I mentioned yesterday that I’ve been in some funny, super duper annoying pain. I called my doctors office yesterday to try to get in with her, and they put me in where they could, which was today, at 4:15, with a resident who would consult with Dr. Guselle about me after the fact. While I would always prefer to see her, beggars can’t be choosers, and I know she knows me and will take note of whats going on. Full trust there. When I was at the appointment, however, the resident said that Dr. Guselle had seen my name come up and planned to come see me herself as well. Yay!

I listed off the issues I’ve been having. I have this unbelievable pain below my ribs, right in the middle there that just refuses to quit!! I can’t stand up straight, lift anyone, sit in any reasonable position, take deep breaths, eat a full meal, etc. You name it, and this pain is making it hard to do. Also, at ten days postpartum, I feel I should easily be weening off my medicine rather than increasing. However, what I’m taking isn’t touching it! What gives??

I saw the resident first, and he asked lots of questions and took notes. When his questions were exhausted, he said he’s go consult with Dr. Guselle and then they’d both come in to chat with me. I waited a bit, and he ducked his head back in just to say she was in with someone else but they’d come soon. No rush, I was fine. When she did come in, she asked a couple more questions before asking to poke at my tummy a little. I lay down and gave them full access to my jelly belly. She poked the part that I was complaining about, and I confirmed that it was quite tender. Then she had me try to sit up a little, just enough to flex my ab muscles, and WOW is that muscle angry!! It hurt so much worse to have it poked at that second time! Yikes! I did learn that everything is coming back together nicely, so thats a positive thing, but apparently I have one two very strained, very angry muscles. She said it was a fairly normal thing, especially considering my size and the Sollys size. Not that we weren’t a good fit or anything, but that combined with a rougher pregnancy than usual might be enough to piss my body off more than usual as well. We confirmed that it wasn’t a hernia, and likely not anything crazier like an ulcer. I assured her that I’m not super concerned, and I’m not losing sleep over what’s happening that I don’t know about. No overreactions that way over here. I’m just fed up with being in this pain. From there, she gave me a bit of a timeline of when to expect this to get better, and we talked meds and doses and came up with a new plan that I’m going to try through the weekend and see where I end up. If all seems well, Solly has his checkup next week Friday, and Dr. Guselle said we’d just reassess me then too. So hopefully this new regimen works well and I can start to function better in the days again.

I feel so silly complaining of a muscle ache after delivering a baby. There could be far worse things, and a pulled muscle is so small. But the reality is that its been affecting my daily life, where I feel nauseous and full and dizzy and all around ill equipped. Hopefully I can soon get my pain under control and be better at my life.

After our trip to the appointment, I felt like complete garbage and spent our home time sitting in our big comfy chair with Solly eating and dozing intermittently. And then this happened!!!

So apparently he wants to walk now!!! At 15.5 months, we are more than ready for it, but this much progress out of nowhere was a HUGE surprise! He’s been able to stand up in the middle of the room for a very long time now, but hasn’t much bothered to take steps. In the last few days, he’s started a little bit of a shy shuffle, but then this happened today!!! It would appear he wanted to save this skill for the new house 🙂 It was a really exciting evening after this, with lots of celebrating and clapping and Rowan walking over and over again. It was an incredibly strange feeling to leave the room and to find him following me on foot! I’m so very proud of him. Thanks for adding such a positive light to the end of our day!!

I am truly blessed to have such chill kids. Thanks to them, we are able to have these quiet days that I am needing so much right now. Thank you, my beautiful kids, for being silent rockstars for me!!

Solly let me sleep until just before 8:00 this morning, which was completely awesome. I woke feeling rested and fairly good physically. (I’m having some interesting changes in my pain that I’ll touch on more tomorrow) It was a while before everyone woke up for breakfast, or I thought it was everyone. Rowan was still sleeping when we got up, and Solly spends most of his daytime hours dozing in his bouncy chair, so I ate breakfast with Dekker and Laela, just like old times. It was nice, moods were up, the house smells fresh, etc.

As soon as the big kids finished eating, Rowan woke up. So I sat at the table with him and got him some cereal and yogurt. Of course, as it would to happen, as soon as Ro was done, Solly woke up with a vengeance, ready to eat. I grabbed him a bottle and went to sit in the living room with everyone to feed him. By the time he was done eating, it was lunch! Yikes! So it feels like all morning was spent eating.

