The Call…

Several months had gone by, and by this time we had this family of four thing down! We were just good at it! Of course, it helped that Brysen’s demeanor was somehow even better than Brenley’s was at her age. I can give credit where credit is due, and Brysen…she made the transition from one child to two, super easy! Then Brenley, she owned her new big sister roll – like a true lady!

AND THE AWARD FOR BEST BIG SISTER GOES TOO…BRENLEY J!

She was on it, except for that time when we decide to take our own christmas photos and she decided she no longer wanted to hold Brysen, so she just let go. I did a nose dive to catch her just before her nose dived straight into the hard wood.

Brenley, got a pass but just that once; lets remember she is just a toddler.

Yep, just a toddler but a potty trained toddler. I made it my goal to have Brenley a full-time potty goer before I gave birth to Brysen. I was determined to only have one child in diapers. As much as I tried to force Brenley to use the potty, she was anything but interested. Lets face it, potty training is not an easy task, you are pretty much homebound or taking a potty with you every where you go – what fun is that?

After nearly two months, and just weeks before giving birth, I was ready to throw in the towel! Until that one afternoon I walked into the kitchen to prepare lunch. When I came back into the living room…Brenley was peeing on the potty! I about peed myself from excessive celebration!! Not to mention the large baby that was pushing on my bladder!
It was like magic, and from that moment forward she was a full-time potty goer, and I was one happy mama!

Like I had mentioned, several months had past. We had just celebrated Brysen turning 7 months old and our first Easter as a Family of 4! I mean the time was just flying by.  A few days after the big Easter celebration, Brenley came down with a cold, and you know how it usually goes, when one gets sick…you all get sick. Luckily for us, that was not the case, this time. However, something just didn’t seem right. For the most part Brenley was acting like a normal child, but there were just a few things that didn’t feel right – mother’s intuition I suppose. Both Josh and myself, noticed a number of things that threw a red flag.

Remember, Brenley was now fully potty trained. Besides having to wear a diaper to bed, she NEVER had an accident…EVER! The first red flag, I will never forget…
Brenley had went to use the potty and less than 5 minutes later she stood in the living room and peed…EVERYWHERE! She just looked and me and said…”Mommy, I’m sorry mommy, I couldn’t stop it.”. Aside from the fact that statement completely broke my heart, that was the moment the worry started.
What would make her have to pee like that? Of course, the googling began…

Initially, I thought…”Could it be diabetes?, but that doesn’t run in our family…”.

I expressed my concerns with Josh and other members of our family, they all thought I was overacting, except for Josh.

Two days later, Josh had noticed the circles under her eyes becoming darker. Being that Josh worked during the day, when he came home in the evenings she was tired, so naturally it was easy to place the blame on the tiredness.

A couple more days past by, I had been giving her a bath, when all at once I looked at her and she looked shockingly frail to me…something was going on, but what?

When we went to bed that night, at around 2:00 am, Brenley woke up crying for a drink. Other than the excruciating crying, her waking to get a sip of water during the night was not out of the ordinary. However, this time was significantly different. She drank two 8 ounce cups, one of water and 30 minutes later, one of milk. Needless to say, that morning she not only saturated her diaper, she peed the entire bed.

I had enough, frequent urination, extreme thirst, little to no weight gain, irritated mood…all signs and symptoms were pointing towards diabetes. That afternoon Brysen had her 7 month well visit at our pediatrician, and Brenley was coming along. After all was well with Bysen, I took the opportunity to express my concerns with the symptoms Brenley had been experiencing for the last week. Looking at Brenley she thought I was overreacting, but agreed to have her tested. We headed back home, I made a few phone calls and had someone come directly to our home to draw labs from Brenley.
She had no idea what was about to happen…

I had promised her if she sat on my lap and held very still, her MiMi (Josh’s mother), could take her to get a mini ice cream cone…

She really wanted that ice cream cone, so she did just that. To this today, she remembers that moment like it was yesterday, and she was only 2 and a half. I was beyond anxious to know that results, and so was Josh. He was on his way to a fishing trip with my father, 3 hours away.

Being that I knew many people who work at our local hospital, I was able to get them sent over to our pediatrician ASAP. It was a Friday and they are not open on the weekend. Lord knows, I would not have been able to handle not knowing results until Monday.

Within 45 minutes, my phone rang…I knew from the way she said hello, my fear was confirmed. She told me to take her to Childrens Hospital immediately, and be ready to stay. My Brenley indeed had Type 1 Diabetes…

As I hung up the phone it was as if I had stopped breathing, every part of my body was shaking, as questions started flooding my mind.

Brenley and MiMi had just got back from getting ice cream when I received the call, she was studded. All Brenley said was, “Mommy whats wrong? Whats Dia-beeetes?”. I didn’t even know the proper way to answer that question, I just looked at her and said “Its okay baby, we are going to go to the hospital for a few days and they are going to tell us everything we need to know. I PROMISE you, EVERYTHING is going to be okay! Remember that okay?” – “Okay Mommy, I Love You!”. I was silent for a brief moment as I attempted to collect myself, then I looked at her and said “I love you baby, to the moon & back again!”.

With our bag packed of I don’t even know what, we all jumped into the jeep to start our hour-long drive to Children’s Hospital. As we started driving I made another call to Josh, it was as if I could feel him breaking. I told him everything I knew in that moment, they turned the truck around and headed straight for the hospital. I made a few other phone calls during our drive, my mom, my grandmother, and my grandfather. My grandfather is one of the most important people in my life and in this moment, I needed his prayers, and comfort more than I had ever needed before.

A lot was about to happen in these next few days, it was the start of our new “normal”…

♡