Gestational Diabetes General Chatter #5

[belfie]

snowchickie79 - thank you SO much . I really appreciate hearing about it - I guess it's one of those things, sometimes it's easier to cope with if you have a chance to mentally prepare for what might happen. My heart went out to you when you said how you didn't know what her cry would sound like, it sounds like a difficult first night. But, it's really good to get an idea of what can happen. How is your gorgeous little bubba girl going now?
For me, one suggestion a friend has made is that if I know that bubba boy will be in the nursery, I ask for a room as near to nursery as possible. I'm seeing my obs tomorrow morning, so I'll be asking him all about this!!

katones - good luck with your appt and hopefully they can do something to ease that nausea, that's no fun at all. And doing IVF & GD, gosh you'd think you'd get an easy path by now wouldn't you! Very unfair.

angelraelz - Good luck with your GTT on the 7th & congrats on the twins! With your previous PG, did your insulin get steadily higher or did you need to jump it up quite quickly? I'm only on 14 units of protaphane in the mornings, so i'm kinda hoping it'll stay relatively low. After a few dodgy BSL's, the last few days have been really good & steady - and I've been on 14 for 2 weeks now, so I guess I wonder if it's likely to need to go up or not... guess that'll depend on the pancreas & the hormones huh!

Artechim - that's good that your bubba didn't have to go away. How high was your insulin in the end?

kgb - I hope you've had a good weekend and those BSL's are going well.

My obs also mentioned that we may need a sizing scan - did any of you have one? And did it seem to be accurate? I've heard some very mixed things about them! My fundal height isn't measuring particularly ahead (I think that's cos I've stopped gaining weight & lost a kilo or so - since about 28 weeks), but I was thinking if we're supposed to have one, I'd guess it would have to be fairly soon - there's not THAT long to go!

Apart from that, I'm busy getting my nursery set up & washing baby clothes... lots of fun! Hope you're all going well. I've discovered that I can't get away with gluten free pizza (probably wise!) but I can manage a gluten free lasagne with minimal pasta layers - YUM!

Belfie

[Jewel]

Hey angelraelz.
I hope your GTT goes well and the results are fine.
Congrats on your twins. How exciting!
Do you know the genders? Identical or fraternal?
(sorry if I'm nosey, just tell me to stfu if I am too nosey.)
I'm a fraternal twin.

Belfie - I had an u/s at around 36wks. It was for sizing and all that jazz, I think. It didn't show that he was overly huge or anything. It was accurate for me, I guess. He was around the size we thought. My fundal height wasn't really written down or anything in the last couple months, so I have no idea if I was on target or not. No one said anything about it, so I must have been fine. Lol.
Yay! for the pasta. I missed pasta when I was pg. It didn't agree with me. Lol.
I hope you're doing great and relaxing aswell as looking after yourself.

Katones - Good luck with your appointment tomorrow. I hope it all goes great!!

Kgb - Great to hear your appointments went well the other day.
xx

[melbel]

Belfie you might find that youare on the thome stretch with the insulin doses. Most people find that their insulin requirements tend to level out at around the 34 - 36 week mark and some even get a small decrease...if you get a big decrease however please let your dr know as this can mean the placenta is startign to break down, something that is also a little bit more common in GDs and Ds in general. All in all though I would say you are right on track...good stuff!!
Sizing scan are usually done on D patients but just be aware that they can be out be out by as much as a pound and if you are prone to have to big baby it my be genetics not D and vice versa so a grain of salt is my advice with a sizing scan (unless of course they tell you you are having a 13 pounder or something!!) hehe......

[belfie]

Belfie you might find that youare on the thome stretch with the insulin doses.

Oooh Melbel, that's music to my ears - fingers crossed hey! As for the scans, I've heard they can be out, which is why I'm so curious. With me, they're also worried cos DH is 6"4' and I'm only 5"2'. So I know my obs is concerned that bubba might be just genetically big so to speak.

and Tennykins... SNAP! I'm a fraternal twin too! Are you the older or younger? I was younger by 10 mins (and a very healthy breech 7lb to boot! Bro was 8lb - what a lotta baby!)

