38 weeks down, 15 days to go....

Eeep.

Commence panic.


(This is only a countdown to my due date - potential c-section is still not a sure thing, nor has it been scheduled yet!)

The Mole's Hollow - not just a euphemism!

Remember the post where I mentioned my fear of whatever was rustling in the dead weeds? Well, guess what? When I named this blog, little did I realize just how appropriate it would be.

As far as I can tell, we have at least one mole living with a vole or two right beside the house. We have one very large, very distinctively mole-ish hole, surrounded by a ton of little holes, with a few vole-specific runways thrown in. I guess it's Wind in the Willows out there, where all the animals are living in harmony. Excepting of course the large mammals living in this house, all of whom are pretty hostile to anything that qualifies as a rodent.

So, what to do? Part of me thinks that the idea of moles hanging around the garden is kind of cute. But then the other part of me saw a picture of a mole, and was terrified by how freaky it looked. Then there's the other part of me, the one who still says "pop," and "nebby," and who thinks that black and gold is a beautiful combination - this part of me can't help but thinking, "I need a safe place - somewhere with lots of concrete, where I can feel at home."

I thought we moved to the fake country. What are all of these real animals doing here?

Every single day, at least once

Abbie will come up to me and ask, "Is that baby coming out now?"

"No," I say, "not yet."

"Okay," is her always her answer, and off she goes on her merry way.

Funny thing is, I think she actually gets it -- I think she actually understands that an actual baby is coming to stay with us. (Side note: carrying a baby seems to kill certain parts of the brain -- the parts that can think of synonyms for words like "actual." Sorry for the inconvenience.)

Still hanging in!

Sorry for the long delay in updates! My site meter tells me that 14 people check this blog out every day, but you 14 people must be very loyal since I've lately been getting "are you still alive? why haven't you updated the blog?" emails every day. Thanks for the love! :) I've been....well, trying to get ready for the baby and stuff, but the real reason I haven't updated in a while is that I've been consistently choosing naps over computer time.

So, just a few quick notes and then I promise to put up kid stories tomorrow!

• First off, to my mom's friend Patty - I got your package, and I am really, really touched. Thank you so much! I fully intend to get a thank-you note out, but I wanted you to know that your gift just made my day, and the blanket is gorgeous.
• Please pray that we can get a date set for this baby's baptism. Our new parish is wonderful in many ways, but the office stinks and thus far I haven't been able to reach anybody who is willing to schedule a baptism. Please also pray that I manage to contain my spite and hatred, both of which are starting to build alarmingly.
• The baby is looking like she's a big 'un, so I'll have a sonogram next week to see if I am definitely C-section bound.
• Abbie has her next MRI the Monday after Easter. We have confidence that it'll show no growth, since she continues to get stronger every single day. Please keep her in your prayers, anyway, though!

Blowing the stink off

Almost all of my gardening knowledge comes from reading The Secret Garden in grade school.
This unfortunately means that for me, "gardening" translates into wandering around with a pocketknife whispering, "Dost tha' think 'tis wick?"

What this means in plain language is that the afternoon the girls and I spent weeding today will either yield a prettier yard in the Spring, or a dead one. I have no way of knowing which it will be.

We had a really good time, though! The weather was beautiful, and it just felt so good to get outside for a good long time. The girls were very helpful, picking up the piles (and piles and piles) of dead stuff I'd hacked up and carrying them over to the fire pit. At first I was overwhelmed by the amount of debris I was making, and I couldn't figure out how I was going to fit all of that into the trash cans, but then I remembered -- hey! I have a fire pit! I felt very resourceful as we fed the dead....whatever they were into the fire.

It's a good feeling to have spent the day working outside, and despite the fact that I am an enormous 34 weeks pregnant and had an entourage of prissy little girls as my labor force, we got quite a lot done. There is still that patch beside the house to do, and part of one down by the swingset, but I distinctly heard....something, and it seemed best to leave that to when Chris is around to shield the girls from my terrified reactions. Uh, or to just let Chris tackle it himself. I love it here in the fake country, but I'm still a city girl when it comes to critters.

Maybe it's time to break out the holy water when...

...you overhear one little bright-eyed, mop-headed child suddenly exclaim to the other, "My finger talks to me!".....

....and she extends her pointer finger and, bending it in time to her voice, responds in a low, growly voice, "You need to eat that sandwich or you'll get in trouble."

Heaven help me, the mirror above my dresser gives a perfect view of the wall above my bed. Let's all hope I don't wake up to any lip-stick prophecies scrawled out backwards anytime soon.

Oh, and Abbie....

...Is doing just fine. The infection is completely gone with the removal of the line. They still haven't identified what the actual infection was - they sent a specimen to the Mayo Clinic, it was so exotic, so it is definitely for the best that it is gone.

She feels just dandy, and the only lingering issue is the fact that she has finally realized what an opportunity she has to milk sympathy. If she wants a toy that Claire is playing with, she is now very likely to remind Claire in a pathetic voice that she's "so sicky." When she wakes up in the middle of the night (the hospital has wreaked havoc on her nighttime routine) she almost always tells me that she can't sleep because "I'm sick. I'll throw up."

