Watching what you eat during pregnancy is tough. I pretty much only craved sweets or junk food for the entirety of my second pregnancy. You definitely have to watch what you eat with gestational diabetes.
During my second pregnancy I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. My second pregnancy had already been a rough one. I had a UTI followed by co-vid 19. Then I had kidney stones in both kidneys that needed to be removed to make sure that the pain I was experiencing wasn’t stressful for my baby. Less than a month after that, the test results for gestational diabetes came back.
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What Is Gestational Diabetes?
When you have gestational diabetes it means that your glucose levels are too high and your body isn’t producing insulin well. When you have gestational diabetes in one pregnancy it makes it more likely that you will have it in subsequent pregnancies.
To test for gestational diabetes they have you drink a very sugary drink and then draw your blood one hour later. If you fail the first test they will make you take a longer more intensive one. This one will be three blood draws each one hour after the previous.
Testing Blood Glucose
After being diagnosed, my health care providers wanted me to check my blood sugar levels when I first woke up and one hour after I finished eating each meal.
For me it seemed like everything was spiking my blood sugar. I would eat oats and my blood sugar was too high. Because of how my body was reacting, I ended up eating a very low carb diet for the remainder of my pregnancy. I also ended up not gaining weight for the last two months of my pregnancy.
Your fasting blood glucose is what your glucose levels are when you haven’t eaten in 10-12 hours. My doctors wanted my fasting blood glucose to be under 95mg/dl. They wanted my blood glucose levels to be underneath 140 mg/dl one hour after finishing a meal. If my blood glucose levels weren’t under 140 at that one hour mark, they wanted me to check my levels again at 2 hours after eating. They wanted this number to be under 120 mg/dl.
Snacks I Enjoyed With Gestational Diabetes
- Lunch meat & cream cheese
- Apple & peanut butter
- Cheese
- Greek yogurt & blueberries
- Eggs & hot sauce
- Smoothies
Meals I Ate With Gestational Diabetes
- Cauliflower Mac & cheese
- Sausages & cabbage
- Chicken Alfredo broccoli
- Burger (without the bun)
- Beef stroganoff
- Chicken bacon ranch
- Spinach, artichoke, chicken casserole
- Mushroom cheeseburger casserole
- Asian chicken lettuce wraps
- Tuscan chicken bake
- Low carb tortilla wraps
How It Affected My Pregnancy
Since I had gestational diabetes, I ended up being too risky to give birth at the birthing center. So my back up provider finished out my prenatal care.
During the end of my pregnancy I had to go in for a non-stress test every two weeks. This means I went in and was hooked up to a monitor to check on the baby’s heart beat and see if my uterus was contracting.
Because I had gestational diabetes they were concerned that the baby would get too big. So they wanted to induce my labor at 39 weeks. My baby was born at 7 lbs 12 oz which was smaller than my first baby.
Concerns
The big concern with gestational diabetes is that after your baby is born their blood sugar will drop which causes problems. For my daughter this wasn’t a problem at all. Her blood sugar was very stable. They had to check it multiple times during our hospital stay.
Another concern with gestational diabetes if it is not controlled is preeclampsia. This is where your blood pressure is high and protein is found in your urine. I’m very blessed that my blood glucose was very well controlled, I didn’t need insulin, and I didn’t have preeclampsia.
Typically as soon as you give birth you will no longer have gestational diabetes. The doctors will check your blood sugar to make sure that is true.
Having gestational diabetes puts you at more risk of developing type 2 diabetes later on in life. Gestational diabetes can also put your child at a higher risk for developing type 2 diabetes later in their life.
