Gestational Diabetes

On my birthday, I talked with a nurse from my doctor's office, and she told me that I have gestational diabetes. This is a condition in which the mother's body doesn't process glucose (sugars) as well as when she wasn't pregnant. The condition generally disappears after the baby is born, but can mean that the mother is prone to getting diabetes later in life if she's not careful with her diet and exercise.

While diabetes is very serious, as long as gestational diabetes is treated with at least a healthy, restrictive diet, leaving out refined sugars and carbohydrates, the only effect on the pregnancy is a slightly larger baaby. If diabetes is not controlled, the baby can get large enough to warrant a C-section (which I am trying like heck to avoid) or could even kill mom or baby (if she's got a really serious case of it).

So I saw my doctor a few days later (last Thursday), and he tells me that no, I'm not diabetic, but pre-diabetic. He still wants me to eat as though I have diabetes to prevent it from becoming a reality in the next nine weeks or so until the baby is born. So today I have an appointment with a dietician (sp?) to learn how to eat with a pre-diabetic condition.

I find all this mildly amusing since I tend to be closer to hypoglycemic when I'm not pregnant. In other words, if I don't eat regularly, keeping my blood sugar steady, I tend to get dizzy, nauseous, and cranky. Diabetes is completely the opposite, it's hyperglycemic. Ha. How weird the human body can be!