I know I have become a slacker in the blogging dept. No need to try and excuse myself right? Life is crazy and this is just a back burner thing I wish I had time and brain energy to spend time on. Oh well...
Let me just give a random update...
Sarah Kate is in her last week of school here and then will go on summer break, which will last 6 weeks. I am excited to have her around more and take a break from rushed mornings trying to get all the kids ready and out the door in time to walk her to school. She is excited to get into Year 3 after the break :)
Sarah Kate really did great transitioning into the school here. It has been crazy for me to see how well she has picked up and caught up with what they were learning here. The school here is at a different pace than where we were in the states. For instance...she had to catch up with her "numeracy", where the kids in her class were already doing times tables, multiplication, and division! Then in her handwriting and literacy, where the class was writing stories in paragraph form using adverbials and chronological order and such. She really has done awesome in working hard to catch up!
She has loved making friends here too. Yesterday she even got to have one of her classmates over for a playdate after school. The girl is our little social butterfly for sure!
Her accent is sounding quite "British" at times as well. She will ask me questions and her inflection at the end sounds like a little British girl. I think it's cute :) And she will say words more and more that they pronounce differently or use differently. For instance...the word "tomato" is pronounced differently here and she says it that way.
On to Evie. This girl is a mess...She is cute, but a mess. She will have her fair share of fits each day and is slowly learning to not scream at mommy if she doesn't get her way. I have tried to convince her it is time to be done with nappies (diapers), to no avail. She has no shame in wearing a diaper or wetting her underwear if we try that. She can't be bribed or anything! She says, "I don't want chocolate!" even when I try to bribe with chocolate. I decided after trying really hard with her yesterday and having multiple clean ups (even having to clean the couch) that we will wait a bit more. I ain't got time to deal with that craziness right now.
Silas is doing well. He is 3 months old now! Hard to believe. He had "jabs" on Monday so has been little more needy the last couple of days, but overall is an easy baby. He normally sleeps through the night waking around 6 a.m. The last couple of nights he has woken 1 time for a feed, but that hasn't been his norm and I am blaming that on the shots hoping he will go back to sleeping through soon. He is a great nurser now too. I have no idea what he weighs now, but hope to take him tomorrow to a clinic they have 1 time a week where I can have his weight checked. They just don't seem to check weight here near as often as they do in the states. He is in 3 month clothes now and fills those things out with his length. I think he is going to be tall :)
What else have we been up to...
My brain is tired. I guess I can blame it on lack of sleep the last couple of nights. Our days just seem to always have big lists of things that need to get done, but only so much actually gets checked off each day. Michael had to build a gate for our driveway, which took all day on Sat., but thankfully now, we have a gate so I can send Evie out to play without her being able to run to our front yard/road. We have recently discovered that our fridge is not properly cooling. We knew it didn't feel cool and our milk and such were going bad very quickly. We put a fridge thermometer in and it is reading 12 degrees Celsius. That's not good. Finally got a hold of the letting agency on Monday morning, then they had someone come out this morning to look at the fridge to see if it could be repaired or just need to be replaced. It sounds like it will have to be replaced, but we have to wait to hear back from the letting agency after they talk with the landlord. All that to say....things take forever to get done here. So for now, I only buy what we need each day and a small carton of milk so as to not have to throw out milk after a day or so.
We are hoping to go to Wales on Monday for a little day trip (Wales is only about an hour away from us) and see the coast. Maybe I will get a chance to blog about that...maybe.
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
Monday, June 15, 2015
Sarah Kate turns 7!
First I will start by saying the common saying, "I can't believe my baby is 7 today." I really can't. She has done a lot in these 7 years and I am so proud of how well she has done with adjustments with so many moves and settled in so well to her new home and life here in England. This year, I wanted to let her have a fun birthday party to invite her new friends over and get to know them better. So we planned a girly tea party. It was fun to plan with her and also to learn some cultural differences along the way too.
Let's see....
So we decided on a tea party where we were hoping to have a garden (back yard) party where to kids could play and do everything outside. But we live in England, so in typical fashion, it rains yesterday. Party is therefore set up inside.
SK invited all of the girls from her class and 1other friend (Ansley--from our church, who is a little older). SO the total # invited was 13. That's a big #, but we ended up with 8 girls total, so more easy to handle :)
We started out the party with "Musical Statues", a common game here. I knew the game from teaching ballet, but I knew it as "Freeze Dance". So it goes like this: All the girls dance to music and when the music stops, you freeze. If you don't freeze or wiggle, you are out. Repeat, till 1 is left and they are the winner.
After dancing, we had set up our dining room cute for a little tea party for the girls. Each girl got a plastic goblet that we let them decorate with jewels and ribbon and markers. I didn't think that would entertain very long, but it did. And the cups turned out so cute!
Next came the food. The food we made (per SK's request) was chicken salad sandwiches, doritos, and fruit). If you are American, you know what chicken salad is, right? Not a dish made here though, so I had to explain a bit about what it was and if they didn't like it, they didn't have to eat it. Then we had "lemonade" to drink. Once again, if you are stateside, you think---lemons, sugar and water right? Here, lemonade is more like sprite. It is fizzy. So we explained to the girls that we had "American lemonade" and "British lemonade" and let them choose :) Then for dessert we had scones (that a sweet friend from our church made and came to help with the party!) and dirt cake. The girls had never heard of dirt cake, so that was fun to explain what it was to them and have them try it. I stood to the side and listened to the girls discussing amongst themselves the dirt cake. Once conversation went like this:
"This cake is FANTASTIC!"
the girl beside her: "No, I am telling you...this is not fantastic, it's brilliant!"
It was hard not to just chuckle at hearing these sweet little British accents all in my dining room surrounding my big girl chatting over dirt cake and calling it "brilliant!".
Finally we played a game called "Pass the Parcel". I had never heard of it, but it is a common game played here at kid's birthday parties. So it works like this: You wrap a "prize" with wrapping paper--our prize being a chocolate bar. Then you wrap something else (we chose little gummy packs) in layers over the chocolate bar (think of an onion with layers of gummies). Then you play music as the girls sit in a circle passing the "parcel". When the music stops, whoever has the parcel, gets to unwrap a layer. The music starts again and you continue till you get to the final layer (the prize) and when the music stops, that person holding the parcel gets the "prize". It was fun :)
After that the girls went up to SK's room and played. All in all, I would say it was a successful party and fun for us to get to meet the girls that I had heard SK talk about from her class.
