Goodbye, Kind Cabin

We ended up leaving a few days earlier than planned. Steven was able to drive up last night so that we could follow each other home this morning. I am so very happy to be in my own bed tonight. I am so very happy to see the kids enjoying their rooms, their bikes, and each other as they've been playing well together without any major incidents today.  And I'm so very happy to be able to bring our sweet two week old baby home to her real house!

My back stopped hurting yesterday, but I'm still trying to concentrate on my posture because tend to hunch while nursing and holding the baby. I handled the drive pretty well, as did little Katie. We stopped three times for changing and feeding, and other than that there was only a brief time where she was fussing a little bit. The girls and I enjoyed singing along with some YouTube favorites like Lennon and Maisy and Frozen during the drive, and I was happy to get a favorite treat, a waffle cone of Blue Bell Cookies and Cream ice cream, at our pit stop!

A generous friend here has set up a schedule for some meal deliveries during the next couple weeks, which will be nice. I'm really worn out from some long days this past week. I know I've done way too much cleaning and carrying, but now that we're home I can relax a little more and just enjoy this sweet angel baby!

I hope to share some of the photos from the good camera over the next few days. Maybe I'll even write out her birth story before I forget it!

Cabin Fever?

When people hear that I'm staying in a little cabin, with four kids, at 36 weeks pregnant, with my husband working in another city...they look at me like I've got two heads! And if I'm out for an activity like a Valentine party or a ballet class, they really think I'm nutso! But honestly, by God's grace, things are going very smoothly. 

Sure, the kids are really trying my patience. But it's the same at home. Sure, taking everyone to the ballet studio in 40 degree rainy weather with only one iPhone for entertainment can be a bit tricky.  But it would be the same at home too. Sure, having no help for bedtime, bathtime, cooking, or chores most of the week is a bit of a challenge that I probably wouldn't have most nights at home. The weather is giving most everyone in this country cabin fever, us included! And for us it's a real life cabin!

Getting out for a few activities during the week helps me cope. I'm definitely an extrovert, and I need some kind of social interaction to regain my energy after a long day. So although I tend to lose my patience while trying to get schoolwork done and make it out of the cabin for an event, I also find it necessary for my emotional well-being. Other current coping strategies include: multiple bubble baths each day, chewing on pellet ice, eating Double Stuff Oreos, climbing back into bed, and zoning out on Facebook. 

But overall I'm just trying to breathe in these special days with the kids. It's a different dynamic being away from home, kind of like a little vacation. Having a television gives me a bit of a break, and they're having fun watching the Olympics, cooking shows, Full House, and America's Funniest Home Videos. We have Legos and Duplos, they had Valentines to work on and now to look at, the boys have army men in the bath, and they enjoy exploring outside. Of course there's always schoolwork to catch up on, and I'm trying not to get too worked up about that. 

Our family life will be changing very soon, and we can't wait to meet our newest member. Speaking of our littlest one, I had my 36 week appointment on Monday, and everything looks good. She could arrive any day, but my guess and hope is that we have about another week or a little more. My contractions are pretty mild, although I do have days when I overdo it and end up quite crampy. I'm really trying to gear myself up for the surgery. I've been reading some c-section birth stories and I talked with my OB about some of my concerns. I'm not overly uncomfortable at this point although I do have a sore muscle in my upper back that makes if difficult to lift Thomas the Tank! My indigestion has gotten pretty bad, but last night I tried some essential oils around 1:00am (Lemon in water and DigestZen on my throat), and it didn't bother me the rest of the night! I'm swelling a bit and my weight is creeping up to a number I don't want to pass...but I'm looking forward to exercising again after I recover. 

Most of all I'm just feeling blessed to be carrying this new life, to have made it to 36.5 weeks, to be back in my hometown and comfort zone, to have a doctor and hospital I'm confident with, and to have our cute little cabin in which to spend these special days. All thanks be to God who provides for all of our needs. May His loving care be upon us in the coming days, for a safe delivery and recovery and a smooth transition to a family of seven!

Thank you for praying for us!

Monday Musings and Weekly Wandering Plans

Just realizing this never posted on Monday. Oops! I'll try again. Annoying phone blogging...

Another week begins! I've made it to 35 weeks and we had a great first week in the Houston area! We kept busy last week with ballet classes, a birthday party, and time with family. We had to move out of our cabin on Friday morning (it was already booked for this week) and then we headed across town to spend the weekend with Steven's family. The kids enjoyed cousin time, had pizza parties, Superbowl sign-making, Candlemas at the downtown church, and a Superbowl party! I got to rest quite a bit with Daddy here, and also got to run some errands alone on Saturday.

This week will be one of my biggest challenges of our stay here. Today we will move from Steven's sister's garage apartment to my parents' house, Wednesday we will head to a friend's and then Saturday evening we should be able to get back into the cabin and settle for almost a month! Tomorrow we'll celebrate my birthday and we also plan to continue the ballet classes this week, plus a big homeschool group Valentines party on Friday. Can I survive? Can we keep baby inside for another two weeks? Let's hope so!

To do:

-Pack up this morning and clean apartment

-Mail Steven's tablet that he forgot this morning 

-Injection at doctor office

-Pick out a cake at my favorite RJ Goodies!

-Ballet classes

-Finish Valentines

-Birthday plans

-HOMESCHOOL (modified). We did great last week, but I'm afraid these moves will make things a bit difficult this week!

And some iPhone photos...

Lunch at Fudruckers with NeNe and PaPa last week

Boys playing at the ballet school. We've really enjoyed being back, and felt so welcomed by our friends at the Christian ballet school. 

Friday afternoon was cousin time! They loved playing outside, Tommy is obsessed with the motorized police car!

Mommy resting in the lovely garage apartment on Saturday. 

And I got to have my favorite solo lunch at LaMadeleine. 

After Sunday morning Mass, we went out for BBQ and drove by the neighborhood where Steven grew up. This is the lot where his house was...the houses on his street have mostly all been torn down to build new ones. But their old leaning tree is still there!

The boys playing with a cousin at the Superbowl party

More Superbowl

They surprised me with singing and some early birthday gifts, but the cupcakes were all gone so I blew out a scented candle!

The cousins wanted to stay and watch Indiana Jones, but alas it was a school/work night so we had to pull them away!

It was a great week and weekend and we're truly blessed to be spending this "Baby Wait" with all our family and friends!

Our home away from home

I thought I'd post some photos of our little rental cabin to help us remember this unique time for our family!  As most of you know, I'm 34 weeks pregnant with our baby girl and am facing a high-risk 5th c-section delivery. After lots of prayer and discernment, I opted to use the doctor who delivered our last baby, even though the hospital is about 4 1/2 hours from our current home in South Texas.  But here we have the support of all our extended family and close friends, so it just felt right. 

And so, after realizing that my doctor wanted me in town at 34 weeks, which meant the possibility of 6 weeks staying away from home, we opted to find a rental to accommodate our family during this time. It's a nice little cabin just a couple minutes from our old home here (which we own but have renters), and about five minutes from the doctor and hospital. It's such a relief for me to be here, even though it's difficult with Steven coming back and forth and trying to manage four kids and homeschooling in a small cabin. But we will survive and make the most of this exciting time to prepare for and welcome our new baby girl!

Here are some photos of the inside of this cute little cabin!

The master bedroom is nice and comfy, even though we're used to a king sized bed. We're slowly trying to transition the boys out of our room, but that's not working so well without Daddy here! At home we have a mattress on the floor for the boys, but here that doesn't work. They're both in bed with me tonight. 

The kitchen is well-stocked with most of the cooking gear we need. We loaded up on groceries over the weekend and have been able to eat almost all our meals here this week. 

The living room boasts a flat screen TV which is quite a novelty for a family that has no television at home. The love seat also folds out into a bed. And there's a table behind me in this photo for eating and schooling. 

Here's the kids room with bunk bed. 

And I still get a nice soaking tub while away from home!

You can see the laundry room in the background. We keep the kids' suitcases here and the basket of toys. They often play games and Legos in here. I've been doing all our laundry each day, which is my usual way of doing things when we travel. It makes things much easier for me. 

Here's Mary Clare bundled up over her PJs for the ice day yesterday! There's also a big master closet behind her. 

And here's the front yard with some ice/snow flurries on the ground. You can see that we're definitely in the woods!

The kids (except Tommy) had a fun time playing in the ice yesterday! We were disappointed that there wasn't real snow, but they enjoyed the ice just fine. 

Settling In

We've moved into our temporary home away from home and are enjoying this special time. I feel a great sense of relief that I am finally here by the hospital and don't have to worry about going into labor and having a very early preemie with a doctor or hospital I'm not familiar with. It's also nice to be back in my comfort zone of suburbia with my nice grocery store, favorite restaurants, and great shopping just minutes from our little cabin.

The cabin is so cute and comfortable. It has two bedrooms, one bath, a living room, laundry room, and kitchen. It's on a nice sized lot in a little country neighborhood and was recently renovated. There are quite a few bird feeders out front and the kids have enjoyed watching the birds and drawing them. I wish we could really settle here for the long haul, but the cabin had already been booked for next week so it looks like we'll be making several moves starting this Friday...from Steven's sister's house, to my parents', to a friends', and then finally back to the cabin for about a month. Hopefully the moves aren't too difficult for me or the kids. 

But so far, so good with everyone adjusting to the little move and handling Daddy's departure alright. It will be hard to play the single mom during the week while in such a late stage of pregnancy, but he'll be taking some days off here and there, my parents are helping, we have friends at the ready, and we'll have several activities to keep us busy. Tonight, Ellie attended ballet class at their old studio. It was so nice to see all these ballet friends and feel so welcomed by everyone there. Depending on the forecasted snow and road conditions, Mary Clare is hoping to go to her ballet class tomorrow. The kids got most of their schoolwork done today and enjoyed time playing Legos, running around outside, and watching TV. Hopefully the rest of our days here continue to be enjoyable and uneventful, except for the big baby event that we're here for, which will hopefully hold off until late February!

Before I sign off, I'll share some phone photos from the past week...

My kindergartner working on math

And showing off his third lost tooth!

Ellie was drawing fairies during Mary Clare's pointe class. We wanted to watch the class last week, but they only ended up doing pointe for about 15 minutes, and there were nearly a dozen other family members trying to get a peek at their ballerinas too!

But we did get a photo op after class. Her ballet group here hasn't started pointe yet, so it will be a little while before she gets back to pointe class. 

A peaceful Friday afternoon with Tommy napping. We skipped Atrium to rest and pack for the trip. 

The first night here, we grocery shopped at my favorite HEB and grabbed some quick food at our favorite Raising Cane's drive-thru. Our order for one bag of ice bought us four bags of delicious little pellet ice! This pregnant mama is on an ice kick!

Thankfully there is a nice soaking tub in the cabin :)

Steven left his wallet at the cabin when he left this morning, so he drove back from his Houston office to get it, stopping in for my OB appointment and then taking me on a lunch date to Chuy's restaurant! Fun!

Maybe I'll be back with some snow pictures, or at least a cabin tour, tomorrow. Stay warm, friends!