Gestational Diabetes Support Group

[Mommy StormRaven]

Well this is a thread/group for anyone dealing with GD on any level. Newly Dx'd, had it before, have it again or lookign at the possibility of dealign with it. Whoever you are - regardless of whether you HAVE GD or support someone (mother, sister, Daughter, Client) with it. This (I hope) can be a place for you to vent, bitch, whine, complain, share, support, give hope to, give suggestions to or whatever for whoever/whenever/whatever issue you might have that is related to GD and it's complications and concerns.

Be blessed.

This spawns from my recent Dx of early onset GD (I'm 11w2d) and was Dx'd two weeks ago when I failed my GTT with a number of 188.

[gratefulstella]

GD hater

OM goodness has this been the most stressful thing I have gone through this entire pregnancy.

So my numbers for my 1 hr test were not far off the cutoff, but they don't care- then came the 3 hr GTT...this is my first pregnancy by the way.

So I have GD, my daily numbers are great, my DH is WONDERFUL : at making meals that he and I can both enjoy (if your ever up for it make personalized size "pizzas" where the "crust" is a portabella mushroom...OM SOOO good!!

My problem is my fasting levels. I am now on Glyburide (was on 1.25mcg for 11 days- now they just upped it to 3mcg...it is in mcg right?) and that has brought my levels down from around the 109's to mid 90's. They want me below 90 (which to me seems impossible at this point) I REALLY don't want to be on insulin because we are trying to do a HB and if I am on insulin that is it...no HB for us

I have tried eating something in the middle of the night and it seemed to help once but then after that it didn't...It still didn't come below 90 though, it brought it to 101 (that was before the glyburide).

I think I am doing okay with eating and such but I just feel so lost and sad about this whole thing and I really think they are trying to push me into taking insulin...for goodness sake as if poking a finger four times a day isn't enough.

The only thing i haven't really tried is working out before bedtime- Not for any particular reason other than it's hotter than crap down here in NC right now and anything done outside seems ridiculous- I walk to the car and sweat...Any ideas...sorry so long

[Munchkingirl]

I'm so happy to have others too commiserate with. I mean sad that we have to deal with this, but happy not to be alone. I would like to know what others have been told is the best number range. My fasting is any where between 93 and 100. Does that mean I should be on something? I never remember what my 1hr, 2hr numbers should be on a regular basis. I always thought that having food at night/middle of night would bring the numbers up in the morning. Now, really I should have this down as it is pg #4, but no one has really guided me. I have just tried to figure out what was working to keep the numbers down. My first was an OB/hospital birth and I was borderline so was not classified GD, second and third were homebirths with the same MW and my overall numbers always kept me from having to be referred to a Dr. (the numbers were high enough that we assumed it was GD without the 3hr test). Anyway, I will be looking forward to sharing what works and doesn't over the next 7mo. (EDD mid March...I haven't even seen my MW yet for this one). Thanks, Tara

[avivaelona]

Stella, have you tried eating something very high in protein and low in carbs right before bed? Also, this might be cheating a bit, but try getting up at dawn and taking your fasting blood sugar then (maybe not so fun!) then eat something small and high protein, and go back to bed. Have you ever tested in the middle of the night to make sure you aren't having sugar crashes while you sleep? How are your after dinner numbers? High fasting levels in the absence of high after meal levels often mean that your liver is making sugar because you are crashing in the middle of the night, but it can also mean you have an overactive "dawn effect" Figuring out what is going on might be worth a night or two of not such great sleep if it will let you stay off insulin.

[kohlby]

I don't have GD yet so I hope I'm allowed to join. I have insulin resitance, which means I'm on a diabetic diet for the rest of my life. I'm not sure when I'll take the GD test. I have hyperemesis right now so there's no way I could handle a glucose screen right now. My hunch is that my OB won't have me do it early since I'm already on the GD diet.

I barely passed the one hour when pg with my son, with a 135. But I took the three hour and passed it. However, due to him being huge and me having an excessive weight gain, I went on the GD diet just in case. He was born huge, but with no signs of me having GD. I failed the one hour with a 180 when pg with my daughter, but passed the three hour. I didn't go on the GD diet that time, gained about the same 70lbs. And she was born at 11lb 4oz. However, she had the puffy chest of GD babies and would have definately been a shoulder dystocia case has she fit. Her blood sugar was a very low 38 at birth. So, I'm fairly certain that I did have undiagnosed GD that pg.

