Nothing new..

I guess that's a good thing, in the grand scheme of things. Not much is happening here. Macey is off oxygen after Tuesday's appointment, which is very good news! They both seem to be doing very well. They have coughed here and there but nothing terrible.

James, on the other hand, is still coughing horribly. He's growing increasingly active here at home (working on the twins' new bedroom, which was Avery's old bedroom) to try to prepare himself for the rigors of work and anything/everything sends him into a coughing fit. It's relentless! He has been able to spend most nights in bed with me so that's nice - he used to have to leave and sleep upright on the couch most nights so he wouldn't cough so bad.

Thought I'd share a picture I captured today. You may remember we tried something similar Christmas day and James made me angry and Declan whacked Macey on the head multiple times and it was just AWFUL, but today went very well! Here's our babies!!

Caden 7
Avery 5
Declan 2
Macey and Madelyn (sitting in that order) 7.5 months

We're home!

As of yesterday, all seven of us are back under one roof. It's such a blessed feeling. I had Macey and Madelyn in the crib together and granted, I am tired and emotional, but I just broke down crying at how precious they were together in the crib and how much they need each other and how much life wouldn't be the same without TWO of them! I can't imagine just one Macey or just one Madelyn - they are unique yet very much part of a set. I'm so glad they're back together!

Macey was discharged yesterday morning, but she is on oxygen here at home, needed especially while sleeping and at times while eating. We don't have a pulse oximeter here to know what her sats are, but she was pretty consistent at the hospital and it was obvious she needed the help while sleeping. We hope to be able to remove the need for oxygen on Wed the 24th at their follow-up doctor appointments.

February is a big month for birthdays in our families! Yesterday was a very special niece's 10th birthday and tomorrow is James' mom's 60th! And then Tuesday is James' birthday!! I love birthdays. :)

I also wanted to add that I have removed the ability to leave anonymous comments on my blog. I wish I still could because I realize several of you comment without IDs but I was getting too many weird comments from anonymous people and I just don't feel like dealing with it. So, sign up for a google account if you want to leave comments! Hey, start a blog yourself!!

We're still in!

I miss my husband. I really do. I want to go away with him for a nice long (cough-free) weekend and do nothing but sleep and sleep and just talk with him and have him be well and know our kids are well and just.....be. That's what I wish for more now than anything else in the entire world.

Tonight we're going to go out for supper together while my mom sits with Macey here in the hospital room. I believe Avery is going to be here as well (I'm sure that she wants to go along with us but the former preschool teacher in me will talk her into staying because "staying with Macey will be the COOLEST thing a 5yo girl could do!"). We're supposed to have Ave's Creation Station conferences tonight at 5 but we called her wonderful teachers and they are letting us get them in later when everyone's healthy, bless them. James has Ave at dance right now (bless HIM) and then they'll be over here to the hospital to see little miss Macey for a while.

Little miss can't quite keep her oxygen sats high enough, so she'll be here for one more night. Hopefully we can go home tomorrow. And then hopefully we'll start getting James healthy. My heart simply aches for him - he tells me that he's so exhausted he barely feels anything anymore. I just can't imagine. He also said last night was the first night he remembers not waking up to cough! That is HUGE! He had all 4 kids at home down to bed by 7:15 and then all slept until after 7am. Go James!!

There's good news and there's bad news.

The good news first. Madelyn was released from the hospital this morning! She really seems to have improved and it's nice to see her smiling self again.

The bad news? Macey was admitted to the hospital this afternoon. Macey and mommy were down in the clinic while Madelyn was being discharged upstairs. Poor James - he's SO exhausted and yet he had Madelyn up in her hospital room, along with Avery and Declan as well. I had to wait forever for xrays which finally showed that Macey also has developed pneumonia. She's in - we'll see how long we're here! Ugh.

Wow, the hospital internet is fast!

