Having a newborn during a pandemic

Our state is 1 week into our 2 week quarantine which I suspect will be extended another week.  Covid 19 doesn’t really scare me but the rules and regulations do. When you are about 4 weeks out from giving birth the ramifications of one of us getting sick is scary and keeping 9 of us healthy is daunting.

I am saddened that my kids and family can’t come to see me and  the new baby at the hospital but grateful that my husband will be there with me-BUT- that’s only if he has no symptoms of sickness.

And what happens if one of us does get sick? The dr is ordering me not to go out at all at this stage of pregnancy in order to stay healthy so I know I would not be the one to be able to care for a sick child. The Hubby has an essential job so he is still working and wouldn’t be able to be home to help.

Pretty Girl is working drive thru at a local fast food place. They wear gloves but no masks. How do I keep germs out of the house when I am contending with that? And she needs the money to pay for gas, car insurance, and other essential bills(shes a college student) so it’s not as simple as quitting.

Do I quarantine my adult kids in the trailer for 4 weeks who are still going out into the germ filled world for various reasons?? That seems so extreme and I would be so sad to be totally separated from them for so long😢

There are other factors too which makes it feel like I am fighting a losing battle.

And of course no one wants a newborn coming down with any kind of sickness.  With peanut we had the flu sweep through our house decimating 6 out of 9 of us but also taking down my mom who was going to be coming to help. It was terrible to be so sick ( I had the start of pneumonia in one lung)and have to be the lone person to take care of a breastfeeding baby with jaundice( bili blanket and daily trips to the hospital for blood draws)and other loved ones who were sick. I DO NOT want to go through that again with any sickness!

This is not quite the environment I have envisioned bringing child #8 into.

The last few weeks are usually a hectic time while preparing for a newborn- washing baby clothes, getting essentials, setting up baby’s area, pulling baby gear out of storage, prepping freezer meals, etc etc. but with the virus it has added a whole new layer of preparedness and anxiety to it all. 😬

So I do not live in fear of the virus itself but of the repercussions of having it as it applies to our family and current situation.

Please pray for good health for all of us and wisdom in navigating this new world!

Many Blessings,

The Mama

Senior Pictures x 2

Man, I have some beautiful children and Bubba and Sissy's"Senior" Pictures have sure reminded me of that!

Both of them aren't really seniors(they still had a few years left) but they both finished up all their high school credits early and are 2017 grads!  Super proud of them.

So that meant getting in two senior photo sessions so we could send out open house invites(going out soon for our August 26th open house!!).  It was a little surreal.  I thought I had a few more years before this milestone!

Thanks to Misti Yoder of Misti Yoder Photography for doing Jocelyn's pictures and Jodi Messer of Little Gifts From God Photography for Jordan's!!!  They both did a fabulous job and it was a great experience all around.

So here are Jordan's pictures

And here are Jocelyn's pictures

Many Blessings,

The Mama

Warning:High Levels of Adorableness Ahead

 Sophia's newborn pics are all in!  She was 2 weeks old when they were taken.  Special thanks to photographer Jodi Messer of Little Gifts from God Photography for doing such a fantastic job!  She came to our home and was all done in just an hour! Jodi even got thrown up on, peed on and pooped on during the session.  That's dedication lol

Too Much

I am still pretty sick and more than a little overwhelmed with everything. Sophia has jaundice so we have to use a light therapy blanket which I can't figure out how to make it work for us. Meaning I can't manage to breastfeed her while she is hooked up to it so she is barely on the blanket. Hubby came home sick today and the boys and Princess are starting to cough. Sophia gets tested at the drs tomorrow again(3rd time since we left the hospital) to see if her bilirubin levels are going down. And I am at that very painful point in breastfeeding where I just want to give up. I am also pumping in between feedings to supplement to try and help flush the bili out of her. So far though she hasn't had any flu symptoms praise God!!!!!!!! Please cover Sophia in prayer that she remains free of any sickness and just keep praying for us in general here. It feels like complete chaos. Thanks for checking in and sorry to be so negative.

