Raymond's Birthday Part 1 and other Adventures (long post)

So we had a very busy week this last week, not in a good way either.

It started on Sunday morning when Owen started throwing up non-stop. This continued through Monday and Tuesday as well. Monday night I threw my back out and was in so much pain that for the first time in 4 years I had to call my daycare parents to tell them I would not be available Tuesday. That was very hard. So I can barely take care of myself, let alone my deathly ill child and my other two not sick kids. Tuesday my back started to feel better as the day went on, but Owen was not in good shape. He had now thrown up for 3 days straight, he hadn't eaten anything or couldn't keep down any of the Gatorade I was having him sip on. He couldn't get off the couch or do anything. I finally called his Dr. and talked to the nurse. She gave me some pointers on how to help him stop throwing up hopefully, and if not they were going to check back with me in the afternoon. When she called back that afternoon, he was still throwing up and so she said his Dr. wanted him to come in.

With my very sore back I loaded up all three boys in the car, supplied Owen with a gallon size baggy and paper towels and took him in to the Dr. As soon as we got out of the truck, he had to throw up in the grass in front of the office, this time though, there was blood in it, so I panicked and dragged him inside the building, forgetting all of my back pain. We got in the examination room and Owen couldnt' keep his eyes open, he kept moaning and passing out on the exam table. Finally the Dr. came in and after examining him and the throw up in the garbage can, said that Owen was dehydrated and needed to go up to Children's Hospital ER and get IV fluid for a couple of hours to over night.

I loaded up the boys again, called Tony at work on my way to the hospital, called Tony's mom and got to the ER just a few blocks away. At the ER they said he was really dehydrated, he didn't even flinch when they put in the IV. They did a tummy x-ray to determine where the blood was coming from and started the IV fluid with some medicine to stop the throwing up. Finally Tony's mom came and took over Judd and Raymond so I could concentrate on Owen, and then Tony came with a bunch of stuff from home for those two cause they were going to spend the night with Grandma. After only being there for about 30 minutes they determined that Owen needed to be admitted and stay at least over night for more IV fluids. So within the hour we were moved upstairs to a room and all set up. Holly took the other two home with her, where they were fading fast because they were now acting like they didn't feel very well (especially Raymond) and they hadn't napped all day.

So Tony and I spent the night at the hospital with poor little Owen. I felt so sorry for him. This was all Tuesday night and Thursday was Raymond's birthday, so I was hoping everyone would be well before then.

Wednesday: Tony had to get up at 4am to run to work and do his order, then run home and let the dogs out, then go out to Holly's to get the other two boys so she could go to work and come back to the hospital. I was supposed to have my OB appt. at 10:15, so he was going to hang out with all three boys at the hospital while I ran and did that, but this didn't work out. When Raymo and Judd arrived, they looked terrible. Raymond was almost greenish in color and had HUGE cirlces under his eyes and hadn't wanted to eat dinner or breakfast for Holly and now he had a fever and a cough. About an hour before I was to go to my Dr. appt. out of the blue, Raymond threw up all over Tony in Owen's hospital room. Luckily Tony had a sweatshirt to change into, and Raymond had another shirt to put on from the night before, but I immediatley called the nurses to notify them and see if they had a face mask and throw up bag so Tony could take those two home. I had to cancel my appt.

So Tony and the boys left, I was now stuck up at the hospital with Owen, who was feeling a bit better but still not himself. He still had not eaten since a poptart Sun. morning and this was now Wed. about 11am. Finally they came in and offered him so bland food, cheerios, toast, a juice, to see how it'd sit on his tummy. He devoured it! By this time it was about 1:00 and now they told me that they wanted to do an enama on him because he was so "backed up", and that they had found during his x-ray the night before that he has a small hernia in his groin! What else could happen???

Still worried about Raymond and Judd, I made an appt. for Raymo with their Dr. to hopefully avoid the hospital with him down the road, and gave Tony a list of instructions to come home and wash everything and start disinfecting the house. I felt like we had the plague! Finally about 5:30 Owen and I got released from the hospital, so we came home. He was still not feeling good and went right to bed when he got home. Raymond had only thrown up the one time, which was good news, and Judd hadn't done anything. So this was good news. Raymond now had a bad cough and fever though. So all of the boys (even Tony) were in bed and asleep at 7:30pm. I stayed up until about 10:30 and thoroughly scrubbed and disinfected my house, I even went as far as taking Clorox wipes to the walls or anything that could have been touched! Thursday I was going to have my daycare kids, because I couldn't afford to be closed any more days.