Yeah, that's where I'm typing from. Madelyn just didn't improve so we brought her in this morning again and she was admitted to the hospital. Her pulse ox was 92, she was breathing pretty fast, retracting, nasal flaring, all the good stuff. Tonight she is finally falling asleep at 8:30 and has smiled a few times. It was so sad - during her xrays they put her in this horrid contraption that holds her in from the sides and pins her arms up and above her head. She was so exhausted from the blood work pokes, IV pokes and all of that that she simply held her mouth open to breathe better and stared straight ahead. SO SAD!!!

We got some other very interesting news today as well. Turns out James has whooping cough! The test was positive. Worst part is...the twins also BOTH have it! So bizarre!! At least now we have an answer for James but he is just still so miserable. His mom is staying out at our house tonight with him and the other kids because he just about can't take care of everyone on his own. He coughs and throws up that much. I am praying hard that it clears up SOON.

Before I forget (again)!

I just blogged all that and forgot about our Avery funny. So at bedtime we read her stories from the Bible - her children's Bible. Then we pray with her out loud - she prays and we pray. After that we tuck her in and she usually reads from her Bible for a while longer. By read, I mean she makes things up but she does so in a very loud, talkative manner. Last night one of our stories was about the prophet Elijah.

Last night we could hear her clearly. She was just chattering away. She is going to be a gifted read-alouder to her kids someday! We paused the tv so we could hear her and this is what came out: "I'm not a mommy. I'm a prophet! I help God with new tricks!!"

Holy hilarious.

Aaaaannnnnddddd....

we're still at home. This is a good thing. The person most in need of the hospital is James I think. I have HONESTLY NEVER heard anyone cough like this. He coughs repeatedly/solidly for about 15 seconds and usually throws up afterward. Our dr did run the pertussis (whooping cough) test but we don't have results yet. Today James also has tons of drainage and is stuffed up and just plain miserable. I am truly at a loss. I've never heard of anything like it. I feel TERRIBLE for him.

Macey seems to be coming around. She doesn't cough as frequently and she is happier. Madelyn is still concerning, but after getting her up for a while tonight she smiled at me a few times which tells me she's doing ok. She still coughs a TON and really struggles with that. I actually think her cough is getting worse and will probably bring her in to the dr in the morning to get her checked over for peace of mind. The pertussis test was also run on the twins. Results pending.

I think we may have turned the potty corner with Caden tonight. He has been wearing big boy underwear to school for weeks now and has only had maybe 1 accident. Problem is, he holds it...and holds it and HOLDS it. Then he gets home and tries to go, but starts to cry and saw "ow" on the potty and it's all kinds of confusing. Tonight he started caterwauling on the potty, flapping his hands and rolling his head around, saying owie - it was just bizarre. Finally I let him get off the potty and as we were pulling up his underwear and jeans he started peeing ALL over. I got firm with him (ok, I was mad) and put him back on the potty. I think the problem is he doesn't like the FEELING of continued flow coming out. I think he thinks that's owie. So every time he did a nice, steady stream I got all excited and started hooting and hollering. When he stopped, I went quiet. Caden LOVES a good ol ruckus, so he started back up again, and every time the flow would keep going I would just whoop it up! He finally got a lot of pee out, and I think he got used to the idea that it's supposed to come out all at once and all at the same time. At least I hope so. There seems to be a disconnect there and I'm not sure if it's his developmental age or his disability or what...but hopefully tonight made sense for him!

Double RSV plus ear infection and pneumonia

I'm convinced that the more kids you have, the more you're in the doctor. I guess that isn't shocking news but it's frustrating, nonetheless.

I finally took the twins in this morning for the continued cough. Madelyn was acting sicker, fever, sounding raspy, etc. Turns out they both have RSV (even though Macey's RSV test was negative in the ER on Friday). Macey has an ear infection and is starting on zithromax again. Madelyn also has pneumonia, which is common with RSV. They're home for now. Their pulse ox was good, which is a relief. Now we just pray they turn the corner and start getting better.

