Hello! I am really glad I found this forum! Though my SO is very supportive, I think I drive him crazy with diabetes talk sometimes. I’ve been reading through everyone’s posts and every concontribution has been so helpful. I wanted to reply to some threads, but wasnt sure if they would be active still, so here I am introducing myself!
Well I’m approaching 21 weeks and think I’m starting to run into some insulin resistance. A serving of Greek yogurt now raises my bs 100+ points after a bolus! My a1c when I first found out at 5 or 6 weeks was 8.9. I scrambled to get on a CGM and pump and lowered it to 4.9 in 2 months. Ive been trying to keep it 60-90. And in the first trimester, that was easy enough because I had a lot of hypos.
I’ve never been so obsessed with my blood sugars or testing or what and how much I eat. It is starting to feel like a constant battle and some days I just want to scream and run down the street tearing my hair out, especially when I get readings in the 200s after eating. (Like now, lol.) Because I feel like im hurting him in there.
I have a million questions and concerns as a first time mom of an unplanned baby. I don’t quite know where to start! Thanks for giving me the space to vent and connect!
Like every mom, you want to do your best for your baby. Just keep doing that and rolling with the changes that pregnancy brings.
It’s really important to avoid lows, for your safety and your baby’s development. A non-diabetic woman has blood sugars in the 65-80 range so that is okay, even though it seems low to us. But do everything you can to avoid ever going lower than that. Testing often is the best way to catch blood sugar swings before they get crazy. Also look up carb counts so you can bolus accurately.
I think stress is worse than an occasional 200. I had a 300+ a couple times and my son was born with a normal blood sugar and is healthy. Catch early and correct. Be ready to adjust your insulin levels almost daily once you get into the 3rd trimester. You might also have to make eating changes, like I’d avoid really carb heavy or fatty food at dinner because my digestion was slow and I couldn’t time the insulin accurately. I could still eat a burger or baked potato at lunch, just not late in the day.
Enjoy this great time in your life! At 21 weeks you probably have the cutest baby bump and your little one is moving around a lot. Before you know it you’ll be meeting your little one and won’t remember what you used to think about before he or she was born. Take care.
You may have read my response like this in another thread, but I will repeat it here. I am currently 19 weeks pregnant with my first baby, which was planned. At conception my A1c was 7.8. When I visited my Maternal Fetal Medicine doctor for the first time (they are handling my diabetes/high risk stuff), they told me that the main thing they worry about for babies of diabetic moms is heart and spinal/neural tube defects. She said non-D moms usually have a 2-3% chance of developing such defects normally. With an A1c of 7.8, I was looking at a 5-8% risk of developing these risks.
Quite honestly, that is a very small increased risk that I am willing to live with. Don’t get me wrong–I am by no means ignoring the seriousness of a diabetic pregnancy and am doing my best to control it. At the end of my first trimester I was down to 7.1–better but by no means perfect. I want what’s best for my baby, but I can’t let such a small risk keep me up at night. So far I have had 3 ultrasounds and a few blood tests–everything is coming back perfectly normal.
My point here is simply to do your best, but don’t let every little high BG freak you out. Remember that the baby is making its own insulin and regulating its own BG so a few swings from you won’t hurt it as long as you correct them and not let them ride for long periods of time.
I’m not a doctor or a medical professional of any type–just a regular woman with 30 years of T1D under my belt. Spikes and lows are going to happen (after all, you DO have diabetes). Don’t beat yourself up. For some perspective, my mom is also a T1D. When she found out she was pregnant with me in the early 80’s, she was given her first glucose meter (can you even imagine having a meter be the best technology at your disposal during pregnancy???). I was born perfectly healthy at a normal weight and survived just fine.
We are all capable of doing this. Don’t let the doctors and the numbers scare you–you are doing a great job
Thanks for your reply! I can only imagine how scary it would have been for your mom back then! Thank God everything worked out! It’s stories like that that help ease my nerves a bit, thank you! I do tend to spike into the 200s usually 1x per day for a few hours and I try to just correct and not obsess about it. I wonder if spikes are thst frequent for other diabetics? I will see my NP Thursday so I’m going to talk to her about it.
Hello! Thanks for replying! I’m about five months and have started doubling up on boluses and it seems like my needs are always changing. I have spikes it seems just about every day for a few hours before I can correct and get BG to come down. But outside of that, I run low. Its like if I eat it shoots up and if I go just a few hours without eating, it drops into the 40s and 50s. I have dropped to 25 a few weeks ago and that was really scary. I didn’t pass out but was about on the verge.
I do have a belly now (finally! Haha!) And i do have so many moments throughout the day where I just feel overwhelmed with love and joy and I hope the baby can sense those feelings because I certainly have enough anxiety going on for the both of us. Sometimes I’m just in awe of the changes I’m experiencing. I started feeling him move 3 weeks ago. It seems like the movements are getting stronger and harder to mistake for muscle twitches.
One thing I’ve never really heard my mom mention was fear about her pregnancy. In talking with her since I got pregnant, it sounds like she had doctor visits every week from the very beginning. I know that she was also involved in a research study about pregnancy and diabetes at the time, so that may have contributed to extra doctor appointments. I’m guessing that back then, since they didn’t have our current technology, you had to see your doctor more often.
Hi, @ofi! Congratulations on your pregnancy! I’m Erica, and I’ve had T1D for almost 7 years. I’m on the Omnipod and Dexcom. I’m 30weeks/4 days pregnant with a little girl, and oh, has it been hard work! My pre-conception A1c was below 7 consistently for a couple years, but I’ve managed to keep it below 6 throughout my pregnancy so far. I’m taking about twice as much insulin as I was pre-pregnancy, which I know will keep increasing, but it still blows my mind. I email my blood sugar log to my endo every week, and they make changes accordingly. I’ve had lows in the 30’s and highs in the 300’s, but thankfully those are few and far between. I try to remind myself every day to just correct and let it go, but it’s hard. Hang in there. This group has been wonderful, as has the “Type 1 Diabetes & Pregnancy” Group on Facebook.
Jenna, why is it that lows are so bad for the fetus? I have read online that your baby can be born with hypoglycemia if you have low blood sugars later in pregnancy, but my endo said she’s not too concerned about it. A few days ago it was 30, and that was very scary for me. I also had two other readings in the high 30’s. I’m starting to get worried.
And yes, this is SO HARD! Women I know have complained of headaches, and morning sickness, and fatigue, and mood swings in their pregnancies. We get all of that, PLUS all of the pressures of coping with and controlling our blood sugar. And the hormones are making my levels go crazy! It’s really nice to have a place to go where people understand how terrible it is! Sometimes I wonder why I’m even having a baby!
