I have been working really hard getting my A1C down so we can TTC. I was up quite high around 10.6% and now am 7.9% but I can’t get down fast enough!!! I have been working at it for nearly a year or a little less I would say for the purpose of pregnancy. I read something the other day that really hit home - “Act like you’re pregnant”…hmmm if I act, or react, or am proactive as if I were pregnant already then where would I be? Working hard…see endo Apr 5…
Thats great @Marelizabeth! Using the protocols for pregnancy requirements may help for you to get your A1c down quicker and help to prepare you for what is in store.
I never got mine down to pregnancy a1c until AFTER I was already pregnant. I have found the best way to get it down quickly is to stay in contact with your endo weekly so that they can help you to make appropriate adjustments. Eating right and exercising also help too. I am sure you are probably doing all of that already!
Try not to stress about it because that can have an affect on your blood sugars. Stress is a huge factor for me and the reason I think that my numbers are always so erratic.
Anyway, hope you get it down soon! If you need any more pointers let me know!!!
Gina
@Gina thanks so much for the encouragement. It sure isn’t easy:) I will say my #s are the best they have been in years. I went to a boot camp this morning…trying to incorporate some working out - which is SO hard for me. I would honestly rather do A LOT of other things before working out lol so it takes a lot of umph to get me with my running shoes on:)
I actually had my mom come with me. She weighs like 100lbs soaking wet but funny enough she couldn’t do the same amount of stuff I couldn’t do today! Different things were problems for her than me but it was pretty comical. Anyway, we are going to go again next Saturday - or sooner if I have it in me lol
I decided to suspend my pump one hour before going to the bootcamp as I woke up at 74 so I was a little iffy about going low during the work out. The work out was 1 hour and honestly by the end I was up around 167 and even though I took my pump off suspend near the end of the work out I still crept up to 207. I wasn’t too happy! I will make some changes differently next time. I had juice but I knew if I went low the likelihood of me getting back into the work out after would be low.
I have a high stress job as well so I find the temp basal really help.
Thanks again, I am open to pointers anytime!!!
Marla
I have been trying to get my A1c down as well and I was successful. You can do it! I find I can only exercise at home and it helps if you can do 15 to 20 minutes a day, 5 days a week, even if it is just a moderately paced walk. We have a Treadclimber (yes, the one from those infomercials) and I found I became addicted to exercising on it! I had to add a stationary bike to my regime because I have bad tendons in my calves/ankles and 20 minutes on that makes a big difference to my BGs! There was also a recent study with diabetics that claims weightlifting before cardio helps decrease glucose at a slower rate compared to cardio first or cardio alone! Definitely something to consider. Make sure to warm up first though, and as my physical therapist says, start gradually. Don’t do a lot right away.
All of the endocrinologists I’ve ever been to have recommended exercising first thing in the morning. It helps with any dawn effect you might have and it helps wake you up more naturally than caffeine ever could.
I am having a hard time finding my sweet spot with a temporary basal rate during exercise. I usually eat breakfast, wait 30 minutes and then workout for 20-30 minutes. Even with a 20 minute workout I drop down to 45 and don’t even feel it. I started at about 85% of my regular rate for 2 hours and have been working it down until I don’t go low during exercise. Right now I’m at about 45% regular rate and still going low. If I turn the pump off completely I go too high later in the day. My doctor wants me to try doing 110% basal rate over 4 hours after lunch to prevent that but so far I’m having repeated lows. It is so hard!
Someone on the boards here recommended reading “Think Like A Pancreas” which really helped me too!
Good luck! 
@MaggieJo - fabulous! What great advice!
First of all can I just say that I really didn’t know you could give a temp basal of less than 100% of your current basal. I thought temp basal always increased your current, not decreased it - but I am not sure why I thought that. It makes good sense that it would decrease it as well if required. I think not suspending and instead doing like 50% basal would be perfect. I think I will try it next time around at 50% then work my way up or down based on my results. Absolutely amazing suggestion - THANK YOU for that:) Sometimes it takes each of us quite a while to come around to these things so when they are recommended by someone who already has been through it, that is golden!
I also agree that one thing every day (geez even a walk around the block a couple times!) would really dramatically contribute to my overall sugars and A1C in return.
Think Like a Pancreas…I have read somewhere else on here that someone had recommended that. I wonder if I can buy it on my ipad. I am not really a paperback kind of girl. I will definitely check it out. Thank you!
@Marelizabeth,
Glad to hear I helped you with the temporary basal! I hope it works better for you. 
I am an emotional eater but I feel much more motivated to make sacrifices with my eating when I think about the health of a baby and not just my own. Instead of tasty, fatty food being my reward, being closer to my goal to TTC is a much bigger reward!
I have Think Like a Pancreas on my kindle, so I would hope you can get it for your iPad (I don’t have apple products, so I don’t know). It has some things, like carb counting hints, that I want to print out and/or highlight for future reference which is more difficult with the digital version. BUT the author does have a website with some useful things: http://integrateddiabetes.com/
@MaggieJo that’s great thanks. I am sure if you have it on kindle I can get it on the iPad. Apple products are my life btw - total sidebar lol
I find I have just really been acting like I am pregnant and it is making big bounds for my sugar control. I am like looking at my CGM every 15 minutes it seems lol but that’s not a bad things - it will help me react faster and more often.
