Here we go

With cold weather comes sickness, as we have experienced the last few weeks. Our strep, sinus infections and flu have minimized to coughing, green noses and wheezing. Owen is officially back on steroids for the winter and breathing treatments as necessary (3 a day right now). Not so fun and he did not get better at it over since we stopped in July. Meaning, he fights us through the entire treatment!

We are close to being done with antibiotics. It has been a fun week trying to get those down. I hold an M&M in one hand and shove it in their mouths with the medicine in the other. It is actually humorous to me that bribing works at this age.

We attempted to get our Christmas pictures taken yesterday. My dear friend dealt with us for an hour as we had tears, chased kids and cleaned up kitty litter that they thought would be fun to play in. It was not my idea of a good time. Our Christmas card could easily end up being a hand drawn picture by Janie!

Seriously?

Apparently my parenting skills are to be tested right now. I am not so sure that I am coming out with flying colors. In fact, I almost threw the towel in today!

Yesterday was a rough day with very irritable children. I had to hold and pamper the twins all day. Janie on the other hand was just highly neglected and watched entirely too much TV.

Today was much of the same. Owen however woke screaming and did not stop. I finally took him to the urgent care at 9:30a. Yep, strep! So we had one healthy day between the stomach stuff and strep.

Of course Kyle will get this, if he doesn't all ready have it, since they swap cups and pacifiers all day and I have no control over it! So, although I feel a bit under the weather also, I had a brilliant idea. Owen fought me to take the Penicillin from the get go. I called the Dr. back to see if they would prescribe amoxicillin instead. He did and now I have two antibiotics! This means no taking Kyle to the Dr. Bad mom or brilliant?

The kicker is that our nanny called today and her child is now throwing up and she will not be here tomorrow!

Uugh, make it go away!

Caged or Safe?

Here they are- the nets, the bed bras, the cages, the best thing ever! As I said a week ago, I am not ready for the boys to be out of their cribs at 19 months. Since they think they are ready, we are telling them otherwise. These things are great and they seem to be fine with them. It is like they are camping all the time!

Anyway, they are now safer and we are buying some time before the move to bigger beds!

I think I can, I think I can...

This seems to be my slogan over the past few days. I will try not to go on and on about my pitty party here but I must update on the Mitchell adventures.

It all began on Friday night when Owen started not feeling well and it has continued still to today. Owen has had 103 temp since Saturday and spent all night Sunday vomiting followed by the few random vomits on Monday. I joined in on Sunday night with the adventures of puking my brains out. Meanwhile, Kyle has not had a fever but did one random cover-half-of-the-living-room-vomit on Saturday followed by filling-up-Daddy's-car-with-vomit yesterday on the way to the Dr. Yes, the Dr. We found what seemed like an egg-like thing in Owen's testicle. Mike took him in yesterday and he does have to have surgery to remove what is a hernia. We have our pre-opp appointment next week to see when this will happen.

So I got side tracked! I took Monday off to spend 30 minutes babying myself because remember I have the flu too! I came to work yesterday but then left early because Owen was not any better and the Dr. thought we should bring him in. I called the Dr and after much discussion and me informing them that Owen's heart rate was at 160, they decided to send us to the ER. Remember Owen was born with an SVT of the heart which is an irregular, rapid heart rate. He has been doing very well and has been off of meds for almost 1 year.

So we go to the ER for the next 5 hours. They gave him an IV, took all kids of blood, monitored his heart and we left with a virus. Yes, the unexplainable virus! At least that is what we think for now. He was dehydrated and has low levels in several areas but nothing that points to anything other than a virus. Poor little dude!

We arrived home around 6:30pm. My best friend Theresa graciously watched Kyle and Janie and put off going to her daughter's gymnastics class to help me out. Did I mention that our house is full of vomiting germs that will clearly make their way now through their house. Of course I came home to some yummy pizza, breadsticks and salad that she had ordered. Really is there a better friend than one that will stay with your sick kids, miss their kids activities, infect their kids with germs and have dinner on the table. Honestly, I am so lucky!

I am almost done...

So after getting kiddies drugged up and in bed last night I finished cleaning carpets and washing puky and poopy clothing. I signed off myself at about 10:30p. Janie arrived in my room about 11:30p and spent the rest of the night praying to our in need of cleaning toilet. I called Mike at 11:45p to see if he was on his way home. He had spent the 4th night on a new job vomiting in the sink, all over the stairs, and in the garbage.

Sickness go away! There must be an end soon....

The above pics are of Owen in his usual position for the last week and Kyle not realizing that he is sick!

The NICU Fashion Show

On Thursday night the entire family participated in a fashion show fundraiser for the NICU at the hospital where the boys were born. It was great! Despite having to chase the little guys around for a couple of hours before the start, it went perfect. A couple of really great stores were generous enough to sponsor the clothing (that we don't get to keep) for the show. We all looked hip and ready to hit the town. The best part - the boys were awesome! The walked out holding our hands, smiling and capturing the crowd forever. It certainly could have gone the other way so we were so proud that they were happy (especially since the whole thing began 30 minutes after their bedtime). Enjoy the photos!

Hopefully we raised tons of money for our group, the Family Advisory Board, so that we can continue to pursue positive things for the NICU!

Halloween

Halloween was good. We went over to our friends the Fishes. The boys did great in their cozy frog costumes. Janie thought she was pretty hip as a Rock Star. On to eating candy...

For some reason this picture is posting black but if you click on it, you can see the image.