I haven't decided if I'm really as unlucky as it's felt like, or if I'm actually lucky and we're looking at it all the wrong way. Everyone knows the issues that I had with the birth of our 7th child, but things could have been worse. Both of us made it through and he's doing awesome now. That's a huge blessing. Right after I get home I start having van trouble, but once again, it could have been worse. Thank God I had the trouble when we got home and not while we were still in Roanoke. Plus I have awesome friends that are technicians who took good care of us and had us fixed up in no time. Not two weeks after we get home, little Draven gets the flu, his temperature drops, he starts having spells of apnea and we have to call 911 on him. He gets transported back to Roanoke. Thank God we got him an ambulance,...who knows what could have happened had we not got him there fast enough. He was considered hypothermic and his Oxygen saturation was going down a lot. Everyone in our house at this time gets the flu and/or bronchitis. After we get settled back in with Draven at home and I get back to work I have to take Chris to the ER because he has pneumonia. At this point, I feel like I'm at my breaking point and I can take no more. About a week later we have to take him back to the ER because he gets worse. He was close to being admitted and I was close to an emotional breakdown. Come to find out, they gave him half the medication that he should have been on for as bad as his pneumonia really was. Luckily, we find this out before we leave and he doesn't get admitted. The same week we're dealing with his pneumonia we get a huge snow and my van gets stuck very close to a bank. After struggling to get up the hill, I decide to leave it. The next day when my brother comes to jump my van because the battery is dead, he asked me if I realized how close I was to heading off that bank. Thank God I left that van sitting that night instead of trying to get up anymore. I could have flipped right off that bank. After crying because we're going to have to pay to get a tow, my awesome neighbors saved the day and got us out. Soon after this happens, I finally think things are getting better. Things are getting back to normal, everyone is healthy, and I'm enjoying being back to work with a little routine. Then...here we go again....I hit a pole in the Walmart parking lot and total my van. To this day, I'm not sure what my thought process was....I can't see out my window, so instead of stopping until I can see I keep going? I know..I know...not so smart, and trust me, I've beat myself up over it a million times! Okay, so here I am....a week later trying to remind myself that it could have been worse. Thank goodness it was a pole and not a person or even another car! I was hurt, but could have been hurt much worse and could have had to be out of work for a long time with no pay. It is totally inconvenient that I have to purchase another car right now, but the timing could have been even more terrible. What if this would have happened when all this other stuff was going on? It can definitely always be worse.
Someone told me that with everything I've gone through, I'm going to see a big rainbow. But...maybe I already have. All of my family is alive and healthy. That is a blessing in itself! We've definitely gone through the trials lately, but considering what could have been.....the outcomes haven't been so bad. I'm praying though that after everything gets settled with our car situation, our trials can be over for now. The past 3 months have been emotionally draining. I know all things happen for a reason and you never are given more than you can handle...but I feel that my "how much I can handle meter" is about full.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Monday, January 7, 2013
The Best of Friends
There's two things that you can notice if you were to just watch my children. One is that they are very loving children. The expression "has never met a stranger" is very fitting for my kids. Just step foot in my house and you'll see! They are more than likely to meet you at the door and attack you....and on your way out they will be expecting a hug goodbye. The other thing you would notice is not only their love for people....but especially their love for one another. They are seriously the best of friends. Of course they have their little arguments and fights...but they are the closest siblings I've ever seen. If I go to the store with just a couple of them, they are always so concerned on bringing something back for the other brothers and sisters. It's seriously amazing. When we asked Jovie one day what she wanted for Christmas she said "I want another dream lite". When we asked her what she would possibly do with ANOTHER dream lite because she already had one, her reply was...."I want another dream lite so Kylee can have mine." These things are not things that just happen occasionally at our house, this is simply how they are most of the time.
My wish for them as they grow older is that they continue to stay so loving and caring and keep those great relationships that they have with one another. I'm sure that every parent wants this for their children, but my hope is that I can teach them and show them how important family is. This is my goal and I believe that the best way to know how to love is to BE loved and they definitely are surrounded by that in this house! So I will just sit back, love them, give them my time and attention, and pray for the best as they grow and continue their own lives.