James came with me and our dr was asking him about HIS continued cough. We're starting with more aggressive tests now for James, as he is still coughing to the point of throwing up and just so sick of it! Hopefully we'll get some answers.

Digging in to the baby book

the blog, that is...I'm motivated to sit here and write down the twins' weights, lengths and milestones thus far in order to get them entered into the baby book. Wish me luck! It's too bad Ebay keeps calling my name.

Can I just say how sick I am of coughing?

Avery's on medication now too - antibiotic for her cough, plus she started running a fever. James is still throwing up from time to time with it...at least once daily. The twins have started a nasty cough. And today, it became REALLY nasty.

This morning just after 10 Macey started a coughing fit. She coughed and coughed, never seeming to take a breath and gather air in. I was growing very concerned, and next thing I knew her nose and mouth were blue and the rest of her face was turning dusky. It's so bizarre - it's like everything moves in slow motion. I knew I SHOULD call 911 but then I thought, "for a cough???" and I second-guessed it like 10 times before I just dialed. They were on their way almost instantly and even though we're out in the country it only took about 10 minutes for them to get here - she was done coughing at this point, just breathing fast and rattly in her chest at bit, but was breathing again.

I am so thankful that James' cousin is an EMT and was here with the ambulance. I felt relieved that he was here, talking me through it. I was just so scared. I've never felt more helpless. If your kid had some sort of traumatic injury but was still breathing, that would be tolerable I think, but to know they aren't getting any air and not be able to do anything about it is AWFUL.
They took off with her to the ER in the ambulance. Avery flipped out at this point. I think she believed that Macey wasn't coming back. Plus I had asked Avery to sit Macey up from the floor when she first started the coughing fit and I think she was feeling somewhat responsible. She was holding her and then she realized that mommy was scared...and then mommy was on the phone and it was all just a blur for her. My dad had come out at this point and he stayed with Madelyn, Declan and Avery so I could drive to the ER.

Long story made short, they said she probably had a mucous plug in her throat (somewhere in there, anyway) and babies don't know what to do besides keep coughing until it finally breaks free. They said it would break free, just to sit her up and pat her back until she breathes again. In response to that I'd like to say YEAH RIGHT because you absolutely panic when they are coughing and not breathing like that. Tonight both Macey and Madelyn have coughed quite a bit again, but no turning blue this time. It's all just so unsettling.

Is it spring yet???

And he's STILL sick.

He's still coughing to the point of throwing up. The worst part is that he doesn't know when it's coming. He's found if he doesn't have anything in his stomach it's better, but that's pretty much impossible to do round the clock.

He went through a lot of tests at the hospital on Friday. All signs point to asthma issues. We knew that he had issues as a little boy, but didn't seem to be too bothered by it now as an adult. Apparently this illness has sent him over the proverbial edge. It's just hard to know how long it's going to last. Very frustrating for all of us, especially James. It's sad when he starts coughing and your 5 year old daughter says, "It's ok everyone, he's just gonna throw up."

Some news (which, I realize, is worthless without pictures) - Avery had her first dance recital on Saturday and it was AHHHHHDORABLE! She did so well but it was a long night. She LOVED watching the older girls dance at rehearsal in the morning. She was fascinated and wanted to do what they were doing. It was called "Dance Before the Lord" and was done to Christian music, which was so nice.

Friday James had all this testing done and we had our septic tank pumped out. Holy disgusting. That reeks. Also on Friday the twins had their 6 month well child dr appointments. They are doing very well but they have what James has (horrid cough, poor things!) so they were too sick to get shots. Madelyn also had her 2nd ear infection. Both girls went on zithromax for their rough sounding chests - basically they have bronchitis. We'll go back late next week for shots if they're feeling better.

James is still so sick!

I can't believe this. His cough is AWFUL. I'm going to copy and paste something I shared on another board today:

He went to the dr Tuesday morning at my insistance. On Sunday night he coughed so long and hard that he actually blacked out. I called our family dr at home on Monday morning and he said for him to come in on Tues. They did chest x-rays and bloodwork and a bunch of stuff. He thought it could be asthma related and put him on another antibiotic, plus mega cough meds. Tuesday night he starts vomiting every time he coughs. Lovely.

