Weekly Update

{WARNING: there is lots of poop talk in this blog.}

Tenley was excited for school on Monday and sat on Daddy's lap while waiting for Miss Linda to come get her:

Remember how we thought Ev got bit by a scorpion last weekend? Well, she wasn't much better...she woke up at 12:58am and was arching her back, screaming and was just inconsolable until some time after 2am. It was so awful. We called the pediatrician and got her in right after we dropped Tenley off. It's the most bizarre thing because she goes from being in so much pain to being the happiest little girl you've ever seen. She was so good and full of smiles at the pediatrician's office:

We gave her ped her ER paperwork from Saturday and they also weren't positive it wasn't a scorpion bite, but if it were the only thing we could do is give her tylenol. We told her how she suffers from constipation here and there where she'll ball her hands into fists and grunt when she's trying to go, but hold it in and asked if that could be causing that much pain and she didn't think so. We also said that she is getting her canines and could it be this painful for her and she also shot that down. She said that it is possible that she could be having a form of seizure since when she is having these episodes her eyes sort of glaze over as if she isn't present and how she stiffens her bones, but said it isn't likely since she moves so much and is very vocal when she is having one of these fits. Just to be sure it isn't something neurological she referred us to a specialist and have an appointment on October 20th. Since the twins were so good at the appointment we treated them to suckers on the way back to Tenley's school:

This week Tenley is learning about the letter 'F' and colors. We were in charge of snacks so we brought rainbow goldfish; which was perfect because when we picked her up she showed us this fish with "shimma scales" and told us that they read 'The Rainbow Fish' (one of my favs!):

The twins were exhausted from their morning at the doctors and napped so peacefully together:

After naps, Ev woke up in a great mood and nursed. All of a sudden she slowly started to moan and move like she was in pain and then began to arch her back. This time we could see the episode coming on, we could see the pain in her face. We were so worried it was something with her brain now that we didn't want to take any chances so Ed took he to the ER in hopes to get answers. He got a different doctor and after this doctor watched the video of Ev's episode he said he didn't believe it was seizures and thought it was more pain related. Ed then told him how she is constipated a lot so he ordered an x-ray of her belly and sure enough everything was full of poop. Although it was sad to think she was in pain, it was also kind of relieving to think that we may be close to figuring this out. The doc suggested going home and giving her miralax and an enema, if the miralax didn't work. Baby girl just chilled while Daddy did paperwork because she got to use the iPad for the first time:

Meanwhile back at home Tenley was dressing Wes up because I was busy cooking dinner:

Evie refused to eat anything with miralax in it and even the enema before bed only got out a little bit of poop; which Ed said if I saw the x-ray I'd know there was a shit storm waiting to come out. So to keep our minds off what was to come we took the kids on the longest wagon ride EVER. We took them up to the water towers then to the newest park they built by our house:

The kids love birds so we painted a bird house to hang in the backyard. We had so much fun painting it (and each other):

Our painting party was followed by another enema for Evie Tuesday night because she still hadn't pooped on her own. Although she seemed to be acting more like herself we knew there was much more in there that needed to come out. The enema still only got out a normal sized poop, but anything was better than nothing. 

Wednesday was a great day for 2 reasons... 1) most importantly, Evie was happy and seemed better, for now. 2) you may have noticed Ed around a lot more. Well, he was on furlough from work for 3.5 weeks (for the 2nd time), but finally went back to work on Wednesday. (HALLELUJAH!) So to say it's been rough around here is a mild understatement. We have been trying to stay positive throughout it all and looking at the bright side...we have each other, food, our families, friends and a roof over our head. It could be so much worse; we are very lucky! 

