Improve the Shining Moments

Abby woke up at midnight, screaming and crying like she was in immense pain.  I watched her, trying to figure out what was going on as she writhed around from the left to the right, onto her stomach, onto her back.  Then I noticed that she was bending her leg back and forth and holding it and letting it go every time she moved into a new position.  I grabbed some Pain-a-Trate to put on it and explained I was going to put some medicine on her leg to help it feel better.  She started to SCREAM and cry like, "No - don't touch my leg, Mommy!  Don't touch my leg!"  I finally held it down and got the cream on, and then she realized that it was helping and it was okay.  But she kept crying.  I asked if she needed some more medicine and she said yeah through her sobs.  Then I went to get some ice and she screamed at me for leaving.  I finally picked her up and carried her in to lay with Grandma while I looked at her leg in the light to see how bad it was. 

She had a pretty intense bruise -- I'm pretty sure she got her leg wedged between two spokes in her toddler bed.  And we got her settled down fairly quickly with some ice on her leg and some tylenol.  But she still wanted Mommy to go and lay her down in her bed; she didn't want to lay on the sofa and cuddle with Grandma.

I laid her down and sang her some songs.  When I sang "I Love to See the Temple" to her, her eyes lit up, litterally sparkled, and she began to sing along with me.  And, dear friends, I truly cannot capture in words the magic of that moment.  It was like we connected, spirit to spirit.  And with all of the ups and downs and ins and outs and changes and adjustments that have happened in the last six months, it was a moment I realized I used to have quite often and have since really missed.  Abby and I were so close that I was sad to find I was having another little girl instead of a boy because Abby was my little girl.  And I have felt a distancing from my independent toddler who wants to do everything herself and seldom accepts or acknowledges a need for Mommy's help.  In fact, when I try to help her, she usually pitches a fit and pushes me away. 

And in that moment in her room, her eyes lit up and our spirits speaking to each other, she was my little Abby girl and I was her Mommy.  And I cried.  I told her to close her eyes and go to sleep, and she immediately complied.  And I knelt there beside her and held her little hand and tried through choked-up tears to hum the temple song to her one more time.  Mostly because I wasn't ready to let that moment go.

Carpe diem, my friends!  Seize the day!  Improve the shining moments - don't let them pass you by!

I was thinking as I drifted off to sleep about the fact that there are only three months left to the year.  And I thought of a few things I can do, a few goals in small doses that I could accomplish, between now and then to finish this year with a BANG!!!  Because of my Mommy 15 blog, I usually think of things in doses of 15 -- like 15 minutes or 15 days or whatever.  And I determined that I need to find a way to have 15 minutes each day of quality, one-on-one, spirit connecting with spirit time with each of my children.  I need to take control and MAKE that a reality in our lives.  And I think they need me to do that as well.  And 15 minutes isn't much, right?  Espeically if I can get Dave in on it and set aside thirty minutes when we each take 15 minutes with each child to celebrate and relax and connect with them without the daily grind struggles and power struggles and messes and stress that sometime cut into our ability to see and feel each other.

Improve the shining moments!  Don't let them pass you by!

Dark Clouds with Silver Linings

I realize that my blog update a few days ago was a bit negative.  I would apologize, but I'm kind of coming to realize that bad days or bad seasons are what they are.  They are part of this life experience that make it what it is.  And though there are silver linings to dark clouds, the silver wouldn't shine through without the contrast of the darkness of the cloud.  Sometimes you can be depressed without being clinical and you can have a bad day without being cynical. ;-D

That said, throughout all of this, I was constantly reminded to see the positive by my dear husband.  He's amazing at always seeing the positive.  Even as he has been in bed, taking every drug possible, completely exhausted, locked away from the kids, and totally out of the first week of Brianna's life and all the tiny little moments that I am so blessed to experience, he still says, "In all honesty, Melinda, this week hasn't been that bad.  I've been able to keep going to work, we have an extra room where I can go to stay away from the baby and the twins, and your mom is here to help fill in the gaps.  So really, we've been blessed!"

