Support and help with Gestational Diabetes?

[Crapweasel]

Failed the "Lucozade test" last week, I've now been told that my GTT has also come back high and have therefore been diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes.

Having failed the Lucozade test but passed GTT during my last pregancy I was really hoping to dodge that particular bullet again. Oh well....

Did some searching in the archives and found this fab old thread with lots of support and tips on diet etc. Any current sufferers (or experienced old timers) fancy joining a similar thread for 2010?

I have a diabetic clinic appt on Tues (where I understand I'll get a finger prick testing kit and see a dietician) so I'll report back then.

I'm 29 weeks by the way.

Well I had a fun afternoon at the hospital yesterday. Had a bit of weird moment in John Lewis and had to sit down before I fell down. Two hours on the monitor at the hospital and a load of tests later they told me they think I must have just a had a drop in blood pressure (it's on the low side anyway). Good things is that baby's trace was "perfect" (their words) and I am having lots of braxton hicks that are visible on their monitor, not painful but verging into discomfort rather than painless. Baby is a good position but not engaged but hopefully it will be all systems go soon.

Annoyingly they found ketones in my urine and so I got a bit of a lecture about not eating enough, possibly not helped by the 2 hour trip to get to the hospital (had to drop DS1 off on the way) and the fact that they kept me there with no food for 3.5 hours, they could only offer me toast and jam! The fact I went from 12 to 7 with nothing to eat probably didn't help - from now on I'm keeping some diabetic friendly snacks in my bag at all times!

I have to go to the day assessment unit today just to check all is still well - great another 2 hour round trip!

Allyfe Sorry it is so hard. I have been through this three times, each a little worse than the one before. You should be eating some carbs and though I am not medically trained, my understanding that is is better to be on insulin (as I have been) than to eliminate carbs. You should go to your diabetes advisor and explain what is happening in case your nausea is caused by some kind of ketone imbalance. Good luck and not so long to go now.

Allyfe, Debs75, Hanbee Thanks for all your advice. after meeting my dietitian and doing my own research I have now in a way controlled my readings. I have given up on cereals and I have made sure that I go for wholemeal bread that has low carbs.

Allyfe I am so sorry to hear that about your readings! I was like that in my first week, was struggling to keep my reading low. Now after each meal give it half an hour and then just move around (I do 88 step ups if I have a high carbs meal). Furthermore double check your readings, as I have had times when I have had 9.8 reading and then I recheck it and its lower. Just make sure you wash your hands and change the needle

My doctor keeps telling me I won't be able to avoid insulin and he doesn't think I can prove him wrong. But I am working very hard as I really don't want to go on insulin. I am 30 weeks and I have a scan booked for Wednesday this week and hopefully they will tell me my baby girl is growing ok!

Does diet coke affect your read? as the other day my readings were high because of it.

pseudoangel Diet coke shouldn't affect your readings. I made the switch from full fat and found it was better, although it still tasted crap.
Are you on metformin? That is usually the step before insulin

Hi there, Glad I found this thread as maybe someone can give me a little advice. My fathers identical twin is diabetic (although my father has never been diagnosed) and so the midwives were umming and arrring about whether I need the glucose test. In the end I got that sick of the ambiguity I just said 'oh I will leave it then'. Today I had my second Glucose plus two urine sample and so now have to have the other test.

The earliest appointment is on the 14th October (I am already 31 weeks). My consultant said today that I need to modify my diet in the mean time and that means cutting out sugary food and carbs. I have looked things up on the net and I am reading that it should be managed with slow release carbs..but he didnt mention this, he just said eat meat?

I am confused? Also do you think its a given I have GD or may I still be okay? I am measuring 33 weeks (I am 31).

Thanks Ladies.

nicky80 I don't think anyone here can tell you if you will or won't have GD. It's annoying that you have to wait so long for the test. I was told by my midwife that 2cm either way on the fundal height measurement is OK ( was measuring 34 at 36 weeks but am now measuring 37 at 37 weeks) so I wouldn't use one measurement as an indication either way.

You do probably need to cut out sugary foods or go for low sugar alternatives but I was told you shouldn't cut out carbs completely in an atkins style diet. Baby still needs these to grow and you need them for energy. Have a look at the dietary advice on the diabetes UK website. Following a low GI diet for a few weeks won't do any harm (as long as you still eat enough calories) and if turns out you don't have GD then all you will have done is keep off a few pounds pre-baby arriving!

Incidentally I don't have a direct relative with diabetes, although since developing GD my Gran has suddenly announced that her Dad had type 2 diabetes. She's 94 so I'll forgive her for never mentioning it before, but no one else has developed it.