Today is SK's actual birthday. It is also a school day. Since she has been homeschooled until this year, it means this will be the first year I won't be with my birthday girl all day. Momma is a little sad about that, but know that SK will have a fun day at school. She has requested pancakes and strawberries with powdered sugar for dipping for dinner. Then she wants chocolate milkshakes for dessert.
Off to get moving for the day and wake my birthday girl soon!
Here are some pics from her party!
Let's see....
So we decided on a tea party where we were hoping to have a garden (back yard) party where to kids could play and do everything outside. But we live in England, so in typical fashion, it rains yesterday. Party is therefore set up inside.
SK invited all of the girls from her class and 1other friend (Ansley--from our church, who is a little older). SO the total # invited was 13. That's a big #, but we ended up with 8 girls total, so more easy to handle :)
We started out the party with "Musical Statues", a common game here. I knew the game from teaching ballet, but I knew it as "Freeze Dance". So it goes like this: All the girls dance to music and when the music stops, you freeze. If you don't freeze or wiggle, you are out. Repeat, till 1 is left and they are the winner.
After dancing, we had set up our dining room cute for a little tea party for the girls. Each girl got a plastic goblet that we let them decorate with jewels and ribbon and markers. I didn't think that would entertain very long, but it did. And the cups turned out so cute!
Next came the food. The food we made (per SK's request) was chicken salad sandwiches, doritos, and fruit). If you are American, you know what chicken salad is, right? Not a dish made here though, so I had to explain a bit about what it was and if they didn't like it, they didn't have to eat it. Then we had "lemonade" to drink. Once again, if you are stateside, you think---lemons, sugar and water right? Here, lemonade is more like sprite. It is fizzy. So we explained to the girls that we had "American lemonade" and "British lemonade" and let them choose :) Then for dessert we had scones (that a sweet friend from our church made and came to help with the party!) and dirt cake. The girls had never heard of dirt cake, so that was fun to explain what it was to them and have them try it. I stood to the side and listened to the girls discussing amongst themselves the dirt cake. Once conversation went like this:
"This cake is FANTASTIC!"
the girl beside her: "No, I am telling you...this is not fantastic, it's brilliant!"
It was hard not to just chuckle at hearing these sweet little British accents all in my dining room surrounding my big girl chatting over dirt cake and calling it "brilliant!".
Finally we played a game called "Pass the Parcel". I had never heard of it, but it is a common game played here at kid's birthday parties. So it works like this: You wrap a "prize" with wrapping paper--our prize being a chocolate bar. Then you wrap something else (we chose little gummy packs) in layers over the chocolate bar (think of an onion with layers of gummies). Then you play music as the girls sit in a circle passing the "parcel". When the music stops, whoever has the parcel, gets to unwrap a layer. The music starts again and you continue till you get to the final layer (the prize) and when the music stops, that person holding the parcel gets the "prize". It was fun :)
After that the girls went up to SK's room and played. All in all, I would say it was a successful party and fun for us to get to meet the girls that I had heard SK talk about from her class.
Today is SK's actual birthday. It is also a school day. Since she has been homeschooled until this year, it means this will be the first year I won't be with my birthday girl all day. Momma is a little sad about that, but know that SK will have a fun day at school. She has requested pancakes and strawberries with powdered sugar for dipping for dinner. Then she wants chocolate milkshakes for dessert.
Off to get moving for the day and wake my birthday girl soon!
Here are some pics from her party!
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Typical day...
I thought it might be fun to share what a typical day looks like here for us in England. While there are many days that aren't "typical", here is what a day looks like that we don't have sometime out of the norm to do....
Michael normally gets up first (esp. depending on when Evie--the early bird--wakes) and gets himself ready for the day and gets Evie breakfast. I will feed Silas and get myself going for the day. We have to get SK ready for school and all the kiddos dressed and fed. If it's not raining, I will take the laundry outside and hang it to dry (we don't have a dryer). I put dishes away that were washed from the night before (No dishwasher either). Michael heads off to the church office to get to work and I head with the kiddos to take SK to school. It is .8 miles to her school from our house, so that ends up being about a 15 minute walk each way. I might stop in a the cafe and say hi to whoever is working and get a latte depending on how Evie is doing. We normally have to stop by the grocery store to get food for lunch/dinner for the day. Then we head home to do things around the house/have lunch/naps/etc till it's time to go get SK from school at 3.
When SK gets home, she practices piano and does any homework she might have then we have dinner together.
Here's where things get more interesting for our life here though...I can't drive here yet. First obstacle is we have a stick shift, which I don't know how to drive (I am learning slowly, but limited on time for Michael to take me to a parking lot to practice) and second is learning how the roads work here. Not only do we drive on the other side of the road from what we are used to, but there are so many signs that are different and figuring out the roundabouts--which are so crazy to me!). So all that to say, if I need to go anywhere outside the village, I either ride the bus or Michael has to take me. Thankfully I can take the bus to Leigh which has more shops and such or to Warrington, but when I take the bus I also have to be able to carry or fit in the stroller whatever I am getting. So for instance...today. I needed to get out this week to get things for SK's b'day party which is this coming Sunday. I had to have Michael take me.
It just adds to the craziness of how we accomplish things each week. Thankfully, we can get most things we "need" each week from shops here in the village. I have also had a bit of a hard time adjusting to not being able to just jump in the car and go somewhere with the kids while Michael works.
Now yesterday....yesterday was just crazy. We made plans to go to Leeds (about 1 hour from Culcheth) to see Jevon, a young man in our church who has been off at University. He was having his Senior Art show and we wanted to go and see his work. We made plans to drop SK off at school at 8:45 and be back by 3 when she gets out. We thought that should give us time to see the show and have lunch then drive back.
Well...that didn't happen. There was an accident on the motorway (Interstate) which shut it down for practically the entire day. We were able to find our way to Leeds with another route, but ended up taking almost 2 hours to get there. We thought we might be alright on the way back and surely the roads would be clear for our return home...we were wrong. We got back in the car about 2:30 (we had made arrangements for someone to get SK from school and watch her till we got back since we saw we weren't going to be back by school pick up time). Wanna know what time we arrived home? 8:30. Yep...6 hours later. At one point, while sitting stopped on the motorway, we began to wonder if we would run out of gas, since the gage was reading so low and we were barely moving. On top of that there were 4 adults in the car, only 1 phone left with any charge...
It was an interesting, long day. That is one way I can sum it up. We were all so tired by the time we got home. Of course we rush about after getting home to get kids in the bed and bring the laundry in from outside (which was wet since it ended up raining while we were gone) and get it hung inside to dry.
I did end up with a fun surprise waiting on me at home from a dear friend. She had ordered me some Kraft marshmallows and had them shipped to me. I can tell you...that small act of love and care meant so much to me after such a long day. So I gobbled up a handful and then headed to bed.
