Our Katrina Stories

In our post Katrina life we found ourselves the parent of 3 kids 3 and under.  There are a lot of things about that time I'd rather forget, and some I will never be able to forget.  After evacuating to Atlanta, while still nursing an infant every 2 hours, we spent the week there with my in laws, trying to avoid TV and anyone who knew where we were from.  We found ourselves in a pediatricians office because #2 was extra snotty and it was greenish, #3 was 2 weeks old and I wanted to be sure she was gaining weight,  I had pink eye and I had no idea when we'd see a doctor again.  They were so nice to us, gave us lots of samples and extra prescriptions just in case, and then didn't charge us for the visit.  It was one of the strangest feelings to have people truly pity you.

We eventually decided that the best thing for Mike was to be closer to home where he could see what needed to be done and what the state of business was at the time.  So we packed up and headed to Hammond, LA where we stayed with my brother and sister in law and their 3 kids.  I have some pretty cute pictures of #1 sleeping with his oldest boy cousin.  #2 was still in a crib and #3 was an infant.  So we slept , just the 4 of us in one room and one down the hall with his cousin for a week.  We tried to make as little mess as possible and be good guests.  I don't think they will ever forget #3's cackle or the theme to Dora the Explorer.

One quiet afternoon I found myself alone with the kids.  We were following our usual routine and trying to get the naps in before everyone got home,  #1 had finally fallen asleep on the sofa after watching Dora for the millionth time, #2 had gone down for his nap easily in his pack n play in the room with the door closed, and I had just finished nursing #3 who was now sound asleep in my arms.  I went to put her down in the room where #2 was sleeping, and he was not there.  I looked around the room to see if he was hiding, but he wasn't there, I searched the house and couldn't find him, I ran out the back door to the yard and started screaming for him.  After searching high and low, in bushes and under steps, I started to the street to beg the next person who I could find to help me, baby in arms.  AS I rounded the corner, my heart dropped.  The street was full of police cars, lights going and my mind hit panic.  I tok off in a full sprint, tears pouring from my eyes.  As I got closer to the scene, I spotted our dog, Isabel running in circles around #2, not letting anyone near him.  Talk about relief.  I must have screamed because the crowd turned to look at me as I came closer to Isabel and her ward.  They explained to me that an off duty fireman was driving home and saw an unusual sight.  My almost 2 year old, with a six-pack ice chest bag and a huge dog out for a stroll in the middle of the street.  He  blocked the street with his car and got out to see who this kid belonged to.  There was a neighbor with a swing set in the yard and he assumed that they would know him.  But we're from New Orleans, and we were in Hammond, and no one knew who my kid was or where he came from.  They called the police, who were trying to get control of the dog to hopefully get some information off her collar tags, when I appeared.  They were so nice to me and didn't fuss or anything.  I expected a lecture and a fine or something, but they were happy it was a good ending.  everyone needed happy ending during those days of high stress.  They walked me back to my brothers house where they figured he went out the seldom used front door and closed it behind him after closing the bedroom door.  I tell you what, I am not much of a crier, but I couldn't turn off the water works that day.  Oh and did I mentioned, this was the first time he had climbed out of a crib.   He had never even attempted before that day.

So, we survive #2's stroll through the neighborhood and move forward.   Mike had been home to check on our house and business, as well as the homes of family.  We had water in out back playroom, but not in the main house.  My parents and in laws had a good bit of damage.  Our neighbors all had water throughout and 3 houses down the street had burned to the ground.  Our foundation had been miss poured and they had to add to it to make it level, so we missed all of the devastation. We were the luckiest people I knew.

We realized we could stay in our house, but the city was still mostly uninhabited.  We decided to move ourselves out to Ponchatoula once the power came on.  There were trees down everywhere and getting power was not easy.  My parents saw a crew working on Hwy 22 and asked if they could hook us up, as we have a bunch of babies that could really use some electricity.  They obliged and got us up and running way ahead of schedule.  At that point, Don and Virginia needed to be closer to town as well and they moved to the country to live for a while.  We spent our days feeding chickens, chasing butterflys, swimming and trying not to think to much about the chaos that surrounded our little bubble.

