Suddenly Glad for UC...

[DocsNemesis]

I've been planning to UC over the last month or two primarily due to financial reasons. I'm a VBAC and my insurance will cover prenatal care, but not the birth for a VBAC unless I go to the hospital. Anyway, despite that I don't have any issues with UC, I'm not scared, etc. I might be doing it for the wrong reasons, but it doesn't bother me.

Anywho, I've still been seeing my midwife and everything has been peachy. Until this last visit...

Everything looked fine and baby, who had been measuring behind, was now measuring ahead. Yay, she went through a growth spurt! I was 33w and measuring 35-36 I think. I normally measure a few weeks ahead so this seemed good to me. (Keep in mind also that this is my 6th, so my uterus seems kinda extra stretchy, lol)

Well, then she started asking me about my diet. I explained that I don't eat fastfood much, mostly eat home made, well balanced meals. She asked about sugars...ok, yes, I have a sweet tooth, although it hasn't been bad this time around. I told her I occasionally crave sweets, but I try to stick to things that have some nutritional value as well-like sorbet, choco covered fruit (lol), etc. But again, its only every once in awhile. And I also drink 1-2 mountain dews a day, which I KNOW have a ton of sugar, but I need the caffeine and can't tolerate diet soda (and when I say need I mean need...I have a problem with my head, excess spinal cord fluid, which causes headaches and visual problems. Caffeine is the only thing that helps and unfortunately for some reason, diet soda's cause me to get headaches as well). Anyway, I am careful and I felt like I was doing really well

She told me I need to cut out the other sweets all together and watch myself because eating sugar can cause GD and leads to big baby's. She then started talking about shoulder dystocia and such. Now as far as I know, sugar doesn't CAUSE GD. I had also always been under the impression that any particular thing in someones diet doesn't cause big babies...and if anything the thing I've heard about making for big babies is protein (not that I believe that either). What I find kind of funny is that I have eaten WAYYYY less sugar this time than any other time. My diet has varied a lot from baby to baby and its never seemed to effect the size of the baby. My largest was 8lbs 14oz, so nice sized, but not huge-and she was my 2nd. My others have all been smaller.

And ironically, the baby moved into a more comfortable position again and I lost about 4cm's of fundal height as a result.

[Kyamo]

I just stumbled here from new posts, I have no idea about GD. But if you want to cut back on the Mt Dew but need the caffeine, you can buy caffeine tablets from a drugstore, usually near the pain relief.

[zoebird]

tea also has caffiene. black and green teas are good options. unsweetened, hot or iced. it cuts a lot of empty calories and sugar (and weird chemicals) from the soda.

i would do tea before soda or pills.

good luck!

[Astraia]

Well, yeah, I guess she has a point about the sugars being bad and you should cut back on the soda. We all KNOW that, of course- sugar is bad for us. Right.

I would take offense to the rest of the appointment. If she had said, "well, I'm sure you know as well as I do that cutting back on sugars is good so that's what I'm going to tell you to do, but I'm glad to hear you eat so well otherwise!" that'd be one thing. But she didn't. She launched into scare stuff with GD and SD. I would see that as undue pressure, bullying, and I'd have trouble not rolling my eyes at her.

IMO, diet consults should happen the second you walk in the door, your first appointment. You don't talk diet only when something starts to look "funny"! She was probably concerned about the sudden change in measurements and leapt on your diet as the likely culprit, even though there are SO many things that can affect fundal height, like-as you noticed- baby's position, which would've been my first guess as well.

Harrumph. I hate care providers who come off sounding high-handed.

I second finding an alternative caffeine source. I drink caffeine every day because I can't function without it and I'd feel incredibly depressed and deprived without it (it's OK, you can call me an addict ). I drink coffee and tea. Save the sodas for a treat.

I would NOT recommend a diet soda to ANYONE, let alone a pregnant woman! Fake sugars, aspartame- bad bad bad. So don't feel guilty about that.

