The Backstory

I've been a T1 diabetic nearly my whole life--28 years out of 35. I'm down with the diabetic scene. Been on a pump for five years, been shooting insulin for two decades before. I prick my fingers every day, many times. I count carbs. I exercise. I know how to do it.

Except I'm trying to have a kid and it's pretty unfamiliar terrain.

I'm amazed by how many diabetic blogs are out there and figure today's my day to join the crowd. I haven't seen anyone else write about being a type 1 diabetic pregnant woman on a daily blog. (If you're out there, let me know!) I've been reading a few diabetic pregnancy newsgroups for awhile now, and they're great. But everyone's in a different stage of being pregnant, and since I'm not even there yet, it's hard to know what will help me when I'm farther down that road.

I also have a terrific posse of T1 diabetic pals. They're all savvy chicks like me, longtime T1s. Between three of them, they have four kids. So I've talked their ears off. Heard them tell me it's possible to have a healthy child even with longterm diabetes. Heard them say it's possible to keep the A1Cs well within healthy ranges. Heard them say they can eat well and maintain the blood sugars and keep the kid healthy inside. I hope I can do it, too.

I've never been one of those "I've been dreaming of being a mom all my life/I can't wait to experience birth/I want a natural experience" people. To be honest, having a kid really scares me. I know how much can go wrong. But at the same time, I think if I chose not to ever try to have children, I'd feel I missed out on something huge. So it's time. For me, it's a question of where I am in life, how old I am, and finally finding the right partner to do it all with.

So here I go. It's going to be a long, wild, and crazy ride.