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.

 

I feel like my blogs are becoming slightly broken record-ish, but it still feels necessary to say that, in case you somehow missed it, we’re sick over here. Dekker and Laela have seemed pretty well the last few days, but Brady is brutally sick, I’m not too too bad but I’m fairly dead on my feet, and Rowan has been struggling over the last day or two again. It just. Keeps. Cycling.

Ro woke up around 7:30 this morning, which is EARLY for our family. And instead of his usual gradual wake-up of playing and talking, he was crying. It woke me from a dead sleep, so it took me a second before everything registered, and by the time it did, he was back to sleep. I didn’t think much of it, as I figured he had probably woken up from one thing or another, was still tired, and wanted to go back to sleep. No big deal. Everyone stayed quiet then for quite some time. When it was time to get up, I went upstairs and made Rowan his oatmeal, like always, so it can cool while I change diapers. Laela and Dekker were in good spirits, and even Rowan seemed happy to see everyone. BUT. Rowan was HOT. His face was red, and he was hot to the touch. I checked his temperature right away, and it didn’t register as over. I checked it again, and still, nothing. But I was positive that he was fevering. We’ve questioned this thermometer before, and we think its finicky, so I gave Ro medicine anyway. Sure enough, while he ate his oatmeal, banana, and yogurt, he cooled off and was soon in much better shape. I considered that he also cut a molar a day or two back, and if nothing else, the Tylenol would ease any discomfort he was still experiencing from that.

It was less than an hour after breakfast that he became inconsolable. Just out of nowhere, he started crying and crying. He wouldn’t eat, and he wasn’t fevered again, so I opted for an earlier nap for him. He went down seamlessly, all wrapped up in his blankets, cuddled up warm.

He proceeded to sleep for FIVE HOURS. No word of a lie. The big kids ate lunch, napped, I rested, the kids got back up, we played, Brady came home from work, and Rowan was still sleeping. Now my kids are rockstars at sleeping thru sickness, which I am INCREDIBLY grateful for! But I don’t care who you ask. That is a LONG nap. Finally, Brady went in to get him up, because we want him to sleep at night, and he was laying still, completely wrapped in his blankets, out cold. He needed to get up, though, so Brady got him up and carried him around to wake him up slowly. Once again, he was burning up. The monitor we have in his room tells us the temperature, and his room got down to 19C only!! How can anyone fever in that temperature?! Craziness, I know. So we gave him medicine, and then considering that he hadn’t eaten since breakfast, I sat at the table with him and tried to come up with yummy things for him to eat that would be easy on his belly. I opted for crackers and some applesauce. He ate two applesauce cups but would not touch the crackers. Not one. But that was all we could get into him 🙁 He seemed happy enough, but didn’t want to eat. He just yawned and yawned.

We spent a bit of time watching tv before bed, since none of us had a whole lot to offer the group. Rowan just lay reclined on me and watched. He was so tired and cuddly. Everyone was very comfy and relaxed, and then it was time to go upstairs and tidy toys and get ready for bed. While Brady brushed the kids teeth, I took Rowan into their room for a diaper change and such. First, I checked his temperature and again, it was low. But again, I don’t buy it. He was hot. His tummy was hot, his neck and back were hot, he was fevered. Good to know. In a moment of tickles, I figured I’d take advantage of that wide open mouth and check out that molars progress. And what I found was TWO MORE MOLARS! The kid has cut three molars in the last few days!!! How crazy is that?! No wonder he’s been sad as often as he’s been awake! And no wonder he’s hardly been awake! Poor little monkey. He is just going through it.

He drank most of a bottle and was very ready to be tucked in and put to bed, as are Brady and I. We are tired and cranky. I’m really hoping tomorrow is an amazing day of healing and rest for all of us, and for all of you as well 🙂 As Saturday should be.

Have a good weekend! Stay healthy!

Of the whole fam, Brady is definitely feeling the worst. It changes every couple of days, and its currently his turn. Last night was particularly rough, and I thought I’d share the humorous side of it with you guys. And likely, I’m sharing this with Brady, because he has no idea all of the antics that he put me through last night.

I’ll start off by saying that Brady is a top notch bed-sharer. He sticks to his side, we have a good balance with how many blankets we’re each allowed, he rarely talks in his sleep or does anything notable like that. He’s a chill person to share a bed with. But MY GOSH! When this guy is sick, its a whole different story!

Because he’s sick, he’s sleeping much harder when he finally gets there. So in the last little while, with all of the sickness, I’ve become more accustomed to Brady rolling half on top of me, and just staying put. Last night specifically, I wanted to be gentle with him, but he was out cold and could not be lulled. I took it for a while, because he was weirdly jabbing his knee into my back in a way that countered my crazy pelvic pain, haha! But once he shifted and it just plain hurt, I shoved him off. I love you, man, but no way.

Another sick thing that Brady does is snore. And I mean, let’s be real. Who doesn’t snore when they’re sick?? I hold nothing against him AT ALL. But he makes such crazy sounds!! Its less like a predictable snore, and more like a “did I just hear a mouse/the kids are awake/someone drove up to our house/the toilet is running” kind of snore. At least I’m entertained while I’m awake.

I tried to help him out a bit when he woke up shivering. Our room wasn’t any colder than usual, and he couldn’t warm up. He was in and out of sleep, but his shaking wouldn’t stop. His neck was boiling hot, so I took him some meds and tried to help him feel better. He took them, but was SO zonked. I so rarely see him like that. I had so much compassion for him.

Until this last one. He lay in something of a fetal position, but with one cold foot pressed right against my butt. Nice, I know. I shifted away from him, but that foot was persistent!! It just kept coming, haha! As I neared the very edge of the bed, I realized that he was ever so gently (but actually somewhat aggressively) kicking me out of bed. I finally just stopped trying to get away and accepted the foot on my butt. This was ok for about five seconds, when he started flexing and clenching his toes. That was IT! Hahahaha!! In my normal daytime voice, I said “Ok, thats enough Brady, wake up, move over.” He did immediately and asked what was wrong. I told him he was kicking me off the bed, and he apologized and fell back to sleep instantly. I figured that gave me enough clearance to share this story publicly, so there you have it.

Love me still, Brady?? <3

The Born household continues to take a beating from this ridiculous cold that has been upon us for just shy of three weeks now. Brady lost his voice and was feeling pretty horrific, but being the man he is, he powered through a ten hour work day and came home to us with a smile on his face. Unfortunately, he’s feeling worse as the day wears on 🙁 I’m SO thankful for the kids having a decent day today! We’ve had some hard days recently, with lots of attitudes and punishments and struggles, but today was better! The kids were in better spirits, and in better health. They played really well together, and even shared the prized toys that tend to get hidden by whoever had them last. There was less complaining, no time outs, and they napped without a fight. I’m feeling pretty disgusting still, but nowhere near how Brady feels. My throat in in pretty decent pain, and there is always mucus in it, so that just adds to the ick factor :/ But I’ve definitely felt worse than this, so we’ll take it! Therefore, while we had a smoother day and Brady had a rougher one, it probably helped a little bit that he didn’t come home to chaos the way he sometimes does.

We opted not to drive to our lot today, in an effort to be grown ups and not have to go every day, haha! But my dad did, and sent us this picture!

The tarping means that the walls were officially poured today! Eek!!! We’ll potentially venture out there tomorrow, since they’ll have the forms pulled off at least. From there, we’ll leave it alone over the weekend, and hopefully the framing will start really really soon! I can’t wait!!

We rocked a really easy supper and watched some tv with the kids, but Rowan was SO done SO early. He’s the one kid thats still feeling it pretty hard. His hair is cemented to his face with boogers every morning. Delicious, I know. So he was pretty over it by the time bedtime routine began. But he’s such a smart kid, and he knows when its bedtime, because as soon as we start changing diapers and jammies and such, he is so much happier! He plays and crawls and seems wide awake. He just knows he will soon get what he wants. Bed.

On that note, Brady and I are also ready for bed very very soon. Tomorrow is a new day! I hope for a much better one for Brady, and hopefully more of the same for me! Sickies can’t be choosies!

Today was a really big day! Thanks to Brady for rearranging his schedule, we were able to run a bunch of errands together as a family this afternoon. I thank God for his flexible schedule so often these days. He finished his house off before 9:00am and was home to help get everyone ready and out the door in time for my doctors appointment!

I’m 24 weeks today. On a note unrelated to me, I have a friend who delivered her son at about 23.5 weeks, and its crazy to me to think that my baby looks a little bit like her baby did when he was fresh!! At this stage of the game, I’m at an appointment once every four weeks, and this time around, it was five. I love prenatal appointments. Hearing the heartbeat is always lovely, asking any questions I have, the kids being involved a little bit, and the reminder that we are getting closer and closer to delivery! I know, still a ways off, but its coming fast! Today, I was able to learn a few small things that I figured I’d share for those who are interested. This baby is rocking an anterior placenta! Rowan’s also implanted on the front, so its not unfamiliar. It drove me up the wall when it happened with Rowan because I didn’t know about it until around 20 weeks, like usual, but it took about that long to feel him kick, because of the placental placement. No harm, just a bit nerve wracking. Well, lo and behold, this baby has his placenta in the front as well. I think I felt him move sooner than I felt Rowan, but it was still quite a bit later than I felt the others. I assumed this time it was just because I was so busy, and I hadn’t been taking much time to sit quietly and give my body a chance to feel! Now I know. I also learned that my placenta has an extra chunk off of it. Its not separating or coming apart or anything scary like that, but its a good thing to note so that it definitely comes out in delivery. You do NOT want leftover placenta hanging out in there! That equals all kinds of scary things that I don’t want to experience, so we’ll just make sure to fish that sucker out of there on the day things go down, so to speak. All good things to note, anyway. Babys heart rate is a solid 155 bpm, and it was music to my ears. It was a good appointment.

After our visit, we ran around to a bunch of different places, looked at a bunch of different things, made some decisions, and finally grabbed some coffee and headed to our lot. My mom had emailed pictures that she had taken when she checked it for us around noon, and we were way too excited not to come and see the progress made since then! (PS Mom, did you just venture out for us? You never have to, but I LOVE that you did!!!!!) When we got there, we saw a whole crew of guys working on our basement wall forms!!

Brady is gutsier than me, and went out to chat with them. They have plans to pour the walls tomorrow, and apparently, the framers are pretty much chomping at the bit for work, so they’re eager to get a start on our place, which is awesome to hear 😀 We are also eager for the framers to start! Eek! Moving right along!!!

We got home before suppertime. After a super easy supper, we watched a tiny bit of tv and then it was bedtime. The kids seemed to be struggling today, with very little downtime or quiet, and frankly, I was feeling that too. They’re all in bed now, and the tuna melt bagel is striking again. I could eat one of those things every day. So. Good. So we’ll eat, and then go hot tubbing. I was all limpy yesterday and I didn’t wake up all refreshed like usual, but rather twingy and still somewhat limpy. Gotta soak my bod to it can function tomorrow!! Just a home day for us, I think, but likely venturing out to see our new walls after work!!

Some of you who have probably been reading for the last month or two probably think I’m starting to lose it. I work SO very hard to be positive, but we’ve had some roller coasters over here, and I know I’ve complained more than usual the last little while. I think I can still safely say that I’m not losing it, but I have been struggling a little bit. Very recently, a big stress was lifted, so I’m feeling a bit lighter today, which is a treat. Even better, I got out of the house with Kim for the afternoon!! I haven’t had a good solid coffee and shopping date in a while, and it was just perfect!

Brady worked the morning, and I hung out at home. While I waited for him to arrive, we got a beautiful downpour of big fluffy snow. It was gorgeous, but a bit ominous out here with our long driveway. We have no snowblower, so I just requested Brady to do a couple of laps in his van when he arrived home, to make tracks for me. His van is loaded down with tools, so its heavier than mine, and is a bit better in that kind of thick snow. He managed to clear a way for me, and we pretty much high fived each other at the door, him coming and me leaving. It was a fast exchange, but I was ready to go!

I met Kim at the mall for lunch. We perused the stores a bit but eventually settled in Starbucks and visited a bit more. After a really nice coffee break, we bailed on the mall and hit up Value Village. We used to do Value Village trips a lot, but haven’t found time in the last few months for the obvious reasons of insane busyness. But today was a great day for it!!

We killed THREE HOURS at Value Village, and that was only going to the one location! Eek! As we were shopping, a woman came by and, completely out of nowhere, gave us her stamped card that qualified us for 30% off! It was so lovely and unexpected! We shopped and tried stuff on and did a full second round of the store before deciding on our stuff and heading to the till. The cashier made it work for us to both use the 30% deal, and my purchases were less than $20! Included in that was a bit long sweatshirt that fits over my belly (win!) and at least two articles of clothing for each kid, including baby #4. I was really happy with everything I bought, and thankfully, upon arriving home, so were they! Dekker and Laela liked everything that I had picked, which is actually a win, since they occasionally have big opinions about things all of a sudden. I didn’t end up getting Brady anything this time, but don’t worry, he still likes me.

I’m home, the kids are tucked away for the night, and the tuna melt bagels are prepared and ready to be tossed in the oven any minute! Then its time for some hot tubbing, because I forgot to bring my handibelt thing and I am paying for it dearly. That ridiculous spasming muscle just won’t give up!! I feel like it deserves a name, being that its unreasonably significant in my life. I want to be able to hurl insults at it. Suggestions are welcomed. Or its going to end up being something lame. My good name ideas go towards the baby. As if he’s not named already 😉

We never do anything too big and frilly for Valentine’s Day around here. Its not as easy to get away for date time, and specifically this year, we just day tripped to Edmonton a few weeks back, which we figured would pretty much double as celebrations for Valentine’s Day and our anniversary. That being said, we had a lovely day together!

It started first thing in the morning, actually, when something thats been making us feel incredibly stressed and overwhelmed lately was cleared up and taken care of!!! What an enormous relief!! It was an amazing way to start the day! We had breakfast with the kids as soon as we made our way upstairs, and Rowan ate an unbelievable amount of food. I’m so amazed at how much he can pack away since he’s really gotten into eating solids and has kiboshed his milk. He still has a good bottle before bed, but thats it, and he likes it that way. Win!

After breakfast, we hauled everyone down into our room, and Brady showered while I did my makeup, and the kids played in our bed and ran around and we just spent some time all together, getting ready for the day. It was really low key, and felt very normal for us, which was nice. Things haven’t felt “normal” for a while around here. But it was a good morning 🙂

We went to my parents for the afternoon and evening, which is our normal Sunday routine. I had promised to bring a dessert, even though my mom has tons of delicious things on hand, just to contribute something yummy and festive from our family. But of course, baking didn’t work out last night, and I ended up ducking into Cold Stone on our way to their place. I’m pretty sure no one can shut down those cookie ice cream sandwiches anyway. But then we went their way. We had an unreasonably good lunch, where I ate my body weight in rice and chicken and golden mushroom sauce and honey glazed cooked carrot. My gosh, I can still taste it all. I should have asked for leftovers for a late night snack… It was SO good. Then we visited the afternoon away while Rowan napped and the big kids stayed up and chatted and argued and played. We had a faspa supper and then tidied up before heading on our way. The kids were sad to go but it was nice and past their bedtime, so it had to be done.

Brady and I decided to treat ourselves to a pink Starbucks drink on our way home, just in order to do something a little bit Valentine’s Day-ish. We each got a white chocolate mocha with some raspberry syrup, and we both really really liked them!! Don’t question Bradys manhood over this. It was that good. Like a raspberry and cream filled chocolate.

We are now home, and all three kids are tucked away. I think we’re going to hot tub for a bit and then call it a night. I know, we sure know how to party. But while tomorrow is a stat for most, Brady is going to work the morning. It will make our plans for the rest of the day and for Tuesday run so nice and smooth, so thats the plan! I’ll miss him, but this just makes the best sense.

I hope you all felt cherished by someone today, regardless of who it was. More importantly, though, I hope you feel cherished everyday. Valentines Day is a fun tradition, but I know lots of people who are against it because they think it promotes the idea that people only have to be thoughtful and caring on that one day, when really they should be loving every day. I definitely agree that we should be loving and feel loved every day, so be THAT person. Don’t be the person who only shows love when they “have” to. Show love always!

<3