Footprints in the sand used to be one of This Girl’s favourite allegorical poems:
One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there was one only.
This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints, so I said to the Lord:
“You promised me Lord, that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only been one set of footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?”
The Lord replied, “The years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.”
Recently she heard the song version of the poem, sung to perfection by Leona Lewis and co-written by Simon Cowell.
Sometimes this girl finds it hard to believe that the weeks have just flown by and its February already. Where did January go?! With their initiation into the last trimester, this girl now sees her OBGYN more frequently and as a result, they get to see baby more often too. Which is always nice; if not, sometimes, a little nerve wrecking cos that’s when it always grips this girl that “something might be wrong”. She supposes that most to-be mothers (first time or otherwise) have these panic pangs which she tries to keep at some healthy distance.
Weighty concerns
With the discovery of her gestational diabetes, this girl has been a little more aware of her weight. One of the risks that come with having GD is that the mother tends to put on more weight than normal and so does baby, so, the risk of a large baby that might require a c-section. In the fortnight after her GD discovery with minimal food changes (just the rice, bread and Oreo changes), she’d actually LOST weight. Ok, so it was 300g but still! Baby’s growing fine- just not a particularly huge baby. This child appears to be “long” more than “round”. Possibly like The Boy.
Over the last seven odd months, she’s not put on much weight (about 8 kilos or 17lbs) and while the three B’s are growing (belly, boobs and baby) she’s seemingly not gaining any weight. And its not like she’s got a fat stash (maybe just a little from the thighs, but she digresses) from which this growth is drawing from. Her appetite is good, if not better than when in her second trimester since the baby has turned and dropped so she’s got access to her stomach again as compared to when it was compressed by a pre-dropped uterus. But she’s still not gaining weight! The Boy figures that its most likely because this girl:
1. Eats rather healthily; she’s never liked oily or fried food, preferring grilled and steamed stuff
2. Is still very active/busy for a pregnant woman; with no sign of slowing down much
3. Does pre-natal yoga 2-3 times a week; plus alot of walking and sometimes swimming
4. Has a naturally high metabolism that even with it slowing a little down, is still high anyway
5. Is just plain blessed
Anyway, she was perplexed- if a little distressed- enough to call Homeschool Mummy (mother of 4) to check in about her weight issues. Their long conversation, which of course, as usual, digressed to other topics not all pregnancy/baby related, like her brother’s latest appointment as Senior Counsel, left her with a new perspective. This girl is going to manage pregnancy weight by looking at “fetal weight”. Meaning, so long baby’s growing accordingly, she’s not going to bother with her own weight. And according to the progression chart she’s doing just fine.
As an ex X-phile, This Girl has enjoyed watching the JJ Abrams TV offering Fringe, a (on the borders of science) sci-fi mystery show chronicling events that flit on the edge and, hence, fringe of mainstream science. It contemplates cases like aliens, mind reading, time traveling and, like in the latest episode, blue blood. Most episodes are based on actual scientific theory (as supposed to fact) like the multiple world theory.
If you’ve ever watched Fringe, you’d know that throughout the show they flash (just before the adverts usually) a gylph picture of an everyday object with some minor difference. Having watched the show since its inception, this girl has caught most of these gylph nuances, but not all, in particular, the flower eludes her. Sure, she could freeze frame, but that’s hardly the point is it? Anyway, she’s finally caved.
From Left to Right:
The Fringe Apple glyph has human embryos instead of seeds.
The Fringe Butterfly has phalanges (all finger bones) for its wings.
In the Fringe Flower glyph some of the petals are dragonfly wings. Like any daisy, the center has counter-rotating spirals, based on the Fibonacci sequence, and has left-right symmetry.
The Fringe Frog glyph has the Greek letter Phi on his back.
The Fringe Hand glyph has six fingers.
The Fringe Horn glyph is in the shape of a Fibonacci spiral and has the number Phi inscribed along the horn.
The Fringe Leaf glyph has a triangle, or Delta symbol on it.
The Fringe Seahorse glyph has the Fibonacci spiral on its side, the spiral itself is contained inside a visual representation of the golden ratio. Its tail is also a Fibonacci spiral. Some images also include stick diagrams for the amino acids L-histidine and L-proline.
The Fringe Smoke glyph forms a woman’s face.
