Our weekend

This weekend my Dad and Shannon came down to meet Navae and spend the weekend with us. It went very quickly, as always, but we had a great time. Lots of laughs and good conversations! Thanks for coming for a visit, we can't wait to see you again soon.
Honestly, I can't believe how fast time goes once you have your little one in your arms. Navae is growing so fast. This morning I told Jason that she LOOKS fatter to me today! I actually noticed a difference in her appearance!
Here are some pictures from the weekend of meeting gramma and grampa Emann...

I LOVE this picture of Navae just relaxing in my dad's arms. Look at her leg compared to his hand! She is growing, but she is still so tiny. It's weird, I want her to grow and change and develop, and just every time she looks bigger it's happy and sad at the same time... maybe because this is the last newborn?? Also, check out her super cute dress! She stayed puke free almost all day!

How could you resist that face?????

Now onward to the camping plans... that's right, we are going camping 3 weeks out of this summer. What was I thinking?? Just kidding, I think it will be great fun and the kids will LOVE it!

More later
Sandi

Just in case you were wondering...

What the boys are up to...

reading...

Random cuteness

and of course who can forget the random acts of wildness? This was fully supervised, just so you know :)

Canada Day

Thankfully Jason was off today, so we were able to have a family day, which was wonderful. This morning we went to our church's pancake breakfast, which surprisingly, the kids were totally excited for. I could have slept in personally, but once we were there it was really nice to sit and chat with a good friend while the kids pigged out, my angel slept in her sling and we listened to a band play. After that the boys all played outside and "helped" Jason build our new deck while Navae and I had an extra long nap. How could the day have been better???
All the kids were in special Canada day outfits, the boys had red Canada shirts (which I didn't get a picture of before they were covered in syrup) and Navae... well check out these digs! Jason said she looked like a pile of cute clothes with a face, since they were all too big...

See Amanda, she did get to wear the hoody for Canada day!

This evening while the older boys went with Jason to get more wood the twins and I were home playing with Baby sister... they were trying to make her happy... I think they were actually making her cry LOL

they actually were successful, and she calmed down right away, but seriously, this is how they are, ALL the time... right in her face... so floor time is very limited!

Ok, to my mom and dad, Navae totally looks like me in this picture when I was a baby, right???? SERIOUSLY... back me up here...

Ok, Navae is sleeping in the sling so I really have to go sit somewhere more comfy.

Happy Canada Day to everyone!

Sandi

First dress

Well I waited a week and a half... but I couldn't wait any longer. Even though everything is still too big, I had to put her in her first dress for church today. The little panty things were way too big, but they went on as well, how could I resist the cuteness? She looked adorable and only barfed all over it on the way home from church, so that was also a bonus.
I can't get over her cuteness, what can I say???
Gotta go make supper. Tomorrow is the first day of me parenting 5 kids alone, it's jason's first day at work. At least he will only be an hour away, and not 4 hours... and he will be home for bedtime! Have an excellent Sunday...

Navae 10 days old... first dress

My baby is 1 week old

Ok, hopefully you aren't getting annoyed with all my baby talk, but it's still big news to me :) Also, it might be some time (ie 6 months) before I have time or energy to scrapbook, so I need to write some of this stuff down so I don't forget it all by then.
It's amazing how the weeks before Navae's birth seemed to drag on and then as soon as she was born we went into hyper speed. She seems to be growing and changing write before my eyes and the days are going by so fast. I feel so blessed. I can't even explain it. I love her so much.
Today we had a check up and she is back up to her birth weight, which is good since she lost 10 % of her birth weight and she barfs up half of what she eats it seems. Also, there was a heart murmur present on discharge from the hospital and it has resolved as well. Praise the Lord for that. It kinda freaked me out.

The next little bit is going to be about breastfeeding, so if you want you can skip to the pictures... I think it is hilarious, and I want to remember it, so I am blogging it.
We are a very pro breast feeding home. I grew up that way and so I don't cover up when I am nursing at home. The boys are very interested in the whole situation. Robee is used to it since I breastfed Xander and the twins, but the twins wow, they are really funny with the whole thing. They have now figured out that breast feeding equals baby stopping crying. One morning Navae was fussing and Jason brought her to me to feed. I started feeding her and Malakai shouted out "YEAH BOOBIES". Oh LOL. How can you not laugh to that?
Then the other day at the lunch table zion had his shirt off and I look over and he is literally pulling at his nipple and trying to get his mouth to it. What the heck?
Xander asked me the other day how I get the milk in there, where do I pour it in. Oh my, that was an interesting conversation.

Anyway, here are some pictures from this week:


6 days old

Could she be more peaceful?

Ok, so everyone keeps saying how much she looks exactly like xander, so I found a picture of him taken at 1 week old and took a similar picture of navae also at 1 week old. What do you think? I think there are similarities, but I don't think they look exxactly the same.

Navae 1 week old

Xander 1 week old. Poor quality I know...Also looks like her had some jaundice issues at that age!

Ok, I think maybe the twins are finally asleep, and Navae is sleeping and the big boys are out with Daddy, so I think I will crash too!!!!

