Life with FIVE!!

Well, Rita and I agreed that it was about time for me to give a picture of our lives from my perspective. I can't believe that this time last week I was still trying to figure out if I was in labor or not!! I had been convinced early that morning that I would be being induced TODAY! God was sweet to let me experience all the fun of "natural" labor. Life in the hospital was pretty dull, boring, and calm...then I came home.

The first p.m. with Isaac was pretty rough - you know, he was fussy, Randy was almost completely out of it, and I was about to drop the baby while burping him, etc. because I was so exhausted. We really missed Grandma. But we survived night one.

P.M. #2 was a little better because RB and I had both taken naps that day. But we still missed Grandma.

And then came the 3rd night when we were even more acutely aware of how we REALLY missed Grandma. I'm sitting in my room rocking Isaac who has been a little fussy again when Luke walks in saying something hurts. We send him back to bed with some Motrin because he has a low fever. He comes back again still complaining and we send him back to bed again. The third time he comes in (around 1:30 a.m.), he is growing more agitated complaining of his throat hurting. Daddy goes into the closet to get his doctor light at which point Luke throws up on my bed (my side, of course). So here I am, holding a screaming baby, and dragging Luke by one arm into the bathroom to try and prevent any further mess. Some of you may not know that I have a bit of a strange and quite psycho germophobia (sp?) about stomach viruses, so now I am a nervous wreck and I'm quite close to losing it. Meanwhile, Randy cleans Luke up and takes him back to bed (he is clad in only underwear and runs into his mother-in-law in route to Luke's room. She has been awakened by all the ruckus). We change the sheets on our bed. Isaac finally calms down around 3 a.m. and we get a few restless hours of sleep before morning when we have to go back to the hospital to have his blood drawn to check his bilirubin. This is a.m. #2 of being in the E.R. getting blood drawn. Oh yeah. Josiah wakes up not feeling too great and by 9:30 a.m. he has thrown up also. Luke seems to be doing fine, but has developed quite a fever by midmorning. By 5 p.m. that afternoon, Moriah also has fever and is whiny and clingy. I still haven't slept, my parents have gone home and we're just WAITING FOR GRANDMA!!

We survived night #3 - barely.

Night #4 was a dream come true. Grandma showed up! I nursed, she disappeared with Isaac, and I got to sleep. Of course, it was his best night yet - he was showing off.

And then there was last night. Let me just pause here to say that Randy Brown should win the dad and husband of the year award. Here's a man who needs a minimum of 10 hours of sleep a night to feel functional (a feeling he rarely experiences) and he has been up with me almost every night, is taking care of our family during the day, AND trying to sensitively ascertain the emotional state of his postpartum hormonal wife at any given moment. He has been absolutely wonderful! Anyway, last night we thought everyone was doing okay. Moriah's fever had not come back yesterday and everyone else had gone to school. There was just this little issue of Luke's tummy still hurting. Randy gives him his last dose of diarrhea-inducing antibiotic that he had been on the week before and we send him to bed with complaints of stomach pain. Grandma is looking pretty tired so I send her to bed for a nap around 9 p.m. (she had a headache), Randy goes to the grocery store, and I start dealing with fussy little Isaac (he really is a GREAT baby and very easy - you just have to hear about the 1-2 hours of fussy time a day because it makes the story better). Isaac finally goes down around 10 pm. and in comes Luke to my room around 10:45 pm. His tummy still hurts. We give him some Tums and send him back to bed. Nurse baby around 11:15 and then Moriah starts SCREAMING around midnight. She has fever and apparently a headache and sweet Daddy stayed up with her and cuddled until the Motrin kicked in. 3:15 a.m. Luke arrives in our bedroom again and matter-of-factly announces that he pooped in his pants. We're talking a lot of diarrhea and Daddy saves the day again - he throws Luke in the shower while I nurse. Isaac had a great night. We're praying that the rest of the gang actually SLEEPS tonight!
The cool thing is to realize how God releases the grace to deal with all this at just the right time. Just please pray that God will protect us from any more SICKNESS! And that superDad will get some sleep! PRAISE GOD that Grandma is here - she is such a blessing and we are so super thankful for her help and encouragement. We've had fun sitting up in the middle of the night reminiscing (sp?) and laughing about baby memories.

April, we are so ready to meet Baby Lena (I have to tell you that we really appreciate her waiting this long, though - your mom is wonderful)! We can't wait to hear about your appointment tomorrow!
God bless all of you with the joy and peace of Jesus!
Love,
Anda