Halloween is mocking me

I had no idea what tonight would bring, numbers-wise. If you had asked me, I would have suspected that Elise would be running high. Not so much...

Bedtime check (8:00) - 100
15g of carbs (including a few M&Ms - Elise has never had any sort of candy before and you should have seen the smile on her face when she tasted them)
3.5 units NPH (because we were tired of seeing high numbers through the night on 3 units)

We checked her about 90 minutes later because she was throwing a tantrum when she saw Fred and I were going to eat pizza for dinner, this is totally unusual behavior:

BG - 62
9g of carbs + nursing

About 20 minutes later she's at 70. And 20 minutes after that she's at 80.

11:15 - 64
6g of carbs

I know it wasn't all the exercise... we pulled her in a wagon most of the time. A lot of times we'll take our dog for a walk in the evening, and she does the whole walk herself and we never see weird number like these.

I give up... it's going to be a loooooong night. Good thing I have all this candy to keep me going!

Well there goes my award

So just when I think I'm a shoo-in for Mom of the year (she said, sarcastically), I go and mess up. It's so hard being perfect you know?

I'm going to tell you about the awful thing that happened today, and then you will probably say to yourself, "girl, what is all that fussing about? You should hear what happened to MY kid when my attention was diverted for a few seconds!" I'm sure you all have your stories (and if you do, I would love to hear them!). Even if you don't, pretend that you do so I don't feel like such a tool.

Today I took Elise to the playground. She LOVES to be outside in the fresh air (or as fresh as Dallas air can get), running around with reckless abandon. Every time we drive by this particular playground she always says that she wants to go to the playground. I, in turn, tell her I want to go to Hawaii, but sometimes we just don't get to do what we want.

See why I'm up for Mom of the Year in the first place?

But this afternoon we had some free time, so off to the playground we went. Elise was playing pretty hard, and I didn't give her an afternoon snack because she woke up from her nap at 180, so I checked her BG and she was 190. Okay, continue with playing.

At one point she climbed up to the highest part of the playground (something she has done a million times by herself), to go down the slide. I turned my head for TWO SECONDS (I swear), and I hear a THUD, followed by a scream.

I look down and Elise was lying on the ground at my feet. She had fallen about 10 feet through an opening that kids can shimmy down a pole from. The worst part is, I was standing RIGHT THERE (which I always do when she goes up there, for this very reason) when it happened. I don't know if I could have prevented it, or caught her. But it made me feel so horrible, I almost start crying when I think about it.

The good news is, she was okay... she just cut the inside of her mouth. The funny thing is, the thing that flashed through my mind after the requisite, "ohmygosh, is she okay?" type stuff was, "what will this do to her blood sugar?" I know, I think weird things.

About 15 minutes post-fall, she was at 142. So apparently each foot you fall will drop your BG by about 5.

Don't try this at home.

and because I can, here is an uber-cute picture of Elise in her costume at our town's Hallowe'en on Main Street. That hood stayed on for about 1 minute.

Did somebody say SHIRT?

I feel like I have typed that word out a million times already. And believe me, I triple check to make sure the "r" is in there... if you know what I mean!

Anyway, the shirts have been printed and are on their way to us! We should have them in our hot little hands by Tuesday, and I will work my butt of to get them in the mail to you on Wednesday.

From there, they should take about 2 days to get to you, so I'm hoping everyone should have their shirts by this time next week.

Woo to the hoo!

Good news/Bad news

To combat the high overnight numbers, we decided to give Elise 12g instead of her usual 15g snack at bed time.

You may be thinking to yourself, 3g... is she on drugs? That's not going to make any difference. Except with these wee ones, it does. Elise was 168 at 11:00pm, 122 at 12:00, 150 at 2:30, and woke up at 179.

And now you may be asking yourself, "why so many checks during the night?"

Because Elise woke up at 11:00, and cried until about 12:30. At least we know she's not waking up because of the high numbers.

But the question remains; why IS she waking up? I looked in her mouth, and thought that maybe I could see some molars coming in, so we gave her some Tylenol. But she still cried for an hour after that.

So, I am at a loss. Elise used to be a great sleeper until two months ago. She started sleeping through the night at six weeks, and we never looked back.