Let us know how you get on on the 14th, although I'm hoping my little one will be here by then!

hanbee Thanks so much. Yes I did think cutting out carbs totally is a bit unrealistic and perhaps not actually a good idea. I will check out the website for advice. Thanks.

I saw the diabetes nurse and dietician yesterday, and I have to say it was quite a positive visit. The diabetes nurse was lovely, and really encouraging and supportive. She told me not to be so hard on myself and that I'd been doing really well. Despite my high readings every morning, the fact that my lunch and dinner ones were all fine. She gave me some ideas about what bread I could eat (and where to find the linseed and soya bread), and a few tips on what I should try for breakfast (i.e. that eggs are much better than sausages because the latter contain cereal and therefore carbs). And she was happy that I could work on getting the diet right for another week. She commented that the consultant would probably want to stick me on metformin, but she was happy to try it for another week. Which was exactly what I wanted.

hanbee, Jem44 and Pseudoangel thank you so much all for your supportive lovely posts. The dietician confirmed that my lack of carbs was what was sending my mood into the depths of miserableness on occasion. I began to put them back in when it occured to me that the world ending (as it did on Friday and Saturday) might be down to that! And so now, with my new bread options in the morning and for lunch, and having decided that rice for dinner is fine, I hope I'm doing okay. I feel a lot more balanced too (still a bit more prone to grumpiness), and haven't felt sick since last week. So I have my fingers crossed!

hanbee when are you due? It must be quite soon :) How did your trip second trip to the clinic go? I'm guessing okay. Did you loose the Ketones? It is a pain it is such a long way away from you. Perhaps next time you should do John Lewis online .

Psuedoangel I asked the diabetic nurse about the varying readings, and she said they prefer to go on the higher one. She said she'd talked to the manufacturers of the finger prick machine and they said they knew it was a problem but there was nothing they can do about it! But it seems a bit insane to me that you can get a 7.8 on one finger and 8.7 on another. The difference in those readings could have such a huge impact! Doesn't give me a huge amount of faith I have to be honest. However, I've decided that your tip of changing the needle is a good one. I've loads of those relative to the strips, and if I do get a slightly higher reading at one point I'm not going to use the same needle again!

Nicky80 I just wanted to second what Hanbee said - I really wouldn't cut out carbs completely. Trying that sent my moods spiraling out of control! If you start on a low GI diet, and so reduce your sugars and switch to small portions of slow release carbs - things like basmati (sp) rice (more slow release than others for some reason), and perhaps soya and linseed bread (although a lot of people are fine with granary/multiseed bread). You may turn out not to have GD, but it is a healthy diet anyway so doing it for a couple of weeks unnecessarily won't do you any harm at all!!

Thanks Allyfe I appreciate the advice.

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to let you know that my visit back to the hospital day assessment unit was fine, basically a normal check up plus 15 minutes on the monitor. They gave me the results of my blood tests (all fine) and urine analysis (also fine, no more ketones - woo hoo!) and sent me home again.

Both sessions on the monitor showed that I was still having regular "contractions" but they assessed them as braxton hicks. So out of interest I asked the MW how they could tell the difference and apparently they both look the same on the monitor and they judge by your reaction and how much pain you seem to be in. I asked if this was slightly subjective as surely everyone reacts differently to pain and how tense or anxious you are could change how you feel. She agreed and said only I can decide when they become something more - I'm now on day 5 of having regular runs of these starting early afternoon and lasting till 11pm. They're now starting to wake me up in the early hours too but don't seem to be getting stronger or more frequent so I'm trying to ignore them.

allyfe I'm due on the 16th October so will be 38 weeks on Saturday. Not long now and am getting so excited. Everything's ready, baby clothes all out of the loft and re-washed, DS1's clothes hung in his big boys wardrobe(!), lots of meals frozen etc. Just hoping baby makes an appearance soon, preferably before the 10th when DS1 will be 2.

Hi everyone,

I had GD with my last pregnancy not with my first thought. I am nearly 21 wereks pregnant and have been having 4 weekly GTT tests .. so far so good (touch wood) my result today was 7.7 BORDERLINE ahhhhh i dont want it again.

It was never very well explained to me last time and would love to know a few things.

1. Im so scared of it harming the baby, please tell me she will be ok?

1. if you are induced when do they usually do it? i cant remeber the week they induced me now.

1. if you had GDD before how far where you when they told you you had it again.

thank you in advance

Hi xkatyx, I'm reasonably new to this but I thought I'd share my understanding (so far)...which may not be totally accurate!

For your first question, the most scary risk is still birth. I may be wrong but I think that is probably most likely if you and the baby aren't being properly monitered, and it sounds like they are keeping a very close check on you. Again, I may be putting 2 and 2 together and getting 5, but I think that stillbirth can be related to a deterioration of the placenta. Again, I think they can monitor this. Also, if the baby is producing too much insulin to cope with the additional sugar being passed from mummy, then when they are born there can be a big dip in blood sugar levels which isn't very nice for the baby and can compromise attempts to establish breastfeeding, particularly. It is something they will monitor post birth.

