Sleeping Beauty..... maybe

It happens nightly.... "Can I sleep in your bed tonight Mama?" she asks with her saddest of faces. I'll admit, I created this problem. I know it. When she was born, my then husband (her father) was working a night shift, and was gone from 10pm until 9am. I was dealing with a three year old, plus a newborn who didn't want to sleep the night. I quickly fell into the habit of nursing her in my bed, where we'd both fall asleep. I don't know why I didn't stop this behaviour when she finished nursing, but being so exhausted, and the other half of my bed empty, it was easier to let her in with me, then stay up and struggle.

Needless to say, she's very accustomed to sleeping with me. I have made a conscious effort in past years to try and curb this, but somehow or another, we always start back at the very beginning- with her in my bed.

I try to be firm "you have to fall asleep in your own bed" and she will, but when she goes to bed in her own bed, she wakes up at least twice during the night hypoglycemic and needing my assistance to bump her blood sugars back up. I just want to sleep again uninterrupted, but apparently that's too much to ask.

I made the strangest observation the other day. When she does sleep in my bed for the night, she never goes low falling into the hypoglycemic range. I wondered at first, if it had something to do with being close to me. But then I felt biased for feeling special that she only slept decently next to me.

However, I was "chatting" with a mother of another diabetic child online the other night, and shared this observation of mine. God bless parents of Type 1 Diabetics, especially bless the ones that are as supportive of other Type 1 parents. We're a tight club..... the membership dues are a bitch, but once you're in.... you're in.

This mother says to me "I don't think that's weird at all. She must feel very nervous sleeping alone, scared of crashing. Her body will use extra glucose, even if asleep, because of the extra emotions. When she's sleeping with you, she probably feels safe."

I didn't realize that emotions would affect blood glucose levels as well. Good God, we're nearly nine months into diagnosis, and I'm still learning bizarre things about this unpredictable, at times seemingly unmanagable disease.

So I had to sit her big sister down last night and talk to her about it. I know she gets jealous that Rowan is in my bed so often, when she is not allowed. I explained to her everything above, and that Rowan and myself will actually get a better night's sleep together (even if her toes are wedged in my ear).

"Will I still get to go in your bed when Rowan's at her solo sleepover at Daddy's?" my oldest asks me with her huge, beautifully brilliant blue eyes.

"Of course!"

So last night, Rowan was in my bed (we're kind of predictable sometimes) and she once again, she never crashed during the night. In fact, she woke up at 7:30am reading 6.0. Unlike the nights when she's in her own bed, and will fall into the "2" range at least twice during the eight hours that I should be sleeping.

I guess that means that I'm going to ease off on my efforts to have her sleep in her own bed. Now my only question is...... will she be 32 and STILL sleeping in my bed?

Night Time Glucose Testing

Last night, Rowan complained at bedtime about an ear-ache. She hadn't said anything about it all day long, and it certainly didn't prevent her from playing outside in the neighbourhood for hours, so I took the information, and mentally filed it for later examination. But sure enough, within an hour of her being asleep, she began screaming and crying out in her sleep.

I've done this ear infection thing with my kids often enough to know that it does indeed hurt more at bedtime, because when they lay down, there's more pressure on the inner ear. So when I put her older sister to bed in the top bunk, I decided to spare myself the extra effort later on, and lug my sleeping diabetic beauty into my bed.

Hours later, I crept into my room surrounded by darkness, to test her glucose levels one last time before going to bed. Now I've heard that some kids are able to be 'finger-poked' in their sleep... and it took a while for us to figure out what works for us. The times that I have tried doing it in her sleep, she woke up in 'fight or flight' and believe me... she was fighting. I couldn't keep control of her flailing little arm, and the blood sample smeared everywhere. So last night, I'm at the side of my bed, with a soft closet light on, setting up the meter and preparing to test her. I know she knows I'm there. We both know what's coming.

I reach under the blankets and pull out her itty-bitty little hand, and she pulls it back under the blankets. I stroke her hair away from her forehead, and whisper to her that I'm here for her # and need her finger back please. Her eyes remain closed, and her face tightens into a grimace when the lancet goes into the side of her finger. But she was warned, and there is no struggle, no smeared blood everywhere, no hysterically crying child. She was 8.2.... which meant one thing: she wouldn't make it through the night without going hypoglycemic on me. I set my alarm clock for four hours later, only to repeat the entire process at 4am, followed by one of our infamous 'diabetic midnight picnics' in bed.

And we survive another day.... only to repeat this six times over.... minimum. We visit the doctor today... sure enough, she has the beginning of another ear infection. I'm wondering how sugar-reduced antibiotics taste... knowing I'll be informed in a couple of hours when I present her with her first dose.