**edited this, this morning, because it was after midnight when I finally had a few minuets to post this and after falling a sleep a few times in the process, I never even read it though to make sure it all made sense. So here is the edited version.***

A few weeks ago, about 5, Eric mentioned to me that he wanted to start looking at houses. We have been saving this past year, with a goal of buying our FIRST home ever! All these years we have rented. Little tiny houses, all the way up to the big beautiful house that we rented this last year. We have rented houses in different countries. We have rented houses that belong to family, we have rented houses in the country and the city. Houses with no AC in very hot places. Houses that looked liked someone had rebuilt an engine on the living room floor and houses with brand new paint and carpet.

And all these years we have talked, dreamed, and planned on the day that we could buy a house. Most years the idea was so far out of sight that it seemed as if it was just a far fetched dream. School was always the most important thing and that was always fore-front in our minds. Finishing one degree and moving on to the next. And then Eric finally finished. So we started REALLY talking about buying a house. We even considered trying to buy a house right after graduation. But, decided that buying a practice was a better idea. So we rented another house, and decided to wait another year.

And that’s when Eric brought up the idea that we should start looking at houses. My first thoughts were that I didn’t really want to move. I love the house that we were renting and I was going to have a baby this summer. I had been savoring the idea that this summer would be a simple quiet summer where I could have a baby and do nothing else. The children and I worked hard this year so that we would be all done with school, so we could actually take the summer off. Which is a first. Eric’s job was not going to move us anywhere, and no more schools to have to relocate to. No vacations planned and nothing big written on the calendar. Just a baby and some much needed R&R.

So after Eric asked me to call the real estate agent and set up some houses to look at, I did. That was on a Wednesday. We spent that Saturday looking at four houses. The first house we looked at we originally said “No way!!” It was a bank owned foreclosure and was one of the oddest houses I have seen. Built on a single family permit, but really a duplex, it mirrored each side just like a duplex would, except that you could go all through the house because doors had been cut in the walls that originally had no access between the rooms. there are no hallways upstairs. You just go through one room to get to the next, to get to the next room. Weird. Very weird. But the house was huge. And the property had so much “potential” as Eric said. And really so did the house. IF we tore down walls and made new rooms and put in new flooring and moved the kitchen to the other side of the house and took off the ugly wallpaper and added a mud room and made a new patio with an outdoor kitchen and moved the front door so it would be centered to the house and not off on the side and planted an orchard and put in a pool and …and…and.

So after looking at a few more houses that day, we parted ways with our agent and decided to drive back over to the house and look at it again. Mostly because we had not been that impressed with anything else we had looked at and everything else seemed way over priced because people still want to sell their homes for what they were worth 5 years ago. And Eric works way to hard to buy something that is so over-priced.

So that evening he said that he wanted to make an offer on this crazy house. A really low offer. I reminded him that I was hoping to not move this summer. Just have a baby. He once again assured me that the chances of the bank taking our offer were so low. And then even if they did, we might not get a loan because banks are not giving out very many loans right now. And how these bank owned homes take forever to negotiate with and then close on. That it could be 6 months before we even heard back from the bank. I sighed, knowing somewhere in my heart that by making this offer, we had just pushed a huge rock down the side of the mountain. So Monday we made the offer. Thursday the bank countered. The following Monday we countered back. And then that Wednesday they accepted our offer.

My head literally felt like it was spinning around in circles. The bank had accepted our ridiculously low offer. Our local bank was going to finance it for us. And that was it. It was done. We signed about a million papers. Some of them made us promise that none of our relatives were international spies. (I think the spies would lie here and anybody else would be honest, but they still make you sign that you have no knowledge on this subject.) And that was it. We had just bought a house. Four weeks from start to finish.

And all along I knew that this was going to be how it would all turn out. Never say you’ll not do something. Like not move and just have a lazy summer. So the packing began. A few boxes here and there. Slow and steady. I was so glad that I had saved all the boxes from our move up here last summer. They were all broke down and neatly stacked in the attic. So I had the boys haul them out and tape them up. And I started in their closet and slowly worked my way through that whole house.