Around noon, I took another dose of pain meds, and within an hour, I was out of commission, on the couch, in a lot of pain. I made some phone calls after that, and finally time passed and I could take more meds. Not that they’re really touching anything right now. At this stage of the game, I’m pretty sure I should easily be weening off of my medication, not needing more. So I’ll see someone about that tomorrow, no worries. But my kids were very relaxed and played well while I sat curled up in a ball. At one point, Rowan got SO angry at something and would not stop crying and freaking out that I put him in his bed for a few minutes to calm down. And he fell asleep. Solly also, as usual, was mostly asleep, so soon I was just sitting on the couch, watching Paw Patrol with my big kids. It helped. Dekker and Laela have started really scrapping with each other recently, but I witnessed some adorable interactions between them that reminded me just how sweet they are, and that they really love each other. What amazing kids!

My late afternoon/evening got a bit challenging again, and I ended up having a soak as soon as Brady got home. A friend from church brought us a super delicious supper, which REALLY helped. Its amazing to have one less thing to think about and plan for. I also had a really lovely time chatting with my sister on the phone this evening. Its so important to keep in touch, and I love our calls. We don’t talk on the phone too terribly often, maybe a couple of times a month, but we always do a really good job of catching up 🙂 Certainly no love lost over time.

So the kids were good, the soak was good, the call was good, supper was good, all is well. Except this silly pain. It has reached the point of making me feel sick to my stomach. Oy. I hope to find some answers tomorrow, so if you think of me, feel free to say a quick prayer!

Time for bath #2 and bedtime. So. Ready. For bedtime.

Thank you, everyone, who checked up on me today. I was feeling quite low yesterday, with pretty solid anxiety about Brady heading back to work today. I wasn’t nervous about being on my own with the four kids, to be honest. This has just all been SO different than any other time in our life, and I felt ill prepared to go forward with the day. Usually, I have Brady home for two solid weeks of being lazy, having 3-4 baths per day, watching movies, going out a couple of times, taking lots of pictures, etc. Since Solomon was born, we haven’t had a single day that is just down time. And then I’m losing Brady a week earlier than usual. I know lots of men go back to work considerably sooner, but this is just what we’ve done, and because its been SO different, and SOOO busy, I was very, very nervous. I chose not to share this with my husband, which of course only made things worse for me. It was a difficult day, and a VERY hard evening.

I am completely blown away by the amount of people who have offered to help, checked in on me, or even dropped by with treats, encouragements, etc. We feel truly loved and cared about!

Solly was very gentle with us last night, waking up only twice in the night! Brady and I tag teamed his diapers and feedings, and he and I both woke up feeling good and rested. At different times, of course, but it was nice to start the day feeling good. Solly dozed while I fed the big kids breakfast, and they played the morning away. My mom came by around 9:30/10:00 and spent a few hours with us, playing with the big kids, snuggling Solly, visiting with me, etc. She brought and prepared lunch as well. It was helpful, and also really really nice to have her around. I think I would have been in worse shape yesterday had we not planned for her to come today. Thank you again, mom. You helped a lot today, even though you don’t think you did.

Mom left around 1:30, and I plunked myself down in our recliner with Solly, and we all watched a bit of tv. It was relaxing. That is, until I realized I forgot to take my medication. I took it as soon as I could, but things were already wearing off, and I felt sick.

In our +30C weather, Brady came home to find me wearing a big hoodie and two pairs of pants. TWO. I was frozen and shivery and sick to my stomach. He ran me a hot bath and set up the laptop for me to watch some YouTube in there, and left me to take a break. I felt silly needing such a thing, after a really GOOD day! But I just did. Maybe it was my body coming down from everything, I don’t know, but it felt awful. The bath helped tremendously! Though I’m still planning on an evening soak like always 😉

Upon getting out of the bath, a friend dropped by with some treats for us, to celebrate the new house and the baby and all of the craziness. That paired with a meal brought to us by a friend made for a delicious evening, and we are full and SO ready for bed! Haha! Speaking like parents of a newborn, that’s for sure!

Thank you, again, for all of your prayers and concern and encouragement. Let’s call today a success!!

So I’ll just put it out there quickly that I always have a good blue day in my first week postpartum. Usually just one, about three days in, and it is almost always very, very blue. For the record, I am definitely aware of postpartum depression, and I am definitely on the lookout. Zero shame, completely. If I think I’m anywhere near, steps will be taken. But with all of the hormones and changes and surges and craziness, I’m definitely feeling low today. It was a great day, but this evening, I feel low.

