Well, the children had loads of fun yesterday afternoon when Robin took them to the netball.
Their cousin Millie was playing our Canterbury team (the Tactics) with her team from Wellington (the Pulse). It was very hard knowing who to support, but blood is thicker than water, I guess!
We've had dreadful weather here the last few days, so I didn't venture out with Alice. We were also expecting guests for dinner, and I had quite a bit of preparation work to do for that. I will blog about that later.
From the sounds of it there was quite a good turnout for the netball. Robin and the children met Robin's brother and his kids there, along with Millie's Mum (my sister-in-law) who had flown down from Auckland for the game. Millie's team didn't win, but I think they got pretty close. I love netball. It's such an exciting game if the teams are fairly evenly matched. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, it's a game played with seven players on a team. The ball is thrown from the center of the court and the players have to get the ball down to the net circle without stepping over their boundaries, and without the ball bouncing. It's a high contact sport, as there is lots of defence and attack, intercepting the ball or knocking it from another players hands without getting a penalty. When I played it as a teenager, I was Goal Shoot, the one responsible for getting the ball into the net. Only two players are allowed to do that. Millie plays Center, which is usually a position reserved for the fastest, most fit player as they are allowed to go all over the court, except within the goal circle. Here are some shots from the game. Millie is the tall, slim blonde girl with the C on the front and back of her outfit. I noticed she was paired up with Julie Dawson, a Silver Fern player (from our national netball team).
Here is Millie trying to get the ball to her Goal Shoot (GS) team player. See how her feet cannot cross the line into the shooting circle, and her team member is trying to get away from the red team so she can get a clear shot of catching the ball when Millie throws it. No player is allowed to hold the ball longer than 3 seconds, so the pressure is on.
Once again, so much of the action is around the goal shoot circle. I can't even see where the ball is in this picture. And who are those important-looking people around the tables in the background? Maybe they're selectors for our national team, the Silver Ferns?
I love doing this with my babies. Prop up a mirror in front of them and watch the fun!
Sweet little Alice is giving us so much joy, and she's getting so big. Here are some of our favourite mirror photographs.
As an update on Teddy, the paediatrician is changing his medication. We are praying that the new one will cut out these petite mal. It takes a month to ease him off one medicine and onto the other.
I am not very good at getting my children to do chores. I would just as soon do the job myself to be sure it gets done properly, but I realize that they have to learn responsibility and how to work together to help the family function smoothly.
I've tried different chore systems that have never really worked well for us, but last year I ordered Choreganizers. It has taken me quite a while (like 6 months) to actually put it all up and get going with it, but the last couple of weeks we began it, and it is so much fun!
It works on a reward system, but a system that is unique! It comes with its own currency.... and here's the cute part.... Dad Dollars and Mom Money!
The system gets displayed in an area of the house where the child has easy access to their chart. Ours is on the end of the kitchen island
Each child has their own chart with their name at the top. They have their own set of cards with pictures of what chores they have been assigned, and those little cards slot into the spaces on the chart.
When the chore has been completed, the child takes the card out and puts it into the special pocket at the bottom of the chart. At the end of the day, I check to see if all the cards have been put into the pocket. If they have, the child gets one Dad Dollar or one Mom Money.
Here are the dollars which are provided (along with a photocopy master) in the book.
At the end of the week on a specially assigned day (our day is Friday), I open up the Chore Store. (This is the fun part)
The child gets to spend their dollars that they have collected. I made up a ChoreStore catalogue for our purposes with pictures of things they can buy with the dollar value next to them.
The first time we did it the children were so excited, and it was really interesting to see how they reacted to it. They all behaved pretty much as I thought they would according to their personality-type.
Hugh decided not to spend his money, but save it for one of the more expensive items. He has great self-control, does my eldest boy, and is a good saver. I knew he would do this!
Meredith decided to buy some popcorn. (She has little self-control and is more interested in instant gratification).
And Teddy ummed and aahed and changed his mind several times before spending $3 on a Melody Pop. (Well.... he's only just 4, after all).
This is going to work so well for us, and the great thing is they love to do their chores and I'm not having to nag at them all the time for most of it - except the tidying up of their desks at the end of the day (why is it so hard for them to do that)?! It truly is a really fun way to do work, both for them and for me! I love watching them at the store!
www.amazon.com and www.christianbook.com both sell Choreganizers.