Well there ya go. Just wanted to share on here what life is looking like here these days.
Maybe more blogging will happen soon. I have said that before though haven't I? :)
SK is having a birthday party on Sunday. She has invited all of the little girls in her class over for a tea party. I am excited to get to meet her friends and celebrate her! Pics will come from that too hopefully!
Michael normally gets up first (esp. depending on when Evie--the early bird--wakes) and gets himself ready for the day and gets Evie breakfast. I will feed Silas and get myself going for the day. We have to get SK ready for school and all the kiddos dressed and fed. If it's not raining, I will take the laundry outside and hang it to dry (we don't have a dryer). I put dishes away that were washed from the night before (No dishwasher either). Michael heads off to the church office to get to work and I head with the kiddos to take SK to school. It is .8 miles to her school from our house, so that ends up being about a 15 minute walk each way. I might stop in a the cafe and say hi to whoever is working and get a latte depending on how Evie is doing. We normally have to stop by the grocery store to get food for lunch/dinner for the day. Then we head home to do things around the house/have lunch/naps/etc till it's time to go get SK from school at 3.
When SK gets home, she practices piano and does any homework she might have then we have dinner together.
Here's where things get more interesting for our life here though...I can't drive here yet. First obstacle is we have a stick shift, which I don't know how to drive (I am learning slowly, but limited on time for Michael to take me to a parking lot to practice) and second is learning how the roads work here. Not only do we drive on the other side of the road from what we are used to, but there are so many signs that are different and figuring out the roundabouts--which are so crazy to me!). So all that to say, if I need to go anywhere outside the village, I either ride the bus or Michael has to take me. Thankfully I can take the bus to Leigh which has more shops and such or to Warrington, but when I take the bus I also have to be able to carry or fit in the stroller whatever I am getting. So for instance...today. I needed to get out this week to get things for SK's b'day party which is this coming Sunday. I had to have Michael take me.
It just adds to the craziness of how we accomplish things each week. Thankfully, we can get most things we "need" each week from shops here in the village. I have also had a bit of a hard time adjusting to not being able to just jump in the car and go somewhere with the kids while Michael works.
Now yesterday....yesterday was just crazy. We made plans to go to Leeds (about 1 hour from Culcheth) to see Jevon, a young man in our church who has been off at University. He was having his Senior Art show and we wanted to go and see his work. We made plans to drop SK off at school at 8:45 and be back by 3 when she gets out. We thought that should give us time to see the show and have lunch then drive back.
Well...that didn't happen. There was an accident on the motorway (Interstate) which shut it down for practically the entire day. We were able to find our way to Leeds with another route, but ended up taking almost 2 hours to get there. We thought we might be alright on the way back and surely the roads would be clear for our return home...we were wrong. We got back in the car about 2:30 (we had made arrangements for someone to get SK from school and watch her till we got back since we saw we weren't going to be back by school pick up time). Wanna know what time we arrived home? 8:30. Yep...6 hours later. At one point, while sitting stopped on the motorway, we began to wonder if we would run out of gas, since the gage was reading so low and we were barely moving. On top of that there were 4 adults in the car, only 1 phone left with any charge...
It was an interesting, long day. That is one way I can sum it up. We were all so tired by the time we got home. Of course we rush about after getting home to get kids in the bed and bring the laundry in from outside (which was wet since it ended up raining while we were gone) and get it hung inside to dry.
I did end up with a fun surprise waiting on me at home from a dear friend. She had ordered me some Kraft marshmallows and had them shipped to me. I can tell you...that small act of love and care meant so much to me after such a long day. So I gobbled up a handful and then headed to bed.
Well there ya go. Just wanted to share on here what life is looking like here these days.
Maybe more blogging will happen soon. I have said that before though haven't I? :)
SK is having a birthday party on Sunday. She has invited all of the little girls in her class over for a tea party. I am excited to get to meet her friends and celebrate her! Pics will come from that too hopefully!
Friday, June 5, 2015
2 months today!
I realize I haven't blogged in a month and there is much more I could blog about that has been going on this last month, but today--my little man is 2 months old. And that is what I want to write about.
As a thank you for feeding and caring for him for 2 months, Silas gave the gift of sleep :) I sit here this morning after a full nights rest. I put Silas down last night at 9:30 and he woke at 5:30. SO, thank you son for such a thoughtful gift.
What else can I say about him....
Let's do a random list, since it is still early and I haven't had my tea or coffee quite yet.
*He sleeps so well at night. While last night was a winner, other nights aren't that bad really. He has really only waken 1 time a night since the beginning. His norm lately has been to lay down sometime between 9 and 11 then wake around 3:30 to 4:30 or so for a 30 minute feed then lay back down till about 7 or later. I can't complain. Now during the day, he doesn't really take amazing naps unless he is in the wrap, which he is most days. That mostly is my doing, just because we are on the go most days. He gets in the wrap every morning to take his sister to school then errands and all. I call it his "happy place". So on days that we are at home, he doesn't sleep as well if I just put him down. Sometimes if I am really trying, I can swaddle him up and get him to lay down, but most days I don't try. I kinda like the cuddles too. And if he sleeps that good at night for me, I don't mind holding him during the day.
*He is quite the smiler now. His whole face lights up when he smiles. Melts me.
*His sisters love him to pieces. They each want a turn to hold him before they go to bed. SK is great with him and is actually pretty helpful holding him while I wash dishes or go to the bathroom. Evie on the other hand needs a little supervision. She tends to get too excited and squeeze him a little too much :)
*I think he likes his baths. He likes when I pour water all over him.
*So far (knock on wood), I haven't been peed on while changing diaper. I have however had some pretty major pooping incidents we shall say. One morning I was changing his diaper in our bed and I will just say that I have never seen poop fly so far...that was fun to clean up. Then while in London he had a pretty gross pooping incident in the National Gallery...that was fun too.
*He likes to be swaddled at night.
*He was weighed last week by the health visitor and was a whopping 3.76 kg, which I converted to be 8 lb. 5 oz! The week before he weighed 7 lb. 6 oz, so that was a big jump that week. He is officially now on the percentile chart :) We were thankful for such a good jump in weight.
*He has never been measured for height (something not done here I guess), but he is tall. His newborn clothes still fit, but he is getting tall for some of his sleepers.
Overall, he is a pretty easy baby. He will sit in his bouncy seat contently for long stretches of time. He doesn't really fuss to much as long as he isn't too hungry or needing a nappy (diaper) change.
