T1 pregnancy success!

[yourstruly]

I know I have never posted on here before. I spent a good amount of time throughout my pregnancy lurking the boards though. I’d often find myself here, hoping to find others like myself that have experienced the daily (and ever changing) struggles of being pregnant with type 1 diabetes. I would turn to these forums and read what you guys had to say, and cling to every little glimmer of hope I could find. It helped knowing that I was not alone in the battles I was facing, and that there were infact other people just like myself out there that had made it through the rough road of pregnancy with type 1 diabetes and had success. Anyways, after scaring and stressing myself completely silly for almost the entire pregnany, here I am with my success story.

For your convenience, I am going to break it into 2 sections. The bold being a quick, easy-to read summary of my diabetes care and pregnancy with type 1. And the later being all of my rambling and the juicy details.

So real quick-

How long have I been type 1 diabetic?
8 years

Did I use insulin injections or a pump?
Injections

What types of insulins did I use?
Novolog and Lantus

Did I use a CGM?
No.

A1C’s throughout pregnancy?
8.3 at 8 weeks along. (I’m guessing it was much higher at conception)
5.8 beginning of second trimester
5.9 somewhere between second and third trimester
6.3 third trimester
6.3 day of delivery

Was I induced?
Yes

When was baby born?
38 weeks and 1 day

C-section or vaginal delivery?
Vaginal

Baby weight?
7 pounds 10 ounces

Complications during delivery or with baby?
None

Was it work??
YES!!!

Was it worth it?
Absolutely.

Now for the rambling for those that like details!!

So me? I’m 24. Was diagnosed with T1 when I was 16. So I’ve had type 1 for about 8 years now. I am going to be honest and say that before I became pregnant, I did tend to keep my sugars on the high side, for I had this overly paranoid fear of going low and passing out. I was usually satisfied with any number between 100 - 200. While I was away at work or out and about, I’d usually keep it between 150 - 250 just to prevent myself from going low. Sometimes even higher than that. 250 - 300 was a common range for me to keep myself at while I was at work each day. No, I wouldn’t keep it quite that high all the time, however, I was comfortable there, and those numbers were far from uncommon on my glucose readings.

Moving along. =P

Taken by surprise (without any real “prevention” for 2 months), I got my first positive pregnancy test!! I was in shock and disbelief, to just be honest. I don’t think I really grasped the entire concept of it at first, as I had always allowed myself to believe that I would have a hard time ever getting pregnant. (Not that I ever had any doctors tell me this, I had just tended to not give my body much credit since my diagnosis.) Looking back now, I was about 2 weeks along when I found out. I called my OB/GYN and they didn’t want to see me until I was 8 weeks!!! My endo has always sort of scared me, and I was afraid of the awful things he would have to say, so I didn’t seek help from him, and took getting my diabetes under better control entirely upon myself. I started taking a crazy amount of folic acid, and did the best to bring down my sugars. I struggled with highs each morning and after meals though, much to my distress. I can honestly say that the first trimester was the most difficult for me, as I was not used to keeping in sugars in such a stringent target range, doing correction shots, and I wasn’t used to aiming for such perfect goals 24/7 non-stop. (not at all due to lack of knowledge, but more-so, laziness - being blunt here, no hate please!!)

8 weeks along and I finally got to see my high-risk OB/GYN. Or I guess as he was called, maternal fetal medicine doctor. I got to hear my baby’s heartbeat on doppler for the first time and I was still in awe. Was there really this little life growing inside me?? Yes!! Anyways, so he did blood work and my a1c was 8.3 at 8 weeks along. Keep in mind, that that was with at least 6 weeks of me trying to control my sugars… yikes. Yes, obviously that was a high a1c, and I’m sure it was even much higher when I first conceived. My poor child. What had I done?? Fortunately my mfm doctor had an extremely calm demeanor and didn’t ever once use any scare tactiCS. He did his job, informed me of thse risks involved, and to quote him exactly - “if I want to be pregnant, than be pregnant.” He did not see any reason to scare me silly, and didn’t. He was this way throughout the entire pregnancy.

I saw my endo once after the initial first appointment with my mfm doc, to give him the results of my a1c and to see what he had to say about all the medications I was taking. He told me everything I needed to hear and I didn’t see him for the rest of the pregnancy. I left it up to myself to take care of my sugars and adjust them as needed. My mfm doc looked at my glucose log at every visit, made his input, and wrote all my prescriptions. I did not want the stress of seeing two different doctors throughout the pregnancy. I did not want to deal with their conflicting advice (if there were to be any), and I certainly didn’t want to deal with the emotional stress of two doctors either. In the end I’m happy with my decision.

