Someone Is Having A Baby!

Life is good.  I can say that for the first time in one month I AM HEALTHY!!!   Well, my thyroid is still out of range but other than that, I AM HEALTHY.

Poor Nya is so congested.  Her coughs are croup-ish but she's doing okay.  I have a feeling once she is better she will be sleeping through the night.  She is also now saying `dadadadada' all the time. It's sooooo cute!! (see last 10 seconds)

I am pretty proud of myself for running.  I ran 6 km for two weeks in a row and this weekend I will attempt a 7.5 km run.  I wish I could run more often but Gary is gone pretty much every evening and the sun sets by 4:30 pm.  I wish I had more time to just exercise in general but that will come.

I have committed to just one session per week so that I have more time for family and exercising.  I've said this before and am getting better and better each year.   We only `need' a certain amount of money so why would I work for more when that takes away from our family?  The hard thing is, when I work more, we have more money to do fun family things...oh the balance!

We have booked our Spring Break trip and are heading back to Ucluelet/Tofino for 4 days and then doing Green Lake with my sister Maria and her family.  It's our yearly tradition and keeps us under $1,000 with ferries, hotels, gas and food..  

We have decided to add Chiang Mai, Thailand to our SE Asia Trip in July.  We will have three weeks and go to Thailand and the Philippines.  Most people think we are crazy taking three kids with one being a baby.  I know it will be hard, especially the LONG travel days, but we can do it!  If you have any experience flying 16 hours with a baby, let me know:)  Also, is it best to book international flights early or closer to?  I've started looking at prices and they haven't changed much in the last few months.   Anyone wanna join us?:)

And, some exciting news that I can finally share!!  My littlest sister is pregnant!  Her daughter Hannah just turned one in December and she is due with #2 in July.  I'm excited and hope baby stays in a bit longer than her due date so I can be here for her birth!

{My niece, Hannah, is going to be a big sister!}

I guess I should include something about Gary too.  His basketball team won their first league game last night.  He had hoped that they would win so that was good!  He is also running the 10 km race in February so he is trying to run more as well....I think he's just up to 5 km right now.

Okay, better go!  Hope you are having a good day.

Love,

Louise

PS Koen is funny.  When I asked him on his birthday if he felt any different being four, this is what he said:

`I'm not afraid of anything anymore!  Not even of ghostes' (I know how to spell ghosts, that's how he says it).

AND

Me: Koen, please finish your dinner.

Koen: Don't worry about it, sweetheart.

Terrific 24 Hours

{Koen in the stripes in front.  You can see the boy behind him yelling even more loudly.}

1.  Went to Koen's prechool Christmas Concert.  He was just as entertaining as the last one but this time it included dance moves (Gary-esque) and apparently he had the role of Joseph and never told me?  His first line in the mic was `I don't know what I'm supposed to say!'.  His lines were mostly `Do you have a bed for Mary?  The baby is about to come!' which he said three times super loudly:)  So cute!!   The video I have is terrible as I'm rocking a flu-ish/grumpy baby  in the back of the church in the Ergo throughout.  I'll spare you the seasick feeling.

2. Nya stopped puking on Friday night. Phew!  Yesterday she ate food and breastfed and my milk came back. Yes!!!!

3.  Saturday morning I went for a 3.5km run.  I have such a long ways to go...it was my heart that stopped me from going further as I couldn't get my heart rate below 190bpm.

4.  Had a Starbucks drink (white chocolate mocha!).  Thank you, Kelly!

5.  Went to my niece Hannah's first birthday party!!!  Gary stayed home with Nya because I didn't want her residual germs out there. Everyone was there except for dad and Joanne so it was nice and busy there with both sides of their family.  The boys behaved decently.

On the way there:
Me: I don't want you boys running around.
Kai: Fine, I'll just sit there.
Koen: I'll just copy Kai.  But if he twirls on one foot, I can't.

