Snow!

It snowed Monday night/Tuesday morning! I could hear the ice pellets hitting the window all night. I even heard a bit of thunder. It was so fun to hear the girls squeal with delight when they saw the ground all covered in snow!

They got to play with their friends, Elizabeth and Joshua, and I got to stay inside and stay warm! But the next day, the snow was still there! Weird, because usually the snow is gone by the second day. And the girls still wanted to go outside to play. We got them dressed up and sent them out. I did not want to go out there in the under-20-degree "fun". No thanks, I'll stay warm!

So, I took a few photos of the girls playing from the kitchen door and window.


How sad is that? I could at least go out there for a minute or two, right?


And I'm SO glad I did! I didn't last very long out there (I was wearing sandals, like a big dummy, because I wasn't going to be out there for very long), but I got some cute pics of the girls playing and enjoying the snow.

I used to enjoy snow. Meh, not so much any more.

Once the girls came in, they stripped at once and ran to get warm by the fire.
They ate some cookies I had made earlier. I made them to heat up the house a bit since it was very cold outside!

Fun Giveaway

I don't usually blog about giveaways, but I really want to win this one! They're giving away diabetes stuff, and we can always use diabetes stuff. Especially free diabetes stuff!

The giveaway is here: Candy Hearts

A sensor, a transmitter, and a monitor walk into a bar...

I want to show you the parts of Emily's new continuous glucose monitor. It's really a cool gadget and I'm amazed at how it works.

This is the needle that inserts the sensor under Emily's skin. The sensor fits inside the needle, so that's why the needle is so freaking huge. Once the needle is inserted, I pull the needle out and the sensor stays under the skin.
Once it's in, I tape down the base to prevent it from being accidentally torn off, which is what happened to the first sensor when Emily pulled up her pants and the sensor came right out.
This is the transmitter. Once it plugs onto the "bumble bee" end of the sensor, it communicates with the monitor, giving real-time glucose readings.
While it's attached, it's safe for Emily to take baths. Which is a good thing, because she can get pretty stinky.
Emily likes to wear the monitor on her pants. But what she likes best is when she wears cargo pants and the monitor can slide right into a pocket, out of the way.
Every five minutes we get a glucose reading. And it will also let us know if she's rising or falling at a fast rate, which is totally awesome!

Christmas 2010

Christmas with the girls was so fun! They were very excited to find what was left for them under the Christmas tree.

It was exciting for us parents, too! I had a hard time going to sleep Christmas Eve night because I couldn't wait to see my girls' faces in the morning. And then both Rob and I woke up early, anxiously waiting for Emily and Avery to wake up. It took forever!

But, they finally woke up (after 9!) and we got to enjoy opening gifts together.

The only yucky part of the day was inserting a new sensor in Emily's bum. It sucked and I hated to do it Christmas day, but it had to be done. Poor Emily was so upset and I just didn't want to do it. And Avery was so sweet; she knew something was going on and she kept trying to give hugs and kisses to me while I was in the middle of inserting the sensor.

Just some randomness. Is that a word?

Emily's wearing her monitor! The trainer called me on Monday to set up the training session. She came on Wednesday morning and got us all ready to go!

I was so nervous, you would have thought I was the one getting the monitor. I WISH!!! I would take this disease and everything it comes with, I'd take it a million times. But it's not so, so I get nervous for my kid. I knew the insertion of the sensor would hurt and I told Emily pretty much what to expect, so she was scared of that part. But, once I tackled her and pinned her down and got the sensor inserted, she was totally fine! In fact, she forgot it was even on her. It's really small, probably the size of a quarter and it is attached to her by an adhesive. So when it was time to attach the transmitter to the sensor (it's what speaks to the monitor), she didn't know what was going on.

Anyway, we're attached, calibrated, and totally cool with the whole thing. The only thing that I don't like right now is the alarms and alerts are too quiet. Her glucose meter (the thingy I check her fingersticks with) beeps louder than this very expensive piece of equipment.

She went to bed low, so I gave her a little snack and watched her blood sugar rise on the monitor! Too cool! I began to freak out about not being able to hear the alarm if she went low, but she had a good number by midnight with a little arrow telling me it was still going up fast, so I went to bed. She had a good number when she woke up, so it went well it seems.

At this point, the monitor is 20 points lower than her actual blood glucose, which is completely fine with me. If the monitor tells me she's low and I check her and she's not, but on her way to being low, then I can catch it before it becomes and issue.

