Caroline

This is probably one of the toughest posts to write, but we have SO much love from family and friends and I know so many people love and care about Caroline so much that they would want to know to pray for her.  I don't like to be someone that always seems to have a problem and always seems to be negative, so for some people it may seemed as if I have dropped off of the face of the Earth this summer.  I apologize for that and hope you understand it has just been in an effort to focus on Caroline and take one day at a time!  We are SO blessed and many many families deal with much tougher things with their children and each day I try to be conscious of that fact and thankful for it!

The last month and a half one has been a tough one for our sweet big girl!  Through it all she has kept her sweet sense of humor and her strong personality!  She is such a blessing each and every day!  Even when she makes me crazy, she makes me laugh!  Caroline had her tonsils out on June 24th.  We had originally planned to do the surgery toward the end of July, but she had an ear that we could not get uninfected and could not stay off of antibiotics for strep for longer than two weeks.  The surgery went well.  The recovery was rough only because the pain meds she was given made her a lunatic!  She was VERY angry and NEVER slept!  In the beginning it was a little funny because we had never seen her rage like that, but after awhile it became exhausting!  She finally got past the worst of the pain and went on to recover very well!  She hasn't had any ear infections or strep since the surgery!  Thank you God!  Hopefully this is the end of dealing with all of this sickness for her!

About three weeks after her surgery, Caroline came down with a bladder infection.  The pedi sent cultures off and called us a few days later with the results.  Luckily, by the time we got the call from the pedi, the antibiotics had done their job and Caroline was feeling MUCH better!  The doctor was concerned because the bacteria they found in the culture was not the normal one they see in bladder infections in kids.  This finding in addition to the fact that she has been on antibiotics SO much lately from all of the strep and ear issues led her to worry that we could have been missing bladder infections for several months now because the antibiotics she was on would have been treating them as well.  She recommended we do two different tests on her kidneys - an ultrasound and a VCUG which she would have to be put to sleep for.  Considering Caroline's less than joyful wake-ups from anesthesia, I really questioned the doctor about the necessity of the testing, but eventually agreed that it was the right thing to do.  The tests were scheduled for late the next week.

While we were waiting to have the kidney testing, it was time for Caroline's follow up with the ENT after her surgery.  I expected a 15 minute appointment to peek in her mouth and ears and we would be done.  I was wrong.  The first part of the appointment was a hearing test.  I was actually excited about this because we had never been able to do one with uninfected ears, so I was convinced that her ears were clear and we would pass with flying colors!  I was wrong again.  It was very obvious not long into the testing that Caroline was NOT passing this test.  We finished the testing and met with the doctor.  He was very happy with Caroline's participation in the testing and happy that she gave very reliable information, but he did not have good news regarding her hearing.  She has mild hearing loss in her right ear and moderate hearing loss in her left ear.  He believes this is not a result of all of her ear infections and is nerve damage that has always been there and is permanent.  We will recheck her hearing in three months (October) to determine if this is where her hearing will stay or if it is degenerating.  If it is degenerating, that is very bad news.  It means we will have to do a lot more testing like MRIs and genetic testing to find out what is causing the hearing loss.  Of course I have googled all of the things that can cause this and none of them are good or fun to read about.  The good news is that the doctor thinks this is unlikely and we are now seeing what we are dealing with as far as her hearing goes.  I will be constantly power praying he is right until we get the new results in October!  If her hearing stays the same, we will begin fitting her for hearing aides in October.  I have done some reading and apparently it is quite a transition into hearing aides for young children, but I feel so blessed that this technology exists to help Caroline!  I hate for Caroline to have to deal with this, but I know SO many other families have to deal with much more severe medical issues, so I have vowed to approach this with positivity and humor!