My wish for them as they grow older is that they continue to stay so loving and caring and keep those great relationships that they have with one another. I'm sure that every parent wants this for their children, but my hope is that I can teach them and show them how important family is. This is my goal and I believe that the best way to know how to love is to BE loved and they definitely are surrounded by that in this house! So I will just sit back, love them, give them my time and attention, and pray for the best as they grow and continue their own lives.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Months of HUGE Lessons in Life
In May of this year I had found out I was pregnant with our lucky #7 shortly after finding out that I was accepted into the RN program. I knew that this was going to take a lot of hard work. I started the program working full time hours at my job, being a wife to my loving husband, a mother to six amazing children, and pregnant with our little boy. At the end of October I thought my world was crashing down. After 2 months of doing nothing but studying outside of classes and work and making myself physically ill because it's all I thought about, stressed about, and dreamed about.... I came to the realization that there was going to be one class that I wouldn't be able to get through with a 78 (which is the grade needed to progress in the nursing program). I ended up having to drop one of my nursing classes. I was devastated. I felt like all of my hard work had gone down the drain and my dreams were shattered. It was then that one of my nursing classmates, who had once been in my shoes, came to console me. She told me that day that all things happen for a reason and that I may not understand it now...but I would eventually. She even told me that there could be something that was going to need my attention more right now.
It wasn't 2 weeks later that I was sitting in one of the nursing classes that I was still enrolled in that I started to feel like I was working to breathe. My heart rate was going crazy, I was hot and shaky. I walked out in the middle of class that day and phoned my doctor because I knew something wasn't right. That's when he told me to go to the birthing center. I knew something wasn't right...but I didn't think it was an extreme situation so I made the decision to drive myself. However, when I went back into the room to grab my stuff, my friend Kiki wouldn't allow me to drive. She packed up everything and drove me to the hospital. When I got to the hospital, the lowest my resting heart rate got was 177. It was close to 190 the whole time. Then, the baby's heart rate started doing the same. He was in distress and no one knew what was going on with either of us so the doctor called an emergency c-section. After I woke up in recovery, I found out that my little guy was in bad shape. My placenta had abrupted (torn from the uterus) and there were two units of blood inside my uterus that he was aspirating into his lungs. They got him stable enough to transport to Roanoke's NICU but I had to stay in Montgomery. My hemoglobin had dropped to about a 4 and I needed a blood transfusion. I kept hearing how sick my little guy was...one nurse told me that he was one of the three sickest babies that she's ever seen at the birthing center, my ob told me that if we had been just a minute later there would have been no hope, and when the pediatrician came to talk to us it felt like she was preparing us for the worst. I went through a couple of days of not really knowing much and hearing just that he was the same and "one sick boy". After two days in the hospital and 5 units of blood, I finally was discharged and in Roanoke with my little man. In less that 24 hours after we made it there he started to make progress and things were looking up for him. Then it was milestone after milestone for him and he was discharged almost 3 weeks later. He did give us one huge scare on his second week home and we had to call 911. His temperature dropped to 93.7 and he started to turn blue on us. It's a VERY scary thing to have your child turning blue right in your arms---I wish to never experience anything like that again. It turned out that he had the flu, but he was discharged 2 days later. He's now a healthy little guy and for that I'm SO thankful.
So,....what all have I learned from this? I've learned so many life lessons that I probably couldn't tell you them all. I will tell you that my friend from nursing was right. All things DO happen for a reason. I believe that I was in the nursing program this semester to meet my friend Kiki. If I had been somewhere else or she hadn't have driven me, who knows how things would have turned out. She has also become one of my closest friends and quite frankly I don't know how I have lived till now not knowing her because she's AWESOME. Actually it feels as if I have known her my whole life...Pretty cool. The next thing I learned is that my friend was also right in saying that there may be something else that needed my attention. Draven continued to have feeding problems once we were home and has had to have a lot of mommy's attention. I don't know why everything happened but I do believe that some of it was a wake up call for me. I tried to stretch myself too thin. I was taking on 15 credits (not just credits...but nursing credits!) while trying to be a good mommy, a good wife, and a good employee. I needed to take a step back and enjoy the most important thing----my family! Everything that happened forced me to drop ALL of my classes and do just that....ALL my focus was now directed on them. I've been shown how blessed I am to have 7 magnificent children, and an amazing husband, and they should never be taken for granted. It's taught me I'm blessed to have life myself because it could have just as easily been taken away from me that day. This has also taught me how great the people are in my life and the importance of helping one another. I have had so many people help me in so many different ways, it's been amazing and I'll be forever grateful! My family, friends, coworkers, and even people we don't know have just poured out love to me and my family. This has now become a very high priority for me---to do for others and show others the significance of family and friends.