As for relaxing... did I mention that I LOVE mat leave! This is seriously the best... I am so enjoying it.

[angelraelz]

hiya

wow ok a few twins here

I was going to do individual names but thought i would do one post instead.

With Isaac i was diganosed with GD at 24 weeks then two weeks later i was on Insulin. It climbed steady all the way through. I started of on prophane at night before bed. If i got a high level then i would increase it by 1 unit. A week later i had to have it morning and night.

Here is an example of my levels
18 units of prophane before bed
5.7 before breakfast
6.3 after breakfast
6.2 after lunch
6.6 after dinner

then that night i had 20 units of prophane before bed and in the morning 10 units. A month later i was up to 54 units before breakfast and 48 before bed - at some stage i was told to start increasing by 2 units instead of 1. Thats when they changed me to novorapid. Starting level of 18 units before breakfast, lunch and dinner then 48 prophane before bed.

They climbed until i was about 36 weeks where i was on 22 before breakfast, 20 before lunch and 26 before dinner of novorapid and 82 of prophane.

I think it depends on your hospital though because mine was really strict. My fasting had to be below 5.5 and 2 hours after meals below 6.5 - Every body is different though and just because i went down this path doesn't mean you will. For this pregnancy i am a little concerned about it happening all over again but then i have found out that every pregnancy is different and my body might react better this time around. Who knows.

After having Isaac the same thing happened where he got a good glucose reading and i breastfeeding him and then the next one went down lower etc. They said they had to take him to Special Care and he was put on a drip etc. My husband and my sister in law Chareen went with him. While my other sister in law Maryleen stayed with me while i showered etc. What kept me from worry to much was Maryleen as she chatted away with me through the shower door while i showered. She was there to keep an eye on me because i was still very dizzy but really needed a shower.

They take the blood from the heel of the babies foot. I didn't know this when Isaac went into Special Care. He stayed in special care for 3 days and i think the hardest bit was me being in a room on my own without him. I went to Special Care often and just sat there with him. he never actually roomed in with me at all. When they realised him from Special Care we were sent home. Then he developed Jaundice and ended up back in special Care in a hospital closer to my house. He was on a feeding tube and under lights for 3 days. Today at 13mths he is doing great and you wouldn't even know he was in special care or anything.

I am in no way trying to scare you or upset you with my story. This time around for me i am doing more reasearch and learning about different things because i want to be more prepared. I feel i have to be being as i am pregnant with twins.

I would suggest that go down to Special Care - have a chat to the nurses and set up a time where you can be shown around Special Care. I was shown around and in the long run i think that helped.

With the twins they say they are faternal but now days the research says that even thought they are in two seperate sacks and with seperate placentas there is a chance that they could be identical. I think the stats are 30% of identical twins are di/di (seperate sacks and placentas) which isn't really that much. So they are more likely to be faternal.

I go for my 3 hour GTT this saturday and i have my u/s to see the sexes on the 12th i will be 17weeks. And my next ob appointment is the 16th of sept.

With the GD any questions ask away. Sorry i didn't plan for this to be a novel. Sorry about that.

Angel

[Jewel]

Belfie - OMG! I didn't know you were a twin too. Fancy that! Wow. I'm the older twin. I am 12mins old. We were born 12weeks early, so we were realyl really tinyyyyy. I forget how much I weighed. I say my sister kicked me out, cause she was breech. Lol.
I'm 5'2 aswell, and my DP is 6'5 and the boys weights were...
DS1 - born 39wks - 7lb 15oz.
DS2 - born 39wks2days - 8lb 9oz.
So we make decent size babies aswell. Thankfully not too massive though
My OB was saying yesterday they were fairly big babies and here I was thinking they were like average size. lol.
Worrying about the size of the bubba is always in your mind, aye. I know it was for me.

Angel - Wow. I'm glad everything is fine with your DS now. Thanks for sharing your story.
Good luck with your GTT on saturday. How exciting about your scan. Are you excited to see the bubbas and their genders??


Got my forms for my 2hr GTT test yesterday. I don't have to do it until early december, so in 3 months a round about.

