Pregnant and Diabetic

Just heard from my OB's office that I failed the one hour glucose test that I took at 19 weeks (my blood glucose levels had been high in previous bloodwork, thus the early testing).

I didn't have GD in my previous pregnancy (I failed the 1 hour test and passed the 3 hour test). I was diagnosed with PCOS before my first pregnancy, so I've always been somewhat insulin resistant.

Frankly, I just don't have time to waste with the 3 hour test, so I decided to forgo the 3 hour test and just meet with the nutritionist/begin daily testing, etc. I'm a little nervous about this, but I really don't want to go on insulin, so I'm going to do my best to stick to a GD diet.

Does anyone have any tips for how I can manage this, a full-time job, an active 3 year old, and a husband who doesn't really cook? I assume the nutritionist will be able to help me with some of this, but my life is so busy I just don't know how I'm going to do this.

Are we the same person?   lol.

I skipped the 3 hr test and started testing.  I didn't do it cause I was so sick after the 1 hr that the thought of a 3 hr was not appealing to me. 

I have been controlling GD with diet since I was diagnosed at 8 weeks!  I started testing daily 4x a day at 15 weeks. 

I too have a 3 yr old, I work full time and dh doesn't cook much.  The key to it, is planning!  Plan out your meals. You have to eat lots of veggies, etc. and less rice, pasta, potatoes (I don't eat potatoes at all - they seem to do me in!)  I love sweet potatoes and they are good.  Switch to wheat bread and wheat pasta.  Make sure pasta is your side dish to dinner, not your full meal (that was hard for me). 

Don't forget to snack.  You'll feel like your eating all the time but you even have to snack at night.  I like small bags of almonds or mixed nuts (low carb), peanut butter toast (I had to stop having cereal for breakfast and now have the PB toast), carrots, bag of sliced apples (or small apple), 2 1/2 cups popcorn, and cheese sticks.

When you start testing you will quickly learn what makes your sugar too high, etc.  The first few weeks are kind of trial and error and you'll learn to stay away from certain things.

It really isn't the end of the world - promise!  It is actually nice not to gain too much weight - I gained a lot with my 3 yr old - so far this pg I have only gained 12 lbs.  The doc wants me to stay under 25 lb weight gain.

- Val -
 

Thanks Val--I appreciate the suggestions. 

I already eat whole grain bread/pasta. My downfall is dessert/chocolate, so I'm most worried about that.  I'm hoping that eating enough throughout the day won't tempt me. The holidays are just going to be awful since I usually bake pies, cookies, etc. for all of the festivities and I won't really be able to indulge much. But a healthy baby and a healthy mommy are more important...

I'll start testing tomorrow when I have everything I need to do it.

Honestly, you just do it because you have to;)  You have to plan your meals -there is no other way to manage it without doing so.  That has been the hardest for me b/c of my busy life.  I am a managing partner in our law firm and I also do all the business/legal/employment things for my DH's company and we have an exceptionally active 5 yr old (Wednesday) son.  Historically, I often am just so busy I forget to eat in general.  

I ended up with GD late in my last pg (34 wks) I had been tested three times before and cleared all of them (one early, one at the regular 28 wks and one several weeks later).  At that point there was nothing I could do but be on insulin 4x/day.

This time around I failed the 1hr at 10wks and failed the 3hr at 12 wks.  I am doing fairly decent so far with the diet, but at my last dietician appt she estimated I will be lucky to get another 3 wks before I will need insulin again (that was about two weeks ago) :(   Her reasoning is that at now almost 19 wks I have only gained 3lbs and when I have a meal that nears the 4 carb range my bs is out of range or at the max.  They will "insist" I be hitting the 4 carb range for two of my meals and that together with where my hormones will be - well...it will basically equal insulin for me.

I hope it goes well for you.  Having to think about what I will eat and when is so hard for me.  What I find to be helpful is to figure out a few sure fire things I can count on and keep them at my disposal.  If you crave something sweet try the Fiber One bars -you may be able to get away with it for a while at least.  That is one of my sweet craving favs.  Because they have so much fiber you get to subtract the number of grams of fiber from the amount of carbs in the serving (you only can do this if there is 5 or more grams of fiber in one serving of an item.

My other little sneak for the time being is Brownberry Flax and Fiber bread toasted with a small smear of Nutella and loaded with peanut butter.

Oh wait, there is one more helper I have -that indulges my sweet-tooth:  Westsoy's Soy Slender chocolate.  One serving has 1 net regular carb.  I mix it with my skim milk and can keep it to 1 diabetic carb easily.

Thanks for the good advice/suggestions!  I've been doing quite well with planning my meals, snacks etc.

I hadn't thought about a tiny bit of Nutella with peanut butter. Flax & Fiber toast with peanut butter is my favorite snack, and the Nutella would be a great addition.

Hoping to see the dietician this week, but will definitely see my OB so I can get some feedback about how my numbers look.  I really hope I don't have to go the insulin route, but if it happens it happens.