10 days away!

Yes that's right. In 10 days they are going to induce me. In 9 days they are doing an amniocentesis (stick a needle through my stomach into my uterus. Yeah, it doesn't sound fun, but they say it doesn't really hurt. I'm really hoping they're right because I'm actually pretty nervous about that procedure) to check to see if the baby's lungs are mature enough. If they are...Saturday the 19th is our day. If they aren't then we'll wait for another week or so. How crazy is that? It makes the whole baby thing seem so much more real. It's felt very surreal up to this point.

Oh, so the reason that they want to induce me at 37 weeks is, interestingly, not because my blood sugars have been super high, but because they have been low. Yup, low. I've been using a lot less insulin now than I had a couple of weeks ago, and had a lot of low blood sugars. This is concerning because normally you should be increasing, or at least maintaining, the amount of insulin you're using during pregnancy because the placenta is growing, or at least maintaining its size at the end of pregnancy, and the placenta is what makes/secretes the insulin-resistant hormones. Bigger placenta=more insulin resistance. Anyway, so if you see a dramatic decrease in insulin needs, they wonder what is going on with placenta to make that happen.

Apparently there isn't the same correlation between low blood sugars and fetal stillbirth like there is with high blood sugars, but the fact that insulin needs have decreased significantly does make them concerned, even if they don't know specifically what could be causing it. Thus, the scheduled induction is with the thought that "well if she's 37 weeks and the lungs are mature and there is some weird-o stuff with blood sugars which may or may not be indicative of something problematic, the benefits of getting the baby out outweigh risks of inducing a bit early."

Anyway, hopefully the different physiology-themed posts on pregnancy with diabetes aren't too dull, but I think its interesting, and its sure been quite a learning experience for me. And most likely we'll be parents in 10 days! whoaaa!