where we've been...

mostly here.....


and not in the relaxed, therapy appointment kinds of way. In the ER way. Twice, in one week.


visit one:
Sunday morning. Oliver had a stomach bug (third in six weeks, for those of us keeping track). He had a seizure the morning after it started, and it scared the hell out of me. We were at CHOP for two days, but in the end it was decided to be a febrile seizure - meaning very common (who knew?) and no need to see a neurologist (unless it happens again...).
Big boy was crazy brave, and CHOP was amazing. They put an IV in his arm (see blue cast thing to protect it, below), and I was reading him "Fox in Socks"** as they put the needle in; reader, the expression on his face never changed. Brilliant.

yep, paci came back. priorities, people!

feeling brave

visit two:
Friday. Violet was bitten in the face by my mom's dog. So horrifying and heart-breaking. SHE'S FINE, but it was an awful experience. I can assume (as I was in the other room....awesome) that Saydah was asleep and Violet gave her a big mama-hug, as she loves to do and startled her.
One of my (many) dreads in the world of autism has always been taking Violet to the ER- every time Ben and I have brought Oliver in (and I'm pretty sure this trip #6 for him) we say to each other, "Can you imagine if this was Violet?" and shudder.
She did beautifully, though, surprising us yet again with her resilience and fearlessness. Girlfriend is bleeding profusely from the chin, and calmly reiterating to any nurse, doctor and maintenance worker that no one is allowed to look at her ears. Irrigate the wounds? No prob.

post-irrigation, pre-stitches.

so, so tired.

at home, 3am with mama. feeling fortunate.





And, as much as I don't want my baby girl to have a scar on her chin, it's in the shape of a 'V', which has a coolness about it. Maybe a little bit magical?

** I recommend never choosing a Seuss book to read to your child in the ER, particularly 'Fox in Socks'. I might as well have been reading Japanese.

open letters

To the driver behind me,
I know your natural instinct might be to assume the slow driver in front of you is either A. old, B. drunk, C. texting or D. all of the above. In reality, I am a sober, relatively youthful, cellphone-on-the-floor driver with an autistic daughter who happens to be freaking the hell out at the moment. I am slowing down so I can try to pull over before my daughter vomits. Most likely, I won't make it, and will rush to get most of puke off before it soaks into the car seat and floor; also likely is a swift kick to my face in the process.

Please lay off your horn, and try to keep your middle finger unextended. Give a fellow driver the benefit of the doubt instead of making her say even more curse words even louder than she would anyway. Patience is contagious, dear driver.

kindly, Aimee


To the woman behind me at Target,

Yes, I do know that a three year old is too old for a child to have a baba, and I'm thoroughly impressed that your junior went right from "the boob to a sippy cup". However, I'm kind of busy right now teaching my daughter to use words, communicate with others, not run into the street, stop digging grooves into her face with her fingernails and to only eat four peanut butter and jelly sandwiches a day instead of 6. If the baba helps me do some grocery shopping for a half hour, I'm ridiculously cool with that.

Unless that was an offer to shop for me?

Kisses,
Aimee

Dear idiot staring at me at the Y,

Yes, dude, this is what a tantruming child looks like. This is, sometimes, what autism looks like. Put your freaking eyes back in your head and go ogle some lady on the stairmaster.

-A


and finally,

Dear other patrons at Starbucks,

Yes, I know it LOOKS like I'm spoiling my child, thus meriting your THREE eye rolls at me from your table. However, sometimes with autistic children things need to be a certain way, in a certain order. While I'm working on lessening the need for this, I'm pretty sure Starbucks isn't the place to do. Therefore, when my daughter's straw falls into her vanilla milk, and she throws herself on the ground sobbing, it's just the right move for me to simply buy her a new one, with straw intact.

You should be thanking me- do you have any idea what her tantrum would've done to your morning latte (see vomit and kicking, above letter)?

Caffeinatedly yours,
Aimee

a moment in the day in the life....

So, we've had another few hard days here- Violet is vomiting again, and we had our bag packed for the CHOP ER early Thursday morning. Luckily, the hospital trip was avoided, but I'll write more about that later- many fears and so confusing for our girl.

Violet's been so off since Wednesday night, it seems to make her extra-obsessive with certain things. For instance, instead of just NEEDING to watch Little Bear at any given moment, she'll need to watch a particular scene in a certain episode. Again and again. I feel glad I can usually figure out what it is, and it seems to give her a great comfort.

I was OVERJOYED to find this:

Both Violet and Oliver love(d) it for a good week. Now Violet only likes certain parts, and since she's not feeling well, I do what I can. If she asks for "Little Bear paint", we hit the forward button four times to the painting scene. If she asks for "Coffee and Pete", we forward to the scene where the animals meet the foxes, named Poppy and Pete.

