Sickness?

Will we ever get well? It seems everyone including Chris and I are coughing, have sore throats, or running fevers. Agg....life slows down, but then you start climbing the walls inside your house! The kids are cute when they tell me they have a sore throat, they tell me their mouth hurts! It took me a while to figure that one out!

It seems we have regressed back to the first year, Isabella and Jake are waking up 2 to 3 times in the middle of the night. No real reason why, they just want to see us...not real happy about that! Thank goodness for Kendall, she loves her sleep (just like her mom and dad)!

My cousin Kelly is coming into town this weekend to visit with her two children. We are going to see Pooh at the Children's Theatre on Saturday and hang out and let the kids play. Her kids are older which means my kids will be entertained!

I had my first Thirty-One party on Monday! I love it! I have another one on Thursday at my friends Laura's house. Once again, so thankful I found something I love (bags) and could bring my love of bags to others!

We are off to Katie's house to help her organize and to let the kids play!

Turkey Day Is Over

What a great Thanksgiving Day! We had a great time with friends. Shara provided an amazing turkey and Marsha provided us with her to die for relish along with sweet potatoes and rolls. I did the ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, ciabatta bread stuffing (YUM), and mac and cheese.
It was fun! Poor Tessa and Chris couldn't make it due to sick kids. Katie also couldn't make it because 3 out of 4 were also sick.

Jake woke up WAY too early and he was in a bad mood ALL day! We kept the kids up all day without a nap since we were eating at 3pm. At 6:30, Jake was in bed and asleep. The girls were also tired and went to bed around 7:30, that is the earliest in a LONG time that my kids have been in bed before 8.

I hope all of you had a great day as well. Remember, if you find yourself without plans or family in town next year, come on by, we would love to have you!

Tomorrow is Friday!

We've had a busy but unproductive week! I have run errands all week, but having nothing to show for it. The laundry is piling up..again..I usually do one load a day, but this week I've fallen behind. I have a fair sized laundry room, but things were starting to pile outside of the door! Chris will be through with his 2 week audit tomorrow (hopefully) so we will be able to resume a normal routine this weekend.

A friend/neighbor is coming over in the morning to watch the kids while I go to a doctors appointment. I have a 2 hour physical with my internist tomorrow. We will be going through family history and going over all of the tests that were performed for the pre-physical from last week. Fun times! He will tell me to get back in shape and drop 30 pounds. He has been telling me this since before the kids were born. I'm lucky though to have a doctor I LOVE! Unfortunately, though this will be the last year I will be able to see him. It's a long story, but we pay a fee for him to be our doctor (MDVIP) and it does not make sense for us to pay money for me when I see him once a year. Chris will continue to see him, Dr. Schyberg is the only doctor Chris trusts.

With that said, my goal is to run a 5K in March. I was on a great start about 4 months ago working out and getting up at 5:45 to get my butt out the door and jogging. For some reason I stopped...oh yeah, I'm not a morning person and 5:45 is tooooo early! I think I will put the kids in the jogging stroller and trying to get out at 9am. Here's the thing...hold me accountable! I mean it, if I talk to you on the phone ask me how the training is going. If you want email me or leave feedback. I need to be held accountable.

Sorry!

So sorry it's taken me forever to get back on the blog! So much has happened:

Kids:

Where to start? First here are some pictures that a dear friend took!

The kids are doing great. Just the typical 2 year old drama! Jake still has a great imagination and shares with us daily the "things" he has done at work that day. Today he climbed on his firetruck and climbed up the ladder. It's cute!

Kendall and Isabella are doing great. They seem to be growing closer and closer everyday. For the longest time Jake and Isabella seemed to have a stronger bond, but now I see Kendall and Bella growing closer together.

Halloween was fun. The kids had the best time trick or treating. By the 3rd house, they understood the rules! We did the majority of our street and had to drag them back in! We hosted a pizza party at our house with our friends and then we all headed out together. You couldn't miss us coming down the street, we were the ones with 8 or so two year olds! It was fun!

We had a nice visit from Grandmother (Mrs. Bloxham), she was able to come down for a few days. She brought clothes for the kids and they had a ball trying on every outfit on. They enjoyed spending time with her.

Neena:

I started typing for a lady in the neighborhood who is the main counselor at Coastal College of Georgia. She is having me type some manuals and do Power Point presentations for her. I've enjoyed focusing on something that is not baby related!

I also started selling Thirty-One, a line of bags and home products. If you know me, you know my love of bags! I love all bags! This seemed to be a right fit for me and allows me to focus on something else besides the kids. Don't get me wrong, I love them, but I was started to feel as though I lived in a 2 year olds world! I needed something to bring me back to the adult world! Check out my site, www.mythirtyone.com/neena or if you would like to host a party, let me know!

Chris:

Is doing well, just working a lot. He is also teaching Sunday School at Church for the middle schoolers!

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving. Once again this year we are hosting an open house! I love it! It's a day to be Thankful for friends and family, we are blessed to have both. This year we should have about 9 people here.

Christmas is right around the corner and the kids are starting to "understand" Santa! We also are going to Disney for the triplets birthday!

I promise to update again soon!

Busy Week

Let the Potty Training begin! Wow, I don't know why I expected this to be easy! This is now our routine if we are going somewhere:

1. Get dressed

2. Potty

3. Fight with Jake on what he is going to wear

4. Potty

5. Wipe faces, hands, etc

6. Potty

7. Put shoes on

8. Potty.....get the picture

It takes us FOREVER to get out the door! Patience is something that I have to reach down deep in me and find!

All in all, it's okay. The kids are in Pull Ups. I had to after we wet though all of our underwear in one day. The light went on in my head and said just splurge and buy the pull ups!

Another exciting event was going to see Disney Live at the Civic Center. We had a bunch of friends go with us and all the kids had a great time. It started with Chris going to Sunday School (the kids and I didn't make it this week) and then we picked up daddy from church and headed to Mellow Mushroom for an early pizza lunch and then we walked to the Civic Center for the show. Isabella clapped her way through the whole show, Kendall was herself and just acted as though she really didn't care to be there, and Jake grinned from ear to ear through the whole thing. After Jake came out of the bathroom he requested a hat that also had cotton candy attached to it. Daddy hesistated at the $12 price tag and then splurged for 3 (remember you can't just buy 1)!

It was a fun day! It ended with family time as we watched Handy Manny's first ever movie on the Disney Channel. The kids made it about 45 minutes and then they were off to bed.

Pumpkins

We went to Walmart this morning and got 3 small pumpkins. I told the kids that if they napped we would decorate our pumpkins after nap. Regular markers would not work, so we had to use permanent....I made Jake strip down to his diaper! Here is what we created!

All 3

Kendall's Pumpkin

Isabella's pumpkin

Jake's pumpkin (he did not want to be photographed)

It's been a week!

Sorry it has taken me so long to post, but things have been hectic! It all started last Tuesday when Chris was out of town on business. I took the kids to Oglethorpe Mall to run in a few stores and then we ate at the food court. Jake then got sick at 3am! My mom and brother arrived at 6am after driving all night to come down. After mom scared me half to death when she crawled in bed with me (this was the night Chris was out of town) I was up for the rest of the day!

We left for Toby Keith's concert in Atlanta on Thursday. Chris took off the rest of the week and watched the kids for 36 hours while we went to the concert and did a little shopping in Atlanta. We got back just in time for Kendall to get sick that night! Long story short, we have been sick for 8 days and I'm about to climb the walls in my house! I think we are coming out of it! This seems to be the most challenging part of having 3 kids the same age. They all do things together and that equals getting sick together. They don't get sick the same night, we like to drag it out over a week or more! To top that off, Jake and Bella have had hand, foot, and mouth. Aggg.....!

Mom had a nice visit, she LOVES her grandbabies! I'm thinking we might go up there and see them the first of October. I really want to see leaves change and experience a "real" fall!
We start potty training on Friday, I was going to do it Monday, but with sick kids I moved it a week. I will let you know how that goes.

The kids are still acting 2. Jake in particular is a new child. He does things he KNOWS he is not supposed to do, when you punish him, he just laughs! Chris found him the other night behind his chest of drawers, it was caddy cornered between two walls. He was yelling, "get me out of here." I don't know what to do with him!

This is our life!

I just wanted to explain my afternoon. The kids decided not to nap until around 3pm. I woke them up at 4:10 and put on a new diaper and told them they could snack downstairs. This is a typical routine for us, my kids don't nap well and when they do, they fall asleep later in the afternoon. This usually means I have to wake them up so they will fall asleep at night. This routine means unhappy and grumpy kids because they were not able to get a full nap in. We had a busy day today with playgroup at our house, I put out the bouncy house in the living room and they played for a long time with friends. I knew they were tired, but they fight naps!



After we woke up, I came downstairs and started dinner (tuna lasagna...YUM)! While sauteing onions, I lost Isabella. I found her upstairs on the potty. She was inspired to be on the big potty because Emma and Patrick are potty trained and they were playing with us today. This is fine and dandy, but then the other two strip off their diapers and proceed to potty. Therefore, while onions are cooking I have Bella on the upstairs potty, Jake on my potty, and Kendall on the 1/2 bath potty. Kendall has to have the door closed, Bella and Jake don't care. I get the lasagna put together and then found out that Jake clogged up the master bedroom toilet with toilet paper so I have to plunge that. Molly our dog in the midst of all of this pee's upstairs on the carpet. She felt left out and wanted to go potty too! While trying to get everyone in one place so I can get diapers on everyone, Jake is jumping in the bounce house butt naked and Kendall is butt naked trying to get her tike bike up the slide so she can ride her bike in the bounce house....and once again I've lost Bella! If you are under 5 in my house you need potty training, this means the dog too!

