Gestational Diabetes - Celina, TX

If you haven't already done so, make an appt with a dietician ASAP so she can put you on an appropriate diet and talk you through what you need to do. Your OB should be able to refer you. I had GD 2 years ago when I was pregnant with DD, and controlled it very successfully with diet. It took some perserverance to learn what I could and couldn't eat, and when, but you can do it! By the end of the pregnancy, it was pretty much second nature (except when I couldn't have any cake at my own baby shower! That was still tough!). The trick with GD is that, unlike a regular diabetes diet, you have to manage sugars and carbs but NOT cut calories. This generally means more protein and fat (which was very, very strange for me, since I'm usually a low-fat vegetarian!). I, literally, had bacon and eggs for breakfast almost every day. For days when I was in a rush to get to work, I'd hard-boil several eggs at a time in the evening, then eat off of those for a couple of days. Read cereal labels carefully--there are some that you can eat, but you need to avoid any with a lot of added sugar (it's nearly impossible to find ones with NO added sugar--trust me, I tried! Even Kashi let me down!). You can buy plain oatmeal, then tightly control what sweetener you add. No-sugar-added peanut butter on a whole-wheat English muffin also works. Also, since you have to eat every 3 hours, I actually ate a smaller breakfast, then would have my required snack around 10am. GL with everything! You can do it! And like the previous poster said, it's SUPER important for the health of you and your baby!

Lindee,
Your OB should have given you a dietician to go see. They will help you with what to eat and what not to eat. You will have to check your blood after each meal. I had to record what I ate and what my reading was. I also had to check for ketons in the morning and record that also. My OB wanted to see my sheets of paper when I would go for my visits. It was the best I have ever eaten in my life and I only gained 30 pounds.
L.

Eggs are wonderful breakfast foods. Also, a grain like Quinoa is very high in protein - one of my favorite breakfasts (and as close as I can get to a traditional breakfast) is quinoa with almond milk (unsweetened) and hemp seeds. Also, you can find flour mixes (or compose your own) that are very high protein. I use a combination of almond meal, bean flour with just a little bit of tapioca starch which can be used to make pancakes and waffles and just skip the sugar in the waffle mix. I make big batches at a time and then freeze and reheat. You can do the same with pancakes. And, of course, you could use the flour mix for muffins. I have blood sugar issues - borderline type 1.5 diabetic and manage very well with a low carb diet. Butternut squash or sweet potatoes are great for pleasing that urge for some carbs. Also, a rice cake at bedtime with almond butter helps keep the blood sugar steady during hte nite.

Good luck - watching your diet is so important becuase if you don't your child could be born with diabetes. My second child was large for gestational age (9lbs at 40 weeks), so they did watch him for diabetes in the hospital. Fortunately, breastfeeding will help tremendously with preventing that and there is some correlation with cow's milk and diabetes. It turns out my son does have the gene combination that predisposes to diabetes so we do watch his diet, although I'm not an absolute person about no sweets - he does great in keeping those to a minimum.