Suddenly this morning, she started asking for "Little Bear mountain". I looked at the scene selection. He's a bear, he must climb on a mountain right? Looked through out 48 episodes of "Little Bear" that we've DVR'd (I do not exaggerate); nothing related to any mountains.

By this point, V is freaking. Screaming, "LITTLE BEAR MOUNTAIN" over and over. I finally just shove the movie in and hope we can find something that will appease her.

Almost immediately, she calms.

"Little Bear mountain", she sighs.

Once, again, she's right. And thankfully I can laugh at my girl for keeping me on my toes.

Road trip, ER trip and fingertip...

OK- huge post ahead, so beware! The Sheaffer foursome made our very first real trip together! Grampa and Popi had an *official as possible* commitment ceremony in Milwaukee, and we needed to be a part of it. We made the (worst possible EVER) decision to drive, with the (ridiculously optimistic) idea that the babies would sleep all night as we drove the (hellish, eternal) 14 hours there. To better summarize, let me make a timeline:


Road Trip from Hell:

Thursday:
5pm: Rental SUV is stuffed to the brim, babies are stuffed with grilled cheese and yogurt; off we go!

9pm: babies begin cycle of one falls asleep, the other screams and startles the other awake, and so on until about...

11pm: both asleep finally! Until- something wakes Violet up, and she sobs so hard she vomits. We are somewhere in dark, flat Ohio. Ben pulls over and takes her out, snuggling her vomit-covered body on the side of the road while I clean out the car seat. Yuck. All the ruckus wakes Oliver, who screams and shakes. I am feeling like we are back in the colic stage.

11:45: Back on the road. We start to watch a Baby Einstein DVD in the back to calm everyone down, but then I smell something awful. I ask Ben if it's possible that we're still in Amish country; he answers that he doubts it as we're in Ohio. I realize the smell is my beautiful doll-baby of a daughter, who has filled her diaper and then some. Sigh.
We stop for a road-side diaper change, and then, thankfully, both babies fall asleep. Whew!

2:30am: Ben feels his eyes closing so he pulls over to a rest stop. The four of us sleep there for an hour. Normally, I would be terrified of being murdered, or at least of strangers staring at us through the windows as we sleep, but I'm just grateful we can all sleep in the quiet.

3:30am: Ben rouses and we hit the road again. Babes are still asleep- wa-hoo!!

3:40am: a HUGE traffic standstill only miles from the rest stop. We turn the car off and sit here for TWO HOURS. It turns out to be at huge semi that drove off an overpass. What a nightmare- one of the (very few) benefits of driving at 3am should be NO traffic! Babes wake up at about 5am.

6am: back on the road.

6:30am: Ben pulls over on the wrong side of the road (i.e. not the shoulder) to vomit. O and V stare at daddy dry-heaving into the gravel as I scramble for towels and a new DVD to distract them....

10-ish: we arrive in Milwaukee!!!! Never happier to be there.

*everything in here I'll discuss later, since that's all the GOOD stuff! Let's continue the Timeline of Hell first:

Sunday:

1pm: on road- leaving earlier this time, since we know we can't count on the night sleep. The babies are asleep within moments of getting in car- they are exhausted from being TRUE party animals! This is the best part of the drive- they sleep for three hours straight, even with terrible Chicago traffic, and Ben and I get a chance to talk in quiet.

8pm: We've hit so much traffic that we decide to pull over at a hotel. We think we can take the babes for a swim, have dinner, maybe get some decent sleep and leave in the morning.

8:04pm: Getting Violet out of the backseat, I shut my hand in the car door. I scream words I wasn't even aware that I knew- it hurt THAT much. I basically caught the tip of my (so appropriately named) swear finger. I think I might vomit. Mostly I am worried because I do not have time for a broken finger- esp in the middle of South Bend, Indiana, where one can't even find Tylenol on a Sunday night. Hell.

10:30pm: I, my huge purple finger and Oliver are asleep in the pack n' play (yes, I am IN the p n' p), and Ben and Violet are asleep in the bed. Finally! I sleep fitfully because of my finger, and Ben because of the little monkey he's in bed with.

3:30am: Violet awakens, for no reason, and starts an intense conversation about cars, trucks and Cappy with Oliver, who immediately jumps out of the p n' p to chat. Ben and I laugh (I believe it's called delirium) and decide to just pack up and get on the road.

2pm: We drive and drive...babies sleep on and off (um, never at the same time though), we watch DVDs and change diapers and snack. Oliver seems really cranky....and at

2:30pm: Oliver yaks EVERYWHERE. Again and again and again. I want to get home!!! Somewhere in western Pennsylvania is a pair of horribly vomit-stained Baby Gap footie pajamas on the side of the road, just too gross to go back in the car.