And then I had a baby. And took a week off. Kinda. And then we moved the next weekend. With a two week old. And now here we are. In our very own home. Somedays I feel totally overwhelmed. Looking at all the projects that are on “The List”. And the boxes that need to be unpacked but that I have no clue where to put the stuff coming out of the box. Because this house lacks closets. And most of the rooms downstairs could be a living room, yet I have only the need for one living room. Like I said earlier. It’s a weird house. But then I stand in my kitchen making dinner or sit in the living room nursing baby and think, “This is ours, this house is really ours!! I can paint or do anything I want, because it’s mine!!”

Painting the boys room before we move in.

Eric taking a chain saw to my kitchen wall so my fridge will fit.

The “before” pic of the front part of the property.

I have been without internet for a week. So here is her 2 week pictures and a quick “catch up” of what I have been up to.

It’s been a busy week. So much goes on here everyday. And my favorite part of it all right now is my new baby girl. I love to sit and nurse her and just stare at her. Her little toes and fingers, her dark hair, every little detail. I am trying to memorize it all. Because somehow, the 9 months that I am pregnant seems like years sometimes, but this time now, when she is so little and new, and then it’s like I blink and she is learning to crawl, walk, run. So I have decided to let things go that I normally am always trying to stay on top of. Like the dishes and laundry. Eric gently told me that he was about out of some of his clothes. A very nice suggestion that I need to do some laundry. So I did. But then I forgot about the clothes in the dryer for a day or two, so I think everything is permanatley wrinkled. Or at least it looked that way coming out of the dryer when I finally remembered about it.

I can tell the children are thoroughly enjoying my “I don’t care about how my house looks” attitude. And the fact that we just moved and there are boxes everywhere is very much a reminder every where I look that there is much work to be done here. But I have made a decision that I just don’t care right now. So anybody who decides to drop in, can see the very unorganized, not clean state that my house is in right now. And then you can see me sitting and holding little Julia with an awe and admiration that fills my whole heart up and allows me to hardly even see the chaos that has enveloped my house.

I have had so much fun taking her pictures. She is so small and precious. I want to have the pictures for her to look at when she is 3 or 4 and asks “Is that really me Mommy?” “Was I really that small?” And then when she has her own children who will look at these pictures and ask her if that is her in those pictures. I have found the perfect spot in this house where the lighting is just right in the afternoon. I hung a huge piece of felt up on the wall and we take lots of pictures.

So here she is…2 weeks old!!

Here are a few more pictures of Julia’s first week of life.

I have spent the last few days pondering where to start. What to write and what to keep in my heart. You would think that after a woman has been pregnant 7 times and delivered 6 children, that this would just be “another” birth story. But it’s not. Each one has been so special and so different in so many ways. And each birth and child has me in awe all over again.

My due date was June 29. Eric’s birthday. I had a midwife appointment the week before and she said everything looked great, but probly no baby for awhile. I agreed. I was having a few contractions here and there, but nothing worth writing about. I was feeling exhausted. We bought a house about 2 weeks ago (that story is coming next, man am I behind these days!) and so the last two weeks have involved packing, going through everything here, and painting at the other house. Eric has assured me that he will do all the moving and I can just sit and relax, but the organizer in me can not do that. I want to help…pick out paint colors…have some order in the moving process…have say in where things go in the new house. So even though I have been slow and not nearly as efficient as I want to be, I have been able to slowly make progress. So that was what consumed me last week. And I also had this urgent feeling that I needed to get as much done as I could so that when little one came, I could sit still for a little while this time around.

Eric had Friday off. We spent all of Friday and Saturday over at the other house. I would paint for awhile and then sit for awhile. My back has hurt more and more each of these last few weeks. I have sciatica nerve damage and the last bit of pregnancy is enough pain to make me want to curl up and die somedays. I have learned to ignore it for the most part. But then sometimes it is so bad that I can’t. It consumes me and I have to just stop everything and sit or lie down until the pains lessen. And each pregnancy it has gotten worse. But then somehow my pain tolerance gets that much higher to get through most days. And I am sure it didn’t help that I was balancing on a ladder with a tray of paint, desperately trying to finish the boys room before this baby decided to come.

