Advice About Gestational Diabetes

I don't know what your doctor has told you or what you've done so far. Being boarderline, GD will probably be controlled by diet without medication. You should have a glucose monitor and test your blood several times a day.

As for diet, the key is to keep your blood sugar level. Eating several small well balances meals and snacks a day will help you to do this. Eat lots of veggies, especially green beans, lettuce, brocolli, spinich. Stick to lean meats, eggs, or dried beans for protein. You can have pasta and rice, but very little. Also, stay away from fruit juice. Read your labels, there's lot of sugar hidden in foods.

Drink lots of water.

Don't worry. It's not that bad, it's just making a few lifestyle adjustments.

The nutritionist will go over what you can and cant eat. I had GD w/ baby #2(born in Jan). My levels were off just slightly, but enough to get the GD diagnosis. I had to modify my diet and test my blood suger 4x /day and write doen everything and fax to specialists office every Monday. i was ablr to manage my blood sugar thru diet and did not need to go on insulin. You will have to figure out what you can and cant eat after youy test your blood sugar. I love milk, but that would spike mine, so that was out. I ate small, frequent meals(about every 2 to 3 hours.) Breakfast was hardest so I would have an egg on a small 90 calorie sandwich round w/ cheese or the sandwich round w/ peanut butter and sugar free jam(Polanders makes a good tasting sf jam). No sweets at all, as that would spike me too, not even a bite of my baby shower cake! I got to not want sweets at all and I am a chocoholic so that was very tough for me. A small piece of dark choc I would allow once in a while, but I just cut it out so as not to tease myself! I was very disciplined and it paid off. I did not have a huge baby and had no other complications. He was 7 lbs/9 oz and i delivered at 39 weeks. Just make sure you tell all dr.s and nurses you have GD as they will test baby too after birth to make sure theirs is not too low. You will feel great on this modified diet and not gain much weight. It also spilled over into after he was born, I still eat every three hours, and feel great and lost the baby weight immediately along w/ an extra 10 pounds and have kept it off which is the best thing you can do so you don't become diabetic in the future.
The hardest part for me was having to stick my finger 4x a day. But you gotta do what you gotta do... Good luck!
P.S. A quick tip: befiore you stick your finger, wash your hands w/ hot water and soap. This will make it much easier to get a sample and you won't have to sit there "milking" your finger trying to get a drop of blood out. It was winter when I had to test mine and my hands were always cold. I went to a diabetic website to get tips for easier finger pricking.

They told me I had GD too. My daughter is 5 now, so I don't remember a whole lot, sorry!

I do remember that I had to count the carbs in everything I ate. I can't remember how many I could have for meals, but a snack was 15. I had to test my blood sugar when I got up in the morning, eat breakfast, then wait 2 hours without eating anything & then check sugars again. Then have a snack. Eat lunch, wait 2 hours without eating anything, check sugar, eat snack. Eat dinner, wait 2 hours.... etc. etc.

I HATED the 2 hours without eating! LOL

There are some foods that are considered "free" because they have very little or no carbs.

“Free foods” are those foods or drinks that have less than 20 calories per serving and no more than 5 grams of carbohydrate per serving. They are considered free because you may eat them up to 3 times a day in reasonable amounts without significantly raising your blood sugar.
http://type1diabetes.about.com/od/foodandnutritiontype1/a...

I learned to eat salads :-P

I had GD with my last pregnancy (out of 4), and ended up on insulin once per day, mainly because my fasting # was elevated. During the day it seemed to be ok. All the extra monitoring was a big hassle, but I got through it one day at a time. Giving myself a shot once a day was, surprisingly, no big deal, once I got over the emotional part of being 'defective'.

The biggest hassle came towards the end, when the OB/GYNs that my midwife works through started trying to freak me out about needing to deliver this baby asap, trying to make me fear that my placenta would conk out and the baby would die, would be too big to be delivered, etc. etc. There were no signs of any medical problem, either with my placenta or with the baby, and I felt very strongly that I would rather trust my body, and only alter my plans if there was a clear medical indication to do so. In the end I had my best delivery ever - no meds, only pushed for 15 minutes or so, and gave birth to a very healthy 9#15oz baby boy with no residual blood sugar issues.