The show seems to have a fascination withFibonacci; a name This girl has heard alot about and of (mainly in TV shows and back in her university days when she did a class in chaos theory) him but she’s never really read up on the man. She’d do so at some point.
This girl has to be honest that while she’s sad that the world’s rather ravaged by a series of natural disasters like Haiti, she’s finding it hard to muster up much emotion about it. Perhaps its a little far from home, or that concurrently, there’re also a million other groups that need money, attention and effort.
Still, she enjoyed watching youtube catchup-sodes on the Haiti telethon and was utterly blown away by Justin Timberlake and Matt Morris’ haunting take on Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah. Originally by Leonard Cohen, the song speaks of pain, hope, tragedy, triumph, humanity and the simple need for God. Then again, depending on new verses, singer and musicality, the song seems to take on its own meaning.
Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley
I heard there was a secret chord
that david played and it pleased the lord
but you don’t really care for music, do you
well it goes like this the fourth, the fifth
the minor fall and the major lift
the baffled king composing hallelujah
hallelujah…
well your faith was strong but you needed proof
you saw her bathing on the roof
her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
she tied you to her kitchen chair
she broke your throne and she cut your hair
and from your lips she drew the hallelujah
hallelujah…
baby i’ve been here before
i’ve seen this room and i’ve walked this floor
i used to live alone before i knew you
i’ve seen your flag on the marble arch
but love is not a victory march
it’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah
hallelujah…
well there was a time when you let me know
what’s really going on below
but now you never show that to me do you
but remember when i moved in you
and the holy dove was moving too
and every breath we drew was hallelujah
well, maybe there’s a god above
but all i’ve ever learned from love
was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you
it’s not a cry that you hear at night
it’s not somebody who’s seen the light
it’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah
At their routine visit to the OBGYN today they got to see Baby again and the doctor, as usual, had to answer all sorts of “is my baby really ok” questions from The Boy who seems mildly obsessed with the health of the baby. Its not surprising, really, given his family had bad experiences with baby and birth viruses (relative’s baby) and of late they’ve been hearing stories of friends with harrowing pregnancy tales of baby having a hole in its skull, baby not really growing and stuff like that. Its not that this girl doesn’t worry, but, she possibly manages- or hides- it much better.
So, baby is doing ok. The amniotic levels are a little lower than expected but no real cause for concern. Baby is also smaller than most; again, no cause for concern seeing as this girl isn’t very big to begin with. Doc already said they should not expect a big baby; no less since this girl is small by woman standards and positively tiny by pregnant standards. Though, baby seems “long” height-wise; but it’d really be awhile before they see if baby takes after The Boy (they hope so, since he’s tall).
Their EDD has been adjusted and re-adjusted each week. From 6th to 5th, from 5th to 2nd and now to April Fool’s day. Again, doc told them to expect the baby around mid march since baby has flipped and engaged in for-delivery position. That’s a little earlier than most, but its a good thing for delivery, not so for the already squashed bladder. So, today she sent them home with homework: To design their birth plan. They’d also go for a hospital tour after their next OBGYN visit which comes fortnightly these days. It escalates to weekly in the last month.
This Girl has been feeling extremely fatigued lately. Not helping since she’s caught a mild sniffles over the weekend and is in severe need of more (good quality) rest. Thankfully, the doc prescribed some medication to help with the sniffles and a great side effect is that makes her drowsy. Also, she’s back to her prenatal massages which has helped her sore left shoulder immensely.
Still, she needs to make a concerted effort to eat more, rest more and work less. Doctor agrees it’d be a good idea and help the baby and her put on more weight. Currently, she’s got a lil less fat than most pregnant women; highly important to have some if not- like Scrapbook Queen- she’d be a walking eating train when baby comes along.
A few seasons late she knows but This Girl and The Boy have recently become fans of Supernatural, the hit TV show about two ghost busting, demon hunting brothers. Originally slated to be a five season show, this story charts the life of Dean and Sam Winchester in the aftermath of their mother’s demon-related death (a yellow eyed demon who burned their house down). In the pilot, their dad, John Winchester, a hunter as well, had fallen off the grid and the brothers are doing their best to catch up with dad whilst taking small detours to make the world a safer and better place.
