Since I found out I was pregnant I have been to some type of medical office nearly every week. First I had to go to the OB to confirm that I was pregnant.  I saw my endocrinologist right away only to find out that I probably wouldn’t start to experience many changes in my insulin needs until the second trimester and therefore didn’t need to come in right away.  I’ve had my eyes checked (thankfully the bleeding in my eyes that he noticed last year is gone), and I’ve had my teeth cleaned only to hear the lecture about how gum disease has been linked to low birth weight babies.

I have always been an active person whether I’m going for run, riding my bike, playing sports, lifting weights or just taking my dogs for a walk.   I love how I feel after I’ve gotten some exercise and broken a sweat – my blood sugars seem to be better controlled, I feel strong and healthy,  I sleep better at night and I’m able to control my weight.  On an intellectual level I understand exercising just to be healthy, but deep down I’ve always had an ulterior motive of trying to lose weight and/or decrease body fat.

August 8, 2010

As of Friday I am officially 12 weeks pregnant which means I am nearing the end of the first trimester.  I’ve been reading a lot and trying to educate myself on all things pregnancy related and all things diabetes and pregnancy related.  I wanted to share a couple of my experiences up until this point.

August 1, 2010

I have no idea if there is any scientific evidence to support the fact, but nearly every time I go to the mall I end up with a low blood sugar.  I can go into the mall within my target range, a little high or even way high and somehow by the time I finish I am nearly crawling out of there. One time I even munched on dark chocolate covered toffee (hello a lot of sugar) and I was still low when I left. Needless to say that was a marathon shopping trip, but in any event it just doesn’t make sense.

 May 6, 2010

Anna and her two children at the hospital

after giving birth her healthy 8lb. 10oz. baby boy

Hello Everyone!I wanted to update everyone on the status of my new son and me.  Everything went well with the C-Section and birth of our new baby.  We had a few complications but nothing major. We went to the hospital on April 7 for the scheduled C-section.  My sugar levels were great. The baby’s heartbeat sounded great.  Everything seemed to be moving along fine until they went to give me an IV. The combination of both diabetes and dehydration from the imposed fasting before surgery caused my veins to not be very cooperative.  It took 3 nurses and 2 anesthesiologists and 10 tries later to get an IV.  My veins kept blowing out.  They said this was a common problem with diabetes.  It was a major problem for my Nana also who had diabetes.  I finally got an IV in my wrist but it had to be boarded up so that I couldn’t bend my wrist and possibly lose the IV.  This process made me very anxious and tired.  I was already a little nervous about the surgery because of all the possible complications with me or my baby.  This didn’t help.  I had to calm down some before the surgery. It took so long to get the IV that everyone was in a mad rush to get me ready for the surgery.  I felt as if I was being whisked away in no time. 

Once in the operating room, it was time for the spinal shot.  Of course everyone was a little anxious about this because if how the IV went.  I had to be absolutely relaxed for them to do it correctly and this was hard since I was shaking from nervousness.  I have to give a big thank you to the anesthesiologist on this one because the spinal shot went perfectly.  It was easy.  It worked great.  I was dead from the waist down in a matter of seconds. 

Now it was time for the surgery.  Everything went smoothly.  We were expecting about a 7-8 pound baby boy based on the last ultrasound which was just 2 days before.  Wow were we surprised when out came an 8 pound 10 ounce boy.  Logan was perfect though.    The rest of the surgery was fine.  There were no immediate complications with the surgery, birth or baby.  We were so relieved.  Things could have gone much worse.  We were prepared for a much different outcome.  We are thankful that it didn’t come to this.   Now, we did have a few complications during the recovery.  First, Logan had some blood sugar problems.  His sugar levels were too low right after he was born.  They had to feed him some formula right away to boost his levels.  His sugar went up but not as much as they wanted.  They had to give him a little more and then he was where they wanted him to be.  It took about 24 hours for his body to regulate the sugar levels on its own but he did stabilize and is doing great now.  He has had some problems gaining weight.  We seem to be heading in the right direction now but had a tough couple of weeks in the beginning.  As far as my recovery, it went reasonably well.  I really recovered a lot better than I did with the first pregnancy.  I am not sure if it was due to the fact that I knew what to expect or that I was in better shape.  I really felt very good in the hospital.  About a week after the surgery I developed an infection in my incision.  This was entirely due to the diabetes.  My doctor said it wasn’t the worst thing that could happen but was to be expected in someone with my health issues.  We had to keep the area cleaned out and the infection cleared up in about a week and a half.  It wasn’t painful just annoying. 

My real complications came in regulating my blood sugar and trying to breastfeed.  We tried to go without any medication whatsoever after the surgery.  My sugar levels were climbing too high and I had to go on 2 Glyburide pills a day.  When I came home, it was reduced to only one pill a day because my sugar levels were dropping too low. Unfortunately, there was another reason behind that.  First, know that I am breastfeeding my son. This is a great thing to do, especially since I have diabetes.  Breastfeeding provides many benefits to children of diabetic moms.  However, this was part of my son’s weight loss problem.  I wasn’t eating enough to produce strong enough milk for him.  This is why my sugar level was getting so low.  I had to increase my calorie intake.  Once I did this, I had to increase my medicine too.  I am back up to 2 a day with the possibility of 3 in the future.  I hope that once I can really start exercising again this can be reduced or eliminated.   To sum it all up, I really think that for all possible complications that could have happened I had a very healthy pregnancy.  My complications were few and very minor.  I have a healthy baby boy and I am healthy.  I credit it to staying on top of the disease and taking control instead of letting it take control of me.  I have learned a lot about managing my diabetes through this pregnancy.  Looking back on the pregnancy, I wouldn’t change a thing.  I am a stronger and healthier person today because of it.