Re: dont know how to feel
Asked by karleigh

Question:

this is a question for people who have recieved good news and bad news at the same time and didnt no how to feel.here it goes

My partner proposed to me last

night and i of course said yes and i have been happy ever since up until today when i went for my hospital checkup and they had to do an emergency scan.

They told me that it looks like i have gestational diabetes but they were gonna wait 3 weeks to test me for it just to see what happens in between now and then [that would make me 37 weeks pregnant so i dont no why there even bothering to test me for it ]

now i dont know how to feel its like im feeling bad when i tell people how excited i am to be engaged because my full focuse should be on the baby right now

they said he is too big for his age[since when did having a big baby become a bad thing i thought you only had to worry if it was too small]

apparently there is also too much fluid so im stuck in a cross roads it like im feeling bad for being happy that im engaged because my unborn son needs my full attention right now is there anyone that has been through something like this that can help.

sorry if some of this didnt make sense im very emotional right now

My Advice:

Hey don't let the gestational diabetes get you down. I was tested for it around 20 weeks. They did the first test before I even drank the glucose drink and had to rush in and ask me to stop drinking it because they detected diabetes before adding any sugar levels LOL That's when I found out I've had diabetes for a long time. When I think back on it, I was always fainting, blacking out and had no energy when I was a teenager. I always used to think only overweight people could get diabetes ( I was 50 kilos at the time).

I kept to an extremely strict diet during my pregnancy and exercised for 30 mins every day. I still went over the sugar levels. I wasn't allowed to go over 5.0 in the mornings and 6.7 after any meal. I was constantly going over the both of them. I had to prick myself up to 8 times a day. That's a lot for someone with a needle phobia. It made me pretty upset.

My waters broke 9 weeks early and I was rushed to hospital in an ambulance. They managed to keep my son in there for another 2 weeks but then he decided he was coming. For 2 weeks I had to inject myself with insulin four times a day and eat nothing but salad. Do you know how hard that is when your major pregnancy craving is MILO?? Or when your partner gets you to order the cheesecake so he can eat it?? LOL

I remember I snuck one during the night and my nurse cut sick at me and lectured me for about an hour about how people lose arms and legs when they think they can sneak in high levels of sugar because of diabetes so I behaved myself from then on.

My son was born 7 weeks premature and was 6 pounds 11 oz. That's heavier than some full term babies!! My hospital roomy had a full term baby at 5 pounds 13 oz!! He was the biggest baby in the special care nursery. God... Image what I would have had to push out if I went full term. My mid wife was already talking to me about c-section options just in case. He was also born with high levels of jaundice. This could have been from 3 things, conflicting blood group, diabetes or because he was prem. Maybe a combination of all 3.

After he was born they did heel pricks to test his sugar levels and they were normal so that was good. The only bad thing for him is that he now has a higher chance at developing type 2 diabetes when he gets older. Also at risk for childhood obesity.

Your mid wife/doctor will:

• Check his development
• Do a heel prick 
• Check for jaundice.
• Ask you for a follow up visit as you have a higher chance of developing type 2 diabetes too once you've developed gestational diabetes.
• Check in on a yearly basis to make sure.

Congrats on the engagement. It's not too concerning for you to worry about.

• Get some rest to avoid fatigue
• Eat healthy 
• Drink lots of water to keep your fluids up because you will pee a lot with gestational diabetes, even though I bet you’re peeing a lot already anyway lol

Gestational diabetes is when the blood glucose levels are too high during the pregnancy. It is believed that some of the hormones produced during pregnancy can increase the woman's resistance to insulin resulting in a glucose intolerance.

I had a really good diabetes educator. She was very strict. She called me every few days to make sure I was eating and exercising. Then every other day the nutrition doctor would ring me.

I will share some tips with you that my educator shared with me:

• Avoid washing hands with soap before testing because some soaps give inaccurate sugar readings
• Make sure hands are dry before you prick
• When you choose a finger to prick, shake your hands first, make them warm and then milk your finger like a cows udder from the knuckle to the tip so the blood flows there.
• When you prick, prick the finger about 3mm to the side of the middle of your nail. She told me that anywhere else leaves noticeable pin pricks in the skin, can numb your finger tip, hit nerves and hurt more.
• Don't prick with cold hands or you wont give enough blood for the reading
• Always remember to wash your hands because it will interfere with the reading
• Eat nuts as snacks inbetween because they break down the fats, sugars and carbs. I was told that almonds were the best.
• Check all products on the back of the label. You should be checking sugar, fats and carbs. Sometimes diet products are not the best as some of them actually have more sugar to make up for less fat! Sugars are worse than fats in this case. Some products I found stupid were weetbix, special k, skim milk, diet yogurt.
• Don't eat more than 2 carbs in 1 sitting (equal to 2 slices of bread or one small baked potato). Try to aim for grain bread as white is full of carbs. Stay away from mashed potato lol too many carbs in one sitting. Although this was a little contradicting because mash potato made my readings go through the roof but yet pasta lowered it.
• Avoid take away. Because you might think you get away with it with your after lunch reading but the next reading will spike. Depending how slow your glucose levels are and breaking down the sugars you might still even be over the limit until lunch time the following day!
• If you eat fruit, avoid oranges and orange juice. Try to aim for apples because the skin of the apple has many vitamins in it and it breaks down the fruit's natural sugars.

You shouldn't be that bad you only have about 3 weeks until bubs is due. If they do give you injections though, ask to have it in the stomach. Make sure you pinch a bit of belly fat and put the needle through at a 45 degree angle, you wont feel a thing!

And remember gestational diabetes usually goes away after the birth of the baby. Not all the time though so you will need to get a check up yearly to check for type 2.

This also does not mean your baby has diabetes. They just have more chance of developing type 2 in the future so to be careful.

Try to do different fingers or you will end up with scars on the tops of your fingers. For example... left side of the pinky, then right side of the pinky, then left side of the ring finger, right side of the ring finger and so on. Some will say not to prick your thumb and others may recommend thumb pricking.

Some doctors/nurses/diabetes educators can have different methods. I’m just sharing what I was taught.