Cookie Toss

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So in the wee hours of this morning Emma woke up and tossed her cookies... In bed... And down her sleeve of her PJ's....

*sigh*

After getting the bed cleaned up and ready to go she went to sleep feeling great.... Until the next time she tossed her cookies.

The odd things about this? She has a "warning system" like I do. We usually have enough time to get up, make our way to the washroom, sit there for a few min's and then toss.

See the odd part of our early morning?

After cleaning up the bed again and grabbing a bucket, she was back to bed. Every 20 min's to an hour she would toss again... Or have tummy issues... At the same time.

A-W-E-S-O-M-E.

Very little sleep happened by the time my alarm went off at 7:15am.... She then proceeded to toss again and I phoned the school.

*sigh*

Liquid has become an enemy to Emma.... Poor kid. We've gone from pink toss (the Pepto I gave her after the first time stayed in her tummy for a few min's) to a teal look (Grape Gatorade)...

Now.... Sorry about this vivid blog.... I'm tired of dealing with this.... But what I'm really frustrated about is that this has happened after only 3.5 days at school..... I'm slightly apprehensive about this school years illnesses with Emma's immune system being shot after having H1N1 last October....

Anyhoo, so far we're doing alright. She's laying watching TV in my room with her trusty bucket and water bottle.... And a little Sister who will hold her hair for her while she tosses! (What a great little Sister to have!)....

Oh! I also have to thank my Neighbor for taking Zoe to the play date today, she had a blast!!

Update 2010

Today I fully realized something... I had talked about it to others without thinking much of it... Just trying to 'survive' really.... But tonight, with a rare moment to myself at 12:30am it hit me...

Emma has been sick since October.

We've had a week here and there where she seems healthy but it just seems to be a lay over for the next thing that's about to hit her.

It all started with H1N1. By the time I got her to the Hospital she barely had a heart rate and was lethargic. I did, however, realize that Emma's mind would be one of the last things to go... After the Doctor had tried many times to find her heart rate with that finger heart rate taker and saying to her 'push your finger all the way to the end', she responded without moving a muscle: "I AM!".

That's my girl!

Emma the first night home. She was REALLY sick.

A check-Up at the Hospital. My Mom got creative and drew lips on her mask! *L*

Hallowe'en was spent sticking indoors taking med's all the time. Thankfully a friend from Church stepped up and made us a pizza dinner and candy grab bags for the girls! We were very, very blessed for that!

Emma made, what we thought, a full recovery from H1N1.....

The months that followed we dealt with colds, ear issues, throat issues and a cough that wouldn't let up. I have NEVER given my child so many different drugs in her entire life! Strep throat seemed to be hiding in her body just waiting for her to start to feel better!

The Olympic Torch after party. Didn't know just how sick Emma was! By the end of the night she just laid in this snow pile and couldn't move. Turned out she had the first major round of strep throat in her.

Last month, February, we had an appointment with a Specialist to see if there was something wrong with Emma's throat and/or sinuses. They gave her adrenaline to see if she had asthma... Which, thankfully, she doesn't... A little bit of a 'funny' feeling in her legs was all that proved to come out of that. Her sinuses were a bit swollen but nothing that a nasal spray couldn't clear up.... As for the cough that seemed to have taken up residence in her (honestly, she would get over every illness that hit her and there would still be this cough!).... We found out that Doctor's are still learning more about H1N1. Thinking we were in the clear was way off. Apparently the black showing up in her lungs (x-ray) was still from, you guessed it, H1N1! I guess it can stay in the lungs anywhere from 3-6 months after you're "healed". As well, the specialist called a few days later to say the swab they took of her throat came back.... And "nasty things (were) happening in her throat!'.... Yes, the typical med's they give you to clear up strep throat would no longer work for Emma (although she seemed healed from it!)... She needed the strong med's to kick it out of her.

Yet another trip to the pharmacy (I should get a special rate for being there so often! *L*) for another med...

Emma seemed to recover from her last bout of strep throat pretty well... I was starting to release my breath that I had been holding since the last time... Her snoring had stopped and everything had seemed to go back to normal. We had a final check-up with our family doctor and she gave us the all clear!

Finally! I could start to see the light at the end of the tunnel... So close! Emma was feeling good and happy that I didn't 'have to' keep her home from school on some random days.

