Making Changes

Surprisingly, adjusting to life with diabetes didn’t take us very long. It somehow just came natural, even for Brenley. She was immediately able to recognize when she felt that her blood sugar wasn’t quite right. For a 2 and a half-year-old, that’s pretty damn incredible. With Type 1 Diabetes, there is ZERO room for error. So for us, organization was key!

Everything from prepped meals, prepackaged snacks, to tracking her fluid intake, daily activity, and finger pokes EVERY 2 hours, like clockwork. Sadly, we even had to put a lock on our pantry, since she could no longer graze, or help herself. When it came to eating out, I would take necessary food groups with us, just in case it would be unavailable at the restaurant. Yes, people thought I was crazy, but NO ONE was going to tell me I couldn’t. Josh and I spent 4 hours our first day home, creating a custom whiteboard. We wrote down EVERYTHING, every day! It was huge and claimed its own special place in our kitchen.

Diabetes is without a doubt life changing, and not just for the one diagnosed, but the entire family. Even though we always led healthy lives, diabetes is a whole different ball game. With a lot of moving parts, that don’t always like to play nice. Which definitely, makes for a difficult disease to manage, especially for a toddler.

Within the first 3 months of being diagnosed, Brenley’s hemoglobin A1C (a protein that glucose, or sugar, sticks to.), decreased from 8.1 to 6.4 which is considered excellent for a Type 1 Diabetic. At that appointment, she was given the golden star for Type one Toddlers! Just when I thought, my job as Type 1 mama, was not being done to my best ability, that number reassured me. The job I am doing is in fact, well enough!

Sometimes, us mamas, just need that little reassurance.

Along with that fantastic A1C, all else was well. Being that we return to Brenley’s endocrinologist every 3 months, this visit was the first, of the rest of our life. She had even grown significantly (height and weight), in just those 3 months, after not being able to gain weight due to high blood sugar level.

It was a day full of great numbers and health! We were on track to a bright future – so we thought…

In the months to follow, life was rather normal. Of course, it was as eventful as ever, but in a good way. In August we celebrated Brysen’s 1st birthday, which seemed crazy. I mean, I don’t know a mother that doesn’t say that when their child turns 1. However, when you have a child with certain medical needs, that kind of consumes your life – literally! It kinda felt with Brysen, as if time just past right by. As if the only moments I was able to really savor, after Brenley’s diagnosis, was the purest ones – nursing my little lady! Neither of us, planned on weaning any time soon, those moments, were ours!

However, there were changes happening, that didn’t involve food, or needles. It was pretty clear, that we didn’t seem to be leaving this small valley, we grew up in. So it was time, to put on our big people pants, we were shopping for a home! We were rapidly growing out of our rental, and our lease was soon coming to an end. Crazy to think, all that happened, in that house, in just one year. Potty trained a toddler, birthed a baby girl, Josh got laid off his job, Brenley got diagnosed with a life-threatening autoimmune disease, Josh got a new job, now house hunting, with lots of madness in between. Whew, just writing that makes my head spin.

After several weeks of house hunts that came up short. Josh came across a promising, somewhat scary house listing. The house was bad, really bad, but the property was what we really had our eyes after. Six acres of land in the country, and the school district we preferred. Within days of looking at the land, we decided to go for it. A few weeks later, we became proud landowners of 6 acres and a house we couldn’t wait to demolish!

We had it all figured out, we were going to BUILD our family home! How exciting right?! We closed on our property in mid-September, and we had to leave our rental by the end of the month. So what did we do? We moved in with family…again! I know what your thinking, YIKES! However, this time we were moving in with MY family, my parents. I mean, how bad could it be, I only lived with them for most of my existence.
Well, let me tell you…after only being living there for 2 weeks, I was already starting to regret our decision.
Too many dominate heads under one roof doesn’t make for an easy living situation. Here we go…AGAIN!

♡

The place we would soon call “HOME”!
(Not sure if she was posing for our land,
or the outfit she dressed herself in…)