Episode 13 SN: Placenta: Best Friend of Frenemy? Brooke’s Story

Brooke: Hi, I am Brooke and I live in Minnesota.

 

P: Oh wow.

B: Yeah.

P: How many kids do you have,

 

B: I have three.

 

P: Wow.

 

B: Yeah, three kids, we have three kids and under four years.

 

P: Nicely done.

 

B: Thank you. That was not what we thought would happen but that’s what we got.

 

P: So that’s usually the way it goes, before you got pregnant. What did you think pregnancy would be like?

 

B: oh man I you know honestly I don’t know if I thought that much about it, but I probably had this like vision that was going to be this like magical thing I was gonna be so in tune with my goddess body and like it was gonna be super easy and, you know, that whole thing, and I mean there’s definitely the magic, and all of that and then there’s all the other things that come with pregnancy, which I was much more adept at being aware of, rather than like this goddess SNESs that you tend to see around social media, yeah,

 

P: yeah, yeah, pregnancy has good marketing,

 

B: it really does. And there’s so many things that people don’t talk about.

 

P: Yeah,

B: like, even my sisters, you know, and it was like, come on guys like give me the down and dirty and they like, wouldn’t they wouldn’t, you know, so it’s a chat with your girlfriends.

 

 

P: Yeah, no kidding….Did you get pregnant easily the first time

 

B: we did, yes, we, so I’m a teacher, or I was a teacher, and at the time of my first pregnancy I was teaching so we were timing, or trying to time the birth of the baby with summer vacation because that I would get more time at home with the baby. I think we missed our goal, we wanted to like give birth in May, and ended up being June so it, it took us an extra month out of, maybe two or three months of trying, pretty close.

 

P: pretty close…did you find out what the home kit or how did you find out you were pregnant

 

B: yeah oh man I’m trying to remember. I think I found out really early, you know, they say wait till your periods late and all of that but I, I kind of knew that something was up. So I took a test around the three week mark, and it came out positive a home pregnancy test and I kept it a secret for a whole day my husband and I tell each other everything I kept it a secret the whole day. I was very proud of myself. And then I had bought, he’s from Minnesota, so I bought him a twins, their baseball team, like little onesy, and I like wrapped up and I gave it to him after work one day and that’s how I told him.

 

P: that’s good that’s a good reveal

 

B: yeah that’s like a first pregnancy standard.

 

P: well done

B: the subsequent one’s You’re like, Guess what,

 

P: and how was that pregnancy.

 

B: It was, it was good. It was great, everything was textbook baby was growing well she was breech. For a while I was nervous about that but around the 36 week check she had flipped. So that was good. Everything was fine.

 

P: Were you thinking natural birth.

 

B: I was very open, I wanted to go natural as long as I could stand it. Yeah, so I was preparing for all the like Hypno birthing I you know I was, I wasn’t in any one camp I’m gonna do this method but I definitely wanted to try and go natural you know I’m a runner so I run long distances, I run marathons and things so I was like well I can you know I can get through that so I could probably get through this. So, I was preparing for that.

 

P: Yeah, we should mention you’re like, you’re like a strength coach Aren’t you

 

B: yeah I’m a personal trainer and a health coach.

 

P: Okay, wow. Well, then I’m glad the first part for easy.

B: Yes.

P: So what happened at the end of the pregnancy.

 

B: So I went for my 36 week checkup. So I was teaching summer school, my first baby was born in June. So I was teaching summer school because in Colorado where I was teaching school ends, the end of May. So then there was summer school so teaching summer school so my 36 week check didn’t come till 36 weeks and like five days because I was busy teaching I couldn’t get in. The day before my appointment I was feeling kind of funny I woke up feeling funny, but you’re 36 weeks pregnant, you know you’re everything feels funny at 36 weeks pregnant. You know, I had this pain in my side a little bit under my rib cage I was really tired, like, just all those, all these things so the next day I went in, I had an early morning appointment went in, and she did a urine, I felt fine the next day, she did a urine sample. She did a blood draw. Went about the day she took the baby heartbeats good she had flipped she’s no longer breech, awesome. We’re good. Let’s schedule your next couple appointments we’ll schedule an induction day just in case, etc so I’m scheduled out for you know, five more weeks. So my husband I went ran some errands. And then, my doctor calls. So I was on the phone with my mother actually she was asking me how the appointment went I’m telling her, am I the Call Waiting kept keeps going and keeps going and keeps going, I’m like, Mom, this is my doctor I gotta go. So I call her back and she says, You are Man What does she say she said something along the lines of you need to go to the hospital immediately you are having a baby today. So basically there Oh, it was there’s protein in your urine. So that essentially means that you have preeclampsia, or what I had what she could tell from my blood work was I had hellp syndrome. your blood pressure is sky, like, very very high. So you could stroke out at any minute.

