Thank you! My numbers are for fasting are between 90-94 I did have a day where I saw 100 and 104. I don’t like that I was told “you’ll be on insulin”…when I asked the endo & dietician any tips or things I can do to experiment, I was given a hard no. Which then led me to start researching. Came across this page and tried what was suggested. I took my sugars this morning and I was 87…I worked out before dinner I usually would do my workout in the afternoon. I have read Apple Cider Vinegar will help with fasting numbers.
Hi @JoJen, glad this is helping. I mean if all your numbers are normal all day long and the only one that’s not coming down is the fasting, I really wouldn’t want to go on insulin either (and my son takes insulin so it’s not like I’m unfamiliar with it-- I just think you’d have a high risk of lows that way.) Hoping Eric can suggest some other things to help reduce that fasting number.
So, these fasting numbers and the emphasis ob-gyns place on them really bug me. They’ve shown that people who have high fasting numbers on the blood draw in the lab for the OGTT tend to have *some small worse outcomes, but they haven’t shown that it actually improves outcomes yet to get those numbers *perfect.
I don’t know if you failed the gestational diabetes screen, but I always had high fasting numbers when I woke up and finger tested the moment I woke up from bed. But once I shlepped myself to the blood draw center, my blood sugar was often in the 70s on the blood draw. Which meant I would have passed the screen based on that number – so why was it relevant that my morning numbers are high right when I wake up? I would not have been detected as having high fasting BG according to criteria laid out in the clinical trials that showed a negative effect. Which is to say, I doctors can get obsessive and controlling about these numbers but I am not sure they really know what they mean for having a healthy pregnancy.
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Hi @JoJen and @cragie2016
Your body will take glucose and convert it into stored fuel for later muscular activity. The carbs stored in the muscles are called glycogen. The process of converting carbs into stored fuel (glycogen) is called glycogenesis.
Studies have shown that the time your body is most efficient at converting sugar/glucose/carbs into glycogen is soon after exercise. Recommendations for athletes are always to eat a carb source within 30 minutes after exercise, to maximize the effect of replacing their fuel. There are a lot of things that exercise do that cause glucose to be converted faster and more efficiently right after you have finished.
So the reason for the info above is just to give the background to the simple answer. If you can plan your exercise to be about 30 minutes before a meal, and that exercise has been of sufficient intensity and duration, your body will be much better able to process the carbs and convert them back to muscle glycogen. That will do the most to reduce your blood sugar from the meal.
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Yes so I failed the 2 hour screen at 28 weeks. My fasting number met the under 95 requirement my first hour draw was at 199 needed to be under 180 my second hour draw was 129 needed to be under 155 and while the endo told me my second hour number was great and she really doesn’t see that low of a drop from hour 1 to two she wanted me following the gestational plan. I have to meet weeklybwith a dietician team. My numbers are rarely over 120 on my first hour draw from first bite. Typically range from 98-113. And that’s all day after each meal. I’m so nervous to do insulin. I am not trying to be non compliant, but I feel like there already are so many varying opinions with fasting levels…I have a friend who’s doctor is fine with anything under 100 another’s says absolutely has to be under 90 and my dietician said under 95. And when another person who was walking me through practicing insulin shots saw my numbers all in the lower 90’s he wanted to put me on insulin…and I burst in to tears (hormones) I refused…it’s tricky because I don’t want to cause harm by not but also am terrified of the crashes I’ve read about in the middle of the night…
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the evidence for needing a fasting below 90 is really poor. I would not take insulin with just slightly higher fasting numbers – the insulin you need to get your fasting numbers down is a “long-acting” insulin that would keep you lower all night – but then all your other numbers are likely to be too low. I would take metformin before I took insulin. And you really have no idea how many women have fasting numbers exactly like yours, but who managed to pass their OGTT. Like I said, the number they wake up with is NOT THE SAME as the number you’re going to get from a lab blood draw after you’ve woken up, gotten dressed, taken a shower, driven to the hopsital, etc. So I really think we’re facing a massive overdiagnosis of gestational diabetes in women. But that’s just my two cents.
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@JoJen, welcome. Just throwing in some additional two cents here. I’m a T1D who’s gone through two successful T1D pregnancies. I would have loved to have had your numbers throughout my pregnancies. And my endos and OBs were thrilled with my control during my pregnancies. That is just to say that although maybe your numbers are considered an “indicator” from the medical community’s perspective, I cannot imagine those numbers are in any way harmful to your pregnancy. You are clearly on top of things. You’re doing great! I’m sure you are incubating that baby wonderfully!
Thank you. I’m terrified of doing something wrong either way. So stressful
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It is a lot to worry about. I totally get that! I had a coworker who “failed” the glucose tolerance test in her second pregnancy and her doctors had her so wrapped around the axle the rest of the pregnancy. She’d tell me her fasting numbers were terrible and awful but when it came to putting a number on it, it was around 106. I would have been doing backflips of joy if I could have woken up every morning w a 106. That didn’t happen for me but I still was meeting the tight pregnancy goals overall looking at the complete pregnancy. My babies were textbook healthy with no complications. I have entire albums of ultrasound photos to track all of it bc I was always getting monitored for something.
You got this. Your pregnancy is much more “perfect” (however doctors define that) than mine were from the sounds of it. Keep in mind the liability mindset that a lot of doctors have, too. They will want stuff perfect on paper for their own cover. I wanted the best for my babies and me…and I wanted to be real about that. A 106 or whatever in the morning is not a problem, IMO. I’m not a doctor…but still. That’s not “problem” territory as far as fetal development goes.
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At the onset of my last pregnancy (6 years ago), the high risk docs at Johns Hopkins (so a pretty solid bunch) told me they didn’t care what I did as long as it didn’t entail blows to the stomach. I was trying to explain that I danced salsa and merengue…even samba, and they said they didn’t care… “as long as you’re not dancing salsa while taking blows to the stomach.”
I remained cautious anyway as it just felt odd, but I remember thinking that the pregnancy rules had REALLY changed. 
And sadly, we saw the premature end of a once-promising career as a professional female boxer.
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I’d like to put in a formal request for a head shot of you… just the head.
Go check out the thread on pictures of FUDders being unlimited. He’s in there and I can’t wait to see what you do w his picture.
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Thank you, kind ma’am. 
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Hi. @TiaG I was just wondering if you try exercising before dinner and if it helped you. I tried working out an hour before bed and it worked for like 3 days then my fasting went back to 96-98.
Hi @Chubbs.mama, it did work but over time I needed to ramp up the exercise level as well as my body got used to it. In addition, the gestational diabetes tends to worsen over the course of the pregnancy so it’s possible that without the exercise your fasting BG may have risen even more.
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@TiaG did you do it before dinner? Did you do a bedtime snack?
The nurse continues to tell me to do a bedtime snack with 15g of carbs but I just find that’s to high…of course they make me feel like I am doing everything wrong.
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I didn’t do bedtime snacks after I figured out it didn’t lower that fasting number
Yeah, take everything they tell you with a grain of salt. That is for the “average” person, and you may not be average.
My son is very carb sensitive, so when we did a snack at bedtime it needed to be 5g of carbs not 15g. When he treats a low he treats with 4g and often follows that up with insulin to prevent him from going high.
A good rule of thumb is to try what they tell you, then quickly (after a couple of days) adjust once you see that it doesn’t do what you want.
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