I'm new to the site so forgive me if I make any newbie errors! I'm 25 years old and my husband and I are hoping to start trying to get pregnant this summer. I'm nervous to say the least. To be a mom has been my dream my entire life. I was diagnosed with type 1 at 15 years old and have had my ups and downs with it. Sometimes I do extremely well and I'm on top of my blood sugars and my HbA1c is within the 6-7 range, and other times I get burnt out and just let everything fall to the wayside with my A1c ending up in the 8-9 range, a couple times even the 10s. Those times alone scare me, just knowing what damage I could have done to my body. I want so badly to be healthy. Regardless, I know that my A1c needs to be at a good level for a significant amount of time before I even start trying to get pregnant. That being said, does anyone have any suggestions on how I can best prepare myself for pregnancy, as well as just taking better care of myself in general? I've been trying to keep a food and blood sugar diary which helps, as well as exercising (I definitely need to lose some weight as well!) I'm ordering "Balancing Pregnancy with Pre-Existing Diabetes: Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby" which I've been told is extremely helpful. Any suggestions or advice is greatly appreciated!!
You sound like you're already doing great. The only other things I'd recommend are making sure you have good health insurance (your pregnancy will be considered high risk and require extra doctor visits and ultrasounds) and using an insulin pump if you don't already.
Try not to stress. You'll get pregnant when the time is right. And as a mom with diabetes there's no reason you can't have a healthy pregnancy and healthy baby.
Hi! Don't stress- we all have our highs and lows. This blog is great because it helps you realize you're not alone! Keeping a log has really helped me to keep track of what I'm eating and also how my blood sugar responds an hour or two hours after meals/snacks. I am a T1 on the Omnipod pump, hoping to get pregnant soon and my endo/high risk OB have suggested testing 6-8 times daily, especially the hour or two after meals. If you do this already great, if you don't yet, start- it will make such a difference in your A1C! Mine came down from 7 to 6.3 in two months. And try not to stress over getting pregnant. Like everyone says, it will happen when the time is right! (I'm trying to remember that myself!) But it's very exciting to think about. Best of luck to you and your hubby :)
You are doing great already! Sounds like you just need a few tweeks to get your numbers a little bit better. Trust me you are not alone in the up and down department. Actually, when I found out I was pregnant I was on the down, with an a1c of 8.9 at conception. I was really depressed for a while because I was trying to get my a1c down for such a long time with no luck. Stress had a huge impact on my blood sugars for years.
I don't condone anyone being that high for conception but, needless to say I had an extraordinary pregnancy with no complications. Baby was and is very healthy! I was able to get my a1c down to a 6.1 within the first 3 months of becoming pregnant by checking, checking and more checking. My a1c was in the 6 range the entire time. I kept in contact with my doctors every week, and there was adjusting to be done every single time. Even with very controlled blood sugars the entire time...The baby was HUGE! A whopping 10 pounds 13oz. haha!! Even my OB was surprised at birth LOL
The best thing you could do is keep doing what you are doing and have your doctors look over your numbers and food log on a weekly basis. That is really what helped me to get down so fast. Does your diabetes team let you email your numbers to them? If not you could fax, and one time I even drove there to bring them my log because my upload wasn't working. haha
One thing that I had to get used to was being comfortable with lower blood sugars. Personally I always felt better at 150 than 90, so I tended to aim and leave my blood sugars a little higher than I probably needed to. Non-diabetic pregnant women have even lower blood sugars than non-diabetic women, so you might have to aim a little lower than you're used to. It's a little hard for me to try to be closer to a low than a high (and lows are a little lower than before), but if you test often you'll catch most of the lows (and highs) before they get bad. I'm currently testing 12-15 times a day (and my hands hate me for it). But if you test often, you'll find that your a1c's will come down on their own.
I agree with everyone above, try not to stress about it too much. It's not easy, but if you check your sugars often it gets a bit easier. And don't worry about some highs and lows, they happen. If you can email blood sugars to your endo or other doctors, I find that's super helpful too.
