I had GD with my first pregnancy and was diagnosed early with this pregnancy as well. Other than being slightly overweight (I wear a size 12), I have no other risk factors. My mother had normal size babies and was never tested for GD. Me and Sibs were 6-7 lbs each, however her pregnancies were very different than mine (for one, she smoked through her pregnancies). I also had no symptoms of GD and was shocked when my 1hr result was 197.
I have never doubted the diagnosis -- once I started monitoring my sugars, I could see clearly how certain foods (even healthy foods, like oatmeal with fruit for breakfast) send my blood sugar into a dangerous range. It was a lot of work and a lot of diet control to manage my sugar during the last pregnancy-- ending with a full term 8.13 baby. I thankfully delivered in a very baby-friendly hospital whose protocol for managing that was to check baby's sugar (right before nursing) until it was greater than 50 three times in a row. There was no alarm that it was low, because baby was just about to eat. It took 5-6 checks before that was true, but no other interventions were offered/suggested.
I contrast this experience with a friends, also low risk for GD who controlled her sugars poorly, had a large baby born by c/s at 36 weeks who spent 4 weeks in the NICU. She never breast fed after the first few days (partly because of lack of motivation, partly because she didn't have a home pump and didn't want to be at the hospital every 3 hours). I see her obese 11 year child (which is not solely related to the GD, but I certainly believe that is a contributing factor), and wonder what the future holds for his health and am sad he got a poor start in life.
I must be the only one on MDC who likes candy and sweets(maybe that is my risk factor for GD?) A box of Hot Tamales, a Starbucks pumpkin spice latte (oh how I miss you!) are tremendous, yummy glucose loads, equivalent to the dreaded glucola. If I didn't have GD I would be eating crap like that on a regular basis -- and I think that would be detrimental to my child.
I did once check my BG between pregnancies after eating a tremendous amount of candy. It was 92. My HbA1c at my first prenatal visit was 5.2% (excellent). My blood sugar one hour after eating 1/2 cup steel cut oats with 1 cup whole milk (for the fat and protein to slow absorbsion of glucose) the other day was 184. My glucose metabolism is different during pregnancy. I don't know why people are so resistant to that idea -- a lot of hormonally controlled things are different for me during pregnancy. My sex drive, my acne, my sense of smell, my sleep cycle, my thermoregulation and more . Just like some people have a great sex drive and awesome skin, some people don't.
I accept that it is safer for me and my babies to carefully monitor my blood sugar at least 4 x per day. If I didn't believe that I had GD I would not carry my monitor with me, interrupt my work, socialization, etc to continue to check my BG -- and that is why "checking things a few times at home instead of doing the glucola" is a terrible idea in my opinion. I need the constant feedback from the meter to help me shape my food choices. Fruit in morning after breakfast = out of control sugar, fruit after lunch = no big deal.
I am extremely suspicious of people on this thread who say things like "GD is a completely unstudied diagnosis." I don't know what they mean by this. There are thousands of pages of studies and millions of dollars of research that have been poured into this. Is it the research I would do? Not always. But it is heavily-studied, if not well-studied.
I have never doubted the diagnosis -- once I started monitoring my sugars, I could see clearly how certain foods (even healthy foods, like oatmeal with fruit for breakfast) send my blood sugar into a dangerous range. It was a lot of work and a lot of diet control to manage my sugar during the last pregnancy-- ending with a full term 8.13 baby. I thankfully delivered in a very baby-friendly hospital whose protocol for managing that was to check baby's sugar (right before nursing) until it was greater than 50 three times in a row. There was no alarm that it was low, because baby was just about to eat. It took 5-6 checks before that was true, but no other interventions were offered/suggested.
I contrast this experience with a friends, also low risk for GD who controlled her sugars poorly, had a large baby born by c/s at 36 weeks who spent 4 weeks in the NICU. She never breast fed after the first few days (partly because of lack of motivation, partly because she didn't have a home pump and didn't want to be at the hospital every 3 hours). I see her obese 11 year child (which is not solely related to the GD, but I certainly believe that is a contributing factor), and wonder what the future holds for his health and am sad he got a poor start in life.
I must be the only one on MDC who likes candy and sweets(maybe that is my risk factor for GD?) A box of Hot Tamales, a Starbucks pumpkin spice latte (oh how I miss you!) are tremendous, yummy glucose loads, equivalent to the dreaded glucola. If I didn't have GD I would be eating crap like that on a regular basis -- and I think that would be detrimental to my child.
I did once check my BG between pregnancies after eating a tremendous amount of candy. It was 92. My HbA1c at my first prenatal visit was 5.2% (excellent). My blood sugar one hour after eating 1/2 cup steel cut oats with 1 cup whole milk (for the fat and protein to slow absorbsion of glucose) the other day was 184. My glucose metabolism is different during pregnancy. I don't know why people are so resistant to that idea -- a lot of hormonally controlled things are different for me during pregnancy. My sex drive, my acne, my sense of smell, my sleep cycle, my thermoregulation and more . Just like some people have a great sex drive and awesome skin, some people don't.
I accept that it is safer for me and my babies to carefully monitor my blood sugar at least 4 x per day. If I didn't believe that I had GD I would not carry my monitor with me, interrupt my work, socialization, etc to continue to check my BG -- and that is why "checking things a few times at home instead of doing the glucola" is a terrible idea in my opinion. I need the constant feedback from the meter to help me shape my food choices. Fruit in morning after breakfast = out of control sugar, fruit after lunch = no big deal.
I am extremely suspicious of people on this thread who say things like "GD is a completely unstudied diagnosis." I don't know what they mean by this. There are thousands of pages of studies and millions of dollars of research that have been poured into this. Is it the research I would do? Not always. But it is heavily-studied, if not well-studied.
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