Late GD diagnosis and worried sick for baby

[Opalwindfury]

Hi all, I’ve just recently (35 weeks) been diagnosed with gestational diabetes. I am freaking out that something will be wrong with baby at birth or that my baby will have low blood sugars or something far worse, I was also told baby is quite big as at my last scan (33 weeks) I was told baby weighed 6Lbs! And tummy size was off the charts.
Can anyone give me any reassurance? Has anyone had a healthy baby after being diagnosed with GD so late in pregnancy? Also were both of your blood sugars stable and was baby taken to ICU?
I haven’t been able to sleep since the scan as I’m worried sick.
Thank you x

Hi. I'm sure it'll be fine. I had my DD 20+ years ago and she was over 12lb due to GD. She was an emergency c section, thank goodness, as she wasn't progressing with natural route. They took her blood from her heel every couple of hours to see that her blood sugars were fine. Which they were, as far as I remember. But I was a bit out of it after the c section, so I may be missing some of the fine detail. There was never any cause for concern. I was diagnosed with GD about 7 months in and ate a certain diet to keep it under control. Basically a healthy diet without the crap I'd been eating. I blame it on Coca-Cola. We were living a very party life style at the time I was pregnant and I downed several cans of coke a night. Not so good in retrospect.

I was diagnosed with GD at 33 weeks. Very similar situation to you - baby measuring 5lb 5 but tummy measurement off the scale. Controlled through diet only - scanned again at 38 weeks and everything measuring back in scale. Baby was induced at 38+6 (planned induction before knew about GD). Birth was fine (apart from being asked to measure sugars mid contraction!) Baby was 7lb 2oz and her sugars were fine. We were discharged from hospital after 24 hours. She's now 2 weeks old and doing well.
For me the key was sticking to diet control and exercise- it's boring but it worked. Try not to worry too much - it's better that you know and there are things you can do to manage it.

I was diagnosed at 36 or 37 weeks. There's been signs earlier but that was missed as I had a lot of pregnancy complications. Didn't get taught what to eat etc until the week after diagnosis. Had a c-section (for other reasons) at 39 weeks, baby was 8lb 13 with no problems. I'd expressed colostrum wrecking my nipples with a pump to feed her as that's meant to help. Try not to worry.

Try not to worry OP. A lot of people are diagnosed late and the most important thing now is that you get your blood sugars under control so that when the baby is born their blood sugars are more likely to be stable.

I was diagnosed at 30 weeks and managed to stay diet controlled. My DS was a big boy at 9lb5oz but he was absolutely fine and passed all his sugar tests.

Have you looked at the Gestational Diabetes U.K. website and Facebook group? You'll find some really useful information on there including meal ideas. There are plenty of ladies on there in the same boat and it's a really supportive group.