Well, as crazy as it is to say, since I am 31 weeks pregnant today I thought I would do a little update on how my pregnancy as been so far. Particularly, in terms of how I’m doing with pregnancy and type one diabetes, but also just in general as a pregnant woman! I also wanted to share a few photos since we just had some maternity photos taken last week and I’m loving them!
Let’s start with the 3rd trimester update. As I’ve been saying this whole pregnancy to anyone that asks me, I really have very few complaints. I have felt very lucky to have such a great pregnancy and I really feel for any woman that has a hard one. However, I also know that I deal with a lot more than your average pregnant woman since I’m type 1 diabetic so I’d like to think it evens itself out! haha
Anyway, since I’m now in the third trimester here’s what’s been going on with me:
1. Sleep is never great these days…
Though as a type 1 diabetic it isn’t always anyway so this isn’t anything too too new for me. Sleeping with what feels like a big bowling ball in your belly can be pretty uncomfortable most nights. You should see the amount of pillows I have in my bed right now to try and make it even slightly more comfortable for myself…sorry Jonathan.
2. It’s getting hot…and I already run hot.
Ladies that live in like Florida and have babies, props to you. All I want to do now is sit inside in AC or in my car with the AC seats on full blast lol. But I think that’s to be expected with being pregnant this time of year. I imagine trying to get all bundled up in the winter with a big bump isn’t the most fun either. I run pretty hot in general so I know these next few weeks are going to be one for the books. Any friends out there that have a pool and wanna help cool down this big pregnant belly of mine, hit me up!
3. INSULIN RESISTANCE.
And here we are. Insulin resistance (aka it seems like insulin doesn’t even work very well for me a lot of the time) is very common once you reach the third trimester. Here’s the thing though – since I was 10 years old and diagnosed with type one diabetes I have ALWAYS been insulin resistant. Docs can never figure out why. I eat healthy, I’m not overweight, I exercise, etc etc, but yet the insulin resistance is still strong with this one. SO, I knew this was going to be something I would deal with even more once I became pregnant. Before getting pregnant I was on about 43 units of basal insulin (which is already quite a bit). Currently, I am on over 100 units of basal insulin. For those non diabetics out there, this is just the insulin that I get through my pump like a steady drip throughout the day to help keep my blood sugars in range. So this doesn’t account for any additional insulin that I have to take for the food that I eat. Before getting pregnant my insulin to carb ratio was 1:5 or 6 (again already pretty low meaning I take a lot of insulin for the food that I eat). Currently my insulin to carb ratio is at 1:2.5. So this means that for every 2.5 grams of carbohydrates that I eat, I need to take 1 unit of insulin. If you’re doing any of the math for this right now (most likely you are as fellow diabetic) then you’re probably wondering how I even still use my Omnipod insulin pump that only holds 200 units of insulin. Well, I change my site a lot. Like every other day sometimes every day if I have eaten a lot of carbs. However, my genius doc (well technically she’s a PA) that I see now for diabetes and pregnancy introduced me to a different insulin that has been a life saver. Humalog U200. What this is basically is a more concentrated version of regular Humalog insulin. So when I am taking 2 units of the U200 it’s actually like I’m taking 4 units of regular Humalog insulin. This has honestly been a life saver. I started using this way back in like February or April I wanna say because again I was already on a lot of insulin so my doc knew it was only going to increase and wanted to make my life just a little bit easier – Thank you Jess! So basically my point is that yes, I’m on a lot of insulin now. But to be honest, it doesn’t bother me one bit. I feel like some people are weird about having to take a lot of insulin but it doesn’t bother me at all. It does not make you gain weight people. As I said I’ve been on a lot of insulin my whole life and always been a pretty fit/in shape person. And even now being pregnant I have only gained 14 pounds so far at 31 weeks! That’s pretty great. All I care about is that this baby is healthy and happy and with my last A1C at 5.9, I will definitely take it! My A1C has been in the 5’s this pregnancy since my first trimester and it is something that I am SO proud of. Especially since for years my A1C was in the 8’s and always a struggle for me to lower. Prior to conception my A1C was 7.4 so I was very happy with the progress I made very early on.