By Saturday evening my contractions were getting much stronger. Eric asked if I thought this might be it. You would think that by now I could just answer that question with a simple yes or no. But I can’t. My pain tolerance is so high, that it is hard for me to say, “Yeah, this is pretty bad, I am going to have a baby!” But instead I just grit my teeth and say,” I don’t think so. Not really sure. Probley not.” And then breath through the next contraction. After awhile Eric suggested I lay down and rest. I fell asleep wondering if this would be the night that we would get to meet our new little baby girl.

But morning came, and there was no baby. Sunday was a much more relaxing day. Our church had their annual picnic and we enjoyed the afternoon at the park. The sun was warm and bright, and there was plenty of water for the children to play with. I just sat the whole afternoon. My legs were swollen and my contractions would come and go, each one almost taking my breath away. There were a few conversations that I had that I could not for the life of me remember what we talked about because all I could do was focus on the intense pains that ran through my back and legs. Eric needed to go back to the other house (the one we just bought) and fix a broken pipe, and offered to leave me at the park so the children could still play, but I had this fear grip me that I needed to not leave his side. So we loaded everyone up and went to Home Depot looking for the parts to fix the broken pipe. They didn’t have the right items, so we went to 3 more stores. Finally Eric found what he needed, all the while me slowly following him through each store, stopping for contractions. He then offered to drop me off at our house we live in now, but again I felt the need to have him very close by. So we went over to the other house and I sat on the front porch while he fixed the broken pipe. Then he played a game of basketball with the children. By then my whole body ached, my back and legs felt like they were on fire and I was exhausted. And I hadn’t even done anything that day.

We headed home and put the children to bed. I had this random idea to go for a walk. Thinking that maybe we could get things going and have a baby. I was now very concerned with the fact that Eric would be heading off to work in the morning and that he would be 40 minutes away from me. I just had this feeling that this was going to be another fast labor with no time to spare. We walked about a mile, talking about our new house and the one that we are moving out of. I had a few more contractions, but nothing that made me think “tonight!” So I went to bed. Only to be awaken an hour later with a horrible contraction. I went in the bathroom and turned the lights on. Another horrible contraction. Horrible enough that I was trying not to cry and trying to remember that I am suppose to breath through these awful things. Eric woke up and came in and asked if I was ok. I said “yeah, just some bad contractions” He is much wiser after all these births that we have been through. He knows how high my pain tolerance is and that when I am to the point of crying, then we are getting really close. He suggested I go sit in the hot tub for awhile and see if I felt any better. At that point he was springing into action for another home delivery. Our last 2 babies we had at home and I loved it. So there was no question this time that I wanted another home birth, but instead of doing it on our own, I had seen a midwife during the pregnancy who might or might not make it to the delivery. She lived over an hour away. So it all came down to how fast my labor would be.

I wasn’t in the hot tub 10 minutes and I felt my water break. What an odd feeling. Only once before have I actually “felt” my water break. But being in the hot tub made me question if that was really what had happened. I guess I was still in total denial that I was actually in labor. I told Eric who was already getting everything ready. A few more contractions and we had a beautiful little girl. Our midwife showed up about 2 hours later and said that little one looked healthy and beautiful. By the time she left it was about 4:00 am. Eric fell right asleep, but I was not the least bit tired. I just laid and stared at our little girl. It was so quiet. Just me and her. I loved those few hours we had together before the children all began to wake up. They had slept through the entire labor and delivery. For about a week before she was born, they would ask me everyday when I thought I would have the baby. “Any day now” was always my reply. And since 5 of my 6 deliveries have been at night, we were guessing this one would be too. Or I was really hoping it would be, because it makes things so much more simple since my labors are so fast.

So around 7:00 the children started trickling into our room. Each one’s face would go from tired sleepy eyes to a huge excited expression as they saw me sitting there in bed with our new baby. Soon all 6 children were up on our bed kissing her and talking about how happy they were that we FINALLY had a baby. It was a beautiful morning. Eric took the day off and took the children for a few hours in the afternoon to run errands while I rested. I was suppose to sleep, that was Eric’s instructions, but really I just wanted to hold and kiss and smell my new little baby girl!
~Cheryl

~~~~5 Days Old~~~~
(Ben was riding the tractor with Eric, so they weren’t around for the impromptu photo shoot)