Ginger Bee,
I had a very mild case of GD but was still required to take insulin (strictly to control my fasting numbers). My endocrinologist ran a diabetes in pregnancy clinic that also does clinical research around GD - after looking at hundreds of women afflicted with GD, they concluded quite definitively that treated GD resulted in completely normal pregnancies. In other words, keeping your numbers fairly stable and in the normal range will ensure your baby has the same chances at being healthy as any other baby.
A few other things that may reassure you:
- The really serious neurological diabetes complications are predominantly caused by Type 1 and Type 2 (or undiagnosed Type 2) diabetes in early pregnancy during the critical phase of neurological development (the first trimester when everyone is taking lots of folic acid).
- GD doesn't come on until the third trimester when the demands of the baby put more pressure on our pancreas. Every women - even those without GD - has this same pressure put on them. Some women's bodies can cope and some can't. This is not something that you can control. It also means that your baby has been growing just fine for many months, and will continue to be fine because you are getting treated (and please keep in mind that there are women who don't discover they have GD - I know one personally - who are not treated, who have had mild complications but ultimately healthy babies).
- At this point, probably the biggest concern is that your baby not become macrosomic, or too large (especially in the shoulders, as this can result in shoulder distocia, or difficulty delivering your baby). Shoulder distocia can happen in non-GD babies as well. Since your GD was likely caught in the 28-30 week area, you have PLENTY of time to use diet, exercise and insulin to manage the size of your baby. Even women diagnosed as late as 34-35 weeks can have an impact on the size of their baby.
You are doing everything you can for your baby. At the clinic I went to, the endo doc had not seen ANY serious complications from GD. I would say that my numbers (while not ever really outside the range on the high side, though they got close towards the end) vacillated a lot in the beginning and only became really stable on a low dose of insulin (I started on insulin around 32-33 weeks). My little guy was completely, utterly normal and healthy.
If you look back in this thread there is a LOT of information that should ease your concerns. Right now keeping yourself stress-free is probably just as important to your baby, so please try not to be so hard on yourself!