Week 21 - First week of food monitoring

I can tell you this week was certainly hard. I was pretty consumed with when to test my blood sugar, when to eat, what I'm eating now, and what I was going to eat next that would fit into the diet restriction.

For those that aren't too aware of what my restriction is - I can have 30 grams of carbohydrates for breakfast, 15 for the morning snack, 45 for lunch, 15-30 for evening snack, 45 for dinner, and 15-30 for bedtime snack. For examples of how much that is : one slice of bread is 15 grams, as is 8 oz of milk, half an apple, half of a large banana, half a whole wheat English muffin, 1 and 1/4 cups strawberries, 3/4 cup blueberries, and yogurt is the real kicker. Yogurt can go from 4 grams of carbohydrates up to 44 grams. It makes figuring out what I can eat time consuming to start.

I test my blood 4-8 times a day to see what the glucose number is (the carbohydrates turn to glucose in the body and the body breaks them down with use of insulin. My body is not producing enough insulin at the moment probably due to the hormones with the baby.) It can be super time consuming when you first are figuring out what you are eating and what you can't eat.

Meeting with the dietitian this week gave me insight on to examples of meals, how to read labels (consequently making grocery shopping longer) If my blood sugar numbers don't hit a certain range they will prescribe medicine to help my body adjust or eventually insulin injections.

The effects on the baby if you do not control the diabetes is high birth weight which can complicate delivery, higher upper body and belly weight, it can cause problems with heart development, and even how the baby functions when it comes to food when he makes choices. Women with gestational diabetes tend to deliver early as they don't want the peanut to be too big.

I meet with a dietitian and a nurse once a week as well as a doctor in maternal fetal medicine, and they need an ultrasound and an echo-cardiogram of the baby's developing heart.

I'm trying to stay positive with this whole thing. I love my carbs and sugars but the baby is definitely more important and I know for a fact that this will help be healthier with baby in the home too. It's better to deal with it while he has to eat whatever I eat, then when I'm sleep deprived and trying to keep everything together with him at home.