The News Keeps Coming

No matter what happens at this point, we have an optimistic outlook. But to share the latest news...

1) I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. That has been an interesting journey. I always vowed to stay healthy so that I would never have diabetes and be denied sweets for the rest of my life. My only comfort is that a) this only lasts until the baby is born and b) developing gestational diabetes is not related to the mother's diet, but rather pregnancy hormones interfering with the production of insulin. In other words, I didn't eat to many sweets or carbs, it just happens randomly to 5-10% of women. However, I do have to control my blood sugar by severely altering my diet. My daily routine is:

7:30-7:45 am: wake up, take blood sugar level (yes I do have to prick my finger)

8:00 am: eat breakfast (I have to eat two carb servings and at least one protein with every meal - usually two pieces of toast and eggs - no fruit or milk allowed)

9:00 am: take blood sugar level

10:30 am: eat snack (usually crackers and cheese and one serving of fruit - I can only have two servings of fruit a day and it must be during morning and afternoon snack)

1:30 pm: eat lunch (all of my meals must be eaten on a time schedule and cannot vary by more than 15 min - it's a bummer for scheduling)

4:30 pm: eat snack (including one serving of fruit)

7:30 pm: eat dinner

10:30 pm: eat snack (this is when I usually indulge a little and eat something sweet - but the most I can eat is one cookie and a half glass of milk because milk is also considered a carb)

Since I cannot go for more than 10 hours without eating I have to go to sleep after 10:30 and get up before 8:00 every morning. Anyway it hasn't been the end of the world and I've learned a lot about diabetes and how to eat better. Unfortunately I've started losing weight, which the doctor is not going to like. But I am going to eat a huge bowl of icecream after the placenta is gone and my blood sugar levels are back to normal.

2) In other news we found out that the baby has a heart defect. They found a small hole in her heart which may or may not be a big deal. We'll find out in a few weeks when we meet with the pediatric cardiologist. But we are optimistic that it won't be too big of a deal. At this point, all you can do is put your faith in God and know that whatever happens is His will. When you're doing what's right and trying your hardest, you can be assured that everything that happens is for a good purpose and is a blessing from God.

3) Not having to do with the baby, I took my MCAT two days ago and man was it hard! I've been studying everyday for the past 3 months and yet there were so many questions that I just didn't know the answer to. My only hope is that it was a hard test for everybody. Since it's scored on a curve, if everybody did badly, I might have done well in comparison. I'll know on May 25. It's pretty intimidating since our whole future depends on its results. I won't be able to get into medical school or get the airforce scholarship if I did badly.

That's about it for our news I think. Derek finishes school on May 12, after which we'll be moving down to Gridley. It will be much easier to go to the doctor in Sacramento from there. More news forthcoming!

PS Here are some pictures of Morocco from my trip during summer 2004. I went there to study US-Middle Eastern relations. I found them and had the negatives scanned, so I thought I would include them in the blog post.