5:30pm: After pulling over twice more for O to throw up, we get HOME. The car smells of every bodily fluid imaginable and is filled with french fries, crayons, dvds and the like, but we're HOME!!

postscript: Oliver kept NOTHING down after getting home, and we had to take him to the CHOP ER the next day. Poor baby! He was very brave, and it's an amazing facility. LUCKILY, they did not have to get liquids in by IV. They gave him a medicine to stop him from vomiting, and then we could get some juice in him. By the time we left, he was climbing on the Firetruck-shaped X-ray machine! Whew! And of course, no story about twins would be complete without Violet starting her stomach flu yesterday.....

the Sheaffer men!

babies dancing on the altar

high five, Uncle Adam!

Ollie, stealing the show!

Violet with Popi's niece, Ellie.

Oliver and Laurel- who will get the chair?

Ruby (Laurel's twin) and Ollie

O looking too dapper!!

laughing with mama!

Avery teaching Ollie about the truck

Oliver and Ben

And now, the good stuff! The babies LOVED being at Grampa and Popi's !! There was a HUGE yard, lots of flowers and trees, toys waiting for them to climb on, fountains and even a pond with fish!! I already love thinking about the memories my babies are going to make with their grandfathers. I have great memories myself of my grandparents' houses and land and towns, so I know this will be special.

The ceremony was beautiful, and both Grampa and Popi were very understanding when Oliver wanted to climb up on the altar with them mid-speech. I love, love Ben's family and really wish we saw them more often. The babies finally got to meet their twin cousins, Ruby and Laurel, who are adorable and sweet, like their big brother, Avery! We loved meeting some of Popi's family, too! The twins also loved spending quality time with Uncle Adam and Auntie Dana- who were, as always, amazing helps with letting mama and dada have a break! Seriously, could these babies be any luckier with these relatives?

love this baby girl!!

a little chat over a nice picnic dinner!

It's been a tough week here. A lot of random things adding up to very little sleep and lots of stress! Oliver got a fever over the weekend- poor baby. Ben immediately feared the Swine Flu and called the pediatrician. Luckily, as there were no other symptoms at all, Ollie was cleared.... His fever seemed better by Monday, but then Violet awoke with a horrible cough and runny nose. She was very under the weather, and as is usual for her when she has a cold, she vomited as well. I think it's just a case of too much mucus and a touch of her past reflux...makes for a huge mess, though!
Tuesday, Grammy came to watch the ill Peanut while Oliver and I did music class by ourselves. He had a great time, running around like crazy, dancing, playing the drums like you wouldn't believe...thought we were in the clear. Leaving class, I did *something* to my back- this has never been an issue for me before, but it was awful! It kept me up all night, along with both Violet and her cough and Oliver beginning to vomit at 4am. Ugh. His fever had spiked high again, he vomited twice before I could get some Tylenol in him.
Wednesday, everyone was off. My back was still killing me, Oliver had finally stopped vomiting, but refused to drink anything. Violet was still running from every orifice! I dug out my Percocet from my C-section (um, 23 months ago...). Of course it had expired, but I figured it couldn't hurt. It was AWESOME. Helped SO much!
Another long night last night, although not nearly as bad as the others. Ollie was up at midnight, crying and sad, but no fever. He had begun to cough- that same "bark" as his sister, and his nose was running. No more vomiting though, and he's eating better today! Violet seems on the road to wellness- still a bit of a cold, but seems to have her energy back!
Whew! More soon!

quarantined

poor sick babies!

still busy when they can be!

another short update from the sick, sick house of Sheaffer. YUCK! As both babies seemed to be improving on Thursday night, I woke up early Friday morning VERY sick. I vomited all that morning and missed opening night of Turandot (VERY sad). Ben missed work to stay home with the babies, and my glorious mom came in to help with EVERYTHING!
By Sunday, things seemed better for all three of us, and we thought the bug might pass Ben by...but he called as I was at my matinee, and Oliver was throwing up again! I was so upset- not knowing if he'd re-caught the same bug, gotten something new, or simply was getting too many solids too quickly. Ben called the pediatrician, who said she was "on the fence" about bringing Ollie into CHOP (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia- one of the top five in the nation). Ugh. So, as of now, we're watching him like a hawk, counting wet diapers, measuring pedialyte like crazy...and praying. Poor little puppy.

Backing up a bit, as we were putting everyone to bed last night, VIOLET starting vomiting again! I thought I would lose my mind. Poor baby. She seems a bit better this morning, and only threw up once last night, so, again, we're keeping our fingers crossed.

