Serah in the PICU

Monday Angel caught a stomach bug.  She shared it with the rest of the family.  We tried to keep Seraph isolated but she'd already caught it.  Then we tried to keep her hydrated with extra Pedialyte.  But she had more output than we could safely rehydrate at home.

We did keep her hydrated enough that we were able to drive to the hospital ourselves instead of taking an ambulance.

She's unhappy.  She's already lost her first IV.  The second IV isn't working very well.  So, they've already put in a third IV.  Both hands are all taped up.

She's going to be OK...but her mommy is sad.  I don't want to leave her here.  ...and she doesn't want me to go.  :(

Please keep her in your prayers.  Pray that she'll rehydrate soon and that she won't catch anything while she's here.  Thank you.

Slow Cooker Heaven

Last night I dumped a roast into my brand new slow cooker:

Now, I know you're supposed to start it in the morning, but I'm used to cooking my roasts overnight in the oven.  I put in 2 cups of water (more than I needed for this roast), then whole frozen garlic cloves, then the 8 lb roast.   I cooked it on high for an hour...and then switched to low for 10 hours...with 10 hours of warming after that.

I didn't leave it in all that time.  I think it only got 5 hours of warming.  I was worried about the internal temperature.  My mommy gave me her meat thermometer.  (The battery in my old one died!).  When I poked the thermometer in (after the 10 hours of cooking), the meat was well into the beef range (170+ F).  I had to poke it several times because it felt like I was pushing the thermometer into soft butter.  I worried I'd hit a patch of fat.  Nope, just tender.  mMMmmmmmmmMmMM!

I added cubed potatoes and sliced tomatoes about an hour before serving.  I think I'd add them sooner next time.  The potatoes were barely soft enough to be considered cooked.  We only ate about half the roast, leaving half for left overs and then some nice stew base. I didn't even bother trying to cut the roast.  I just broke off pieces with a plastic spatula.

The kids loved it - but demanded ketchup..hehe.  

I signed up for amazon's affiliate program just so I could easily find this picture/link, so I hope you like it:

It did NOT heat up my whole house like the oven does.  I love that the ceramic bowl comes out for serving.  The lid and the ceramic bowl can go in the fridge/microwave/dishwasher.  How cool is that!!

I think everyone else has already jumped on the slow-cooking wagon...but this was my first run and I loved it. I'm excited to check out crockpot365.blogspot.com that several people have suggested. 

I picked this slow cooker because it's huge - 6 1/2 quarts - and had the best reviews I could find on Amazon. I have a big family and like leftovers when they're yummy.  

No complaints so far.  Happy we got it :)

• Tweens need alone time.
• girlie lunches are fun!
• Seraph's added "Aabaa" to her vocab
• Seraph's favorite game is still drop-things-and-say, "ah-oh"......so, do NOT give her your cell phone!!
• Watching Finch cry every time she loses a game has helped Bear to NOT care as much about losing games.
• I still haven't read The Hunger Games (Rabbit walked off with it)
• I'm LOVING our grassy/hilly sideyard - yay for warm weather, too
• I had an inspiring weekend (writer-wise)
• oooooh, my sis-in-law talked me into getting a slow-cooker/crock pot....so leave me your fav recipies
• also looking forward to my new camera (one that does NOT share battery-size with the Wii motes)
• re-met bunches of other heart moms this weekend....and then lost their blog addy's.  (I'll find my notebook....I think the kids walked off with it...)
• Angel is drawn to the street.  Rabbit used to like to go places.  Angel just likes standing in the street.  /sigh
• RSV season is almost over here!  Keep washing those hands!!
• Liked that Sharon didn't get fired tonight.  I love this show way more than I should!
• Why won't my kids eat potatoes?

All I need to make it through my morning....

(Click the pictures and enjoy!)

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Sit Boy!

