Three weeks into gestational diabetes treatment-looking for encouragement

Hello,

It’s funny, from months before getting pregnant I remember being so anxious about getting gestational diabetes, because I have so much of it in my extended family (not my parents but so many uncles, aunts, grandfathers, etc). At 11 weeks I had sugar in my urine. At 18 weeks they decided to do the one hour test and I came back with a 310. Why is this referred to as “failing” the test?

I immediately started eating basically an all protein and veggie diet and forcing myself to work out every day. I saw the nutritionist, who scolded me for not eating carbs. I was shown pictures of 15 pound newborns and cried every day that first week.

I am now pricking my fingers 7 times a day and taking insulin. My A1C was 8. Every time I test, I feel like I’m failing…I’m FINALLY not getting any more 200s, but the reads are high (ranging between 125-180 usually) and I just want to cry every time the internist cranks up the dosage again. I’m 21 weeks now, and I worry every day about the future, the baby, etc etc.

I guess worst of all is that I gained a lot of weight before this baby. I fell in love, quit my job, moved states, got married, started a new life, and with it came about 40 pounds of stress weight. All that time taking care of myself, but I got pregnant in the middle of the worst care I’ve taken. I can’t seem to stop beating myself up over this.

I’m just writing this because I’d love to hear ANY positive thing anyone has to say. I need a bunch of positive stuff–happy births, happy anything really… mostly what I read online is either fear based or people who take care of their GD just by “eating well” which is obviously not going to happen here.

Thank you all for having such a hopeful site. It made me so happy to find these posts!!!

Piper

Hi Piper,

Afraid I can’t offer guidance since I’ve not had GD, but did want to welcome you. I also wanted to urge you to stop being so terribly hard on yourself! Think we all feel like failures when the meter doesn’t give us good news. Hard not to feel frustrated.

Am trusting that other members will provide advice & encouragement & lots of happy, healthy birth stories.

Curious, what was the reason given for the 15 lb newborns? Too much protein? Arrrgh, those shaming scare tactics. I can tell you this from my experience with nutritionists, dieticians & CDEs–all the ones I’ve encountered (& others here have had similar experiences) advocate higher carbs diets that don’t help us control BG. You were eating carbs & healthy carbs since you were eating lots of veggies. I was scolded by nurses when I was in the hospital for not eating potatoes, French toast & grilled American cheese white bread sandwiches.

I have no idea what insulin needs are for pregnancy, but don’t be upset by increasing doses. Hormones play such a huge role in BG control that I can only imagine what is needed for you. More important is keeping your BG in healthy range by the best means possible.

Good for you for testing a lot & bringing it down from the 200’s!

Thank you for replying! I think I was especially feeling frustrated today…it was a bit hard to have all this news at once! I really appreciate what you wrote here…and I think I did doubt a lot of the nutritionist’s advice. Especially since I can already tell big differences in different foods. I also need to keep being told not to worry about the increasing doses…

Thanks again.

I can just imagine how hard it was. I often wonder if some of these healthcare people aren’t sadists. Story after story here of people being shamed & bullied. They treat us like children & it’s disrespectful, to say the least.

You can do lower carb while pregnant to better control your BG, which will help lower your insulin doses. As long as you’re eating healthy carbs from a variety of fresh (not starchy) veggies, it will help lots.