 

P: Well, that’s terrifying

 

B: Yes….we’ve not, you know it’s your first pregnancy your first baby, all of those that is not what you want to hear and the only things I’ve been preparing for are this like, I’m waiting for my water to break it’s gonna, I’m gonna feel the birth pains you know the labor pains and we’re gonna go to the hospital, it’s gonna be this like magical almost romantic thing, and suddenly it was like if you’re not at the hospital in an hour, you could die. And it was like, Oh, okay.

 

P: I talked to the maternal fetal medicine doctor I did get some insights about some of the medical issues, Brooke is facing. Hi Dr. Robertson thanks so much for coming on the show, can you introduce yourself and tell us about your specialty.

 

Dr. Robertson: I’m Patty Robertson, I’m a professor at the University of California San Francisco and I provide obstetric care to high risk women, specifically the subspecialty of maternal fetal medicine.

 

P: Okay great, we’re in the right place then. Do we know why hellp syndrome strikes people.

 

Dr. R: Well we know that some women are high risk for developing preeclampsia, and a subset of women who have preeclampsia, which is high blood pressure and protein in the urine, actually get help, h e l p stands for hemolysis where the blood, or hemolyzed is or breaks up elevated liver enzymes are part of it, and often low platelets, so any woman with Preeclampsia is at risk for help and help can be life

 

P: It Looks like the cause of health is unknown. There are a bunch of theories about the source of the problem, like a dysfunctional placenta, or immune system disagreement between the mother and the fetus. It’s a rare disorder affecting less than 1% of pregnancies. Risk factors include being over 34 Being Caucasian, having diabetes or kidney disease, having high blood pressure or a previous pregnancy.

 

B: And I, you know, I’m in disbelief talking to my doctor, so I said to her on the phone because I find humor in situations I shouldn’t. And I, I said, you know, the carseat is still in the box, can we do this tomorrow. You know because they’re supposed to have all the things right

P: yeah, yeah

B:  and she was like, No, that’s not funny. Move it, and I was like, okay. So it took us like…

P: it sounds like I didn’t feel that badly.

 

B: I felt fine. I felt totally fine, my blood pressure was high when I had gone to my checkup so my blood pressure. I don’t know my bottom number but my top number is in the 90s, usually. So it was definitely above that. I can’t remember what it was but through the duration I was 140 or above by the hospital for the next, you know, week,

 

P: but it’s hard to feel a sense of urgency when you can actually feel anything. Right, right. I can feel it didn’t feel real.

 

B: Exactly like if she had told me this the day before when I wasn’t feeling good, I would have believed her.

P: Yeah,

B: I was tired I had pain, like I get that. But this next day I you know I went to a five mile walk that morning like I was good. So, yeah, that was hard,

P: so I’m imagining you, you put together the car seat quickly.

 

B: I think we threw the box in the trunk. So I took a shower and you know I’ve been listening to all these birthing podcasts, so I made sure I ate something I showered I cried, I called my family I packed the go bag because I hadn’t done that yet, you know 36 weeks. And then off we went. It took us, so she wanted me at the hospital in an hour and that hospital is a 45 minute drive from where we live, and it took me like two hours to pack shower, eat and stop crying.

P: Yeah,

B: So it was a three hour process,

 

P: so you get to the hospital and how are you received?

