Labor and type 1 diabetes

I started 'spotting' (bleeding) on Wednesday morning. I called my gynae who wanted me to be admitted to hospital so that they could check. She found nothing wrong EXCEPT that I was showing mild contractions already so I was discharged on Thursday. Sr Anke, my nurse educator also came to check as my gynae wanted my endo there when I went into labor as she was not used to dealing with diabetics on an insulin pump.

So the day would finally be arriving! Hello nervousness, anxiety and EXCITEMENT :)

So after supper on  Friday evening, my husband and I went out for supper, I felt slight cramps. I actually didn't really know that I was in labor because my water never broke and it sure as heck didn't look like what it did on TV! So I thought, Braxton Higgs - WRONG!

Friday night the pains got more intense but my husband slept through a lot of my contractions. I actually ended up pinching him awake. He did call the hospital though to find out if they could prescribe me anything for pain but they said that I could be in labor and that I should come in. At that point I didn't want to be a big baby and go in for nothing but shucks it was getting more and more painful as time progressed.



On Saturday morning I was almost crying with the pain. A builder was coming to complete the wall but I literally stood across the road and told my husband to take me to hospital 'NOW!'. Forget the darn builder!! When I got to hospital I was still bleeding and they were going to check to see if I was dilated. Hello PAIN! I'm sure that not all woman experience pain then but shucks I could have passed up that experience. I heard the nurse tell they gynae on duty that I was in pain but this was probably just due to me being very anxious and afraid - oh hell YES!

When she could eventually finish the examination I was 3cm dilated. Then the question 'would I like an epidural?'. Did they even have to ask me that - Of course! BUT all the anaesthetist were busy so they gave me an epidural injection while I waited. Thank goodness for Dr. Lee who came to administer the epidural and did such a great job that it was less painful than my drip.

My gynae came in at noon and after another exam told that it would be another 6 hours. Yes, 6 hours! My epidural worked so well that I felt absolutely nothing but I could still feel my feet (my friend couldn't feel hers). However, it seemed to work too well so it got turned off and I got oxytocine to make my contractions stronger because I needed to push harder. I really didn't know that pushing on demand like I was constipated would be so tough lol I reduced my basal insulin so that I wouldn't complicate the process by going hypo.

I had to stop pushing because the umbilical cord was around our daughters neck. I heard that she had lots of hair (not unexpected :) but her heart beat and my temperature were rising. My gynae thought that I could push her out but gave me some help via suction when this happed. At 19:09 our beautiful daughter was born :D

I got to hold her while my husband did the iqaama and athaan (religious - call to prayer) in her ears. Then I got to nurse her as well. She latched on nicely and the family was outside waiting to see her but I was busy puking my guts out (downside of epidural). Hence the first pic they saw were of her tiny feet :)

They eventually got to see her when my husband took her out to get tested for diabetes and all the other checks. I was told that she was fine and had an APGAR score of 9, also normal blood glucose levels  :)

HELLO MOTHERHOOD :)

3rd trimester with type 1 diabetes

I've learnt that even though I could have expected my insulin resistance to improve, it did not really happen for me. So I injected well into my 3rd trimester because I was still somewhat insulin resistant.



Source: http://www.pfizer4life.com/en/MomsToBe/YouAndYourBaby/ThirdTrimester.aspx

I had all the foetal assessments done and was happy to learn that our baby didn't have anything I needed to worry about. Oh, I didn't have the test done to check whether the baby would be at risk of down syndrome. My view is that I would not have ended my pregnancy in that case anyway so why bother taking the test.

My gynae was a tiny bit concerned about the weight of my our baby though. She was growing at a tremendous speed and there was a risk that I would not have been able to give natural birth. I was told at the foetal assessment that I was most likely to be induced at 38 weeks to prevent the baby from growing too large at full term.

However, the risk with induction is that there is also an increased risk of a c-section. So I had to brace myself for the fact that I could in all likelihood have a c-section even though I would have preferred a natural birth (with epidural of course. I'm not that into pain lol).

At my 37 week scan our baby was 3.8kg (+-300 grams). I was scheduled to come in for an induction the next week. However, my gynae warned that kids have their own schedules and that I could go into labour before that date. She also said that if our baby was more than 4kg that I would be schedule for a c-section and not induced. There was a risk that the shoulders would get stuck and we were not willing to take that risk.

The assessment also showed that there was a 90% chance that we were having a girl :) YIPPEEE pink! Almost time for labor - scary!!