By the second trimester I got my a1c down to 5.8!! I was thrilled beyond words!! I did it!! All by myself!! Ecstatic was putting it lighly. This was the absolute best a1c I had had since after being diagnosed. I had worked so ridiculously and excruciatingly hard to kick my sugars into gear, and I finally saw on paper the hard work paying off!! My baby looked great on scans and I was feeling great.

…bam. 13 weeks rolled around and I was at work one evening when I was hit with excruciating abdominal pain. What the hell!! I had my DH pick me up from work and I tried to sleep off the pain. It got worse. Soon I thought for sure I was miscarrying. Rushed to emergency. Baby turned out to be absolutely fine. They couldn’t find anything wrong with me. Finally (12 hours of pain later), after having an MRI and bloodwork done to try to figure out what was wrong, they saw that it was my appendix. That’s right people. My appendix decided to have it’s moment while I was pregnant!!! I was told I’d need surgery. Absolutely terrified and devastated, I had no choice. The surgery itself was smooth, but recovery was slow and painful. But miraculously through it all, baby made it through!! I couldn’t believe it!!! I was so happy. Naturally I was terrified I was going to miscarry at every recovery cramp and pain I had, and my sugars were terribly messed up for a good few weeks while I dealt with the nausea and pain of recovering as well. It was awful. Right when I had just started to get everything under control there I was struggling to figure it all out all over again. Great. Somehow, I managed, and the next a1c I had came back at 5.9 I was more than happy with this number, all things considered. I won’t lie, I had many many highs (200-250) while trying to reconfigure my act together.

Anyways! So that was the big trauma of my pregnancy. The rest of the pregnancy I spent worrying myself sick each and every day about the “what-ifs” and spent more than enough nights terrifying myself through Google, but that was no fault other than my own. (My advice - stay off of there!!! LOL.) I felt justified to be such a worry-wart though, and because of such I never really did take the time to “enjoy” my pregnancy. To add to the mix of stressful situations already, I also had an anterior (placed on the front, as opposed to the back) placenta, which cushioned much of baby’s movements, and made kick counting almost impossible to do.

A couple weeks into the third trimester my a1c jumped up to 6.3. Between my anxiety and overnight numbers, I spent a lot of time hovering in and around 150 so I wasn’t surprised by this number, even though I wasn’t happy about it either. Anyone on here KNOWS that it is absolute WORK to be pregnant with diabetes!!! I was waking up every 2 - 3 hours overnight in the third trimester just trying to correct and avoid the stupid highs I was having due to hormones, but often times I found that my correction shots did very little. It was stressful, and many nights of mine were spent in tears. I even stopped eating after 6 and 7pm at some point in the third trimester, and was still battling high numbers (around 170+) seemingly almost every night. It just seemed that everytime I fell asleep my sugars would raise. (This has always been an issue with my diabetes though, my numbers are extremely ‘brittle’ and my numbers rise when I sleep, despite many many insulin adjustments). Let me tell you, the GUILT and STRESS of these numbers were awful!!

But guess what… in the end, I was extremely blessed, and everything turned out okay. I was going for non-stress tests twice a week, and having bio-physical profiles done every week as well, from about 30 weeks and on.

I was induced at 38 weeks exactly (personal choice, my fear of stillbirth was through the roof and I didn’t want to risk it anymore!!). My doctors practice never lets diabetics go past 39 weeks, but said they can induce up to as early as 37 weeks. I felt 38 weeks was a good medium and I absolutely do not regret my choice.

I was induced at 9:45pm on May 5th. I welcomed my precious baby girl into the world the next day on May 6th at 1:36pm. She was perfect in every way I could have wished for. She weighed 7 pounds and 10 ounces. (side note: I had always feared a super huge baby because of my diabetes and my less-than-perfect sugars, but hey - that didn’t turn out to be the case!). Her blood sugar never went below 45 (they said anything from 45-100 is what they want to see in a newborn), she never had to go to NICU, she got to room with me the entire time I was in the hospital, she took to feeding right away, and we got to go home 2 days later. I think he apgar scores were 9 and 9? I don’t remember to be honest. I had pushed for 2 and a half hours and was absolutely exhausted when I finally asked. I had a vaginal delivery, induced with Pitocin and had an epidural.

Because of the slow recovery I had from the appendectomy at 13 weeks, I was absolutely terrified of what a c-section would do to me. I am so happy to say that I did NOT end up having to have one! I had read online that most diabetics and inductions end up with a c-section, but again, was absolutely blessed!! IT IS POSSIBLE to have a vaginal delivery even with diabetes!! (yes I get that all things are circumstantial lol, I’m just saying - there is hope!!)

