Our Crappy Christmas Day

I wish I could say this Christmas was perfect in every way.  After all, I have this big beautiful family...which is all I've ever really wanted.  However, I lost a little bit of my Christmas spirit when my entire family was sick with the stomach flu for a week.

While the boys were pretty grouchy when we did our Christmas with Rory and Jen, we had a good time.  Today, however, we couldn't seem to catch a break.  I had this vision of the boys waking up and taking them downstairs and seeing the excited look on their faces when they saw their new Mickey Mouse chairs from Grammy and Papa and their new kitchen set from Santa and all the presents under the tree.

Instead, this was what our morning looked like:

5:00 AM - Lucas wakes up.  Mommy goes and gets him and brings him back to bed.  After fussing a bit, he finally falls back to sleep.

7:00 - Nolan wakes up.  Daddy goes and gets him and brings him back to our bed.  He cries and screams and thrashes, waking Lucas up, which then results in both of them having a meltdown.  We decide it's time to get up.  We go to get Ollie and the room is filled with the scent of poop.  James grabs him to change him and it's up to his neck.  Impromptu bath!  Meanwhile Nolan and Lucas are both losing it.  I play videos on my phone to try to keep them happy.

8:00 - We go downstairs.  The boys walk over to the chairs and kind of look at them and then start fussing.  We decide food is most important now.  So we feed them a little something and then do presents.  In my mind, I imagined them tearing at the wrapping paper.  Playing around in the boxes, and and spending hours with their new toys.  Instead, they all just cried the whole time.  James and I ended up opening their presents for them while they watched TV.  It was far from the perfect Christmas I envisioned, but it was the only way we could get through it.

9:30 - Ollie has another bout of diarrhea.  When I go to change him, I realize he has a rash all over his tummy.  My best guess is that it's from a new laundry detergent (since we had just had our laundry done with a laundry service).  I post a picture on Facebook and have quite a few people say it looks like Roseola.  I gave Benedryl just in case it was an allergic reaction.

11:00 - We put our grumpy babies down for an early nap.  Lucas sleeps for about an hour.  The other two sleep for 2 hours.

The rest of the day had its positive moments.  They did like playing with their kitchen set.  And Auntie Lisa came over for a bit and brought gifts (an Alex Jr. Busy Table and roads carpet).  But quite honestly, most of the day was pretty crappy.  Literally.  I mentioned that Ollie had diarrhea. Well, he wasn't the only one.  All three of them had it.  Big time.  By the end of the day, we changed 22 dirty diapers.  Seriously.  22.  Poor Nolan and Ollie have the reddest little butts.  Nolan would scream during each diaper change.  It was pretty heartbreaking.

So needless to say, it wasn't the Christmas I imagined.  But at the end of the day, while we may not have been happy campers and we may have pooped more than we generally do in an entire week, it could be worse.  We are blessed to have these three stinky boys in our lives.  I just hope we're back to being the happy and healthy boys we used to have!

On a happier note...here are some pictures from Christmas Day:

Christmas Eve: Tradition Lives On

Despite a week of sickness, we were able to get together with Rory, Jen, Juliana, and Dakota yesterday for our annual Christmas Eve tradition.  This included doing a handprint/footprint craft, baking cookies for Santa, gift exchanging, watching Home Alone (1 and 2), and of course our yearly Christmas Eve BBQ for dinner.  We started this tradition when Jen and I were both pregnant two years ago.  We decided it was something we'd always have to continue.  It's one of my favorite things we do.  Nothing like Jack Stack!

It was so fun seeing the cousins play together.  And I think James and I did pretty darn good on gifts for Dakota and Juliana.   We got Dakota a baby doll and a stroller.  She LOVED it.  It was so cute watching her walk her baby through the house and giving her kisses.  We got Juliana a Ninja Turtles turtle shell and nun chucks.  She loved them both!

The boys got a little trampoline and cozy coupe.  Jen and I put the trampoline together with our excellent assembling skills all while the boys cleaned up the kitchen.  Ah, gender roles!

We concluded our night by doing a little mini photo shoot with the babies, because let's be honest...it's what we do!

Once the cousins left, we put cookies, milk, and carrots out for Santa.  The boys drew Santa a picture that we left out for him.  After putting the boys to bed, Santa came.

It was a good day.

