The Sleepover

A wise woman once said to me...."If your child did not have diabetes would you let them do/eat that?" Touche Moira McCarthy Stanford. Touche. Hence the request for a sleepover.
The first one was a doozie. My daughter's 8th birthday. She had been asking for quite sometime and finally I gave in. I had her pick 3 of her other T1 friends. Yes I said that right. THREE other type one girls. Giving me a total of 4 to watch over. Why on earth would I take on such chaos on purpose?
Well I looked at it this way. Our kids may not always be the ones picked for sleepovers. Parents don't want to take on such responsibility or kids might be scared to ask their friend over because simply kids can be dicks.

I was determined to tackle this head on. All the girls had CGM's which was a blessing for me. 3 Dexcoms and 1 Libre. 2 girls had insulin pumps. 2 girls did not. I had juice and low snacks galore. I made sure I knew all their carb counts and insulin ratios. My true goal was to give 3 parents a night off. How often do we get such an opportunity? I wanted them to know that there was no way in hell I would let anything happen to their child. I was on it!
The night went well. There was slime making (dear God when will that end?) dancing, singing, and running around. Popcorn at midnight and late night movies.

Once they fell asleep I checked them every hour on the hour, and in some cases every 30 minutes. One of the girls I had to swipe due to her Libre which wasn't easy. Sometimes she would be laying on it and I had to struggle to gently flip a sleeping child just to scan her.
There was one low. Of course it was the one that was hardest to wake. But damnit there was NO WAY I was letting anyone go low on my dime. I yanked up that sleeping child and a juice box she would drink!

All 4 girls woke up right around 100. Completely exhausted I felt accomplished. I did it. I keep 4 girls alive through the night. No other parent then us can truly appreciate how that really feels.

So this year another request for a sleepover. I sighed with great hesitation I said yes. This time only 1 T1 child. Yet still I checked every 30 minutes to an hour their Dexcoms. There were 2 lows and 2 juice boxes. The kids were finger stick ed when they woke to make sure the numbers were right on. And once again, completely exhausted I did it.

It's so hard not to be afraid. Even though I had done it with 3 other girls before, I was still just as scared. As hard as it is we as parents have to keep forcing ourselves to make our kids life as normal as any other kid. Our kids will thank us for it....maybe? Probably not.

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