Nursing & Diabetes

Photo by Erin Girard Photography 

I remember when we were registering for our baby shower, the sales associate asked us, "What's your feeding plan?"  I felt like a complete fish out of water because the only plan I had was to feed my baby the best way that I could whether that was breastfeeding or by bottle.  What she meant, was if I needed to look into bottles, breast pumps, nursing pillows etc.   While I did get all those things, that was really nothing in comparison to really figuring out my feeding plan once baby was here.

When we prepared the nursery, I thought about what my future self would need.  Low supplies - everywhere.  I put low supplies in the nearest drawer to the nursing chair, as I imagined I'd be spending lots of time stuck on that chair without the energy or ability to get downstairs for a juice box. I burned through those low supplies in no time.

Things I didn't think about before hand was the mental and physical exhaustion that breastfeeding takes. Like, I would say it caused the most doubt in myself, literally every day I questioned if I could continue breastfeeding.   Not only did it cause my blood sugars to do whatever they wanted to do, I also physically felt sick each time. (I looked into this and it seems that a small amount of moms experience this sort of nausea in the early weeks of breastfeeding.) To add to my self doubt, baby was not gaining. However, every day I told myself tomorrow is a new day and now we are at 3 months! We are still nursing without the nausea or doubt - yay!

I still seem to be figuring out how nursing and diabetes can co-exist in a way that I am not going into deeper lows or having random highs (probably because nursing makes me SO hungry in the night sometimes!) Taking care of myself both physically and mentally is important and has been a learning curve in this new phase of life.  Diabetes adapts to these life changes, but not always in a helpful way.

Kayla

Priorities

It can be hard to make diabetes a “priority” when you have a family to take care of.  Between caring for Nixon, Cola and the household, even with help from Mike it can be difficult to find the time to manage my diabetes.  Of course this leads to highs I didn’t expect, that have been creeping up for hours, that I never noticed because I didn’t have the second to check.  

The biggest issue is making sure I change my site and fill my pump. While there are warning for low reservoirs, the time between the warning and empty seems to fly by. I then find myself having to fill my pump in the early hours of the night while combating high blood sugars and a very, very tired body and mind. 

Technology makes this 100x easier, because I imagine if I had to pull out a syringe or pen every time I needed insulin, I’d forget.  I also imagine if I had to prick my finger to know my blood sugar that also would take a backseat. So I am thankful for technology that makes it easier to manage diabetes when diabetes becomes a challenge to manage. 

Of course I want great numbers and an awesome a1c. I want to be healthy for my family and for myself, but it’s a balance between sanity and perfection and finding the right space can be challenging.

Kayla