Hi, it seems there are a few of us around and I wondered if you wanted to start a support thread? There seemed to be a good thread going through 2010 but I can't find one running at the moment.
My due date is 17 July. I took the OGTT at 30 weeks (not realising that the best time for diagnosis is supposed to be 24-28 weeks). I was only diagnosed last week, given my blood glucose monitor on Thursday and have been trying to tweak my diet to bring down the readings since then. Seeing my midwife today and have to phone in my readings next week to see what they make of them!
My main problem seems to be the fasting blood sugars and the endocrinologist I saw on Thursday said if I couldn't keep them consistently down, I would go on insulin, with 'no negotiation'. 
Would love to hear from other pg women with GD, or those who have been through it before. I'd also like to compare how the antenatal 'care' varies with country, as I am in Australia and it seems extremely strict over here (e.g. my fasting blood sugar levels have to be under 5.0 mmol/l).
Looking forward to getting some responses 
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Pregnancy
Support thread for those diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes
HighFibreDiet · 22/05/2011 01:19
I have it aswel, my gtt came back borderline but like you i have had really high fasting levels so i think i do have it? I have my first appointment with the diabetes clinic tomorrow, and a growth scan, so will see what they say. My levels have been coming out all really high for the fasting, and after food ones generally okay but a few high ones. So I wonder if they will put me on insulin aswel then 
the diet thing is weird, i am trying to improve and control it a bit but it seems to make no difference?! for eg if i have had something that i think oh hmm it should be high after this, it most of the time has come up okay but just the fasting ones come out soo high although i have eaten nothing?!
good idea to have a support thread so we can all chat, because it can be a bit confusing.
i am due in august i think im something like 28 weeks? (i lose track 
), its my 3rd baby but first time ive had diabetes, my 2nd baby was quite big though so after i had him community midwife asked are u sure u didnt have it? soo maybe had it mildly undiagnosed or something.. or he might have been just naturally big. oh and i am in uk
I was diagnosed at 24 weeks and am not 33+5, so used to things now really. I am insulin controlled as it was impossible with diet alone and I actually got a huge lecture from the dietician about not eating enough carbs. There's no way I could control without insulin now as even though I stick to the diet I am supposed to, my insulin requirements have gone up and up. I also didn't gain any weight at all until last week and even then only a couple of pounds, about 3/4 of which was baby!
I wasn't given a diet sheet as such, but told to carb count and stick to wholegrains/wholemeal versions where possible. The dietician said to have 180g of carbs a day, 40g breakfast, 50g lunch, 50g dinner and then 10 each for 3 snacks and the other 10 for milk in tea and coffee. She also said I could be a little flexible if I needed to.
An average days food for me consists of:
Breakfast: 2 slices of seeded toast with two boiled eggs or small bowl of museli.
Lunch: wholemeal pitta bread with greek salad or toasted with cheese and ham/cheese and salami and some celery, cucumber, radished, avocado etc, plus a weight watchers youghurt or piece of fruit or packet of crisps.
Dinner: Salad with a few new potatoes in their skins with some meat or fish. Or home made chilli with brown rice or wholemeal pasta with chicken, pepper and pesto. Then maybe a yoghurt or sugar free jelly. Occasionally a scoop of Ben and Jerrys. (which doesn't seem to affect my readings!)
Snacks: weight watchers yoghurts (about half the carb value of mullerlights) fruit (was told up to three pieces a day) nuts, chocolate peanuts, veg and hummous, glass of milk. whatever makes up 10g of carbs.
Hope this helps someone.
Morning everyone. Looks like there are quite a few of us here! AT least I have someone else to chat to about this. Didn't realise what a pain this would be!
Well I have phoned the hospital this morning to ask them about these tablets - waiting for someone to call me back! What I find completely ridiculous is that they are quite happy to dish out tablets, but my appointment with the dietitian isn't until the 9th June. Would have thought I should be seeing them first to check what I am eating is ok, before taking medication!
Is anyone else really starving the whole time? I am so hungry - but if I eat anything very much it seems to send me over the limit (my ones after breakfast are always over anyway!)
Midori did they say anything about not putting weight on? I weighed myself yesterday (don't normally bother when pregnant, as I just assume I'm going to get heavy anyway!) and I am actually 10lb lighter than before I got pregnant. On the plus side, at least I won't have as much weight to lose once I've had the baby. Guess for every negative there has to be a positive 
They weren't very happy about it at first, but then were when they were confident I was eating enough carbs.
Metformin isn't trialled as safe for pregnant women (like all medications really) because it's unethical to test on pregnant women. However, it is widely thought to be safe because it has been used on pregnant women with no adverse or ill effects for so long. My unit prescribe it, but didn't in my case as they said it takes too long to see the effects and I would probably end up on insulin anyway.
I mainly have problems with my fasting readings and my after breakfast ones too. I struggle to increase my insulin fast enough to keep my readings down and my fasting are always in the high 5's if not over 6 and my after breakfast readings have almost always been over 8.
I too get hungry. I try and fill up on protein foods if I am hungry as they dont' affect your sugars too much. So, for breakfast today I had a 4 egg omlette with cheese along with my measly portion of museli. Then with lunch I'll add in some cheese/cooked meat if I am hungry. You do get used to the smaller portion sizes after a while though and I actually had to take some food off my dinner plate last week as it looked too much! 
Well hospital phoned back and said yes - definately no reason not to take, so guess I will have to take their word for it!
Midori my fasting readings are usually high 5's and have never had a breakfast one lower than 8 - has been over 11 some mornings 
. So guess I will see if the tablets make it lower then.