 

B: it was, it was really terrifying, like not very well done at all but so we we walk in and we had toured the hospital ahead of time we did all those first time, you know, pregnancy things we toured the hospital we knew where we were going. And so we go up to the pregnancy floor and they they’re expecting us like the doctors called ahead they’re on their way. So we walk in, they say, Are you Brooke Selb and I said yes, so they scooped me right into the room that’s like right off the entry doors like you don’t, I didn’t even go in the ward, you know, right there. They had me change into a robe, when, at that point I changed in the bathroom like no modesty was gonna continue but it’s like changing the bathroom whatever and they’re like all like kind of waiting like tapping their foot outside the door, So then they tell my husband, they say, Okay, you go down and move the car and go park the car and get her bag, and come back up within the 10-15 minutes that it took my husband to do that I was in a gown in a bed, hooked up to I think it was three different IVs.

 

P: Oh wow

 

B: And, yeah, like just hooked up strapped up all these things and I was like, What is going on, and my husband comes in after he took the car to the parking garage and he was like, he just looked at me like a deer in headlights, like, this is nothing what we talked about like we’re not we’re not prepared for what this, what is this,

P: yeah.

B: So we were there for a while so I got put on magnesium sulfate, which helps with the reduces your chance of having a stroke.

 

P: Okay

 

B: so, so I got put on that, and you have to be on that. I want to see it was 24 hours on that before they were going to induce me to get the baby out. So basically just watching me and making sure that I wasn’t going to have a stroke.

P: Right, so that sounds scary.

B: It was terrifying and it took to my, my health insurances such that whatever doctor is on staff is the doctor who will deliver you. So we saw, I think two or three doctors before one doctor came in and actually looked at us and saw we were so terrified and he said, has anyone explained to you what’s going on. And we said, No. And so he like pulled up a chair he sat down and he explained to us what my condition was what the care plan was, what the result could be good or bad.

P: Wait so go slowly here. What did he tell you.

 

B: So he, he told us that, you know, because this is HELLP syndrome. It means you’re an organ failure, your kidneys and liver are going down, it could result in stroke you could have a seizure. And if, if we do not get the baby out, it this could kill you and the baby.

 

P: Okay, a quick summary. Both preeclampsia and HELLP construct quickly without much warning, although doctors are working on finding biomarkers to identify women who are at higher risk for these conditions, and effort to alert them before everything goes south, some people think HELLP is a severe form of preeclampsia, but there’s also a camp of researchers who think HELLP is its own separate disorder because some women experienced help with symptoms that are different from those typical for preeclampsia, so maybe the jury’s out on the exact relationship between these two conditions. But in any case, both are serious, and both require immediate attention.

 

B: So then I was on the magnesium sulfate. And then they started Pitocin. And he said that if the Pitocin wasn’t going to work then I would have to have a C section which was the absolute last thing that I wanted to do.

P: Right.

B:  so yeah and he actually has the same doctor that delivered my second as well.

P: Nice,

B: Yeah, yeah,

 

P: Could you feel the magnesium sulfate.

B: Yes, it makes you crazy, so it makes you super tired I couldn’t keep my eyes open for more than 20 minutes at a time so I kept like falling asleep. I’m need glasses for distance driving at night, and I had to wear them all the time because I couldn’t, everything was blurry or seen anything and I was like so hot, it makes them really hot and everyone in the room my poor husband, They were freezing because they turn the air down really low, and he was just freezing the whole time because you’re just like, sweating, so it makes you really out of it.

 

P: That seems like a hard state to be in to push out a baby.

 

B: Yes, and, and you can’t eat anything. And then they have me on Pitocin. So you’re just all whacked out right. And then the other issue with HELLP syndrome is your blood platelets drop. So, if my blood platelets dropped too low, they would not be able to give me a epidural, because they can’t get it in for risk of bleeding out.

 

P: Oh wow,

B: so my nurse who thankfully for us on thankfully for the woman before me, the week before she had had a patient who also had HELLP syndrome so she knew exactly what to do. They were testing my blood every like two hours so she rushed ordered a test, and said look if your blood platelets are at this specific level I want to say it was under 100,000 I’m not great at my medical but it was somewhere in there. She said if your blood platelets are still above this number, I’m going to have him put in the epidural port, essentially, like we don’t have to turn it on, but you have to get it in. Thank goodness because they got, they put in the epidural. And then my next blood draw my platelets were too low to have done it.

P: Oh wow.

