At two years old, the triplets obviously don't understand the concept of pregnancy. Never mind that they aren't very verbal yet, but it's a pretty sophisticated concept for them to grasp. They don't have any sense of time beyond the very immediate past and the present. I'm not clear how much they understand about the future, but I'm guessing they don't have a sense of much more than the next few minutes or hours.

Still, I told the triplets that there is a baby in my belly. Abby and Sam didn't seem to react much, but Ellie seems to have absorbed the news.

She keeps poking my belly and saying "Babies!"

Um.

No.

BabY, not BabIES.

Oh please don't let this child be better at sensing the future than highly paid ultrasound technicians and perinatologists.

Tags: #5

I hope everyone had a good Turkey Day. We had a lovely one - though no turkey was involved. Since I'm not eating, Julian doesn't like turkey and the triplets will eat anything, I decided that roasting a couple chickens was just as good. And from what I hear - I was right.

After an emergency root canal yesterday morning, I came home early from work and then slept for almost 20 hours. Eventually I dragged myself upright and started cooking - stuffing, orange-cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, roasted asparagus, and roast chickens. Seth bought a pecan pie and his cousin brought us a lovely pumpkin pie - which didn't get eaten yet, but we'll have it for Shabbos.

Julian, of course, wouldn't eat anything but the chicken - but I had decided that I was absolutely NOT going to be a short order cook today, and he could eat what I was making or not. Abigail had seconds, thirds, and I think fourth servings of asparagus. Usually Sam loves asparagus, too - but today, Abby had it all.

I'm absolutely exhausted now, and it's not even 7 o'clock. The triplets are asleep - do you think I can manage to convince Julian that it's bedtime an hour early? Hrm.

Anyway, I hope you all had a lovely day. Personally, I'm looking forward to next year!

In August, we had the triplets' speech/language assessed on the Mullen Scale. It's not perfect, but we knew that, at the very least, it would give us a point of comparison for the future. This had been suggested by J-man's developmental pediatrician because each of the triplets were showing significant delays in expressive language and also in receptive language skills - especially Sam.

When Sam was about a year old, he responded to his name consistently. If you said his name from across the room, he'd turn toward you, make an odd little grunting noise, and wait to see what you were going to do now that you had his attention. This was a really positive sign. But by his fifteen month check up, he wasn't babbling, he wasn't talking, and he had stopped responding to his name at all. This kind of regression is often a huge red flag for ASD, but he had no other red flags. He made eye contact, he was sociable, he was cuddly and loveable, he was engaged - but this language regression was... troubling. I actually hadn't been too alarmed until their pediatrician told me I should really consider having their early intervention team assess all of them, particularly Sam, for speech/language issues. As it happened, we had already scheduled that assessment on the advice of their developmental therapist, but the fact that our normally very laid-back, very "let natural development happen when it happens" pediatrician felt like there was reason for further investigation did alarm me.

To qualify for early intervention through the county, a child has to display, at a minimum, a 25% delay in a developmental area. My kids had been receiving various services through early intervention since they were six months old, so it was easy to get a speech therapist to come out to let us know what she thought. Sure enough, all three qualified - without any calculating necessary. None of them were babbling, none of them had any words, none of them understood even simple directions, and the girls were only occasionally (and possibly only by chance) responding to their names, and Sam wasn't at all. They started speech therapy a couple weeks after their assessment.

The girls grew by leaps and bounds, though still far behind their age level, but we continued to see Sam lagging behind. He's not dumb, that much is clear, but it was also clear that he was really struggling in the communication department. Since we already have an excellent developmental pediatrician for J-man, at one of our appointments with him, we asked for a few minutes of his time to talk about the triplets, after we'd finished talking about J. We explained where the triplets were developmentally in terms of overall milestones, and more specifically in terms of language development. He recommended that we have all three of them evaluated using a standardized scale - not so much because the scale is so telling, but because it would provide a frame of reference - another data point, though obviously not the only data point.

In August, when they were 23 months old, we had the speech therapist evaluate them using the Mullen scale - again, not a perfect evaluation tool, but a reasonable data point. The girls, not surprisingly, tested about 6-10 months behind their expressive and receptive language skills. Behind, yes, but definitely making progress. Sam's evaluation was sobering. His evaluation assessed him as having the expressive language skills of a 4 month old and the receptive language skills of an 11 month old. We were alarmed, but continued to be cognizant of the fact that this seemed to be his only truly significant area of delay.

We increased Sam's speech therapy from once per week to twice per week. The developmental pediatrician gave us some advice, which boiled down to "You're doing all the right things, here's what else to look out for and other strategies you may need to consider down the road," and he also agreed with us that this seemed to be essentially a language delay, and not part of a more broad developmental impairment. He recommended continuing to remain vigilant with Sam's speech therapy, and noted that because Sam has some motor planning issues we should consider PT and possibly OT if his fine motor skills didn't improve with the work on motor planning.

And, so, we got him evaluated for PT services, all the while not sure if we really needed the PT, but the PT said that he absolutely could benefit from services because he was showing significant trouble in motor planning activities, which was (and is) inhibiting his ability to participate fully in activities with his siblings and friends. (Mind you, the PT is through our county's early intervention - we're not paying her, so she doesn't have to tell us he needs PT just to keep her paycheck - she gets paid the same whether Sam needs services or not). And so - we started PT for Sam.

And it is becoming more and more obvious that Sam's got something else going on - but we're not entirely sure what. He's always clutching things, won't ever put down the collection of things that he carries under his left arm at all times. He FLIPS out when we change his clothes - whether it's from PJs to daytime clothes, or vice versa (today I figured out that he was much more willing to be changed out of his PJs if he's on the floor, rather than the changing table - so maybe it's a balance issue? I don't know). We talked to Abby's OT (man, we have a lot of therapists in our lives!) and she said that the things going on with Sam probably warrant further investigation/evaluation beyond the PT that he's already getting. So that will probably happen soon.

But, meanwhile, the speech therapy and PT continue - and he's doing quite well. He still doesn't talk nearly as much nor nearly as clearly as the girls do (and even the girls are still behind age level - but growing exponentially), but he finally has words. At last, he has ways to communicate with us at least for some things. Certainly, we always know when he wants to eat. And when he needs/wants a new diaper. And when his sisters are stealing his toys (MINE! MINE!) He's really growing, and we're so proud of his progress - it's taken a lot of work to get here. No doubt , even without so much speech therapy, he would likely have caught up to his peers - but it really could have taken years (it still might - but at least we know he's consistently making positive progress.

But nothing could have made me happier than this evening, while in the midst of a tantrum, Sam cried out and formed his first sentence (okay, it wasn't a grammatically correct sentence, given that it was missing a subject - but he subject was implied, as you'll soon see. He had a plastic water bottle that had contained gummy candies, a bouncy ball, and stickers from a birthday party we went to last weekend. He desperately wanted to get inside the container, so I opened it, but took the gummy candies away (they weren't kosher, plus it was pretty close to their bed time). He was unbelievably distraught over the loss of his prized possession, and he started to throw a tantrum, while desperately reaching for the gummies. "Mine! Mine!" I tried to give him the stickers out of the bottle. "No!" I tried to give him the bottle. And then? He cried mournfully, he sobbed, and he pushed the cup away from him and cried: "Don't Want The Cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuup!!!!"

