Picking a Pump...

Well 1 week from today is our pump class! They will quiz us on insulin adjustment among other thing and if we pass (I think I'll let the Hubby copy off my paper) we'll get to choose our pump!!! The only problem is that I'm so torn in which one I want. My 3 choices; OmniPod, One Touch Ping and MiniMed Paradigm.
OmniPod got the boot, apparently it doesn't keep track of insulin on board other than correction. in my 1st thoughts I didn't care about that because I couldn't keep track of it with shots anyways so it didn't really matter, but the more I thought about it, it hit me that why even bother switching to the pump if I'm not going to let technology help me gain better control of her numbers (we have enough lows with out over dosing her with insulin)! So I figured for now I'll skip on the awesome tube-less feature to keep my daughter safer, maybe when she can actually tell me she feels low we'll revisit the OmniPod.
So with that I'm only left with the One Touch Ping and MiniMed Paradigm...I can't choose!!! I LOVED the MiniMed one but only because it had the pump, CGM and test meter that were linked together. The only thing I didn't like was that it didn't have a good remote and we'd need to actually have her pump in our hands to do what we needed to do. Most of you guys with young children know getting a 3 year old to stand still while you fiddle around with the pump imputing number and what not is next to impossible!
I haven't actually gotten to see the Ping one yet, the company has yet to call me back after my 3 e-mails about setting up a hands on demo. I've heard tons of good things about it! Those of you that have it, is there anything about it that you don't like or wish you could change? And does it come with good support? The MiniMed one came with a nurse for the first few weeks, you e-mailed over your numbers everyday and they'd help you make changes and once everything was good they'd turn you back over to your endo office, I really liked knowing I wasn't just turned loose with it.


I know there has been a ton of talk about pumps lately but if you're not too burned out on it please, please leave me a comment with any info you think I'll need to make this choice! Thanks!!!

Secret Santa!!!

Thank You Ronda and Olivia!
First of all Alivia LOVED the fact that not only did she get a present from her friend that "has diabetes like me" but that she got a present from a girl who has the same name!

"Ruby" the bear with diabetes!

 I had no idea they even made a girl one, we got the boy one when she was dx and now he has a wife!!! (Alivias words, not mine) The 1st thing Alivia did when she opened her was go get the boy one so they could be together.

We also got an ornament for the Christmas tree...

The Giving Tree book...

This was actually one of the very few books we didn't already own, great pick!

It even came with a picture of Olivia and her big sister Gwen inside and Alivia points to Olivia every night (yes, we've read it every night since we got it!) after we read it and reminds me "this is Olivia, she has diabetes just like me, just incase I have forgotten from the night before!"

A Christmas tree cookie cutter...

Which we put to good use already!

and a super sweet framed poem about families...

Thanks again Ronda and Olivia (& Family) they were such thoughtful gifts that she can keep for the rest of her life! Can't wait for the day when the 2 O/Alivias get to meet each other in person!

Sorry this is so short but my computer and blogger are not getting along very well lately and it's super FRUSTRATING!!!

And what happened to the spell check???

Tag Your It - My Turn

1. Do you like bleu cheese? NO WAY!!!

2. Have you ever smoked? NO WAY!!!

3. Do you own a gun? Nope…hubby made a bad choice in his young stupid days and now we aren’t allowed to have one in our house…something about breaking a police car window…

4. Favorite type of Food? Real Mexican

5. Favorite type of music? Contemporary Christian

6. What do you think of hot dog? We only buy all beef hot dogs, not sure if they’re better but we like to think so!

7. Favorite Christmas movie? The Santa Clause

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Venti 2 pump black and white peppermint mocha, currently decaf

9. Can you do push ups? Probably not with the current baby bump

10. What’s your favorite piece of jewelry? My necklace my mom gave me for my 1st mothers day, I’d love to pass it onto Alivia on her 1st mothers day!

11. Favorite hobby? Taking Photos, scrapbooking, reading and shopping! (is that a hobby?)

12. Do you have A. D. D.? Nope

 13. Do you wear glasses/contacts? Nope

14. Middle name? Ann

15. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment: 1) Why did my kids get up so early today? 2) I need my coffee! 3) I need to make Christmas cookies today so we can eat them while we decorate the tree tonight.

16. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink: Water, Pepsi and coffee

17. Current worry? My brother!!! He’s leaving for Afghanistan the 2nd week in December :(

18. Current hate right now? That my brother has to leave! And a much smaller hate…I lost my crock pot ???

19. Favorite place to be? Home

20. How did you bring in the new year? Can't remember - probably sleeping!

21. Someplace you’d like to go? I agree with you Laura!!! Anywhere to meet my fellow D moms!!

 22. Name three people who will complete this…hummm who hasn’t done it yet??? Wendy, Shannon and Hallie

23. Do you own slippers? Yep…somewhere, I need to find them though the tile in the kitchen is getting pretty cold these days. 

