Update on Baby Girl

So it looks like I can't get through a pregnancy without becoming a high-risk patient.  :)  This time, my blood sugars are a little whacky, so I officially have gestational diabetes.  At least its pretty mild and its really only my fasting blood sugar (from my blood draw when I wake up in the morning) that has issues.  I can control the rest by diet with no problems (yet).  I do have to take medicine at bedtime each night to help with my fasting blood sugars, but that's it other than poking myself 3-4 times a day to check my blood sugar levels and peeing on sticks to test for ketones. :)  When they diagnosed me with GD, they expressed concerns over increasing my risk of pre-eclampsia... but ever since the GD diagnosis, my blood pressure has been great.  Pretty much where its at without being pregnant - usually right around 100/58.  Although this last week, it had jumped up to 120/72, but that's still not bad and is much lower than it had been 6 weeks ago.  I'm still having some problems with throwing ketones in my urine in the mornings when I wake up - not every day, but its been about 3 days a week or so.  We're still trying to figure that one out.  I can eat and exercise exactly the same for two days in a row, with two different results the following mornings (one negative, one with a small amount of ketones).  Its strange.  But I don't have too much longer to deal with it all, at least.  Everything should normalize and the diabetes should disappear once I give birth. 

Being a high-risk patient means I've been going to my OB twice a week since the 31-week mark (I'm now 36 weeks along... officially 9 months pregnant).  And on the weeks I visit the Maternal Fetal Medicine office at the hospital, I end up going to the doctor 3 times a week.  Talk about eating into my leave time at work... but I'm very thankful my OBs and the Maternal Fetal Medicine team are being so vigilant and watching things very closely.  I basically have non-stress tests (NSTs) at least once a week, twice a week during the off weeks that I don't have an ultrasound.  And I have an ultrasound every two weeks to monitor the baby's growth, the amount of amniotic fluid, and the health of the placenta.  As much as I cringe to think about having so many ultrasounds and their possible effect on the baby, I have to admit that it is kind of nice to see the baby so often now and feel reassured that things are going ok.  We were even able to finally get a peek at her features via the 4-D ultrasound at one of my visits - she definitely resembles her big brother!  :)  She even puckered up her lips while we were watching and blew us a kiss one day.  The last ultrasound I had was during her nap time, so we had to wake her up.  Her little yawns were quite cute on the screen.  But then she wasn't too happy to have been woken up and I paid the price having her beat me up inside.  ;)  There have been a couple of days recently where I honestly wondered if she was going to rip my stomach open, she was moving so much and so strongly.  I literally felt bruised for a couple of days afterwards.  She has also moved from being head-down at a diagonal to having her head at the top of the birth canal and being more straight up-and-down.  This makes it quite uncomfortable, even just to sit.  But it looks like she is getting herself ready to make an appearance at some point.  As of last Tuesday, I was only dilated to 1cm and only slightly effaced at this point, so we probably have some time yet.  Although it looks like my OBs will likely be inducing me around June 18th if she doesn't arrive sooner. 

Anyway, here are a couple recent ultrasound pictures and a video of her facing the camera and blinking her eyes. 

UPDATE:  I forgot to add that as of the last ultrasound on Friday, June 1st, they estimate baby girl to be 6 lbs, 8 oz, measuring a week ahead of schedule, which puts her in the 80th percentile.  If she continues this rate of growth, they estimate she will be in the mid to high 8 pound range at full-term.  Of course, this could be off a pound either way, as their margin of error is quite high, in my opinion.  They thought Carson would be close to 10 pounds up until I actually delivered him... and he was only 7 lbs, 9 oz.  So I don't put much faith in these estimates, really. 

UPDATE (6/6/12):  I went in for my normal Tuesday NST and OB appt. yesterday.  The NST was non-reactive - which basically means few movements and the few she had, her heart rate did not react/go up as it should.  I told them she'd been quite lazy all day, really.  She'd been moving, but not as often or as strongly as she normally moves.  So they sent me for an ultrasound - her biophysical profile checked out great again, 8 out of 8 factors.  They were still concerned, so the OB sent me over to the hospital to labor & delivery's triage for further monitoring.  Thankfully this little lady started paying attention so I wasn't in triage for more than an hour and a half or so before they said I could go home.  I guess this little lady just likes to keep us guessing.  :)