Mike, unfortunately was never around.  Their temporary offices were in Baton Rouge, and the commute to and from was ridiculous.  He left at 6am and got back between 9pm and 10pm each night.  Under normal circumstances, that drive is only 45 minutes.   So, as soon as they could, they got moved back into their new orleans office.  In order to get things as close to normal as possible, Mike had offered our house to a couple who had a lot of water and she was pregnant and didnt want to be in all of that.  It was fine by me because we were not moving home anytime soon and it seemed like the right thing to do.  After a few weeks of driving from New orleans, Mike moved home.  He insisted that we stay put a little bit longer, until the groceries were better stocked and more neighbors were around. Shortly after Rita hit, we had taken a drive into town to evaluate the conditions.  He and I agreed that after halloween, at the beginning of November, the kids and I would move home to our house.

Never mind the 2 extra people still living there.  So it was just the 7 of us in our 3 bedroom home, living like college kids,  We ate take out almost every nights and tried to keep things cordial.  All was fine until the couple found out the baby had severe chromosome deficiencies and would not make it.  They decided to abort and I had a really hard time with their decision.  Shortly after they returned from their trip to Texas to have that procedure done, they moved out of our house and into their home.

So back to my crazy life with 3 kids.  In the midst of all of this craziness, while the house guests were in Texas, #1 and #2 decided to scare the wits out of me again!  I woken at 2 am to feed the baby and had just put her back in her crib shortly after 3 am.  Everyone was sound asleep and I quickly climbed back in be and fell asleep.  I was woken again just after 5am to a pounding on the door.  I immediately thought it was a burglar and tried to wake mike who rolled over and went back to sleep.  I walked to get the baby who was now crying and then proceeded to the door to see what was going on.  I looked thru the peep hole to see police, lights and my kids!  I quickly pulled open the door and asked, "How did you get my kids?"  They police chuckled at my question and proceeded to tell us the story.  Mike was by my side at this point and the police came in to see if we were druggies or what.  They figured out that the kids had gone out the back door, out the side gate and taken a walk, aka a monster hunt sometime before dawn.  They got all the way to oaklawn and the interstate before a passerby saw the scene and called the police.  Again, Isabel was with them and wouldn't let anyone near the kids.  The good samaritan tossed powered donuts for Isabel and managed to get the kids in her car and out of the cold while they waited for the police to arrive.  On the first cool night of the season, the kids had gone out in boxers and flip flops to hunt monsters.  That person didn't want to be acknowledged but she will forever be an angel in my heart.  There are culverts surrounding that intersection and the boys could have easily fallen into one and drown.  They police wrote up a report and assured me it was just a formality.  No one will take our kids away for this.  The silver lining to this story was we didn't know they were gone until they were home again.   We were vigilant about locking door, but the bak door had a deadbolt and they could open it.  We installed and chain on the top of the door and never forgot to lock it again.   After these crazy moments, everything else seems so boring!

It became common place to find #1 and the dog sharing a box of cheerios on the floor in front of the TV, and soon #2 joined in the breakfast tradition.  Mike and I talked about locking the pantry to keep the kids out, but decided it was only cheerios and we liked the extra sleep.

A few months later,  I woke up to 1 & 2 , who were 3 and 2 at the time, playing sword fight, while jumping on the bed in their infant sisters room.  I know, why is that so incredible?  Well they had scaled the shelves of our pantry to obtain the longest, sharpest knives they could find to play this game.  After a brief panic moment, I realized no one was bleeding, yet, and that we could live through yet another shocking moment that had become our lives.  We also installed a lock on the top of the pantry door that day.

Since the pantry was locked, they had to resort to other ways of entertaining themselves.  Like the morning they tried to bathe Isabel, our german shepherd/lab mix breed dog.  In the hall, with a bar of soap, and a mardi gras cup of water.  There were clumps of black hair and chunks of dove soap everywhere.  I spent the rest of that day cleaning up their mess.

Not too much longer passed and they were up to mischief again.  We spent a lot of time playing outside and they were always covered with bug bites. I had recently purchased, and only used once, Yard Guard bug spray from Sam's.  Yes, it was the wholesale club size double pack.   When they woke that morning, before the crack of dawn, they saw a bug and just knew what they needed to do.  They scaled the (fortunately child-proofed) 8 foot shelves to get the bug spray off the top.  They then proceeded to spray the entire can all over the sofa, chair and Dad's laptop computer.  Yikes.  We had to open all of the windows and evacuate because it was toxic.  Mike called Dell and asked if a child using the computer was covered under the warranty.  They instructed him to ship it to them and they'd see what they could do.  2 days later a brand new laptop arrived, no questions asked.  I wonder if the recipient opened the box and passed out!?!

