Blogging about the pregnancy has saved my sanity, at least to an extent.

During the past few weeks I’ve been posting to my new blog, Baby Babble, on The Reporter Web site, blogs.covingtonreporter.com/babybabble.

It’s been great to keep a running diary of the frustrations of managing my blood sugar, the weekly visits to the obstetrician, the ultrasounds and the failure of my cell phone.

In my last column I talked about starting insulin. First was the intermediate acting. After a week of that, my endocrinologist added a short acting insulin called humalog, which I take every time I eat.

It took nearly three weeks to get the hang of these two medications, how much to take, and just how much carbohydrates I could consume while using insulin.

After two weeks my OB was not happy with my numbers. I can’t say I blame him since I was having these crazy high glucose levels for no reason after meals. There were a few times where I had rice — went to Trapper’s Sushi and had a solitary sushi roll — or bread or potatoes. I won’t even touch sweets unless they’re sugar free. But a couple slices of white bread or french fries, forget it, not happening.

By the time I went to see the OB last Thursday I finally had a week of really good numbers with just a couple of blips, basically mess ups on my part, not taking enough insulin or not getting the insulin injection right. I’ve discovered the humalog pen is kind of picky, it has to be “primed,” or else it won’t deliver the dose.

The exciting part is that I have, over the past 10 days or so, been able to eat small amounts of wheat bread and potatoes without messing up my blood sugar. Woo!

Now I ended up adjusting the doses on my own. I had faxed my numbers to my endocrinologist but didn’t hear from her from over a week. This is where the cell phone failure comes in — when Melissa, my endocrinologist’s assistant, called twice over the course of a week to give me new instructions my cell phone did not ring. But last Monday when she called again, the phone rang, and then I suddenly had six voice messages. Of those six, three were from Melissa.

I still haven’t called to complain to at&t mobility, my cell phone carrier, but I plan to soon. This kind of stuff is critical. Even if I had a land line at home, which I haven’t for four years, I still may not have gotten the messages since I never checked the land line when we did have one since no one ever called it.

Once we got on the same page, I sent some more numbers over, and I’m waiting to hear back again. I’ve decided not to wait on the calls and adjust my doses on my own if necessary. My OB tells me I should keep my other doc in the loop. Ideally he’d have started me on insulin and would be controlling the doses, particularly because I see him every week, but due to circumstances beyond his control it didn’t work out that way. I would still prefer to have him handle it all and I may try and work on that during my next appointment this week.

In the meantime, I’m still testing my blood sugar six times a day, sometimes as many as eight and taking five or six injections a day. It’s not too bad. And my husband reminds me every time I get frustrated that our little girl will be worth it.

He’s absolutely right. And I’m not the only one dealing with this lock down diet. My husband is eating this stuff right along with me, suffering with a smile, and even my in-law’s are on the low-carb, high protein, high fiber diet with me now. My mother-in-law came to an appointment with my OB a couple weeks ago, the last one I got lectured at, so she learned up close and personal just how serious this is so she and I have been talking about how we’ll do dinner for my birthday in a few weeks.

My thinking is the easiest way to go will be to cook at the in-law’s house since it’s much easier to control what I’m eating when I’m making it myself.

I’m also on the look out for a sugar free cake recipe my husband can use to bake me a cake. He’s a great cook, so that’s been an additional challenge for him, whipping up food for us that we’ll both like that won’t mess up my blood sugar.

My other option would be to find a bakery that does sugar free birthday cakes. I know my favorite place, Borracchini’s in Seattle, does sugar free cakes and ideally that’s where I’d get it from, but I’m a little nervous about it. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this, but, I’m a control freak and for once that little neurosis is paying off.

We’ll see how it all goes in the coming weeks. I’ll keep you posted on the blog.

And don’t forget, you can also provide your baby name suggestions in the comments on the blog, or e-mail them to me at khill@maplevalleyreporter.com.