UPDATE!!!!!
I had to interject before my regularly schedule blog to share some important news. I just got a call from my doctor's office about my latest Hemoglobin A1C (blood draw that measures my blood sugar control over the past 3 months). The average, non-diabetic person ranges from 4.5-6.5. My last A1C a month ago was 6.5, which, in my mind was acceptable, but was hoping more towards 6.0. The call just came in from the doc's office and this time I am down to 5.7! HELLO!!!!! I was literally crying tears of joy and screaming when I heard (I'm sure you heard and felt me, Avery!). I don't know why hearing this number makes me so emotional, but it does. I guess it's that I am now classified in the "normal" range...and that makes me feel, well...NORMAL. I have NEVER had an A1C that low - the lowest ever was 6.2 right after I got on the insulin pump over eight years ago. I cannot express to you how amazing that makes me feel knowing you are growing inside of me with the best environment I can give you. God is so good! I love you baby girl!!!!!
Back to our regularly schedule blog......
Like the title says, Avery Jo, we get to see you twice during week 22...how lucky are we? Tonight we go for our make up "gender ultrasound" from week 15 where they told us you were a boy. I'll let you know later if you are still a girl this time around!
Update: You are still a GIRL!!!! Woohoo! We saw you again and you looked so much bigger! You had a great shot for the sonographer to check your parts - and she was the same that said you were a boy - and you completely were a girl still! You were sleeping when we first saw you, and one of your little hands was up by your face like you were resting your head on your hand...and the other across your chest like you were just chillin' out. So cute! Unfortunately, the pictures we got were tiny and not great, so no use putting them up here. Maybe we'll get some on Thursday!
Speaking of Thursday, we will go to look at your heart with a fetal echocardiogram sonogram (say that 10 times fast!). We are going to have them look at my placenta again, since I have partial placenta previa, which means my placenta is blocking my cervix a little at the last check point - so hopefully it's moved up as my uterus has grown so that isn't an isuue anymore. You have been a busy little lady this week - here's why:
You have finally broken the one-pound mark! I don't know why, but this feels like SUCH a milestone for me (and you!)! I've read in the coming 4-6 weeks you will double in size too! And you are anywhere from 10-11 inches long too.
This week, you are making more sense of the world as you develop the sense of touch. In fact, your grip is quite developed by now — and since there's nothing else to grab in utero, you may sometimes hold on tight to that umbilical cord (don't worry — it's tough enough to handle it). Your sense of sight is also getting more developed. You can now perceive light and dark much better than before (even with those fused eyelids). But, it's mostly dark for you inside that cozy womb of mine.
Moving up from the eyes, your eyelashes and eyebrows are well formed now — and even more hair is sprouting atop your cute little head. I'd probably be quite surprised, though, if I could see you up close and in color. Hair at this stage of fetal development has no pigment, so it's bright white. So you'd look like an adorable cute little old baby woman. Yeah, that's weird, I won't think about that. =)
I am sporting the bump nowadays. I have noticed that I prefer clothes that hug my nice bumpity bump instead of make a curtain around it. You are already so cute from the outside, I just love to show you off! I am also becoming more and more of a grease and oil factory. My face is an oil-fest and I have pimples arriving in the strangest locations (on my ear LOBES - one on each side, and on the part of my ear where my hair line meets the corner of my ear, closest to my face - again - one on each side - weird!). I've also have stinging eyes every other day or so, where one of my eyes begins to sting and it doesn't stop until my eye has fully watered and produced enough tears to wash it out and look like I just cried at a Hallmark commercial! My working theory on this odd thing is that my oil factory of a face has released so much oil lately that it gets in my eyes and they don't like that very much! Again, weird. I never had morning sickness or too much of anything 1st trimester, but I do have pimples on my ear lobes and an oily face that could fry potatoes. It's funny how women's bodies are all different!
And here's the BIG NEWS this week! I feel you wiggling around in my belly now!!!!! I am 100% sure this is you! Right at the start of week 21 I thought I felt you and now you are a definite wiggler in there! I felt you yesterday morning and I held up the fetal doppler to my belly where you were wiggling and right when I heard the squelchy-Avery-just-moved noise that I know so well, I felt you in my tummy too! So, I have finally connected the "you" feeling in my belly and I love it...even if it's like there's a little alien moving around in there sometimes! (I just won't picture those alien baby sonogram pictures while you are wiggling!) =) In fact, I just was laying here and felt you almost thumping away several times and I think (still not sure about this one) I felt you from the outside too with my hand! I had your Daddy come and feel, but you had settled down by the time his hand got on my belly, so he hasn't felt anything yet. Can't wait for that day! I'm trying to down some ice cold water to make you dance some more right now - but it doesn't seem to be working yet.