Yesterday I had my 6 week checkup with my obstetrician. It's the last time I'll see her (until the next time, that is). I finished up with my midwife last week too. I'm always sad when that time comes to an end as it means the pregnancy and birth and newborn-ness have come and gone.
If God blesses us with another baby in the future I will definitely be going with my wonderful midwife Marg again, and with my obstetrician Joy. They worked so well together and made giving birth a good experience for us - after not having had very good experiences in the past.
They were good women to have in the room.
Here is my obstetrician Joy with Alice. Joy makes giving birth a joy! She's great company when in labour.
Isn't it a pretty one of Alice.
Here are my two girls. We just managed to sneak in a bit of a smile which is difficult with the delay on my old camera.
All my babies are nearly bald when they're born. I love bald babies!
Alice is 7 weeks old today!
Yesterday we spent a good part of the afternoon at the hospital.
We had a previously booked appointment with our paediatrician to follow-up Teddy's treatment for the seizures. They have had to increase his dose a little bit as he had another seizure about a week ago. That made it 5 weeks since the last one, so he has improved, but as it hasn't completely stopped them the doctor wanted to increase it slightly.
Here is a picture of Christchurch Public Hospital
At a time like this I am grateful that New Zealand has a public health system. All children under the age of 6 years have free health care, so at this time Teddy's paediatric appointments and all his medication are covered by the government.
Anyway, we went up to the clinic yesterday and waited for about 20 minutes. You never know how long you're going to wait there so I took my knitting and plenty of snacks for Teddy. I hate going into hospitals for the very reason that they are usually NOT sterile environments, and I don't like my children playing with the toys in the waiting area. I read an article once that said doctor's waiting rooms were the most contagious areas in a community because of all the sick people flicking through magazines and sick children playing with the toys. Call me paranoid but I don't read the magazines when I go and I don't let my children play in the children's area.
I always get lost in our hospital looking for the right elevator and then knowing which way to turn after you get off, but there's usually someone around to tell you. We stepped into our elevator - one of those old-fashioned kinds that have carpet on the walls, and Teddy immediately said, "look! we can walk on the walls!" Everyone in the elevator laughed. Sometimes that boy can be too cute.
I love observing people when I'm waiting somewhere and as we sat on the red vinyl seats in the paediatric waiting room I watched a rough-looking family across the other side. There was a little girl in her school uniform who looked about 10 or 11. She was with her mother, and an older, very large, sloppily-dressed lady (I assumed an aunt or grandmother) and a younger woman who looked about 15.
The 12 year old girl was reading aloud from a reading book to her mother. It was probably her homework. She was doing quite well - stumbling over a few words like 'their' and 'science'. She finished the book and her mother said:
"That is terrible reading. You're going to have to buck up your ideas."
The other lady said, "Oh, she doesn't try hard enough."
I felt so crushed for the poor girl. She got up and walked away from them to play with something. I would have loved to have gone up to her and told her how well she was doing. You could tell she was really trying hard with some of those words.
It wasn't really too busy, and I'm glad we didn't have to wait too long.
We've upped Teddy's dose now and we'll see how he goes on this. The doctor said it is something he should grow out of in a few years - but we don't know how long it's going to take. They don't really know what causes the seizures, but think that it happens in some children as their brains develop from the infantile brain into a more mature brain and that it will correct itself, but it's not something that can be cured overnight, but takes months and months.
We are just grateful to God for providing good doctors for us and that the medication is available to help our Teddy through this with hopefully no damage to his brain or body. He has had very little side-effects from the medication so far, which is an answer to prayer.
I was thinking about the British royal family the other day and Queen Mary's son Prince John who had epilepsy as a child, and some learning difficulties as well which weren't related to the epilepsy, and I wondered if because they didn't have the developments in medicine that we do, or the understanding of it, his condition deteriorated over the years as he had more and more seizures that became longer and longer, until he eventually died as a young teenager from a massive seizure.
