Red Envelope Day March 31st

Do you have your Red Envelope ready?

Focus On The Family as well as many local Catholic communities plan on participating in this event to help show how we feel about some of the decisions our President has made recently with regards to abortion and embryonic stem cell research.

You can follow the link above or read on for more information on how you can participate.

RED ENVELOPE DAY

When: March 31, 2009

Get a red envelope. On the front, address it to:

President Barack Obama

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW

Washington , D.C. 20500

On the back, write the following message.

This envelope represents one child who died because of an abortion. It is empty because the life that was taken is now unable to be a part of our world. Responsibility begins with conception.

We will mail the envelopes out March 31st, 2009. Put it in the mail, and send it. Then forward this event to every one of your friends who you think would send one too. I wish we could send 50 million red envelopes, one for every child who died [in the U.S.] before having a chance to live.It may seem that those who believe abortion is wrong are in a minority. It may seem like we have no voice and it's shameful to even bring it up. Let us show our President and the world that the voices of those of us who do not believe abortion is acceptable are not silent and must be heard. Together we can change the heart of The President and save the lives of millions of children.

Thank you.

Barack Obama spoke at a Planned Parenthood Action Fund event, uttering the now infamous line, "Well, the first thing I'd do as president is, sign the Freedom of Choice Act. [Applause.] That's the first thing that I'd do." An empty red envelope will send a message to President Barack Obama that there is moral outrage in this country over this issue [The Freedom of Choice Act, which will essentially "undo" every law currently in place to limit abortion in the U.S. (i.e., parental consent laws, parental notification,waiting periods, prohibition of transporting a minor girl across state lines to obtain an abortion, etc.)]. It will be quiet, but clear. Please read more about The Freedom of Choice Act here:

http://www.lifenews.com/nat4359.html

Awwwww....

Sometimes it's just soooo sweet...

Crazy Hair Girl...Is This Just the Beginning?

As most of you know, Rebekah has had very little to no hair since birth. The poor thing has been considered one of the boys so many times...regardless of how much pink she is wearing...that it's a good thing she's too little to get a complex! She has had one hair cut and that was in August of last year. I'm beginning to think she may be due for another to help tame the "wildness" of her hair. She reminds me of a certain cousin of hers who started out much the same way. Emma had about the same amount, or lack there of, hair that Bekah has. Lori had a heck of a time trying to get it into the tiniest little whale spout on the top of her head. Now, look out...that girl has hair! Emma has quite the head of beautiful, thick, curly, out-of-control hair!! Is this the beginning of the same hair style for Bekah???

Update and Pictures

I believe it was my cousin Lori who called these contraptions "baby salad bars". They do look a lot like a salad buffet bar minus the cage like feature! In any case these are a lot bigger than the ones they were in up in the NICU. All four of our boys have been on the pedi floor of the Elliot. Ethan was in about 3 years ago for a bacterial infection in his cheek, and Josh was actually there for five days, two years ago this month for his asthma attack. So this trip was neither our first, (Ethan) nor our scariest (Josh), but still not fun all the same. One of the only changes is in the Kindergard system they use. They've tried to improve it, and needless to say have a few kinks to work out. Now it is so super sensitive that we couldn't even leave the floor to go get the babies chest x-rays without setting the darn thing off. At least we were reassured the system works by having 4 big burly security men come bolting upstairs each and every time the alarms went off.


We were able to come home on Thursday, around lunch time. As always it's nice to return home, but you always worry about how well it's going to go without the careful eye of the nursing staff watching over them. Needless to say, poor Eli went downhill Thursday night with a fever of 102.9 that wouldn't respond to Tylenol. We were on the phone with one of the awesome pediatricians from our pedi office most of the night trying to prevent us from having to go back in to the office. Sure enough we got his fever to go down after some medi. calculations by the doc, we got some infant Motrin into him and his fever immediately began to drop down. Along with it his respirations, which was making the doctor nervous. Eli slept well that night, but has since then still been fighting a fever.

They had their checkup on Friday morning to see how their lungs are doing, and it is believed that the flu has passed through their system and that what we are still dealing with is the RSV. We can continue to see fevers through the weekend, as well as lots and lots of mucous...yummy! Calebs fevers being really low and Eli's being a little higher around 101. The boys and I are sleeping downstairs in that little room off the kitchen so we can keep a vaporizer going, and the other kiddos away from them. We don't want any secondary infections right now, so we can't allow anyone else near them until their fevers subside, and their lungs clear.


