C section is moved...

Our c section date changed to Wednesday! Forgot to update here... :). But we will be meeting our newest daughter on August 1st! :)

Summer Fun!

It's getting to be time!

Time to meet our new baby girl!  Yes, a belly pic... this past week at 37 1/2 weeks pregnant... there I am... :) 

On Tuesday, July 31, we will be meeting our newest daughter!  We are excited, nervous, anticipating, and so ready to meet her!  All the things new parents are usually feeling, I'm sure!  Since our daughter will be delivered via c-section, we already know the date and even an estimated time of the cesarian section, which is a blessing to be able to plan our lives around it, but also nerve wracking! :)

We have a wonderful group of friends and family that are stepping up to help us through this next month as I recover from the surgery and we adjust to life with our ninth child.  We are grateful to each person that has stepped forward to help us during this time, especially with Wesley's care, since I will be unable to lift him for the next 4-8 weeks after the baby is born.

And why do we keep calling her "baby"??  Right... her name still isn't chosen :).  We have narrowed it down to just two names now, though, and we look forward to meeting her and deciding which name best suits her!

We have had a wonderful, exciting, productive, and FUN summer so far, and all of us that understand that this baby will be joining our family soon are looking forward with great anticipation to meeting her and welcoming her home!  And those that don't quite understand it... well, they will soon be met with that reality and I am excited to know that I think that every one of them will have a great response to their new baby sister :) :)

Comfy yet??

I have given in to the desire to stack all the pillows up on the couch and attempt to arrange and rearrange them until something slightly comfortable emerges from them so I can lay here and type... Except without the arranging and rearranging part (that will come later) since I know that the inevitable will happen if I get comfortable before all the kids are asleep...

Someone will need me, will cry, will be up so I have to go send them back to bed, a phone will ring, an alarm will go off, the door bell will ring or someone will knock, I'll realize I need something, or someone else needs something, or... well, the list goes on :).  So, I'm sitting somewhat comfy hoping to have my back and hips decide to cooperate so I can update on the computer! :) :)

I'm kidding-- sort of :).  I'm now 36 weeks along and feeling it today!  I've been very active this entire pregnancy and just the last few days have had my body begin to say "slow down!" so I'm trying to listen!

The past two weeks have been somewhat busy.  I've now been sent to the hospital for nonstress tests after both of my last two OB appointments due to weird things going on with the baby's heart.  That said, I also went to the high risk doctor last week and was cleared from there being any obvious concerns, so we are "back on" for a delivery at our local hospital on July 31!  YAY!!  I also had a possible medical issue come up for myself, unrelated to the baby, but that was also CLEARED!  Thankful to God for both of those!!

I'm now going to the hospital weekly for the next three weeks until we meet our baby girl to have nonstress tests done as well as seeing the OB every week.  Throw in that we start private therapy this week for some of the kids (we are working on arranging it for everyone and getting it all started, but decided to start with what we could get!), and we have appointments three days a week plus therapy in the evening at home that will continue as well.  Thankfully, two of those will end when we get to meet our newest daughter! (Then we can add in her appointments and post-op appointments for me... but that's ok!)

Our home renovations are ALMOST finished!  On July 4th we "occupied" the new bedrooms and bathrooms which was a huge relief and we are all LOVING it!  Now there are only a few minor things to do: close up an old entry in to the hallway that was renovated and paint the areas affected by that!  YAY!!  We will also be having the outside of the house painted as soon as we completely finish the interior.

This past weekend Michael painted half of our family room with the new paint color and we'll be purchasing the accent color (now that we made sure it matches what we wanted it to!) and will finish it up in the next week or so.  The second half of the family room/kitchen will have to wait for the hallway to be finished, but it will be the final touch that completes the room!

When everything is finished I will post a long post of pictures, but since they're all on my phone... it's not happening right now :).