Wow. Time to dial down the pity for little brain-tumor-girl, before she turns into a monster. The problem is, she is so darn cute and knows exactly how to charm everyone. The biggest danger is not that Chris and I might spoil her, but that her sisters might. She has the three of them completly wrapped around her little finger, and they seem to be defenceless against her powers.

It just may be that this new baby will truly be the one to "bring balance to the Force," since the Force is so unusually strong in Abbie. But like Darth Vader's last encounter with Obi-Wan, I don't know that she will like the competition.

Dinner out!

Despite the fact that we see the Lobers all the time, practically veiw them as family, and have spent most of the last 7 years living near them, we have never actually done anything with them sans children since college.

We are stupid that way.

Well, Vanessa really took the reins and not only tracked down a babysitter for her kids through our parish, she also found one for us! The babysitters are in fact cousins, and live next to each other. So yesterday afternoon, we introduced the girls to "Miss Clare" (the "Miss" to distinguish her from little Claire) and hit the town with the Lobers. Actually, we hit a local restaurant, where I really did justice to the "eating for two" myth. It was very, very cool -- I almost forgot what it is like to go out with other people! It's so grown-up! And the girls had a very good time, introducing Miss Clare to the joys of Uno (of course) and finding out that she is willing to really commit to a game of pirates.

We may have to do this again sometime. Soon. And as an added bonus, we could actually go out sometime with Becky and Dante, too, something else we never do because they are usually the ones playing Uno and chasing down rogue pirates.

Wow. It's a whole new world. :)

Clean as Snow

Katie had her First Confession yesterday! She was a little nervous, but told me that she felt very "light and happy" afterwards. :)

We've been practicing the Act of Contrition every night before bed, so just about everyone in the house has it memorized. (They have my version memorized, I should say. Chris and I learned different versions, and neither of us like the other's. I do bedtime prayers 90% of the time, though, so my version it was!) So it has been a very common occurance around here to hear tiny voices floating around randomly, saying things like "I am heartily sorry for having offended thee." Beth, of course, as my little word-phile, loooves it and memorized the prayer before anyone else did. Hopefully, Katie confessed the not-quite charitable response she had when she realized this. :)

Home at last!

Abbie had her line taken out today, and is now resting happily in my bed upstairs. Her bloodwork kept coming back with bacteria present, so it was obvious that the infection had reached her line. Now that the line is out, though, the infection should clear up right away (she's still on antibiotics, but we no longer need to give her the high-powered stuff through IV that she's been on the past few days.) We'll go back on Friday to have more bloodwork done, just to be sure, but it seems safe to say that she's in the clear.

The positive in all of this is that as long as nothing happens to neccessitate (sp? too lazy to check it) another line being put in, she'll finally be able to take regular baths and go swimming this summer! To quote Abbie, "Whee-hoo!" This is going to make the summer so, so much easier!

It is funny to think that this hospital stay -- all due to that stupid "fever-less" stomach bug -- has ended up being only one day shorter that Abbie's second brain surgery. Thank goodness they let us go home today! We were all starting to go a little buggy, although I have been extremely proud of how well the older girls' behaved through all of this. They spent quite a few days caged in that little room with us all day, and their behaviour was never less than impeccable. By the time we left, everyone knew about "that family with the five sweet girls," and the nurses were plying them with ice cream and stickers at every turn.

We're all pretty tuckered out from this unexpected week in the hospital, so now it's off snuggle in bed with Abbie and Claire, and murmur to myself, "there's no place like home!" :)

We knew this was bound to happen at some point, but it still stinks

Update 2/17 : The results are back, and the infection is still growing. This came as a surprise to everyone, and we still don't know for sure exactly what it means. The infection could possibly be in her line (the broviac) itself, in which case it will need to be removed. In any case, she's not getting out of the hospital anytime soon. Please pray.



Abbie had to be hospitalized due to an infection that reached her blood.

She's doing pretty well in the hospital now, the antibiotics are clearly already working and she's enjoying free reign over the t.v. and the loooong trips to the playroom.

The stomach-bug that I happily proclaimed a fever-free one turned ugly for Abbie in the wee hours between Wed and Thursday. I took her in to the Hem/Onc Clinic Thursday morning for some antibiotics, and they sent me home. Very early this morning, though, we got the call that her lab results were back, and that her blood contained a grand-positive infection, and that she needed to come back right away. And there she still is. Chris is spending the night there right now, and in the morning the girls and I will head back to relieve him. We're hoping for a clear blood culture in the morning, which would mean that Abbie can be discharged. There is a chance that she'll be have to stay through the weekend, though.

