Gestational Diabetes Chatter #7

[kateo]

I guess the energy thing is just 'cause of our lifestyle. I look like a blob compared to my hubby who rides his bike about 50km a day!!!
I talked to a friend about the heel prck today and she said not to worry. Her baby is only 4 weeks old and she said they did lots of injections and stuff.
I am wondering if I should express a little milk before bubs arrives in case I can't feed immediately and so my milk comes in.
The maternal instincts certainly are strong. I remember when Ellen was born how protective I was of her and she was born still. I can only imagine how fierce I'll be with this little one.
I am wondering how to cope ith my baby shower in a few weeks. The plan is for nibbles for the evening instead of a meal. I guess I'll just have to hope for the best that evening.........any ideas?

[JennaJayen]

Just stopping in to see how you are all going

Kateo - the others are right, levels should be 5 or under before meals and 7 or under 2hrs after meals
And the levels can alter randomly from one day to the next and each finger will give you a different reading - sometimes the same finger can give you several different readings (I experimented lol) as it depends on how much glucose is in that particular sample of blood that you squeezed out.

re baby shower nibbles: plain or salted popcorn, I found that was a great snack in the later weeks of pregnancy with the GD

re weight gain/loss - I lost 22kg in pregnancy... and have lost almost 8kg since lol

re heelprck tests - they generally do them for 24 hours, and if the baby shows signs of low glucose then they go to 48 hours, and they'll get you to start expressing from 36wks onwards and freeze the colostrum as they will probably give bub his/her first feed of colostrum with a syringe, especially if bub has to go to the nursery.
You can use a manual pup to express - I did and had 150mls of colostrum in the freezer ready for DD, and my milk came in the night after she was born

AND last bit of advice in case anyone was hoping to have VBAC or go into labour naturally - you don't HAVE to be induced, and you CAN have a VBAC
I had a VBAC at 40+2, though they had to break my waters after 3 weeks of constant irregular contractions lol, but I ended up only having a 4hr 43min labour, so t worked out well.

AND, bubs aren't always big just because you have GD, my DD was only 8pd, so you can back your OB up against a wall to demand to be left alone for as long as you want though you'll probably still have to have the daily monitoring after 40wks... and you can have an active labour as well, just demand to use the wireless monitors Ad breaking of the waters if you're already dilated and effaced can be a natural induction option as well, just remember that you can go for up to 48 hours with waters broken before the threat of infection becomes an issue, and don't let the OBs and midwives force you into something you don't want It's your body and your baby

[kateo]

HI JannaJayen,
I re-checked my #'s and it is <5.5 fasting and <7 2hrs after meals. Perhaps the GD people I am seeing have slightly different protocols than your's did.
My readings (with minutes in between) have been wildly different (yes I have been washing hands yadda yadda yadda) so they have sent me a new monitor. Hopefully the old one was a bit weird, I certainly got lots of electronic error messages.
I have spoken to the midwife and so far she doesn't think I'll need to express but I am checking with a lactation consultant next week.
Since my last little darling died in utero at 41 weeks I have absolutely no worries about being induced at 38weeks.
Sounds like you have lost heaps of weight....well done....I must say I find I have learnt lots more about diet by having GD. It's quite interesting!

[aussienic]

.
I am wondering if I should express a little milk before bubs arrives in case I can't feed immediately and so my milk comes in.
\

I am not pregnant but just thought I would pop in with a little advice.. I had GD with all 4 of my babies, insulin dependent with the last 3..

I was advised by a midwife to express the morning of my CS with my last and I am glad I did I only got about 4 ml out but when DD was born her BSL were so low they thought the machine was broken so retested her. She was given my milk via a syringe and it brought her levels up..

My eldest was fine but my other 3 all needed time in SCU. DS2 was for a completely different reason to the GD. DS3 and DD both had low BSL when born and DD had trouble maintaining her temp..

My GD was gone within a few hours of having my babies.

If you have any questions I am more then happy to answer them

[kateo]

I have been talking to LS about this and midwife. Both think I'll be OK if I can't manage to express because the GD I have is totally diet controlled. I can't seem to express yet but I've still got about a eek to go I think.
Still not sure if it's gonna be a CS or VB.......hoping for VB

[aussienic]

I only had CS due to DS2 being large and I opted for a CS in the end.. then due to those circumstance we opted for a CS with DS3 and DD. DS1 was a VB.

I wasn't really getting anything either and they gave me an electric pump to use while I was waiting to go to theatre., it took ages and ages but I finally got some

[Bella29]

Hey girls, I am not sure if any of you can help me. I was testing my wee for protein today and instead of protein in my we I had 3+ of glucose. So anyway you will all probably think I am mad but I went and got ahold of a BSL machine and started testing. It was by then 2 hours since I had the icecream that I suspect caused a spike in my BSL and my level was 5.1. Anyway I have the machine for awhile and I wondered when you girls normally test. Do you test just prior to meals or post meals?

[kateo]

Hi,
I was testing first thing in the morning (before brekky) then 2 hours after starting to eat each meal but before I had a snack.
I know from reading here many people have different protocols depending on if you need insulin and how well controlled your numbers are.
I was told to follow the protocol I was on by the endocrine dept at our hospital.
I hope this is some help
Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy and the excitment of birth.
Kate