Think I am just having a bad day. Am so flipping hungry, and I know I am being really grumpy with the kids but is very frustrating when I am trying to be really careful but still struggling to keep the readings down. Worst thing is with normal dieting you can at least give yourself a break and just eat a load of rubbish to make u feel better, obviously not allowed in this case! Roll on August...
Wow great to see so many people on here although not so great that we're all going through this I suppose.
I have found that my post-breakfast readings are very high unless I really minimise the carbs - I can probably get away with half a slice of toast but only just. I have been having omelettes with mushrooms and onions or whatever leftover veg is in the fridge, plus cheese too. Like squirrel007 I find I'm eating a lot more cheese than usual. And like midori I am getting used to the small portion sizes. In fact I tried making myself porridge with the recommended amount of oats and it was far too much for me to finish.
The dietitian did say to try to eat low-fat versions of milk, cheese, yoghurt etc. but I am sceptical about this and think it's not really specific to GD, just that they prefer to recommend low fat foods to everyone. They also specified which sweeteners we should or shouldn't use and when I queried whether the forbidden ones were anything to do with insulin production they said, no it was just that the 'bad' ones had been linked to cancer if consumed in huge amounts. . Not that I eat artificially sweetened food anyway.
Anyway my 'typical' meals so far are:
Breakfast: veg omelette with cheese and maybe half a slice of wholemeal sourdough bread;
Snacks:nuts and seeds, a pear or apple, or something like raw veg with cheese or hummus, or wholemeal sourdough bread with peanut butter. A small piece of dark chocolate (>70% cocoa) is also fine. I always have a snack straight after my post-prandial blood sugar reading .
Lunch: Loads of salad with different veg and seeds, plus some protein (usually fish or chicken) and a few carbs (bread or chickpeas, but not too much)
Dinner: Meat or fish with veg and sweet potatoes.
I know about the risk of ketosis if you don't eat enough carbs but I don't think I'm getting to that point yet. I don't feel hungry, anyway.
I am quite pissed off about how strict my levels are: they are not only lower than the NICE recommendations but also the regulations for the Australian state we are in (NSW). So next time I go in if they dare say I'm not doing very well I will ask on what basis they suggested their levels in any case. It's almost like they want me to go on insulin rather than giving the diet and exercise a chance (similar to putting you on metformin straight away, Midori).
Apparently the huge rise in testing for and diagnosing GDM is due to someone finding a link between stillbirth and undiagnosed diabetes. But a review paper I found from last year said that the only statistically improved outcomes between managing GDM and not were the rate of shoulder dystocia and macrosomia (big babies). Other outcomes like hypoglycaemia in the newborn, perinatal death or birth trauma weren't shown to be affected (at least not to any statistically significant level).
My midwife also said that exercising after 8pm, preferably as close to bedtime as possible, and making sure you exercise the large thigh muscle, is a good way to lower the fasting rate. She has a research paper all about this and I don' t have the reference but she said she'd try to get me a copy. Apparently it also explains why fasting levels can get so high overnight, which would be a good thing to get my head around.
I did 30 mins on our exercise bike tonight and some other exercises which my physio has given me to do. I saw a physio a while back as I also have SPD. I'm going to see her again this Thursday and see if she has some more strengthening exercises to recommend. At this rate I'm going to be pretty fit by the time I go into labour!!! The midwife also said that, if nothing else, at least having this diagnosis will mean the baby doesn't end up as large as it might have done. My babies have steadily got larger and ds3 was 4.03 kg and not a terribly easy labour (although still vaginal and at home).
Anyway a bad night's sleep can also affect fasting blood glucose levels so I'd better get off to bed now :)
Looking forward to hearing more news from everyone next time I log in.
3kidsnobump I was the same. I tried everything to lower my fasting, a walk before bed, protein snack before bed, no snack before bed, nothing made a difference. I still get readings of over 10mmol occasionally now even on the large amounts of insulin (started on 3 units with breakfast, now on 17) so goodness knows what they would be without it. My clinic only worry about lots of readings over, not the occasional one. Maybe the Metformin will help. Otherwise I am guessing you could request insulin instead of the metformin if you were worried about taking the metformin in pregnancy? It was always my preferred option. It makes life so much easier as instead of worry so much about what I eat, I eat the amount of carbs they suggested and then adjust my insulin accordingly. It also means if I do want the very odd 'treat' (meal out with desert for example) I can adjust my insulin to keep my sugars in order. (the clinic said to do this, I'm not simply being irresposnsible! )
oinkyoink I had my GTT at 8am and then saw my consultant that afternoon and they already had my results in. I hadn't expected them so fast. The DAU that did the GTT did say to ring after 6pm that night for the results if I hadn't heard anything though, although also said they may not be back.
highfibre did the dietician give you a guide to how many carbs to eat? I was previously having a similar diet to you and they really tore strips off me about it, saying it wasb't enough carbs at all and I must increase them. I am lucky though in that my dietician is also pretty realistic and said the main thing was controlling the carbs in order to control my sugars and not to worry too much about anything else for now.
My babies have also been big. DDS2 was the biggest at 4.540KG when he was born at 38 weeks and I didn't have GD then. (they tested me) This baby was estimated at 2.5KG (5lb 10) at 33 weeks, so is on track to be around 4KG/9lb, but her measurements are all ahead, not just her AC, so I personally think her size is just down to the fact I have big babies and not the GD. I do think they panic about shoulder dystocia etc. I delivered all of mine vaginally with no problems, not even any tears or stitches. I love big babies and am looking forward to another one!
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