Talk soon
M
I also use the temp basals everytime i workout too. 50% and hour before, 0 during and 50% an hour after. I find it helps tremendously! You only look at it every 15 minutes LOL, when i have my cgm on i look at it every minute LOL Its good to help you act like you are pregnant already it will train you for all things to come in the future!
@Gina oh pfffewww every minute…15 minutes was conservative lol I didn’t want to sound like an obsessed idiot haha
My biggest problem was that I got my A1C down to 6.8. I wanted to be under 7.0 and I had not one but two readings in a row that were good. 6.9 in June and 6.8 in October. At the end of January I came in at a whopping 7.7. I was so angry that I had what I wanted and then blew it all over again. I started out around 8.3 or so when I first started trying to come down, but I had never had an A1c as low as I needed it to be in my life.
Keep hanging in there–hopefully we will both get there soon!
You guys are making me have comical mental images of “acting like you’re pregnant” walking around with pillows under your shirts.
A1c can help measure control, but only if you’re not having blood sugars below 60 more than once or twice a month. High blood sugars don’t hurt your baby’s development, they just cause you to have a fat baby who needs glucose after delivery. Having hypoglycemia when pregnant can steal glucose from your baby and glucose is vital to your baby’s brain and neurological development. Ideally keep your blood sugars as good as possible while avoiding lows below 60.
Best way to do it since you use a pump:
- Fast for 24 hours to make sure your pump basal rate is accurate.
- Use a carb counting book or app.
- Test an hour after eating and use the bolus wizard to take a correction bolus to prevent post-meal spikes.
- Avoid high cardio exercise and instead choose walking or swimming, which leads to overall improved insulin sensitivity without causing lows.
Others are right to say that becoming pregnant instantly improves your diabetes control. It doesn’t make it easier, but you realize that your choices are affecting your child. The truth is, while pregnant you actually have free time to manage your diabetes. Once your child is born you are scrambling just to have a minute to use the bathroom! Use pregnancy to learn how to manage your blood sugar well so you can keep your head above water in the first few months of craziness with a new baby.
Good luck.
@jennagrant My understanding is what high blood sugars can lead to the complications associated with potential neural tube defect and that is the big key about diabetes effect on pregnancy…
I was told that the main problems from high sugars during pregnancy are neural tube and heart defects.
I was flip in my response and really shouldn’t have been about something so important.
You are right that high blood sugars can cause serious birth defects. But it’s also true that serious birth defects caused by sporadic hyperglycemia are extremely unlikely.
The main problem (as far as the likelihood of it happening to your baby) from high blood sugars is a large baby. You’re also more likely to have a baby with hypoglycemia who needs glucose after being born if your blood sugars are high.
I’m not advocating having high blood sugars. Like we all know, we should do our best. But every mom with diabetes, including myself, did not have perfect control, and our children are healthy. In fact, I don’t know of even one child of a diabetic mom with a heart or neurological birth defect.
That makes me question the research studies and how our doctor’s interpret them. When you actual dig into studies, what stands out with a lot of them is the research using mice and rats where extreme hyperglycemia is induced. Hopefully as a real life pregnant woman you aren’t trying to keep your blood sugar at 500+ for the duration of your pregnancy. In those that include statistical research from humans it’s not always stated what type of diabetes the women have, how they manage their diabetes (pumps, shots, etc.), and their level of control. Since diabetes management has changed dramatically in recent decades and has cut complication rates made our life expectancies about the same as a person who does not have diabetes, common sense would say it’s improved the health of our babies.
The studies often don’t define what “poorly controlled” means either. Your doctor might say it means an A1c over 6.0. But the researchers may mean it’s an A1c over 9.2 (about 250 mg/dl).
@jennagrant Thanks for touching base again on this - I agree completely.
Do you happen to know the likelihood of your child having diabetes if mom is a T1D?
I don’t have a very good understanding of the complications caused by hypoglycemia.
So if highs cause a risk of big babies I suppose that would make it more likely to have a C section?
Sorry for the all over the map questions lol I am new to being interested in all this information!
@jennagrant,
There are so many birth defects that can occur for so many different reasons I could see how it is difficult for the entire process to be known. It’s amazing there are so many people born without congenital defects. One thing is for sure though, the fetus needs fuel (glucose) and if mom doesn’t have enough, there will be a problem.
My mom was a nurse, trained in the 1960s, and she has reminded me a few times that a lot of diabetics have miscarriages and stillborn births. Medicine has fortunately come a long way since then. I trust my doctor’s advice and knowledge, but I going to do lots of research before I go through it.
@Marelizabeth,
Joslin Diabetes Center has info on the genetic possibilities:
I need your help!!! My a1c is 12 and I need to get it down to 6 before I can start planning a family. Me and my husband want a baby so bad and im afraid im not going to be able to do it please help!!!
Just a couple questions to get to know your situation better:
Are you seeing an endocrinologist regularly?
Are you using a pump or injections?
Do you have a CGM?
@Erica1710
Are you seeing an endocrinologist regularly? Well I suppose to see one soon.
Are you using a pump or injections? Im using injections
Do you have a CGM? I dont know whats a CGM