We had an event or two up today and I had high hopes of posting some great positives things this evening, hence the lack of day blogging. However, I am feeling incredibly discouraged at the moment and I fear I won’t be able to squeeze out any positivity this evening. So instead, I want to thank my mom for sending some delicious turkey broth our way the other way.It really hit the spot for me this evening, and the kids loved the grilled cheese sandwiches that went along with it.

Thats all you’re getting for today. I hope you’ve all had a happy Monday and that you continue smiling this week. God is always good. Hold onto that, even if you have nothing else. Especially if you have nothing else.

I think I’m feeling slightly better today and yesterday than I was during the previous weeks. The improvements I’m seeing are nothing earth shattering, but I’m SO very thankful for them! Dr. Guselle was right. Nothing was going to make this incessant cough go away with actually suppressing it. No other sickness was bringing it on or making it worse. Coughing was making my cough worse. How stupid, really.

The last couple of days, I’ve rested my voice more than I am usually able to. I whisper as much as I can, so my voice is saved for phone calls, or being out where I need to speak up, or those moments where I have to raise my voice because the brawls just get too loud. Besides that, though, I have physically rested, and its been amazing! We are fever free, at the moment, but the kids still have colds and no one is at 100% just yet, so we all sleep in nice and long. Then I whisper as much as I can in the morning. The kids go down to nap, and Brady and I keep things low key while they’re sleeping. Better yet, the last couple of days, I’ve fallen asleep during their nap time, and thats been a LOVELY rest for everyone involved!! I never nap. Ever. But both medications I’m on right now are very very drowsy. I take the worse one at night, and the much milder one in the day, but they still both put me out pretty well. But that was a chunk of the reason they were given to me. Because of these meds, I’m able to sleep a bit better, and deeper, and I don’t wake up with every little tickle in my throat. I sleep through most of them, therefore resting my throat. Its been lovely! My throat still feels awful when I do have a coughing fit, but I have some of my voice back, and I’m not as miserable as I was a handful of days ago. For that, I am VERY thankful.

All three kids still have colds, but they’re just messy, and not as much miserable for them. Just snotty noses. They’re ok 🙂 Brady is almost all the way back! He even has a voice, which we swore would never come back! Tho while he’s feeling good, I think he’ll still be pretty tired going back to work tomorrow. Thank goodness Monday won’t be a super long day for him!

Rest and naps aside, I am still bushed, and I feel weirdly sick to my stomach. Brady is out fetching me the ranchiest BLT he can get his hands on (YUM!) and I will watch YouTube now until he arrives. Kids are in bed but not sleeping yet. I’m sure we’ll all get our chance soon enough.

Wish me and my voice good luck tomorrow! Having Brady home has helped so much in my very gradual healing. Pray it doesn’t stop today!

1. We DO NOT have whooping cough!! What an enormous relief!! The kids are till snotty and fevering on and off, but I see improvements that are making me hesitantly hopeful that we are on our way out. Please, Lord, let this be it! Dr. Guselle actually called with our results last night already. She laughed at how bad I sound (if you’ve talked to me on the phone in the last week, you get it) and then before even giving us results, she asked if Dekker’s nose bad bled anymore since she did his swab. I think its so sweet of her to be concerned about something so small in the grand scheme of things. I thanked her for remembering, told her he hadn’t had any issues, and then we got our results. This woman deserves a pretty significant gift when this is all over!! Anyone have any ideas?
2. Our house looks INCREDIBLE!!! We drove to see it today and I just felt overwhelmed with excitement and gratitude and every other emotion under the sun. Its a bit confusing, but the part that is framed at the moment is the raised basement. The main floor joists are now all up, and the floor sheeting is on. It doesn’t show in the picture, but the wall that will be the back of the house is already assembled and is just laying flat on top for now. Its crazy to think that main floor walls will be up soon!!This picture shows me standing inside our front entrance. Of course they leave the stair installation until the end. Probably to keep all of the nosey homeowners, such as ourselves, from messing around where we don’t belong. But it was truly surreal to see so much of it together. I think I will likely be feeling this way a lot in the near future, with every step of the process.
3. Last but not even close to least, this happened today!Does anyone else feel like crying?? Haha! Probably just me, yet I support this movement 100%. Doesn’t he look SO handsome?? We finally bit the bullet and I ever so generously told Brady that I would continue to love him, even if cut his hair off. So he did. And he feels like a million bucks, anyone can tell. Here’s to toques that fit, sleeping without a ponytail, fast showers, and eventually, less neck pain. You look smokin’ hot, hubs. I hope you know it!!