Anyways, I am now writing this with my perfect little baby napping right by my side on her natural due date of May 19th, with her being 1 day shy of 2 weeks old.

All is perfect in my world right now, and you too can do it! It is WORK!!! but so very worth it.

Thanks for reading, I hope this may be of light someday to someone who could use it.

Questions are welcome.

[typeonesponge]

Thank you so much for sharing. I’m a T1D for 27 years (almost my whole life) and at the end of my 2nd trimester. My A1C was in the 7-8% range pre-pregnancy and has been in the low 6% range throughout. I’ve had some higher 100s and 200s lately from insulin resistance and am worrying like crazy especially since the baby’s belly is measuring large (common with T1D). The highs make me cry and although every situation is different it’s nice to hear stories from people who didn’t have perfect control but have a healthy baby.

[zaichee]

@yourstruly, Wow, thank you so much for sharing! May i say, it was very well written as well
Congratulations on your baby girls birth!

I’m 28years old and have been diabetic for 22years now. My husband and i have been wanting children for the past 2 years now but couldn’t because my a1c has been in the 8% for a long time. I finally quit my job because it was interfering with my control of diabetes, as much as i miss having my colleagues around i decided to leave and start taking care of myself if we want to have children soon.
To my surprise in december (1month after leaving) i got my a1c to 7! Since then it’s been stubborn, i’ve done as much research as i can to find a way that works for me to bring my a1c to 6s%. However, my endo is giving us the green light at 7.1% (1month ago) which is a bit shocking to me. I want to bring it down to 6 or 5 if im lucky enough, because of all the stories that i read about having an extremely difficult time controlling BGL whilst pregnant, i figured that the lower i am now with my a1c the less chances of getting to those risky above 7 when pregnant (meaning even if i will have hypers during pregnancy it would reach to 6s and it’s still in the normal range).

I’m afraid of what i eat because im terrible at counting carbs, i’ve always been afraid of having hypos , like you, so i kept myself around my comfortable zone of 180 - 220, and if i managed to be in the 150s then i’d be super proud of myself. I’m lucky in the fact that i feel when im hyper or hypo, but because i kept my blood glucose levels that high for a long time, i woud begin to feel hypo way before it would even reach 60s.
I’m also having to deal with thyroid and endometriosis… So that makes life a lot more pleasant as well.

I’m going to try to be on a pump, everyone is praising it, but i’m afraid of switching from injections to a pump (unfortunately neither Omnipod or free style libre or any CGM are reimbursed in france where i live, which makes life so much more complicated lol).
Have you considered a pump during your pregnancy? How was it for you throughout your pregnancy with insulin adjustments?
One of the reasons why im considering a pump is because youre suppose to be able to stop the insulin you injected so if youre having a hypo or ate not enough as you thought you would etc. And the specific automatic insulin dosage during night… i thought would be an enormous help when i would be pregnant.
Have you had an cgm? Or you did daily massacre of finger priking (testing)? Mine look like Frankenstein fingers I test up to 15 times a day, through out the night i wake up automatically and check. How often did you check when you were pregnant?

As for delivery, i’m thrilled to hear that someone has had a vaginal birth , you cant even imagine! All you read and hear are c-sections all over! How was your sugar during the delivery?

Im so happy to get intouch with someone who understands. I was just thinking the other day how frustrating it is to google or youtube diabetes + pregnant… all you read is ‘‘risk this risk that’’. And there almost non youtube vlogging pregnant diabetics out there. Everyone focuses on gestational diabetes and type 2 and if you look up type1 then it’s horror stories. Thanks, but no thanks. Automatically everything is ‘‘high risk’’, there really arent enough supporting, encouraging info out there as there should be, imo.
So once again, thank you for sharing, you gave me courage to look forwards. <3

@TypeOneSponge, courage darling, im sure that even if your baby is slightly larger that your baby will be healthy! I was reading ‘’ balancing pregnancy with pre-existing diabetes’’ by cherly alkon and she pointed out something that i hope i will remember when i will be pregnant as well; That we butcher ourselves over occasional highs, but it’s not going to harm your baby in a long run as long as you correct and move on and try to stop it from happening. Easier said than done right? lol i know… i guess all we can do is take one day at a time. And don’t forget, managing diabetes is already an achievement, plus being pregnant, that’s worth praising yourself every single day!!
Are you on a pump? How are you doing now?