Just for fun, I'm sharing below a 15 second video clip that I found on YouTube this week. The second is even crazier - Megan and I were watching and were scared the baby was coming out of the belly right then because it was moving so much! I love feeling you move in there - but not sure I'm ready for this! =)
Please Note: These are NOT my belly (or you)! (Just in case there was any confusion!)
Baby Moving In Belly
Another Crazy Moving Belly
I did go to the doctor last week - met another one of the partners of the group - and really liked her a lot. She made me feel like I was doing all I could, even when I had some crazy blood sugar readings in Colorado. My numbers have been pretty good lately, so that makes your Mommy happy.
I saw the CDE yesterday too (Certified Diabetes Educator). She is even more than that, she is a nurse practitioner and a Medtronic certified pump trainer (your Mommy's pump). She deals A LOT with pregnant ladies on pumps and CGM's (Continuous Glucose Monitors). I have had my CGM in for over a week now and she met with me yesterday to go over all the charts and graphs that the pump and CGM spit out to analyze my blood glucose readings (it's really quite incredible the amount of information given by that thing!). She then took a good look at them after I left and emailed me a lot of suggestions and thoughts for my basal rates and eating plan (she doesn't think I eat enough carbs - hmmmmm - those are what make my blood sugars rise and make my post-prandial (1 hour after meal) blood sugar reading more unpredictable - so I don't ever try to eat TOO many of them at one time!). I found myself being stubborn as she was making suggestions...and thinking that she only knows how to control all of this from her non-diabetic perspective, not my day-in-day-out-live-with-the-disease perspective. But, then I got off of my high horse and realized that I should just listen and try some of these things she has said out. They weren't big things - all small changes. And she made me feel like a superhero when it comes to maanging my diabetes and pump - something about a light shining in a dark room - so, maybe she does have some credibility? =)
She said something quite interesting to me too. As a prego, diabetic mama - I am UBER scared of affecting you with high blood sugars. So, naturally I check my blood sugar almost hourly (if not more, if my level is high) and correct with a bolus of insulin here or there to get my numbers back in range. She told me yesterday, that a high blood sugar reading slowly coming back into range isn't going to do "damage" to you as much as my levels bouncing all over the place. She even mentioned the bouncing numbers would start to affect your electrolytes and that's what we are most worried about. So, for example, say I ate dinner, took my blood reading an hour after as I always do and I am 190. Too high for me - I like it 130 or lower. So, I would give an extra 1 - 1.2 units to get me back to normal range. Say, I check again 30 minutes later and I am at 170 - a little drop, but I am still feeling like I am impatient and want that under 130, so I give a little more insulin (Insulin doesn't work all at once - it's life span is 4-5 hours in my body) - so now I have my meal insulin working, the hour post-meal insulin working and the 1.5 hour post meal insulin working on my levels. Lo and behold 3 hours post meal, my number drops to 50 or even 40 and my liver decides to release glycogen to help me out with that low number (just like a non-diabetics would). Now, I "rebound" (what they call it in the diabetic world) and my number shoots back towards the 200's. And since my wonderful pancreas doesn't help me out with any insulin to lower that number, I am again back toward the 200's, which is twice now in 3-4 hours. This crazy bouncing around of blood glucose levels is what she is suggesting I stay away from. This is healthier for you if I do. So, instead of over-correcting 1-2 hours after a meal, ride it out and be patient with the insulin working so I avoid the rebound effect. That was good advice, I never knew it was better for you to slowly drop a higher number because the bouncing around was worse for you. Thanks Val! Now, she has also suggested some basal tweaking and a couple other things (like entering in EVERY SINGLE carb into my pump, even if it's to treat a low so she knows all that I eat throughout the day to then be able to better help me - now I just eat and go, or give a quick bolus which doesn't record the carbs to the pump - kind of annoying and more for me to think through - but a new habit is really all in the end). I'll let you know how all of this goes! She's really spent a lot of time thinking through my numbers and information - which is only to help you out more - so the least I can do is try some of these things she has suggested, right? Right.
Busy week at the Marin Household - Megan has the last week of her cooking class, doctor's appointments (3), the extra ultrasound at the ouside company (tonight) and Kyndall is registering for classes this week (Megan is next week). Oh, and your Daddy's car is still in the shop for the big craters we hit on our way home from Colorado, so managing on one car has been a bit of a challenge. Usually it would be since he works from home, but with crazy schedule this week, it's just been one of those weeks!
That's al for now baby girl...can't wait to see you again on Thursday!