Thats it for updates today, I believe. When we got home this afternoon, we put the kids down for a nap, I took some of my medicine, and promptly fell asleep myself! Now that I’ve had a nap and rested not only my head and body but my throat and voice as well, hopefully this evening will be somewhat smooth and we can all keep improving health-wise!

Hope you’re all having a great Saturday!

I wanted to throw out some honest feelings about yesterday now that its over and done with.

For the most part, everything I wrote is still how I feel. I feel like yesterday was productive and positive. I feel like we can now say, with confidence, that we have done everything we can to get our household feeling better.

What I see more significantly today that I didn’t see yesterday is just how “fight or flight” we are out here. We are in survival mode, and have been for a while. Today marks four weeks since this sickness walked into our family. Yesterday was successful, but looking back on it, it was HUGE, and EXHAUSTING. We spent the whole afternoon putting our kids through some hard stuff, and then celebrating as big as possible when the hard things were over. And then more hard things, and more celebrating. Lots of tears and information and blood and snot and, as I’ve said a solid thousand times in the last few weeks, LOTS of powering through.

The other day, I finally had a bit of an emotional break. Outside in the hot tub, I had a little cry with Brady beside me. Conveniently, the hot tub is the gentlest place for me to cry because my throat was at its best, and my body was relaxed. So I had my cry and felt slightly better. It was shortly thereafter that we went inside, where I dried off and went downstairs, crying the whole time, and finally plunked on the bed and wept for probably a solid 10-15 minutes. I have not cried like that in a very long time, because I haven’t needed to. But now I have had that need. Its been an interesting time.

I’m not telling you guys this stuff so you feel sorry for us. I’m just trying to be flat our honest. Brady and I work really hard to be strong for our kids, but I also see the value in being honest about how I feel with my kids. Dekker and Laela know I’m scared and sad and tired, and they’re not uncomfortable with it 🙂 If mommy has a cry, they come and tell me they love me, and then they just keep playing around me and bringing me the toys that make them happy when they’re sad. They whisper to me when my voice is gone. They know which medicine goes to who, and then bring each other water bottles and kleenex. Its been a learning curve for all of us, and in some strange twisted way, its been good for us?? Ugh. This is another desperate attempt to find positivity in all of this, haha! How am I doing??

Ok, scattered post over. I know this was totally jumbled, but I wanted to give you a post with less details and facts, and more just about the emotion around here. We miss seeing people. I haven’t seen my mom or my friends in SO long. It chokes me up just writing it. We’re lonely, but we do have each other, and I positively adore this crew we have here! One day, we will be better, and we will celebrate!! I don’t know how, but we will. I cannot wait!!!

Thanks for the continued prayers and concern and love. Please keep it all coming! We’re not out of the woods just yet, but every encouragement is greatly appreciated!!

I have to say, today was easily the fullest day we’ve had since this whole bout of sickness began. We had a plan for the afternoon, and we knew it would be somewhat busy, but it got quite late without even getting everything done, and we had all of three places to hit. Pretty pathetic, I know, but believe me! None of it had to do with us being slow pokes because of our sickness. The day just went super long!

The house Brady was supposed to be in today is running behind, thanks be to God, so he was off for the day. We could not have survived without him! Once the kids were up and had eaten breakfast, Brady played with them so I could have a much anticipated date with hygiene. I won’t get into details, but it had been a while for a LOT of things, and it felt really really good to get clean. It also helped because we had plans to venture out this afternoon to see the doctor, and with the amount of coughing/gagging/nose blowing going on, there was no point to wear makeup. So this way, at least I’d be clean.