[thefreckledmama]

Since the regular Mountain Dew is actually made with HFCS, I'm just going to throw out the fact that "Throwback" Mountain Dew (no pun intended), is currently out, which IS made with sugar. If you can't give up the MD, I'd at least go with the real sugar version.

But ideally, you could find an alternative source of caffeine with little to no sugar, but I have to say, I'd definitely go with soda before I'd be popping pills constantly to keep the headaches under control.

[nomnom]

Wow she shouldn't have said anything baout your deit. It could be worse bi mean, you could eat at mcdonald's every day or eating junk food like cereal. Are you goin for a UC then? That may be our plan too. I am trying to do everything rite and why would I let a doctor or mw tell me I'm doing it wrong when I know I'm ding what's best? They don't know it all! Good for you for having ab ackup plan!

[gabeyho]

wowsers. She waits until this far along to lecture you about sugar? Regardless of the fact that what you measure at and how she measures can lead to some variance. I would say, whatever, but finding another way to get the caffeine might be a good idea anyway, she just could have brought it up better and made constructive suggestions.

I take mine in the form of coffee with some cream and honey, also yummy when iced!

[DocsNemesis]

Yeah, I can't stand tea and normally coffee is ok, but I can't stand the smell right now. Pregnancy thing I guess?

Its funny you mention the Mt. Dew throwback cause we actually picked some up the other day! I really like it too, its not as sweet and its got a slightly weaker flavor. But yeah, I do Dew because I really don't like many other soda's. However, I *can* go every other day without it, just depending on my metabolism I guess? Theres been times this pregnancy where I've been able to go 2 days without before I start in on a bad headache, but others where I find myself needing 2 a day. I'm not sure why.

I've also looked into getting caffeine pills but they are soooo expensive around here! Maybe I should look online.

The sort of messed up thing is that I told her the first visit that I drink it and would be continuing. Oh and, she mentioned the diet thing, the GD, the SD, all before the exam. I think I wrote it backwards.... Then she did the exam, said my BP was fine (I had HELLP last time, totally out of the blue and ended up with a cesarean at 32w6d-otherwise I'd still be seeing my old midwives ), checked her heart, fine, then checked my fundal height and started reiterating the whole SD, GD thing. I told her I was relieved because I was measuring normally again! (For me anyway!) I had been worried about being so far behind.

Anyway, yes, we've been planning a UC anyway for the last few months, but this just kind of cemented it. I don't think I'd want her there anyway and I have total faith in my ability to birth. Luckily my fiance is very happy about UCing as well and found the whole convo rather amusing after we left (this from a 22 year old first time daddy who's never been around a pregnant chick/babies before!!). Now he keeps warning me "Oh, you better not eat that, you might get GD!"

[zoebird]

i think that if you were up-front about it from the beginning, then, yeah, why would it be a problem now.

of course, i would also watch my levels pretty closely if i knew i would be consuming massive amounts of sweeteners (two MDs is, imo, a massive amount of sweetener whether HFCS or sugar) and other simple carbs, just to be on the safe side.

but if nothing is coming up, then i wouldn't worry about it too much.

and i wouldn't drink diet sodas either, those things are really bad for your metabolism--anyones. HFCS leads to heart disease, too, but lets not get into that. Soda is a huge issue.

a friend of mine, to get off soda, moved to mixing black or green tea with fruit juice and sparkling (fizzy) water. the tea provided the caffiene, the juice provided the sweet, and the water provided the fizz. it worked for her.

i'm not saying that you should or must, but that it is something to be mindful of--and it's already in your mind anyway.

[Japanmamma]

Have you tried Yerba Mate? It has quite a bit of caffeine and is actually really good for you, lots of nutrients and antioxidants... . And very yummy with a bit of cream and honey. Mmmm. Good hot or iced.
I also was brought to UC by an overly paranoid MW. I decided I just didn't need that vibe while I was birthing.

[MaBaba]

I'm pretty sure that I have read that lots of sugar in late pregnancy can make the baby grow bigger...but, maybe I'm wrong. I've also read that lots of protein can help prevent pre-eclampsia.