Needless to say, we were thrilled to be back to our normal routine with Daddy at work and Evie feeling good. We were up and at it early and doing the happy dance while getting ready to take Tenley to school:

After dropping Tenley off at school, I took the twins to the park to test out our new pumpkin ball and we had a blast:

These kiddos sure were tired after carrying that ball all over the park:

That night we FaceTimed with our besties who really put massive smiles on our faces:

Evie hadn't pooped since her enema Tuesday night and we were back to the back-arching episodes on Thursday... I promise I do not take these pictures to be awful, I do it to show her doctors or maybe someone will see it and say "hey, my daughter did that when..." I mean, it is so bizarre and unexplainable because you wouldn't expect this from her:

On Friday I needed to get out and quiet my mind so I walked Tenley to school. On my way out the door Francesca texted me so I called her and the twins and I walked to her house after dropping Tenley off. It was such a peaceful walk and we had such a great visit with Frannie, Milly Moo and Lola, too:

I was running a bit behind so I had to literally run to pick Tenley up. With the temperature at around 100 degrees I was dying. When I got home I texted Frannie this picture:

Wes fell asleep on the run home, but Tenley woke him up because she was excited to see him and read him the book she made at school:

After she read to the twins they passed out on me:

Ev woke up all smiles and we finally figured out the trick to her drinking prune juice- girlfriend likes it straight, not watered down. Then, she started to go into an episode that lasted a pretty long time:

We couldn't keep giving her enemas and I wasn't sure how much prune juice she would need for it to actually work on her. Well, apparently a full sippy cup a few hours before bed was not the solution because after her fit she pooped 4 times. She went to bed so happy. Thank you, Jesus!

When we bought Tenley's crib we bought her one of those awesome 'Forever Beds'. Well, I guess they're only awesome if the company stays in business forever... Tenley outgrew her Toddler bed a little over 6 months ago and we've been putting off converting it because lets face it bedding and everything is pricey. Well, turns out the manufacturer went out of business and now this 'Forever Bed'  is now a 'Never Happening Bed'. With Ed being Furloughed twice recently we've been in a real pinch to find something cheap, if that's even possible (it's not). Ed says I just have expensive taste, but I literally looked everywhere for the type of bed I wanted for Tenley. I finally found a used one on Etsy, but it was in Chicago so it took f-o-r-e-v-e-r to get here! We finally got it Friday morning so Ed began sanding it Friday night so he could re-paint it:

(Tenley has no idea the bed is in the garage and we're going to do her room while she's gone one day to surprise her...I can't wait!)

Just when I think Ev is going to be good because she released her weight in poop the previous night, she had another episode while we were on our way to Tenley's dance class. The poor thing was so exhausted from crying so much that she slept through the entire class:

We made these silly pumpkins after dance class:

(Daddy + Mommy's Pumpkins)

(Tenley, Everly + Wesley's Pumpkins)

While Wes napped and Tenley relaxed, Evie danced and played so sweetly:

Evie and I went grocery shopping and I treated her to a lollipop since she's so dang cute and she picked out some Car stickers for brother while I shopped:

We went to the Rices Saturday night for a surprise 35th anniversary party for her parents, Sandi and Lou. They are the sweetest couple and were so surprised when they saw everyone. We had such a good time celebrating their inspiring marriage and Tenley really loved the cake. So much so that she went around to everyone at the table and begged them for a piece of their slice, we were dying:

Evie woke up fine on Sunday, then after I made the kids pancakes for breakfast she began to bend over like she was going to do a somersault and just stayed on her head and screamed. We are just at a loss and turned to google for some answers (Celiac's Disease? Hirschsprung's Disease?), but only scared ourselves even more. The only thing that calmed her down was nursing. Other than that, we had a really laid back day and stuck to everything gluten free as we are trying everything out to help sweet Evie:

Ed sanded Tenley's old dresser last night so once the kids went to bed he got to transforming her furniture:

I came across this quote and was taken back by it:

Life gets chaotic at times and I think it's important to remember that everyone is facing struggles and you must remember to still uplift your loved ones and even strangers because you never know what they could be facing. 

I'm hoping that everyone has a great week and I'm praying super hard that we get answers for Evie this week. Please keep her in your prayer as well!