It wasn't 2 weeks later that I was sitting in one of the nursing classes that I was still enrolled in that I started to feel like I was working to breathe. My heart rate was going crazy, I was hot and shaky. I walked out in the middle of class that day and phoned my doctor because I knew something wasn't right. That's when he told me to go to the birthing center. I knew something wasn't right...but I didn't think it was an extreme situation so I made the decision to drive myself. However, when I went back into the room to grab my stuff, my friend Kiki wouldn't allow me to drive. She packed up everything and drove me to the hospital. When I got to the hospital, the lowest my resting heart rate got was 177. It was close to 190 the whole time. Then, the baby's heart rate started doing the same. He was in distress and no one knew what was going on with either of us so the doctor called an emergency c-section. After I woke up in recovery, I found out that my little guy was in bad shape. My placenta had abrupted (torn from the uterus) and there were two units of blood inside my uterus that he was aspirating into his lungs. They got him stable enough to transport to Roanoke's NICU but I had to stay in Montgomery. My hemoglobin had dropped to about a 4 and I needed a blood transfusion. I kept hearing how sick my little guy was...one nurse told me that he was one of the three sickest babies that she's ever seen at the birthing center, my ob told me that if we had been just a minute later there would have been no hope, and when the pediatrician came to talk to us it felt like she was preparing us for the worst. I went through a couple of days of not really knowing much and hearing just that he was the same and "one sick boy". After two days in the hospital and 5 units of blood, I finally was discharged and in Roanoke with my little man. In less that 24 hours after we made it there he started to make progress and things were looking up for him. Then it was milestone after milestone for him and he was discharged almost 3 weeks later. He did give us one huge scare on his second week home and we had to call 911. His temperature dropped to 93.7 and he started to turn blue on us. It's a VERY scary thing to have your child turning blue right in your arms---I wish to never experience anything like that again. It turned out that he had the flu, but he was discharged 2 days later. He's now a healthy little guy and for that I'm SO thankful.
So,....what all have I learned from this? I've learned so many life lessons that I probably couldn't tell you them all. I will tell you that my friend from nursing was right. All things DO happen for a reason. I believe that I was in the nursing program this semester to meet my friend Kiki. If I had been somewhere else or she hadn't have driven me, who knows how things would have turned out. She has also become one of my closest friends and quite frankly I don't know how I have lived till now not knowing her because she's AWESOME. Actually it feels as if I have known her my whole life...Pretty cool. The next thing I learned is that my friend was also right in saying that there may be something else that needed my attention. Draven continued to have feeding problems once we were home and has had to have a lot of mommy's attention. I don't know why everything happened but I do believe that some of it was a wake up call for me. I tried to stretch myself too thin. I was taking on 15 credits (not just credits...but nursing credits!) while trying to be a good mommy, a good wife, and a good employee. I needed to take a step back and enjoy the most important thing----my family! Everything that happened forced me to drop ALL of my classes and do just that....ALL my focus was now directed on them. I've been shown how blessed I am to have 7 magnificent children, and an amazing husband, and they should never be taken for granted. It's taught me I'm blessed to have life myself because it could have just as easily been taken away from me that day. This has also taught me how great the people are in my life and the importance of helping one another. I have had so many people help me in so many different ways, it's been amazing and I'll be forever grateful! My family, friends, coworkers, and even people we don't know have just poured out love to me and my family. This has now become a very high priority for me---to do for others and show others the significance of family and friends.
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