I watched this movie years ago about his life, which was very well done, but it is very sad. I don't know if I could watch it again just because it is very graphic and the seizure dramatizations are very 'real' from what I know of them from my own experience now. It also includes ta graphic account of the murder of the Romanovs (who were Prince John's cousins). From a historical perspective it is very interesting, and shows some of these great events from the little boy's perspective. It doesn't show his parents in a very loving light, and I think this is probably the hardest part to watch of the movie. If you can stomach all that, it's worth watching.
This post is a little late than I would have liked, but I'm trying to cut myself some slack these days. "I have a newborn who is only just coming up to 4 weeks old" - that's what I keep telling myself when I don't get all the jobs done in the day that I would like.
My Valentines Day experiences changed forever in the new millenium when I gave birth to my first born son who was clever enough to arrive on his due date. This year he turned 9 years old which I can hardly believe! It is our family tradition to measure each child's height on their birthday. I have portable wooden height charts for the children as with all the moving we have done, I didn't want to have to leave any doorpost markings behind us. I measured Hugh on the weekend and we figured out that going by the growth rate of the last 3 years, if he grows the same amount in 3 more years he will be nearly as tall as I am. When it seems like his birth was just yesterday to me, that is a scary thought!
He really would have liked a party with all his friends but I didn't think I could do that this year, so we had a much scaled down party with just one friend and his little sister and our children. It worked out to be the best decision, because only a few days before his birthday Hugh had an accident - doing boys stuff such as climbing refrigerators (!!!), and slipped and gashed his leg on something (we still haven't figured out what). He had to be rushed down to the emergency doctors and ended up with 10 stitches!
Here is my birthday boy with the cake he chose.
The cake had a new type of frosting that I hadn't tried before - one with raw egg white in it. It hasn't lasted as long as the butter icing I usually do for birthday cakes, but it was yummy all the same.
Here are the children at the table
And the leftovers....
The following is called 'lolly cake'. Every birthday it has to be made. It is very, very delcicious and very, very fattening!
Hugh's friend bought his quad bike over for some fun. Even with a bandage and stitches, Hugh still managed to enjoy a ride.
And Dad got to pretend he was a boy again too....
In the evening we all sat down to watch a movie that Hugh had chosen. It was Wall-E. It was the first time we'd seen this movie and it was actually quite good. The children really enjoyed it, and there was nothing really objectionable in it.
All in all, he had a really fun day - and got a bit spoiled and made a fuss of. I still can't believe he's 9 though! When did that happen?!
To finish off this post, here is a picture of Alice sleeping.
Some leftover lollies (candy) from the party
And my birthday rose that my husband gave me last year finally bloomed - how perfect that it should appear on Valentine's Day! It is called Burgandy Iceberg.
With her jaundice on the way out, Alice is starting to wake up.
This morning she had a lovely 'wake time' after her bath, dressed in a pretty little outfit my neighbour gave her. The older children - led by Hugh - decided that Miss Alice needs to have her imagination cultivated and that they would draw her some colourful pictures for her entertainment.
Hugh set up a drawing board with paper and pens.
Along came Meredith and Teddy to join in.
Teddy drew a sun with stars for Miss Alice.
Meredith drew Alice walking through long grass.
Mummy figured out - finally - how to use the close-up button on her old and dated digital camera, and she likes the dress Meredith drew on Alice.
And Hugh drew a landscape showing Alice floating above the mountains with a balloon. The pictures are now hanging in Alice's room - with cellotape - at the children's insistence - so that Alice can look at them while she sleeps.
More practicing of closeups with the old and dated camera. The flowers on the table:
My favourite part of a baby are their beautiful eyes - in our case, the deep blue pure wells that blink, and try oh so hard to focus on you in those first few days. But after the eyes, I love to look at the feet.
It's quite mind-blowing to imagine where these little feet might go one day, and what lands and places they might take their owner to see and experience. Here they are clean and pure and untrod - no history to recount or remember. That's the other thing that amazes me about babies - they have absolutely no memory. It's a clean slate. That's quite a responsibility for a parent, I think. I hope that as much as it is within my power, my children will only have good memories, and even in the hard things that inevitably come along in life, we their parents can guide them, and be a soft place for them.
I was going to title this Alice in New Zealand, but Wonderful Land just seems to suit better.
Thank you all so much for your kind comments and prayers for us last week. They meant such a great deal to me.... I went into labour with confidence thinking about all the family and friends and blogging friends all over the world thinking of me and praying for me.
