October 21st, 2008

Here we go.  Winter colds are starting early this year.  Kinnick has had no less then 3 colds already.  They all seem to migrate right to her lungs.  So far, we've been lucky and have not had to admit her to the hospital.  We had another very close call last night.  I had to bump her to 2 1/2 lt of oxygen just to keep her in the low 90's.  This is the most she's been on since last winter.  We made it through the night with a lot of suctioning, breathing treatments, and no sleep.  I took her to the doctor today and she has an ear infection and lots of junk in her lungs.  This is her first ear infection.   The doctor gave her an antibiotic shot, some steroids, and an oral antibiotic.  She's already feeling better.  We have her down to 1 lt of oxygen and she's satting in the upper 90's.  She's still coughing up a bunch of junk from her lungs.  She won't eat and she wants to be held all of the time.  I had them check Carver out while we were there.  He's had a stuffy nose and now a runny nose for the past couple of weeks.  His is all in his head.  His ears are clear (he's never had an ear infection) and his lungs are clear.  It's so hard to keep our 3 year old away from the babies toys.  Hayden goes to daycare/preschool and brings everything home.  He's been coughing for a couple of days.  It's also hard for Hayden to remember to cover his mouth when he coughs.  We remind him all of the time, but he's 3 and it's just not something he thinks about when he's having fun.

I also wanted to let everyone know that we do think of all of you often.  Our lack of phone calls does not mean that we don't care about you.   We are just so consumed with the special needs of the twins and the other children in the house.  The past 2 years have been very stressful and we're doing everything we can to keep things together.  I've had to leave a job that I worked at for nearly 20 years - leaving us dependent on 1 income after purchasing a new home that was a decision based on 2 incomes.  Our lives have been changed in a lot of ways over the past 2 years.  We're adjusting and things will be fine.  Hopefully things will be a little more normal for us over the next 2 years.  So, please don't feel like we don't care.  We're just exhausted and try to enjoy any downtime that we might come across.  I created the blog as a way to communicate consistently with all of our friends and family.  I knew we were too busy to update everyone personally and visiting is out of the question until the twins are off technology.  Things will and have been improving.  Please hang in there.  We still love you.