The race is on – what day will Baby #5 make her/his debut? Will it be tonight… tomorrow… days from now? Last night I was up at 3am with a severe side cramp and then intermittent tightening, to the extent that I actually called Health Links 30 min later to ask advice (our 1-800 nurse line here in Canada). Basically running down the symptoms (aching back, nausea, bathroom needs… etc etc) to find out that really – no reason to go in year… joy… and by 5 am I was back in bed attempting to rest and asleep for over 4 hours! Then I woke up to a lovely inconsistent consistent tightening… so nothing hospital worthy but enough to have us call up all our babysitters to find out who is available and at what times. Complications of a larger family!

So our day was spent at home… after being gone so long to my mom’s we had tidying, apples to deal with… raspberries to pick… and now a fridge to refill. So we made a much needed run to the produce store for fruit and veggies (each boy chooses his own apple as a treat and Trinity LOVES grapes) and then a quick shop at Safeway for some necessities. When we go to someone’s house for multiple days we tend to bring our perishables with us, supplement the meals.

Mmm grapes!

Last night we sent the kids off SUPER early (5:30pm) too bed… today we let them stay up until 7:30 or so. But all of them were out to the world rather quickly. It takes a while to get back to being used to being home when we are gone more than just a night.

Enjoying supper before shower and bed (Gavin left)

Tomorrow is my dr’s appointment – if nothing happens tonight and IF things go well – a library program for the twins… if… but it is now after 10 and after a bath I still feel ick so who knows!! Off to relax I go!

Trinity last night

… I think I am starting to feel stuck in a holding pattern!! That’s right… no fax = no interview = no resolution, BUT we are home for now. And life seems to be stable, I feel like I am wearing down or time is running out (not sure on that one – stress or baby take a pick). I worry a little bit about Ken’s health, I mean how honest is he being to not worry me? How much stress can he take before he does a backslide. I love him too much to let him get under too great a strain and not say anything. So I am determined – September is going to be OUR MONTH. Along with all the other friends and family struggling through August. It is time!

Speaking of baby… today was another burnt to a socket sort of day… the hour in the van back home was not helpful, nor was the excessive energy of the kids once we got here. Legos are my salvation some days I swear! Poor Trinity is getting better from her bug bites but now she and Emanuel have runny noses (figures).

Messy playroom = happy kids (Zander back)

So not much of a day for the kids, morning at mom’s, home in the afternoon AND an early evening. I am hoping tomorrow we can do some schoolwork and maybe, just maybe, have the interview we have been waiting on… or screw it – have the baby! 38 weeks and counting!

The rest of our week is not pinned down at all really – beyond my doctor’s appointment Thursday morning. I do not want to line stuff up only to cancel on people or get the kids excited about something we can’t do.

They DID sneak in some play in Grandma's backyard before we left! (Gavin)

…and then Monday doesn’t happen… the fax which COULD take 24-48 hours is apparently taking the full 48… so just Ken, Trinity and I headed back to the city for a few hours to take care of some things that could not wait. By the end of the day we got a hold of the supervisor working with us who assured Ken that tomorrow we should be ready to go. Which is GREAT news as I don’t think baby is going to wait too much longer. At least going back to the house today and dealing with waiting has for some reason made me feel a little more… calm about the situation. After all this baby WILL come and we are its parents… no matter what is happening in the rest of our lives that is taken care of. Which of course means by tonight I was back to worrying and wishing Monday HAD been the day to deal. I am not a patient person right now with anything that is not causing calm in the house.

The boys had a blast with Grandma though, they walked to Co-op and back with Harley, where they got a little plane each from the lady at the check out… played in the backyard and helped Grandma clean. Emanuel was a cleaning fiend in the house. Swiffering the dust away.

Busy Bee

Trinity has some nasty bug bites on her face and legs, poor thing. But her hair looked great today – thanks to Grandma. She has suddenly gotten VERY clingy with me which has been a bit of a strain (there is only so much carrying of a 2 yr old I can do comfortably right now). But we had fun just the two of us in the house alone puttering around while Ken did his errands.

In the little kid rocking chair watching Kai Lan

Oh and don’t forget the big excitement of the morning – WAFFLES! There is nothing that compares with Grandma or Mike’s waffles… we had brought some frozen fruit with us that was perfect to defrost and let the kids get busy creating their own waffle combinations. Too bad they are totally OFF my list!! But after baby..

Breakfast! (Zander right)

Mom and I ran out to the store and I managed to get a massive deal on the diapers for Trinity – 19.99 for 120 diapers when our 46 are usually 18.00! WOO! So I feel like I helped out a bit… a sale is always a boost on a needed item!

So tomorrow no matter what we face going home and dealing with whatever situation we find there. Hopefully Ken’s optimism is well founded and tomorrow will be our day and by Thursday all this will be a horrible memory that we can let go of. I want to swing the focus back where it belongs – on Baby #5! Oh and on getting our registration finalized for homeschooling…

Gavin and his castle