The cleanliness didn’t last long. After nap time, we took our freshly cleaned, dressed, brushed selves to my doctor at our clinic. She was a complete saint and made us an appointment at the very end of her day. We ended up staying for over an hour! Which is nuts, I know, but she is exceptional, and took very careful notes about each and every one of us. A very brief breakdown on the kids reveals that she’s thinking, for the most part, they all have a super duper nasty virus, as we suspected. Today is our first fever-free day in quite some time, so she’s hopeful that this is where our upswing begins. A couple of extra concerns did lie with Laela, however. Her right ear was very red, she said. She said either she’s getting an ear infection, or she may have had one thats working itself out. She said only time will tell. Laela is a very clear communicator and would easily be able to relay to me if her ears hurt, so we wait for that.(She even said that, if we thought she was worsening over the weekend, to call the clinic and have them contact her directly, that she’d have no issue coming and quickly opening the clinic up and checking Laela’s ears. What doctor does that???) But other than that, from some of the history I shared with Dr. Guselle, and some of the coughs she witness, she asked if we were caught up on vaccines. I sheepishly told that we were actually horrendously behind on Rowan, and a little bit behind on Dekker. Something I didn’t know was that there has been a pretty significant outbreak of whooping cough in the last few months, and with Rowan not vaccinated, we are less protected than we could be, anyway. So after we did weights, ear checks, throat checks, neck checks, and lung listens on all of the kids, we tipped them back to laying down positions and I held them down while Dr. Guselle did the dreaded nose swab. Guys, that thing looks AWFUL. Dekker went first and freaked, but his poor dry little nose couldn’t hack it, and it bled. This was completely new and equally as terrifying to Dekker, so I held him close while Dr. Guselle apologized and scrambled to clean him up. (That is how I came to be wearing blood all over my shirt for the rest of the day. “Don’t worry folks, its just from a whooping cough swab gone wrong!”) Laela bounced back from her swab really fast, which was a treat, and Rowan actually did too! Side note on Rowan, while we had him laying down on the table, I pointed out how he popped three new molars in the last week or so, but still hadn’t finished up popping all eight front teeth. But then sure enough, there was the eighth, popped thru!!! That kid has been WORKING!

Once the kids were all swabbed and done, Dr. Guselle asked to check me over a little bit more, mostly my throat. She said my tonsils are perfect and small, all looks good, but then to double checked, she shoved that tongue depressor in there to make me gag, and apparently by doing that, she saw something contract in a certain way that gave her more answers. She said the only thing we can do for me is to suppress my cough, because every time I clear my throat or speak, I’m pissing my throat off more and more, and I wont get better without a suppressant. I’ve never been so happy to gag in my life! She wrote me a prescription, and one for Laela in case her results do come back positive for pertussis, and she said we could go! She offered the kids stickers, and they both picked Clifford. She offered for Rowan, too, but we told her he’d probably just eat it. The last thing she said to us before leaving was encouraging us to get up to date on vaccines. I told her I’d go and make the appointment right then.

When I went to the desk, the receptionist informed me that there was a drop in immunization clinic going on right now, and only one person was ahead of us. Now, normally, we’re very strict on never doing shots if our kids are sick. Ever. But this just needed to get done, and Brady agreed. Why not do all of the damage in one day, right? So we waited. But in the first few minutes of waiting, we heard talk from the desk of their system being down. Thats what kept us waiting probably a good 45 minutes before actually getting in. But when we did, our nurse was exceptional.

I was very embarrassed at how far Rowan was behind in shots, but she was very gracious, and said we could make some of them up. We discussed it, and I decided I was comfortable with it, so we just went for it. Dekker got his shot first. We were very nervous about that, since he hadn’t had any for a while, and he’s not particularly fond of new doctors, and he had already had that bloody (literally) nose swab. But right before she put the needle in, I made sure he could hear me, and I said “Just a little pinch, ok Dekker?” He said “ok” back to me, she counted to five, and it was done. I expected him to explode on her and wail, and he didn’t. He was totally quiet until he realized what had happened, and then he cried. But he just cried in frustration, you could tell, he was right ticked, but he was more than fine. We praised him up and told him how proud we were. I was beaming!! Poor Ro was next and he got one in each arm and each leg!! But he did great, honestly. He cried, and was pissed off, but once he was dressed and being cuddled, he was more than fine. The kids were TOTAL troopers! We all left the doctors office very very impressed with them. Fabulous job, kids!

We were let out by the security guard (apparently we were there late. Oops!) and ran to get the kids some supper. Grilled cheese from McDonalds. They didn’t eat much, but thats just the story of our lives right now. We made a quick pit stop at Costco so I could drop off my script to be filled, and then we drove to see our HOUSE! Not the “lot.” The HOUSE!!

In case you’ve been wondering where the updates are, this is whats been going on at our house this last week!! We’ve had loving friends and family go take a picture for us every single day this week, which is SO wonderful!! But we have a basement! We have floor joists, and some floor sheets on top. We have a power metre, a breaker box, and our first outlet, lol!! Sounds silly, but I’m SO excited!!! I stood in what will be our front doorway today, and saw a whole legitimate basement before me, and it was just flat our incredible. What a pick me up!!!

