Gestational Diabetes General Chatter #5

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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

[Becci]

Belfie - there's the height diff with me a DBF too. I'm 5'2" (yes another one!) and he's 6'2.5". So I'm sure that wa a concern for them.
My drs were preparing me for the fact that I would most likely need a c/s too. For a number of reasons actually. Firstly, there's more of a chance of needing a c/s with an induction (stats say that), plus I needed forceps with Randall, plus GD and size, plus Randall was 8olb 3oz without GD. I was prepared for it but wasn't too keen on the idea, but aslong as we are all healthy it didn't really matter how he was born. I was just hoping that it would be by epi and not general so that DBF could see him being born (he didn't get to see his ds born, dmn cow of an ex lol).

Part of me was hoping to go naturally as I was induced with Randall too and wanted to experience the whole build up of labor. But I don't think I could have handled the last two weeks. All that uncomfortableness (I'm sure that's a word lol). I know the gels helped labor come on quickly but an hour and seventeen minutes is a rather short labor so my worry is that if I had gone naturally would I have made it to the hospital in time seeing as the hospital is at least 45 minutes drive away? I'm not so sure I would have.

[Petals]

hi all

Firstly sign me up for the 5'2 club also!!

Belfie - I had a different Ob - but was in a similar positon with him saying a c section was a risk and me not wanting one. It was explained to me that insulin does have an effect on the placenta, and they can't really test when (or if) this will cause problems for bub's. Hence they take a better out then in approach at around week 38. If there is no insulin then there isn't a problem.

I know how you are feeling reading all the stories about inductions - I was very worried about it ending up a c section also, especially given it was week 37.5 and bub's was no where near ready to come out. In the end I had a natural birth from the induction although it was a long process. We did the gels at 5pm one night, ARM 8am the next morning, "the drip" at about 2.30pm and bub's was out at about 10pm and the only medical pain relief I had was gas for an hour or so. We did a hypnobirthing class and I focused on keeping myself relaxed as possible through out the process, hoping it would rub off on bub's (I have no idea if this is valid medically!) and he wouldn't get distressed and drop his pulse or poo. It worked for me...

I had no problems with the hospital, for all but one night we were in a double room and DH stayed with us. As you get everywhere some of the staff were great and some I didn't agree with as much, however I didn't find any I thought were incompetent. Be in your room around 3pm for the cake trolley - so good after doing the GD diet for so long!

Katones - good luck with your sugars!

[1MOREPLZ]

well..... since they have upped my dose to 6before dinner & 6 before breakkie my levels have been GOLD!!!!! not one bad one

[myson]

hi ladies. this is my first post in this thread and while you all do seem really lovely i hope i dont have to spend too much time here... IYKWIM.

i was hoping for a little bit of advice.

I am pg with baby number 3. I had GD while pg with number 2 but that was almost 9 yrs ago. I was able to control my bsl's with diet and exercise back then. After having DD2 i went back to "normal" straight away. But in recent years my doc has showed some concern with my levels heading back toward diabetic ranges as i get older.

i want to start altering my eating now, not waiting for a possible GD diagnosis. But there are so m any diets out there

So here are my questions...

is GD very likely for me do you think?

What do I eat? (low fat, low carb, low sugar, low calorie, low GI...????? so confusing.)

Is there a ready made diet that would be good? (csiro, or something else with a name?)

thanks ladies.

also on the dating scans.... at 36 weeks my bub allegedly measured 10lb plus! she came out a few days later(on her own) at 8lb15oz. still big for 3.5 weeks early, but nowhere near what the scan said.

[melbel]

If you are showing tendencies towards type 2 diabetes as you suggest i would recommend the low GI diet as being th enew protocol that is used for diabetes management. two publications that you will find invaluable are the "new Glucose revolution" by Professor jennie Brand Miller and the magazine Diabetic Living that is published every two months ( a new one is just out). Both are easy to read and have great tips and recipes for everyday living. HTH

[kgb]

hi myson

I have been following the recommendations from the Dr for the past week and have maintained my bsl under the recommended ranges.

* I have found sticking to 2-3 serves of carbs per main meal including (starchy vegies) with 15gms of carb per serve a good way to manage my GD.
* I also found having protein and non starchy vegies at each meal a good way to slow down the surge of suger in my blood. If you are really hungry bulk up meals with protein and vegies.
* Cut out all sugar, including honey, brown sugar.
* In between meals I only have either one peice of fruit with a hand full of nuts or a serve of skinny milk with two tea spoons of milo and fake sugar.
* Eat every two hours.
* walk 20 min a day (break it up twice a day x 10 min)

This is what I have found work for me, I am 32 weeks prego and hope I can maintain my bsl for the rest of my pregnancy.

Good luck.

KGB

[1MOREPLZ]

I have been eating smaller meals than what i used to and more vegies etc.. i used to have chocolate EVERY day have not done so since starting insulin, drinking MORE water but still having the occasional coke zero and just being disciplined with my eating, my BSL's have been great the last week (since starting now on 6 units twice daily)

[myson]

Thankyou melbel, kgb and katones, that is a big help. I really want to do the best I can and this has started me in the right direction.

GL to you all and your precious little bundles!

Thanks again.

[Niamh75]

Hi Girls

Just wondering (hopefully some are still around that have had their baby) but I had my baby a week ago and was on 4 insulin injections a day only checked for sugars for a day after delivery

but what was the right levels you should have and do you go back to the doctor in the hospital or your gp 6 weeks after the birth for a GTT I always went back to the hospital were I had my baby in Ireland so just wondering how it works here

Im just wondering as i still notice hypos and im mad thirsty (that could be Breast feeding though) and ive a funny taste in my mouth I was on a lot of insulin from very early on in my pregnancy I have had it fro about 10 weeks so just wondering if any one knows

Thanks and good luck xxxx

[Jewel]

Niamh - Congratulations on your babygirl! she's adorable!!!
How big was she? Everything turned out well, I hope.
For me, I just went to my doctor at the 6weeks checkup and he gave me forms for a 2hr GTT that I need to do in 3 months.
I think you should just make your 6weeks check up with your Dr. They'll either give you the stuff for your GTT or tell you whatelse to do.

Myson - Fingers crossed you don't have to be a regular here in the GD section.
GOod luck with your diet and I really hope GD stays away from you and you're having a H&H pg!

xoxo