Thursday: I called Owen in to school sick again because he was still not feeling that well and hadn't eaten anything since the Sunday before almost. He was acting much better than he had been. This day was Raymond's b'day and I wanted it to be a good day for him, despite the fact that everyone was still not feeling well. That morning Owen threw up again and I panicked. I called the Dr.'s office to tell them about it and they informed me that after such a bout of throwing up and the hospital stay it could take him a few days to have his tummy recover to food and throwing up could happen, as long as it wasn't constant.

Raymond wanted corndogs, french fries, jell-o and pineapple for his B'day dinner, and even though Owen's tummy wasn't up to par, we still complied because we felt really bad for Raymond's bad birthday. Owen ate a few french fries and a bite of his Jell-o and was done. (He threw up all over his bed that night) but that was the last time he's thrown up!!! YAY!!! Judd now had a fever and so did Raymond again. Raymond's b'day party wasn't scheduled until Sat. so I was very optimistic that it would still happen. Friday night however they all felt like crap and I decided to postpone his party for a week until Sat. the 3rd. After putting the boys to bed, and being physically and mentally drained myself from such an exhausting and stressful week, I finally had my meltdown. I was so sad for Raymond that he didn't even get to open presents or eat cake or have any birthday fun yet! I was so sad for him. So I vowed that no matter how the boys were feeling on Sat. we were going to do whatever Raymond felt up to doing. Amazingly enough the boys all were very close to their normal selves on Sat. (though I'm still happy that I canceled his party), we got McDonalds for lunch, played at the park and went to the Zoo (they didn't walk around, they all rode in the stroller and wagon so they wouldn't get tuckered out). It was a fun day. They even wanted ice cream cones last night (which I knew they wouldn't finish but I still indulged them).

Tony and I went ahead and gave Raymond his presents from us so he could have something to open up. We got him a big boy bicycle with training wheels and helmet. Owen and Judd got Raymond a Ninja Turtles movie. He was very excited for both. So today (Sun.) the boys are feeling much better, I am feeling a bit more motivated to get back onto a routine this week, and I now have a whole week to finish planning Raymond's party on Sat. and make it super special! So please keep my family in your prayers that we all get well and back to normal.

Owen update: He has to go up to Children's Radiology on Mon. afternoon for an ultrasound on his groin to get a better look at the hernia he has to see if they need to do surgery to repair it at this time. Keep him in your prayers too. Also he is finally eating normal again, which is such a relief to me. He doesn't have school on Mon. due to teacher inservice, but after missing 6 days of school, I am anxious, as is he, to get back to school on Tuesday.

The boys at the park (O & R had gotten their butts wet on the slide and were trying to dry off)

Raymond's birthday dinner (corn dogs, french fries, jell0, and pineapple - yum)

Raymond on his new big boy bicycle.

The boys eating their ice cream cones that they didn't finish (still no appetite)

Judd at the aquarium at the Zoo.

Me with a random 24 1/2 week pregnancy pic. I know, I know...I look SOOO big (this is consistant with my other 3 pregnancies)

Reflections, By Stacey Coffey :)

I am now officially 23 weeks pregnant. That means if I go all the way to my 40 weeks (which is doubtful due to past experience) that I would only have 17 weeks left. This means that I am in deep trouble when it comes to getting everything done! AAAAAAA!

On another note....even though we have known we are having a girl now for about a month and we even have named her Tess, and I have even gotten just a few girl clothes...it only just dawned on me today how strange it sounds to say 'she' all of the time. I was talking to my friend Sheila (who is also pregnant with baby #4 only this will be her 4th boy) and I just kept thinking how weird it was that I kept saying she. Saying Tess even seems more natural than saying 'she'. I just cannot fathom that I will be having a girl and it seems so unreal to me. Not bad, just unreal. It's just totally different. It's even more different and weird than having a first baby which you have no experience with either gender, than it is to have a girl after 3 boys.

Anyways...these were just my reflections for today. Feel free to comment, but I just thought I'd share what occurred to me today.

Nothing Special...

We have been staying very busy with everything going on around here. Though Owen had a rough start to school, he is doing very well now and is actually very excited each morning to go. He even got called to the office on Friday with only one other kid from his class of 29, to receive a special award and pencil for not being in trouble even one time since school started! :) Yay!

Raymond is doing very well in Preschool too. He got to take snacks last week and Wednesday gets to take the show and tell bag, which he has already decided he will take his baseball bat, glove and ball, since they all start with the letter B, which is what he is working on.

