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Turning 26 this year but not sure when is best to have a baby!

DiabeticPanda

Active Member
Messages
43
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
Hello all,

This thread will mostly apply to the ladies in the forum but fellas feel free to give your opinion! A little about me, I'm 25 (turning 26 in July), it'll be 10 years in September since I was diagnosed and I went onto the pump last October.

I have a steady job, I'm in a long term relationship and we're planning to buy a house next year which has got me thinking about our future. I'm not a 'career' driven person as such but there is scope for progression in the next year or two if I put the work in now. What worries me is if I wait until I'm 28/29 to try for a baby and then there's problems because of my diabetes I'll start running out of time to have a healthy pregnancy AND I want more than one child eventually.

Once we have a house I believe we'll be in a good position to start a family but should I give up my career to do that sooner or should I wait?

Any advice, pros/cons, personal experiences would be very much appreciated!!

Thanks,

Allana
 
Hi Allana/diabeticpanda have you thought about attending a pre conception clinic? You could ask your current clinic to refer you. I go to one and find it so helpful. Im diabetic 15 years next month and am only getting a chance to do dafne now(starting Monday) thanks to that clinic. Hoping to get a pump as an outcome and improve the hba1c so I can start baby making! If your hba1c is within range they will probably give you the go ahead to start trying and generally could ask to see you every 2 weeks once you get pregnant. Whether you give up your career really is up to you and your partner if that's what you want. I am 31 (32 in July) so the most I hope for is 2 but I would be delighted with 1 healthy baby.
Have you any complications now due to your diabetes?
 
Hello all,

This thread will mostly apply to the ladies in the forum but fellas feel free to give your opinion! A little about me, I'm 25 (turning 26 in July), it'll be 10 years in September since I was diagnosed and I went onto the pump last October.

I have a steady job, I'm in a long term relationship and we're planning to buy a house next year which has got me thinking about our future. I'm not a 'career' driven person as such but there is scope for progression in the next year or two if I put the work in now. What worries me is if I wait until I'm 28/29 to try for a baby and then there's problems because of my diabetes I'll start running out of time to have a healthy pregnancy AND I want more than one child eventually.

Once we have a house I believe we'll be in a good position to start a family but should I give up my career to do that sooner or should I wait?

Any advice, pros/cons, personal experiences would be very much appreciated!!

Thanks,

Allana

Hi Allana, nice to meet you. I think its different for everyone about when to start a family. I had two children prior to type 1 and then I had my daughter at 42 1/2 years, 15 years ago. I didn't know of a pre conception clinic, but my diabetes consultant was very supportive when we told him and he said, go for it and make sure your blood glucose is at a good level.
You sound very sensible in your approach and I wish you all the best for the future and good luck.
RRB
 
Hello all,

This thread will mostly apply to the ladies in the forum but fellas feel free to give your opinion! A little about me, I'm 25 (turning 26 in July), it'll be 10 years in September since I was diagnosed and I went onto the pump last October.

I have a steady job, I'm in a long term relationship and we're planning to buy a house next year which has got me thinking about our future. I'm not a 'career' driven person as such but there is scope for progression in the next year or two if I put the work in now. What worries me is if I wait until I'm 28/29 to try for a baby and then there's problems because of my diabetes I'll start running out of time to have a healthy pregnancy AND I want more than one child eventually.

Once we have a house I believe we'll be in a good position to start a family but should I give up my career to do that sooner or should I wait?

Any advice, pros/cons, personal experiences would be very much appreciated!!

Thanks,

Allana
Morning!!

I'm
24, 36 weeks pregnant and moved into my first home in February.

Words can't explain how stressful it is to be pregnant and diabetic and also how stressful it is buying a house and moving in!
My advice would be get the house before the baby, don't do them both at the same like I did!

Career wise, would you definitely be going back to the job after the baby is born? Might be worth thinking about what your plans will be after the baby is here. I'm going back to work at the end of my leave but there's no way I'm going back full time so my role in the business will be changing and I won't be doing the same work I was before.

Whilst you're sorting the house and everything out is the perfect time to attend the pre conception clinic so you'll still be doing the both at a similar time anyway and by the time you're ready to move in (took us about 5 months to move in after our offer was accepted) you may be ready to conceive!
Mother Nature will have her own ideas though :)

Good luck!

Claire x
 
Hi Allana,

Diabetic or not, I don't think there is a best time to have a baby! I'm 31 and am currently 22 weeks pregnant. My husband and I have been married for a couple of years, and have owned our own house for about eight years. We spoke for a while about trying but, if I'm brig honest, we just didn't quite feel ready until we started trying back in September. Everybody is different!

Like you, I had worries about the diabetes. I saw a consultant back on September who told me to keep me HBA1C as low as possible, without hyping all the time. I think she said sub 53, but could be wrong! She also put me on folic acid and told me to start taking straight away. We were lucky and conceived very quickly. Although the pregnancy is resulting in more hypos than usual, everything is going really well. Even able to feel the baby kick now, which is a very surreal but amazing feeling!

If you feel like you're both ready then speak to your doctor. They should be able to refer you to somebody to get the best advice for you. In the meantime, make sure your sugars are well controlled so that your HBA1C is where it needs to be.

Whenever you do decide to have a baby, there will be much excitement, and a fair bit of stress too (but good stress!). You just need to decide when is right for you. There are plenty of women on this forum who had children much later in life than you are now, so don't worry too much about that. It's more important that your sugars are controlled as that will help you have a healthy pregnancy for you and baby.

Good luck with it all!

Em
 
Im 28 have had type 1 for about 15 yrs now and have two babies :-) 2yr old and a 10m old im not on a pump just two insulins 2nd was planned and was easy first took a while. Try whenever u feel ready and dont.stress. i worked up until three weeks prior to baby being born.
 
Hi all,

Thank you so much for all of your responses and advice! I was starting to panic slightly and actually that weekend my other half proposed! So I think a wedding is enough to deal with right now and babies can come later.

I have spoken to my DSN about conceiving so I'm booked in with them to have a chat & come up with a sort of game plan to get my bloods under control in the meantime ... also struggling slightly in general so now is definitely not the right time.

Thanks again x
 
@DiabeticPanda It's a good idea to plan ahead. Get your HbA1C at a good level, take the high dose folic acid and maybe set a time in the future to start trying. That way you'll be all organised and also will have time to get things done that aren't to do,with pregnancy and mentally psych yourself up and prepare :)

I had my children early and I never regret it for a moment. When you're ready then go for it :)
 
Hi @DiabeticPanda ive been diabetic since I was 2. I had my daughter (now 2 and type1 too) when I was 33 and my twins when I was 35. I did pre conception in both cases. I have a very stressful job which I found hard. I went back to work full time after having my daughter. I'm still on mat leave now - to be honest having a diabetic 2 yr old, baby twins and myself to manage there isn't much time for work!
It's hard work being pregnant but it's all worth it!
Ps I couldn't have managed my pregnancies without being on the pump x
 
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