Here is our little girl - Alice Elizabeth. She was born in the first minute of January 22. I remember my obstetrician telling me to give one last push and I said to hang on a minute, because I was still catching my breath from the last one... that minute of waiting 'pushed' Alice over into January 22. If she'd been born on the stroke of midnight we would probably have been confused all our lives as to what day was really her birthday!
Of the four children I've given birth to, this was my best labour and delivery! After my midwife suggested the herbal tincture, I went and bought it, but never needed to take it as I went into spontaneous labour that night. I was getting them 10 minutes apart all night - which is generallly how I begin.
But when I got up in the morning they all stopped! Throughout the day I only had intermittent contractions - maybe one or two an hour. I had a previously booked appointment with Joy, my obstetrician, and she checked me then and said I was about 3 cm dilated. That is a miracle for me!!! I was actually really elated. We came home for dinner, and my neighbour came over and cut my hair for me. By then I was getting them about 10 minutes apart again and had to grip the hand basin quite a bit while she snipped away.
When she left, I didn't even have time to go and sweep up the hair on the bathroom floor or even flat-iron my unruly curls - the contractions started coming thick and fast. Five minutes apart.
As we live out of town we thought we'd better get moving into the hospital. We left home about 10pm, dropped the children off at my friend's place - they were very excited - and drove to St. George's.
It was a quiet night there - and still, and dark. I had two contractions just getting from the car to the front entrance which was only about 100 metres away. The security guard opened the door for us, put us in the elevator and we were met by my midwife as we stepped out. I think I had about 2 or 3 just getting up there.
Joy and Marg were wonderful throughout the whole thing. We paid big bucks for Joy, who is a private obstetrician, but every penny was worth it - she was fantastic. I've never had an obstetrician stay with me through the labour before - she even helped rub my back in the contractions, and kept us entertained in the 'quiet' periods with interesting medical facts about childbirth - for instance, has anyone here heard about the red line that moves up your back as the baby moves down into the pelvis?? The longer it gets, the further the baby has travelled. I hadn't heard about that before and not many I've asked about have either. Fascinating! Of course it's a bit hard for the trevailing woman to see that! We also heard about her house-building and the concert she went to the night before out of town.
We are experiencing some very, very extreme hot weather here at the moment and I was lamenting the lack of air conditioning in the old hospital, but as Joy pointed out to me, no maternity hospital has air-conditioning - they don't want the new babies getting cold blasts of air on them as they enter the world. So the fan did very well.
By 10.30 we were well underway. I was imagining a long night before me, as all my other labours have been long and exhausting. But it was all over in an hour and a half. I couldn't believe it! I only had 10 minutes of pushing! And yes, it was awful, and yes, it is the most incredible pain - I was climbing the walls with the pain, and then there she was - perfect, pink and beautiful. The cord was around her neck, but Joy just lifted it over as her head popped out and all was fine.
I am so grateful to God for giving me a normal, drug-free, gel-free labour and delivery, and a wonderful midwife and obstetrician and husband to help me through it.
The stay at St. George's was very nice. I had three nights there, and they gave me the nicest room - their coolest room, as we have had day after day of searing heat. My little newborn was dressed in a nappy (diaper) and singlet (vest) the entire time we were there instead of being all wrapped up. One of the nurses told me that the night following my delivery, they were so busy they had to turn away a woman in labour.
Here is little Alice - we are enjoying her so much. She is so sweet and cuddly. She has a little bit of jaundice, but there's lots of good sunshine available at the moment, so we're soaking it up. Alice is a name of Greek origin and it means to be True and Noble. Elizabeth is Hebrew and means Consecrated to God.
The children's first visit with Alice at St. George's.
Big Brother and Little Sister
Finally we get to fill that bassinette
And here's her sweet face
Teddy and I spent an hour in the hospital yesterday having his EEG done. It was not traumatic, and in spite of annonymous' (see last post) negative comments about their experiences, our experience was fine.
The technician was a very nice, gentle woman, and between the two of us we kept Teddy quite happy with toys and books while he had his cap put on. He was quite fascinated by the 'funny hat'. He wanted the blue hat, but the yellow one was the only one that fit. It looked a bit like a swimming cap. Applying the water-soluble paste was the worst part for him, it made him feel uncomfortable, but once it was done he was quite happy, and I was able to read him stories during the 15-20 minutes that the test took.
