28 weeks!

Yesterday was my 28 week check up, as well as my gestational diabetes screening. The check up was great --

Belly Measurement: 28 cm
Blood Pressure: 110/70
Baby's Heartbeat: 140
Baby's Position: Sideways - apparently this is fine, she will be turning and somersaulting for several more weeks before 'getting into position'.
And, like the last appointment, the second the stethoscope settled on my belly the baby promptly gave it a good head-on kick!

I also had my first post-holiday weigh-in, which I was a bit nervous about. Like most of us, I indulged over the break in favourites like turkey, gravy, baking, chocolate truffles, and cheese. But, I only put on 5 lbs!

The gestational diabetes test was far less pleasant. In theory it sounds fine -- drink an orange-flavoured drink, wait an hour, have some blood taken, wait a few days for the results. But... this drink is, hands down, one of the most vile things I've ever consumed. I arrived at the lab first thing in the morning and it was already really busy. The nurse gave me a benign looking bottle and a cup, and directed me to the one free chair where I had to down the bottle's contents in no more than 5 minutes.

The first sip wasn't that bad, but by the third I'd had enough. It tastes like McDonald's orange pop, but with the sugar and carbonation magnified about 10x. It didn't help that I had been awake since 3am with hip pain in bed, plus, a waiting room full of mostly seniors was watching at me chug it down as if we were playing some sort of drinking game. The label warns of side effects including 'nausea, vomiting, bloating and headaches'. Lovely. I can understand the sweetness, but whose sadistic notion was it to feed pregnant women, already prone to heartburn, gas, bloating and a host of other digestive issues, a crazily carbonated concoction -- and force them to gulp it down in 5 minutes? You can't even have so much as a drink of water for an hour afterwards. I felt awful, and aside from the obvious reasons, am praying that the bloodwork results are normal ... if not, I get to go back and drink MORE of it than the first time, then wait TWO hours to get blood taken.

Trust me ladies, if you need a reason to put away the ice cream and choose a less sugary way to satisfy your pregnancy appetite, this is it!