Olivia's had a few scarily low blood sugars recently and didn't really realize that she was having them. One was in the middle of the night and woke her up, which is good, but the others were at home and she was pretty oblivious.

I worry about her becoming unaware of her hypos, so I always ask her how she's feeling when she does test low. Most of the time, thankfully, she has symptoms - shaking hands, feeling lightheaded, that sort of thing. When she stops and thinks about how she's feeling, she's aware of the symptoms and the need for treatment. It's when she's preoccupied that she doesn't pay attention. Normal, really, for a 13 year-old. Scary for me, though.

I want so much for her to be like all the other kids, to sleep over at a friend's house, to go to Friendly's after school on Friday, to just be. But when she doesn't pay attention to her body, she worries me. I walk a fine line between getting on her case and letting her figure it out on her own. I'm sure she thinks I'm a horrible nag, but I do really try to talk to her, to discuss her diabetes care with her. Most of the time she's fine with those discussions, but they do occasionally flare up into arguments.

We both have pretty quick tempers but we're also quick to cool off, so the arguments may be loud, but at least they're brief. Olivia has a tendency to whine when she's annoyed and that can really set me off. I have to make a conscious effort to take a couple of breaths so that I don't just explode on her. Even when I've calmed down a bit, she still takes it as being yelled at. I seem to remember being this way at her age, too, so I'm hoping this will pass (although the thought of five or six more years of this is making me feel a little sick).

I just want her to pay a little more attention to herself, to what her body is saying to her. I know she can do it because she does it during school (especially during math class, which she hates). I don't expect her to be constantly assessing herself when she's out having fun with her friends, but I do expect her to be aware, to pay a bit of attention and to listen to the signals her body is giving her, so that if she does go low, she can treat it before it becomes a big problem.

It's hard enough parenting a teen ager, but when you throw diabetes into the mix, it makes it that much harder.