[o4smommy]

so happy that i have to share it! saw my little girl on u/s first time yesterday....im under the care of a perinatalogist now because i have diagnosed (really early this time) with gestational diabetes..(i probably was diabetic already)...so even though now im on a strict diet and got do the blood sugar thing 4 times a day..the good part is i get to see my little girl every month! the crazy thing is, it still hasnt clicked yet...you know what i mean, about being pg. it was lonely doing the u/s alone. but my uterus is in a normal position this time (severly retroverted last pg) and no hematomas or subchorionic bleeding....yay! so im still planning my for UC! (since no midwife will come near me)....

why dont we start a UC thread in here?

i would love to here also from any other diabetics....

thanks for listening!

 

[ILoveMySofie]

aw, how sweet must have been to see her!

now, forgive my dumbness-can i blame it on pregbrain-but, are you saying girl because thats what you feel or you actually know already?

 

[ChillMom]

Hi!
Isn't it so cool to see the little one for the first time? I had my first U/S last week and saw his/her little heart beating! That's what finally made it click that this was "for real"! Anyway, I wanted to respond to your email since I had GD with my first baby, and I'm (tentatively) expecting it again with this one. I haven't been tested yet, but I'm already reverting back to my GD dieting, cutting out my trigger foods, etc (although, I can't seem to cut out the pasta yet - it's one of my faves!). I would love to be able to share advice, tips, etc.. with someone else who has gone through a GD pregnancy. My biggest disappointment is that I probably won't be able to deliver in a birthing center, but I'm trying to find a new OB who will do a delivery there, so, we'll see....

BTW - what is UC?

 

[coffeetastesgood]

LOL I was thinking the same thing! How do you know its a girl? Hunch? IVF? Did you take that reallly early gender determination test?

 

[Mavournin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChillMom what is UC?

Unassisted Birth

Yeah! Inquiring minds want to know! How can they tell the sex already?

 

[o4smommy]

no its just a hunch...they maybe able to tell at my next songram, (14 wks)..lets hope...

hey chillmom! you may wanna go ahead and get tested early for the gd, if you comeback positive you might get sent to a perinatolgist (likei did),my dr said theyre seeing it earlier...especially in moms who had it in pg b4...did you have any problems during/after delivery with your 1st baby?

as far as the unassissted childbirth,it basically means having your baby without a midwife or DR at home.(or outside...wherever) technically mine wont be totally unassisted, since my mil is a labor room RN....as long as the baby doesnt get to big, ill be ok... its a shame to get labeled high risk because no mw will get near you ( a gd diagnose is high risk),..but i will do everything in my power to avoid having my baby in a hospital...

 

[kerikadi]

I hope you don't mind me asking but why the monthly U/S? Especially if you plan to go U/C.

Keri

 

[ChillMom]

Hi 04smommy,
I definitely think I'll get tested earlier this time. I would rather know sooner so that I can be extra-cautious with my diet excercise. With my last pg, I controlled GD through diet and excercise, but I was pretty fanatic about it. I was testing my glucose 15 times per day, and by the end, pretty much knew how any food that went into my mouth would affect my glucose levels. I think I will be a little more relaxed about it this time. Since I know what all my trigger foods are now, I can just avoid them from the get-go, rather than doing so much experimenting.

With my delivery, I was really lucky that my OB team is pretty open-minded. They were comfortable with me going past my due date (40w 3d) rather than induce at 38-39 like so many OBs tend to do. I ended up being induced because my water broke and I went 24hrs with starting contractions. But the induction actually was not related to my GD. My daughter was 6lbs, 7oz at birth and had perfectly normal blood sugar levels.

I totally agree with you that it is a shame we are now labeled "high risk" even if our GD is under control. I would be thrilled if I could deliver in the birthing center and not the hospital. I am trying so hard to avoid any type of intervention this time. I was pretty bummed out that I had to be induced after my water broke. I even tried all those "home remedies" to get things going, but no luck.

