Reality Check.

I had made the mistake a number of times before.  I opted out of my 2 night stay at the hospital with some of the kids when they were born and came home after staying for 24 hours.  This time around I was smart.  To be honest...and you can ask anyone that knows me...I was actually looking forward to going into labor so I would get a full 2 night stay in the hospital.  Seriously...there was only one kid to care for, I could order 3 meals a day and they delivered it to me, someone came in and cleaned my room once a day, and I could shower whenever I wanted to!  Because Griffin was born so early in the morning I felt like I had and "extended stay!"  It was so nice.  

Dan picked the kids up from school on Thursday and they all came to pick me and Griffin up from the hospital.  It was total chaos.  Kids everywhere, me getting 2 shots before I left,  Kenadie and Gavin fighting over a toy car, Lanie crying...total chaos.  I asked if I could have one more night...they said "no."  I drove the van home and Dan followed in his work truck.  (that is what I drove when I went to the hospital and we had to get it back home somehow!)  

Here Griffin is just hanging out with Mommy before they all arrived. 

 The hospital gives these stockings and Christmas hat to each baby that is born in December.  As soon as I saw the stocking, I couldn't wait to get him in it and take his picture!

 Griffin was hungry...he didn't want to leave the hospital.  He wasn't very happy.  He did fall asleep on the way home and we had a very uneventful car ride home.

                                     Here they all are...all 7 of them at home together at last.  (don't mind the mess in the background....remember I wasn't home for almost 3 days.....)

 Reality has now set in at the Wilke house.  It has been quite a week...I won't lie.  I got a horrible head cold the day after we came home.  I could feel it coming on the last day in the hospital.  I wore a mask for the first week around Griffin and sanitized my hands non-stop.  We have never had a good "first" night at home with our babies.  They are up all night.  Griffin was no exception.  However, we didn't anticipate that Lanie would also be joining our very long nights awake with us as well.  She was actually worse than Griffin was.  She has only slept through the night 1 night in the past 8 days.  And when she is up at night, she won't go back to sleep.  So, our nights consist of Dan holding Lanie while I nurse Griffin.  Then he takes Griffin and I hold Lanie.  Back and forth.  Last night Dan just held her the whole night.  It has been rough.  She has at least 3 molars coming in and two more teeth in the front coming in.  She also now has the same cold Dan and I have been battling with.  It will get better.....it has to....it can't get much worse than what it is now at night!

Poor Griffin has to wear socks on his hands to keep him from scratching himself.  I didn't buy any newborn onsies with the hand covers because I thought he would be too big to wear them.  Guess I was wrong.  Socks will have to do for now!

Here is a picture of Griffin.....................                                 Here is a picture of Gavin.....Yikes!

Griffin was sleeping so soundly on night so I asked Dan to try and do a mini photo shot with him.  This is one of 3 pictures that he took.  Wipes, vas aline, and a laundry basket in the background....nice.  Next time I will try I guess.  And who only takes 3 pictures?

 In case you were all wondering....and I know you were all dying to know.....this is what we are driving now.  We call it the party bus.  This is one of those "big changes" that we had to make in our lives. No more minivan.  We didn't fit anymore.  It was a hard decision.  It took us a long time to make the decision.  We had very few options.  I was in denial at first.  However, I have now fully embraced the party bus.  The kids have lots of room and it really drives nicely.  It doesn't fit in our garage to I may have done a bit a complaining today as it was pouring rain out.  I am sure it will be even more fun when it is full of snow and the driveway is full of ice and we have kids falling everywhere :)  And yes, I put the "people" stickers on the back of our cars!  I LOVE them!  I got them in color this time and I think they look really nice!  

Dan went back to work on Tuesday morning.  5 days....that is what he took.  He told me he was going to take off two weeks.  I was looking forward to 2 weeks.....I got 5 days.  Life must go on I guess.  We are getting back into the swing of things.  Reality has set back in.  Even though we may be up all night, we still have 6 other children to take care of during the day.  Lunches need to be packed, tests need to be studied for, laundry has to be done, grocery shopping has to be done....the list goes on.  I am trying to sit and just snuggle with Griffin as much as I can this week.  I will start up with my work probably tomorrow again as financial reality has also set in.  I see another part time job for either Dan or I in the near future.  If only TLC would do a reality show on us so we could make $75,000 a episode!

I am NOT complaining....just sharing our reality with you all!  I would not give up anything to have anything more or less.  I am happy, I am content, I am blessed, I am overwhelmed, I am praying a lot more than I was, I am leaning on God more than I was.  A friend of mine from Grade school sent me a message on Facebook the other day.  She told me that she thinks sometimes God gives us more than we can handle so we learn to rely on Him more.  I had never looked at it that way, but I think she might just be right.  (thanks Michelle!)  We are taking it one day at a time....sometimes 1 hour at a time in the middle of the night!  I am so proud to be a Mom of 7 and I am so blessed by each and everyone of them!