Not only was I thrilled to see my daughter healthy and happy once again (although I do have to say, Emma is a trooper when sick. She'll tell you up front if something is wrong and she's gotten quite good at explaining the different symptoms going on.... As well, she keeps up with her medicine chart really well!) but I could sleep again! It may sound a bit selfish but I hadn't had a good nights sleep since the H1N1 back in October. I've been getting up multiple times a night just to keep up with her medicine schedules! And my Husband has been working 24/4 schedules... 24 out and 4 in (at home). To say the least, I was getting pretty worn down!

Life seemed... Good, slightly back on track. Last week I ended up with what I thought was a regular cold. Instead it turned out to be bronchitis with a sinus infection and pink eye in both eyes. Awesome. Thankfully my family was able to pick up the girls so I could have a few days rest... And for the first time ever in Emma's school life, I allowed her to skip school and stay an extra night with my family so I could sleep more. If the sinus pain (wanting to rip my eyes out to release pressure was a vision I saw daily) and pink eye didn't suck enough... Coughing until you bruised your ribs, threw out your neck, almost tossing your cookies (from coughing over and over again) and not being able to breathe as your body wouldn't take a second to relax to, well.... breathe sucked twice as much.

I was lucky enough to be prescribed some med's.... The pharmacist informed me that it may make me feel nauseated but that would be normal. I spent the first four days wondering if I was pregnant and why I had this horrible flavour in my mouth... It would wake me up in the middle of the night. For some reason it made my brain think I was hungry... Acid reflux? Huh. Turns out that one of the side effects is 'bad flavour in the mouth'. Nice. Imagine that you held a Tylenol, Advil, whatever powdered pill in your mouth for too long... You know that gross flavor that takes forever to leave? 24/7 here! *L*

Anyways... It's been four and a half days and I finally had enough energy to sit in our living room and read to Zoe while Emma was at school. I'd been in bed all day everyday up to today with the exception of taking Emma to school, feeding the kids, etc. My energy would be done by 9am... When I was only up at 7:30am... Yeah.... Oh! I would like to re-thank the two friends from Church that were kind enough to cook us dinner while I was down for the count. I don't think you'll ever know just how much I appreciate that! Thank you!

But back to Emma. Wednesday morning she wakes me up and informs me that she can't hear out of her right ear. I checked it out and couldn't see anything that stood out as 'wrong'.... So she went on with her day, no pain, no fever.... She went to school, she went to skating.... I had hoped that maybe her ear would pop and let her be able to hear.. A seasonal thing? After skating I drove her to the Hospital where they checked her out. The doctor said it was a bit red inside and handed me a prescription. The catch? I'm only to fill the prescription if she *hopefully* gets a fever and/or ear pain within the next few days. That was it. I wasn't told what to do after those 'days' if those symptoms didn't appear. So I took the prescription (and knowledge of Polysporin drops for the pink eye that seemed to be trying to kick in) and went home.

Thursday Emma still couldn't hear from her right ear. no pain, no fever. As the doctor had put it, 'weird'. I called our family doctor and asked for an appointment ASAP. It's amazing how quickly you can get in when you announce that your daughter has 'no hearing in her right ear, no fever or infection'.... We're booked for (today at) 9am! (And her 'pink eye' went away over night! Phew!)

So *fingers crossed* that everything will work itself out. I suppose I should get some sleep. It's 2am here and we have to be up for 7:30am.

Thank you for taking the time to read my little 'rant' if you stuck around... I haven't been able to blog as much as I've wanted to, and now you all know why. I'm exhausted... Totally, completely exhausted. But it was nice to take some time to finally update everyone on the major stuff that's been going on in our household. Maybe next time I'll be able to write about the 'other' stuff that ties in with the information above.

Have a great day! :)

This (past) weekend...

So Friday Tyler and Conor left for their surprise weekend getaway to....

Calgary's Comic and Entertainment Expo!

How cool is that??! Tyler walked in last Friday and announced that he had been laid off, to which I announced I had this trip already booked for him and that he must go! *L*

So he did! But before that he bought his brand new laptop (thank you severance pay and taxes!) which was part of our prep for him to leave for months at a time anyways....

Last night the girls and I were able to Skype with him! Yay!

