What to say . . .

Wow, it has been a week since I blogged.

It's not like I don't have anything to say but just wondering if what I want to share will be taken the right way. Sometimes I walk around and people know things about me and I think "how do they know that?" and then I remember that I blogged about it. Ha!!

So, until I figure that out, things will be slow here and kept on the lighter side. :)

Our family seems to be on the road to recovery. Elsie still has a nasty cough but hasn't had a fever since Monday morning - yeah! I seem to have been able to avoid all the germs (I have my secret ways) and the other two are better as well.

Loving and looking forward to a wonderful week and wonderful holiday weekend. Easter is one of my most favorite holidays. I wish I had a better focus this Easter but I guess I'll have to take what I've got!

Hopefully I'll get the chance/nerve to write again before next Wednesday!

To the hills . . .

The story goes something like this . . .

Andrew and I were watching Lost last night when Elsie woke up about 9:30 pm. Something earlier in the day told me that she was just not quite right.

She was not breathing right. Very wheezy and a barking cough. She acted like it was hard to breathe. Andrew agreed that we'd best take her to the ER. The scariest car ride of my life - I tell you - I thought she was going to quit breathing on the way there - it was such a struggle.

The diagnosis: croup. She picked up yet another cold (where?? - where, I ask you? - the only place we went all week was to a family dinner on Sunday!!) and has developed croup with it.

I was up with her - helping her fall asleep - watching her struggle to breathe - sitting in a steamy bathroom - and outside in the freezing night - until about 4:45 am.

I do not have much in my heart and soul to write this morning. I'm weary - weary of sickness - weary of worry.

This verse popped into my mind this morning - it's just for me today!


Psalm 121
1 I lift up my eyes to the hills— where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD watches over you— the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life;
8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

Internet Fasting and Food

Well, my morning of computer fasting was a little harder than I thought! I was tempted much more than I had expected but nap time is here and I survived! :)




Elsie is starting to get into a good 2-a-day napping rhythm - which is nice - because I can usually hold off on her 2nd nap until Abigail falls asleep at 1 pm. Then it get quiet around here! :)





Abigail is starting to fight the nap. She always takes one but now doesn't want to be put into her crib. She is so aware of things at this stage. I'm amazed at what she picks up on.





This morning she went to the basement door and was looking for her daddy (his office is downstairs). She came back into the living room where I was feeding Elsie and said "No dada downstairs. Dada at work." I was impressed by her knowledge of his whereabouts! :)





In other news, Abigail appetite has really returned! She ate a whole sloppy joe sandwich for lunch, 2 or 3 carrot sticks, a plum tomato, and a fruit bar. My newest food venture with her is to try to get her to regularly eat raw foods. She does well with fruit but I have sort of slacked off on the vegetables - always cooking them for her. She will willingly eat some cauliflower, carrot sticks (thinly sliced) and gobbled up the tomato today.

This makes me excited to plant my garden!

I'm going to try to give her some at every meal, so it just becomes a habit. Of course when they're on the table then I eat some too!

The girls in matching dresses from Aunt Jenny. We had to get this picture taken because the dress is getting a bit short on Abigail. She's a tall girl!

A Radical Idea

I waste a lot of my time on the internet . . . blogging . . . reading blogs. . . email . . . Facebook. You get it, right?!

I also spend a lot of my time wondering why my house isn't clean . . . why I haven't read my Bible today . . . why I can let a day go by without reading to my kids.

Time online isn't bad but it is when it takes away from human interaction. So my challenge is just for tomorrow.

I'm only going to let myself get online during nap time. That still gives me a good long while to play around (my one exception is to fill out a diaper survey, which I have to do before noon - we're neck deep in diaper trials around here).

I wonder what I will get accomplished around here.

Now it's time to put my girls to bed. We all just finished exercising together (well, Abigail and I did - Elsie watched - Andrew worked in his office).

Elsie's Got Skillz

Elsie rolled over today! Yeah!

