Type 1 Diabetes Pregnancy Support Thread

[MrsNuckyThompson]

Wow - with a catchy title like that, who could resist? I was part of a lovely supportive thread like this one during my last pregnancy which was nearly 4 years ago now. I'm currently around 6 weeks pregnant with my 2nd DC. DS is 3.4

Anyone want to join me?

I think that's par for the course with hypos. The targets set are basically impossible to reach without a) being 'high' one hour post meal; or b) hypoing afterwards. That's unless you are eating very very low carb, which amusingly they don't want me to do as I need 'plenty of carb eneregy'. Fuck you then NhS nutritionist!!

I'm having a total nightmare wth levels. Lots and lots of high readings, some well into the teens. Mornings all over the place. Increasing insulin like crazy. Routinely having 10-12 units as soon as I wake up so that I can follow with more insulin an hour plus later for breakfast. I'm getting very very insulting resistant. I'd forgotten how crazy it got by this point in the pregnancy!!

Feeling quite down about my (in)ability to keep levels in check. Am thinking of going back to basics with carb counting and recording doses, carbs, ratios etc to see if I can spot patterns I'm missing. Haven't done that for years as I've found it relatively easy to tweak as I go but clearly not working right now with everything going on.

Meantime, lots of movements and baby measuring normally for the time being so fingers crossed it's not too late to come back from this!!

Ps Esker - am also eating everything in sight. Just trying to make sure I have as many lower carb snacks to hand as poss!!

Identical situation today! Went low in the supermarket.

Let's face it other people could have up to 11.0 (I think) 2 hours after a meal and not be considered diabetic so yes I think it's unrealistic.

I think most of us are past 12 weeks so have a structural normal baby (for want of a better term!) and therefore now control wise it's about growth and avoiding baby hypos after delivery.

Nucky that sounds so hard. Definitely write everything down, when is your next appointment?

Oh Nucky that sounds hard, but it sounds like you are doing all the right things and have a good attitude towards it.

I am usually very well controlled but it is getting really hard and im only 8.5 weeks!

Friday morning i woke up at 9.30am (meant to start work at 9am!!!) Having some sort of convulsion/fit. Luckily i came round from it and drank some lucozade that was in my handbag. It was horrible i really thought i was going to die. I am very scared about what it might have done to the baby too.

Luckily my work were brilliant when i managed to call at 10.30 to let them know what had happened. I have never had a day off sick or overslept so i guess that helps.

I just thank my lucky stars i wasnt looking after my 2 year old that morning (he had a sleepover at my mums). I go cold just thinking about it.

I am going slightly overboard and testing every 3 hours at night know, a pain in the bum but necessary for now i guess.

Cosmo that sounds terrifying! Does that happen often? Sounds like a good case for a CGM with an alarm?

I woke in the night feeling not right at all, couldn't put my finger on what was wrong. Tested and 4.7 but felt much lower. I had a couple of glucose tablets and within 10 minutes felt better again. No idea what was going on there. Someone said on a FB group you could be having a hypo but your liver is churning out glucose to try and fix it. And that the meter can have up to 0.5 error?

Hi cosmo - scary! Glad to hear you're ok!

Tea - sounds like you had a terrible hypo in the night and woke just as you were on the 'uptick' again. Yes, if you hypo and don't treat it your liver eventually releases stored glucose to self-treat. So that may well be what happened. That's why it helps to do the occasional 3am test because you might be waking within range or even high but as a result of having dipped and gone low.

Had a nightmare lunch. Quite a high carb lunch (was out) but tried a 3:1 ratio and was 15.7 90 minutes later. Appalling! It is like someone has dialled up the requirements here and I have no clue what is happening. Feel dreadfully guilty...

3am! Yuck but yes probably useful to know about. As I still have some insulin of my own sometimes get something called reactive hypoglycaemia when I've eaten something and my remaining Islet cells decide they will actually work for a bit! But if I've take an insulin injection it can be a bit hairy.

Wowsers at 1:3! Eating out is so tricky.

Nucky sorry to hear about the stressful high levels. I would definitely recommend recording everything. I made a quite an insanely detailed template for recording levels (practically hourly) when I was in hospital. Due to being so immobile I was often very high after eating. I did find it really helpful, albeit a bit of a pain. If you think it could be helpful I can send to you if you PM me your email address? I hope the rest of the day was ok after lunch out?