Poor Chris, he then walks in the door! Everyone is diapered and we eat lasagna!

Who knows what this week will bring, but I can ensure you it's going to be a wild ride!

Kendall is looking good!

We just received the last blood test results and Kendall is doing much better. Her numbers are not perfect, but are headed in the right direction. We will test again in two weeks! Thanks again for your prayers during all of this.

On another note, our children have reached a new stage. We thought earlier that we had reached the "terrible two's".....we were wrong! Our lovely children have a new personality that Chris and I did not know existed! For example, Jake took a can of cream of mushroom soup and threw it two check out lanes over while were checking out of Walmart this afternoon. This type of behavior is typical now with all 3 thoughout the day! What can one do except just hope this passes SOON! I don't want to have "that" child(ren) no one wants to play with!!

They are still great children and are very sweet, but they beat me sometimes!

Neena

Looking Good!

Kendall was off to the Cardiologist this morning. Thanks to Shara who watched the other two while we rode into town. Kendall once again was perfect during the Echo. The technician was amazed at well she does. Dr. Long came in and said that everything looks good, nothing has grown! He told us to keep the asprin going twice a day and he would see us in 3 weeks. He reminded me that she will not feel 100 percent for at least 8 weeks. I was concerned that she was still tired after playing for a while and she was still pale. He looked at me and said, "remember she had a major disease". Hmmm......as a mother you just want your children to be healthy and happy.

While we were at the doctors office, Shara was able to get Jake to pet her cat! This is a major step for us. He is afraid of all animals, I know funny huh since we have a dog!

This scare with Kendall puts life in perspective, it does not matter what car you drive or if you have designer labels on your clothes. What matters is your family, friends, and health. My heart goes out to parents who deal with a chronically ill child. My mind has been racing since the start of this illness, I can't imagine having to face illness everyday and not know the outcome. We have great doctors who care for us and want to see Kendall get better. We are on our way to being completely healthy. Please pray for those who deal with this daily, from the doctors, nurses, patients, and parents, may they have the strength to deal with whatever may come their way.

We go for more blood work Tuesday.

Tomorrow's a big day!

Tomorrow is our appointment at the Cardiologist. I'm hoping and praying that we will be seen and told that nothing has changed. My fear is the anyrism (I'm too lazy right now to look up the spelling) will have grown. Kendall is doing really well. She tires easily and has to take breaks after playing and her face is still pale, but all in all she is holding her own. She is still on baby asprin twice a day.

The other two are great! They are still concerned about Kendall. Isabella will ask me at least once a day if Kendall is still sick. I think it's great that she and Jake both care so much for their sister. When you think of two year olds, you think all they would care about is themselves and of course their toys that belong to "them", but Jake and Isabella knew when I did that something was just not right. They have been champs since the beginning.

Mom flew home this morning, she will be back in a couple of weeks. I bought her tickets to Toby Keith's concert in Atlanta for her birthday. She is a HUGE fan of Toby Keith so I knew this would be a gift that she would love. We will be away for about 24 hours! Chris will have my brother here to help, but he would be fine on his own!

I will post tomorrow and let you know how it goes! By the way, LOVE the cooler weather. I've been outside with the kids all day, they even took a 2 hour nap!!!

Numbers are good!!!

We went to see Dr. Stone this morning. My heart skipped a beat when they took her temperature and it was 99.1. He told me not to worry about that, he would consider 100.4 a fever. He checked her over and sent us to Candler for more blood work. Once again, she handled that like a champ! He just called and said everything is starting to come down. He will order more blood work next Tuesday and we hope the numbers will all be normal! GOOD NEWS!

We see Dr. Long on Thursday, I will be sure to post the results from that visit. Let's pray the Echo Cardiogram will show positive things.

All is clear!

No fever!!!! She looks good, Dr. Stone said to just keep an eye on her and he would see us in the morning.

The fever returns

We thought we were in the clear, but on Saturday the fever returns. I'm on the phone with Dr. Stone and explain what is going on. He wants us to monitor her through out the night and he would call us at 7am Sunday morning and admit her if the fever was still there. It's not uncommon for one to have to receive another round of treatment with Kawasaki's Disease. Meanwhile I can treat the fever with Tylenol and should still give her asprin twice a day.

