Dentist Appointment & Endo Appointment

Elsie had her 6 month cleaning for her teeth Wednesday and no cavities - we have a couple spots to keep an eye on! She always does so well with these appointments and on the way to the dentist - she kept saying "we're going to the dentist to get my teeth okay?" and when we replied yes to her she said "yay! we're going to the dentist!" We always want to make her feel comfortable at all her appointments - we hate to think of her being afraid of her doctors etc... anxiety is never a good thing for little ones ;-)

Today, Thursday, was a great day! Sarah's mom came down from Grand Rapids to watch Veda while we took Elsie to her Endocrinologist appointment. We took the day to spend quality time with Elsie. We haven't been able to get alone time with Elsie without Veda around since Veda was born and we realized it was definitely time for that to happen. We made sure that Elsie got spoiled time... Sarah's mom helped tremendously with that! BUT we hadn't realized that it was necessary for US to take her. These Endocrinologist appointments are special to Elsie - they do require our full attention when we discuss basal rates and correction factors etc. We are happy that they have things in the room to occupy Elsie while we do this - and its important we are both their as we discuss her A1c and treatment plans - we talk about ANY and ALL concerns we have regarding her pump, Dexcom and her diabetes in every detail and for as long as we need to. The doctors are so patient with us and her doctor was very personal with her today - this is a new doctor for us (fairly new) and so we are building trust and rapport with her! She's awesome and we are definitely happy with her.

So... the number we've all been waiting for, her a1c was 7.7% Which is right where we want it to be. The doctor told us that goal A1c is 7.5% for someone her age - a number to shoot for - and she did mention that it takes a lot of hard work to get an A1c that low for a child her age - so even if it went up from our last appointment our hard work is noted, and is something to be proud of!!

We took Elsie to the UP Mall before the appointment and we took her to Build A Bear, she loved it!! She picked out Toothless from the How To Train Your Dragon movies. She loves the movies and she loves him too!! She is so funny!! We love our little lady she sure has a mind of her own!!

We will say that going to the hospital today brought back some crazy emotions. We will never forget the moment hearing "she has diabetes" come out of that nurses mouth. Sarah rode in the ambulance to the hospital with a very sick little Elsie. McKenzie and Sarah's mom met at our apartment and drove together to the hospital - it was a hectic night but we will be posting on that day in another blog. Her anniversary and birthday are coming up and so are all the memories both good and bad -

Thank you for those who will read this - we are very happy to share our journey and our adventures with Elsie and diabetes - it is a lifelong disease and Elsie is a fighter and rolls with the punches. We are SO proud of our little girl and we cannot wait for what is yet to come for our now family of 4!!

Take Care,
McKenzie, Sarah, Elsie & Veda too!!

Late Updates will end here hopefully... Quick post...

Sorry for the late updates on this lately - things got busy for us and we lost track of some things. We will be doing better from here on out - just a formal apology - We have a dentist appointment tomorrow Wednesday and an endo appointment Thursday so I will hopefully be able to update early next week for all of that - with this being fathers day weekend we may be a little busy this weekend so we are hoping next week to update this with her results of these appointments!! All is well for now though and we are actually excited to see what her A1c is!!

Sarah's mother will be watching Veda for us so Mommies can take Elsie by themselves and spend some quality time with her. We haven't been able to do that since Veda has been here and Elsie needs to know that she can still spend time with her mommies without Veda and visa versa. She has been an amazing big sister however. She LOVES Veda so much and seeing Veda look at Elsie anytime she talks and smile away is absolutely heartwarming!! No better feeling for a mother than to see the love their children have for each other!!

Take Care
McKenzie, Sarah, Elsie, & Veda too!!

Endocrinologist appointment - new family member - March/April update**

We had our endocrinologist appointment March 13th - went well A1c was 7.5% which is awesome!! Right where we want her to be!! We ALL have been working hard!! She was 36 inches tall and 32 lbs - we think this may have been the first time that her height surpassed her weight EVER!! She's growing so fast!!

So we had been having some Dexcom issues there is a small grey piece called a transmitter that attaches to her arm via the sensor (the piece we change out every 7 days) well this transmitter uses a battery that usually needs to be replaced every 6 months (that is how long Dexcom will warranty it for) but we realized she's had her Dexcom for over a year now so we contacted the insurance company to get a new one sent to us IN CASE anything should happen or the battery died that way we wouldn't have to be without the Dexcom as we have really relied on it to voice highs and lows for Elsie since she cannot do that herself for us yet...

I kid you not 3 days after talking to the insurance company her Dexcom beeps "low transmitter battery" at us. I call Dexcom because I have no idea when the thing will stop and we still had about 10 days before this appointment and we needed the A1c from the appointment. They tell me it could last days, weeks, hours, it depends on how much it is used etc... so we were stressing about going into labor without having a Dexcom. All was well and we got our new Dexcom about a week before we went into labor.

So as we just mentioned we had our newest family member join us ON HER DUEDATE. Miss Veda Diane Hunt was born 3-29-15 weighing 7lbs 5oz and 19.75inches long. She is absolutely beautiful and the first thing Elsie said to her was "Nice to meet you" She was amazing while Sarah labored at home and was concerned but would sway with mommy it was precious to see. She is getting used to the fact that mommy cannot pick her up right now but she is coping well.

We will be keeping an eye on her blood sugar levels as any stress can effect them in various ways. She will be going to stay with Mimi & Papa (Sarah's parents) for the first weekend so Mommies can adjust and get some sleep!! We are overjoyed to have our family of 4 all together and we are absolutely in love!!

We will make sure to update when more fun things happen in the life of Elsie Stelle - OH BTW the binkies are gone - we told her that babies needed them and she wasn't a baby anymore - no questions asked and she hasn't wanted one once since we stopped - again amazing us with her ability to adapt so quickly...

Take care,
McKenzie, Sarah, Elsie & Veda too!!

Miss Independent Big Sister - February update**

Elsie has now been checking her own sugar from time to time. She will wipe her finger with an alcohol pad - poke her finger with the lancet herself and put the meter on the blood until its time to read it. We have to only help her  by squeezing her toe/finger and guiding the meter to the right angle to get the blood. She has never seized to amaze us!!

Her independence has been amazing - love to see her want to put her shoes/shirt/pants just about everything herself!!

We started potty training on January 5th this year - She did amazing with potty training. She really showed no signs of interest BUT Mommies knew she was ready!! She took to it like a champ!! She only had a few accidents and that was it for her to want to be a big girl and go to the bathroom on the big girl potty!! So proud of her. She has shown us that she can accomplish anything. Moms freak out and stress over the little things thinking they'll end up being big things but we are almost always wrong... NOW time for the binky!! haha!!

Elsie has been warming up to being a big sister - the time of being an only child is coming to and end and she has her days where she wants to be a big sister and then MOST of the time she wants nothing to do with it. We'll see how she gets as the time comes and I am sure she'll be just as in love with Veda as we are going to be!! She'll surprise us once again!!

We have an endocrinologist appointment next month - lets hope that the appointment comes before baby does - the appointment is only 2 weeks before Veda's due date so keeping fingers crossed everyone stays PUT!!

We'll keep you updated as usual

Love always
McKenzie, Sarah & Elsie too!!