Baby Chapman

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

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

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

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

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

Have a wonderful evening.

Love, Louise

PS Snowshoeing yesterday+aquafit last night=tired Louise!

Snowshoeing!

Gary and I have talked about buying snowshoes for years. My dad has 2 pairs and we have borrowed them over the years but they are usually kept up at Green Lake. On boxing day, I found some and decided to just do it. Gary's were regularly $250.00 and I got them for $150.00 and Kai's were just $60.00 (for the best quality ones). Still pricey but I think we will get good use as Kai's are good up at 110lbs on trails.

We decided to go this morning, even though it was super foggy, and I'm glad we did! We went up to Seymour and walked towards to the lake. I wasn't sure how Kai was going to do, he's been a bit all over the place lately. However, he was a superstar! He loved it and was fearless. I was trying to be so cool about it as he would slide down the steep parts on his butt and then even eventually going head first! There are creek beds and ravines everywhere but Gary didn't seem concerned so I went with it:)

We only snowshoed for 30 minutes but that was my goal, I wanted to make sure Kai didn't get too tired of it so that it was still fun.

Looking forward to going again as it's a great snow activity that I can do right now!

PS Ultrasound tomorrow!! Can't wait to see baby Chapman!

Baby Hannah

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

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

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

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

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

Sick

It's 2:30pm and I'm still in bed.  Gary brought me the lap top to keep me occupied:)  Last night we went for dinner at 6:30pm and by 7pm I wasn't feeling too great.  We got home at 8:15pm and that's when it started.  Yikes. So sick.  I was up every 1.5 hours and violently ill  (I'll spare you details but let's just say it was worse than I've ever had in my life).  It sort of reminded me of when I had food poisoning 10 years ago.  I'm so nervous the kids will get it so I'm hoping that by staying away from them all day, and just hanging out in bed, that will help.  I had an incredible amount of pain in my stomach, like a volcano was going off...for 12 hours.  I was worried about the baby getting dehydrated as I lost 5lbs.   However, this afternoon I was able to keep two cups of fluids down.
Anyway, this is not how I envisioned my Christmas holidays.  I'm so thankful that my sisters did not go into labour last night.  I'm so thankful that Gary is home to entertain the monkeys all day.
I'm starting to feel a bit better but my stomach is still so sensitive.   Praying Gary and the boys don't get it.  I can't watch them go through that much pain and also, we would miss the two days of Christmas festivities ahead of us.
I hope you are all much healthier than I am right now and sorry for the gross update.
Love, Louise

Christmas Holidays

What have we been up to?  A whole lot of family time! Yay:)  I now have 2 weeks off of work which is lovely.  I seriously sat on the couch reading for 2 hours yesterday while Gary and the boys made a lovely dinner of Chicken Tikka Marsala and homemade Naan bread.  Yum.  I read, and finished, `Good To A Fault' (6.5/10) and today I'm reading about VBAC's (vaginal birth after C-section):)

I went to my first ever aquafit class yesterday.  It was good.  I didn't love it but I didn't mind it either.  I don't know how much of a work out I got but I was very hungry afterwards so I must've burnt a few calories! I went with my sister, Jackie, which made it way more fun.  The only thing that would prevent me from going back is not having someone to go with and also, I was so cold the whole time.

Had my midwife appointment this morning and took Gary and the boys.  I wanted Gary to at least meet one of the midwives and we thought the boys might like to come to hear the heartbeat.  They did get to hear it (150bpm) and Kai said it sounded like a rope being swung around in the air.  It kind of did.  I was so happy to hear the baby because I hadn't felt any movement in the last week or so.  The kicking should pick up this week.  All is well with me physically (well, besides the sciatica which may be getting better and my jaw which is not pregnancy related) and we'll see baby on the big screen next week! So excited:)

I was happy to hear that I might be delivering at Langley now.  I don't mind Surrey but I know Langley and apparently the OB's there are good with encouraging VBAC's there so we will see.  I know it also depends on having an OR ready to go at all times in case of uterine rupture which is higher in VBA2C's  (you need to have an emergency C-section within about 20 minutes in that case). So ya, we will see what happens there.  I also had the triple screen test (I forget what it's called now) and all of those results came back negative so that's good.

{Kai's old room which now contains all the baby stuff piled up everywhere.}

Gary is going to be starting to paint the baby room this afternoon!  So excited to get it set up and organized.  I know we have tons of time but the room is major chaos right now and I'm a big fan of order:)

I put this on facebook but this is something sweet Koen said this week:
Koen: Mommy, your mommy is in heaven?
Me: Yes, I miss her so much.
Koen: Where is heaven?
Me: With God
Koen: I'll get your mommy back for you.
He's so sweet.  I explained that my mommy was happier than ever in heaven right now so she should probably stay there.

And now, I wait for my two little sisters to have their babies!!!  I just really, really hope they don't go into labour at the same time as I want to be there for both if need be:)

And tonight?  Gary and I are going out for dinner!  Yay for swapping childcare with my sister:)  We always try to do it when the kids are in bed so it's minimal work for the other person.  Works so well!

