Things I learned from diabetes this month... July edition

-Elise has been wanting to try a snow cone/shave ice for the longest time.  I'm not sure how she even knows about them,  but they are a treat we haven't attempted for a few reasons; I am not a fan of sugar-free stuff and would much rather give her the full sugar version (which I used to have no idea how to carb count for), and they are full of ingredients I am loathe to give any of my children, except as a special treat.  We were at a birthday party that had a sno-cone machine and the host mom had a great idea... using a medicine cup (like what comes with children's Tylenol) to measure the syrup.  I looked at the carb count per oz., figured out what it would be in mL, and pretty soon Elise was in strawberry sno-cone heaven!

-Because of the above situation, I now know that there are 30 mL in 1 oz.

-Pumps were made for birthday parties. Rarely do I get party duty because they usually happen during Mattias's naptime, and Fred enjoys a good birthday cake, so he usually goes.  This past weekend however, his flight from New York got in late, so I had to suck it up and drag one very tired little boy and one very excited little girl to a party that featured 110 degree temperatures, an inflatable waterslide, sno-cones, pizza, cake... Oh my. It was crazy-town.  It went a little something like this:

• Waterslide fun
• BG check... 78
• Fruit
• bolus for fruit, but only by 1/2
• More waterslide
• Sno-cone
• Bolus in full
• More waterslide
• Pizza
• Bolus with extended
• More pizza and some fruit
• Bolus some more

At this point, Fred arrives and I take Mattias home for his nap. After I left there was cake.  Her numbers during the party and for the hours following were: 78, 105, 98, and 187 (that last number after three bowls of chicken fried rice).
I call that a win! Could you imagine the above scenario on shots???

-When Fred is out of town, I use my cell phone as my alarm for night checks.  Mattias used to sleep in our room before we moved into our new house, and I got used to sleeping with my cell phone set to vibrate under my pillow, so the alarm wouldn't wake him up.  While Fred was away this past week, I forgot to turn the ringer to vibrate and was awoken at 2 am by my very loud (set to max), very obnoxious dance mix alarm.  ALWAYS check your phone volume before you use it as an alarm!

-My above "thing I learned" reminds me that you should never make your favourite song the alarm on your phone that wakes you for night checks.  Fred did this on his old phone, using one of my very favourite songs by my very favourite group. Now when I hear it, it makes me want to get up and do a BG check and I instantly feel tired.  Thankfully, now that he has an iPhone, it's the annoying iPhone alarm that wakes us up. Still can't listen to my song though...