Mari Walker

I’m writing this one week away from my estimated due date, so no matter what, I’m in the home stretch of this pregnancy. Although it’s been true since the beginning, each day brings me closer to birthing and meeting my daughter. I can’t wait! It also means I’m in the home stretch of gestational diabetes – hallelujah! I’ve worked very hard to manage my blood glucose levels, and I didn’t miss a single test until last week. I woke up and started getting my older daughter ready for preschool and just didn’t do the fasting test. It was the weirdest thing, as I didn’t even realize the mistake until I tested two hours after breakfast and saw I was missing a number in my record book. The morning fasting test is the worst one to skip, but the sky didn’t fall and all is well. I think one missed test out of hundreds isn’t too bad, and my numbers have been so good that it isn’t really an issue. The data nerd in me is disappointed to have a less-than-perfect record! Read the rest ...

I’m not a first-time mom, so I haven’t spent much of this pregnancy poring over listicles of “things you need” and “things you don’t need” to bring home a new baby. It may be false confidence, but I think we can handle it. Although there still are a few things we need to buy. One thing we definitely needed was a car seat, since the car seat we brought our first daughter home in is a convertible model (Britax Marathon) that four years later she’s still using! Luckily Target has pretty good baby clearance in January, and I managed to get the updated version of my firstborn’s car seat for $90 off. SCORE! One thing I definitely don’t need is another bag... Read the rest on Woman's Hospital's "Life Among Women" blog . (Called Mommy-Go-Round when published.)

Date nights are rare in my house. We’ve never taken the time to find a regular babysitter, and our families live more than a day’s drive away. So when we have family stay with us we take advantage and sneak away for dinner and a movie. Since the new Movie Tavern opened near our house we decided after Christmas to check it out while my mom and sister were in town and willing to watch our daughter for the evening. We saw this Star Wars movie everyone was talking about. We picked a 7:10 p.m. showing. It’s an hour after my normal dinner time, but I ate a late snack and figured I would be OK if I could eat around then. Of course that’s not how things go. Read the rest on Woman's Hospital's "Life Among Women" blog . (Called Mommy-Go-Round when published.)

I’m not really needle averse, but poking my finger 4+ times a day is not my idea of a good time. And I had a rough experience at the lab with the blood draws for the glucose screening tests that left one of my arms bruised for weeks to really add insult to injury for the diagnosis. Although the meter, test strips and lancets are self-explanatory and I had great instruction from the Woman’s Diabetes Center nurse educator, I still had some trial-and-error to get the testing correct. My first time testing on my own I had trouble getting enough blood on the strip so I wasted three or four. Now I rarely make that mistake, and just re-stab myself if I can’t get enough blood from the first prick. I haven’t run out of strips yet so I hope they factor in a few error strips in each vial. Read the rest on Woman's Hospital's "Life Among Women" blog . (Called Mommy-Go-Round when published.)

After I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes at 17 weeks I assumed I’d be following a low carbohydrate diet. I have experience with that from the South Beach diet that I used before my first pregnancy and smart carb dieting recommended by the staff of the Metabolic Clinic while I successfully managed my insulin resistance and tried to get pregnant a second time. The GD diet (can stand for gestational diabetes or the other words, in my opinion) is not low carb. It’s very specific about how many carbs you eat at what time and in combination with protein-rich foods to help your body better process the carbs and keep your blood glucose in range. It’s restrictive but mostly manageable. I’m hungry almost all the time, but I eat every few hours so at least I’m not STARVING all the time. Read the rest on Woman's Hospital's "Life Among Women" blog . (Called Mommy-Go-Round when published.)

I met with Ellie, a diabetes nurse educator, and Sara, a dietitian, at the Woman’s Hospital Diabetes Center about a week after I failed the three-hour glucose test. I was surprised when I called to schedule the appointment that someone actually answered the phone – there’s no answering service like I’m used to with my doctor’s office. I was instructed to bring my glucose meter and supplies with me. I had a lot of trouble getting those from the pharmacy because my insurance would only pay for a specific brand (or at least that’s what my pharmacist thought). I ended up getting a name brand machine, meaning the test strips are more expensive. But so far insurance is covering that so other than the initial hassle that was OK. Read the rest at Woman's Hospital's "Life Among Women" blog . (Called Mommy-Go-Round when published.)

Gestational diabetes is just what it sounds like – diabetes that arises during gestation. It’s usually diagnosed with a glucose challenge (the dreaded orange drink test) around week 24-28 of the pregnancy. Most women pass the test no problem and continue with their normal pregnancies. (That’s what happened to me with my first pregnancy in 2011 – no GD and a healthy, full-term baby girl.) Because of my risk factors – obesity and diagnosed insulin resistance and PCOS – I was tested early at week 17 of my second pregnancy. After I failed the one hour glucose challenge I had to take the longer three-hour glucose screening. I failed that too so officially had a diagnosis of gestational diabetes in early October. Because it was caught so early that means I have twice as long to monitor my eating and test my blood sugar four times a day than a normal diagnosis around week 28. Woe! Read the rest on Woman's Hospital's "Life Among Women" blog . (Called Mommy-Go-...