Have a wonderful day.
Love, Louise

17 Weeks and Kai's Singing

I am now 17 weeks pregnant.  What?!  Anyway, being that the nausea is gone and the Christmas goodies are out in full force, I have gained a little weight.  Total weight gain is at about 6 lbs right now. Another development which is super uncool is that I have some major pain down my left buttock and down my thigh.  My sciatic nerve..yikes.  I'm hoping it  gets better soon or I'll need to find something to help ease the pain.  It will be fine for 3 steps and then the fourth one will be super painful which means I end up sort of limping.  Not ideal when lifting and bending and all that fun stuff with the kiddos.  I'm still able to exercise, it's just painful.

{Haven't grown much in the last month}

On to some other fun things:)  Kai had his church Christmas concert today and rocked it:)  Being that he was soooo sick at the school one, I'm glad he could do his thing.  He was definitely the loudest kid and we heard him loud and clear.  I had told him to sing loudly so that we could hear him in the back and boy did he ever.  I was laughing so much that I cried.  That kid.  He has no fear and loves the attention.  They sang `King  of Kings' and `Away in a Manger'.  His letter was `T' and he yelled out `Truth' when it was his turn.  He is the one in the middle in the red striped shirt.

We went swimming at the Walnut Grove pool yesterday and the kids loved it.  Kai loved the waterslide and Koen loved the little slide.  We will definitely go back!

Tonight we went to Ikea for dinner and to buy the baby a dresser!  I had been looking for it on craigslist for the last 2 months but nothing showed up.   I love it.  Such a big splurge for us (as it wasn't on sale) but I'm hoping it's a forever type item.   I had hoped for it to be in the `As Is' but we can't go every day checking that out.  Oh well.   Also, the kids went in the play area for the first time AND we ate at the cafe there.  The boys are determined to go back there over the holidays.  Might have to do $1 breakfast:)

My favourite moment of the day was before the kids went to bed, they cuddled up next to my belly and sang the baby three Christmas carols.  It was really, really sweet.  They are so excited to have a baby brother or sister.  

Life is good.  Stress is low.  Had my last GC photo session of the year yesterday!!  Two weeks of family time now. Bring it!

Hope you had a great weekend.

Love, Louise

Jackie's Bowling Party

Every year we go bowling for my sister Jackie's birthday.  This year we did it a week early as we have two sisters (Trish and Jackie) due over the holidays!  They put up the bumpers over the gutters this time so the kids had a great time:)  Yes, my boys are wearing present bows in their hair, they were feeling festive.

And seriously, can someone tell me what happened to blogger?  Maybe it's just me?! Yikes.  I had to switch to advanced editor (from old editor) because none of my regular options were there this morning (like posting pictures from a URL etc).  I have no idea what's going on but it took me forever just to post this.  If someone has a quick tip on how to help me get my blogger options back to normal, I would appreciate it.  No idea why it suddenly changed and this could stress me out with the GC site as well....

Have a wonderful weekend. After Kai's Christmas Program rehearsal,  we're headed out on a family swim!

{Kai bowled the whole game by himself!}

{First baby due next week!}

{The birthday girl}

{Opi and his support crew}

Can I tell you how incredibly awesome it is to have healthy kids again?  After 2 weeks of hiding out at home, it is so great to be back in the real world again!!  Yay!!

Almost Christmas Break!!!

I know I've been a blogging machine. The more that Gary is gone, the more I need to process here as Gary is usually my sounding board!

Thank you for all the love for the Global piece about my 4 sisters and I. I thought they did a great job and it was really fun to do. My sisters and I are very close and my middle sister, Jan, said we make up almost half of her friend group:)

{One side of our Christmas card...I do not like our family photo and I'm only picky because our faces printed super white which drives me bonkers.}

I am really looking forward to Gary being home for two weeks!! What do we have planned? Nothing too exciting but here are a few things:

1. Paint the baby room (going for a warm grey)...accent colour to be decided once we know if it's a boy or girl!

2. Go swimming

3. Go skating (I won't be able to skate but I want Kai to practice for his lessons that start again in January).

4. Go to ikea:)

5. Bowling with the Dekens family

6. Christmas dinner and all that jazz with my family and with Gary's.

7. Christmas dinner with friends

8. Celebrate Koen's 3rd birthday! He'll have a small party that will likely be train themed.

9. Christmas concert at church

10. Last photo session of 2011

11. Meet a couple of nieces or a niece and nephew! This is what I am most excited for, I can't believe that they will have their babies so soon!!!!!

12. Read

{The other side}

We've had a rough couple weeks here. Koen had hand, foot, and mouth disease. Then, a few days later Kai got it. Then Kai got another virus on top of that. The doctor thinks Kai will be ready for school tomorrow. At least he'll get to go to school one last time before holidays, he has missed so much! This means I have had two sick and grumpy kids at home for 2 weeks. Being that we were contagious it was really, really boring. Thank goodness for tv. Seriously. The hardest part is that Koen has been better for 3 days but we still couldn't do anything because Kai could barely get off the couch. They may have given my HFMD but we will see in the next few days if that is confirmed or not...