This past Friday I received a phone call from our builder informing me that they'll be here 9am Wednesday to fix our basement wall (build a frame and insulate it for the sound proofing).... Then he told me that they need at least 8ft to work in from the wall out... HA, HA, HA... Oh goodness! Our garage isn't built yet so our basement is storage. And because I run the Dayhome the back half of our basement is floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall boxes and our desk area set-up against said wall with boxes all over it.

*ahem*

So I made the decision not to tell Tyler so he could enjoy his last weekend away before heading to the camps for months on end.....

My plan? To work my butt off this weekend going through every single box down there and clearing it all out. Why not?

What happened?

Emma missed Thursday and Friday of school because of a fever and illness. Then Zoë woke up Saturday ill with the exact same thing. Last night I was up with Zoë until 3am.

Uggggghhhhhhh!

So here I am today rushing around to go through all the boxes and somehow figure out how I'm to lug all of our furniture and such (there's absolutely no way I can move our entertainment center -the TV alone I can't move!- in case Tyler is in the field up north starting Tuesday morning).....

As of right now I know the guys are having a blast in Calgary! Yay! Exactly what I wanted for Tyler... A weekend of no stress! He so, so deserves this.

Anyhoo.... I have two little girls watching The Backyardigans on my bed while I'm in the basement in boxville. I'll take photos!

I suppose I should get back at it... *sigh*

p.s.

While speaking with the builder he said that Tyler had asked for a couple of days notice for this... Cool..... When I said that he wouldn't be here to help he said 'Well at least you have the weekend! That'll help!'....

Yessssss.......

Emma's Cough....

My poor Emma has been battling a cough for days now. Yesterday I finally found our long-lasting kids cough medicine and gave it to her... And off to school she went. Apparently it didn't help. We tried again an hour before bedtime. She was up until the wee hours of the morning coughing.... Uggggh! Why can't the sill long-lasting cough medicine hold up to it's promises???!

Anyhoo, somehow today I will have to drag all the kids (only four today!) to Wal-Mart where we'll get the strongest kids cough medicine around! Lets hope THAT will help! *L*

I just feel awful that she's coughing sooo much! Poor thing! And she's being so good about it!

I better go! More later!

I'm BAAAAAAAA-AAAAACK!

Well I'm starting to feel a bit better health wise. I needed a break to recoup with my new schedule and such before I could fully commit to blogging once again... As sad as that may be!

I'm hoping that I'll be able to blog at least once to twice a week and then work up from there. My kids have gotten into a better routine day and night (as we were forced to be with my Dayhome) so hopefully I'll be able to schedule in some good old (and much needed) blogging time!

I promise to take a full day and respond to every post that I may have missed while I was recuperating! Just you wait!!!

In the mean time, here's the 'new me' from my last photo shoot with Chelsey. We had our third 'Girls' Night In' at my place this past Friday and she was kind enough to take some photos of us!

Catch you soon!!!

Illness making a wave!

My family is ill.... Just like the elephant to my left.

On Monday Emma decided it was time to calmly toss her cookies (thank goodness she was so calm about it all!)... Last night Zoë had a fever... Only 100.6, but still! And then my Hubby came home.

He had phoned me when he got off of work around 12:30am and said his stomach hurt (which was the tell-tale sign for Emma to toss) but was just going to stop off at a friends place to check out this new game he got. that's fair, when you're on night shift, being out until the wee hours of the morning is 'normal'.

I have no clue what time he got home at... I think he said he left his friends place at 3:16am and then it's at least a 20-30 minute drive home.... So what's that... 3:40-3:50am.

And then he was ill. Tossing his cookies. I don't really remember this much as I was exhausted and had been hoping to get some good sleep (not the 'Mommy ears' sleep where you can't "turn them off" because you're listening for this exact thing...)....

Then, right before I was to get up and going (and before my Dayhome Child was to be over), e tossed again.

If you should know anything about my Husband it should be this, he will do just about anything not to toss his cookies. And I can't blame him!

So now I'm stuck in a predicament. I have my DH Child here (which technically they're not supposed to be here until it's been 24 hours since the last toss session)... I explained to his father the situation. As I thought he had to go to work (can't blame him for this) but said to call him if I needed to take care of other things... he may be able to take a 1/2 day. Maybe.

