NORMAL??!!!????

Yesterday I pretty much got kicked out of the perinatologists office. I went in for a consult since I have such a nasty history of diabetes and because I wanted to get the first trimester screening done (ultrasound and finger stick to check for trisomy 13 & 18 and downs syndrome and neural tube defects). All went well, I'll have results in 2 weeks, I think they said. I'm not really concerned about any of those issues, we have no family history of any chromosomal disorders, mostly I wanted to see the baby and make sure everything was on track with my diet.
Do you want to see my baby? Of course you do....

After they reviewed my info, the diabetes counselor pretty much refused to see me since I'm not on any medication and my A1C is 6.0. She said she'd see me after the doc did if he felt a need. So I waited patiently for my ultrasound. It's rather disconcerting to have people know just how bad you have to pee from scanning a probe over your belly...
So the tech and I had fun watching my little acrobat jump around and flail and attack. She got lots of shots and the baby showed us its hands and feet a lot. Two hands, Two feet, Two legs, Two arms. so far looking normal and good :)
Then the doctor came in and checked it out and then talked to me while updating all my info in his computer, every word in effect saying "Get out of here" and "good job" he remembered me from Trevor's high risk overly complicated gestation. I know this because he fixed some errors in the old report, like it said I had "Severe Gestational Diabetes" whereas I actually had Type II diabetes that got worse during pregnancy. He asked for my last A1C, told me I didn't have to take the glucola test and asked how my sugars were running. He LISTENED to me! It was shocking, I went in there all up in arms ready to defend everything, I had food logs printed, blood sugar logs at the ready, old labs in my folder, he asked for no hard evidence and took me at my word (good thing I was telling the truth!) That NEVER would have happened if I were still overweight. It's amazing how differently you get treated when you're healthy.
So my next appointment is with the regular OB in 4 weeks, and my next ultrasound will be the anatomy scan in 8 weeks. And I'm pretty much left to my own devices. I will keep up with my finger sticks to make sure my sugar doesn't start creeping up, because while ecstatic with yesterday's appointment, I'm not an idiot, I know things can change overnight, I remember how my first trimester with Trevor was pretty great sugarwise and then it just went downhill midway through the 2nd trimester.
For now I am normal, I have no higher risk of complication than that of any other healthy weight non-diabetic pregnancy. How freaking cool is that? I'll be needing to give Dr McKenna  a huge hug!

The Right To Keep Your Mouth Shut

I was perusing babycenter.com and their august birth month forum and I came across this rant yelling at people for not telling others they are pregnant. I was taken aback! Seriously? Who are you to decide when the right time to tell people is? Like with any medical condition, I’d say pregnancy (though harder to hide than some other medical conditions) is up to you to disclose. Some people want to keep it just between the family members for a while, it’s their secret, their lives that are going to change, why on earth should it be shouted from the rooftops? It doesn’t make you any less happy about your expected arrival, everyone has reasons for waiting to tell other people.

The big one is the first trimester being the “danger zone”, not a lot of people who have either lost a child in the first trimester or had someone close to them lose their baby want to announce their pregnancy until the danger period has passed. The way I understand it MOST people don’t announce until after, but there are people due the same time as me that are screaming from the rooftops and urging others to do the same. It won’t change anything, telling people about your baby is a choice you need to make, you and your significant other.

Another reason people withhold their news is because they know someone who has either recently lost a baby or are having trouble conceiving. I think it’s admirable to be cautious of other people’s feelings. Whether you tell them or not will not affect your pregnancy, so why not be considerate and wait until you are further along to tell certain people, they might have gotten pregnant by then too. It’s not like you are putting your life on hold, yours is going on and your baby is still growing inside of you. If you have mutual friends let them know your reasons for keeping mum from certain people.

 

As for me, I’m not lying when people are asking, I evaded early on, changed the subject or gave them outdated information (so I stretched it a little), but now that I’m at 11 weeks I’m more open about it. Same as when I had my gastric bypass, I evaded a lot of questions about why I was out for 2 weeks, but as time went on and my body changed so dramatically I’d give honest answers on how it happened, but its not like I ran around telling everyone who would listen. It was my body and my right to disclose the information about it as I saw fit. No one has any right to take those decisions from me, and I would hope that every woman realizes that for herself as well and doesn’t let herself get bullied into disclosing more information than she is comfortable with.

My Vitamins

 Weird bit of info!

 

So you know how you always hear about pre-natal vitamins upsetting your stomach and ways around it? I’ve actually found a vitamin that settles my stomach! Can you believe it? It’s not a pre-natal, but I’ve been using it in addition to my PN vitamin. The Celebrate ENS in citrus splash is amazing, kinda taste like tang, but most important I can drink it to alleviate my queasiness, and I’m getting in a multi with calcium all in one drink. I’m a fan J and I wanted to share. It’s a bariatric vitamin that I’ve taken off and on for the past 2 years. I highly recommend it whether you have had WLS or not (it just lasts longer if you only need 1 a day).

Since we’re on the subject of vitamins, let me share with you all my intake:

For a multi I use 2 tablets of the Wegman’s Natural Pre Natal Multi (dosage is 4 tablets). It uses both calcium citrate AND ferrous fumarate (this iron is found in the celebrate line multi-complete, so I know it absorbed in my surgically altered body.

For my other Multi-vitamin I use the ENS as mentioned, it’s a multi with 500mg of calcium plus 4gm of fiber and comes in 3 flavors:

 Great stuff. All flavors are tasty, I keep a variety on hand because too much of one thing will make me sick. I need variety in my life.

For calcium I use a combination of Celebrate, BariatricAdvantage, and Costco. The first two have chewies that are awesome, kinda like flavored tootsie rolls (Celebrate) or starburst (BariatricAdvantage). The Costco ones are tablets.

    

 For vitamin D I use either NOW Chewable or Twinlab D-Dots (I use 5000 IU doses to keep my level normal)

 

For B-12 I found a combo with folic acid, we know how important that is. 1000mcg B-12 with 100mc folic acid

 

For Iron I have a couple options, the top two are mega cheap (ferrous fumarate again) but they don’t contain vitamin C. The second two are more expensive and are combined with other goodness, but they get the job done and have higher amounts of iron.