The Slimick Family: Its Been A While (this is a long one)

Clearly we have been busy around here since I haven't posted anything since DECEMBER! Holy cow time flies when you can't remember what you did the day before!

We have literally just been trying to survive. It appears that since Maisie's birth back at the end of October at least one of us has been battling some sort of ailment. Three days after Maisie's birth Sophie and Jonah had horrible colds of which Jonah's ended being croup that scared us half to death. Then a week after we were over that Sophie came home from school with lice, LICE! I don't do bugs, ESPECIALLY bugs in
my child's hair! Thank goodness for my mom, even though I am pretty sure she was as skeeved out as I was, she came and vacuumed, washed bed sheets, and bagged up anything that couldn't be washed. Seriously y'all I felt like I should have had a HAZMAT suit on! Not long after that we discovered Maisie and I had thrush......Yaaaaaay. Anyhow that was a really fun ride that took a bit to time to clear up. Somewhere in between I think Jonah may have had an rad infection.....not sure things are still fuzzy. Then at the children's well visit, yes I said children our doctor is that awesome and that brave that he willingly put himself in an incredibly tight space with Neal and I and our 3 children, at this visit it was discovered that Maisie's left hip was a bit looser than the right. This warranted a referral to the Pediatric Orthopedist to have an ultrasound to rule out hip dislocation just like her mama who had to be in a harness for 4 months as a baby due to a dislocated left hip from birth. So naturally my mind there to all the negative possibilities my baby would have to endure. Luckily, two ortho visits later and a very hefty bill, all is well in that department and she goes back for a recheck and X-ray in a couple of months. Pretty sure there were a few runny noses and coughs in between there, nothing chart topping just normal annoying winter sickness. Through all of this Jonah just hadn't been the same since his battle with croup and therefore still had this nagging, lingering cough that just wouldn't clear and got progressively worse. At his well visit the doc gave us some super duper cough medicine that worked for a while, but not long enough, soon my baby boy was up several times a night crying and having coughing fits, hats off to my fabulous husband who got up with him EVERY TIME! Two more doctors visits for Jonah and both times we were told allergies, well it got so bad, with him coughing so hard he would gag and we were worried he was going to damage his vocal cords his cough was so violent. So Neal and I figured there was no way this was allergies alone so back we went to the doctor. Which brings us to our current battle of sickness; Monday night Sophie woke up throwing up while I was in nursing Maisie so poor Neal had to field that one, I walked into our bathroom to find Neal holding her hair back while she was covered in puke along with a nice pile of it on our bedroom carpet. Jonah was up and down all night coughing,
gagging, crying and now sweet Maisie started coughing.....not good. Sophie was on the mend by Tuesday night, but Maisie and Jonah weren't looking or sound so great. Back to the doctor Wednesday, again not sure what I would do without my mom she came to keep Sophie so I didn't have to take all 3 kiddos. After a full exam and two really invasive and really painful nose swabs (one for each kid in each nostril) it was determined that Maisie has RSV a lung infection with no course of treatment other than watch and wait. Jonah has an ear infection and the root of his 6 week long violent cough is still undetermined the hope is
though that the antibiotic for his ear will clear his cough. And Maisie, well she is a trooper, but oh so pitiful, she will still smile every now and again but she is obviously not her normal "Princess Happy Pants" as we like to call her. And that is where we stand as of today, still two sick little ones, but at least we have some answers. Through all of this we have prayed really hard I have talked to God on a daily basis and asked for clarity in the situation and for Him to reveal what He is trying to teach me. Patience? Strength? Gratitude? Thankfully the Lord always provides and He did so for me through my amazing husband who took time off work to help and suffered many sleepless nights caring for Jonah and just being there to listen to me vent, and through my best friend Heather who just listened and provided me with Scripture and support and reminded me that He is in control, and of course my mom who helps in any capacity she can. So I guess in the end this whole roller coaster of sickness isn't all negative since my Faith was strengthened and I was once again taught to be grateful for the people in my life who love me and my children and grateful that my children's illness are short lived and curable. However, once we are well I think we are just going to stay in the house until summer!

On a fun happy note Neal and I got iPhones! We scored a really awesome deal through his work, they had new ones in the box never issued to the big execs so we were able to buy them for $25 each! Couldn't pass that up! So I have a bunch of awesome pictures to upload and share that I took with the iPhone that are awesome quality, I always knew Neal had an affinity for Apple products and now I know why!

Now for the fun part....PICTURES!