April 2018: A Special Month

April 13th is a extra special day for our family this year for 3 reasons:

1. It is Tony's birthday
2. It is Bridget's half birthday
3. It is Kai's 4 month-aversary

Being that is was Tony's b-day we spent the day as a family, shoe shopping (Tony's choice), lunch at Chick-fil-A and then chilling at home.





Kai, being 4 months old now got to start eating solid foods. As of 4:35 pm today he has tried:

Baby oatmeal
Banana
Apple sauce

Apple sauce is his favorite thus far. Haha.

As far as the kids go, Kai is HUGE! I don't mean he is getting huge, I mean he is a total chunk. I am sure he is just normal, but compared to B he is a monster. He's up to 15 lbs and almost out of his 3 month clothes.

Kai is a TALKER. He'll just talk to everyone and everything (like his stuffed animals) and go on 10 minute rants.  Bridget was a talker, but I don't remember like this. At this point in time, Bridget will talk to a wall, but Kai may turn out to be moreso of a talker. Let's say this is a trait they got from their Daddy. Our house may never be quiet again. He hasn't figured out how to roll from back to tummy, but he's trying. He uses his large ab to sit up fairly easily but can't quiet toss his leg over the belly. It's adorable how large he is.

Bridget is such a big girl now. She really has grownup so much. We still call her baby, but she isn't a baby anymore. She's much taller, a little too perceptive, and has become a full on kid. These last few months have taken a toll on all of us, but it has become very apparent on our little girl. She is one of those that will stand up for herself and is a proponent for the underdog. She is fiercely proud of her little brother and still constantly steps in to help with whatever needs to be done.

We're going to enter a much darker part of our lives now, so if you're interested in our personal hardships, read on. If you were here only for kids, I don't blame ya and you should exit out of this blog post now. Till next month with more cute pictures and videos!

Let's talk about these last two months behind the scenes. Trails hit our house HARD. At the beginning of March Tony had a really cool opportunity to serve a week long medical mission to the Dominica Republic. During his time there he helped treat and diagnose about 200 patients. It was a very cool experience for him. However, those 6 days also left me solo parenting a 2 month old and a Bridget. I know I can parent, but I don't always have the confidence for long periods of time. I guess I rely on Tony a bit too much to diffuse myself and B. Anyway, within the week that he was gone I was a rockstar mom; we had fresh fruits and vegetables for nearly every meal. We got out every day. I didn't have much adult contact,but we got to use snapchat a few times during the week to see Dad. Before Tony came back I started having stomach problems - like blood in my poo. And a bit of it.

Life went back to the way it was supposed to with Dad being back.. except for Tony being gone from 6 to 8:30.... and the blood continued. More every day. I wasn't able to keep meals in. I finally went to the hospital where they treated me for ulcerative colitis, gave me a colonoscopy, and sent me home after 4 days. The exact day I went into the hospital Bridget had some type of seizure while at the mall with Tony and Kai. She had been running in the toddler area when she just suddenly flopped over and began to "convulse". Tony tried waking her up and after slowly coming to, he took her to a hospital. The ER didn't do anything and said she was fine, but that type of behavior definitely was not normal for her. Thankfully nothing has come since then. That was a very stressful day for Tony.

On top of all that, I had to stop breastfeeding Kai due to the medications and my malnutrition. Knowing how difficult it was to breastfeed at all, I had to come to terms with this. I got home with a bunch of meds and immediately started regressing again. My parents had come up to help with the kids when I was in the hospital and then they helped move our things from Jersey back down to their place in Maryland. The five hour trip went really well- Kai slept until the last ten minutes of the trip and B was an awesome roadtripper. I stayed in bed for a few days before Tony made the final trek down from Jersey and then made me re-enter a hospital.

I was therefor 8 days. I lost a ton of weight and muscle- I'm lighter than when I started high school, but the medicines are working now. I have to start a life-long regimen of transfusion medications given every eight weeks in hopes of keeping my disease in remission. Tony had to push back his final rotation to take care of the kids so instead of being here for only a month we'll be here for two.

Honestly, we've basically hit rock bottom. Things can not really go anywhere but up from here. We each received very hopeful blessings from my family's home teacher (ministrant??) when I got out of the hospital and since then I haven't been dreading the future. I'm tired. We're tired. We're strained and stretched and at a point where all we can do is ride out the waves. I'm grateful that Tony was at a time in his life where he could take the kids when I was gone. I'm grateful that we have family and even friends that were willing to drop everything and come help our messy lives. I'm grateful that medicaid in Maryland is so incredibly easy to become apart of- need I mention that I got kicked off medicaid in Jersey AGAIN?! Yeah. that hospital bill is going to be a beauty. But that is our life right now. All we can do is focus on each other, on the kids, on getting our health in order, and keeping our head above water.  We really enjoying all the family time and watching our kids grow up. It's a rare opportunity to get to get up each day and not have a whole agenda in mind, so I guess I'm grateful for this day-to-day season.