Abby’s Saturday // Two Hundred And Eighteen

Highlight of the Week

HAPPY THIRD TRIMESTER! 11 weeks & 6 days (give or take) to go, but who’s counting?!

Yes, This Happened

• I am now 28 weeks pregnant & baby boy is approximately the size of an eggplant.
• Braelynn & her Grandma found monarch butterfly caterpillars at the Lake a few weeks ago & we’ve been keeping one, feeding it, and watching it turn into a chrysalis! We got a book at the library about butterflies & it’s been such a fun process. Well, on Friday morning, he emerged from his chrysalis as a beautiful butterfly!! We must have just missed him popping out, because when we found him, he was still pretty crunched up & small. We watched him for a solid 45 minutes as his wings began to unfold – it was so amazing (Braelynn was just in awe). We almost always found monarch caterpillars every year growing up, so it was fun to go thru the process again with Braelynn!

Feeling Blessed

This past week has been a roller coaster ride (and not always the most fun one either). If you read last week’s Abby’s Saturday post, you know that I had my 1-hour glucose “screening” last Thursday. Braelynn & I then packed up on Friday & headed up to NEPA to spend the next week with Derrick’s parents. I had a whole slew of fall portrait sessions planned (all with past KAP clients – I don’t offer sessions up there anymore to any new people) and we were looking forward to spending the week with Papa & Nana. However, on the way, I got a phone call saying that I had failed the screening & would need to take the 3-hour glucose “test”. Technically, I didn’t have to rush home to take the test, but needing answers, I rearranged everything so that I could come home on Monday.

I was pretty much a wreck all week – gestational diabetes is nothing to play around with. Not only would it dramatically change my life in the form of how I ate (no cake or ice cream on my upcoming 29th birthday), but it would involve being placed in a “high risk” category, would mean testing my blood sugar multiple times a day, and would bring on risks to my baby as well.

I scheduled the test for as early on Wednesday morning as I could (since you have to fast for this test & if you’ve ever been pregnant before, you know that going 12+ hours without eating is torture) and in I went. They called me back pretty much as soon as I arrived (who else is getting bloodwork done at 7am?) and as the tech punched all of my information into the computer, he got a quizzical look on his face. “This is odd, but it says you owe $100 for the test today.” He went on to explain that he had never seen a payment pop up for a pregnant person before (insurance always covers these tests) & was very confused. He gave me my options: pay the $100 and proceed with the test, or leave & wait until the insurance office opened to call & find out why the test wasn’t covered (and then come back to take the test at another time). Utterly confused, I went back out into the waiting room to call Derrick and ask what I should do. It’s 7am, I’m starving, and completely taken aback at owing money for a test that I didn’t want to take in the first place – I needed him to tell me what to do. He told me to go ahead with the test, pay the money, and we’d work on getting reimbursed for the charge later. Not wanting to go thru fasting & coming in another early morning, I agreed & back into the back I went. I told the tech that I’d just pay the $100 & as he pulled everything back up on the computer, he gasped: “It’s gone. The pop-up saying you owe money is gone. For whatever reason, now your insurance is saying that they’ll cover the test.”

Not complaining, we proceeded! The test consists of 4 blood draws: the first at a fasting state, then you drink this bottle of liquid sugar and wait one hour & then they do the 2nd draw, one more hour & a 3rd draw, one more hour & the 4th. The tech told me, that since I was parked right in front of the lab, to feel free to wait each hour out in my car instead of in the waiting room. He promised me that they could see me & if I needed anything, to come back in, but he assured me that I’d be much more comfortable reclining in my car than sitting in the tiny waiting room chairs. I wasn’t going to argue.

So, I was about 30 minutes in (and talking to my Mom on the phone – explaining the whole crazy $100 payment thing) when I looked up & realized that all of the lights had gone out in the lab. As I looked closer, I realized that all of the lights had gone out in the entire plaza (including all of the signs above the doors). My phone beeped that I was getting a call & sure enough, it was the lab: “We’ve lost our power, so we have to lock our doors. You’re in the middle of a timed test though, so we have to keep taking your blood, just come back up to the door when your hour is up or we’ll come out to get you if you forget.” So, my second blood draw was done in the lobby of the lab, since the back rooms were all pitch black.