After digesting this bit of news, I was more anxious about the kidney testing than ever.  During my google search on hearing loss, several of the genetic syndromes also mentioned kidney issues with the hearing loss, so I was SO nervous to get the results of these tests.  The day went fairly well!  Caroline and I practiced with Lilah's breathing treatment mask so that she wouldn't be scared of the anesthesia mask and it actually seemed to work!  We were able to get through the anesthesia without any extra "relaxation" medicine (I did offer to take it for her since she didn't need it, but they said no!) !  I knew I should have gone for my dream job as a Child Life Specialist instead of Kindergarten teacher!  Ha!  The ladies performing the test were wonderful with Caroline and let us know to expect a call from our doctor with all normal results!  YAY!  Caroline's wake up was eventful as usual!  She screamed and raged until they let her out of the recovery room and into the playroom to play games.  Then she screamed and raged until they let her into another playroom to play with the toy kitchen.  Her screaming was so loud they people were opening doors to treatment rooms to see what was going on in the hall!  Yep!  That's my kid!  They quickly decided it was time for Caroline to head home!  I bet they were happy to see us go!  Thankfully my parents were able to be off that day, so we headed to there house so I would have some help with the babies and Crazycakes!  After about two hours and some lunch she calmed down and was the Caroline we know and love again!  We got the official word from the doctor that her kidneys were normal that day around lunch time!  Sweet relief!!! 

The next morning I was ready for some normalcy!  HA!  Caroline woke up very early that morning and was pretty grumpy.  Pretty soon after she got up she started crying that her stomach hurt.  After several yucky (sorry TMI) trips to the potty, she was doubled over in pain crying.  I called the doctor at 10:00 that morning when it became obvious she was getting much worse, not better.  We got an 11:30 appointment.  Soon after that we began finding blood in the potty (sorry TMI again) and got very worried.  I called the doctor's office back - they answer the phone "Hi Mrs. Cochran" when I call now, they know me that well! - and they said to bring her in right away.  We spent several (3) hours in the doctor's office that morning getting samples (not a fun or pretty story - I'll skip the details), blood drawn, etc.  The doctor kept saying "if we let her go home . . ." and was pretty much on the verge of hospitalizing her the entire time.  Finally, they decided that she probably didn't have an infection - due to the fact that she has been on antibiotics for the last six months - but had a bacteria issue due to being on all the antibiotics.  Seriously.  Shockingly they treat this with ANOTHER antibiotic.  We are so thankful that with the new antibiotic, about 24 hours later she was pretty much on the mend!  It has been five days now since then and she is her usual self!  We are so blessed!!!

Thank you for reading if you have gotten this far!  It has been an eventful summer, but we are so aware that while we feel stressed and overextended at times, there are many many families that would trade their much larger and more serious problems for ours in a heartbeat.  We are surrounded by blessing every minute of every day and we are focusing on them!  Caroline will have some challenges in the future, but I know her dry humor, sweet faith, and determined personality will carry her (and us) through it all!  Thank you for all of the love and support and prayers our friends and family shower on us constantly whether aware of all this that has been going on or not!  I look forward to more blogs about the zany, silly moments that fill our days with laughter!!

Birthday Party!!!

Liam and Lilah had a fun-filled Fourth of July themed birthday party at the house on July 2!  I was SO excited for this party because 1.) I love celebrating my sweet kiddos! 2.) Fourth of July is my absolute FAVORITE holiday and 3.) Last Fourth of July I was SO sad because it was my favorite holiday and we didn't celebrate at all because Lilah was still in NICU.  I really just wanted my baby home and it broke my heart every night to have to leave her at the hospital and it broke my heart to leave my new sweet baby boy and my sweet big girl at home to spend every day at the hospital.  It was a LONG three weeks!  SO, this Fourth of July I was going all out and what better way to celebrate than with a first birthday party!!!!  We don't have a ton of pictures from during the party.  I think that's because we were having SUCH a great time celebrating with all of our family and friends!  Lilah woke up that morning with a fever and spent the morning at the pediatrician's office getting diagnosed with an ear infection.  She was a little fussy, but was a trooper through the party!  Yes, I am the mom that still had the party even though the baby was sick!  That's why I sent Robert to the doctor's office!  I couldn't face her and tell her we were having the party no matter what she said!  HA!  Sweet Lilah did just fine though!  Now that we have made it through this party, I have already started thinking of ideas for Caroline's at the end of October!!  Planning birthday parties is one of the fun parts of being mommy!