Someone commented to me `Your boys are a handful, I bet you wish you were the one with four girls'.  Nope, I love their energy and physicality!  I've heard girls can be whiny and I don't do whiny:)

{My niece Hannah, we did a cake smash/tasting last week...}

6.  I got to meet baby L (Lynette and Bryan's baby girl!!).  Oh my goodness.  Have you  ever been so excited about something that you almost didn't want to go?  I was just too excited.  I ran to the door and as soon as I saw her in Lynette's  arms, I was a mess.  Like you know when you can't even look because you're crying and it's too much to look at something so awesome? Then Lynette put her in my arms and I got to hold her beautiful daughter as she slept.  The whole time.  What a gift any baby is, but in adoption, I feel like there's just this added appreciation with the selflessness of the birth mom (not in all cases I guess).  I won't be posting any pictures, but believe me, her chubby face is adorable:).  What a very special Christmas gift!!  This was def. the highlight of my weekend:)

7. Went to see `Life of Pi' in 3D with my friend Leah.  Yup, I got out for the evening.  Nya took a bottle.  I had popcorn and pop. Oh my goodness, I am one big ball of butter and sugar and can't wait for the Christmas goodies to be gone.  So nice to be out and Leah even picked me up and dropped me off:)  By the way, you can buy the movie bundles at costco.ca.  3D movies + concession (2 pops and 1 popcorn) costs just $30 instead of $40.00. Just print them at home!  You obviously have to be a member.  They have the cheaper one for regular movies too ($25).

So ya, appreciating the small things in the day to day.  Gary took the boys to church and I stayed home so that Nya could nap. I have 2 hours to myself!   Love having Gary around to help out...wonder if he has noticed our overflowing laundry hamper....:)

Babies

Picture taken by my sister Maria.  We had our weekly playdate and rarely are all the 5 kids up at the same time:)  Aren't they cute? They were so confused as we were jumping around singing `If You're Happy And You Know It' so that Isaac and Hannah would be okay laying down.  The two oldest are crawling now and Jack is rolling.  It's going to get reeeeeeeaaaaally crazy soon:) 

I love having 5 babies around the same age.  I wish we could do it all over again.  Sort of:)

4 Months Old

My little baby is 4 months old.  Tomorrow she will get her immunizations so we'll see how big she is but I think she is just 14lbs.  She is still long and lean.  We are coming off of a 5 day nursing strike.  My boys never did anything like that so it was a bit stressful.  She would only breastfeed when she was super sleepy and she would bite me continuously.  Like, many, many times in a row.  However, little miss does not take a bottle so we made it work.  And today, dare I say, she has started breastfeeding normally again.  I'm pretty sure it was hormonal changes as my hair is really starting to fall out etc.

She is so, so, so easy going.  The only time she is upset is when we are driving.  She is a giggling machine.  I love, love, loooooooooooooooooooooooove the giggles!!!  She wakes up laughing...what a great sound to hear:)  Happy, happy girl.

This weekend we had a wedding in Coal Harbour and being that Little Miss does not take a bottle, we had to bring a babysitter with us:)  The boys went to grandma's and I hired my sister for the day.  She spend time walking around Robson, Stanley Park and Starbucks etc so that I could just feed Nya one time for maybe 10 minutes.  What a little monkey.   A cute monkey.  Apparently she was super well behaved and I'm not surprised.  Thank you Auntie Jackie!

Today we babysat Hannah for a bit.  She makes Nya look so small!  Hannah loved seeing Nya and pretty much tried to put everything in her mouth. It will be so fun to see all the babies being buddies when they are three or so:)

{Hannah}

Koen's skin is starting to get better on his torso.  His arm and legs are still not great.  So, I'm thinking/hoping/praying that by November he should be pretty good.   Maybe. At least the weather is now cooler!

{Koen loves his bubbi more than anything in the world.  He always rubs the ear under his nose:)}
The boys continue to love and miss each other every day.  When they came home from grandma and grandpa's on Saturday they were craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazy.  That, my friends, is why we do not give them sugar.   Here's a typical picture of them.  They love to `set the scene' and then have us take a picture of them:)

I should add that they wanted to hire a photographer for this.  They paid 11 cents.  Then, they put on a show that cost 11 cents to watch.  Win win.

School is going well for Kai.  The one place I notice a change is his reading.  He read `The Giving Tree' by Shel Silverstein to me last night.  He just couldn't get `straightening'.  It's very fun to see him reading to his siblings too.

