The first step...

Today, my husband and I went to a high risk OBGYN to find out if I am healthy enough to have a baby.  I am a Type 1 Diabetic, and know that tight control of my blood sugar is crucial to a healthy pregnancy.  For 12 years, I've lived with this disease, and have gone through phases with it, like anything else in life.  When I was first diagnosed, mostly out of fear, I was very tightly controlled.  I thought that if I ever went over 200, I literally might drop dead.  Apparently, I wasn't listening all that closely during my 5 days of training in the hospital since I'm pretty sure that not one doctor ever told me a reading of 200+ would result in instant death.  As I started to catch onto the fact that I would survive going into the 200's--at least in the short term, which let's face it, is all a 17 year old cares about--my control began to slip.

Through college, my first real job, getting married, and settling into everyday life, I've always been relatively careful about my control, but certainly not where most doctors would want me to be.  Even though I tested at least a few times a day and wore a pump, My A1C has wavered from the 6's when I was first diagnosed, into the 7's, up to its highest at 8.5, back down to the 7's, and most recently down to 6.6!

With the baby bug growing inside me, and my working hard to get my blood sugar under tighter control, my husband and I decided to see where we stood in terms of my health and how it would impact a pregnancy.  We are both excited, and anxious to have a baby, but had questions about my health, and how it would affect our future child.

I was terrified that the doctor would tell me that my 6.6 A1C was still way too high, and that I weighed way too much to have a baby.  To my complete surprise, the doctor was not concerned about my weight (I asked her twice just to be sure!), although encouraged my desire to drop a little weight before getting pregnant if that's what I want.  She also said I was pretty darn close with my A1C.  She recommends being under 6.0 before pregnancy, but said she considers under 6.5 to be safe.  I couldn't believe it.  She handed me a prescription for prenatal vitamins, told us to wait a few more months to get my A1C down as much as I can and to go off birth control, and out we walked.  I could hardly believe that I didn't get yelled out, or lectured, or upset for any reason.

Once I got over that, I REALLY couldn't believe that this woman, board certified and all, had just told me and my husband that in a few months, we could start trying for a baby!  She wasn't just telling me what I wanted to hear, but what was true, and I was shocked.  I had been telling myself for so long that I was too far out of control and too overweight, that I never objectively looked at the situation.  And so, together, my husband and I walked out of that office, and into the next stage of our life.

I'm writing this blog, not only to document our journey for ourselves, but for other Type 1 women who are going through a pregnancy, and want to follow a real life story, from just thinking about it, hopefully through a healthy birth.  I've done some research online, and mostly what I find are horror stories from medical organizations warning diabetics against birth defect, still births and major complications.  I've found a few real life stories from Type 1 women who have healthy babies, and would like to offer up my own story as well, from the very beginning.  So, join me on this journey if you want.  I'll share the ups and downs (both blood sugar, and emotional), and whatever else comes to me in between!