T was born on Feb.8. Eventually I will write his birth story. The only NORMAL part of our lives since the night before his birth would be the days we spent in the hospital afterward. I came home with " unpleasant complications" meaning, nothing that would kill me, but it was painful and embarrassing and THANK GOD that is over with!
When T was 10 days old we had to return to the local ER for a second time due to my "issues" (BTW taking a newborn to an ER is TERRIFYING). When we got home that night, for various reason that I can detail later, we used my hubbys glucometer to check our 5yo daughter, B's. blood sugar because she had been acting a bit different. It was so high it didint even register a number, but only as "HIGH".
The next morning we took her to the local Childrens hospital where she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and admitted. B spent 3 days in the hospital, newborn T in tow. We camped out with a pack and play, a rock in play and the most awesome nurses ever. Our childrens hospital is awesome. Nurses loaded B up with a ton of toys, her own stethoscope and a doctor kit complete with a ton of real medical supplies. She was "Dr. B". They made sure we were comfortable, never said a word about the baby being there and gave me several pats on the back for nursing T thru everything, even the constant stream of social workers, visitors and diabetes educators.
T was 2 weeks old before I spent more than 2 hours alone, in charge of both of my children. That same night the crying began. Maybe it was that for the first time there were only 2 arms to hold him instead of the multitude that had passed him around in the first 2 weeeks of his life. Maybe it was just timing. But every evening since has been punctuated by a fussy 5 year old, a crying infant, counting carbs, insulin injections and changing diapers. Welcome to my new normal, trying to navigate this new world and keep both children, clean, fed and quite honestly just ALIVE.
You'll get through it! I have faith in you!
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