218 days pregnant & dealing with Gestational Diabetes

Today I am 217 days pregnant ( 31 weeks and 1 day).

As I mentioned on previous posts, I had been diagnosed

with Gestation Diabetes. I think I left you on the last post

saying that I was going to visit with the doc and possibly have

to get insulin. Well, yep he said I need insulin. The diet

wasn't working, so I take 5 injections a day!! UGH

It hasn't been "as bad" as I thought. I take Humulin by syringe

in the morning and at night (2 doses) and then the

Humalog pen with breakfast, lunch, and dinner (3 doses). The

pen is very similar to what I used in my fertility treatments, so

I felt like a pro! ha I was really nervous to use the syringe, but

the needle wasn't big at all, infact it hurts less than the pen!!

Here is a little bit of info for those who aren't very familar

with gestational diabetes:

When you eat, your digestive system breaks most of your food

down into a type of sugar called glucose. The glucose enters your

bloodstream and then — with the help of insulin, a hormone

made by your pancreas — provides fuel for the cells of your

body. Like the type 1 and type 2 diabetes you can get when

you're not pregnant, gestational diabetes causes the glucose

to stay in your blood instead of moving into your cells and

getting converted to energy. Why does this sometimes happen

when you're pregnant? During pregnancy, your hormones make

it tougher for your body to use insulin, so your pancreas needs

to produce more of it. For most moms-to be, this isn't a

problem: As your need for insulin increases, your pancreas

dutifully secretes more of it. But when a woman's pancreas

can't keep up with the insulin demand and her blood glucose

levels get too high, the result is gestational diabetes.Most

women with gestational diabetes don't remain diabetic once

the baby is born. Once you've had it, though, you're at higher

risk for getting it again during a future pregnancy and for

becoming diabetic later in life.

My next OB appt is on the 30th. I believe they'll will be keeping

a close watch on Miss Stella so that she doesn't get too big!

For most women with gestational diabetes, the main worry is that

too much glucose will end up in the baby's blood. When that

happens, the baby's pancreas needs to produce more insulin

to process the extra glucose. All this excess blood sugar and

insulin can cause your baby to make more fat and put on extra

weight, particularly in the upper body.