We now have FOUR bedrooms for the kids which is a wonderful blessing!  Kristopher and Wesley are sharing one room, James and Micah in a second, Brianna, Lynae, and Emma are in a third room, and Aleksa is in the fourth.  We also added a bathroom that is fully handicap accessible, with a shower that is "roll in" with two shower heads (so the kids can begin to learn to start showering themselves as well!), grab bars throughout the shower and around the toilet, and a 'roll under' sink that the wheelchair can get up under!  Our "old" bathroom is reconstructed as well so we now have three bathrooms on the end of the house with the kids' bedrooms.  It has been SO NICE after having just one for the last few months!

Onward and upward, we got rid of our piano (to my sister and brother in law) and moved living room furniture around to accommodate my desk coming out of our bedroom.  That made room for the bassinet to go IN, and we've begun to get things ready for the new baby-- clothes are washed and hung, the car seat and hospital bag are (mostly) put together, and we've begun arranging help for after the baby is born here at the house.  Unfortunately, since I'll be having a c-section, I will need someone to come in a few hours/day to help with Wesley, especially, but with some of the other kids as well for a few weeks after the baby is born.

Michael says I'm in nesting mode, and I can't argue with that :)  He really has been glad I'm nesting and not just sitting on comfy pillows on the couch attempting to get my back to stop hurting... though he's attempted to talk me in to doing that (relaxing) more often :).

That's the update on the home front.  Forever busy but GREAT as well!  OH! And we got Wesley's new wheelchair too!  Pictures of that are of course on my phone too, though...

Kristopher came to me very upset tonight...

He had already been sent to bed and I had just hit "go" to call Michael while he was leaving for Orlando. Kristopher seemed urgent so I asked m to tell me quickly what he needed. "I need to go let my frog go" --"what frog?" --"When I was at Grandpas house with daddy earlier I caught a frog and put it in the helmet bag in the van. I need to go let it out so it doesn't die!" --"The horseback bag? It's in with the kids' helmets?" --"Yes, and if I don't let it out it's going to DIE!" --"Well, your dad just left for Orlando with that van, but I will let him know that there's a frog in the bag in the trunk" All the while, Michael is on the phone with me now, wondering what in the WORLD I'm talking about! He still isn't sure when Kristopher had the opportunity to get in to the trunk of the van and put a frog in the duffel bag with the kids' horseback/bicycle helmets are stored... Not sure yet whether he ever stopped to look for the frog...

I keep starting to post and just not finishing!

So... Once the end of May we have had quite the excitement in several areas... We have had multiple doctor appointments including putting Aleksa on a new ADHD med which she had a reaction to and we immediately stopped... Then another neurology appointment and a new med daily along with one "as needed". The daily med takes a while to kick in, so it isn't doing anything yet, however the as needed med has made a drastic difference in her ability to "cope" with the world around her and to be able to appropriately interact with others. There is hope in the future for her since at least we know SOMETHING that is working! Still waiting on the other med to kick in (began it yesterday) and we shall see... Wesley went back to the GI doctor and we will be scheduling him for his PEG tube (g tube for feeding) to be changed to a mic-key or mini button (low profile button without a long tube hanging down!) aftere the baby is born. Any time in a month or so is fine, and since that's so close to my delivery date, we will hold off until a little after that. I also had another ultrasound to check on the baby's growth and fluid levels. Her growth wasn't bad, about 8 days behind a previous ultrasound with prediction, but not awful. Unfortunately my fluid was also fairly low. The next day I saw the OB and the baby's heart rate was 180 for quite some time, so we got the "do not pass go, go straight to the hospital for a non stress test.". So... Off we went, with Micah in tow since he came along for the doctor appointment! The NST ended up being fine! Her heart rate stayed pretty the entire time, however the doctor was on rounds at the hospital at that time as well and consulted with the one I had seen in the office. Both decided that I would now be referred back to the high risk doctor for follow up "because if she needs to come early, it needs to be at a hospital with a NICU." Not what we wanted to hear! Thinking it would be a week before we got in with high risk (last time it took 6 weeks!) we didn't think too much about it. Until we got a call that night at about 4 pm telling us to be there at 8am! So, off we went to high risk the next morning... After scrambling for a sitter (or two!) and getting everything set up so someone else could be at our house went he kids woke up the next morning and do meds, breakfast,d reusing, etc... The high risk appointment was thankfully anticlimactic! The fluid looked slightly better than it had in our local office. Baby's growth was different by a half a pound! They sent us off with a much better feeling about everything and we were set to follow back up in three weeks there. Now that appointment is just under two weeks away. All in all, a busy month so far, and little down time for blogging! Home schooling is going great, Kristpher and Brianna enjoyed a week of camp at the church (Emma participated 2 1/2 days and enjoyed might be stretching it a little, but she did have a good time with her buddy even if the camp ended up just being her thing...). We had a laid back Father's Day and Monday is Michael's 31st birthday. Then follow up with our local OB this week, next week we go to a Botox/Phenol follow up, Wenesday is July 4th, and on the 5th we will again consult with the high risk OB office in Orlando. We have pretty much decided we should try to have things "in place" in case there IS something going on with the baby--fluid being lower, or growth not being adequate--to where they decide to keep me at the hospital that day or even to deliver soon. I will be 35 weeks at that point! Still no name for our little girl... Since I know I'll get asked :). Feel free to leave ideas :). We have been talking more about names, though, so she WILL have one soon after she arrives :)

Random pictures from the last few weeks…

This gentle giant’s name was Shaman, and Wesley rode him (being held by Michael, also riding) using a bareback saddle.  As you can see, they understood each other   Shaman had to be put down last week, but these pictures are an awesome representation of how a 3rd place Kentucky Derby winner and a little 7 yr old former-orphan boy who has quadriplegic CP can share a sweet, sweet bond!

It's been a busy crazy week!

But it's been a lot of fun! And... SCHOOL is OVER!! :) :)  SUMMER is HERE!

Sunday Mike and Kris went to church for a LONG day while Michael was helping teach a class, so the kiddos and I hung at home and enjoyed our first POOL DAY!
We started the school week with a post-op for Wesley's g-tube on Monday and a good bill of health there.
Tuesday was Karate for Kristopher and Brianna.
Wednesday I made one last Sam's trip before summer break!
Thursday was a long day at home catching up on some missed schooling from Wednesday then an evening in the pool for ALL of the kids (and Michael).
Friday was Preschool graduation for James and Micah, a trip out of town to look at tile and carpet for the areas under construction, and in the evening Michael had softball so it was Me+8 for the night our last day of school.  That resulted in a movie rental, popcorn and M&M's for all the kids while I sat on the couch and tried my hardest to make it through since I'd already promised a movie night even though I had a migraine!

And here... are the pictures that I've been SO bad about posting on the blog lately! (Though if you're on FaceBook, I have been uploading there as we go... sorry!)

Sunday's Playday in the Pools!

(Brianna)                                            (James)

 Emma and James having some "time away" from the pools while they worked out their difficulties :)

Micah, looking for trouble!

 Aleksa, letting the water SPLASH her! A big accomplishment there!

And the peanut, Lynae, posing for the camera

This is how Wesley spent the morning, because we didn't have anything for him to use to sit/lay in the kiddie pools :(.  He did enjoy the fan though!

And with that, we figured out how to purchase him a seat that he can (hopefully) use for a long time!  It is a hollow bath seat that the bottom fills with water.  Purchased on Amazon.com for just under $150... it is an expensive little chair, but the JOY in his face when he got to be IN the pool with the kids---
worth EVERY. PENNY.  This is Thursday night in the pool...

(Lynae, Aleksa, Micah, Emma, Brianna, Wesley)

(James, Micah, Lynae, Emma, Wesley)

(James...    ...Micah)

The "contraption" Wesley is in here we bought earlier, but this was his first time in it!  It's called a Head Float and is made for kids like Wes that don't have upper body support.  He LOVED it as you can tell in the second picture.  TOTAL MOVEMENT is allowed when he's in there!  He was flapping and just LAUGHING.  A great workout!  

Big-stuff Kristopher :).  I can see him looking at me the very same way when he's 16 (he's 8 now...)  :)

 One VERY HAPPY little Wesley!

And last, Friday's Preschool Graduation!

(Micah)                                                  (James)