Weeks 30-34: the end is in sight

The latest fashions for babies

As you can probably guess from the four week gap between posts, this growing new life whilst playing at being a pancreas business is pretty exhausting, hence the radio silence. But no news is good news, all is well. Baby is measuring the right size and is kicking away. HbA1c remains at 5.1%. And I’m just about to start my maternity leave which will be very welcome indeed.

Insulin resistance is now reaching epic proportions. I’ve just injected 25 units for a sandwich and an apple, which pre pregnancy would have required about 10. It’s perfectly manageable, I just keep knocking it up as required. But it is unnerving to take such volumes of insulin which only months ago would have had me flat on my back.

I continue to see more of my healthcare team than I do my own family, and that’s about to ramp up again. From 36 weeks I start twice weekly monitoring to keep an eye on the baby and make sure the placenta isn’t trying to skive off work too early. I’ll also give the breastfeeding team a call to get all the kit to start harvesting colostrum to have on standby in case the baby needs extra food when she’s born.

I‘m starting to accept that this baby is going to have to come out at some point in the near future. The plan is to have a sweep at 37 weeks (think vet programmes with the man and the cow and the rubber glove, they basically have a poke around and see if they can irritate labour into starting naturally). If that doesn’t work we’ll schedule an induction for around 38 weeks.

So, time is flying by frighteningly fast. The nursery is painted, we’re putting the cot up this weekend, I’ve stocked up on huge volumes of dextrose tablets and glucogel to get me through labour and the end is in sight. Not long now!