Yes Matthew, it says wonderful. lol.
I have to brag, Matthew was so great during this whole RSV thing. He had to take 2 days off of work to be Mr. Mom and he didn't complain once. He did a great job of maintaining everyday chaos around here. Emmy's bows actually matched her cute outfits (the lady at Starbucks even commented. Yes Matthew has a great relationship with his barista). He did a great job of making Peyton's lunch and getting him to and from school. He did all of the laundry and cooked as well.
As many of you know Matthew is a man of few words, and if any words are coming out of his mouth they are either sarcastic, about LSU or Cowboys football, or some lawyer jabberish I don't understand. But his actions spoke volumes this week and I am so grateful.
Thanks Mattie for doing everything you could to make this horrible week tolerable. I love you!!!
Today was a normal day. I can't believe it. Sometimes I grumble about the ordinary days....laundry, dishes, cooking, running errands etc. but in the end it's what I want to be doing. I had such amazing clarity when Alli was in the NICU and I prayed I wouldn't lose it. Clarity meaning I knew what was important and what needed my attention. Well, it didn't take that long to lose but I have it back now and I hope I can hang on to it. I think as mothers we balance a lot on our plates and we are easily distracted and cynical because we think well I'm already balancing all of this junk why not add more. I'm learning to slow down and focus on the moment. I don't want my children's childhood to fly by me because I was busy and stressed.
Oh my gosh I am so happy to be home. I have felt like a prisoner since Friday. When you have a child in the hospital a parent has to be in the room at all times, since little Miss Alli won't take a bottle that parent was me. As many of you know I get stir crazy very easily (like staying in my house for 1 whole day is hard for me). You can imagine how anxious I was getting being in there basically since Friday. Alli is doing great, her lungs are clear and she hasn't been suctioned at all today. However, I did insist on a bringing a pump home (I got my devilbliss Andrea-thanks girl!).
Allison and I are so exhausted, she crashed when we got home today. One funny story I have from this experience-this morning I took my daily jaunt to the "family nutrition room" by nutrition they mean saltines, graham crackers, beef broth, various juices and water. On my return to my room I was very confused because I knew my room number was 657 but the room I thought was mine said 656. I tried to go in the room that said 657 but there was a strange kid in there. so I had to back up and look at the hall and remember which room I came out of. So I thought to myself, I am really tired because this whole time I thought my room number was 657 and it wasn't. Evidently they were changing room numbers and hadn't told anybody.
Thanks for all the prayers, phone calls, and emails. I truly love and appreciate all of our friends and family.
This is Matthew - I've taken over Kim's blog. Not really; she asked me to post an update on Allison.
As many of you know, Allison was released from the hospital on Saturday evening. That was apparently too soon. When Allison woke up yesterday, she was wheezing again, which is what landed her in the hospital last week. We gave her breathing treatments all day and it seemed she was improving. But, when Kim woke Allison up at 10:30 PM last night to give her another treatment, Allison was a little blue around her mouth and was wheezing, so Kim took Alli to the Medical City ER last night. At about 1 AM this morning, the doctor decided to re-admit Alli. Of course, because of the outbreak of RSV, there were no open rooms (hmm, wonder why Alli got released so quickly the first time??) and Kim and Alli spent about 12 hours in the ER. Fortunately, a room has opened up and they should be in by 1:30 today.
The doctor says that Alli will be fine. Her oxygen levels are acceptable, but she needs some help healing her lungs. We except she'll be in for at least a few days.
Together with Alli, please Kim in your prayers -- she must stay with Alli full-time and is simply exhausted.
Thank you for your continued prayers, support, and abundant offers of help -- we're very thankful for our friends, who certainly have their own hectic schedules during this Christmas-time.