Season one charts the brothers as they begin to uncover things about their own past and serves as the building block for the show. Season two chronicles the brothers as the yellow-eyed demon closes in on Sam. Season three sees the boys engaged in the battle to maintain their family as Sam’s “demon-side” becomes a side to be reckon with and Dean finds himself in hot soup. Seas0n four introduces angels into the mix and throws a spanner into the notion of good and evil. Season five has them pit against the devil himself.
While the above is a simplified, glossed over version of the show, its one of the better written and developed shows This Girl has seen in a long time. At first, The Boy wrote the show off as a series of ghost-buster type episodes but as This Girl watched on through to the third season, he, too, got hooked and towards the fifth season he became a bigger more ardent fan than This Girl.
Recently, a movie called Legion came out; another end-of-the-world, angels and demons type movie that looked super good on the trailer. No less, it had Paul Bettany as angel Michael. The storyline was straight forward enough, an angel defied God’s orders to kill a baby that “would save mankind.” God, as the story postulated, was pissed/upset at the world and was going to destroy it; quite like when the great flood happened. Said baby would be the only “hope” and Michael was sent to eliminate the baby and allow the second world culling to happen. Michael believed that mankind deserved a second chance; his brother Gabriel didn’t and well, you can imagine how the story unfolded henceforth.
The movie, for all its hype, was sorely disappointing. Dennis Quaid as the surly southern drawling diner owner- where this all takes place- was terrible. As was every other actor in the midst. Just give it a miss, really.
About two weeks back her OBGYN found out that This Girl was glucose tolerant and she was sent home to monitor her blood levels twice weekly for two weeks. As blogged before, Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3 passed with little fanfare, if with a lil confusion over her generally low glucose levels.
Today was the fourth monitoring day.
To recap on what’s normal:
Pre (before meals) reading should be between 4.4-5.5 mmo/L
Post (two hrs after meals) reading should be between 5.5-6.6 mmol/L
And here are her results and meals for the day: Test #1: Pre breakfast test = 3.8 mmol/L Breakfast: Raisin buns + peanut butter & jelly + yoghurt + bird’s nest Test #2: Post breakfast test = 4.2 mmol/L
Test #3: Pre lunch test = 4.4 mmol/L
Lunch: Chinese “fat meat + chestnuts” with rice Test #4: Post lunch test = 5.0 mmol/L
Snack: Yam cake + juice
Test #5: Pre dinner test = 4.3 mmol/L
Dinner: Went to Macs and packed away a McNuggets meal Test #6: Post dinner test = 5.8 mmol/L
Snack: Chips, jelly + small pack noodles
Test #7: Four hrs after dinner = 5.6 mmol/L
Learnings from the day
1. Monitoring blood sugar levels SEVEN times a day gets better with each day
When This Girl was first told to monitor her glucose levels a whopping seven times a day she almost baulked. She was no cinderella but she didn’t particularly want to be sleeping beauty seven times a day. The Father did it years ago when he was first diagnosed with Type II diabetes, so she knew the ropes of how these things were done. The first day was exciting. The second day put her guard up even if the pricks itself weren’t particularly painful but getting the timing right took a little work. The third day she got better at wrapping the testing around her day as supposed to the other way around. This fourth day she simply took her kit with her.
2. Eating healthier is easier and yummier than she thought
So, she’s not really had jasmine rice much, or white bread save for the tiny slice at lunch via a garlic bread. She’s also not eaten an Oreo since, or a famous amos cookie since. And funny how it is, The Boy has also pretty much adopted her eating habits and has found himself feeling slimmer and healthier. Their stash of potato chips have been relegated to the back of their snack drawer, instead, they’ve renewed their love for yoghurt with fresh fruit. Something they’ve always loved but, well, unhealthy snacks always seem more appetizing.
3. She’s got more energy but needs to rest more
As the third trimester unfolds and she gets heavier, bigger and more fatigued, she quite grateful for the “slightly more energy” that this new healthier diet has given her. Her diet hasn’t really changed much but the lessened empty carbs and sugars and more fiber, fruit and liquids have done her some modicum of good.
This girl has been told to monitor her glucose level twice weekly these two weeks. The first two days passed with little incident.
Day 1 was a little confusing with her levels generally being way lower than the normal boundaries. She didn’t know if it meant she was eating badly or needed more sugar in her diet.
