It’s rare for a dad with 4 kids to get a full night’s sleep. A night’s rest gets even more dicey given the fact that two of my girls have T1 diabetes. My wife and I are the rare couple that goes to bed with two CGMs within reach, as both my girls use the OmniPod insulin pump and the Dexcom G4 CGM. Since their diagnosis, my wife and I have taken turns when the CGM alarm rings, but she’s been busy being pregnant this year, and recovering from said pregnancy, so I’ve been the go-to guy when diabetes night duty calls.

Let me walk you through a recent night: I got to bed a little after midnight. Just as I was hitting a good patch of REM sleep, the Dexcom CGM goes off for one of my girls at 1:48 a.m. It was a low, and this one scared me: an 85 with the arrow pointing down. I must have slept through the first vibration alarm, and probably a few alarm bells. I raced upstairs with CGM in tow.