I am now almost 9 weeks postpartum with a gorgeous baby girl who is the light of our lives. :-) My trouble isn't with her... it's with me. :-) Since the delivery (well, since discharge from the hospital), I've had a really hard time making diabetes a priority. I did so well with that during pregnancy: weighing every carb and every unit and every BG and every site change SO carefully, and seeing the rewards (A1c's in the 5's and low 6's) for me and our baby. But now? It's all I can do to get her settled, and fed, and changed, and then to spend some time focusing on my husband and our marriage, and don't even get me started on going back to work (which happens in a few more weeks)! I was up this AM at 4:45 to feed the babe, and now at 6, I've gotten a chance to fold laundry, test my sugar, and write to you all. :) During pregnancy I had a bunch of bumpers/supports built in, including visits with endo every 4-6 weeks, labs all the time "confirming" how well (or not) I was doing, lots more oversight and focus on a healthy pregnancy. Now that the baby is here, it seems like all that fell away because I don't (shouldn't?) *need* it anymore...except I do. :-) apparently. :-)
I need some help. Thoughts? Suggestions? Inspiration?
ps- I find out next week how I've really been doing; follow up with endo on Tues...
I hear ya. I'm at 3 weeks with my little guy right now and with the lack of sleep (and my personal issues with anxiety problems), I barely check my sugars and when I do they are all jacked up.
Before I was prego my numbers were just barely high to start with and I was only on 500 metformin in the morning. But during my pregnancy I was so controlled (and had so much morning sickness) that I actually ended up losing 23 pounds off my original weight. Which I thought would really help with my numbers - but I think with all the stress and lack of sleep they are still pretty high for me. I actually wake up with my jaw clenched so tight it hurts!
I don't really know what to tell you about how to get things better other than maybe trying to find some frozen dinners that are diabetes friendly to at least attempt to eat correctly. I mostly just wanted to let you know that you were not alone!! ;)
I'm 12 weeks pregnant now -- so I haven't yet begun to face the struggles that you are. I can imagine that I will fall off this tight blood sugar bandwagon in NO time!
Hopefully your endo will be encouraging! I'm SURE that you are not the first mother who saw a rise in her A1c after pregnancy.
YAY!!!!!! Kristin that's AWESOME! I know how long you've been getting ready to get this journey under way. Congrats! The fall off the bandwagon has been unintentional, but I have to admit the focus is really different. I mean, diabetes is here forever and seemingly has been already, and this new little being needs so much. It's the story of my life with diabetes, though...when something that seems more urgent or important comes along, it takes a backseat. I need to correct that.
As for my endo...well, he's not the most sensitive person. I expect he'll say, "yeah, you gotta get better about that". Maybe his NPs will help some... Thanks for the reminder to use who I've already got. :-)
Best to you on your new pregnancy, and all that is coming your way! Enjoy every second of it!
Thanks Rachel...that really helps, actually. And FWIW, a week or two makes all the difference with these babes. I remember 3 weeks and it seems like a lifetime ago, both in the life time of this baby and also for us as parents. The anxiety...it's killer, no? I know, too, that having a new little one inherently is anxiety provoking, and on top of other anxiety stuff, it's really hard. I struggle with that too. I hope you're at least getting some sleep and rest, and that you've got some help with the baby and setting aside time for yourself. It makes life WAY easier.
ps- I laughed to myself when I read about barely checking your jacked up sugars. Not AT the jacked up sugars but that you called them "jacked up". :-) I call mine that too. You know, when I check them. And they're jacked up. :-)
My advice, actually, is to take the pressure off yourself. When we first become mothers we feel like we have to be all things to all people all the time. The reality is, it takes quite a while to adjust to life with a little one. When you're juggling too many thing -- marriage, work, what's the endo going to say -- life just becomes overwhelming.
Take each day one step at a time and worry only about the responsibilities you have in that day. You don't have to go to work tomorrow, so don't think about work tomorrow. Don't think about your A1c, think about what insulin you need to take when you eat to match your carbs. If you're able to take 2 mins to make a good decision in the moment, you'll have good care overall.
As far as losing the support you had during your pregnancy -- I can totally relate. It's tough going from having regular meetings with nurses and endos and all this good support to nearly nothing.
I hear you! My baby girl is 7 weeks old and I’m just starting to get used to the fact that I’m not seeing or talking to my OB or Endo every week. It’s an adjustment! Tziporah, I also understand about needing to get back on the bandwagon with the Diabetes. After I delivered the baby my sugars were so wacky and its taken awhile to get them “back to normal” in a sense. Since I’m not pregnant anymore its like I think I can get away with cheating a little bit…since I was so strict during the pregnancy. My husband always reminds me that I should strive for better control not only for me but for the baby…since she needs me around! I don’t know if that helps, but I totally understand what you’re talking about. You aren’t alone.
