So much excitment, so little time....

It's been an exciting week around the Cole household.
"I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it , I'm about about to lose control and I think I like it!"
Last weekend I was asked by a friend of my who writes for Baby Talk Magazine to write a blurp in a book that they are coming out with. Yes, BTM is coming out with a book, and I am going to be in it! Well, actually my youngest set of twins will be in it. How cool is that??? The chapter that I will be in is about children with special needs. Here is what will be published:

"Our second set of twins (that's right, we have two sets of two!) were born via c-section at 31 weeks. Our daughter came home after 26 days and our son was in for 40. I must admit, they were the longest 40 days of my life.

After being home for a couple of months, we noticed that our daughter's head was growing oddly. It was off the newborn growth chart. Our Pediatrician was concerned and ordered x-rays, CT scans and an MRI. After a few days we had learned that our daughter had sagittal synostosis - early fusion of her sagittal sutures [of the skull]. My husband and I desperately tried to learn everything that we could about this defect. Everything that we read pointed to surgery as the only fix.

We were sent to Children's hospital - 2 hours from our home, to meet with a neurosurgeon and a cranial facial surgeon. We were told that they would have to open her skull up, remove and reshape the pieces, and place it all back together with plates and screws. We were scared to death.

About a month later, our pediatrician noticed that our son's head was also growing to fast. Once again our pediatrician ordered x-rays, CT scans, and an MRI. The results came back that he too had craniosynostosis. But oddly enough he had sagittal and metopic synostosis. We were told that it is pretty rare to have two sutures fused. Knowing what we did from his sister's appointments, my husband and I were devastated. My husband and I could not believe it. How could both of our babies need need the same surgeries? And how do we explain this to their 3-year-old brother and sister? Thank goodness we have family close by. Our oldest kids pretty much moved in with my parents during the surgeries.

Our daughter's surgery came first. We packed up, moved into the Ronald McDonlad house, and kept in contact with our family and friends via phone, email and the caring bridge site we had set up for her. As a mother, I've learned that the hardest thing in life to do is to hand your child over to a surgical team. I could only hope that they understood how special their patient was. As we sat in the waiting room waiting for hourly updates, all we could do was to hope and pray that everything went smoothly. I kept thinking to myself, "they are not operating on an arm or a leg, they are taking the top of my daughter's skull off to repair it". All I could do was sit and cry. After seven hours of surgery, our daughter looked wonderful. We saw her in passing to the PICU. She was so beautiful. We spent a long four days in the hospital and then we were on our way home. The second hardest thing as a parent is to help one child recover while preparing yourself for you next child's surgery. My husband and I were both physically and emotionally drained.

One month later, we once again moved into the Ronald McDonald house and tried to mentally prepare ourselves for surgery. We handed our son over with tears in our eyes, and hoped that the surgeons would do as good of a job as they did with our daughter. Seven hours later we saw him in passing and he looked wonderful. Our doctors were terrific. Four days later we were on our way home, where we had two lonely 3-year-olds.

Recovery was a battle, but both babies survived it like champs. We are still making our two-hour trips to Children's to see our doctors, but things are looking pretty good. Only time will tell how well their heads will heal and if they will need any other treatment." --Cindy, Appleton, Wisconsin

I was told that the book will either come out later this fall or early next year.

As I sat here last night trying to catch up on all the blogs I normally read, I noticed that quiet a few of them including my girlfriend Molly, have been nominated of an award. How fun is that! Congrats everyone! While you guys are getting the goods, I am being nominated for the "Bad mother of the year" award.

Our whole family is struggling with a cold, but my husband has had it the worst. He has been taking everything in sight, but nothing has been helping. He has kept a bottle of CVS brand of Nighttime cold/flu on his night stand to help him sleep at night. WELL..... I found Cooper in there Wednesday afternoon drinking the half of bottle that was left. "OH MY GOD", How did he get the top open? What's the number for poison control? How much did he really drink?? How in the HELL did he get the top open?? So much for child proof tops.
As I am frantically running around trying to figure out who to call first - Cooper is laughing hysterically. I call poison control, they tell me he has a toxic level of Tylenol and I should take him to the ER. Do I take all 4 kids? Do I call Matt? My parents??? I finally decide on my parents, they rush over and alcohol boy and I run to Children's hospital - 20 miles away. We arrive, they sat us in the waiting room and that's where we stayed for an hour and a half before we were even called in. At this point Cooper is off the walls...I'm thinking to myself, "this crap makes me fall asleep, Why is he so hyper? "Because dummy that what one of the other active ingredients does to babies". So now I have a hyper -alcoholic. Lovely. Did I mention I had a hysterectomy just 2.5 weeks ago and I am only up to lifting 12 lbs? And Cooper is....25. Right on. We finally get called in, and they tell us they will draw his blood 4 hours from the time he drank it. Well, he drank it at 4:30, so I have to sit with this crazy drunk until 8:30 before anything can happen. Once again - Right on! For having a toxic level, they sure didn't move to fast. I think they were all entertained with him to be honest. Not so funny when you own him. A few hours later, they remembered where they put us and they drew his blood, which was not so pleasant , but they got it done.
5 hours later we were cleared to leave and I figure out how he got the top opened. Put the top in your mouth, bite down and turn the bottle!

CVS- May I suggest giving your bottles to babies to try out your "child proof tops"?