How do you girls manage with carb counting/ insulin ratio? I’ve gone through this training so long ago that i’m quiet certain that my ratio is far different from what it began with. I want to check what it is but always push it to the next day, i guess when i will go to the hospital for the pump training they will figure it out for me haha. Also, respect to yourstruly for managing everything by yourself! I cant’ begin to imagine how difficult it must have been. And shame on your endo! I hope you found a better one now.

Hope to hear from you girls soon. <3

[typeonesponge]

@zaichee I read the same book and am on a pump. Despite some rocky brief moments, my A1C is lower than ever and my doctor told me I’m doing better than her other 5 T1D patients who are currently pregnant. It’s amazing how much better you can suddenly control things when it’s not just about you.

[zaichee]

@typeonesponge congratulations on keeping your a1c at best! Im really happy for you.
do you focus mainly on adjusting bolus or carb counting? I know its a hard work, i can use all the good info i can get, esp from someone like you whose doing a fantastic job! Xx

[typeonesponge]

@zaichee I focus on both adjusting my basal rates and insulin to carb ratios. If I go up or down within an hour of eating then I know it’s the carb ratio. If I’m not in target without food then I know it’s the basal.

[lilburg]

Thank you thank you thank you for sharing!! As a T1D TCT next year, this was the positivity I needed. You are amazing! And congratulations!!!

[dlombardi]

Thanks everyone. Those were some fantastic reads. I’ve had diabetes for almost 3 months now. We just found out I am pregnant…

I am doing my best to stop highs and lows… But they’re happening. I’m taking it day by day but getting so discouraged b/c I am afraid of the affects on the baby.

I know nothing’s perfect with this disease, but I desperately want to do things right! I think there’s still a great deal I don’t understand…

[caromcprice (Caroline)]

I see your post was from several years ago…wondering if you’re still active on this board. I am 31 and have been diabetic since age 13. My husband and I would love to start a family soon but I’m still waiting on the “green light” from my endo too. A1C had been in the 8’s for a while but just a few weeks ago I was down to 7.4! He would really like to see it at a 6 which I haven’t been in a LONG time. I also have endometriosis so I would be really interested to hear more from you about how your pregnancy and pregnancy planning went. Hope to hear back from you! Thanks

[Eamitchell (Emily)]

@caromcprice Hi Caroline! I was reading through these posts and saw your reply from June. I know it has been a few months but I wanted to share my story with you!
I am 33, T1D since age 9, and was always in the mid 8’s too (no complications and my best A1c was 7.5 prior to TTC)…since January I kicked my control into high gear and got down gradually from 7.5 to 7.1 to 6.9 and my endo gave me the green light to conceive since they could tell I was dedicated to lowering it. To get it down, I eliminated wine, cut back on caffeine, and started working out at least 5 times a week. I mostly eat organic and very healthy but I started a prenatal regimen too. Basically, I tried to live as if I already was pregnant.
I stopped birth control in August and I am 6 weeks pregnant right now!! I have seen my endo and nutritionist thus far and they have really increased the insulin (I am on a pump and CGM). My first MFM appt is in 2 weeks. What has really helped me stay around 100 for the last few weeks is prebolusing for 20 mins before eating. That method has really decreased the spikes and keeps me from going high. My CGM alert on high is set to 160 and low is set at 65. You definitely can apply these methods to your management routine before pregnancy (of course with your MDs direction). I was told to work out every day for at least 45 mins, which is difficult but really brings my bs levels down and helps for hours afterward.
I was totally disgruntled and jealous (being honest) by reading all the stories of women who got their A1Cs in the 5’s but I continue to chip away at it every day. My endo says being under 6.5 mitigates most of the risks and I am realistically aiming for around 6, but of course will welcome lower
I hope this note finds you well and would love to hear how you are doing (and anyone else who is reading!).
thanks!

[shugaaa808 (Brandee)]

Aloha

My name is Brandee, I’m 25 years old and I’m from the beautiful island of Kauai, Hawaii. I was diagnosed with T1D in 1995, when I was 2 years old. I read your success story and instantly wanted to share mine, since there were some similarities. Besides being a diabetic, I too needed to have my appendix removed during pregnancy.

Anyways, throughout my entire diabetic life, my average A1c has been 8%. In 2013 I went a little off track (or a lot) and ended up in ICU with DKA for the very first time. My A1c at that time was 15.2% At that point, after 6 years of trying to get an insulin pump, my insurance finally approved mine/my doctors requests. How crazy is that? I’ve been on the pump for 4 four years now.