On Sunday we went to my sisters church as baby Georgia got baptized.  Our family took up two pews:)

Time to go for a bike ride with Koen.  He feels like such a big boy with his training wheels and it works well if I'm pushing Nya in the stroller alongside him.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!!

Love, Louise

Friday Night Without Kids

Life around here has been good. Gary and I had a wedding on Saturday so we asked his parents if they could take the kids from Friday night until Saturday night. It was great. They are usually able to babysit during weddings, which is awesome, the only thing is that it's an extra 3 hours of driving in the day.

So, what did Gary and I do with our Friday night without the kids? This may sound boring but to us it was fun:) We walked to three different restaurants/stores and picked up sushi, sweet and sour pork and cupcakes. Then, we brought them back home and ate in front of the tv while watching a Criminal Minds episode that we had missed. We went for another walk after that. I LOVE being able to walk and talk without the kiddos. I have always wanted to try the cupcakes from a local cupcake shop and although they were good, they weren't great. I'm a cupcake snob:) Please note that I have actually been eating pretty healthy, that was sort of an, uh, special treat:)

I babysat Hannah for a couple hours on Friday and it was right during her nap time so I didn't get any photos in as she just wanted to nap in peace.

(I wanted to see how white on white looked, I decided I don't really like it.)

I'm 27 weeks! Got all my blood tests back and they are good. Slightly anemic but I'm not taking iron for it because I feel fine. Also, free T4's are out of range but not too much so hopefully thyroid behaves! I don't have Gestational Diabetes so that is good. Baby is transverse and I'm pretty sure she has been the whole time. She just lays horizontally on the bottom of my uterus. There are many inches up top that she is not utilizing so I look forward to her going head down at some point! I have my Langley OB appt on Thursday and if they say no to a VBA2C, I will go to the Better Birth Clinic at Women's and see what they say. Just trying to cover all of my bases. Braxton Hicks are way more frequent with this little one so my uterus is really working out in preparation:)

My dad has always wanted to be a pilot. My mom said he could go for it once the kids were all out of the house. So, he has been taking flying lessons and done a bunch of ground school work and I believe he will be able to fly solo sometime this spring. The kids are not allowed to go up with him even though they really want to (I won't let them!). Way to go, Dad.

There was a freak hail/snow storm yesterday.

Fortunately it wasn't raining/snowing/hailing on Saturday for the wedding we photographed. Unfortunately it was REALLY windy and cold so it made it a bit challenging.

{Hannah and Isaac smiling at about 6 weeks old. They both look like their daddies but you can tell they are cousins!}

This morning was the sisters playdate morning. I had gone to Value Village for the 50% off day first and got Kai a few things (mostly pants as he wears through the knees so quickly).

I should mention the boys current dream jobs:

Kai: be a professional hockey player (or ref) that also works at Subway.

Koen: be a big man that is a swim teacher who also works at McDonalds.

And now, laundry is done, bathrooms clean, dinner is in the slow cooker and I better get to work:) I hope you had a wonderful weekend!

Love, Louise

New Louise

For some reason flickr (where I post our pictures from) isn't working right now so I will just post one picture. Last night I got Gary to take some studio type photos of my belly. We are going to be having an outdoor maternity session as a family next month but I thought we should try to get a few studio-ish ones too. I am very excited for our family photos as they will be in Victoria and taken by Megan again:)

{26 week belly}

So, Gary and I are a great team but I have realized a couple of things. I don't take direction well from Gary when he is directing me in something I feel like I know:) Also, Gary doesn't ever do maternity sessions so it was interesting. Regardless, I am thankful that he is so patient with me and that we got a few.

I got to cuddle baby Kivani today. She is adorable and squishy and curls up so perfectly on your chest. There's a serious dose of happy medicine in that.

