Abby's 1st Trip to the ER

1 ER visit, 2 stitches, 3 hours of our night and 4 people to hold Abby down... never doing that again? Priceless.

Because it's almost midnight and I got almost zero sleep last night with two sick babies AND there is a good chance I will be getting no sleep once again... I'm just going to give you a brief shakedown of what happened. 

My mom came over for awhile in the early afternoon. The babies were sleeping and Abby and I went outside for awhile. The companionship was nice, it can get a little lonely sometimes at home. She had to pick up my sister from Confirmation classes at 5. I gave Abby some supper, we cleaned up the house a little (she helped vacuum... sorta) Then the babies started crying... I changed them both but just couldn't get them to stop screaming. So I put Abby in the highchair, gave her a popsicle as I fed Kara or tried to feed Kara. Eventually I was having no luck with feeding her and put her in the swing in the nursery. I got Abby down from the highchair and grabbed a screaming Kiley. Abby brought me her little Bible book and I tried to read it to her but she wanted to sit in the recliner and read it.

Now I didn't see it happen but I think that Abby was either trying to put the book onto the desk near the couch or she was trying to climb on top of it. All I saw was her go headfirst down between the desk and the recliner. She was screaming and by the time I got to her there was blood running down her face. I grabbed her quick, put a rag on it (which she took off). There was so much blood I told her that it was time for a bath... so I stripped her down and put her in the tub. Annnnd then she was happy. To me the cut looked pretty deep, I called my mom and then after Tom saw it we decided to take her in. (Tom wanted me to put in that he sprained his toe coming in to see Abby's cut.... I'm not kidding... lol) 

I called the on call nurse and talked to her for a bit. We had just been planning to take her into Acute Care but the nurse said that because it involved Abby's face we needed to take her into the ER. Abby was running around the house laughing (and running into things) The nurse was like "is that her laughing?" Yeah she's pretty tough when it comes to ouchies. She got blood on the recliner so I told Tom to keep her occupied (and from running into things). He drove her around the house in circles while I finished talking to the nurse. 

My mom and my sister came to watch the babies... Abby was very sad that we were leaving them at our house. The ER people were very nice and Abs chatted up the ladies at the front desk as we got checked in. Abby is 25lbs now by the way. The wait was a little long... but it is the ER and I was just glad it didn't take any longer! The CNP (nurse practitioner) said that they would need to do 2 stitches on Abby's bottom lip because the cut went down beyond the fleshy lip bit and could leave a nasty scar. This was what it looked like:

 It was quite the ordeal waiting in that little room with Abby for an hour. She did have a good time writing on the marker board that says : Hello, your nurse is: "name" She left them many "preeties"

They first had us try and put some numbing medication on her lip via gauze... oh she didn't like that one bit. We wrestled her for a bit and gave up. When they came in to do the stitches with one nurse and the doctor I knew they were going to need more people. They swaddled her up tight and tried to hold her down to put more numbing medication to keep it from hurting. She was so strong that nurse Todd had to go find other people to help hold her still. Poor baby I just wanted to scoop her up into my arms and hold her. They had to stop twice because she was gagging she was screaming and trying so hard to move. She kept saying "moommy" And all I could do was tell her that it was going to be ok, that we were going to fix her owwie. Longest 2 stitches ever....

The CNP did a great job, she was quick and fast and gentle with Abby. Much braver than I would have been stitching up a toddler like that! Abby sobbed on my shoulder for awhile and held me good and tight. The saddest part of it all I think is when she very gently and sadly said "please" meaning "Please can we go now?" :( I could have cried. Somehow I managed not to cry and not to pass out. Thankfully! 

But we got Abby home, she played with my sister a bit, gave her a bottle and some motrin and cuddled her into bed. We go back in 5 days to get the stitches taken out. I need to apply sunblock to the area as much as I can to try and keep it from scarring. The hardest part I think will be trying to keep her from picking at the stitches... I'm sure they will drive her a little nuts. 

Ok ... I really need sleep. It's been a loooong day.

"Awww I love you mommy"

Sick babies... I know... it's awful. Kiley and Kara as of 10:30 tonight are running temps around 100-101 degrees. There noses are running and they have a little cough. The temp isn't too bad, but the poor things are miserable. They are making soft squeaky noises to each other. At least for the moment they aren't coughing or trying to breathe. I have a feeling that if they are like this in the morning I'm taking them in to get checked out. There have been too many cases of RSV around my neighborhood for me to feel ok with just leaving it alone. In fact 3 of the neighborhood little ones are sick in the hospital with it! I just hope they sleep some tonight so that I'm not completely miserable too.

I should have known something was up, they were just crying and crying and crying and crying. I have to interrupt this paragraph because Kara fell asleep in my arms and just now woke up to smile at me, coo and all of this with her eyes mostly shut. If she weren't so miserable it would be amazingly adorable. Ok she fell back asleep.... We eventually drove down to my moms after Abby got up from her nap because I couldn't take care of them all. K&K each wanted to be held because they were miserable but Abby wanted to play... Abby looked up at me from her snack and said "Mom? Babies cry..."

I decided we had had enough. Thankfully things went better at my moms with more hands to hold babies and we even got a nice beef stew meal. I brought our dog Feebee to play down there... and forgot in all of the commotion of getting the kids into the car. I dropped off my sister for pep band so that my mom wouldn't need to go. Oh wow was Abs mad when she left!!!

My sister had been playing tea party and kitchen with Abby and wow did she just love that! We even brought a few kitchen things to play with home so that she could do that. Tom played food with her for awhile and gave her a bath tonight. It was sweet of him to do that so that I could tend to babies that would not stop crying. Lately Abby has been taking 3 hour long naps... perhaps she is growing too? All I can say is that it has given me a little more time to recover and recuperate. Abs and I made frozen cookies today, she liked putting them onto the pan until she decided the cookies looked better to eat than to play with.

Granted if I had made the dough I might have let her eat a snatch or too... but there have been recent salmonilla outbreaks from frozen cookie dough. Do I really need more sick kids? Hmmm no. We got the cookies made but didn't even get to eat any before we went to my parent's house. I guess that leaves more cookies for tomorrow!

But the really exciting thing today???

Abby told me she loved me for the first time!!! I mean actual words! I was hugging her this morning as we were walking to the nursery to change her diaper and I said "Awwww I love you Abby." And she hugged me back and said "Awww I love you mommy..." I was sooooo excited! Hearing her tell me that she loved me was one of the coolest things ever. It is a moment I will always cherish and hold on to... especially as those teen years loom maliciously in the distant future....

I feel like there was something else I had wanted to add... but that is all I can think of for now!
Goodnight :o) Hoping I get some sleep....

A Valentine Baptism

Kiley and Kara were baptized this morning. The service was wonderful and I was so happy that the weather at least allowed us to get to the church! I am thankful for all of our family that braved the elements to make their day so special. It was a beautiful service. Our pastor's wife gave birth to a beautiful baby boy yesterday and I was so pleased that he (our pastor) took the time to come back and do the baptism for us. It really meant a lot. He has been such a blessing in our lives, our whole church family has.

Tom's mom made pork sandwiches for a meal after the baptism. It was absolutely delicious. My family has been so gracious about helping us put together the meals and cleaning up afterwards. Things would have been a lot more difficult without them! Others brought deserts, vegetables, chips, silverware...etc. Thanks!

For Kiley and Kara's sake (when they get older) I'm going to list here what they received from the baptism as of today. (Please don't feel like you need to give us anything, I just want them to know later what was given)

2 Kid's Bible song cd's, a purple sweatshirt (18m), blue sweatshirt (18m), 2 teddy bears, 2 Tweety bowls, 4 pairs of socks, 2 picture frames and money that will be put into their savings accounts.

At the baptism they showed the video testimony that I had made earlier. I had several people thank me for sharing it with them and several others who said they couldn't help but cry. It was just a special way to show people the journey God led us on... sometimes it's hard to believe that part of the journey is finished. Time flies by so fast.

This is one of the baby hats that Tom's mom made for me! Beautiful! She made another floppy had that is so cute too. I wish I were that talented! Then again... I would probably make millions of them and our house would be taken over by them. I just think they look so cute on my girls!

Abby had a fantastic time playing with her cousin. We'll call him "Chip" in this blog. Tom was calling him that earlier today because he loved Pringles. They played together so well. I wish that his family lived closer, it would be nice to let them see each other more. He is turning 2 in March and we will have to go celebrate his birthday! What fun that will be.... we can't wait. Chip absolutely loved holding the twins. His mom tried to pull one of the girl's away because she was crying and oh was he upset!! It was really cute how much he loved them.

K&K are sleeping now and I'm a little sleep deprived with the crazy night that I had last night with the girls. Please God let them sleep tonight... I'm just so tired.... So for now... I think I'll call it a night.

(Had to include one in their with Abby, poor thing was exhausted by the time we were done today!)