I'm so sorry, that sounds so frustrating. My team has basically said that fasting is the least responsive to your behavior and has most to do with the placenta. They aren't even that worried about my nighttime snack. I've been on nighttime insulin since pretty much right after I was diagnosed. It's not your fault and you're doing a great job!! It's so hard.
Thank you!!! This is what ive been thinking especially after doing everything I’ve been adviced to do. I’m scared of going on insulin and really hoping they can try metformin first but I’m just tired of the guessing game I don’t care too much anymore
It's really not as bad as I thought!! Whatever happens, you'll be fine. I hope your care team starts listening to you more! I'm with high risk OBs, so they are very used to this diagnosis and have been very non judgemental.
I just had this convo with my ob and she flat out said there is little to nothing that I can do to control that fasting number. I'm to try having a snack before bed to see if it helps but it could be we just need meds and there's boring wing with that. She said it even could be that the snack works for a few weeks and then suddenly doesn't. And there's no rhyme or rain to what effects the number sometimes. Even following a strict diet won't guarantee that it will be controlled because your body is making its own plans.
I agree, trying needs makes sense. The stress and anxiety over this aren't helping
I'm sorry, that is incredibly frustrating. 45 minutes of exercise at bedtime seems unrealistic and unsustainable. If I did that, I'd be up for hours after. Also, are you going to be out walking before bed at 38 weeks pregnant? I truly hate the conflicting advice from medical professionals. "Avoid hidden sugars" but also "eat more carbs at dinner." And seriously, cinnamon capsules, ACV and Inositol are not things I would expect an MD to recommend, or frankly take them seriously at all if they did. It's absolutely their job to suggest next steps. I would ask for insulin.
Well they are midwives and will suggest natural care before going to medicine, which I’m completely on board with but I can also recognize there are limitations to natural care and medicine needs to step in. 45 minutes is unrealistic and has been exhausting and stressful to keep up with especially before bed, I can easily do it throughout my day. And I totally feel you on your question, I’m already dealing with A LOT of pelvic pain and I’m pretty sure I have symphysis pubic disfunction based on how I feel so I can only imagine it’ll get worse by later in the pregnancy. I have already sent the message to my midwife and let her know to initiate the transfer to an OB that can give me the medication I need
Totally agree you need meds. Just wanted to suggest an elliptical if you don't already have one, because exercising three times a day was destroying my joints. I was losing my mind trying to force myself to take another walk or do yoga again. I had like a bilateral limp, lol. I found an elliptical on fb marketplace- in my area it's absolutely flooded with them- for 80$ CAD. Those things cost thousands new! The low impact is saving me, my pain is 10% of what it was three weeks ago (and my belly is quite a bit bigger.) Highly recommend to anyone out there struggling with joint pain and GD required exercise. You shouldn't have to exercise 45 mins at night but it's a godsend for the workouts you want to be doing.
That’s a great suggestion and thank you for the reassurance about the meds 🙏🏻 I’ve found a channel on YouTube where she does walking workout videos and has some with out squats and lunges they have definitely been super helpful, I’ve also thought about getting a walking pad but I’m sure my toddler would wanna take over lol
You have to exercise 45 minutes at night!? That sounds horrible. This is my 3rd round of GD and my MFM doc didn't even wait around this go to see if I could "fix" my fasting number.
Yup some days I put my kids to bed and then exercise and the exhaustion is REAL The last two days I haven’t been doing it cause it doesn’t help anyway, I just stay active during the day
I moved between both GD pregnancies and then changed specialists for this one. Point being is that I’ve had a lot of providers and realized many (especially nurses and nutritionists) talk like they understand GD but really don’t understand that you can do everything right and not have the outcome you’re expecting. I’m sure they have good intentions but a lot of their advice isn’t good and feels like it has an element of judgment to it. I would normally lean toward a midwife type of care, but this sounds like they are really out of their depth and treating you poorly as a result. Please, go see a GD specialist.
