Gestational Diabetes Chatter #6

[Caramello]

Hi ajsmum,

Must be hard having 4 pregnancies and not knowing anyone else with GD. Sorry to hear that its moved on to insulin controlled - but hopefully it will start to balance out now.

Thanks everyone for the feedback about your births - I was just wondering how many people went to caesarian after this diagnosis.

[belfie]

Seachange - in answer to your questions:

when did you finish work?
I was due to finish at 36 weeks and I pulled it back to 34.5 (which is tricky to do IMO). I found I was too busy with the extra appointments and trying to organise food for work was a nightmare (but I do have additional dietary restrictions). When I stopped, my BSL's did get better, I can only assume due to the reduction in stress. Both DH and I swore that I'd finish at 30 weeks next time - which is what i'm doing, regardless of whether I get GD or not. I think I can eat better, exercise better to keep BSL's under control this time if I'm at home more. I wished someone had told me it would be better to finish earlier the first time around.

Did you have a VB or caesarian? VB. I was not told that there would be any reason for me to go CS over VB based on having GD. If anything, they said that GD babies can be a bit more prone to breathing difficulties, and the VB process is actually better for babies breathing. My DS was breathing fine when he was born.

Were you induced? Yes, at 39+1 (was gonna be just under but hospital was busy). Negotiated with obs, he would have pushed for 38 weeks had I been on more insulin, say 60-70 units (I was on only 18 units). I struggled to reconcile the literature that says GD is all a load of rubbish versus the medical evidence that shows increased risk of placental deterioration/in-utero death in over-term GD babies. Personally, I wasn't prepared to gamble with the health of my baby and accepted the induction. In it's way it was a blessing as we were far more prepared (with our doula) for all that induction brings. I had an epi, and DS was born with suction (failed) and forceps. I dont mean to scare you, but I wanted to know WHY they like to induce. I also had CTG monitoring every few days prior to induction which actually made me feel more comfortable we were keeping an eye on bubba. Incidentally, both my obs and I were in agreement that we couldn't accurately assess the size of the baby (there's a lot of error in the estimation methods), so that was NOT our reason for induction. And my bub was 7lb 7oz.

Did it have an effect on the BSL of your baby when he/she was born?
His BSL's were low but ok. He was admitted to SCN for 24 hours, but roomed with me - just back in SCN primarily for feeds. I wasn't warned about the typical standard SCN admission for GD babies until quite close (check with your hospital/obs about this). It gave me a big shock initially when I heard it would happen but the reality wasn't as bad as I feared. He then was later re-admitted and spent 60 hours under lights for quite bad jaundice. The mental preparation for the first SCN admission actually really helped me to deal with the second one. There's some literature to suggest if you can express colostrum prior to birth (I had NFI how to do this first-timer aroound) you can provide that if they need help, otherwise GD babies will often be provided with a FF to assist with BSL's. It's worth looking into to prepare yourself. Like Sloane, I don't thinK i was fully prepared for the fact he'd be given FF so early - and at the time for all these so-called "medical" reasons. This time round I will be resisting FF as much as possible.

My Dad has Type II and I think the other thing that threw me is that there are differences in the focus, the cut-off levels and how you manage your diet with GD. Sometimes you can do everything perfectly, but the insulin-resistance is influenced by your placenta and may go up regardless. One day a meal will be fine, the next day it will send your BSL sky high - so above all, don't beat yourself up - just do the best you can.

How are you finding it now? How are your BSL's going?

ajsmum - that's a shame re the insulin, but I hope it makes it easier to manage your BSL's. I found in 3rd tri I was getting some nausea in the evenings that actually settled down once I was on insulin. I imagine you must be really good at the diet now, how is it going?

Cheers,
Belfie

[ajsmum]

The insulin has really brought the sugar levels down. Not just the night ones but my fasting ones as well and the ones after breakfast are really good now. Yeah i'm an expert on what you should be eating and shouldn't be. I'm really over the whole salad thing though but only 9 weeks to go and it is best for bub. I've never heard of giving baby a FF after their born before though. All 3 of my sons were b/f and had their first feed within minutes of being born. So everything is good at the moment.

[Artechim]

Seachange,

when did you finish work?
I finished at 34 weeks. I was going to go until 36 but it as Belfie said, it was a pain doing all the testing and eating at the right times etc so I left early

Did you have a VB or caesarian?
I had a VB. I was on around 120 units of insulin per day by the end and the head high risk Ob didn't see any reason to go CS

Were you induced?
Yes. I didn't want to be and managed to negotiate another week out of them by doing CTG monitoring every second day. By the time I was induced it was 39+3weeks.

Did it have an effect on the BSL of your baby when he/she was born?
My BSL's started going up during labour despite not eating, so I was on an insulin drip to keep my levels normal. I think because of that DS didn't have any troubles - his first BSL was fine, and then the two after that were as well so they left us alone. Some hospitals seem to have a policy of taking all GD bubs to special care but mine didn't. He did go to Special Care for about half an hour, but that was nothing to do with the GD - just a bit of raspy breathing.