B: Yeah, so if anyone has ever pushed in a bed or like gone through labor in a bed where you can’t get up and move around, it is so uncomfortable like you want to be moving and, you know, rocking and you can’t do that when you have HELLP syndrome. So that was really wonderful of her, and then I ended up using the epidural, so it was great, it was there,

 

P: and you just had a birth, just with the epidural.

 

B: I did so it took three and a half hours of pushing, I was on oxygen in between pushes because I kept passing out.

 

P: Oh my god,

 

B: yeah. They finally let me eat ice chips. During pushing, and I was like, downing them because I hadn’t eaten anything in quite some time. And they made me like stop at one point, they’re like you have to stop eating ice chips you need to focus on pushing and I’m like okay but I’m like really dehydrated, you know, whatever. So three and a half hours, and then the doctor who was a different doctor than the one who explained everything to us because rotation. She started pulling out the, the suction.

 

P: Yeah,

B: right. And I was, I was done, I still had some fight left in me, magically, and it was like I do not want another intervention. Like my friend just had a baby that had to get suction and the poor baby’s skull was all like bruised up, you know all of this, and so I just started. Forget pushing with contractions, I just started rage pushing, essentially. Everything I have is going into this right now and then out she came.

 

P: Oh nice.

 

B: Yeah it was great that Rob said the doctor almost missed her because she came out so fast she like barely caught her and

 

P: that’s a pretty good ending after the, after the birth, how do you feel,

 

B: I felt very tired but you know you’re euphoric, because all of a sudden the baby comes out and they popped her on my chest. And this doctor was so great, she, she knew that I was so upset my birth plan had completely gone out the window., you know my like mental birth plan I didn’t type it out or anything but my mental birth plan. And she said, What else was in your birth plan that you really want to have happen. So I had a couple things I wanted delayed cord clamping I wanted to push with contractions and I wanted immediate skin to skin, so she was able to give me all three of those until you know three and a half hours and where she’s like, Forget contractions, you know, So then you know I get this like baby on my chest and, you know, all of a sudden you’re like totally fine.

P: Yeah, that’s lovely.

B:  It was and then it was hard because you still, if you have health syndrome, I still have to be on magnesium selfie. For a number of hours after birth, you know you deliver the placenta. Essentially that’s supposed to remedy help syndrome, you’re supposed to just like, almost snap back to normal.

P: If the placenta is the bad actor in HELLP syndrome causing all these problems. Why is it that once you deliver the placenta, all the problems don’t subside. Well, that is a great question, and nobody even really understands preeclampsia that well we’re study, trying to figure out why you get it, and we know how to cure it, which is to deliver the baby and the placenta, but for some women, it triggers a hypertensive response that persists. And in fact, even women who have a normal blood pressure normal delivery and then let’s say four weeks later they get a severe headache and they go to the emergency room, they can actually have preeclampsia, you can get it for whatever reason, up to 12 weeks. Now a lot of older moms have preeclampsia it’s one of the risk factors and they’re also at risk of high blood pressure, perhaps genetically in their family. So, pregnancy is kind of a stress test, it might bring things out that you’re determined genetically to have in 10 years or 30 years, like diabetes or high blood pressure, and we know that one of the leading causes of maternal death is cardiovascular disease which includes stroke. Now usually stroke occurs at a top blood pressure number of 160 or greater, but with HELLP, we’ve seen stroke occur at 140 over 90, which we use as the enrollment level for blood pressure, high blood pressure, diabetes, they both can persist and need to be acknowledged by the woman that it could be a chronic condition for her.

 

P: I want to just add here that numerous sources suggest that women who experience preeclampsia eclampsia or help are at a lifetime increased risk for cardiovascular disease, and so are the babies that were a part of the preeclamptic eclamptic Or HELLP pregnancies, so it’s important to follow up with your doctor to keep track of these risks, after the pregnancy is over,

 

B: but I couldn’t be left alone with the baby for a full 24 hours while this stuff got out of my system because I might drop her I still couldn’t get out of bed, you know, the whole thing, so that made it that made it feel, it was hard to bond with her because I couldn’t. If I was already holding her I was still stuck in the bed I couldn’t get up and like put her in the bassinet I had to have my husband or have a nurse.