SO! I decided to post that photo post of outdoor church, as promised a couple of days ago. Behold, my beautiful family!

I was insistent that Solly wear this shirt, because I LOVE it! But of course I have it in newborn size. So as you can see, he is PACKED right in there! That was this shirts first and last outing. On Solly, anyway 😉

This was breakfast. Bagels were the big win on our blanket with these kiddos. Rowan too, but he wasn’t quite as able to feed himself with them positively smothered in cream cheese.

Probably the majority of you have seen this picture of Solomon already, but it can’t be left out. Not only is it gorgeous, but its the only one we have of him that morning, because thats practically all he did all morning!

Rowan’s cream cheese face cannot be left undocumented.

I left to get the bottomless pits yet more food, and when I came back, my spot beside Brady had been hijacked by just about everyone. I figured, at least I’d get a cute picture out of the deal. But then there was Rowan… Its ok, he did cute things later.

This picture cracks me up more than it should. Its not as though the kids never eaten fruit, he knows about peels/rinds/the like, but as much as we told it wouldn’t be yummy, he insisted he eat the rind. “I want it to be all gone,” he said. I asked if it yummy. “Not really…”

I have to include both of these, even though they’re not that different. I just love them too much to try to choose. I love how happy we are, and how much fun the morning was. Our expressions are not forced. It was a truly wonderful morning out.

And it really couldn’t have ended on a sweeter note <3 Some handsome men I have here.

Looking through these pictures again has done good things for my soul. Feel free to pray for my little family, as we go through all of our changes, and some days are smoother than others. We are so grateful for our life, and the people we share it with.

Our day ended up getting a bit mixed up, with plans turning around, and not getting quite as much done as we had planned to, but it was probably better that way. I woke up in the night, realizing I had forgotten to take my pain meds for quite some time, and found myself in some pretty wicked pain. And not recovery pain like you would think. MUCH more pain in my ribs, chest, and pelvis. Likely just my general bone structure and insides trying to find their correct placement, but it felt like someone had driven truck through my skeletal system. It sucked, and it took most of the day to get back to just a reasonable amount of pain. So the change of schedule likely worked in my favor, which I am grateful for.

The SaskTel installer came out in the morning to get our internet set up, which was hopeful when we were still hoping to get some errands run in the afternoon. However, I don’t know if he wasn’t prepared for an initial set up (with this being a brand new house) or what really happened, but he stayed about an hour before having to leave. While he was gone, Brady had to duck out to make a kijiji pick up that I had arranged earlier when we thought the SaskTel guy would be long gone by then. So I was on my own for the first time with all four, and timing was actually pretty great, as both Ro and Solomon were asleep. When our installer did resurface, he just told me he was going for lunch. So the new plan to go out in the afternoon was shot as well. With that, I called Brady who was already on his way home, and told him to go back into the city and run the important errands that we really needed to get done sooner than later. Specifically the hardware needed to install our laundry machines. He did that, the internet was successfully installed, Rowan kept sleeping, Dekker showed the installer the gas truck he built, and Laela asked him to turn on Paw Patrol. Solly stared blankly.

While the afternoon wore on, I puttered a little bit more in my house. I feel like I need to keep saying that I’m really not pushing too hard. I promise. I have no big goal or any deadline with the house. I’m comfortable with a pile of boxes in my house as long as there needs to be one. But I’m enjoying slowly going through the boxes, throwing some stuff out, and finding homes for the other stuff. I’m really really loving setting up my kitchen and main area how I want it. A few more boxes got done today 🙂 When Brady got home, we set up the new little piece of childrens furniture in the living room, and laid the room out the way we want it. At least for now. We are hoping for a few pieces still – end tables, a nicer tv stand, stuff like that, but the couches are where we want them and things are looking more intentional and normal. So that got done too! Its really good to see it all slowly come together!!

