Snow Day

Since I last wrote, a few things have happened with the Weavers that are worth mentioning.  Today was a snow day – among other things – so I’ve had plenty of quality (tormenting) time with my kids.  And, I was lucky enough to have Nana the Wonder Sitter all day as well.  The pesky snow day was late coming, and plans were already in place when school was called off, so we just moved forward with the original plan.  But more on that later.  First, some updates…

Finn has been home for a week now.  He came home 100% healthy, over the RSV, pneumonia, and whatever else he had, and back to normal.  This was a blessing and a curse.  Dad and I came home 100% exhausted.  It was hard to keep up with him and the Big Dream Weaver kids those first few days!  Last Thursday Finn had a follow up with his pediatrician which went perfectly well, then an appointment with the Ear, Nose and Throat doctor that afternoon.   Our pediatrician is working to schedule us an appointment with a pediatric pulmonologist for follow up, and the ENT scheduled Finn for ear tubes a week later (today).  Never a dull moment with him these days!

Friday was a SUPER EXCITING day!  If you’re a follower of the Six Dream Weavers, you know we have been touting BALTO week at Edmond North High School for several weeks.  Their benefactor this year is the March of Dimes NICU Family Support Specialist program.  Last Friday was the final assembly.  The one where everyone gets all emotional and thanks everyone for everything.  But, the best part?  They calculate and announce the final fundraising number!  Their goal for this year was $225,000.00.  We were pretty sure they would exceed that – this is an AMAZING group of kids – but we didn’t know by how much until the end of the 2 hour assembly.  When they raised the balloons to reveal the final number, the roar of the crowd was deafening, and the tears from the March of Dimes section of the stands were freely flowing.  My Instagram (BestWeave) from the moment:

And the final photo with the amount raised:

We are so excited to see how this money is used in the near future to grow the NICU Family Support Program from just one hospital in Oklahoma (Mercy) to at least one more in OKC and possibly Tulsa as well.  Having one at our hospital made a WORLD of difference in our NICU experience compared to many of our friends who had very different experiences at other hospitals.  THANK YOU, BALTO for choosing babies!

After a busy weekend of running the Bigs to birthday parties, basketball games, dance workshops, and church events, we were glad to get back to a routine on Monday.  Sort of.  The kids had the day out of school for President’s day, so Nana the Wonder Sitter was on quadruple duty while Dad and I went to work.  We really felt like we were starting to get back to normal and back into our routine at that point – even though we were still super tired as parents.  We were blessed by friends and neighbors with food for a few days, which kept us OUT of Wal-Mart for groceries and allowed us time to get the house (laundry, clutter, mail piles) in order without having to worry too much about food.  We are so grateful to have such wonderful people in our lives who love Finn as much as we do!

Of course, as we get back to normal, there is another little obstacle for us to overcome!  Finn was scheduled to have tubes put in his ears at 6:00 this morning.  Which isn’t really that big of a deal.  Except that we were having a thunder sleet storm over night and early this morning.  Ain’t NOBODY got time for that!  It was crazy.  And when we left our house shortly after 5:30 am to go across town to the Surgery Center, the roads were pretty bad – and getting worse!  Of course the process at the surgery center was a bit of a hurry up and wait game.  We were called back right at 6:00, but Finn wasn’t taken back for his procedure until 7:06.  During that time, we were obsessively checking local news channel websites and the Public School website for news of school cancellation.  EVERY town around us was called off; we just knew we would be too.  But, in the meantime, the plan was for Nana to come to our house at 7:00 to get the big kids up and off to the bus stop.  So when the School Board finally announced school closings at 6:50 am, my dad was already driving my mom to the other side of town to my house with chains on his tires to drop her off.  We could have avoided that whole scenario if school had been called off earlier!  The kids would have been fine by themselves until we got home.  *sigh* So, Finn was back in my arms by 7:21.  He did great!  Woke up a bit cranky, but overall did very, very well.  After a really great experience at Stillwater Surgery Center, we got home right at 8:00 am, and Dad went off to work, and I stayed home with the kids – and Nana!  It made for a pretty easy day with the extra help.  We weren’t sure how Finn would react, so it was nice to have extra hands to keep everyone clean, dry, entertained, and happy!  Finn did throw up once about 45 minutes after we got home, but he never ran a fever, had not had any more pain meds, and ate well the rest of the day.  They told us he would nap extra-long, too, but they have not met this child!  He was too worried he might be missing something his siblings were doing to sleep!

We really hope this procedure is a turning point for Finn.  We are looking forward to hearing words and seeing him take his first steps.  He has a hearing test scheduled for next week in Oklahoma City, but we’re thinking the tubes will have done the trick and that the hearing test will come back completely positive!  In the meantime, I hope my big kids get to go to school tomorrow, and I am looking forward to a calm weekend – it’s time to start tagging clothes for the Adorable Affordables sale!