Sleepover!
When you’re a kid, sleepovers are the absolute best. I mean honestly, when you’re 8 or 9 years old, there’s NOTHING better than eating a ton of junk food with your friends, playing games, and staying up all night giggling. I have so many memories from when I was growing up and had sleepovers with my friends. I want all of my kids to experience that and make those memories too. Not sure if you’ve caught on to this yet, but I’m a worrier. I like to think I play it cool and people thing I have my crap together, but deep down, I am 100%, certifiably a worry wart.
So when I got the text earlier this week that my daughter was invited to a sleepover for a birthday party, my initial reaction was like OMG yes! She’ll be SO excited. And so I immediately responded yes she’ll be there!
Then the panic started to set in——this is her very first friend sleepover. She’s slept over at my parents house and my in-laws, but otherwise I am always with her. And I get it, you have to let the baby bird use it’s wings and learn to fly. But this baby bird has a wing that isn’t so strong yet. Yea I’m awful with metaphors, but to be blunt——she has diabetes and can’t self-manage, celiac but she doesn’t know all the foods she can eat, and I’m a control freak who needs to be in charge of that still in order to feel like I can sleep at night.
*Deep breaths* Okay…I’m not going to be the crazy parent. I’ll reach out to the mom.
I kid you not——the stars have aligned, the clouds opened up, and someone heard my prayers——the parents of my daughter’s friend are THE nicest people you will ever meet. Not only that—BOTH PARENTS ARE DOCTORS. I literally hit the jackpot with the first sleepover that my daughter could have been invited to. This mom almost made me cry——she asked if my daughter has a CGM. Yep she does—-the Dexcom G6. “Okay great, I will sleep in the same room so I can look at her phone and watch her blood sugars.” The dad offered to text me blood sugar readings every 30 minutes so that I would feel comfortable. I’m getting teary as I write this because I don’t think they know how much I appreciated that. I did however explain that if she keeps her phone close, I can follow her blood sugars on my phone. YOU GUYS—--the mom put Dexcom follow on her phone, signed up right there and will watch her blood sugars all night. I brought the Basquimi (which they already know how to administer), treatments for lows (2 juice boxes and a gel packet), and told her I am comfortable if she rides high within reason—-I can honestly tolerate my kid being in the 200’s for a night, even 300 if it comes to it because of the importance of her feeling like the diabetes isn’t excluding her from a normal 8 year old life. And honestly, her pump will correct her overtime.
Okay but it doesn’t stop there…these parents (okay now I am crying) made this entire birthday party gluten-free just for my kid! A homemade cake, gluten-free rice krispies, gluten-free cookies, veggie straws, cheese and pepperoni. EVERY. THING. I was blown away. I had brought some food, including a gluten-free pizza and then a gluten-free donut for the morning because I wasn’t sure what they’d have. I took it home——she had everything covered, including gluten-free pancakes for in the morning. Now I know her blood sugar will probably be high again from this but she is so used to having to be different from everyone else, and being told she can only have certain things, that I’ll take the high blood sugar this time. She’s in range usually about 90-95% of the time and running high during this party is worth it.
Don’t get me wrong——there is still a HUGE part of me that is extremely anxious right now, despite knowing she is in great hands and is being well cared for. But at the same time, I’m struggling to even find the words to express how appreciative I am of all this. I’ll watch my phone like a hawk tonight and probably won’t sleep much, for my own piece of mind. I know I can text the mom at any hour if I’m concerned. And my daughter never has to know that I am worried one bit——all she knows is she’s one of the girls, having a great time at a sleepover and making beautiful memories. The sleep over is going on right now, and I’ve already been receiving pictures of all of the little girls having THE BEST time. My momma heart is bursting.