A HORRIBLE TRAGEDY AVOIDED...THANK GOD!!!

OK, I know by the title you are probably wondering what in the world happened. Well, let me just tell you that yesterday we had something happen that I could have never imagined and I am SOOOO THANKFUL that things happened as they did. Let me just start by reminding everyone that recently we had to put crib tents on our little ones cribs because they can all climb out just as quickly as we put them in! Here are a couple of pictures of what the crib tents look like

Well, at around 03:30 PM we layed our little ones down for their nap. They played in there for a while with no obvious complaints. Then approximately 30 minutes later they all were crying and it was pretty apparent that they were not going to lay down and take an afternoon nap which was ok because they took a really nice morning nap. I realize by now most children are only taking one nap but we still have them rest twice a day even if they do not nap. Well, sometimes when they cry out like that they just want mommy or daddy to come in and lay down with them so Doug did. When he walked into the room nothing looked out of the ordinary, they were all three crying so he layed down on the floor in front of their cribs and everyone was laying down. Well, as he layed there he heard something weird coming from Chase. He said it sounded as though he was wheezing so he went over to his crib to check on him. When he got over there he found that Chase had somehow got his head stuck in this tiny hole from the side panels of the crib tent and it was strangling him!!! He immediately pulled the tension away from Chase's neck opening his airway completely and then tried to free him. He couldn't get him out so he hollered for me. I was laying down sleeping because I had a horrible migraine yesterday so I was taking advantage of "nap time/rest time" and felt comfy having Doug there to listen for our kiddos. I woke up to Doug frantically hollering for me to come help him so my adrenaline was pumping. When I got into their room I realized what was going on...OH MY GOSH!!!! Doug said "I can't get him out" and I said "cut him out!!!!". Talk about panic! When we got him free from the side panel his neck was really red like he had just been freed from a noose and his voice was really hoarse. I immediately called his Pediatrician whom asked if he lost consciousness? I said no. He said then watch him for any unusual signs or difficulty breathing and give him Popsicles, ice chips, Tylenol and Motrin for pain control. Here are some pictures I took after the fact to show the severity of the situation!!! I was so scared.

Even now that the incident is behind us I can't help but keep thinking about the "what if's". What if our babysitter had been here by herself, what if I had been here by myself, and more importantly...what if no one walked in and found him in time? My heart aches and I get teary and I feel "empty inside" just thinking about that!!!! I cannot imagine my life without my children. It is very frustrating to me that this product is SPECIFICALLY made to protect and keep babies safe and it's the same product that nearly took my child's life!!! I am Sooo thankful Doug went in when he did and acted on his suspicions to check on Chaser! And I am most thankful that God was watching over my baby and kept him safe!!!

MILESTONES, LIMITATIONS AND A HUGE CONGRATULATIONS TO THE PRINDIVILLE'S!

On Saturday, my sweet baby girl Brooke hit another milestone...she can now put her shoes on and take them off all by herself (and on the right feet even :)! I am sooo proud of her and now that she has done it once there is no chance she'll let anyone help her! She is becoming such a big girl!

OK, now I must start this next part by saying..."Thanks MOM, you really do know what you're doing!!!!" :) In a previous entry I talked about how much my kiddos enjoy watching the PBS and the NOGGIN channel. Well, there were times I wondered if they were a part of the cartoon because they may as well had been IN the TV with how close they would stand. IT WAS DRIVING ME CRAZY!!! So my mom informed me of a little trick that she used to do with me and my siblings which is...(I really think we should trademark this because it works that well!) we made an outline on the floor in front of the TV with tape and informed the little ones that they are not to go past the tape on the floor. If they passed the line we would mute the TV and they'd quickly move back behind the tape outline as they wanted the sound. We had to do that several times the first two days but now they will rarely go past the line. It's awesome. They'll sit down right at that line but will conform their little bodies so as not to cross over the line. Then the other day the dog crossed the line and all three of my little ones were not happy about it. They kept looking at Mama Claudia to see if the sound on the TV was going to go bye bye and finally we had to make the dog move because they were really stressing over it. It was cute.