You are not alone in your quest to get back on that horse .... I bet all of us diabetic mom's of little ones are experiencing your situation. I used to tell people (before I even decided to have a baby, which was in my late 30s!) that it's a full time job to take care of me,as a T1 diabetic ... now there are two of us to take care of and it's quite the learning experience to get it done right!
My daughter is now 6 months old. Reading your post reminded me of what I have been through and how far I have come with being a diabetic mom. I hope it will help you to hear that as my daughter grows, I find that my ability to take care of myself is getting better. Those couple of months with middle of the night feedings make it really hard to be super woman. Returning to work is not easy, either, but it does get better as time goes on. I am a teacher so this week off is such a blessing ..... I hope you are doing ok this week?
P.S. I think it also helps to get some good healthy foods into your house. While the fast foods and t.v. dinners are great for people that don’t have time to cook (most new mom’s) I found they were not helping my diabetes control much …
Congratulations first of all!! I have a 4 yr old and a 14mo old and have been a T1 for about 16 yrs. I found that (honestly) the first full year of both of my children’s lives was so demanding that I was on what I call “diabetes auto pilot”. Over the past few months I have started prioritizing my diabetes control again and setting some goals related to my blood sugars, A1C, etc. Since your A1Cs during your pregnancy were AWESOME, you have a little buffer, so to speak. Even if your sugars are a little “jacked up” (props to Rachel on that quote), your A1C will still be in normal range for a while at least. Give yourself time to just enjoy your baby and get used to being a mom, not to mention returning to work. Make sure you do the basics (like check 3-4 times a day, always take your medication, try to stick with the healthy foods you ate during pregnancy) Once the “new mom” fog clears, you will get your diabetes feet back under you. The “new mom” phase is so brief and so precious so enjoy your soft, cuddly, good-smelling bundle and don’t expect to have the type of control you had while you were pregnant. Cheers!
I think the transition from “perfectly behaved pregnant diabetic” to “unsupported floundering new mom with unwashed hair and erratic blood sugars” is jarring.
I’m 11 months into motherhood and believe that finding time to do anything that’s not child-centered is difficult - including (but not limited to) anything I’m supposed to get done as lead administrator of TuDiabetes or for my “real” job as a music teacher - LOL. From the moment she is grinning, nose to nose, over me at 7:00 in the morning (we co-sleep) until I get her settled at 8:00 in the evening, I have a two foot tall bundle of playfulness to entertain/feed/change/clean/dress/bathe/clean up after. Then I have two or three hours to myself which is useful for dishes, laundry, cleaning up blocks from the living room floor, and/or possibly sitting down. I’m no different than any other mother going through the same rigors, I know. It’s the job description.
But here is how I (personally) am making it work with diabetes.
I schedule additional appointments with my CDE in between endo visits for improved accountability. As I told her the week of Thanksgiving when I scheduled to see her the week of Christmas, it’s a lot easier to say “let me try to make the next 4 weeks work” than to leave knowing I’m on my own for the next 12. She asks me to try to log the week before I come in. It hasn’t happened yet, but I stay optimistic.
I wear my CGMS faithfully. I feel it’s even more important now than when I was pregnant because I occasionally need to lean on its alerts. I am still a good little diabetic who does not bolus without an actual finger stick, but if the cgm is quiet, I can fly blindly for a while. And boy, do I. There are moments when I’m bathing the baby or breastfeeding and I hear it beeping somewhere and know I can’t get to it immediately, but it has a way of calling my attention back. BabyBL has learned to ignore the beeps. Not sure if that’s a good thing. She sleeps right through them.
I leave test strips and a lancet device in convenient places - like the nightstand, the kitchen counter, the diaper bag. I leave this stuff out even though BabyBL’s new favorite first-thing-in-the-morning activity is to toddle to the nightstand or the living room end table and pull everything off and ‘nom’ on the end of my Multiclix and shake my Freestyle bottle like the fabulous rattle/teether that it is. I figure my supplies will have to learn to take a punch. My Omnipod PDM enjoys being teethed on and thrown to the floor from high places. My test strip ports have drool in them. Awesome.
I plan lunches and dinners each week and eat the same breakfast every morning. When I leave the house with the little one, I leave with a packed lunch for myself.
So I figure that if I’m asking my medical team for help, testing, eating, and planning, I’m doing way more than most new moms are expected to accomplish. My A1c is up to 6.7%, but that’s d@mn better than it was for most of my pre-baby diabetic years, so I applaud myself.
tell me about it. I also just started back to work, which adds to the nightmare. I got home tonight and wondered why I was starving; turns out I’d not eaten since breakfast. hey, call it a good time for testing my basal rates!
hey, call it a good time for testing my basal rates!