I'm hardly being a model citizen with diabetes this weekend... have indulged in various Christmas treats and just been topping myself up with frequent boluses. But I'll get back on the wagon tomorrow. Weirdly I find that the only breakfast that works for me at all is fruit. I'm so insulin resistant in the morning that starchy carbs are out of the question, but even dairy products like yogurt and cottage cheese send me soaring as well. Whereas an apple and a tangerine plus a few units seems to work out ok in spite of being sugary. I guess insulin resistance is also quite dependent on the type of sugar being ingested.

cosmo I hope you're feeling ok and back to normal after that scary hypo. I had lots of hypos too in first trimester and needed barely any insulin.

Night all!

Well that's entirely true Esker! The starchy carbs and some of the higher GI dairy products will have an effect but the tangerine and the apple might have the same carbs but lower glycemic index/load. It's why white baguette and lovely crumpets are just evil but granary toast or proper porridge oats less so. I ate half a melon at the weekend, not a spike at all despite being the same carbs as a slice of bread.

Aww MrsNucky I'm sorry to hear you're having trouble with your numbers. I find even religiously carb counting (because the insulin pump is so sensitive) doesn't necessarily help.

I've reached a point where I'm just so fed up of weighing everything I eat or only eating out a packet where the carbs are clearly marked. I weighed out some Twirl bites earlier and it took all my self restraint to a) wait 20 mins between bolusing and eating and b) not to eat the ENTIRE packet after I finished my allocated amount (fortunately my DH ate the rest before I could get to it).

Of course despite bolusing exactly for the chocolate and waiting 20 means I still went above 9 on BG.... Christmas is such a difficult time of year to be diabetic with sugar everywhere and miserable weather (for which the only cure is obviously chocolate).

Sugar you sound very fed up. It makes eating and food such a chore sometimes doesn't it?

In having a day off diabetes today I've decided. I'm going to low carb (sort of) so won't be worrying about my numbers all the time. I've just had bacon and tomatoes for breakfast and packed nuts and cheese for snack at work. Home for lunch and might have something eggy and then a protein and veg tea of some description!

Things are just crazy here. I've religiously recorded all carbs, ratios and corrections as opposed to just readings and have come up with some new ratios. No wonder things were off given the insane jump in resistance I seem to be having.

Up to 5:1 for breakfast. So for one 20g slice of granary bread I had 10u insulin this morning. I had been having yoghurt but have gone completely off it. Lunch (usually my least resistant meal so most of my carbs) I am 3:1 so bad 21u and for dinner a measly 30g meal plus an apple cost me 12u!!

First thing dreadful. Even if waking in range I have to immediately inject around 4-6 units to avoid being high by the time I've woken, showered, dressed and got anywhere near breakfast. Bonkers!!

The good thing is that writing it down has made me accept this is where I am. 5:1 tho!!! And 27u Levemir for bedtime!!

Well done Nucky for all the recording! It is NOT easy to find time to do it all, but glad you've got some clarity on ratios. Hope things plateau off for a while so you can stay on these doses. It's so tiring trying to chase changing needs all the time!

Hope everyone is well. I'm fine with the exception (not diabetes related) of an unsightly eyelid infection which is making one eye bulgy and red. Going full Quasimodo

Diabetes wise, not much to report. Some mince pies have been sneaking their way into my diet... but I've generally managed to bolus effectively for them (with the exception of today's post lunch high...)

Can feel the baby moving lots, which is great. Maybe he is a fan of mince pies!

Nice to hear everyone is coping - crazy ratios, mince pies n all. And welcome to the new people!
I've basically had a cold after another for god knows how long and still am off with food (partly due acid reflux now) since the stomach bug.
But kinda on the mend I hope... survived air travel with the toddler (coughing fits & ear popping 👎🏻, babyzen yoyo 👍🏻) so getting set for xmas and will now just take it as easy as possible for the coming weeks. And maybe pay bit more attention to diabetes again, feels like it's been on a back burner for a while...
Yeah - finally properly feeling the baby is great 🙂.

Also having the odd mince pie and succumbed to a crumpet yesterday afternoon too. What do they put in those? I think the main problem for me at this time of year is grazing and it's not necessarily huge amounts but it can be difficult to deduce patterns from numbers when they're not truly fasting/pre-meal numbers.