How did you labor/delivery go? Did GD cause any complications?

 

[o4smommy]

hi kerikadi, theres a few reasons for the monthly u/s, first the GD causes your baby to get large quantities of glucose, which in their bodies turn to fat...so they measure the baby every month to make sure shes growing properly...honestly my problem with obstetrics is not the management of pregnancy, to me a few blood tests,measuring your fundus, and u/s is not abig deal, I personally WANT to know if my baby is having birth defects or problems. My problem is management of labor, induction,pitocin,constant fetal monitoring, no food/drink, c-section, taking baby away from mom, vitamin k ,eye drops, all that junk...

hey chill, im proud of you for being able to manage your gd so well! last time i was diagnosed in the hospital (i spent 3 weeks in the antenatal unit beecause of membranes rupturing early) so ihad all my meals figured out and i didnt have to figure it out, but now, being vegetarian,eating mostly carbs, its reallyhard and i dont know what to eat...im probably just go like 80% raw fruits and vegetables, but theyve even got me scared of fruits. i gotta test me blood sugar 4 test a day, and fax them to my perinatalogist every monday. my son was monitored in the nicu for the glucose,but he was theyre anyways because of being preemie. i was told be someone that GD babies are taking to nicu for monitoring..did that happen to you?

i

 

[ChillMom]

Hi,
I think policy probably differs by hospital, but when my daugher was born, they did a 'heel stick' immediately to check her glucose level. Since she was perfectly fine, they didn't do anything else outside of what they would have done for any other delivery. I kept her with me and she breastfed right away. (yummy colostrum!). When I was being moved from L/D to Recovery, they did bring her to the nursery for eyedrops, etc.. but she was right back with me. They did another heel stick 24 hours later, which was also normal, and that was pretty much it.

I totally agree that the management of delivery is the most frustrating part. I will do everything in my power to avoid pitocin, continuous monitoring, etc during this next delivery. For some reason, the no food/water thing REALLY gets me angry! Luckily for my last delivery, everyone was pretty OK with me drinking water, which was good. And since the nurse and OB were really only in the room during the actually delivery, I admit, I ate some snacks when I got hungry during labor.

Did your son have low glucose when he was born? Any other affects from the GD? Was your premature labor due to GD or was it completely separate?

Have you seen a nutritionist yet about setting up a diet plan? I saw one last time which was helpful in determining how many grams of carbs/protein/fat I should have per meal, and she put me on a 5 meal per day plan. However, she was of the belief that every carb was 'equal' therefore it didn't matter (from a glucose perspective) whether I at a tablespoon of sugar or a cup of berries. However, I quickly found out that different carbs affected me very differently. I actually found the whole 'glycemic index' concept to be extremely helpful. (I have a book at home -- I'll check the title and let you know what it is when I get home)

Don't get too scared about the fruits. I would suggest avoiding bananas and pineapple or any dried fruit. They seemed to hit me really hard. Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, papaya, and apple were really good and didn't affect me so much. Also, I ate alot of blackbeans, redbeans, and lentils. I think the fiber content helped keep them from affecting my glucose levels too much. Do you eat any dairy? If so, I found that eating some cheese with my carbs was very helpful. It is really important to eat a protein and/or fat whenever you eat your carb. Or, peanut butter worked, too.

Rebecca

Anyway, I am happy to share with you anything that worked for me!

