After several delays in closing on our house, it finally went through. We are mostly moved into the house, with only a few things remaining in our old house. We’re working feverishly to get the old house cleaned up and cleaned out so we can let our renters move in. And then we’ll continue to work on our new house to unpack and make it more organized.
Meanwhile, I’m loving our new house! I keep finding more ways that it suits me. None of the children have seemed the least bit traumatized by our complete change in surroundings, and we are all embracing our new lives as residents of Clinton, IL.
We have already had several opportunities to extend hospitality to folks, and look forward to many more. Thank you, God, for this amazing gift!

For some reason we have experienced several delays as we attempt to move to our new house. First, the closing was postponed from April 27 to May 3. That means our moving date was changed from May 1 to May 8.
Then, yesterday, when we traveled to Clinton to sign our papers, at the very end, it was discovered that a certain little checkbox was incorrectly marked, so it brought the whole proceeding to a screeching halt. After waiting for a bit to see if things would get worked out, we finally packed up and headed home. Hopefully we’ll get this final snafu worked out, and we can keep our move date of May 8. If not, we will postpone everything again.
We have no idea why things keep interrupting our moving plans, but we’re trying to have a good attitude about it.

If all goes well, we will close on our house this next Tuesday. Then we’ll officially move in on Saturday, May 1. This is a very exciting time in our lives.

The kids love our new house.

I just took this photo this morning showing Levi in his new seat. He seems to like it.

It's a Bumbo!

Levi is 9 weeks old, and is more interesting and interactive every day.

*note: Since I posted this, the listing for the house has been taken off the internet, so the link below no longer works.  I’m sorry!  I’ll post photos as soon as I have access to the house again.

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We bought a house! There are a few more details to work out, but if all goes well, the house is ours.

I’m so excited.  The children are excited too.  Michael is trying to keep up with all the excitement around here.  I think he sees more of the reality of what it will take to move and sell our current house and maintain the new house.  So he’s keeping the rest of us from completely losing our minds over it all.

Yesterday we tested some of our plans for our big trip to Hilton Head. We needed to go to Chicago to take our birds to the person who will be caring for them while we’re gone. (Thank you, Maria!) Since we were going to be in the Chicago area, I thought it would be fun to visit a few stores there that we don’t have here.
We planned to leave at 9 a.m., and we assigned the seats in the van the way we hope to have them for our trip. We packed children and birds and supplies in tightly, and then began our journey.
The trip went surprisingly well. The children enjoyed the audio book that Michael played for them, and the miles slipped by quite pleasantly.
We arrived at our birdie destination, and spent a little while there getting bird cages set up and visiting our friends.
After saying goodbye to everyone, feathered and not, we made our way to our next stop. I’ve heard about Trader Joe’s for a long time but have never visited one, so I was eager to see what wonders filled the store. It was so interesting to browse around and exclaim over the items that we don’t have ready access to here in Bloomington. I chose some treats and we left the store with goodies in hand. The cashier was so friendly and kind, and she pointed out the snack bin for the children to stop by on the way out of the store, and she also handed Luke a bag of balloons for the children to enjoy later. She would have been happy to give each child a helium-filled balloon, but Michael quickly squashed that idea, filled with visions of balloons floating all around the van while he was driving.
The next stop was an Apple Store. We all enjoyed seeing the beautiful computers, and we dreamed of the luxury of owning such technology.
Finally we were ready to head home. We made a quick stop at a gas station, and then headed south again. We were home by 5 pm, and quite happy to be done with our day of travel.
We learned several things on our trip. First, Levi travels very well. Not fussy at all, which is wonderful.
Second, Lilly did quite well, though she was a bit noisier than Levi. Still, I think we can find ways to entertain her and make the time go by more quickly for her.
Third, I was again impressed with how helpful the older children are. They help with younger siblings, they pass things from seat to seat as needed, they fetch dropped items from the floor, and are in general a pleasure to have along.
Finally, I learned that it’s a lot of fun to have “unlimited texting” on our cell phone plan. Laura was able to ask questions from the back seat without having to holler over the road noise and the audio book. We could text back and forth quite nicely, and it was amusing to both of us.
Having done our test drive, I am now ready to forge ahead with the final plans for our trip. We will leave Thursday morning.
Meanwhile, the house is strangely silent without the birds here.

