“I wish all my gestational diabetes patients were just like you” was the first thing the new doctor said when he walked into the exam room, instantly making me feel at ease. Then he backed this up by explaining how my glucose levels were really very good, for a GD patient, but that they were just being overly cautious in having me start taking medication. The doctor is prescribing glyburide, an oral diabetes medication that does not cross the placenta. It is not insulin like I had assumed. He is even starting me on the very lowest dose they offer because he doesn’t think it will take much to keep my scores in the optimal range. Yeah me! So I just take the tiny pill once a day with breakfast. Easy as that. Then if my scores still aren’t where they should be, I can either up the dose or take an additional pill. But he really doesn’t think it will come to that.

So after chatting with the doctor for a bit about the medication, going into more depth about the risks of GD and what will happen after I have the baby, he said he wanted to check on the baby and have me take a Non Stress Test. Basically they just hook up a fetal heart rate monitor across my stomach and listen to the heartbeat for about 20 minutes. They are checking to make sure the heartbeat is within the normal ranges, with frequent fluctuations, and hopefully a couple big baby movements causing the heartbeat to fluctuate 15 or more beats per minute. Wanting to totally out do her mother, my daughter passed this test with flying colors…in about five minutes. So then I just had to lay there for another 15 minutes watching the numbers jump around and feeling her kicking away inside me.

So everything is going great. I still have my appts set for next Friday, along with the ultrasound, and we will be able to monitor how the medication is working. While things may seem scary or overly complicated at times, rest assured that I am taking care of business and doing all that I can to make sure I have a happy and healthy little baby to show for all this in just a few short weeks.