Gestational diabetes misery....anyone else?

[Gurtie28]

Hello, I got diagnosed with GD 4 days ago now, I'm 30wks pg.
Seemingly my levels were only just over the threshold and I felt so sure I could manage it with diet alone....
But I have found in just the short time I have been tracking blood sugar levels (4x a day) I am utterly miserable. It's like this dark cloud hanging over me and I'm scared to eat anything!!! The last two days my readings have been higher (though still just under the threshold) and I've felt defeated and just been bursting into tears - I'm so fed up.
Appreciate in the grand scheme of things it's a small complaint to have and I'm being over emotional - just wondered if anyone else had felt this way with a GD diagnosis?

I’m the same, 2 weeks in and it seems no matter what i eat i’m always too high. I’ve ate so many eggs now that they turn my stomach

I’ve just started metformin which to be honest have made me feel ill the past few days but from what i’ve read online it takes a few days to get used to it so hopefully it will settle.

Have you looked at the gestational diabetes uk website?

Have a look at the low carb bootcamp threads on here to give you more idea on the type of things to eat. You're aiming for low carb moderate protein higher fat to feel full and keep levels down.
I feel for you, pregnancy is hard enough without adding GD on top

Hi @belle365
Glad I'm not the only one! Gosh I have been in so many websites and looked at hundreds of recipes, just makes me feel even more deflated.
Had wholemeal toast with peanut butter this morning thinking that was a good idea, but level went from 4.3 to 6.7! It's torture waiting for the little machine to tell you how good or bad you have been...I dread every finger prick.
I know I am still measuring within range, my highest yesterday after some sausages and veg was 7.6 so close to being in the red - just feel like it's a matter of time before im never out of the red and that it is completely out of my control

@Gurtie28 I had it and it wouldn't stabilise 100% even with metformin. The GD nurse gave good advice though - I couldn't handle carbs when I first woke up at all so even wholemeal toast was out. But then later in the day carbs were fine. When it 90% stabilised, it took a couple of weeks I think. The gastro issues from metformin didn't take too long to resolve either.

Are you planning to express antenatally? DD was tongue tied and also too sleepy to feed. I took in syringes of colostrum for her though which ensured she passed the GD blood tests they have to have post birth.

Hey,
GD here too currently 37+5 and was diagnosed at 25 weeks.
I know how you feel, it's tough at the start as it's an adjustment but it sounds like you're doing a great job.

From what I understand bloods will always fluctuate after eating abs throughout the day, which is totally normal- the key is to avoid loads of massive out of range spikes, so if you're broadly in the ranges then you're doing a good job! My diabetes midwife said the odd one out of range, or if you're just eg .2 out of range that's fine - it's the big spikes, and lots of them to worry about.
It can be tough at times (I can't tell you how many times I've just wanted to eat a massive pizza and a load of chocolate!), but you will settle in to it I'm sure - it's just a shock at the start.
More than happy or answer any q's too!xx

Oh I really feel for you - I had GD when I was pregnant with my daughter in 2016 and it was very stressful and upsetting. I ended up on metformin and insulin injections, and spent I don't know how many hours at appointments in the hospital diabetic clinic. It really did cast a cloud over the last trimester.

www.facebook.com/groups/GestationalDiabetesUKMums/?ref=share

Highly recommend this Facebook group for support and food tips - I don't think I'd have coped without them honestly!

You will get into a groove with things you can tolerate eating - I won't pretend it's not restrictive and boring, but it does become manageable. The only bread I could eat was this stuff burgenbread.com/breads/soya-linseed and I couldn't eat it for breakfast only later in the day.

Main thing to remember - this is not your fault!

I’m 36+3 and was diagnosed at 28weeks. I didn’t weeks feeling upset, frustrated. I ended up with the GTT by mistake and not got any other triggers. But I’ve came to realise if there is something not quite right with me at least it has been picked up.

I kept a food diary for a month so I could see what worked for me and what didn’t. Some things have different readings different days and the diabetes nurse said that’s just what can happen with diabetes.

I am now taking x1 metaformin with breakfast and x2 with evening meal. I was warned of side effects and it did give me stomach ache and nausea first few days and then when the dose was upped the same happened. I’m sick of finger testing but tell myself it’s a way to keep baby safe.

Thanks all. Some really good advice here and it has made me put my positive hat on and I walked (exercise) to the supermarket today to get some GD approved snacks to cheer myself up! Feeling a bit better with my nut selection
Also found some caramel and chocolate protein bar things that are supposedly less than 1g carbs and sugar....I will report back if they are any good

My advice: keep away from bread pasta and rice. Like another poster said, I lived on a lot of eggs! But I managed to keep it controlled by diet by avoiding all of those (my favourites!). I also found that small amounts of ice cream were fine. And try and take a walk just after eating, that helped too!

I found it horrible the first week, I wasn't eating enough because I was so worried about my levels. Being hungry just made everything feel bad. The trick for me was to massively up how much fat I was eating.

Like others have said the gestational diabetes website and Facebook group were great, their good pairing advice really helped me. I couldn't eat wholemeal toast either, but could do 1 slice of black bread for breakfast. Total Greek yoghurt with berries was also ok. For lunch, cheese and coleslaw worked well with the couple of slices of bread I could manage.