Then Brady set to work on the laundry machines, and I am thrilled to have them successfully installed now, running a big load of kids laundry this evening. They’re so pretty and new, and HUGE!, which makes me really happy! Not that there is any room downstairs to actually DO laundry! Yikes its stacked up down there! But we’ll get there. Brady and I keep saying “We’ll try to do that tomorrow,” but tomorrow is Bradys last day at home before work begins again 🙁 Mixed emotions about that. Thats probably the one sad thing about the move being so close to baby day. Having to share the time off. But honestly, if we held the move off until next weekend, he would have had no days off around it. I’m still really happy with our decision. Just seems soon for him to go back. But duty calls, I am a capable mother, and I am blessed with lots of beautiful people who I know will happily tap in on days that I need them to. We’ve got this 🙂

Kim came by once our kids were down, to come see how much had been done, since she was away on the weekend and hadn’t been able to be part of the move. She toured around a little bit, and then got some good Solly snuggles. Brady made lattes and the three of us sat and visited for a couple of hours, which felt SO nice and normal! I’m so thrilled to finally be local here. I hope these kinds of visits happen more often. We are finally home!

Looking at the week ahead, I have so many things to post about, I fear I’ll fall behind!! I have so many pictures to post from the move, and from outdoor church. I want to post Solly’s birth story, and our first day at home without Brady. I don’t want to forget anything, but there is just so much happening! I promise, I’m doing my best out here! Hopefully “The Daily Hailey” can actually stay daily!!! Eek!

We took the kids to outdoor church this morning. It’s the weekend where the town celebrates itself in general, there is always breakfast in the park, followed by a church service. 

Can I be honest? I love that service. It’s one of my faves. I love the breakfast they always serve, I love the music outside, I love the casual nature of the whole thing, and I love the social aspect. Today, however, I was feeling less inclined to go, as yesterday was somewhat busy, as it was earlier in the week. The decision maker was waking up, and realizing that we had no milk for cereal or cream for coffee in the house. Sooooo off to church we went, lol! 

We had a delicious breakfast of fresh bagels, homemade cream cheese, watermelon and cantaloupe. And coffee 😉 We ate family style, and got a couple plates of bagels, hacked up for little fingers. They were bottomless pits, and we kept having to go back for more. Finally, I grabbed one last bagel, slathered it in strawberry cream cheese, cut it into eight pieces, and then grabbed another plate and filled it with cantaloupe. When I brought the food back to our blanket, Laela remarked “mommys super hungry!” Nice, kid. 

They ate thru the service, and sat pretty well for the rest of it. I only had to walk Solly around a bit towards the end, but a lovely woman from my church offered to snag him for a bit so I could hang with the bigger ones, since Rowan was decidedly over church by that point. So I got some hands on time with the big kids, and hopefully she enjoyed some baby snuggles. It made for a beautiful morning! I’m sooo disappointed that I can’t put pictures up 🙁 but I’m blogging on my phone until we get wifi back, which will be tomorrow!! Woot! So I’ll do a belated photo post about it soon. 

After church, I retrieved Solomon, and we headed home. Once in the driveway, we realized that we still didn’t have any milk or cream, and that the grocery store wasn’t going to be open for a while still. So we decided to drive to our rental and pack up the fridge and freezer, which we neglected to do on moving day. It confused the kids a bit, driving back up to the cabin, but we explained what was going on, and just Brady ran in. 

Once we got our food packed into the van, we realized it was too late to go back home and make lunch, so we drove thru and got some fast food into everyone’s tummies. Lol! Not the healthiest option, obviously, but it worked. We were halfway back home when we realized that we STILL didn’t have milk, because we didn’t have any at the rental. Ugh! So we just opted to buy some in town. No more stops for us! 

We finally got our milk, and made it home. Brady unpacked our food into our fridge and I fed Solly. Then we started to putter around a little bit. Solly loves his bouncy chair, so he hung out in there while Brady and I continued the task of setting up from yesterday. I have to say, we just took our time, no pressure or deadlines, and we got way more done than I would have thought!! It’s definitely not done, but we got rid of a lot of boxes!!! He unpacked some toys, I threw some stuff away, I continued on kitchen setup, Brady made some trips downstairs to clear space, Brady tidied our room up a bit, I washed all of the bottles for Solomon so we finally have more than a couple going. We puttered, but apparently super efficiently. 

Bradys parents have been visiting everyone they know in the last few days, lol, and we were along their trek home, so they came for the end of the afternoon and the evening. They’ve never met any of our children so early in the game, so that was really nice! They even bought us supper, which was also really nice of them. We visited a little, and they got some good time in with all four kids. It was a nice visit, even tho it was short. They’ve been sooo busy, and we know the feeling well. 

