Life with Gestational Diabetes

After I met with the dietician on Friday I was all set mentally on how I was going to handle this new diagnosis.  I was going to do whatever I had to.  To ensure the health of me and my baby.  What I didn't plan on was the difficulty of testing and my body not working the way I needed to.  I was told I needed to check my blood sugar 4 times a day.  Fine. Ok. I can do this.  Well what turned into 4 times a day was more like 16 times due to my finger not bleeding as much as I needed it too.  Sometimes it would just be a dot, sometimes it would just smear across my fingerprints or sometimes I actually had enough but the machine decided to error out. 

I was beyond frustrated.  I cried.  I cried a lot this past weekend. More than I have in awhile.  I felt defeated and I was only 1-2 days into this and I have/had 7 weeks to go.  Justin really helped me this weekend.  I would prick my finger and get the machine ready while he worked my finger to get the circulation really going. This seemed to work better than me trying to do it all on my own. On Saturday when we were at breakfast with Santa, I told my stepmom about the trouble I had with the amount of blood actually coming out and she told me to rub my fingertip a minute or so before I test.  It will help with the circulation.  I must say that really does help and it took me a a day to really adjust to that but when I did, it made things a little easier. 

I decided that since this was my first week doing the testing that testing during lunch at work was going to be difficult.  The time I have to test (an hour after I eat) is tough due to us being in the gym with the kids and being in autistic support, you can't just leave to go test.  So over the weekend I ate certain things for lunch and tested.  I ate was I knew was safe with carbs and I'll explain to my doctor that while I wasn't very fluant or efficient with testing that I held off for a couple days.  I also wonder if I can just test 2 hours after that one meal because we all are back in the classroom by that time. 

I did have a major accomplishment today though.  I was eating something new for lunch and wasn't sure how my body would process it and I actually tested at work!  The girls at work were very proud of me!  My number was only at 88 after an hour from lunch.  I need to be under 140. 

I must say that the past few days have been much much better for me testing wise.  I have learned that once I prick my finger, to slow down, "milk" my finger(blood flow) and once I have a good puddle of blood to the test.  I've been able to only prick myself once each time today! So I think I have  a good system down for testing and my diet seems to be just fine.  I am watching my carbs and making sure to stay within my limits for meals and snacks but honestly, I haven't had to tweak much.  I do seem to eat a pretty well balanced diet. 

My fasting numbers in the morning are always well below 100 and actually this morning it was 65.  When I test it really super early its around 85.  But the dietician explained to me that your liver secretes insulin as well and in the really early hours of the morning it starts to happen.  That is why they like 10 hours of fasting and when I test around 615 its not 10 hours.  So I try to push it a little longer but I do eat breakfast around 630am on work days.  So my weekday fasting number is a little higher than on the weekends. 

I've noticed that my numbers after dinner are actually pretty low.  One night it was seriously 65!  But I only had 15 grams of a carb and I should have at least 35 and max is 60.  So I've really made sure to add to my dinner and at least put a glass of milk with it which adds another 15 grams.

So while it was  a rough start I've learned that this new life isn't so bad and in the end it most likely will be short lived.  I will do whatever I need to for baby boy and to ensure that he is getting all the healthy nutrients he needs! 

Love
Jamie Lynne