My advice is to read 'The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth', and read as much as you can about gestational diabetes. If your sugars are well controlled (which it sounds like they will be), your risks should not be significantly higher than for any other mom, at least due to this complication.

Best wishes for a healthy pregnancy, and a sweet and healthy baby. And don't forget, your well-being is just as important as that of your little one, and are linked together.

I had GD with my pregnancy. The nutritionist/dietician will give you a meal plan giving you examples of portion sizes of meats/proteins, vegetables, fruit, dairy and free foods. You eat 3 meals which include a certain amount of each group, and you have a snack in between each meal and at night. Also, you check your blood glucose 4 times a day to ensure there is good control. For breakfast, I would scramble an egg with a piece of cheese and some salsa and wrap it in a flour tortilla. I would have a mid-morning snack of fruit, like an apple with some peanut butter. I remember at each meal/snack it had to be like a meat, veggie, fruit, milk, starch. It was hard sometimes. Couldn't have juice, not a lot of milk, which I love. I ate alot of fresh veggies too. It does help you eat better so you don't gain too much weight at the end of your pregnancy, plus it is so much better for your baby. Good Luck. I know you will do great. Just listen to the dietician and you will be fine.

I was in the same position as you several years ago. My doctor was pretty strict, and he made me bring all my glucose levels from the past week every visit. One thing he did tell me was no fruit before noon. I stuck to that for the most part, and my sugars were never really terrible.

I had a strong aversion to all meats during my pregnancy, so I was left with very few options with not eating many carbs, either. I lived on cheese sticks and peanut butter on celery and apples (after noon, of course!) for the most part. I was disappointed as it was my first pregnancy, and of course I wanted to splurge, but so it goes. The health of my baby was more important than ice cream and bread. The good news was I gained 12 pounds with my pregnancy and lost 50 pounds while breast feeding, so that was a great perk!

My son is almost 4 years old now, and neither of us show signs of being diabetic. He loves fruits and veggies and doesn't eat many carbs (coincidence, I'm sure). He doesn't like sandwiches, macaroni & cheese, ice cream, birthday cake, or anything with frosting!

Good luck - you'lll do great! Stay away from processed foods and fruit juices, and of course mind those carbs. You may find yourself keeping your healthier lifestyle even after baby arrives.

I had it and controlled it via diet. It was not hard at all... make sure you have protein with each meal and not a lot of junk/simple carbs.

One think my Dr. told me (even prior to the GD) was if you gain weight (even if it is a lot) during preg. eating healthy food - it will all melt off after you have the baby. If you gain a lot of weight during preg. eating junk - it takes forever to get off. I've had weight issues my whole life and I ate REALLY well during my preg. (25 lbs gain) and I lost 28 lbs w/in 2 weeks of delivering.

Re: GD - I had to wake up at 3 AM and drink milk every night b/c I was getting ketones (sp?) in my urine and they can cause brain damage in an unborn child .... so I was REALLY good about that. Ketones are produced when your body is burning fat for fuel... like during the Atkins diet. Ask your Dr. about that.

I was in your situation with my last child bed rest (pre term labor at 23 weeks) and GD. The class will give you lots of great info on what to eat and how much. plenty of protein and only complex carbs, fruits and veggies, and little or no junk. They also started seeing me every two weeks till about my 32week than weekly. I have to track all my blood sugars, they had me testing 4 times a day. I was over weight to begin with so with the GD diet i didn't gain any weight. He was born early but its wasnt because of GD I developed pre eclampsa as well. I swear my last child threw all he had at me. I had to keep telling myself its only a temporary situation and it will help keep my baby safe and healthy. You will do wonderful and get through it and in no time you will have a beautiful brand new baby! CONGRATS!