Hey.
I am lookingto settle down with having a baby in about 2 years (When I hve finished Uni) and I figured that gives me 2 years to get into shape.
I have been diabetic for almost 11 years and I am now pregnant with my 3rd baby (I have a daughter who is almost 4 and a son who is almost 2). My A1C stays below 6 (usually in the low 5s) during my pregnancies (and before I get pregnant). I am currently blogging about my pregnancy on diabetessisters.com website. Being pregnant with type I is a lot of work! I use an insulin pump and with this pregnancy I am using a CGM, and still check my bs 10 times per day. But all the work is totally worth it! Good luck to you!
Hi Jessica,
I can remember being in your shoes, but my docs had told me for years that I probably āshouldnātā try a pregnancy because I had had type 1 for so long (since I was 5). I met a fantastic endo affiliated with a research hospital and she was more open to the idea, but i had to really buckle down and focus/commit to the plan. At 28, I worked for a year getting myself very disciplined with eating/testing/transferring to a pump and then was given the āclearā to try to get pregnant. It did happen and I have a good (on most days) and healthy son who is now 4.
Because I have secondary retinopathy in my eyes, the doctors have advised me not to try again (but, they also emphasize that no one can forbid you from doing anything with your bodyā they can only give medical opinion). Since I really trust the doctors and I want to have a long happy life with my husband and son, I wonāt try another pregnancyā¦ but, it is possible!
Good luck.
I am a Type IIā¦ sorry for the intrusion :-), but Iām here because Iām pregnant. I was newly diagnosed with an A1C of 6.6ā¦ but it was discovered when they drew blood at my 8-week appointment. I got pregnant unexpectedly and had no idea I was diabetic, even though I really should have seen it coming, both with my family history (dad and both sisters were Type IIs; my older brother was also diagnosed a year before my own diagnosis), and because I was a gestational diabetic with my daughter in 2003.
My A1C the previous March was lower - 6.1, and at that time, my primary doctor referred to it as āpre-diabetesā (and I believed it). So, between that and my brotherās diagnosis, I had actually broken out and tested my old meter, and starting using my husbandās strips to test my morning fasting numbers and 2-hour post-prandials after modifying my carbohydrate intake, trying to follow my old gestational diabetic plan. (Hubbyās a Type II and does nothing but pop pills, so he had plenty of strips for me to useā¦ but donāt get me started on his lack of even attempting to control his numbers himselfā¦!) Most of my readings were within the range I believed they should be for a non-diabetic (at least I thought so) - under 100 for fasting, under 120 for 2 hrs. post-prandial. And I slowly and purposely lost 17 pounds between March and December 15th - the date I did the pregnancy test - so I assumed I must have been doing much better. (Of course later I heard I should have been under 90 for fastingā¦ and my new endocrinologist would have LIKED me to be under 120 ONE-hour postprandial, but has since relaxed that to under 120 two hours after.)
All Iāve been hearing from anyone whoās been treating me is the risks to the fetus with uncontrolled blood glucose in the first trimesterā¦ and even when no oneās actually saying it out loud, Iām thinking itā¦ 24/7ā¦
I am almost 17 weeks - three weeks shy of my 20-week ultrasound/fetal anatomy scan and fetal echocardiogram - but frankly, I am worried sick. Even if they find nothing to worry about through all the prenatal tests I will need, Iām sure I will continue to be worried sick probably until this second child is a healthy adult!
What Iām saying isā¦ if you really want a baby, please, for your own peace of mind, * even though Iām sure weāve all seen or heard proof that NOT all babies of diabetic women have problems, even without tight contol early on * - get your A1Cs as low as you can possibly muster, and until then, use reliable birth control.
I have searched the internet to see if anyone has actually documented a correlation between specific high A1Cs and all the possible birth defects listed that can happen in early diabetic pregnancies with less-than-optimal control - and no one seems nail down actual numbers. That being said, I promise I will let you all know the outcome of my pregnancyā¦ As for my 4-year-old daughter and my gestational experience, the endocrinologist treating me back then told me I was in control about 98% of the time. Now, that was different because itās gestational, not throughout the pregnancy, but she was a healthy 7-pound baby. And she really is perfect (and, according to her teachers, very bright), aside from frequent ear infections that are most likely a hereditary thing (hubby and I both had them frequently as kids; him more so than me).
Good luck to all of youā¦
Here is my quick comment about all this, (as a type 1 for 23 years and a mother of 2 healthy boys) stress affects your bs so give yourselves a break! āWorrying yourself sickā is not good for you. Use the tools to do your best job: exercise, eat right etc. but take it easy too! Diabetes is challenging enough without the extra added pressure of possible birth defects hanging over your heads. If you test your bs often enough and catch a high bs, you can quickly turn it around. Be good to yourselves, and donāt let the scare tactics worry you to death.
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Thanks for the encouraging words, and for the welcome.
Oh, I test 7-10 times a day, and I know when stress drives it up (and frankly, normally itās my boss or my job, not whatās in my own head! I think after 10 years worrying about my husband killing himself slowly, my body is accustomed to the stress levels - ?)ā¦ Iām actually quite pleased to report that Iām within my goals most of the time - and Iām not bragging, Iām truly shocked that Iām capable of this at all. My eldest aunt, mother of 5 (not sure when her diabetes started, though) outlived her two siblings (all Type IIs) through great control, to a month or so shy of 80 without the scary complications her siblings had for the better part of 10-15 yearsā¦ so I know I have a shot at doing that, too. She was and will always be my hero, and I canāt tell her that now, but I tell my uncle and cousins as often as I see themā¦
Of course I also have the occasional, āWhere did THAT come from?ā reading, and if I think back, usually I can pinpoint what might have caused it, be it stress or maybe miscalculating the carbs I ate or the insulin I needed. I do have to get another A1C done this month to see how that jibes with my meterā¦
Iām not worried at all about my current glucose because I know how to manage that, if my meter is as accurate as I believe it to be. I just know I cannot change those first 8-10 weeks. 
And yes, the other thing stressing me out big time is my husband allowing his own health to go to hell - and taking our finances with it. We do have health coverage, but heās charged probably thousands of copays on the medications and such that he needs (and now with the financial problems THAT has caused, Iāve had no choice but to charge my own on the cards that are not in trouble!)ā¦ But really, thatās all he does is take medications, he never even testsā¦ Heās setting himself up to fail, which is very sad because there isnāt another single case of Type II diabetes in his family at all; theyāre relatively healthy on his side into their 80s and 90s. Other than this, he truly has longevity on his side.
At least my brother and I knew what we were in for as we approached our 40sā¦
I just think for any diabeticās peace of mind, itās best to know youāre doing all you can to ensure the health of your baby. Well, really ANY pregnant woman, really, but when you know you have an extra hurdleā¦ If I wasnāt worried about my A1C, Iād be worried about the alcohol I drank in the few weeks before I knew, so I canāt win! (Iād given up alcohol for Lent when I got pregnant in 2003, so that was NEVER a worry with her!)
Iām so glad that there are others out there who understand the diabetes/stress/trying to conceive businessā¦
I know I dont post on this site often but I do check in every once in a while how everyone is getting on. Just wanted to make sure that weāre all keeping positive thoughts all through the tough times. Keep up the work girls, weāll get through it and hopefully have happy healthy children at the end of it.
Next week I have an ultrasound with a fetal anatomy scan and a fetal echocardiogramā¦ I will absolutely let you all know how that turns out. So far the blood work Iāve had done indicates that all is well for my little girl, but I probably wonāt relax completely until delivery!