Posts

maternity belt

/in , /by

 

I’m officially 31 weeks pregnant now and had a great check up with my midwife this week. She said baby is head down (yay!) and showed me she could feel baby’s head using her hands on my belly. She said the baby’s back is up by my belly button, I was wondering what prominent body part that was I could feel.

I let her know I’m wearing full leg compression sleeves to support especially my right leg and I’m feeling pressure and seeing veins bulge in my groin area. She said a maternity belt would help with that and support the weight of my belly. I went ahead and ordered one on Amazon and it is definitely helping me feel more  comfortable!

This pregnancy is definitely more challenging with varicose veins bulging but otherwise I feel pretty good, just tired. I ended up with sciatica towards the end of my first pregnancy so I’m hoping that doesn’t appear again because it was so painful and hard to even walk around so that would be inconvenient and make taking care of my 3-year old more challenging.

Pregnancy Glucose Test

/in /by

A standard test in during pregnancy is the blood glucose test which is done around 26 weeks gestation. This is an initial screening for gestational diabetes, a 3-hour test will follow if your blood sugar levels are too high in the initial test. It’s important to be tested for gestational diabetes because this affects the health of both mommy and baby. You do, however, have the option to opt out of this test.

You consume 50 grams of glucose and your blood is drawn 1 hour later to measure your blood sugar levels. I had this test today. The standard drink supplied is glucola but it’s an option to drink 10 oz of (equivalent to 50 grams glucose) organic grape juice instead which is what I chose to do.

I opted out of drinking the glucola drink because I don’t want to consume the unhealthy ingredients, which includes dextrose from corn which may be GMO and food dyes Yellow #6 and Red #40. I know it’s a small amount of all these but I prefer not to drink it.

So the other option is to drink 10 oz of organic grape juice, available at the grocery store. This amount of grape juice supplies 50 grams of glucose required for the test.

My midwife appointment was scheduled for 8:30am so I was instructed to drink the juice 45 minutes before my appointment and take no more than 10minutes to drink the juice and note the time when I finished the drink.

I was up at 5:45am with my toddler who’s just getting used to her big girl bed and she got up super early, her normal wake time is 7am but not today! I drank about 16 oz of water then ate a meal at 6:30am which was overnight steel cut oats with vanilla Shakeology, unsweet vanilla ripple milk, cinnamon and pumpkin seeds. I drank water in between that time and 7:52am I poured the 10 oz of grape juice and also ate 2 Tablespoons of unsweet sunflower seed butter and sipped the grape juice until it was finished at 7:56am. So I went to my appointment and had my blood drawn at 8:56am. I should find out the results tomorrow.

I’m happy to be able to have an alternative to the glucola drink. I don’t understand why they use an unhealthy drink when simple grape juice works. In pregnancy, there are many things to consider when it comes to tests and it’s ok to ask questions and find a way that works better for you and your baby. You are their advocate from day one in your belly.

Pregnancy with baby 2 vs baby 1

/in , , /by

Today I took Honor to the park for a picnic and although I thought it would be relaxing I ended up being on my feet the whole time and watching her play. It was fun but wow exhausting!

Being pregnant with baby 2, I often think how different this pregnancy is compared to round 1! Being pregnant when I didn’t already have a child to care for was challenging on its own. I was super exhausted, especially in the first trimester and still pretty tired most of my pregnancy. I had morning sickness which lasted all day and was intense the first trimester and when it did let up around week 16 or 17 I would still have nausea sometimes, although far more mild than morning sickness. I could take naps after work which was nice, I worked more days at the office so that part was harder.

Pregnancy with baby2, having an active toddler this time around, I have spent a lot of time on the couch watching her play and feeling super guilty that I wasn’t able to have fun with her too. I took her out for short play dates at the library or shopping, the park was too exhausting which we tried a few times but with the FL heat and being pregnant it would take me the rest of the day to recover. I have called my husband most work afternoons to see when he’s getting home from work because especially in the first trimester I was so exhausted by that hour I needed him to be home to take care of our daughter and help with dinner and getting her in bed. I dreaded the nights he had to work later than usual or had plans to play soccer or go to a networking event.

So yes it’s been challenging and my pregnancy is having an effect on my whole family, they are seeing mommy more tired and in need of help. It’s a short season in life. I feel like I never hear people talk about this type of thing only what life is like when baby 2 arrives. I am super grateful to have this baby in my belly, there is no doubt about that! I’m excited to have her complete our family! We can’t wait to meet her in March 2019!

 

Vein Disease

/in , /by

I’m 22 weeks pregnant and since about 8 weeks into my pregnancy I noticed the veins on my right calf have become more pronounced! In my first pregnancy I had a varicose vein sprout on my right calf and this pregnancy it really expanded and now most of my right calf is super veiny and gross looking.  I bought a compression sleeve off Amazon, naturally and showed my midwife my varicose veins. She said I could go to a vein specialist to get checked out, the first one I called wouldn’t even see me because I’m pregnant and they can’t treat me. I went back and asked for another specialist. I just want to get it checked out to make sure it’s not a danger to me or this little baby in my belly.

Today I went to Kimmel Institute in Boca. The nurse checked me out and took an ultrasound of my leg, she confirmed the diagnosis with Dr. Kimmel who came in shortly after and he explained to me what exactly is Vein Disease. Basically the veins in my leg aren’t correctly pulling the blood up and down my leg so little veins are sprouting around that area. The pressure on my uterus from this pregnancy are creating the environment for the veins to look worse. Fortunately, this is not harmful to the baby or me. The thing to do right now is to wear a full leg compression sleeve (sigh). After I have the baby and finish breastfeeding I can go back to get treated with the procedure called, Endovenous Laser Ablation (EVLA).

I’m thankful this is something that can be treated later and relieved the baby is not affected. It was interesting to learn how the vein system works. Dr. Kimmel explained it really well, I’m not doing a good job explaining it like he did. He did say to make sure I’m well hydrated and also to avoid high intensity activities such as running, jogging or hiit workouts which I have stopped all those activities early on this pregnancy. He said regular exercise is ok like walking, light weights and yoga so I’m going to continue doing that.

That’s all for today!