The food table!

The drinks and cupcakes in the kitchen!

Auntie MerMer did the favor table!

The Bouncy House!

Yummy cake!

Mommy, Daddy and Caroline love you SO much Liam and Lilah!!  Happy First Birthday!

Perdido Heaven 2011

Yes.  Its been way too long!  One day I will get better at this, but for right now I think its going to be postapalooza until I get caught up!!

Our beach vacation this year was nothing short of fabulous!  We were a little worried about a 12 hour drive with all the kids, but my parents and Mer and Randy were so fabulous and agreed to take Caroline in their car with them so that we could try to get as much sleep out of the babies as possible!  Honestly we have nothing to complain about as far as the kids on the road!  The babies did great and according to everyone in the other car, Caroline did too!!  Thank you Jesus!  And thank you kids!!   

Pretty ladies on a road trip!

We had SO much fun watching the babies play in the sand for the first time, Caroline becoming a fish in the ocean, and baby Nolan swimming around in Auntie MerMer's belly!  Most of all it was fun to be together every day!  The kids had SO much fun being loved on all week!!!

Woohoo!  Lilah loves the beach!

Fun with Cayah and Ike!

Beach babies!

Our best family beach pic!  Ha!

Our camp!

Sweet boy!

On the table at the Crab Trap!

Checking out the beach with her binoculars!

We had such a great time and so much fun creating memories that we will all treasure!  We CAN'T WAIT to go back next year!!!

ONEderful!!

On June 23, 2010 we were doubly blessed!  Liam and Lilah joined our family!  It has been an incredible year!  There have been tough times and crazy times and happy times and silly times, but above everything else we have been blessed by the joy that these two sweet people have brought to our lives. 

June 23, 2010 - The Adventure Begins!

   

It broke our hearts when we had to leave Lilah in the hospital, but we were so happy to have Liam at home!

We were SO happy when we finally had you both home together!  You two were so content to be back with each other and spent most of your time cuddled up together!

Each day has been filled with watching you discover yourselves, the world around you, our family, and each other!

Now you are big kids and love to play and talk and laugh!  We love every moment with you and can't imagine our lives before you joined our family!



Happy Birthday Liam and Lilah!!

Liam

• You are our loud, energetic boy that loves to be independent and you LOVE cars!
• You have a huge smile and a cackling laugh that makes us laugh every time!
• You love to give big kisses and love to snuggle!

• Your favorite foods are: Baby Num Num crackers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, peaches, peas, ICE CREAM and CAKE!
• Your favorite thing to do is push anything that you can (toys, tables, chairs, boxes, the stroller, etc.) all around the house!
• You say these words: Mama,  Dada, sissy, thank you, all done, num num, and your favorite is "no, no, no!".
• You also love to wave and give "high five" and clap!
• You can walk a few steps, but its faster to crawl so you usually stick with that or pushing things!



Lilah

• You are our sweet, dainty little girl that does not like to be messy and you LOVE shoes!
• You have a sweet grin and a silly giggle that makes everyone who hears it smile!
• You give great hugs and sweet kisses!
• Your favorite foods are:  Baby Num Num crackers, watermelon, any kind of bread, peas, toast and cream cheese, bananas, chicken, and COOKIES!
• Your favorite thing to do is shake things that make noise and you LOVE to read books!
• You can say: thank you, all done, Dadeeeee, mama, sissy, and you love to say HI and YAY!
• You love to clap and say YAY!
• You can walk several steps and concentrate very hard when you are walking!

Thank you Liam and Lilah for coming into our family and bringing so much fun, making me a better mommy, Robert a better daddy, Caroline a fabulous big sister, and our family complete!  Thank you God for surrounding us with so many people to love us, support us, lift us up, and keep us sane during this year of learning to be parents to three children under the age of four.  Most of all thank you God for choosing us to be Liam and Lilah's family!  We are SO blessed!

