We got Hit again!!

I tried and tried to sing Shoo bug don’t bother me, shoo bug don’t bother me, shoo bug don’t bother me..but it didn’t listen ;(  We got hit with the nasty bug ever…the flu (aka…influenza a) !!!! 
I took Avery back to the dr last week bc she was running a fever again and still a little congested so I was thinking that she probably needed another antibiotic to kick it bc the day was her last day of being on the antibiotic…well he says he wants to test for the flu and strep..I'm thinkin well maybe it could be strep but not the flu..but that’s ok test anyway….He comes in the room with that look on his face and I just knew it was the flu…I just looked at him and gave a little chuckle bc of course it’s the flu..I mean come on when are we going to get a break..This mama needs a B.R.E.A.K!!  So in the last month and half we have had the stomach bug, broken leg, colds, RSV with not one but two babies, pneumonia, and now the flu…Really???  Are you serious!!!??? Can you beat that??? HA!  So since I did catch it right away he tells me that we can put her on Tamiflu…but he says there is a shortage of Tamiflu so good luck finding it…HA!! Then proceeds to ask what I want to do with the rest of the kids..bc if you put them on Tamiflu it shortens it and makes it so they aren't as sick..he put it to me like this…If you arent on Tamiflu its pretty much like you got hit by a semi…but if you do get on Tamiflu well then its pretty much like you got hit by a Volkswagen..so I decided that I would only put the babies on it since they were already run down from the RSV….So once I finally found some place that would fill the Tamiflu it had to be compounded..meaning they had to do it right there in the pharmacy and OF COURSE our insurance wouldn’t cover it….so we ended up paying $60 for each Tamiflu…stupid stupid bug!!!!!  What a load of crap!!! 
Avery got way worse before she even got remotely better..poor thing I felt so bad for her…One morning she woke up and her eyes were kind of sucken in..so I'm thinking wow she looks kind of dehydrated..she goes right to the table climbs up on it and drinks from whoevers glass got left there..and she drank it all..and wanted more so I got her some more water and she drank another full cup..and I asked her if she wanted more again and she did and so I got her more and she drank another full cup…i guess she was pretty dehydrated…
No one else got it though so whew that is such a relief..but I was right behind Avery and everything she touched got cleaned/bleached!!!!  and my kids probably got tired of hearing me tell them to go sanitize your hands bc I told them probably every ten-fifteen minutes..so we went through the hand sanitizer and the clorox wipes !!!!! 
Well that pretty much sums it up…I did somehow make a few crafty/sewing things but haven't had time to take pictures so hopefully I can get that done and put some of the stuff up that I have been working on…

Happy Valentines Day!!

I hope you all had a wonderful valentines day…I sure did!!!  It was filled with love all day! No, I don’t need a day to practice love or feel loved or my kids to feel loved bc I know they feel loved every day but we like to enjoy doing special things on Valentines day!  So here are a few pictures of our fun filled Love day
Jianna, Avery, Jayla

Jianna, Jayla

I made Avery peanut butter and jelly heart sandwiches for lunch!!

I made heart sugar cookies with my little love bug too!! She had so much fun and she actually licked the beater afterwards…(that’s huge with her bc she is not a sweet eater) But isn't that the best part of making cookies..



She wanted a non frosted cookie..tried to give her a cookie with frosting and she said “ewe”..

Cookies were ready when Brielle came home from school..nice little treat for her…Destiny didn’t go to school bc she was running a fever..

My girls made me a valentine card too!!! If you are wondering why my name is on one of the cards instead of mom…Well Destiny is practicing her cursive and she wrote me a note on the back of the card that said…”I hope I did the k right in your name..I wanted to write your name in cursive..and p.s. I couldn’t find a valentine color to write in…love, destiny” ha!! Love that girl! 

Avery is lit up like a light bulb bc her daddy loves her and he brought her home this adorable puppy..and she loves it..she kept saying  “mom {pause}  puppy”  and he also brought me some flowers…It sure was nice to get flowers after the week that I had last week…It sure was a great picker upper!!! 

He also got the older girls a valentine puppy pillow pet…He loves all his girls!!! 
I always make a big special meal for my family..I love it and the kids really look forward to it..This year I did a cheese fondue for an appetizer..

We dipped bread cubes, broccoli and cauliflower in it..and the kids all loved it!!!  (except Destiny, she's apparently not a big cheese fan..news alert to me)

For the meal I made hassle back potatoes, and pork medallions and some homemade rolls (these are the best roll recipe that I have found…that are quick and easy),with this awesome fluffy honey butter..pretty close to what they serve at Texas Roadhouse!  So good.. 

For dessert I did chocolate fondue and this is what we dipped in the chocolate..This was a huge hit…They all had a blast dipping it in..Everyone's favorite was the strawberries..mine was the bananas!!

