Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Sharon Fung on December 11, 2011 at 6:20pm

I had major food aversions in my first trimester. I could eat very little apart from maybe spaghetti bolognese, cheese sandwiches and grapefruit. I just focused on getting the carbs in. That's really the most important thing at this stage. Get the carbs in for the energy and to avoid ketones in the urine. Take your pre-natal vitimins and as soon as you start feeling better you can be more active in eating a healthy diet. I ate high fiber carbs all of the time. I ate a lot of whole wheat toast and a lot of whole wheat saltine crackers-this helped to keep the nausea at bay also. Really don't worry about a balanced diet right now-your baby will be fine and you can make up for it later in the pregnancy. Remember to eat lots of protein as soon as the aversions reduce :)

Permalink Reply by Ana on December 11, 2011 at 6:35pm

Thank you for the advice and support Sharon! Spaghetti do sound good! :) Did you experience high BG occasionally? Since I am eating all these unusual carbs, I sometimes underestimate my insulin, since I am afraid to get too low afterwards...

Permalink Reply by Sharon Fung on December 11, 2011 at 6:40pm

I definitely struggled with some highs at the beginning. At this point your body is going through crazy changes so it's not surprising that you might have some random highs and even some lows. I found that I needed to eat a little every hour-to avoid nausea and to keep my carbs up-I could only eat a little at a time. I think eating little consistently helps a lot. Don't be afraid of insulin-I worked with my endo on getting my insulin to carb ratio good and stuck with that. I used the citrus fruits and glucose tablets to deal with lows-just keep those handy-and fruit is good for you and the baby so it's a great way to deal with lows while pregnant if you can eat them. Even non diabetic women can have gnarly BG levels (even those without gestational diabetes) so DO NOT beat yourself up over them. You'll be fine :)

Permalink Reply by kms on December 11, 2011 at 6:52pm

i had awful nausea from about week 6-10 - it is really tough! I definitely was craving high carb stuff like pizza, pasta...you know, all the stuff we are not supposed to be eating!

I definitely ate more carbs at this time, and just took my insulin like crazy and tested, tested, tested to knock down any high blood sugar readings asap when they happened.

I found that getting something - ANYTHING - in my stomach helped alot. So if the only thing that sounded good was spaghetti, I would let myself eat a little bit. Once that settled in my stomach, I would be a lot more likely to be able to eat healthier foods with protein and fiber, and lower in bad carbs. One quarter of a bagel, toasted with cream cheese, although not ideal for the diabetes, would help me go on to eat a much healthier rest of breakfast, like greek yogurt with fruit or something like that.

Also - english muffin pizzas!!! Our grocery store has a great generic whole wheat english muffin that's only 17 net carbs, I would load those up with a little sauce, veggies and tons of cheese and broil in the toaster oven. Almost as good as the real thing. :)

Hope this passes quickly for you.

Kate

Permalink Reply by Ana on December 11, 2011 at 9:04pm

It's good to know I'm not alone in this :) I want to go back to my veggies, meats and healthy carbs so bad! Hopefully, it'll go away soon. Thank you Kate!

Permalink Reply by Kate on December 12, 2011 at 6:28pm

I still can't eat my once beloved zucchini! I think I am back to eating everything else that I enjoyed pre-pregnancy, but zucchini is still kind of funky to me.

I would say to eat what you can at this point and watch your bgs as much as possible. If you are going to under shoot the insulin, just watch for the postprandial spikes and react quickly to ensure you don't stay high too long.

The good news is that this will pass and you will likely enjoy all those favorite foods soon enough!

Side note - my dr told me to watch out for brie and other soft cheeses (something about the fermentation process and excess bacteria). You may want to check with dr about that one...

Best of luck!

Permalink Reply by Ana on December 13, 2011 at 10:11pm

Hi Kate, thanks for sharing your experience. What week are you at?
I check-check and check by bgs, but sometimes I can't explain why my bg goes high (probably hormones). A couple of times I just kept taking insulin, but the bg stayed high for a couple of hours. When this happens, I get really scared.
I did ask my doctor about brie, and she said it's fine as long as it's made of pasteurized milk.
I think, I found a new food item I can eat - vanilla yogurt :) I will try it tomorrow for breakfast :)

Best!

Permalink Reply by Kate on December 14, 2011 at 5:00am

Hi Ana, I'm at 29 weeks. You will get over this hump with blood sugars soon enough! And I found the "next stage" (whatever it may be) just a baffling! It's like constantly shooting at a moving target :) My "advice" is to just continue to discuss it with your doctors and do the best you can. No one can ask any more of you!