Return of the 2014 Stomach Flu

Our family had the misfortune of being struck down with a nasty stomach bug right before Thanksgiving.  It was pretty terrible, but I figured at least it was behind us.  Not a month later, we got it again.  Only this time, it was so much worst.

It started last Wednesday night.  It was around 11:00 and we heard Nolan wake up and start fussing. I sent James in there and he came back and said, "Ugh, we have a problem."  The problem was that Nolan was covered head to toe in puke.  I grabbed him and stripped him down and put him in the bath while James cleaned up his bed.  After his bath, Nolan proceeded to throw up several times.  It was so sad.  I ended up letting him lay in bed with me with a nice thick layer of old towels underneath him.  Around 3 AM, he got diarrhea.  I snuck into the nursery to grab a diaper and was overcome by the smell of vomit.  Ollie had gotten sick too.  However, instead of waking up and crying for Mama, he continued to sleep completely covered in puke.  I brought Nolan downstairs to tell James (who was sleeping on the couch with Lucas because he was having trouble sleeping) that I needed his help again.  As I was trying to wake James up, Nolan throws up again all over the living room floor.  Baths again (for Nolan and Ollie this time).  Once everyone/everything was cleaned up, we tried very unsuccessfully to get the boys back to sleep.  We ended up putting Frozen on (at 4 AM) and all laying downstairs in the living room.  Little sleep was had by all that night.

Thursday James took off work.  Lucas, who hadn't gotten sick at all the night before, started throwing up as well.  So we had all three boys sick.  Lots of throwing up that day.  And diarrhea.  But fortunately the boys were still in good spirits and would still play and whatnot.  I started to feel a little sick to my stomach, but wrote it off as being hungry since I hadn't really eaten that day.

Friday James went back to work.  I was hoping the boys would be starting to feel better by this point. Unfortunately, all three were still puking and having diarrhea.  And Mama...well, let's just say she wasn't just hungry the day before.  The bug had hit me full force and between the horrid cramping of my stomach and running back and forth to the bathroom, I continued to have to take care of three sick little boys.  It was absolutely awful.  That night James came home and said his stomach hurt.

Saturday, James was completely knocked off his feet sick.  I was still really not feeling well, but the boys seemed to be doing a little better.  By that, I mean none of them threw up and there was much less diarrhea to be dealt with.  They were still really tired and worn out and altogether pretty grumpy.

Sunday, James and I were both starting to feel a little normal.  We thought we were almost done with this awful sickness.  Unfortunately, Lucas woke up with a completely dry diaper which really freaked me out.  We pushed fluids throughout the day, offering small amounts of water frequently and pedialyte, 1 tsp at a time.  Both Lucas and Ollie threw up again (a couple different times).  Ugh.

Monday, both Lucas and Ollie were still throwing up anytime they'd eat or drink too much.  At this point, I had them on a pretty strict BRAT diet.  But it didn't seem to help.  I called the doctor's office to see if there was anything else I should be doing with them.  I told them I was particularly concerned about Lucas since he hadn't had many wet diapers.  The phone nurse was very concerned and urged me to take him to the ER.  She told me they didn't have any appointments available and that if I took him to Urgent Care, they would not be able to treat him for dehydration because of his young age.  So the ER was pretty much our only option.  As soon as James was able to get home, I took him in.  Walking back in to OP Regional brought back a flood of memories and emotions. Lucas spent his first 40 days of life there and I was hoping he'd never have to go back.  Fortunately, our ER trip was fairly uneventful.  They said he was not dehydrated and that he did not need an IV.  They did an abdominal x-ray and then sent us home.  We were there less than 3 hours.

Tuesday, the boys were still a bit grumpy but were playing more.  We got all the way to dinnertime without any sickness.  Of course, then James texted me and informed me Lucas had thrown up...again.  A full week of sickness.  I never thought we might still be sick on Christmas but I was started to get worried.

Luckily Wednesday and today (Thursday) we were vomit-free.  I'm think we might finally be done with the throwing up.  If only I could say the same thing about the diarrhea...

Christmas Tree Farm

The weekend after Thanksgiving, James and I took the boys to Midland Holiday Pines to get a Christmas tree.  We've gotten our tree from there every years for the last 9 years.  The boys had a blast running around and as always, we got ourselves a beautiful fraser fir.

