Hello from a newbie!

[beckyp]

Hi, I'm new to this forum (referred by a group on facebook of all places!) and love it (I didn't join the group on facebook because I don't want my family/friends to see what I've got planned).

I'm hoping that my HBA1C will come back with a better result this month so that the NHS allow me to start trying for a baby...can you believe that my life (our lives) is in the hands of the NHS?!

My last test at Christmas was 7.4 (which included a honeymoon where I discovered Anzac biscuits and a wedding - plus the pre-wedding stress when I lived on buttered toast with nutella!) so I'm hopeful for the next test.

My husband and I went for a pre-conception clinic with the diabetes specialist nurse at the hospital - to be honest I've not been very impressed with my hospital for the last 20 years so I'm not holding my breathe for the duration of pregnancy! I explained to the nurse my fears as the internet is full of pessimistic informaton and, in my eyes, the Diabetes UK website isn't much better. I reduced myself to a nervous wreck last year and cried for a whole weekend at the thought of having a baby as I'd convinced myself that I would kill the baby or myself if I even looked at a chocolate digestive. All the nurse could say was that I shouldn't read stuff on the internet and that I should only listen to the professionals at the hospital which really didn't make me feel much better. We'll see I guess....

How did everyone else find their hospitals in the early stages of trying for a baby and how low did you get your HBA1C results before conception?

 

[emeraldgirl]

Hi Becky

Just wanted to welcome you. I joined this board a couple of weeks ago, as I had just found out I was pregant. Look for the post ' I've never felt so low in my life ' its just a few messages down the front of the pregnancy page. the advice all the wonderful ladies on this board gave me lifted me so much. I just felt every high blood sugar was going to kill my baby and I couldn't seem to do anything right, but they made me realise that wasn't the case.

So dont beat yourself up too much. In January my HBA1C was 7.0, which my clinic nurse told me was the highest they would like it to be if I were thinking of conceiving. Well I was, I had IVf treatment, and now I'm nearly 7 weeks pregnant. I had a HBA1C test last week and it was down to 6.7, which I was very happy about. I put a lot of it down to the wonderful dietician at my clinic, she gets me to write everything down that I eat, and properly count the carbs in relation to the insulin I take. It has been hard work but it works. Do you see the dietician at your clinic. 7.4 is only slightly over, I'm sure you could get it down with a bit of help from your clinic.

In at lot of respects I agree with what your nurse said about reading too much on the internet, but this site and board is great and so helpful, I really recommend it.

To be quite honets some the staff at my clinic are a bit hit and miss, but a good dietician and a good nurse there have helped me a lot. Have they advised you what you should do to help get your HBA1C down a bit.

But please dont beat yourself up too much. I've done that myself and all it does is stress you out more. As you say you can pinpoint some of the reasons why your HBA1C has risen a bit, so I'm sure you'll be able to get it down again.


Dee xx

 

[Cate]

Good luck with your result 🙂

I never attended a pre-conception clinic at my hospital - I have no idea if they even run them, I suppose they might. I just told my DSN & consultant that we were trying for a baby, they said that was fine but I needed to be careful about my HBA1c - it was 6.9 at the time - and keep it as low as possible. That was the sum total of their involvement until I got a positive!

Both pregnancies were fine from a diabetes point of view. Hard work, with my oldest I was testing 10 or more times a day. From about 10 weeks to 16 weeks I suffered very frequent and sometimes disabling hypos and nobody could give me a decent reason for it until a couple of months ago - my fetal medicine consultant said that it was due to my blood volume increasing as the placenta forms and kicks in, and the sugar in my blood getting spread out more (that's a very non-technical description lol). No idea if that's true, but it did seem to make sense and these hypos are very common for type 1 mums apparently.

Antenatal care is very frequent as a type 1 - this pregnancy I had appointments every 2 weeks throughout, from around 8 weeks. It felt like I lived at the hospital - the receptionist knew me by name before my 20 week scan!

Neither of my children have had problems as a result of my diabetes. Hannah needed cup feeding a bit of formula as her blood sugars were slightly low about 36 hours post-delivery but that was it. I'm not aware of any problems like that for Edward, but he was born at 31 weeks due to other complications and he's still in the neonatal unit (he's just over a month old now).

I gave birth by elective section for Hannah on the recommendation of my eye consultant, as I have retinopathy and he was concerned that the strain of labour would cause further bleeds. Edward would have been an elective section this Thursday, but as I said he's a month old already and we had an emergency section instead.