My baby strung four words together in order to communicate exactly what he wanted - or didn't want, in this case - and although it was in the midst of a tantrum (thankfully, unlike Abby and J, his tantrums never last long and are generally pretty tame), I was so proud of my little man. I still am.



*sniff*

Tags: milestone, sam man

I've been busy - and quite ill - so there hasn't really been time to post anything. Fortunately, the illness is for a good cause. I'm pregnant, due in the Spring. But I have severe hyperemesis, so I'm losing weight and dehydrated without IV Fluids. I haven't kept anything (food or fluid) down since mid-September. I had a week or two there where I could sometimes keep a Super Pretzel down.... but that time is past. With the triplets this lasted until two weeks before I delivered, but wasn't nearly as severe (I could keep water down most of the time with the triplets).

I have a PICC line, a Zofran pump, and home IV Fluids. If this goes on much longer, I may also have TPN (which I am not looking forward to - it just complicates matters). It's... good times.

When we told Julian, his eyes lit up and he said, "Is it a brother or a sister? Pleasesaybrother!" (for the record, we don't know, and I have no intention of finding out).

I'm seeing a regular OB concurrently with my Perinatologist for this pregnancy. Much as I love my OB, so far I am... unimpressed. They were handling the hyperemesis really well, until all the textbook things weren't working, and they... aren't so interested in thinking outside the box (there are other treatments I could try, but they are less common, so my OB just sort of made a face when I brought it up).

Anyway, that's most of the news here in Chez Cohen.

 Seth just got discharged from the hospital and is on his way home.   I'm here until at least tomorrow.

At least one of us will be home with the kids.

Something I'm not very good at in my life is knowing when to say "No." It's one of my greatest flaws, and, in some ways, one of my greatest strengths - depending on who you ask (and when you ask). It means that I take a great deal on in my life - usually too much. It's a trait I hope not to pass on to my children. Learning to judiciously use the word "No" is an important character trait, in my opinion, and one I wish I possessed.

At the same time, I work hard not to let "No" be a prevailing word in the world of my children. I try to find other ways to let them know when something they're doing isn't acceptable. "Zeh Lo Tov" (Hebrew for "That's Not Good") and "Not Okay" are two of my first two choices to let them know that what they're doing isn't appropriate. "Stop" or "Freeze" also work. "No" is my last resort. Nevertheless, there's no getting around the fact that "No" is a phrase they hear a lot, whether it's from me or other people in their lives.

A couple of weeks ago, Abigail started saying "No" very clearly. It was not a surprise that Abby was the first to say no - she's our most contrary child and she's been saying no quite clearly since her early days in the NICU - she's only just now found a way to articulate the word. She's very cute when she says it because she gets this "otherworldly" tone to her voice when she says it and she gets to be quite emphatic. She says "no" when her siblings get near her, eye her toys, touch her things, or, you know, breathe the air near her. She's getting to be quite pushy and grabby, too. If one of the others is holding a toy that she wants to play with, she'll stomp over and swipe the toy out of their hands while declaring: "NO!" It seems that "No" is a fine substitute for "Mine" (which she hasn't learned yet).

Speech delays or not, it was inevitable that they'd learn this word eventually, right?

I did get my shining moment shortly after Abby learned the word "no", however, when her speech therapist was working with her and Abby was digging through the therapist's bag of toys. She pulled out a toy she wanted and she said, "Yes, yes, yes!" It was the first, and only, time I've ever heard her say "yes" ever, but I'll take it!

Even sweet, compliant Ellie has learned to embrace the word "No" in a way that her mama is nearly jealous of. On Shabbos, she was playing with some mega blocks on the floor, and Abby and Sam had both given me some smooches, so I looked over at Ellie, who is always willing to give me smooches (!) andI said, "Ellie! Will you give mommy kisses?"

Ellie didn't even look at me as she continued to play with her blocks and she said, quite clearly, "Nooooooooooo!"

Wait, what!? My compliant, angel of a daughter just refused me smooches!? Really? What? I must have heard her incorrectly. Right? RIGHT? Of course right.

"Ellie? Can Mommy have kisses?"

"Noooooo!!" she responded immediately without looking up from the two blocks she was intently trying to stick together.

My heart broke. I was simultaneously proud of my daughter for making this enormous leap in receptive and expressive language skill all at once, and yet... a little hurt (okay, a lot hurt!). But really, hey! My daughter heard a question, understood it, and responded with a brand new word and in context! How cool is that?

Even Sam - sweet Sam - the most delayed of the three. Sam has only 3 clear words, and one... maybe word. But even Sam is starting to catch on to the "No" concept. He shakes his head "no" if he doesn't want something, and he's started to make the "N" sound if he doesn't want something. "Na-na-na," he'll say, while shaking his head. Clearly an attempt at saying "No" despite not quite having the word in his personal lexicon yet.

My babies are... growing up. They really are. *sniff* How did this happen so fast?

 

J has been doing pretty well on the Clonidine patch/Daytrana patch combination for the past couple months.  It's not perfect, and the mornings and evenings are pretty atrocious, but at least he can function during the day at school or camp and we know he's safe.  But the problem with it was that even without the Daytrana, J's anxiety levels are really debilitating, and the Daytrana is especially bad about heightening his natural propensity for anxiety of any kind.  For example, he has such a severe phobia of bugs that he got to a point that he literally could not walk out of the house at times, could not go to sleep in his room by himself, and could not be left alone in his room, for fear of being over taken by bugs, real or imagined.  (this is but one example).

We have, in the past, tried one medication to help control the anxiety - Remeron, which has the advantage of helping with insomnia and also tends to work as an appetite stimulant - which J needs (his appetite is seriously suppressed on the Daytrana, so we work hard to get calories in him, and, in fact, have started even supplementing his calories with calorie boosters).  Unfortunately, the Remeron backfired and the side effects were awful, so it only lasted a couple days before we had to nix that trial.  That was a few months ago.

But we realized we needed to try something new, because we couldn't be moving into summer with a child who was petrified to go outside - particularly with summer camp starting.  And so Ye Olde Developmental Pediatrician recommended starting him on an SSRI, which might have the added benefit of helping him with mood regulation - another much needed area for attention (but secondary to the ADHD and anxiety, so we just hadn't gotten there yet).  I was skeptical that we would be successful with the SSRI solely on the basis of getting him to take it.  After all, we've got kind of a sketchy history of getting J to take medicine for more than a couple weeks at a time.

To my great delight and surprise, despite the fact that the medicine tastes revolting, we have successfully disguised it in about 3 ounces of CocaCola (aka Nectar of the gods) for about three weeks now, without any complaint from J (he knows he's taking medicine - we're not tricking him about that - but he has consistently told us that he doesn't taste it in the coke).  We started at laughably tiny doses and have gone up in teeney tiny increments (and are still below a normal starting dose for children), but it has, so far, been a real miracle for him.  His anxiety level has gone down significantly and he is completely functional now.  The only remaining anxiety he seems to have on a regular basis is social anxiety based around camp/making friends/etc and we're working with him on that. 

