The Prelude to the Big Show!

Pregnancy for any type 1 diabetic can be complicated to say the least. There are fears of low birth weight, premature birth, preeclampsia, high birth weight and beyond. For that reason, a diabetic pregnancy is tightly controlled with more ultrasounds (the good part) than routine pregnancy and more doctors (the bad part) with close monitoring. Reference this throw back blog post for details on last pregnancy’s strategy.

This time around I will be using the same team of doctor’s I did the last time with a few minor changes.

•  I will have my endocrinologist, who will monitor my type-1 diabetes. Pregnancy is typically associated with insulin sensitivity during the first trimester and insulin resistance during the second and third trimesters. Due to that, the insulin demands of the body drastically change throughout the course of 10 months. Throughout pregnancy I will see and/or consult with my “endo” every two weeks and then every week.
•    I will be using a perinatologist practice located in my delivery hospital. The “peris” will be monitoring the health of the baby throughout the diabetic pregnancy. They will do this through ultrasounds to measure the babies growth and my amniotic fluid levels. On average I will get an ultrasound 1-2x/ month. At around 20 weeks they will do a fetal echocardiogram with a specialist from Children's Hospital to ensure that the heart anatomy has developed appropriately.
•   I will be using the same OB practice as the last time; however, the OB that conducted my c-section has retired. I am super bummed about this because I had a rock start c-section recovery and barely have a scar. Kudos to you Dr. Seidel!

·         I will be delivering again at the largest birthing hospital in Maryland because of their high level NICU. Our little lady spent 36-hours in the NICU this past delivery, coming off of her mommy’s insulin needs. The level-1 NICU ensures that she will not be transferred out of the hospital to higher level care without me. This was super advantageous for breastfeeding. Holy Cross Hospital was also awesome at honoring my requests to be wheeled to the NICU every 2-hours to breastfeed after she was born and not in the room with me.

For now the plan is to start drugs on Monday 7/06, then go from there.....