Kate's first ER visit

To say I'm tired is an understatement. ugh... where to begin...

Kate has had the sniffles for a few days, nothing more than a runny nose... no fever, no cough, nothing. Well that all changed at 10:30pm last night, 3 hours after she had gone to bed. She woke up crying and could barely breath. I was so scared. I thought that maybe she was just worked up from crying, so I nursed her and layed her in bed with me to keep an eye on her. She quickly fell back asleep, but her breathing was loud and labored. I called Paul to let him know that we may need to go to the ER if it didn't get better (luckily he was on his way home from work, after working a 16 hour shift). Kate woke up again around 12:30 and the breathing sounded worse. I was getting really worried, so we called Paul's mom to come and watch the girls while we took Kate to the ER. While we waited for her to arrive, Paul took Kate into the steamy bathroom and had a hot shower going... the steam seamed to break some of the congestion up and then I heard THE cough. Croup. No doubt about that... We decided to still go to the ER, since her breathing sounded so bad. Within 15 minutes of arriving at the ER we already had seen the nurse, doctor, had our diagnosis of croup and had a dose of steroids to help with the inflammation of her lungs. A breathing treatment started shortly after that. Luckily Kate slept through most of the breathing treatment. Paul and I tried to get some rest on the comfortable ER bed... LOL. I'm pretty sure Paul was able to get an hour or two of sleep there, but I couldn't sleep listening to Kate's breathing. It sounded so bad. Luckily within 3 hours it was getting better and we were allowed to go home. I pushed and pushed for permission to go home, I knew that we could treat her just fine at home, and the steroids were obviously kicking in. We got home about 4ish and I slept till about 6. Kate woke up sounding a lot better... still croupy but better than last night.

Getting the energy out...

I'm trying to be a better blogger, can you tell? Two posts in one week? Is it possible?
Lily's new thing the past two weeks or so is running laps around the house, or laps around the swingset in the yard, yelling that she has to get the energy out. I don't mind so much when its outside, but I normally have a problem with running in the house. Not really a habit I'd like to get into, but none the less, I have to giggle a bit when she does it. I think thats one of the hardest things about being a mom, trying not to laugh and keep a straight face at times. Generally though, our days are full of laughter. The things that come out of the girls' mouths are usually hilarious and they certainly keep me entertained.
Kate's new thing is rolling as a form of transportation, haha. I was so not prepared for my 5 month old to be able to roll across the house in a matter of minutes... literally. I guess I was pretty spoiled with Lily and Julia... both of them were late rollers, and were actually sitting up unassisted before they rolled over. And they never rolled in order to be mobile. Kate is a speed roller, and will literally be across the room in seconds. I should definitely try to get it on video.
Julia has been suffering with a bit of the sniffles this week, but I think we are on the tail end of it now, which I'm happy about. She's been more clingy than normal and so much more shy in new situations... I'm sure its just her not feeling well, and I'm certainly not complaining about the extra snuggles either.

Mom's Night Out

Once a month I get together for a Mom's night out with four of my friends. We met about a year ago when our children started preschool together. For 4 of us it was the first time we sent our child off to preschool. Last night was one of our nights together and we got together at one of friends' houses for good drinks, good food and of course great conversation. It dawned on me as I was driving that the 5 of us are completely different people but we somehow come together and have a great time. The 5 of us come from different walks of life, between us we have experienced divorce, adultery, annulment, stillbirth, adoption, infertility, unplanned pregnancies, we are SAHMs, working mommies, student mommies, we have had home births, elective cesareans, emergency c/s, inductions and natural childbirth, some of us breastfeed, some of us formula feed... the list of all our differences could go on and on... but all that aside, we each have a 4 year old that at some point was diagnosed with a learning delay. In the past year I have really grown to love and care for these women. We definitely have our differences, but I love listening to them and learning from them. I have such a fun time with them and really look forward to my one night out a month.

Now enough about me....

Lily started preschool this week, and has done fabulously well at her new school. I've managed the morning time rush quite well I think. I've forgotten how quiet the house is without her here. Julia and I have enjoyed our time together as well. Most times I can get Kate down for a little nap in the morning, so that gives Julia and I some time together. I've also signed Julia up for a couple activities during the week. She starts her gym class today, which her aunt is taking her to. This will give me some nice time with Lily, which I'm looking forward to as well. I'm constantly feeling like I'm not giving each of them the one on one time they need... but both of them seem to be doing wonderfully, so I can't be doing that bad of a job. I also have Julia signed up for story time at our local library on Mondays and for a Farm class on Fridays. I think she'll really love the farm class, she'll be spending time outside, visiting animals, and whatnot. Julia's been going through a very shy phases, so I'm hoping that having these activities helps her socialize a bit better. She does great with familiar faces or if Lily is around... but if she's without Lily then she clams up most of the time.

Kate is doing pretty well too. My big girl is 5 months now and growing so big. I spent a good portion of this week getting all her 6-9 month clothes out, because she has certainly outgrown her 3-6 month clothes. I haven't even given solids a thought yet, I'm just so content with how she's growing and nursing, that the thought to add anything in the mix hasn't really crossed my mind. She's still waking to nurse at night, but she's only 5 months, and I have expectation of sleep at this age... haha.