We put the kids to bed, and visited a little more before they called it a day and headed out for the night. Now, we’re just taking it easy and I’m anticipating a bath. My soak last night was unreal. How I have missed my bathtub. It felt so familiar to sink into it, and my body instantly relaxed. I am so incredibly thrilled to be able to recover from my pregnancy and delivery with this tub. I have had a hard time not having a tub to soak my aches and pain in, and I know that sounds frivolous, but my body is somewhat dependant on it. Without that, this has easily been my most painful pregnancy, and therefore I anticipate being achy for quite a bit longer postpartum than usual. My poor pelvis still hurts like crazy, I still have my legs pop out of joint when I roll over in bed, things like that. Add to that some delivery wounds and boulder boobs, and a bath is so very wonderful! I am certainly blessed to have my amazing tub again! 

Ok, that whole post just turned into a rant about my bathtub 🙂 off to take care of that…

Today is the last day in this short, insane countdown! As I sit here at the end of the day, staring at my house, I am truly content. Truly happy. Incredibly blessed to have all we have and WHO we all have! 

With this weekend being a very big one in our town, we were a bit worried about trying to find moving help, as so many of our friends are from here. But God was good, and obviously laid it on people’s hearts to help us! I want to do a separate post just thanking everyone individually, but that’ll be another day snoon. I’m not being ungrateful by not listing them today, I promise. 

We started at our rental at 8am. Jerilee came a little early to help with the kids, and even did the run to Tims to pick up coffee for everyone. We hauled out around 10am, and by 10:30, the entire rental was packed up and on its way to the new house!!! 

It was an incredible sight to see, honestly. This crew WORKED sooo fast and so positively! We have been blessed in every move with a group of people who can chat, and make the day fun and optimistic, while working at breakneck speed. Really, the very best kind of moving crew to have. So they ran like worker bees and got stuff unpacked and properly dispersed throughout the house around 12:30. They brought all of my kitchen stuff to the kitchen, so I could start setting that up as well. I am so thankful for the people I had around me who helped me set it up! Anyone who has talked about this house with me knows how much I’ve anticipated setting up my kitchen, and after just having Solly, I knew I could only accomplish so much today in the way of the move. My friends came around me and let me tell them where I wanted things, showed them my drawing (yup, a legit drawing) of where I wanted stuff, and no one made fun of me! They just helped 🙂 and because of that, I could do a bunch of kitchen stuff and be part of the process without pushing it too hard. 

At 12:30, everyone took a sit down and lunch arrived at 12:45. My parents and siblings provided us with pizza, pop, water, veggies, and chips, which was a lovely gift, and a huge weight off of my shoulders!! We all broke for lunch, and the group thinned out a little bit. We soon made the plan for the guys to take a second trip out and see what they could get from our container to the house still today. It was about an hour later when I received the text saying EVERYTHING was loaded up and coming! How crazy is that?!?! 

More unloading, mostly into the basement, and we are officially moved in!!! It’s not pretty just yet, haha, but it’s on its way! When we have wifi, I’ll post pictures. Maybe we’ll have some great before and after pictures by then!! Or maybe it’ll still be a mess in here. Who knows, haha! But it’ll happen eventually. While it’s all stacked up now, it still feels surreal. Brady and I keep saying it feels like we’re moving into a super nice rental, or maybe staying at a hotel. It doesn’t feel like we should be living here!!! 

We called it a day officially around 6:30. At that point, it was just brady, jerilee, and I left. And Solomon, obviously. We sat down and tested our bodies and ate some leftover pizza for supper. Shortly after that, we got the kids from my parents, let them explore a little, and then put them to bed. 

Won’t lie. That sucked. It was sad for everyone, and more change for them. But it’s going to get better and better. Everyone loves it here 🙂 

I would write a considerably more in depth post but I am just finished. I don’t mean to be a downer, because today has been sooo good!! But it was still a huge day. We’re all sore and achy and bleary eyed over here. However, I can confidently say that moving this weekend was the correct decision for us. It was a wonderful day, we had an amazing group of people jump in to help, the weather was nice, the list goes on. I am SO happy we decided to move this weekend!!! 

Three crazy days are done!!! Let’s hope to start finding some normalcy one of these days now 😉

Shortest countdown ever, I know. But realistically speaking, we’ve been counting down for 115 days. We were just unaware exactly what number to start on. Actually actually, Brady and I have been counting down for roughly four years. This has been an immense day. IMMENSE.

We kicked off the morning by getting ourselves dressed and ready to run around. We left Solly in jammies, and just barely got the big kids breakfast before Willa arrived to save our butts, yet again. She comes so ready, with snacks and plans and toys and SO much grandma love! She also came with a husband who ducked in, congratulated us on Solomon, and promptly headed outside to mow our lawn. This family, though. They are top notch.

