I Did Not Plan to Care for Eight Children Last Week!

I had a wonderful time in Ann Arbor, Michigan, visiting my friend V*. Her life is so different from mine! I told her she made me feel young and single (she's not really much younger than me.) So you can be sure that I did not care for eight children while visiting with her (I'll get to that later).

We went out to a great Meditarranean restaurant for her roommate's birthday (she is way younger!). At church, between the worship services, V* participated in a panel discussion on whether or not torture should ever be legal. It was quite interesting. After the service Sunday, we went out with V*'s friends to a great Chinese restaurant for some Dim Sum. We lounged by the pool. Monday, I buried my brand-new sandal in the mud at the bottom of the Huron River! We were kayaking, and as I stood in the river, my feet sunk down in the mud, and when I brought up my foot... no sandal! We looked for it for at least 10 minutes. It is destined to be an archaeological find a couple hundred years from now!

I came back Tuesday evening, and was contemplating another visit to a friend this Friday through Sunday. Three years ago my friend Dora moved three hours north. With 6 kids and a truck-driving husband who is home for 48 hours or so on weekends, it's not too easy for us to visit unless I go there. I hadn't seen her in over a year, and I really wanted to visit with her before she had her 7th child, due in the end of July.

Wednesday morning I woke up and then and there decided I would not wait until Friday, but rather would take my kids and go up Thursday, early enough in the day to beat any holiday traffic. I really wanted to see her before she had her baby, and Voila! I arrived eight hours before the baby!

Yes, 4 weeks before she was due, Dora went into labor--on the day I came to visit. With 10 children in the house. So once I arrived, the two of us folded laundry, readied the bassinet and changing table, and clocked contractions while the 12 children played and ate lots of snacks (5 were hers, 5 she was babysitting for her brother-in-law, and then my 2).

By the time she knew that this really wasn't false labor, her husband (and 2nd son - trucking with Dad for the week) had just entered Canada after a 5-hour delay at the border, where they searched his entire truck and cab because of a paperwork mixup. He had at least 11 hours of road time before he could make it to the hospital, not including border crossing back into the US.

Brother-in-law arrived to pick up his children, and he brought Grandma along to watch Dora's 5 and my 2 children. I had the privilege of driving Dora to a NY hospital, over an hour away, where her doctor was waiting. It had already been determined that this child would be c-section. Less than 3 hours after we arrived at the hospital, her beautiful baby boy, EJ, was born.

For me, this was my first experience with c-section, but my 7th time experiencing the miracle of childbirth (2 of my own, 2 of Beka's, and now 3 of Dora's children). Hmm, maybe I should make this into a career?

Before he was born, they warned us that he might have trouble breathing (both being premature and being born c-section are risk factors). But alas, little EJ screamed for the first 15 minutes of life, apparently just to prove that his lungs were working just fine. Actually, once he was swaddled, he calmed right down, all 7 lbs 4 oz of him!

In most hospitals, they give the mother and one other person a bracelet that matches the baby's, and only those 2 people are allowed to be with the baby alone outside of the mother's hospital room. They refused to wait longer than about two hours for Daddy, so I ended up with the second bracelet. Kinda weird that I somehow had more rights to the baby at the hospital than his own Dad. Dad and brother #2 arrived the next day, when little EJ was 13 hours old.

Next step... babysitting! Yes, that's right. Grandma couldn't stay any longer with the kids, because Grandpa is only 4 weeks into recovery from his open heart & bypass surgery. So from Friday to Sunday, I cared for 6-8 children (2 of them got to go to 4th of July festivities and sleep over with another family Friday night). Oh, and a really big dog, a cat and her kitten! Acutally the oldest 3 boys take turns caring for the dog, who is mostly an outside dog. Good thing... she's half wolf, I don't prefer dogs as it is, and I'm actually sort of scared of her exuberance!

Here are some pics of the fun time my children had in the country with our friends (move your pointer over any pics in this post for captions)...



Here's another kicker. I arrived home Sunday afternoon, and promptly found out that we were having 10 adults and 5 children over for dinner that evening! I hadn't packed the charger for my cell phone, and had only texted HotSauce to say that I wasn't coming till Sunday after he had already made the plans. Soon after that, my phone shut off.

Fortunately, HotSauce is a great cook and he asked each family to bring a dish to share. We enjoyed homemade snow cones, glow bracelets, sparklers, silly string, and finally fireworks, all from our front porch.

I really had a great week, but I am so glad that this week's schedule is a light one! Whew!