IN other news, Michael is in London till tomorrow for Presbytery. We are missing him around here, but glad for him to get to spend some time with other leaders of IPC churches here in England and other parts of Europe.
SK is loving school still and Evie is doing pretty well here at home. I will try to blog agin soon about how everything else is. Life has been crazy for sure as we settle in to this "new" norm. I guess life has just been crazy and busy and not left much time to sit and reflect on all of it and how to put it into words on here. I should though...
I put some pics on Facebook yesterday, so look there if you wanna see those :) --meaning I am too lazy to upload some on here this morning. Off to start the day!
As a thank you for feeding and caring for him for 2 months, Silas gave the gift of sleep :) I sit here this morning after a full nights rest. I put Silas down last night at 9:30 and he woke at 5:30. SO, thank you son for such a thoughtful gift.
What else can I say about him....
Let's do a random list, since it is still early and I haven't had my tea or coffee quite yet.
*He sleeps so well at night. While last night was a winner, other nights aren't that bad really. He has really only waken 1 time a night since the beginning. His norm lately has been to lay down sometime between 9 and 11 then wake around 3:30 to 4:30 or so for a 30 minute feed then lay back down till about 7 or later. I can't complain. Now during the day, he doesn't really take amazing naps unless he is in the wrap, which he is most days. That mostly is my doing, just because we are on the go most days. He gets in the wrap every morning to take his sister to school then errands and all. I call it his "happy place". So on days that we are at home, he doesn't sleep as well if I just put him down. Sometimes if I am really trying, I can swaddle him up and get him to lay down, but most days I don't try. I kinda like the cuddles too. And if he sleeps that good at night for me, I don't mind holding him during the day.
*He is quite the smiler now. His whole face lights up when he smiles. Melts me.
*His sisters love him to pieces. They each want a turn to hold him before they go to bed. SK is great with him and is actually pretty helpful holding him while I wash dishes or go to the bathroom. Evie on the other hand needs a little supervision. She tends to get too excited and squeeze him a little too much :)
*I think he likes his baths. He likes when I pour water all over him.
*So far (knock on wood), I haven't been peed on while changing diaper. I have however had some pretty major pooping incidents we shall say. One morning I was changing his diaper in our bed and I will just say that I have never seen poop fly so far...that was fun to clean up. Then while in London he had a pretty gross pooping incident in the National Gallery...that was fun too.
*He likes to be swaddled at night.
*He was weighed last week by the health visitor and was a whopping 3.76 kg, which I converted to be 8 lb. 5 oz! The week before he weighed 7 lb. 6 oz, so that was a big jump that week. He is officially now on the percentile chart :) We were thankful for such a good jump in weight.
*He has never been measured for height (something not done here I guess), but he is tall. His newborn clothes still fit, but he is getting tall for some of his sleepers.
Overall, he is a pretty easy baby. He will sit in his bouncy seat contently for long stretches of time. He doesn't really fuss to much as long as he isn't too hungry or needing a nappy (diaper) change.
IN other news, Michael is in London till tomorrow for Presbytery. We are missing him around here, but glad for him to get to spend some time with other leaders of IPC churches here in England and other parts of Europe.
SK is loving school still and Evie is doing pretty well here at home. I will try to blog agin soon about how everything else is. Life has been crazy for sure as we settle in to this "new" norm. I guess life has just been crazy and busy and not left much time to sit and reflect on all of it and how to put it into words on here. I should though...
I put some pics on Facebook yesterday, so look there if you wanna see those :) --meaning I am too lazy to upload some on here this morning. Off to start the day!
Saturday, May 9, 2015
1 month old!
It's hard to believe this last week our baby boy was a month old! We have loved this first month with him and are soaking in these newborn cuddles.
Last night as Michael and I were eating a late dinner, Silas put on quite the show of smiles for us. It was the most smiles we have gotten yet. I still need to get a good pic of him smiling, but haven't had my phone close enough to snap a pic yet.
He is still a great sleeper at night, only waking sometime around 3 or 4 a.m. for a feed. Sometimes he has a hard time being laid back down after that, but I can't complain after he gives me a good 5-6 hour stretch to start the night.
We have occasionally gotten some nice days here lately (mixed in with some rainy, cooler days of course). It has given us the itch to do some outdoor gardening, which is so fun for us. We haven't owned a house in 5 years, which means we haven't really done any gardening other than a potted plant maybe or being a part of the Covenant Community Garden while at seminary. While we still don't own a house, we are still enjoying being in a house (as opposed to an apt. with no yard really) and having a yard we can get our hands dirty in. It is fun also to learn about what plants do well here and finding varieties of plants that you can't really find in the states.
What else have we been up to....
Sk is still loving school and doing well. She is having to do a little bit of work at home to get caught up with her classmates in areas like handwriting (there are quite a few letters they do different here) and math. She is doing great overall though and I am so proud of how well she is doing.
Evie is starting to get better about pitching fits and such (being a 2 year old...). She is a silly little girl and we love her to death. She def. can put a smile on your face with her goofy looks she will make at you and her sweet giggle.
I have been reflecting more this week on things that I have started missing from the states and also things that I love about being here. So how about a list...y'all know I love me a good list :)
Things I miss:
*Being able to drive---We have a manual car here (which is very common here and finding a 7 seater automatic is very very difficult). I don't know how to drive a stick :( So Michael has taken me out 1 time so far and we are planning to do more teaching times soon. And then there's the whole driving on the other side of the road thing too that I have to figure out.
*Hot sunny weather. We get occasional days here where it is warmer, but not hot really. I don't think I will be wearing shorts too much here. I want a good hot day at the beach (white sandy beaches specifically).
*Chick-fil-A. I would love to have a spicy chicken sandwich, with extra pickles, fries, a milkshake and a lemonade. Oh, and CFA sauce. mmmm....
*Trader Joes- y'all know I love me some Trader Joe's.
*Target.
*Rootbeer.
Now how about some things I love:
*I love riding in the car to go places and driving through such quaint villages with amazing gardens and lovely English houses. I love the farms covered in Rapeseed everywhere right now. It really looks like someone took highlighter and drew all of the field. It is stunning.
*I love that we can walk to so much. I love walking to the cafe for breakfast them walking over to the butcher to get meat to make burgers tonight. I love the quaint little shops in our village. I love that we walk SK to school. I love the abundant supply of footpaths here.
*I love looking out of my back window and seeing our laundry hanging out on the line to dry. It has been an adjustment to not having a dryer, but I truly love it now.
*Fish and Chips.
