pregnancy – Page 2 – Living with Dianabetes

(Continuing my high-risk pregnancy story)

Wow, time flies!

I have been WANTING to write a blog post since the last time I wrote one more than two years ago but I always made an excuse or something would come up.

I give props to the social media influencers who have kids and continue to post about their life and do what they were doing before having a kid. That is commitment at its finest. As much as I wanted to share my story, I either didn’t make the time or didn’t have the time.

So here we are 🙂 More than two years later. My son (who is turning 2 this month!!!) is watching Cars 3 while I write this blog post.

So much has happened since the last time I wrote a blog post and I’ve thought about catching everyone up and writing about the rest of my pregnancy and my birth story and everything after and life updates and diabetes updates but then I don’t want to start and take forever to finish. But then I think it would be important as maybe people would relate and not feel alone or isolated. Okay, now I am just rambling.

In the last post I wrote, I shared my experience of meeting with a MFM (Maternal Fetal Medicine specialist/doctor) who made me feel unseen and unheard. Luckily, I never spoke with them again and was always scheduled with someone else. I eventually requested an office closer to where I lived and met with the MFMs at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center (while still making sure I didn’t meet with the first MFM as I became aware that MFM also traveled to the Pomona clinic). Anyway, the MFMs I worked with for the rest of my pregnancy were amazing and meticulous and patient and I was beyond grateful for them.

As my pregnancy progressed, I would see the MFMs a lot more often. I went from seeing them every two weeks to every week, which I loved as I got an ultrasound each time and saw my baby and heard his heartbeat.

One of the most anxiety-producing appointments was needing to do a fetal echocardiogram, which is a specialized ultrasound used during pregnancy to assess the baby’s heart structure, especially in high-risk pregnancies. I felt anxious as I was scared that something would be wrong. I thought something would be wrong as in a prior appointment, I heard the MFM say that the blood flow appeared slower than normal and they would need to further assess. I had to wait a whole week between those two appointments and I couldn’t help but think negatively and prepare myself to hear that something was wrong with my baby’s heart. I was hoping for the best but prepared for the worst and it was hard to challenge those thoughts. My husband and family kept reassuring me everything was okay, normal, fine, etc. but I couldn’t shake the negative thoughts.

Luckily, everything was okay and my baby’s heart was functioning normally. I let out a big sigh of relief when the doctor told me everything was okay and normal. And yes, a MFM did the fetal echocardiogram, not an ultrasound tech.

During the pregnancy, I had stubborn highs and my insulin resistance increased and I needed a lot of background insulin (I continued using my insulin pump throughout my entire pregnancy). It definitely took a lot of work to keep my A1C under 6.5 during my pregnancy and I was stressed with every high and every minute I was high. But I did it 🙂 and looking back, I am so dang proud of myself.

Whenever I get another chance to write another blog post, I will share my birth story.

Thank you all for reading!

Please read update 1 so you don’t feel lost!

We decided to surprise them!

We get in our cars (my sister and mom in my sister’s car and I drove in my car) and dropped off my car at my house.

We then drove to the restaurant and luckily found my dad pretty quickly.

As we walk up to him, he looks over and all surprised goes, “Oh wow! Hi!” We say, “Surprise!” My dad chuckles and hugs each of us. I ask where my husband is and he said he’s in the bathroom.

We engage in small talk and then my husband comes to the table and was also surprised and said hello to everyone.

I am LEGIT nervous and thinking to myself, “How, when, what do I say?”

A few minutes pass by and I see my mom looking at me asking with her eyes, “When are you going to tell them?” I finally muster up the courage and say, “Ok, so we have some news.” I look at my dad and I look at my husband. I then said, “We’re pregnant!” My dad lets out a laugh and huge smile and I look at my husband and he just looks shocked and asked, “Are you serious?” I said, “Yeah!” He replies, “Are you messing with me?” I reply, “No! I’m serious!” And proceed to show him the picture of the two pregnancy tests I took and after a few seconds he goes, “No way!” He hugs me and I start crying happy tears (naturally, LOL). My mom gets teary-eyed too and we’re just rejoicing in the good and surprising news.

We have a great rest of the night and even danced (my mom and I as my sister had left to go home and my husband and dad were still eating their dinner) when the restaurant’s nightclub opened.

To say it was a perfect day, is an understatement.

Again, I never thought I would find out I was pregnant with my mom and sister with me. And that I could tell my husband and dad at the same time.

All in all, a great night to remember.

The news was surprising as I had been off birth control for 1 year and we had been trying but not like actually trying to get pregnant. So neither of us thought we would get pregnant when we did. We both thought it wouldn’t happen till the end of 2023 but life/God had their own plan.

Towards the end of 2022, it was starting to take an emotional toll on me as I would see other friends get pregnant or would see on social media others I knew posting their pregnancy announcements and as happy as I would be for them, I couldn’t help but think, “When will it happen for us?” Even though I would think that way, I also knew that as a person with Type 1 Diabetes, my A1C needed to be at a certain number before I was “allowed” to get pregnant. So two competing mindsets and both were emotionally and mentally challenging.

I was told my A1C (a number that indicates what your sugars average the past three months) needed to be at least a 6.5 before we started trying to get pregnant. Before we found out we were pregnant, my A1C was a 6.8 (October 2022). I was definitely doing my best to bring that number down as I knew it had to be at least a 6.5. And that is what I kept telling myself to bring my spirits up whenever I felt sad. I would tell myself, “I get more time to work on myself, my diabetes management and to lower my A1C.” For the most part, that helped and I would also lean on my friends, sister, husband and mom when I needed emotional/social support.

We found out we were pregnant on 1/7/23. On 1/10/23, I did lab work and my A1C was a 6.3!!!! I was super freaking happy cause it meant my hard work had paid off and my A1C was where it needed to be.

As happy as we were (and still are) about being pregnant, the good news has often been overshadowed by my Type 1 Diabetes.

For anyone battling a chronic illness, I know firsthand that it is NOT easy, it is emotionally and mentally taxing and can easily rob you of your happiness. BUT, you cannot let it have that much power over you.

You are more than your chronic illness.

Tag: pregnancy

Hello again!

Update 2 – 2023