In other news: we're having to go through a little bit of a sickness detox with Abigail's behavior now. She was used to getting certain things because she was sick and that's not going to fly now. For example:

1) She is going to eat in her high chair. If she doesn't want to eat, I let her down but if she asks to eat more later, we're going to eat the food I already made . . . in her high chair.

When she was sick I fed her wherever she would eat. Laying in my arms, on the couch, in our bed, etc. We're having to get back into a good routine with her eating.

2) She is going to eat what I made. . . not just macaroni and cheese.

Her appetite is much better now but she still prefers only to eat Macaroni and Cheese (homemade with whole wheat pasta and real cheese) but she can't always eat that. I actually fed her Easy Mac (oh the horrors) in the hospital because that was all she would eat. How are kids supposed to get better eating that junk?!

3) She can't have paci's whenever she wants.

When she was sick, I let her have a paci whenever just because she was so miserable (note the ER pictures!). It's back to the regular routine of having paci's only in bed.

4) She needs to continue to work in her patience and listening.

For the most part, she does a remarkable job of listening to me, if I make my wishes known to her (put down the camera and do not pick it up again - for example) but wanting to be picked up while I'm making lunch or changing the TV channel when she doesn't want me to is now getting big reactions from her because when she was sick, I pretty much did whatever she wanted! :)

Abigail Today

Abigail woke up happy and with a temperature of 98.2. Since then it has stayed between 99.2 and 98.2, which I would consider normal.



She is playing more today (not quite as energetic as usual) and has some of her old spunk back.



I'm so thankful!



Her eating could still improve to get back to where it was but she did eat (on her own accord) some macaroni and cheese for lunch.



I'm off to finally shower today and fold some laundry. The mountain of clean laundry is so high that I'm almost tempted to take a picture. We'll see . . .

Recovery!

Abigail got out of the hospital yesterday around 2 pm and promptly took a nap when she got here. Poor girl has really been missing some sleep lately.

She still has very little appetite but slept through the night last night without needing one of us so I hope that's a good sign. It's 8:10 am and she's still asleep.

She vomited when we got home last night (orange kefir on an empty stomach doesn't sit well, I guess) so pray that she'll feel like eating soon. We managed to get another dose of her antibiotic in her and she kept that down all night.

Another concern is that Andrew is now sick. I'm not sure how he is feeling this morning. I ended up sleeping in Elsie's room because he was snoring and coughing. I still didn't sleep very well . . . thinking about my babies and if they might need me. I'm just hoping and praying that he has what they have . . . or that he will be very cautious and not pass along any new germs to the girls . . . heaven help us!

Abigail's final diagnosis was that she does have pneumonia. The doctor was not certain if it was viral or bacterial so she is on an antibiotic just to be sure. I guess a good test will be how she is feeling and what her temperature is this morning. If she is much improved after being on the antibiotic for 24 hours, I'd tend to think it was bacteria pneumonia . . . but I'm no doctor.

Poor girl has had a fever between 100 and 104 since Friday (except for when she was drugged) so I'm praying for some relief for her there.

I have more thoughts but they need time to be thought out and written out and Elsie is awake so I'd best run.

Today is a new day!

Abigail Update

Well, yesterday Abigail got to feeling terrible. She would just cry and sit on my lap. I noticed that her breathing was shallow and fast (panting - sort of) so I called her doctor who said to start her on antibiotics. He said to call back after her nap. Well, her nap only lasted a very brief time so I called him back a few hours after that. He encouraged us to take her to the ER just to have her checked out and possibly get a breathing treatment.

We got to the ER around 5 pm. The first thing they medical staff noticed was that her oxygen saturation levels were low, around 88 or 89. It sounded an "alarm" sort of thing in our room! Yikes! Anyway, they came in and put oxygen on my poor girl. She HATES that thing in her nose.

Oh and her temp was 104 when we arrived. Here she is. . .



