Embracing Life

Colin had an appointment to have tubes put in on Wednesday. That's tomorrow. Now he doesn't. We've decided to wait. Keira has her follow-up with her pediatric orthopaedist to see if anything/what is wrong with her leg. Why does her foot turn in? Why is her right leg weaker? Physical therapy kicked us out of our early morning time slot because we missed 6 weeks of sessions due to legitimate excuses (HELLO? My kid is in the hospital, everyone has RSV - I thought I was doing them a favor by keeping a contagious disease away from all their other clients.) Connor is really focused on all the candy that the Easter bunny will be hiding in the eggs. Um... apparently the Easter bunny must get to Target soon to buy some candy to hide in the eggs. Keith's tattoo is almost fully colored in. I love it. Absolutely love it. I spent way too much and bought the cutest sandals ever. http://www.dsw.com/dsw_shoes/catalog/product.jsp?productRef=SEARCH&category=&prodId=198737 I got t...

Did you know that you can add pages to your blog? Obviously I did not. (I really am smart, I've just noticed that since having kids, I pay less attention to things!) Anyway, now that I can add pages to my blog, I am determined to do so. I started off with a section about me. It's mostly quirky stuff that's bound to get quirkier. Oh well. Perhaps those are the reasons I have no friends.... The second page is about BOOKS! I love books. I miss reading so much. When I was little, I would ask for books for Christmas, then spend the entire day immersed in my new reading material. Downside was, by the end of Christmas vacation, I had nothing left to read! I use goodreads to keep track of what I've read during my life time, but on this page I will keep track of what I read this year. And what I'd like to read given time (and no sick kids). I've got a few more ideas of pages to add, but I figured I'd start with these two. If you look towards the top of th...

I'm not fat. I will admit it. I can eat (mostly) what I want, and I don't gain weight. But I'm not tiny either. With the twins, I gained 46 pounds during my pregnancy. It was a healthy weight gain for a twin pregnancy. With Connor, I gained 32 pounds. Again, totally normal. (Not like that what's-her-name from Grey's Anatomy who gained a whopping 10 pounds while pregnant and was so proud of herself for going up a pant size. *insert eye-roll here *) And I'm not motivated either. I mean, after having Connor, I went to Kohls and bought a few new shirts, 2 pairs of pants, and figured I will lose this weight when I do. It was right about the time McDonalds was having $1 cokes and I just can't say no to those! ;) At that point, I was probably 10 lbs over what I was when I first got pregnant. And around the time I actually got back down to my pre-pregnancy weight, someone had to go and get knocked up again. With twins, no less. Nine months later. 46 pou...

Now that it's Monday, I can safely post without having to knock on wood that we had one full weekend that was calm, relaxing, and illness-free (almost. Apparently RSV can last like 8+ days. And for the kids who didn't get hospitalized and nebulized because their cases were mild - Keira and Connor - their symptoms seemed to last a lot longer.) Anyway, I almost said it last night - hey we have had a sick-free weekend, but then I didn't want to jinx anything. And the best part of it all --- both Friday and Saturday night, the kids, and I mean ALL the kids, slept through the night, therefore mommy got to sleep all through the night. (Let's not talk about daddy who went and got his back tattooed on Sat night, therefore sleeping for him wasn't the most pleasant thing! hee hee!) I think the last time all the kids slept through the night was sometime back in December. I even got to go shopping (ALONE!) and bought myself a cute new lunch tote. I also found some footles...

My luck just won't get better with illness this year. The twins both started with runny noses on Friday. Colin was up a lot in the night, just fussy and restless. He had a slight fever so I gave him some tylenol and ended up hanging out with him most of the night. He was up at 5:45 a.m., still fussy, not hungry, not himself. He was so crabby and tired, I put him down for his nap at 7 a.m. By 8, I knew something wasn't right. His breathing was labored and he just didn't look good. The peditrician has hours on Saturday, so we called and they told us just to bypass them and head to the E.R. After a nasal swab, chest x-ray, and an hour of sitting with a lethargic baby, the diagnosis = RSV. The doc was nice and explained everything to me, but being a mom of preemie twins, I was already pretty knowledgeable on what RSV was. And based on his O2 levels and the way his tummy was expanding when he was breathing, I knew we were there to stay. I had to give him an hour long breathing t...

I may have mentioned before that I gave Keira the middle name 'Rose' in honor of St. Therese, the Little Flower. When I was younger (and in Catholic school), I was really interested in the saints. St. Therese in particular. Basically what you do is say a 9 day novena to her, and she will send you a sign in the form of the rose. I've prayed to her many times over the years and usually will receive some sort of rose sign. (Once it was a rose on a Zippo lighter a friend just decided to give me.) I always told her that if I had a daughter, I would honor her by giving my daughter the middle name of Rose. And I did. Keira was scheduled to have her ear tubes put in on Monday. On Sunday morning at about 4 a.m., she woke up crying. She never wakes up in the night. Like ever. I just knew. Another ear infection. She was very crabby throughout the morning because she just didn't feel good. She had finished her azithromycin a few days before, so technically that should have still be...

I know I talked recently about sharing. I've been working on the concept with Connor and the twins. Well it seems as though Connor wanted to show mommy how well he listens. He decided to share his pneumonia with Colin. What a good big brother! ;) Not to be outdone, Colin couldn't have just a lung infection. He also threw an ear infection in for good measure. But let's look on the bright side. Keira is getting tubes (provided her cold is all over by Monday) so that should cut down on her getting sick. And it's March. The sun is out, the birds were chirping as I walked into work - in FLATS no less. No more snow boots for me because spring has to be here soon, right? Right???? And I got asked to be a facilitator on a committee here at work. That's kind of big deal, at least here. Go me.

All this in one weekend. Keira saw the ENT on Saturday. He took one look in her ears and said, TUBES. Not that I was at all surprised. Her ears are still fluid-filled and full of infection. This same infection has been going on since the end of January. Her surgery is scheduled for March 8. One week from today. Nervous???? Who me???? The boys were quite sick and had high fevers, so we took a family trip to walk-in care on Sunday. Colin has a fever-virus. I was thinking EI since his temps are 101-104, but the doc at walk-in care said his ears look great. This kid has had more fever viruses in 7 months than I have ever had in my 32 years. His o2 level was about 93-94, but his lungs sounded clear, so we were good to go. As the nurse took Connor's oxygen levels yesterday, I noticed the number didn't go past 89. I instinctively knew. One breathing treatment and some chest x-rays later, the doc told me what I already knew. Pneumonia. Luckily, not a bad case, so we were ...