Um humm....

So... I'm exhausted and in no mood for misbehaving children (this is a warning kids!)... My Husband is tossing... Emma is almost totally recovered and Zoë is still up in the air with which way this illness will go towards her.

Help!

Really??!

Who does this?

Emma: Mommy, my tummy hurts.

Me: Okay well I'll make you some soup for dinner and some other light things just in case.

After we've eaten Italian Wedding Soup, Crackers and some cheese and crackers things with water. As well as watched some TV shows (Jon and Kate Plus 8 and Little People Big World!) it was time for the girls to get ready for bed.

Emma went to use the washroom (oh yes, there's more to this story from earlier that I'll go into in another blog when I'm not so exhausted) and after whatnot decided she couldn't brush her teeth.. She just didn't feel well enough.

So I got her to lay in her bed, placed a towel on her floor (protect the 6month old carpet!!!!) with a bucket (2 actually! Why leave her there with nothing 'just in case!' They stack!) and went to deal with Zoë.

I had told Emma that I would take her temperature when I had Zoë settled in for the night.

I had just gotten Zoë to bed when I hear her out of her room asking Emma questions:

Zoë: Emma, are you sick?

Emma: Yeah.... My tummy hurts.... (then something else I couldn't quite make out)....

Zoë: Oh. Okay. (She went back to bed here)

Then I hear Emma in the hallway coming to my room so I meet her halfway, slightly annoyed* that she couldn't just wait for me to come and take her temperature as I said I would....

And then I saw it. She had tossed her cookies, held a whole conversation with her sister (this was what I missed) and was asking me if I would now take her temperature! *L*

I have an awesome child.

And she's been so well tempered throughout the whole ordeal! Even has my cleaning of the bucket routine down!

Poor kid.

*I'd like to let you know that I wasn't annoyed as soon as I got into her room! And yes, we did take her temperature!

So yes.... I just had to share this little bit of.... I don't know... Whatever it is. All I know is that I have an awesome little girl who isn't letting this little issue get in the way of her happy attitude!

Weekend update!

Well here it is.... THE blog! I don't really remember where I'm supposed to start so I'm sure the next few major blogs of mine will be a back-and-forth mesh of the last few months....

So we're going to start with this past weekend!

Lately I've been exhausted by 11pm... Every night! For those of you who know anything about me, I don't sleep. I just don't. I need a minimum of 3 hours to be able to drive and have my head out of the clouds for the day.... Does this mean that I just don't like to sleep? Heck no! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to sleep! In fact it may be one of my top favorite things to do! *L*

But often I don't get to do my work (which is dealing with many thousands of dollars to make a couples dream wedding come true) until the girls are fast asleep.... And if you know anything about my kids, they're night owls just like their Mommy and Daddy!

Anyhoo.... Saturday morning I woke up with enough time to get dressed, hair, make-up, etc. done before having to be at the location (lucky for me it was Sarah as the main planner and the ceremony and reception were happening at the same location!) by 9am. Unfortunately I made it out of my bedroom to the top of our stairs and had to lay down.... I was ill and heck if I was going to be tossing my cookies, I have a wedding to set up!

I drag my carpet face up and get ready for the day... Instead of getting dressed in my jeans and a t-shirt I decided that I may not have enough energy to do that later on and opted to wear my formal dress all day long! *L* I made it to the location at 10am.... Thankfully I have a very understanding boss whom I'm always in touch with!

I knew all day/evening/night that I wasn't feeling myself... I was...tired! Not just tired but exhausted, worn out and not together. When things not exactly planned happened at this wedding I found myself sitting down instead of making myself useful.... Ugh!

I survived the night, had 200 people sing 'Happy Birthday' to me (how embarrassing is that? An no, they didn't just randomly pick me to sing that to... I was working on my 25th Birthday... Nothing stops me from doing my job! I worked on my 5th wedding anniversary a few weeks before as well! *L*), danced and was in the car ready to go home around midnight. On the drive home I could tell, I wasn't well.....

I come home and have enough energy to chit-chat with my hubby and pass out on the bed. Still dressed.

Hours later I'm sick. I'm wishing that I could toss my cookies! Something is seriously wrong... And Tyler knew it. I was on the floor in pain and could barely breath... Life sucked.

By 4am Tyler is waking our girls, changing them (which at the time I kept thinking to myself "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING??!! Take them in their PJ'S!!!") and packing them into the van.... Off to the hospital we go!

4:30am I'm hooked up to an IV with Morphine and Gravol. I have many tests on the go (and yes, one of them being a pregnancy test)....

Emma was adorable! She held my hand the whole time, and I mean WHOLE time! She watched them put the needle in, give me my med's and all! Without being a single bit phased.... Maybe it was her time spent in NICU when she was first born... She just knows it's "all going to be okay!"... Anyways, at one point I remember saying to her, 'Oh Mommy can't hold your hand anymore, the medicine is making it hard to do so'... So you know what she does??! She sits on the stool that the nurse used while doing my IV and keeps holding my hand! Right until Tyler took them home to bed.

Zoë was great as well... But she was right by the bed when the IV stuff started up... I remember watching her face change from 'Hey what's going on here' to 'WHAT THE.....'... I also remember saying 'Tyler' and then seeing her run to him a little freaked out. No worries though, I don't think we've scarred her for life... Maybe just her childhood... She did come around later on to check out the IV in my arm and such later on! *L*

As I mentioned, around 6ish Tyler decided to bring the girls home and let them get some sleep in their own beds. They were being such great troopers! I have the most amazing little girls! Thank goodness! ;) We tried thinking of who we should call for help with the girls while on the way to the hospital.... We both agreed to try Sarah and Conor first and then move down the list... Dori-Lynn being second. I guess at some point Tyler did try calling S&C on their cells and home line but there was no answer (go figure! *L*).... So he decided to knock on Dori-Lyn's house... Later on we found out that she had woken up but wasn't sure if there was a problem until she realized later on that seeing the van out front meant there was (long story short, the van is always parked in the back, the car in the front...)... Tyler felt awful even having to ask people at that crazy hour if they would watch our kids while he tended to me at the hospital (S&C would drive in from the city while Dori-Lyn has kids of her own)... We've since been told not to worry about those things! *L* I promise those who told us this, we won't!

While Tyler was at home with the sleeping kids (and getting 45 min's of sleep himself) I was at the hospital hearing that all my tests came back great... Nothing seems to be wrong with me... My white blood cell count is exactly where it should be... there's no other concerns.... And no, I'm not pregnant! *L* So were not really sure what happened but all seems to be well now. I could go home and if anything else happened I was to go back ASAP. I think that I was exhausted and dehydrated. But that's just me...

Okey dokey.

So I text Tyler and tell him I'm ready to come home now! *L* What I didn't realize was that he hadn't found child care and was stuck in the position of 'do I wake them or leave them for the 5 minute drive??'.....

He picked me up and we headed home... I crashed. All Sunday I slept. Every so often Id wake up and hear the noise of my family being a family and then I'd go back to sleep. At one point I got up and opened two cans of Alphagetti for the kids. I had just enough energy to pour them each a glass of milk, grab them a bun I believe and turn on the microwave.... Then I came upstairs (where Tyler had finally found a few seconds to get some sleep... He was still running on the 45 min's from before) and announced that he would have to get the food out of the microwave as I was too exhausted to stand anymore. Yup. Our poor kids!

Taken July 31, 2008. 4 days after the IV.

That was Sunday.

Monday Sarah and I were going to a Wedding Planners Conference at the Chateau LaCombe. It began at 12pm. I had also booked my girls very first eye appointments for 10 and 10:30am.... *LOL* Tyler was originally supposed to stay home with the girls while I was at the conference and then I would be home in time for him to go to his night shift.... But the College needed him to help tear out the old theatre seats to prep for the brand new ones and the only time he could offer help was in the morning before his normal work shift... So he arranged the child care (which, to me, was soooooooooo sexy! *L* I'm usually the one who has to scrounge to find child care at last minute!)... He made sure that my Grandparents would be at our place by 10:30am to take over the kids which would give me half an hour to get ready before Sarah picked me up for our Conference (oh yes, she drove out from the city to pick me up and then drove me into the city! What an awesome friend!)... This was, of course, the plan before I booked the eye appointments.

Sarah met my Grandparents at my house (she has a key... so do they but they forgot it) while I was at the appointments with the girls (I'll blog about this next time!)..... We made it back to my place just after 11am (I was already dressed to go to the conference as I knew time would be tight). I'd like to say that I heard Tyler leaving the house at 6:50am, which I thought was insane!!! Anyhoo.... Sarah and I head out....

On our way to the Conference Sarah announces that her August 2nd bride is doing a last minute hair trial (came in from Fort McMurray!) and needs to pictures of what she wants done, which Sarah has (and what I had to avoid sitting on when I got into the car! *L*).... the Bride was getting her hair done at Avanti Salon and Spa, a normal venue for us. So we go to meet her there and agree that it needs to be a quick in and out thing as we'll be really late for the conference if we don't do so....

Then the phone rings, the appointment is later then we thought so now she's having lunch at the restaurant right next door... Ugh! How do you not spend time standing around chatting at a restaurant without seeming rude??! Bah!

We make our way to the west end of the city and pull into the parking lot... Sarah parked surprisingly well right beside this silly person who parked on an angle and cut off most of her spot... I have no clue how she did it, but she did! *L* So we walk into the restaurant and I ask 'What does she look like?' as I've never met this woman before... Sarah just kept walking! *L* Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a photographer.... Somehow this doesn't even phase me... The morphine maybe??! *L* And then something else catches my eye.....

MY MOMMY!!!

Oh yes! Sarah had planned a surprise birthday party for me and my mom, who as we all know had just finished paddling across Canada in the David Thompson Brigade for 67 days and was quite enjoying her relaxation time with friends in Toronto, had flown back early to be at my party!!!!

I love my mommy!

AND I had NO clue about this at all! NONE!

*ACK!*

It amazes me that I had no clue! *L* Way to go Sarah! I know everything, everything! So the fact that I had no clue is unbelievable even to me! *L*

Marika from Photosmiths.ca was there to catch the teary-eyed-joyful moments of my Mom and I! Thank you for the photos! Chelsey from ricephotography.blogspot.com also joined us for lunch (they're both good friends of mine!).....

My Mommy!!!

I love, love, love my Mommy!!!

Total Happiness!

I think here Sarah just asked me if I really had no clue!

Explaining it from my point of view. I cried telling the story! *L*

My Mommy, Myself and Sarah!

And then I'm told that we're not just meeting for lunch but spending some time at the Spa! I've never been to a spa before! As my gift a whole bunch of friends of mine pitched in to help send me to the Spa! GAH!

We had a quick lunch and then headed next door to Avanti! I had my first real pedicure (not that the one Sarah gave to me before my wedding didn't rock! *L*) and then a body wrap thingy... It was heavenly!

I quite enjoyed my time there and only wish I could have seen everyone else that joined in the fun too! *L* They would come and go from my room while I was being worked on! *L* Kaylin (Sarah's sister) joined us for the rest of the day and Lisa (Sarah's Mom who dropped of Kaylin) said hello!

After the Spa (Oh how good I smelled!) my Mommy, Sarah, Kaylin and I headed over to WEM to do some shopping. We grabbed a quick snack to keep our energy levels up and made a goal to find my Mom a new 'fancy' top as she's been in Voyager clothing for the past three months! ;)
I'll keep this part short, we had a blast! We found my Mom two lovely shirts (and wow! She's looking better then ever! I guess paddling for three months will do that to you!) and decided that we would meet at The Cheesecake Cafe for dinner (Dinner! I've been gone ALL day! My Grandparents had no clue that my Mom was back yet but did know about the surprise party stuff.... So they were good with the kids!)....

My Mom and I arrive at the Cafe after Sarah and Kaylin made it there... And who would have known but EVERYONE was there! EVERYONE! My Grandparents, my kids, Andy (& My Mom of course), Lisa, Frank, Sarah, Conor, Kaylin, Julie (who is ready to have her kid at any moment!), and my Hubby! Apparently he's had this planned for awhile to work the day shift (which is why he didn't answer me when I called after the eye appointments.... He knew I would figure something was up if I heard all the racket from his work in the background when he should be in a fairly quiet theatre) on his night shift week so that he could make it for the party! What an awesome husband I have! And I again had no clue!

Dinner was wonderful and I'm thrilled that I am surrounded by such loving and caring friends and family. I am truly blessed!