*For those that haven't seen the Facebook updates, I went to the ER Sunday night with fever, bone racking chills, terrible cough, and some difficulty breathing. After 5 hours there they tested me for Influenza B and I was positive. We got home at midnight and hubby returned to work bright and early Monday. We are not sure if that is what Little Miss and Baby Girl were also sick with Thursday and Saturday.

What Have We Been Up To??

It's been a long time since I posted.  I know.  I feel like our lives are just ordinary and boring now so there is nothing that anyone would really want to read.

Bubba is job hunting and working on getting his license.

Sissy is going to start working for a friend of mine one day a week and starting her cupcakery business again.

 Here are Sissy, Bubba and Hubby before the Daddy Daughter Dance. 

Sissy and Bubba were helping with it.

Both of them are working very hard at finishing up all their high school credits by June so they can graduate early. They are also heavily involved in youth group and are earning  money to go to a missions trip and youth conference this summer.

Snuggle Bug and Princess are just chillin.

Grandma got Snuggle Bug a knitted hat with a beard and hair attached. Hilarious!

Little Miss and Baby Girl are running a muck together. 

Little Miss all ready for her first Daddy Daughter Dance

Baby Girl is finally getting hair

Hubby is working long, hard hours at the factory and is also in the process of getting back to doing police work.

And I am very, very pregnant and trying to get everything ready for #7 and for everyone else too so I don't feel completely overwhelmed when the baby comes.

Here is a progression on my pregnancy-

These last few weeks have been pretty tough for me.  I am very limited in what my body can do and in a decent amount of pain when I walk around or do anything. I don't want to complain, because I am grateful to be pregnant and  for this baby, but man, I hurt. I also hate to feel useless and incompetent.  I am very independent so it is difficult for me to have to rely on others so much.

The new baby will be here in less than a week!  It will be my 4th C-section. We are all very excited and were oohing and awwing over the tiny newborn diapers I bought.  We actually cloth diaper but unless you buy specific newborn cloth diapers, the regular cloth ones are a bit too big in the beginning.  It is cheaper in our opinion to just buy disposables that first month or so. 

I just finally bought some of the last stuff I needed before the baby.  We got rid of almost everything when we went on our trip since we didn't have any room for it.  We trusted God would provide if we ever had need of baby stuff again.  There are a few other things we need but we'll get them in the next few weeks hopefully.

I packed the baby's bag the other night which made me feel so much more prepared!  

I want to finish getting the kitchen cupboards painted next week( I will post pictures when they are all done!) and I need to do some things for my nieces' baby shower coming up the weekend after I deliver.  We were suppose to have her shower on the 18th of last month but she went into labor 6 1/2 weeks early on the 16th and had a beautiful baby girl weighing in at 5lbs 3oz.  They thought the baby would need to be in the NICU for 2-3 weeks but she surprised them all and came home in just 10 days.  

My mom and I jumped in the car when we heard she was in labor and definitely having the baby( the Dr's were trying to stop the labor at first but with no luck).  We drove 4 1/2 hours south and stayed a few days.  Because of RSV and Influenza B going around, outside visitors were not permitted into the NICU though so we never got to see the baby except when my niece would snap some pics.

We knew there was a chance we wouldn't be able to see the baby when we headed down.  We just wanted to be there for my niece and her husband. 

So anyway, the baby shower got pushed back needless to say!  I am helping to make some of the table centerpieces and doing the punch and Sissy is doing an awesome cupcake cake.  So I wanted to get on top of all that before I have my baby because I know those first few weeks are a sleep deprived blur.

I also meal planned and shopped for the month s of April so I don't have to worry about any of that for a while.  We are very blessed to have almost all of our dinners taken care after the baby gets here in the month of April!  After 6 kids, the delivery of meals is the thing I most appreciate and the one thing I ask for after each baby.  We are so grateful to all those friends and family who will be feeding our crew(which is a big undertaking obviously!) in the weeks after the new baby arrives.

