Pregnant type 1 diabetics, step over here...

[RueDeWakening]

I seem to have filled up the old thread and thought I better start a new one! Still got ages to go, don't leave me now...

Am currently sat waiting for my 16 week antenatal appt, been here an hour so far and just had BP done and that's it.

Aww how lovely. Very jealous. It's my dream. Although I don't think we'll afford the country life until DCs are much older, by which time they'll hate us for taking them away from the, ahem, bright lights of the northern suburbs (or should I say street lights).

Argh having a nightmare morning! Was 7.1 at 4am took 2u woke up at 15.5!! Took 18u at breakfast which is 3 more than normal went a walk now 16.6!!! So taken another 2u

Oh Hoping! Sounds like you could be coming down with something? How was your sleep? I've had flu for a week so numbers have been truly shocking. Might make you feel less alone in shitty readings!

Must warn you all not to OD on long acting to combat dawn phenomenon. I woke up at 1.2 last night at 1am. My liver then dumped glucose as it then rose to 4.4 by the time I tested (1.2 reading was on CGM which is 20 mins behind). Was hoping it was a dodgy reading but it happened again, a bit less severe an hour later. I had chocolate and a slice of toast but the long acting dragged the small rise back down!

Anyhow the point of my ramble is despite having far too much long acting knocking about, come 5am the dawn phenomenon still happened!!!!!! It went from 4-10ish before the ridiculous amount of long acting in my body dragged it back down again to 6ish by about 9am.

I just didn't want you all thinking you can combat it with long acting and risking your life like I did last night. I've never been as low as 1.2 in my life. I'm worried just thinking about it. Thank God for livers!

The dawn phenomenon will happen regardless!!

Aw i really hope im not coming down with anything but myb my head has been sore for like 2 hours do try to aviod paracetomol but gonna have to give in i think still at 13.6 ffs

puds - I agree with you that dawn phenomenon is something altogether different and you have to be careful in trying to deal with it by upping the long acting. I'm doing what I can by watiing until 3/4am then having some novo to try to beat it though.

Puds, don't stress, I wouldn't go as far as to say "you risked your life". Please don't spend too much time fretting about what happened last night. Just adjust your long acting dose and you'll be fine. Deaths from lows are so so so rare so don't get wound up about it and let yourself run high.

Thanks Bona. Ha! You must know what I'm like by now with the fretting. I need you all to give me an arse kicking so sometimes! It was just bloody weird seeing 1.2 on the screen, knowing I'd been there and my body had saved the day! Isn't it strange as well how much 1u can make the difference?! However I'm now thinking on top of too much long acting my over enthusiastic evening correction dose can't have helped. Totally agree with the novo thing at 3/4. I just don't like anticipating a rise - if it's not over 9 then I am too chicken to correct. Would you just do it and hope for best?

I just feel since 20 weeks it's gone so bastard wrong! I rarely get things right and am always correcting. Is that normal? I freaked myself out a bit by going on a GD thread where they were saying about worrying doctors by going over 11 an hour after eating...f**k me! I have a growth scan Mon...I know I haven't been 'good' with my food choices for a long time now - and so the guilt if the baby is massive will be awful.

Phew. Nice to get it all out. How are you getting on Bona? Do you know if it'll be 37/38 weeks yet? Any mention of going into hosp for the steroids? When you starting mat leave?

Oh puds glad you're ok now! Don't forget to take it easy for the next 24 hours or so while your liver recharges.

I'm more back to normal today - the whole of yesterday was pretty much a write off, I was testing every 2 hours and taking corrections every.single.time. But was 5.9 before breakfast this morning, and not been too bad since, either. So I still have no idea what caused it. One of those things I suppose.

Puds - that is what we are here for!! Ooh, don't go on GD threads. They have a completely different illness from we do and we have a very different set of tools to try to deal with. No point in comparing. It would be like comparing to a non-diabetic who has an a1c of 3.8%. You'll just feel bad!

No more news for me yet so I guess we'll see what they say at my 34 week scan next week! I don't think steroids are standard unless you're earlier than 37 weeks - is that right? The last week has been sooo much better control wise so am really hoping no more massive spurts.

Rue - glad you are back on an even keel!