So we survived the chaos of Katrina and Rita and 2 little boys.  I think I know why our baby girl is so tough!  Thankfully, now we can laugh about it.

And all of this happened in 3 months.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edited to include the parts I had forgotten:

I know its hard to believe, but there are stories I forgot to add to this exciting adventure.  We got back to our home and LRSH started school again in November. About a week in, #1 came home doing this grunting thing with each exhale which was weird.  Then he started throwing up, and was clearly not feeling well.  So I called the pediatrician who fit me in at the end of his day.  Poor #1 spent the afternoon on the couch grunting and puking, and not really moving much.  I am just naive enough at his point to not be worried, just annoyed at the vomiting.  When we got to the pediatrician, he looks at #1, listens to his chest, and then calmly informs me not to worry, but I need to go to Children's Hospital, now.   Oh wait, let me make sure they are open...  Not kidding.  So after we establish that the ER is open, and this is their first day open since Katrina.  I call Mike and ask him to meet me there.  I still don't know exactly what's going on, as Dr. Hales didn't diagnose him, or at least I didn't hear it.  I think he's dehydrated from the vomiting and needs fluids, which would explain the lethargy.  They triage him and take him to the back immediately.  (again, too naive to know that's not a good thing)  They give him shots of epinephrine and steroids and put an oxygen mask on him, which he hates.  After a few treatments of albuterol through the mask, he perks up. Then the pulminologist comes in and tells me its asthma and he will need a puffer every 4 hours, and a nurse will show us how to administer a puffer to a 3 year old.  They send us home.  I get a call from Dr. Hales that evening, checking on #1, surprised that they let us go home.  Still, too stunned or naive to see the signs.

This was the beginning of our hospital adventures.  Thanksgiving Friday, we were at the hospital in Hammond.  They admitted him this time and put him on antibiotics.  I pleaded with my Pediatrician to get him released, and finally after 24 hours of no doctor listening to a word I said, we were released, on the condition we went straight to our pediatrician when we got to New Orleans.  Fortunately, they know me and assessed him from my descriptions and told me to call if he got worse.  He didn't.  At least for a few weeks. I think it was 4 weeks later when we ended up at Children's again.  It was every 4-6 weeks until the summer that we were in the hospital with #1.  #3 gave up on me and decided a bottle was more reliable, and #2 was much more interested in Dora and Diego than me. Which was good, because I was up all hours doing breathing treatments and monitoring breathing.

I still cannot believe that I forgot to mention all of this.  I guess that's how crazy our lives were.

Sports schedules

I always said I wouldn't be one of those parents who allow their kids to run their lives, and yet somehow I have let that happen.  I haven't had a completely free night in months!  I think I should explain that statement.  I haven't had the luxury of sitting down at the table with everyone at 6 p.m. (our usual dinner time) and serving a complete meal, then sending them to bed at a decent hour, so that I then can have a free night to read, or sleep or watch a recorded show from 3 months ago.

We spend the after dinner hours hurrying to finish homework and trying to get babies to bed while older kids are just finishing a late dinner.  By the time the kids are all in bed, its an hour past my bedtime and its all I can do to wash my face and brush my teeth before I pass out and start the vicious cycle all over again!

Things started off well.  We had 3 playing fall soccer which only had games on Saturdays, and boy scouts for the oldest.  And music lessons at our house on Thursdays. When soccer ended, fall baseball began for #2 and then christmas break (aka the longest 2 weeks ever).

Now spring soccer and spring basketball have begun.  Oldest talked his way into playing for 2 different leagues.  I agreed only because it was not going to start until other league was over.  Oops, he got the dates wrong.  And now I chase my tail and try to keep the proper gear clean and ready to go.  4 kids, 5 leagues and not enough hours between 3:30 and 8 pm.  The poor babies are exhausted from all of the late nights.  This too shall pass, right?

Not!  Just got the email to sign up for baseball this summer.  And all of the fun will resume.  I really do enjoy watching them grow and learn different sports.  And I think its important to learn to be part of a team, but when does it end??  And when will we all have time to sit down and do nothing?  Or something other than team sports?  Does it get easier when they can drive themselves?  It has to! Right?