Another interesting side effect is that he's been more willing to take oral medication in general - a day or two after starting the SSRI, he started getting some allergy symptoms and was having difficulty sleeping and Seth suggested to him that he could take some Claritin.  We were both laughing inside knowing full-well that J would never take him up on such an offer, but J said, "Okay, I'll take the medicine."  After we picked ourselves up off the floor from our shock, Seth gave J the Claritin (which he took without complaint) and J went back to bed.  Twice, we've even been able to give J a short-acting ADHD medication when we've needed to extend the life of his ADHD medication into the evening hours - something which we never thought would be possible at this point in time.  Ye Olde Develpmental Pediatrician's hope is that once we get some stability on the SSRI dosing (which should be any day now), we can start working on transitioning J to taking a short acting ADHD medicine each morning to help make the mornings much less difficult for all involved.  I'm hoping this isn't too optimistic a goal.

But we do walk a fine line with the SSRI.  The number one side effect with the kids who take it is hyperactivity/overactivation of ADHD symptoms.  Which is funny, since the ADHD medication can overactivate anxiety symptoms.  It's like putting a dehumidifier and a humidfier in the same room and letting them duke it out.  And people wonder why I say it feels, sometimes, like I'm walking a tightrope - always an impossible balancing act.  For the moment, we seem to have found a reasonable balance, but the balance, of course, gets thrown off as he grows, and we have to continually adjust. 

None of this is perfect, or easy, but I must say - it is so nice to see something working for once.  It makes it so much easier to want to get through each day.  Really. 

Interestingly, J is delighted to be taking oral medication again for one reason - because we're back to his reward chart for taking medication.  He gets X's on his chart for taking his medication.  Each X is worth $0.15 and when he fills up his chart, he gets to go purchase something with his money.   Yesterday we helped him out a bit since he's been so great about taking it and we got him a new Transformer (a metal one in hopes that it won't fall apart as quickly as his plastic ones tend to do).  AND as a special treat from us to encourage him to keep up the good work... we got him the Transformers movie, which he's been begging to see. 

He is in little boy heaven.

What he doesn't know is that we have Star Wars waiting in reserve for him, for the next time I need a motivational treat for him.  He's been begging to see that, too.  :)
 

Last month, I picked up a pair of knock-off croc-type shoes for each of the triplets.  A pink pair for Ellie, an orange pair for Abby, and a blue pair for Sam.  The kids were delighted, but there was one problem.  Poor little Sam's shoes didn't fit him.  I had guessed his shoe size incorrectly and althought I'd gotten a full size bigger than the girls, it wasn't big enough. 

My kids don't talk, with the exception of a very few  words, but they sure do communicate.  The girls absolutely knew that they had something Sammy didn't have, especially Abby.  Abby would put on her little orange "crocs" and wave her little feet in front of Sam giggling.  Ellie was equally delighted with her own little pink beauties.  But poor Sam was despondent.  He would pick up his blue shoes, and bring them to me, crying wistfully, holding out his bare little naked toes, asking for goodness to be restored in the world.  But, alas, they did not fit.

Fortunately, just two days later, I had to take the triplets in for hearing tests at the hospital, so I had the morning off anyway.  Afterward, the nanny and I went to the store and I ran in to exchange the little shoes for slightly bigger little shoes and I put them on Sam's little feet in the car and he was ecstatic!  He shook his little feet and touched them and showed them off and giggled and laughed all the way from the store to the restaurant where we grabbed lunch before I headed back to work. 

And all was right in the world again. 

It doesn't stop there, though.  Our three little Imeldas are so shoe-obsessed and were so delighted by their new brightly colored shoes that they wouldn't take those little shoes off for several weeks.  They wore them day and night, literally, and if we took them off to do something drastic like change their clothes or give them baths, the temper tantrums were phenomenal.  It was delightful.

But lest you believe that it is just the brightly colored, rather unnatural looking (and feeling) croc-like shoe things that my children are obsessed with, here is evidence that, in fact, it is purely a generalized shoe obsession...  in fact, their preference is for Mom or Dad's shoes - and J's shoes are a close second choice.  They are frequently found stomping (or stumbling) around in our shoes, and the first thing that they do when we walk in the door at the end of the day is race over and start pulling at our shoes desperately trying to get them off our feet. (Interestingly, they are also nearly always offended to find me in my stocking feet and will race over with my shoes and push them onto my feet!)  Enjoy:

     

Seth went to give platelets early this morning. While he was gone, I got J's daily medication taken care of, got the babies out of their cribs, changed them, and made everybody pancakes. All four kids were eating their pancakes when Seth called to say he was on his way home. Our conversation went something like this:

Seth: Good news! I'm on my way home.
Me: Great! Happy Father's Day! I've got pancake waiting for you - J! Do not drink off the chair! Turn around, sit properly, and drink appropriately! Sorry, honey. So, um, I'll see you soon?
Seth: Yeah, I'm leaving [city] now, so I'll be home shortly. Anything you need me to do on the way home?
Me: No, there are some things we need to pick - Sam! Don't throw your plate on the floor! Ugh. Of course, right after he threw his plate on the floor, he did his little mumbly-giggly thing and proceded to eat the pancake he still had in his hands. Um, right. So there are some things we need to pick up for the nanny for the week, but we can get them later.
Seth: Okay, I'll just come home then.
Me: That would be good. This hasn't been a great morning, what with whiny boy and all. He got mad at me for giving him strawberries with his pancakes. Ellie, SIT DOWN! Sorry honey. How'd things go this morning?
Seth: Fine. It was pretty uneventful actually -
Me: Get the strawberry out of your nose!
Seth: [laughing]
Me: Sam! No pancakes in your hair! I am not washing your hair today!
Seth: [still laughing]
Me: Yes, very funny.
Seth: It is!
Me: I am so blogging this.
Seth: You should!
Me: Yes, Ellie, that's Ellie's nose. Good job, Abby, that's Abby's nose! What's your ETA?
Seth: About 15-20 minutes. I'll be home soon. Did you remember to change J's weekly patch?
Me: No, I didn't have any whole ones upstairs, but I'll do it when I go downstairs again. Abby, do you need a new diaper? Yuck! Hasn't mommy changed enough diapers today?
Seth: Sorry, sweetie.
Me: It's okay. I'll see you soon. Wanna say hi to Abby?

And on and on...

Tags: parenthood

My husband is (jokingly, I hope) writing a parenting series entitled "The Merciless Discipline Guide to Parenting."  Book One is to be entitled "Duct Tape:  The Only Parenting Tool You'll Ever Need"...  well, I don't know that it's the only tool that we'll ever need with four little monsters ruling our roost, but we're certainly finding more uses for duct tape every day, that's for sure.