We drove back to the city, and I grabbed my prescription as well as a few staple items from Costco. We headed home afterwards, and the kids were TRASHED. They’ve been going to be early and sleeping a ton these days, and tonight they went to bed over an hour later than their normal bedtime! Yikes, it was a crazy afternoon and evening.

We were expecting a full blown Costco shop in there with the whole family, but there was not time AT ALL. Yet I don’t feel unproductive. I feel like we did a ton today! Just a lot of big, scary things. I can’t believe the kids are getting checked for whooping cough 🙁 It just makes me feel like crying, like I will have failed so badly if they do have it. But I’m trying not to go there, mainly because it would be an overreaction, and secondly because my throat couldn’t handle the sobbing that would come with it. So we try our best to stay super strong while being as restful as possible, and we pray that we’ll all get well very very soon. If you care to pray for the same for us, please don’t hesitate to do so. It feels like we’ve been paddling to stay above water for so long now, and we’re getting weaker and weaker.

In our weakness, He is stronger!!!

Sometimes, writing posts like todays make me nervous that people will think I’m not a good mom, and that everyday tasks are too hard for me. Please don’t think that about me. I work incredibly hard to be an incredible mom, and in blatant honesty, I do not ace it very often at all, if ever! But none of us are perfect, so please refrain from judging, if you can, and rejoice in our small victory this morning.

The fam jam is still down for the count over here. I was feeling a little bit of relief yesterday, on a few less meds, and then in the evening, I don’t even know what happened but I coughed and choked like I have NEVER before. I swear, if this sickness doesn’t give me a hernia, I am officially unbreakable. Unfortunately, because of that, I woke up in much more pain than I was in yesterday. It wasn’t a great start. But we all slept in nicely, so thats a win. Dekker and Rowan weren’t fevering, just both very snotty and coughing a lot. Laela had a pretty solid fever, yet again, and is also coughing and snotty. All of that being said, though, they ate good breakfasts, and their spirits seemed to lift with food. As I fed Rowan and the big ones ate, I considered what jobs I should do around the house. I’ve been feeling way too gross these days, and everything housework-wise has kind of taken a hit. So I scanned the rooms and saw stacked dishes, a dirty floor, laundry, and everything else. And I decided to tackle something that, in our house, is WAY bigger than housework.

Baths.

I you’ve been reading long enough, you’ll know that Dekker was TERRIFIED of baths and water and anything related to the matter. We tried every angle on how to make it better, but it just didn’t improve. It became a wrestling match every single time, while he screamed bloody murder and flailed and fought. Anything he had ever learned about respect and listening and obedience flew out the window at bath time and Dekker would just panic. It was awful. It has very gradually improved, but he still hates the bath. None of our kids much care for the bath, honestly, but they all prefer to bathe together. Somehow, that helps. So thats what we do. Its very cute, but its an undertaking. Because bathing Dekker became too difficult for me back in the day (I was very pregnant with Laela and could no longer really physically control Dekker in the tub) Brady had taken baths over, and he’s sort of just been the bath man of the house! Its a lovely gift that he gives me, for which I am SO grateful.

But today, I figured I should give it a go. Since our kids hate the bath as much as they do, we haven’t bathed them much since they’ve been sick. I know its really good for them, but it would be awful for them, and we just haven’t wanted to work them up enough to get them all hot and bothered and fevered. It sounds like I’m making excuses, but I’m not. They need no embellishment.

So after breakfast, I gave them good warning, and informed them that we’d be having a bath soon. Whining all around. Thats fine, I rolled with it. We talked options. Would Dekker rather bathe by himself? No. What about a bubble bath? I don’t waaaaant that! Fine. Once it was clear I couldn’t really please him, he offered up “I guess I can try” and that was it! I ran the tub, grabbed diapers and fresh jammies, a comb, glasses cleaner, etc., and hauled everyone into the tub.

