Week 23: The dreaded orange drink

Chances are, if you’re pregnant, you’ve heard of the infamous orange drink. You know, the nasty super concentrated sugar water that you’re forced to drink toward the end of the second trimester? With my first pregnancy, I was terrified of the little bottle when the nurse handed it to me. See, I had been warned by friends and even read horror stories on pregnancy websites. The consensus was in, and everyone hated the orange drink.
I will say that the “orange drink” experience as a whole is not pleasant. As a girl who can barely finish a whole can of soda, having to drink that sugary beverage was not easy. On top of that, you only have 5 minutes to complete the drink, and yes the nurse timed me. Then you have to wait for an hour before getting your blood work done. Oh, did I not mention that part before? This whole ordeal is so the doctors can monitor your level of blood glucose, to make sure that everything is going A-OK for your pregnancy. It’s actually pretty important. So you chug, then you wait, and then you get poked—and they take a pretty good amount of blood. Maybe I’m not the best person to ask about this part because anytime a needle comes near me I become a bit dramatic. Then you wait and hope that everything comes back clear. If not, you are headed back to your doctor to drink an even larger amount of orange drink for another test. Yikes.
This time, to my great surprise, I encountered the glucose testing process at about 12 weeks. See, when you have a baby over 9 pounds (in my case 9 pounds, 4 ounces) any pregnancies after that are monitored early because women who give birth to larger babies are at a higher risk for glucose issues during pregnancy. This time, I was still in the throes of morning sickness, so I didn’t want to have anything in my stomach, let alone a bottle of orange drink. I will say, that now they offer a fruit punch flavor, which I found slightly less horrible. That next hour after chugging the drink was one of the longest hours ever, and I prayed that I could just keep the stuff down. Well, all came back clear after that first test, but I still have to do the test again at my next appointment. Can’t a girl catch a break? Every time I open my fridge, I see that little red bottle staring at me reminding me of what’s to come in a couple of weeks. Stay strong ladies; it’s not as bad as it seems, and when in doubt go with the fruit punch.