Ellie, for example, has taken to removing her pajamas after we've put her to bed.  And hey, once you've removed your pajamas, well, you may as well remove your diaper, right?  Ah, sweet freedom!  Who wouldn't want such luxurious freedom?  Most nights, we would find her like the picture below, diaper discarded with wild abandon:

If you look closely enough in this picture, you can see that Ellie not only took off her pajama bottoms and diaper, but she also peed all over her crib sheet and accoutrements.  Poor baby; we had to wake her up and change her crib and her clothes and take her beloved bear away from her to be washed.  She was sleepy, though, so she cooperated really well.

This happened a couple times before we broke out the duct tape to tape her diapers on during bed time. 

Unfortunately, it didn't *quite* occur to us that naptime and bedtime are roughly equivalent in a toddler's mind.  And yesterday I went into the nursery to rescue the kids from naptime.  I walked in and Abby giggled and handed me a diaper.  Huh?  A diaper?  Where did this come from?  *Gasp*  The girls were wearing little sundresses yesterday - easy access to their diapers.  Drat.  Clearly, Abby had learned to take her diaper off also!  Ah well.  

I pulled Abby out of her crib and went to put a new diaper on her when I realized...  she hadn't just pulled her diaper off... she'd pooped in her bed!  Gah!  This was something Ellie hadn't managed yet.  Le Sigh.  I got a new diaper onto Abby and moved on to the next baby.  Ellie grinned up at me and dropped a sopping wet diaper over the side of her crib.  Thud.  Thanks, Ellie.  At least *she* contained all of her bodily functions to the diaper.  Sam, bless him, was still fully clothed and diapered when I got to his crib.  Whew.

When I called Seth (he was working) to tell him what I'd discovered at the end of naptime, he chuckled as he said:

The Duct Tape is in the Linen Closet! 

I couldn’t find my keys this morning.  Total panic.  This happens occasionally.  It used to be an every-day occurrence, so I’m very good about putting my keys in the same place every day now.  The shelf next to the front door holds my keys faithfully every afternoon.  Except, you know, when I forget to put them there. 

 

Yesterday I walked in the door at 5:30, exactly the time that my nanny leaves for the day.  I walked in with ten grocery bags and bustled into the house without my normal routine of stopping for the mail, putting the mail and keys on the shelf, kissing the babies, etc.  A disaster waiting to happen.

 

This morning, my keys, predictably, weren’t on the shelf.  Sigh.  What to do.  Normally this means a fifteen minute frantic search before I find them on the kitchen counter instead of in their given place on the shelf.  Not today.  Today was an hour of searching.  An HOUR. 

 

I was in tears.

 

I even called the dealership to find out what would happen if I couldn’t find the key.  $23 dollars for a new master key.  $50 to program it.  And they can’t do that without the car actually in the shop, so I would have had to tow the car to them.  Right. 

 

Finally, I found my keys.  Right where I’d already looked three times.  Are. You. Kidding. Me?

 

I hate days like this.

 

All of my kids love to get smooches these days, and they are so fun to love.  They are huggable and snuggable and kissable and lovable.  They are perfect little angels (um, most of the time). 

 

Julian gives lots of hugs and kisses and will even just randomly say "Eema?  I love you so much!"  He is so loving and kind.  He never hesitates to stop and give big bear hugs to the people he loves, and he hasn't yet gotten to an age where giving mommy a kiss is icky (though he won't share a plate with me, because he might get my "cuties" if he does!) 

Abby loves to be held and will giggle if you give her kisses.  Occasionally, she'll turn her cheek toward you if she realizes you're trying to give her a kiss.  She gets extremely excited when either Seth or I walk into a room, and she'll come bounding over to be picked right up.  Alternatively, she'll lift up her shirt to expose her little belly to be tickled and then she'll giggle wildly when you do tickle her.  If you don't oblige her in the tickle-fest, she gets quite upset.  She's the most prone to sudden bouts of anger and a temper tantrum, but also easily consoled, because you can swiftly pick her up, give her some kisses and she's off and giggling again. 

Sam is my mama's boy, and a real snuggle-bunny.  If he sees me walk into the room, nothing can stop him.  He will be on a mission to get across the room to get to Mommy!  He'll come running over, arms wide, ready to be scooped up into the air.  His belly-laugh makes my heart skip a beat, and his smile could light up a whole city.  He takes longer to warm up to other people than the girls do, and he is more likely to run to me if there are other people around than he is likely to run to them, but he does eventually warm up to people without too much of a problem.  He's a sweet thing.  When I ask him for kisses, he puts his forehead toward me to get a kiss - proof that he does understand some things!

 

Yeah, I know I already had a picture of Ellie, but I'll be honest, I couldn't pick one.  This picture is the "after" picture, so to speak.  This is what happens to her hair after a nap, if it's been up in a ponytail like in the previous picture!  Ellie has really caught on to the whole smoochapalooza idea.  Yesterday, I gave Ellie a kiss and she made a "mwah" sound while I was kissing her.  I thought it was a fluke, but I was delighted!  I said, "Will you give me a kiss, Ellie?" and she leaned over, puckered her little lips and gave me a kiss, complete with "mwah" sound.  And then she giggled, and so did I!  For half an hour, we played the smooches game and she giggled as we showed off her new trick to Abba when he came home.  And this new skill was not a fluke - she still does it today!  Hooray!

There's a whole lotta lovin' goin' on in Chez Cohen!

Tags: motherhood...at last

Well, we may not be up to conjunctions and grammar yet, but I would be remiss as a mother if I didn't mention the huge strides that my kids have been making in the speech/language development department.  Especially the girls, as has been the trend, of course. 

On March 2nd, Ellie was in the hospital (as many of you may recall) and I was talking to a nurse or doctor and Ellie (who had been refusing food most of the time she was in the hospital) was standing in her crib reaching out toward the bedside table where there was a sleeve of Ritz Crackers (one of her favorite snacks) saying "Cacka! Cacka!"  She said it in such a soft, sweet little voice that it took a couple minutes for me to realize what was going on.

"Oh my goodness!  You want a Cracker!  You can have all the crackers you want, little girl!" 

And she did gobble down those crackers, like a ravenous little fiend.   She knew what she wanted, and she clearly communicated it.  And thus, a first word was born. 

Well, that's not really fair.  I'd posted before that she had said "mama" before.  And it's true, she had.  But just as quickly as she started saying Mama, she stopped (a few days later).  And she hasn't said it since.  It took Ellie a long time to say anything other than cracker, in fact.

But Ellie does now have a nice little array of words - "Cracker", "Cup", "Up", "Abba" (meaning "father" in Hebrew - though I'm not sure she really knows what that one means, she does seem to use that one rather randomly), "Ball" and um, that might be it.  I'm sure Seth will let me know if I'm missing any.

In April, Abby started to follow suit.  The difference between Abby and Ellie, though, is that Ellie speaks extemporaneously - if there's something she wants she says the word (assuming she knows the word).  But she never imitates sounds just for the sake of imitating sounds.  She's not a mynah bird the way a lot of children are when they first start talking.  Abby's first clear words, however, were obviously imitation, though, as you'll see...