Day 2 was a little better. Firstly she was a little less confused with her low readings. She’s had time to read up on glucose indexes and glucose levels. And yes, while her levels are lower than most (the normal range) its most likely because she’s kept a relatively sugar/empty carb diet since The Father’s diabetic and the whole family really doesn’t really use much sugar in her diet.
Today was the third of four days she needed to monitor and chart for her OBGYN.
To recap on what’s normal:
Pre (before meals) reading should be between 4.4-5.5 mmo/L
Post (two hrs after meals) reading should be between 5.5-6.6 mmol/L
And here are her results and meals for the day: Test #1: Pre breakfast test = 3.6 mmol/L (way low) Breakfast: Blueberry oats and raisins + juice + Ribena Test #2: Post breakfast test = 4.2 mmol/L (way low)
Test #3: Pre lunch test = 4.2 mmol/L (way low)
Lunch: Japanese omelette (fish cake + ham) + raspberries + kit kat Test #4: Post lunch test = 5.0 mmol/L (low)
Snack: Fruits + biscuits + yoghurt
Test #5: Pre dinner test = 4.2 mmol/L (low but ok)
Dinner: Full on japanese meal (with Warrior Princess@ Valska) Test #6: Post dinner test = 5.8 mmol/L (low end acceptable)
Snack: Random small snacks from around the house- This Girl was hungry.
Test #7: Four hrs after dinner = 4.1 mmol/L (low-ish)
Learnings from the day
1. Feeling healthier through the pregnancy fatigue and insomnia
As this last trimester unfolds, This Girl, like many other expectant mothers, feel the fatigue of the weight, the growing size and the “longness” of being pregnant. This Girl is already on a countdown to becoming un-pregnant. The healthier, or perhaps, more accurately, more aware eating habits of slightly more dietary fiber, fruits and water has made This Girl feel a lot healthier. Of course, she’s also been making an extra effort to attend all her yoga classes and walking more (but not too much!) to up her exercise since its supposed to be good for her.
2. Not much diet change, just smarter grocery choices
The truth is, while being slightly more mindful and aware, This Girl has not really changed her diet much. The Kitchen now stocks:
Japanese rice instead of jasmine rice -convenient since their stash of jasmine rice was almost done anyway.
Wholemeal bread (with fruit and grain) instead of normal white bread
Less “empty sugar” snacks- The Boy now snacks on fruit instead (his colon says YAY!)
Less colas and soft drinks, more sugar-free and not from concentrate fruit juice (they usually have a stash anyway)
More salad and home roasted vegetables (expanded repertoire from the weekly batch they usually make)
3. Life of eating low sugar
The Father was diagnosed with Type II diabetes many years ago. When that happen, The Mother essentially switched ALL of them to a low sugar diet. Sure, the rest of them were more lax than The Father with snacking, sodas and other sweets; but mostly they pretty much cut sugar from their diet. They only bought sugar-free juice, always had a huge stash of fruit in the fridge, ate more meat, shied away from too much carb (albeit being Asian) and went for hot pot, boiled, un-fried alternatives if they could. Even when The Mother made Bird’s Nest, it was sugarfree or with very, very minimal sugar. Cooking at home, to say the least, was always sugar-free. They ate so little sugar, they never had a sugar container, just a box of sugar packets which would last them forever.
The fact that This Girl functions normally with such low sugar levels is from the years of “low sugar” eating. Most people with such low sugar levels would be hypoglycemic and half-fainting most of the time. She- and indeed, probably The Princess and The Prefect too- avoid it so simply because they’ve been used to such a diet. So, while being glucose intolerant, her normal diet already manages her risk very well; thankfully.
This girl will be the first to admit she’s not really a fashionista.
Well, she’s got nice enough clothes, she dresses for the occasion well enough and she has a fair sense of what looks good on her, her body type. For example, she avoids yellow and mustard since it makes her look jaundiced. She’s also wise enough to stave off those odd length paddle-pushers since it makes her look short. Other things she avoids are frou-frou baby doll dresses and anything with can-can under it. Oh, and corduroy since it makes her look even tinier; or worse, when worn as a pants, adds some 10 kilos to her frame.
So, she’s body-type aware and hence able to make less mistakes, one could say.
