Over 35 and cautiously hopeful

[Bumblebee413]

Hello @SnookyPook @RoseH36 and @Fullofconfusion ! I don’t know if there’s anyone I’ve missed- feel free to add. Just thought it might be nice to have a new space as we’re all fairly similar gestation wise and we’ve been through a fair amount together in the previous thread x

@RoseH36 hi mama! How far along are you now? It's interesting how different each pregnancy can be but yes I'm almost at the finish line. My OB said she doesn't want me to carry past 38weeks which means my baby could be here as early as 4 or 5 weeks from now.

Glad you joined us @VixFromThe6ix, feel free to invite anyone else. I didn’t find them super friendly either, posted when I was having a wobble (fairly standard with me! 😄) and got no responses. Would never have happened on the TTC board!

Sorry to hear about the GD diagnosis. If it helps, this is a thread of GD veterans 😆 @RoseH36 diagnosed herself this time before the midwives did.

@VixFromThe6ix hello! I'm exactly 18 weeks today 😊 still feels slightly surreal as after last year I couldn't imagine getting to this point. Your OB hasn't said that because of you having GD have they? There is loads of stuff on the GD UK website about not having to go down the induction route if you don't want to. A lot of hospitals still use GD as an excuse to want to do that but unless there's a medical reason for it then you don't have to.

@Bumblebee413 haha I did indeed. Think they were quite surprised to see I was right 😂

@Bumblebee413 exactly... I got such good support on the TTC board and absolutely terrible responses on the pregnancy one. I laughed that @RoseH36 diagnosed herself. I was in such denial after my diagnosis that when I did the diet thing and taking my blood sugar readings 4 times a day I was sure it was gonna just correct itself but it didn't and no matter what I did my fasting blood sugar was high. So I had to accept that I had GD. It's not the worst thing that can happen as baby is healthy and I am too otherwise.

@RoseH36 that's actually why...or partially why. She said because of my age, gd and because one of my first placenta scans showed abnormal (but had since been corrected). I really don't want to go down the induction route as it happened with my first because my body refused to dilate and he didn't want to drop...and gosh it was terrible.

I am seeing her tomorrow and I will talk more about letting my body take it's normal course and see what happens. My first was about 3 weeks early...so this could very well be the case here (I'm hoping).

18 weeks is almost half way!! Honestly I felt like my first 20 weeks flew by... I remember thinking how am I 20 weeks already. But for some reason I'm finding the weeks following are dragging on. I feel like I've been pregnant for a year ahaha

@RoseH36 I would just be a bit cautious about sharing those views, GD is a medical cause that can increase risks to baby, there is well founded evidence behind doctors recommendations to deliver by certain times for women with GD depending on their diabetic control and other factors about their medical history.
Of course it's OK to question your doctor/midwives advice and ask the reasoning behind what they recommend, but they don't make these recommendations for no reason, induction is more work for healthcare staff than a spontaneous delivery, so there's nothing in it for them other than health and safety of mum and baby.

Lovely to see you here @VixFromThe6ix

I’m 14+4 today and finally told my other little one that he’s going to be a big brother. He’s excited which is what we hoped for. It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster so we wanted to wait until we had the all clear with everything before telling him. I’m so pleased he’s excited.

Thats lovely @Fullofconfusion, so glad he's excited! How old is he?
I'm 10+6 and my first was 2 in January but I was thinking of holding off telling him until the 20w scan because then we can tell him about a "brother" or "sister" as well as the concept of a baby.
Honestly I think he is so oblivious atm but hard to tell as he has a bit of a speech delay so I think there's a good chance that there's more going on in his head than we realise from what he says!

@VixFromThe6ix nice to have you here and wow! Can't believe how close to the finish line you're getting now! 😍

@Fullofconfusion aw that's so lovely you've felt able to share with your DS and that he's excited! I found that a big part of making it all a lot more real suddenly!

@Fullofconfusion that's great! How did you tell him? How old is your son? Mine will be almost 2.5 when baby #2 is born. At first I felt like he was excited but now he says "i don't want baby" and "I don't want to share with baby brother" 🤣 I'm sure he will be the best big brother when he meets the baby tho

Hiii @SnookyPook happy to see you here!! I'm almost at the finish line!! I wanna say then the hard part will be done (pregnancy and no more TTCing) but having a newborn and a toddler at home might bring it's own challenges I'm sure. How are you doing ?

