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High-Risk Pregnancy
EMarieMe
member
A thank you and a GD pregnancy and birth story. *Possible triggers?* A bit long too!
EMarieMe
member
Hi ladies! During my pregnancy I was heads down on a work project and didn't post , but was an active lurker on your board. Many of your threads settled my nerves when the gestational diabetes stuff was getting me down. Plus the food reccos were great!! Thanks for being there even if you didn't know i!
So my GD pregnancy and birth story may fave a few triggers for any of you who have experienced complications. I think it also has some good stuff in there too, especially for skinny pregnant GD'ers who are looking for support, and ultimately why GD may have been a good, if not amazing, thing............
Diagnosed with GD at 24 weeks I failed the 1 hour and decided to just go straight into treatment, which, first step, was the "Sweet Success" class offered in California. I am a naturally, ultra-thin lady, who had zero risk factors for GD, so I didn't see it coming. I now know that women of all shapes and sizes can get GD. As for Sweet Success, if you have any knowledge of food science you can and should skip the intro class that they will try and force you to take.
As I noted above, I am and have always been super skinny. I couldn't get into the class for a week so I was faxed the diet ahead of time. I lost 4 1/2 pounds in 6 days which put me two pounds under my starting weight. Upon arriving to the class, the teacher looked at me and said, "Yeah, this diet isn't going to work for you. We need to get you into the personal nutritionist." The next day I met with one of the sweet success counselors, who tried very hard to figure out how to cram in enough calories in a day and not upset the GD monster. It was difficult. I ate a ton of mayo and a crap ton of guacamole. Still, I was gaining weight too slow, and at one point I told her that she needed to put down her stupid Sweet Success manual and look at me as a unique person. I'm making some sweeping generalizations here, but there is a group of women whom develop GD, who do not have an understanding of good nutrition, portion size, etc. The Sweet Success program seems to be geared towards that group of women. The counselor had a really difficult time with someone who is naturally underweight, was following the diet, but still needed to gain weight. We eventually figured it out. My recipe for success was eating massive amounts of protein, which then allowed me to eat a good amount of carbs. Followed up with a short walk I could get away with just about anything but white rice, which I don't love anyways. In total I gained 20 pounds, baby was good size all along, and I never needed medication. Came close on my fasting numbers, but could manage those with yoga before bed.
All right, so because of the GD I was getting weekly NST's. At 34 weeks I had some contractions and was hospitalized overnight. Procardia kept those under control for a week and then I was on my own, still having them mildly but doing fine. Because of the contractions, my OB decided to do twice weekly NST's. No biggie as I did them in the early morning and made it to work at my usual time. At 37 weeks, I headed to L&D where the NST's are done (my doc is affiliated with my hospital). They strap me in and I pop my laptop. I've got about two minutes left, so I'm IM'ing with my boss telling her I'd be in, in a few. All of the sudden nurses come flooding into my room. I have no idea what's going on, but the bed is flipped head down, nurses on both sides are trying to start IV's and someone is yelling for a surgeon, literally yelling "Get him here now!" So now I'm crying, hyperventilating and they tell me I need to relax. Yeah, totes gonna happen! Finally someone sticks me with tributeliene (sp) and the whole room goes still. Everyone relaxes. What I hadn't noticed while watching Teen Mom and typing was that LO heart rate had dropped down to 48. It happened during one of my "down there" contractions. I had belly contractions for weeks, but the down there contractions had started about two days before.
My doctor gets there and says about ten minutes after the rucus and says "Was this the down there contraction you told me about the other day?" Yep, so he orders an ultrasound and goes off to consult the perinatologist. Ultrasound looks perfect, baby head down but happy. Doc comes back with perinatologist, who says somethings not right, but he's not sure what. Regardless you're in the hospital until you give birth. If it happens again, baby comes out pronto. About 45 minutes later, husband is there, poor guy was scared when the nurses called him and doc swings by to say hi. My nurse is in the room too, when I say to them a down there contraction is starting. So far they had been 7 to10 hours apart. This was new. We all look at the monitor and the heart rate drops like a rock back down to 48/50. As the nurse shoves the tribuletelene in my butt, doctor says he'll see me in 15 in the OR. Hubby and I looked at each other and were like, oh shizz, baby coming....we haven't bought diapers.
As kiddos heart rate popped right back up with the tri, I was able to have a spinal placed but my docs still said they were working a little fast to get him out. The verdict, nuchal cord with a true knot. The true knot was on the under side and not visible via ultrasound. As he was dropping down with the contraction it was compressing the knot! Poor guy came out screaming though, with an Apgar of 9!
So, because of the GD and the early contractions, the twice weekly NST's caught something that is often a very serious complication.
So sometimes GD sucks, but all in all, I'm okay with how things turned out. I'm happy to answer any GD or true knot questions you may have. On a final note, my mother recently sat next to a nutritionist on a plane and she told her about my GD, the true knot, etc. The nutritionist commented that women with true knots often develop GD, even when they would normally present risk factors, but they're not sure why. I had never heard this before and can't seem to find any research on it, so it could have been more anecdotal, but interesting none the less.