• What's the proper etiquette for when your house guest ends up in the hospital?
• Moms are good luck - esp when you've lost a check and need to find it before the banks close.
• Angel knows how to ski jump from watching the kids play Wii Fit
• Wii Fit PLUS is awesome!!
• The insurance nightmare is almost sorted. Yay!
• I CAN take all the kids for a walk without going crazy....next stop: the park?? (haven't tried crossing streets yet)
• Books can knock on your door!  I'm 80 pages into Leigh Russel's Cut Short.  I really like it so far. What I love even more is that she popped over to my blog to suggest I might like her book (because I like Jeffery Deaver's books and he liked her book and gave it a good review).   How cool is that??  I'm happy for Leigh that Deaver liked it and proud of her for tracking me down to suggest it to me.  Very cool :)
• I LOVE reading the books that Beautiful Rabbit is reading.  Today we're reading the Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong.  (Book 3 in the series)
• Yes, we'll eventually get to the Hunger Games.
• I HATE GLEE!!!!!  I tried to like it, I really did.....BUT  someday you're gonna be totally embarrassed that you ever watched this show.  Ewwwwww!! The crazy thing is it's like highschool musical meets mean girls meets moulon rouge--all of which I liked well enough. but just ewwww!
• On a rainy day, the kids act like the world is ending when I turn off the Wii.
• Is it wrong that I want to get all my kids this?  Sit boy!!

Night Terrors Update

When I tucked her into bed, Delightful Finch shivered and asked, "Mommy, will you take care of me?" She said that a LOT during her night terrors episode.  (This makes me think she does remember the experience.)

She looked scared.  ...and I'm a big push-over.  So, I grabbed a binky that had been lost under the bed and popped it in her mouth.  I rested my hand on her cheek.  She almost immediately fell asleep and didn't wake until morning.

Binkys are weird at my house.  Finch (age 3) is usually not allowed to have a binky. Angel (22 months) is still firmly attached to her binky - esp when something sad happens.  We try to encourage Seraph (22 months) to play with a binky.  She mostly chews on it, but sometimes she sucks.  She needs to develop those binky-sucking muscles more.

Finch often steals a binky from one of the twins.  Sometimes she takes it out if I catch her with it.  Sometimes she drops it into her hand and then hides in the cabinets under the sink so she can suck on her stolen binky in peace.

I decided I'd rather have her regress to binkys at night than have more night terrors.  Binkys make her feel safe.  I'll steal it away again in a month or so ;)

Night Terrors

Early this morning, I had my first experience with night terrors.  Oh my!!  Thank heavens I'd at least read about them before she started screaming.  It scared me to pieces!

Delightful Finch and Angel woke me up just before 6am - very early for them.  "Put on Funny Bear," they chanted. It was too early!  I put them both back to bed.  Ten minutes later, Finch started screaming.

I've never seen anyone so completely terrified in my whole life.  

Night terrors happen when you're partly awake and partly asleep.  It seemed like she was seeing something coming towards her.  She screamed about monsters.  The monsters were trying to bite her. Even holding her with all the lights on, she kept "seeing" monsters.  She was shaking and tense.  Every 5-10 seconds she's let loose a death scream.  

Most kids have night terrors when they're still asleep.  With open eyes, they scream and thrash until the episode ends.  It can last up to 40 minutes. I'm pretty sure Finch was mostly awake.  After almost an hour of watching Sesame Street on my lap, she finally relaxed.  I left her watching TV and went back to bed.

An hour later, the screaming started up again.  This time I took her into bed with me.  I covered her eyes and told her to close her eyes.  I figured she'd either stop seeing things or I'd be able to tell her it wasn't real.  She soon fell asleep in my arms.  The instant I moved to get up, she woke up.

There's nothing you can really do to help or comfort your child in the middle of night terrors.  Usually you just watch to make sure they don't hurt themselves when they thrash around. You're not supposed to try to wake them up.  They say night terrors are harder on the parents than the child.  The child has no memory of the incident in the morning.

I hope you never have to see this first hand, but if it happens I hope you'll remember hearing about it and not freak out as much.