He’s 5. We told him he had a very important job to do and then explained that he needed to be a big brother. He asked if we were getting a baby! If only it was that simple!! Haha I’m so pleased he’s happy though.

@VixFromThe6ix I bet your little one will love having a brother once he’s here. I expect a few of those moments from mine too!

@SouthwestSis we’re having a surprise so he knows it’s a brother or sister and we won’t know until it’s here.

@VixFromThe6ix it was my fasting that was the issue last time, all other readings I could control but not that one.

Hope your meeting goes well today. I've already told my midwife I don't want to be induced this time. They wanted to induce me because of GD last time but my waters went two days before I was due to go in. Nothing then happened at all, they tried inducing me but nothing happened so I ended up with a section.

@SouthwestSis I know there can be reasons why it's necessary but so many women are told they have to go down that route because of GD but if its been well managed then it's not necessarily needed. My trust publish data each month on how many women were induced and how many were natural, every month the stats for induction are far higher than natural births and I do wonder why. We are one of the only countries in Europe that don't like women going over 40 weeks.

My DS had a speech delay too and wasn't talking properly until after 2 and a half. It's surprising what they take in though, he started coming out with things that had happened months ago when he hadn't got the speech to tell us about them. His speech still isn't where it should be (he's 4 now) so I suspect he'll be referred for speech and language when he starts school.

@RoseH36 have you had high blood sugar in the morning even after taking insulin before bed? For some reason since I started on insulin about a week ago my morning fasting readings are out of control. They are way higher than what they were before taking insulin. They said if it's high increase the number of units so I have been. Like how high does it need to go before taking effect? I'm not a fan of all the needles and insulin being injected but I'm doing this for the baby :( it makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong. I do it in the back where love handles are....where did you inject? Sorry if I'm asking too many questions.... I don't see the clinic for another week and I don't know what else to do to lower the fasting sugars.
Honestly I'm just exhausted. So many appointments. Supplements. Ultrasounds. Blood tests. I just want it all to be over already.... this pregnancy kicked my butt.

@VixFromThe6ix give the clinic a call- they may need to switch you to a different form of insulin and with GD if your blood sugars are off, getting in touch sooner rather than later is helpful. Please don’t ever feel that you need to stick to schedule with GD. The condition doesn’t work that way. It’s fine if all is stable but if you’re struggling, call them sooner x

I know that were told to be really careful about exactly what we’re putting in our bodies during pregnancy, so it feels really counter intuitive to be putting lots of what feels like a very serious medicine in. Particularly in such an invasive way. But actually by you working as hard as you are to maintain that stable environment for your little man with your blood sugars, you are protecting him in a wonderful way. The highs and lows or uncontrolled blood sugars are really hard for their little bodies to adjust to and increase his chance of getting it when he’s born. Your body usually has insulin in it, you aren’t exposing him to anything that wouldn’t already be in your body, you’re just trying to increase the amount of it back to where it should be due to your placenta impacting your own insulin production (so rude, placenta!!). So it feels very highly medicated and invasive for you, but he will be none the wiser and not exposed to anything he wouldn’t be.

It is absolutely exhausting and so stressful when you’re super hungry and just don’t feel like you can eat what you want. Or when you do get those readings and it all feels for nothing. This time is you, your body and your clinical team all figuring out how to best manage your GD and it may be different to other people’s as your body may react differently to long or slow acting insulin. Luckily your team should know what to do to help you stabilise it- literally their job.

You have got this @VixFromThe6ix. It’s yet another shitty hurdle before holding your baby boy, but this is the worst part of the GD, when it’s all new, overwhelming and messy. As @RoseH36 says, there’s a website called GD UK which is super reassuring and helpful- it’s what got me through last time. You are doing everything you possibly can to grow this little boy to the best of your abilities and you’re doing a wonderful, wonderful job x

Also, DH and I were trying to work out if we want to know the sex and he said he was ready for it to be over and us meet the baby already (18 weeks in! 😂 poor guy!!). Anyway, I got to thinking, even in the absence of having got anything ready, if I could click my fingers and have baby here tomorrow, all fully grown I absolutely would do. Pregnancy is hard!!

@VixFromThe6ix sorry to hear your morning sugars are misbehaving, I definitely think you should call sooner for advice. Are you on metformin already or did you try it before insulin?

I will also likely have GD but don't have it yet, having my first GTT at 15weeks but last pregnancy I didn't get it until over 30 weeks, but still already this pregnancy is also kicking my butt just with nausea and fatigue!
I have my dating scan a week tomorrow to look forward to at least,
I do think it's harder work on our bodies that are that little bit older than younger women doing this. Which makes it even more impressive that we're doing it!