When they tested Hayden's BSLs they took him away into the nursery which was next door to my room, so it was no biggie.

[Becci]

Belfie - I had a sizing scan at 36 weeks. My dr had warned me that they can be out by 20% which is huge! So like melbel said could be as much as a pound.

For me my fundal height was measuring over 40cm at 36 weeks so they were concerned. They didn't seem to take into account that I am over weight. I was weight just over 100kg at the time, and I'm only 5'2".

So my scan came back at 8lb 3oz at 36 weeks, which is the same weight Randall was full term! So they were even more keen for an induction.

The dr explained that because the measurements (head circ, abdo circ and thigh circ) were all on the big side which led her to believe that he was going to be big anyway, not because of GD. Buthe had a good fat layer around his middle which was due to GD. SHe said that if his tummy was big but his head wasn't (for instance) then it was probably GD making him chubby.

In the end Ethan was induced at 38 weeks and weighed only 7lb 10oz. Much better than the 9lber they were predicting for me.

So if you have a sizing scan (and you more than likely will I think) don't stress if bubs mesures big.

Good luck today.

[kgb]

Hi ladies

This is my first day of the working week so I can catch up with all the posts on the forum, I couldn?t get the comp to work over the weekend.

I am happy to report my readings are in the 5?s I have not had even a 6. (I don?t want to jinks my self yet as I still have 50 days to go and anything can change).

I have no energy, I am going to take Berocca, which says on the label no sugar (I assume it has fake sugar as it tastes sweet).

It my birthday on Sat, we are having just immediate family and planning takeway as I have no energy to shop and cook, is it to risky to try 1 slice of pizza and one piece of KFC? I am also thinking maybe a slice of cheesecake (will one time really matter?)

KGB

[Petals]

At my breastfeeding class today, I was told that at my hospital, my baby WILL automatically be admitted to the nursery and assigned a paediatrician to keep an eye on him, due to the fact I'm on insulin. I was also told that it would be for 48 hours, but that I would definitely still be able to breastfeed. I was pretty rattled by this, as 48 hours sounds like a long time to me (even though I guess it will go quickly once I'm there). I plan to ask my obs more about this at my appt on Monday. I'm a bit peeved I had to find this out during the "break" at a breastfeeding class! And I wonder when they would have told me otherwise. Grrr. I realise that it's probably good for baby to have an extra careful eye on him, so I guess it's not all bad... I suppose it's more about being mentally prepared.
.

hi Belfie

Are you going to a priviate hospital, not far from Doncaster that starts with M? If so, then their policy regarding special care can be flexed a bit. I was told the same thing one time I was there for monitoring. I let them know that I would prefer to room in. Thomas was born around 10pm at night, and they did his first BSL test while I was still holding him. I was exhausted, so he went to the nursary over night, and they brought him back for feeds and they did the tests also. After the morning feed, I asked if I could keep him for a while. As everything was going well they said yes, provided that I took him to the nursary before I fed so they could test his BSL's and I needed to feed there, rather then in the room - no biggie.

The peaditration checked him in the room and after 3 BSL tests that were OK discharged him from special care around 3 the afternoon after he was born.

Of course if there had been other problems then it would have been harder to talk them into it. However, as the mother of one of the premmie babies there said "what the heck is he doing here, he's huge!" (all 7 pound 8 ounces of him!)

A few days later he got a temperature, jaundice and low BSL, so they did blood tests in the nursary and then told me to top up his feeds with expressed breastmilk or formula as he was a bit to sleepy to breastfeed properly. This didn't have much to do with the GD though, more the jaundice.

kgb - if you need to go with fast food, then I could get away with the red rooster classic roast (1/4 chicken, spud, peas, pumpkin, carrot). If you are not doing fasting tests in the morning then anything eaten after the post dinner test has a long time to get out of your system before the next test...

Hi everyone else!

[belfie]

hi ladies,

huh, lotsa twins and lotsa 5"2 ladies!