My experiences these last couple of weeks with the hospital staff has been very good. They seem to be very accommodating and try their best to make it as easy a time as possible. We won't know the results of the EEG for awhile - though my doctor is trying to speed things up for us.
Being pregnant and due helps get things done quicker! They take pity on you!
We got lost in the rabbit warrren that is our hospital yesterday - was quite an adventure for us. Teddy loved it because he got several rides in the elevator. We ended up in Orthopaedics to start with and then a nice older lady pointed us in the right direction. It's the sort of place I would not want to be in if there was a fire or some evacuation procedure! While we were waiting at reception in neurology he had two admin. women running around after him. I don't know how he does it, but he manages to charm everyone. He wanted to write on the blackboard there, but it was covered in another child's drawings, so he asked the lady for something to rub it out with. They couldn't find it, so the two of them made up a makeshift blackboard eraser for him, and they looked pleased as punch when he called out to tell them that 'it works!'.
Teddy had another seizure at home the day before the EEG, so it looks like he will have to go on meds for awhile. We'll be glad to get it sorted out - we're all a bit on edge at home.
On the baby front, I'm getting a few irregular contractions - nothing to bother me yet, but I'm glad that something seems to be happening. I'm due tomorrow.
Just wanted to pop in briefly to update you all. No baby yet - and I'm praying I don't go into labour tonight.
Our little son, Theodore (4) was rushed into hospital last night after suffering an unexplained seizure. He had another more severe one in the hospital and was admitted for the night.
We have just returned home now in the evening of the following day. He has had blood tests and CT scans today - all of which appear normal, and is doing well. But we are exhausted after a sleepless night.
This emergency has shown us in a real tangible way how blessed we are in our little community here - one neighbour took the older children straight away so both my husband and I could go in with Theodore. Our dear church friends bought food up to us in the hospital and cooked us our dinner tonight, and another neighbour came over, unasked, and mowed our overgrown lawns, and tended to our dogs and chickens. We feel overwhelmed with God's blessing from these dear people.
I don't feel up to going into the drama of all that happened, I haven't had a good cry over it yet - just that it was awful and I felt so helpless. We had to throw ourselves onto God's mercy. Teddy goes for more tests later this week probably. We had a wonderful nurse looking after us - God went before us all the way. We are glad to be home, hoping and praying that there will not be a repeat, and praying for at least a day and night where we can catch our breath before labour begins. I would covet your prayers for us at this time.
Or technically I guess I should write... the baby has started to engage. This is very exciting for me. I have never before had a baby engage before labour. I've always had long, hard, awful labours and have needed 'help' by an obstetrician in one way or another. The obstetrician was telling me only last week that it is not uncommon in subsequent pregnancies for the baby not to engage until labour is well underway. This has always been my experience and I didn't expect it to be any different this time.
Yesterday I went to see my midwife and she told me the good news. She made another appointment for me to see her in a week's time, but said she expects she'll be seeing me before then - at the hospital.
We went to tour through the hospital yesterday too - what a lovely place. The gardens outside are in the full bloom and colour of summer, and Robin and I read together the old plaque on the foundation of the hospital wall, "This hospital was built for the Glory of God, and in honour of the early settlers of Canterbury...." .
The maternity rooms are on the second floor and the elevator was out of order (how nice, really - an elevator just didn't fit in with the old-fashioned atmosphere). We walked (slowly for me) up the wide sweeping stairs into the quiet maternity halls and were met by a midwife who showed us around. There are beautiful big old, hundred year old trees outside all the large, sash, gabled windows giving it quite a cool feeling on a hot day. The plaster on the walls had big cracks running down from ceiling to floor, and the carpet looked a little worn - in an elegant kind of way. The little reception was tiny with a glass window instead of gleaming, sterile counters that scream at you. The nurse bought a brand new baby wrapped up in a cot along for my children to look at. My son wanted to know if our baby will have a wobbly, wrinkled chin like that baby?
I'm sure my labour will be a quiet one in there. Indeed I'll be too awed to yell or moan during those last few pushing moments - it just oozes peace and quiet in that place, and I'll be thinking of my dear grandmother who gave birth there over 60 years ago to my father - she herself the daughter of an early pioneer.