And we have.  So here are some silver linings I've noticed and sought to see along the way (and by silver linings I mean Heavenly Father's hand and tender mercies gifted directly to us in packages of all shapes and sizes):

1) If Dave's fever hadn't broken the first time, he wouldn't have been there for Brianna's birth.  Which might not have been a bad thing, you might say, since it would have kept her from being exposed to whatever he has.  HOWEVER, that's another silver lining because I am sure Heavenly Father surrounded her with angels to protect her from this mystery flu and allow him to at least be there for her birth and the first hours of her life.

2) If the hospital stay had been more pleasant and Abby hadn't broken out from the allergic reactions to her medicine, my husband would not have taken her to Quick Care that night and have put off yet again going to the doctor to get help for his symptoms because -- let's face it -- who wants to go and sit for hours and hours at "Quick Care" after one long day at work and before another?  NO ONE!  So thankfully, I was inspired to get out of there; Abby was broken out and needed someone to take her in; and Dave had no way to avoid getting to the doctor.  Sure, it was inconclusive, but it was also a starting point.

3) If Brianna hadn't been jaundicey, I wouldn't have had a quick follow-up the next day and wouldn't have talked to the doctor who told me there was no way Dave had strep throat while on antibiotics.  And now that doctor is overseeing and ordering all of the other tests to try and find out what Dave DOES have.

4) If Abby hadn't had a SECOND allergic reaction to the benedryl for her FIRST allergic reaction, we wouldn't have been in to see the doctor and wouldn't have found her double ear infection or strep throat.  Then we wouldn't have gotten Isaac in there to be diagnosed either.  AND, to top off those tender mercies, the doctor was good enough to give my mom sample antibiotics to get her through all of this because she has medical conditions that would have made it REALLY bad for her to have gotten the strep throat (like hospitalization bad).  And with Idaho Medicare as her primary insurance, she couldn't see or be treated by a doctor in California.  She can only go in Idaho.  So it was an amazing blessing that she was able to get the medicine she needed to avoid and/or work through all of this crazy sickness stuff that was hitting the kids.  AND . . .

5) My mom having antibiotics made it possible for her to take care of the kids worry-free while I kept my little Brianna away from them until they had been on medicine long enough to not be contagious anymore.  Had she not been "treated" and/or had she gotten the strep infection, I would have had to find a way to keep Brianna at a distance while taking care of FOUR sickleys.

6) Brianna has been the best, best, best baby EVER!!!  Yes, she has the cold.  And no, it's never fun for a newborn to have to deal with all that cruddy flu stuff when they're still trying to figure out this mortal body of theirs and how it feels and works and what not.  HOWEVER, she didn't get all the symptoms.  She's been protected (from breastfeeding or angels or a combination of both) to not get anything else that's flying around in this house.  And she has handled it really, really well.

7) My delivery could not have gone smoother.  Events and circumstances surrounding the delivery definitely could have.  But the delivery itself was everything I had been praying for for the entire pregnancy.  I had very little internal tearing; once she came, she just came; I didn't have to have a c-section or anything else; and even the post-pregnancy pain has been very bearable in comparison to what I experienced last time and could have experienced this time.  The only thing I feel I have to watch is doing too much -- picking up the twins or whatever.  And that is SUCH a HUGE blessing!!!

8) Modern medicine!!!  I mean, they have the initial strep test and the lab where they send the swab away to make sure they diagnosed it correctly.  They can draw your blood and run tests for any number of diseases and have answers within hours or a few days.  Truly a blessing!

