Getting Ready

"Home Is Where Your Story Begins"

Lots of practice contractions going on. I even packed my bag last night and made sure the batteries for the cameras were full. It takes about 1/2 hour to get to the hospital. I am going to be ready to go when the time comes. I don't think our 7th baby will take long once labor starts. I want to be at the hospital with an epidural in place.
Went to my doctor again today. The receptionist gave me my hospital registration papers to fill out. I was looking through them, checking out the vistior hours, and it really started to hit me. It's going to happen. I am going to have a 7th child. Wow. I also had another NST today. Baby took a little nap again - but the chocolate chip cookie they gave me woke him/her up. Of course, once baby started moving around and getting their heartbeat going - the paper in the machine ran out. Thankfully s/he kept moving while they changed the paper and we got enough movement recorded to see that all is fine. S/he is in position. Sometimes it is very hard to walk.
Tom has been home this week getting some things done around the house. The shed is now painted to match our house. Yesterday while Tom was painting I went outside to chat with him and to just get some "space" - which never happens by the way. There is always at least one little person that follows me. Yesterday it was Noah. He did give us a good laugh though. Tom and I were talking and Noah kept trying to get in on the conversation. "What did you say? What?" We just looked at him and he finally seemed to get it. "Oh...you said something that is none of my concern." I guess he's heard that a few times before :o)
Tom is out there right now putting some final touches on the shed so the village can come inspect it tomorrow. I can't wait to park my van in the garage again. It'll be nice to have a place to store a bunch of our stuff. There isn't a lot of room in the garage with 8 bikes sitting in there, strollers, water toys, grill, mower,....this will be nice. Especially if we end up buying a "monster" vehicle. Yikes.
When Tom put the shed in, he had to move our swingset/fort. It kind of fell apart during the move and our children have been sad that their play area is gone (mommy too)...but there was a family who was getting rid of a swingset/fort and they said we could have it if we removed it. Tom spent a couple of days taking it apart piece by piece and with some help he got it to our home yesterday. I can't wait to see it all put together. It's huge! Good for 7 kids :o)
I looked on our school district's website. Open House for our children is the same day baby is due. I warned Tom today that he might be on his own to meet the teachers and take in the supplies. He didn't seem thrilled with that idea. He suggested I have the baby a couple days after my due date - that's when I told him that then he'll be doing the first day of school solo. Lunches, backpacks, forms to fill out, bus schedules...all for 5 children. Maybe a few days or a couple weeks early would be better.
I also have to decide what kind of activites to put my children in this year. Do I really want to run around that much when baby is born? No, but it's tough to decide what your children "need" to be in. School keeps them busy enough. Not to mention the cost of everything. Gymnastics, baseball, dance,...It's nice that our oldest can do activites at school in Jr. High and that he knows what he likes. He loves art and cooking and is getting more into writing. He is writing about having Tourettes to share with his teacher from last year. She was, and continues to be, very supportive of Brandon. We couldn't have wished for a better teacher for Brandon. He did great last year at school. A few struggles here and there, but a lot of improvement. I am so proud of the way he handles having Tourettes. He is such a great "kid." I put quotes around kid because he is only 13 and has his moments with his siblings, but he is also taller than me, his voice is getting lower, and he can be so helpful and caring. I enjoy the relationship I have with Brandon. He knows he can talk to me about anything. Being our first child, he did get a lot of one on one with Mommy as a baby. I was a nanny when I had Brandon and he used to come to work with me. I took Brandon everywhere. He was always a lot of fun, but also a handful at times too. (That's how I know there is hope that one day Noah's energy will be at a level I can handle someday too.) hee hee Noah :o)
Noah is showing signs of possibly having Tourettes too - now that we know what to look for - and that might be part of the energy. They used to want to label Brandon with ADHD, but we knew that wasn't it. Noah's teachers already agree that he does not have ADHD because they have observed him, but he is impulsive and does have some "tics" that really come on when you ask him about them. He did have an MRI done for headaches (which is usually caused by running around too much or from his head shaking "tic.") They found a cyst, but don't think it's causing anything. We'll be rechecking it in October. If it turns out that he does have TS, he'll have the best support ever from his biggest brother.
Each child is very special. Each child will have wonderful talents of their own. Each child will have their own struggles too. I am happy to know that our children have each other. There are days when they are yelling and fighting and running around in the house -- but it's the moments when they're playing nicely together, helping each other, laughing together that I'll remember. Some days may feel very long, but the years feel so short.