Sugar test

Before I start my blog, I want to remind you about the super fun win campaign that is running! Check our facebook page and win a photo shoot at Sanne Kohl Photography. Even if your child(ren) are a bit older you can just enter!

Last time, I told you about my adventure with the sugar test. To be honest, I had been quite nervous because I am not a hero with blood sampling ( I know, I am a midwife). Still, it's very different poking someone else than being poked myself. Anyway, I had survived the day and afterwards it was not too bad! So I had worried about nothing. Because my fasting value was abnormal, I had to take my sugar values myself at home. It can happen that during the sugar test the value was a bit higher once but that it usually isn't. That is why you first go and prick your sugar levels at home to see what your sugar levels are during the day. Initially, my fasting value remained on the high side. It should be below 5.3 and I was always around 5.4 or 5.5. I started trying everything to get this value down. I ate less and less carbohydrates and sugars, hoping this would lower the value. The more often I got a wrong reading, the more stressful it became. So I started eating even fewer carbs. Unfortunately, cutting back on carbs too much had the opposite effect and there's a very logical explanation for that! Naturally, I called my colleague Mayke, our nutrition guru. She told me that your liver stores sugar as a supply and that your liver releases a certain amount of sugar in the morning to give you energy to start your day. So the less carbs and sugar I started eating, the more enthusiastically my liver started releasing sugar in the morning. To address this, I started eating more carbs again in the evening and went for a walk in the morning before pricking. Fortunately for my body, this was enough to keep the sugar levels at a good level. I do want to emphasise that this was fortunately enough for my body, but this does not have to be the case for others. Sometimes your body is so upset by the pregnancy hormones that you cannot get your sugar levels under control with just a different diet and more exercise. Then the internist will prescribe insulin to help your body regulate your sugar levels. This is important for your own health but also for your baby's health. For me, it was important to make sure I had done everything I could to help my body get the sugar levels right without medication. Our little man is estimated to be big from the beginning so anything I could do myself to regulate his growth that had to be done. So for me it was quite a stressful period because each time I thought I was doing the right thing, which in hindsight turned out to have the opposite effect. Fortunately, I got the sugars under control and have stayed that way so far. If your sugars are also abnormal, always low-key contact your dietician, nutritionist or an orthomolecular therapist. They can help you see what your body needs to regulate sugar levels properly.

If you guys have any questions for me, please send a pm or leave a comment on facebook or instagram! As long as our little man stays put, you can expect my next blog next Tuesday!