To top everything off- who can guess where this is going??- BEN woke up during the night, sick as a dog. As of now, 9:50 am, he is still vomiting, and I'm seriously hoping to stay well, if only to take care of my family, sanitize my house, and not miss any more performances. I feel as though I have puke seeping from my pores at this point, and plan on cloroxing my house from top to bottom, as soon as my nursing duties are on hiatus.




I'm adding some "sick photos". Really, how can they still be so cute when they feel so rotten? The video is Oliver eating a "Pedialyte popsicle". He usually isn't a fan of icy things, so I think he wasn't sure what to do....
(oh yeah- and I put it in a sock. Genius mommy!)

casa di influenza...

just a quick update as to why there have been no posts lately:

WE ARE IN BABY VOMIT HELL!

Both babies got (what we thought were) colds last weekend, and then Violet woke up vomiting Tuesday morning. When we finally saw some improvement before bed last night, Oliver woke us up vomiting in his crib at midnight. He and I (and Daddy) have been up on and off since then. So, at 5:31 am, I'm on my second cup of coffee, third load of laundry and praying both that Ollie can get some sleep after throwing up NINE times already, and that Violet wakes up feeling better.

Roseola....

Whew- what a long few days we've had! Oliver woke up on Friday morning with a REALLY high fever. No other symptoms, except fatigue and extreme crankiness. I know sometimes babies run fevers, so I tried to relax about it all, and comfort him. After two sleepless nights, reminiscient of our colic days (only with a baby weighing 26 lbs+ instead of 6-10lbs), our doctor saw us for an emergency visit on Sunday (again AWESOME pediatricians!). Oliver had vomited a few times, but it was always when his temp went up to 104, so the doctor thought it was due to the high fever, not a stomach bug. I started to get nervous when she found NOTHING as a source of infection. Everything I'd read said the only time to worry was when there were no other symptoms besides the fever! She offered to give Ollie a test to see if might be a bladder infection (read: catherizing my already hysterical baby), but said it was highly unlikely- thank goodness I opted out of that one.
Anyhow- she said her only thought was something called Roseola. We'd only know if when the fever broke he developed a rash everywhere. In the meantime, she doubled his dose of Motrin, and that helped a lot.
Monday I had a commercial shoot (SO hard to go to with Ollie not feeling well, but necessary for us financially), and by the time I returned home, Oliver's fever had broken, and Grammy and Dada noticed the rash on Oliver's head. This morning, it had spread over his torso and back. The fever is gone, but not the crankiness! At least he is sleeping and eating, and (I think!) on the road to recovery. Can everyone say a small prayer that POSSIBLY Violet might not catch this one?

Saturday was Ben and I's fifth anniversary! Of course, with one of us pacing with a sick boy, and the other playing with the well girl, we weren't able to celebrate. We hope to make up for it this coming weekend, with a movie (our last trip to the movie theater was April of 2007. Seriously.) and a meal.

I'm going to add some photos of the sick boy, just to commemorate the occasion.

could I love this sweet face any more?

June!

a friendly chat over the new toy...


belt? check. hair barrette? check. bracelet? check. Ooh...bracelet! Yummy...


a quick saltine cracker helps ease Oliver's fear of the blender sounds


nothing like a little tv-watching in the buff...



Wow...what an exhausting week. I wish I could say "TGIF", but it's all the same here! F or S or M...
Lots of vomit this week, for some reason, which is, in itself, tiring. I'm to the point where if I sense impending puke, I aim the gagging baby at myself. Not long ago, this would have disgusted me, but I realized quickly that I am so much easier to clean than our white carpet (possibly our dumbest decision ever), oriental rugs or the crib sheet (shockingly difficult and annoying to even remove). Today the sick one is Ollie. Every orifice is running and he just vomited everywhere (crib sheet, rug AND mommy). We took a quick bath together and then, sadly, I had to put him back down in the mopped up crib, since he'd been awake since 4am, and just needed to sleep, stinky crib or no. So much guilt in parenting!
My second nomination for Bad Mommy Award comes with the video below. Sometimes you see these clips on America's Funniest Home Videos, and I always berate the parents who taken them, wondering how on earth they could have let their children get so overtired. Alas, I now join the club. Violet just couldn't and wouldn't sleep the other day, so I needed to keep her on track with her brother, and push her a bit. The video is from dinner, where Grammy is trying desperately to get some pears into Violet so she might have a chance to sleep through the night. Poor baby girl. {note: it's on the long side! also, turn up your volume to hear Oliver's new specialty noise: "monster sounds"!}



Lastly, today is Daddy/Ben's birthday! Hooray! Unfortunately, it has not had the best start for him with our very difficult night. I'm hoping to make it up to him with a meal of wings and pizza, mint-chocolate chip ice cream in lieu of birthday cake and and a very cool Harry Potter anthology, chosen by O and V, of course!