9) Abby and Isaac!!!  I was worried about them waking up and not being around.  But I went into the hospital after we put them to bed and we had a baby about an hour before they woke up, so they were able to come and spend the first hour of her life with us in the hospital!!!  The timing could not have been more perfect!!!  And they have love love loved her!  Tonight as we drove back from a small road trip to look at potential places to live, Abby held Brianna's hand for the entire last leg of the trip and sat back there saying, "Shhhhh, baby -- it's okay!"  And Isaac is the first to run and tell me if she's crying and always says, "What wrong Anna?  Why cwying, Anna?  You hungee?  Huh?"  They have had a hard road with a new baby, Mommy being locked up in the bedroom with her so many hours of the day, Daddy being locked up in the office so much they forget he's around, etc.  But they have done really, really well with it all.  They are such a blessing to each other and to this new little baby -- not to mention to me!!!

10) My mom, my mom, my mom!  I can't say enough thanks for all she has done and the way things lined up for her to be here through all of this!  It hasn't been the tranisition time she or I had planned on, but it has been so nice to not be alone through all of it, to be able to rest and to take care of Brianna without worrying about the twins.  It's been nice to not be alone and to have someone to talk to and laugh with and even eat all that junk I'm not supposed to be eating right now with.  She has been an angel, a true Godsend!!! 

11) You know how they say that you don't appreciate something until you've lost it.  I love love love and appreciate David so much!!!  I miss being with him, laughing with him, talking with him, having him hold me while we make dinner and the kids run around or wrestling with the kids to see who gets to sit next to him right after he's come home from work.  I miss holding hands when we pray or laying my head on his shoulder while we read scriptures at night.  I miss him having energy to do things and being able to talk to him without him being so exhausted that it's never a good time.  I miss watching movies with him at night because he's always too tired to stay awake through them, even on the weekends.  Just so many things that have been gone for so long but have REALLY been completely gone this last week. 

12) The sun before the storm.  In the Triage, I was doing "labor lunges" - I got them from one of my workout videos.  He thought it was HILARIOUS and took a picture of his "hard core wife."  And we had so much fun playing Quiddler and talking and laughing and arguing about whether or not I was going to get the epidural.  And I'm thankful for those small moments before everything else hit.  And I'm looking forward to having them again VERY SOON!!!!

13) My sister Monique.  She has held the fort taking care of my 94-year-old grandma, two five-year-old cousins that don't always see eye to eye, a buddingly independent two-year-old, and a 10-month-old baby.  NEED I SAY MORE about what a HUGE blessing it has been for her to take on such a HUGE load to allow my mom to be with me. 

It's late!  That's all I can think of/remember tonight!  But if I think of something else, I'll add it to the list!

And doesn't that gray cloud look so much prettier somehow with all of that beautiful silver surrounding it?  I sure think so! ;-D

P.S.

P.S. -- I am going to write a silver lining post tomorrow to highlight all of the tender mercies I've noticed/searched for in all that has happened the last month.  But for tonight, I just want to add that in the midst of all of this, Abby has decided she is ready to be done with diapers.  As in I literally have been taping her diapers on her with duct tape to keep her from taking them off whenever she pees or poops in them because I just can't handle it and the already few accidents she has had in the process.  *sigh*  Any potty training resources or ideas for fast and painless that you want to pass on would be MUCH appreciated.

In the meantime, Isaac went to sleep without his pacifier tonight.  *peaceful smile*

And Brianna hasn't learned yet that at one week old, she isn't supposed to be able to roll over onto her side or her stomach.  Which, after finding her face down last night and freaking OUT, I have decided to tell her she is way too young to do things like this.

And I have decided that breastfeeding is God's gift to mothers.  How else do you get to have a few precious moments of undisturbed closeness to your newborn to figure them out in the most personal, intimate way?  Even if toddlers and life distract you throughout the day, there are those silent, fleeting moments in the middle of the night when you get to look into their inquiring eyes, hold their little hands in yours, and have mommy/daughter popcorn and hot chocolate talks that will never go beyond the two of you and leave strong, deep impressions of love and safety for them.  It is precious and tender indeed.  Such a blessing!!!