Do they make Children's Tylenol PM? They totally should.

New post... now with more complaining!

I've been so caught up in getting the shirts ordered, I haven't blogged about anything else. Time for a regularly scheduled post in which I complain a lot. Ready? GO!

Seriously, we are STILL dealing with night time issues, and I am so tired I feel like I am going to fall over at any minute. The smart thing would be for me to lay down and nap while Elise also naps (which would be right now), but then when would I complain? Actually, I don't really like to nap during the day, I always wake up feeling worse.

We had ONE good night, where Elise's BG was in the 170s all night long, but otherwise it's been the same thing over and over. Her bedtime check she's between 90 and 130. We give 15g of carbs (whole wheat bread, soynut butter and banana mashed with avocado), and then 3 units of NPH. At least, right now it's 3 units. I think that's going to change tonight.

At midnight check she's usually in the low 200s. By 3:00 am, she's in the upper 200s, to lower 300s. This morning she woke up at 350 with 1.1 ketones.

To make matters worse, she's STILL waking and crying during the night. And it's killing us.

We're now giving her shot and snack at the same time (used to be 45 minutes apart), and the first night we did that, she had the 170s through the night. But then the next night it was back to the same old, same old.

I think our next course of action is to either lower the snack amount, or up the insulin. The last time we upped the insulin to 3.5, we had a low at about 1:00 am. Maybe less carbs will do it. The one time we tried to give her some fast-acting with her snack (only 1 unit), we battled lows all night.

What really gets me is that her daytime numbers are wonderful. After an initial wake-up where she's high, her numbers range from 90-160 during the day. Why can't we figure out the night stuff?

And how long will it be before I'm certifiably crazy due to lack of sleep?

Can you stand another shirt update?

The totals are in... we had 30 shirt orders! They have been submitted to the printers and we hope to have them here and ready to ship to you in about a week.

While the deadline to order was yesterday, I do have some good news... If you want to order a shirt in a unisex size (S - XXL), we can still submit that for the time being. The printer has those shirts on hand and doesn't need to special order them like the kid's or women's styles.

So, if you forgot to order, it's not too late!

Do you Remember?

Think back to those first few days, weeks and months after your child was diagnosed with diabetes. Remember the pain? The fear? The uncertainty? Feeling like your whole world was turned upside down and you had no idea how to make it right again?

I remember the feelings of loneliness and isolation. Like nobody understood what I was going through.

And then I started a blog.

And then I met so many wonderful people that are part of the D-community on-line. I don't know where I would be without you.

That's why I want to introduce you to Laura. Her son was diagnosed in September at the age of 14 months. She lives in my area and just found my blog. And I am so glad she did.

Could you do me a favour and head over to her blog (just click on her name) to offer some words of support and encouragement?

You guys are wonderful.

Final Countdown...

Thank you to everybody who has sent in their shirt orders! There are still a few hours left if you still want to get your shirts in time for November 14th. I will be placing the order tomorrow morning, first thing, so don't miss your chance to look ever-so-cool!

Edited to add (so Meri's head won't explode): So far we've had 27 shirts ordered, not counting any Canadian orders.

Last day for shirt orders!

Today is the LAST DAY you can order a shirt if you want to receive it in time to wear on November 14th; World Diabetes Day. See the sticky post at the top of my blog for instructions on how to order and pay.

Yet another shirt update... for all the Canadians!

Good news for my fellow Canucks! Nicole has done some digging and was able to procure some shirts on your side of the border for the low price of $7.00 CAD! The total price will be a bit higher, since the shipping charge will depend on where you live (no flat rate shipping up there I guess), but you should definitely save on the shipping AND exchange.

To order, just shoot her an email at wecaralot@gmail.com. Then you can make your payment at http://www.paypal.com/, using her address in the "To" line.

You have to be quick though... deadline is Tuesday, October 27th.

Thanks Nicole for being such a keener and helping the Canucks save a loonie! Now go have a lie down on your chesterfield, put your toque on, and enjoy a nice plate of poutine and a double-double, Tim Horton's style.

Sigh, I miss speaking Canadian.