An Early Morning Shift and Update
It’s been nearly a couple weeks since I’ve last written and so much has happened. I realize that I’m very behind and I’m gonna try to do a better job a writing in the coming week to get updated on everything.
In my last post, I wrote about our upcoming trip to Cedar Falls, IA to see the UNI Glee Club Christmas Variety Show. Angela has shared that she cried a little when we left home for the weekend and a little more on the way home. We (especially Ang) were so ready for a break away from the kids. We had a great time together. Angela finally had an opportunity to see her grandmother, who’s had a bad streak of luck regarding her health over the past couple months. She’s on the mend and doing better now. We had a chance to do some shopping, which was very much needed. We had dinner together…alone. It was the first time in as long as I can remember that it was just the two of us. I think it was our wedding anniversary back in September that we sat alone together over a meal. Normally, all of our meals are right in front of our volunteers. Not that that’s bad, it’s just the way it is given our arrangements at home. It’s part of that lack of privacy thing that I’ve written about in the past. We saw some old friends from college. We met up at the OP, had a few “pops” and had a House Special. Still my favorite pizza! The Christmas Glee Club Show was great, great seats with great friends and great music. It’s always a great way to kick off the holiday season! You can read more about the Glee Club and even purchase some of their music through their website by clicking here.
As we drove home, we just knew that it couldn’t go smoothly. I heard a very good speaker recently refer to this period of time as “re-entry.” A couple hours after getting home Angela started having some pretty serious pain in her lower right abdomen; right under her lung. All the kids were feisty and Meredith was just unruly. Turns out that Angela felt that a trip to the ER was needed. Diagnosis…a gall bladder attack. Angela drove herself there. There was just too much going on at the house for me to leave, given the scenario. I called the ER a little later and the nurse gave me a run down. Angela got a shot in the ass and I was called a little later to come get her. Amy, one of our volunteers, drove me to the hospital where I met up with my bride and I drove her home. On Monday, she went back for an ultrasound to see how bad her gall bladder looked. Full of stones! Friggin fantastic…Surgery is scheduled for the 29th to have it removed. Might as well, we hit our family out of pocket max back in February.
On to the kids. Everyone has been asking how they’re doing because I’ve done so poorly writing lately. I have no idea how much they weigh now as it’s been a month since they were weighted last. My guess is that they’re all around 15, give or take a couple pounds. We’ll find out tonight when they get their 3rd installment of RSV shots. They’ve all had colds here and there, but nothing serious. Brook rolled over from her belly to her back a week or so ago. Lauren did it the other day for the first time too. The other three will eventually get it. We were concerned a couple weeks ago about Emma’s vision. She just wasn’t tracking items well compared to the others. She was clearly behind and it was starting to get a bit concerning. Since my last post, she’s done a complete 180. So much better than before, but we’re still working on it with her.
This past weekend, we took one of the overnight bottles away. For those of you who don’t help out with the kids, our schedule is very regimented. Every 3 hours we start a feeding cycle: 1:30, 4:40, 7:30, and 10:30 am and pm. We overlap the feeding schedule with 8 three-hour shifts of volunteers. That’s right, 24-7 we have people here. Normally 3 people to a shift, but we sometimes deal with less. If you’d like to see the schedule and pick up a shift, click here. It isn’t very often, but as I write this post, I only have one volunteer here. Annie is our overnight rock star! I got up at 2:50 am to make sure that we had proper coverage during the 3-6 am shift. It’s a tough shift. Getting back to the bottles…last weekend we pulled the 1:30 am bottle. It’s gone pretty well. For the most part, they’re sleeping through until the next feeding. Some of them need a little rocking and a binky, but they usually don’t need a bottle until the following 4:30 bottle. So that’s a major advancement that we’re pretty happy about.
This week was our first real snow storm of the season. Meredith knew what snow was, but didn’t really know, if you know what I mean. She had never been out and played in it. She was only a year old last year at this time. I took her outside to play after cleaning off the drive and sidewalk. We had about 8 inches here and the wind blew a lot so we had some really nice sized drifts. She really likes to eat the snow and she had a great time. We even had a second snow fall a couple days ago and she went outside to watch me use the snow blower. She just loves being outside, no matter the season. I’m clearly a bit biased, but man, what a cutie!
We have our 6 month well visit for the quints next week. Oh my god, their 6 months old this week!!! I drive a lot for work and I spend a lot of that time just thinking about stuff. Yesterday on my way home from Duluth was no exception. We have a lot to be thankful for this year as we approach Christmas. I don’t know if I get a chance to say it enough to all of you, but thank you all so much for your tremendous support! You all help in so many different ways and we appreciate it so much!
Until next time…
Your updates are always worth the wait. Sorry to hear about Angie. The babies are getting so big. Keep up the good work.
I don’t know if you realize it, but you are not only taking the volunteers help but are giving us so many opportunities to spend time with your wonderful family and we get so much back from watching them grow and change from helpless little babies to little people. They are adorable. I loved the picture of Miss M in the snow but how can such a cutie be so naughty???