8am tomorrow morning, I will be taken to the operating room for my scheduled c section at 38 weeks due to diabetes and “advanced maternal age” (also known as “geriatric mother”)

I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in December of 2017 and started taking Metformin along with changing my diet and increasing my physical activity. In about 6 months I dropped roughly 50 pounds, and felt *fantastic*! My period has never been very regular, but once I lost the weight, it was coming like clockwork. My husband and I decided to celebrate my 40th birthday at a fancy 5 star all inclusive resort in Mexico, our first real vacation together with just us since 2002. Our 13 year old daughter stayed behind to take care of the house and pets and was well minded by neighbors and relatives. Kid was really only home to feed and care for the cat and dog, then went off to Gramma’s house the rest of the time. It was awesome.

My period was due a few days before we left for the trip (beginning of June) but was a no-show. I chalked it up to the stress of traveling, packed my pads and tampons, and off we went. Every time I went to the washroom, I expected to need a pad but.. nope. Nothing.

The first full day we were in Mexico, I got a severe sunburn on my lower legs and feet from sunlight reflected off the water and sand, even though I was under a shady cabana. Spent the rest of the vacation in agony, blisters on my poor legs and feet, constantly applying cooling gel, taking Advil, drinking MANY margaritas. I was exhausted and nauseous, common when one has 2nd degree burns, so that’s what I believed was going on.

Now we are headed home, and the day we left, my breasts were really sore. “Finally!” I thought, “my period is going to start on the damn plane, I just know it” so I put a pad in my pants, because I really don’t need to try and figure out how to do that in a tiny airplane lavatory. Many many hours later we get back home, and I go to change into comfy clothes, making a stop in the washroom to change what must by now be a messy pad. Lo and behold, it was totally clean! By the end of the week, my period still hadn’t started. I double checked my calendar and went “oh crap. April 28th was a long time ago.” It was now June 14.

I asked my husband to pick up a pregnancy test the next day when he got groceries and then explained why. He was almost GIDDY. We had stopped trying for a #2 a few years ago, and decided it just wasn’t meant to be. We were meant to have our one beautiful daughter, and I was fine with that. So the next day I get home from work and he’s gone to Costco and picked up a 4 pack because go big or go home, right? I go upstairs and pee on a stick, ready for the usual negative result... but in under a minute, it came up positive. POSITIVE?? I ran downstairs and held the test in front of his face!saying, “LOOK WHAT YOU DID!” He asks me, “is that real??” I look at him... you tell me pal, you bought the thing.

Oh my god, I’m pregnant at 40. That was on June 15, 2018.

It has been a difficult pregnancy. The diabetes that was being well managed with oral meds, diet and exercise suddenly required constant monitoring and 4 insulin injections every single day. Bi-weekly visits to the hospital to meet with my endocrinologist, nutritionist, and diabetes education nurse. Regular visits to my maternity doctor, dealing with constant nausea requiring medication that caused severe headaches making it impossible to work. Once the nausea eased off and I was able to stop the meds, the headaches eased, but then I was suffering extreme fatigue. I was able to work just 4 hours per day until November when I came down with pneumonia and my doctor then told me she is pulling me from work until after my maternity leave. I had beaten a UTI a couple months before this, so another infection requiring more antibiotics wasn’t something I was terribly pleased about, but at least it was caught early, and was treated without difficulty.

Beginning of January, I started weekly ultrasounds and non stress tests. At the first non stress test, everything was going great, I was feeling mighty fine, and then they put the heart rate monitor on my finger. There was a sudden flurry of activity, my nurse started asking odd questions like “are you feeling dizzy? Lightheaded? Any pain in your arms? Legs? Chest? Are you having any trouble breathing?” Like, what? No, no, I’m fine! Apparently my heart was racing at an average of 135 beats per minute, topping out at 150. This is called tachycardia and is apparently an indicator of a serious problem. Within minutes, they wheeled an echocardiogram machine to my side and ran the test, ruling out a heart attack. Next up was the bloodwork. Once my blood was drawn, they really didn’t want me to go anywhere because I think they were afraid I was going to drop dead or something.

While I was waiting to be released, my maternity doctor called and told me that I was to go in and see her in the morning. I was now allowed to head home. Just as I got home, my doctor called again and said, “you have a raging bladder infection! I’ve called in a prescription for antibiotics to your pharmacy. Make sure it is picked up tonight and you start taking them right away.” I was pretty surprised as I had no idea there was anything wrong. My husband ran out after dinner to pick up my meds, and I started taking them like I was told. Went in the next day as directed and was told they were worried I may have been going into sepsis. Yikes! But, no, i was still feeling fine, and my heart rate was already getting back to normal. Sweet.

Later that day, the doctor called again and said the rest of my lab work came back and this particular infection was resistant to the antibiotics I had been given, so ANOTHER prescription was called in, I was to switch them out and take the new ones instead. I finished my new meds and the infection seems gone. Now I have a cold that seems to really not want to leave. I just hope I won’t be coughing too badly over the next few days with a fresh c section incision.

As I finish writing this long post, I am exactly 12 hours from my c section and just finished taking a shower with the antiseptic sponge I was given yesterday at the hospital while filling out all the necessary paperwork. We leave for the hospital in 90 minutes, I will stay the night, my husband and our now 14 year old daughter will be coming up for 7am. My best friend is taking the day off work to sit with our daughter while our son is brought into the world. I will try to remember to follow up I the comments of this post with a picture of our bundle tomorrow. Wish us luck, ladies, and thank you for reading all of this rambling of mine.

xo