P: Yeah,

B: take her and then put her down and then you’re you know you’re trying to establish a breastfeeding relationship and you know my body wasn’t ready to give birth so that was hard and

P: yeah,

B: it’s just a whole you, you enter into the next phase of tough, and that’s with any with any newborn.

P: Yeah, it’s hard. The fourth trimester is harder than also harder than marketing.

 

B: I, people need to talk about that more the fourth trimester is the worst. My third is eight months old right now and I feel like I’m just coming out of a fog. Yeah, so it’s a long process.

P: and babies are a lot of work,

 

B: they really are.

 

P: After this unbelievably like physically challenging thing right that’s like the next the next up, you’ll be up for many hours in a row, do they let you leave the hospital right away or not.

 

B: My blood pressure would not come down. So, I we were there, five days in total. Five days. We left when our baby was, she must have been four days old. Most people leave that when they’re babies a day, maybe, you know.

P: Yeah,

B: they kept waiting for my blood pressure to come down and it wouldn’t, to the point where, on day four, they’re like okay, you’re gonna be discharged a one more blood pressure tech and then we’re gonna, you know, most likely let you go when I was like, awesome. So I’m like, I’m dressed on packed like babies in her going home outfit you know all these things were ready, they come in, they do my blood tests and they check my blood pressure and they’re like, we can’t let you leave, I sobbed like ugly cry. My poor husband man like she hasn’t even been out so I was you know the whole thing like You’re so crazy emotional at that point and you’re just like nonsensical. So on day five, the doctor comes in and is the same one who explained a lot to us in the beginning and he was like, Okay, I hear you’re really upset. I don’t want you to leave but I will let you leave if you promise to test your blood sugar I’m sorry, different pregnancy test your blood pressure. Yeah, thank you. Every day, and you have to be blood pressure medications, I was like, Okay, I’ll do it, I’ll do it. Where do I sign let me out. So then we got to leave. Thank goodness and it took about another week or two, a blood pressure medication for it to finally come down, and then it hasn’t gone up since,

 

P: could they explain why it didn’t snap back after the placenta was birthed.

 

B: No, no, but there are some women who even develop preeclampsia, after birth.

P: Yeah. Right, right. Yeah. wow, but that baby was fine and then you were fine and

 

B: she’s great. She was born at 36 weeks and six days, so she was considering late term premiee you to write that on all your paperwork she missed the cutoff by three hours. This was really frustrating since she was little she was six pounds when she was born, you know, cuz she needed another three weeks to be good, Maybe a good nine pounder right. Oh,

 

P: six pounds is nothing to sneeze at…that’s like, you know that’s a legitimate weight.

 

B: Well, let’s get into my next one.

 

P: You bring her home and how long before you get pregnant again

 

B: Yeah, two years, they are exactly two years apart.

 

P: And how was the second experience.

 

B: So it took a year to get pregnant again. The second pregnancy was great textbook, I was taking a baby aspirin every day up to 36 weeks to prevent preeclampsia and HELLP syndrome again, so that was some new research that had come out every, everything was great, went into natural labor, did the whole like magical experience going to the hospital did get an epidural, thank goodness, and then pushed, he was out, it was it I think I pushed five times or something and he was out and he was nine pounds one ounce.

P: Wow,

B: that was a little different. Yes. He was a Big Boy

B: are you and your husband tall?

 

B: yes I’m six feet and my husband is 6’5”

P:  Okay, well that makes sense then you’re gonna, have a big baby

 

B: yeah, my husband was 12 pounds when he was born. It was very large

 

P: Oh my…that feels very Guinness records kind of

 

B: yeah, right…his poor mom, she’s like really tiny.

P: But that one was that one went smoothly so

B: he was great he was like my little textbook baby.

 

P: That’s all. Yeah. So now you have to at home. Yes,

B: but then a year later you get pregnant for the third time oh my gosh, eight months later I don’t know what we were thinking. Yeah, so I got pregnant for the third time and it was one of those like I’m, it’s the middle of the night, it’s like two in the morning I’m feeding the eight month olds, you know, and I’m like thinking in my head, you know, because your head starts running at that time of night and you’re like, No, no, wait a minute. No, and then I go take a home pregnancy test I’m like digging in the back of the door, only got my husband you know, where’s this thing and I take it and I, I, I really cried. I was not ready.

