Type 1 Cravings

In my previous post, I made mention of some of the things that helped to make my breastfeeding journey a pleasant one. Since I’m trying to exclusively breastfeed my son for as long as possible (current target is three months; optimal goal is six months), I’m doing everything I can to milk the situation for all its benefits.

A quick note: This blog post contains affiliate links. This simply means that if you go to Amazon to make a purchase, I can make a commission.

Breastfeeding does what?!

The first benefit that caught my attention was that breastfeeding boosts a baby’s immune system.  This helps their little bodies to fight viral, bacterial and parasitic infections like pneumonia, meningitis, urinary tract infections and the common cold and flu. But that wasn’t all – breastfeeding can also help to reduce the risk of diseases later on in the baby’s life. These include diseases/conditions like Type 1 and 2 Diabetes, Hodgkins Disease, Leukemia, obesity and eczema. Since a number of these diseases/conditions run in my family, nobody had to tell me twice!

Then I came across an article that was published in the Gleaner last July, entitled, ‘Breast Is Best – The Benefits and Joys of Breastfeeding.’ The article stated that not only does breastfeeding reduce the risk of the baby getting certain diseases later on in life, it also reduces the mom’s risk of getting ovarian and breast cancer, heart disease and osteoporosis. So much so, that a woman who breastfeeds for a total of eight years has almost 0% risk of getting breast cancer, and a baby girl who is breastfed reduces her risk of getting breast cancer by about 25%.

Breastfeeding: The Built-in Gym

The benefits that sold me on the practice however were the fact that breastfeeding can help a mum to heal faster, and return to her pre-pregnancy weight, since producing breastmilk burns up to 1,000 calories per day. Talk about having a built-in gym! But the most extraordinary thing I found out about breastfeeding was that the milk is literally magic. The milk produced by the mother’s breast changes according to the baby’s nutritional needs – and you’ll find cool things like the fact that the water content in the milk increases during hot weather or sickness to ensure that the baby stays hydrated. 

In spite of all these benefits that breastfeeding offers, however, research shows that many Jamaican babies are still not being exclusively breastfed. In fact, the 2016 Economic and Social Survey produced by the Planning Institute of Jamaica revealed that only 47.5% of Jamaican babies were being breastfed exclusively. And some of the reasons I’ve read were just absolutely ridiculous – mothers claim that they don’t have the time, their breasts aren’t producing enough milk, it huuuuuurrrrrrrtttttttttssssssss and they don’t want to get saggy breasts. 

That being said, I’ve made a list of must-haves for the mum who could make all the excuses in the world to not breastfeed, but chooses to anyways. Here goes:

1. A Breast Pump…or the next best thing!

I’ve literally tried them all – and really, its just a matter of preference. There’s the old-school hand-pump, the traditional electric pump, the rechargeable pump (my personal favourite) or breast milk collection shells. What definitely gets annoying is pumping by hand – either the cramps will kill you, or the time and effort it takes when you could either be finished in half the time, or multi-tasking. My newest obsession is the Elvie hands-free breast pump – I love everything about it, except the price. But you can’t pay for the convenience of popping a boob shaped pump into your bra, and pumping so quietly that no one knows your business and both hands are free to do whatever you want! It also comes with an app, and you can watch how much milk you’ve pumped without once pulling down your top!

2. Breastmilk Storage Bags

As I prepare to go back to work after my 12-week maternity leave, I want to ensure that my son has an adequate supply of milk while I’m at work. To give myself enough wiggle room in the event that I don’t get to pump every day, I’ve started pumping and storing milk in the freezer so that his nanny/nursery can just defrost and feed him as he needs. Since breastmilk has an optimal freezer shelf life of six months, I think I’m well on my way with almost 120 ounces stored so far! I’ve been using the same bags I got from my Amazon Baby Registry because they’ve been so good – easy to use, pre-sterilised, can stand or lay flat in your freezer without taking up too much space. Best of all, they’re super easy to label with nothing more than a Sharpie.

