New Beginnings!

If you recall, Sam lost his first (top) front tooth back in July. Well it only took 7 weeks for him to finally lose the other!

He pulled it out the day before school started, which was 3 weeks ago!! Unfortunately the tooth fairy completely forgot to pay him a visit and he was surprised to find his tooth the next morning right where he left it, under his pillow. "It must be because you crawled into bed with me in the middle of the night Sam... the tooth fairy didn't know where you were." Sam took care of that the next night. Before climbing into bed with me he pulled the tooth out from under his pillow and left it out in plain view so that the tooth fairy was sure not to miss it. Thankfully she didn't.



SO as I said... school started 3 weeks ago. Back into the swing of things... school, homework, extra-curricular activities. Sam is into his pre-season hockey full swing & Juliet has begun her various dance classes. This year we are doing ballet, tap, jazz & lyrical... I'll tell ya that girl is gonna have moves like Jagger she will. Lol. Juliet also started something MAJOR yesterday.... da da da da da da daaaaa......

 

insulin pump therapy!!!!!

Yes! Just the right dose of drive me crazy & pull out my hair. Holy moly. We spent the day at CHEO yesterday learning "advanced carb counting" & bla bla bla so that we can adequately take care of our little girl over the next 10 days (& the rest of her life for that matter) but the next 1-2 weeks happen to be REALLY strict and frighteningly scheduled. That's what it takes to establish her insulin amounts accurately. Of course she's hooked up to the pump not half an hour before she slips into a state of hypoglycemia and almost passes out unconscious. Awesome start. Nothing a little juice couldn't fix. With that snafu out of the way we managed to drift through the afternoon without issue. Well... I shouldn't say "without" issue. Leave it to us to decide to host a BBQ for a few friends on the first night we have to measure Juliet's carbs at supper time to within 1 gram of her carb target. Again... for the non-diabetics... she is allowed to eat 45 grams of carbs at supper time, and has the flexibility to eat 44g or 46g.... but no further. As my husband tends to the plethora of crap on the BBQ, here I am half an hour late for supper, trying to lug a crying Sofie around the kitchen & heat up her supper... listening to Sam complain about how hungry he is & "what can he eat while he's waiting"... all while trying to weigh & calculate a meal for Juliet that has a carb count of exactly 45g... no more no less. I manage to eek out a 43.3g meal and top it off with a whole 2.4g (50ml) of milk to push it up into her target at 45.7g. "SO what does the pump do?" asks my husbands friend... to which I replied rather quickly "drive me crazy". 

 

Note to self: Do not host a BBQ on the same day life sustaining treatment is introduced into your daughter's life.

So for the next 2 weeks we will be running to & from school testing her blood before meals & 2 hours after and giving her insulin boluses at lunch. That's not crazy at all. I figured it would be easier to deal with the next 2 weeks ourselves and then teach the school how to do it once ratios are established. No need to overwhelm anyone else in addition to ourselves. I know it will get easier but geez... makes giving needles a friggin' walk in the park!

While it sucks that the summer is over I must admit I am really looking forward to the end of allergy season and a stop to my horribly itchy eyes and equally, if not more annoying nose. My allergies (hayfever) went into remission for a few years but last year during my pregnancy they came back with a vengeance. As they did this summer. Yay me. On a good day my nose is just stuffed with thick mucous (your welcome.. in the event you've just thanked me for sharing that) but when it really counts my eyes, nose & throat are so itchy I'd like to swallow sandpaper just to relieve the itch. It's really quite wonderful.

So one more new little thing before I sign off... just thought I'd mention that I'm a working mother again.

What? What's that you say? You have a job??  

YES!!!!

I decided that I didn't get enough craziness taking care of my own 3 children so I went out a sought employment taking care of other people's children too! Oh yes I did. I am the newest teacher for the school age program at the daycare in Sam & Juliet's school. I just started last week and will be working part time after school with the JR & SR kindergarten kids... Juliet's classmates. Needless to say I got a lot of strange looks from the kids wondering why "Juliet's mom" was there. Lol. Now after a few days I have become "Madame" and not "Juliet's mom"... although every so often one of the kids reminds me. Today I get to tackle the whole brood by myself. My co-teacher (the one who has been doing this for YEARS... the one who's lead I follow...) is needed in another program. Awesome. Toss me in with the wolves! Me against eleven 4 & 5 year olds (13 tomorrow). Should be interesting....