My daughter does have gestational diabetes...

[BMW]

She got the call today. I took care of her all week. I watched her diet. I took advice here about proteins and fats with carbs. Her scores were very high and she has to go in Monday to learn how to prick her finger and test her blood. I am not sure if she will have oral medication or have to give herself/me giver her shots. This is my girl who faints when she gets shots. BUT, she has learned to control her anxiety and accept needles as part of life during this pregnancy!!

 

Tuesday she gets her 48 hour heart monitor.

 

She will probably stay with me about 5 days a week now until the end of pregnancy. Well, most likely she'll move back in by the first of the year! Her fiancee is welcome to stay in our trailer and go to work from here.

 

Anyway, if there is any more words of wisdom, please pass them our way. She cried a good bit today. She has been very picky about learning everything about the baby each week and she is picky about her health, too. She was a vegan prior. She is into natural products. No chemicals or toxins. She shops at Trader Joes and reads a lot and pays attention to health. She didn't gain much weight for the first few months, then she really, really gained. I can tell she blames herself, but told her sometimes it just happens. In my 7 pregnancies, I never had one borderline blood sugar scare. She hoped that she would be like me.

 

Thanks for listening.

[Heather in OK]

:grouphug: Tell her it will be ok!!! And tell her to NOT blame herself! She hasn't done anything wrong.

 

Pricking the finger isn't as bad as it sounds. It's very quick and feels somewhat like a pinch. She should be seeing a nutritionalist who will help her with the diet part of it all. Many, many times this can be controlled with diet and exercise.

 

If it helps encourage her....we had a client a couple of years ago whose diabetes would flare up during her pregnancies. So bad that she was taking several insulin shots a day to keep it under control. She was never offered nutritional counseling. My midwifery partner worked with her during the pregnancy she saw us. She counseled her on the nutrition and got her walking each day. She was able to come down to one insulin shot a day!!

 

She didn't gain much weight for the first few months, then she really, really gained.

When exactly in her pregnancy was the big weight gain?

[melmichigan]

<<<hugs>>> to your DD. I am diabetic and was on an insulin pump from nine weeks in this last pregnancy. The edocrinologists are very tight with blood sugars now, much more so than even with my prior son. Luckily this is later than normal in a pregnancy for gestational diabetes so your DD will have to deal with this for a shorter duration. I will keep her in my thoughts. It is stressful but she will get through it.

[BMW]

Her weight went on 5th-7-1/2 months, at about 7 lbs per month. She is due Jan. 28th. She walks a lot. Usually 3 miles a day. She doesn't drive, so she walks daily to Trader Joe's to get out and about.

 

I told her about not eating so much carbs. She loves whole wheat bagels. I am pushing the protein. Yes, we'll meet with a nutrition counselor, too.

 

Thanks!

[Heather in OK]

Some of that weight gain was her blood volume doubling. Not all of it...but some. There is a normal and necessary jump in weight around 25wks.

 

Yes, protein! :)

 

It sounds like she is doing fabulous!! An ideal client. :) Sometimes things come up that we don't have an explanation for and it sucks. But you just roll with it and do what you can.

 

She'll be in my prayers! For the remainder of her pregnancy and for a wonderful birth!!

[AuntieM]

I had gestational diabetes with my last baby. I was able to stay off insulin shots by a strictly controlled diet and moderate exercise (really just regular walking around for about 10 minutes after each meal). Perhaps with your oversight, she can do the same?

 

Bless you, Bee, for watching out for these youngins!

[Tammyla]

Keep us posted, I'll pray for her.:grouphug:

[AK_Mom4]

I'd like to chime in on the shots....they aren't really that bad. Not nearly as bad a getting a flu shot! I was on insulin with my last pregnancy and did shots 3 times a day. I'm a shot-wimp, personally, but the nurse showed me how to give the shots and it was very minor. You just keep reminding yourself that it means a healthy baby and that helps too.

 

And the nutrition counseling really helped. I highly recommend it - it just makes you feel better to get this big list of foods that are GOOD to eat (instead of always trying to avoid the bad things).

[newlifemom]

Yep, I gained the least weight with ds, but around 20-25 weeks huge increase and by 28 was on a diabetic diet and testing my blood sugar. Didn't need it for any other children.

 

Stepping away from my regular carbs and sweets really helped me to appreciate naturally sweet things. I should do it again for that reason alone. Oh yeah, by the end of the pregnancy, I had only gained a total of 13lbs. Ds was 9lb 9oz of those 13lbs. So yeah it really s*****d but I liked the results. :tongue_smilie:

[RahRah]

Pregnancy itself induces a state of insulin resistance, so the risk for gestational diabetes is part of pregnancy....the majority of women do not wind up diagnoised with GD, but many who do have/had diets which wouldn't be typically associated with diabetes - GD happens in even the best of dietary habits.

