Finally Pregnant!

Pregnancy
1

So I've been following these boards for a while now as my husband and I tried to get pregnant. I've been seeing a high risk doc for well over a year, and we were just getting ready to start the first stage of infertility testing when BAM! Success! According to two at-home pregnancy tests, we succeeded sometime around the beginning of August, which means I'm about 5 weeks or so! (Now we just need a refund on those fertility tests since we won't need to be taking them).

I'm so excited as this is exactly when I wanted to get pregnant! But, as I'm sure you all know, pregnancy with type 1 diabetes is a different beast altogether, and so the excitement is also accompanied by anxiety. I do need to get a new A1c done, but the last one was just fine.

Anyway, I am checking a minimum of 10 times a day, waking up at night to check, at least once. I am exercising and watching what I eat. My average is 110 on my meter. However, I can't help but worry because that's what I do. With type 1, there is so much to worry about. Every time my after-meal reading is over 140, I freak a little. I'm pumping so it's relatively easy to just deliver insulin and hop on the treadmill to get it to come down. But then there are those numbers that seem inexplicable. For example, my middle of the night numbers are usually somewhere between 60 and 110, but the other morning it was 190! I have no idea why! I freaked out, got up, took insulin, and jogged in place so as not to wake the hubby. (He has to get up at 4:30 most days). I've heard that as long as the numbers aren't up for an extended period of time, then everything should be okay. But it's just the idea that damage could be done. And I just couldn't explain this reading!

Oh, I should also mention that the weekend prior to finding out, my insulin pump just died on me! Talk about crappy timing. We thought that it was a possibility that I was pregnant, but didn't think that was the case as we'd been trying for quite a while. Anyway, I acted as if. It was tough as I only had humalog so that meant checking every two hours, day and night. I did have one high of 267 when I slept through the alarm, but I fixed it as soon as I could. It had been 89 just two hours before, so it wasn't high for long. Still, a tad worrisome...

Still need to schedule first appointment to get doctor confirmation, etc. I'm a school teacher and school starts next week, so it might be tricky to get in. But I guess I'm going to have to do what I have to do. Wish me luck! I'm excited/anxious and looking forward to sharing and talking with others on this site...FINALLY!

2

All first time moms make a big deal and tend to stress during pregnancy, then your child is born and you realize the pregnancy was just a blip and now real life starts. =)   You sound very knowledgeable about your diabetes and just need to use common to have a successful pregnancy.  There is no reason you won't be healthy and your baby won't be healthy too.

The best thing you can do to have a healthy, happy baby is to be a relaxed, happy expectant mom.  You're doing fine overall and can't go back in time to fix the small highs you experienced.  I definitely wouldn't wake up in the middle of the night to test unless I was concerned my blood sugar was off, was concerned about my overnight basal rate, or if I'd eaten a high fat meal at dinner and wanted to be sure it didn't cause a middle of the night high.  Otherwise just test if you wake up for some reason.  

Since you're testing a lot talk to your doctor about adjusting down your target blood sugar.  What is your target right now?  When pregnant I aimed for 80 because that is a non-diabetic blood sugar.  Because that leaves very little cusion you have to be conscientious about testing so you catch blood sugar drops before they happen.

To eliminate post meal highs, test one hour after eating and use you pump bolus calulator or bolus wizard to give a correction dose.  Also look up your carb counts.  I ate what I wanted when pregnant, but looked it up.  In the last trimester I had trouble digesting high fat or carb dinners, but learned I could eat what I wanted at lunch and tried to eat lower carb at dinner.  

Congratulations on your little baby.  At this point you'll be able to hear your baby's heartbeat!  Being a mom is a wonderful blessing.  Congratulations!

3

Thanks, Jenna. We're very excited!

Currently, I have my target glucose range at 80-110 before meals, and less than 140 after meals. I am experiencing some slightly higher after-meal numbers, like 160-180, sometimes higher, and those do have me worried a bit. I am doing what you say--checking 1 hour after eating and correcting if necessary--but I find that I tend to drop low after that. I am thinking of taking my pre-meal insulin a bit earlier than I normally would because it seems like I've got slow absorption or something. For example, if I check 1 hour after a meal, I may be at 165, but if I don't correct, two hours after the meal I am on target. Sometimes I hop on the treadmill to speed things up, but that's not always possible, so I've definitely got to talk to the doctor about this. I want better post-meal numbers.

Looking forward to our first appointment ion Tuesday, September 3rd. Very exciting! Wish me luck!

4

You're smart to take pre-meal insulin in advance.  

If you're correcting and it causes a low, it could be a sign that your pump settings are incorrect for either insulin duration or insulin sensitivity factor.  Get your doctor/diabetes educator's advice on changing it.  Books like "Think Like a Pancreas" and "Pumping Insulin" have been a big help to me.  

Another resource is Gary Scheiner who does the  Type 1 University online classes.  I don't see current clases scheduled, but email them and ask.  The live classes are $30 and allow you to ask questions as you watch the teacher.  There's one on "Mastering Pump Therapy" and another of "Strike the Spike: Post Meal Glucose Control" that are perfect fits for what you need.   www.type1university.com

Once your pump settings are accurate, you'll have tighter blood sugars if you set a target number instead of a range.  So instead of 80-120, aim for 100.  I have the same target pre- and post-meal.  But I'm insulin sensitive; might not be realistic for everyone.    

5

Congratulations!! I know I am late on this thread!! How is everything going with the pregnancy?

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@LG625 how is your pregnancy going? I am about 6 1/2 weeks now. :slight_smile: