Diabetes Talking

Question:

The Ultrasound to check for macrosomia due to the diabetes showed that she’s sizeable but not huge. My mom doesn’t envy my having a big baby;

I’ve seen papers discussing the effects of gestational diabetes on the child.  They suggest the common outcome is a normal weight baby that grows up to be fat.  It is unclear how much this is due to increased carbohydrates (which program the baby for obesity) or to high insulin levels which also cause obesity. More info in the next edition of Adiposity 101. — Author of YMODEM, ZMODEM, Professional-YAM, ZCOMM, GSZ and DSZ    Omen Technology Inc      "The High Reliability Software" TeleGodzilla BBS: 503-621-3746     FAX:-3735    CIS:70007,2304

Response:

Hello everyone! Esther and the Crazy Dancing Bump here…  She’s really low now and I’ve started to dilate, so she should be making her public debut any day. Depending on which moment you ask me, either I’m in no hurry for her to be born (terror about impending motherhood, the longer she waits the more I get paid, etc) or I want her out now (too much OUCH to walk around much with her little head wedged into those bones, not to mention such frequent contractions and an all-over-the-middle achiness).  But she’ll come when she’s ready. The Ultrasound to check for macrosomia due to the diabetes showed that she’s sizeable but not huge. My mom doesn’t envy my having a big baby; she warns me about the backaches I’m going to have from changing her six to ten times/day plus carrying her around.  (Yeah, maybe a bigger baby sleeps through the nite sooner, but she’ll also be heavier for carrying around during the day.) Much too late to be helpful, I found two references in a book I borrowed called "Childbirth Choices in Rhode Island". The two references are about Gestational Diabetes. The first is a pamphlet by Marion Franz, and the second is a book apparently published by the RI affiliate of the American Diabetes Association. If anyone would like further references for this material, I’ll be glad to give a fuller citation. Maybe the info could be helpful to someone in the future sometime before the final days of her pregnancy. (I guess I shouldn’t generalize to ‘her pregnancy’… as Ed Reid says in the misc.health.diabetes FAQ, "Most gestational diabetics are female." Not all — most! Maybe in the new movie with Schwartzenegger (spelling?) and DeVito (spelling?), "Junior" in which Arnold becomes pregnant, maybe he’ll get Gestational Diabetes and we’ll get to see him weighing and measuring his peanut butter exchanges.  Or craving chocolate, or finding a slice of heaven in a fat-free potatoe chip (as melynda says).) Oh, and to answer the questions I got in email — my needlework runs the gamut of Cross Stitch, Hardanger, crochet, knitting, tatting, lace net embroidery, and just about anything else that catches my eye. I’m learning to sew, but haven’t put the time into it yet. Hubby still vetoes a knitting machine purchase. Among my projects in progress are knitted baby sweaters, a maternity jumper (maybe I’ll finish it before Baby arrives???), a Hardanger angel, a cross-stitch of the 20-cent stamp of New York State with the bluebird and roses, a crocheted baby sweater… and a recently completed Amish Girl with goose cross-stitch that needs framing. I’m looking forward to doing a Hardanger butterfly sun-catcher, a slew of Christmas gifts (sewn, hopefully), baby toys, more baby clothes, and others… Where will I find the time? Who knows! Oh, back to the newsgroup’s topic — diabetes — I guess I should comment that I’m vowing that any future pregnancy that may find me diabetic will also find me at an obstretical practice that (a) is NOT a baby mill and (b) knows more about gestational diabetes. I’m horribly tired of the practice I’m in now. I think I’ll take the advice of members of the misc.health.diabetes newsgroup next time and find an OB practice that knows more about diabetes. That is, if God ever decides that a second pregnancy is in my future. Who knows. But I do know that this pregnancy has found me massively frustrated with the OB practice I’m in. In particular my latest peeve is concerning the ‘mandatory’ electronic fetal monitoring in the last weeks of pregnancy for a gestational diabetic. Considering that gestational diabetes is among the most frequent complications of pregnancy (affecting 4-10%, depending on whom you consult), and considering that they say EFM is mandatory in such a circumstance, you’d think they might (just might) have a reasonable method for scheduling and performing the stupid non-stress tests. You’d think it wouldn’t take 22 minutes to schedule one week’s weekly non-stress test and then have an appointment-desk worker grumble at you for five minutes about how those darned nurses who schedule the non-stress tests are forcing her to SQUEEEEEZE me into the daily appointments, inconveniencing other patients as well as the doctors and staff. "Oh cut me some slack, honey!" is what I wanted to say. If they’d coordinate the two schedules, or computerize both schedules, or schedule the appointments a bit further in advance, or if their regular OB appointments weren’t of the ‘baby mill’ variety, then she wouldn’t have to SQUEEEEEZE me into the regular appointments just because I have a non-stress test scheduled for such-and-such a date and time. I’ll bite my tongue (restrain my fingers) from commentary about the stupid Velcro belts they use for hodling the two parts of the monitor onto my massively expanded bare belly. Let me just say that even the soft-side of Velcro is very itchy… and wearing the two belts for 45 minutes is not a lot of fun. Sometimes the graph looks like I’m having seizures when in reality I’m only trying to surrepticiously relieve a maddening itch. Call me just another crazy pregnant lady, but trying to schedule next week’s non-stress test and regular appointment made me just want to SCREAM! Well, no other news for now… The crazy dancing bump should be here soon… I guess I should wash the baby blankets and stuff some time before then, eh? Esther the gestational diabetic procrastinator and Little Miss Natalie still in utero. (Oh, I told the ultrasound tech that if Natalie is really Nathaniel, then he (the ultrasound tech) is in big trouble. He just laughed and reminded me that he’s been scanning babies for 21 years and he knows what little girls look like and he’s 100% positive that she’s a she.) ps, a leisurely read through last Sunday’s newspaper found me perusing an ad for "Kalaleen" — a revolutionary new diet aid for only $xx.yy (order by midnight tonight to receive, in addition, a 634 page hard-bound book full of astounding testimonials about this wonder product).  Anyway, it mentioned having a secret ingredient that profoundly affects blood glucose. I just smiled and thought fondly of folks on the m.h.d newsgroup… I don’t type that word anymore, for fear of the wrath.

Response: