65 Jelly Beans

* Another draft I found while spring cleaning the blog. I hope it helps someone. :) 

Pregnancy comes with all kinds of experiences, ultrasounds, hearing the heartbeat for the first time, cravings...and also getting your blood sugar tested. This brings me to the 65 jelly beans.

At some point in your pregnancy you will have to get your blood sugar tested to make sure you don't have gestational diabetes. Usually this means drinking some disgusting sugar drink and than submitting to having your blood drawn. I don't drink medicinal drinks (the syrupy sweet kind), I just can't. My midwife however gave me options, I love her for it.  The reason you need to drink the sugar drink is because you need to get 50 grams of sugar into your system quickly to see how your body reacts, thus letting your care giver know if you have gestational diabetes or not. However if you're like me and can't handle drinking something sticky and sweet than there are other options:

Gummy Bears (though I am not sure how many)
Jelly Beans (Branches= 20, Jelly Belly (what I chose because of the variety of flavors)= 65)
Pure juice (such as orange juice)

These are valid options for this test because they are pure sugar unlike a candy bar or something else that has a mixture of sugar, proteins, and fats.

Now for the WARNINGS- if you do choose to go with 65 Jelly Belly jelly beans as I did than take note that you will have an extremely sore jaw after eating them. The rule is you must eat them in 5 minutes than an hour later you get your blood drawn. I personally arranged the jelly beans into flavor categories to truly enjoy them, but by the last category my jaw was so sore I contemplated swallowing them whole. Plus the time crunch really puts a strain on the enjoyment factor, no sooner have you swallowed one group your on to the next (cherry, tutti frutti, buttered popcorn...)

Also take into consideration the time you have this test done. All of my midwife appointments were at night generally 7pm so my husband could go with me. The bad thing about a 7:00pm appointment is that by the time you get home your very hard working husband is ready to chill and you are on such a sugar rush that has you bouncing literally (on your bright yellow exercise ball) asking him, 'so what are we going to do tonight, huh, huh?'

All in all when my husband and I found out we were pregnant we determined from the beginning to always be thankful no matter what happened or what we had to go through (the pricking and poking from the midwife, the jelly bean eating, the RhoGam shots, not to mention labor...) because this little life forming inside me was a gift, a miracle from God. And in the end no matter what we endure, they're worth it.

The Coconut!