We left pretty quickly after they arrived, and rushed downtown to meet with our lawyer. She had managed to pull everything together for us in incredible time, and it was time to sign the papers to officially accept the house, the mortgage, the responsibility, basically. I remember doing that for our last house, and how our lawyer made jokes about “signing our lives away.” It was funny and nerve wracking and exciting and ominous all at once, and we were happy to do it. And honestly, guys, this was BETTER. She was quick and professional, but totally positive. Nothing felt ominous, or scary. She pointed out all of the positives, and everything was just quick and painless. I loved that. I told her that she made me feel at ease, and thanked her for all of the work she had rushed in order to get this happening on time for us. She was a rockstar, because she also got us out the door in time to make it to our next appointment.

Because Solly was less than 24 hours old when we left the hospital, he hadn’t had this one particular test done. Its a bloodtest to check for all kinds of big, scary things, and it involves basically milking a decent amount of blood from his heels and filling in five circles on a paper they have that gets sent away to get tested. With our other kids, it takes FOREVER, tons of tears, and two bloodied feet. Its hard to watch, even though you know the kids won’t remember it, and its for their own good. Its still hard to see them hurt. It had to get done, and today was the day. We arrived just a few minutes before our time slot, and a nurse greeted us and took us right in. She was super friendly, very approving of us, our large family, our new son, his name, the list went on. Haha! It was refreshing, honestly. She was nice 🙂 She first asked all about me, and how I was feeling, did I have any questions, how was I coping, etc. It was nice, and I actually felt like she wanted to know, and less like it was all routine. I assured her I was feeling good in spirit and emotion, but that today was my pain day, when just everything hurts. I always have one a few days post, and today has been that day, but I assured her I’m confident all is in order, and I’m just sore, as I should be. She then asked about Brady, and made sure his emotions and state of mind was stable. Once it was established that he and I are both in good shape, she went on to ask questions about our Solomon. We answered as much as we knew, and handed him over for what we didn’t. I was SO pleased with the results of everything!! While we obviously don’t know anything about his blood test yet, he did great!! He only cried a bit towards the end of it, but it was SO much quicker than previous kids! While it sounds a bit awful, he bled really nicely, and she said he was really well hydrated. He pooped while we were there, and she snagged him to weigh and change him for us. She said his poops were exactly where they should be, also showing he was feeding well. And when she weighed him, she was pleased to tell us he was already gaining back the little weight that he dropped in the hospital! I don’t remember exactly what he dropped to in hospital, but he is currently 10 lbs even, so not long from now, he’ll be nicely back up by his birth weight, I have zero doubt. He loves his milk, and drinks beautifully! So our appointment felt good. Affirming and positive.

We left and decided to take a few extra minutes before going home. We were encouraged to go find a park to neck in 😉 but opted for a breakfast date. We hit up the Tim Hortons across the road from our rental house for breakfast sandwiches. Brady added a few extra yummy things to that order, and we enjoyed a date, just us and the newbie. It was a really nice way to end our morning of rushing around, running errands.

Hahaha! Almost got those pictures pieced together perfectly, lol!

We got home to see our happy kids playing with new toys while grandma Willa prepared lunch. It was a pretty lovely sight, I won’t lie. She has sure blessed us with her willingness and what I believe to be a genuine desire to be with our family! The kids love her too 🙂 And AGAIN, she did our dishes, and who even knows what else! Thank you again, Willa. We love you!

After lunch, Rowan went down for a nap and very soon afterwards, we got a super exciting text!!

Our builder had heard from our lawyers, and it was time to get the keeeeeys!!! Of course, we didn’t waste a moment. We woke Ro and loaded everyone into the van and headed to meet our builder at his house.

(And because all you can see of Solomon is his feet in the top left corner…)

We met he and his wife outside, and had a really nice visit!! They are an incredible couple with a funny dynamic, and they both were SO happy to hear just how thrilled we were with the house! I know that people have to sell their product and everything, but they spoke very highly of our house and how it turned out. And I can’t blame them, because we sure think highly of our house too, and of how smooth the process was. Remember the posts I put up on here about the days that weren’t smooth because something had gone awry with the build? There were two. Two. Sooooo it was incredible, and we would HIGHLY recommend KW Homes to anyone looking to build! So once again, we shook hands all around, grabbed the keys, and raced our van HOME!!!

