praying for a rut

Most of us get into a rut and want desparately to get out. We get tired of getting up going to work coming home getting into a rut of the same thing day after day after day. Right now I would love to have a life like that. In the last thirty days our life has been so ridiculous I would love to shut the world out for just a day maybe two to re-energize.

We have given birth to a new baby girl. While I was in the hospital we made an appointment for Jack to see the ENT Dr three days after I was released from the hospital. Six days after that appt with the ENT Dr he had surgery having his tonsils removed. Two weeks after the surgery we were in the ER because Jack had a minor complication from the surgery. The scabs from his surgery fell off and he was bleeding and swallowing the blood. Well, his body treated the blood he was swallowing like a foreign object that did not belong and the natural reaction was to throw it up. In between all of this we had lots of Family in town. Phil's parents, sister and niece, my sister and her husband and three girls, and my brother. Not everyone stayed with us but it has been ridiculous. Not to mention I have been working from home some, Jack was home with me for 10 days......Oh Yea Madelynn has been with me too. Gratefully, she is sleeping a ton.

By Monday night I had just had enough could not sleep and had a melt down in Jack's room. He is having a side effect to the anesthesia and having nightmares. He is screaming in his sleep. It scares me awake and I go running in his room. Well I was working late, catching up paperwork and he started screaming in his sleep. You can't touch him when the episode starts it scares him awake and he screams and cries really loud. The only thing I can do is get as close to him as possible and talk to him. If I just talk really slow and soft in his ear he calms down and goes back to sleep. When the episode was over I could take no more and just cried in his room, I don't even know for how long.

Thankfully, the episodes are coming to an end. He is not having as many so it is wearing off. However, sitting in his room I remembered my first Mother's day. I had to take Katie to the ER. When you go to this particular ER you have to stand at this line until they tell you you can cross it waiting to be helped. There was this lady who came in before us. She was in obvious pain and sitting in a chair because she could not stand. When they saw me holding a baby, no one else mattered but Katie. They took her immeadiately. I was in my own world and never thought twice about her until we were leaving. There is not a day that goes by that I don't think about this lady and hope that she is okay because she had to wait for us before she could be seen.

Well while we were waiting in the ER for Jack to to be seen. Same Hospital but they now have a Children's Wing with it's own ER. A lady comes in with her sick autistic son. He was frightened and could not communicate. I felt really bad. The mother just wanted to help her son but he was so frightened he was screaming. She was crying trying to help him. Needless to say they took him first even though he had come in last. I did not mind waiting a few extra minutes. It makes me feel kind of silly for having my own melt down in Jack's room. My life is nothing compared to what some other mothers have to do in a single day.

I just need to remember that the grass is not always greener on the other side. I am very blessed to have three beautiful children. Eventually, I will be in that day to day rut of working and coming home and things will calm down. Hopefully, you are thankful for what you have.

One little funny side note to my pure exhaustion. I fed Maddie one morning about six and she went back to sleep. Usually, I stay up but I went back to bed for awhile. Laying in bed I was in and out of sleep and the baby monitor was on. All of the sudden, I hear a tapping on the baby monitor like someone checking a microphone and a young child yelling mama. I sat up in bed, collected my thoughts, "Katie and Jack are in school it is just me and Maddie at home and she can't talk I must have been dreaming." I lay back down now awake and out of the monitor I hear, "MAMA!!" I know Maddie can't talk but I jump out of bed and check on her anyway. She was out cold sleeping. It was feed back from another monitor in the neighborhood. It gave Phil a good laugh. I suppose I need to get more sleep. TTFN

Katie....

Now I can finally get to Katie. She is doing great!!!!! She started the pre-K program at her school. The teachers sent home a sheet of items they wanted to know if she knew. Kind of like a starting grid to get her ready for kindergarten. I was quite frustrated because I had no idea if she knew this stuff or not. Some of it was obvious, I knew she could count to 10 and 20. But I did not know if she could identify the word purple with the color purple. I knew she could write letters but could she write the whole alphabet upper and lower case.

