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Elisa's Diary Entries Diary Navigation: Choose A Diary Entry -------------------- Latest Entry: 12/21/00 -------------------- 11/22/00 10/27/00 9/12/00 8/20/00 8/4/00 7/14/00 6/2/00 5/19/00 5/6/00 4/21/00 4/15/00 4/3/00 3/18/00 3/10/00 3/6/00 2/18/00 2/11/00 2/2/00 1/20/00 1/14/00 1/7/00 12/31/99 12/24/99 12/17/99 -------------------- Elisa's Introduction

January 14, 2000

My toddlers are doing great! I’m happy to say they remained healthy this past week, despite the horrifying flu that attacked our house. Sunday night, I was so sick I thought I was going to die. I couldn’t keep any food or liquid down for hours and hours. I’ve never thrown up so much in my life. Alvin finally took me to the emergency room, where the wait was so long that I threw up in the waiting room while a 6-year-old boy cried hysterically from the pain his ear infection was causing. It was surreal.

When I finally got to lie down in my own private draped off room, I was hooked up to an IV (flashbacks to my 6-week hospital stay prior to giving birth to the twins tormented me). The fact that the nurse had to poke me twice before getting the needle in made it worse. Sigh. I remained on the IV for 7 hours – 3 liters (those bags they hang) of fluid later, they let me go home. I was sick the rest of the week, though, and now feel so drained. I lost a lot of muscle tone from being in bed so long (again!) and now my legs are weak. Ugh! Not this again. I had just started feeling stronger from the bed rest ordeal last year.

I hear the flu is really wiping out a lot of people around the country and that emergency rooms are filled to capacity. I hope you can avoid it. Next year, I will get my flu shot!! Alvin came down with it on Monday, so to have us both sick has been tough on the kids. Miraculously, CJ only developed slight symptoms and recovered quickly. The girls avoided it altogether, and I attribute this to the fact that they nursed through it and got all the antibodies from me. Gotta’ love breastfeeding for that! Actually, my milk supply diminished somewhat, since I was so dehydrated, but I kept nursing them anyway. They needed to connect with me, and I wanted them to have the protection. The milk supply is coming back now, and I’m glad. It would’ve been unfortunate to have to wean them this way – I’d like to do it when they want it to happen, and I don’t think they’re ready. The other issue, of course, is Julianna’s allergy to dairy. I still have to figure that out.

Julianna is now walking really steadily, holding only one of my hands with one of hers. She’s flirting with the idea of letting go – I can see the spark in her eye as she contemplates it. When she does let go and stands there alone, she is so proud of herself and giggles at me. She knows she’s doing important things. Cassandra watches her and smiles, as if she, too, is proud. And Cassie is doing so well at pulling up and cruising. She likes to pull herself up to the window and look outside at the snow. She is also getting to be more vocal and – dare I say it – whiny? Especially in the morning. She sleeps within eyesight distance of us and sees the moment we stir in our bed. After that, she whines until we pick her up and bring her to bed with us. This is at 5:00 am, so you can imagine we’re not too thrilled at being up for the day that early. She just won’t go back to sleep. It is fun, though, to have her snuggle and play with us. Julianna wakes at this hour, too, but if I nurse her, she usually falls back asleep for an hour, or else plays quietly in her crib.

CJ usually wakes at 6:00 am, then runs out to see us. After hanging out with us for a while, he goes and visits Julianna in her room, which is nice. It’s hard to be awake so early every day, but it’s so cool how the kids are all starting to interact. Today, CJ really played with his sisters for the first time. He seemed to enjoy their game of crawling under the bassinet we have filled with toys and joined in the fun. He was very sweet to them all night, and I’m so relieved. It’s been hard to see him so threatened by them and not wanting to share. This could be an anomaly, but it was it a great start.

Elisa, mom to CJ and C & J