3. Nipple Balm

Because sore nipples are a real mother-you-know-what, invest in some nipple balm. Especially after my boy feels like getting all gummy and grabby, a little soothing rub like this one gives me relief right away. And if he’s ready to suck again, you don’t even have to worry about wiping it off first!

4. Nursing Pads

The best gift I ever received before giving birth was two boxes of Nuby nursing pads – each containing 100 pieces. In just two months, I had to restock. But I’m wiser now – had I known what I know today about saving that breast milk, I’d have been able to use less pads and save more of that precious milk. Nonetheless, breastmilk stains will never go with your power suit, so be sure to stock up on these to use with or without a breast milk collection cup. If you’re a tree-hugger like I aspire to be, try these washable bamboo pads (they’re comfy) but I only use them at home because they’re not as leak-proof as the disposable ones.

5. Hands-free Pumping Bra

Breastfeeding has given me immense appreciation for anything that begins with the phrase, ‘hands-free’. Get the bra, trust me.

6. Snacks

Type One or not, breastfeeding and pumping should not be done without snacks, or proper hydration. At first, I would find myself hypoglycaemic during and after breastfeeding or pumping. Now, I’m always sure to grab a snack (or a few) and enough water and sometimes juice to keep the lows at bay.

Did I leave anything off? Tell me what you’ve used on your breastfeeding journey.

I wasn’t even going to make a baby registry…

In fact, when I discussed it with my two best women, I was adamant that I didn’t know enough people for a registry to work, and no one would buy me anything. As far as I was concerned, I was going to have to foot the bill for whatever my baby needed, and I was prepared to do a lot of footing – based on all the research I did about what babies needed in the first year.

I eventually caved in to the peer pressure from my friends and created a baby registry on Amazon. First I struggled with what to put on it. Then I did more research, read a million reviews, blogs and test reports…compared prices, spoke to other moms and made a list.

To put it simply, it’s one of the things I’ve done in my life that I can absolutely say I do not regret! Here’s why…

A week (literally ONE week) after bashfully sending out the registry to a couple of contacts in my phone book, I started getting calls from my courier. Then the boxes started pouring in – boxes and boxes and boxes of everything baby. People would call me in offended tones, ‘how comes you haven’t sent me your registry?!’ My living room rivaled ‘Babies R Us’ and before I knew it, basically everything was bought from the registry – even things I thought no one would buy!

But it didn’t stop there – my friends threw me the sweetest baby shower (honestly) and I went home with a car-full of gifts – and diapers, diapers, diapers (from a diaper raffle – brilliant idea if you ask me!). Cousins sent baby clothes, old and new clients dropped off gifts (including ca$h!) and old and new friends seemingly just looked for a reason to give me a bag of goodies every time they saw me.

The outpouring of love and gifts for Baby Luca and continues even to this day – and now, on top of all those gifts – I have offers for baby sitters, house cleaners, hair-washers-and-combers…you name it.

I’d blame my crying as I write this post on the pregnancy hormones – but the truth is – I’m grateful for all the blessings my baby boy has brought into my life. I never imagined I could ever receive so many gifts, and have so many people in my corner, ready and willing to help. I thank God for every single one of these persons He’s put in my life, and praise Him for the unique purpose He’s given to each of them.

More than anything, I’m grateful that I get the opportunity to be Luca’s mom – he truly has been the greatest gift of all!

When things settle down…I promise to do a review of the items on my registry (and even the other gifts I got) and talk about how I got everything shipped to Jamaica without being buried under customs and clearing fees.

PS: To the person who bought Luca’s crib – thank you! Really wish we knew who you were so we could put a name on this.

I remember once asking a ‘Diabetes Specialist’ about the do’s and don’ts of getting pregnant with Type 1 Diabetes. The only thing she told me was an emphatic ‘DON’T’, before proceeding to berate me about my HBA1C, which at the time was about 12.6.

Motherhood was a dream, but never something I ever really believed would happen to me. To make it worse, I struggled with PCOS symptoms – irregular periods, long evil painful periods (when they did show up), hirsutism, weight gain, etc – so while I still had distant dreams of one day having a kid, I started to resign my mind to the fact that I was more likely to become a cat mom or just Rich Auntie Marion.