Three words. Ready? Tear. Free. Bath. That is an ENORMOUS achievement, if I do say so myself! It was amazing. They all laughed and smiled and no one fussed or struggled. They played toys and we shaped their hair into funny shapes with the shampoo. They poured water on Rowan and he sputtered defencelessly. It was actually fun! They loved it. They cried when they had to come out, but my one hangup was that the longer they stay in, the colder they are when they come out, and I don’t want to mess with fevers. Especially Laela. Not playing favorites here AT ALL, but I was very prone to fevers as a kid, and she appears to take after me in lots of ways. She fevers long and hard, and she’s also very slight, and gets chilled fast. Her lips are often blue when we pull her out of the tub. That was me. So I got Rowan out, changed, dressed, and combed first. Laela was next, which she was VERY upset about, but she recovered once she was dressed and combed as well. Dekker came out last but he wanted to drain the tub and put the toys into the basket first. Then he came out and towelled himself off and we talked about how fun the bath was that it wasn’t so bad at all. He assured me “I liked the bath!”

Finally, all three kids were washed and dried and in fresh underwear/diapers, jammies, with their hair combed. No more boogers plastered to their faces or in their hair. All clean. And happier than before! Win!

After baths, they had lunch, and shortly thereafter they went down for naps, all fresh.

I hope they sleep so well, because at least for me, it feels like a ran a marathon. I know I didn’t, I just bathed my kids, its not a huge endeavour. But it is, kind of. My body positively aches from being sick for so long. My legs, and rib cage, and back, and everywhere else. And then, I spent I don’t even know how long on my hands and knees, washing my kids in the most pleasant and funny way possible, dressing them, and keeping them entertained and happy. I feel incredibly accomplished to have completed such a big task and come out on the other side with happy kids!

Now that they are in bed, though, my body is already screaming at me for doing what I did, so I will go rest it in bed. But I will rest happy. I am achy, but its a good rewarding ache 🙂 I earned this one.

It was one year ago today that I went in to the hospital VERY privately, and was induced early to have our third baby. I feared other people’s opinions, while knowing it was the best move for us. And my goodness, we were RIGHT. Rowan gave us the easiest labour I could have ever imagined. From the moment I arrived at the hospital to the moment he was born was juuust over 6 hours. It was incredible, euphoric, and dare I say, it was easy. I had the best nurse I could have asked for, and my doctor came to the hospital basically just on stand by, waiting for me to deliver. Everyone, Rowan included, worked hard for me not to be afraid. And I wasn’t. What an exceptional day his birthday was!

This is not exactly how I saw Rowans first birthday playing out, but we can only do what we can do. We’re all still sick, therefore Ro won’t exactly have a rocking celebration bash today. But I don’t think he minds.

Little fever man over here seems to appreciate the low key aspect of the day, as well as the chilly hard floor to cool off on. He doesn’t seem to care that there is no cake in the oven or that we haven’t done anything celebratory. The kids clapped and clapped and loved on him well during breakfast, so I know he feels loved, and that is the most important thing. I hope he knows how often his older siblings full on scrap about who loves him more. It is a spat I break up almost daily.

My Rowan Toby, I love you to the ends of the earth! You have been the BEST third child I could have imagined. You take your siblings rough housing like a champ, you make amazing jokes, and you eat SO well!!! And that haaaaair, dude!!! Thank you for being the trooper than our family needed. We are positively enamoured with you, in sickness and in health 🙂

Feel better soon, my son. I want to take you out and show you off! All twelve beautiful months of you!

I adore you, Ro.

I finally bit the bullet today and called my doctor. I’ve been thinking we could all use a bit of a checkup to make sure this whole mess isn’t more than just the common cold, but the idea of hauling the kids to a walk-in clinic, waiting two hours, and then being told we’re doing everything we can do is just a little bit too much to handle. So I called looking for one of the coveted same day appointment slots, but of course, they were all long gone. Instead, I left a message for Dr. Guselle. She has always been so incredibly accommodating, and when I’ve left messages for her in the past, she just squeezes us in somewhere. I’ve often asked “Are you sure thats allowed?” to which she responds “Its my schedule, and I say its allowed.” I really feel cared for. Love her.

