Holy health-related craziness

Sooo, I guess we can count on February being a banner month for our family. Last year it meant whooping cough for James and both twins, leading to an ambulance ride for Macey and several hospital stays. The twins also both had RSV last Feb. Which leads me to THIS Feb...

All 5 kids have been sick with one thing or another. First it was strep, which made its way through the ranks. Now it's the tummy flu, which started with Madelyn on Wednesday, then moved to Macey Thursday and also to Declan Thursday night. This morning (Friday) Macey has thrown up a few more times but Madelyn and Declan seem to be doing ok...though Declan hasn't had a thing to eat or drink. I'm being cautious, especially considering the fact that he's laying on our bed watching cartoons right now. Here's a picture of Madelyn from earlier in the week. All she wanted to do was lay down and sleep, wherever she was:


Which leads me back to Monday (still in Feb, noted). Avery fell off the monkey bars at school, hurting her wrist. Her teacher called me when Avery was on the bus and told me about it, so I watched her when she got home - I could tell there was a problem. Off to the ER we went and she has a buckle fracture to both bones in her wrist! She got a splint in the ER, and she wore it proudly. We had to amputate one of the sleeves of a pair of winter jammies but I'm ready to amputate winter anyway:


She was ready to go to school the very next morning! All smiles, what a trooper:


And on Wednesday she had a regular cast put on. She wanted RED (daddy's favorite color) and she is so proud of it. I finally talked her into letting me write on it and I wrote "mommy loves you!" with a little heart. She loved it and is taking the Sharpie to school today to let her classmates have at it! We'll see what it looks like after school. Here's yesterday, after I wrote my message:

As of this morning...

I now weigh what I did when I got pregnant for the very first time (found out 9 years ago on Valentine's Day)! It's good to see that number on the scale and know that I am so close to the 100s. Down over 55 pounds and still going. I still am reaching for ONEderland by my 33rd birthday (Mar 7) - best gift I think I could give to myself. That feeling will be amazing!

A time for everything...

and apparently it's finally my time to be sick. I went to the doctor yesterday and I have a sinus infection and more than likely I also have pneumonia. I started on an antibiotics yesterday and today I am honestly feeling better. Thankful for that!

What makes me feel bad is that Caden is also sick, Avery is sick and they are both feeling pretty miserable. Caden has a fever more than anything else and Avery is struggling with the same awful runny nose/head cold that I have. Today we finally had school after after the blizzard and everyone is here at home with me. We just put the twins down for a nap and the big kids are upstairs watching iCarly with me. Ok, so they're watching and I'm blogging.

I have a feeling no one will be going to school tomorrow, either. It's a time to recover. If you recall our whooping cough episodes of last year at this time, we'll take what's going on now over that for sure! If that doesn't put things in perspective, I don't know what will. (It was Feb. 5 last year I had to call the ambulance to come get little Macey because she coughed SO hard I was worried she wouldn't breathe!)

James got an unexpected day off yesterday due to the weather so he was home to help me and allow me to get to the doctor. Rumor has it he now might be working on Saturday all day...cooooooooooooooooool. You'll have to forgive me, I just feel like complaining today.