But, and this for some odd reason really annoys this girl. The Boy says her face registers some semblance of a smirk when she witnesses the following:
1. Plump to fat girls in those bubble skirts. Worse if it bears horizontal stripes.
2. Untoned girls in mid-rifts or muffin tops.
3. Purposely exposed thong lines.
4. Caked over makeup- makes it seem you are a chinese opera singer wannabe.
5. Mature women who dress like their daughters. And vice versa.
Ok, enough fashion ranting. Mainly triggered cos This Girl saw a vertically challenged girl in a HELLO KITTY BUBBLE SKIRT. HELLO!!!!??
For the first time in This Girl’s life she’s eating three square healthy meals. No real choice seeing how she’s got to find a system, no less to monitor and manage her gestational diabetes. All through the pregnancy she’s been eating, sometimes more often than others, relatively healthy and more regular than her non-pregnant days. But never this regular. And she’s surprised that she’s quite enjoying it. And she’s been feeling healthier actually.
Her diet hasn’t really changed much. She’s thrashed white bread for wholegrain ones (sunshine fruit and grain) and not touched a single Oreo cookie even as a few pieces sit and mock her in the fridge. The Boy will eat them, he says. She’s still been able to eat a few pieces of Kit Kat here and there so life is still good. And of course, she learnt Nutella is low GI so there’s always that.
She’s also given up potato, mainly chips since she’s not so much for potato-potato. Its not been such a big deal, really, she’s also realized. Zweiback alerted This Girl to the knowledge that she could still eat Pretz which she loves as an alternative to her other big snack love, Pocky. So, thankfully, life is going to be ok.
To recap on what’s normal:
Pre (before meals) reading should be between 4.4-5.5 mmo/L
Post (two hrs after meals) reading should be between 5.5-6.6 mmol/L
And here are her results and meals for the day: Test #1: Pre breakfast test = 3.9 mmol/L (low) Breakfast: Wholegrain fruit-grain bread with peanut butter and juice Test #2: Post breakfast test = 4.6 mmol/L (way low)
Test #3: Pre lunch test = 4.5 mmol/L (low end acceptable)
Lunch: Teriyaki pork belly with tofu + ribena + bird’s nest Test #4: Post lunch test = 3.4 mmol/L (way low)
Snack: Kit Kat + juice + blueberries
Test #5: Pre dinner test = 4.5 mmol/L (low end acceptable)
Dinner: Chilli Padi mee siam + Salmon curry + rich chocolate cake Test #6: Post dinner test = 5.4 mmol/L (low)
Test #7: Four hrs after dinner = 3.9 mmol/L (low)
Learnings from the day
1. Being pregnant means adding some 400 more calories to one’s daily diet.
This Girl has usually added the “extra calories” via snacks, soups, fruits and biscuits. Since This Girl had taken Oreos out of her diet and been cutting down on jasmine rice, potatoes and other overtly high GI foods, she’s forgotten to “replace” the lost calories that had come from these high GI foods she used to eat.
2. Low GI snacks are yummy
Its funny how one discovers yummy things. This Girl has fallen in love with raspberries and blueberries all over again, these small “sweet lumps” are so easy to snack on. Also, she’s finding she really likes (wholegrain) bread with peanut butter and nutella. In fact, when she made them, The Boy promptly went on to eat half of her share.
3. Cutting down on grocery bills
Since This Girl and The Boy started being more mindful on the food they buy and consume, they’ve seen their grocery bill shrunk significantly. Sure, since they buy more japanese food (which is more expensive than local/general stuff) but it usually goes a long way.
Since they discovered this girl had gestational diabetes The Boy and This Girl has spent a fair bit of time scrutinizing their eating habits and grocery lists. They’ve also done a fair bit of research on food, their glycemic index and learnt to design a glucose healthy diet- that still allows her to eat chocolate.
The Glycemic Index or GI diet (Extracted from here)
GI stands for Glycemic Index and is a measure of the impact of food on your blood sugar. Foods with a high GI tend to quickly raise your body’s blood sugar levels, by contrast foods with a low GI will raise them more slowly and over a longer period.
Eating lots of high GI foods has two disadvantages: The rush of energy given by high GI foods does not last and is soon followed by an energy lull. So you get hungry and want to eat more. Also, after eating high GI foods you will have a lot of readily available energy in your blood. Your body will use this energy first rather then other stores of energy like body fat. This makes it harder to lose weight.
