October 2011 Low-Carb Pregnancy Chat!
 

I feel like there are enough of us floating around here nowadays that we could start a new thread for the new month instead of continuing to build on June :)

Also, I want to encourage not only pregnant women, but those trying to become pregnant or low-carbing to become healthy for potential upcoming pregnancies to join in the chat!

I've had a rough few days filled with LOTS of fruit. I'm trying to reel myself back in and took the first step by having some cheesy eggs for breakfast this morning. Hopefuly, with tomorrow being Monday, I'll have an easier time because I'll be back into the work week routine.

MMMmm cheesey eggs are what I've been having. I cook them till they're crispy. It seems if I start off with an lc breakfast like that I do way better all day long.
Low carb is the only way I can manage to keep my bloodpressure down without meds.

Oddly, low carb does not help with my blood pressure. Neither did losing nearly 150 pounds from my highest. Neither did severely reducing the amount of sodium in my diet. I've never been on meds for my bp, but it usually hover RIGHT around 120/80 or slightly higher. For whatever reason, my docs don't seem concerned enough about it to put me on meds, so...for now, it is what it is!

I did have my cheesy eggs. And then I had a steak and salad for lunch. But pizza for dinner! :( *sigh* Back in business tomorrow. I HAVE to be.

thanks for starting the new thread :) i'm really hoping that lc helps keep my bp under control. With my first i had huge puffy edamatous feet from the high bp. It was sooo uncomfortable. Jill~isnt 120/80 pretty normal? I usually run 110/70 but thats on the low side of normal. With my first preg i was 135/90ish for my third trimester.

I had a week away from home but i think i did pretty good with my food. I've added in a bit of fruit and it doesnt make me nauseous, so i'm excited about that. :)

A week to go till due date for me. Hoping baby continues to cooperate and hold off until at least the 8th so my sister can be here for the birth. After hovering within the same 4 pound weight since going back to LC a couple months abo, I packed on 3 pounds this past week (I'm at 194). Can't blame it on baby; I just was not so pristine with my eating and I've been too tired to exercise or move much at all for several weeks.

But otherwise, health is good and no issues so I'm pleased.

MiniMim - 1 week, wow! You must be feeling pretty good if you're hoping for baby to hold on still; most women I know in their last month just can't wait to get it OUT! :P

I'd understood 120/80 to basically be the tip top of the "normal" range. Mine usually runs right around there if not a little higher - has for years. But, my cholesterol is all good, so...who knows.

Well, when else do I have a legitimate excuse to lay around and sleep whenever I feel like it? ;)



NIH changed the guidelines on this a few years ago so that 120-139/80-89 is sort of a "warning" range (prehypertension) ... in between normal range and high blood pressure. No meds necessary, but an indication that you should be doing something to keep it from getting out of control. :

http://www.health.harvard.edu/fhg/u...date0803a.shtml

Yup. I've tried weight loss, low sodium, consistent exercise, low carb...by now, I've just given up, and even when I'm not doing any of those special things, it STILL stays in that same "almost high, but not dangerous" range. I think it's just my norm. C'est la vie!

Yep, sounds like it's your normal. It's just a number, and the numbers are just a guideline, after all, not a definitive diagnosis. At least, that's how I see it.

Hi ladies,

Hope you all had a nice weekend.

I'm still struggling eating too much bad food, although I've increased my fruit and vegetable intake in the last week, which I guess is a step forward. Most of the time the thought of meat and eggs makes me feel queasy so it's hard to commit to a complete diet overhaul at the moment. Some days I am definitely not getting enough protein, which is a concern.

And I know this will probably sound weird to you guys, but wearing an insulin pump I actually have a harder time controlling my blood sugar with a high protein and fat meal than with a small mostly carbohydrate meal, as long as carbs are no more than about 50g. With protein-based meals I get a blood glucose spike about 6-8 hours after eating. On the other hand, small carby meals are neither healthy for me, nor large enough to be satisfying.

Also had my vit D levels checked recently and got the results - 29, too low, especially before winter! Need to do better about those pills.

Hopefully this upcoming week, I will finally get news that the baby inside me is there and doing ok. Have a heartbeat check scheduled with the OB on Friday, and an appt with the perinatologist at the hospital on Monday (which in the past has always involved an U/S). It's been tense, because I had my first U/S at just 5-ish weeks last pregnancy and so had a lot more reassurance by this time.