Update on Avery and the twins

So I ended up taking Avery into the dr on Friday bc she got way worse..She was so lethargic and running a high fever and her breathing was really funny..well anyways after doing some x-rays and then testing for the flu. She tested negative for the flu..whew!!  but she does have a really bad case of bronchitis/borderline pneumonia. When the dr was trying to listen to her lungs he kept telling her to continue to  breath bc she would breathe then pause then breathe then pause..it was very scary I'm really surprised that they didn’t put her in the hospital..but he just put her on some steroids, an antibiotic, and nebulizer treatments… That night lets just say I didn’t get any sleep bc with her sleep apnea and the with her breathing like that ..I basically just hovered over her all night…I tried to get two doses of steroids in her before the end of the night to kick it a little. The next couple of days while she was on the steroids I noticed she was pretty moody and kind of jumpy anyways..I'm just glad to be off of them..

Jianna

Jayla


We are all slowly on the mend I think..my babies still have a lot of gunk coming from there noses and still have a cough..and Avery well we are still doing nebulizer treatments bc she is still pretty congested and her cough sounds really gunky…but otherwise she seems to be ok too…Hoping this week is better then last week

The craziness has hit us again….

This picture pretty much sums up what we have  been doing all week!!! 

Keeping the rocking chair warm with sick kiddos!!! (don’t mind me…I kind of look like crap in this picture)
On Sunday my babies started running really high fevers…with Tylenol and ibuprofen they stayed around 102..Monday they  were really cranky and clingy and still running high fevers..so Monday night rolls around and I notice Jianna really kind of breathing funny..more labored/ I start thinking is something going on or is it just bc she is running a high fever bc I know that they breath like that when they have a high fever..They didn’t really want to sleep either..I think I finally went to bed around one..and slept all night..I remember thinking when I woke up that it was really strange that they didn’t wake up anymore after that..well come to find out when my husband came home from work that night  he went straight for the couch and practically passed right out and I asked him why he was so tired..and he said well he had went to bed around 6am and then had to get up and go to work that morning..he said that he stayed up with Jianna all night so I could get some sleep..I was not feeling well either I hade the start of a cough…really???!!  here I thought they slept all night. Aaahhh thanks honey!!!  That was so nice of you!! So anyways when the babies got up that morning I noticed that Jianna was wheezing really bad…so I decided to take them in to the dr..The dr told me that both babies have RSV..great..could it get any worse!!! He said he only heard a little bit of wheezing in Jayla but Jianna he heard a lot..but thought maybe the liquid albuterol would knock it but to keep an eye on it and if it got worse to let him know so we could get a neb and do some breathing treatments on them…So that night after having a few doses of albuterol I was not seeing any improvement….Jianna was actually getting worse so I panicked and went to the ER….I got there at around 10:00 pm and by three in the morning I still had not been seen..I hadn't even got into a room yet..When we got there there were nine people ahead of me and when I left there were still two people ahead of me…there were some kids puking and there were a lot of kids with croup (we’ve been down that road one two many times before I can recognize that cough like the back of my hand) so it looks like next week we will probably have the stomach bug and croup. HA! Nice!!  So I asked the triage nurse to do her stats again and told her I was leaving and would just give the dr a call in the morning..I wasn’t waiting anymore..she said she thought that Jianna would be fine until then..so that’s what I did..I left!  I hate our ER’s down here..they are sooooo bad..I remember once when I was eight months pregnant with Destiny and had an abscess tooth and I basically went into shock bc I was in pain for so long and went to the ER and waited for eight hours just to be seen by the dr.That’s just ridiculous!  So when I got home I was surprised to see Jared up rocking Jayla..apparently she got worse too..and then I went upstairs to check on Avery  bc when I left I thought she felt a little warm and told Jared to keep an eye on her..Of course she was burning up too..so we got them all medicine back up and I think we finally went to bed around 430 to be waken at 645 by my alarm to get my other girls off to school…uurrghhh…
So early this morning I called the dr and he sent in a script for albuterol in the nebulizer for Jayla and Jianna. So we went and got it and  I went and got a nebulizer from a friend and did a treatment right away..so that is where we are at tonight..we have did two treatments today and  I am waiting to do another one before I go to bed that is why I thought I would update you all quick as to what has been going on…Avery is still running a high fever also..and has coughing/a little croupy sounding (but honestly ever since she had that really bad episode of croup every time she gets sick and coughs it always sounds croupy… ) so she will probably need some sort of treatments too…Guess we will see what the night brings and the morning.. That kind of sums it up I think for now… Y’all have a good night!! 