So I just had to do a few freezer meals to have on hand and planned out our breakfast, lunches and snacks(and those other miscellaneous things you end up needing) for the month.

I also schedule social media for a friend who has a photography business so I am going to schedule out as much of that as I can now.  I am also sitting down today to get bills ready to be paid for this month.  Even if I can't send them out quite yet, if I at least have checks written out and envelopes addressed and stamped, I can just grab them out of my bill folder each friday and send them out. 

I also need to print out some things for school for the kids( though Sissy and Bubba do almost all their work online at www.allinonehighschool.com).

We took a 3 hour trip to Chicago at the beginning of January to the Shedd Aquarium. I needed to get out and do SOMETHING.  I miss doing things while out on the road. Our van actually broke down on our way and we had to get a rental van that would fit all of us and have our van towed 2 hours back home. It was quite the day but our trip has taught us to roll with it. 

Beluga Whales

We kept on thinking of Finding Dory lol

Lake Michigan

We enjoyed this part of the aquarium and feeling a personal connection to it. 

It is neat to be able to say we have been there.

Those Flipino faces look familiar

We stopped by the famous Giordano's to grab a classic Chicago Deep Dish Pizza. 

Emma had zonked so I had to hold her the entire time. Still managed to stuff my face though!

It was the best pizza we have ever had!!

So that's what we all have been up to!

We will be getting our trailer out of storage in a few weeks but we have no idea what we are doing with it.  How our house in positioned and the alleys leading up to it, there is no possible way to get our big trailer in here.  If we could cut down a few telephone polls and power lines we would be set  but strangely the city frowns upon that. So please pray that God provides a place for us to keep it( preferably as close to out house as possible).  If we get a seasonal site at a local campground it will be anywhere from 1,500-4,000.  We really don't want to do that.

Have a fabulous weekend everyone!

Many Blessings,

The Mama

Overnight Getaway

One of our favorite winter traditions is going to a local hotel to stay a night or two.  They have amazing discounted rates during their off season and lots of amenities.  We didn't do it last year while we were home for the holidays because we simply didn't have the funds but this year we squeaked out a night.

They have indoor basketball.

Hubby trying to guard Bubba who is 4 inches taller than him. Good luck.

Little Miss loves "playing basketball"

Princess actually did shoot some too but I was never quick enough to snap a shot of her.

A little help from Daddy

They have a nice kids play area in the pool area.

Little Miss taking a dip in the kiddie pool while the older ones do more basketball

On to the big pool. She had actually forgotten how to swim it's been so long.  She use to swim all the time when we traveled.  We were spoiled!

Princess was excited to join us.

Hubby trying to catch a nap.  He had worked that morning and has get up before 4am for his job.

This is why we homeschool her haha

Hubby got his second wind and was throwing the football around with the kids. 

The hotel has fireplaces throughout and we love to play games by the fire. Snuggle Bug talked us into Irishopoly(the Notre Dame version of Irishopoly). We never want to play because it's such a LOOOOOOONG game but we had a good time and ended up just setting a time to be done and whoever was in the lead was the winner(ME!).

The hotel also had a box of color books and papers along with crayons which kept the littler ones occupied. Oh, you might notice that Baby Girl is missing.  Grandma was kind enough to take her overnight so we didn't have to chase her around.  Thanks Grandma!!!!!

A little bored and upset she can't play the grown up game

Feeling better now that she got to roll on Sissy's turn for her.

She is always singing and dancing no matter where we are at.

Ping Pong is another amenity that we enjoy.

I'm not going to call anyone our but somebody actually spiked it on their 4 year old daughter lol

Not to brag but... I did beat Hubby in a game (but Bubba ended up beating me later on)

It was a great getaway after a really crazy last few months of getting the house in order and Hubby working long, tiring hours.  I have also been missing DOING stuff.  We were always seeing and doing new things on the road and now I feel like I just sit at home all day( we only have 1 vehicle) so I have been having trouble with that.  It's been a weird transition between the 2 lifestyles so this was very refreshing for me.

Many Blessings,

The Mama