Did anyone out there have a big baby because they had gestational diabetes? I have it too. What happened?
I’m just wondering if anyone has a story about their health and the health of their baby after delivering with gestational diabetes. Right now, my blood sugar is in the normal range throughout the day as I’m taking 2.5 mg of glyburide first thing in the morning, but the only problem is the very high blood sugar first thing in the morning (after fasting). My high-risk doc says that the high fasting level can cause the baby to grow big. I’m having a second c-section anyway, but obviously this isn’t a good thing, regardless of whether I’m having natural or surgical birth! I’ve heard the baby loses weight over the first few days of life is he is really big. but how big is really big? 10 pounds? Anybody told they were having a baby over 10 pounds and then didn’t? Any stories appreciated – might help me prepare for it a little better, I’m worried. I hope he doesn’t need an intravenous glucose drip! Thanks anyone that has something to add…
Thanks for answering – my husband was also a 10 pound baby and my doctor said they weren’t testing for GD back in the 70’s, and she most likely had it. I don’t necessarily agree there, since it’s possible to have a big baby without GD from what I’ve heard – but you never know.
No I don’t know what my HbA1C is measuring. All I know is that I go to bed and it’s about 110 or so, and I wake up and it’s 140, 145 sometimes. But not always – I’ll sometimes have a nice low reading in the morning.
I might ask about using long-acting insulin before bed having read what you’ve said – one would think that the doctor would immediately prescribe something like that having seen my results, but it can’t hurt to bring it up with him…
I find that eating before bed ALWAYS makes the blood sugar higher in the morning. I’m better off if I don’t, based on my experiments.
I’m 34 weeks, and due on Nov 28th. At my last ultrasound the baby was measuring 1 week too big..
oh and my before-bed snacks are always cheese and turkey, cottage cheese, natural yoghurt – never any carbs at all. i was doing the peanut butter on crackers route but that just left me with 140-150 blood sugar by 7 am. i still find that with protein snacks my blood sugar can be high. i think the lowest morning reading I’ve ever had is 105.
Filed under Diabetes Question by on Sep 26th, 2009. Comment. 
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Comments on Did anyone out there have a big baby because they had gestational diabetes? I have it too. What happened?
Hey, saw your question and sorry you didn’t get answers. Well, yes – you can have some very big babies however, if you are controlling your sugars for the most part it won’t be as big as someone who didn’t know they had GD and their sugars were completely uncontrolled. My mother most likely had GD back in the 70s with my brother, and he was crazy big like 11 pounds.
Do you know what your HbA1C is measuring? That’s a test that measures what your blood sugar has averaged over the past 3 months and can give you some insight as to what your sugars are doing in the middle of the night.
Those first morning sugars are very difficult to control. Someone like me (a type 2 diabetic) can only control them by taking long-acting insulin. That’s in addition to oral meds for other times of the day, but a shot at bedtime is really helpful for first-morning blood sugars.
One thing you can try is to eat a protein-heavy snack right before you go to sleep, like cottage cheese, or an apple and turkey, or peanut butter toast. The reasoning is this: morning blood sugars go high when you yourself were dipping low during the middle of the night. When that happens, your liver will release stored glucose to keep you from dropping too low. Problem is, it releases too much and you end up with a high blood sugar even though you aren’t eating anything.
So the theory is that if you eat something with protein at bedtime, you keep yourself from dropping low enough to trigger that liver response.
How far along are you? Don’t stress too much, as long as your doctor is aware of the issues you are definitely in good hands and your baby will be fine!
Edit: Just saw your response – I have to say the eating at night never worked for me either, but that’s one of the things they tell us to try. I hope you’re doing okay this week.