Life is Good

My apologies to all of you who have been checking the blog and have been disappointed. Life has been a bit disorderly these past couple of weeks. My side of the family came to visit the weekend before Christmas. The girls were able to see their uncle Ernie for the second time since he has been in Afghanistan for the past year. I think he was a little intimidated by their small size. It was great to see him and have everyone under one roof for the first time in quite awhile.


It wasn't long after everyone was here that Emma came down with a stomach bug. It was the most heart wrenching sight to see. Being so tiny she just didn't understand what was going on. She would vomit and then when her little tummy was empty she had the dry heaves. She even busted a blood vessel in her eye from dry heaving. She was so lethargic that it really had us all worried. Not long after she started vomiting, Pat tells me that he doesn't feel well either. I send him up to our room and get him settled. My mother and I take Emma to the pediatrician, and I swear when we walked through the door she was cured. No symptoms at all, just smiles. We went in to see the doctor, she diagnosed a stomach bug, and we left. As soon as we leave, Emma starts dry heaving again. At this point I am beginning to feel quite nauseous myself. We get home, and it is all I can do to hand Emma off to my mom and make it upstairs. Before I know it the door to our bedroom opens, and believe it or not we had another victim....my sister. Pat lounges in the recliner, and Traci climbs into our king size bed with me. A few hours later my niece came in with her dad following behind her with a cot. We had a fourth victim. I can't tell you how happy I was to have my mom here. She kept the girls downstairs and made sure that she gave Emma Pedialyte every two hours. She had her handy helpers Bailey and my dad, and thankfully the ill people had Ernie to bring Sprite and popsicles up as needed. It was only a day "bug" but it was a nasty one. I don't know what we would have done if it had just been Pat and I. Not sure where we picked the bug up at, but I'll blame it on the 4 hour doctor appointment at KU Med the week before.

We recovered, and a couple of days later we welcomed Pat's mom and dad to our house to celebrate Christmas with us. They were here about 4 days before Pat's dad came down with the same stomach bug we'd all had days before their arrival. He recovered and then his mother came down with it. They were suppose to head to Illinois to spend Christmas with some of the family up there, but they delayed their trip a day. Pat's mother still wasn't up to driving to IL so she stayed behind to recover and help me out since Pat would be gone the next couple of days.

New Year's Eve was Patrick's birthday so since the grandparents were here, we took advantage of going out to celebrate. We had a wonderful dinner at The Melting Pot with our great friends, Emery and Jena, and then we ventured out to the Majestic for amazing jazz music. I'd highly recommend checking this restaurant out. The ambiance is great. We really loved all of the vintage decor. Check it out!!!

Patrick and I went to Sullivan's for dinner and celebrated my special day a couple of days early. Pat was supposed to be going hunting in South Dakota, but due to the snow and high winds the trip was canceled at the last minute. Since we had already gone to dinner a couple of nights before, we went to breakfast on my actual birthday since we had babysitters here at the house. After that Pat's mom and I spent a good part of the day shopping, and we had lunch at North. That night I went out to dinner with some of the nurses from the NICU. These women became such a part of my life after 156 days in the NICU, and it was wonderful to celebrate with them. Thanks ladies, I had a wonderful time.

Here are a few details on the girls. Abby is 12 lbs. 3 oz and Emma is 11 lbs 1 oz. They've come along ways from 1 lb. They are 9 1/2 months, but their corrected age is 5 1/2 months.No teeth yet, but they love to have everything in their mouths. They have started cereal and oatmeal. They were sleeping through the night but they've pretty much gotten off schedule since Emma was sick. We are working on getting back on schedule and that seems to be helping. We are still having our struggles with eating. Abby refuses to eat every three hours so we let her go about 4 hours before offering the bottle. She also likes to be in a quiet room with very little stimulation when she eats. Weird, I know!! Emma is picking up sister's bad habit of refusing the bottle, but she's still gaining well so no worries. They have a little bit of hair coming in, and surprisingly it doesn't look blonde.

The title of this post is Life is Good, and it honestly is.