Mattress Mania

Our neighbor works at the Sleep Number factory in town and the other day his wife came over and asked me if we needed a new mattress pad.  I thought she was referring to a cover, which we actually were in need of and so I said yes.  Fifteen minutes later, she showed up with a car full of memory foam toppers and these massive pads that encase the whole mattress for all of our beds in the house.  I'm still amazed at her generosity.  They were selling them at a huge discount to employees so she snatched some up for us and told me it was a belated Mother's Day gift.  We haven't talked much, but we have traded goodies on occasion or had nice small chats here and there.  That she would think of us and pay for these pads, even if they were highly discounted, was so touching to me.  We were about to throw out our mattress, but with this new padding, it's like a whole new mattress! 

 The pads came in these huge packages.

Elsa was a big fan of having the mattresses out in the living room.  

Boys' and Girls' Night

We got home from Florida just in time for the Father-Son campout that the stake was putting on.  Not ones to be left out on the fun, Nadia and I had a bit of party while the boys were out being one with nature.

Rowan caught a fish for the first time on his very first cast!  He didn't even have any bait on his hook.  He was SOOO excited!!


Steve isn't a photo crazed person like I am, so that was the extent of the pictures they took, but they had a great time.  They even got to go out on a boat and Steve did some tubing while Rowan watched from the safety of the cab.  Being that it was his first time on a boat, I'd say he might try tubing too when he has had some more exposure to it.  Also maybe when teenagers aren't driving and being crazy.

Nadia and I had plans of our own, the first being some serious chocolate chocolate chip cookies.  The best I have EVER had- the dough was amazing.  Then we took lots of embarrassing pictures of ourselves pigging out on said dough.

 We also did manicures and pedicures.  Elsa didn't actually partcipate (too wiggly), but she did like the chair sitting part.

 When our nails dried, we had a little dance party.  Afterwards, Nadia wanted to play bad guys.  The cats you see tied up are actually Batman and Robin.  We got to snuggle in the big bed later on.  I loved having her all to myself!

Florida

Getting on the road 8 hours late made for an even later arrival.  We got into Naples at 3am.  We even had to call 911 on a very drunk driver who decided a midnight cruise on the interstate was a good idea.  It was so very nice to settle in our hotel room and be away from it all.

We took the kids swimming at the pool while Elsa napped.  Rowan still insists on wearing his life jacket.  Hopefully he'll make more progress with this summer's swim lessons.

Our hotel room was pretty awesome.  It had a separate bedroom for us and a living room with a hide-a-bed for the kids.  The kids LOVED this little balcony we had.  Several nights were spent out there hucking ice onto the hot pavement below.  Rowan has started to find it amusing to wiggle his butt at the camera everytime I take a picture.  As we were driving around Naples, we say a hotel called "The Wigglebutt Inn"- no lie.  We suggested Rowan go there, but he wasn't impressed.

Elsa's latest claim to fame is learning to shake her head no.  She will do it at everything, but most especially when we say yes.

 This was a hard day for Elsa and for us too.  When we switched from IV antibiotics to oral ones, she had a fever for 24 hours and was not too happy.  It probably didn't help that the antibiotics we picked up on our way out of town weren't mixed properly and so she had to wait for her first dose until we could get to another pharmacy in the morning.  I was so stressed out that we had made the wrong decision, listened to the wrong doctor, and that I would have to try and make the trip back home without Steve.  Thankfully she leveled out by the next day and was fairly happy for the rest of the trip.

The other kids were in heaven though.

 

I tried to learn from last time and kept my white Canadian self out of the sun as much as possible.  Thankfully no burn this year!

For Mother's Day my sweeties took me out for dinner.  I'm so grateful for these beautiful babies and the purpose they give my life.

Bumming out watching tv after a long day outside.  The weather was pure perfection.  We had the windows open most of the time we were here.

The return of the wiggle butt.

A forced smile, but a smile nonetheless.  She was slowly on the upswing here.

We ventured out to the mall one of the days and the kids got some energy out. 

Last day of our trip.  Guess who's feeling better?

Thankfully the hat didn't go with us to Five Guys.

 Elsa was grumpy at this point that we wouldn't let her crawl around just yet.  That wound wasn't quite beach ready.

Goodbye Florida!  Despite all the stress getting here and the stress when we weren't sure if we could stay, I'm so glad we went.  Steve's presentation at the conference went well, we had some great times at the beach and the pool. It was exactly what we needed after being stuck in the hospital all week.

Peace, Be Still

Only a few days ago, I felt a feeling that I haven't felt in a long time.  At least a year, maybe longer if I'm being honest with myself; I probably have not felt it since we moved to South Carolina.  Peace.  Utter and complete contentment.  All of my children are happy, we feel optimistic about our future and everything finally seems to be falling into place like a puzzle.  Honestly, I don't think I realized how much stress I have been carrying until I felt it all being released.  A few weeks prior, my jaw was having muscle spasms from being clenched so much.  I'm so grateful that this moment in my life is over.