I am staying busy with preschool stuff, transporting kids everywhere, working on the house, preparing for Tess (baby #4), and teaching Midweek church school every Wednesday night. This week Owen gets to go to the children's theater in town to see the Velveteen Rabbit with his class, then Thursday is his open house where he gets to show us all that he has done so far, then Wed. Raymond has show and tell, and Mon. Owen goes to the Zoo with his school, next Wed. is my 24 week check up, Thur. is Raymond's B'day and Sat. the 26th is Raymond's B'day party! In this time too, I am still teaching preschool, teaching Midweek, going to a friend's kid's birthday party and work on my house! Wow, it makes me tired to listen to this. It really is manageable, it's just constant busy-ness.

Tony is staying busy with a new boss and having inventory this next weekend, so he is working longer hours this week.

Other than these things, not much has been going on here. :) This week, there is a big kids clothing sale at a local thrift store, so I am going to go check it out to see if there aren't any girls' clothes I can't live without! :)

I am desperatley trying to find another daycare kid, because the loss of the one from July, is now catching up with us financially and we are beginning to feel that sting. So pray that God will bring me another kid to welcome into our house, for us and for them.

I don't have many pictures to share, but the few I do have are pretty cute. Raymond's birthday party will be a Pirate theme, so this explains the pirate stuff the boys are trying on that will be used for his upcoming party!

What Raymond does when he is bored when Owen is at school! :)

The boys pretending to drive their cars.

Judd LOVES to color with the big boys, and he is actually very advanced at it.

The kids testing out Raymond's Pirate B'day party stuff for next week.

Raymond's first day of preschool

Judd and Raymond playing on Judd's chair.

The boys on the stairs at Indian Caves campgrounds and rec. area

Me and the boys (and Tess) at Indian Caves campground and rec. area

What's in a Name??

So it's official. Tony and I have officially decided upon a name for this little girl that will be added to our family in Jan. Since it was a girl, we had no criteria like we did if it was a boy. Our boys' criteria was it had to flow with the other boys' names, he would have to be named after someone in the family, and his name would have to be old fashioned common sounding but not commonly used. VERY DIFFICULT. This is one of the many reasons I am happy to have found out we were having a girl. Tony and I went through the entire baby names book of the boys' section and did not find one that matched our criteria or even one that we remotely liked. Phew. Glad we didn't have to settle on a name!

But she had no criteria, but as it worked out the name we chose fits perfectly in our opinion. It is an old fashioned common sounding name that is not commonly used. And she is named after someone in the family.

So without further ado.....in Jan. we will be welcoming Tess Virginia Coffey. Learn it and love it! :) (Virginia is the first name of Tony's maternal grandma even though everyone calls her Ginny).

So much to do!

So now that we know we are having a girl I feel like my list of things just keeps growing longer and longer. Now that I know that the three boys will be sharing a room for a long while, I need to purge things out of their room and organize it way better. I have going to have to put a few dollars into buying some shelves and other organizing tools to make things put away and have a place so they have room to be in their room. I want them to be comfortable in their room, not crammed in there.
Baby Girl will have the room that we are currently in so eventually we need to fix the wall in the downstairs bedroom, clear out the two closets in that bedroom and find a place for that crap, paint that room and then move our bedroom down there before we can start prepping a room for her.
I need to finish setting up the preschool/play room downstairs and do all of my curriculum planning and supply buying before Monday because I start my lessons with them on Monday. Raymond starts school on Monday too.
On top of all of this I simply need to get on top of my house cleaning because I am sickeningly behind! I haven't deep cleaned in months and my clean laundry is in folded piles down my upstairs hallway that just haven't found their way to the drawers where they belong.
Plus it is already basically Sept. and I have not updated any of my daycare financial paperwork since Feb! I am poorly behind on this as well and paying our bills, etc. I need a few Saturdays in a row where I can pawn the boys off on Holly :) maybe or someone else for all day sort of thing, then a few Sundays in a row that Tony has off where maybe he can take the boys to the Zoo on our pass or something fun like that just to get them out of my hair. There are lots of other things I am behind on, but these are the majors right now. If I can get caught up on these I can slowly start working on the other minor things that I need to update, etc.
Oh yeah, Raymond's 4 year old birthday is at the end of Sept. and then we are smack into the middle of Holiday season and then baby girl will be born. So I am aiming to get most of this all done before Sept. 27, which is the day of Raymond's birthday party!! Yikes!
So if anyone wants to come visit, please do, but be prepared to help pitch in and either watch the boys or help me organize and purge! :)
I also want to say that my FAVORITE season is upon us...Fall. It doesn't get any better than fall and all that it brings. I can smell the dried leaves, the wood burning stoves, the crisp cool air, the apples and scarecrows and pumpkins and baking and stews and chilis already! I LOVE LOVE LOVE fall. So I want to be able to enjoy it this year without all of the stress of the things I have to do, so my goal must be met no matter how tired or unmotivated I feel. So I better get off of my blog and get busy because this is just prolonging my end result! -ha.
Happy Fall! Enjoy the end of summer/beginning of Fall!