P: Yeah,

B:  it’s really close and people do it and they do it a lot closer than 19 months apart

so much respect, it is hard,

P:  it is hard. Yeah, yeah. But also, like, you can’t, it’s hard to also time.

B: Exactly, exactly.

P: Yeah, so you kind of get what you get.  And so how was the after you recovered, and, you know, got excited found some joy for the third one. How was that experience,

 

B: a mess. It was a mess. So I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes, so everything was fine. And then I got gestational diabetes. So that was,

P: is that like halfway through or,

B: yeah, so you do the, when do you do the sugar test,

P: it’s like 20 weeks

B: 20 weeks 24 weeks I want to say, and I failed it. But at this point we had moved to Minnesota. So my first two babies were born in Colorado and then we moved to Minnesota. So diagnosed with gestational diabetes with some new doctors, etc. And I was so upset about it I’m a health coach. I’m a personal trainer I run, I eat mostly healthy foods you know I’m not like a sugar monster, but I just, I couldn’t mentally wrap my head around the fact that I had this,

 

P: it’s emotional for Brooes to get this diagnosis because she thinks I take care of myself. I exercise regularly and I’m careful about diet. How did gestational diabetes fall on me,

 

Dr Robertson: but another way to look at it if she hadn’t been so big. The consequences of both of those diseases could have been much worse.

P: Yeah, yeah, just,

Dr. Robertson: you just don’t know. But no matter how hard you work at perfect health. It’s not totally under your control.

P: Yeah,

Dr. Robertson: so many of our patients are in their 20s and 30s and 40s, and they don’t feel that they deserve a diagnosis of diabetes, even if they had it during pregnancy, and then they don’t go back for follow up testing so they don’t know. And then they eat their regular diet, and then they end up with complications because they haven’t been followed, appropriately, like to check their eyes if they have diabetes once a year to make sure there aren’t extra blood vessels growing to be associated with blindness later on.

 

P: So it sounds like you were saying, if you have gestational diabetes, you’re potentially at risk of developing type two diabetes later.

 

Dr. Robertson: Yes, and sometimes actually women have type two diabetes in don’t know it. And then we don’t really know until she comes for the follow up test after her pregnancy is over whether she’s a type two or pre-diabetes are totally normal.

B: My sister had it with her third baby and my mom had it with her third baby which is actually me. So you know there’s that component. You’re also more likely to get it if you’ve had a nine pound baby. And my second was nine, one, yeah. And you have to be over 25 How old was I  34 Yeah, so, you know, I had some of the precursors to getting it but I eat healthy and I exercise and like this isn’t me, you know, whatever. So I would, I tried diet I tried exercise, I tried everything to not have my blood sugar numbers be above what they should be. So you know I got up at  two thirty in the morning and I had a protein snack and then I, I went for walks before bed and I tried testing it before I even got out of bed in the morning and I tried testing it right before you know I tried all these variations and it just, it wasn’t happening so I ended up on insulin for nighttime insulin because it was my morning fasting number, that wouldn’t come down, right, for most of it towards the end, the last three or four weeks. It was mostly all day that my, I really had to be careful about what I was eating, to make sure my blood sugar was within range. I was so hungry the entire pregnancy. I was so hungry. Oh man, because you can eat a lot of fruits, wheat, a ton of fruit, you know, things like quinoa beans, you know, all those things would spike it, so no different for everybody, what spikes you. Yeah, so like something my sister recommended I try I couldn’t have, because it would spike me. So it was a lot of trial and error.

 

P: That sounds hard to manage just kind of in general but especially with two little kids.

 

B: Yeah, and I was, I was not pleasant to be around, like I was cranky, so

 

P: that sounds really hard and, and I think I just saw an article suggesting that doctors think there’s some genetic component to gestational diabetes.

B: My parents are not diabetic. So, I don’t know I mean,

P: I don’t think you need to be diabetic but I think the thing I read said that type two diabetics have some genetic component, so there’s some familial thing passed passed down, and diabetes you also have some kind of genetic component that affects how you process insulin, and pregnancy obviously is a big chemistry experiment, and so that also all which is to say that even if you’re running every day and eating perfectly well. You can still have it. Right, yeah.