Each day, when I walk in the door, the triplets are usually playing in the sunroom with SuperNanny.  When I walk in, I am generally accosted by three loving babies who are eager for a hug, a kiss, or (most importantly) my cell phone or car keys.  I always exclaim "Hi Babies!"  One day in April, Abby whispered (with a devilish little grin on her face), "Hi Babies" after I greeted them. 

Wait, what?  Did she just say what I think she just said?

"Hi Babies!" I said again.
"Hi Babies!" she whispered with a grin.

Whoa.  Seriously?  That's your first word(s)?  Neat!

So Abby imitates, but for a long time would not say anything extemporaneously.

Ellie started doing this thing where every time she had a ball she would throw it up in the air while saying "Up!" (something her speech therapist taught her) and Abby started imitating that.  But now Abby will casually say "Up" whenever she sees a ball.  Once Abby said Piglet (but that was, again, imitating us calling Piglet by his name). 

The girls are definitely improving on receptive language skills as well.  They will point to their noses (or mine) if I ask where their nose is.  Abby will point out Piglet's nose as well.  They will follow very, very simple instructions ("bring that to mommy!").  And Abby (and to a certain extent Ellie as well) is very receptive to the emotional needs of her siblings - if they are upset, she will bring them their loveys. 

Sam?  Well, Sam's not talking.  But he lets us know what he needs.  He's taken to SHRIEKING (make that SCREAMING) in the middle of the night if he wakes up and discovers that his pacifier is missing.  This is a new and definitely undesirable behaviour, as far as I'm concerned.  Gah.  If he wants to be picked up, he'll stand there with his arms raised grunting.  No question what he wants.  But if you want him to follow a simple instruction, you must use far more visual cues with him than the girls need.  The girls still need more visual cues than other kids their age, but Sam needs visual cues for virtually all instructions.  Still, he has definitely made progress - it used to be that he couldn't follow an instruction even with a visual cue.  And he is now responding to his name (he turns his head) and will stop what he's doing if you say, "No, Sam!" in a stern voice.  Whether it's the words or the inflection he is understanding, I'm not sure, but either way, it is progress.

We are still getting their hearing checked on May 20th, because they are still behind on receptive and expressive language, and while no one believes there's anything wrong with their hearing, it's a good rule-it-out step and it is non-invasive.  So we'll have all kinds of fun with that.  Umm.  Yeah.  Something like that.

Some day, I'm sure I'm going to wonder why I ever wanted them to talk.  :) 

I do remember that at their 18 month appointment, the pediatrician remarked that it was probably a testament to their underlying personalities that they aren't having far more temper tantrums and fits, because with the language delays that they're having and the fact that they are otherwise developmentally on target, this can be very frustrating for them to not be able to communicate their needs.  While they DO throw fits, they aren't constant and they are very predictable and generally happen not as a result of communication failures, but as a sign that bedtime/naptime is looming.

Yep, I just have really, really good kids.  I'm one lucky mom.

Tags: milestone

Orthopod doesn't think that I tore my rotator cuff.  He gave me a shot of cortisone.  Something about my tendon and joint and I don't know, I wasn't really listening, but apparently the cortisone should fix it and if it doesn't, I should call him back.

Frankly, I'm just pleased to have some good news for once.

Tags: life

Now, honestly, there's a lot of good going on in my life, so don't think I'm not aware of that.   But just in case someone's keeping score...

• Sam had a 104 (F) degree fever all day Sunday and was screaming like a banshee most of the night that night.  I know a fever isn't really that big a deal, but I took him to the doctor this morning anyway.  Ear infection and a perforated ear drum.  Poor kiddo. 
• I hurt my shoulder last Thursday, but I didn't think much of it.  But it's not getting any better, and my range of motion may actually be getting worse, so I went to the doc's office this afternoon.  My nurse practitioner thinks there's a good possibility that I tore my rotator cuff.  She's sending me to the orthopedist.  Fortunately, they can see me tomorrow and can even take the xrays IN the office, rather than having to do that separately and bring the films.  
• I fell asleep pretty early tonight, thanks to the wonders of pain medicine (see aforementioned shoulder pain).  But then woke up rather abruptly in an extraordinary amount of pain in the lower left quadrant of my back.  I also really felt like I needed to pee.  But... I really couldn't much, and it REALLY hurt to try.  I'm fairly certain that I have either a raging bladder infection or a kidney stone.
• Seth gave me percocet and I fell asleep (bless him!).  I woke up itching all over (side effect of the opiates - this often happens to me.  Now I can't sleep.  But at least I'm in less pain?

That being said, I will say, I have the world's most wondermous husband, and gosh darned cute kids.  I have so much to be grateful for.  I have a nice (though small) home.  I have an amazing support structure when I need it.  I have a terrific community.  I have flexibility, for the most part.    Though things have been harder these last six or so months than I ever really expected to have to handle, I do have to admit, I pretty much have all of the things I ever really wanted - a wonderful loving family, a community (both IRL and in the blogosphere) who supports us when we need them, and stripey socks.

It would be greedy to ask for much more than that, wouldn't it?

Tags: life

 

Check out that mug shot.  She looks so sweet and innocent, doesn't she?  She doesn't look like a criminal who can escape from a sophisticated prison.  But this adorable little girl... don't let her fool you, she's tricky.  She may be little.  She may be quiet.  She may be cute and cuddly.  But she is an escape artist.

I came home around lunchtime on April 3rd and SuperNanny told me that she wasn't able to let the triplets nap that morning because shortly after she had put them down for their nap, she heard Abby screaming bloody murder.  She went in and discovered that Abby had climbed out of her crib and was hanging on the outside of her crib absolutely terrified to let go, but unable to get back in. 

Gosh, and I had always thought Sam would be the first one out.

I immediately called my friend Michelle, mother extraordinaire to the "trio of terror" as she calls them - adorable triplets who will turn three this summer.  They're gorgeous and sweet, and just recently moved into "big kid beds" after having been in cribs with crib tents for a good long while. 

"Tell me everything there is to know about crib tents."
"They saved my life.  What do you need to know?"
"Are there different kinds?  What should I get? Etc?  I need to go buy one.  NOW.  Abby climbed out of her crib."
"I have one left. Come get it."
"You're an angel.  I'll bring the Starbucks."

Michelle warned me that eventually her kids learned how to unzipper the crib tents.  "But don't worry, it'll take a long time before Abby figures it out!"  It took Abby about three days.  I do not think that's what Michelle meant by "a long time."  Fortunately, Michelle also told me the solution to unzippering - safety-pinning it closed.

And so, this is what Abby's new prison cell crib looks like:

 

Tags: motherhood...at last

Sam has an ear infection and perforated ear drum (104+ degree F fever yesterday all last night and much of today).  Poor kiddeo.

And mommy may have a torn rotator cuff.  Because, really?  WHY NOT?
 

I typed a beautiful and eloquent post about my kids at 18 months in Word... copied it to my clipboard and saved it... and *poof* it disappeared from everywhere.  No traces of it, not even on my clipboard.  No doubt, this post will be a sloppy attempt at recreating that post, and will not have nearly the finesse of the original.  I hope you'll forgive my clumsiness.

It's hard to believe that so much time has passed since our family expanded.  It was just over two years ago that I learned the news that there were three passengers on board.  It was nineteen months ago that those three passengers made their entrance into the world with their first tiny cries.  I thought the first year would be the hardest.  I had envisioned a life of absolute misery and beyond our ability to cope.  But, although our first year was full of challenges and a lot of hard work, it was nothing compared to the nightmare I had envisioned.  Why, it was downright easy compared to the nightmare I had envisioned!    We not only survived our first year, our family thrived. 

I look at our family today and I am astounded at how far we have come.  From three tiny babies to three toddlers on the go.  From one big brother timidly approaching his little brother in an incubator, to a vroombunctious five year old fearlessly tumbling with his toddler siblings, and complaining when they touch his toys.  I am thrilled with the way our family dynamic has evolved and in awe that it has stayed together through all of the challenges that we face each day.

The most common question I get these days is, "Well, is it a lot easier now that they're older?"  Wait, what?  In whose world could this possibly be easier?  A year ago these babies weren't even crawling!  They weren't eating real food.  They slept much of the time.  They had simple demands on the world still - eat, sleep, poop, eat, sleep poop... with a little time on the playmat thrown in for good measure.  Now?  They are into everything (especially Ellie).  Now they are running in three different directions at all times.  They have wants and needs and they make sure we know it!  They eat real food, which means preparing three home-cooked meals for them each and every day (something I don't even do for myself!).  They want to be engaged at all times.  They are transitioning from two naps per day to one nap per day, which means their sleeping schedule is erratic. 

Really.  In whose world is this easier?  But it is also incredibly rewarding.

Each of their personalities is truly beginning to shine and they are healthy, thriving toddlers now.  Abby was our last holdout, but she, too, is toddling away along with the others.  At 17 months, she finally gave up on crawling and starting walking.  Six weeks later, she's still so proud of her accomplishment.  The most amazing thing about her walking is that once she started walking there was a drastic reduction in the number of temper tantrums that she was throwing each day.  She used to throw several per hour, but now she's a much happier baby.  She giggles all the time, lifts her shirt to have her belly tickled, flashes her great big grin and brings you toys to play with her.  She works through things that used to frustrate her into a huge temper tantrum and is so much more pleasant to be around.  Walking was her key to happiness!  Obviously she still has temper tantrums, but not with nearly the frequency she used to.  It's awesome.

All three babies were declared healthy at their eighteen month check up.  The pediatrician told me that we can start to shift our frame of thought from thinking of the triplets in terms of their adjusted age as we've been doing up until this point to now thinking of them as mostly typical eighteen month olds with only a few remaining developmental delays.  But they have caught up on the growth charts.  They have caught up with gross motor skills to their actual age milestones for the most part. They are almost to actual age milestones for fine motor skills.  

The only area in which there remain significant delays are expressive and receptive language skills - all three of them are behind even their adjusted age, which the pediatrician noted at their fifteen month appointment and recommended that we have them evaluated by early intervention from the county for speech therapy services, which we did, and they have been receiving speech therapy once a week ever since and they have made such great improvement, especially the girls!  Sam still doesn't say a word, but he's at least starting to respond to his name - which is a great relief.  He had actually been the greatest concern because he responded to his name when he was about a year old - he would look back and make a cute little grunty noise every time he heard his name, but then he abruptly regressed for months.  Last month he started to turn his head consistently to his name again, which makes us all very happy. 

They all have such distinct little personalities and they are really starting to learn how to interact with each other.  Abby, in particular, seems quite in tune with the others' emotional states, even though for the most part she wants nothing to do with them.  If Ellie or Sam is crying, she will go find their loveys (Ellie's are a green bear and a fuzzy blanket and Sam's are the elephant blankets and lately also a lovely knit blanket from a friend of ours) and she will bring the lovey(s) to whomever is crying.  Sometimes Ellie will do the same.  But as in tune as she is to that - she's the one who most consistently steals Sam's pacifier, thus guaranteeing to devastate poor Sammy and leave him screaming in shock and despair!  She is also the most likely to pick a fight with Sam.   But, then, Sam is the most likely to pick a fight with her, too.  They are always fighting.  They are always in each other's space and Abby can't stand when other babies are in her space.   She's going to have a really tough time in life.

Ellie is still, by and large, very laid back, but she's starting to assert herself more, and she does NOT like it when another child takes a toy of hers, or if she always has to wait to be the last for something.  She is also starting to become my pickiest eater.  Until recently, all of the kiddeos would eat absolutely anything, but they are beginning to be more discriminating than that, particularly Ellie.  She is the least likely to try new foods and the most likely to reject foods, even if she's eaten them in the past.  Still, she does love her food, and when she wants food, she makes it known.  Her first word was "cracker" and she makes it very clear when she wants her beloved crackers!  Also she asks for cups (either water or milk cups) when she's thirsty.  She is quite clear about her desires and gets upset if you're eating something that she wants and you're not sharing.  It's nice to see her asserting herself more; I would have hated to see her getting walked all over forever.  Still, she is still her loving, giving self.  She loves to share - she will bring you her toys and share them, or even her crackers and cups.  She expects you to share right back, of course, but she's all about the sharing.

Sam is still a bit of a brute - but it's not malicious, he's just completely unaware of physical space and the fact that there are other babies in that physical space.  He is, by far, the cuddliest of the three babies, though, so I know he's got a loving soul.  Though Abby is the one that likes to be held the most, I'm certain this is largely because she's trying to get away from having other little people in her space.  With Sam, he likes to snuggle right into your space and be held.   But he's also very busy, so after he gets his snuggles, he wriggles right back out and goes back to the business of playing.  It's serious business, you know. 

Sam just started liking cars and trucks and the girls just started noticing baby dolls and purses.  It's really cute that they're starting to notice that there's a difference between boys and girls, but it does make things more complicated for mommy!

The J-man is still an exceptionally good big brother, and about as patient as you can expect a 5 1/2 year old to be with three intrustive toddlers.  But the strain of being a big brother to three 19 month olds is definitely starting to get to him.  He's starting to notice that they like to get into his stuff and they like touching his things.  Which, you know, is kind of his fault.  I mean, they can't get into his room (there's a baby gate blocking their entrance into his room), so if he'd stop leaving his toys all over the living room, they'd stop touching his toys.  But I know it seems unfair to him that they touch his things.  So we try to find ways to let him keep things private.  He also seems to think that the babies have a lot more stuff than him.  Which, um, I have to say, isn't quite true.  First of all, a lot of the stuff they have is hand me downs from him.  And second of all, um, hello?  Have you SEEN how much stuff he has?  Plus, there's three of them and one of him.  But if he gets 10 toys for, oh, say, Passover, and they each get one, he thinks they get one, he thinks they got more than he did.  It's a hard life.  Poor kid.