Avery and the CPAP machine

We went to the sleep doctor for the first time last week.. We have just been going through the ENT to do all the sleep studies..and come to find out I guess we were kind of going about it in the wrong adult way. oh well  I was just glad that we finally got to go and met this doctor..Its kind of funny but he actually said the same thing..that it was really good to finally meet Miss Avery..that he has been reading the studies on. So we spent around two and half hours there..Let me just say that EVERYONE in that office truly loves there job and for once it was so nice to really see..the dr and the nurses were AWESOME!! We call and check in with nurse every week. She wants us to..to see how she is doing..and we also have a home respiratory therapist that checks in with us. So while we were there we fitted her for a mask that actually fits her..Did you know that there are about 40 different kids masks that they can pick from.. This is the one that we ended up with…

Isn't it lovely???  The doctor went over all of her sleep studies and told us that she did improve a little bit when she had this last sleep study with the CPAP machine. Not a lot maybe 40% which means she didn’t have as many episodes as she did with out the machine. Remember I told you we only got the machine up to a five, so we are going to start off at a four then in a couple of months when she is used to the machine go back for another study with the RIGHT mask and try to see if we can increase that more. BC even though we did see a little bit of a good change its not 100% and the dr isn't happy with that until we have seen a 100% change. Here is a little education on the CPAP machine. The machine acts like a vacuum cleaner..it blows air at a pressure that is able to hold the airway open while they sleep. The pressures that are used are the naturally pressures that are in our airways during the day when it is open. CPAP machines do not give Avery extra oxygen, they are just blowing the air that is around us all the time. This is the machine that we will be using….

Don’t you just love how the machine says “Welcome”..HA!  Thanks machine I need to be welcomed every time just to  be reminded! It has a heated humidifier on it. A lot of air with low moisture can dry out and irritate your airway. Not only are dry air passages uncomfortable, but the swelling they cause can actually narrow your airway affecting pressure requirements. Humidifiers add moisture to the air from the CPAP machine. There are two kinds of humidifiers: cool passover and heated. The cool passover humidifier passes room temperature water over room temperature air. The heated humidifier heats the air to ensure to can hold enough moisture to maintain a comfortable airway. The machine also has a modem on the back of it that it automatically sends all the information from the last night to the doctor and the therapist so they can review it and now I guess if she kept it on all night. Jared was a little bummed out about this. Why??? bc he wanted to try the machine out and see if it helped him out..We swear he has sleep apnea too..HA!  At least I do bc I'm the one that lays awake half the night listening to him. 
Now to answer some of your questions bc I'm just now finding out the answers myself:  Avery has Obstructive Sleep Apnea. It is where the upper airways collapses resulting in decreased or no air getting to the lungs. Muscles in the neck and throat are responsible for maintaining the structure and tone of the upper airway. During sleep these muscles relax and during REM sleep (dream sleep) they become even more relaxed. Obstructive sleep apnea causes disruptions in breathing that can cause Avery’s oxygen (the good gas that your lungs take in) to drop or their carbon dioxide (the bad gas that your lungs expel) to rise. In addition, the collapsed airway is reopened by either a brief arousal from sleep or a full awakening. These disruptions in sleep can occur quite frequently during the night and keep them from getting a good nights sleep, so they are sleep deprived the following day.
Can we just not treat it??  No if left untreated many problems can occur. Like behavioral, high blood pressure, heart burn, poor school performance, and over long periods of time the increase of stroke, heart attacks, pulmonary hypertension and heart failure significantly.
Can she outgrow it??  Yes, she could very possibly out grow it later on down the road..we will just keep a close eye on it and if we believe that she is then we just have a repeat sleep study done to find out.
So on Avery’s second study after she has had her tonsils and adenoids out she was averaging about 15 episodes an hour where her oxygen levels dropped. Which puts her at the severe level and  Mild-moderate for central sleep apnea. Now this last study that we had with the CPAP machine she went down to 9 episodes and hour. How they even got anything recorded from this last study is beyond me..bc boy like I said before I don’t think we got any sleep but apparently Avery did according to the study!
We left the office very educated and encouraged that this could possibly really work!  So for the last week we have been desensitizing Avery to her mask. She wears it for about 5-10 minutes before bed.Then last night we put the mask on hooked up to the machine for 15 minutes while she tried to fall asleep. HAHA!!  That didn’t really work really well..but I kind of went into knowing that it wasn’t going to go over very well..so it helped me really stay calm and focused. She tried to take it off repeatedly. We tried to put the extra mask on her pig and we tried to lay down with her and read a book but she did not want to lay down at all with that mask on!!!  She sat up and resisted us if we did try to make her lay down..so for the first night I thought it probably wasn’t all that important that she laid down..maybe tonight. Now tonight we will add 15 minutes and continue to do so until she is wearing it all night and if she falls asleep with it on then we will leave it on. Our goal is hoping for 2 hours each night for the next two weeks and then increasing from that point until she is wearing it every night for the entire night.