 

B: Yeah, and I mean there is, you know it’s your plus the reason you would get it is your placenta is making hormones that are causing the glucose to build up in your blood. So it’s like your placenta the hormones in there is doing it. Same thing with, you know HELLP syndrome is you have to get the placenta out it’s like all these things were like my body and the placenta, are not communicating very well,

 

P: and that’s that is genetic right that is you and your husband’s DNA are, are kind of duking it out to figure out like how invasive the placenta will be and how it will operate

 

B: It’s crazy.

P: I remember with my second eyes. I must have failed that the sugar test, because I had to prick myself for, you know 10 days or something and that was, um, that’s not pleasant.

 

B: No, and you probably have to do it four times a day. Record your numbers and don’t lose the paper and, it’s a mess

 

P: that’s what is it, what does gestational diabetes do to the birth, anything.

B: So they just they not a ton, they had to induce me, which I was very upset about, because you know I had such a magical experience with my second of going into natural labor, but the fear is if you end up with a nine pound baby, you know, the longer your pregnancy goes the heavier the baby will be, if you’re a gestational diabetic you’re likelier to have a larger baby, and because I’d already had a nine pound baby. They were very fearful that I was going to have another

P: Yeah,

B: which creates a lot of complications, so I was induced at 39 weeks, which is good, they let me go that long which I was saying before, and then they test, you have to test your blood sugar regularly throughout the day, you’re limited in what you can eat during induction just so exhausting. I mean, let us eat Please Like we have to push you know there’s this whole like mission at the end. And then they test once the baby’s out, they continue to test both of you for the next 24 hours,

 

P: and how did that go.

 

B: It was the birth was the mess induction wasn’t, it was fine. It was a long day, you know they want you there at 7am to get started on all the things and I wanted to do it as naturally as possible so I had the balloon catheter first. I tried all the remedies and then still ended up on Pitocin.

P: Yeah,

B: so two babies through Pitocin right. It was a long day so we were there at seven in the morning, and the baby wasn’t born till I want to say nine at night.

 

P: Oh, that is a long day

 

B: it’s just exhausting and like contractions were would come if I was standing up, if I sat down, they stopped. So you know you’re just trying to you’re on your I was on my feet, the whole day.

They don’t let you eat, you know by the end of it I did get an epidural because I was just so exhausted, and they, you know, I was like, Oh, this hurts something hurts or you know I’m fine whatever maybe we should check or something and they were like, oh you’re having a baby right now. I was like, Oh great, like my epidural was working really well too well. So there was a race actually between me and the woman in the room next door who also got induced that morning of who was going to go first and the doctor was delivering both of us, she was suiting up for the woman in the other room she was going to push the nurse goes running to go get her and go stop. Come over here. It was like okay, so she got suited up baby was out in a push. I pushed the doctor made a joke, I laughed, made a half push and the baby was that

 

P: that’s how it’s was done ladies and gentlemen.

 

B: She’s a very happy girl.

 

P: Was she big?

 

B: she was eight pounds six ounces.

 

P: Oh, so that’s not so bad.

 

B: But if we went, you know, if we went to 40 weeks she would have been nine pounds.

 

P: yeah. For sure

 

B: So they were right.

 

P: And then does the gestational diabetes goes away after the baby’s born.

 

B: Yes, so we will both were instantly fine, but you do. For me, I have a higher risk of developing type two diabetes. Now, you know, later in life. So, even more important to eat. Not all the Halloween candy.

 

P: Yeah, yeah that’s tricky. I agree. Okay, so you brought her home and the other kids are excited how did that all go, oh

 

B: yeah, our, so we had them come to the hospital to meet her are then three year olds, our oldest girl she was very excited to meet her. They hit it off right away our son he was 19 months at the time, so it took him a little longer, as it does, you know, it took him about, I’d say a month, a month to six weeks to kind of be like alright, she’s not leaving, I better, you know, get on this train, and now he is her biggest supporter. He keeps an eye on her. He picks up her toys when she drops them like he’s just in love with her.