RSV has hit my family. It started with poor Emily. I took in to the doctor last friday to find out she had strep, a respiratory virus and a double ear infection. We gave her the antibiotics over the weekend and she got much worse. I brought her back on Monday and they gave her 2 antibiotic shots. I've had those and they hurt so much, I could barely walk out of the doctors office. Poor girl hobbled around all afternoon. While we were in the doctors office Alli started coughing-and I said I think I will be bringing someone else back this week. Well guess what-we got up on Tuesday and Alli was really sick so we went back to doctor. He suspected she might have RSV and prescribed lots of suctioning and breathing treatments. Well Tuesday night was really bad. Her breathing was very labored and extremely quick. I debated for 3 hours if I should take her to ER, but she eventually calmed down so I opted for another doctors visit on Wednesday. When I brought her in the doctor pretty much determined that she did have RSV (due to her wheezing) as did Emily, but it affects a 2 year old much differently than a newborn. He gave her a steroid shot and sent us home. Again we had a bad night and when I woke up Thursday morning and could hear her wheezing from across the room I knew this was bad. I called the doctor and went about 300 miles an hour down the freeway trying to get her there quickly. Once the doctor listened to her she determined that Alli needed to be admitted because she had no clear airways. That means all of her bronchi were inflammed and filled with mucus. So she spent all day Friday and most of today in the hospital. She had a few episodes of low oxygen, but she always recovered on her own, so they never had to put her on oxygen therapy. She received breathing treatments every 2 hours, steroids, and cpt (where they bang on your ribs to loosen the mucus-it doesn't sound good but she loves it). Amazingly she responded so well today they gave us the option of bringing her home tonight and I took it. She and I are both exhausted. We would only get about 45-50 of sleep at time because respiratory would come in and do their thing, then someone would come in and take vitals, and then her nurse would come check her out. She is not out of the woods yet. Guess where we get to go on Monday-yes, the doctor again. That makes it 6 days in a row, can you believe it? We're continuing breathing treatments at home, steroids, and CPT. Keep praying that her body can maintain the enormous amount of secretions and that her lungs continue to clear out. The only upside to this whole experience was I got to focus on Alli 100% and spend some alone time with her. She is such a good baby, she is easily soothed and when you hold her and talk to her she just lights up and starts smiling.
Don't you love this one? I am so framing this one.
Melissa and Chelle with Mia. These are like Matthew's sisters. 
Caleb and Peyton playing in the leaves. 
There is Daddy frying a turkey on Thanksgiving. Forget traditional roasting, were southern we like everything fried. 
Peyton chose corn and we made it into a pilgrim.
Can you believe my little peanut of a baby rolled over from her tummy to her back today?
Do you know what I am doing right now? Sitting in a completely quite house. How you ask in the middle of the day? Allison is asleep and Emily decided she wanted an early nap today. I can't tell you how long it's been since our house was quite. Between 2 girls, one of them is always screaming.
The girls and I went to the grocery store this morning. Alli was having a rough time because the car grocery carts rock so everytime she would fall asleep the cart would rock and wake her up. Well by the end of our trip she'd had it and would not stop screaming. So I make my way up to the check out area and of course everyone has to turn and stare at the screaming baby-like that's so stinking unusual. A lady I know Sally, pulled up behind me and could not take Alli's screaming so she took the carrier and started swaying it. Of course it worked like a charm, but the minute I snapped her back in on top of the cart the wailing started again. The funny part about this whole story is I can hear 3 conversations going on around me of people remembering what it was like when their children were little. Please don't think I was flustered by Alli's crying, after having Emily who was colic and would scream during every grocery store trip the entire time, this was nothing.
Guess who started smiling? Yup, Alli. I haven't gotten it on film yet but when I do I will post.
I found this dress on Ebay and fell in love. My favorite color is orange and I adore pumpkin patches. The funny thing about this dress is, it's so huge Emmy was afaird of it at first. She refused to wear it. But then I had a great mommy idea...let Peyton wear it. I know it sounds strange but she will do anything he does. And wouldn't you know it, after he wore it for a few minutes she put it on. I wanted to take pictures of him in it, but Matthew threatened my life on that one.
My knight fought dragons all night long.
Life's tough....
Yesterday Peyton was driving Emily in his jeep. Well at one point he took a turn too fast and Emily literally flew out and landed on my neighbors drive way. I had the mail in my hand I threw it and ran to get her, expecting her to be very upset, right? Nope not Emmy, she is a tough old girl. She didn't even shed one tear. She pointed to her arm where it hurt and then pointed back to the jeep. She got right back in. Peyton felt awful, but we assured him it was an accident. When she got back in, Peyton leaned over to hug her and asked "you okay sweet girl?"
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