Awake

It's Sunday July 1... really stinkin' early in the morning.  Like so early that it's really not appropriate to call it morning yet since many haven't even gone to bed.

These are the hours I have been keeping lately.

I thought I'd just do something useful with my insomnia and pop in here and say hi and I haven't forgotten about this little blog, I just haven't had much in the way of "extra" time lately.  I mean other than when I'm awake all night but I am usually trying to get to sleep for those hours, not thinking about blogging.

So.... 3 sleeps to go to meet our little buttercup.  Or 4 sleeps... I can't tell.  I guess I include tonight even though we are half way through that "sleep", so yes, 4 sleeps to go.  I have long since hit the point where "I JUST WANT THIS BABY OUT" but I know that there is still plenty to do so I am battling through the pains, discomforts and lack of sleep and trying to get the baby clothes washed and the bassinet sheets stacked ready and FIND all the warm wraps.  I've had all summer babies so far and we really didn't use the warmer wraps for them other than as a light cover in the air conditioning.  This time I will likely actually need to WRAP my buttercup with them and I can't track them down.  Because they weren't used as wraps they aren't with the other wraps so I am coming across one here and one there and another one in this weird spot over here.  Oh well, I know they are around somewhere and she may be completely different to her brothers and hate being wrapped anyway.

This has certainly been a different pregnancy.  I have never had back pain like this before!  I have never had this much hip pain either!  But, on the positive side, I have never had this big of a break from the morning sickness either!  I'm loving that difference.  I have also never really nested until now.  I've done the cleaning that I had to do to make the room ready for a baby and all that sort of stuff, not exactly nesting because it's got to be done.  This time around I find myself thinking "I'll just go have a shower" and my first stop is the laundry to grab the scrubbing brush and grout brush.  I was loading the dishwasher and noticed a bit of scum build up so I grabbed the cleaning toothbrush that lives by the sink and scrubbed that little bit off.  I probably would have scrubbed out the entire dishwasher if I hadn't already half filled it!  There are handprints on my walls that haven't bothered me (well, not overly) since some grotty little creature put them there in the distant past and now I keep walking past them thinking how on earth could I get down low enough to clean them off (thankfully the immobility is keeping some of my nesting under control).

I have had some wonderful friends offering practical help too, washing hand-me-downs before they give them to me, helping me get some of the cleaning back on track around here, taking care of my big boys for whatever time they can... it's been lovely and I have done my best to graciously say "yes please" when something is offered instead of "thanks but no thanks".

I've been trying my best to also not be a banshee with my family over my "job lists" that *need* to be completed.  The boys are whirlwinds and as fast as something is cleaned they are messing it back up again.  We pulled every toy from their playroom to sort and cull and put back but of course it reminds them of things they haven't played with for a while and they are rummaging through the boxes as you are trying to return them neatly to the shelves.  They are doing pretty good though at picking up after themselves when I remind them that they need to... and picking up after me when I drop things on the floor and can't bend over to pick it back up.  Poor Wolf is copping the worst of it... not entirely undeservedly... but even when I'm ranting about jobs that he hasn't had time to do and youtube clips and entire TV series that he has had time to watch he manages to mostly keep calm and not lock his psycho ranting wife in a cupboard.  Mostly because there's no room in any of the cupboards around here... they are on my list.

Well, the night is moving on and I really should go back to trying to get some sleep.  Wolf is preaching in the morning at our church and then he is also working evening shifts for the next three days so I'll have a fun time trying to get last minute stuff done with the kids to myself.  He will get home at about 11pm on Tueday night and then we need to be at the hospital at 6:30am the next day to get this little Buttercup out.  We are ever so thankful though that his new employer will give him 6 weeks paid carers leave to look after our family because I am having a c-section.  That is more time off than he has had for the last three kids combined with his old employer and that all came out of his holidays.  Add to that he was frequently being called and needing to pop in to fix/help/calm stuff during his time off anyway which we KNOW wont happen this time... we are really quite excited!  Though I'm not sure we quite agree on what his role at home will be while he's on his carers leave... we'll sort that out while I'm nicely hormonal and sleep deprived in a week or so.  Should be a fun conversation.

I'll endeavour to get back on here before the big day to write a bit more.  We appreciate your prayers for our family... we need them all!