THE REST OF THE PREGNANCY
THE SECOND TRIMESTER
November, 2007 – 4th Month
My 3rd appointment was on November 1st. I was 13 weeks pregnant and was scheduled for an ultrasound. Although Kevin wanted to be there when we learned the sex, he couldn’t get off of work for this appointment. He assured me that he wanted to go ahead and find out, if possible, at this appointment. So I did! My little baby boy was such a ham that there was no question that HE was a HE. As with most men, my husband was very proud of his son, especially when he saw the pictures.
So that settled it. Our new baby was now known as “Jack Evan”.
This was my 4th month and I still had no nausea. I kept expecting…and even hoping…the nausea would come. I desired just one good puke in the toilet so I could “feel” pregnant. But the nausea never came. I sailed through my 1st trimester…and all remaining months…without even the slightest feeling of nausea.
My only constant reminder was the extreme fatigue I was feeling! And at the end of this month, only a few days before my 5th pre-natal appointment, I passed out during church that Sunday morning. It was a very, very scary experience! The doctor determined that my constant low blood pressure (72 / 50 at that 5th appointment!) was the cause. He also assured me that there was nothing to worry about – and I should just take it easy.
It was also during the latter part of this month that I started feeling very, very faint flutters of movement.
Weight gain up to now? Nothing. I’d lost a pound off of my starting weight.
December, 2007 – 5th Month
By now, my tummy was starting to pooch out and my wardrobe consisted of all materity wear. I didn’t mind though! I loved it and relished it. Besides the still-constant fatigue and fear of fainting again, I felt great. No other “typical” pregnancy symptoms knocked at my door. No sir. It was a great time. 
Well, except for a preacher’s wife who eyed me up and down at a restaurant once this month and declared snootily “Well, you don’t look pregnant.”
My 6th appointment was on December 27. It wasn’t until later that I learned they should have performed a very, very important anatamy ultrasound scan during this visit. I had no clue! The OBGYN office’s only excuse? “Whoops, we dropped the ball on that one.” (The error wasn’t discovered until my 29th week of pregnancy!)
The flutters continued through this month. Nothing definate though.
Weight gain? 5 lbs above my starting weight of 143! Whoohoo!
January, 2008 – 6th Month
This month was very busy. We took a 16 hour car drive trip to New York to visit Kevin’s family, and I was given my first baby shower! It was an exciting time. The car trip wasn’t even as bad as I thought it would be.
On January 11th, I also had the delight of actually seeing the baby move for the first time! I was sitting in our living room recliner, when suddenly my tummy skin moved like snakes were slithering under it. It was a very precious thing to watch. Unfortunately, my happiness turned to severe pain when, a week later, he discovered delight in bounding on my intestines.
Other than being able to feel his movements very well now (and the accompaning pain when he played footsie with my “innards”, I was having what I considered a perfect pregnancy. No nausea, no sickness, no vomiting, no soreness, not too much weight gain. Fatigue still plagued me, but it was livable. Oh, and I did have a few weeks of leg & feet swelling. One time my feet were so huge I couldn’t find my ankles! Thankfully the swelling didn’t last too long.
The end of this month, however, brought what felt like (to me) a huge devastation. First, I failed my 1 hour glucose tolerance test. Not by much…my score was 144 (the cutoff was 140)…but it was enough to require that I take the 3 hour test. Within 10 minutes of starting the 3 hour test, I had my first-ever pregnant throw up session. And with that, the doctor’s office declared me a “gestational diabetic”.
I felt devastated. What had I done wrong?? Was it my fault? I was scared for myself, and I was scared for my baby. The doctors office offered absolutely no guidance other than handing me an information booklet and a generic 2 week menu (which included stuff like lamb, veal, and even sirloin steak – I don’t eat meat! Plus it costs a fortune!)
And so thus began my obsession with studying diabetes and learning to cut down on sugar. Almost all sugar was removed from my diet and I limited myself to no more than 12-15 grams per day. That meant I would not eat candy, white bread / flour, pastas, white potatoes, fruit juices, sodas, sweet tea, or anything with a high sugar count.
It was hard to piece all the information together, but with no guidance other than books from the library and the internet, I wanted desparately to do what I could to make sure I didn’t harm my baby.
