I Was Delirious

I woke up the other day with a painful lump under my armpit. I was in a rush to get the kids out the door for a field trip we had planned for the local homeschooling group. I should have known what was coming, but I was too busy to see it until it was too late.

By the time I returned home from our field trip, my breast ached and it was very painful to nurse the babies. I knew by then that I had a plugged milk duct. I've had them many times before. Usually I can get them to go away very quickly but sometimes they persist and I develop mastitis. And this time that's exactly what happened.

Within minutes, I started to feel dizzy and ill. Next came the rapidly rising fever. I ushered the children back upstairs from the basement where we were doing school lessons. By the time I got everyone upstairs and sat down, the room was spinning and my head was throbbing. I remember talking to a friend on the phone but can't remember exactly what I said. I was confused and sick.

I took my temperature that afternoon and it was 105.5 degrees. I didn't even know that your body temperature could go that high without killing you! I thought for sure that I was going to die. I became delirious, crying out for Jason. The kids tore into the cabinets, fixing snacks and helping themselves as I lay crumpled on the couch. My nephew came over and kept the children under control so that I could rest. I don't know if I actually slept at all or just writhed in agony the whole time. I nursed babies on the infected breast constantly, trying desperately to unclog that duct.

I am starting to feel a bit better now, but still have a golf ball-sized lump near my armpit. My fever is gone but I still feel weak, shaky, and sore. Because of my experience working with so many other breastfeeding moms, as well as my own experience in the past, I'm confident that things will clear up on their own. Either that or my boob will just rot off.

All it takes is one day of illness to wipe out my New Year's resolutions. No shower, no time for myself, and certainly no running. That should just about do it! I didn't even make it through the month of January. Can I get a do-over?
I made the executive decision to hire a "mommy's helper" finally. I am still hoping to get respite care from the military, but in the meantime I am going to use some of Jason's extra combat pay to hire 2 teenage girls to help me. One will come on Monday afternoons for 4 hours and one will come on Thursday afternoons for 4 hours. I'm paying them $10/hr to help out while I'm here working (and hopefully taking a shower.) Is that a reasonable rate? These are teen girls from our local homeschooling group and I am not sure what the going rate is since I've never hired a babysitter before.

I've got my fingers crossed that we get some good news next week. As of right now, we still don't have a tenant for our house in Georgia. The current tenants are moving out in a few days so I'm starting to get nervous! I am so not cut out to be a landlord. My sanity can't handle it.
Have you checked out my Get Clean review? I extended the giveaway for these awesome products because I was on my deathbed the day the giveaway was supposed to end. If you haven't already, leave a comment for a chance to win!

Also, I recently read the greatest book about twins. If you have twins, are a twin, know twins, or just want to learn more about twins, you should read One and the Same. I can't say enough good things about it! I'm going to let everyone in my family read it. This book made me think about things that had never even crossed my mind when it comes to identical twins.

After reading One and the Same, I was even more curious about the research behind identical twinning. A lot of people ask me about the odds of having 2 sets of identical twins. My own family has wondered how on earth it happened. Heck, I ask myself that everyday! I emailed the author of the book, Abby Pogrebin, and she emailed an expert and asked him for me. What he said can be read on her blog, but basically this was his answer: If you have 2 sets of identical twins it's most likely that one set is not identical (not the case with us), the mother did IVF (not me!), or it's just a big coincidence. Yep, that's my kids-the big coincidence!

I'm going to go try to get this golf ball out of my boob. Here's hoping that everyone has a great weekend!

Who? What? When? Where? Why?

We woke up chilled to the bone this morning only to realize that we had no heat. I guess I might have forgotten to have the gas turned on when we moved into the new house. In my defense, it's been hot and all of the other utilities were on and my appliances are all electric. I kinda forgot we have a gas heater. Oops.

Today I can only think about one thing: Jason's coming!!!! We're picking him up (late) tonight.

I'm in the process of responding to all of the recent comments and questions. One suggestion I read was that I should include a time line of all of our moves because I'm sure that if I'm confused, you guys must be really wondering. So here is a brief summary of our year...

January- Jason left for officer training (Ft. Benning) with the Army after spending the last 5 years as a Persian-Farsi linguist. The kids and I stayed behind in Augusta, GA.

April- Jason graduated and came home for a brief visit.

May- Jason left for Ft. Sill, OK to do more training. The kids and I drove up to VA and looked at houses.

June- The kids and I moved out of our house in Georgia and it's being rented by another military family. We drove back and forth between GA and VA, finally ending up in Virginia at my sister-in-law's house for a few days.

July- Jason flew to VA and we all drove to Texas together. Jason picked up his car and we drove separately to Arizona. We spent the summer together in a furnished townhouse while he attended yet more training at Ft. Huachuca.

September- The kids and I left Jason in AZ and headed back to VA, stopping in Colorado to visit my dad. Then we moved into our new house in Virginia!

October- Jason just graduated from his training course and drove from Arizona to California, stopping in Monterey, where we used to live. Yesterday he drove from Monterey to Tacoma, Washington. This afternoon he'll board a plane and fly to DC where I'll pick him up. Then on Sunday we'll drive together back to Augusta, GA. We'll spend a week there before driving down to Orlando to visit Disney World.

November- We return home during the first week of November. Jason spends 4 days with us before he flies back to WA where he'll sign in at his new unit. He's stationed there now but he's deploying to Iraq. As a matter of fact, his unit is already there right now. I'll stay here in VA with the kids until Jason comes home next fall. Then we'll drive out to visit him and look for a house. Ultimately, the kids and I will move out there for a year or two until Jason can (hopefully) be stationed closer to "home." Home for us is Northern VA, where we were both born (at the same hospital) and raised.

If you think that's a lot of moving, consider this: We moved 4 times in less than 2 years when Jason first joined the Army. We had moved from Virginia to Maryland when I was pregnant with Matthew. When Matthew was almost a year old Jason left for Basic Training and I was pregnant with Joshua. I moved to California by myself, where I joined Jason as he attended school there. We spent all of 2004 in California. We spent almost all of 2005 in Texas before settling in Georgia that fall. Four babies later, we've moved again. The Army life is a wild ride. So is having twins. Never a dull moment!

Are you confused even more or does any of that make sense? To sum it up: We go where God sends us and make the best of whatever gets thrown at us!

Be sure to check out my latest review and giveaway over at It's Twinsanity Reviews. If you have children, you'll want to see what I'm giving away!

If you haven't already, check out The Blog Frog's new Premium membership. I was lucky enough to be one of the Community Leaders and have gotten to see all the benefits that the Blog Frog has to offer. I love the discussion forums (although mine is awfully quiet right now!) that foster a real sense of community. You never know, you might find some new blogging friends!

Reviews

I recently added a new link to the sidebar of my blog. It's a separate page for product and store reviews. I decided to add it so I can highlight some of the products we use and the stores we love. Since a good friend of mine just opened up a toy store that sells natural toys, I wanted to help spread the word.

You can find the reviews here. And there's even a special deal for my readers!