life has been chaotic.

while we had a wonderful christmas with the kids, it’s been a rough few weeks, everyone has been sick.  well, everyone except for ty, who is freaksishly healthy.  taryn brought something nasty home from her trip to louisiana and passed it all around.  on christmas eve, our pediatrician called with teagan’s blood wor results from all his brick dust / yellowing of the skin incidents and thankfully, everything came back normal.  we still don’t know what is causing it, but his urine tests and blood work looks good.  i was glad they called because he was on day 3 of running a fever and we thought they were closed for the holiday.  they had us bring him in for a quick check before Christmas and i’m so glad now that we did.  he had double ear infections and one was at a high risk of busting his ear drum.  another two days and it would have for sure.  i felt so bad…we didn’t know.  teagan is not a complainer, which sounds like a good thing, but it really isn’t.  he’s just not one to complain, didn’t pull on his ears much, we just didn’t know.  we put him on antibiotics and they worked wonderfully, he’s doing much better now.  add to that his cutting of his first tooth and he was a miserable guy for a few days.

we also hosted christmas this year, and had a full house.  it was a lot of fun, lots of visiting, lots of card playing, a little less food than normal since i wasn’t feeling well, but no one really seemed to mind to much.  the kids had a blast opening their gifts.  both ty and taryn were totally in to it this year and teagan hung in there and did his best to eat bows and stuff.  it was fabulous.

then, just like last year, my mom got here the day after christmas…the kids and i took off to the airport to greet her.  i was surpised when mr. separation anxiety himself reached out to her right away, score!  we have had a wonderful visit and it’s going by too fast.

then….last night at dinner my ear started to bother me a bit.  it hurt to chew and just felt like i was in an airplane with a lot of pressure.  by the time we got home i was pretty miserable, so i went to bed.  at 1 am i woke up in horrible pain.  i woke up jase and we dediced to head in to the er because we couldn’t find an urgent care place that was open.  i am so glad we did, by the time we got there my ear was much worse, constant popping and cracking on my left side.  the er doc took a look, said it didn’t look inflamed or infected, but likely pressure from being sick built up in my inner ear.  but as I sat there, it kept getting worse and worse.  i was holding on to jase and just crying through the pain.  i wouldn’t take anything stronger than tylenol because i’m nursing.  the nurse came back in because she could see / hear i was getting worse….and just as she was trying to convince me to do a pump and dump so i could take better meds, my ear drum burst.  while it hurt like hell, i instantly felt a release in the built up pressure and my ear started leaking fluid.  i was feeling much better.  the er doc came back in and said it was obviously infected.  obviously.

so, 4:30 am, we head to the pharmacy for some antibiotics, and then head home.  thankfully my mom was here to care for the kids and we didn’t have to tear them out of bed and take them with us.  i ended up sleeping until about 2 pm today but still woke up in a lot of pain and pressure on both sides.  i’m hearing a lot of echo sounds and still have a lot of sensitivity to noise.

photos of christmas and the good times to come….once we’re all back on our feet again.