Jill, if you are concerned about the bp, are all your readings in the doctor's office or are you checking at home too? Could be some white coat hypertension. My DH has high bp, but it's substantially higher at the doctor's. A home monitor isn't too costly. Also, at some point I read about the proper arm position and height for getting accurate bps and I've noticed the nurses never look at this. For me I've noticed taking slow deep breaths for 30 seconds before they take my bp seems to yield better results. I'm thankful I only had one high bp reading during my last pregnancy and it was at my endo's not at my ob's and he was willing to write it off as a fluke. I have enough pregnancy "issues" that I'm happy to avoid another one.

Maybe too much protein at once is the culprit? Excess protein can be converted to glucose by the liver, but it's obviously a slower process than eating carbs that quickly translate to glucose in the body. And 6-8 hours after eating? Could also be a liver dump from waiting so long to eat again, right? Similar to having higher fasting glucose levels due to dawn phenomenon (morning liver dump).


What kind of vit D supplements do you take? D3 is generally better absorbed than D2, and a dry formulation (one not packed in little oil gell cap type things) are also usually better absorbed. And if all else fails, they also now make a sublingual vit D3 supplement - I believe it's an oral spray.


I do have a monitor at home, so it's not a white coat issue :) I'm not worried about it at all since it hasn't gotten any higher during pregnancy than it has been for me for YEARS.

i wonder who was behind upping the new 'normal range' for bp's. was there funding from pharmaceutical companies? lol~yes i'm cynical anymore

i feel so awesome right now. no nausea, no fatigue. i forget that i'm pregnant sometimes. it feels like i'm cheating somehow. and eating lc, i feel so stable emotionally too, none of that emotional pregnant lady thing going on. some days i feel like taking a pregnancy test because i feel so good.

[QUOTE=jillybean7]Maybe too much protein at once is the culprit? Excess protein can be converted to glucose by the liver, but it's obviously a slower process than eating carbs that quickly translate to glucose in the body. And 6-8 hours after eating? Could also be a liver dump from waiting so long to eat again, right? Similar to having higher fasting glucose levels due to dawn phenomenon (morning liver dump).

Yes, you're right, it's definitely protein being converted to glucose. It's pretty regular and predictable. The issue is, it happens when I eat any more than about 3-4oz of beef, for example, and when having a low carb meal, I eat substantially more than that. I know some people even know an insulin bolus ratio per grams of protein. The difficulty is really if I eat dinner at 6 pm, I need to be able to manage the spike I know is coming around 2 am. I would rather be sleeping and my doctor isn't too fond of me giving myself a bolus of insulin right before bed either, which I do fairly frequently.

I'm working on trying to make lunch my biggest meal of the day and having most of my protein then. But then I'm struggling with satiety after dinner. I had a huge veggie-only salad and cream of veggie soup today for dinner...lowish in carb, but also low protein...and I'm already hungry again.

Ugh, pregnancy hormones/emotions hit me HARD yesterday. I was so tired that I left work about an hour and a half early and went home to do dishes - my kitchen literally smelled bad from the dirty dishes in the sink that I'd been too tired to deal with! So, I emptied the clean dishes from the dishwasher and loaded the dirty ones into the dishwasher and ran it. I now think the smell is actually coming from my garbage disposal since I still smell it despite having done the dishes and plugged in new air fresheners. Time to go get a lemon to drop into the disposal!

When myhusband came home, I cried - unusual for me, even now! I was just so frustrated and tired of being so tired all the time! I have things to do and no energy to do them. His solution (at least for the dishes) was to go to the store and buy paper plates and bowls and plastic cups. Mother Earth will not be happy, but soon-to-be Mother Jillybean will have a bit of an easier time :P


ha, I can be quite cynical, too, but if it were pharmaceutical companies, wouldn't they want the max normal to be LOWER so more people would be prescribed the meds?

Hey all. Well I'm starting to feel really nauseaus this week. My bp has been staying in the normal range so yay!!
I have my first obgyn apt on Friday. Very excited about that lol if I just had more energy!!
Interesting concept on the protein. Keep feeling like a four burrito shell or saltines will make me feel better. I got a pack of almonds instead. I really don't think anything would work anyhow.