It NEVER Fails to Happen...History Continues to Repeat Itself

Noe will be leaving the house around 6 a.m. on Thursday morning. What does that mean? Other than the fact that he is leaving for 18 months to Japan, it means that all hell must break loose. Let's look at his track record to further clarify my point.

After a 98 day stay in the NICU, the boys were released. Right away, Noe's father gets sick and Noe leaves to go to Texas. Fast forward about three months. I have to call 911 because Noah has turned blue and I was delivered the wrong sized nasal cannula for my oxygen concentrator. He is in there for eleven days because they couldn't figure out what exactly was wrong. After the first or second day in the hospital, Noe's father passed away. Noe was gone for a week while Noah was in the hospital, I was working, and three kids were still at home. Juggle that one! Luckily, and amazingly, when Noah was readmitted two days after being sent home, Noe actually didn't leave this state. Don't worry, he wouldn't let me down! Today Matthew and Noah were admitted to the hospital. ARGH!!!!!

Seriously? Can he not go away without putting our kids in the hospital? I seriously wonder at this point. Last week Leigha was pretty sick with congestion, coughing, etc. She was pretty wiped out for about three days, but eventually it was just a cough. About a day or two later, the boys started with the low fevers and coughing. Their eyes were pretty glossy and they just didn't act like themselves. They were barely eating, but they were drinking a ton!

Friday night I received the phone call from Nicole, our new nanny. I gave her a background on all of the boys and their medical histories in short. That included me saying something along the lines of, "they used to have issues but they don't anymore, don't worry about it." Will I ever be cured of the "open mouth insert foot" disease? I seriously don't think so. It falls right along with previous incidences of me opening my mouth:
1) Your cousin is having triplets? Tell her congratulations and have fun for the next 18 years (laughing).
2) Making fun of every friend I had who bought a minivan, the "mom" vehicle (did I mention I now drive an Odyssey?)
3) Watching other triplet moms' videos of their kids (cute as hell) jumping on their furniture and then making comments along the lines of, "I would NEVER let me kids jump on my furniture!" Anyone ever noticed the trashed green couch that I just got rid of in my pictures? The pictures where my kids are climbing all over my furniture?

I think you get the hint; the list goes on and on.

This morning I left the van so that Noe could take the boys in if he needed to. I guess that was an understatement. Nicole said they just laid on the couch this morning and didn't move. Noe took them to the doctor at 12:30 p.m. That was the last Nicole heard from him until 4:30 p.m. She stayed at the house with Robert because he was doing better (he still wasn't really eating, but he had no fever and he was playing). Nicole and I learned, around the same time, that both Matthew and Noah were admitted to the hospital. It seems that Matthew's oxygen saturation levels were at 80% and Noah's was at 88%. Isn't that just wonderful!? How would a parent know? Oh I don't know, maybe that $4,000 pulse-ox meter sitting in my house collecting dust!?

Needless to say, the first words out of my mouth when I walked in the door was, "Nicole, are you quitting?" She laughed. I wasn't kidding. Second day on the job and two kids are hospitalized. Wouldn't that make you want to quit? At least she will have an easier time with just Robert tomorrow.

Noe came home from the hospital around 6:30 p.m. tonight after they had fallen asleep. It was my turn! At least they had each other for company. This is why one of the NICU doctors threatened to separate Matthew and Noah in the NICU...the identicals might not look alike, but man do they go through everything together! I felt so bad for them when I walked in and saw them!



Rachel Coleman is amazing! She is not only in Ghana, Africa, but she is also with my boys, helping them feel better!


For the first few hours it was just heart wrenching. They were on .5 liters of oxygen and a continuous neubulizer breathing treatment. They just laid there, no resemblance of a smile on their faces at all. Then it happened, I think the medicine kicked in! I actually got a few smiles from Noah! They melted my heart.


Matthew was still running a fever, so he took a little bit longer to come around. They stripped him of his clothes and that seemed to help the fever.


Eventually, Matthew just wanted to sit up. He wouldn't have anything to do with lying back down.


Needless to say, Matthew and Noah weren't thrilled when the Respiratory Therapist returned for another breathing treatment.


I stayed at the hospital until 12:30 a.m. It was time to tag Noe and send him back. He had to come home and pack up some of the boxes he needs to ship to Japan tomorrow. Did I mention he leaves THURSDAY MORNING?! While I was there, Matthew's xray came back showing that he has pneumonia. We are still waiting for news on Noah's, but I'm pretty confident if one has it, the other one does, too! Noe just called to tell me that both tested positive for RSV. I would just like to mention that this is the first RSV season that my boys did NOT receive the shots. The shots for RSV are $1500 a shot. They each got one for 8-9 months, two years in a row. We were LUCKY to get approved to have a second year of shots, normally it's hard to even get the first RSV season covered unless you are a micro preemie.

So there you have it, Matthew and Noah are in the hospital with RSV and Pneumonia. Did I mention that Noe leaves in about 29 hours? Let's just hope that Robert is able to avoid the hospital. If not, then I say that Leigha and I find some excuse to get admitted, too. That would make everything so much easier!