Belfie, how are you going?

[belfie]

Belfie, how are you going?

Touch wood so far, I'm fine. My obs doesn't seem to think we need to test until normal time. I recently did a day of BSL's just to check if they were good, and they were. I'm wondering why some drs test it earlier on repeat PG's and others don't - does anyone know?

ajsmum - regarding giving my bub formula, well we were having a lot of trouble feeding so DS hadn't had a first feed (but that's a whole 'nother long story) so that's probably why they weren't going to wait for us to have success feeding and hence he got FF (again, something for me to think about this time).

[Jewel]

Hey everyone!

when did you finish work?
N/a. I was a SAHM.

Did you have a VB or caesarian?
I had a VB. No talk about a csection at all, ever.

Were you induced?
Nope. There wasn't even any talk about induction really either. I had him at 39+4wks. it may have been a different story if I was on insulin. I really don't know.

Did it have an effect on the BSL of your baby when he/she was born?
Nope, he was fine.

Belfie - YAY for no GD so far and that your OB doesn't think you should have the test any earlier. Woohoo! I've got everything crossed you don't get it this time around.

Seachange - Sorry to hear you've got GD. It's all such a kick in the teeth when you first find out, well it was for me. Loads of tears and the "why me" routine. Good luck with it all.

ajsmum - That must have be so hard for you to have GD with all pregnancies and not have anyone around you that knows what you're going through. It's hard enough when people are there to support you and know what's what. Big huge hugs! I hope the last part of your pregnancy flies by.

xox

[Caramello]

Mama Spice - you are making me jealous. No way I could eat any form of chocolate if I didn't want my readings to spike :P

Didispunk - this is what I have:

Breakfast: 3 weetbix biscuits, splash of Pura No Fat Milk.

Snack: Carman Original Museli bar, 1 Red Apple

Lunch: Campbells Beef Soup 430g, 1 piece 9 Grains bread

Snack: 1 row Vitaweet, 8 pieces Bega Cheese Bites

Dinner: Chicken or Beef, stir fried, with veges and rice noodles (this changes, but basically this)

Supper: 1 9 grain toast with peanut butter.

What is driving me crazy is when the same meal over and over gives different readings (like the breakfast meal). Sigh...

[Caramello]

The other thing I was told by the dietician is to look at the serving size, and then look at the carbohydrate level for that serving size. 1 unit of carbs is 15 g of carbohydrates. Snacks should be 1 to 2 units (ie 15 - 30 gs) and main meals should be 2 -3 units of carbs (30 - 45 gs). This has helped a lot and my daytime readings have been good (well, up until today, when I actually went out, talked to people, had what I thought was my best guess and got a reading of 9 )

Unfortunately my night readings are crap - I'm up to 14 units of insulin. This level seems to be working well - reading this morning was 5.7 (and my night snack was not great). However my Obstetrician has now said that I will need to either be induced at 38 weeks or have an elective caesarian at 38 1/2 weeks. This has put me into a spin to say the least. However I've decided my action plan will be to see what happens with the 32 and 36 week ultrasounds and make decisions from there.

[didispunk]

I just get so upset and want the baby out, I am doing all I can to eat ,, walk is IMPOSSIBLE.. and just be as good as i can.. I only started eating 6 weeks ago since having such bad Morning Sickness..

I am gong to ask for C-sec at 38 weeks.. that shoudl be fine.. i would think

[~mamaspice~]

I just get so upset and want the baby out, I am doing all I can to eat ,, walk is IMPOSSIBLE.. and just be as good as i can.. I only started eating 6 weeks ago since having such bad Morning Sickness..

I am gong to ask for C-sec at 38 weeks.. that shoudl be fine.. i would think

Didispunk, it must be so frustrating for you! I saw on the previous page that you had a high reading after apple juice. The diabetes educator I saw last week said to stay away from all fruit juices. Even though it might be low GI, apparently one glass of fruit juice is equilevant to eating 5 pieces of fruit all at once.

Are you still controlling with diet or do you need insulin? I've been eating "diabetes friendly" for 5 days now and so far my levels have been okay. My morning fasting glucose reading seems to always be around 5 and 2 hours after each meal, my readings have ranged from 4.9 at best to 6.4 at worst.

I've got a sweet tooth so giving up chocolate has been the hardest, although I haven't given up entirely, I still have a snack size snickerswith lunch and so far so good. I also have been haivng low fat custard after dinner which seems to satisfy my sweet cravings.
I mainly make sure I eat a low GI carbohydrate with each meal. I've switched to multigrain bread. And have cut out all juices, lollies and cordial. Oh and I also have one or 2 glasses of milo with low fat milk, each day and that seems to be fine. Also, for breakky the other day I had a crumpet with a little yellow box honey (yellowbox is low GI), with a glass of milo and that seemed to be okay as well.
HOpe that helps. It's hard isn't it.