We are missing out on Cana Couples tonight, and haven't really had a break from everything for about two weeks now. I never would have imagined how truly difficult it is to care for 5 sick children, especially when I was sick at the same time. It has been one of the most difficult things I've had to do so far...even more difficult than breast feeding the twins! I'm looking forward to spring more than you can imagine...but even more I'm looking forward to cleaning and disinfecting this cesspool of viral bugs to get my house ready for the coming week...we have to some how get back into the swing of things! :)

Pajama Week

Okay, so our pajama day which acutally started last Monday, due to the snowstorm we got, has lasted right up until yesterday evening...well unless Mike left the kids in their jammies today...I wouldn't know as I am currently at the hospital with the twins!

So, let me back up a few steps...we have all been very sick for about 8 days now. When I say very, I mean that in different degrees and on diffrerent days. We've all had fevers varying from the lower 100's all the way up to the 104's. We've all had coughs and runny noses, typical symptoms of head colds, or upper respiratory infections. The twins had just finished getting over ear infections, so I figured they were out of the woods...uh...no...foolish mommy.

We had visited the doctors office on Saturday for Caleb and Joshua as they seemed to be the worst affected by whatever had us. The doc. said that although Josh had a little fluid in his right ear since the left one was fine, she wouldn't treat him just continue to monitor. If he still had a fever by Sunday night, Monday morning, then he should be seen again. Caleb looked fantastic...his ears looked "beautiful", his lungs sounded "clear", it was just another cold that had a hold of him and unless he exhibited any other symptoms come Monday, he would just be monitored as well. Come Sunday, everthing began to fall apart.

First there was Joshua. His fever had definitely come back, and he just wasn't looking or doing well. I called the docs. and they decided they wanted to see him at 11am the following morning. So, we checked everyone else's temps. and they were mild, gave medications and got them to bed. Then I started back up with a horrible fever, (that I thought I had already been rid of as I was feeling a little better...ahhh the calm before the storm), and I have to tell you I thought for sure that I was going to chatter the teeth right out of my head. I couldn't stop shaking and shivering...for over an hour! Once it calmed down I went to bed where I began with the night sweats, and then the shivers again. Finally around 5:30am, I ended up vomiting and calling it quits. I laid down on the bed and stayed there all day. Thank goodness my husband stayed home. He took care of the other kiddos and brought Josh and Ethan to the doctors...where Josh was diagnosed with a double ear infection...hun! Ethan was checked over and given the clean bill of health and we finished up the day with some absolutely delicious homemade chicken soup that my husband made for us.

As I was feeling slightly better, (not vomiting anymore), Mike went to work on Tuesday (yesterday) while I maintained the troops at home as best I could. Caleb started the morning off with a low fever, 100.8 degrees so I gave him some Tylenol as I could tell he just wasn't feeling well. Both Caleb and Eli have already had slight fevers the week before with cough, and congestion. The fevers had gone away, but the cough and congestion hadn't. So, when Caleb's fever started again, I checked Eli's and it was fine. Exactly 4 hours later, again and again, Caleb's fever continued to rise, to the point where I checked him 2 hours after a Tylenol dose and it had jumped up another degree since the dose. I called the docs. explained the whole sordid story...again...and they decided it didn't sound good and wanted to see him at 7:30 last night. In the meantime, Eli decided to start exhibiting an elevated fever, so by the time we brought them in they both weren't doing well. Their respiration was very fast, their fevers were moderate and they were moaning. After checking O2 stats, temps, ear, listening to their chests, and doing a RSV test that came back negative, the doc. decided to admit them to the hospital for overnight evaluation. Well, thank goodness he did.

They did a chest x-ray on both of them with some blood work. We're still waiting on the official results but so far Caleb's x-ray shows possible pneumonia. Not sure on Eli's. The doc. that came by this morning decided to repeat the RSV test and do a Flu test as well and both came back positive. One of Caleb's ears are infected while the other now shows fluid building up. Eli's ears appear okay for now. Caleb is definitely the sicker of the two, but as of now, they are both here at the hospital for another night...at least.

What a trip! I'm still trying to recover from my, what now looks to be was a case of the flu, while Mike is home trying to help take care of the other three. Rebekah now has a moderate-high temp with a runny nose...she had it last week too...so we have at least one more to go through. She's a pretty tough cookie though, I think she'll fight through it okay.

Well, that's where we are at for now. One of my babes is waking and I need to get him to eat. I'll post pictures at some point later, but for now just pray that this is the worst of it, and that we will all be home and on the way to health soon!

Pajama Days

We LOVE Pajama Days!! For many reasons...the obvious being it's just so comfy to stay in your jammies. But the other reason is because we are the house of ill right now. Between fevers, boogie noses (as Josh and Bekah call them), asthma attacks, various bathroom issues, and exhaustion...it's soooo much easier to have on those footy p.j.'s!

As you can see, when they are exhausted they will sleep anywhere...except their beds!! Of course I could as well, but I'd prefer to be in my bed! :)