*insert huge sigh of relief here*

My little Avery JOY seems to be adjusting to this new thing, too. Yesterday, I had my friend and neighbor, Lori, watch her while we trained, and when I picked her up, she was very sad and clingy. And when I'd check the monitor, she acted like she didn't want me going near Emily. Almost like, "Hey, look at meee!" It made me sad. But, she rebounded very quickly, even though she refused to nap. The girls played (screamed and bickered) the rest of the day.

UNTIL...Daddy came home with a surprise! Both girls had been through a tough day, so we arranged for each to get a treat. He came home with Barbie dolls. The girls LOVE them! I really don't care about Barbies, I just never figured they would like them. Well, I know Avery would like them, but I thought maybe a few years down the road. Oh.my.gosh. they love them! They love to undress them and laugh at their booty cracks and Avery tries pushing on their boobies and then they bring them to me to re-dress, and then it happens all over again. Emily loves brushing Barbie's hair.

And one last thing, just to make you laugh... This morning on our way out the door to Emily's school Christmas party (in pajamas!) I went to put my shoes on and there was a SPIDER on my shoe! And a ladybug, but who's scared of a lady bug? A freakin' SPIDER TOUCHED my shoe! I threw the shoe (kind of-not really-but almost in the direction of Avery) and did a little dance. You know the dance: a tippity-tappity prancy dance. And I screamed. Emily just laughed and said, "Do it again!" Then I told her there was a spider on my shoe and she said, "Attack it!!!" Well, I don't normally "attack" spiders. If they're not actually coming at me, I go in the opposite direction and wait for the husband to take care of it. But, since this spider might go for one of the girls, I stepped on it. Gross, gag, crunch! Nasty!

So I wore sandals (with socks!).

Finally!

I'm so happy! Yesterday we finally got Emily's Continuous Glucose Monitor! This has been such a long process.

I had first heard about a CGM in July when I went to a meet-up of other Diabetes moms in the area. We had gone to dinner at Joe T. Garcia's in Fort Worth and I sat next to this woman who had a little boy about a year younger than Emily. Just before we were to eat, she turned to me and said, "Have you seen one of these before?" and she showed me this little machine about the size of a cell phone. I said, "Is it a pump?" and she said, "No, check this out! It's a live reading of what his blood sugar is." What??? I had never heard of one of these cool things. "It gives a live reading and it graphs it out. It has an alarm on it that tells me when his blood sugar is getting low or high. It helps us catch the lows and correct the highs before he gets too sick."

(I swear I heard the Alleluia chorus singing)

It has arrows telling you whether her blood sugar is going up or down. One arrow for "it's on it's way down, you need to eat/take insulin," and two arrows meaning, "fix it now!!!"

I came away from this meetup with one thing on my mind: I had to have this machine. Emily doesn't recognize her lows and we struggle with knowing when she's high because she may sneak a bit of food here and there, or tell us she ate this much when she really ate more than that.

So, I called Em's endo (endocrine doctor for her diabetes) and said, "I want this monitor!" They said they'd give me some information on some monitors that they recommend and that I could make the decision on which one we thought was best for Emily and let them know which one we picked. We had a diabetes education class a couple of weeks down the road, in August, and the nurse educator would give us the information then.

Yeah, riiiight.

We got to the class and the nurse had no idea what we were talking about. She said, "Just pick one," almost in a "duh!" tone of voice. I was mad, because two weeks had gone by and nothing had been done to start the process of getting the monitor.

Rob and I did some research and we found the monitor we wanted. When we're ready for the pump, both the pump and the CGM sensor will speak to the same monitor, meaning one less thing Em would have to wear or that we'd have to carry around. So, I filled out a form online, a representative called me to get the ordering process started and she talked me in to getting a pump for Emily. Why not, it'd be best for her health to "keep her diabetes in better control." Okay, cool, let's do this!

The rep said we'd have the pump in the next couple of days, but the CGM would take a bit longer because of insurance blah blah. She said she'd get the paperwork to the doctor's office to fill out and return and things would get rolling.

A couple of days later I get an email from the rep that had a forward attached from the doctor's office. We hadn't talked to the doctor about getting the pump, there was education we needed and a trial to go through to make sure Emily could tolerate the pump. So no, we cannot have the pump. And basically the rep stopped working on the CGM at that point, too.

