550

August 1, 2007 was a scary day in my pregnancy. I wouldn't say the scariest, but absolutely in the top 5. I saved 1 and 2 for the days that we were told that I would more then likely NOT carry Charlotte to term, and Charlotte's birth when my uterus didn't clamp down as it should have.

August 1, 2007 stands out for me because it was the day that we found out that I had Gestational Diabetes. No biggie for most women just a few diet restrictions and maybe some medication. It becomes scary when they use words like, uncontrolled, insulin, birth defects, still birth, low birth weight. I could go on and on just as the Nurse educator did. It was terrifying.

Once I got home and started to digest all the information. I promised Charlotte that if they told me I had to stand on my head for the next 2 months then that was what I was going to do. In the following weeks it became a joke that standing on my big prego head would have been easier then what I was going through.

Unlike most women no matter WHAT I did/ or didn't do my fasting blood sugar number would NOT go down. There was one morning I think that it was the weekend of my baby shower I got up and peed in my little cup had ketones (not a good thing) then I went to check my sugar number and it was 91. That number just made me crumble. I lost it in my kitchen, while my family was in the other room.

I felt like I was failing Charlotte and I wasn't doing anything wrong. My doctors ( 3 of them at one point) wanted my numbers much lower then 90. I was seeing the doctor two times a week for stress tests and every time I went he increased the insulin that I was injecting into my tummy. To the point that I had to change the needles I was using to hold MORE insulin!

I went ahead to give myself my morning insulin dose and just couldn't do it. It literally bounced off of my pregnant tummy. Bawling at this point I asked my Mom to please help me give it. She did so w/out a thought. She was more worried about me then I could have even have known.

Once I gave birth to our baby girl it was only then I sat down and counted the number of times I stuck myself with needles. It came to approx 550 times in two months and a couple of days. It is hard to wrap your head around, but then again I am for grateful for a couple of things, 1 that Charlotte was by the grace of God born normally w/out any sort health issue, and 2 that after she was born (about 4 weeks later ) the diabetes resolved itself.

I would repeat every single second of those two month, everything if it meant that I would still have that baby girl in my life. Yes, I would even stand on my head! :-)