Wednesday morning his sclera (white part of his eye) is blood red. He's burst all the blood vessels in his eye and it looks awful. He says his eye hurts SO bad. Still vomiting with every coughing fit. Absolutely no warning when the vomiting is coming either, which is pleasant.

Thursday (this) morning I made him call in again. They are referring him to our local ENT. Hopefully they can scope his throat. I really think he might have something lodged in his throat or somewhere before his tummy. Incidentally, the coughing started the day after we ate out at a chinese restaurant. While we were eating James thought he got a shrimp tail stuck in his throat (yes, he eats the ENTIRE shrimp, never met anyone who does that). I'm just starting to wonder if that isn't the issue...this is not improving. I can't believe all of this over a cough! But seriously, there's something else going on....I just wish we knew!!

A potty success!

Caden is home from school early due to teacher inservice or some other nonsense like that. Can you tell I'm not a fan of early outs? Anyway, he's been wearing underwear to school most every day and staying dry all day, but not having much success with actually PEEING at school. He has a strong bladder, that one! So today he's here and it's nap time (James is upstairs napping as well) and he started dancing around, so I opened the bathroom door for him. I helped him get his pants down and sat him up on the potty and he peed immediately! Granted, it was straight out and hit my jeans and shoes, but hey, I'll take it! Go Caden!

Holy $*&%!

That's what's in our basement. Only it ain't holy. It's backed up from the septic tank. And it's all over our basement. And there's a blizzard going on today. And James was home sick from work...only to work on the basement all afternoon. Annnnnd, it's still not fixed.

That's right. We have a sewer back up. No idea when it happened but James went downstairs (we NEVER go down there) to get a joystick thingy to play a computer game (he NEVER plays computer games) and came back up with bad news. So I started hauling stuff out and piling things in dry corners, which aren't many. Our basement has been a catch-all for junk over the years. It used to be our only storage before the addition, but since we've added on we've just kinda left the basement to rot. It ain't pretty down there, and now it's swimming with.....yeah.

Wondering what James is home sick with? So are we. He has a cough so bad that last night he actually fell over when he tried to stand up. He doesn't remember it. He blacked out because he can't breathe when he coughs. It's been going on for 3 weeks now and when he fell over I freaked out. I called our (awesome) family dr this morning at home and he said to have James come in in the morning to run further tests. I'm somewhat concerned about it, but we'll see.

We'll see, too, if he can even make it out our gravel road to get there at 8am. A blizzard hit this morning, taking everyone by surprise. School was delayed 2 hours, then started, only to let out an hour early. I had to take Ave to preschool and it.was.not.pretty. There was little to no visibility on our gravel road and I was scared at times! Made it home, only to deal with yucky basement.

So there you have it. We finally have power back which I am utterly thankful for. It's just one more thing I guess. And now...Madelyn is crying and it's 10pm. So rare. On we go!

Bloggin from the 'rents...

Someone really needs to tell my wonderful parents that their laptop BLOWS. I'm serious. I'm not entirely sure what's up with it but it has closed down internet explorer no less than 5 times i the short time I've been sitting here. Actually, perhaps it's an internet explorer thing. Imagine that!

So school was held today, even though most walkways were glare ice. They did a late start, and they added the wonderful clause that the buses would be on hard surfaces only. Sometimes, living on gravel is not cool. HOWEVER. I have to say that the director of the bus barn is AWESOME and told our bus driver our road was good enough to travel! (As an aside, the director is also Caden's 1:1 associate's husband, LOL!! It pays to have friends in high places!) The next however is that we were already making plans to go to my parents for the day so Caden got picked up here instead. Why, you ask? Well, because living on gravel is not cool, as I mentioned previously - we are without power. And that is not doable with 2 infants because yes, I am one of those mothers who microwaves her babies' bottles, even though it says not to. Oh well!

Yesterday was not a good day. I nearly lost it with all my kids. It was just too much. Do you ever have those moments where you swear your head might come disconnected from your body if one.more.thing rubs you the wrong way? And yes, I admit I was punchy, but wow. Caden peed on the carpet upstairs in at least 3 places that I could feel/smell. He had zero success on the potty while home all day but did pee all over. That was so frustrating. Then Declan. He's 2. And he whines a lot. I'm not sure how to punish whining other than to ignore, but my ears couldn't ignore it yesterday. And Avery...I mentioned she was up by 5am? That didn't work out so well for her. She was RUDE, she was disobedient, she had the audacity to narrow her eyes and glare at me when I told her no to something (wonder where she gets those over-the-top facial expressions from?????). The twins were good. They're honestly always good. Well, almost always. I add that only because I'm sure if I say always they'll go and prove me wrong and I'm just not in the mood for that.

And today I am not doing so well with weight watchers. I'm at my parents' all day and I don't want to count points. I just had 3 York peppermint patties with a Diet Sunkist chaser. But other than that I've been doing ok overall. This is tough stuff though people! I'm trying to undo 9 years of horrible eating habits, and old habits die hard.

ANOTHER "snow" day...

except this one's ice. Argh, I am so sick of this! I guess the plus side is that Caden can practice potty training here at home. We started our morning with him getting undies on, then promptly peeing all over his bedroom floor. I guess he had to pee! Oops.

Actually, the morning started at 5am with Avery jumping around and squealing in DECLAN'S crib. Yes, you read that right. We have told her she is NOT to come downstairs until she hears people awake or sees that it's light outside, but apparently that didn't matter. She said she wasn't tired anymore. Hel-lo, the rest of us are! So she woke both boys up and James had to referree and send her up to her room. That lasted until about 6:30 when she came and turned on our bedroom light overhead, thereby waking me and stirring the twins. I was about to get ticked but sent her out again...not sure what she did for the next 30 minutes but I really don't care. It's a no school day and you're up by 5am when you usually sleep until at least 7-7:30? NOT cool. Not quite sure how to handle this one....advice?

Caden is at school in big boy underwear!

We took a hiatus for a bit with everything happening with my family, but yesterday was a no-school day for him (WHY they didn't make up a snow day I have NO idea...) and I decided to try undies again. One thing is for sure - Caden can hold his pee for a VERY long time. A good thing, in my opinion - he has control over his bladder. But this also means he doesn't go on the potty very much. In fact, he didn't go at all yesterday. He had undies put on at 9am, stayed dry all day, even including a trip to take Avery to preschool, and I finally found him in the bathroom playing in the sink at 6:45...with pee allllllllll over the floor. At least he was in the right room!

I called his 1:1 associate and asked her what she thought. She was game! So off he went this morning in his Thomas undies. I texted her at noon and after a while she texted back - he was still dry AND he had peed in the potty!! YAAAAAAAAAAAY!

Happy Birthday Dear Declan!!!!

Happy birthday to youuuuu! A sweet little boy turned TWO today! We didn't really do much, but I think the best part about the little ones is that they don't have a clue about it all, so you don't have to do much! We had a wonderful day as a family all together, so that is great. Happy birthday little man! Can't wait to see what your two year old year brings!

A big girl room...for three!

I had no idea today was going to be so productive! Heather knew. She's one of those amazing girls who gets an idea and then she doesn't just run with it, she sprints. She and her kids were over this morning while the guys were doing breakfast and guy stuff and, since we've talked about moving Avery into the upstairs bedroom for while now, she decided it was a good day. Before we knew it we had the guys stopping to pick up paint. Then Dan was slapping paint on the walls and in no time AT ALL the room was painted. Then the furniture went up there (it's not much) and oh my goodness, it's a room just for Avery Sue! We've had to play it up BIG to Avery - "you'll have your own bathroom, closet and bedroom! All for you!" - because this girl has some anxiety issues like you can't imagine. But honestly, she was excited about moving her stuff up there today. And tonight at bedtime she went right into her bed (she did change her mind and end up sleeping on the bottom bunk instead of the top), we all did Bible stories and bedtime prayers and she's tucked in. She even wanted the door "shut all the way". SNIFF!!! My big girl is such a big girl! She's not even on the same floor as us anymore. I think it's ME who wasn't ready for it!