We had no big plans at the house today. None at all. But we wanted to go and show the kids that it was finally done. All the way done, as Dekker would say. It seemed to take a while for that to sink in, but it wasn’t long before everyone was feeling more comfortable.

Rowan and Dekker both pooped at the house today. Sooooo I guess its definitely ours now!

Dekker says he loves the whole house, but if I had to say, I’d guess his favorite part is the closets. He and Laela both love hiding in them. I’ll watch them close themselves inside a closet, hear them quietly count to ten, and then explode out and yell “SURPRISE!” Laela would tell you her favorite part of the new house is the toilets. I asked her if she’d maybe start peeing in the toilet at the new house, and she wholeheartedly agreed! So we’ll see how that goes! Rowan can’t say a whole lot just yet, but I’d guess that he either likes the stairs or the cabinets best. Though not the drawer cabinets. Just the door ones. He got his fingers pinched multiples times, and its only the first day. Poor dude.

We hung around the house for a while, but soon, we began to pay the price for waking Rowan up from his nap, and decided it was time to go. The kids were a bit sad to leave, but I think they understand very clearly whats going on, and they accepted one last night in the cabin before getting to live at our new house. They’re great kids.

We had a delicious supper of pancakes, breakfast sausage, and watermelon. Then the kids played a little bit before it was bedtime. Now, they’re cashed out and Brady is out and about, picking up a truck and trailer set up, and bringing a few things to the house in preparation for tomorrow. Toilet paper, soap, hand towels, etc. Just so that we can have people moving through our house and to have it actually functioning. I’m just blogging and Solly is wide awake, so we’ll see what I all accomplish this evening, but I’ll probably keep my feet up for most of it. Thats the rules, I hear, and on an achy day such as this one, I would love to follow those rules.

Tomorrow is the big move! Eek!! Please, anyone with even the smallest big of curiosity, feel free to drop by and see the place! You MUST throw one box if you come 😉 but its a small price to pay! Come celebrate this amazing time of our life with us!!!

Three………. Two……….

There are THREE crazy busy days ahead of us because we can slow down juuust a little bit. I know life is going to be busy beyond these three days, but this is where we’re starting to count 🙂 Deal? Just play along with the countdown, ok?

We had a busy night of tar poops and cluster feeding, but Solly gave us a nice stretch right at the end of the night. I got three consecutive hours before I woke up and was just awake for the day. I heard Dekker and Rowan were awake, so I got them up and we had some breakfast, just me and the big boys. Brady slept for a little bit longer, but surfaced soon enough and we began making calls for the day. Laela slept in for another good hour, and Solly even longer. It was nice, and while I like it when my kids do things all together, it was actually kind of nice to break up breakfast and get some good face time with everyone individually. No complaints there!

Without going into anything in too much detail, we had some pretty ridiculous mix ups with our lawyer (who wasn’t actually our lawyer, long story) yesterday. We found out there were problems, and were already getting calls on our way home from the hospital. We started getting calls on it again this morning RIGHT at 8:00am. After a lot of figuring and calls back and fourth, the mix up was figured out and we were able to set up all of the necessary appointments. We eventually bumped the lawyer to tomorrow, though, as today was already full.

We spent the morning making and taking calls, and Willa arrived to save our butts right around noon. Rowan had just gone down for a nap, and she stayed at the house while we took the others out. We dropped Dekker and Laela at my parents to play with my mom and their cousins, and we took Solly to the final walk through of our home!! We had no idea what to expect, as we had heard walk throughs take several hours, or they take 20 minutes. We didn’t know! But I am SO thrilled to say that the house is PERFECT! I am completely blown away by how corners were NOT cut, how PRECISE everything is, and how LITTLE, if anything, was compromised on. We combed through that house, top to bottom, and it is flawless. We are blown away. Part of the walk through was making sure everything was pretty. It was. Part of it was telling us just how many times they had patched and painted, patched and painted, patched and painted, to make it just that perfect. Part of it was learning about all of the mechanical stuff, which I am super grateful for. Again, no compromises there. Even in our basement, in the furnace room, it is tidy, all lined up and straight forward, and clean. It is at the BEST starting point EVER! We happily signed our lives away, shook hands all around, and accepted the house! Once tomorrow happens, we’ll meet up with our builder one last time to retrieve the keys! Some money just has to change hands before that happens 😉 but tomorrow, it will officially be OURS!

