Pregnancy advice please!!

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Ness

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Type 1
Hi I'm new to this site and it has been wonderful to see this support site set up. I have recently found out that i am 6 weeks pregnant, unplanned. I had a very difficult time with the birth of my 2nd child 5 years ago when i was diagnosed with gestational diabetes which disappeared as soon as my son was born. However, it came back with a vengance 6 months later!! My son very nearly died - he was born at 34 weeks emergency with a blood clot to his lower left arm which had to be amputated when he was 10 days old. The drs seem to think that he had suffered a stroke when i was carrying him or shortly after he was born. He also suffers mild hemiplegia and has a speech disorder but he is the most loveable funny little boy ever, and he has just finished his first year in mainstream school - he's my little hero!! The drs seem to think that diabetes didn't play a part in what happened to him but no other explanation was given either.
Understandably, I haven't got my head round this yet, and i am very apprehensive about this pregnancy - hence not being able to sleep and on the computer at this ungodly hour! Just how often should i be checking my bs and is too much insulin bad for the baby? Any advice please, as I'm shocked, confused and frightened!! Please help! x
 
good morning ness firstly welcome to the site and congrats on the pregnancy, if you where to look around you would see some test maybe 4 5 6 times others not so often , myself personally im on 2 a day morning and evening which is what i was told of my GP but others are told diffirent , are they any appointments for you to see your gp ? i can advise on insulin as im on pills only but some one will come along and help you on this one as we have a handful of people pregnant at the moment also, It is very scary a nd daunting especially as you seem to have had a bad time of it but your here now and thats a good step we will be here for you we are all a big extended family 🙂 xxx
 
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Hi Ness

Welcome to the site.

I don't have any first hand experience I'm afraid but I think that most diabetes centres/departments have dedicated staff/clinics to help diabetics who are pregnant. So the first thing I would suggest is to call you diabetes nurse and get yourself seen as soon as possible. They will likely to want to see you more regularly than a non diabetic would expect.
Also have a look through some of the posts on this board as I'm sure someone on here will have plenty of advice.
 
Hi Ness

Hope you can make contact with GP and get referred to a diabetes pregancy clinic as soon as possible. They will advise you of the likely pattern of insulin requirements through pregnancy. There's a bit of information on Diabetes Uk website at http://www.diabetes.org.uk/en/MyLife-YoungAdults/Relationships/Baby-planning/ which recommends aiming for blood glucose levels between 5.6 mmol/l and 7.8mmol/l (after meals) - which seems to be a very tight range to me.
As that's unlikely to be before Monday, and as you're understandably "shocked, confused and frightened", I'm going to suggest a blood glucose testing schedule - on waking / before breakfast, 2 hours after eating breakfast, before midday meal, 2 hours after eating midday meal, before evening meal, 2 hours after eating evening meal, before going to bed, plus extra if driving or exercising.
Hope your local clinic staff can help you further - and please let us know how you get on. Hope you, dad and your son are all looking forward to the new addition. Some people prefer not to tell too many people about a pregnancy until past about 13 weeks, when the risk of miscarriage is lower - that's in general, not specific to diabetes.
 
Hi There i'm currently 14 weeks pregnant (unplanned also) With regards to too much insulin and then having a hypo theres been no research to suggest that a hypo affects the baby in any way because your body looks after the baby so to speak when your having a hypo. Although I have found that I need a lot more sugar for a hypo now that i'm pregnant than I did before to bring it above 4. I've been told that blood sugar levels are supposed to be between 4-7 which is extremely tight control. I've found that I can't always manage this even if I test more times during the day. I've sort of accepted that i'm not going to get it 100% accurate all the time plus stressing out about it won't help the baby. I tend to test up to 6 times now so that I can get better control and if I have something that I can't quite work out the carb count for then I definately check it after 2 hours to see what my blood sugar is like. I'm not sure whether i've been any help but hopefully have slightly! If you ever wanna talk you can private message me if you like x
 
steff09 said:
good morning ness firstly welcome to the site and congrats on the pregnancy, if you where to look around you would see some test maybe 4 5 6 times others not so often , myself personally im on 2 a day morning and evening which is what i was told of my GP but others are told diffirent , are they any appointments for you to see your gp ? i can advise on insulin as im on pills only but some one will come along and help you on this one as we have a handful of people pregnant at the moment also, It is very scary a nd daunting especially as you seem to have had a bad time of it but your here now and thats a good step we will be here for you we are all a big extended family 🙂 xxx
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Thank you so much for your kind words - it means a lot - definitely. I've overcome the shock now and I'm just taking one day at a time! xxx
 
Thanks ever so. I've been in touch and i have an appt this week!! Fingers crossed. It's early days yet and I am beginning to get over the shock.
 
Thank you very much for your advice. I have been testing as regularly as you have suggested and am not getting the tight control as yet, but am keeping it under 10 which is good for me anyway. Got a lot more tightening up to do! I'm seeing my GP tomorrow and also the diabetic clinic at the end of the week. I'll let you know how I'm getting on. I haven't told any family yet about the pregnancy - just want to make sure everything is ok and that i am doing my best for my baby.
 
Hi emma
Thanks for your kind words - will private email you when i know how!!!! Everything seems pickled at the moment, I put hairspray on as deodorant this morning and the deodorant went on as hair spray - it was only my husband who stopped me going out and saying what the hell was that in my hair!?!? Gradually, I'm getting my head round this but I feel constantly hungry as well - is that all in the mind?!?! Glad to know your pregnancy is going well - thanks for all your advice, it has definitely helped. xxxx
 
Hi Ness and welcome to the site. I can completely understand you being worried about this pregnancy. It's hard to get your head round being pregnant when you don't have diabetes and even harder when you do and you've had a previous worrying experience!

I'm nine weeks pregnant and type 1. I already have three children, the youngest of which was born after I developed diabetes. Firstly, you're not alone and there's lots of people on this site who can help, no question is too silly, just ask away. Secondly, in my experience you should be testing your BS on waking, before each meal and one hour after each meal. Pregnancy BS targets are very tight, below 5 before eating and below 8 one hour after eating (not two hours after as usual). These tight targets will of course result in some hypos. I had a really bad hypo during my last pregnancy which left me unconscious and my husband phoning 999 for some help. The baby was fine, and as someone's already said, there's no evidence that hypos will have any effect on your unborn baby.

Take care of yourself and try not to worry!
 
Hi ness just private messaged you back,
I'm finding i'm getting very forgetful lately also starting to get a bit off balanced which is normal apparantly my husband keeps laughing at me walking into things by accident! Haven't put deodrant on my hair and hair spray on my armpits though :D

xxx
 
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