Most of the stress I've been carrying was related to Elsa.  I love my sweet little girl, but she has been in pain most of her life and it's taken us a very long year to get all of her issues resolved.  In nearly every picture we take of her, you see this bright smile and happiness coming through, but the reality has been that those moments are very fleeting and she hasn't been a child I can really put down on the floor to play by herself.  Her sleeping patterns have been interrupted with every ear infection and those have been nearly non-stop.  In the middle of April, we FINALLY were able to have her get ear tubes put in.  Most everyone I talked to told me to expect a different child after the procedure was done; that it would solve all of her problems and that we would see that happy spirit you see in her pictures finally begin to emerge on a more regular basis.  Needless to say, that never happened. 

Elsa was increasingly grumpy after her surgery and her sleep seemed to be even more interrupted than before if that were even possible.  We were convinced after two weeks of this behavior that her ear infections had returned and so after one impossible day, we took her to convenient care.  They noted that she was agitated, but her ears were fine and they didn't note any other problems.  So they sent us home and we were left to wonder what could possibly be wrong.  At about 2am Sunday morning Elsa woke up after a very restless night, screaming in pain especially when she put weight on her foot, which was hot to the touch.  I told Steve I was taking her to the ER and we drove over there only to find a waiting room stacked to the brim.  Another couple with a baby was sitting near us and so I asked them how long they had been waiting.  They told me "too long."  After sitting there for several hours, I decided to go home and wait for convenient care to open again.  The guy manning the ER intake area told me that was probably a good idea.  Steve let me rest, thankfully, and took her in by himself.

I awoke to Steve telling me he was taking Elsa to the Children's Hospital and that they suspected that she had either a joint infection or a fracture in her ankle.  I was a little nervous about that prospect, but was grateful to finally be getting some answers.  Steve took her in and I got the other kids ready for church and dropped them off with a friend so I could go to the hospital to see how things were progressing.  I thought we would be there for a few hours tops, but it soon became apparent that we wouldn't be leaving for a long time.  Every day we were there, the amount of time they told us to stay got longer.  This started to get complicated when we realized we might be in the hospital during the same time that we had planned to go to Florida with Steve who was supposed to be presenting at a conference down there.  The last thing I felt I could handle at that point, was trying to take care of Elsa in the hospital and somehow manage the other children with Steve gone.  It was really more than I could handle at that point. 

 She still had to smile at the camera, but it was clearly difficult for her to manage one.  You can see in the picture her ankle is a little red and swollen. 

Clearly some of our family had a much more positive outlook on the whole experience.

 

Spongebob addicts

After they diagnosed a joint infection, took out all the pus in her ankle and started her IV antibiotics, Elsa was clearly feeling much better and wanting to be free of her prison crib and her IV.  Sleep was still very difficult as the nurses kept coming in at all hours and we had three different teams of doctors (attending, orthopedics, and infectious disease) who would come in and give conflicting answers about when we could come home.  There was also an IV alarm that would go off at the worst possible moments (where's a mute button when you need one?).  The only people who enjoyed being at the hospital were Rowan and Nadia who were thrilled at the free chocolate milk, cable tv, and expansive toy room.  Everyday we would do a change of the guards where I would be relieved of the day shift, we would eat dinner in the cafeteria (which Rowan and Nadia also loved), Steve would take on the night shift and the next day we would start the routine all over again.  It was so exhausting.  My heart goes out to families who have to do this on a much more regular basis.  I don't know how you do it.  We were only there for 6 days and it felt like an eternity.

This is how sad poor Elsa was at the beginning of her hospital stay- she couldn't even crack a smile for the camera.  The hospital had these cars available so we could get some "fresh air" from our room.  We did the rounds quite a bit on our floor.

Nadia found her own way to get a free ride.

The short-lived cast.  It was only on for 24 hours before she "houdinied" her way out of it.  It was a bit of a blessing disguise as it happened the day before discharge.  We were delayed 8 hours because of it, which was kind of a pain as we were leaving for Florida the moment we could get Elsa out of the hospital, but she was so much happier to be out of it.  I couldn't imagine trying to keep her content in the car, at the beach, in the hotel room, etc in a cast that made movement near impossible for her.  I still don't completely understand why they put it on when all she had were a few stitches.

Anyways, despite quite an odd conflict with our teams of doctors (ortho and infectious disease said we should stay 10 days and the attending told us to leave even earlier than we did), we were able to get out in time to get to Florida.  Elsa was clearly relieved to be able to finally crawl freely when she got home, but that didn't last long before we stuck her in the car for 9 hours to Florida.  Still, anything was better than the hospital.

Much thanks for the friends who watched our kids when we could not!  My sweet visiting teacher even took our car in to get serviced so we could get on our trip in time.  I am so grateful for everyone's kindness.