Look whoo turned ONE!!!

(Opening gifts at her 1st birthday party)

Can you believe it's been a whole year since baby Addison joined our family?!?!

It feels like just yesterday when we were all sitting around tossing around possible names for Baby "A"

Well it's been an awesome year, she fits perfectly into our family! She is very laid back and doesn't mind waiting a few minutes for her meal while we measure out Alivia's food or treat a low.

She is incredibly fascinated by that little black bag that holds the meter, poker and bottle of test strips. That bag must be kept zipped at all times! She loves to pull the cap off the poker, slobber on the meter and hide bottles of test strips under the stove.

She also LOVES LOVES LOVES wrapping her little fingers around Sissys tubing and giving it a good YANK!

She's also been a great sleeper (unless she's teething!) The girls share a room and she's totally unaware of us sneaking into their room at night, she doesn't even budge when the meter beeps or the pump alarms.

She's also learning at a young age that it's completely "normal" for her Momma to occasionally check her blood sugar, sometimes she scoots over to me while I'm checking Sissy and gives me her hand :)

We're still not in the clear yet with her kidney issues, we just went in for her follow up ultrasound and Dr visit and the kidney is still swollen. It did not go away on it's own like we had hoped for but at this time it's not causing her any problems and it may never cause a problem. Surgery however will be required if it starts acting up.

She's still not walking or crawling yet. I know she knows how to crawl but chooses not to and has very little interest in walking. BUT she does do this super cute butt scoot!

 In a way I'm sad that my last and final baby is growing so quickly, I'll never again be the mother of an infant and yet at the same time I'm a little excited for the next stage of motherhood, raising my children. I'm super excited to be able to just hop in the car with out having to leave my bum hanging out of the backseat in the pouring rain to buckle carseats :)

Everythings changing...

And by everything I mean E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G!!!

When we were discharged from the hospital 2 years ago Alivia was on a set insulin dose due to the NPH but when we switched over she was at a 1:15 ratio, for you non-d peeps that means for every 15 carbs she eats i would have to inject her with 1 unit of insulin. They warned us that as she grew her insulin needs would greatly increase...but they never did! Up until a few weeks ago she was still on a 1:15 ratio even though she's grown quite a few inches and gained about 25+ pounds! Of course her "Honeymoon Period" was a huge exception but that didn't last long at all! And sure there were times when we'd start to see a pattern of higher numbers and we'd bump it up a tad only to be greeted with constant lows, and so we changed it back to her "normal" ratio. Same thing with the Lantus and now her basal rates, we started her on an insulin pump over a year ago we spent only a few days tweaking her basal rate and what do you know it was the same rate of .250, 24 hours a day 7 days a week and has stayed that way every day since!

Even her ISF (insulin sensitivity factor) has stayed the EXACT same since day one! 1:200, once again for you non-d peeps :)  1 unit of insulin lowers her blood sugar 200 points, for example blood sugar of 400 would require 1.5 units of insulin to bring her blood sugar back into her target range.

It was pretty smooth sailing, hardly any lows under 60 and only highs due to Mommy mess-ups and bad sites, and she hasn't had ketones since dx. Life went on and diabetes sorta faded into the background.

Fast forward 2 years to present day and then go back 3-4 weeks and we've got highs after highs after highs! Corrections are only working half ass and as soon as she eats she sky rockets AGAIN! Frustrated beyond belief I changed her site 10 times in 5 days, I opened 2 new bottles of insulin, it HAD to be one of those 2 things we've never had it any other way! After 5 very long and frustrating days had passed I finally gave in and started making changes, changes and more changes. Just 3 days later we were finally seeing numbers starting with a 1!!! We finally landed with an insulin to carb ratio of 1:10, basal rates of .500u/hour and an ISF of 1:150. All was right with the world and her numbers were "in range" every single time. Whew, that was rough but we all made it through alive and well (except for that A1c which will be sky high I'm sure!) End of story or so I thought...

Only a week after the return of the "in-range" numbers she was crashing hard and fast all the time. Lows only an hour after meals, corrections during the night bringing her into the 40's and 50's, and lows for no good reason! I very quickly pulled back hard on everything thinking she was just going through a growth spurt and now it's over. Everything was promptly returned back to "normal" and so did her numbers...for 4 days!

The last 2 weeks have been a nightmare! Everything only works for a few days before needing to be increased, a few days later decreased again, then increased, then...well you get the picture! I never know what number will pop up when I poke her little finger. She over reacts to every little thing and I never know if it's because she's high, low or just 4 going on 16!

In a way I feel like we're back at the starting line only the beginning of the last race was all down hill and this time it's up hill! I know so many of you have been going though this from the beginning but for us this is all new and very frustrating!

I do not like change! Or diabetes!