Tille Family

Another Tille Kid!!!

The quints are no longer the youngest Tille children. My younger brother Brad’s wife, Jill, delivered a healthy baby boy this morning in Sioux Falls, SD. Brody Marcus and his mom Jill are healthy and doing well. Brody has an older brother, Braden who will turn three this summer. If they let me, I’ll share a little more info the next time that I write.

Brody is the 9th grandchild for OMA and OPA under the age of 3.

My brother Brad and his wife Jill now have 2 sons. My brother Robert and his wife Gwen have a 1 year old daughter, Lucy. I have 6 rugrats and my youngest brother Eric and his girlfriend Jessica do not have any children. If its ok for me to speak on his behalf, I’m sure he isn’t in a hurry just yet. Eric and Jessica, if you think you want kids, just come to our house for a couple days and it will change your mind. Just kidding

Congrats Brad and Jill!!!

Until next time…

Post Break Update

I am so torn emotionally and physically since my last post. I don’t even know where to begin. The last week has been SO SO difficult. I have dealt with so many new pressures. Not only am I fulfilling my old role as husband, father and provider for 6, but I am doing so much more. Angela contributed so much to this well oiled machine that is our home and family. She takes on the responsibility of watching Meredith but also a baby or two all day long. She manages all of the daily chores (laundry, meals, dishes, baths, bottles and so much more during every day that I can’t begin to list them all). Spending a few hours here once or twice a week doesn’t begin to touch what goes on when you’re here 24/7 with no breaks. It is absolutely amazing how much Angela does during any given day and after nearly a week of it, it is really making my head start to spin. I’m wearing very thin. Angela tolerates the crying so much better that I do (and OMG there’s so much crying). And then there’s Meredith. If you’ve ever spent time watching and caring for Meredith for an extended period of time, you have a small idea of how much action we’re talking about. Constant motion. It isn’t that she’s naughty (and she isn’t), it’s that she is just always moving and never stops. Everything is fair game. You really can’t keep up. By the time you’ve taken away something that she shouldn’t have she’s already dropped something else and moved to the third thing she shouldn’t have before you even knew it happened. Time outs don’t work and you can’t take toys away, because she’ll just play with the babies toys. The child locks on all of our cabinets have no real value. She just reaches her skinny little hand in the gap and takes whatever she wants. Argh. Back to Meredith in a bit…

So here I sit writing this silly post. I have 3 wonderful volunteers taking care of the two babies that have woken from their naps early which has allowed me the time to write. I feel so bad for my bride. She’s in pain. She has to listen to “the machine” as it’s in full throttle up the same set of stairs that caused her to be where she is laying her head right now. I wish she could use this time to get some much earned rest, but she’s worried and guilt ridden that she has placed all of this responsibility on others and feels helpless to the situation. Since her fall, we’ve had wonderful support. So many of you have stepped up. A daily meal plan was created for us and we have nightly meals coming in every day through the first week of May. It has helped a lot. Thank you all so much! The schedule for volunteers was full last week and is full again this week. Next week is nearly full. Angela’s mom and aunt made a trip to see her in the hospital for a day prior to going back home. My parents took a couple days off work last week and made the trip northeast. They stayed through the weekend. Momma K. (Angela Kaiser) took a couple days off work to fill my bride’s role during the day on Monday and Tuesday and Wendy Hill is here today and tomorrow to help out all day so that I can work. You guys are just awesome.

Here’s the hammer…the kids are sick, AGAIN!!! Alex and Lauren threw up a few bottles and all of them have spiked temps between 101 and 102.5 since some time in the weekend. That’s all under control now, but they have cold symptoms which makes bottles and sleeping difficult. I don’t know if it’s a cold, flu, allergies, teething or all of them at once. I’ve been averaging about 3-5 hours of interrupted sleep each night and that’s wearing on me and I hope and pray that I haven’t been too short with anyone. If so, I am so sorry. I don’t behave well when I’m short on sleep. What sucks is that I don’t nap well so that’s out of the question.

Back to Meredith…So what are we doing with her during the day while I’m working and Angela is in bed? Two words: day care. Although we had many wonderful offers from family and friends to take her, I hate having to send her away. I had to do it last summer and I swore I wouldn’t do it again. I cried last summer after one exchange where she screamed and cried that she didn’t want to go as I sent her away with my mother for yet another week away. So we’re fortunate that we’ve found a place for her close to home; just down the street a couple blocks with another young family. They have two little girls Meredith’s age to play with. She’ll get a chance for a little socialization with kids instead of infants and 30-70 year old women. Bless all of your hearts, but Meredith really needs to play with some other kids to develop that kind of socialization. She will go every day during the week until Angela is back up to running at full steam.

So when does Angela get back up and going. Next Tuesday she has a follow up meeting with her Orthopedic Surgeon to take a peek and determine long term planning for her recovery. My guess is that she’ll be semi mobile, but still very limited for the next 4-6 weeks at a minimum.

