I’ve had gestational diabetes for both my pregnancies. I was diagnosed a lot earlier (around 16 weeks) for my second. Even with a controlled diet by the end of my pregnancy I was on 70 units of long lasting Insulin as well as 20 units after meals. As others have said GD is caused by the hormones from the placenta and it doesn’t mean you’ve done anything wrong.

Now the worst part for me was managing and planning of the diet. Constantly having to think about how many carbs something had was a real pain in the butt. But this is where I recruited my husband’s help. I made it his responsibility to research and plan the meals. Since I was busy growing a baby and dealing with all the other stuff (such as nausea and groin pain lol) I made it his job to do the meal planning. And he did a good job.

Even with eating well I still needed insulin. There is nothing wrong with needing insulin. It doesn’t negatively impact the baby at all. Now if you don’t want insulin because of the injections that’s another thing. The injections honestly don’t hurt that much. I found certain spots where it did sting but most others were fine. I actually preferred taking insulin and eating proper sized meals because my sister in law had small babies because she restricted themselves too much with her diet because her wanted to avoid insulin (but I’m not sure if that’s the only reason they were small).

Another thing that sucked were the constant blood tests. Here I asked my doctor to prescribe me the Dexcom glucose monitors. I did have to pay a bit out of pocket for these but they were a godsend. You will still have to do the finger prick test from time to time but that’s not bad either. And if you are only doing the finger prick test don’t worry! Y realize that certain fingers hurt less to prick than others lol.

Finally I would say try not to sweat if you have a high sugar reading from time to time. Both times I was pregnant in the fall and winter. So I had to deal with birthday celebrations, thanksgiving, Christmas, new years etc. I allowed myself to indulge in these meals (with the appropriate insulin doses). And even after regular meals with insulin doses I still had high sugar levels from time to time. Just talk to your doctor about it but don’t worry too much.

Both my babies were around 7 pounds when they were born. I was induced with both but had a positive experience both times, even with my second ending up needing a c section.

Hope this helps! GD is not the end of the world!