Though I'm not testing my blood sugar numbers, I know my fasting one is the worse. On all the blood sugar tests, both pg and not pg, my fasting one is barely low enough. My fasting insulin was supposed to be 18 or below, and it was a whopping 38. So, I'm going to really have to work hard at eating my protien before bed and keeping dinner low carb.

Two foods that have saved me on this diet are Dreamfield's low carb pasta and Breyer's Carb smart ice cream. I had problems with my insulin even with 100% whole wheat pasta, so it's a relief to still be able to eat pasta and ice cream since there are so many foods I no longer eat.

[A Mothers Love]

I just posted about this too.


http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=946153

[Munchkingirl]

High fasting levels in the absence of high after meal levels often mean that your liver is making sugar because you are crashing in the middle of the night, but it can also mean you have an overactive "dawn effect"

See, no one told me that! What is the "dawn effect". Because if I can get a handle on the fasting and morning thing I am usually fine the rest of the day even if I splurge a little (really only a little...). Tara

[avivaelona]

dawn effect..everyone's body raises their blood sugar slightly at dawn (or dawnish) as they start to rouse from the deep sleep at night (even if you don't normally wake til several hours later). Some people seem to have an overactive liver and their blood sugar goes up significantly. If you tend to wake up in the wee hours of morning to go pee try taking your blood sugar then.

If eating isn't giving you high sugars but you have a high fasting its really worth it to figure out WHY. It might or might not keep you off insulin but it at least will give you more of a chance to battle it with diet.

Mother's love I don't think you have GD, I think you have a crazy doctor.

Kohlby, that does sound like you had GD...what about skipping the GTT's (which I think are sort of dangerous for those of us who have known sugar issues) and monitoring instead? Its less invasive in some ways and more accurate and if you had suspected GD with a previous pregnancy are you really going to trust the GTT anyway? Its just not that accurate with what your body is really doing.

[mamalemon]

We are thinking of ttc #3 in 6 months-1 year. I had diet controlled GD with both of my previous pregnancies, but I was close to needing Insulin with #2.

I will see my midwife before we ttc, but I am wondering if anyone has any tips for things I can do now that will help keep my GD under control when/if I do get pregnant again. I really want a homebirth and would hate to give that up because of Insulin.

[NicaG]

I'm so glad there's a gd support thread! I really need some support. I had gd with my first pregnancy, so I knew I'd probably have it again....but it's still hard! My ob had me take the 3-hour test at 23 weeks, and I passed, but when she wanted me to take it again a month later, I declined because I didn't want to put my body through it again. So I started the diet around 28 weeks. Just started insulin about a week ago, and it's freaking me out! Those needles! I don't think I'll ever get used to it. My fasting levels just won't come down, and I suspect my dietician's bedtime snack isn't helping (pretty high in carbs, and not enough protein). I can't stand my dietician. I'm already tired of all the doctors appointments. I'm burned out on gd, and I still can't find any good studies that tell me conclusively what happens if my fasting levels are slightly too high. I just can't wait until this is all over and I can hold my baby in my arms!

[Three~Little~Birds]

I have been diagnosed borderline GD. I agree - it sucks!

I, too, was having problems with my morning fasting levels - and ONLY my morning fasting levels. One thing that I accidently discovered was that my morning fasting levels were great if I DIDN'T have a bedtime snack.

It was so weird - the doctor was suggesting insulin, which would have automatically meant a transfer of care from my midwife to an OB (and induction, yadda, yadda, yadda). So I tried fiddling with everything. One night I fell asleep before having my bedtime snack and woke up in the AM with normal blood sugar! I couldn't believe it. I had been tinkering with all sorts of evening snack combinations. With so much emphasis on an evening snack, it had never occurred to me to not have one!
I have consistently recreated that and have managed to stay off of insulin!
I find that I get the best morning numbers if I exercise in the evening and don't have a snack.

Maybe my body is just weird, or maybe this will help someone else stay off of insulin too!

