Somehow, GD can sneak up on you. They warn you that if you begin suddenly putting on a lot of weight or suddenly losing a bunch without a reason (like overeating or horrible morning sickness), maybe you feel excessively thirsty, that you just may have GD. They never bother to tell you that there can be no warning signs at all.
So when I got my results back after my 28 week GTT test I was shocked. It didn't help matters any that the nurse midwife (NMW) at the OB clinic took the option of the 3 hour test off the table. I was originally going to a birthing center. It had been my dream since I was 14 and my youngest cousin was born there. I thought the place was amazing with it's decor and laid-back atmosphere. I knew I wanted my delivery to be so nice.
With the NMW saying taking the 3 hour test wasn't an option, he was just going to assume I had GD since my sugars were over 200, it was all I could to do to not storm out of the office. After finding out I struggled with my anger over not getting my nice, calm birthing center birth. I'm not saying hospitals are bad, I'm just afraid of the whole delivery being chaotic because most professionals are taught to treat delivery as a medical condition, something that has to be gotten over with quick. They act like it's not been done for thousands of years. I don't want that.
And making a birth plan can help with that, but still, medical professional do tend to ignore the patient and do what they want with certain things.
So the NMW set up a consultation with a dietician and I met with her the following Monday (which was August 29th). She was pleasant as we talked and she gave me some info about GD and about the diet I would be doing. But I've still managed to find a whole handful of questions I feel should have been answered then.
I was given a list of foods and their serving size that I could eat. There was even a small list of foods called Other Carbs that contained things like cake, doughnuts, and cookies. But the list isn't very big and to be honest, who the hell is going to cut up a carrot in order to measure 1 cup for 1 serving of veggies? Why couldn't they have put a weight or a size of carrot for a serving? All the veggies are like that. I'll have to go through site after site just to find a weight to make things easier.
As well as the list of food, I was given a paper with a guide for each meal to tell me how many carbs I should eat total for that meal and how many servings of protein, fat, and veggies I should have. To the right of that list is an example meal for each one. I kid you not that the first example snack tells me to consume 8oz (1 cup) of milk, 6 whole almonds, and a stick of string cheese.
This meal guide says it's supposed to have about 2,000 calories in it. At least, that's what the dietician led me to believe, not to mention the big, bold title saying 2000 Calorie Patter for Gestational Diabetes. The meals are small and have very little fat and very little filling starches. From eating small like that back in 2004 when I went from 193lbs to 142lbs, I know that the meal guide does not give me even close to 2,000 calories. And yesterday I checked. With everything that had a label I wrote down the calories. Aside from dinner, an apple, and 1/2 cup of cooked onions, I was barely getting 600 calories. The calories I could count were from breakfast, a snack, and lunch. If 600 was an average for 3 meals, then I'd be getting around only 1,200 calories for the entire day! For a pregnant woman, that's not enough. So that's something I have to chat with the dietician about at my next appointment.
On top of the annoyances of finding food to eat, I have to test my blood sugars at least 4 times a day. I should take a picture of my finger to show you the damage. My sugars have been pretty well maintained throughout the day, usually being between 110-116 at the high. Except, of course, with breakfast. My sugars have never been under 125. Course, I've only been able to check it for four breakfasts, but still. Two of those breakfasts I was testing out the way fruit worked on me. Apples are horrible! For three days I had a tortilla with cream cheese, and fruit on top. One of those days I swapped out half the cream cheese for peanut butter to get some protein as well as fat. The first day, the fruit wad blueberries (which I've heard are great for the pancreas). My sugars tested at 129. The next day (with the peanut butter) I had half a banana. Sugars were 126. And yesterday I had an apple and my sugars were 134! So I decided no more fruit for me.
Today I ate 1/2 cup cooked cream of wheat with 2 tsp Smart Balance butter (the only kind we have at the house), 2 egg whites (because I don't like the flavor of yolks), and 8 oz of 2% milk. My sugars were 132! Somehow, something in my breakfast messed with my insulin levels. My fasting sugars was 86 today. It seems the higher the carb count I eat before bed, the lower my blood sugar is in the morning. My mom and her husband checked theirs as well coming up with 84 and 82. Not bad for me. An hour after breakfast I checked mine and got 132 and made my mom check hers so I could see what normal would be and hers was 79! Seventy-nine! I wanted to cry. If that was normal, then what the hell was I? My blood sugar is supposed to be under 140 for a 1 hour test and only last night 3 hours before bed was it ever over 140. It was 145 and I can only think that the corn I had for dinner had finally been processed. I made banana pudding for dessert but didn't get to have it until my bedtime snack. I worked hard on making sure there wasn't much sugar or carbs in it all. I roughly had about 44g of carbs and just over 12g of sugar (though I have no idea what a good amount of sugar is since the dietician never said anything about it). My lunch and dinner usually consists of 45g of carbs and my blood sugar after them has never been above 116. My lowest being 89 after consuming a slice of pepperoni pizza from Sam's and a little less than 32oz of diet caffeine free coke (diet soda is on the free list! Woohoo! Though I don't much care for it).
I've been writing down everything I eat and how much of it I eat. I'm trying to find the perfect day of meals for me without having to stick myself both before and after I eat. I love knowing my body and GD is something new and I'll only be dealing with it (most likely) for 9 more weeks. I've got to figure it out now. After my pregnancy I will be making sure I get healthy again because I will NOT be dealing with this again. I swear!
My biggest problem is breakfast. Sugars have been between 125-135. Now, I've been told that the pancreas has a hard time getting going in the morning so my sugars are going to be higher then than they will be the rest of the day. But I know there has to be a perfect breakfast for me. So far, anything I eat with a starch, banana, and peanut butter, has given me my lowest scores for having a full meal. But there's one breakfast I didn't get to test my sugars with. Eggs, a slice of toast with cream cheese, and milk. It was my first breakfast on the diet. I'm going to eat that tomorrow and see if that helps. My bread comes just under the full serving, though. A serving is 15g of carbs per slice. Mine has 9g of carbs per slice. Also, whole wheat stuff seems to have quite a bit of protein in it.
So it's been a lot of trial and error and I still have a ways to go to really figure this out. I've looked up foods that are great for nourishing the pancreas and I will be eating more of those. Also, exercise. I've been a lump the entire pregnancy which makes me pretty mad. I kept losing track of time and before I knew it, I only have 9 weeks left!
To do a more controlled test on breakfast tomorrow, I shouldn't bother with exercising for a little bit before my test. But I will make sure I get exercise in every day from now on.
I've only seen one difference in anything. From the moment I heard I could have GD I became more strict with my eating. I cut out soda completely (having fallen off the wagon and drinking a 20oz every week for a month and a half), didn't have any other sweets, stopped eating what little fast food I did, and made sure I ate at home. But my changed eating habits weren't the difference, it was my baby. The little one was moving around so much more during the day. I mentioned this to my mom and she said it could be the lack of sugary and fatty stuff, or it could just be the baby's at that stage where it's gotten big enough to really be felt. I think it's the lack of sugary and fatty stuff because I doubt one week is going to make that much of a difference in size.
Well, sorry for this long post, it was just a road so far kind of deal. I am going to try and put together some things I've found that are good and come back later today or tomorrow and post them!
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