4. Prebolusing like a MOFO
When I posted on my Instagram stories for people to ask me questions about my 3rd trimester a lot of you asked about prebolusing. For non-diabetics this means taking your insulin X amount of time before you eat because the insulin needs time to start working before you actually eat your food. Many of you wanted to know how far in advance I prebolus and the answer is that it really depends. Currently in my 3rd trimester, I am finding that for breakfast I am really needing to prebolus anywhere from 30-45 minutes before I eat because I seem to be the most insulin resistant in the morning. I’m also aiming to eat a bit lower carb for breakfast to I can avoid a huge blood sugar spike. However, for most meals, as long as it’s not something super carby, I find that 15-20 minutes is usually enough. Though sometimes I am not always the best at that and could pay attention to it a bit more! But hey life doesn’t always allow for you to think about what you’re going to eat, figure out the entire carb count of it, and take your insulin 20 minutes before you eat it and that’s okay. As long as you aim to do this most of the time, it will really help keep your A1C lower and keep that baby healthy.
5. PATIENCE.
One thing this entire pregnancy has taught me is to learn to be patient. A friend of mine, Makenzie, that is type 1 and just had a baby herself (@thefunkyfitlife on Instagram) shared something really great on her stories one day that her doc said to her. Her doc said “You’re not diabetic because your blood sugar spikes, you’re diabetic because it doesn’t come back down on it’s own.” This REALLY resonated with me and made me sort of have an AH HA moment. Before I got pregnant, and in the very beginning of my pregnancy, I was so worried that anytime I ate anything and my blood sugar went over 120 I was going to be harming my baby. This is not the case people, at all. The goal is to have your blood sugar below 140 one hour after eating and below 130-120 two hours after eating. This means, your blood sugar may spike to 160 right after you have a sandwich for lunch. It may spike to 172 right after you have a bowl of fruit. That’s okay!! This will happen even in non diabetics! The point where you want to worry a bit more is if it’s just hanging out there. Now, that’s not to say that if it’s hanging out at 160 for a little bit you need to have a panic attack and worry about all the horrible things that are happening to your baby right now. No. What it means is okay, if you’re still at 160 or something after 2 hours or so since you’ve eaten, take a little more insulin, maybe go for a walk, drink some water, do the things you usually do when you’re trying to get your blood sugar down. But the thing I have learned with patience is that it takes time. If you accurately carb counted, you prebolused, and your blood sugar spiked a bit after eating a meal, don’t rush and start stacking on a bunch more insulin because you’re worried. Wait it out a little bit, give that insulin some more time to do it’s job, and check your sugars two hours after eating. Sometimes what has helped for me is honestly not even looking at my dexcom until it’s been 2 hours or close to it after eating. I drove myself crazy with these small spikes/raises in my blood sugar in the beginning and it can get very frustrating and like you’re failing all the time. However like I said, my A1C has been in the 5s since my first trimester and my doctor is super happy with how I am managing everything, so I don’t worry about these normal rises in blood sugars so much anymore.
In the end I just want to reassure any fellow type one mamas or mamas to be out there, that this is all totally doable. You can have a normal pregnancy, with a healthy happy baby! It just takes a little more TLC. Granted my baby isn’t here outside of the womb just yet, but I have confidence with the amount of time, work, and effort that I put into this baby and my body that everything is going to turn out great. I know that in a matter of two months or less I’m going to be holding my baby girl or baby boy in my arms and thank God I didn’t let fear stop me from something so magical. I’ve always dreamt of being a mama and I’m just so thankful everyday that we were able to conceive and that this dream of mine is becoming a reality!
On that note, let me share with you guys some of the beautiful maternity photos we had taken last weekend. These photos were taken by the woman who did our videography for our wedding, Rebecca. If you’re local to Maine definitely check out her website here and her Instagram @milesdrouin – she is very talented!! Jonathan can be one tough cookie to work with in front of a camera sometimes, especially when he has a lil man cold (sorry babe LOL) and she made this whole experience fun and silly but still captured some beautiful photos of us. Thank you Rebecca!!
the beauty in type one 
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