More about Bri, Bria, Brynn, Beanie, Beaners . . .

This is for you, Shawna.  I hope it isn't too boring and a complete disappointment.

So, many of you remember my petition for baby girl name ideas.  And I have to say that this was some poetic justice that it was hard for me to choose a name because my sister always has a hard time choosing a name with HER impossible husband who likes every name she doesn't and doesn't like every name she loves.  And I never understood how HARD it can be to be in that choosing a name game situation with a man who likes names like Ursula -- or Dagney in my case.  So it serves me right for all the times I pestered her about why she hadn't just chosen a name already and when they were going to choose one.

And silver lining around the dark cloud that was my last post includes me seeing a tender mercy in the birth certificate lady CONTINUALLY hounding us for a name and even bringing us a book of 40,001 names.  Thank goodness for that last one, or maybe Brianna would still be nameless! ;-D

Anyway - here's the brief story of how Brianna came to be called -- well, I'm still not exactly sure what she will be called, but at least she will forever be NAMED Brianna.

I had the hardest time getting Dave to sit down and look at and choose a name -- any name -- an option, a starting point, an inkling of interest.  The one time he did, he came across Dagney when he got to the D's and pretty much closed the computer and spent the next . . . forever . . . talking about how it was the PERFECT name.  And he never did sit down at another list after that.

So, after explaining to him EVERY SINGLE TIME that Dagney was NOT a name for a little girl, I finally got him to talk about names as we drove down to pick my mom up at the airport (and don't think I didn't subtley suggest every ONE of your suggestions without getting the LEAST degree of interest or reciprocity from him on ANY of them -- thanks anyway).

On that trip, Dave decided that he really liked Naomi Grace - and we would call her Gracie.  Now, I actually liked that name.  That was actually okay with me EXCEPT for the fact that it didn't really have a good namesake, not one that would produce a book for our namesake library for this little girl.  I mean, Naomi was a wonderful woman, exemplary really.  But there aren't many books devoted just to her or much about her.  I guess I could have been the first to write one . . . but, you get the idea.  So pretty much that name stayed at the top right up to the end.  But I'm jumping the gun here.

Other names that Dave liked included Samantha and Natalie -- he REALLY liked Natalie for some reason.  And I had always thought that I would like those names.  But then I started thinking about calling my little girl Sam or Sami or Nat or Natty and -- I just couldn't do it.  Those names are so masculine.  It just didn't jive with me.

When Dave left me at the hospital with the charge to choose a first name from Naomi, Natalie, and Samantha and a middle name from Jane and Grace, I have to say that I looked at my little girl and tried every name on her and all of the nicknames as well.  And to me, she was a Gracie through and through.  Not just because the name seemed to fit her little pixie face and cute red hair but because of the meaning of the word Grace and all that implies and all this pregnancy meant for me personally and all that has happened since she was born.  Gracie was just HER.  And I was leaning more and more towards the Naomi Grace idea with the given that I would just have to write a book about Naomi from the Bible for my little namesake.

But just as I was about to say, "Final answer," I remembered that Dave's sister is due in November and told me they were naming their little girl Katherine Grace.  And since she told me that months ago, she kind of has dibs on the name.  And I wasn't sure if she was planning on calling her Grace or Katherine and didn't want to step on toes (of all of his sisters, she is the MOST sensitive and would be perhaps the only one to actually take offense at something like that).  So, rather than play ignorant I did what any good sister-in-law would do and called to ask what they were planning on calling their little girl.  I got her husband, who told me that they were naming her Grace Katherine so - duh - they would be calling her Grace.  Okay - sorry - my bad.  Scratch Gracie.

And that left me with nothing, and a bit heartbroken I will admit.  I could also really see her as an Emma, my favorite name from the onset.  But Dave's heart had not left his opposition to that name, even when he said, "Go ahead."  And she's his daughter, too, after all.

