Type 1 moms - any tips or thoughts?

missnacholover · March 2014

I've been having a rough couple of days. Nausea is getting the best of me but when I do eat it seems that my blood sugars sky rocket, despite me taking what feels like gallons of insulin. Yesterday I took 95 units when my normal (since pregnancy) daily dose is around 60-65. Yikes. I'm limiting my carbs to around 50g per meal, per my endo's recommendation. It just seems like the past few days my insulin is more saline than insulin. It's very frustrating and I am feeling a tremendous amount of guilt on how this could be harming the baby. I keep bolusing to bring my numbers down, doing crazy temp basals...and nothing seems to work. Last night I was over 200 all night, despite multiple corrections to get back into range. Any thoughts?

Also, any tips on some "good" carbs to eat to help avoid spikes?

I'm feeling really overwhelmed lately.

tpete12 · April 2014

Have you checked for ketones? My doctor told me that if I remain high, even after corrections, to check for ketones. I have had a few days of highs and it sucks, but you have to remind yourself that you are doing everything that you can. It took me many days to accept that fact, but I feel much better now that I have accepted it. I hope things work out for you!

missnacholover · April 2014

tpete12 said:

Have you checked for ketones? My doctor told me that if I remain high, even after corrections, to check for ketones. I have had a few days of highs and it sucks, but you have to remind yourself that you are doing everything that you can. It took me many days to accept that fact, but I feel much better now that I have accepted it. I hope things work out for you!

Thanks. Luckily there were no ketones. I think my site just went bad. Next time I'm going to correct with an injection and if I come down from that, change the site.

Last night I cruised in the 80s all night, so I'm feeling much better (and more confident) this morning.

Thanks!

missnacholover · April 2014

AMK1981 said:

How many weeks are you? The first trimester is rough. I had a lot of bad nights. I ate a lot of vegetables and protein so I could keep my carbs lower. If it's your post meal sugar that is an issue, try smaller and more frequent meals. In the morning, I found it helpful to bolus for breakfast but only eat half of it and eat the other half 1-2 hours later. It sounds weird, but it worked. The second trimester is better and I had to back off the insulin a lot as I had a lot of lows.

I'm 8 weeks. I've found that I'll be fine 2 hours post-meal but then when I hit 3ish hours, I tend to start creeping up. I've been doing A LOT of combo boluses, which seem to work.

Thanks for the ideas!

akj1130 · April 2014

I'm not sure if this is an issue for you, but I know in my previous pregnancies I would flip out when I had a persistent high, and that would seem to make it worse. So now, if I have a high, I make sure to consciously calm down, take a few deep breaths (and an extra bolus, natch), and go for a walk. For me at least, the staying calm is just as important as evening out basals, counting carbs correctly, taking proper boluses, and making sure the injection site is good. In fact, this pregnancy stayin calm and not freaking out is my biggest goal, more important to me than keeping blood sugar steady and my weight down, because I think being overly anxious caused a lot of unnecessary problems in the past.

wells2010 · April 2014

50g per meal seems like a lot of carbs to me. Try cutting to around 30g and spreading them out throughout the day... so you still eat the same number of carbs per day, just not all at once. You could also try pre-bolusing for meals. For this, depending on your blood sugar, take your mealtime bolus and then eat 15-20 minutes later. That helped me avoid spikes.

There are certain foods that I can't eat if I want to keep from spiking- cereal is one of them. I've tried it with unsweetened almond milk and everything. No matter what type of cereal (even oatmeal), I spike. I ate a TON of cereal after I had DD. I also watched my fat intake- like fried foods in particular- in addition to not being healthy, they also would make my blood sugar skyrocket hours later, no matter the jumbo combo-bolus I could conjure up.

I ate a lot of greek yogurt. Unsweetened plain greek yogurt- and then I'd add stevia, sliced almonds to give it a crunch, and fresh berries. You can also take unsweetened greek yogurt, add stevia and unsweetened cocoa powder, plus nuts and fresh berries. That was more of a treat. Dinners were mostly a protein plus a ton of fresh veggies. Very few carbs. I'd also take a walk after meals if I could. That would keep me from spiking and reduce my insulin needs too.

And drink tons of water- you need more now anyways with being pregnant- and being dehydrated always makes me run on the higher-side.

missnacholover · April 2014

Thanks everyone! I definitely pre-bolus and have found that using combo boluses has helped. I think the incident on over the weekend was just a bad pump site, honestly. Hopefully. I seem to be doing much better this week now that I'm back into the routine of going to work.

I appreciate all the tips!

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