*The endless supply of cool places to go on date nights. Michael and I have date night every Thursday night. That might sound extravagant to some, but it truly has been essential for this adjustment to life here in England. It has been so needed for us and been such a huge blessing to us that we have had Emma Rose here to be willing to help us make date night happen each week. And it has been fun to go and find some cool places to hang out for date nights.
*Food here. I really do love so many of the foods here. The cheeses I can get here are amazing and so yummy. There are loads of good yummy foods here.
I will stop there for now, but hope to keep sharing on here more about life here and things I love and things that I miss too. It's fun for me at least to write it down.
Last night as Michael and I were eating a late dinner, Silas put on quite the show of smiles for us. It was the most smiles we have gotten yet. I still need to get a good pic of him smiling, but haven't had my phone close enough to snap a pic yet.
He is still a great sleeper at night, only waking sometime around 3 or 4 a.m. for a feed. Sometimes he has a hard time being laid back down after that, but I can't complain after he gives me a good 5-6 hour stretch to start the night.
We have occasionally gotten some nice days here lately (mixed in with some rainy, cooler days of course). It has given us the itch to do some outdoor gardening, which is so fun for us. We haven't owned a house in 5 years, which means we haven't really done any gardening other than a potted plant maybe or being a part of the Covenant Community Garden while at seminary. While we still don't own a house, we are still enjoying being in a house (as opposed to an apt. with no yard really) and having a yard we can get our hands dirty in. It is fun also to learn about what plants do well here and finding varieties of plants that you can't really find in the states.
What else have we been up to....
Sk is still loving school and doing well. She is having to do a little bit of work at home to get caught up with her classmates in areas like handwriting (there are quite a few letters they do different here) and math. She is doing great overall though and I am so proud of how well she is doing.
Evie is starting to get better about pitching fits and such (being a 2 year old...). She is a silly little girl and we love her to death. She def. can put a smile on your face with her goofy looks she will make at you and her sweet giggle.
I have been reflecting more this week on things that I have started missing from the states and also things that I love about being here. So how about a list...y'all know I love me a good list :)
Things I miss:
*Being able to drive---We have a manual car here (which is very common here and finding a 7 seater automatic is very very difficult). I don't know how to drive a stick :( So Michael has taken me out 1 time so far and we are planning to do more teaching times soon. And then there's the whole driving on the other side of the road thing too that I have to figure out.
*Hot sunny weather. We get occasional days here where it is warmer, but not hot really. I don't think I will be wearing shorts too much here. I want a good hot day at the beach (white sandy beaches specifically).
*Chick-fil-A. I would love to have a spicy chicken sandwich, with extra pickles, fries, a milkshake and a lemonade. Oh, and CFA sauce. mmmm....
*Trader Joes- y'all know I love me some Trader Joe's.
*Target.
*Rootbeer.
Now how about some things I love:
*I love riding in the car to go places and driving through such quaint villages with amazing gardens and lovely English houses. I love the farms covered in Rapeseed everywhere right now. It really looks like someone took highlighter and drew all of the field. It is stunning.
*I love that we can walk to so much. I love walking to the cafe for breakfast them walking over to the butcher to get meat to make burgers tonight. I love the quaint little shops in our village. I love that we walk SK to school. I love the abundant supply of footpaths here.
*I love looking out of my back window and seeing our laundry hanging out on the line to dry. It has been an adjustment to not having a dryer, but I truly love it now.
*Fish and Chips.
*The endless supply of cool places to go on date nights. Michael and I have date night every Thursday night. That might sound extravagant to some, but it truly has been essential for this adjustment to life here in England. It has been so needed for us and been such a huge blessing to us that we have had Emma Rose here to be willing to help us make date night happen each week. And it has been fun to go and find some cool places to hang out for date nights.
*Food here. I really do love so many of the foods here. The cheeses I can get here are amazing and so yummy. There are loads of good yummy foods here.
I will stop there for now, but hope to keep sharing on here more about life here and things I love and things that I miss too. It's fun for me at least to write it down.
Monday, April 27, 2015
3 weeks in...
Well...it has taken me a few weeks to get back on here. Such is the life with a newborn right??!!
Let's start with a Silas update :)
After getting settled in at home, he has been great really. The first few days were a little difficult in that he couldn't latch on to nurse, which was due to tongue tie. He was such a sleepy baby and so chill that he really didn't fuss that much. I was pumping so that he could get milk that way. We had his tongue tie clipped when he was 4 days old and ever since then has been nursing great. He has been slow to gain weight, partially due to that start, but is doing better now. He had jaundice the first week, but not so bad that he needed any treatment for it other than getting a little sunshine. He is the sweetest baby. And a snuggle bug for sure. He does great at night too :) Most nights he will sleep a good 4-5 hour stretch then wake to nurse. He rarely cries. When he gets hungry or tired he will just wiggle around and grunt :) He is just a laid back, chill baby. We are loving every minute with this little dude.
His big sisters love having him around too. They both want a chance to hold him every day. Evie will call him "My Silas" and go running to the couch and say, "My hold Silas" and scream if we don't let her hold him right away. She loves to make sure he has his "dummy" (aka paci) close by at all times. Evie has had a little rough time adjusting in some ways to having a baby brother around. I think part of it is due to teething and just settling in to a routine where her big sister is gone all day and she shares mommy's attention. She is 2 as well, so there are daily fits we get to work through too. She is still a cutie though and we wouldn't trade her spunky spirit for anything. It just can test our patience as we guide her in how to use her words instead of screaming at us for things she wants.
Sarah Kate started school last week. I might have cried right after dropping her off the first day. She loves school though. She has already made some good friends. She is quite the cutie in her school uniform too :)
What else...hmmm...
Let's just leave it at that for now and throw in some pics...
Let's start with a Silas update :)
After getting settled in at home, he has been great really. The first few days were a little difficult in that he couldn't latch on to nurse, which was due to tongue tie. He was such a sleepy baby and so chill that he really didn't fuss that much. I was pumping so that he could get milk that way. We had his tongue tie clipped when he was 4 days old and ever since then has been nursing great. He has been slow to gain weight, partially due to that start, but is doing better now. He had jaundice the first week, but not so bad that he needed any treatment for it other than getting a little sunshine. He is the sweetest baby. And a snuggle bug for sure. He does great at night too :) Most nights he will sleep a good 4-5 hour stretch then wake to nurse. He rarely cries. When he gets hungry or tired he will just wiggle around and grunt :) He is just a laid back, chill baby. We are loving every minute with this little dude.
