring - thanks Cheryl! and I'm also enjoying Prof Ian Greer's book, Pregnancy: The Inside Guide, which has lots of useful information for people with a whole host of pre-existing medical conditions. One statistic which has blown my mind is just how fast my little passenger is growing. According to TheBump.com he/she has already grown from the size of a poppyseed (weeks 3&4) to the size of an appleseed (week 5)! How amazing is that??



Well, can't think of any more to say for the moment. I'm off to test my blood sugars (I'm up to 15 times a day, and the ends of my fingertips are wrecked!)

PS. S says that he should maybe have a right of reply on this blog, as I write about him too. Well honey, I love that you read, I love you, and you're always welcome to comment :)

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Notes:
* The week before I had one really hellish night where I had a very, very, very persistent hypo - 3.2 mmol/l for over three hours, with bucketloads of carbs having no effect at all - followed by a rebound to 15 mmol/l which then persisted despite a whacking great correction dose. Sometimes diabetes just sucks!