Blood sugar levels - what's normal?

[hunkerpumpkin]

Booking blood sugar level was 5.5 - a bit high, apparently, but not sure what normal is?

Am going for GTT tomorrow - had one last time with DS as have PCOS, but wasn't thought necessary this time.

Would search the archives, but it's not working

Thanks Hoxtonchick. Did you have a GKI during labour? What were your babies' blood sugar levels after birth? Just nosey! God knows how you manage your diet but I guess when you can take insulin you can just up your dosage if you've been "naughty"!!

what's a GKI? glucose infusion? if so, yes i did. just one of the many drips.... i tested my blood sugar each hour (i hate other people doing it!) & they adjusted the dose of insulin accordingly. but labour is such hard work for your body that i needed very little insuin at all (a couple of units at most), & my blood sugar was very stable around 5.0.

ummm, can't quite remember what their blood sugars were at birth, but they were pretty normal, about 3 i think (sounds low, but babies run lower than us). dd's did drop to 2, so we had to get food into her pretty quickly, but it went back up again straight away so no one panicked (except me!). i breastfed both (still am with dd as she's only 17 weeks), but they both had formula in the first 24 hours to stabilise their blood sugars. if you're intending to breastfeed, make sure your baby is given formula in a cup not a bottle. they lap it up like cats & it doesn't lead to nipple confusion.

am very bad at the diet thing.... but you don't have to be as obsessive when you're not pg . and i have an utterly wonderful consultant who doesn't want to see me for 6 months as he knows how hard i worked at my diabetes when i was pg.

Hoxtonchick, thanks for that info! I do have a huge aversion to my baby receiving formula but I have been assured that if I want then it will be via a cup. Its more about the teat than the milk really. Its interesting that even though you had insulin in labour, their levels weren't terribly low. I'm able to keep my levels within range with diet alone & this is more to do with my sheer stubbornness about avoiding insulin & hopefully not having a hypo baby!! Anyway, tomorrow I think I may be seeing a diabetic consultant along with my obstetrician so I'll have a lovely chat with him!

Would expressed colostrum do the same thing for blood sugars, HC? I seem to remember Mears posting something about women being able to do that antenatally and freezing it or something?

yes i think it probably would hunker. the logistics floored me though! also, dd took loads of formula at the or 3 formula feeds she had, over 100mls i think. even though i leaked quite a lot of colustrum i doubt i would have been able to collect that much. karmamother, it's probably hospital protocol that babies born to mums with diabetes have formula no matter what their blood sugar. just make sure you put the baby to the breast before each cup feed so that they still get colostrum & stimulate the breast as much as possible so your milk comes in (mine didn't come for 5 days as i haemorraghed after delivery, both dd & i were a bit tense by this point!). well, stick the baby on the breast whenever he/she squeaks i reckon!

have you got a list of questions for your consultant? i saw most people at most appointments, poor ds got very fed up of the hospital. they didn't patronise me too much as i used to work for diabetes uk, & also i hadn't had any problems with ds. fortnightly hospital appointments were a pita though....

Hoxtonchick, when I had a visit to the labour ward I asked about this & was able to spend 40 mins talking it through with the sister on SCBU. They seem fairly BF-friendly so I was greatly reassured. I was wanting a physiological 3rd stage unless it's contraindicated so I'll be putting bubs straight onto the breast anyway. Hope she has a good latch/suck. I'll take your advice about giving her the boob before any cup feeds. I'm really hoping that since I'm just diet controlled then she won't get too hypo. Got loads of questions for the consultant so I might write them down as my brain is like a seive (despite taking omega oils!!)