I'm not sure why I'm suddenly so much more aware of money we are spending. We are totally fine financially but I think the idea of having a baby and not being able to work as much worries me. Kai's tuition doubles and Koen starts preschool. So, we cut our cable in half and our internet speed as well. We save $50/month there and I haven't noticed a change at all in the internet speed. I also changed Koen's preschool from 3 days a week to 2 days. Although I will use his preschool time to work, I'm sure on the other days he can watch a little tv:) So, that reduced the cost by $45/month. I guess my concern also comes from the fact that this is the first time I will not be getting maternity leave when baby comes. It doesn't help that our van is in the shop (this is day 3) which I'm sure will cost a few bucks!

We are photographing our first wedding of the year on Saturday. I'm looking forward to it. It has been a while and the couple is wonderful. I'm hoping the weather behaves! We have 5 weddings booked before baby comes and I'm hoping that the one at 37 weeks isn't too hard on my body:)

I know I've said this before but I have made a conscious effort to really slow life down. Old Louise would probably find New Louise lazy. Truthfully. My whole life was about go, go, go. Produce, produce, produce. I'm in a stage now where I have forced myself to slow down and it has been so good. The hard part is saying `no' to sessions that I would love to do. Realistically, 1-2 play dates per week is my mental maximum. I really want my life to have as little stress as possible. This is for the health of my family but also for my health. I love not having to rush here and there. Not having hours of editing hanging over my head. I have time to exercise every day. I have time to meal plan and make meals. I have time to just watch tv guilt free at night. I have time to read books. I have time for relaxing family days (where I'm not worried about all I have to do). I have time to watch my nieces or nephew if need be. I feel that there is no stress hanging over me. It feels good. And strange. But good.

Gary and I get another date night tomorrow night. That's two weeks in a row! Might as well get them in now:)

I have to say that the hardest thing about the boys at this age (3 and 5) is that if they are in the house together, and bored, they fight. A lot. Screaming, crying, chasing, the works. It is exhausting. If we get out of the house, they are totally fine. Or, if I'm involved in an activity with them, they're fine. If that's the hardest thing, then life is pretty good. It just wears on you with all the `Stop chasing your brother', `Leave your brother alone' etc.

And finally, Koen has had 4 swimming lessons so far and he is adorable. He is confident and loud and happy in the water. Now, he's no swimmer but still, I don't think he could be any cuter in that class. By the way, he has the best teacher ever. She is so encouraging and engaging. I wish she could teach him forever. Yay for good teachers:)

This was random but that's what has been going on. Midwife appt tomorrow, with both boys along, and then date night. Oh ya, and I get to babysit Hannah for a couple of hours!! You can bet that I'm going to be taking a picture or two of my niece:)

Have a great night.

Love, Louise

Different Kind of Playdate

Gary and I attended a memorial service for our friend's dad yesterday. It was a beautiful service. I always feel so bad for the kids as I know how bittersweet it is. Thankful that their loved one is not suffering anymore, thankful they are in heaven, and thankful for the awesome example of parenting they had. However, it sucks too. As Andrew said, and I've said of my mom, his dad was his biggest fan and supporter. It's tough. Really tough. However, hopefully my kids will see that I am their number one fan and that example that I was given will be passed on.

I am very appreciative of my family and close friends. I know I have a lot of really solid people in my life and I am so thankful. I don't know how to say this but I'm very hesitant to make new friends because I feel like I can't even invest enough in those that I do have. Does that make sense?

So talking about those we are close to, today we had our first sisters playdate with all sisters in attendance and just Kai was at school (Ani is still recovering from her appendectomy). That means 5 mommas and 7 kids (and 3 in utero). The `big kids' just played upstairs and the little ones just got cuddles while the mommas chatted. Good times. We are planning on getting together weekly so we'll see how it goes!

Sami's `cheese' face. She's adorable. And a monkey. I love it. She will be a big sis in April!!!

The `little' ones. With lots of aunties to hold and cuddle them, it was a fuss free time:)

There was a whole lot of kids clothes swapping going on. A whole lot. I think we're all good for a while!

Hannah is about 5 or 6 weeks old now. So strange to be thinking I will be having a girl because it does feel more `normal' to be holding Isaac. I'm just used to lugging around big chunky boys.

Tummy time for two!

I'm thinking that by the time Maria and I have our kids, no one will want to hear anything about diapers or breastfeeding or sleep as our conversations are just saturated with it these days. So thankful for these babies, those inside and out. Praying for health all around.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend.