Then came a period of confusion over the many “food terms;” in particular, she got mild thrown off between measuring carbs, calories, fat and glycemic index (GI). In her head, chocolate- being fattening and sweet- should be bad for her. Turns out Nutella (her favourite) has a low GI rating of 33. Zweiback who knows far more about food than she does, managed to straighten her out somewhat.
GI measures how much one’s body needs to “work” to process the sugar in a particular food. Not all food have GI ratings.
Calories measures how much energy one’s body needs to breakdown a particular food. All food have calorie ratings. Some food, interestingly have negative calorie rating, meaning, the calories provided by a particular food is less than the energy the body exerts to process it.
To put things in context for you, food can be split into four groups:
No-low GI: food that has close to no glucose, like meats.
Low GI: food that causes little sugar level rise (less sugar to breakdown)
Mid GI: food that has moderate sugar levels (has some sugar to breakdown)
High GI food: food that has high sugar levels (a lot of sugar to breakdown)
Loads more can be learnt here and The official Glycemic Index page place even has a search engine here so you can check the GI ratings on various foods. The one page she did print out was this.
Today was This Girl’s first day of glucose monitoring and The Boy and her decided to make minimal changes to her daily meal routine to get a rough sense of where they are at and then adjust accordingly.
Off the bat, however, they made a few changes: 1. Ease up on the Oreos (and other sweets)
2. Switch out white bread to whole grain (this girl prefers WG, The Boy does not)
To give a sense of what’s normal:
Pre (before meals) reading should be between 4.4-5.5 mmo/L
Post (two hrs after meals) reading should be between 5.5-6.6 mmol/L
And here are her results and meals for the day: Test #1: Pre breakfast test = 3.4 mmol/L (way low) Breakfast: Wholegrain oats with milk + blueberry sauce Test #2: Post breakfast test = 4.9 mmol/L (way low)
Test #3: Pre lunch test = 4.1 mmol/L (way low)
Lunch: Japanese pork belly in mirrin + salad + yoghurt + Bird’s Nest Test #4: Post lunch test = 3.9 mmol/L (way low)
Snack: Kit Kats + juice
Test #5: Pre dinner test = 3.7 mmol/L (way low)
Dinner: Large serving of steamed rice rolls (chee cheong fun) + fried seafood platter with fries+ ice lemon tea (cafe served with sugar) + puff pastry beef brisket curry soup Test #6: Post dinner test = 6.5 mmol/L (ok, but on high side)
Test #7: Four hrs after dinner = 5.4 mmol/L (acceptable)
Her low readings for breakfast, lunch and pre-dinner threw them off their game for a bit so they called The Father to enquire and it seems that her usual diet already manages her glucose intolerance relatively well. In fact, given she’s pregnant, she can afford for her levels to be slightly higher. So, they decided to “test boundaries” by going a tad “high carb” for dinner and that big meal (this girl never usually eats that much carb in a seating anyway) pushed her readings up into the 6s, which, actually, is within the normal range though on the upper end of things.
Learnings from the day
1. Its possible that your normal diet is already good enough
2. Rice flour and potato are very high GI food
3. With a balance diet you can enjoy “sinful” snacks well spaced during the day
4. Everything in moderation, nothing in excess is a good way to go
5. Too low readings also needs to be managed
6. The day is not less pretty/nice without Oreos
So, really, if she kinda just NOT eat Oreos (at least with much less gusto) she thinks things are going to be a-okay. Thank God.
She’d probably wait till Sunday to do her 2nd day of monitoring; one weekday, one weekend makes for a fairer study. Meanwhile, she’d just stick to her usual diet.
The Father is diabetic (his parents and two siblings are too) and that places this girl at risk for gestational diabetes. And true to her doctor’s fears, she didn’t do as great on the glucose test all pregnant women are made to take as they enter the third trimester.
So, last monday they trooped off to the clinic/lab for the test which consisted on her having to fast for a LONG time (for a pregnant woman anyway) and her results came back with a low fasting glucose reading of 72 (normal low range is 126mg/dl) and a mildly diabetic post glucose reading of 158 (upper normal range is 140mg/dl). The Singapore lab tests against MOH guidelines which is stricter than most other countries like that of American Diabetes Association levels with a fasting abnormal reading as above 95mg/dl and two hour abnormal reading as above 155mg/dl.
