The Great Sleepover Debacle

Well, it's reared it's ugly head, "Mom can I sleep over at Andre's house tonight?" First of all you might think I'd say no because girls just don't sleep over at boy's houses right? Well, my daughter Korky and Andre are best friends. Our family and his family are best friends.

We met each other in June of 2008 when I went back to work after having a year off when my last baby was born. The S family is a mom and dad, a 22 year old daughter, a 16 year old daughter and a 7 year old boy. The S family (mom and oldest daughter) had an add in a local grocery store for their home based day care. This was pre-diabetes mind you. Anyways, I called them up, interviewed them, looked around their property and decieded that they would be a good fit for our family. They quickly became our friends and more like family than our babysitters. They love us and we love them. Our babysitter relationship with them went on for a few months over a year, before the big D hit.

The S family was on vacation when Korky was dx'd. Their Grandpa had been ill so they were off visiting him, my kids had been going to a different babysitter (also a good friend of ours) and ironically enough on the first day the S family was back in town is when I took Korky to the ER and got her diagnosis. I took a 3 month leave of absence from my full-time job at Walmart so that we would have time to adjust to our new way of life, also so that we'd have what we thought was alot of time to train the S family on how to take care of Korky. I ended up not ever going back to work. The S family was more than willing to learn how to take care of Korky, they read books, they came over at lunchtime and practiced drawing up the insulin in the syringe, they learned how to check blood sugar, how to calculate how much insulin to give, they gave us love and support. That was all well and good, but I just couldn't bring myself to hand over my 5 year old daughter to someone else for 8-10 hours a day and have them give her shots! So, I left work and they lost us as full-time customers at their day care. We still agreed to stay friends of course. We still are close friends, we see each other a few times a week, sometimes their little boy comes home to our house with Kortnie after school and they have play dates. We spend quite a few of our Saturday's over at their house, and their 16 year old daughter, K, has become our "date night" babysitter. K suffers from hypoglycemia, so she has a grasp on what low blood sugar feels like, she also has mastered most of Kortnie's pump functions, she can check Kortnie's blood sugar, figure out carbs and give a bolus using the EzCarb or EzBg functions on the pump. And, if she has any questions we are only a text or cell phone call away, she never hesitates to call us if she needs us. Her high school is only 2 blocks away from Kortnie's elementary school and she's even on Kortnie's emergency list. It might seem crazy to you, but K, a 16 year old girl, is the number one person I would trust Kortnie with besides my husband and I. Her older sister and parents are a close second.

So, this past Saturday we were over at the S familie's home, we were visiting, and making multiple batches of bannana bread, the Kortnie and Andre were riding horses, running around all over the place, sword fighting, climbing in the tree house, chasing bugs and horney toads, playing with the dogs, and swinging on the swing set. They were having a wonderful time, the weather was nice and we were all enjoying ourselves. That morning we had been to our town's Harvest Festival and the Pumpkin Patch. While ate a late lunch of chicken sandwiches and chips while at the S home and nobody was really in the mood for dinner. About 530pm I was getting ready to head home, and Kortnie asked that fateful question, "Can I sleep over here?" Oh man, what do you say, the kids are having fun, this family is my "go to" family, all 5 of them were planning on spending the night at home, the young ladies didn't have Saturday night plans so I knew that Kortnie would be in good hands. So, I said okay, but told her I was scared because it would be the first time she would be away from me since she got T1D. She told me she would be okay, I made it clear to her that if her numbers got weird than I would be coming to get her. So it was around 5:30, we checked her BG (she was 195 a little high, but not too bad for her), gave her some bannana bread and a bolus and I left to come home with my 2 other kids. I called her at 8:00pm, told her to check her BG, it was 307! Oh no, I said I don't like it being that high, you need to come home, she started crying and got all sad, so I said, okay, get a bolus and I'll call you back in an hour. So, they gave her a bolus using EzBg and I called back at 9pm, check your BG I said, she did and now it's 334! Oh no, now I told her she has to come home because I will have to check her all night long, she was crying, but Mrs S was able to talk her into coming home, told her it had been a crazy day and none of us had been eating right and that was why she was all messed up (very true). So, Mrs S brought her home to us, checked her again at 10, she was down to 310 gave her another bolus and sent her to bed, check again at 130am she was still 318, another bolus and finnally at 630am she was down, but too low now she was down to a 72. We got that under control and for the rest of Sunday she was right on target.

So, I tried, I tried to let my daughter be a regular 6 year old and spend the night with a friend, I tried to be brave and I falied, or D got in the way, or both. I feel bad for my baby, her heart was broken at having to come home and the next morning when her sister asked, "how come you came home?" she cried and said her BG's were too high. This sucks, stupid D! Oh well, I guess we are gonna try again this weekend. We are going to eat normal and more on scheduale this Saturday and see if we can make this work again. I am scared, I am nervous, but I also trust the S family with my baby, I know they love her and will watch over her. I am thankful for them, but I'm still gonna worry. Wish us luck.