In spite of this awful cough (the doctor said my chest is clear, so no infection) I feel so blessed to be able to go to this place and have my baby. So grateful that everything indicates a normal delivery. St. George's doesn't have facilities for complicated deliveries or anaesthetics.
The nurse told us that if I deliver here I get to choose from the best recovery rooms, and I know just the one I want - it has glorious, grand trees outside the windows.
And I have my verse of promise from the Lord for my fearful, untrusting mind and heart; from Psalm 37.
"Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass."
With a little over 2 weeks left in my pregnancy, I set this week aside to get ready to welcome our newest addition. It's 4 years since we had a baby in the house, so my husband had to climb up into the stifling hot attic to hunt out the bassinette, the bassinette sheets and mattress, the baby clothes, the bouncinette and I had to get my bag packed and all the little things for the baby washed, ironed, folded and put away - some into the suitcase as well.
Thankfully, my mother has been busy and sewed up a few little 'plunket' nighties for our newborn. This pattern goes way back for many generations I believe, in New Zealand. Plunket is a society that was set up around the turn of the century (1800/1900's) to help reduce the mortality rate in infants. The patterns are not readily available anymore, but fortunately my sister-in-law had held onto hers and gave it to me, and we were able to make copies of the patterns for my mother and sister to use.
These are so lovely to put on a new baby. Here is one for summer that my mother made.
Here are two more that I'm taking to the hospital. Will our baby be a girl.......?
or a boy.....?
After my last pregnancy when I was so absolutely certain I was having a girl (and we had a boy), I am not even attempting to guess this time. Short of asking during the 20 week scan, we've tried to guess using all the old-wives tales, but none of them were right last time. I guess it's part of the fun of it all, but I am not going to put myself in the position again as I did at my last birth, where immediately after the birth I sat up suddenly and asked the doctor if he was really sure the baby was a boy and not a girl! LOL!!
We found the bassinette up in the attic, and brushed it down and cleaned it and washed and ironed all the bedding and aired the mattress out in the scorching hot sun. It sat on the bonnet of the car all day. I did have to run down into our little town to buy some sheets though, as the box of baby sheets has disappeared.
The bassinette is a family heirloom on my husband's side. He slept in this as a newborn, and all his brothers and his one sister, including the twins! And many of my 20 nieces and nephews have as well. All my babies have slept in it for at least the first 3 months. I'm trying not to look on it as mine, because I never know when my nieces or nephews might want to claim it for their babies (and they're just coming into marriageable age - with 2 already married). I guess that's part of the charm of it too - seeing it go to other family members to carry on the tradition, but I would be sad to see it go.
It came to me with swathes and swathes of fabric to wrap around the base and the sides and the top, but I wanted to keep it simple and airy, so I just weaved a ribbon through the cane and draped it in bridal tulle. I've started to embroider little rosebuds along the top, but that was about 2 babies ago.
So, we are just about ready to see who this little one is. I am feeling better today though I have quite a hacking cough. I'm hoping to stay away from the doctor if I can and hopefully the baby will wait a little bit longer before arriving so I can get well again. Robin thinks I am ready to go into labour, and I've had a few false labour pains, but usually only after a busy day. I have visitors from Canada (complete strangers to me, but who know my sister) coming to stay on the weekend, and I really wanted to take the children raspberry-picking next week and get some jam put up, and I want to have my neighbour over for coffee next week too, as well as do a general spring-clean through the house which has been neglected of late.
Here is a picture of the group my children are privileged to call their friends, and to go to church with every week.
Their Sunday School teacher used to take our children's church choir when I was growing up, and her daughter is my best friend now, as she was when we were 10 years old, and our children are each other's best friends. It's such a lovely, little wee church and we feel so blessed to have somewhere to go where our families can fellowship with other like-minded christians every week. It's only small, and extremely unsophisticated (sometimes our minister preaches with his baby strapped into the backpack on his back), but we love it and I love it that it is unsophisticated and unworldy and unpolished.
This morning the children sang some beautiful Christmas carols for the parents, and did so well too. We were very proud of them.