For the induction, I think it varies depending on your district. A friend of a friend is an obstetrican and she said that they induce at 38-39 weeks in cases where the GD isn't being managed by diet and exercise alone, and also where there is no history of natural labour (e.g. first time mums, or people who were induced previously). However if you have had a natural vaginal birth before, and are managing with diet and exercise, then they'll let you go to 41 weeks. My consultant informed me that they induce at 38 weeks where medication is involved, and otherwise at 40 weeks.

I can't help with question three, except to say that in most instances it tends to develop during the third trimester. But that may not be the case for people who have had it before.

Hope that helps, although I'm sure others have more accurate information than me.

hanbee you're getting really close :) I'm impressed you're all organised. I really need to start getting everything ready! It wouldn't be hard, I'm not exactly being very productive with my 'work at home' days .

Thank you so much allyfe

i just wish you were handed a list of foods to eat and not to.. im going to act as if i have maybe try and lower my chances of it rising ,, its worth a try.
Its just not knowing what to eat, i managed last time on diet alone just about anyway, i had my 28 routine test and didnt get told till 32 weeks by the time they did a GTT and got me sorted i was 34 weeks so i didnt have long to get used to it or know what to eat really.

my poor little girls blood sugars were low and we did have to stay in, and she had really big chubba cheeks lol she was 8lb 6 but im syre i was 38 weeks induced i really dont remeber seams like a life time ago.

Hanbee Gosh you don't have long to go now...I still have two whole months.(Due date is 4th December)

I went to see my midwife yesterday and had a scan. The scan showed everything normal and at 30 weeks and 4 days the baby is measuring 3lbs and 3oz (midwife said that was ok). She said if I stick to the diet etc I would be having a natural birth (so fingers crossed).

allyfe is the new diet change making a difference?

I am getting tired of monitoring my blood sugar levels but I guess its got to be done for the sake of the baby's health and mine. :(

Katyx Go for foods that have sugars below 5g. Try not to have too many carbs in one meal. Have you seen the diabetes dietician? I think most women would agree when I say they are really helpful. :)

HANBEE Just to say I have had regular contractions for the past ten days and have been in hospital twice. Had a urine sample taken both times..only glucose picked up. My pains are getting worse with it too keeping me up at night and I am terrified of early labour. Had my routine check up with midwife today and she said I have a UTI and I must have had it a while for it to get this bad as she thinks this is what is causing my contractions. I thought a lot of the pain was the contractions and my SPD but its not! I am so unhappy this wasnt picked up sooner and dont know why it wasnt? I am now on antibiotics and hoping for some relief. Just thought I would mention it. I have ordered some urine sticks myself from ebay so I can keep an eye on myself for the last two months now.

xkatyx look on amazon for the low GI book. If you stick to a low gi diet then you should be able to control your blood sugars, remember everyone is different tho so you have to experiment.
ur hospital do 38 week induction if on medication but you can fight that if you are coping well and don't mind lots of monitoring. I only live 10 mins away from hospital so did that with dc3. She was supposed to come at 38 weeks but was not ready and i dug my heels in so she was born at 39+4, she had low blood sugar at first andwe had no monitoring for 8 hours which was not good, get it put on your birth plan. she perked up after a few feeds and is now a whopping 2 year old.
From what I understand the risk of stillbirth is with those who already have diabetes not who develop it when pregnant. Not overly sure on that but someone else on here might know.

Had my post GTT and everything is fine. Have to be retested every year but don't mind that. Trying to stick to the diet is even harder now as I know I can have high sugar and carbs if I really want to. Keep telling myself I can't as I want to lose some weight

xkatyx look on amazon for the low GI book. If you stick to a low gi diet then you should be able to control your blood sugars, remember everyone is different tho so you have to experiment.
ur hospital do 38 week induction if on medication but you can fight that if you are coping well and don't mind lots of monitoring. I only live 10 mins away from hospital so did that with dc3. She was supposed to come at 38 weeks but was not ready and i dug my heels in so she was born at 39+4, she had low blood sugar at first andwe had no monitoring for 8 hours which was not good, get it put on your birth plan. she perked up after a few feeds and is now a whopping 2 year old.
From what I understand the risk of stillbirth is with those who already have diabetes not who develop it when pregnant. Not overly sure on that but someone else on here might know.

Had my post GTT and everything is fine. Have to be retested every year but don't mind that. Trying to stick to the diet is even harder now as I know I can have high sugar and carbs if I really want to. Keep telling myself I can't as I want to lose some weight

Thanks nicky80, my last 3 urine samples have been picked up as possibly UTIs but all have been sent off to the lab to see if they can grow cultures and all have come back negative.its fairly conclusive that I don't have one.