They gave her Motrin, which took the fever down to 102 and then Tylenol which took it down to normal. They gave her a chest x-ray (she said she had fun having her "picture" taken) which they originally diagnosed her with pneumonia and later said it was an viral infection instead of a bacterial infection (so no antibiotics were given). They did find that her left ear was starting to be infected so they gave her a one-dose antibiotic last night for that.

They ended up admitting her to the hospital because of her oxygen levels. Andrew stayed with her because I had to be with Elsie to feed her. I got a nice sized bottle pumped, however, so I'm probably going to go back in a little while to see how things are going.

Andrew said this morning "there are some stats that are not where they want them to be". . . let me interpret for you. This means that her oxygen levels aren't quite normal but he thinks she ought to come home. :)

I'll try to update later. Here is a picture of our poor girl after some fever reducers are in her body and after her iv. She was a champ! When they put it in all she did was look at me and say "mommy?". No crying or even flinching.

Long and Short of It

Brief overview of our weekend (ish):

Friday: Kids not too bad. Abigail played some and wanted to be outside. Started running the fever.

Saturday: Kids worse. Elsie so congested I tortured her by squirting "Little Noses" up her nose and sucking it out. No fever for her. Abigail not feeling good. Only wanted to sit on my lap. Temp between 100 and 104. Trip to doctor. Gave us a prescription but wanted us to wait a few days to see if it cleared up on its own. (It was Daddy's first trip to the doctor with the kids . . . ever! Amazing!)

Sunday: Kids better. Elsie's nose . . . better. Abigail running around and playing. Wanting to play lots of hide and seek. Did have a tummy ache that made her scream and cry in the afternoon but finally got her to eat peaches and prunes. Went to bed.

Sunday night: The worst night in my parenting experience. I believe I got out of bed to help Abigail 7x but I'm not sure about that - Andrew attended to her twice. She'd cough, sit up, and start crying "mommy mommy". This lasted hours! We'd go into her room and she'd say "eat food" (then wouldn't eat) or she'd say "nap" meaning she wanted to get back in bed. Oh, and I got up with a stuffy nosed Elsie 3x as well.

Monday: Kids worse. Abigail's temp is up again and her cough is dreadful. Elsie's nose is stuffed and running (no fever - thank goodness).

My heart breaks. I wish I could help Abigail (she cries and looks at me like I can). I had to force feed her some toast (she'd eat it but just cry with every bite) so her tummy didn't hurt so much. The only thing she'll eat with any acceptance is peaches. WE'RE ALMOST OUT!!!

to be continued . . .

Bicks

Just call us the "bicks" household (Abigail's name for Vicks). We've been hit by the cough and cold . . . well just the girls so far. Abigail just has a nasty cough and fever. I tell ya . . . I'd rather deal with runny nose stuff than coughs. That really keeps her up at night.

Elsie has lots of nasal congestion but doesn't seem to have a fever at this point. The most exciting news is that in the midst of all this sickness . . . Elsie slept through the night last night (technically).

I put her down at 8 pm and was still up to see her restlessly moving around her crib at 10:30 pm so I went in and fed her. I put her in her bouncy seat so she could breathe easier and she slept until I woke her up at 6:30 am! I couldn't believe it. Then she slept in her swing until 9:30 am. Wow!

So, I know she can do it.

Unfortunately, I did not sleep well. Abigail had a coughing fit in bed about once and hour until about 4 am. Then she slept soundly until about 8 am and finally woke at 9 am. Poor girl . . . must be exhausted from the coughing. I went down to help her cough once and Andrew went down once to help her cough.

The reason we were still up at 10:30 pm at night (we go to bed early!!) was because we're hooked on watching Lost. We just started season 1 and we watched 3 episodes last night. Crazy! I didn't want to watch the 3rd because I knew we'd probably not get much sleep so I told Andrew I would watch it if he got up with Abigail at night. He agreed. I was already awake and restless (from waiting on Elsie to wake up) at 3:30 am so I took the nighttime shift with Abigail anyway.