Um, okay, no one told me any of this! How was I supposed to know we needed the education and trial? The rep was the one that talked me into the pump, I never brought it up, all I wanted was the CMG. I emailed the rep back to see if she could please continue the process on the CGM, since that was all we wanted in the first place. She said she'd email the nurse.

Weeks go by and NOTHING. By this time, it's October. I'm just about ready to freakin' pay cash for this thing so I can help my kid keep her blood sugar within her limits so she doesn't get sick. So, I called and made an appointment with the doctor to get some answers. I'm so glad I did, because they had the papers, they just needed a signature. The nurse practitioner I saw personally handed the papers to the doctor to sign, faxed them over and said, "It's in the hands of the monitor company now!"

Is this a freakin' long story or what??? Gah!

I assumed things were rolling on the rep's end. So we waited. And waited. And freaky-fracky waited! Come ONnnnNNnn!!! What's the freakin' deal? I emailed our rep again in mid November and she said there was a "discrepancy" on the prescription and they were waiting on the doctor. Bleepity-bleepity-freakin'-frackin'-CRAP!

We waited some more.

I think I waited too long. I'm too nice. And maybe a bit stupid.

And now it's December and at this point, I was ready to just get a monitor from another company. On Tuesday, I called the doctor's office to see where we were in the process, and they had me call my rep. Poop.

I dialed the number, closed my eyes and asked, "Where are we in the process of getting our monitor?" "Well, we just need you to sign this paper we're going to email to you, and get you to fax it back to us. We're expediting shipment and you'll have it on Thursday."

My mouth fell open. No-freakin'-way. "Okay, thanks." I don't believe you, representative lady. I'll believe it when I see it.

I didn't see the monitor until SATURDAY. But it's here, it's sitting right next to me. I can touch it and look at it and I have it and no one can take it from me. It's mine. I mean, it's Emily's.

And now, we wait for someone to call us to set up a training class to learn how to use this thing. They said it would be within ten business days that they'd call us. I'm not holding my breath for that to happen. I'm calling them on day eleven to set it up if they haven't called by then. Enough of this waiting crap. If it was just for me, I'd just learn it on my own. But it's for my kid and I'd better do it right so I don't make her sick.

At this point, Emily is not crazy about having this thing attached to her all the time. But I'm hoping she'll figure out it's for the best, it'll help her stay healthy, and I won't have to hover so much. I'm so tired of the hovering. Especially the middle-of-the-night hovering.

Diabetes SUCKS!

We had a rough evening tonight. Emily's blood sugar CraSHed!!! It was very scary. I believe what started it all was she didn't eat all of her snack and I thought she had and I gave her insulin for what I thought she ate. I didn't check her blood sugar at dinner because it had been less than two hours since she had her snack and usually when I test under two hours since eating, her sugar is high and I know it's high because she had just eaten, blah, blah, blah... And then we had mini pizzas for dinner and I probably gave her too much insulin for them.

Anyway, she came to me about thirty minutes after I gave her the insulin and said her stomach hurt. Yesterday she had thrown up a couple of times and felt yucky all day, so I figured the pizza was hurting her stomach. She didn't have a shirt on and I asked her why, and she said something that just didn't make sense. I asked her again, and she said the same thing that I couldn't understand. Then I noticed she was sweating. Click! Test her sugar!

She was at 41! So, I tried to get her to eat or drink something, which by this time she was crying and grumping that her sister had hit her, even though she was nowhere near her. So, I grabbed a tube of frosting and began squirting it in her mouth. She hated that! So I tested her again and she was at 34. Panic set in! I wasn't getting sugar in her fast enough. It was then that I found her snack from this afternoon under the chair, unfinished. I had given her insulin for something that I thought she ate. I tried giving her candy, she didn't want it, I tried giving her soda, she didn't want it. I squirted more frosting in her mouth, and she cried and refused to swallow.

By this time, Rob came home from work. He took over and was able to get Emily to eat some candy. I heard her ask him if she was in a dream. I started to cry. This is so not fair. My poor girl. I was feeling anger and sadness and guilt. Angry because I couldn't get her to eat or drink, angry that she has this disease and I can't fix it, angry because I can't take it and put it on myself. Sad because I know this will probably happen again, sad because I STILL don't have a continuous glucose monitor that would have alerted me to her crashing blood sugar long before we got to this point, sad because poor Avery gets cast aside during these chaotic moments, sad because Emily was confused to the point that she thought she was dreaming. Guilt because I should have checked her sugar before dinner, guilt because I should have found the unfinished snack sooner, guilt for leaving Avery to fend for herself, guilt because I feel guilty for feeling guilty.

sigh

We finally see that her blood sugar was coming up, and then she started acting funny again, and I find that her sugar was going down again. She was still complaining of her stomach hurting, probably from all the stuff we were pouring down her. But she had to have more. She HAD to. After she ate some Halloween candy, I checked her and she still wasn't coming up, I called the on-call diabetes nurse. By this time, it had been nearly two hours of us cramming things in Emily's mouth. The effects of the insulin peak at two hours, so the nurse said we had done all the right things, we were almost there, keep giving her sips of soda or bites to eat every ten minutes and then we should be out of the woods.