Last but definitely not least...CONGRATULATIONS AND WELCOME TO THE WORLD LITTLE JACKSON COLIN STEPHEN PRINDIVILLE!!!!!! I received a call from my dear friend Angie on Friday informing me that she was holding her sweet bundle of joy! He made his grand entrance via cesarean delivery on Thursday at 10:11 PM weighing 7# 4oz and 19 1/2 inches long. It was very apparent that Ang is on cloud nine right now and is thoroughly enjoying her sweet baby boy! I do not have any pictures to offer at this time but will hopefully have some soon. My intentions are for me and my kiddos to pack up for a couple two or three days and go see Ang, Jerry, Kevin and baby Jackson very soon! Ang, if you're reading this, I love you all very much and am sooo very happy for you! You did it girl and I can't wait to meet him! I know he'll be absolutely beautiful.

UPDATES AND MANY THANKS!

Sorry for such a long delay since the last post!!! I promise to try and do better but there has been soooo much going on here in the past couple of weeks. First and foremost, I must say that we are incredibly BLESSED to have such loving and supportive families who are so good to help no matter how much they have going on in their own lives and despite that many miles between us! We cannot tell each of you enough how very much you mean to us and how much we APPRECIATE all you do for us!!! THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts. Now for those of you out there wondering what prompted that...as most of you know we are in the process of building our house. Well, in order for Doug and I to have the home we want we decided to do some of the work ourselves including painting, laying our wood laminate floor, staining and hanging the trim and the list goes on and on... I've mentioned before that both of my brothers have helped us emensely as Josh did all of our electric and Jay did all of our heating and air. THANK YOU AGAIN AND AGAIN guys...I love you! They have both done an outstanding job and our builder has been so impressed with their work that he has talked about utilizing their services with his future builds. My Dad has played a "helper" role the whole way through making himself available whenever possible and offering a hand to do whatever was needed at the time and played a larger role during all of the painting. THANK YOU DAD, WE REALLY APPRECIATE ALL YOU'VE DONE DESPITE BEING IN PAIN WITH YOUR BACK!

A couple of weeks ago, Doug's Dad came up for a solid week to stain majority of our trim. He worked very long hours (12-16) doing this task and was so sick of the stain color he could not see straight but he trucked on :) (He's already warned me not to post any pictures of him on this site...oops, I don't listen!) I only did it because I want everyone else to see how hard he's been working! He also played a major role in painting our home and laying the wood laminate floor. I think he kind of enjoyed that though. Without all of his hard work and dedication to getting these tasks done we would be sooo far behind and Doug would be completely sleep deprieved so Mikey, please know how much we appreciate all you've done and continue to do and THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

About four days following the time Mikey arrived, Doug's brother Chad, his wife Janet and their little one Jessie came up to dedicate their specialty to our cause. I tell you what...you get the Schnarr boys all together and you can get A LOT of work done in a short amount of time! I was absolutely amazed. Chad is very crafty with woodworking/trim work so he and Doug spent many hours cutting and hanging our trim. They also finessed all of the wood laminate flooring to match up perfectly with the cabinets and look beautiful...which it does! They dedicated many hours to setting all of our cabinets and in their spare time they set the beautiful tile I picked out for infront of the fireplace. All the while, Janet and I were tending to the little ones. Unfortunately, they were only able to stay for about four days (four full working days!) but in those four days the house really started coming together and feeling like "home". I cannot thank them enough for sacrificing their vacation time to come to Indiana and work as hard as they did. It really means SO much to us so THANK YOU TO YOU BOTH and Jessie too for being so much fun!

My Uncle Tom has always been the kind of guy that if you need help, call him and 9 times out of 10 he'll be right over to help. Tom has been a HUGE help to us during this process as well. He too helped with the painting, he hung all of the internal doors, and many other things that I wouldn't know as I'm not back there to catch people in action very often. Tom is a wealth of knowledge and really has some great ideas so I always like to hear his opinions. THANK YOU TOM FOR ALL YOU'VE DONE TO HELP US!

There are several other pictures that you should be seeing in the slideshow including one of my Best Friends Angies babyshower a couple weeks ago. Ang could welcome her precious bundle of joy anyday so I am very excited for her! Best wishes Ang!
The other pictues you're seeing were from when me and My Dad took the kids to the hospital to have their eir tubes placed. Everything went great!