Petal - you would be exactly right regarding where I'm going. How did you find it? Was it good in general? My obs' initials are KL - dunno if you had the same? I've asked my obs re the 48 hr thing, and I definitely got the sense that it's not locked in per se, but based on how bubs is going. So feeling a bit better about that.

Went to my obs on Monday, all going well baby-wise. Obs is convinced that bubba is a bit of a boofer (based on his "clinical" assesssment - hmm). Bubs is still head down, but not engaged at all. Obs's concern is that bubba won't drop by the time they want to induce, and that the next few weeks (36-37) will be key. He's also concerned by DH's size vs mine plus the GD complications, so actually said (for the first time) that I was a high risk of a c-section. Hmm. He doesn't want to do a sizing scan, cos he thinks they're too inaccurate (agree with that one). My fundal height is measuring a few weeks ahead too, but from what i've read, that doesn't really mean jacksh*t.

So I've got really mixed feelings. On the one hand, this all sounds very plausible, and DH is accepting it all quite merrily. On the other hand, the influence from here & my doula makes me much more sceptical, and I'm nervous about pushing back and trying to second guess the right path for me. I'm very aware that I'm already sitting on a route which already has interventions signposted (i.e. the inducing at 38-39 weeks) and aware that could so easily cascade into a c-section (partic when the obs is thinking that way already!)... I've read a bit more about induction where baby hasn't engaged, and from what i understand there are a few more risks in that scenario.

I think the biggest question I have for my obs now is around the necessity for induction being based on baby size/GD/insulin, when it seems they can't really assess baby size. I guess it comes back to conservative medical management.. If they think you've a few reasons signposting a big bubba, from their point of view, why risk trouble. Are there other reasons why they're so keen to induce GD patients? And why does the insulin make a difference too?

KGB - if it was me, I'd go the pizza slice & KFC, then have the cheesecake for "supper" after my BSL (maybe that's sneaky, but more likely to get away with it then). And happy birthday ready for Sat!

Tenny - that's so funny on the twin thing AND the size thing! When we were born we had to be induced cos we were 3 days before our due date with no sign of arriving! So we were pride of the nursery, big boofers that we were. Also, very interesting to see the size of your bubba boys. They certainly were a good size considering you weren't even 40 weeks, and that's nice you don't have to do the GTT for a bit.

angelraelz - thanks for giving the details of your insulin, wow it did get high. It's interesting, cos I'm allowed to go to 8 before they up my insulin. So I've had heaps of high 6's and 7's - which if I was using your guidelines, my insulin would have probably been increased. Doesn't make sense to me why they all do it differently. Plus they've never wanted me to do fasting BSL's, even though everyone else seems to. Oh well, one less finger ***** lol. Your information was really fascinating though, and I totally agree that it's better to be informed, so I really appreciate your sharing. It sounds like you're going to be very well informed for the birth of your twins, and as you say, every PG is different, so I'll cross my fingers for you on your test. I think reading everyone's stories of the babies being taken to nursery & having their BSL's has helped me to really settle down, stop freaking out (for the moment haha) and feel ok about it all. So thank you all for that .

Becci - thanks for the info on the sizing scan. I've heard that before, so it's good to get confirmation. In retrospect, were you still glad you were induced at 38 weeks? Or do you think you could have left it to go naturally?

Katones - hope your BSLs are going well too.

I'm off to see my endo tomorrow, so will be interested to see what he has to say. Don't think it'll be much really! Had an interesting day today - poor DH was up at 4am in agony... turned out he had a kidney stone (first one he's ever had)! Five hours later he passed it, but was NOT a happy camper! He's now full of revitalised sympathy for anyone in pain & thanking me for looking after him so well... he's all like "i'm going to look after you so well when you have the baby" etc... so I guess that's good timing in a weird way .

Oh dear this turned into an essay!
Cya for now! Belfie

[1MOREPLZ]

well my BSL were **** for a while and Monday when i rang my last weeks lot of levels through i was upped to 6units before dinner & 6 units before breakkie...and woo hoo!! levels are now behaving them selves.....am soo glad.. but am now having fortnightly U/S until bub is born and Regular monitoring of bub. I get my caesar dat next thursday which i am over the moon about