Okay, whew! Because I seriously thought we were going to have to use the emergency glucagon syringe. The effects of this shot would be nausea and vomiting and an overall sick feeling. I really didn't want to do that to her unless it was completely necessary. Since we were nearly out of the woods, and after another finger stick, she was slowly coming up, we knew we didn't have to give the shot. Whew!!! Did NOT want to do that.

I poured a bowl of marshmallows and we made a fun family moment out of getting Emily out of her low. We told scary stories in the dark with a flashlight. The stories were really more silly than scary and after each of us told a story, we'd eat a couple of marshmallows. Avery had NO problem participating in the eating of the marshmallows. Emily finally got a great sugar reading and we had a fun time as a family. We even did shadow puppets. So fun!

And now I'm having trouble sleeping. Possibly adrenaline still wearing off, the caffeinated drink I had before bedtime, or just me worrying, I don't quite know. But her blood sugar is super and she's sleeping and breathing and Avery is sleeping and breathing so I will try to sleep now.

My Girls!

My Avery Joy...

She is talking so much now. For a while, she was calling her sister "Deh-deh." I'm not sure where she got that, but that's what she calls her. And herself. But now, very recently, she's started calling Emily "Ahm." At first I thought she was saying "arm" but then I realized she was saying "Em." That's usually what we call Emily around the house. "Em! Get in here." "Em! Don't lick the TV!" "EM!!!!" So now she calls her "Ahm." Her dad is "Dads." "Where Dads? Bye-bye? Work."

She doesn't really dig in her poopy diaper so much any more. But if you ask her if she has gone poo, she makes a stinky face and says, "Noooo." And then as I change the poopy diaper, she says, "Is it uck? Is it uck? Is it uck?"

She knows a couple of letters of the alphabet. Mostly the letter O. She'll say, "O" and then keep her mouth in the shape of an O and feel it. Hard to explain, but it's funny. But she's very interested in the alphabet. Emily has an art project on the fridge with her name spelled out with beans, and Avery tries to spell it out. "E, E, O, I, Y." Usually the Y is like "Whyyyy?"

Speaking of why, the other day she asked where her dads was and I said at work and she said, "Why?" I said, "Because we need money." "Why?" "So we can buy stuff." "Why?" and on and on.

Emily and Avery were singing into the box fan the other day. They like the sound of their voices. I'm pretty sure every kid must love speaking into a fan. I remember doing it as a kid. And spitting into it. Not so smart. Anyway...Emily was singing the alphabet into the fan and Avery was trying to sing, too: "E, E, E, B, B, me, me, me, me, me..." Oh, how I love this kid! She is funny!

She likes sounds. She'll hear a sound and hold her hand to her ear and say, "Wassat? Wassat?" Yesterday, I was sitting at the computer and she was close by, being real quiet, I think she was looking at a book, so I rubbed my foot on the base of the desk and it made a..well...farting sound. She said, "Wassat?" I kept doing it to see if she could figure out where the sound was coming from and she said, "Momma!" in a very accusatory manner. It wasn't me, I swear!

Avery LOVES her sister! She loves bugging her, too. It's a sport to her. She will steal her sister's toys, run, giggle and scream, and wait for her sister to come after her. They sometimes play well together. Sometimes. The one time that they really get along is in the bath. Because there's water involved. There is lots of screaming and laughing and splashing and dunking and water always ends up all over the floor and on the walls. Even on the wall opposite of the bathtub. Major splashage! So, now they don't bathe together. It's just safer for me.
My Emily.

She is loving preschool! She loves her friends and teachers.

Emily prances everywhere she goes. Everywhere. It's amazing!

Even though she prances, she is NOT graceful. She falls a lot. She has lots of bruises on her legs. She is just plain clumsy. She can trip over a speck of dust, yet there are times she can be walking backwards, talking to me, and looking somewhere else and trip on one of her toys and not fall.

Every day is beautiful to her. Even when she was in the hospital after her diabetes diagnosis, every day was beautiful. IV in arm, hospital gown agape in the back, hair all askew, and it was a beautiful day. And even today after feeling puny and feverish, it was a beautiful day. Amazing!

I think she secretly LOVES her little sister. From day one, she has not been a fan of Avery. She would touch her, but only if you told her to, and she refused to be next to her in a photo. She finally warmed up to her a bit after she started walking. And now that Avery is talking, I think Emily likes her. She loves trying to get Avery to say things, and when Avery will repeat what Emily says, Emily gets very excited! It's so fun to watch them interact. When Avery picks on Emily, I can tell Emily likes it somewhat. There is a twinkle in her eye, even though she's protesting being kicked or spit upon. She'll even giggle as she's tattling on Avery. She likes her.

I love my girls!

Train Ride and Water Fountains!

Emily had a doctor's appointment with her diabetes doctor (which went well!) and then after that, we went to eat lunch. We had pizza at a pizza parlor. While we waited, Emily and her dad worked on a word puzzle together.
After we ate, we went on a train ride.
We like to get popcorn, not just to eat, but to feed the fish later on!

But we sometimes just eat it...

I wanted to get the girls to pose with the train for me, but Avery just didn't want to do that. And she wasn't shy about telling everyone she didn't want to do that. "Hey, I don't want to do that! I don't want to pose with the train! I rode it, it's over, let me eat my popcorn! Who would want to pose with a train anyway?"
Oh.
So, after the train ride, we went to the botanic gardens. So pretty! I was able to catch a photo of a bee!


We fed the fish! They were not there at first...
"Hey, where's the fishes? I came to feed the fishes! Hey, fishes!"
...but soon after the popcorn hit the water, they were right there! And they were big!
It was a nice day for our activities.

Our Trip to the Pumpkin Patch!

On Wednesday, we went to the pumpkin patch. So fun! The weather was perfect and we were so glad that the ground wasn't wet. Last year the ground was wet from a recent rain and the pumpkins had started to "ripen" and the area inside the fence of the pony ride was a mixture of mud, hay, and pony poo. Talk about stiiinky! But, it was a lot less stinky this year!

Avery seemed to really like the pumpkins. She enjoyed touching them and trying to pick them up. She also used a couple as bongo drums.
Emily enjoyed the big blow-up slide with the other big kids!
"Oof!" Most of the pumpkins were too heavy for Avery to carry around.

Emily pulled the wagon with Avery in it. For about thirty seconds...
And then hopped in the wagon with Avery so Daddy could have a turn at pulling the wagon.

Ponies!
Emily waves to her adoring fans...
I totally dig that she's wearing flip-flops to ride a pony! So city-fied of her!
Avery was able to share a ride with Emily. Avery was a bit scared at first to ride alone. I'm glad Emily didn't mind sharing the saddle with her little sister!
"Yeeehaaww!" I think she was watching her shadow!
Staring contest, who will blink first? I do love it when she crouches like this.
Bouncy house!
Daddy and his little girls!
Fun day! Afterwards, we went to Southlake and ate at Brio's (yummy Italian food!) and threw pennies into the water fountains (and danced).

Decorating for Halloween!

Grandma Hill bought the girls some cute sticker crafts and window decorations so that they could get the house ready for Halloween. Emily is very excited about this holiday. I'm sure it has something to do with all the candy she'll be getting. (I'm excited because of all the candy she'll be getting! Muaahaahaaaa!)

Here is Avery putting the window decorations up.
I love how she arranged the words: "Trick, Treat, or..." Like it's an empty threat or something. "Gimme candy or I'll...you know."
I love these cute fall trees. Emily's is on the left and Avery's is on the right. Avery had trouble with the stickers. She stuck a leaf sticker on her shirt and I said, "No, put it on the tree." She stuck it on the table and I said, "No, on the tree." She stuck it on my arm and I said, "On the treeeee!" (me, pointing.to.the.tree) Then she kissed the leaf. Sweet, silly girl!

The girls enjoyed the foam sticker haunted house. I helped with some, but mostly Emily did it, with a tiny bit of help from Avery. (She had troubles with the ghosts, too, sticking them to her shirt instead of the house.)
They worked well together! Rare occasion.

I love the googly eyes! I glued the bats' eyes and Em did the rest.

Annnnd, time for a snack!