Once I put our little sickies down for a nap, she called me back personally to talk. She agreed with my concerns that likely, we are doing everything we can do, especially for me. However, I had no idea there were throat numbing sprays and candies!! Like beyond cough candies, there are some with anesthetic in them! I had no idea! So Brady obviously offered to pick some up on his way home. Thank you, hubs! We had a really nice long call, though, and she was very understanding. I only cried a little bit, lol! But truly, I’m feeling very out of control. I don’t want to be gross, but I think if you guys have been following me long enough, it would take more to shock you. But this is the first time really in my life that I cough so hard that I pee. I HATE that feeling. Because I may not have the strongest pelvic muscles and all of that, but this is not a common struggle for me. It makes me feel like an invalid. Not to mention my abdominal muscles aren’t their strongest either, and I have a decent chance of tearing them with a cough this bad. I feel really, really out of control, and I told Dr. Guselle that. She told me how I can get a hold of her tomorrow, but made up an end of the day appointment on Thursday for the whole family. I’m really anticipating that, just lining everyone up and checking throats and ears and all of the important things. I’m still debating whether or not I should try to see her tomorrow just for myself, but that would be at the hospital and I just really don’t want to fuss with that :/ We’ll see how I feel, I suppose. But the call alone made me feel safer. I feel like she just knows us really well, and therefore, gives us very specific care. Love her.

Wish us luck for the rest of the day! The kids are snot faucets and still fever upon waking up every single time. And of course, Brady has to work later today. Merp. But we’ll power thru! I feel very reassured that we’re doing the right things, but I’m very much looking forward to everything being confirmed in a day or two. Win!

Yes, we celebrate small victories around here 🙂 Please keep praying for us!

Again, here is a short post that won’t be eloquently worded at all. Today was more of what yesterday was. Fevers, colds, and the desire to be in bed constantly. Brady continues to improve, which is fabulous to see! The rest of us, not so much. Well, to be fair, Rowan didn’t fever today, and Dekker was in better spirits once we got his morning fever down. Laela, and I were in the worst shape, for sure. I was just generally ill, and in that fun place where every time I opened my mouth, I coughed to the point of almost throwing up. It was awesome. And Laela woke up from her night with a fever of 104, which is insane. Thank goodness, we could bring it down and control it with medicine. Once the kids aren’t fevering, they are in pretty good spirits for the most part. Just general cold symptoms after that. Still though, we are all still quite under the weather.

If anyone desires to pray for us, please don’t hesitate. Its looking like this could be a very challenging week, and unfortunately, its not a situation that I feel comfortable involving anyone else in. Which means I can’t accept anyone’s offers to come over and lend a hand, or to bring us anything. We are just too sick, and I’m pretty sure at least some of us are contagious.

I promise, I will soon have other things to write about and be less consumed with myself and our sickness. I’m thinking (hoping!) that framing will begin on our house this week, which is insane and exciting and very baaaaah feeling. That will be a great pick-me-up for the week if we’re so lucky!

Sleep well, all. And sleep early, because you never know when your entire family is going to come down with something. Le sigh.

I will warn you in advance. This will be a short, boring post about a boring, uneventful day.

I felt awful this morning, while Brady wasn’t feeling as bad as the last few days. Therefore, he offered to get the kids breakfast and let me sleep. I woke up at 11:00am, which is insane, I know. I ventured out into the house to find Brady watching Paw Patrol with Dekker and Laela. And I say “watching” loosely, because he was absolutely sleeping. He woke up after a while, and told me that Rowan hardly ate, and went back down to bed at 10:00am. The other kids were awake, but seemed pretty zombie-ish. I got them lunch and once they were done, we put them down as well. It was around noon.

After Brady and I consumed our classy lunch of toast, it was clear that Brady needed to nap. He napped solidly for a good couple of hours, but around 2:00pm, I started to feel feverish, and decided to lay down myself. Brady woke up feeling somewhat better at 2:30, and got up to shower and refresh. I slept and fevered and slept and fevered and felt really really crappy. Brady convinced me to take Tylenol, and I was feeling capable of standing about a half hour later.

We got the kids up around 4:00, so very late in the afternoon. Rowan was just waking up, Dekker was awake, and Laela was still out cold. They were all fevering around 101F. We gave them medicine and took them to the living room for snuggles, but it was a vicious cycle, like the last three weeks have been. One would whimper and they would all start crying. Rowan was rubbing his eyes, Laela was just so very hot, and Dekker was complaining of being itchy and sick. Pretty sure I can safely say that Brady and I both felt like crying too.

After a classy supper of – you guessed it- toast, we watched an episode of Paw Patrol and put them to bed. Heres hoping they sleep through the night!

I won’t lie. Brady is typing this for me as I dictate from the bed. I’m dizzy and nauseous every time I sit up, and today is the first day where my body has decided I can no longer lay on my back, as my growing belly crushed my insides.  Please pray for comfort and healing and rest for all six of us.