I'm sure this isn't the end of them annoying him, but I'm also sure there will be more stages of happiness and joy.  I can't wait to see how their personalities emerge.  Seth said he hopes that Sam's and Ellie's personalities stay much the same and that Abby learns to chill out a bit.  Just as he said that, she started to shriek because one of the others looked at her funny.  Or something.  I wouldn't count on her chilling out anytime soon.

 Ellie and me at Jessica's house.

  
Abby

   
Sammy

Nicholas Hughes, the son of poet Sylvia Plath, has killed himself, 46 years after his mother committed suicide and almost 40 years to the day after his stepmother, Assia Wevill, did the same. He was 47.

I find this news to be so profoundly sad...

Tags: in the news

...How does your garden grow?
 

Sometimes I wonder if people really know what I'm up against in my house. I mean, really? The J-man is a fun-loving, special little boy. He's growing into an extraordinary individual. He has wonderful opinions and a fantastic outlook on life. I adore him. Really.

But.

(There's always a "but" right? You knew there was one coming, didn't you?)

He is Mr. Contrary these days. Allow me to illustrate:

Exhibit One:
 

Every Sunday I make pancakes for breakfast, because I am the world's best Mommy. (Okay, some Sundays I make waffles, but we all have our flaws, right?) Further evidence of my World's Best Mommy status is that I specifically make the J-man a smiley-face or Mickey Mouse pancake using chocolate chips. I mean, really? I am awesome.

These days, J has words that he's supposed to practice every weekend - "sight words" they're called, or "wow words" as he calls them. They're words that he's supposed to learn to know on sight, rather than having to sound them out. Words like: "the", "I", "you", "go", "my", "and", "or", and so on. The first week we had the words to practice on the weekend, I thought it would be neat to do something special. So I made three little silver dollar pancakes and spelled out "t-h-e" on the pancakes with chocolate chips.

We called J up to the table to tell him his breakfast was ready and showed him his pancakes.

"What's that?"
"That's one of your Wow Words!"
"Which one is it?"
"It says, 'the'"
"Oh."
"Oh?"
"Well, why didn't you do 'go' or 'my' or 'you' or ...?"

And my dear, sweet angel of a child spent the next 20 minutes critiquing my choice of wow words. Twenty. Minutes. No joke.

Exhibit Two:

For Purim, the kids wear costumes. J is old enough to have some input into what his costume should be now, so I asked him what he'd like to be. After a couple of ideas, he decided he'd like to be Batman. I spent some time searching around for the perfect costume, and finally found it:

 

He put on the costume, and said, "How come you didn't get me Iron Man?" What? Are you Kidding Me? This kid asked for Batman. I thought I was being the cool mom for getting him Batman. Finally I convinced him that he had asked to be Batman and this was a good thing. Seth got ready to go to synagogue and explained to him that since he was wearing all black, he needed to be sure to hold Abba's hand the entire way there because cars wouldn't be able to see him in the dark. I sent J with a flashlight also to make him more conspicuous.

And so, on the way to synagogue, J turned to Seth and said (are you ready for this?): "Abba, if I were Iron Man, I'd be Red and Gold and then the cars could see me so they wouldn't hit me!"

Argh!

Exhibit Three:

This morning, after breakfast, J asked if I would let him watch some Berenstain Bears on TV before it was time to go to school. Actually, he came downstairs and said, "Berenstain Bears! Patch!" and what he meant to say was "Mommy can I please watch some Berenstain Bears on TV and will you please get me my patch?" Once we cleared that up, I put on some Berenstain Bears. I had just pressed play on the remote, and it hadn't even started playing yet, when J turned to me and said:

"Why didn't you put on Transformers??"

Tags: j-man

The Georgia Senate actually passed that damn bill.
http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2009_10/sum/sb169.htm

Resolve has posted that they will review the revised version of the bill and post a full analysis as soon as they know more.

Okay, found the revised version of the bill:

Here's the bill as passed:

http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2009_10/fulltext/sb169.htm

It essentially took out all the provisions relating to numbers of embryos created, numbers of embryos transferred and ownership of embryos.

It leaves in all the language that would ban use or donation of embryos for stem cell research.

Still completely offends me, but at least it doesn't essentially ban IVF all together, which the original bill practically did.

Tags: in the news

You know, I think I can just give up on March right now.  Let's review:

March 1:  Ellie gets admitted to hospital.  Diagnosed with Reactive Airway disease.
March 2:  Ellie spends the entire day in the hospital and is eventually released (admittedly this is a bonus).  That night is not a great night.
March 3:  I get rear ended.  My husband's car breaks down in B'more.
March 4:  Abby gets really sick.  Like, I almost took HER to the emergency room kind of sick. 
March 5:  Abby still sick.  Ellie still getting nebulizer treatments.  But at least I'm back from work.
March 6: Hallelujah!  Ellie's back to normal.  Abby's on the mend.  I'm totally exhausted, but no one is in crisis.
March 7:  Lovely day, guests for lunch, fun walk with the triplets in the afternoon.  All good.
March 8:  All hell broke lose in the morning.  I did not handle it well.  The afternoon redeemed itself.

Which brings us to yesterday.

We knew we had a plumbing issue because the last quarter of 2008 our water bill was near $700 (our normal quarterly water bill is ~$130).   Our sump pump has been running regularly, which it has never done in the 4 1/2 years we have lived in our house.  Never.  Not once.  Not even in torrential downpour that has flooded all the other neighborhood basemements.    We had our handyman out to check to see if there was a problem inside the house.  Nope.  No problem.  He shut off all the water and noticed that he could still hear water coming in the pipe into the house.  He walked around the house and found that, in fact, there was a soggy ground all around the side of our house, despite there having been no rain or snow in the several weeks prior.  He postulated that the pipe between the water meter and the house was broken.  But he doesn't fix that kind of problem.  The last time he knew someone with that kind of problem it was 5 or 6 years ago and it cost about $3K to fix.  Crap.

We had our water company come back out to confirm that there really was a problem.  Yes, Houston, we had a problem.  We are using a thousand gallons of water a day.  Clearly, there's a major leak somewhere.  65 feet of pipe where that leak could have happened.  Now we needed to find a master plumber.  That's where yesterday comes in.

We had two plumbers come out yesterday.  The first quote came in at $6500.  It would involve digging a 65 foot trench, 43 inches deep, and replacing the pipe, having it inspected, all the permits, closing up the trench, etc.  *gasp*  He could start Monday.    The second quote came in at $5850.  They have a different way of doing things...  they'll go through the masonry inside the house, and dig underground with an air piston for 62 feet and only dig for the last 3 feet to the meter.  This involves less damage to my yard, which is good since we spent a considerable amount of money regrading the yard and redoing the landscaping last Spring.  And of course, none of these costs cover the cost of redoing any of our landscaping after they destroy it.    They could start the next day (today, Tuesday).    We signed the contract and hired them.  Six thousand dollars.

Oh.  My.  Gawd.

We went to Playwise kids today to meet up with some friends, and got the first family photo that we've had in 4 months taken. It's always difficult squeezing all six of us into a photo, but this one wasn't too bad!