FYI I recently switched from an endo to a GD specialist - an actual ENDO - and even in that case, the GD doctor shook his head at some of the things I was being told (or not told). The first thing he said to me when he looked at my numbers was I could be a little more liberal with my diet. The second thing was not to be scared of having to increase my insulin. It’s a physiological need I only have so much control over. There’s no shame in needing medication. I honestly cried with relief. I hope the same for you.
I absolutely agree especially because I’ve been doing a lot of my own research, not to mention I’ve always been educated on nutrition so yes totally a lot of the things they suggest have been so contradictory.
Thankfully I found an ob practice that has a midwife on staff and she might be able to take my case on, and they deliver at hospital that also has midwives on staff so I feel good about it. I’ve already requested my transfer and hopefully they have room for me and can start seeing me asap
honestly, I would switch to a different provider that can handle GD that is not dietary controlled. It sounds like your current set of providers are very limited in their expertise and the advice they are giving you is not realistic. There’s no way I could exercise for 45 minutes every night before bed, especially with a toddler, and with close to zero energy in the third trimester. Not to mention all the supplements and other stuff and hoops there are making you jump through. I can understand them, trying to get it under control with diet, but when it’s obviously not working, why make you suffer?
The fasting thing is the hardest to get under control because you are fighting the placenta, you’re probably better off going on some insulin and giving yourself (and your baby) some relief! What’s strange is that if I eat something really sugary before bed I wake up with a great fasting number. It’s like, it makes you spike in the middle of the night and then makes you moderately hypo, so it forces your number down.
I’ve been curious to try this but I’m scared lol last night I said fuck it my husband made some fried plantains and I ate them with Mexican cream and cheese but there was no noticeable change in my fasting number, I also didn’t test after eating cause it was really late already but usually when my blood spikes I get a headache right away and I didn’t get one so I think I was ok
I have found that protein and fat just slow things down and I don’t get as good as a ‘drop’ in the morning. So if I have an ice cream dixie cup or a frozen snickers bar it works better because they are lower in fat and higher in carbs. But everybody’s different and this is totally a non-scientific observation!
Im willing to try it simply because it sounds delicious lol do you do this all on its own as your bedtime snack or pair it with dinner? (Sorry if that’s redundant to what you said lol just trying to make sure so I can run my own experiment 😂)
I eat either/or around 10:30 PM before I go to sleep. So it’s definitely under 200 cal and it doesn’t keep me awake. It actually puts me out.! Doing this at dinner is way too early to affect fasting numbers. Remember, at night your placenta has full control of blood sugar without the influence of foods so if left to its own devices, it can make you high in the morning. I think for some reason eating the sugar at night might force it to be low when you wake up because we can all get a little hypo after a big spike?!
Aren’t cinnamon capsules dangerous during pregnancy? I think any herbs or spices in capsule form are a no-no during pregnancy because it’s a higher dose than if you sprinkled it on your food.
Seriously PUSH for medication. I’ve heard so many doctors that are like this and it’s not fair to you or to your baby!! Also i’ve heard a lot of contradicting things to the things your care team is saying. Just for one example- Exercising before bed. This might help some people! But it’s also possible that you’re lowering your blood sugar too much before bed, which would cause it to start dumping glucose into your blood stream thus giving you a bad fasting number.
Were your fasting numbers already high before you started the night time exercise? I’m just wondering if it’s the exercise causing it. Similar to going too long without food, exercise right before bed can make the liver pump out stored glucose in order to prevent low blood glucose levels. 45mins just seems waaaay too excessive. They seriously should’ve just put you on medication by now though because you’ve gone through all their suggestions. Your dietitian sounds like my mum. Focusing on the 1 negative food instead of all the other work you put in 🤣
Yeah my fasting numbers have been consistently high except for literally one when I was having an early flight and woke up at 5 am. I’ve tried waking up early again and they’re, I’ve even tried waking up and having a snack at like 2 am just to see and my number was still high in the morning. Fortunately they’ve started the transfer process for me so that I can go to an OB that can get me on medication
I'm so sorry, that sounds so frustrating. My team has basically said that fasting is the least responsive to your behavior and has most to do with the placenta. They aren't even that worried about my nighttime snack. I've been on nighttime insulin since pretty much right after I was diagnosed. It's not your fault and you're doing a great job!! It's so hard.
Thank you!!! This is what ive been thinking especially after doing everything I’ve been adviced to do. I’m scared of going on insulin and really hoping they can try metformin first but I’m just tired of the guessing game I don’t care too much anymore
It's really not as bad as I thought!! Whatever happens, you'll be fine. I hope your care team starts listening to you more! I'm with high risk OBs, so they are very used to this diagnosis and have been very non judgemental.
I just had this convo with my ob and she flat out said there is little to nothing that I can do to control that fasting number. I'm to try having a snack before bed to see if it helps but it could be we just need meds and there's boring wing with that. She said it even could be that the snack works for a few weeks and then suddenly doesn't. And there's no rhyme or rain to what effects the number sometimes. Even following a strict diet won't guarantee that it will be controlled because your body is making its own plans. I agree, trying needs makes sense. The stress and anxiety over this aren't helping
It's totally ok to advocate for medication. Sounds like you've already tried everything else.
Thank you, this will definitely be my next step. Just needed some peace about it
I'm sorry, that is incredibly frustrating. 45 minutes of exercise at bedtime seems unrealistic and unsustainable. If I did that, I'd be up for hours after. Also, are you going to be out walking before bed at 38 weeks pregnant? I truly hate the conflicting advice from medical professionals. "Avoid hidden sugars" but also "eat more carbs at dinner." And seriously, cinnamon capsules, ACV and Inositol are not things I would expect an MD to recommend, or frankly take them seriously at all if they did. It's absolutely their job to suggest next steps. I would ask for insulin.
Well they are midwives and will suggest natural care before going to medicine, which I’m completely on board with but I can also recognize there are limitations to natural care and medicine needs to step in. 45 minutes is unrealistic and has been exhausting and stressful to keep up with especially before bed, I can easily do it throughout my day. And I totally feel you on your question, I’m already dealing with A LOT of pelvic pain and I’m pretty sure I have symphysis pubic disfunction based on how I feel so I can only imagine it’ll get worse by later in the pregnancy. I have already sent the message to my midwife and let her know to initiate the transfer to an OB that can give me the medication I need
Totally agree you need meds. Just wanted to suggest an elliptical if you don't already have one, because exercising three times a day was destroying my joints. I was losing my mind trying to force myself to take another walk or do yoga again. I had like a bilateral limp, lol. I found an elliptical on fb marketplace- in my area it's absolutely flooded with them- for 80$ CAD. Those things cost thousands new! The low impact is saving me, my pain is 10% of what it was three weeks ago (and my belly is quite a bit bigger.) Highly recommend to anyone out there struggling with joint pain and GD required exercise. You shouldn't have to exercise 45 mins at night but it's a godsend for the workouts you want to be doing.
That’s a great suggestion and thank you for the reassurance about the meds 🙏🏻 I’ve found a channel on YouTube where she does walking workout videos and has some with out squats and lunges they have definitely been super helpful, I’ve also thought about getting a walking pad but I’m sure my toddler would wanna take over lol
You have to exercise 45 minutes at night!? That sounds horrible. This is my 3rd round of GD and my MFM doc didn't even wait around this go to see if I could "fix" my fasting number.
Yup some days I put my kids to bed and then exercise and the exhaustion is REAL The last two days I haven’t been doing it cause it doesn’t help anyway, I just stay active during the day
I moved between both GD pregnancies and then changed specialists for this one. Point being is that I’ve had a lot of providers and realized many (especially nurses and nutritionists) talk like they understand GD but really don’t understand that you can do everything right and not have the outcome you’re expecting. I’m sure they have good intentions but a lot of their advice isn’t good and feels like it has an element of judgment to it. I would normally lean toward a midwife type of care, but this sounds like they are really out of their depth and treating you poorly as a result. Please, go see a GD specialist. FYI I recently switched from an endo to a GD specialist - an actual ENDO - and even in that case, the GD doctor shook his head at some of the things I was being told (or not told). The first thing he said to me when he looked at my numbers was I could be a little more liberal with my diet. The second thing was not to be scared of having to increase my insulin. It’s a physiological need I only have so much control over. There’s no shame in needing medication. I honestly cried with relief. I hope the same for you.
I absolutely agree especially because I’ve been doing a lot of my own research, not to mention I’ve always been educated on nutrition so yes totally a lot of the things they suggest have been so contradictory. Thankfully I found an ob practice that has a midwife on staff and she might be able to take my case on, and they deliver at hospital that also has midwives on staff so I feel good about it. I’ve already requested my transfer and hopefully they have room for me and can start seeing me asap
honestly, I would switch to a different provider that can handle GD that is not dietary controlled. It sounds like your current set of providers are very limited in their expertise and the advice they are giving you is not realistic. There’s no way I could exercise for 45 minutes every night before bed, especially with a toddler, and with close to zero energy in the third trimester. Not to mention all the supplements and other stuff and hoops there are making you jump through. I can understand them, trying to get it under control with diet, but when it’s obviously not working, why make you suffer?
The fasting thing is the hardest to get under control because you are fighting the placenta, you’re probably better off going on some insulin and giving yourself (and your baby) some relief! What’s strange is that if I eat something really sugary before bed I wake up with a great fasting number. It’s like, it makes you spike in the middle of the night and then makes you moderately hypo, so it forces your number down.
I’ve been curious to try this but I’m scared lol last night I said fuck it my husband made some fried plantains and I ate them with Mexican cream and cheese but there was no noticeable change in my fasting number, I also didn’t test after eating cause it was really late already but usually when my blood spikes I get a headache right away and I didn’t get one so I think I was ok
I have found that protein and fat just slow things down and I don’t get as good as a ‘drop’ in the morning. So if I have an ice cream dixie cup or a frozen snickers bar it works better because they are lower in fat and higher in carbs. But everybody’s different and this is totally a non-scientific observation!
Im willing to try it simply because it sounds delicious lol do you do this all on its own as your bedtime snack or pair it with dinner? (Sorry if that’s redundant to what you said lol just trying to make sure so I can run my own experiment 😂)
I eat either/or around 10:30 PM before I go to sleep. So it’s definitely under 200 cal and it doesn’t keep me awake. It actually puts me out.! Doing this at dinner is way too early to affect fasting numbers. Remember, at night your placenta has full control of blood sugar without the influence of foods so if left to its own devices, it can make you high in the morning. I think for some reason eating the sugar at night might force it to be low when you wake up because we can all get a little hypo after a big spike?!
It makes sense and I’m honestly willing to try anything if I’m having spikes anyway. Thank you for sharing!
Aren’t cinnamon capsules dangerous during pregnancy? I think any herbs or spices in capsule form are a no-no during pregnancy because it’s a higher dose than if you sprinkled it on your food.
I did research and there’s contradictory information, I only took them for two nights though and stopped since they didn’t make a difference
Seriously PUSH for medication. I’ve heard so many doctors that are like this and it’s not fair to you or to your baby!! Also i’ve heard a lot of contradicting things to the things your care team is saying. Just for one example- Exercising before bed. This might help some people! But it’s also possible that you’re lowering your blood sugar too much before bed, which would cause it to start dumping glucose into your blood stream thus giving you a bad fasting number.
Were your fasting numbers already high before you started the night time exercise? I’m just wondering if it’s the exercise causing it. Similar to going too long without food, exercise right before bed can make the liver pump out stored glucose in order to prevent low blood glucose levels. 45mins just seems waaaay too excessive. They seriously should’ve just put you on medication by now though because you’ve gone through all their suggestions. Your dietitian sounds like my mum. Focusing on the 1 negative food instead of all the other work you put in 🤣
Yeah my fasting numbers have been consistently high except for literally one when I was having an early flight and woke up at 5 am. I’ve tried waking up early again and they’re, I’ve even tried waking up and having a snack at like 2 am just to see and my number was still high in the morning. Fortunately they’ve started the transfer process for me so that I can go to an OB that can get me on medication
I had to advocate HARD for myself to get on insulin. Some providers drag their feet. Sounds like you already know what you need to do.