We are off to Memorial

Chris and I were up at 6am for the hospital. Our plan was to leave at 7:15 that morning. A friend from the neighborhood was nice enough to watch the other 2 that day along with her 2 (thanks Rebekah)! Another neighbor, Shara, brought her 2 over to help out and assist with lunch and so forth (thanks Shara)! I have to add a side note here, It is awesome to live in a neighborhood and to be part of a community that is supportive in every way. From the moment we thought we would be going into the hospital a list of people started a meal calendar and babysitting services for us. We were told not to worry about anything at home, just take care of Kendall. My playgroup, church friends, and multiples club is made up of the most caring and thoughtful people I know.

We arrived at the hospital and got checked in. Kendall was in good spirits and handled everything with ease. She was not thrilled to get her IV or to have her blood drawn, but she layed there and just cried. She did not throw herself off the table or pitch a fit, but took everything they did and ran with it! Our nurse was Tonya and she was great. She took great care of us. Almost as soon as we arrived we were taken to X-Ray for a chest x-ray.

She is not that upset being at the hospital. Think about it, they give her a really cool bandage, band aids, a bracelet with her name on it, food just arrives, toys are brought to your room, and you get to give yourself medicine. How cool is all of that for a 2 year old! Once we were back into our room, Stephen our minister at church stopped by to see Kendall and to pray with us. It was nice to see a familiar face and for him to remind us that prayer works and the Lord knows what he is doing. I checked on the other two, Rebekah said things were going great, not sure if she just said that, or if she was being nice, but I knew mom would be there by 3pm and she would take over from there.

We had a visit from the Infectious Disease doctor, I won't go into detail. Her visit was not all that exciting. The tech from Pediatric Cardiology came by to the cardio echogram. Kendall was great, she sat in bed and just stood still. Around 5 that evening, Dr. Long came by and told us that she had a small blip on the screen which was the start of a cardiac anurysim. He then told us that based on her symtoms and the echogram he would diagnose Kawasaki. Whewwwww, we had a diagnosis! Dr. Stone during night rounds wrote the orders for treatment.

Mom brought Isabella and Jake up to the hospital to see Kendall. They were cute and had a good time playing with the buttons on the bed and the new toys the hospital provided.

Treatment didn't start until midnight. This treatment is known as IVIG. It's done through an IV and is painless. You have to look for reactions like a rash and itching. Kendall did great with no side effects. Here was the problem, for the first 2 hours you have to check vitals every 15 minutes. Sleep was not an option that night!

The next morning we had a another echo cardiogram around 6:30 and a visit from Dr. Stone. By this time, I was exhasted. It was 2 days of no sleep and I was out of it. I was looking for backup and called Chris and pretty much told him I needed to head home and clear my head. He arrived around 10am and I drove home. During the time Chris was there Dr. Long, pediatric cardiologist arrived and said things look the same, but the good news was the blip on the screen had not grown. It could take awhile for that to reverse.

Kendall was looking good. She had a good attitude and her eyes seem clearer. I arrived back at the hospital and I was told we could go home. Dr. Stone said all they would do there would be monitoring for fever, we could do that at home. They drew blood and the test results were about the same as when she was admitted into the hospital. That was good news and bad news. The good news was the numbers had not gone up and the bad news was they had not gone down. We made an appointment with Dr. Stone for Monday morning and he said he would recheck her blood test then. We are then released from the hospital!!

Kendall

It all started about 11 days ago. Kendall woke up and seemed fine, I noticed though she didn't eat breakfast. I checked her head and low and behold she felt hot. Nothing new, dosed her up with Motrin and then 3 hours later dosed her up on Tylenol. We did this for the next 3 days. Durning this time she was very lathargic, she would not go up or down the steps and had no interest in playing with the others. By this time I was worried, this was unusual and my gut told me this is not an ordinary illness. We took her to Dr. Stone and based on the finger prick and the lack of symptoms she was showing he thought it was viral and would just have to run it's course! That was on a Friday and by Monday we were back in his office. Dr. Stone looked at her and then looked at me and said it seems it could be Kawasaki Disease, but I doubt it. I ran her over to the lab at Candler and they took 3 vials of blood and by 7pm that night the numbers were not good. Here was the problem, Kawasaki is diagnosed by observation of the patient and blood work based on a few tests. There is not a signal blood test for this disease. Kendall only had a couple of symptoms, they prefer 4 out of 5. To make things more complicated, her physical symptoms were improving. By Thursday we decided to admit her to the hospital and start treatment.

Welcome

Hi all,

Lately, it's been difficult to keep everyone updated on what's going on with us! I thought this would be the best way to ensure information is shared with all who are interested. Let me know what you think, I'm new to "blogging" and could use help!

Neena