His big sisters love having him around too. They both want a chance to hold him every day. Evie will call him "My Silas" and go running to the couch and say, "My hold Silas" and scream if we don't let her hold him right away. She loves to make sure he has his "dummy" (aka paci) close by at all times. Evie has had a little rough time adjusting in some ways to having a baby brother around. I think part of it is due to teething and just settling in to a routine where her big sister is gone all day and she shares mommy's attention. She is 2 as well, so there are daily fits we get to work through too. She is still a cutie though and we wouldn't trade her spunky spirit for anything. It just can test our patience as we guide her in how to use her words instead of screaming at us for things she wants.
Sarah Kate started school last week. I might have cried right after dropping her off the first day. She loves school though. She has already made some good friends. She is quite the cutie in her school uniform too :)
What else...hmmm...
Let's just leave it at that for now and throw in some pics...
From a walk we took last week in Cucheth. I love this time of year as the flowers begin to bloom.
First day off to school. The school is about .8 miles from our house, so SK rides her scooter. That also means if I walk her in the morning and afternoon, I walk 3.2 miles, which is great exercise for me :)
Hopefully it won't be 3 weeks again and I can get back to keeping up with the ole blog more regularly. No promises, but it does sound nice!
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Silas Jeddie has arrived!
I am beyond thankful first of all that today I am home with a sweet baby boy and not being induced right now. The consultant (doctor) had scheduled me to be induced this morning if Silas didn't come on his own. Instead...SIlas decided he wanted to be an Easter morning gift and came on his own!
So here's the birth story. I want to share how it all went down not just to tell everyone about it, but for myself too. It is fun for me to be able to look back at the blog years later and see details I might soon forgot.
So let's start with Sat. morning. I woke up around 6 and started feeling like my waters were leaking. No big gush or anything, but something was going on I knew. I wasn't feeling any contractions and it was a slow leak, so I wasn't rushing around like crazy to get to the hospital. My plan that day was to go with SK and take her to get her school uniforms and such that she needed to start school in a couple weeks. We were planning to go mid morning with Ginger and Ansley (her daughter) to ride the bus to Leigh and go to the store there to get everything.
I decided to call the Labor ward first and see what they said I needed to do. They weren't too concerned about me coming in quickly and wanted me to call in to the Antenatal clinic and make an appointment with them to just come in and get a little check (meaning just check baby's heart beat and monitor me for a little). I tried calling and couldn't get anyone to answer. I decided I was feeling ok and wanting to be walking anyway to get things going on their own too, so I planned to go ahead to Leigh and do the shopping with SK and our friends.
Ginger was good with going with me and Michael was on standby if I called him while I was out to come and get me if things progressed where I need to head on to the hospital. So we road the bus on in to Leigh and walked about getting uniform needs and all. I had contractions off and on while we were out but nothing consistent or hard enough for me to have to stop going about.
We got back from Leigh around 1 and ate some lunch. I had tried calling off and on throughout the morning to get in touch with the Antenatal clinic but no one was answering there. So at 1 I called back to the Labor Ward only to discover I had been calling the wrong place all morning. So the Labor ward connected me to the right place to get an appointment to come in, but at this point in the afternoon they didn't have any appointments left for the day, so they reconnected me with the labor ward. They then said to come on in to the labor ward and they would check me out there and see how things were going.
Michael and I got things together at home and the girls situated with Emma Rose, who had to come home from working in the cafe so we could head on out. We kissed the girls and headed off not knowing if we were going to be kept there or sent home to wait and see if labor kicked in.
Once we got to the labor ward they hooked me up to a monitor to check contractions and baby's heart rate. **Side note--the midwife who was checking me in used an old school baby heart rate thing on my belly to hear baby boy's heart...like they do on "Call the Midwife". I thought that was fun...haha.
She determined that it was my water leaking, but didn't do any sort of exam to see if I was dilating any. She told us they tend to be more hands off and esp. if my water had broken that they wouldn't want to do any more checks than needed to keep from risk of infection and such. *Def. different than what I have experience in the past, but I appreciated that.
While I was laying getting monitored I was getting some pretty good consistent contractions that were coming every 4-5 minutes. It was coming in waves of lighter ones and some being stronger, but nothing that really caused me to be in pain too much. Just enough where I was feeling them and knew they were getting more consistent and stronger.
They determined that I needed to stay at the hospital in the Induction Ward for the night and they would begin inducing in the morning if I didn't start progressing more on my own. They took us then over to the Induction ward and showed us where my bed was and said we could go about the hospital as we wanted, but to just be back by 8:30 so the midwife could check in on me then. So the Ward...hmm. It was quite the experience. It is a room with 6 beds in it, each with a curtain you could pull around it for privacy. There was a chair (not the most comfortable for Michael we will say) and a birthing ball and that was it pretty much. There were 3 other women in the room at this time. One of the other women (and her partner) were watching an episode of "The Simpsons" and thought it was the funniest show ever. I thought about offering our headphones to them as a subtle hint, but didn't. Michael and I decided to head out and go walk the halls and see about getting some dinner in one of the places at the Main Entrance of the hospital. **That also was different than what I have experienced in the past too...being told I could and should eat whatever while I was waiting and trying to get labor going. So we went down and Costa Coffee was the only thing open (being a Sat. night and holiday weekend). We were able to get some sandwiches and chocolate muffin and sit down there for a little bit before walking the halls again. While I was walking I was feeling the contractions more steadily, so I knew the walking was helping.
We headed back to the ward and waited till about 9 or so for the midwife to come. She checked the baby's heart rate and my blood pressure was all. After sitting around there a little bit, I wasn't really feeling contractions, so we decided to go walking more. At this point the hospital was a bit creepy to us. Half the hall lights were off and no one was really in the halls at all, except for the wing where the labor ward was. We still walked about though and I once again started feeling more consistent contractions, but not too painful at that point at all.
We got back to the ward around 10:30 or so and tried to watch a little bit of a show together and read a bit. They turned the lights down around 11 I think and so we tried to lay down (or for poor Michael...he tried using the birthing ball to prop his legs on and get where he could sleep some. Poor guy...
At about 11:30 I started feeling the contractions coming more frequent and increasing in pain. At 12:30 I called the midwife to try and see at what point they would move me to a labor room (hoping it would be soon since my contractions were beginning to come so strong). She asked if I wanted to get a bath to try and help ease the pain, so I went for that. She also gave me some kind pill that I can't remember what it was called, but it was like a strong tylenol. The hot water was great and gave some relief and helped me relax for a while, but the contractions were still coming about every 3-4 minutes. And the med she gave me was completely pointless.