I had a session of acupuncture on Thursday to try and get things settled - I then felt terrific all of Friday and had the best sleep on Thursday night. Sadly today it's gone back to how it was before. I'm not overly concerned as baby is term now and can come any time he likes as far as I'm concerned! I agree I would be loads more concerned if this had started earlier but I didn't have any big braxton hicks until I was 36+6.

Hi all, thought I'd say that week 2 has been rather better than week 1. Breakfast was my main problem but I've been doing pretty well. The only thing that didn't work were baked beans and scrambled eggs (gave me 8.2). I did have another higher reading but that was because I threw up my very good breakfast (made mistake of checking to see if my toddlers nappy needed changing...it did and the smell was too much .

My current problem is testing exactly an hour after. I ALWAYS forget. Lunck I actually have a hard time remembering at all. I'm going to have to make sure I set my phone alarm each day because I don't want them to get concerned about it!

I also had a scan on Thursday, and that actually went well. It was a different technician and the baby's stomach (which was supposed to be a bit over normal) is now well into the normal area. The woman who did the scan said the diet must be making a difference, but I'd only been on it for 10 days so I'm not convinced it isn't partly to do with a different person doing the scan! Either way, it will be good for the consultant appointment on Monday.

nicky80 how are the braxton hicks going now you've been on antibiotics for a while?

hanbee It's great you don't have a urine infection, but it must be really uncomfortable having bad braxton hicks so frequently! It sounds like your baby is just very keen to come and see you :)

Just to say, I saw the nurse and consultant today and aside from having to wait 1h25 mins before I saw anyone (I was not impressed), it all went really well. The consultant was much more cheery than last time, and I did talk to him about leaving an induction date till 41 weeks. He gave me the still birth risk talk again. I pointed out that other hospitals will allow mothers to go to 41 weeks, which he acknowledged but said the guidelines were 40. I also said that obviously, there would be very heavy monitoring and he did say that those were very conservative and that if I was happy to go in and get monitored three times in the last week, then he would consider it. Although he said if I wanted to argue for 42 weeks he'd disown me and send me to another consultant. I'm happy to see what happens to 41. Fingers crossed the baby will want to come before then anyway so it won't be an issue!

So I'm all clear for two more weeks.

How is everyone else doing?

Hi everyone,

My braxton hicks are still going on but not as bad as they were before. I think I had just been over doing it and was probably a bit dehydrated and that was making it worse. Baby seems to keen to stay where he is, it's my body that seems to want everything to kick off!

Just got to get through tomorrow before the big birth plan chat now.....

Hi All,

I am new to MN and was diagnosed with GD 10 days ago. It has taken a lot of getting used to and despite being borderline, the diabetic nurses are quite quick to put me on medication. I am very keen to avoid this as am already on methyldopa (blood pressure tablets). My readings are fine for lunch and dinner but quite high in the morning after breakfast and i also had ketones in my urine yesterday (but according to the midwife none today!).

i am really struggling for breakfast ideas as well as any information on metformin and how safe it is for the baby and whether anyone has taken it. I would have thought insulin is purer and better for the baby and am desperate to hear from anyone who has taken metformin and how safe they think it is.

I am really struggling coming to terms with all of this and any joy in this pregnancy has been completely wiped out.

look forward to hearing from anyone.

Hi MissJA as far as I'm aware metformin is completely safe, they know this because so many women with PCOS get pregnant whilst taking it. As you probably know the first 12 weeks are when much of baby's structural development happens so I think that if there were problems with metformin something would have been picked up by now. You should discuss this with your obstetrician though.

For breakfast I have 40g bran flakes with semiskimmed milk, or plain porridge with ss milk, or 2 slices of toast and peanut butter. At the weekend I may have eggs, mushrooms, bacon and no more than one slice of toast.

Please don't let this ruin your pregnancy, yes its far from ideal and you need to give yourself time to adjust but it should be a temporary issue and if you're careful with your diet shouldn't impact too much on your pregnancy.

My team ask us to get no more than 10% of readings above the levels given, if you do they want to chat over what happened but in my experience they're quite good about knowing when you've just tried a new food or if you've really not got it under control.

That said I've just had a good cry down at the antenatal clinic when they booked my induction for next Tuesday. I'll be 39 weeks and 3 days and they are adamant that I really shouldn't go to 40 weeks. They said it was up to me but I would need to go in daily for monitoring and as I'm a full time Mum of a toddler it's almost impossible for me to do this. I'm booked for a sweep on Monday so cross your fingers something happens before Tues!

Allyfe when are you due? Must be around the same time as me?