In the Beginning

Here I am, a kid with a shiny new blog in a sea of blogs.

Actually, I'm not a kid anymore. And I'm thinking about a kid of my own! Which is part of why I'm writing this blog.

I'm 30 years old and got married almost a year ago to the sweetest boy in the world. And even though we have our hesitations, worries, and many, many fears, we're thinking about having a baby.

The only hold up is that I have type 1 diabetes. Last May, I visited a high risk OB who came highly recommended by my gynecologist (who I love) and a Minimed rep (who often know the best in the business). I figured that combination must make her awesome! She's at the state university's teaching hospital. Which made me nervous at the time, because I worked in the building next to the hospital. I want friends and coworkers to visit me when I have a baby. But having a baby next door?! Kind of strange. Do you go into labor at work and walk to the hospital? Are your coworkers the first ones at the scene? Does your boss cut the umbilical cord? Too weird.

In any event, now I work for a nonprofit miles away from the teaching hospital and no longer have any concerns about delivering there. Of course, walking to prenatal appointments (which I hear are weekly for type 1ers) would have been nice.

Anyway, Dr. Awesome OB spent a good two hours with me. Going over my history. Talking about nutrition. Prenatal vitamins. Bloodwork. Risks to the fetus in type 1 moms. You know, the usual.

The bottom line is that she recommends (and most endocrinologists and websites I've seen concur) that while pregnant, you keep pre-meal blood sugars at 60-90 and post-meal blood sugars below 120. She also recommends (and again, the medical community concurs) that having a HA1c under 7 for six months prior to conception is the key to a healthy pregnancy.

"Oh, lord," you say. Or rather, I said. How am I ever freakin' going to get my blood sugars that low?! How will I ever be at 60 and not feel like I'm having a reaction? Dr. Awesome OB had lots of practical tips and advice, and a Minimed rep was there to go over my recent numbers.

I'm off to a good start, and decided to throw my hat into the blog world. Here goes!