 

That said, she'll monitor her blood glucose (BG) waking in the morning (fasting) and then 2-hours after meals (post-prandial) to see where they're going (excursions). Medication, if needed, will be dosed based on what's happening with her BG's in both the fasted and fed states - or not prescribed at all if she manages to get them under control with diet and exercise, which can be done, but not always.

 

One piece of advice is to "eat to your meter" - that is, carefully track what you're eating (she's eating - I tend to talk in "you") and the BG's at start of meal, 1-hour, 2-hour and 3-hour for a few days - it's unlikely you'll have as strict a monitoring schedule, but doing that much testing initially will tell you a lot about how various foods are impacting BG's.

 

For example, in day 1....if her fasting is, say 90.....she eats a bagel (whole wheat) with, oh, some cream cheese and sees BG's at 1-hour 180, 2-hour 150, and 3-hour 100.....the whole wheat bagel is something to avoid, it's rising BG's too high and they're staying high too long.

 

If the next day, instead, her fasting is, say 90....she consumes 2 eggs with cheese and tests, 1-hour is 110, 2-hour is 92 and 3 hour is 88....she's controlling her BG's with diet.

 

If she tests like that for about a week, it'll be an eye-opener just how so many foods effect BG that you might not think would!

 

I hope she does well the rest of her pregnancy!

[AuntieM]

I like RahRah's info on eating to your monitor. There were certain foods thT got me a little high every time I ate them, even within the appropriate serving measures. Pizza is one I could not eat, not even half a slice of homemade that I knew exactly what it contained!

 

My insulin response kicked back in immediately after delivery. I had a section, and a hernia that was repaired at the same time. When they wheeled me Into recovery I asked if they needed to check my blood sugar. They didn't. When they took me to my room I asked again. When the nurse finally got around to it and read the meter, she ran out of the room and came back with Graham crackers, peanut butter and orange juice and practically force fed me. She told me it was 28....

[Rosie_0801]

She got the call today. I took care of her all week. I watched her diet. I took advice here about proteins and fats with carbs. Her scores were very high and she has to go in Monday to learn how to prick her finger and test her blood. I am not sure if she will have oral medication or have to give herself/me giver her shots.

 

Nope, it won't be oral meds. You can't take them while pregnant. Very high may be able to be brought down to safe levels if she's got a week or two to fiddle around with her diet. Or she might be too high for that to work. It is possible to get through a pregnancy getting all your carbs from beans rather than grains, it's just not fun. It's really not fun, but I chose to do it to keep off the insulin. I'm not sure if I made the right decision though because it really wasn't fun!

 

She might need to cut down on her exercise. They will recommend it for regulating blood sugars, but putting stress on your body raises your blood sugars. I was actually better off lying on the couch, even though that went against all their recommendations. It's quite possible she needs to walk less, or she might just need to slow it down so she can amble along without really feeling it.

 

 

I can tell she blames herself, but told her sometimes it just happens. In my 7 pregnancies, I never had one borderline blood sugar scare. She hoped that she would be like me.

 

Oh, it's not her fault. We don't have that much control over our bodies. All the healthy eating, prayer, positive thought and whatnot can't combat biology when biology is feeling stubborn.

 

There are more and less sensitive areas of the fingers. The side of the ring and middle fingers hurts least and you can fit about three pinpricks on each side of the finger, then you have to move onto another finger until they heal. Different fingers give different readings too. It's not precise, but it's as good as we've got for now.

 

Major advice: the doctors and nutritionist don't know everything and you need not behave as though they do. I had to give my obstetrician, midwife and diabetes educators some Christmas cake (which I didn't even eat one crumb of!) because I argued with them so much! They dispense general truths, but diabetes is a funny thing and the general truths aren't always specifically true. If she tries the proscribed diet and that keeps her bloods high, that doesn't mean she must go on insulin, though they will tell her to. In those situations I, uh, firmly requested two or three days to get under control. In my case, I was able to do just that each time. The docs were afraid I would never admit defeat under any circumstances, which is why they were pushy for so long, but we eventually came to an understanding and they relaxed. Of course that was my second pregnancy so I had already done it already and understood far more about what my body was going to do than I did during my first pregnancy.

 

Another weird thing is that you have to be careful when you eat some things. She might find she can eat some things for supper that she can't eat at any other time of day. It takes some time to figure out these rhythms.

 

:grouphug: Gestational diabetes really does suck.

 

Rosie

[BMW]

Thank you so much, every one of you. Thanks, Rosie, for sharing so much.

 

I love this board.