Needless to say I have been working with her 3 to 4 nights a week trying to help her with the things she is not sure about. When I picked her up last week her teacher asked me if I filled it out. I said I was unsure of some of the things if she knew them so I was working with her and would have the paper turned in the next morning. The teacher said not to worry too much about it because Katie knew more off that sheet than most of the other children in the class. Which I am discovering that to be true however, practice never hurt. She has trouble with some of the alphabet and if she writes her name without assistance she writes it exactly backwards.

She has been a great helper at home with Maddie. I just have to remeber to set some time aside for her one on one. She had a great time this past weekend because her cousins Ruth, Anna and Lily came for a visit. Talk about some girl power. They had a great time. Katie could not wait to get to Grandma's house to see and play with them.

Katie always has been my trouper. She is affected by very little and goes with the flow much easier than most. I have to remember not to take that for granted. TTFN

Jack

Jack is making me a little crazy these days but, I am hanging in there. Just being three is exhausting enough but he had his tonsils removed last Tuesday. It is amazing how different he is as far as sleeping. He doesn't snore anymore and he doesn't toss and turn himself right out of bed anymore either. Unfortunately, he is quite winy because I can't quite get things right for him. Trying to make sure he keeps his throat wet is exhausting. He was feeling quite good this weekend and helped Daddy with the yard. He had a great time with his tractor. Daddy mowed grass and it was so long it had to be raked up. So Katie and Jack took turns raking and driving the tractor. Jack gets to go back to school 9/2/08. Hopefully one day this week he will go to work with Daddy to give me a break. I am still surviving though. TTFN

Maddie

There is so much to say that it would be a ginormous blog so I will break it up into a few. Madelynn had her 1st doctor check up Monday 8/18/08. She gained 10 oz and not quite 1/4 of an inch. She is only waking once in the evening, which I am very grateful for. She is quite the eater. Right now she is still just eating, sleeping and pooping. She and Katie are sharing a room and I am very surprised that neither wakes the other up. We also found out that Maddie no longer has the fluid around her kidneys. She relieved it out of her system after she was born. The doctor said it was not a concern anymore. Will post more later. TTFN

Madelynn Rose and her new home

Well, Maddie and mommy made it home Friday afternoon. We have had lots of visitors to see our new edition. However Maddie has no idea she just eats, sleeps and poops. Not necessarily in that order. Katie and Jack really do love her to death. They want to play with her so bad and can't understand why she can't run, jump and talk yet. They are very helpful. If I could just get the acting out for attention to settle down. I think once everyone has gone and we start to get into a routine it will be better for them.

For those of you who don't know Madelynn Rose Addler was born 8/6/08 at 10:01pm. She was 7lbs 15oz and 20.75 in long. She is only waking once during the night but she hasn't even been home a week. We had one crazy night I think I walked two miles in her room. I am most thankful that Katie is a pretty heavy sleeper. She has now idea that we are coming in to take care of Maddie she just sleeps the night away.

I will post more one the house settles down and gets into a routine. TTFN - Chels

first fishing trip

Due to every one's very busy lives, Phil was given the unique experience of visiting for the weekend with just his two brothers, Jason and Jon. So the three of them went off Friday night and went Fishing up at Lake Norman in NC. They also had the opportunity Saturday morning to take Katie and Jack on their first fishing trip to Lake Lee in NC. Katie and Jack had a Great time catching their first fish. They were completely exhausted and spent Sunday afternoon catching up on their sleep. Jack slept almost four hours and Katie slept three. All and all I think everyone had a great time and it was good for everyone to visit.

Jack's Birthday

Well, I believe by the photos you can tell that Jack had a great birthday party. We had cake and ice cream Saturday afternoon. Which of course is when tractor mania started. The boy loves tractors. Between the small farm he can set up, to the remote control one, not to mention his very own he can ride in the back yard he is set. While Katie and Jack were playing tractors Phil and I put together his new tool bench. I am not sure he knew what to play with first once we put all the new toys in his room. Talk about overload

Jack also had the chance to go to the Hemby Bridge fire department for his own personnal tour. Mike our neighbor is a volunteer fireman and set it up for Jack as a birthday present. Jack was a little shy at first but once he warmed up he wanted me to take his picture on every part of the truck. Katie went too but she had a chance go to the Stallings fire department last fall with school so it was just okay for her.

Over all I think he thoroughly enjoyed every part of his birthday. TTFN