Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Week Twenty-One Update

Over on Violet’s (password protected) blog, I was writing about what I plan to eat post-pregnancy: a pound of pepperoni. A pound of corned beef. A pound of Brie. A pound of sushi. And a two-liter bottle of diet Coke to wash it all down with.

Who says I’m not obsessive?

Actually, I’ve been surprised to notice that I haven’t done badly with the food restrictions of pregnancy. I’ve had maybe three sips, tops, of diet Coke over the past six months or so, no soft cheeses or pepperoni, and only two deli sandwiches, both Reubens, which consist of grilled pastrami so they’ve been OK.

Which is just as well, because insulin resistance has arrived, right on schedule between 19 and 20 weeks. This means the carefully calculated dose of insulin for my oatmeal-and-peanut-butter breakfast fiesta has jumped up a lot. As in, my breakfast ration used to be 1 unit of insulin to 9 grams of carb and now 1:3 is working pretty well. Lunch, too, has dropped down from 1 to 8 to about 1 to 5.5. Dinner is still being fine-tuned.

As usual, I’m correcting often and frankly, seeing higher numbers than before, though my meter averages still correlate to an average of between 125 and 129. Back in week 12, though, I actually saw an average of 112 to 119 and couldn’t believe it.

I’m pleased to note that my insomnia seems to have slipped away. Not sure why, though I’m still up at odd hours one or two nights a week. Generally, though, when I get up in the wee hours to test, I’m up for a few hours, which means recently, I’m not up every night testing in the middle of the night. However, I seem to come in upon waking within the 70-99 range, so I don’t worry so much.

On one hand, I could argue that I worry all the time. I still say things like “Knock wood, if all goes well, the kid’s coming out sometime in April.” On the other hand, when I see a super high because of insulin resistance or a carb miscalculation, I just correct and move on. I can’t stress about sugar already spilled, I can only test and correct.

And since I’m testing every hour sometimes, I feel OK about catching the highs when they happen and not letting them manifest.

And it being the time of year it is, the Mister and I had to sit down and figure out our insurance plans for 2007. That’s a whole ‘nother post, but between the diabetes, the pregnancy, the kid’s arrival, and the variable of whether I’ll return to work or not post-kid, it’s like taking another exam. But we made our decision and will have to let the chips, and the checks paying deductibles, fall where they may.

5 comments:

Minnesota Nice said...

I was reading the blog headlines and saw "week 21" and sort of gasped - you are just perking right along, L. It's very pleasant to be traveling with you and hear that things are continuing to go well!

Anonymous said...

I clicked back to read your peanut butter and oatmeal post (a fellow food obsessive I guess -- it sounds yummy!) and you had just gotten your period.

So I was also happy to think, but now she's pregnant. YAY!

Continued good health to you and the baby :-)

Anonymous said...

I'm glad your pregnancy is going well. I remember the huge amounts of insulin I took at the end of both of my pregnancies. It makes me smile to remember!

Dr. Grumbles said...

Good luck with all that is happening right now!

I have a friend who was unable to give up soda during her pregnancy, so I commend your Diet Coke discipline!

Anonymous said...

I used to be anti-sushi during pregnancy when I was pg with my own.

But after I read an article about Japanese women thinking it's ridiculous that pregnant American women avoid it, I thought, "what the hay, if it doesn't stop them, why should it stop us?"

But of course it's easy for me to think that now when in no way, shape, or form will I ever be pg again.