Okay, sorry this is so boring. I always promise to improve my content but never do! If the girls' health improves this weekend, perhaps I'll have a chance to do another picture post from the Kansas trip!

Sleeping at our house . . .

Well, I have finally been getting a little more sleep!

On Friday night Andrew MADE me let Elsie cry for a while. Well, he strongly encouraged me to let her cry anyway and he helped me by checking on her every 5 or 10 minutes when I'd ask.

It took a while. I think she fell asleep at 7 pm, woke up at 8 pm, cried until 9:30 pm (during which we checked, soothed, and otherwise were attentive every 5 or 10 minutes). I fed her at 9:30 pm and we laid her back down again at 10:00 pm where she cried for 10 minutes then went to sleep.

For the first time in 4 weeks she slept 5+ hours and only woke me up once!!

The next night she was asleep by 7 pm (no fuss) and I gave her a feeding at 10:30 pm and was only up once.

Last night she was asleep by 8 pm . . . slept until 1:30 am (when I fed her) . . . and slept until 7 am! Wow!

Those are the kind of nights I can live with!

Abigail got to go to the zoo today with Maggie. They had so much fun. However Abigail fell asleep in the car on the way back and now is talking and bouncing in her crib during nap time.

Do I feel the least bit guilty for making her stay in her crib by herself awake for an hour during her reguarly nap time? Nope, not one bit!

Anyone else enjoying this spring-like weather?! I sure am! I wore a short-sleeved shirt today! Yeah!

Teased by Spring

Is spring teasing us or are there really some warmer temperatures here to stay? In any case, it doesn't matter!! I took advantage of the warmer weather this morning and took the girls around to 3 different farms in the area. I had some errands that I needed to run at each farm so it worked out great. The best part was seeing Abigail get to pet some baby goats at the first farm. She loved it!

After Abigail wakes up from her nap, I plan to take the girls outside and do a little yard and garden cleaning. We still haven't taken down our garden from last year so I need to make sure the stakes are down, etc, and get it ready to take down with the lawn mower.

I'm so ready for spring and being outside with our girls. I hope it stays nice!!

Kansas Reflections, Part 1

I'm going to do this in several parts because I do not seem to be able to find the time and energy to make one big long post about our time in Kansas. Nor do I have the desire to fight with blogger on the justification of this text so . . . it will be middle justified. Sorry!

This first picture is in my grandparents basement with them spending time with my girls. They were a big reason why we made the trip. They aren't able to travel to Ohio at this time (probably anymore) and my grandpa is going through Chemo so we wanted to visit them!

It took Abigail a few days to warm up to them but many games of peek-a-boo later, she was giving them big hugs goodbye. Warms my heart!

In this picture, I believe she was pointing to my grandpa's stuffed Elk. She was pretty scared of the ole' fella right at first but by the third or fourth day visiting them she wanted to pet it as often as I would pick her up. He has a stuffed deer as well! :)

My sweet Grandma had the right touch to put Elsie to sleep, usually without much or any fuss, which is a pretty good skill! (I'm listening to her fuss right now). She put her to sleep most of the days we were there! :)

Okay . . . more later. Elsie is needing to go to bed!

Where I'm at . . .

Perhaps more blogging will be coming today . . . perhaps not. I'm just so tired. Elsie is still getting up 3x a night and it's getting to me. Last night it was 11:30, 3:30, 5:30, and awake at 7 am, acting hungry!

I'm letting her cry some (certainly to sleep if she doesn't fall asleep calmly) but I think she's too young for an all-out-middle-of-the-night cry-it-out.

Most days I wonder how I can function another day like this. So today I'm pulling out my good friend, the pump. I hope Andrew is still willing to take over one of the night feedings this weekend because I need at least one night with only two feedings, instead of three.

More pictures and interesting content to come.

Yawn!

Home!

We're home! We had a great trip, really!! I'll post more about it after I get some things around here under control.

Elsie is still getting up 3+ times a night so I'm running on very little, fragmented sleep!