Life in the 'sipp: October 2016

Ellie

So lots of things have been going on.... LIFE! I hope to show it through pictures and a few words.
Ellie has officially gotten sick. And it is totally sad and heartbreaking. It started Monday evening... she has a little snotty nose, but it almost seemed like allergies. We were celebrating Thomas's birthday when I kind of noticed it. Well that night, it really hit. Coughs, snot, fever! I had been so careful too. Addie's allergies flare up this time of year, and it usually gives her a dry cough. I don't much worry about, because it happens when different things are blooming. However, that night I heard her cough, I didn't let myself worry. But I moved her out of the girl's room the next night, to be safe.... guess it was too late. I have kind of been a Nazi too, with telling people to not touch her hands, and leave her alone (in a nice way, ha) But, the sick found her! Ugh! She is sucking on her hands now, and easily could have caught something anywhere. Addie cannot handle the guilt of it, and I have assured her no matter what, it isn't her fault! I have a story about her too, but it is kind of funny, kind of not. But anyway, Miss Ellie. I took her to the doctor that next morning. She had started coughing at 12:30am, I was awake the rest of the night. Suctioning and making sure she was breathing, NICU PTSD. The highest her temp got during the night was 101.4, which isn't too terrible, but if you know me and fevers....I can't handle them and they stress me out when my kids have them! They weighed her... any guesses?? 16 lbs 14 oz! Although we changed her to a lower calorie formula, she just decided to increase her intake. Still growing like a champ. The doctor swabbed for RSV... just the word RSV scares me to death! Luckily it came back negative, however the doctor wasn't convinced that it isn't RSV. But, with it being a virus, there was nothing to really do, except treat the symptoms. Antibiotics won't help. Just wait it out?! Tylenol and Albuterol treatments. Tuesday night she slept better, probably bc of the tylenol. Her temp has stayed low grade.... but for me, any grade of fever is unwelcome! Wednesday she still seemed the same. I called, letting them know, hey... she is still fevering, she wakes up with her eyes glued shut with boogers. That should be expected. She could cough for weeks!?! That night was our ward's trunk or treat, luckily Meme volunteered to keep her while the rest of us attended, it was fun, but half my heart was still in worry for her. Right before we had left, she was struggling to want to eat, because breathing was hard, then got herself into a coughing fit, and made herself vomit up what little she took. And the one thing they asked me to do is keep her hydrated!! How do you force someone to stay hydrated. Her appetite has decreased, but the one thing she never turns down is breastmilk, as little as I produce, she is always thankful for it. Though I know it isn't enough to sustain her, it is something. It seems every other feeding she would take a decent amount. She still had consistent wet diapers, so I knew she was getting something. Thursday I figured we would see drastic improvement... nope. My other two kids never stayed sick for so long. Yes they may have had a lingering cough or running nose, but not seem so miserable. I know it is her weakened preemie body, it will just take longer to fight it off. And the bright side is she is building her immune system in all of this. Well, it is Friday.... still having that low grade fever. Low being 99.5... which I know 100.4 is considered a fever, but to me, anything elevated, especially in her, is a fever. She doesn't particularly like the albuterol treatments, and I am not sure just how much they help. But it is something! Something to make me feel like I am helping. She seemed to be a little more her cheery self today. She loves to take a bath, that always makes her smile. Lately she has been having so many blow outs while sitting in the bumbo, I think maybe she is doing it on purpose just to take a bath! Clever girl. I hope tomorrow the fever is gone, all the way, and she is feeling better. She is in bed now, coughing now and again. I probably won't sleep much, just because I worry so much. He little cry is so sad and pitiful, I just want to take the sick away. Poor baby. Every morning her eyes have been sealed shut with the goop. I have annoyed the doctor's office with numerous calls, but they say it has to run it's course. Unless her fever spikes, there really isn't much to be done. I don't like that! I want to be able to do something. She has a humidifier, an essential oils diffuser with "Breathe" oils, I saline her nose and suction it out, I rub oil and menthol on her foot, I give her tylenol and the albuterol, I rock her and kiss her and weep with her, I love on her, I watch her sleep, I don't sleep, I wipe away the boogers from her eyes... and I pray. It is all I can do, but it just doesn't seem like enough. I just want her better and then I won't let anyone near her! So she can stay sick free forever! Ha! I know I know... kids have to get sick to get better... blah blah! I just don't like to see her suffer!