What an adventure, right? By the time my 3rd draw came around, some of the power had been restored to the plaza, but their internet & phones were still down, and by the time my last draw came, they were fully back up & running.

Having read online that after fasting overnight & having so much blood drawn to expect to be noticeably hungry & weak (duh). I had packed myself some food, so as soon as the test was over, I woofed that down & headed back to my parent’s house to pick up Braelynn. Honestly, I felt good – better than I had expected. I hung out at my Mom’s for almost 30 minutes before heading home – I was tired, but felt fine.

That all changed as soon as I pulled into the driveway of our house. Instantly, I did not feel good. It was like I ran into a brick wall. I made it into the house with Braelynn (who was hungry for lunch), somehow made her a PB&J, and collapsed onto the couch. I was shaking, sweating, and I knew if I didn’t lay down that I was going to end up on the floor. If this was a sugar-crash, I was crashing hardcore. I texted Derrick my symptoms & how horrible I felt & he asked if I needed him to come home. I told him no, because I thought I would be fine if I could just lay down, sleep a little bit, and just relax. Braelynn was eating lunch & was watching Daniel Tiger – we’d be fine. Thankfully, he realized that all was not fine & he texted my sister to see if she could stop over & check on us. Again, thankfully, she had about a 2-hour break in between jobs and she surprised me by showed up at my door. It was all I could do to open the door & let her in. I collapsed back on the couch, not even realizing how much of a burden I had been carrying, knowing that I had to keep an eye on Braelynn – and now that that burden was lifted, I pretty much immediately fell asleep.

Two hours passed and she woke me, saying that she needed to leave. I still wasn’t feeling great, but I was feeling much better. About 2 hours later, Derrick came home from work. I honestly did not feel well enough to get off the couch until about 8:30pm that night. It was brutal. I texted Amy later on that night & thanked her for literally saving me that afternoon – I honestly don’t know what I would have done if she hadn’t come over.

Needless to say, I was so thankful to go to bed that night & wake up feeling “normal” the next morning.

Since I got the results of my first test within about 24 hours, I was hoping that I would get the results of this test equally as fast. Waiting on Thursday for that phone call was a new form of torture I have never felt before. The day was a constant battle of trying to prepare to receive the news that I had gestational diabetes, then a little flicker of hope would pop in, saying maybe I would pass the test just fine, and trusting that God had everything under control & I didn’t need to worry. I wish I could say that I had a peace-filled day, but it was hardly that.

Finally, when Derrick got home, I decided to log in to my account with the midwives to see if my lab report had been uploaded (since I still hadn’t gotten a call from them). To my shock, I saw that it had. I anxiously opened the report and scanned the numbers, reading the explanation at the bottom. Shaking, I called Derrick over to read what I was reading & confirm that I was reading everything correctly.

All 4 of my draws came back within completely normal ranges. Nothing was too high or too low. I had passed the test and did not have gestational diabetes.

I sobbed. (I am still crying.) My midwife called me yesterday to confirm that everything was fine & the test results had come back completely normal – no gestational diabetes.

I had so many friends & family members praying for me (even complete strangers on the internet sent me messages that they were praying for me) – and I am so thankful for all of those prayers. When people say that they “feel” prayers – I now know what that feels like. As anxious and worked up as I was, I still felt uplifted by everyone praying for me & for that – you’ll never know how thankful I am. Seriously, thank you all so much. I am humbled by everyone’s outpouring of love toward me & all of your kind & thoughtful comments. I know gestational diabetes is pretty minor in the grand scheme of life, but the possibility of having it hit me like a freight train. I am still slightly in disbelief that I am okay and can now have cake for my 29th birthday. It seems like such a minor thing, but honestly, that was all I could think about. It just goes to prove that God really does care about the “little things” and we can trust Him with everything – even the really hard things.