Home again, home again, jiggety jig

Samuel and Timothy came home today. We are all one big happy family again. As I continue to recover, we will slowly get back to some kind of routine. The report on Samuel was that since he was born three weeks early, he had more problems with his temperature and jaundice than babies born later. He is still a little jaundiced, but not enough to keep him in another day. Timothy is now officially considered asthmatic, and has two puffers now. He has a somewhat complicated schedule to follow for the next ten days or so, with puffers and antibiotics.

Altogether the meds cost close to $150, but that's not so big a deal when you consider that our taxes cover the cost of doctors and hospitals here in Canada. The paper said today that the average overnight hospital stay in Canada is over $7000! When we lived in the States, we could not afford health insurance. At that rate, we'd have had bills totaling no less than $91,000 just for all the hospital stays our family has had since last October. Add in the doctor/midwife fees, lab fees, ultrasound, and other miscellaneous things....I'm quite happy to pay $150 for Timmy's meds.

Abby, Ben and Elijah worked really hard these last few days getting caught up in their math. We need to work on history and writing. We never did get any science this year, although I did try to have them do a few nature studies reports related to the geography that correlates with their history. Thankfully, Sarah has been keeping up with her schoolwork on her own, though she has gotten behind some since helping me.

Another thing to work on now that Samuel is born: being active outside. I told Abby that as soon as I am completely recovered I am going to race her to the end of the horse farm driveway that borders part of our property. She says she'll beat me. She probably will--at first. But just let her wait, I'll beat her before the end of the summer. That and biking, gardening and hiking are going to get me back into shape. Last year I wanted to get one of those buggies for children that you hook onto the back of your bike. John and Timmy would love it, but Samuel will still be too small. I'm going to make a sling for him, though, for when we go hiking.

More of the ground shows through the snow. The drifts made by the snowplows are still about three feet deep, and there are mountains of snow piled up in parking lots all over town. Behind the hospital there is a whole field where they dumped the whole winter's worth of snow from the hospital parking lots. That's all going to take a while to melt. But more of the geese are coming back, and the air smells of spring.