Some more pictures of my kiddos

It seems I have a brief second to blog. Well, 3 of 5 are sleeping and the other 2 are out with Daddy. I look nasty, should have a shower, do my hair or attend to the ever growing laundry pile, but I choose this instead!
How are things going? I would have to say really well, although I have Jason home full time. He has accepted a job an hour out of the city, part time and he starts next week, so we will see how I am feeling when I am home alone with 5 kids under the age of 7 years. Physically things are improving slowly. I feel that this time has been harder to recover from. I couldn't do it without Jason's help for sure.
Navae is a remarkably easy baby as compared to the twins and Xander. She has her days and nights mixed up and for some reason during the day will sleep in her crib and at night will only sleep if I am holding her, or she is with me in bed. As long as I bring her into bed, then we both are good to go. Plus I try to nap once or twice a day. Those days will be long gone when Jason is working, but for now I am enjoying every second of it.
What I didn't expect was how I would feel initally about the other kids. It's like I went into the hospital feeling one way and came out feeling a totally different way. It's hard to understand, and it has totally passed now, but at first when they were being really rough with her I sort of felt like don't touch my baby... really protective of her. Anyway, it's been an adjustment for all of us, but things are much more smooth now.
gotta go, she is up.... enjoy the pictures and I will write more some day, LOL

First time in the sling

All 5 of my kidlets... don't mind the horrible non matching clothes on the boys, this was Day 2 of Navae's life... I'm glad they were dressed at all, LOL!

Who could resist those eyes???

Taken at less than 48 hours old.

The boys meet Navae

She is currently sitting on my lap as I type so this will be short... but here are some pictures from the first time the boys ever saw and held their baby sister. We went to pick them up from Shannon and Kelly's house and let them hold her right away. I have to say that they love her... almost a little too much. I wasn't prepared for this at all. We have no jelousy issues, which is wonderful, but we do have some over zelous brothers who want to hold her and be in her face all day long. It's exhausting honestly. But I shouldn't complain, at least they like her, LOL! More tomorrow on how things are going etc... but for now... pics of the first time the boys held their baby sister!

Zion was so proud and so excited to be the first in line to hold her!

Proud oldest brother and such a big help!

He can't get enough of her!!!

Less sure the first day, and for certain the most rough, but still loves his little sister! Always asking to "hold it"...

Navae's birth story

Well here goes, I will share some of the details of Navae's birth. Our doctor decided that what was in the best interest of both mommy and baby was for an induction of labour, so, on Wednesday, June 17th we got a call at 8 am from the hospital saying that they could do our induction that day and that we should come to the hospital. We loaded up the kids, and thankfully we had packed their bag and sent it with Shannon and Kelly on Sunday (one less thing to think about that morning, thanks shannon for making me do that!) Anyway, we dropped off the kids at Shannon and Kelly's before 9 am and headed to the hospital. We were a little bit nervous about induction, but agreed that it was the best choice for us. At 11am we had cervidil placed and they told us we would be monitored for 2 hours and then likely nothing would happen and we would be sent home to wait for labour. Well that is not what happened at all! I think having had braxton Hicks contractions for the past 3 weeks made things easier, because by the 2 hour mark I was having contraction every 2 mins. Not painful, but regular. We decided to go into the tub and wait and see what happened. The awesome thing was that my obstetrican was doing work on the ward that afternoon so she was able to monitor everything really closely even though she wasn't actually on call. She had agreed to deliver the baby whether she was on call or not, which was amazing! We ended up not having to have a resident for anything, my dr came for all my cervical checks and breaking my water and delivery.
Ok, back to the story. After I was in the tub for a while, she checked me and I was 2-3 cm, and she told me to stay and whenever I wanted to could get an epidural and she would break my water. Within an hour, my contractions were on top of each other and my cervidil had to be pulled to slow things down. It was a scary moment, but thankfully Navae did well throughout. We then got moved over the labour and delivery and I got an epidural. I LOVE epidurals... while they work anyway...
As it turned out, the epidural worked more on one side than the other and within 45 mins I was having lots of pain. Good thing I was already 8cm by that point. After 3 pushes and 2 hours in the L and D room we had our beautiful baby girl!!! She cried right away and I was able to have her on my chest and Jason was able to cut the cord. All things we didn't have with Xander because his delivery was emergent. This was the first time I had pushed. Last time there was no time for any of that. We went from a very frightening labour to a lovely, although painful :), textbook delivery. I MAY have mentioned a few times in the labour that I wasn't doing it again, but it was a great experience in terms of labour!
I did have a tear this time, but only a 2nd degree (LOL, only)! I felt a bit like a truck hit me for the first day but every day is getting better. And honestly, when I look at her, all I can think is that it is a huge miracle that she is with us and I don't want to forget that. I will heal and the pain is over (thank goodness!). I couldn't be happier or more content at the moment.
Here are some pictures:

On my 2nd popsicle after my epidural... I wasn't this smiley the whole time... ask Jason, once the drugs wore off I think my face was a little less pleasant, LOL

Seconds after her birth

Checking out Daddy

After nursing for the first time. Navae is a wonderful nurser, she latched on right away and does super well.
More about life with 5 kids coming soon. For now I need to shower while all 5 are asleep. FIVE, I know, it's REAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sandi

Introducing....

Our sweet girl has arrived!!!!


Navae Faith


Born June 17th, 2009 at 11:01pm
6 pounds 9 ounces
19 inches long

Details later when I don't have 4 boys who are wanting my attention, but here are a couple of pictures from less than 24 hours old. We are home and actually came home 17 hours after her birth.
I will post a bit about our birth story and more pictures later...