At 2:30 they were getting more intense so we called the midwife again. At this point I had not been checked at all and just knew in my head I was feeling pressure and had to be at close to 10 cm. if not already there. Well...she came and saw how strong my contractions were coming and asked if she could check me. Yes. Yes, please. So she examined me and said I was 2. 2 flipping cm was it. I wanted to cry. I thought at that moment I wasn't going to make it. She said for me to try and get some sleep and rest, to which I wanted to respond "yeah right!". She left and said to call if anything changed or we needed anything.
At about 3:30, my contractions were crazy intense and then my waters fully broke. Like full on gush, big ole mess broke. (Sorry if this is TMI, it is a birth story though...). We called the midwife again and she came in first checking to make sure the fluid was clear. She still wasn't too concerned about things being much different I guess cause she just offered a new pad and said to ask if we needed anything. TO which I replied, "Yes! I need new sheets." She didn't realize with the room being kinda dark how much of a gush there was. So then she changed my sheets and saw how much pain I was in. She got new sheets on then decided she should check me again. This time, I was 10. So if you calculate that, I went from 2-10 in a matter of an hour folks. I was quite relieved, but also like "holy cow"! She said that we were going to rush right over to the labor ward and for Michael to get our stuff. He grabbed as quickly as he could and she got me in the bed where she could wheel me across the hall. All the while I am contracting every 2 minutes and moaning/groaning/screaming in pain and feeling such pressure.
We got into the Labor room (finally a private room where I don't have a lady on the other side of the curtain sawing logs (aka snoring) while I am moaning and trying to breathe through contractions. She immediately told me to do whatever my body told me to do and just go with what it was telling me. I start pushing around 4 or a few minutes before. The first few pushes weren't too bad and I was feeling kinda confident, then he crowned and I know I screamed a couple times that I wasn't going to be able to do it and didn't want to. Let's just leave that part at "it hurt...it hurt a lot" but I was able to hush up and focus on using the contraction to get him out and he was born at 4:12 a.m.
I believe he must have been sunny side up (from my memory of him coming out). The midwife put him right on my chest and it was the most precious moment. He took a few seconds to start crying, but then gave a good little cry and then settled right onto my chest. He was very alert to begin with and his eyes were wide open for a bit in those first couple of hours. Michael got to cut the cord and then I just got to have skin to skin time with him for a couple hours. I ended up needing a couple stitches, but didn't tear bad according to the midwife.
After about 2 hours another midwife came in to give Silas a Vitamin K shot and Michael put some clothes on him and wiped him off a little bit. I was able to get up and take a shower while Michael got some cuddle time with him :)
We then were told we could stay in our private room and be discharged from there or if we wanted to go to the ward and take more time we could. Ummm...easy, I will take the private room and early discharge. They came in at about 10 to start our discharge and we were home a little after 11.
So Silas's birth story is nothing like his sisters. I am so thankful for it though. It might have had it's interesting and hard moments, but overall it was an amazing experience and I felt well cared for by my midwife. It was amazing to be able to not be hooked up to monitors and to not have the epidural where I was able to move about so quickly afterward. Plus I really think labor went more easily and quickly without it.
So there ya go. I will do another blog sometime soon hopefully of how it has been since being home. How the girls are taking to him and all.
I will ask that you pray for him to figure out nursing soon. He is having a bit of a time with it so far, but we aren't worried too much yet. The midwife came by our house yesterday and another will come some time today to check and see how he is doing. I will update more on that too on the next blog, but pray with me that we can sort that out soon for him.
I will have to work on getting pics on here, but if you are on Facebook or instagram I have posted pics on there and will try to get more up later. We used our phones mostly so far, since it has been easier :)
And I wanted to say too how great a dad and hubby Michael has been too. He was great and so supportive while I was laboring and has been so helpful since Silas arrived. He loves our children so well and cares for me like a champ. I don't think I could have done a natural labor and delivery in a whole new country without him, or I know I couldn't have. I am so thankful for him and love seeing him hold his son and look at him with such love.
It has been a fun crazy ride the last few days that is for sure! More blogging to come tomorrow maybe...which will be determined by my little man and how much attention he needs :)
So here's the birth story. I want to share how it all went down not just to tell everyone about it, but for myself too. It is fun for me to be able to look back at the blog years later and see details I might soon forgot.
So let's start with Sat. morning. I woke up around 6 and started feeling like my waters were leaking. No big gush or anything, but something was going on I knew. I wasn't feeling any contractions and it was a slow leak, so I wasn't rushing around like crazy to get to the hospital. My plan that day was to go with SK and take her to get her school uniforms and such that she needed to start school in a couple weeks. We were planning to go mid morning with Ginger and Ansley (her daughter) to ride the bus to Leigh and go to the store there to get everything.
I decided to call the Labor ward first and see what they said I needed to do. They weren't too concerned about me coming in quickly and wanted me to call in to the Antenatal clinic and make an appointment with them to just come in and get a little check (meaning just check baby's heart beat and monitor me for a little). I tried calling and couldn't get anyone to answer. I decided I was feeling ok and wanting to be walking anyway to get things going on their own too, so I planned to go ahead to Leigh and do the shopping with SK and our friends.
Ginger was good with going with me and Michael was on standby if I called him while I was out to come and get me if things progressed where I need to head on to the hospital. So we road the bus on in to Leigh and walked about getting uniform needs and all. I had contractions off and on while we were out but nothing consistent or hard enough for me to have to stop going about.
We got back from Leigh around 1 and ate some lunch. I had tried calling off and on throughout the morning to get in touch with the Antenatal clinic but no one was answering there. So at 1 I called back to the Labor Ward only to discover I had been calling the wrong place all morning. So the Labor ward connected me to the right place to get an appointment to come in, but at this point in the afternoon they didn't have any appointments left for the day, so they reconnected me with the labor ward. They then said to come on in to the labor ward and they would check me out there and see how things were going.
Michael and I got things together at home and the girls situated with Emma Rose, who had to come home from working in the cafe so we could head on out. We kissed the girls and headed off not knowing if we were going to be kept there or sent home to wait and see if labor kicked in.
Once we got to the labor ward they hooked me up to a monitor to check contractions and baby's heart rate. **Side note--the midwife who was checking me in used an old school baby heart rate thing on my belly to hear baby boy's heart...like they do on "Call the Midwife". I thought that was fun...haha.
She determined that it was my water leaking, but didn't do any sort of exam to see if I was dilating any. She told us they tend to be more hands off and esp. if my water had broken that they wouldn't want to do any more checks than needed to keep from risk of infection and such. *Def. different than what I have experience in the past, but I appreciated that.