So when Dave came back to find that I was on my way home, and I explained that Grace was out and Naomi Jane just didn't feel right because I didn't want to call her Jane and couldn't see myself calling her Naomi or any sort of nickname combination of the two, we went to "the book."

We started looking at all of the lists.  Ironically, the list of names for strong women had almost ALL of my favorites on it, all of which he had already vetoed.  So we turned to other lists.  And he read off some names that he liked, none of which seemed very special or appropriate to me.  And after he read quite a few names from one list, I asked him to read the entire list.  After all, it had caught his attention on more than one name already, so it might just be a winner.

Brianna was on that list.  When he told me it meant strong, virtuous woman and I looked online and found that it also means one who ascends, I liked it.  When I thought about nicknames like Bri, Bria, and Brynn, all feminine and cute names for what would be a strong name when she got older and didn't want the nicknames any more, I decided I could handle that.  And it went perfectly with Jane.  When Dave said he could handle it as well, it stuck.  And Birth Certificate lady got there just in time for my discharge from the hospital.

To be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about this name -- still, a week later, I'm not sure that I love love love it.  But I've learned that with all of my efforts to choose a strong namesake from a strong, noble woman who has shaped the past, I have also given a name to a person who will define how that name is seen in the future by what she does with her life.  And since it means virtuous and strong and ascension in a time when virtuous women are scarce and strong women are anything but in my mind -- and a time when women will NEED to ascend in ways they have never had to before . . . well, I think it's perfect!  And I'm excited to see what she does with her name and what namesake she leaves for future generations.

Everything you didn't want to know about my life . . .

First of all, welcome to Brianna Jane -- 7 lbs. 4 oz, 20 1/2 inches long, born at 6:26 a.m. on Sept. 29 after way too many hours of labor, particularly in this hospital (oh to be divinely blessed to have a baby at Gritman again!!!! *sigh*).  And she is an angel, a jewel, the most chillax baby ever, and keeper of the newly-grown segment of mommy's heart.  We love love LOVE her and cannot imagine life without her, even though I am still self-confessing to have a hard time imagining life WITH her.  It's going to be a CRAZY, crazy ride!!!  I really hope the chillax-ed-ness stays, cuz with her older brother and sister, I'm going to need it!  Heck, we're ALL going to need the balance!!!

Second of all, I feel like life the past week has been a living hell.  Yes, I just wrote that "out loud" and even used "that word."  And both after describing our new little angel as an angel and totally chillax and the BEST BABY EVER!!!  Let me expound.

About 10 days before Brianna was born, Abby started screaming in the supermarket -- the kind of scream that isn't a two-year-old tantrum and that no mother could ever ignore.  And it didn't stop.  For hours.  After a way-too-long wait at "Quick Care" (like three hours), all with a screaming-in-pain toddler and me nine and a half plus months pregnant, carrying her up and down the hall with a diaper bag full of toys and books to keep her happy during our wait (none of which ever left my bag or distracted her from her obvious pain), we learned she had a double ear infection.  Awesome.  Got the prescription, got the drugs, headed home for another sleepless night of crying and trying home remedies to calm her down and almost setting the house on fire (pretty sure I already wrote about all of this somewhere).  Thought that was the end of another ear infection story.

Fast forward a few days -- Sunday.  We were in the mother's lounge, just trying to get through with the twins, when I got distracted by another new mommy in the ward. I'm still trying to make all the friends I can and find my niche.  And it was great fun until . . . Abby started screaming in pain!!!  Isaac had got her fingers caught on the inside of the shower stall door.  Look away for two seconds . . . . The nursery leader brought her to me an hour or so later and told me she was pretty sure Abby had dislocated her finger because she wasn't using it, it was swolen to her knuckles, and she cried whenver anyone touched it.  Awesome.  Back to Quick Care.  Good news: Same doctor as diagnosed her ear infection; Isaac didn't have one, Abby's was almost all cleared up; the finger was fine!!!  Home again, home again, jiggidy-jig.  To Daddy who was home sick from church.

