# anyone struggle after baby 1 before baby 2



## smile4loubie (Apr 5, 2012)

Hi everyone!

Alan n I are thinking about baby 2 (Imogen will be 1 in under a month). Only problem is I am really struggling with my control. I have been since I stopped breastfeeding when Imogen was 4 months. Docs are useless. No help other thasn telling me I need to control it better (well I know that!). Anyone else had issues after baby 1? I feel so down about it. Bg's usually in the teens. Not sure if this was the right place to post lol. I don't expect or want to get pregnant right away because bloods are all over the place but I do want more kids.


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## Monkey (Apr 5, 2012)

smile4loubie said:


> Hi everyone!
> 
> Alan n I are thinking about baby 2 (Imogen will be 1 in under a month). Only problem is I am really struggling with my control. I have been since I stopped breastfeeding when Imogen was 4 months. Docs are useless. No help other thasn telling me I need to control it better (well I know that!). Anyone else had issues after baby 1? I feel so down about it. Bg's usually in the teens. Not sure if this was the right place to post lol. I don't expect or want to get pregnant right away because bloods are all over the place but I do want more kids.



I did find things harder once I stopped bfing (altho that was at 13m) and C started to be much more active. I found I had to make a real effort about testing and recording (I was ok at testing, but really struggled to write anything down!) and making dose adjustments as necessary.

Are you MDI and carb counting? Carb counting accurately? Might be worth asking for a pre-conception referral so you can get some detailed help - or have you got a DSN you can contact?


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## Twitchy (Apr 5, 2012)

Hi...I really struggled after baby number 1 - don't know whether it was the 'chicken' or 'egg' as it were, but I also had post natal depression (I was extremely anxious about baby, so stressed after the intense pregnancy, then he was premmie & poorly too & struggled with feeding). They had initially told me to 'run high so as to avoid going hypo & accidentally smothering the baby' which didn't help either my control or mental state in hindsight lol!   It also felt like after the 'can't move for HCPs' feeling of the pregnancy, suddenly you were left entirely alone, struggling with everything, with fluctuating BG levels/insulin needs due to hormone changes, sleep deprivation, stress, general busy-mumness etc - a time when at least the odd bit of supportive contact would have been vastly appreciated.  I personally didn't have a strong support network around (OH is adopted & my mum died when I was a kid) so on all fronts it felt like solo mountaineering! (I also only realised I had pnd at 8 months but we'd had to give up on breast feeding far earlier). 

So in summary, not saying you've got PND or anything, but yes, I struggled after baby number 1, in pretty much every sense!  For what it's worth, life post baby 2 has been just as hectic but somehow much easier to deal witht the baby side of things at least - it's not all new & scary lol. 

The post baby control challenges I found - 1) When you have a baby, the immediate instinct is baby comes first...but if baby is crying & you need to do a BG test, or carb count or eat, do it! Baby will last another minute or two whilst you sort yourself out & you'll both be better off if your control is better. (For me actually sitting down & eating started to feel like mission impossible!) 2) Life is chaotic - routine goes to pot...and the last thing on your mind is writing results down & looking for patterns...maybe try & get your OH to ringfence 10 mins an evening when you can look through the results on your meter & write them down then instead? (Honestly, I will try this myself one day lol)...and 3) dawn phenomenon hit me...swinging high BGs from the morning, screwing up the day before it had begun...and apparently the only effective way to address DP is with a pump - but the good news is as far as my doc is concerned DP means you should get a pump!

Not sure if the above is any help, but I can relate to how you feel = it is hard work but you're not alone - we're here for moral support & I'd defintely recommend you get on the phone to your DSN for support if you feel that would help - maybe just ask them to 'touch' base over the phone once a fortnight or something to see how things are going... I know what I'm like & that would probably give me a bit of a nudge/excuse to prioritise testing & recording a bit more! 

I'd also just say try to get your OH to help if you can...not always easy I appreciate but you need a bit of tlc too. 

All the best (& sorry if this is a bit random - baby no1 is now a big lad & creating havoc, ruining my concentration lol!).

Take care,

Twitchy xx


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## sugarfreerach (Apr 10, 2012)

Hi, I've just stopped brestfeeding in the last 2 months and my sugars were all over the place. I'm on a pump and met with my dsn, who hooked me up to a cgm. With that I saw that my basals were too low and causing highs overnight which caused me to over correct in the mornings and cause hypos, then rebound highs etc.