I was able to do a maternity session for my sister Jackie and her husband Tyler. They did such a good job and we just went to a nearby field where the kids fell asleep in the van and we did the session just a few steps away:)

I started looking into booking our cabin/condo for Spring Break. Just on the Island as we go every year. This year we might go to Parksville instead of Tofino...the boys LOVE it and so do I. We'll also be going to Green Lake with my sister and her family. I love family holidays!!!!

And finally, Koen is suddenly a big boy. He just seems to have grown up overnight. His sentences are so much longer and his thoughts/questions are so much deeper. He is absolutely hilarious and has us laughing all the time. He is so excited about life, I love it. I've realized he should probably be dressing himself by now so we've been working on it. Watching an almost 3 year old trying to master putting on underwear is quite funny. He's got it all down except for his shirt and that's fine. Shirts are pretty confusing!

Okay, better get dinner going here. Have a wonderful evening.

Love, Louise

PS It might snow tonight!!!

PPS My GC Photography link isn't updating right now but there is a cute new post! Check it out here.

Global Link

In case you didn't see it, and would like to, the link should be up until tomorrow. I thought they did a good job putting it together!

Here it is.

16 Weeks

I wish I had posted week by week with each boy as I find myself going back to my pregnancy with Koen to see where I was at in regards to how I felt, looked etc.

I'm going to sound a bit crazy for a minute but here I go...

This is a weird stage for me because I don't feel pregnant because typical pregnancy symptoms ended for me a week ago (which is normal!). And, I'm not a hypochondriac but suddenly I do sometimes feel afraid that everything will not be okay. I haven't really felt the baby move really since last week, although possibly a few times today. I worry that my Graves Disease will come back while pregnant (which in turn would affect the pregnancy and the baby) and I worry that the baby will die (I think this is on my mind because it recently happened to someone we are close to and also to Michelle Duggar). I try not to think about it and just remind myself that I'm really not in control of this baby's life and I just need to trust God on this:) I didn't worry about these things with the boys and I'm sure it will help once I feel baby kicking me all the time.

In lighter news...

I crave eggs and love light meals. Salads and soups=awesome. My weight gain is still at 4lbs. I get to see the midwife in 1.5 weeks AND I get to have my ultrasound in 2.5 weeks. I know already that I will be crying when I see our baby on the screen.

And finally, the news story is on tomorrow! I hope it goes well and for some reason I'm nervous about it. We are going to get a copy of the story on disk which will be a great keepsake. Looking forward to meeting the first baby in the next couple of weeks. It is Trish and Steve's first baby and I can't wait to meet my little niece.

Have a good night!

Love, Louise

Global News

Last night we had Tanya Beja from Global News come to our house to interview my 4 sisters and I (due to the fact that all 5 of us are pregnant). It was a cool experience because I love seeing the behind the scenes type stuff. How the camera man works (lighting he takes along, shots he needs) and how the story is put together (I may have asked a few questions!). It's sort of like a photo shoot in many ways.

They were at our house for 2 hours. The first hour was with my dad and all the kiddos. It was a bit wild as they did some shots of all of us playing in the corner of our basement for a bit. Of course my boys were pillow fighting with Opi amongst the playing. My favourite comment made by Kai likely didn't get caught on camera but when someone asked if there was a baby in mommy's belly, he said, `Actually, it's in her uterus!'.

The last hour was just the 5 of us sitting around the kitchen table. I know this sounds silly but I thought we would do it in our living room area so I kept that area of the house soooooo clean all day and then we didn't even use it. If you have kids, you know how hard it is to keep your house clean! Anyway, it was good. I think I didn't say some stuff clearly and hopefully I didn't say anything too ridiculous. It's just a feel good story so I hope that's how it comes across. We talked about the good and bad things about being pregnant together and also how it is for us to do this without our mom.

You may have seen a `teaser' on channel 11 (Global) already. I don't think it's the most amazing story so hopefully we were interesting enough? It will air on Monday sometime on the 6pm news.

I have a wicked headache today. Nothing like waking up with a headache. I know it's my fault for stressing yesterday and not eating properly. Tylenol to the rescue...

Have a great weekend:)

Love, Louise

PS Happy birthday mom! Koen and I sang Happy Birthday to you at breakfast time, you would've loved to have seen him singing, it was adorable.

Brotherly Love

Kai has been home from school all week because he has a really bad cold. It's more that I'm trying to get him to regain his energy by staying home and laying low. I did take him to his school's Christmas matinee performance but unfortunately he spent the whole time yawning instead of singing so we left after they sang their three songs.

It was exhausting because I had to take Koen and hold him the whole time to ensure he didn't go near anyone, although, his spots are already scabbed over so i think he's almost better. It's tiring because he's heavy and just wants to run.

Gary will be home at 4:30pm tonight and stay home! Woohoo!

Kai spends about 15 minutes a day reading to Koen. It is really sweet and he totally copies the way I read, leaving the appropriate blanks for Koen to fill in.

But of course, it always ends in wrestling.

I'm waiting for the UPS guy to get here so I can get out of my work out clothes and take a shower. He is delivering our Christmas cards and I'm looking forward to seeing them!

Have a good night!

Love, Louise