First time I made this post, no matter what I did, the cut wouldn't work.  I'm trying one more time, and if the cut doesn't work properly, well, forget it, I'm exhausted and if you end up with a lot of pictures on your friends page, I'm sorry, but suck it up.  Edited to add:  Still didn't work, for whatever reason.  I'm too tired to mess with it.  I really must go to bed.  Sorry if it makes all your friends pages all wonky, but I really did give it an honest go at it, I've already wasted 20 minutes of precious sleep trying to fix this.

( Read more... )</div>

Tags: photo

Tags: in the news

It’s been a difficult week, but there have been many upsides. 

First, the hospital visit:
The triplets have had a cold for about 10-12 days.  It was nothing more than a runny nose, so I didn’t think much of it.  But over the weekend, Ellie started coughing.  And coughing some more.  And then some more coughing.  That was Saturday.  Then Sunday the coughing got worse and was accompanied by a what I thought might be a little wheezing, but it wasn’t so bad.  And I thought, “Well, if it gets any worse, I’ll take her to the doctor tomorrow.  I’m sure she’s fine.”  Sunday evening, I put her to bed and she woke up within an hour coughing and crying, completely miserable.  She was definitely wheezing.  I paged the doctor on call (the doctor I don’t love), and told her what was going on and she said, “Well, there’s not a lot you can do for coughing other than steam treatments.  She might have an ear infection also, so you can try giving her Tylenol or ibuprofen and see if that helps.  Call me if it gets worse.”  But my baby!  My baby was wheezing.  I called my friend who’s a pediatrician down the block and told her what was going on.  She said she could listen to her, but if she was wheezing and really laboring to breathe, she needed to go to the emergency room.  Within an hour of having talked to my doctor-on-call, it was clear that my baby really couldn’t breathe.  So I called my doctor back, told her I was taking her to the ER, and left. 

We were seen immediately, and they immediately checked her pulseox, gave her steroids, albuterol via nebulizer, got a chest x-ray, gave her a thorough work up.  The first albuterol treatment helped a little, then she regressed.  The second albuterol treatment didn’t help at all.  The chest x-ray was pure misery.  They put my baby girl in this horrible medieval torture device that she hated and she raged against.  The x-ray technician thought she was going to break it, her rage made her so strong.  I secretly thanked heaven for her strength.  Strength and rage was better than lethargy.    Secretly, I didn’t blame her for raging against that contraption.  I would have, too.  The x-ray was consistent with an upper respiratory infection, but showed no signs of pneumonia.  She continued to wheeze, gasp for air, her pulseox continued to drop, so the ER doctor decided to admit her.

My poor baby.  My Eliana. 

Eliana means “Please, My God” (as in a prayer) or “My God has answered”  (we actually spell it the second way).  Though I was certain she would be fine, I was obviously praying for her to be fine.  My prayers were answered and she was released Monday evening.  Not without a little drama which I won’t relay here in the interests of time. 

She’s still on prednisone (almost done with that) and albuterol (every four hours until we decide she doesn’t need it).  And she’s been diagnosed with Reactive Airway Disease, and possibly asthma.  She’ll likely need nebulizer (albuterol) treatments every time she gets any sort of cough/upper respiratory virus for the long term.  But at least now we know what’s going on.  The virus she got this time could have been anything, just a cold, RSV, whatever.  They don’t know.  But for sure, the other triplets have it, too, but not to worry – to them, it shouldn’t be anything more than a bad cold/upper respiratory infection. 

Why Tuesday Sucked Mightily
After having gone 45 hours without sleep, I slept nearly 8 hours Monday night, which was miraculous.  Tuesday was a rush of activity – taking Ellie to the doctor, trying to squeeze in some work, etc.  Took J-man to speech therapy and on the way… *WHAM*  I was rear-ended.  No damage to my car, but my head started pounding immediately and my neck was really stiff.  Still, no harm, no foul.  Second time I’ve been rear-ended on my way to Speech Therapy in six weeks.  Sigh.

Speech therapist was running 10 minutes behind, fortunately, not a big deal, but I was tired, I didn’t want to be running behind tonight of all nights.  Sigh.  On the way out of the office, I called Seth to see what his status was – it was nearly six o’clock… he should have been halfway home.  He didn’t answer his cell phone, so I paged him.  And he called me back.  From his office number.

“What on earth are you still doing in Baltimore??”
“Well, if you’ll give me a chance, I’ll tell you what happened.”

His car wouldn’t start.  And someone in the garage tried to jumpstart the battery, but no dice.  Le Sigh.  Fortunately, it was a Tuesday.  We have a babysitter on Tuesdays.  So I got the J-man home, got Ellie her nebulizer treatment and her prednisone, got the babies to bed, got the J-man his dinner, packed up my things, and headed to Baltimore to rescue my husband, who meanwhile had called Roadside Assist to tow his car (they wouldn’t tow all the way back home, but would tow somewhere close to his work to someplace that would replace the battery the next day… he just needed me to pick him up so that he could get home for the night). 

Half-way to Baltimore, he called and said, “A miracle happened – Roadside Assist was able to get my car started.” 

Needless to say, I still made the man take me to dinner.

Wednesday Doesn’t Get Much Better
I woke up Wednesday feeling like I had been hit by a truck.  Worse, Abby woke up sounding like she’d been hit by a truck.  Poor baby.  She was wheezing, coughing, struggling for air.  I made a mid-afternoon appointment for her with the pediatrician. 

And by mid-afternoon?  She was fine.  That’s what tends to happen with these things, by the way.  Worst at night and first thing in the morning.  Clear up during the day.  Le Sigh.

By evening, Abby was just awful.  She was wheezing, gasping for air, coughing.  She couldn’t sleep.  She screamed so much, she went hoarse by the next morning.  She was miserable.  Finally, we paged the doctor and gave her a nebulizer treatment which seemed to help.

Now I wonder if I have two babies with reactive airway disease.  It’s certainly not outside the realm of possibility, since they were both premature babies, and premature babies are obviously predisposed to respiratory issues, though as premature babies go, they were very healthy and escaped most of the respiratory issues that many premature babies have, since they were triplets (premature HOMs, especially ones born as late as mine were, tend to  have more mature lungs than premature singletons because they get more respiratory stimulation in utero than singletons do). 

Which Brings Us to Today
Everyone is recovering, including Mommy.  It’s just been a rough week.  I just wish there were more hours to sleep.  I keep saying maybe tomorrow, but then the other shoe drops.  Gosh, I have a lot of shoes. 

The Good News:

• Currently, none of my children are in the hospital, and they are all on the mend.
   
• My husband’s car has been repaired.  We had a lovely dinner in Baltimore.
   
• My car sustained no damage in the minor accident I had.  J-man was also unharmed.
   
• J-man made it to Speech Therapy on Tuesday and had a successful (if bouncy) session.
   
• I’m married to a delightful, wonderful man who takes care of me when I’m at my wits’ end.
   
• I have so many supportive and wonderful friends, and such wonderful family. 
   
• I am very blessed.