The End of the Second Trimester

I'm nearing the end of my second trimester, and so far things are going really well. I'm still feeling pretty good, though I'm just starting to experience some of the discomforts that mark the second half of pregnancy. My hands and feet have started swelling a bit. In fact, I've had to take my wedding rings off or else they'd get stuck. They don't fit back on anymore. So now I wear them on a chain around my neck.

It's also getting more difficult for me to find comfortable positions to sleep. I have a very intricate system of extra pillows set up that prop me up in all kinds of ways. And I'm waking up several times a night to go to pee. I guess it's a good thing that I sleep on the side of the bed closest to the bathroom! And heartburn is becoming more and more frequent.

In the grand scheme of things, though, these are all pretty minor. If these are my biggest complaints in pregnancy, then I'm doing pretty well.

At my last OB appointment, I had to take the glucose tolerance test, which screens for gestational diabetes. This involves drinking a really sweet solution (that tastes remarkably like orange soda), then having blood drawn an hour later to see how my body reacted to the glucose. This test came back abnormal, requiring me to do a second more sensitive test. From what we read, 85% off the initial screenings which come back abnormal are actually false positives, and show no sign of gestational diabetes from the second test. But I was still a little nervous.

The second test required an initial blood draw, drinking a more concentrated glucose solution, and then having blood drawn once an hour for 3 hours. It is also a fasting test, so I wasn't allowed to eat before hand, not easy for a pregnant woman!! So one morning, I packed up a book, some knitting, and some puzzles, prepared for my 3+ hour trip to the lab at the doctors office. Though it was a pain in the butt, I was quite relieved to hear that everything was normal, and there is no sign of gestational diabetes.

So things continue to go quite smoothly. The baby is very active and kicks around a lot, reminding me that he's in there and healthy! It's a great feeling!