Fast, Loud and Early...

[jgibson2[$]]

Gestational diabetes means that the mom's blucose control is affected by pregnancy. Sometimes she can control it with diet, sometimes it requires insulin to control.

If the blood sugar is kept under control, there's very little impact on the baby. If not, the baby will produce excessive amounts of insulin and will grow much faster than would otherwise happen. This often leads to premature delivery, immature lungs, and C-sections. Murasaki clearly kept her blood sugar very well controlled.

[theworm[$]]

Oh Naomi!! She's a little beauty!
Congratulations!

[emeleel]

Ohhhhhh! She's sooo pretty! Nice to see mom and dad, too!

Nope, not a twinge here! Well, okay, to HOLD one - not give birth and/or permanently KEEP one.

[mtomm[$]]

You need to update your sig line, Naomi.

[Magick1]

Sushi huh?

What a precious little gem!

[brian_igo]

God I can't believe I missed this!!!

Congratulations Naomi, and its great to meet Rory!

[jankp]

Thanks for explaining, Judy. Yes, it looks like Naomi controlled it well, but does that mean her diet was bad before her pregnancy? GD can be prevented since not every mother gets it, right?

Jan

[pippadaisy[$]]

Nope. There are risk factors, such as weight, but not all mothers who end up with GD are overweight, and not all overweight moms get GD. That's why they test everyone for it; they never know who will end up with it.

[murasaki]

I actually had a pretty healthy diet before pregnancy and I was even healthier once I knew I was pregnant (ate more veggies and fruit, less processed foods, stayed away from all the taboo stuff), nor was I overweight. I was predisposed to gestational diabetes because I was a GD baby myself (9 pounds 12 ounces) back when they didn't test for it. When I discussed family history with my mom, we figured out that my grandmother had GD as well with at least her third child and maybe her second as well as most of my great aunts. There seems to be a definite pre-disposition to it in my family. For me, it wasn't that hard to control with my diet, despite my bitching about it, once I made the initial adjustment. In the long run, I will be a much healthier eater just in general now that I've learned how to combine foods properly and that I have more will power when it comes to food than I ever thought I possessed.

[jgibson2[$]]

Gestational diabetes is impacted by weight, but genetics are more important. Naomi could have done everything right and still needed insulin to control her blood sugar during pregnancy. It happens. What is critical is KNOWING you have GD, following the diet -- which she did even before the blood test -- and testing your blood sugar frequently.

I have type 2 diabetes. I probably had GD during second pregnancy 20+ years ago, but they weren't routinely testing then. My son weighed 10 pounds at 42 weeks. Definitely oversized. Fortunately, he didn't have any problems with his blood sugar. That's probably the most common reason for infants of uncontrolled gestational diabetics to end up in the NICU.

I was diagnosed with diabetes about 3 months before I got pregnant the last time. I went on a diabetic diet, lost 30 pounds in 3 months, and continued to see a dietician monthly through the pregnancy. My biggest problem was balancing things so I actually gained weight. I only gained 15 pounds during that pregnancy and actually weighed less the day after I delivered than when I got pregnant. I was able to control my blood sugar with diet also, but would not have been surprised if I'd needed insulin.

I don't know how often Naomi's docs had her testing her blood sugar. Mine had me doing it 4-6 times/day.

I see a fairly large number of infants of diabetics (gestational or otherwise) in my NICU. They sometimes get there in spite of a mom's best effort, but generally it's because she didn't have the discipline to stick to the diet and blood sugar testing regimen. It's not an easy thing to do and most don't have the advantage of monthly visits to a dietician to fine tune things. I've also had the very motivating experience of taking care of lots of very sick infants of poorly controlled diabetics.

[soxfan[$]]

Yay! Many, many belated happy returns!

[AmyLEnsor]

Wow, congratulations! Sounds like a fast birth! Well, except for the hours and hours part, but after the pain started... So how was it going au naturel? I tried that once.