BeingDiabetic.co.nz » Pregnancy

Support group for T1 pregnancy.

Nic — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 22:26:01 +0000

We’ve talked about this group before on the blog but I was sent this article about it and thought I’d give it another plug.

In short, a group has been set up in Auckland on the last Monday of every month for T1 women planning a pregnancy, who are currently pregnant or who’ve been through a T1 pregnancy. It’s run by a specialist diabetes psychologist and a specialist diabetes midwife (both of whom I’ve met and both of whom I rate very highly).

Unfortunately I work on Mondays as I’d love to go along and give a little back… but I would have been doing whatever I could have to get the time off work…

New BeingDiabetic article added.

Nic — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 21:41:29 +0000

I’ve been meaning to put this up for a couple of weeks…. in the latest national Diabetes magazine was an article I wrote about T1 and childbirth. To read it, go here.

If you’re interested in the topic of T1 and pregnancy, you can also see a full list of my posts on the topic here.

Finally, if you’re reaaaallly interested, I am speaking on the subject at the Diabetes Youth NZ conference in Rotorua at the end of August. There’s still a small amount of time to register, I believe – you can go here to do so.

Have a good week y’all.

Nic

Guest blog: and soon there’ll be three.

Nic — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 21:16:54 +0000

Michelle (a fellow T1) is a new reader of the blog, and to my absolute amazement she found the time last week to write a guest blog. Amazing because she has two littlies and was 37 weeks pregnant at the time! Tomorrow, Michelle goes in for an elective c-section for her third baby. We wish her all the very best! Here is her story.

Hi all, my name is Michelle Cunningham and have been living with T1 diabetes since age 9 (23 years). My husband and I decided to start a family about 5 years ago. Following discussions with my specialist here in Whangarei over the previous months I tightened my control and started the old folic acid 3…

Any T1s out there in their first or second trimester?

Nic — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 06:16:11 +0000

Hi everyone. Exciting news, one of the T1 members of our community has just emailed me to tell me she’s 12 weeks pregnant. Ahhh.

She’s asked me to throw a post up to see if anyone else in the T1 community is in their first/second trimesters, and if they’d be keen to get in touch. If this is you, drop me a line and I’ll hook you up with lady #1.

Hope you’re having a good weekend – yeeeeah, one more day to go!

Next T1 dinner.

Nic — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 20:52:05 +0000

Happy Fridays people, and for our NZ readers, whooooop!! Long weekend on the horizon! If you have time on your weekend, please do spend ten mins writing an email in protest at the proposed cuts to the Manawatu diabetes service. I’ve not written mine yet and will be doing so today or tomorrow.

The next Auckland T1 dinner catch up is looming – this one is on Monday, 14 June. I need to make a booking in the next few days so please contact me if you’re interested in coming along. (Those of you who’ve been before will get an email from me too). Or, you can

HbA1c time.

Nic — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 01:22:20 +0000

Bleeeeurgh. Went for a blood test this morning. I’ve got a specialist appointment tomorrow, the first since I was discharged from the diabetes high risk maternity unit at National Women’s.

As part of this, I had to go and get some bloods done, notably the all-important HbA1c (or the molar measurement which is coming to take over the HbA1c).

I am absolutely dreading getting this HbA1c back. I liken it to getting exam results. Over the last 18 months I’ve actually looked forward to getting my HbA1c results back because I had a notion that they were going to be good (I was testing that much, and counting carbs like a mofo so you can…

The mama diaries continued.

Nic — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 20:54:49 +0000

My little boy Hugo is now 5.5 months old, and in the last week I’ve been treated to six nights with him sleeping right through the night. Hurrah! I think it’s not til you actually start to get some sleep back that you look back and wonder how you did all those night time feeds in the first place (there were definitely times when I felt totally exhausted and zombie-like, that’s for sure…. but you just keep on trucking).

My last update of motherhood with T1 was at the eight week post-birth mark. My sugars were largely under control and when people asked me how my diabetes had been post-birth, I’d smile and genuinely say…

Return of the night spikes.

Nic — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:44:37 +0000

The great thing about being pregnant most of last year was that the dreaded overnight BG spikes I was struggling with (which lead me to getting on the pump in the first place) disappeared. I’m not sure it was a complete win, because with all of the other pregnancy stuff all of the rest of your blood sugars go haywire… but I have to say – there is something doubly frustrating about going to bed with a perfect BG and waking up in the morning with a sky-high one. It just seems really unfair. During the day if you have a crazy spike you often blame it on food, exercise or stress (rightly or wrongly) – but I just get…

Are you TRYING to wind me up?!!

Nic — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 21:06:59 +0000

Grrrr – and breathe.

I’ve just come back from a diabetes check up at my GP’s.

Aaaand breathe.

You see – when I took my son in for his six week vaccinations, they decided to corner me about not having seen the diabetes nurse at the clinic for over a year.

“Ahhhh”, I said. “That would be because I’ve been under the care of the diabetes department at National Women’s for the last 16 months”.

“Well”, they said. “We need you to come in and we’ll go through a checklist of all of your vital tests etc and check that your diabetes is under control”.

Me: “Oh, but you see I’ve been under the strictest care I’ve had in 15…

Back on track.

Nic — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:40:08 +0000

I dusted off my BG record-keeping sheets today, determined to write down some numbers for a whole week and stay on top of basal rates, carb ratios, correction factors etc. That’s the thing with pumping – if only you could put in the hard work at the very beginning then sit with those ratios for all time – not so! I always knew I’d probably slacken off a bit after about 16 months of hard yakka and conscientious monitoring and record-keeping over my pregnancy and beforehand. Heck, I reckon I deserved the break. But, it’s now 12 weeks after my baby was born and I’m determined to put some systems in place to make sure I keep up a good…