EKjourney Backup

Sunday, Phil felt as though needles were poking him in the spine and eye. I was worried about a bacterial infection so I called our family physician and she suggested having him looked over which of course meant an ER visit. He was diagnosed with Influenza A aka “the flu”. The flu is actually a viral infection of the respiratory tract. The symptoms are: fever, headache, muscle ache, runny nose, sore throat, and coughing. What we normally call the flu (vomiting and diarrhea) is really gastroenteritis. That little tid bit (plus a diagnosis) was worth a fortune!!! Well, contrary to my pessimistic prediction from the last post, mom did not go down last, she went down second. I had a scratchy throat, cough, and a horrific headache yesterday (my head still hurts this morning). I carried on like normal but was ready to ship the children (or myself) off by the end of the day. The kids (including Evie) have been coughing but so far no fevers or aches. On a good n...

The flu has entered the household AGAIN! AAARRRRRGGGGGG! Phil started feeling achy last night and spent the entire day in bed with a fever and headache. I am a bit cynical and pessimistic about this week to come. I have visions of the flu taking down the children one by one while Phil and I are up all night with crying kids, vomit, and diarrhea. And then finally, the flu will take down mom and the world will thus end. My first week back running the household went smoothly. It was nice to get into a routine. I think the kids responded positively to this as well even though they kept asking about Dad! My parents took the two older ones on Thursday and I went to our church’s mom’s group for the first time in over a month. It was nice to introduce out newest addition. Phil’s first week back was a little more difficult. It is always hard to go back to work after a long break and he has a lot of catch up to do. It was finals week and the end of the quarter s...

Ok, I am finally getting around to an update!!! We are over the sickies!! Nothing like having fevers, then the flu, and then colds in the first two weeks of bringing home a newborn. Nothing like having your newborn get a cold! We are thankful that we seem to be through it and that Evangeline didn’t get the flu or have the cold develop into something worse. Breast milk update for those who are interested. Evie is getting almost all of her nourishment from Mom! She nurses every 2 ½ - 3 hours and then gets ½ oz to 1 ½ oz of pumped breast milk. The only time she gets formula is at night IF she will take it. She usually refuses a supplement during those night feedings and I am not wasting any breast milk because it is like liquid gold, so formula is what we try! I pump 2-4 times a day and this gives me enough to give her a bottle and also store a little in the freezer. With the exception of last night (we are still reeling), Evie has gotten into a night time ...

The good news…it has been 9 days since the flu started. I think we may finally be getting over it. We only had one child with diarrhea today. Phil, Evangeline, and I pulled through unscathed (so far). The bad news…before the flu had even run its course, all three kids and I came down with a cold. The two older have had runny noses, sneezing, and a horrible cough. I have had scratchy eyes, throat, sneezing, and congestion. Poor Evie has been sneezing and is so congested that she can’t nurse. We have had this for several days so the older two are feeling better and both slept through the night last night for the first time since this whole sick business started! Evie is just at the beginning. She had a really rough night last night. I ended up renting the hospital grade pump today to try and keep my milk supply up since she can’t nurse effectively. We are hoping that she will recover quickly and that this new pump can maintain the milk supply until she can nu...

I better post Evangeline’s birth story before I forget it! My water broke at 2:15 Friday morning, December 21, one day before I was to be induced. All 3 labors have started at virtually the same time! I wanted to get to the hospital ASAP because I figured the labor would be fast and intense like my last one. My parents raced over while I checked and doubled checked my list of things to do and pack (all of which had been done for 3 weeks)! My contractions were 5-7 minutes a part and manageable. This seemed unusual because both my other labors had regular 2-3 minute contractions from the onset. We went up to the hospital and had to wait for a room to be prepared. We finally were set up and into the Jacuzzi tub I went. Four hours later (seven hours since my water broke), I was still in the tub. My contractions were still 5-7 minutes apart but becoming more intense. I felt a bit frustrated that so much time had gone by. I was bored, tired, and beginn...

As the title implies, we are struggling these days. The night after New Year’s, Jubilee woke up with the flu. She puked the night away. The following night she was up all night with diarrhea. Sawyer was throwing up all last night. I think Phil is catching it too. He was nauseous yesterday evening but still got up with every puking episode with Sawyer. I am waiting for the hammer to drop and for me to get sick as well and PRAYING that Evie doesn’t get it. I have spent the precious few hours of sleep that having a newborn affords dealing with my milk supply issue, cleaning up barf, diarrhea, scrubbing floors and carpets, and washing copious loads of soiled laundry. At best, I have dozed on the couch the past several days. Phil and I are really sleep deprived. Send a prayer our way if you think of it. This has been really hard on us.

We are 11 days into life with our new family. Three is definitely the most challenging so far. The transition has been far more difficult than I imagined. Those blissful thoughts of relaxation and enjoyment while spending time together with our new family unit has quickly been transformed into shall we say…character building experiences. Sawyer and Jubilee are having a very hard time transitioning. They both are struggling with whining (almost exclusively) instead of talking and crying and/or temper meltdowns every time something doesn’t go their way. I have never had them both at this extreme before and for this length of time. I am really struggling with patience as it seems my entire interaction with them is one of constant training and disciplining. I feel really bad because I look forward to them going to bed because it is so much more peaceful. Tonight, I just had them snuggle next to me and held them tight during story time. It was so nice to have that rem...