 

P: So that’s super cute. So how old are they now.

 

B: Oh gosh, so four. So everyone’s almost a half so four and a half, two and a half, and nine months.

 

P: Wow. It’s a busy house

 

B:, we’re tired. There’s a lot of joy, but there is a lot of teaching them how to be a little humans who are kind and respectful. So, yeah, yeah. And I, you know, when we moved to Minnesota a year and a half ago I left my teaching job to be home with the kids. So it’s, it’s a learning experience so I’ve been home now for almost a year and a half. And I don’t think I’ve ever done so much self reflection and like self checking than than I did in 11 years as an educator, so

 

P: yeah it’s it’s a totally different process, right

 

B: it really is, it’s a different beast,

 

P: but it makes you think about how you were raised right like,

 

B: oh yeah, there’s a lot of that to think about,

P: oh, this is how my mom did it. What does that mean,

 

B: right, or what should I do differently or, You know, all those things.

 

P: Yeah, that’s awesome. So, what is the oldest one into

 

B: anything make believe. So, any like pretending we don’t know each other and we knock on each other’s doors and we know she likes to play house, but like pretend that we don’t know each other to play house it’s not like she’ll play house with dolls, we have to play in person she’s super social, which is weird because my husband and I are introverted, so she’s like our little butterfly,

 

P: that’s fun to watch.

 

B: Yeah it is, it’s good for us to she like just chats up like she’s very little stranger danger which is not great she’ll just chat people I’m like okay, like they don’t need to know.

 

P: Yeah. Is your son Similar.

B: No, he’s our little introvert so even if we’re just hanging out as, you know, our family of five, you know, after a little while he kind of wanders off by himself to a different room to play by himself for 10 minutes and then he wanders back super into trucks and animals, like,

very boy, you know,

P: yeah, yeah. And do you have a line on the little one yet.

 

B: She’s She’s feisty. She’s redheaded, You know, so there’s that. The other two are blonde. She’s our little redhead, anything her big siblings do. That’s what she wants to do she wants to be in the mix, she doesn’t want to know she doesn’t want to eat. She wants to be with them.

 

P: Can she walk yet or is she still crawling?

 

B:  No…She’s almost crawling she’s doing the rocking she’s almost figuring out the weight distribution on one side to the other can be any minute I’m terrified.

P: That’s a very cute. Well, it sounds like, people look after her.

 

B: Right, yes that and we have to like bolt everything down.

 

P: That’s very funny, so are you, are you still training, are you still doing the training.

B: Yes. So I personal train online and run coach online, which is really great.

 

P: and who are your clientele?

 

B: so I predominantly work with women with young kids who want to lose weight or cross the finish line, so anywhere from a 5k to a full marathon.

 

P: Wow that’s cool.

B: Yeah, its so much fun. I love it and it gives me something during the day, you know, in those like downtimes, to think about.

P:  Yeah,

B: which is really, it’s very sanity, keeping

 

P: yeah, it’s nice to have something something adult

 

B: yes then to have something else on my brain,

 

P: so and that sounds like a useful thing for like a postpartum period right when everyone wants their body back

 

B: oh my gosh yes it takes so long, I mean I’m nine months out and I’m still getting there, so it takes a long time but yes I work with women who are postpartum. I work with beginners, the whole nine.

P:That sounds awesome.

B: Yeah,

P: I think I have your, your website is it called wrecking routine is that what it’s called

 

B: wrecking routine because I am not a fan of routines, except when it comes to my kids and their time for bed.

P: Yeah,

 

B: so it’s about doing something different, and seeing what happens.

P: That sounds awesome, I will I’ll put a link to that in the notes so people can find you.

B:  Great, thank you,

P: thank you so much for sharing your story, you have a lot of adventure in that in that in those experiences I’m glad that your son was super easy, but you have like a contrast right you experienced at all. It’s not so easy to make another person.

 

B: No, it isn’t. Takes a lot,

 

P: but luckily you paid off with the joy in the end.

 

B: Yes. Yeah, and I get to be home with them and so

P:  yeah that’s lovely.

B: It’s really nice.

 

P: Awesome. Thank you so much again for sharing your story.

 

B: Thank you, I appreciate it.