Morning all,
Hope you've all had a good weekend and been better diabetics than I have... went to a friend's for Christmas lunch yesterday and ploughed through everything in sight. No major high spikes, but I was riding high pretty much all day. Today will be better.

In non-diabetes news, this baby has further proved himself as a troublemaker. I've been having vey uncomfortable, contraction-like tightening pains, disrupting my sleep since Wednesday night. Friday night I was up from 2.30 for the rest of the night and ended up coming in to triage to be assessed. They sent me home after a few hours as the contractions slowed and stopped. However last night the same thing happened and we came in again. I've now been admitted. They think the contractions may be to do with irritation from the blood clot. Exams have shown than cervix is long and closed so thankfully it doesn't look like pre term labour. Still having contractions every 4-6 mins though. Not unbearable pain at all and they don't last long, but just very uncomfortable and accompanied by tightening and hardening of bump. The baby is well and has good heartbeat, and I've got a scan later today. I do feel like your reassured just being here, but quite perplexed by the regularity and persistence of the contractions

I really don't feel like this is early labour, but I sure would like to know what it actually IS!

(Sorry to hijack our diabetes thread with these shenanigans!)

How many weeks are you now Esker? Sounds like a mischief in the making! Hope things settle down.

I'm 25+6 now.
Further developments today... turns out once I had a transvaginal scan that my cervix is not long whatsoever, but is a paltry 9mm making me at high is of pre term labour.
Cue action stations from the doctors to give me the steroids. I've now been transferred to Homerton hospital, which has Level 3 (highest) neo natal provison for preemies. My hospital only delivers women who are 34 weeks plus. It's all been a big shock and whilst I feel fine in myself, I've had a few bouts of tears throughout the day. One silver lining is that I'm not on a sliding scale. Have no idea what's going to happen over the next few days or how long I'll be here- just praying that it all settles down so I can continue to a safer delivery date.

Oh Esker! You poor thing. Not surprised you're feeling tearful, hope you hang in there for a bit longer. You sound like you're in the safest hands possible. Will be thinking of you.

Oh esker! Really hope the situation calms down again, how stressful & unfair after the bleeds to now have this. Don't know how the care is managed - if the Royal Free are still in the picture - but I was with Homerton's diabetes team for a year (in 2010 so a while back but still...) and they were pretty good. Thinking of you, fingers crossed xxx

Thanks for your messages guys!
Things have been good today with no further pains or tightenings. Blood sugars have been constantly high as result of the steroids but I've been allowed to manage myself and simply test every hour and give myself bolus to correct (basically happening every hour as I'm constantly high!)
Diabetes nurses came to see me and were reassuring about the highs, saying it's just par for the course following steroids and is fine as it's temporary. I've been really happy with the care all round.
Very odd situation to be in with this short cervix business.. it seems that many people hang on for weeks and manage to deliver close to term, whilst of course it can go the other way as well.
Hope you are all very well and managing to balance some Christmas treats along with reasonable sugar levels!

esker - can't believe it!! Sounds like you are in the best possible hands. Cross those legs and we'll keep everything else crossed. Hopefully it is a good sign that the contractions have stopped... I had steroids last time and things settle down very quickly.

According to my team this is prime time for 'normal' women to get gestational diabetes and so insulin resistance is very normal at this point for all. So that might also be coupling with the steroids to explain the highs.

Good luck and keep us posted. X

Hello all!
Just another update from me... I'm still in hospital but things have been stable ever since I was admitted, so I'm hoping that I'll be allowed home tomorrow.
Blood sugars have been pretty ok ever since the steroids wore off. I still tend to be very high after breakfast, but that really can't be helped and at least it's temporary.
Wishing everyone a very happy and peaceful and happy Christmas with no type-1 related annoyances!

Hope you get home ok Esker! Bet you can't wait!

I had antenatal clinic in Tuesday which was going to be uneventful apart from me mentioning bruising lots with injections. Which led to some panic stricken looks and extra bloods but I'm fairly sure it's my crap technique rather than anything being wrong with my platelets or something! Have been very careful since and no more bruising.

Have a lovely Christmas everyone if we don't chat before then.