This is a picture of my daughter Meredith (on the left) and her kindred-spirit friend Suzy (on the right). They are two very strong-minded girls, but very sweet. Meredith's eyes look rather heavy as we had her ballet performance last night at the theatre in town and we didn't get home until 10.30pm and we didn't have time to take her eye makeup off that they needed for the theatre stage lights.
Here are the nativity scenes that the Sunday School have been working on for the last few weeks. The posters were done by the littlest children.
I have about 6 weeks to go until we see this little one. I'm hoping it won't be any longer than that, though I have no proven track record to go by. Of my three children that I have given birth to, the first arrived on his due date, the second 2 weeks early and the third 2 weeks late! How's that for a pattern!
I saw my midwife a couple of days ago and she has given me a referral to the physiotherapist for a support belt, as I have suspected Rectus Sheath. I was talking to a mum at ballet who is a physiotherapist and she tells me that it is not life-threatening to me or the baby and that it won't stop me from having more children - it's just a nuisance more than anything. I had been noticing with this pregnancy that the baby's movements are a lot more prominent and closer to the surface than my other pregnancies, so I guess this explains it. When I am standing I have a slight concave at my belly button, and it has been hurting there quite a bit when I'm on my feet for too long, and I asked the midwife to check it. She said that normally the muscle criss-crosses over itself in front of the stomach (to hold the stomach in), but in pregnancy it can separate and leave a gap, which is what mine has done. Kind of makes me squirm a bit (I would not have made a good doctor)! LOL!
I was getting some pretty strong Braxton Hicks last night. We had company over for the evening (not female company either), so I had to do a pretty good job of disguising the quite strong contractions. I don't think I've ever had them this early before, so I'm hopeful that it will mean a normal delivery for me. I am one of these girls that go into labour on my own ok, but end up having strong contractions (too strong to sleep through or do anything else) 10 minutes apart for days on end and nothing else happening. I have been so grateful that I live in these modern times and have been able to get assistance before getting too exhausted. With this pregnancy I feel a lot more relaxed (we are closer to the hospital than we were for the last births which was a 2 1/2 hour drive away), and we've been praying that the delivery will go really well without having to have intervention.
Already we have had prayers answered with this pregnancy. The baby was lying breech a week or so ago and although my obstetrician was not worried about it, she was going to have to book me in to the public hospital in the city if it didn't turn around. So we prayed, and the baby has turned, thank the Lord for that. The head is down, and I think he/she is starting to drop as the pressure on my ribs has lessened considerably. Does anyone know how early a baby can come without having to have special care?
I'm so pleased that I don't have to go to the public hospital as I really wanted to have the baby at St. George's which is Christchurch's oldest maternity hospital and is where my father was born. I have discovered that he was born there in the first year that the maternity hospital opened. My obstetrician is really excited about us having the baby there - I think she wants to get it reported into the hospital newsletter because of the historical connection. :o)
The other good thing is that my blood pressure has dropped. It has been quite high, but I'm trying to relax a bit more and with the school year nearly over our extra-curricula classes have nearly all finished, so I am able to stay home a bit more now. I'm trying not to stress out over everything I have to do for Christmas. I want it to be a fun build-up and anticipation for all of us. And when that is over we have the baby's arrival to wait for within a few weeks.
In my attempts to create a homemade Christmas I went looking on the internet for ideas.
Imagine how thrilled I was to discover these two websites with absolutely wonderful old-fashioned paper dolls! Paper Dolls do seem to be back in fashion here among the little girls of New Zealand at the moment. And I know my 7 year old daughter Meredith will get so much pleasure out of these. They are free to print. The first website is for Betsy and Barbara and their clothes. I'm sorry for the funny-coloured photo. I had to take the pictures clandestinely while my inquisitive daughter was hanging around.
And the following website was my favourite find. It is the Betsy McCall pages. I am especially thrilled with this. They follow Betsy from around 1950 through to the new millenium. Here is one of the first pages from the 1950's Betsy McCall.
They include little stories about Betsy and her family and her outings. Betsy goes to a wedding, Betsy goes on a picnic, Betsy goes to the Beach etc, etc and they all have the appropriate clothing. They're so cute! And I hope to combine all these into a bound little book (costs $4 at the stationary store to have done), and in a little plastic sleeve inside the cover put the Betsy and Barbara dolls from the first link. I can't wait for Meredith to open it up. I know she's going to love it!
