Gestational Diabetes Screen and St. Luke's Tour

We went on a tour of St. Luke's hospital Tuesday and we liked it. It seemed pretty nice, and had pretty much all the same amenities that Barnes had when I delivered Seda there (minus the doula, but plus wireless Internet). My only objection to St. Luke is just this gut reaction that it doesn't seem like a hospital I can take seriously - maybe it's all the wood paneling and cutesy pictures. Also, both times we've toured the place the person who conducted the question and answer session did not seem very knowledgeable, which makes me a little concerned. But overall, pretty nice. We'll compare notes with Missouri Baptist after we tour on Thursday.

Seda was very cute on the tour. After the lady gave her presentation about the amenities of the maternity floor, she asked if anyone had any questions. Seda immediately raised her had. She was asked what her question was, and she said, "Babies?" And the lady assured her that we would likely see babies in the nursery. Later, Seda was practicing counting in Spanish (thanks to Dora the Explorer, she has learned a little Spanish), but she got a little confused after six . . . "Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis . . . taco?"

I had a doctor's appointment last Friday, and she said the baby seems to be doing well. In less good news, my iron levels were low and I failed my 1-hour glucose screen. That means I have to start taking an additional iron tablet every day and I have to have a test to determine if I have gestational diabetes. The gestational diabetes test is a miserable test. You can't eat for around 17 hours, they make you drink a sickly-sweet drink, and then you have to stay at the lab for three hours and get your blood drawn every hour. So I went in last Saturday to get the test out of the way and spent half my weekend day at the lab with another pregnant woman doing the same test. Then the lab called me early this week to tell me they had messed up my blood samples so now I have to do the test AGAIN. Don't they know how cruel it is to make a pregnant woman fast? - especially TWICE?!? So, I'm not looking forward to that, but hopefully when it's done I won't have gestational diabetes. If I do have it, the doctor said she will be concerned about the baby getting very big, especially because I'm measuring just a tad on the large size as it is.

I've also been having some Braxton-Hicks contractions, which I didn't have the first time. They are very strange - I'll be doing something and all of a sudden the muscles in my abdomen just seem to tense all by themselves. It's not painful, but just a little uncomfortable. Luckily, I had read about Braxton-Hicks contractions and knew that they are totally normal or I would have NO idea what is going on. The first time it happened, they woke me from a sound sleep and I was mystified as to what was happening. I remember thinking, "Huh, my abdominal muscles don't USUALLY tense up like that by themselves!" It was like a charley horse in my belly (and I've been having plenty of charley horses in my calves lately, so I know know whereof I speak).