Once you're pregnant I highly recommend the Babycentre UK forums. There's one for the month that your baby is due and it's useful to read/ask questions of other mums going through the same stuff. There's also a Diabetic group on there, though it's mostly for people with GD rather than other types.

 

[beckyp]

Thanks for the replies! You've both made me feel much better about it now.

I've got the plumber here this week but hope to go for my blood test at the end of the week/beginning of next week - I'll keep you up to date with the results - fingers crossed.

Thanks again!

Becky

 

[am64]

hi becky and welcome to the forum x im sure you'll find your way around quickly and good Luck xxx🙂

 

[rachelha]

Hi Becky I am currently 13 weeks pregnant. My hba1c was in the 8s when I first started going to the pre-pregnancy clinic. I got it down to 7.4 and was given the go ahead to start trying then. I had an hba1c done about a month ago and was down to 6.6 which I was really happy with.

I was very unimpressed with my clinic until I mentioned to them that we wanted to have kids, since then I have had a lot more help, I felt like I was invisible to them before despite having widely fluctuating blood sugar levels.

I have had some periods of immense stress since getting pregnant about the effects my eating could have on the baby so I understand what you are going through. I am trying not to read to much on the internet apart from the positive stories on here. There have been a number of babies born to T1 woman in the last month or so.

Ask me any questions you want.

Rachel

 

[PhoebeC]

I love this site, so so helpful.
We want to start trying soon, i havent yet been so see my nurse or what ever.
this site has helped me 1000s times, id say more than my nurse, i just go to hear what my results are for eveything and thats it.
Dont get to stressed out about it. Like all things to do with diabetes it never helps.
x

 

[tabbicles]

Hi becky and welcome!! I am fairly new to this site too but it is soooooooo helpful!!
I am 8 weeks pregnant nearly and before trying I was 7.4. I am now 7.1 and the doctors have always been happy with this, saying it is 'satisfactory'. They expect it will come down further as it progresses as the control is so much tighter!
My hospital have been absolutlely fantastic, they hold an entenatel clinic every 2 weeks for diabetic ladies in teh materniity unit and look at every reading (which i have learnt to note down!) and suggest adjustments to my insulin, diet etc.....

 

[beckyp]

Thanks for the replies ladies! Rachel, you are a breathe of fresh air and sound just like me! I was really worried about my blood test result but with your hospital telling you that 7.4 is satisfactory I feel much better. It's strange how different people give different advice...

I'm feeling so much more positive about everything now - and it's a relief to know that other people have as much luck with their hospitals as I have with mine - good ole' NHS huh?!

At least we have forums like this with other people in the same position knowing exactly what you're going through.

Thanks again!

 

[xxlou_lxx]

I just wanted to say welcome

but also try not to get too stressed with getting your hba1c perfect, I say this only because I have given birth to a perfectly healthy daughter 2 weeks ago who was not planned and therefore I had no pre conception councelling and my hba1c was 8.2 pre pregnancy and I have been type 1 for 21 years, I am not encouraging this as being ok as I know it wasnt and the reason I worried everyday until her birth, but I think I stressed myself out too much worrying about it for no reason and did not have the opportunity to enjoy my pregnancy as much as I should have. By about 16 weeks I had my hba1c down to 4.5 and it stayed that way until the end and my addiction was chocolate by the truck load 😉
and yes the internet is not a good place to look for info I think it just adds to your worries! lol
Good luck when you do start to try to concieve and also have fun 😛

 

[beckyp]

Hi guys...I've just had my blood test result back and my HBA1C was 6.7 but now they're concerned about my underactive thyroid and have said that I'm not allowed to start trying for at least another 6 weeks! This is getting ridiculous.

I was on a high from the 'big' bloods result that I didn't pay a lot of attention to the rest until she said 'Dr F said to wait another 6 weeks...is that okay?'. What would they have done if I'd said 'er...well actually, no it's not okay'. They've boosted my thyroxine so I'm hoping it'll kick in quickly! Does anyone else have an underactive thyroid and had problems during pregnancy?

 

[xxlou_lxx]

Hey becky I was levothyroxine in pregnancy. I wasnt aware it was something to worry about though! It was the docs who were bothered about making sure it was at a normal level The wee one needed a blood test 2 week after being born to make sure her levels were fine but that was it.

🙄

 

[emeraldgirl]

Hi Becky

I'm 8wks3days preganat. When I had my last lot of blood tests done about 3 weeks ago, my thyroid came back as slightly over what they wished it to be. They said if I wasn't pregnant it would have been considered normal but as I am they put me on a low level dose of levothyroxine. I asked if I should be worried about it and the doctor said no. I have to do another blood test in 2 weeks to see if the dosage is working ok.