The glucose test is simple enough: you fast, you come in for a base level blood reading, you drink a bottle of 100% glucose, wait two hours and come back for a second blood reading.
As a result of her less than stellar results, this girl has been tasked to monitor her glucose level 7 times a day, twice a week for two weeks to see how things go.
Having had a diet chat with the nurse, this girl has to admit her incessant Oreo cravings that started at the start of the pregnancy might be a huge contributive factor. Of course, life is such that we never have carrot sticks cravings, do we? Also, she (and The Boy) learnt that their fridge and pantry are stocked with all sorts of “BAD STUFF,” no less since The Boy also has a family history of type II diabetes though not as risky as this girl’s.
It was an interesting- and, to be honest, a tad scary, to get acquainted with the Glycemix Index (GI) listing. To put it simply, the GI measures and classifies carbohydrates and kinda gives you an idea of how hard your body needs to work to break down different types of carbs. The higher the GI rating, the harder the carb makes your body (and Insulin) work. And like any machine, if your body is made to work hard-hard-hard all the time, it ends up breaking down.
And so, begins a food journey of food monitoring, glucose awareness and meal planning. Tonight: healthy food grocery shopping.
Friend of hers constantly finds herself being trapped in these dead end relationships. Friend’s a great girl, well travelled and well lived, lovely, respectful and a bunch of other good stuff. Sure, she comes with her own set of baggage, a relatively colorful past and a roller coaster life; but really, no less than the next girl. Oh, and she’s got some brains too.
Thing is, she tends to find herself in these dead-end relationships. The guys are always… okay…. but the relationship itself is always a few pieces short of a full set. Sometimes the men come with Baggage- with a capital B, with issues (depression, for example), or worse, another girl somewhere, someplace that you never quite hear of till its too late. So, said friend goes through a roller coaster few weeks/months of high highs and abyssal lows.
Its been painful and heartbreaking to watch from the sidelines. So, the other day, said friend called this girl to ask her: Is Love still worth believing in?
The quick answer is: Yes, one supposes. Then again, if you take a step back and consider, its a tough question to answer really. Its a deep, deep notion to ponder especially if life hasn’t really been easy or if you’ve never truly experienced Love as God intended. Sure, its almost easy to say “But God loves you” or “God is love.” Its also easy to recite a thousand and one verses about how Love never fails and so, well, yeah, believe in love.
Its easy to SAY the right thing. Even DO the right thing. But to BELIEVE in the right thing, that’s another issue. And as This Girl contemplates the big question, God finds a way to answer in today’s quiet time:
“Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it—because it does.”
I Corinthians 14:1 (The Message)
So, its not really about something to believe in or not- though you should, really. But its something to pursue too. And, sometimes, the responsibility is on ourselves.
Time seems to have flown and This Girl finds herself stepping into the last trimester with a lot of exhaustion and the knowledge that a lot more needs to be done. Her mental preparation has been going pretty alright; in particular she loves what her pre-natal yoga teacher repeatedly reminds them (especially when they are half dying in half-squat pose):
This too shall pass.
One of the things she’s done this year is to make a conscious effort to cut back on work. The Pud has taken over the bulk of admin duty and Brunei Princess is shouldering the bulk of training with this girl only handling meetings and planning work. She’s also making a better effort to attend her pre-natal yoga classes regularly (Mon, Wed, Fri) along with trying to get back to swimming now that the bad weather has passed.
Given its her first pregnancy, the baby has flipped (and please God, let it stay that way) and settled into position for delivery. This is because the uterus is still tight (it expands henceforth) and this position is the most comfortable for baby. At last visit, their OBGYN reports that baby is doing well, great size and weight and is lying “on the tummy” so pictures are not going to be possible. Any accidental viewing of gender is also managed- just as well.
No less, it also makes for great entertainment when The Boy and her stares at her belly cos they get to see the baby arching and stretching. She’s figured (yes, it took that long) that her womb is relative set in (hence her compactness; the squishing of the organs and splaying of ribs) cos the baby has taken to kicking alot and she’s feeling it right near the back of her sides. Kinda near where the kidneys are. And of course, since baby’s head is resting on her pelvic/bladder, it makes for more trips to the bathroom.