[Mommy StormRaven]

It's so good to see so many others here! YEAH!!!!! ::

Mothers love - I think the mw is whacked to be blunt. 100 and she wants a 3 hour? WTH? I'd ask her if you coudl just monitor your levels for a week or so and see if that gives her a better indication.

Anyhow - I went ahead and ate the prescribed meal plan yesterday and was in the 140's all day. On meals when I intentionally overeat my protein my numbers are below 115. So, my current plan is tha tI'm going to overeat the protein a bit - A I'm not starving an hour later and B the numbers are significantly lower - which is what they want.

I'm almost betting tha tif I only eliminated the sugared soda I had been drinking that my numbers would be picture perfect (3 cans of sugared soda a day one would think would significantly elevate your levels). so I'm eatign again as prescribed and when I do again - my numbers stay higher than they should.

WRT Excercise - I'm trying to get a membership to the local YMCA - my knees and hips are crap (arthritis and tendonitis in knees) so walkign is jsut flat out - ESP in this heat! But if I can get in a pool and do wome water aerobics and maybe a yoga class I'll be great. And I think it will REALLY help control this nastiness a bit!

ANyhow - Feel free to vent or whatever!

[avivaelona]

Maybe my body is just weird, or maybe this will help someone else stay off of insulin too!

No actually its not that weird, or at least you aren't the only one. I have to have an evening snack but I found that the timing was important, if I have it too late I also get higher blood sugar...or worse I wake up at three am and just am awake for the day. So dinner is at 6:30, snack is at 9ish, if I eat later than that I have higher sugar in the morning OR I wake up starving in the middle of the night. I just forgot to mention that you might have to play with when you eat if the late night snack doesn't work. But if you arent eating at night and your numbers are high its definitely worth trying a later at night protein snack.

In general at first you just have to test test test and really figure out what works for you. The one size fits all solution is to put people on night time insulin, but honestly that is just covering up whatever the real issue is. Figuring out what works for your own body is so much more useful especially if you ever end up having sugar issues post pregnancy.

Michelle, are the carbs you are eating on the plan all whole grains and such? Some people can't handle ANY white carbs at least at first.

[NicaG]

Originally Posted by mamatotwo

I, too, was having problems with my morning fasting levels - and ONLY my morning fasting levels. One thing that I accidently discovered was that my morning fasting levels were great if I DIDN'T have a bedtime snack.

That's so interesting. I was playing around with my diet before I actually got the diagnosis and saw a dietician, and I also found that my fasting levels were lower without the bedtime snack. But when I met with the dietician and told her this, she was incredulous and acted like I was fibbing or crazy or both. So I've been eating my snack. Now I wonder if I should cut it out...but now that I'm on nighttime insulin I don't want to end up with a hypoglycemic episode in the middle of the night.

What does everyone here eat for a bedtime snack?

And just out of curiousity, who here is on insulin?

[Mommy StormRaven]

Originally Posted by avivaelona

Michelle, are the carbs you are eating on the plan all whole grains and such? Some people can't handle ANY white carbs at least at first.

No white carbs at all. Nothgin but whole grain here.

[kamesennin]

Hi, I'm 5 weeks PP but had GD. Hope I can help a little from a BTDT standpoint. I barely passed the 1 hr GTT (139) and got diagnosed through self-monitoring and went on the GD diet. Eventually I was on 10 units of insulin at night for my fasting #s. That was all I needed from 25 weeks on, I started getting super lows the last two weeks of pregnancy and ended up on 4 units at night. I had a net gain of 4 lbs for the preg, and baby was born at 39 w 2 d and was 6 lbs, 15 ounces. I breastfed her as often as possible (waking her up) after she was born so she would pass her 3 sugar tests. She was fine! I haven't gone in for the postpartum GTT (2 hour), but I will after I lose 10 more lbs and things aren't so crazy. I just hope I'm not pre-diabetic. I'm trying as best I can to walk everyday and not pig out on too many carbs in one sitting. Good luck to everyone with their diets! It's hard work. Oh, I lost out on my homebirth because of the insulin but I was able to have a nice hospital birth.