@Bumblebee413 thanks for such a thoughtful response. I will call the clinic and see what they say. They only have appointments on Wednesdays related to GD so hope someone can still assist me. I know this is all temporary and I'm doing it for the best reason possible but I do wish baby was here already so I can stop tracking and worrying and just concentrate on him and his brother. :)
Did you decide to find out the gender or keep it a secret?

@SouthwestSis I haven't taken it. Once I got a high reading on a blood test I went on the diet adjusting for a few weeks and tracking my blood sugar. That's when I found out my readings were only high for fasting sugar and they put me on night time insulin as of a week ago. It's a strange thing where I thought it would be easy to control your sugar but it's proven to be the opposite lol
I definitely think it's harder on our bodies than on someone in their 20s. I just don't have the same energy levels so most days I feel wiped.

But I am proud of us. We didn't give up. We are raising a human inside our bodies. How awesome

Bit of a different post... Just sharing in case it's helpful for anyone... So, because I already have a 3yr old DS who is at nursery, they've obviously seen bump and basically told me that nursery places are like goldust at the mo and to pay my deposit for this baby asap as places are filling up fast. This seems absolute madness to me as I'm sure with my son I didn't enquire until he'd been born!! Although he was Lockdown cohort so maybe things were very different 3 years ago.

I know some of you are still slightly behind me in your pregnancies and this might seem a mad thing to think about when still anxious about progression etc.. but I do recommend checking out your local options and if there is one you particularly like the look of, don't waste time speaking to them! To give an idea, our nursery have only been able to offer me:

Full day Tuesday, Weds/Fri pm for August 2025 start!! They currently have no 5 full day places until Sept 2027!!!!

I've paid the deposit to lock that in and am hopeful some additional hours may come up for which I'm now on a waiting list... Hopefully particularly as they know us...?! But, yeah... Don't just assume that places will be there when you need them. I think with changes to funding etc the demand on places has shot up massively! So, take this as your friendly alert!!

Hope everyone is ok xx

@VixFromThe6ix that is strange your readings are higher now than before, hope you get some answers. I wasn't on insulin last time, just metformin which is a tablet. That stabilised my fasting readings as that was the one causing the issue.

@SnookyPook that's madness! I do know a friend of mine paid the deposit for hers when she was still pregnant. Not sure what we'll do this time round yet, DS being a lockdown baby was about 16 months before he started childcare, at that point he did just 1 day a week with a childminder. Once he turned 3 he went to a pre-school, I hadn't realised they take them at 2 so he could have started there much sooner. This one will definitely go to the pre-school but not sure yet what to do before that. There's a new nursery opening near us in Septemeber so will likely have a look round that.

How is everyone doing??

Week 35!!! Two more weeks till baby is fully cooked 😁

Oh wow! How exciting! 😄

26wks here and can't believe how close to 3rd trimester I'm getting! We've got our next growth scan a week on Friday so just hoping little man is still looking good in there. Getting lots of kicks and my BP is looking really good at the mo so hopefully all ok so far. I must say, it's so comforting being at the stage of just plumping him up now! Crazy to see YouTube videos of super prem babies and realising that's how developed he actually is now. It's definitely feeling a lot more real. I've actually dared to start looking at car seats and prams and think about decorating the nursery... In fact, feeling like I need to get a move on! Haha.

Hope everyone else is ok. Xx

@SnookyPook Sorry to jump in but I'm so excited for you that you're nearly at the third trimester! 😬 I'm 39+1 now, baby due next week! 😅

😄😄😄

Eek!! Next week!! So excited for you! Hope all goes well! Can't wait for the update that little one is here!!! 🥰

Ah this is so exciting!! Hello @TheBirdintheCave how are you? How has it been going for you? Do you know what you’re having?

Two weeks @VixFromThe6ix! How are you feeling? Have your levels started to stabilise at all? Were the clinic helpful?

@SnookyPook thats so lovely! I hope that the scan goes well. 26 weeks is really exciting 🥰

@Bumblebee413 I suspect another boy but we didn't find out so technically a surprise! Baby's kept us on our toes though! We had a low lying placenta for weeks then baby was breech so I had to have an ECV to turn them. Thankfully they've stayed head down and we're back under 'normal' pregnancy conditions now.

I'm ok in general, just a bit tired. Still going to Zumba though 😂

@SnookyPook Thank you! :)