Franie J asked:
Could someone please let me know about their health and the baby’s after being born after being diagnosed with gestational diabetes?
During the day my glucose level is within a normal range. That’s because I’m taking a morning dose of 2.0 mg of glyburide. However, I have very high blood sugar immediately when I get up in the morning before breakfast. I’ve been told by my physician that the high fasting level can result in a big baby. If babies unusually large, I’ve also been told, they loses weight over the first days after birth. No-one has told me what exactly is big – 11-12 pounds? Anybody told they were having a baby over 10 pounds and then didn’t? I would appreciate any information from someone who has gone through it.
One reply on “Has anyone had a big baby after having gestational diabetes? If so, 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.