Angela and I have been truly tested this past year. We are both stronger now, no doubt, but we still have times where we question what the heck the good Lord is doing to us. Someone close to Angela said something to her yesterday that really made me step back for a second and think. There are times (especially recently) where we feel like things are hopeless and things just never seem to go right, but we have to consider that as difficult as things are, we are still VERY blessed. We have six beautiful, healthy children. We have an army of friends and volunteers that love us and help us tremendously every day. We have our own families that love us. We have a solid home and I have a GREAT job with an even better boss in a down economy. The sun is gonna come up tomorrow and it will be a new day. I just pray the lord gives us an easy one sooner than later.

Until next time…

Is That All You Have?

We have been tested a lot this past year: spiritually, physically, emotionally, and every other “ally” that you can think of. Some I have written about and some I haven’t. This past week has been very difficult on us, the children and our volunteers. Today was the cherry on top.

The weekend before last, Angela and I decided to take the kids to the next step. We were going to change their feeding schedule from 5 bottles a day to 4 with more formula per bottle. We started to introduce solids on a daily basis. We adjusted the time of day in which they would get these bottles and food so that they would “sleep through the night.” We also adjusted their nap schedule. It was a really big change, but we thought we were doing it for the right reasons. The next day they started getting sick. All six of the kids started showing signs of the flu. Whether it was vomiting or diarrhea or both, they were all sick. At one point around 2:30 am last Wednesday night, Meredith got sick. I ran upstairs and got her to the bathroom. She got sick in the tub after throwing up on me. Angela came up to help. Instead of asking what she could do to help out, she asked when Meredith ate pickles. Par for this week. One half of all diapers changed were blowouts that required a little elbow grease on our end to get the poo out. We almost took Lauren and Alex to the ER late in the week as they couldn’t keep Pedialyte down. Dehydration was a very serious concern. Things started to turn for the better in the weekend. No one got sick yesterday. Win #1. Meredith didn’t get sick or have a messy/blowout diaper. Win #2. We’re on the path to victory!!!

I was in Minneapolis for work this morning. I was at Children’s Hospital in the parking garage when Angela called. She asked where I was and how long it would take to get home. I had to come home now!!! It was gonna take me 45 minutes in good traffic to make it home. She told me that she couldn’t wait and was gonna call 911. She broke her leg. She hung up. I swore something out loud something that I shouldn’t write. You would all think less of me, if that’s possible.

I was in the parking garage of the hospital and hadn’t even found a spot to park yet, when I turned around and headed for home. I ended up going right to the hospital and beat her and the ambulance to the hospital. I broke several laws today. It took me 32 minutes to travel the 41 miles through the city.

Angela was in a lot of pain when she arrived at the hospital. She knew she broke it. I had spent the previous 32 minutes thinking about her, the kids, and how the hell we’re gonna make this work. Was it really a broken leg? A sprained ankle? Was it a serious break where bone was showing or a simple break where she’d get a cast a go home? What if she needs surgery? What if it’s more serious and she has complications and something more serious happens. How will we make it with our ROCK out of commission? I think a lot while I’m driving in the car. Too much sometimes.

So here I sit in her hospital room watching Entertainment Tonight with my bride at my side. I hate this TV show! Angela is recovering. From what you might ask. Here’s the story. Angela was going down to the basement to start some laundry. Meredith, being the helper that she is, insisted that she go along. She was goofing off on the steps and Angela lost her balance. She fell about 7 steps to the basement floor breaking her leg along the way down. Meredith is fine. She was pretty shook up with the paramedics and seeing her mother carted off on a stretcher while in a neck brace and hooked up to an IV and crying. Meredith is doing fine now. Angela broke her fibula and a part of her tibia (both of her leg bones) just above the ankle and another part of her ankle. She needed surgery today to fix the multiple breaks. She went in around 4:00 this afternoon and had a few pieces of hardware placed in her leg to put her back together again. She will be off her feet for 6 week, minimum. Dear Lord, what horrible things did Angela and I do in a prior life to deserve the hands we’ve been dealt over the past year? I don’t mean that prior life thing because I don’t believe in it, but really, have we not passed Your tests yet? Seriously?

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Angela will come home tomorrow. We have a split level home. I have no idea yet how we’re gonna work out the logistics of her getting around the house; sleeping arrangements, additional help for the kids, etc. We’ll get it figured out. We always do. We really don’t’ have a choice. We just do it.

Thank you so much to all of our wonderful volunteers who came through for us today in a very difficult situation to hold our home together and care for our children. I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to really show how much we appreciate what you do for us every day. You really are the best. We’re gonna lean pretty hard on you the next couple months.

On a lighter note and I don’t want to forget about this because it was important to us. We had some pictures of the kids taken at the house over Easter weekend. Erin Hegrens took the photos. I have a few of them on our media page, but there were so many and the quality was so good I couldn’t get them on our website. I placed them on Snapfish and you can find them here. You need an account with Snapfish to view them, but it’s very easy to set one up. You can find more information on Erin Hegrens by clicking here. She did a great job!!! Thank you Erin!!!

Thank you for reading, helping, praying, or whatever it is that you do for us. We couldn’t make it through the day without all of your help and support.

Hopefully I come to you with better news next time that I write.

Until then…