TIGF - Remembering my GD journey

Hosted by Ashley, Nay and Laura

So yeah, this might seem like an odd thing to celebrate on Things I am Grateful For Friday.  Just go with me here.  
A year ago today I was just entering my third trimester in what had been a dream pregnancy.  I had never been sick, I hadn't had any major issues, it had been a breeze.  But, as those of you have been pregnant know, at the beginning of your third trimester you go through the Gestational Diabetes testing.  I naively thought that because everything else in my pregnancy had been so easy, I'd come through that with flying colors.  Turns out I was wrong.  A year ago today the bottom fell out from under me when the sweet nurse (who happens to be married to my cousin, so that helped a little) gently told me "unfortunately you are going to have to go in for diabetic counseling."  I was devastated.  I had taken such good care of myself leading up to that point, I made sure I was eating well, taking vitamins and keeping up with my exercise - how did that happen?  I remember I kept it together long enough to talk to the scheduler about getting into a diabetic class and her even commenting "wow, you are handling this news really well." Yeah lady, I wear a good mask.  I got into my car and called Nate and seriously broke down.  Looking back it was the dumbest things that I was upset about too.  I distinctly remember sobbing about "I can't have pie, I can't have cookies, I can't have my latte!!"  And of course, good hubby Nate talked me off the ledge.  
We got through it and I became the model gestational diabetic patient.  I was lucky enough that just monitoring my diet was enough to keep it under control.  And we figured out a way for me to still eat a lot of good things that I loved.  And you know what?  Those last three-ish months went by the fastest of my entire pregnancy.  It was not the end of the world.  Looking back, I almost feel it was a blessing in a way.  And that is why I'm discussing this as something I'm grateful for today.
I had seen an article on one of the Mom groups I follow on Facebook that of course I can't find now about a mom who was saying she was thankful for her Gestational Diabetes - and she was actually attacked quite a bit in the comments.  Now I get it - not all moms who end up with GD have it as easy as I did.  Yes there are risks to your unborn child and it leaves you at a higher risk of developing Type II diabetes later in life. So yes, I can understand why people would question being thankful for this type of health issue.  But like the mom in the article, I found many positives to the situation.  I received more monitoring at the end of my pregnancy, including getting to see Oliver in a late ultrasound and that was pretty neat.  I ended up not gaining as much weight at the end thanks to my diet and the weight came off easily after Oliver was born.  It actually brought Nate and I even closer together - he was such a HUGE support and champion for me.  He is the main chef at our house and he worked hard to make sure I was eating right and keeping my sugars under control.  He just looked at it like it was another fun cooking challenge.  He worked to find recipes that would be lower in carbs and as a result we tried some fun new dishes. I actually didn't mind the testing of my sugar - yes there was a needle prick involved, but I got used to it.  I actually was a bit of a nerd in that I liked tracking my numbers, it was sort of entertaining to me.  So in the end, it really wasn't that bad.
Once you deliver your baby, you are GD free.  Oliver arrived safely and was healthy and of course I am thankful for that.  I'm thankful that we have modern medicine practices that can catch issues like this that develop in pregnancy - without it, Oliver could have grown much larger and we both could have been in danger when it came time for him to be born.  I would happily deal with the testing and diet again to ensure a healthy baby.  So yes, strange as it sounds, I am thankful for the day a year ago that I heard those awful words because in the end, they weren't so awful.  And this little man is worth every second I dealt with it.