 

[o4smommy]

no his prematurity was unrelated to the GD, and to be honest i would assume he was ok in that respect as far as gd was concerned since it was never mentioned in the nicu.

i did already see the dietian and she gave me a diet, but im kinda confused because she told me that meat substitutes (veggie burger kinda stuff) is equal to meat, but those things have alot of carbs, so im not sure. Not that i could eat them anyways cause now they gross me out. im just trying to stick to being as raw as i can, in fact yesterday i ate a salad and then ate a raw nut milk ice cream sweetened with evaporated cane juice and it didnt put my sugar up! which was so cool because m y sweet tooth is thru the roof! what i really want to have is the smoothie i usualy make with 1 banana.big handful of strawberrries,some peaches...i usually put alittle oj but i was thinking a splash of milk to soften it up///( idont addd sweeteners to my smoothies)..do you think that would be so bad? i cant help but believe that if i eat naturally it wont affect my sugar but im still scared...guess ill just have to try it & see what the glucometer has to say...

i guess eating right now isnt an issue because, although, my m/s is tapering off, im still nauseuos and grossed out by the "protein" thing...lets see how i do when my appetite kicks in!

 

[Muggins&Doody]

Hey, lurker here who's not in your DDC (although I might be after birth is babe comes early), but I was GD with DD and they did take her away after birth for 4 hours for monitering.

After she was born I continued to be diabetic and here I am today, pg and diabetic. Are you on insulin or anything? I am about 7 weeks and still haven't seen an OB, and they don't seem to be concerned that I'm on a medication that isn't contrained for use in pregnancy (Tolinase).

They told me to keep taking it for now. I don't see anyone until I'm near 10 weeks.

 

[ChillMom]

I think the biggest thing I learned from my nutrionist was that I shouldn't cut carbs from my diet; that I needed a healthy dose of carbs to grow a healthy baby. She was actually concerned when I started cutting back. The key was learning how to eat carbs so that they had the least impact on my blood sugar. That's great that you were able to have the raw-nut icecream and it didn't affect you! Ice-cream was one of my favorite snacks, too. From what I understand, the high fat content actually decreased the rate of absortion of the carbs. I also drank my fair share of smoothies. Since bananas was one of my trigger foods, I cut them out, but used lots of fresh berries. Sometimes I'd make a vanilla smoothie with a scoop of peanut butter.

What type of veggie-based proteins do you usually eat? You sound like you are off to a great start focusing on the natural foods. I found that the less processed a food was, the better, with the exception of a few trigger foods. Also, if you do eat something that you think will affect your glucose, if you excercise right after eating (for me taking a long walk did the trick), it will really help.

M&D - no insulin last time; we'll see how it goes this time, though. Do you think your Dr. will have you continue your meds throughout your pregnancy?

 

[ChillMom]

Sorry, I forgot --- the book I mentioned is "The Good Carb Cookbook - Eating Low on the Glycemic Index" by Sandra Woodruff. The first 80 pages or so talk about how to identify good vs. bad carbs which I found really interesting. It also has alot of good vegetarian recipes!

 

[o4smommy]

m&d, sorry you were sepearted from your baby during such an important time...thats why i want to have her at home.i can monitor her blood sugar here.

i was lucky i wasnt on insulin..and with the diet im keeping now my levels look really good..so far the only thing that set me off was pizza and rice..learned my lesson....so i think ill be good eating as naturally as possible, but im planning to hit red lobster with my granma soon, hard to avoid those biscuits!

chill & m&d,let me know what happens when you guys see your ob's finally!

 

[ChillMom]

I just met my new OB today, I am so excited!! She actually thinks I will be a good candidate for the Birthing Center! I thought for sure I would be out of luck due to GD. She said she is going to test me early (probably in the next month) and even if I have GD again, as long as I can control it through diet, I can deliver at the Birthing Center and not the hospital. She is even OK with me going up to 42 weeks as long as there don't appear to be any complications (like super large baby or low amniotic fluid levels). Yay!!!

 

[o4smommy]

wow Chill! Thats so awesome! im jealous!!!! i dread going to my ob appt, infact im having to change,,whatta pain in the arse!

Just make sure she sticks to her word!

im really6 happy for you!

 

[ChillMom]

when are you meeting with you new OB? Please let me know how it goes! Fingers crossed for you!

:

 

[o4smommy]

on the 30th...lets see now if they gimme a hassle bout my records..ill let you know how it goes!