Survival Mode

Our family has been in survival mode since coming home from our awesome Christmas Vacation in Utah.

Which would be the reason for the lack of posts over the last few weeks.

Shane came down with Hand, foot, mouth disease the day before our long flight home to Columbus. The night before our flight was torture. Shane was up almost every hour. We prayed a lot that we wouldn't die during our long day of flying home.

Needless to say, the Lord answered our prayers, we are still alive. He even blessed us with tender mercies; the flights were not nearly as bad as we expected.

Upon arriving home, the whole family began showing symptoms of Hand, foot and mouth. The kids had fairly mild cases, but Adam and I were in agony for what seemed like forever.

Makenzie got a boil and was then hospitalized for said boil. 2 nights and 3 days with Mom and Makenzie in the hospital tortured Shane. His world was turned upside down.

While Makenzie was in the hospital Shane decided to add his own drama to the mix and came down with a couple of ear infections. They must have been super painful because our normally happy little boy disappeared.

Despite being healthy once again, Makenzie did not resume her once wonderful sleeping schedule. She continued to wake more and more each night, which led to sleep deprivation for me.

After weeks of abuse my milk supply was no longer keeping up. Makenzie is still as stubborn as ever though and wouldn't take a bottle. So we resorted to our "if all else fails" plan: weaning cold turkey (I know this is a controversial thing, but we think it was the best choice for our family).

16 hours of no food and very little sleep and she finally broke down and took a bottle. I felt like I was breaking in a horse or something. It was one of the most emotionally awful days of my mothering life.

She is still reluctant to take the bottle during the day, but willingly takes it in her sleep. Well....at least she is eating. Baby steps, right?

Next on the list for trials/tribulations/obstacles? preventing infection from clogged milk ducks & easing engorgement pain, ear tubes for Shane, weaning Shane from our movie marathons, continuing my efforts to finish an independent study class to finally get my degree I started 6 years ago.

Bright spots? Makenzie healed quickly in the hospital, my happy kids are back and we smile and laugh together frequently each day despite our continued survival mode. They are my sunshine.

More on our awesome Christmas to come once I've caught up a bit more on sleep :)

In the meantime, check out my cute kids and funny husband: