I have an awesome family!!! and Fabulous kids!!!!!

I've been busy the past little while.
Last week I began teaching a Naturally prepared Childbirth Class... it was sort of dropped (thrust) into my lap, if you will. The gal who was going to teach the class for my friend at her store, backed out sort of at the last moment. So, when my friend/store owner found out (realized) I was actually a certified Child Birth Educator, I was asked to teach. So, this is new and hard for me. I do alright one on one, with couples talking over their pregnancy and their birthing options, but I don't particularly like to stand in front of a group (for any reason), and teach them, and be 'the Authority' on things.
So last week I taught Childbirth classes, had Hannah's Surgery, and attended a birth. By the end of the week, I was readying myself for Bill to go on another trip TDY, to Ft. Bliss in El Paso, TX, the onto Washington D.C. where he will be speaking to Congressmen. On Friday night the other mom I had due this month, contacted me to say they were planning to induce her on Monday morning (after she was there for cervical ripening over night).

Saturday, we had a very busy day... Sariah was doing a service fundraiser for the Beta Club at school. You bought tickets and then went to a pancake breakfast at Guthrie's. So off we went to that first thing. Then we attended New Beginnings for the Young Women at Church. After that we rushed the kids home so that we cod go back and take the kids to the primary activity day! On top of that we had some errands to run, and go on post, and then hit the commissary. We were able to make a deal with S. (Thanks S!) we dropped our kids and a few of hers at the church for the activity. Then she picked up the kids and brought them all back home.

Monday morning I dropped the little girls off to school on my way to the Hosp. for the birth, Bill got Liam up and ready and dropped him off at H's (thank you H for helping me out!), and then he was off on his trip.

The mom I was helping didn't deliver her baby till midnight, and I didn't arrive back home until 4:30 a.m. after waiting on mom to get out of recovery and helping her get BF'ing started, once she finally got to hold her baby...

The main reason for my post title today is that during all that time away from my family, and KNOWING dad wasn't even here, I knew that I was able to go about what I was doing with very little worry about my family at home. The kids all worked together and helped each other out and took care of what needed to be done. When I arrived home exhausted, I knew that someone had Liam and was helping with him - and didn't find out till later, that it had been a bad Liam night!

Liam occasionally has bad nights with his foot/feet/legs... He will wake up and cry out that his feet/foot hurts, and he needs some one to 'Rub' it, for him! So I do some foot massage. Or he wants you to rub it with, 'queem!' (cream), "I, need queem!" or, "I need some wotion!" or then sometimes he will get to the point with me that he will just need/want you to, "Hold it!" and he will reach out and find your hand and put his foot into your hand!

I can sometimes pinpoint that he had too much activity that day without wearing his 'hotdog' (orthotic) shoes... and so his feet are aching. Sometimes if I KNOW he's not had his shoes on his feet enough in a day, I will even dose him up with Tylenol before he gos to bed, and he will sleep much better. (sometimes he will complain of foot pain, in the evening before bedtime, that is a BIG clue). He however doesn't like the medicine most of the time. He doesn't care for the chewable tylenol usually (although occasionally we can convince him it is 'bubblegum' when it has that flavor...). Or we tell him the grape flavor liquid is 'grape juice'... bad I know in the big picture, but it works for us in the moment - sometimes. It is usually more successful when he is fully awake, than in the middle of the night when he is actually crying out in pain! The trick is knowing when he is going to be in pain and need something.

This can be a one time occurrence in a night, OR it can be the better part of the night. The girls said he woke up almost every hour on the hour, 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock, (at least those are the particular times I heard about) needing his foot rubbed or needing, "Queam!". They had to find the 'blue emu' muscle ache cream we use on his foot/feet, they had to run around and find the tylenol, and try to convince him to take it. They had a LONG night with him, and yet they were up and taking care of things, breakfast, and each other. When they went to bed, they didn't actually know if I would even be home or not... I did send them a message at midnight after the baby arrived to let them know I'd be home, so they would see it in the morning, when they got up.

In the morning when the alarm went off (after I'd had barely an hour of sleep) I woke up the little girls, then I laid back down on my bed, and Rebekah actually made pancakes for breakfast and they made sure everyone got out the door to school on time.

I ended last night and the end of two LONG days, with a trip to the store to buy supplies to make valentines (why do I continue to get magazines with cute idea's in them!?!?), and then Amanda and I took a trip out to Harvest/Toney to a friend (former doula client) who sews, (I just didn't have the wherewithal to manage this one this week), because Amanda brought home her new band uniform - dress- and needed it hemmed. it has a lot of fabric and it is a nice dress (considering), and I just didn't want to screw it up! I knew my friend sews, but didn't actually realize she sort of has a little tailoring business - in the middle of her 4 kids, and homeschooling, etc. She has made custom bridesmaid dresses (from scratch, no pattern).She is asking her husband a gorgeous tailored long dress coat - it is on the mannequin dress form thing. Wow It looks great! Anyway, so aside from making time to hem this dress that Amanda NEEDS, for a band competition thing on Thursday!!! My friend can certainly do the job, almost a no brainer! it is obnoxious fabric to me, and I just didn't want to screw with it.


Thank you, thank you, thank you, to my family for being AWESOME!!!!!!!