Love, Louise

PS Did you know Gary is pretty much done basketball after this week?! Yippee!

PPS Kai and Koen are playing together so well these days! They play soccer or football for about an hour every night after dinner. Kai is so incredibly encouraging of Koen (mostly because he knows he has to or Koen won't play with him). This isn't to say that there isn't a lot of contact, because there is, but I love to see them playing sports together:)

Baby Chapman

Had the ultrasound today! Kai and Koen got to come along and `meet' their little sibling. The baby kept its legs wrapped up tightly so she couldn't get a good look to see if it was a boy or girl, but, the tech said she would record what she thought it was and we'll see in about 3 weeks. The baby spent most of it's time not moving (so different than it's brothers!!) and it's hand up near it's face. We did get to see it swallow and also suck it's thumb (so cute!!!). Kai said it must be his twin due to the thumb sucking. Koen said the picture on the screen looked `yucky' and couldn't understand that it was the baby:)

The tech said the baby is measuring one week off my projected due date of May 28th. Not sure if it's one week smaller or bigger but that is interesting. I've never measured far off at this point. It's always at the end where my babies get so big. I think I will just stick to May 28th as I'm pretty certain of the date of conception:) Looking forward to going over the report and making sure all is well. With each boy, there was something that was off (Kai=renal pelvis in the kidney, Koen=CPC's in the brain) and both were fine. I wish the tech could just tell you everything then and there, oh well, at least she was nice and talked with me the whole time:)

Finally, we are wanting the baby's gender written on a piece of paper and put in an envelope. Then, we are thinking of getting my sister to fill up a box of gender specific coloured balloons and doing something like this:

Or, do you have any other ideas? I'd love to incorporate the boys in it (maybe them popping out of the box or being surprised with us). I know people have done pink/blue cupcakes, pinatas with pink/blue candy...anything other ideas?

I'm 90% certain that it is another boy. I just really want a healthy baby but I'll be honest that part of me would love a little more estrogen/pink in this family. Talking about pink, how sweet is my newest little niece?! I helped give her a bath yesterday and then when Trish took a shower I took just a few pictures of baby Hannah. She is so sweet and little and sleeps so much:) Here she is 4 days old...

Have a wonderful evening.

Love, Louise

PS Snowshoeing yesterday+aquafit last night=tired Louise!

Baby Hannah

My little sister is a momma! We always do Christmas Eve with my side of the family and the plan was to meet at 2pm BUT that morning my sister Trish called to say that she was in labour! I went to her house at 10am and the midwife was there. Trish was already 6cm and totally relaxed. By 11:00am she was about 8cm so we went to the hospital....

Maria and I were with her and our role was to support Trish until she was 10cm dilated and then we would leave her with the midwife and Steve to bring baby into this world. I was `allowed' to take a few photos but really, I was there to help her first and foremost.We spent most of our time rubbing Trish's back and her legs and she was so calm the entire time. Every nurse that came in could not believe how relaxed she was. I couldn't believe it either:)

Who smiles like this when 9cm dilated? Not me!!!Trish's legs were getting sore so she started kneeling on the bed. She immediately went to 10cm and was all ready to push!She pushed from 1:30 to 2:30pm. Baby had quite a few decel's (heart rate kept going down and not coming up to baseline) so they were going to vacuum but they got Trish to get baby out quickly. The cord was so tight around her neck that they couldn't remove it so the rest of baby had to come out right away. Not the nicest way to end a beautiful birthing process but baby was safe and sound. Baby Hannah arrived! She cried right away and we were all so happy she was here. She weighed in at a lovely 7lbs 7oz. Fortunately Maria and I were able to stay the entire time as we were all working so well as a team so it was wonderful to witness this baby girl coming into the world. Unfortunately, the rest of our families were waiting for Christmas dinner so Maria and I left around 3pm.

They spent the night in the hospital and went home the next morning. I'm so proud of my sister, she pretty much rocked the whole birth thing! She was just happy to NOT have a C-section:)

Welcome to the world Hannah Joy, we are so happy you are here safe and sound!