While I was laying getting monitored I was getting some pretty good consistent contractions that were coming every 4-5 minutes. It was coming in waves of lighter ones and some being stronger, but nothing that really caused me to be in pain too much. Just enough where I was feeling them and knew they were getting more consistent and stronger.
They determined that I needed to stay at the hospital in the Induction Ward for the night and they would begin inducing in the morning if I didn't start progressing more on my own. They took us then over to the Induction ward and showed us where my bed was and said we could go about the hospital as we wanted, but to just be back by 8:30 so the midwife could check in on me then. So the Ward...hmm. It was quite the experience. It is a room with 6 beds in it, each with a curtain you could pull around it for privacy. There was a chair (not the most comfortable for Michael we will say) and a birthing ball and that was it pretty much. There were 3 other women in the room at this time. One of the other women (and her partner) were watching an episode of "The Simpsons" and thought it was the funniest show ever. I thought about offering our headphones to them as a subtle hint, but didn't. Michael and I decided to head out and go walk the halls and see about getting some dinner in one of the places at the Main Entrance of the hospital. **That also was different than what I have experienced in the past too...being told I could and should eat whatever while I was waiting and trying to get labor going. So we went down and Costa Coffee was the only thing open (being a Sat. night and holiday weekend). We were able to get some sandwiches and chocolate muffin and sit down there for a little bit before walking the halls again. While I was walking I was feeling the contractions more steadily, so I knew the walking was helping.
We headed back to the ward and waited till about 9 or so for the midwife to come. She checked the baby's heart rate and my blood pressure was all. After sitting around there a little bit, I wasn't really feeling contractions, so we decided to go walking more. At this point the hospital was a bit creepy to us. Half the hall lights were off and no one was really in the halls at all, except for the wing where the labor ward was. We still walked about though and I once again started feeling more consistent contractions, but not too painful at that point at all.
We got back to the ward around 10:30 or so and tried to watch a little bit of a show together and read a bit. They turned the lights down around 11 I think and so we tried to lay down (or for poor Michael...he tried using the birthing ball to prop his legs on and get where he could sleep some. Poor guy...
At about 11:30 I started feeling the contractions coming more frequent and increasing in pain. At 12:30 I called the midwife to try and see at what point they would move me to a labor room (hoping it would be soon since my contractions were beginning to come so strong). She asked if I wanted to get a bath to try and help ease the pain, so I went for that. She also gave me some kind pill that I can't remember what it was called, but it was like a strong tylenol. The hot water was great and gave some relief and helped me relax for a while, but the contractions were still coming about every 3-4 minutes. And the med she gave me was completely pointless.
At 2:30 they were getting more intense so we called the midwife again. At this point I had not been checked at all and just knew in my head I was feeling pressure and had to be at close to 10 cm. if not already there. Well...she came and saw how strong my contractions were coming and asked if she could check me. Yes. Yes, please. So she examined me and said I was 2. 2 flipping cm was it. I wanted to cry. I thought at that moment I wasn't going to make it. She said for me to try and get some sleep and rest, to which I wanted to respond "yeah right!". She left and said to call if anything changed or we needed anything.
At about 3:30, my contractions were crazy intense and then my waters fully broke. Like full on gush, big ole mess broke. (Sorry if this is TMI, it is a birth story though...). We called the midwife again and she came in first checking to make sure the fluid was clear. She still wasn't too concerned about things being much different I guess cause she just offered a new pad and said to ask if we needed anything. TO which I replied, "Yes! I need new sheets." She didn't realize with the room being kinda dark how much of a gush there was. So then she changed my sheets and saw how much pain I was in. She got new sheets on then decided she should check me again. This time, I was 10. So if you calculate that, I went from 2-10 in a matter of an hour folks. I was quite relieved, but also like "holy cow"! She said that we were going to rush right over to the labor ward and for Michael to get our stuff. He grabbed as quickly as he could and she got me in the bed where she could wheel me across the hall. All the while I am contracting every 2 minutes and moaning/groaning/screaming in pain and feeling such pressure.
We got into the Labor room (finally a private room where I don't have a lady on the other side of the curtain sawing logs (aka snoring) while I am moaning and trying to breathe through contractions. She immediately told me to do whatever my body told me to do and just go with what it was telling me. I start pushing around 4 or a few minutes before. The first few pushes weren't too bad and I was feeling kinda confident, then he crowned and I know I screamed a couple times that I wasn't going to be able to do it and didn't want to. Let's just leave that part at "it hurt...it hurt a lot" but I was able to hush up and focus on using the contraction to get him out and he was born at 4:12 a.m.
I believe he must have been sunny side up (from my memory of him coming out). The midwife put him right on my chest and it was the most precious moment. He took a few seconds to start crying, but then gave a good little cry and then settled right onto my chest. He was very alert to begin with and his eyes were wide open for a bit in those first couple of hours. Michael got to cut the cord and then I just got to have skin to skin time with him for a couple hours. I ended up needing a couple stitches, but didn't tear bad according to the midwife.
After about 2 hours another midwife came in to give Silas a Vitamin K shot and Michael put some clothes on him and wiped him off a little bit. I was able to get up and take a shower while Michael got some cuddle time with him :)
We then were told we could stay in our private room and be discharged from there or if we wanted to go to the ward and take more time we could. Ummm...easy, I will take the private room and early discharge. They came in at about 10 to start our discharge and we were home a little after 11.
So Silas's birth story is nothing like his sisters. I am so thankful for it though. It might have had it's interesting and hard moments, but overall it was an amazing experience and I felt well cared for by my midwife. It was amazing to be able to not be hooked up to monitors and to not have the epidural where I was able to move about so quickly afterward. Plus I really think labor went more easily and quickly without it.
So there ya go. I will do another blog sometime soon hopefully of how it has been since being home. How the girls are taking to him and all.
I will ask that you pray for him to figure out nursing soon. He is having a bit of a time with it so far, but we aren't worried too much yet. The midwife came by our house yesterday and another will come some time today to check and see how he is doing. I will update more on that too on the next blog, but pray with me that we can sort that out soon for him.
I will have to work on getting pics on here, but if you are on Facebook or instagram I have posted pics on there and will try to get more up later. We used our phones mostly so far, since it has been easier :)
And I wanted to say too how great a dad and hubby Michael has been too. He was great and so supportive while I was laboring and has been so helpful since Silas arrived. He loves our children so well and cares for me like a champ. I don't think I could have done a natural labor and delivery in a whole new country without him, or I know I couldn't have. I am so thankful for him and love seeing him hold his son and look at him with such love.
It has been a fun crazy ride the last few days that is for sure! More blogging to come tomorrow maybe...which will be determined by my little man and how much attention he needs :)
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