High blood sugar reading

[Unorganisedchaos2]

I had a scan on Monday (31 weeks) and baby is showing on 98th % and 5.5lb, so I've been referred for another GD test on 13th March (I passed the test at 24 weeks)

Mum came round yesterday and has lend me her blood sugar monitor, we took a reading about 3 hours after I had egg on toast and it was 8, I've checked again today 2 hours after having a tin of mackerel on toast and a chocolate bar (I know...) and Im getting 14.4, Im panicking a bit as this is very high isnt it?

My diet is pretty good, but most meals have carbs and I am having a chocolate bar or sweets mid morning most days, should I try and cut sweets and carbs for a few days and keep doing the readings?

I have an appointment with the consultant on Monday but by the time I have the GD test I'll be nearly 36 weeks.

Did you wash and dry your hands before testing? You may have had something on your finger that caused the high reading, it's always worth washing your hands and testing again to be sure. It would definitely be worth cutting out the mid morning sweets/chocolate until you know what's going on. You could keep testing too (keep a diary), before the meal so you know your starting point, and at one and two hours after, which shows you the spike and (hopefully) it returning back to the before meal reading. I will caveat this by saying I know nothing about GD but I am an insulin dependant type 2 who has had a pregnancy whilst being diabetic.

Thank you very much, that's really helpful.

I've just tested again (2 hours later) and its 12 so I suspect its correct

Im running low on testing strips until they are delivered tomorrow so Im going to test when I first wake up to get a fasting reading then test as you said after meals tomorrow cutting out the sweet treats for now.

Thanks again for the reply I was panicking but hopefully I can get it under control .

It sounds like the 14.4 was correct, all you can do for the time being is reduce carbs. Keep a diary of the test results and what was eaten to show the consultant on Monday and see what they suggest. From what I was told when I was pregnant, high sugars were most dangerous to the baby early on, so try not to worry too much. Do you know about the glycemic index? This is worth looking at to figure out better foods to eat, although food affects everyone differently so you may find "good" things affect you badly and vice versa. You can reduce how quickly carbs raise your sugars by pairing with protein and fat, this makes the rise in blood sugar take longer, it's more steady but takes longer to come back down. If your sugars are very high you can drink water to try to lower them. Good luck x

Do you have time to do exercise after eating, like a 20 min brisk walk? Start between 10 and 30 mins after eating as that's when the excess glucose will be in your blood and can be burned off. I haven't had gestational diabetes but I have type 2 and a quick energy burn after lunch really helps (I have a rowing machine, but anything that uses large muscles and makes you a bit out of breath will do, like flights of stairs or walking). Also (as you have already said) cut the sweet stuff for the time being, especially on their own as that will spike you quite quickly. Snack on cheese, berries, nuts, apple with peanut butter.

14.4 is really too high. I am type 1 diabetic and had to keep my blood sugar levels below 8.4 when I was pregnant. I had to keep increasing my insulin throughout my pregnancy as it was becoming harder to control however I did have it well managed and still my daughter was born 9 pound 2 at 36 weeks. She had trouble with her blood sugars for around 2 days after she was born. I would get seen asap even by calling triage and for the time being reduce your carb and sugar intake and keep drinking water to try stabilise your sugar levels.

Agree with @TryingToFigureLifeOut- don’t just try to manage it yourself get to the doctor now. When I went in for the glucose test the pre test blood sugar reading was 11 and the nurse gasped and sent me straight up to the diabetic unit. I went on insulin straight away. Turns out I had developed type 1 but they weren’t sure at the time if it wasn’t just GD, but if they put me on insulin at 11 then 14 is super high and you’ve had that reading and now 12 so likely accurate. I’d just been to Spain and was downing pint glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice as we were next to a citrus farm! My diet was perfect after I found out but baby still over 10lbs at just under 37 weeks (I had a section scheduled for 38 weeks but he was impatient).

18+5 here with GD for the third time.
14 is high!
I have had to cut out all chocolate, anything with sugar. Even two slices of toast put my blood sugars over but, so far I've been able to manage them most of the time with my diet. It has been hard as I love carbs lol but you just have to limit them to really small amounts.
If I am more active after a meal this also helps keep blood sugars down.