Theodore turns 4 in about 10 days time, and I happened to stumble upon this blog one day a few weeks ago with a cute brithday crown tutorial.
Jessica Levitt's crafty/design blog Juicy Bits has a tutorial for birthday crowns that are just adorable. So I decided to start the same tradition in our household, and made one for Theodore to wear next weekend at the little afternoon-tea party we are having for him. I had plans to do birthday crowns using Amanda Blake Soule's pattern from her book, The Creative Family (her blog link is in my side bar, SouleMama) but when I saw this other one, I liked it better. Jessica used wool felt, but that is very expensive to buy here in New Zealand (why, I don't know when we have an abundance of sheep and wool) - so I just used the craft felt instead and it turned out great - even though the colours are a little brighter than I would have liked.
Theodore loves his crown. I was going to do it as a surprise, but I had to measure his head for the elastic. I finished it yesterday, and he has been wearing it all morning today as well. I might put it away now for next week.
For the first crown I pretty much copied Jessica's colours, but I will try and be a little more creative with the next one I make. My oldest son will be 9 in February but I'm not sure he'll want one. The next birthday after that is my daughter in March and I know she'll want a pink one!
One of my children was asking me to sing the 'milkshake' song this morning. It took me awhile to remember it, as it is a few years since we sang it.
When we lived in a little isolated country community down south, we went along to a lovely Playcentre group twice a week, and this is the song they used to sing. It was my favourite. I don't know if it was the children's favourite, but something about it appealed to my imagination. It's a pity I can't get the tune on here - it's just a simple tune, but here are words.
"What if all the raindrops were lemonade and gumdrops,
Oh, what a rain it would be.
(Now, tip your head back and open your mouth wide for actions).
Standing outside with my mouth open wide
Ah, ah, ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah,
Oh what a rain it would be.
What if all the snowflakes were candyfloss and milkshakes
Oh, what a snow it would be.
Standing outside with my mouth open wide
Ah, ah, ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah,
Oh what a snow it would be.
What if all the sunshine were sherbet and icecream
Oh, what a sun it would be.
Standing outside with my mouth open wide
Ah, ah, ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah,
Oh what a sun it would be."
I think I'm missing out some words somewhere, but that's the bones of it, and I love it!
My children pray every night that God will send them a horse. I remember praying this every night when I was little too. I never did get that horse, but now that we are on 10 acres, and with the price of petrol rising every minute I can see that maybe one day we might have to!
But, until our 'ship comes in', I can't see us getting a horse in the immediate future. I've been hearing from my neighbour about the vet bills, the feed issues, not to mention the $200 dentist bill she had for her pony last week. So my children have to enjoy the neighbour's horses instead for now.
Theodore (3) has a group of girls in the street who think he is the cutest, funniest, sweetest little boy that ever lived, and the other day they stopped by to show him their horse, Rocky, and let Teddy have his first horse ride. My neighbour and friend, Kat, also had their pony, Aroha so Meredith could have a long anticipated ride as well.
Teddy was quite unsure at first when one of the girls put him up on the saddle. He was asking to get off, but his girlfriends just giggled at him and told him to hang on.
When the horse took a step, Teddy said, "ooohhh...oooohhhh", then laughed.
By the end of the short little walk on the horse, he was calling himself a 'cowboy.'
He then proceeded to make his girlfriends promise to bring the horses back, and even got them to promise to bring the horses over to his birthday party when he turns 4.... which is in December. Of course, his girlfriends agreed - even offering to give everyone a ride at the party if Theodore wants. As for me, his mother - I didn't know we were going to have a party then - hadn't decided yet - but I guess we will be now! Somehow it's very difficult to un-persuade Theodore! He now talks about phoning up 'my friends' everyday, and thanks God every night for letting him ride 'Wocky' (Rocky).
Welcome to my blog. I'm glad you dropped in. I'm a wife and mum to 4 children. We are blessed to live in the beautiful South Sea islands of New Zealand, and I love to write about our life and the things we do on our homestead of 10 acres, our adventures with animals and homeschooling, and the little things that touch my life and those around me. I hope you'll enjoy visiting.
Here is a picture of Christchurch Public Hospital
