diabetes in pregnancy

[happymumtobe]

hello just wanted to know if there are any mums on here that is also a diabetic? i am in my 6th wk of pregnancy and i am also a diabetic would be intrested to meet and chat to other mums that are diabetic and pregnant or have been pregnant with diabetes.....thanx

Hi forevermore

I was completely diet controlled Type II until my 9th week of pregnancy when my sugars when insane and I was put on insulin! I would start testing right away and if you aren't within range, get referred to diabetes antenatal.

The earlier you start, the better for you and baby!

I agree Tee

Iris - I love that.. I totally know what you mean.. it hasnt hit me yet but I do try and stay in control for the baby?!

to those of you injecting... is your sugar higher first thing when you don't sleep well? (now getting desparate to find excuses for continuing odd readings and body's delayed reactions)

No, iris its not! In fact, its lower when I don't sleep, as being awake means I am doing 'stuff' and that burns glucose!

to coin a phrase..... bugger
Thanks Tee

Hi Iris:

What you are experiencing is called the Dawn phenemenon. Basically, it means that your body knows you are about to wake up and get moving. So your body starts releasing glucose then you can get up and go with a bang. Unfortuately, if you're diabetic your body doesn't do the second thing, which is start to produce the right amount of insulin to process the glucose. The result is high sugar in the morning. Probably more likely after a bad night's sleep since you are not properly rested and might need (according to your body) an extra boost on waking. It happenned to me all the time when I was pregnant with DS1. What I used to do was set the alarm for 2 hours before getting up, inject a unit of rapid acting insulin and go back to bed. Result: good morning scores. A pain the neck but effective. Mind you I was peeing so often that the alarm was unnecessary in the end. If you aren't injecting, there's not much you can do about it, but as long as all rights itself as the morning progresses, there's nothing to worry about.

thanks Catitainahatita - I had a feeling it may have been something like that. PITA
I seem to be on a slow creep up the numbers at the moment. Luckily I'm still predominantly within normal ranges but higher than my norms have been up until now which is bothering me. A 25 week phenomena perhaps??
To be honest I'm not that worried about going onto insulin. It's just that in the last 2 pgs my insulin production seemed to be on a delayed reaction giving me some significant lows and, as my DH has to go away for 5 weeks in mid Apr, I don't want to be looking after 2 under 3 and going onto insulin on my own. We're supposed to be moving house early Apr too (Iris starts quietly chanting "I'm not stressed, I'm not stressed" in a mad kind of way )

Hiya Iris:
Unfortunately lots of things can cause your glucose to rise: stress is one of the biggies, as is an illness, putting on weight (and man when you're pregnant you can't avoid that one). It helps to remember that you can't control your body as much as you would like. You can follow your diet to the letter, do the exercise, drink the water etc etc; and your sugar will still be a high at times because of stress, illness, allergy, whatever. The important thing is not to beat yourself up about it.

When you do go onto insulin, if you are concerned about the lows the best thing to do would be to check your levels every hour so you can see what effect the insulin has on yyou, and you can see the lows coming and be prepared. You'll soon get the hang of it again and it won't seem thatbad (honest!) [encouragement emoticon]

cheers for the support - it's much appreciated.
I sort of know what's what but do have a pretty big tendency to try to control the uncontrollable and then beat myself up about not controlling it - if that makes any sense?? But thanks for highlighting that and therefore reminding me to get a grip - I needed it (and rather more regularly than I'd like to admit )

Realising that your sugar is not something you can control 100% is a very hard lesson to learn. It took me at least a year of misery, depression and beating myself up about bad scores, before I found a bit of zen.

I used to get freaked out about all my meals. I weighed an measured every last mouthful and generally did not enjoy eating at all. I also got depressed when having to eat out for work and/or pleasure and not being able to have any kind of treat.

These days I'm a little more laid back and enjoy chocolate/alcohol/biscuits every now and again. It makes life bearable...

High numbers will only have an adverse effect on you and your baby if they are prolonged (over days). Especially as your baby now (and since the age of 12 weeks) produces her/his own insulin. Your blood sugar and his/her's are separate.

Yes you need contol; but you don't need to be on the dot every single day.

I second what Catitainahatita said.

My endo even told me to loosen my control a bit! Even that one high number a day is not a bad thing.

And its actually weeks of constant, uncontrolled highs that are a problem, also according to my endo.

In fact about the only thing that I actual weigh these days is cereal, since it seems to just come pouring out of the box if I don't and it tends to be fairly high carb. Everything else I just eyeball.

Thanks guys (iris pootles off feeling sheepish - and more than a little daft for her control freak tendencies )
Hope everyone has a lovely weekend and a relaxing mothers' day

Don't feel sheepish iris. I think everyone goes a bit control freakish when first dealing with diabetes, and I think they should! Just so long as you don't remain that way.