About five days before Brianna was born, Dave started with cold chills and a fever.  I can't remember if he missed work this time around or not.  It all blends together already.  But needless to say, I was wondering if I was going to have a baby by myself while my husband nursed a fever and my mom watched two crazy toddlers.  And it wasn't looking too promising.  Then two days before, he said the fevers had stopped; he was fine.  We could have her anytime.  Perfect.  Thought that was the end of another Dave-fevers-aches-exhaustion-missing-work-or-church story.

Brianna was born!  It wasn't as relaxing as Gritman had made having a baby.  It wasn't ideal in any sense of the word.  There was no mommy-daddy-new-family-bonding or rest and relaxation while the nurses watched the baby for the first 48 hours and treated the new couple to one last meal all their own by candlelight.  Nope - cuz this hospital leaves the baby with you all the time and doesn't do anything special like that.  But that's another story.  SO -- as Dave and I are trying desperately to get some sleep, keep up with a nameless baby Jane, document every feeding, how long, which side, what kind of diaper came from it, at what time, blah, blah, blah.  And while the nurses kept coming in (or sending someone in) every hour to check on me and keep up with their regulations to incessantly come in and wake me up just to be able to write down how I was sleeping and doing and feeling.  And while the birth certificate lady kept calling us to find out what we were naming our little girl and if we needed a book of names and "I'll bring one right up" and then keep calling you until you make a decision.  And while the breastfeeding expert finished her entire schpeal even as I was struggling more to keep my eyes open than you would in the most boring lecture EVER after only a few hours of sleep in the preceding 72 hours.  And while the wall let out a high-pitched squeal every time someone next door turned on the water in either sink or flushed the toilet or anything.  And while you thought someone else was coming in every time anyone opened a door on either side of your room because it shook and banged your door EVERY SINGLE TIME . . . .

While all of this and more was going on, Dave started getting a sore throat (again) and a horribly throbbing headache.  And kept trying to get some sleep on the makeshift bed in my room.  About noon-ish, after no sleep for two days, he decided to run home and shower and change and steal a quick nap before coming back to get through one more night in the hospital. (Baby Jane was jaundicey and not eating and producing like they thought she should, so they wouldn't really let us go home -- or so we thought at the time).  And he left me with the strict instructions that I was to have a name chosen by the time he got back (I had Samantha, Natalie, and Naomi for approved first names and his stamp of approval on Jane and Grace for middle names -- so I got to draw the lucky combination from a hat and make a decision before he got back -- lucky me!  you can see how well THAT went!).

Meanwhile, back at the Motel-6-disguised-as-the-Palace, I decided I had HAD it with this hospital, staff, hourly visits to make sure I was sleeping and that Baby Jane was peeing and pooping on schedule while I was getting my rest, etc.  So I told them I wanted to go home NOW.  Dave didn't get the memo until later, but I really didn't care anymore.  I vented to one nurse who told the Charge nurse who called the pediatrician and OB.  Dave came back a few hours later, having spent some one-on-one time playing with the twins instead of napping, and we got back to the business of choosing a name so they would let us leave with our "Baby Jane."

Oh, but I forgot to mention that just after Dave got back, he told me he'd had a horrible cough hit and should get a mask from the nurse's station.  Which he did.  And while he was doing that, my mom called and asked me if Dave had mentioned that Abby was broken out all over her body with 1/4" hives and that she was struggling to breathe so much that mom was really worried about her.  No.  He didn't mention either of those things.  Huh.  I pointd mom towards the inhaler on Abby's dresser, was informed by Dave that her hives weren't "that bad" and to not worry too much.  And the birth certificate lady called.  And we were back to choosing a name.