Addie

On the topic of sick, Addie's story! Addie is a very dramatic little girl, just a warning. I love it about her, and then again, it can get a little hard to take! But, you must know that she loves school! I believe she tries her very best! She wants to be the teacher's pet, even though she doesn't even know what that it. Addie is a people pleaser! She is kind and sweet. She wants everyone around her happy and healthy. When Ellie is crying and she can't soothe her, she cries and tells me she is not a good big sister. I reassure her she is only the world's greatest big sister ever! Anyhow, she is always telling me about her day, and this and that that happened at school.

**Side note! There is a little boy in her class, to protect him, let's call him "Garth". Garth may or my not have a giant crush on Addie, or he is just a little stinkbutt, either way, he has caused her a lot of stress. She usually complains to me specifically about him. That he is bad, or did something bad, or got his clipped pulled, or was on red. Also, he tends to have seizures, which freaks her out completely! "Mom, when I grow up, I don't want a baby who has seizures" "Well, honey, I am sure nobody wants a baby with seizures, but they love them just the same" "Nope, I don't want one with seizures, I wouldn't know what to do" "Well, you would learn how to take care of them!" "Nope, just don't" She worries he will have a seizure by her and she won't know what to do, which causes her stress and anxiety. And apparently he makes "horrible" noises at lunch!? She has never been able to replicate, I just take her word for it. As this side note grows longer.... Garth also apparently "strangles" Addie at recess. This was very alarming to me when she casually mentioned it. Because "strangle" isn't a word that we use often at home, for obvious reasons?! ha. So, I knew something was up. Apparently there is an orange part of the playground that is off the ground and the teachers can't see up in there. And that is where Garth would strangle her. She said he had done it every day, except on days he had a seizure and couldn't go to recess. I asked her to demonstrate what strangled mean on me. She wouldn't, said it would hurt me, so I had her do it on my arm. So this little stinkbutt, would put my sweet little Addie in a chokehold!!! I could feel my blood begin to boil when she showed me what he had done. I asked her why she hadn't told a teacher, and she said she didn't know she needed to. I tried to stay calm and give her rational advice. I wrote a strong letter to the teacher and principal of my concern and that she shouldn't be around him anymore. Thomas gave her the good advice to bite the stew out of his arm if he ever tried it again. It broke my heart that my little girl was being strangled, every day?!!! And she didn't know to tell anyone?! Where did we go wrong?! We try to have more frank and pointed conversations about her day now. And the stranglings have ceased. Side note over**

So, one day, she got into the car and told me she had the most horrible day ever! "well, what happened?!" "I don't want to tell you until we are home" We pick up my friend's little boy, and I assume Addie didn't want him to hear about it. "It was so so horrible mom. Nobody got hurt. And I didn't get strangled, but it was the worst day ever" I was dying to know, and didn't want to wait to hear about it until we got home. We dropped Colt off, and I asked her about her day again. "Well, I didn't want Colt to hear, but this is what happened....we were in music class and we were using our ipads when Bryson got up and walked across the room and vomited all over the floor. We all had to get up against the wall and cover our mouths and noises. AND THEN! And this wasn't his fault, he couldn't help it, but THEN Garth pooped his pants and it looked like ketchup. I didn't hear him poop his pants, but I saw it.....you see why it was so horrible" Bless her little heart! She had been traumatized!! And then it began.... she was eating dinner while I was feeding Ellie on the couch. She started crying hysterically, and ran to me. In a high pitched scream, she tried to tell me something.... finally I deciphered it, after she repeated it about 3 times "MOM...(gulping breath) I THINK I (squeak cry noise) CAUGHT BRYSON'S SICK!!!" and the tears poured out. I tried to calm her down. We took her temperature, normal. She looked healthy. We gave her some Emergen-C and her vitamins, I told her it would help. The next day was her field trip to the pumpkin patch and I didn't want her to miss that! But her mind was so powerful, to believe she was sick. She woke up several times during the night, in a panic, but not sick.... the Emergen-C at night was probably a mistake. The next morning, we took her temp again.... normal. More vitamins. Another Emergen-C. Somehow we got on the subject of orange being a healing color.... we were desperate, Porter and I, to convince her she was ok. I don't know why or how it was orange, but we clung to it. She wore orange socks. We rubbed wild orange essential oils on her tummy. Her drink in her lunch was orange. We packed her an orange. The cheetos were orange. The cheese on her sandwich, orange! It sounds crazy... but it was working. "Look for orange all day and it will make you healthy and charge you" Look, that school bus looks orange. "Yeah! it is" It was... working?! "Think of where you are going today, what might be orange at school" "MOM!!! The pumpkins at the pumpkin patch are ORANGE!" We had officially distracted her! She got out of the car with a renewed sense of confidence that she was going to be ok, with enough orange in her life. Hey, isn't there a gym called orange therapy?! THey are on to something! I got an email from her teacher saying she was crying and wanted to let me know. Oh goodness. The next day, she cried, didn't want to go to school. She was fine, healthy, but thought she could possibly be sick! Ay! ay! ay! The sense of getting sick had scared her and scarred her! The rest of that week, I got emails saying she was crying and said she had had a horrible morning. But then I would get another email, saying she was fine. I finally had to make an incentive to no more crying program for her. If she didn't cry for 5 days straight we would go to Yog 'N Fruit. She did it! And we went! And we haven't had a problem since.... and I hope it stays that way. That girl! She makes me laugh, but oh she can test my patience! She is so sweet and genuine though, her sweet nature reminds me of my sister in law, Adrianne, just a naturally sweet and kind person. You know the kind?! Who are deep down genuinely sweet and caring, that is Addie and Adrianne. Because she certainly didn't get it from me! hahah! She got so upset and blamed herself for while about getting Ellie sick, it took a lot to convince her, and to tell her to not beat herself up over it.

I am just ready for sickness to just, go away! So we can get back to being happy, and healthy and having fun!

Look at that precious neck roll

She loves to be toted in hr carrier. Here we
are at Memphis Zoo, in style!

That face :)

She made it to the pumpkin patch!

What a doll!

Celebrating 5 days of no crying!!

Seesters!

We went to the Yazoo fair!

Sometimes Addie hates to take pictures, you can see
her yellow sleeve to the right, so... it counts!

The 50th day of school!

Our best last minute 50s outfit!

Thomas getting old!

Poor poor sick baby! And she scratched her face with her
super crazy sharp nails! I can't cut them fast enough

Dressed as Harry Potter to do homework!

Trunk or Treat 2016

Bellatrix, Harry & Hermoine

JK Rowling, Moaning Myrtle, Hagrid's girlfriend Madame Maxime, Luna Lovegood, Doby, Bellatrix, & Pro Trelawney

I've got the coolest friends!

Porter has always hated to read, until he picked up a Harry Potter book! Now he is obsessed! I love it. I love seeing him love the magic of such a fun series! We watch the movie after he completes the book. It's the first time in school that he has all the AR points he is supposed to!

I think the biggest reason Addie wanted to be Hermoine is because Hermoine's last name is Granger, and she is often referred to as Miss Granger in the books. Addie's kindergarten teacher's name is Ms. Granger, and so I think that is the real reason! She loves her teacher!