While Frosty’s growing at a slight faster pace this week, I had possibly the worst day of my pregnancy journey so far, as I was tested for gestational diabetes via the horrendous Glucose Tolerance test. Oven pictures updates as always, and countdown to proper holidays!

Frosty’s developments

Frosty’s primitive memory is getting real shape and development now, which means that our habit of talking with them and singing certain songs can know be recorded for sure in their mind. This will come probably handy when they’re out, also because they will recognise our voices, and the notes – provided I won’t sing them! I am not good at singing.

These few upcoming weeks should be the ones where Frosty’s weight will start ramping up exponentially as they’re gaining serious fat tissue.
I’ve been saying that for a while now, however by passing the 6th month of gestation I think this is the real time for Frosty to make me look fat or seriously pregnant, for real!

The Glucose Tolerance test nearly made me collapse

The Glucose Tolerance test is an exam that pregnant women who have family members with history of diabetes-related disease must do before week 28. The test helps rule out any potential gestational diabetes, and to check if there are chances to get it going forward.

I had to be at the Royal Berkshire Hospital before 8am. I have been fasting since 9pm on the previous night as per instructions. I could only have a few sips of water in the morning and that’s it.
(insert desperate emoji)

Once at the Maternity block, the midwife didn’t waste time: they know pregnant women come there pretty dehydrated and hungry. I also went to the hospital by foot, and that didn’t help my hunger!

The nurse took some blood samples, screwed my right vein (there was blood everywhere!), then she gave me a drink that raised my glucose levels. The drink was so dense that I needed to add a bit of water on it: it had 61g of carbs, of which 12.2g sugar! A grand total of 267 calories in a 200ml plastic glass.

After that I needed to stay still for a minimum of one hour and 45 minutes, which turned out to be nearly 3 hours due to some delays happening at the blood check wards where I headed later to get another blood sample taken.

Whilst waiting for the glucose magic to happen in my blood, I had to keep my activity at the very lowest. I worked a bit and then did some crosswords, but with no caffeine running in my system it was difficult to un-focus my attention to the massive migraine I was getting.

At some point they asked me to go to the blood collection ward where a phlebotomist, after a looooooong delay, took care of my right vein, took the blood sample through the left vein, and discharged me.

“Enjoy your breakfast, finally!” She said.
She didn’t know I reached the hospital cafe I was about to collapse for the dehydration. I had a double espresso and then the frittata I brought from home, but it took a while to re-hydrate myself properly.

The feeling of being dehydrated is way worse than being hungry.
For the record, the migraine remained there, hammering my head for the entire day.

The test eventually resulted negative, meaning I don’t have gestational diabetes. At least I know this for sure now.

Oven updates

Weight had a 700g – 1.5lbs! – spike this week, going from 47.6kg – 104.9lbs to 48.3kg – 106.4lbs. As usual when the scale goes up I have a rough couple of days when my mind spins.

I feel my womb definitely way upwards than 7/10 days ago: I can notice that also from the fact that Frosty’s kicks have touched my fluctuant ribs.
Besides, sometimes when I’m lying fully flat I can’t breathe properly due to the pressure the womb puts on the diaphragm.

• 

• 

My core muscles are hanging in here, and even though they’re not visible anymore, I still can feel them. They’re working to help me sustain the little kicking aubergine here 🙂

It’s funny how this bump can look big or small depending on the angles. In this video where I captured a tiny Frosty’s kick my bump looks gigantic:

On the other hand, even with a food baby and an actual baby, a UK size 10 (42 in EUR) – which is one size up my usual size – doesn’t look too bad on me, in fact I sometimes don’t look pregnant at all:

Upwards and onwards – holiday time here we are!

Frosty and I will be spending week 25 and week 26 in Sardinia – Franz unfortunately won’t be with us as he’s recently started an exciting job at the Oxford University Press.

I will try to disconnect from everything and get as much relax as possible while staying active and keep a balanced diet.

This last bit will be the hardest part to achieve, because my parents and Franz’s parents are going to feed me with two shovels, in case Frosty needs more food!

As it’s holiday time, I don’t think 10 days of going a bit off the rail will ruin my solid nutrition overall, so I will try to not stress too much over that while remaining super strict on all the food I am not having for Frosty’s safety and health.