There are some photos in my gallery, if you’d like to see them, showing off Levi.

He’s doing very well.  He’s good at nursing, and he sleeps pretty well.  I don’t think he’s going to stay tiny for very long at this rate, since he eats so voraciously.

It seems an update is in order on the c-section front. I was able to visit with Dr. Harold’s surgical assistant today and ask her all kinds of questions. What a blessing to get more information.
She said that as they were doing the surgery, she was amazed at how very thin my uterus was. I misunderstood previously and thought they said just the scar area from my previous c-section was thin, but no, it was the whole uterus. It was so thin that it probably couldn’t put forth enough force to deliver the baby. She said that after seeing that, she completely agreed with the doctor’s call on the c-section.
Both the doctor and his assistant have said that there is no reason I couldn’t carry another baby, should we choose to do that, but that I probably couldn’t deliver a baby naturally with my uterus being so worn out. That’s disappointing.

My recovery from the c-section has been harder than I initially thought it would be. The day after the surgery I was not in nearly as much pain as I thought I would be, so I was thinking I had escaped the worst of it. But silly me… the worst was yet to come. The following days were quite agonizing, and then to add insult to injury, the painful part of breastfeeding kicked in, so I was fighting pain on two battlefields. Finally, yesterday, I realized that it wasn’t getting any worse, and actually was perhaps a tiny bit better.
Today I’m marginally better again, so I’m taking comfort in the fact that perhaps the worst is over. I have a new appreciation for those who experience multiple c-sections with no complaint. I’m spoiled by the natural birth process and the relatively quick recovery it offers.  I’m newly grateful that I was able to have so many of my babies that way.

This morning Levi had another bilirubin test, and amazingly, his levels had only gone up two points since his test on Wednesday morning. His new limit is 21, so he’s doing great with such a small rise. The doctor declared no more tests are necessary, and to keep feeding him as much as we can, and just come back for our two-week visit. Normally I completely skip “well-baby” visits, finding them an unnecessary hassle. But after the trouble we had with Lilly two years ago, and her not gaining weight properly, etc., I’m a bit more cautious this time, so I’ll show up for the well-baby visit like an obedient parent should.

The children keep begging to hold Levi. I got all kinds of grief when I wouldn’t hand him over this morning, and then again during naptime today. So now that Levi has napped and eaten, the kids are taking 20 minute turns using a timer. It’s the only way to keep the peace. I hope Levi doesn’t mind all the socializing.

Levi got a good report last night with his bilirubin count being at 12, so the doctor said he could go home. But this morning when he was tested again, it was up to 15. The doctor wants to start treatment if the count gets to 20, so we want to work hard to keep it from rising too fast. The more he will eat, the more he can move through his system and out the other end. So I need to be diligent in remembering his feedings. I feel a little bad, because last night we both slept right through one of his feedings. He slept for six hours straight before I woke up and realized he needed to eat. Even then I had to wake him up, so he probably would have slept even longer. While it was a blessing to be able to sleep, it probably didn’t help his bilirubin count this morning. Maybe tonight I’ll set an alarm.  What a funny thing for the mother of a newborn to say! “Oh dear, I’m getting too much sleep!”

Our weather forecast here in the Midwestern USA is a snowstorm that is supposed to bring about 5-6 inches over night. I know that’s not really “huge”, but it will likely bring things to a stop tomorrow for a bit. I sure do like snow, so I’m not sorry that it’s coming. But it probably means we won’t take Levi for another blood test in the morning. We’ll see what actually happens. We all know that weather forecasts don’t always come true.

That’s about all that’s happening around here these days. I’m spending many hours in my favorite chair, and only getting up when it’s unavoidable. It’s a very strange feeling.