In my early 30s had my third child. Baby 1, 2 weeks early, 6#13oz; Baby 2, 2 weeks early, 6#8 oz. Baby 3, 2 weeks late, 10#1 oz. I was an OB nurse and when I saw the last baby, I remember 'freaking out' a little and exclaiming, "He looks like I'm diabetic!" He was born at 6:26 p.m., and my FBS the next a.m. was completely normal. However, I should have paid more attention. Began having periodic near-fainting spells at work and took my own finger stick; got a 44 reading. Several years of reactive hypoglycemic episodes, and yesterday, 40-plus years later, A1c of 8.2. Yeah. I apparently had gestational diabetes that was undetected because such testing was not routine and I had no family history at all. Have had a few GTTs but never could complete one because at 3 hours, I'm so close to unconscious they stop the tests. Had I known the implications back then of the reactive hypoglycemia, I would have put me on a low-carb eating plan for sure. Interestingly, that 10-# baby now also has reactive hypoglycemia as does his sister. He is now going to follow the LCHF path.:vs_peek:
10-lb baby was the tip-off.
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Wish I had saved the URL for this info, but I didn't. I ran across an interesting medical report of a study made in Helsinki that revealed: Individuals who were small-for-date babies themselves and who grew to be adults of short stature were markedly more likely to develop gestational diabetes. I was 5# at birth, carried a full 10 months (well-documented and totally fact), was 17" long and failed to thrive for the first six weeks. Grew to my full adult height by age 14, a whopping 4ft 11 3/4 inches. Hashimoto's thyroid problem by 20s, and then just one auto-immune issue after another gradually, on to Metabolic Syndrom X and finally Type 2 last November. I am the first/only in my immediate family to have diabetes.
My Dad's cousin had 3 out of her 8 babies over 10 pounds. Never developed diabetes. I do know that the old midwives said it wasn't unusual for the wives of dairy farmers to have big babies. That line of the family never had diabetes, but it can pop up anywhere.
None of my babies were big. In fact the biggest was 7 pounds 13 ounces.
That being said, I did have gestational diabetes that landed me in weekly doctor visits and a few hospital stays.
Ha-ha, Bunjee, I just really noticed the implication/suggestion of your comment about dairy farmers...don't let my 'name' mislead you. Yeah, I've milked one or two cows in the distant past and my folks had a small herd when I was preschool and 1 family cow when I was a bit older. The dairy farmers in the family are cousins; 1 family of 13, no large babies but several very small ones following the PPB debacle of the 70s. At the time I had my big baby, I did enjoy the (cream) fruits of a friend's herd, though. My big one just really looked like the babies of the diabetic mothers whose babies I'd help deliver; nearly all of them were exceedingly rotund little suckers whose eyes were mere slits in round faces. My son looked exactly like a newborn Inuit infant. It was after I'd had him that I began to have big problems with reactive hypoglycemia, most notably from about 1974 to 1984.
Loved the story Milkmaade, but honestly, I was just explaining about big babies not always being related to diabetes. 
My late great-aunt was a 12 pounder - brain injured at birth because of that. Her mom never developed diabetes that anybody knows of (lived to 80). However, since we know that side of the family was prone to diabetes, chances are she might have had T2 and didn't know it. Unless you were pretty sick, they didn't really treat T2 in the 1940s or 50s. She was mostly blind the last 6 or 7 years.
My late great-aunt was a 12 pounder - brain injured at birth because of that. Her mom never developed diabetes that anybody knows of (lived to 80). However, since we know that side of the family was prone to diabetes, chances are she might have had T2 and didn't know it. Unless you were pretty sick, they didn't really treat T2 in the 1940s or 50s. She was mostly blind the last 6 or 7 years.Bungee, I agree totally that big babies aren't always related to mom being diabetic or that all diabetic women have big babies. Knew a lady who had a 13-pounder (not by C-section either...shudder) who didn't have D. That cousin of mine who had 13 kids, mostly very small, did indeed develop T2 midlife, before her last children were born.
What fascinated me about that Helsinki study was the correlation they discovered between those small-for-date babies who grew up vertically challenged and who then developed gestational diabetes. Me, in a nutshell. :wink2:
What fascinated me about that Helsinki study was the correlation they discovered between those small-for-date babies who grew up vertically challenged and who then developed gestational diabetes. Me, in a nutshell. :wink2:
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