*****Ooooops!  I almost forgot thier stats! 

- Liam - 21 lbs. 4.5 oz (25%), 29 in. long (25%)

-Lilah - 19 lbs. 9 oz (25%), 28.5 in. long (25%)

Tough Afternoon

Well we have had a tough afternoon here at the Cochran Casita.  Robert is off working a baseball game, so its just mommy and kiddos.  Liam pushed a dining room chair across the dining room and into the side of Lilah's head.




Then Liam was standing at the kid table in the living room and went to reach for a toy and fell over, splitting his lip on the table on the way down. 

Caroline is just hanging out with her double ear infection and watching all of the injuries!

Who is the mother of these children and why is she not supervising them?!?!?!?!?

Mommy needs a drink!

It has been WAY too long since I have posted!  I gotta get back on the bandwagon!  Since so much time has passed, I am just going to hit the high points!!

Easter - He is risen!
Easter was fun!  I totally dropped the ball and didn't get a picture of the kids in their cute outfits.  Bad mommy!  The babies had their first egg hunt and Caroline demonstrated that she is a pro at the egg hunting!


Liam was a wild man hunting the eggs!



Lilah preferred the eggs be brought directly to her!  She is far to dainty to crawl in the grass!



Caroline stayed focused on the prize!
CANDY!



Sharing strategy for next year!












Getaway!!
The weekend after Easter Robert and I got to get away to the Four Seasons in Scottsdale, Arizona!  Thanks to my saintly parents who volunteered to keep all 87 children, we got to have some "kid free" time!!!  Thanks to fabulous Auntie MerMer we got to stay at the MOST amazing resort!  It was so nice to not have a schedule, not panic if the restaurant said there would be a wait for a table (because we had no screaming children to have a Chernobyl style melt down due to extreme hunger!), be able to eat at restaurants that did not have a kid's menu, sleep until we wanted to wake up instead of having the remote control thrown in our face followed by demands for Dora, and lay by the pool without worrying if someone was going to drown!  Aside from my mom having to text me to remember not to cut Robert's steak up at our fancy dinner, we did a great job of being kidless and free!  We did miss them like crazy and were so happy to snuggle them when we got back! 

This was the view from my lounge chair by the pool!

Dentist
Caroline had her first trip to the dentist!  I know I am behind on that - I had twins.  That's my excuse for everything!  It was interesting!  She thought it was the most fun place in the world - until they asked her to sit in the chair or tried to touch her.  Then, she screamed bloody murder.  Luckily while she was screaming, the fabulous hygienist Gayna managed to look in her mouth enough to pronounce her cavity free!

This was part of the five seconds she actually sat in the chair!

Dynamic Duo
Liam and Lilah have become quite the pair lately!  They really seem to enjoy each other now - and enjoy causing trouble together!  Liam calls Lilah "Lala" and Lilah calls Liam "Bubba".  Whichever one wakes up first goes to the end of the crib and yells the other one's name until they wake up!  While I don't always love the times they choose to do this, it is pretty cute to hear and see it on the monitor!

Resetting the DirectTV box!

Playing in the water together!

School's Out for Summer
We had an absolutely FABULOUS year at Kidz at the Cross this year!  Both Liam and Lilah and Caroline were blessed to have amazing teachers (with more patience than I will ever have) that truly loved them and taught them SO much!  I just can't believe the year is over!  They all changed and grew SO much this year! I really can't believe I have to entertain all of these people every day for the next three months!!



First day of school!

 


Last day of school!














Whew!  It has been a jam packed last few months (hence the title of this post ;) )!  Now our summer adventures begin!  The babies will be ONE (NO WAY) and we are headed for the BEACH!  So much fun stuff to come!  I will do a better job documenting it!





Double Trouble!

