Godsend

My sister Tracy just became a doula, so we had planned on her being here for Camille's birth.  Unfortunately, Camille came so early and so fast that there wasn't really any chance of Tracy being here for it.  Which made us both sad.

But despite that little hiccup, Tracy still managed to get here the same day that Camille arrived!  Which was very fortunate indeed since my Mom was in Hawaii and wasn't planning on being in Virginia for two more weeks!

So we've had Tracy here to help us this whole time.  And it's been fabulous.  You should all wish for my sister Tracy to come and help you when you have a kid.  Tracy has been doing dishes, laundry, making meals (even ones that she doesn't eat!), playing with my older kids, and staying up nights holding Camille for me so I can sleep.  She makes the kids their lunches in the morning while I sleep in, she takes them to school and picks them up.  She goes to the store and takes Colton and Ryder with her...  She basically does everything I was doing before I had the baby, and then she helps out with the baby, too.  AND, she does it without yelling at my kids.  She's even better at dealing with Bentley's bad temper than I am (she invented a new technique that I plan to use called "shaking the anger out"-- it involved picking him up and gently shaking him upside-down until he couldn't help but laugh.  Brilliant!).  She's kind of like a Tasmanian devil whirling around my house, except everywhere she goes things get cleaner and more orderly.  Or maybe you could just say it's like having Mary Poppins here, but without the British accent?

I'm not really sure how I'm going to survive once she leaves, but I sure am grateful for all the help she's giving us right now.  It's been so wonderful to be able to shower and nap and just let my body heal, all while knowing that the house isn't falling to pieces around me.  Not many people are so lucky when they have their 5th kid!

Thank you, Tracy!  I can never repay you for all this!

For those of you who want to hire Tracy when you have your next kid-- just let me know and I'll give you her number!