I Guess She's Growing Up

Sometimes it's hard for me to stretch out of my comfort zone and teach, hand over more responsibility to C in managing her diabetes. It's not that I think she can't do certain things. It's just that it's become habit, my habit to finger check, carb count and dose for her.

A lot of times, I'll have her check her finger. She's even begun showing interest in checking the carb counts on snack boxes. At 7 years old, she actually knows to look at the serving size and total carb numbers! But, I'm not at the point where I allow her to guesstimate or even input all the info into her pump without supervision. Sometimes I make mistakes and know how easily things can be overlooked. Then we're staring at a scary low or a wicked high. I don't want to put all that on her yet. Sometimes...I even second guess myself.

However, something happened last Sunday at church that really made me stop and think "I guess she's growing up!" My brain was not fully functioning that morning. And as is our normal routine, Dan walked the kids to their respective Sunday school rooms. I failed to remember that this Sunday was promotion to the next grade room. New room = new teacher = new diabetes education = did not happen. A big oops on my part, I know.

Although class is only 1 1/2 hours maximum, many times there will be a snack given, a special treat. Well, since this was promotion Sunday, of course there was cake to celebrate! Why wouldn't there be? Anyway, I hadn't remembered that the kids would be switching classrooms and so there was no plan in place.

When I went to gather the kids after service time, I walked up to C's new room, kind of gasped inside my head when I realized we hadn't even mentioned anything about diabetes to the new teacher. I could see C inside the window putting her meter in her bag. She smiled at me and came to the door. I could also see a few pieces of sheet cake sitting on a table as she exited the door. I pulled her aside and asked if she had had some cake. One of her little friends popped her head out the door. With a smile she said "Oh, yes, C checked herself and I helped her and we had cake!"

I guess the look in my eyes signaled trouble to C and her eyes filled with tears. "Honey, I'm not mad at you," I said. "I just need to know how much you ate and what you put in the pump." After she calmed down, I took a look at the pump history and saw her BG number and the carbs she had estimated for the piece of cake. She actually put in 25 grams...exactly what I would have guessed! I suppose it just shocked me that she had done all of it on her own...well, with her friend's help :o). I hugged C and told her how proud I was of her.

I said "Mommy just needs to know about these things. I love you soooo much and I want to make sure everything is entered right so you stay feeling great. Okay, sweetheart?"

"Okay, Mom."

We'll have a better plan in place next Sunday. I'll begin by meeting the teacher!