Well, it finally happened.  The thing I have been dreading since I found out we were having twins.  The twin stomach virus.  Anyone with children dreads the stomach virus probably more than any other sickness.  With twins, its doubly dreaded!  I should have known something was wrong at swim lessons.  However, previous blogs have demonstrated that I am not the best at figuring out when my kids are sick and when they are just cranky!  I swear, they need a "check engine" light just like a car!  Then moms would know when the "check engine" light came on it was time to go to the doctor, but if they were just being cranky and the light isn't on, its just random baby behavior!  We went to our usual swim lesson and it was very odd.  Caroline did awesome - of course! - Lilah actually had fun and even smiled a couple of times which was a vast improvement over the first lesson when she clung to me and cried the whole time, but Liam screamed and cried the entire lesson!  Not like him at all, but his nap had been interrupted so I chalked it up to being tired.  The evening went as normal as crazy off-schedule swim lesson nights usually go.  The kids ate their dinner and the babies got to watch their new favorite show - water filling the bathtub for their bath.  I don't know why they love it, but it's a highlight of every day!

After bath, the babies were having their bedtime bottle when Liam threw up for the first time.  We got him cleaned up and started praying that it was just from crying so much at swimming or that he ate something off the floor while he was crawling around that made his tummy upset.  I know - way to go mommy hoping the baby ate something yucky off of the floor, but the stomach virus really is one of the worst case scenarios!  We got Liam cleaned up and everyone to bed and as we went to sleep a few hours later we thought we had dodged the bullet!  HA!  At 12:30 Liam woke up crying.  Robert went in and patted him and he laid back down.  He cried again about 12:45.  It was my turn, so I headed to the babies room to try to calm him down.  As soon as I went in the room, the yucky smell hit me and I knew that the stomach virus was here.  We managed to get Liam's yucky sheet off his bed and into the washer in the dark so we didn't wake Lilah up.  We made Liam a little bed of towels in our bed and tried to get some more sleep.  Liam was up and down throwing up for the rest of the night off and on, but no noise from Lilah we were hoping was a good thing.  That morning we were up at the usual time - thank you sweet Caroline - and Liam seemed to be doing a little better.  He was keeping down some Pedialyte and seemed to be pretty happy, all things considered.  Lilah slept late (almost 9:00), woke up very happy and laughing, drank her whole bottle, and started throwing up everywhere!  Caroline was a great little alarm system and took great joy in screaming at the top of her lungs, "Mommy, Daddy, the babies just threw up everywhere - AGAIN!".  Friday was filled with laundry, Pedialyte, naps (for the babies not mommy and daddy), laundry, a migraine for mommy, grocery shopping (thanks to SuperDad who could see the crazy coming out in my eyes and stayed home from work to help!), and more laundry.  It is just shocking to me how much laundry two pukey babies can create!  If we could figure out some way for pukey baby laundry to power our cars, the gas prices wouldn't matter at all!  The rest of the weekend they have been doing better tummy-wise, but still VERY cranky.  They must still be feeling yucky, but I wish they could figure out some sort of medicine to fix the cranky!  Its the hardest time to be a twin mommy when both of your babies aren't feeling well and want mommy to hold them, but there is only one mommy.  We are just praying that Caroline doesn't get sick, that Robert and I stay well, and that the cranky ends soon! 

Caroline was VERY excited to get to spend the night at her Cayah and Ike's house this weekend and has had a blast helping them plant new flowers in the backyard and taking them to Target to find new things that she needs!  She also had fun making banana pudding this week because according to her, she is a "cooker girl"! 

The babies have also figured out how to pull themselves up in their cribs and knock the CD player off of its shelf and screech back and forth to each other, so we lowered the cribs this weekend to try to minimize the trouble they can get into together - I am sure that's wishful thinking!  Here are the co-conspirators checking out the new crib level in Liam's crib!  I am sure they are already planning their next adventure!

Tulips and Tonsils

We have had a crazy couple of days here in Cochran Land!  Last night was our big Spring Program and Open House at CDO!  The theme was "God is Everywhere" and each classroom represented a different country.  My absolutely fantastic co-teacher Blythe and I were given the country of Holland to represent. We spent a long evening at Snuffers and racked our brains to come up with projects to do with the kids.  Blythe's husband Jimmy made us some fabulous flower boxes to hold tulips with each student's name and picture and Blythe burned a tracing of each child's name into each box!  We had windmills hanging and outside our door.  We really had so much fun working for hours and hours to make our vision a reality!  I think we were more excited than the kids when last night finally rolled around!  The room turned out fantastically and our wonderfully supportive parents were so impressed with all of their student's work! 

