The Nighttime Check in drawings

Every night, before I go to bed, I check my boys’ blood sugars.

Checking a sleeping teen/tween’s blood sugar is more a delicate process than one might think.  I don’t know if their dreams or especially violent, or if they are so exhausted they’re just not rational enough to control their actions, but if they are disturbed enough, they’ll fight against check.

They love to pull their hand away mid check, often sending the meter flying between the bed and the wall, nearly impossible to retrieve.

Or they try to pull their hand away as I hold onto it like a vice, which generally leads to all sorts of blood spurting about because I’m tightening my squeeze mid check.

Other times they’ll wake mid check and spaz out. 

Sometimes I wonder if they are clairvoyant.  They anticipate me going for the hand, and then they roll over away from me and slip their both their hands under their pillow.  Which requires me lying on top of them to retrieve a hand, and then rolling them towards me.

Sometimes their hands are tucked in their underwear for…warmth?

I’ll spare you the picture, and the description.

After I get the number, inevitably, one is always sleeping on his pump.  So to enter their number, I have to roll him over. 

Moving a sleeping teenager is akin to moving a dead body.  It’s a proven fact that dead bodies are heavier than awake bodies, mostly because dead bodies give you no help in the all-important arena of momentum…

Other times the pump is lost in a tangled web of sheets and legs.  Digging though can be tricky, as one needs to dig without being too invasive or handsy.  If they wake up during the feeling around phase…it can be awkward.

When I get lucky though, the pump is out in plain sight. 

Or other times they revert to autopilot after I check their blood sugar and just hand me the pump whilst sleeping.

Then there is the feeding phase if someone is low.

That is a whole other blog post.

The entire nighttime check process for all three boys takes less than five minutes, so I don’t mean to make a bigger deal out of it than it is.

But at the same time, I want to give all parents and caregivers props.

Nighttime checks can be a journey.  I think sometimes it’s just nice to know we aren’t journeying alone.