Type 1 Diabetic and Newly Pregnant

Hi Ladies (Men too, but this post is focused more towards women),

I have been type 1 diabetic for 20 years and I just found out yesterday that I am pregnant!

We are super excited, but I’m also overwhelmed with fear. I’m so afraid to do something wrong before meeting with the doctor. So far my sugars have been incredibly level 3.0-7.8 (including pre and post meal). I’ve obviously had a few low BGs (especially in the AM and before bed), which from what I’ve been reading is pretty normal at this stage.

I’m calculating that I am 1 month and a day pregnant. Do I need to be extra cautious with activity (I usually do an hour run with my dog in the woods everyday, should I stop this?)? Do I need to watch out for certain foods? I use a Freestyle Libre and just got my Omnipod today (training in two weeks).

Any advice would be amazing and helpful! <3

If your BG’s are stable and your A1C is in a really good range then as far as I know your pregnancy shouldn’t be any different (as far as the baby’s development and effects on your body) than any other pregnancy. I personally would continue on with my normal activities unless my Dr. told me not to but if you feel uncomfortable with running until you see your Dr. then just take a brisk walk instead for a few days.

Thanks @Firenza. Makes me feel a little better.

Same advice as above! Enjoy your pregnancy, including the closer monitoring you will most likely have. I kept my exercise routine pretty much unchanged until well into the 7th month. Then I started walking instead of running and signed up for prenatal yoga instead of my regular classes. Don’t believe I changed anything food-wise other than the things no pregnant woman should eat (deli meats, runny eggs, undercooked meat and fish are the ones I remember missing; there were probably others – you should look up the recommendations on that).

Go by how you feel and I wish you to feel amazing!

PS I posted a fair amount on the pregnancy board here during mine last year – feel free to look up whatever discussions we were having with the other women who were pregnant at the time by clicking on my profile. I believe you can see all my activity that way. Most of all, there are two books I often recommend for T1D women who are pregnant – you will find the full references somewhere in the threads. Again, congratulations and best of luck to you!

Congratulations! I have two little girls who are 8 and 10. They were healthy and are very healthy little girls!

Don’t worry, you are going to do fine. I’d keep up my normal activities. The one piece of advice I have is find a good NP/CDE who can help you tweak your insulin ratios as you progress into late 2nd and the 3rd trimesters. I was changing my basal and bolus rates about weekly at that point. Best of luck. If you have any specific questions, don’t hesitate to ask, I’ll keep an eye out.

Thanks so much for your advice. I will for sure read the posts from last year, I’m sure the comments are still applicable. Just got my first apt for May 31st. Super excited and less stressed this week.

Thanks so much! We are very excited. It happened sooner than we expected, but couldn’t have been better timing.

I’m meeting with my Endo in two weeks, my dietitian in 3 weeks and hopefully a high risk OB soon after that. Luckily I haven’t been sick at all and the only food aversion I’ve had is chicken (makes me REALLY sick). I’ll count myself lucky, considering my bg’s have been pretty amazing as well. Like I said to @Dessito, I’m feeling much less stressed this week.

Thanks for all the advice!

Congrats!
My lows kicked in suddenly somewhere around late week 5, early week 6 and I was very unaware of them for quite a while, so if you run, I’d be careful not to stray too far from home! Or have your dogs carry some extra glucose for you!

See if your doctor uses the Glooko app (or similar) where you can upload your numbers once a week and they can make changes for you remotely. That’s been AMAZING for my sanity and not having to print out sheets and sheets of bg numbers for EVERY doctor appointment! Thankfully my endo & main ob/midwife group are in the same hospital network, so once its uploaded into my chart by the endo, the ob’s can see it too. One of them has been sending my numbers to the MFM, and I’m super thankful for that, even though I don’t see them often.
When I tell other docs my a1c has been 5.4 and my endo manages it weekly, they don’t seem to want to be bothered. I think as long as they know I and my endo are on top of things, they don’t feel the need to micromanage me themselves.

It is a bit of a pain to have to go for extra checks at the MFM, but everyone just wants to make sure my little guy is doing well. He didn’t cooperate at his follow up this week (nor did my extra belly fat from years of injections help matters any) so now we have to go to a special fetal cardiologist to make sure his heart looks ok. No big deal, just some extra time in traffic. I’m sure your little one will cooperate when it comes time for it. Mine is just stubborn like his mama… :smiley:

Good luck to you! Check in when you can!

I’ve been getting morning lows and a few lows throughout the day, but I’ve mostly been staying around 5.0-6.9 these days. Lucky for me (let’s hope it stays this way for awhile).

Unfortunately Glooko doesn’t work with the Freestyle Libre (at least here in Canada), so I’ve been instructed to bring my FS with me to every apt. Not a big deal since I always have it with me.

How far along are you? It must be amazing to finally be able to see the little monkey. I can’t wait! Do you remember how long it was before you stopped fitting in your pre-pregnant jeans? I’m about 6 weeks now and all I fit in to are my leggings, although, I haven’t gained any weight. I must be really bloated.

Thanks for all the info :):grinning:

24 weeks today! A good milestone to have reached! My app says baby is the size of a G.I. Joe, but he definitely feels bigger. He was measuring a little ahead, so we’ll see again on Thursday at the follow up to our follow up.
I think I ended up with new jeans…gosh, I can’t remember. 12 weeks? Maybe? But it took me a couple weeks to take them & get them fitted right - the legs were supposed to be bootcut but they were more like trouser/elephant style! And I don’t like the way she did them so now they’re more of a straight cut. eyeroll
I find myself not caring much because they’ve been so comfy, but its getting really hot now & I think I want to find some capris (I don’t do shorts). Still, they’ve gotten me through!

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Hi Ladies,

Unfortunately I miscarried my first pregnancy, which happened to be identical twins and a third fraternal (so triplets!). I was overwhelmed, but excited to take everything on. Unfortunately at our 9 week ultrasound (June 13th), there were no heart beats, and they had stopped growing at 7wks.

On a better note, we have started trying again, only about 2 weeks ago, but I have similar symptoms as I did with my last pregnancy. I started off very high, in the 13s (mmol/l , so about 234, I think, if I calculated it correctly) for almost a whole week. Now I’m back to my normal 4-6.0 range, but with some sporadic lows that take a while to come up. I went back in my Freestyle history and its almost exactly the same as last time.

The problem is, I haven’t yet had a period (I bled out about a month ago, and had to have a D&C because I wasn’t able to miscarry naturally), so I don’t even know when or if I ovulated!

What were your earliest signs?

I’ve also been extremely tired, my boobs aren’t fitting into my bras (ugh…), I feel really bloated and have to pee ALL THE TIME. I know this could all me in my head, but it’s my glucose that is making me believe that this may be another pregnancy.

Thoughts?

I’m so sorry you miscarried. My little brothers and my cousins are triplets. Is it too early for a pregnancy test? If so then just try and keep your BG’s stable and relax until you can do some testing. Best of luck and fingers crossed.

Sorry it took so long to respond, had a very busy weekend, which ended with my AF coming. Instead of being disappointed, I took it well, now at least we can track ovulation, etc. Even better, this means my insulin pump is working great! I’ll have to be careful when we do get pregnant though (because of lows) and adjust accordingly.