The start of crazy....

What a month!!!  Whoever said the month of March "comes in like a lion and out like a lamb" apparently doesn't know my family very well!  I have had a crazy April and it all started because of rough March.

My brother's 2nd child/son was diagnosed with seizures when he was 18 months old.  For the most part they have been under control with the help of daily medicine.  It really has had no big effect on his life....until this past March.  He very suddenly started having some daytime seizures and towards the end of the month, he had some "rollng seizures" where everytime he would go to sleep he would have a seizure, wake-up, go to sleep again, have another seizure, wake-up, go to sleep, have another.... he had to be hospitalized.  Now imagine that you are about 31 weeks pregnant with 4 kids, 1 of which is in the hospital...nothing to stress about, right?  (Luckily, they seem to have found the right cocktail of medicines and he, from what we can tell, has his seizures under control again.)

I have been having such a great pregnancy (up until then) that I had begged my brother to let me come out and help when it got closer to Rebecca having the baby. She has had some very interesting deliveries in the past!!  This way when she went into labor, I would be in the house so they could go immediately and not have to wait for someone to come get the kids.  I had booked a ticket for April 14th to come out to help...Jeff was totally supportive about this too.  I had just had a sono a few days prior and everything was looking great!

I got a call on Wednesday, March 31st - I was out and about being very productive - no really I was! - when I got a call from my brother, Aaron.  Rebecca had just had a doctor's appointment and her blood pressure and labs weren't looking all that great; Aaron didn't think she would last until the 14th, was there anyway I could come out that day?  I finished my errands, went home, packed, and found a flight that would get me in at midnight.

I arrived at their home by shuttle at about 1am, April 1st (no foolin').  We chit chatted for a bit, they decided to show me where the boy's medicine schedule was and gave me a very brief overview of everything, but not to worry we would go over everything again in the morning.  Hmph!  At 4 am I was awoken by Aaron telling me that he was taking Rebecca to the hospital she was having a lot of contractions and for some silly reason didn't want to wait too long and accidentally have an at home birth...again.

Suddenly I was thrown into a world of 4 kids, coming from a world of 0 kids (I didnt count Jeff).  Luckily Aaron and Rebecca have a good routine for their kids established that I mostly stood back and was directed by them on what my role as the adult was in their routine!  Made life so much easier.

I did find it interesting that she just happened to have to go to the hospital a few days before Spring Break where all 4 kids would be home all day long! Hmmmm.... do I smell a conspiracy here?  Rebecca's parents came on Friday and took Matthew and Sarah for a few days to lighten my burden.  I was trying to decide about church on Sunday and what I should do with the other 2 - Josh informed me that we don't have church on Sunday - it's Easter.  I thought what better day to have church than on Easter!  Silly boy!  He kept insisting that we didn't have church on Easter, then he said the 2 words that made such sense - General Conference.  Oh yeah! whew!  That made life a bit easier!

Rebecca was able to hold off delivery for 5 days and had Noah Terry Mancil on Monday, April 5th.  I had just taken Josh and Daniel to see the "How to Train Your Dragon" movie and we were going to stop by the hospital and visit.  I called up Rebecca to see how things were going and she was telling me that they were taking her over to L & D to get ready to have the baby.  Aaron had decided that morning that since everything had been so quiet for Rebecca, that he would go into work.  He hadn't been there but for 2 hours when he got the call from Rebecca.  Isn't that how it always works!

Noah was born at a gestational age of 33 weeks 3 days. He was 4 lbs 5 oz 18 in long. After 4 kids, the 5th was done by c-section. I decided to stay on for another 3 weeks (1/2 way into Rebecca's recovery time) to make sure all the kids and Rebecca were taken care of. I have now got the handle on driving a huge suburban and maybe 4 kids, but really who can ever get the handle on 4 kids??? Rebecca and I went everyday to visit Noah in the NICU. Some evenings Aaron and Rebecca would go for the 5pm feeding and then go out to eat at a place they normally can't take all the children (meaning Daniel unfriendly!)

I really got to know the kids and am eternally greatful for the opportunity to help.  We got to do some fun things - For Josh's birthday (April 8th) we went galaxy putt-putting (not as fun as you would think when you have to carry a little girl around cuz she was so scared of the noises and all the black-lit things) and bowling.  We had several Friday night movie nights - eating pizza.  Sarah got her fingers and toes painted and absolutely loves it and now knows exactly what fingernail polish is.  I had painted her fingers and toes Saturday night, Sunday night I painted Rebecca and my toes.  When Sarah saw what I was doing, boy did she make a beeline for us holding out her fingers so hers could be painted too!  I got to learn how little boys both clean their room fast and put away clothes - they put them all back in the dirty hamper!  I had done the clothes on Wednesday night and by Friday night it was overflowing again.  I started pulling out clothes and realized that some of it was clothes that I had asked the boys to put away in their drawers and some of it was pajamas that they had taken out of the drawer while looking for a different pair of pajamas.  They didn't put them back, so when they were asked to clean the room they just gathered them up and put them in the hamper instead. (Good learning opportunity for me to watch out for in the future with my own kids.)

So it was with bitter-sweetness that I purchased my ticket to head back to Texas on April 28th.  I knew it was time to go, I was missing Jeff so much it hurt, but I was sad to let these little kids go.  As the time approached I told the boys that I had only 3 more sleep-overs left and then I had to leave.  Josh asked me to leave on Friday instead of Wednesday, couldn't I stay for just a few more days?  It is uncanny how I have ended up granting that wish...and then some!