‘Congratulations, you’re pregnant…’

So when the ultrasound technician blithely declared, ‘Congratulations, you’re pregnant’, I laughed him off, annoyed at his bizarre sense of humor. I had come to do an ultrasound to confirm that there were indeed cysts growing on my ovaries – not a baby. So I was certainly not amused.

Well, neither was he.

It may have been the long line of people I’d left outside waiting in the lobby that made him impatient, or the fact that I asked him to go get someone who could actually read an ultrasound to come and tell me what was really growing in my belly. None of the twenty-odd pregnancy tests I had done in the week leading up to the ultrasound, or even on the day of, had detected any pregnancy, so I was sure that this baby-seeing dunce was just way out of line.

Anyways, turns out I’m actually pregnant. In real life.

Lowering my HBA1C + Joining the Libre Gang

Today, I’m almost seven months along (this post is late AF, I know) and so far, it hasn’t been the shit-show I expected it to be. My beloved new endocrinologist, Suzette Robinson, had me pricking my fingers 14 times a day before we decided to bite the bullet and pay for the Freestyle Libre continuous glucose monitoring system. Since I don’t live in the US, or have international insurance coverage and CGMs aren’t a thing in Jamaica, it costs me ~US$180 or ~JMD$25,000 per month to use the system – but I promise you, I couldn’t put a price on the benefits if I tried.

For the first time in my life, my HBA1C was below 10 – my last one since having a CGM was 7.6, and now, I don’t know how I ever lived without one. Hopefully, the cost doesn’t become too much for my budget when baby comes…

So far, I’m thankful that the universe has spared me the indignities of morning sickness, swollen appendages, etc. However, my insulin needs have basically tripled, and I’m forced to deny my cravings more often than I indulge them because my blood sugars are a bit more stubborn these days. I’m also at risk of having placenta previa, a challenge I’m not sure is diabetes-related, but still.

Will my kid be born diabetic?

My main worry was always if the kid will be born with Type 1 Diabetes. Thankfully, all the studies I’ve been reading have been showing positive indicators for moms who control their blood glucose levels.

One common thread I’ve found among the babies born to Type 1 moms however is low blood sugars right after birth. Because babies become so accustomed to receiving higher levels of glucose from their diabetic moms while in the womb, they’re born with higher insulin levels and may have some trouble maintaining their blood glucose levels.

The thought of this happening to my baby makes me worry – because even as a full grown adult who has had T1D for many years now, low blood sugar still messes me up mentally and physically. I cannot imagine a baby going through something like that – and I’m even more worried that I’m going to have to be pricking the baby’s fingers around the clock to make sure he’s ok.

Big up all the T1D moms on Instagram!

All that aside, I’m very thankful for all the T1D moms on IG who have so helpfully shared their stories and answered my DMs 😊(@type1diabetic_mummy2two, @bumpandthepump, @mytype1.life and a few others). Type 1 Diabetic pregnancies aren’t the most popular thing in Jamaica, and I’ve had obstetricians tell me they won’t treat me because they have no experience with ‘my type of situation’. Luckily, I’ve found an obstetrician who works closely with my endocrinologist (although they don’t always see eye-to-eye), so I’m positive about the outcome.

It’s been exciting so far – and I’ll really try harder to document this journey a little better going forward. Never mind the fact that the documenting has started late – I’ve heard that it’s better than never!

P.S. if you’re a T1D mom with tips or advice, or if you just know about these things – I want to hear from you. Don’t be afraid to leave me a comment or shoot me an email.

Everything you need to know to catch the world’s most elusive autoimmune disease

I will admit that hearing people talk about ‘catching diabetes’ stirs up violent feelings inside me. I mean, I completely understand that people just don’t know enough about this disease that just so happens to be one of the leading global causes of blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks, stroke and lower limb amputation. 

And I totally get it that people just aren’t aware of what really causes this disease that has catapulted from affecting 108 million people in 1980, to a mind-blowing 422 million people in 2014.  I mean, it’s no big deal that 1.6 million people died specifically because of Diabetes in 2016, right? But here we are scarfing down pies, pastries, pizza and anything packed with sugar, while making pseudo health-conscious ‘jokes’ about ‘not wanting to catch diabetes’.