We got some great pictures while we were there:

17 Months

I'm a few days late on this one.  Life has been CRAZY!  The boys turned 17 months old last Friday (December 5th).

weights:

We haven't done an official weight check since their 15 month appointment.  We have weighed them right before baths on our bathroom scale though.  Their approximate weights are: 

Oliver - 24 lbs 9 oz

Nolan - 21 lbs

Lucas - 20 lbs 6 oz

sizes (no changes): 

Oliver - 12-18 month clothes, size 4.5W shoes

Nolan - 6-12 month clothes (6 mo jeans are too short but 9 mo jeans fall off), size 4 or 4.5 shoes

Lucas - 6-12 month clothes (6 mo jeans are too short but 9 mo jeans fall off), size 4 shoes

teeth: 

Oliver - 16 (finally got that other eye-tooth)

Nolan - 16 (no change)

Lucas - 16 (no change)

eating habits: 

All three boys are still a little weird about meat.  I'm probably one of the few parents out there whose kids don't like chicken nuggets.  They're pretty inconsistent with what they like.  One day they'll devour something, the next day it'll all get thrown on the floor.  Ollie in particular has started throwing most of his meals.  We rarely eat out, but we went to both Old Chicago and Chick-fil-A this past month.  Ollie was a mess.  He threw EVERYTHING.  Oh the joys of having toddlers!  Each boy still drinks 16+ oz of milk throughout the day from a sippy cup.  All three are starting to use forks and spoons more.  Ollie is pretty good at it!

sleeping habits: 

This past month has been beyond difficult in this area.  Nolan basically never sleeps anymore.  He wakes up screaming hysterically every night...sometimes for over an hour.  Nothing we do will calm him down (snuggle him, offer him milk, sing to him, rub his back, etc).  It's both exhausting and heartbreaking.  We've taken him to the doctor to try to see if there's something physically hurting him.  The doctor (not our normal pediatrician) said he looks healthy and that he's probably having night terrors.  I'll write more on this in a separate post.  

Nolan is still in the guest room so he doesn't wake his brothers at night.  Unfortunately, he screams to loud that he often still wakes Lucas up.  Over the last week or two, Lucas has started to have troubles getting to sleep at night.  He has to have James or me in there snuggling him or rubbing his back to get to sleep.  I'm guessing we're in a separation anxiety phase.  

Even Ollie has had a couple nights where he hasn't slept well.  If you know anything about Oliver, you know he's a great sleeper and this is very out of the norm.

Needless to say, we've all been exhausted.

Napping has not been going very well either.  For a while there when we first transitioned to one nap a day, they were sleeping 2-3 hours.  Now, it's usually 45 minutes to an hour and a half for the little boys.  Ollie will sometimes sleep longer if they don't wake him up.

gross motor: 

We no longer just have three walkers...we have three RUNNERS.  These kids are everywhere!  One of their favorites things is to run around the house with their push toys.  It's quite cute.  They've also gotten really good at climbing up and down the stairs.

fine motor: 

Mega Bloks and Clipos are some of our favorite toys for fine motor.  We also really like our gear toy and the shape sorters.  

language/communication (no new words...wondering if I should be worried):

Oliver - waves, claps, gives kisses, points to his head when asked, signs all done, milk, says mama, dada, hi, uh-oh, auntie

Nolan - waves, claps, gives/blows kisses, signs all done, milk, ball, says mama, dada, ball, done, book

Lucas - waves, claps, gives/blows kisses, signs all done, milk, more,says mama, dada, done, ball

special outings/events:

Visited the Broswicks in Lee's Summit for cousin Juliana's birthday, went and played at the play areas at both Oak Park Mall and the Great Mall, hosted Thanksgiving with our family at our house, took a trip to the zoo with Grammy, Papa, Aunt Gigi, Uncle Marty, Cousin Maddie, Auntie Lisa, and Mommy, went to the Christmas tree farm with Mommy and Daddy, and went to Bass Pro Shop to see Santa!

other: 

Unfortunately everyone got the stomach flu this past month.  Lots of vomiting and diarrhea and sad boys.  It was absolutely awful and something I hope to not have to go through again anytime soon.

All in all, this past month has probably been the most challenging yet.  Between lack of sleep, being sick, and overall just being really needy and clingy, I feel like I'm barely able to stay afloat.  

pictures: