ReCap

You may have noticed some time lapsed between this post and this one.

What was I doing?

I'll tell you.

A couple days before the boys' first football game,

my little people started coughing.

And coughing.

And coughing.

And coughing.

And coughing some more.

They all stayed home from the game with Linnea

but I really thought most were on the upswing...

sleeping better, maybe coughing less, etc.

Except when I got back from the game,

I could tell Abram was not feeling better--

he was worse.

I decided to take him to be seen

and since the facility where I decided to go has no urgent care,

we went to the ER.

He was admitted to the hospital.

Nathaniel was a "respiratory kid" and so was Andrew.

Elijah had a few bouts with this kind of thing when he was a baby/toddler, too,

so I knew enough to pack a bag with a change of clothes for me

even though I hoped we could just do a nebulizer treatment and be on our way.

It was a good thing I packed a bag,

and a book,

and my crochet bag

 because we were there from Saturday afternoon through Monday night.

If you've ever had a child hospitalized,

you know that sleep is hard to come by--

for both the child and the parent.

It seems as if every time one of you has just nodded off,

an alarm beeps, a monitor dings, it's time for vitals, etc.

And if you're a light sleeper like me,

even the most careful nurse who sneaks in to the room to do her check on the child

is enough to wake you.

I was tired, Abram was tired.

He was so upset at being confined.

He hated the oxygen tubing and constantly pulled at it.

He ripped his iv apart and had to have a splint-type thing put on his other arm 

(a "no-no board" they called it)

so that he couldn't bend either arm.

The meds made him hyper,

he wanted to walk around but couldn't because all of his

wires and leads would trip him up,

not to mention the small space of a hospital room

filled with a bed, a recliner, a humongo crib, iv pole, vitals monitor, etc., etc.

Linnea did a SUPER job holding down the fort in my absence;

I was so glad she was here while I was there!

Abram and I had to miss my family's annual hayride at my parents' house

and Dennis did, too, because hay was ready to be cut.

Bummer.

The younger kids were able to go and to tell you the truth, I'm not even sure how they got there!

Dennis handled it with my brother, I think. ;)

With all that sitting (for me), and basically no way to get my circulation going,

my legs swelled so, so much.

As in, I've never been that swollen in my life.

My legs were so very painful

and I was getting extremely anxious to leave the hospital.

The nurses, upon learning that I was 38 weeks along, would joke

how funny it would be if I had the baby since OB was just a couple doors down.

I didn't say much, I'd just laugh a bit,

but in my mind I was like, "No really--you don't understand..."

I was hoping and praying for Abram to get well enough for us to leave very soon

and for the new baby to please WAIT until I was home before deciding to arrive!

It took several days for the pain in my legs to subside.

With the help of a generous friend who supplied me with some oils for my issue 

as well as for the children's ongoing respiratory issue,

we were now on the mend.

Then it was Bipper's birthday.

And the next day there was no other option but to head to the grocery store for a few things,

which ended up being really taxing on my sore leg.

Then another football game.

Then church and a day of horseback riding for Linnea and a couple friends.

Monday was an appointment with my wonderful midwife.

That afternoon my other washing machine died too, leaving me  

days/weeks away from the arrival of my 11th child, with no working washing machine.

I cried.

However, I believe God whispered in the ear of someone we know

who then called me to say she wanted to buy me a washing machine.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!?!?!

Thank you, GOD!

(The new one will be arriving on Monday and is a bit smaller than either of my current non-working ones.

It will most certainly wash clothes well and Linnea and I will just keep that baby workin' all day long!

But if you happen to 

a) know someone who is good a appliance repair who would like to help a family out

or

b) have a functional washer just sitting in your garage for which you'd like to find a home 

let me know!

I believe the one washer is toast....not repairable or at the least, more expensive to repair than it would be to replace all the parts.

The other one I believe can be fixed; just waiting until after harvest to see if we can get that done.)

We met the person in town to get the details of delivery worked out

and now I excitedly wait until Monday for it to arrive!

I drove to my mom & dad's Thursday to wash several loads;

the kids didn't stop wearing clothes simply because

I had no working washer.

I did as much as I could before it was time to head to 

Andrew's football game.

Yesterday afternoon, Linnea and I went to the store for

enough-groceries-to-last-until-the-baby-comes-and-hopefully-beyond.

Honestly, meals are the hardest thing for me to wrap my brain around

when a new baby arrives.

Linnea has taken over much of the cooking

and can also do the shopping if the older boys will drive to town

so here's hoping this time will be a bit easier in that department!

So now I'm up in the middle of the night

(because it's common for me at nearly 39 weeks to 

pretty much no longer sleep)

and am trying to catch up on my some blog posts.

Bipper has a football game later this morning

and then we'll have supper with the grandparents to celebrate Linnea's 14th birthday.

Her birthday is on Sunday but with church,

a 4-H meeting, a provided golf date with her daddy-o,

and a youth group function that evening,

we're fitting it in when we can.

Of course,

any conversation or plan we make is followed by

"unless the baby comes."