It's a........

GIRL!!! Just thought I'd share the good and surprising news that we are expecting a baby girl in Jan. Can you believe it? At least Tony's job will be a lot easier when she's a teenager, having three big, hopefully protective brothers!!!
I am super excited for the cute girl clothes, and the hair pretty's a bows etc. I've never gotten to do that and that will be fun to me, not that I don't adore my boys, but it will be a fun and different change!
Plan on a baby shower this time around though, more like a clothes shower, in November around Thanksgiving sometime! I'll keep you posted. My friend Sheila is already planning.
So there it is! Now we have to start the name discussion.

Kindergarten here I come!

I know I promised a post on Owen starting Kindergarten the night he started, but as you can guess that things have been very busy and I was throwing up yesterday so Tony helped me with the daycare. So today is the first time I have had a chance to tell Owen's story.

He started out the day extremely excited and happy and had me make his lunch for him and load down his backpack with lots of things for school. My mom took care of the daycare kids and my other boys so that Tony and I could both take Owen to school that morning.

When we got to the school, all of the teachers were lined up with signs with their names on it and the kids were supposed to line up behind their teacher. So we lined Owen up in line and stood beside him. Luckily two of the kids he went to preschool with are in his class. It was so cute, this little girl Salem that he went to preschool with was so excited to see Owen and asked him if he'd eat lunch with her that day. That almost made me cry because the two things I was most worried about was if he'd know what to do during lunch time and having someone to play with at recess. Isn't that ridiculous? :) Oh well. I know he has classroom experience so I wasn't worried at all as to how he'd do in the classroom. It was those other things that he wasn't used to doing by himself that worried me. I didn't want him to worry about what he was supposed to be doing or feel lonely because he had nobody to sit or play with.

So we lined him up and then when it was time to walk into school all the parents followed his class into the classroom. All of the kids sat at their desks and all of the parents stood off to the side to make sure their kid got seated okay. His teacher, Mrs. Lien (pronounced Lynn) gave a few announcements and after about 5 minutes or so asked the parents if they had any last questions, making it obvious that it was time for our departure. So I said Bye Owen and he smiled and waved at me and we walked out. I did rather well I think because I only started to cry just the tiniest bit after walking out of the room and then was fine by the end of the hallway, then I started crying in the car when we were a block from our house but was fine by the time we go to our house. So that was a lot better than I thought. I thought I'd be sobbing all day long. Owen didn't cry at all, so I think we both did very well.

At pick up time he looked very tired, but was holding his friend Salem's hand while they waited to be released. He was very excited and talked all about his day. He even wanted to buy a milk with his lunch on Tuesday.

Yesterday went well too and he said that he was the only one that followed directions (which is not hard to believe because away from Mommy and Daddy he does not misbehave and does WHATEVER the person of authority tells him to do).

Today, however, had NOT been a good day. At about 9:45 or 10 this morning I got a phone call from his teacher saying that he'd been crying all morning and wanted his daddy to come get him. She said he had stopped crying when she had told him she'd call home to tell me he was sad but that he was going to have a better rest of the day. We agreed it was best to not put him on the phone because that might start the tears all over again, and she wanted to call me so that he could see that he could trust her when she said that she would call me. Then at noon she called back to give me an update and say that he hadn't cried from the time she had called me and he had done much better but right when they were getting their lunches out to line up for lunchtime, he looked a little teary eyed again and said he wasn't hungry. He was due back from lunch a few minutes after I talked to her, so she was going to find out if he ate anything or not from the teacher's aide. I'm sad for him, but it makes me feel better that 3 or 4 other kids having had crying days today too and then my friend Sheila's son who started Kindergarten Monday at a different school has already started complaining of tummy aches. So it must just be that the excitement has worn off a bit and the realization has set in that this is the routine and that hit home today for a few of the kids. So keep him in your prayers for the rest of the week that we don't have to battle over school. :(

Below are some pictures of his first day. Tomorrow night is Raymond's preschool open house and Monday we get to find out what the sex of the baby is!!!! I want you all to give me your guess before then! :) Sorry that their is nothing to report about Judd, other than that he is a complete 1 1/2 year old and copies EVERYTHING that his big brothers do and gets into everything. Have a great weekend, I'll post on Monday night what we are expecting.