24. What color shirt are you wearing? Pink

25. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? Not really, they’re too cold when you first get in.

26. Can you whistle? Yep

27. Where are you now? My room

28. Would you be a pirate? Probably not, unless the pirate ship was like a huge cruise ship!

29. What songs do you sing in the shower? I don’t sing!

30. Favorite Girl’s Name? Alivia and Ava!

31. Favorite boy’s name? Anthony and Blake

32. What is in your pocket right now? No pockets

33. Last thing that made you laugh? Probably something strange Alivia said

34. What vehicle do you drive? Mazda MPV…but I miss my trailblazer everyday :(

35. Worst injury you've ever had? Broke my wrist in January and got to wear a cast from my fingers to my shoulder for 7 weeks! Had to have it “re-set” twice (took 2 grown men to hold me down!) Even after months and months of therapy I’m still not able to turn it all the way over and it still hurts!

36. Do you love where you live? The town…yes. Our current house…no (it’s closing in on us!)

37. How many TVs do you have in your house? 3

38. How many computers do you have in your house? Just 1

39. If you changed your job, what would it be? If I had to work out side the home I’d like to be a labor and delivery nurse.

40. If you were granted three wishes, what would they be?1) A cure. 2) For Alivia to be able to get pregnant easily and have as many healthy babies as she wants 3) To never have to worry about money again

It's a...

17 weeks 2 days...

"I'm a Girl"...Ava Jean!!Leg... Foot... We were all very suprised that it was a girl, everyone including me thought it was a boy! Anthony's a little disappointed that he wont be having a brother, but he's got a LOT of work ahead of him to protect all 3 of his sisters!

World Diabetes Day!

This was our 1st World Diabetes Day, we weren't quite sure what to do for it then the random idea of the hubby and I getting blue ribbon tattoos came to mind! He was totally up for it (as he is for any tattoo) I was pretty scared but thought if my child can be poked with a needle 1500 time in 1 year I can be poked a few thousand (not really sure exactly) for a tattoo honoring her...but then it hit me you're pregnant you can't get a tattoo!!! Well there's always next year for me! Hubby went ahead with it and his sister took my place and got one honoring Alivia too. Here's the hubbys... And here's his sisters, hers is Alivias initials and the dot of the j is the World Diabetes Logo...

Dreams do come true!

A while back I posted about my meltdown when I finally realized my "dream" of finding a perfect insulin to carb ratio for Alivia and getting on with our life wasn't ever going to happen. She'll grow, get sick, stressed, exercise and so on.

Well... dreams do come true! They don't last forever but I'll take what I can get! About 9 weeks ago Alivia had been running high at EVERY blood sugar check, so being that I just took the "insulin adjustment" class I played around with her ratio all on my own and after many tries figured that instead of the 1:30 ratio she was on it needed to be 1:20. We put that into effect and had 8 weeks of PERFECT numbers! Not just 70-200 but 70-150!!! For the first time since being dx I didn't cringe while I waited for the meter to count down I knew it would be perfect. I can't tell you how much of a blessing it was! Alivia was doing great those 8 weeks but I was horrible, my morning sickness was so bad, I ended up losing 15 pounds from throwing up no matter what I ate. I really don't think I could of handled being that sick and fighting with the diabetes monster at the same time. Someone was definitely helping us out!

At the end of our wonderful 8 weeks we had our 3 month endo appt on 10/30 and her A1c was 6.8%! I at first thought we'd be in trouble because it was low but the Dr looked though her log book and only found 1 low (45) so he was really happy with it and so were we! We talked about the pump and he said based on her A1c she didn't need it right now but if I wanted it I could sign up for the classes and get started right away. I compromised and scheduled my classes for 3 months out. I would really like to have the pump established before the new baby comes that way hopefully some of my family members will feel comfortable enough to watch her while I'm in the hospital.

Well at some point you have to wake up from your dream, and that we did when Alivia woke up at 250 last week and spent 3 days in the 300-550 range even after countless corrections. She never had any ketones, fevers or acted sick so she just must be growing or the end of our honeymoon. Either way back to the drawing board for me not only for the insulin to carb ratio but also for the corrections I guess... oh the joy! The good thing is that I'm finally starting to feel better, although I'd take a few more weeks of being sick if that meant I didn't have to fight the diabetes monster! But like I said I'll take what I can get!

Here is my cute little Kitty on Halloween!

Candy Carb Amounts...

At our 3 month endo appt our wonderful Dr sent us home with this list of carb amounts in most of the Halloween candy! Just thought I'd pass it on to the rest of you so you're not forced to eat all the candy just because you don't know the carb amount...although most of us will probably eat it anyways!

Sorry they're kinda hard to read, if anyone can't read it I'd be happy to e-mail it directly so you can enlarge it.