So my GD pregnancy and birth story may fave a few triggers for any of you who have experienced complications. I think it also has some good stuff in there too, especially for skinny pregnant GD'ers who are looking for support, and ultimately why GD may have been a good, if not amazing, thing............
Diagnosed with GD at 24 weeks I failed the 1 hour and decided to just go straight into treatment, which, first step, was the "Sweet Success" class offered in California. I am a naturally, ultra-thin lady, who had zero risk factors for GD, so I didn't see it coming. I now know that women of all shapes and sizes can get GD. As for Sweet Success, if you have any knowledge of food science you can and should skip the intro class that they will try and force you to take.
As I noted above, I am and have always been super skinny. I couldn't get into the class for a week so I was faxed the diet ahead of time. I lost 4 1/2 pounds in 6 days which put me two pounds under my starting weight. Upon arriving to the class, the teacher looked at me and said, "Yeah, this diet isn't going to work for you. We need to get you into the personal nutritionist." The next day I met with one of the sweet success counselors, who tried very hard to figure out how to cram in enough calories in a day and not upset the GD monster. It was difficult. I ate a ton of mayo and a crap ton of guacamole. Still, I was gaining weight too slow, and at one point I told her that she needed to put down her stupid Sweet Success manual and look at me as a unique person. I'm making some sweeping generalizations here, but there is a group of women whom develop GD, who do not have an understanding of good nutrition, portion size, etc. The Sweet Success program seems to be geared towards that group of women. The counselor had a really difficult time with someone who is naturally underweight, was following the diet, but still needed to gain weight. We eventually figured it out. My recipe for success was eating massive amounts of protein, which then allowed me to eat a good amount of carbs. Followed up with a short walk I could get away with just about anything but white rice, which I don't love anyways. In total I gained 20 pounds, baby was good size all along, and I never needed medication. Came close on my fasting numbers, but could manage those with yoga before bed.
All right, so because of the GD I was getting weekly NST's. At 34 weeks I had some contractions and was hospitalized overnight. Procardia kept those under control for a week and then I was on my own, still having them mildly but doing fine. Because of the contractions, my OB decided to do twice weekly NST's. No biggie as I did them in the early morning and made it to work at my usual time. At 37 weeks, I headed to L&D where the NST's are done (my doc is affiliated with my hospital). They strap me in and I pop my laptop. I've got about two minutes left, so I'm IM'ing with my boss telling her I'd be in, in a few. All of the sudden nurses come flooding into my room. I have no idea what's going on, but the bed is flipped head down, nurses on both sides are trying to start IV's and someone is yelling for a surgeon, literally yelling "Get him here now!" So now I'm crying, hyperventilating and they tell me I need to relax. Yeah, totes gonna happen! Finally someone sticks me with tributeliene (sp) and the whole room goes still. Everyone relaxes. What I hadn't noticed while watching Teen Mom and typing was that LO heart rate had dropped down to 48. It happened during one of my "down there" contractions. I had belly contractions for weeks, but the down there contractions had started about two days before.
My doctor gets there and says about ten minutes after the rucus and says "Was this the down there contraction you told me about the other day?" Yep, so he orders an ultrasound and goes off to consult the perinatologist. Ultrasound looks perfect, baby head down but happy. Doc comes back with perinatologist, who says somethings not right, but he's not sure what. Regardless you're in the hospital until you give birth. If it happens again, baby comes out pronto. About 45 minutes later, husband is there, poor guy was scared when the nurses called him and doc swings by to say hi. My nurse is in the room too, when I say to them a down there contraction is starting. So far they had been 7 to10 hours apart. This was new. We all look at the monitor and the heart rate drops like a rock back down to 48/50. As the nurse shoves the tribuletelene in my butt, doctor says he'll see me in 15 in the OR. Hubby and I looked at each other and were like, oh shizz, baby coming....we haven't bought diapers.
As kiddos heart rate popped right back up with the tri, I was able to have a spinal placed but my docs still said they were working a little fast to get him out. The verdict, nuchal cord with a true knot. The true knot was on the under side and not visible via ultrasound. As he was dropping down with the contraction it was compressing the knot! Poor guy came out screaming though, with an Apgar of 9!
So, because of the GD and the early contractions, the twice weekly NST's caught something that is often a very serious complication.
So sometimes GD sucks, but all in all, I'm okay with how things turned out. I'm happy to answer any GD or true knot questions you may have. On a final note, my mother recently sat next to a nutritionist on a plane and she told her about my GD, the true knot, etc. The nutritionist commented that women with true knots often develop GD, even when they would normally present risk factors, but they're not sure why. I had never heard this before and can't seem to find any research on it, so it could have been more anecdotal, but interesting none the less.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: A thank you and a GD pregnancy and birth story. *Possible triggers?* A bit long too!