I’m 24 years old and I’ve got an 11 month old baby. Pregnancy with diabetes was challenging, especially because the pregnancy wasn’t planned. The antenatal classes followed by diabetic appointments weren’t fun and were so long and draining. Long story short, my baby was premature (by 7 weeks) and decided to arrive the day after we got the keys to our first home. The past year has been such a stressful time but also a happy one. Before pregnancy, I suffered with anxiety and depression and I was taking antidepressants until I met my partner and came off them. I was absolutely fine, however, things were stressful because of someone in my past etc. Anyway… I focused so much on my diabetes when pregnant I got my HBA1C down to 55 for the first time ever. I’ve put off going for a blood test to find it out since however because my bloods have been AWFUL. For the past month I’ve been having at least 2 lows a day and I’ve found it’s days were I am in work or not with my baby that I’m not going low. People have said it must be stress etc but I really don’t know. I did a low carb diet just after Christmas and it sorted my blood sugar levels right out however, I feel I couldn’t live that way all the time. I love food and I’m picky with meat so I mainly eat fish but I love carbs. Can anyone advise me on meals that I could eat and actually enjoy which don’t completely cut out carbs? Also does anyone struggle with controlling their blood sugar levels overnight after having a takeaway for tea? No matter what I do, even setting a temp basal in the night or injecting over 4 hours, I still wake up in the 20’s, irs so frustrating! PLEASE HELP ME, I feel like I’m losing my mind!
Diabetes, Postnatal & Depression [emoji854]
- Thread starter LMbee
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Hi @LMbee and welcome to the forums. I'm sorry you are in such a dark place.
Can I assume you are T1 on a pump? How long have you been T1?
Do you have some sort of cgm to go with your pump? Setting an alarm for eg 4.4 (the default on my self funded dexcom) should help with fending off the lows. (You may want to use a different level.)
But you've obviously had a massively stressful time and looking after an 11 month old child is also enormously stressful. (I can remember dreaming of getting a few hours unbroken sleep and just having some quiet time on my own on the loo.)
I must admit my diabetic control was the last thing I thought about after my two T1 pregnancies (a long time ago, precgm). I can well believe that control is easier and life is less stressful when you are having a break from your baby. (That doesn't mean you aren't a good parent or that you don't love your child, it's just that being a new parent is stressful).
I've got to say I've given up on pizza and fish and chips isn't great, but that's partly because I'm pretty low carb (less than 100g a day) and I think I've got out of the habit of bolusing for large carb meals. More important, I've gotten out of the habit of counting the carbs in them correctly. But plenty of T1s do manage to bolus for large carbs successfully, it's just that I've got a bit more insulin resistance than I like. But it occurs to me that after your baby your insulin needs may be changing so it could be as simple as adjusting your rates a bit more? (Not a pump user so I can't be much help with that.)
Anyway, just sending you lots of positive thoughts and hoping that things will get easier for you soon. Just hang in there.
As regards the food, if you're willing to accept carb substitutes there are some good ones (cauliflower rice, spiralised spaghetti instead of pasta?). Otherwise, maybe just be very careful on the carb counting and tweak your bolus ratio???
Can I assume you are T1 on a pump? How long have you been T1?
Do you have some sort of cgm to go with your pump? Setting an alarm for eg 4.4 (the default on my self funded dexcom) should help with fending off the lows. (You may want to use a different level.)
But you've obviously had a massively stressful time and looking after an 11 month old child is also enormously stressful. (I can remember dreaming of getting a few hours unbroken sleep and just having some quiet time on my own on the loo.)
I must admit my diabetic control was the last thing I thought about after my two T1 pregnancies (a long time ago, precgm). I can well believe that control is easier and life is less stressful when you are having a break from your baby. (That doesn't mean you aren't a good parent or that you don't love your child, it's just that being a new parent is stressful).
I've got to say I've given up on pizza and fish and chips isn't great, but that's partly because I'm pretty low carb (less than 100g a day) and I think I've got out of the habit of bolusing for large carb meals. More important, I've gotten out of the habit of counting the carbs in them correctly. But plenty of T1s do manage to bolus for large carbs successfully, it's just that I've got a bit more insulin resistance than I like. But it occurs to me that after your baby your insulin needs may be changing so it could be as simple as adjusting your rates a bit more? (Not a pump user so I can't be much help with that.)
Anyway, just sending you lots of positive thoughts and hoping that things will get easier for you soon. Just hang in there.
As regards the food, if you're willing to accept carb substitutes there are some good ones (cauliflower rice, spiralised spaghetti instead of pasta?). Otherwise, maybe just be very careful on the carb counting and tweak your bolus ratio???