How cool is this?? The drawing from before the house was a reality, to TODAY. And WOW, were they accurate!!!!! Sure looks bang on to me!

We ducked by Kim’s quickly after seeing the house so she could get her hands on Solly 🙂 It was short lived but lovely!

Aren’t they both so pretty??

We stopped at my parents to grab the big kids, and quickly fed Solly and changed him before we headed home. The big kids were trashed, and slept the whole drive home. It was peaceful, and made me feel like today had truly been great. I was so relieved to just be able to go home and spend the evening resting like I know I’m supposed to be doing.

We were greeted at home by Rowan and Willa, hanging in the backyard. They had a FULL afternoon together, and both looked happy and content. Rowan had clearly loved the one on one attention, and I think I can safely say that Willa did too 🙂 They seemed to have a VERY good thing going. Made my heart happy. It was, of course, after she left that we realized our dishes were done, floors were swept, and just how much work she actually did in our backyard flowerbeds. We owe you one, Willa. At LEAST one!

We spent the evening cuddling a LOT with the kids, making the specific effort to get face time with all of them separately. Its really worth putting in that extra effort, because it shows in their demeanours that they feel more appreciated and noticed. They are truly all exceptional kids, and I need to remember just how much we’re putting them through. While its all wonderful stuff, they’re all very big changes, and they’re bound to struggle. I struggle! Why shouldn’t they? I would say they are doing incredibly well considering 🙂

Brady is putting the finishing touches on bedtime, and I think after that, we are DONE for the day! Not “done” in a bad way at all, but done with calls, organizing, working, etc. We need a little bit of downtime. So we’ll feed Solly and see what his evening plan is, then eat some supper, probably have a little soak in the tub, and REST! It sounds pretty much perfect for me, and I know it’ll help my moms heart to know I’m putting my feet up a little 😉

So, the legit countdown is ON.

Three……….

We’re HOME!!! After a short night, most thanks to my adrenaline than the new baby, we spent the morning awaiting discharge. It took a little bit longer than we had hoped, but since Solly’s sugars were low, he had to have lots of heel pokes, and they were a few hours apart. I am thrilled that he is such a tolerant little guy, because he just hacked them, along with being weighed and measured and checked over and rechecked. He’s a champ.

I was SO pleased when the shifts changed over and our nurse for the morning came by to greet us. Her first observation was that it looked like my IV hurt. She was right, it really really did. She asked if she could take it out, to which I wholeheartedly consented, and I was free of it nice and quick! I’m sure lots of you can relate to the comfort in just no longer being tethered to a rolling pole anymore!! As soon as that was done, I was dressed and feeling so much better, and less bionic.

It wasn’t too long before Solly and I were both squared away to leave, but as tends to happen, it took a while before anyone actually brought us discharge papers and let us leave. But we eventually made our way out, and proudly carried our new little bundle to the van. He was SO cute!!!

In case anyone was wondering, thats a 3-6 month sized shirt.

Our evening was full at home, as goes without saying. The kids were so tired and honestly, pretty grumpy, but they were pretty curious about Solly. They knew his name and were clearly anticipating, but they each responded to him how I thought. Rowan goes from being completely uninterested to being aggressive and smacking at him. He’s got time, he’ll figure it out 😉 Dekker says he likes Solly but doesn’t want to hug or kiss him or really touch him yet. He was the same with the others. Laela was probably the most tired of the group when we got home, so while she wasn’t completely ecstatic over him, she called him by name and pointed out how soft he was, touching his cheeks, hair, and blanket. At one point, she rested her cheek against his and said “Cute little guy!” They will get more accustomed to each other very soon, I’m sure, but they’re well on their way.

Bedtime was pretty crazy. Laela was in bed by 6:30, and Dekker made a very serious attitude adjustment, and went down SO much better than we thought he would at 7:00! Happy to tidy toys, even. Rowan went down well too, and played a little in his crib before falling asleep. Once the house was quiet, Jerilee ducked in to meet the little prince. They had a nice date before she offended him, and then he just cried, and the moment was over. Sensitive little guy, apparently. But he ate a little and went down to bed, and the three of us had a visit in the living room. Lots and lots to talk about!!

But more on the details later. While Solly is FINALLY here, and we can all relax a bit, we can’t actually, because we’re moving in three days. Sooooo now is the time to SLEEP! First, a little soak in the tub, but then to bed. Mmmmm, my bed, how I’ve missed you…..