I just wanted to write a quick note because I know how much I needed stories like this when I was pregnant.
I say WAS, because as of Saturday 9/10/11 (what a cool day to be born) I am no longer pregnant. I am the mother of a beautiful and very healthy little boy.
I am 23, and have been a T1 since I was I0 years old. My A1c prepregnancy was 6.4. My husband I worked our butts off to take as good care of my diabetes as possible before and during my entire pregnancy. I just want to say that it IS possible. I had a few highs. I had a few lows. But I just kept at it, and tried my hardest not to listen to all the people who told me how selfish I was for getting pregnant with diabetes, or all the people who thought that James wouldn't be ok. We had sooooooooo many dr.'s appointments, and every time we were cautiously told that James was doing fine. No one seemed to think he would be healthy. We proved them all wrong.
My delivery was incredible. I lucked out and had an OB/GYN who knows just how in control and hands on and involved my husband and I are in my care. She explained everything. I was scheduled for an induction yesterday, but on Saturday James decided he had had enough.
At 9 am Saturday morning (when I was exactly 39 weeks), my water broke spontaneously. Shortly after we went to the hospital and I got hooked up to an insulin drip, a drip of D5LR (basically fluids with a little sugar) and they started Pitocin. My doctor had written orders that we were allowed to test my blood sugars on my meter, so that we wouldn't have to wait on lab. We were supposed to do them every hour, but Josiah (my husband) and I ended up doing them a lot more frequently because we wanted to make sure that I had a good blood sugar when James was born. Because of the Pitocin, I was hooked up to external continuous monitoring so they could closely monitor James. I told everyone in the room that my number one concern and desire was to not have a C-Section, and my doctor was absolutely willing to let me try. At about 5 cm I asked for and received an epidural. To make a long story short, at 10:48 p.m. my beautiful son was born weighing 8 lbs 6.5 ounces and 19 1/2 inches long. He received a 9 and a 9 on his APGARS. I did have a lot of tearing, but I would much rather have this than a c-section! James' blood sugar was 55 (which is totally normal for any newborn). I was worried that they would have to keep in the nursery, but they couldn't find a reason to! After they stitched me up we got to spend a good half an hour with him so I could breastfeed him. Then they took me to my postpartum room and took James for his bath (daddy went with him).
For the rest of my hospital stay, James essentially stayed in my room with me, only leaving for daily blood work or assessments (with his daddy by his side). Also, I am on a regimine of Lantus and Humolog, and the doctor and my hospital agreed that it would be much simpler if I just stayed in control of my diabetes instead of trying to explain it all to them/have them have to bring me Humolog every time I ate etc.This was way more than I could have hoped for. I just did all my own blood sugars and took my own insulin from home. I never even imagined that this could be possible!!!! We were discharged Monday afternoon, and have been home ever since.
You CAN do it. Find a doctor you trust and who trusts you and your knowledge. And don't give them a reason not to trust you! Take care of yourself!