I need a little reassurance. Did any of you have a healthy baby despite a less than stellar A1c? Or maybe just starting out with not-so-great control in the first trimester?
I'm 17 weeks pregnant with our second baby and I have type 1 diabetes. My blood sugar has been tough to control for the past couple of weeks, and it makes me afraid that I won't have control as great as I did (A1c was always 5.4 or 5.6) while pregnant with my first, who was 8 pounds 10 oz. and perfectly healthy. I know pregnancy makes this stuff even more unpredictable and I have to expect to be increasing my insulin throughout my pregnancy, but still... It's scary, and I'm feeling a lot of self-doubt!
My last pre-pregnancy A1c was a 6.2, and the glucose averages on my meter would indicate about the same right now. That's pretty good in general, but not great for pregnancy and it's included a couple of 200+ highs. When I see something like that, I'm just positive I'm pickling my baby!!!
I'm going to do what's right for my baby and seriously crack down, but I'm still so worried. :(
I think you'll find a wide range of A1C's here! I was 6.9 when we first started trying to concieve, and then didn't go below 6.2 until the third trimeseter and my baby girl is healthy as can be. Additionally, there are women here who were much higher than than when they concieved and had healthy babies. In fact, I think a lot of women will be jealous of your 6.2 even though for you it may feel it's high. And the high blood sugar peaks aren't the thing that are the most concerning according to my doctor- it's when you continuously have high blood sugars that won't come down that are the realy problems. So its okay to cut yourself some slack. Promise :)
Wow, just like Megan said, you will definately find a vast range of women with different A1C's. I am extremely jealous of your A1C, that would be my dream come true to have mine where you're at!!! My Doctor wanted my A1c to be at 7.0% or lower before getting pregnant.....once I got to 7.1% she gave me the ok to start conceiving.....within 2 weeks, I found out I was pregnant! The lowest I ever got my A1c was 6.8 throughout my entire pregnancy and I was the healthiest I have ever felt since being diagnosed. I loved being pregnant and I had no complications whatsoever! My daughter is now 2/1/2, extremely healthy, and when she was born she weighed 6lbs. 15 oz.!!!!!!! So yes, please cut yourself some slack, as by the sounds of it, you are doing a great job!
Yeah, I guess we have different definitions of mediocre. I was expecting your A1c to be much worse than that once you wrote about being mediocre.
I never got mine under 6, but was 6.2-6.5 and my son was healthy (though he was big, my endo said that other diabetics with worse control did not have big babies...).
I will add that my endo did not focus so much on A1c's as she did on my BG logs and keeping the standard deviation low!
Good luck and relax as much as you can :)
I was thinking the same as one of the other posters, I was thinking your A1C was in the 8, 9 or higher range. I think 6.2 is a fantastic A1C. When I got pregnant with my daughter my A1C was 9.3 which I would call bad. I got things well under control throughout my pregnancy and by the time I delievered my A1C was 5.8. I just got on the pump and my dr set my A1C goal for 7 and under. Once I get to 7 I have the green light to TTC so I think you are just fine. Try not to worry about a couple 200s during pregnancy we all have them. I had them too in fact I spiked into the 400s once or twice but it won't hurt the baby because your overall control is good. When my daughter was born she was healthy and completely normal even though I started with a way too high A1C for pregnancy. I hope we have reassured you a bit more! I know diabetic pregnancy can be a scary thing sometimes but try to not stress because that can affect your sugar levels too.
Thank you, ladies! I *do* feel reassured.
My OB really harps on about A1c, which I think is part of what makes me paranoid. She even said she'd rather it be below 6 before TTC.
Your OB is likely comparing you to people with gestational diabetes.
Keep up the awesome blood sugars... someday our kids will thank us!
She definitely has some issues "getting" me as a type 1. Like when she asked about why I had a certain high blood sugar, I said that it wasn't about I:C ratios but more likely because my blood sugar had been low before that meal and I had a glucagon reaction after getting the food in my system. She just gave me a blank stare then moved on.
(She wanted to be way more involved in my BG management than I was willing to let her be. I let her make recommendations, but only made the changes if I agreed with her. Unlike my endo, whose word I considered gospel!)