While Mommy worked late, Daddy was in charge of swim lesson night!  Mer bravely volunteered to come and help out because we need two adults in the water for Liam and Lilah while Caroline takes her "big girl" lesson at the same time.  At pick up time after school, Ms. Sunny and Ms. Vicki mentioned that Lilah had a tough day.  She was fussy and hadn't slept well and just laid on them for most of the day.  Since Lilah spent all of her last swim lesson crying and clinging to me and now screams through every bath time (I guess it causes flashbacks to the terrible swim lesson!), I decided to be a nice mommy and ask Auntie MerMer to keep her at home for snuggles while the little fishies (Caroline and Liam) went to swimming with Daddy!  From the looks of things, Lilah was thrilled with that decision!  She was fine all night and checked out great at the doctor, so I guess it was just the stress of the impending swim lesson that had her down all day!

Daddy made it through swimming, dinner, and got everyone in bed!  He's a keeper!

After a yummy late night dinner with the lively ladies of 4A and 4C, I was reluctantly awake early this morning to take Liam and Lilah to their 9 month check up.  Robert is applying for sainthood soon, so he agreed to go to the appointment with me so that I would not look like crazy Octomom trying to control all of my children in the doctor's office!  He had to leave the 9:30 appointment by 10:30 in order to get to Opening Day at the ballpark on time, so if the appointment ran late, I was on my own.  So, of course, the appointment ran late.  Robert was there to find out that the babies look perfect!  They are developing well, meeting their milestones and Liam (at 19 lbs. 6 oz.) weighs a pound more than Lilah (at 18 lbs. 5 oz.) and is a quarter of an inch longer than her (Liam 27.5 inches and Lilah 27.25 inches)!  Fortunately, the staff at the pediatrician's office is kind and they took pity on me.  After Robert left, Dr. Mix took Lilah and Caroline on a walk around the office while Liam and I got his vision screening done.  When Dr. Mix came back she mentioned that she would like to check Caroline out because her nose was really runny and her ear was draining a lot.  Yes, I am Mother of the Year, I wait for the doctor to notice my child is sick at my other childrens' appointment instead of realizing that my child is sick and taking her to the doctor.  Don't be jealous of my superior mothering skills!  She checked Caroline's ear and it was very infected and so clogged that no drops were even getting to the infection.  Her throat is also covered in pus (sorry for the gross visual) and her tonsils were huge and red.  Yep, right back where we started a few weeks ago when we ended up in the hospital with strep and dehydration.  Dr. Mix decided she needed to be seen by the ENT right away.  I asked if she meant right away now when both babies are screaming hysterically because they had no nap, are starving, and just had their finger pricked and Caroline is hysterical because she had her ear checked and her throat swabbed and I am BY MYSELF with all of them?  Yep, right now.  She called the ENT and he would see us as soon as we could get there.  I am proud of myself for not crying or begging some of the nurses to come with me until they called security to remove me and my screaming friends.  I gathered up the happy campers and we headed to the ENT.  In a flash of brilliance I called my dad who was working close by and he agreed to come and drive the babies around the parking lot while we were in the ENT's office so they could have their morning nap!  My dad the hero!  After two nurses, the doctor, and I held Caroline down and got her ear sucked out (again, sorry for the visual) we left with a 10 day course of high dose antibiotics and more ear drops.  We are really praying that this relapse is just do to the severity of her previous strep infection because if they can't get it under control, we will have to have her tonsils taken out.  She's already had her adenoids removed, so I asked the ENT if he had to go in to get the tonsils could he just go ahead and remove the appendix, the gallbladder, and anything else that might need to come out at any point in time.  We finally made it home at 12:45 from our 9:30 doctor appointment.  After a stop at Sonic of course!  Everyone is sleeping off the effects of a crazy morning and mommy is counting down until bedtime!  Here's hoping for a calm weekend (but what fun would that be?) :)