So I corrected my basals and I've been a back to good control. Do you normally adjust your basals yourself? If not could you ask your diabetic team, if you have one?


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## newbs (Apr 11, 2012)

I struggled to gain control for a long time after DD1, took me a good couple of years to get things back under control to ttc #2.  This control was never as it had been before babies, and since have DD2 my control has been worse still, although I am getting there slowly and my youngest is now 2.5yrs.  I don't want to put a downer on things, it is possible to get the control back and I would definitely recommend having more than 1 child as watching them together is priceless so it is worth the effort but I am just saying that it is hard.  The strain on the body obviously does have an effect.  Don't be hard on yourself, you will get there - you haven't given yourself much time yet.


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## smile4loubie (Apr 14, 2012)

Thanks girls. My control has been better over the last few days so fingers crossed I've turned a corner!  xx


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## odgepodge (Apr 16, 2012)

hi, i also struggled more with control preparing for baby 2.  i think for me most of it was a mental thing - i'd been so tight with my control for no.1 and (most) things went smoothly, that i relaxed a bit more with no2.  Also, i did no 1 on injections and no 2 on a pump.  i had to work a lot harder to get control on injections than with the pump, the pump made me relax a bit more.  and with hindsight i think that meant i wasn't as tight on control.  plus baby no1 was keeping me busy so less time to focus on myself.  agree with point about basals being the key if on a pump - up them and things seem to be much easier to control.


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## PhoebeC (Apr 17, 2012)

I dont know how anyone has baby no2, when i was pregnant first time i was so ill i coudlnt even look after me, i couldnt imagine having a child to look after at the same time.

Anyone with more than one is super brave  xx


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## beckyp (Apr 19, 2012)

I'm now preggers with no. 2 (almost 11 weeks) - nothing on fb yet so mum's the word!  As I got pregnant after moving abroad I didn't see a DSN or have a conception clinic.  I knew that we'd be trying for a baby reasonably quickly after E was born so did make a conscious effort to control things a bit better but nowhere near as strict as I was while ttc first time round.  I feel pregnant a month before E was one.  It's really hard to be as strict while having another person to care for too.  I have found that I'm much more relaxed with this pregnancy though.  I guess fear of the unknown isn't there anymore.

I found it really hard to get my levels under control after E was born.  You have so many months of close monitoring from everyone under the sun at the hospital and the minute they are born all links with these people are cut and you don't see or hear from them again!  I found it really upsetting and almost a bit rude of them!!!  The first HbA1c I had was 7.9% while I was bf'ing and my doctor (the original one I had not the pregnancy doc) said that it should be "better".  I suffered lots of hypos during the first 4 months which resulted in lots of rebounds.  Nobody seemed to be able to help much so I ended up doing it myself by testing a crazy amount during the day.  I HAD to get my control better as I was going through the medical procedure for our work visas and it took 5 months to get all the paperwork sorted out from the hospital to say that I wasn't a risk to the country (it went up to 8.3% a month later during a medical examination!).

I had it tested when I fell pregnant here and it was 7.3% so although higher than I would have liked in the UK during early pregnancy the doctors here are really happy with it.  They're not nearly as strict here about your levels during pregnancy - they want 7-8 tests daily maximum and they also say to not test an hour after lunch.  They want 2 hours.  The lower you are after your meals the higher the chance of a hypo and a rebound.  Since being pregnant this time i've not experienced nearly as many hypos - last time I would hypo at least 5 times a day to try and keep my levels below 6.

Speak to your DSN.  Are you on insulin or tabs?  Perhaps book in for a preconception clinic and take a food diary/sugar levels diary to see where you can adjust your levels slightly.  I'm sure a bit of tweaking here and there will help.


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## sorcha (May 3, 2012)

I always find that lack of sleep makes my control worse.  So after each baby there was some high-running glucose!  

I definitely noticed it was worse after breastfeeding stopped... and interestingly the extent of the problem was inversely proportional to the amount of time I'd spent beastfeeding. Maybe the gradual decline of milk production when feeding a toddler is easier for the body to handle than suddenly stopping after a few weeks of feeding a newborn.

Also... I ask hesitatingly... are you getting regular exercise?  Again, after all three babies my activity levels plummeted.  And I know my control is always better when I'm reasonably fit.

Hope you find it all settles down soon.


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