Leah, like the other ladies said, you sound like you are doing everything right. In order to achieve really tight control you need to test test test! With my first pregnancy I tested like 20 times a day. With my second I tested a bit less but still about 15 times a day because I was also using a cgm. I still had highs and lows but because I was testing so frequently I could get my sugars back on track quickly. I would also recommend setting an alarm and checking once during the night. Best of luck to you for a healthy pregnancy and healthy baby!
Thank you all so much for your positive responses and encouragement! It all means more to me than you could know! It is so comforting and reassuring to know that I am not alone in my battles and that there are others of you out there who are struggling with the same things. Not to mention that it does wonders for my nerves to hear about so many of you who have had healthy pregnancies and healthy babies! I will take all of your advice to heart and make sure I continue to test, test, and test some more! (Which seems to be the common thread, imagine that!) Thank you all so much again!
Another thing that could help, my husband checked me twice during the overnight hours and once before he left to go to work. Support from others does wonders!
I am going through a similar situation. My husband and I have been married about 2.5 years and are starting to talk about a family. My A1C has been hovering between 7-7.5 the last few years...which is MUCH better than it was when I was younger and going through the whole denial phase, but I still know I have a lot of work to do. I want a family more than anything. My biggest fear is the stress of having to make sure that everything is perfect during the pregnancy. I put a ton of pressure on myself in everything that I do, and I'm sure that when we do get pregnant, it will be no exception. How did everyone else get over the stress of having that pressure on yourself?
Eileen, I am in your same boat. Hoping to start a family in the next year or so and A1C was around 7 for the past few years. In july I met with my endo and a high risk OB and told them my hopes and they immediately tightened up my control. In September my A1C was down to 6.3. Though I can’t tell you how to deal with pregnancy since I haven’t gone through that yet, I know for me seeing my A1c so much better and seeing it stay there, has relieved SO much stress already because I see that I can do this and you can too! It might help to talk to your doc and start making adjustments now. Just a thought! Best of luck to you!
Eileen I feel the SAME way! I agree with Molly, talking to your doctors can help a great deal! One of the greatest conversations I ever had with my doctor was about how I deal with the pressure. My problem, which he pointed out to me, is that I want to do well and have great numbers, but when I don't, I tend to beat myself up over it. My doctor is a type 1 diabetic himself, so he completely understood where I was coming from. He told me the thing that I have to remember is that none of this is my fault. This is my body. As long as I'm checking my blood sugars and doing my best to bolus correctly, that's all I can do. He reminded me that sometimes our blood sugars go completely out of whack for no reason other than our bodies decided to do something strange that day! It's our bodies that are guilty, not us. That helped me a great deal and I hope it helps you.
Other than that, I've found that I have to take it one day at a time, otherwise I get overwhelmed. Each day, I aim to check my blood sugars at least 8 times a day. I don't know if you have a phone with applications available, but I have an iPhone and it has several apps that help keep track of your blood sugars. This has helped me a lot, because I log my blood sugars in my app and it gives me averages, trends, and so on. It also lets me tag each blood sugar with a label such as "before lunch," or "after lunch" which has helped me target problem foods as well as how my blood sugars change throughout the day.
The last thing I'll say that has helped me a great deal, is that you are NOT ALONE. Take comfort in the fact that there are many of us who struggle with the exact same things that you do. Type 1 diabetes sucks! It's difficult and sometimes scary. But I believe that there is a reason I have this, and God wouldn't give me anything He didn't think I couldn't handle! (At least I hope not!) We all have our ups and downs, but all you can do is try your best to be healthy. For yourself, for your husband, and hopefully one day for your children! Hope that didn't seem like me on a soapbox!
I hear ya! I finally had to relinquish all control and try my best to take good care of myself. I listened to my docs, kept on top of the sugars, and leaned on my husband for support. The latter is the most important: Lean on others to get you through!