Arrgh…there goes those violent feelings again, bubbling up inside me like an uncontrolled case of hyperglycaemia, while the muscles in my legs cramp viciously and I run to the bathroom to weep from my bladder for the forty-second time today. All because I ate a small stack of blueberry pancakes this morning, and forgot to take my insulin. 

But yeah, you’re joking about ‘catching diabetes’ while inhaling your fifth soda for the day. No kidding, Mr. Wise Guy. Keep drinking yourself sick… (see what I did there?)

You can’t catch it bruv…

Public Service Announcement – while Diabetes is unfortunately becoming increasingly common worldwide, it sure ain’t a cold, and you sure as shit cannot ‘catch it’. 

So, if you’re here because you’re newly diagnosed, uninformed, misinformed, unaware, previously concerned that you may have caught this dreadful disease, or just ‘bad mind’ at all the people who blithely overindulge in all the things actual diabetics should not, let’s talk about how people get Diabetes in real life. 

Let’s talk about Type 1

For the purpose of this blog, I’d like to focus on Type 1 Diabetes – and yes—that’s the bad type…just like all the other types. I mean, I could talk about all the types, but just like a good diet, everything is better in moderation. Well, except ice cream…but I digress.

Though it gained popularity as ‘Juvenile Diabetes’ or insulin-dependent Diabetes, scientists have found that there’s more to Type 1 Diabetes than just insulin or the age at which its diagnosed. No one is too old to develop Type 1 Diabetes – it’s an autoimmune disease with no age or gender bias. 

What is Type 1 Diabetes, anyway?

In case you’re like me and thought ‘auto-what?’…let me say it plainly. Type 1 Diabetes occurs when your immune system (your body’s built in infection-fighting army) attacks and destroys the beta cells in the pancreas which produce insulin. Insulin is the hormone which enables glucose to enter our body’s cells and give them energy. So, here’s my favourite analogy for this: 

An un-bee-lievable analogy

The beta cells in your body are like bees in a hive (the hive being the pancreas, you know). They are the ones who work hard to produce the honey (read insulin) to keep their little bee economy flourishing and growing. But in a fit of self-destructive rage, the immune system – a emotional Queen Bee in its own right – unleashed its fury on the bees, wiping them out in a near total massacre. Now, the body has to rely on external bees and their honey for support so that it can continue to live.

Now that I think about it, this might not be the greatest analogy, because now I’m thinking about honey-covered donuts. But I hope you get the gist. Now let’s talk about how you get it…

At this juncture, I will reiterate one key point – you CANNOT ‘catch’ Diabetes, dammit. This disease, specifically Type 1, chooses you carefully – whether based on your genetics, family health history or just general predisposition to having shitty luck (just kidding, kinda). Studies also suggest that there are some viruses which may contribute to the development of Type 1 Diabetes, and while it usually takes a while to develop Type 2 Diabetes, Type 1 can take you down in the space of a few weeks.

A few hints that you might have diabetes…

Like me, you could be fine one day and then the next thing you know you have the ‘flu’. Then when you realise the ‘flu’ isn’t going anywhere, you start thinking you’re going to die now because your eyesight has turned to eyeshit, you’ve lost 20 pounds in just two weeks, you’re insatiably thirsty, weak, starving, irritable, confused and considering moving your bedroom into the bathroom so that it’s not such a long walk to pee when you now have to go every 5 minutes. 

Rumour had it that I had AIDS, and that ‘duppy did deh pan me’ i.e. I was being haunted by ghosts. But as it turns out, there was just a poltergeist in my pancreas mucking about with the insulin-producing cells. 

Am I contagious? No.

If we’re sitting on a bus beside each other and I cough, will you catch Type 1 Diabetes? Not since the last time I checked.

Can it become an airborne epidemic? Not even if you wrote it on a paper plane and bid it ‘Bon Voyage’. 

So can you catch Diabetes? 

It’s looking like a no…if you ask me.