Great news on the good HBA1C result.

Dee x

 

[beckyp]

Thanks Lou and Dee. I'm not even pregnant and I'm complaining about everything.....can you imagine what I'll be like when I do fall preggers!

I just feel like my medical team are deliberately making my life difficult although I did look online and it says that the thyroid gland helps with the forming/development of the brain in the first trimester. I called my GP this morning to increase my dosage with immediate effect and the nurse has refused to do it until I see my GP because he might disagree with the hospital!

There's nothing to say that we'll conceive straight away anyway so perhaps I should just ignore them and do what I want!!!! I've got the diabetes sorted (with the odd hot cross bun here and there!) and that was the biggest worry. I'm 30 years old for goodness sake but I'm being treated like a child by the so-called medical peeps!

 

[Lizzzie]

Hello and Welcome Becky....

...am in a similar boat, but my reading's 5.5 and the doctors keep telling me to get it higher!! - which is more difficult that I thought it would be.

Had a preconception clinic, actually it was great. Must be very lucky with my local hospital. I wrote a massive list of questions and they answered them all and told me about a few things I wouldn't have thought to ask.

Annoyingly, my periods have gone completely AWOL (and I'm not pregnant - i keep checking - probably the only person I know who does a preg test every month without a glimmer of excitement any more) which is holding things up (no cycles, no conception) and very frustrating....

Guess the whole process of pregnancy is a series of highs and lows (literally), and a lot of input and care on our parts... but one day, if god / fate / joss / karma / whatever you believe in allows, it's going to be more than worth the frustration and the worry.....

 

[wend5000]

Hi Becky. Im 29 and planning to start a family next year. i ahve just been refered to preconception clinic and am waiting for my appointment to come through. my HbA1c that I have just had back has come down to 7.6. i am really worried that they will tell me that i cant try for a baby yet til i get my levels down. Me and my partner really want to try soon, and i am nervous about going to my appointment when i get it through..
what kind of things do they ask etc?
wendy
x

 

[rachelha]

Hi Becky. Im 29 and planning to start a family next year. i ahve just been refered to preconception clinic and am waiting for my appointment to come through. my HbA1c that I have just had back has come down to 7.6. i am really worried that they will tell me that i cant try for a baby yet til i get my levels down. Me and my partner really want to try soon, and i am nervous about going to my appointment when i get it through..
what kind of things do they ask etc?
wendy
x

Hi Wend,

I was given the go ahead to start ttc when my hba1c was 7.4. They realised that I had made a huge effort to get it down to this. Since conceiving it has been below 6.8 all the time. I am hoping the last one might even be under 6.

Hope the appointment goes well

Rachel

 

[Laura22]

Hi Becky

I'm 6 weeks pregnant and my last HBa1C was 10.1%!

I do have good BG control though which is all good. 🙂

 

[Twitchy]

Hi Becky,

I'm T1, had it 31 yrs (am 32 now!), have an underactive thyroid, polycystic ovaries, a 3 1/2 yr old & a 5 month old baby - so it can be done! 🙂

Each time we tried I felt incredibly frustrated at how long it seemed to take to get ready, medically / HbA1c-wise, but it was worth it! It took us around 2 years each time (luckily we conceive quickly! 😱), as the only way I could get the results I needed (what with dawn phenomenon etc) was a rather fascist approach to carb counting & testing & 3am boluses! I think my HbA1c at conception was around 6.5% first time, 7% (I think, can't remember the exact number!) second time. They will want you to be on the right dose of thyroxine before hand too, as the first 12 weeks are really important for baby's development - seems sensible to get it all in the best possible way first! 🙂

The other thing is make sure you are on 5mg (I think that's the right units!) Folic acid for ideally 3 months or more before conceiving & NOT on simvastatin any time within 3 months - it's nasty stuff & contraindicated with pregnancy!

A t1 pregnancy is really hard work, and can be quite stressful - I certainly felt it was a massive responsibility... but it is SO worth it! Wishing you all the best,

Twitchy x

 

[tabbicles]

Welcome! I love this website too 🙂 Like Rachel I was 7.4% pre preganncy which was adequate apparently and my last one(in June) was down to 6.6%. I am nearly 32 weeks pregnant now. You will find your blood sugars the best they have ever been when your pregnant and get into the control! I always find it hard to think of blood sugars of 8 or 9 being high but apparently there are when pregnant! All is normal with the baby (I am now having fornightly scans) though its belly is slightly on the larger size which is very normal for diabetic ladies (and I consider myself well controlled!) Bad thing for me is my chocolate craving........