A Quick Update on our Life

Not much to update on my post today. I am loving being a mom to my little boy and girl. Caeleb is getting bigger and older each day - leaving toddlerhood more and more and entering childhood. He pretty much knows all his ABCs and numbers 1-10. I can't say I had the biggest hand in teaching him those. He is starting to put small sentences together. My favourite is "Mommy, What are you Doing!" He loves his sister Elva and is starting to be a big help putting toys away, putting things in the garbage, and wanting to hug and hold (with help) his sister. He still needs his 1.5 to 2 hour daily nap which is a big help for me as Elva keeps me up a bit at night and I can use a little time to have a nap or get some extra things done each day (like updating my blog). Caeleb has the cutest expressions ever and we adore his curly hair/fro. Elva will be 8 weeks old on Monday (January 28th). Time is flying by. She weighed 7 lbs 3 oz last Thursday so is growing well. She is getting good at holding up her head and Chris does a great job helping her work on her tummy time. She loves to eat, sleep and be held. I could hold her, snuggle her and rock her all day. She is my little angle. I love life at home doing the laundry, making supper, making cookies with Caeleb, playing (we built a snowman the other day) and reading with Caeleb and snuggling Elva, cleaning and organizing. I did my nursing pharmacology module exam (that I studied for during my hospital stay) yesterday so it is good to have that done. I don't have any big projects on the go at the moment but I am enjoying the simple life. I really do think a simplified life is a happy life. And life is good!

Our Merry Little Christmas and the start of a Happy New Year.

I have always liked the song, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. It is one of my Christmas favourites. We had ourselves a little but still Merry Christmas this year. Elva ended up getting sick 4 days after being discharged from the NICU and ended up getting admitted to the Children's Hospital Christmas Eve (Monday) because of a bad case of RSV. There was a scary moment in Emergency when her heartrate dropped to less than 1/2 of normal and her oxygen saturations dropped to 1/4 of normal and she went completely limp. The Nurse and Doctor were right there to see what was going on. Chris was out doing some last minute shopping with Caeleb and I called him right away to have him come. He dropped Caeleb of at the Radfords (our lifesavers) and came right over. They dropped Caeleb off at home once Nathan arrived and Chris and I spent the evening with Elva in an Emergency room watching Home Alone 2 . It was shockingly busy in Emerg for a Christmas Eve. Elva was put on some oxygen and sent upstairs to unit 2. I spent the night with her and came home for a few hours on Christmas morning to open gifts with the boys. Caeleb was spoiled this year. He got trains and tracks and clothes and other toys. Santa dropped by the hospital too and Elva had some gifts to open there on her 1st Christmas morning.

Boxing day was a stable day but the next day, Thursday, Elva was sounding worse. She was coughing more and I could just feel the crackles in her lungs. They did a chest x-ray and in showed that her upper right lung was collapsed. They also did some blood work which showed that because she was having to work hard to breath, she was not compensating as much as she should and was getting tired. The ICU team came up and saw her and decided that she should go to the ICU. I had a good cry and followed Elva in her bed and the ICU doctors and nurses down to the Pediatric ICU. They started her on a high flow oxygen but she never needed anything more than that and that is so wonderful. In fact, she did really well with the high flow oxygen. She ended up being in the ICU for 5 days but I was only really worried about her the lst day. The Nurses and Doctors were so wonderful and we were treated really well. Chris stayed with her 2 of the nights and said that he hardly got any sleep because she was awake and hungry all night (they were tube feeding her but that wasn't up to Elva's eating standards). I spent a few hours at home on New Years Eve and Chris and I sat by the "TV fire," drank hot chocolate and chatted after Caeleb went to bed. It was a really nice New Years party - just the two of us. Then it was back to the hospital for me to be with Elva and I watched the countdown until 2013 on TV.

We are so grateful for everyone's prayers. Elva was out of ICU on New Years day so it was a happy New Years for us. She came home two days later on Friday. It has been wonderful having her home. I am so enjoying being a mother again. Elva is a beautiful little girl and so good. Does not cry much at all. Caeleb is such a good older brother. I can tell he will always be protective of his little sister. He has a bit of jelousy I think, but really he is doing great and loves to have her around. We are keeping Elva at home for now so Chris stayed home with her on Sunday and Caeleb and I had a mother- son outing going to church. I now teach the 4-5 year olds in Primary and after one class with them I know that I am going to love my new calling.

Life is good and hopefully all is back to normal for good (fingers crossed). Maybe normal does not exist but I could use a relatively "normal" mother, wife and homemaker life right now.