[Fleur]

My husband and I are ready to start a family, but we're just awaiting the go ahead from the endo.

Anyhoo, I'd be interested in hearing about your experiences as a pg diabetic. For example, any diabetes complications before conception and how you faired. A1C's during your pregnancy. How closely you were monitored, Etc.

Andrea

[sandyhandz]

Hi Andrea -

Although I'm probably no the ideal person to talk with, I am early pregnant and now diabetic. However, I didn't have a spike in my sugars necessitating insulin until the month before I became pregnant. We had IVF and I had to take a slew of medications that are suspected to contribute to my sugar spike.

Someone else recommended the site diabeticmommy.com which is full of pregnant diabetics and mothers who have recently delivered. From browsing that site, it seems that most type I diabetics are recommended to have their A1Cs in the 6s before attempting to conceive.

I know I was told by several doctors that the first nine weeks of your pregnancy are the most vital to the baby's development. I'm sure you're aware that the fetus is subject to cardiac and neurological damage r/t high blood sugars the first nine weeks. Of course, docs do want your sugars under control for the whole pregnancy, but it is really important to keep them in check for the first 9 weeks.

It seems all my docs and everything I've heard from the other mothers on diabeticmommy, they want your waking sugar to be less than 90, pp less then 120.

Since I was new to being a type I and also couldn't get in to see either my OB or my endocrinologist until I was 7 weeks pregnant, my sugars did run a bit high. I had a problem with hypo spells and just getting used to the whole routine. I probably averaged sugars in the 140's. My OB is very concerned at this point. I have to get weekly ultrasounds for now and I'm sure more advanced tests will follow if we continue with the pregnancy.

If you're a pumper, you'll be fine. Probably the best thing you can do before getting pregnant. But if you've been used to controlling your sugars, you probably won't have the problems I encountered.

If your sugars are consistently over 200, it is not recommended to conceive. I don't know the exact statistics, but you'd be putting the fetus at BIG risk.

Hope this info helps. I don't know that I could answer everything, but if you have any specific questions, please feel free to ask. Best of luck!