Fast forward to 2016…

I started having problems with low blood sugars. It got to the point where my sugars would crash just walking from my bedroom to the bathroom to brush my teeth in the morning. I called my doctor and let her know what was going on. The first thing she asked me was “are you pregnant?” And my reply was “HAHAHAHAHA NO!” I was always told getting pregnant would be so risky that I felt like I would never be a mom and I was also on birth control during that time. After talking to my doctor I decided to do an at-home pregnancy test just to be sure. I got a negative result which left me wondering “WTF is going on!?” One week later I was still experiencing extreme lows, but noticed everyday after work I would get home feeling sick to my stomach. Oh, and my boobs were starting to hurt So I did another at-home test. Result: NEGATIVE. I ended up testing every single day, for a month, until I got a positive result. I couldn’t believe it. I was terrified.

The next day I told my parents (they were thrilled btw, first grandchild), by then I had two positive at-home results. A few days later I called my OB/GYN to schedule an appointment: seven positive at-home results. At the appointment I told the nurse that I had 15 POSITIVE AT-HOME RESULTS, she laughed and said “all you need is one.” Well… the doctor came in, did an ultrasound and couldn’t find a sac anywhere. My doctor explained how I could’ve miscarried and had me do some blood work to check my HCG levels. The next day my doctor called saying the results came back higher than normal but not high enough to indicate pregnancy. One week later I did those labs again and my HCG levels tripled! I was definitely pregnant and the low blood sugar mystery was finally solved! Based on the ultrasound I was 5wks pregnant.

I was put on medical leave for two months, until my blood sugars stabled out. I was so strict on myself that I got my A1c down to 6.9%, the lowest ever, which I never imagined would happen during pregnancy. At 16wks, we found out we were having a boy. Everything was going smoothly, until…

27wks (10/23/16) : I started having this weird burning pain in my lower right abdomen, without any other symptoms. Went to the doctor and they assumed it was normal pregnancy pain (skin/uterus stretching). That night while relaxing in a warm bath I began to throw up. When I got out of the shower, I checked my temperature and had a 103.7 fever, but no pain in my abdomen. I went in to the ER and they ran all kinds of tests. They didn’t find any infections in my blood or urine, so they sent me home and said to treat the fever with Tylenol. During the drive home, the pain came back, worst than before. I was crying, couldn’t get comfortable. When I got home I ended up crying myself to sleep. The next morning I woke up with a fever and went right back to the ER. This time they checked for infections in my blood/urine which they didn’t find any but also did an ultra sound on my kidneys. They saw what they thought was a kidney stone and said that would explain the pain, but not the fever. To be sure they wanted to do an MRI to rule out appendicitis, so they transferred me to another hospital that had the right equipment. I got there at 5:30pm. Waited, in excruciating pain, until 9:00pm to do the MRI. Got the results back and started antibiotics at 10:30pm. After that, everything happened so fast that it’s all a blur. I just remember waking up in the recovery room, feeling my baby kicking like crazy. I stayed in the hospital for five days & ended up getting pneumonia because of the fluid in my lungs from the anesthesia (lol do these people realize how painful it is to cough your lungs out after having surgery!?). I was out of work on medical leave again. A month later I returned to work and after only a week and a half I would put on bed rest due to the fact that I was going in to the ER with false labor every three days

As if having my appendix removed at 27 wks wasn’t crazy enough, my labor was something else. Haha.

I was induced at 38wks. I was in labor for 120 hours (I’m dead serious, 5 days) and ended up having a C-section. My son was 8lbs 14.7oz and was perfectly healthy!

His name is Nixon Ryu and he’ll be 2 in January. He’s my best friend and the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me

[ami-one]

Okay … I don’t have that option viewing posts on my phone. Thanks!

[caromcprice (Caroline)]

Thank you so much for your response! I don’t know how I am just now seeing this. I have a question for you…how were your blood sugars very early pregnancy? Did you notice any change in blood sugars before you noticed other pregnancy symptoms? I ask because my numbers have been running high for several days now for no reason. I have had to up my basal rate constantly and keep taking corrections with little to no effect. I have tried everything I can think of - changing insulin, changing pod, etc. but no change. I am thinking of calling the doctor to have a pregnancy blood test but don’t want to jump the gun. Thanks for your help!

[Eamitchell (Emily)]

Hi Caroline -
Yes, my blood sugar was crazy high for about a week and half - before a positive showed on the at home pregnancy test. Not to be a debbie downer, but I miscarried at week 9. My A1c was 6.6 so I know it was not due to T1D. This was my first pregnancy, first time trying off bc, so the doc said it is very common and of course, not my fault. What a whirlwind of emotions. I was extremely morning sick, and throwing up 5x a day, which is retrospect, may have meant something was out of whack. Onward and upward, we will be trying again soon I feel sharing my experience is therapeutic, so any questions welcome. Have a very happy Thanksgiving!