[avivaelona]

Mommy storm raven it does sound like you are just one of those people who need to eat even fewer carbs as a percentage than the plan calls for...when I first had this in my last pregnancy, I really couldn't eat very many carbs at all in grain products, even whole grains, my sympathy, that really sucks. Eating more protein is always good. I find that eating a little lower fat and higher protein lets me include a bit more carbs in a meal.

Fruit worked ok for me, and so I ate a lot of fruit and more dairy and very few grains...it was hard. On the other hand my friend couldn't eat any fruit even though she was fine with brown rice and such, everyone is different. This time around I'm not quite as sensitive.

Nica I'm not on insulin but I am still taking my metformin from before my first pregnancy, I don't go off it. (I went off in my first pregancy and lost the baby...no way of knowing if its connected to that but I don't want the possible risk of it being the reason) So far I am not having any trouble with my numbers, I'm only 21 weeks though. I really try hard to avoid insulin because I'm not convinced its a good idea to give insulin to people with insulin resistance. (which is what GD is) but obviously that is a controversial stance and there is no research that supports taking metformin through an entire pregnancy. There isn't a lot of information or research that supports anything about how they treat GD though. The treatment that exists has mostly been extrapolated from treating insulin dependent Type II diabetics through pregnancy.

I'm actually officially diagnosed as having Type II, I was diagnosed when I had some kind of illness (mono they think) between my last pregnancy and this one. So I eat a modified diabetic diet all the time and monitor my blood sugar all the time. I haven't had any trouble with it though even when I "cheat" since I recovered from the mono, so no one is sure whether the diagnoses is correct. Since I had PCOS though anyway (insulin resistance) I might as well treat it this way, its better for my health. Pregnancy is just an extension then, except your numbers have to be lower during pregnancy than they do normally. So far my numbers are very good. (fasting in the low 80's usually, after meals under 110 usually)

[Three~Little~Birds]

Originally Posted by NicaG

That's so interesting. I was playing around with my diet before I actually got the diagnosis and saw a dietician, and I also found that my fasting levels were lower without the bedtime snack. But when I met with the dietician and told her this, she was incredulous and acted like I was fibbing or crazy or both.

I know - the ironic thing is that I only started to eat a bedtime snack as a result of all of this GD stuff - I rarely did before. I was advised to eat a MIDNIGHT! snack the night before my 2 hour test. My morning fasting number was slightly elevated
(which tipped the scales for my diagnosis). I can't help but think that if I hadn't had that snack, then I wouldn't have even had a GD diagnosis (my 2-hour number was fine). It's all very frustrating!

[kohlby]

Kohlby, that does sound like you had GD...what about skipping the GTT's (which I think are sort of dangerous for those of us who have known sugar issues) and monitoring instead? Its less invasive in some ways and more accurate and if you had suspected GD with a previous pregnancy are you really going to trust the GTT anyway? Its just not that accurate with what your body is really doing.

I haven't set up the first appt with my OB yet. (I'm high risk due to several miscarriages so I see an RE right now. I only see the RE for first trimester). I will be asking my OB at my first appt if she thinks I should be monitoring my blood sugars. I am on the diabetic diet, so that's a start at least. I did find that when not pg, I noticed a great improvement of how I felt on the diabetic diet than before it. I met with a dietician a couple weeks ago and she didn't push for monitoring sugar levels since mine always show fine but she said to pay attention to how I feel. However, I still feel it's important to discuss this with my dr. At least I have a clear picture of how I'm supposed to feel and how I'm not. Diet alone worked well for me when I wasn't pg. The insulin resistance problems came on gradually so I didn't realize something was wrong. But now if I slip up on the diet, I can usually tell based on how I feel.

I am planning on skipping the one hour screen. I don't think it's very reliable and based on my history, I think it's worth it to go right to the three hour or monitor my blood sugars all along. My last glucose test was at the end of December, it was the 2 hour non-pg one. I had insulin levels taken at the same time. The fasting insulin was absolutely terrible yet the blood sugars were fine. So, I recognize that there is a problem even if it's not showing up in glucose levels.

[Mommy StormRaven]

Well, I unintentionally skipped my bedtime snack last night (just fell asleep earlier than normal) and my fastign level was 10 points HIGHER than my post dinner level was I don't get it at all...