This is our sweet little gummy bear! We are just so excited to have another addition to our family :) We already have two names picked out as well! BOY: Lincoln Kimble Woodbury (Linc) GIRL: FayeLynn Ann Woodbury. We'll find out in 2 weeks and 5 days which name to select!!! =D
This pregnancy has been SO much harder on me than with CJ. Granted, I do have Type I Diabetes, or Juvenile Diabetes. I was diagnosed when I had just turned 8 years old. Seeing as I'll be 23 in about a month, I'm coming up on my 15th anniversary as a Diabetic...Hard to believe its been that long. Inevitably, diabetes causes quite the amount of health problems, I've been told I'll inevitably have kidney failure, liver failure, thyroid failure, etc, etc, etc as I age. Can't say I'm looking forward to what seems like impending DOOM. "/ Its an auto-immune disease. And If you have one auto-immune disease you're much more likely to get others easier.
Don't get me wrong, I try hard to stay positive. I don't want to "live like I'm dying", I want to truly live like I'm LIVING. To be here for my husband and kids! The hardest part of my life so far has definitely been while I'm pregnant. I know it's a sacrifice for any woman to grow a baby inside of their own bodies, let the baby take what it needs, etc. Let me just share a little bit about what I've gone through this time...
It started when I was 9 weeks pregnant, which after doing research I found is typical from 9-16 weeks or pregnancy. I pass out in my sleep. IN MY SLEEP. My bloodsugar will drop too low during sleep and it takes Charlie shoving apple juice into me to wake me back up...If it's caught in time. You know how I mentioned it being a sacrifice for a woman due to the baby taking what it needs? Well its during this 9-16 week period that the baby will do most of its critical growing of its organs, etc so during this time it "takes" more from me than I have enough for the both of us sometimes. I could go to bed with my bloodsugar above 100 (which is what I check for every night) and it could still go low. It has something to do with hormonal imbalances and diabetes. Any time there's an imbalance it happens.
When I was 10 weeks, Charlie and I took a nap one Sunday afternoon while CJ was napping himself. I didn't wake up, so Charlie tried to give me juice. I spit it out. That's another thing, If I'm "out" too long, my body will start shutting off "unnecessary" functions, swallowing being one of the first to go, to save what energy my body has left. I have what's called a Glucagon, which is a shot that is used for this type of emergency, that releases any and all sugar that is stored in cells of my body. Charlie had to use this shot this time. He said quote, "I knew this time was different. It just felt different." After the allotted, dreaded 15 mins of waiting for the shot to do what it's supposed to, I finally started "coming to". I started to be hear things again. Unfortunately, most people don't know what it feels like to be literally stuck in your own body, huh? Try this on for size. I can not move at this point. I also could not talk, It takes time for me to remember how to do those things. And until my body is ready, I'm literally stuck. I could start to open my eyes at this point. I could tell Charlie was kneeling beside the bed with his hands clutching one another tightly. He's crying, and pleading with me to "come back to him". AND THERE"S NOTHING I CAN DO!!!??!?!!!! It's quite infuriating, really. All I want to do on the inside is to be able to tell him "I'M HERE! I'M OKAY!" But, I can't. He called 9-1-1 and they came but at that point I was getting better and they legally just had to wait until my bloodsugar was above 80 before they could leave. They ask all the standard questions, what's your name? your birthdate? Who's the president? What's your social? etc. I passed the "test" Haha.
This pregnancy though it doesn't just happen in my sleep. I've had it happen in the middle of the day, and all of a sudden I'll feel uncontrollably tired and have no choice but to lay down on the couch, or rest my head on the table, and I'd pass out. It's scary! The hardest part for me is when it effects other people. Namely my son. I am a mother. I don't even need to begin to explain how a mother feels about her child, how she'd do anything for them, how much they mean to her. That's the hardest to me. It's one thing if it messed me up and has me confused but when it effects my baby, that's a whole other ball game. I've been blessed to have had experiences where in the middle of the day, I'd have an episode and CJ's with me and somehow, thankfully my bloodsugar came back up on its own miraculously and I was able to get juice myself and help myself. I still to this day know for a fact that it was the power of God looking out for me and my son to make that happen. I received a priesthood blessing from Charlie and my dad after the 9-1-1 episode. In it, I was told that if I strengthened my relationship with my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ that I would be able to have the spirit with me to help me in my times of need. I have sincerely tried to do that. And I have felt the spirit on numerous occasions there to help me with thoughts that would pop in my head I have no idea where it came from, etc. I'm so grateful for the Gospel and for our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Pregnancy with Diabetes is like trying to walk a tightrope every single day. My bloodsugars are expected to be in even tighter, perfect control than at any other time of my life. It's a sacrifice. I hard one. But man, I look at that baby on the sonogram and I swear, these experiences make me love it even more already. Or I look at CJ and think about all the struggles WE had to go through together. I remember telling CJ in my belly "Come on, buddy, we can get through this. Fight with me!" And it is a fight. And I'll keep fighting! I won't let diabetes "win", although I'll admit I've had some days where I'll break down and just tell Charlie to take me to a hospital for the remainder of the pregnancy, tell him I just can't take this anymore! I have my up and down days...I know when CJ was born, it felt like receiving a trophy you've waited on for FOREVER and had worked SO hard for, I put everything on the line for that boy. September 15, 2010 at 5:23 AM was worth it. By a long shot. As I'm sure I'll feel that way when this little tyke is born too =)
I have learned a lot and grown from my experiences passing out. Charlie and I have a system in the mornings, where I'll call him when I wake up in the morning around 9. If he doesn't hear from me by 9:30 he has an alarm at work that goes off to call me. If I don't answer, he's on his way home to see what happened. My mom and my dad both have keys to our house too, in case Charlie couldn't come for some reason. If I take a nap during the day, I'll text or email Charlie at work, telling him this and what time I'll be setting my alarm, and If I don't let him know I'm up afterwards, again, he's on his way home. Honestly, I feel bad and guilty for Charlie sometimes. "/ That's a TON of responsibility on his shoulders. I try to make it MY responsibility as much as I can, by keeping me responsible to call him. But we have to have a fail proof system, and even then it can happen. Also, I wear a sensor now that checks my bloodsugar every 5 MINUTES and shows up on my pump that I already wear! Typically it works great, and I manually check my bloodsugar twice a day to recalibrate it, to make sure it's accurate too. If my bloodsugar goes below 80, it'll beep at me and vibrate every 5 minutes until it's above 80 again. Unfortunately it's SUPER expensive though. For example, for one month of sensors, it's $420. Yes, $420! Until we meet our deductible, and then it's $84/month (20%)....but still. Not cheap considering that's only ONE of the million things a month I need as a diabetic! =)
I appreciate all the prayers that have been sent my way from friends and family through this time. No, this won't be our last kid, so yes, I will have more episodes. But I'll get through it. We'll get through it.
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