Dd was born at 36 weeks and I didn't have steroids

Hi ladies. Haven't posted here for a while and have lost track of the thread so I'm not sure if this has been asked before. Forgive me if it has! But did all you type 1 diabetic pregnant ladies get told to take low dose aspirin from 12 weeks? Is it standard for all T1 pregnancies? I'm not sure I want to take it. I don't have high blood pressure and it wasn't properly explained why I needed it. Just something about pre-eclampsia. If you could let me know if you took it and why it would really help. Thanks xx

I took it from the off. We're at an increased risk of pre-eclampsia. I developed it severely first time round and was about a week away from the same second time round. My bp was perfect until 35/36 weeks btw then BAM

I take it when I remember. It's partly to try and protect the blood flow in the placenta as well - a 38 week diabetic placenta looks and works like a 42 week non-diabetic one due to reduced blood flow/gritty & grainy-ness etc, and the aspirin is meant to thin the blood a bit so it flows through better.

Plus the blood pressure thing (which I'm not convinced it does much about tbh).

Ok. So it's normal for T1s due to higher risk of pre-eclampsia? Ok that makes sense. I was told to take it at one of my first appointments for diabetic pregnancy and was bombarded with info whilst still in shock over being pregnant. So I just don't think I absorbed all the info!

Dose is 75mg right?

Thanks!

X

Weird. I wasn't prescribed this and it hasn't been mentioned to me, not has the risk of pre eclampsia being increased. I also havent picked it up in any of my reading on the subject, but obv theres a lot of material! Ah well, have got to 33 weeks without it so I better hope no harm done.

Might check the NICE guidelines to see what they say as it sounds like it might have been a big miss from my team!

1 x baby aspirin daily - no idea what dose that actually is!

Baby aspirin is 75mg

I havent been given aspirin either, wasnt with ds either nor has pre e been mentioned well so far anyway. My blood sugars all yesterday were to put it bluntly s**t 5.9 this morning but took 5u going to bed and another 4u at 3am so putting levemir up again tonight. Im sooo sick of this but the endo at my appt monday says oh well we expect it at this stage put ur levemir up till it sits better thro the night.

hoping - glad it's not just me. And, I'm with you in being completely hacked off with it, too!

I've come to work with 'only' 28u novo with me which means I can't eat anything unti lunchtime and then no carbs. Am starving! Pre-preg 28u would have lasted me 2 days probably!!

bona no steroids for me and V came at 36+ weeks.

puds, scary stuff, but glad you're feeling better now. l had a 1.3 yesterday while carrying V in the sling - told you l was a liability . Went for walk to local park (30 mins out of the house, no more), but could hardly get home - kept having to lean against walls. Yes, l had eaten a cereal bar that l was carrying in my pocket.
Thankfully,my mum was with us so she took charge and got us home safely. V didn't even notice as was fast asleep, although she did notice that l couldn't feed her for well over an hour until my levels had sorted themselves out.

bona thats becoming a meal time dose for me too

diec jeez am i going to manage to breastfeed if im in byself with lo and ds?!

I haven't had much trouble with hypos and I always catch them early so I've been fine. I ran a little higher to start with now I seem to be back to normal only seems to be my levemir that's reduced lots

diec - you're scaring me too! Not sure how I'm going to manage on my todd! Thank goodness your mum was there. Perhaps starrt carrying glucose tablets (I like the lucozade ones) because they are light and small for your packet but pack a real glucose punch and work very fast. I take about 3-5 for a normal hypo, but if you were really low you could scoff the pack.

What sort of long acting levels are you on? Sounds like you need to turn those way way down perhaps?

Hoping - glad it's not just me. Today I will be having tomato soup at about 16g carbs the lot, plus a punnet of raspberries (about 10g). That will 'cost' me my entire 28u. AM STARVING!

Bona - I did that re. not taking enough insulin with me to work and it was awful :-( I was so hungry. Hope you're not too bad and you're home soon for a nice tea.

Hoping - my ratios must be on the rise again. It's hard not to get frustrated with days of bad readings but we have to just do our best, adjust and move on. Sooooo much easier said than done! I need to take my own advice as have been in a right state! It's reassuring they said they expect it to go a bit awry at this stage though. Makes me feel less bad! I'm also wondering the same thing re. bfing. Coped through it with DS - just. I've mentioned before the ten months was a blur of hypos! I'll give it a try with toddler in tow but who knows. Certainly not going to beat myself up about it - have done enough of that to last a lifetime!

Oh Diec :-( Can you run your levels higher - like 9/10/11? That's what I plan to do for about a year.

Also - a great thing about breastfeeding (I thought) was that it helps you lose baby weight. However, if I'm constantly eating cake to keep levels up...? Maybe the thing to do at first is just scrap Levemir. If you are feeding every two hours, perhpas that is enough to keep levels low between eating for which I'd still take novo?!?!

I wonder what the official advice is re. T1s and breastfeeding? I know it's likely to be crap/non existent but would be interesting to know. There should be info really.