So why the title, you ask? Why "for three"? Well, the goal is to move the twins out of our bedroom and into the room Avery occupied up until this afternoon. I can just picture two little cribs in there, two white rocking chairs, awwww! That isn't going to happen for a bit though, because Avery's previous room is part of the "old house" (it was our master bedroom, if you could call it that in the old house) and it needs some remodeling. First, the carpet is BEYOND nasty. Let me tell you a little story about it. One time when Montana (our nearly 10 year old black lab) was just a puppy we were at my parents' house and she got into the grease cup under their grill. She ate the whole thing...well not the cup because it was a tin can, but you get the gist. When we got home, she THREW UP all over the carpet in that bedroom and it was tarry black. UGH! I have NEVER been able to get it out of the carpet. We thought we found the magic solution this past fall when we mixed up some oxiclean and water in a spray bottle...but overnight that just bleached out parts of the stain to a clean color and left the rest disgusting. The carpet's gotta go.

Underneath the carpet is some nice hardwood flooring, but it'd take a heckuvalotta work to get it nice. So I think we're going to pull up the carpet and paint the floor with porch enamel and then use a couple of big shag rugs. But that's not all. We also need to widen the closet door to accommodate bifold closet doors (twins need double the cute Gymboree, you know), add a linen closet off that bedroom and change the doorway/opening into the hallway. Plus it has never had an actual DOOR so we'd like to add that as well. James is SO not looking forward to more projects, but Dan and Heather are all about it. I think James is just done with remodeling. Problem is, I am not. So remodeling, here we come again!

Offie!! Offie!!

This is Declan's shout out for everything that mommy drinks. Can you tell she likes coffee?? Well, she used to drink a lot of "coffee", but the problem with mommy's coffee was that it had tons of french vanilla creamer in it. That's no longer so weight watcher friendly, so I don't have much of it anymore. But I do drink a lot of pop (diet), and Declan still calls it "offie". Oh, and he adds a whiiiine and he hopes that he can run off with it. Nice try, buster.

I can't believe it but he is going to be two this Sunday. Where has the time gone? Add to that the fact that the twins are already 6 months old and I think we're officially crazy here.

We fed the twins cereal last night. Macey went first and she no likey. Not at all. She didn't even try, just made horrid faces. Madelyn went next and she was good with it, even trying to "chew" a couple of times! We did get some video and pictures. (I bet you're sick of me saying that when I never actually post any pictures. I wish I could be better about that but mostly I blog from the laptop downstairs and all the pictures have to be uploaded upstairs....aaaaaaaaaand I'm lazy, so you just don't get to see pictures. If there were an easier way around that (like does anyone know - can I just hook up a cord from my camera to the laptop and haul them onto here from there??) I would post pictures more. )And in case you're wondering, the only reason we fed them cereal was that they are waking up in the middle of the night again and we just switched to 8oz. bottles, so we figured they were hungry. Last night they were still up in the middle of the night, but the amount of cereal they actually got in was little (Madelyn) to none (Macey). Otherwise, no way would I have started them on cereal yet. It goes back to that lazy thing. Plus once you start, you can't really quit. Which again, goes back to that lazy thing.

But before I force you to believe that I am THAT lazy, I did do the 30 Day Shred again last night! Heather came over and we did it! I think we both nearly planned each others' funerals but we worked it out! Avery exercised with us, too, and she quit more often than me. Hey, I have more endurance than a 5 year old!!! Wait. Should I be proud of that??