Diabetes Clinic

So I had my diabetes orientation clinic this afternoon. It was long--from 12:30-3:00--and there were 7 of us there. First the nurse talked about gestational diabetes, and then she showed us how to use our new handy-dandy glucometers. This is where it's nice to be military--we all had bags from the pharmacy with the glucometer, 100 test strips, control solution, 200 lancets, and a box of alcohol wipes. All set to go! My blood sugar reading was 104 two hours after eating lunch, so that was good. It has to be under 120 2 hours after a meal, and under 95 in the mornings before eating. The nurse was nice and funny. She was pretty laid back about the whole thing, not in terms of the seriousness of it, but she definitely felt like we could all do this and it would be fine. She did say that stress raises blood glucose levels. Hmmm. No stress around here lately, LOL.

Then the dietician came in. She was one of those people with a big phony smile who talk really slowly, as if no one had ever even heard of a carbohydrate. She spent forever going over her stuff, which was not filled with anything electrifying or new, so that is what took so long. She talked to us individually and gave us each a diet plan. Mine is for 1800 calories, with 3 meals and 3 snacks. Some of the snack options are pretty gross, like "6 saltine crackers and 1 T butter". Yuck! That's not going to be a part of any snack of mine! I'm still working out what will be good things to eat, and how to count them. I knew that keeping track of a bunch of "meats, starches, fruits", etc. was going to be the hardest thing. Sometimes I feel like keeping track of just one more thing is going to make my head explode. Hopefully everything will settle into a routine. My blood sugar was 114 after dinner, which was 1 cup beef barley soup, a whole wheat biscuit with 1 T butter, and 1 cup salad. That's okay, but I guess I expected it to be lower, and I was so hungry and crabby by the time in was snack time, around 8:30! I ate 6 wheat thins, a slice of colby jack cheese, and an apple for snack, so I'm feeling better now. We'll see what my number is tomorrow morning.

When the nurse was talking, I got some more insight into how Bethesda will be as a place to give birth. I'm not planning on taking their tour, since they only offer it at weird times or in conjuction with a childbirth class. I definitely don't need the class, and who wants to make another trip all the way to Bethesda just for a tour?! So it seems like it is a pretty standard military teaching hospital, definitely leaning on the side of "rigid", as far as birthing options. Like I said before, I'm glad it's not my first, and hopefully they will just leave me alone. They have a really high epidural rate, as well as c-section rate, although the nurse kept making sure to say, "But we see a lot of high risk patients". She did say that they often induce gestational diabetic patients at 39 weeks, which is not something I want, since I had such a bad induction experience with Grace. I guess we'll see how I do at controlling my numbers. I am already praying that I just go into labor a bit early on my own, even though I haven't gone into labor myself the last 3 pregnancies, so I'm not holding my breath and expecting to.