We finally did choose.  And got home.  And Abby's "no big deal" hives were getting worse.  As was Dave's cough.  So we sent Dave and Abby to "Quick Care" and got Isaac in bed and started to settle new baby Brianna Jane into her new home.  And we waited.  And I started to worry about how late it was and how tired Dave was and how early his morning and long his day at work were going to be.  And we waited.  And I called Quick Care and was told they couldn't give me any information -- which I insisted was garbage and pressed further until she told me they must be back with the doctor because she didn't see them in the waiting room.  And we waited.  And four hours later, they came home and announced:

"Abby doesn't have chicken pox but is deathly allergic to amoxicillin -- like the last dose you skipped when she was having a hard time breathing could have cut her off entirely. I, on the other hand, have an upper-respiratory infection, a double ear infection, and strep throat."

Gasp. sigh. cry. stare in disbelief and amazement. escort new baby to bedroom to never leave again.

I couldn't believe it!  It was horrible!  And he's been there from birth to Quick Care visit.  He even cut her umbilical chord.  Totally exposed.  Wow.

But at least Abby got some benedryl and a prescrpition for the next few days and was going to be okay.  Or so we thought.

Dave locked himself in the office (where he still sits today, sometimes lays, on his ever-so-comfie cot), my mom and I started spraying and disinfecting everything in sight, and we restlessly went to bed.

We got Abby's medicine a little late the next day.  So imagine our amazement when a few hours later, she was totally and completely . . . . no, not healed, BROKEN OUT AGAIN!!!  This time the hives were so close on her arms that they were just large lumps.  And on her hands and ears and feet and legs.  And she was pale and swollen all over . . . and an absolute bear!!!  What. the. heck.  With General Conference playing on the internet in the background, I called the Pediatric Allergist and got a prescription of . . . some really powerful medicine.  And we were instructed to bring her in on Monday.

Monday I got Dave in to see a doctor because when I took Brianna in for a jaundice check and me in for a whooping cough vaccine and strep throat check, the doctor told us that it was almost medically impossible for Dave to have strep while on antibiotics for his tooth extraction a week or so before.  So I talked to my friend Emily and my mom and decided he had mono.  But when he went to Quick Care Sunday night, they told him they wouldn't test him for mono because his joints didn't ache.  So I got him in to see the doctor Monday after work.  And they tested him for strep.  And were blown away that the test was positive.  And wouldn't test him for mono but told him to finish out his second, double-strength prescirption of amoxicillin and come back if things didn't improve.  Pins and needles all week long, much hand-washing, hand sanitizer everywhere, etc.

Tuesday we took Abby to the doctor - and her allergy was cleared up.  But her double ear infection was not.  And she had either Fifth Disease or . . . well, he tested her for strep.  Good news! She had strep!  No need to go back for a nasty blood draw that afternoon.  Nope. Isaac and I just got to go back for a strep test that afternoon.  And Isaac tested positive.  One shot in Abby's leg and two prescriptions later, we thought we were finally over the hump!

Until Dave went to the doctor today because he has only gotten worse.  And was told that the long test had come back negative for strep.  So he has a virus.  And they drew blood to test for mono.

But what the heck?  How do Abby and Isaac have strep when Dave has mono . . . .

Or do they all have something else entirely?

Here we sit like birds in the wilderness, birds in the wilderness, birds in the wilderness.  Here we sit like birds in the wilderness . . . waiting for our food.

Oh, and Abby got some cold virus in all her office visits.  Which, in spite of all of my best efforts and keeping Brianna behind locked doors almost 24/7, not even touching her in the same clothes I had been wearing outside of my bedroom -- Brianna now has.

And my mom flies home on Wednesday.  And I'm praying we have this all figured out/straightened out by then.  Praying . . . praying . . . praying . . . praying.  Please join me!!!!

Who would have ever thought that bringing home a new baby would be the LEAST stressful part of my week?

Like I said, she's an angel . . . an absolute gem!!!