The scary thing about all of this is what a little, insignificant illness triggered the infection, and how quickly it spread to her blood. There was a space of about 6 hrs between the onset of a fever and the presentation of infection in her blood. That doesn't exactly give us much breathing room. What happens if her next fever comes while we're away from home? What would have happened if her fever had spiked just a day earlier, during a snowstorm? Whew. Please pray for her healing, and that luck (via God) continues to be on our side should this happen again.

p.s. this is written right before bedtime, after a week of no sleep and a day spent in the hospital, so please excuse any typos and/or spelling/grammatical errors. :)

Happy Valentine's Day

I don't usually put things up here that aren't directly related to the kids, etc. (except that one about Bridge to Terebithia, but anti-Disney rants should always be an acceptable exception.) This story really touched me, though, so here it is.

This couple was found during an archealogical dig in Mantua. The story sounds pretty tragic, but beautiful in a morbid kind of way.

By the way, Chris is out of town, the girls have all been sick since Sunday. Abbie has been sleeping in 30 min spurts, and I spent the majority of last night bent over the toilet myself (not easy with this huge stomach.) This is all the Valentine's Day sentiment I can muster.

You know you are living in a house full of girls when....

I wonder why that door is closed......





Oh. Of course.

Well, she has a point.

Me: Look how big that baby is making my belly!!

Abbie: No! That's just cookies and milk and pizza.

UNO!

Uno-fever has swept the Mlinek house. The girls just can't get enough. We've been playing a minimum of four or five games every day for the past month or so.

The funny thing, for me, is that I am really not much of a card-playing type of person. I'm also not a big fan of board games. They've just always struck me as.....boring and pointless, to be honest. I used to smirk at the pictures on the board-game boxes depicting those smiley, well-groomed families all gathered together engaging in Family Fun, and I would thank my lucky stars that I wasn't in that kind of family. And now here I am, clearing off the dinner dishes most nights so that we can all play a few rounds of Uno. The only thing saving us from looking like a board-game family is the massive static-hair the girls have been sporting this winter.

Funny, though, how it doesn't seem boring to me at all now. I find myself really enjoying these games, especially as Claire and Abbie attempt to understand the logistics of it all. It's also an actual challenge to NOT win when luck is on your side and you have a 4 yr old who knows our "draw 4" card will devastate the player beside us and really, really wants to use it.

So, I guess I'm becoming domesticated? I don't know, but my feelings about gathering around games like this are definitely changing. I guess it's partly because.....well, it's fun to spend time with these girls. They are smart, and funny, and can occasionally throw in some wicked moves. And I like feeling all cozy and together-y. The biggest thing, though, is that they just enjoy it so much! It's hard not to catch their enthusiasm and it's nice to spend this time with them, this time that I know will be short-lived, when the best night they can conjure is one spent playing cards with Mommy and Daddy.

Just don't ask me to break out Monopoly.

The perils of re-reading Harry Potter while pregnant

I woke suddenly last night due to a horrible, horrible leg cramp. This happens all the time when I'm pregnant. But last night it was enhanced by my fuzzy half-dreaming conviction that I had just been put under the Cruciatus Curse.

This won't make sense to some people, but the Harry Potter fans .......... you know this is funny!

"You may not come out of time-out until you stop screaming!"

"But Mommy! When you made me go to time out it broke my heart!"

Musings from the frozen aisle

I ran to the grocery store this afternoon to pick up some milk and stuff to make nachos, but once in the store I thought I should pick up some apples while I was at it. Then I remembered that we are almost out of lunch juice boxes, then ...........well, you know how it goes.

As I was trudging through there, though, I was suddenly struck by how much more food we need, and how little it lasts. The bigger girls (Katie and Beth) are starting to eat more like normal people, less like toddlers who exist on some mystery plane that apparently doesn't require regular intake of food. Claire, too, has an appetite that is beginning to have a direct affect on the shopping list. (Abbie, of course, is still a nonfactor, unless you count bannanas and oatmeal.) I bought a box of frozen waffles a week or two ago as a special treat, but they are still in the freezer. Why? Well, when I got them home I realized that six waffles divided among four girls leaves.....not enough waffles. The funny thing is that when I bought them, I had a fleeting vision of happy, syrup-y mornings. Note the plural! I planned on using the waffles for at least two breakfasts, not realizing that while I was daydreaming my family had moved beyond a one-box demand.

Wow. Someone told me, back when Katie was a tiny newborn, that "it all goes by so fast." At the time I thought this person must be on crack - the days were draaaaaging by as my baby refused to sleep, making each afternoon feel like a year. But......here I am, suddenly realizing that I am shopping for a little, newly-formed family when the reality is we're only two years shy of our 10 yr anniversary, and there are four (and soon five!) hatchlings waiting at home with open mouths. So again - wow. It all goes by so fast.

Girl meets Destiny

Happy Birthday Larry! I'm so glad that we were able to get you just what you wanted! Rock on, little girl.




As a side note: Claire asked for a "chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, that looks just like me!" Uh, I did my best.

Little Larry the loveable leper

This picture doesn't actually do justice to just how red and swollen the poor thing was. She's finally getting better after three days of looking shockingly terrible. No clue on why. But we're glad to have her sweet little self getting back to normal!