Hey, I'm new, just joined the group. :) I found out last week that I was pregnant. I'm 24, have had T1 for almost 13 years. My A1C was an 8.4 when they did it last week. Is that too high? I'm very nervous, I unforunatley with my work schedule and eating schedule, run pretty high. I'm working on testing more frequently to keep my BG levels down...
I'm about 6 weeks along right now and have been having the WORST morning sickness. Bloating, indegestion, heartburn, gas, you name it. I work 40 hours a week and can't take sick time! I don't know what to do. I've been drinking diet ginger ale and eating saltines, but when you're a cake decorator and feeling like you're going to ralf on the cupcakes you're making, that's not good. I'm hoping the morning sickness doesn't last very long?
If anyone has any advice for me as a new mom, and being T1 diabetic, I would really appreciate it. I bought the "What to expect when you're expecting", which is very informative, but not for diabetics. :)
I am 20 yrs old and currently 24 weeks pregnant with my first. It's a girl! My A1c is a 6.5 The first few weeks of my pregnancy I had pretty high numbers. It was almost as though I had insulin resistance in the beginning. I had to up my basal and my bolus/carb ratio. When I started my 2nd trimester the lows began to kick in. I was dropping into the 40's almost everyday despite lowering my insulin. That tapered off around 18-19 weeks. It's a very complicated situation to be diabetic and pregnant because all these raging hormones and changes in your body effect your blood sugars. All we can do though is try our hardest. Test your blood a lot!!! Sometimes I even test during the night. I have heard CGMs work wonders and help alot, but I do not have one. I am on a pump (the OmniPod) and it's been a blessing. There are so many times when I need to do a temp basal or take a correction dose and all of those things would be so much more complicated without the help of a pump.
I had horrible morning sickness. And I really mean horrible. I am 24 weeks pregnant and I have thrown up twice this week, sorry to be graphic! But this I can handle. It was really bad in the beginning. I was throwing up about once an hour, literally! I lost about 5 lbs in 1 week and my doctors put me on Zofran. It helped a lot. It kept me going at least. But I was still pretty sick. My doctors told me it should ease up by 14 weeks and that was not true. I was still throwing up then and could barely roll out the bed. It really didn't start to ease up for me until about 20 weeks. Every woman is different though. I know some women who never had 1 day of morning sickness and then there are other women who are sick the entire 40 weeks. Just depends... Try to keep yourself hydrated at all times and if it's really bad speak with your doctors. They can put you on Zofran pills to help. Some women who have it realllllly bad are even put on Zofran pumps.
Congratulations on your little bean and please keep us updated!
Congratulations on your baby! Your symptoms are pretty typical for the first trimester. Usually in the 2nd trimester the morning sickness goes away and you get your energy back.
If you're taking any kind of ACE inhibitor like Lisinopril, stop immediately until you talk to your doctor. It's linked to birth defects.
Your A1c is a little high. Ideally you want it to be at a non-diabetic level, which is 4.5 - 5.5. It's important to avoid highs or lows. Do you do shots or pump? Thanks to a pump and aiming for target blood sugars of 80, I had a good A1c when pregnant. But I had to test often (7-8 times a day) to make sure I didn't have lows. A CGM may help you too.
At this stage you probably don't have a lot of insulin resistance, but you may already be experiencing higher blood sugars in the morning. To deal with that I ate the same breakfast every day, so I could carb count for it accurately.
In the 3rd trimester you'll start needing a lot more insulin because your progesterone levels rise. I take about 40 units a day but when pregnant took over 100.
If you haven't signed up, go to www.babycenter.com which will send you weekly updates on your baby's progress. There's also a good diabetic mom's book called "Balancing Pregnancy with Pre-Existing Diabetes: Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby" by Cheryl Alkon.
Don't have much to add to the above posts but my A1C was a nine when I was 6 weeks pregnant and I had morning sickness just like RachelEmily... 25 weeks and still throwing up at least twice a week and still taking zofran everyday ugh. My A1C is now a 6.6, I just have tested and tested and tested and recently got a CGM which is helping ALOT, i would def reccomend it if you can, esp before you hit the lows in the later 1st beginning 2nd trimester because during pregnancy you don't fee your BG as well and I wasn't waking up until I was in the 30s and 40s which was super scary, the CgM starts alarming when you hit 70 (or wherever you set it)
Also the Balancing Pregnancy with preexisting diabetes by Cheryl Alkon is a really good resource, i bought it to read on the Kindle app on my phone, haven't seen it it bookstores, but it's on amazon.
Thanks for the recommendations for my book--I appreciate it.
For anyone interested, I sell copies of the book via Paypal. Feel free to email me at Lyrehca AT gmail DOT com.
Good luck on your pregnancy, Jessika. I blogged about my two pregnancies at www.thesweetnesswithin.blogspot.com and my kids are now 4 and 7 months, and I've been type 1 since 1977. It can be done!