Babies

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

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

Sunday with Sisters

On Sunday we went out to Mission for Jack's baptism. Jan and Doug's church is pretty small so when my sisters and our families all came, the population of kids in the church probably doubled:) When we are together, I really realize how crazy it is that we all have babies. Well, Maria's will be coming sometime this week:) My prediction? A 8lb 14oz boy.

{Jackie, Isaac and Tyler}

{Trish and Hannah}

{Maria 39 weeks pregnant with two of her three girls; Kenzie and Ani}

{Jan, Doug, Sami and Jack}

After the baptism, we had lunch at Jan and Doug's place and the kids played and pigged out. It was great. I love hanging out with my family. You would think we'd be sick of each other after yesterday but we still had our weekly play date this morning:)

Then, after Sunday's lunch, I had my first photo session in 7 weeks! It went well and I'm looking forward to editing them! I have a feeling my turnaround time (usually one week) will double now. It was great because we had the session in Mission so I just fed Nya and then Gary took all three kids geocaching at the same park.

Kai Bear loves pictures with his baby sister. We actually call her `baby sister' a lot. Here is her cute Sunday outfit. I bought it at a garage sale and the total outfit was $6.00.

I know I'm ridiculous but isn't it cute? Yup, jeggings. I think babies can do that. And the white dress? Oh man, it's so cute and I'm sad it will only fit her a few more weeks...

Okay, now some funny comments from the boys:

Kai (out of nowhere): Mommy, when are you going to help me find the perfect wife?

Koen (after teaching him not to step on insects): Mommy, I just high fived an ant! Do you think that's a nice thing to do?

Koen: Baby sister's dress is marvelous! (Who says marvelous? So funny).

A Lovely Weekend

Such a great weekend. Really, I think it's mostly sun related. I love, love, love being outside. Friday I helped out in Kai's kindergarten class (I do it every 6 weeks or so) and he loved it. He has been so much more affectionate with me in public and his emotions are so much more...mature. It's interesting to see this growth.

Saturday I went to watch my football team play...made me excited for the fall! Then I had a photo session (my last family one!) with a super cute family.

On Sunday we had church, then I visited my sister Jan, her husband Doug, and baby Jack in the NICU. He should be going home in the next day or two as he's getting his last round of antibiotics tomorrow. Jan has been staying in the hospital with him as it's too hard to go home to Mission and come back every 3 hours to feed him. I'm glad they've made it work for her and I'm glad he's breastfeeding well!

After a brief visit (the kids and Gary just went to the park while I visited because they can't go in the NICU), we went to Mill Lake for a walk. I love all the Magnolia trees in bloom right now, so gorgeous! It's an easy walk and a good distance for me because my pelvis didn't love the 5km walk last weekend:)

Finished off the day with another walk with my friend Leah followed by Amazing Race (and possibly a piece of apple pie). Have I mentioned that I love being outside?

{How gorgeous are these flowers?!}

{We never bring the stroller anymore but we did just in case today because Koen has been fighting a cold and just a bit more tired than usual.}

{The boys love finding `great spots for pictures':) }

After seeing the itty bitty babes in the NICU my fears/stress over baby's arrival have decreased a bit. I feel less concerned about how babe will get here and just hope that she comes out of my uterus safe and sound in about 5 weeks.

I have been having so many braxton hicks contractions that I wondered if I was secretly dilating but baby's head is still very high so I guess not. They are non stop and quite strong. Baby is in a really weird position (diagonal) so my belly makes some really funky shapes during those contractions.

Today we were talking about what it means to be like Jesus. To be kind and loving to everyone and to be very forgiving. Koen thought that sounded like a pretty good friend so he said that Kai is not his best friend anymore, Jesus is, and he would like to play Junior Monopoly with Jesus. He's so cute and funny. Three year olds are adorable.

I hope you have a wonderful week.

Love, Louise

PS It was not wise to play soccer with the kids after dinner. I thought my body can do more than it actually can.

Baby Jack

My sister Jantina and her husband Doug had their baby boy!!! Jan always said she would go two weeks over, just like she did with her daughter. However, baby Jack had other plans! Last time, Jan was induced and it was a pretty terrible experience. It ended with her stalling at 5cm in a lot of pain and having a C-section. Then, she ended up back in the hospital due to a suspected blood clot and infection.

This time she had a lovely midwife and used more natural forms of inducement (is that a word?). She used Evening Primrose Oil and it worked! The plan was to do whatever it took to avoid another C-section. On Tuesday night, Jan called me at 9pm and let me know that she was in the hospital. I met her there at about 10pm.

She was having terrible back labour and was in triage waiting to see if she could be admitted. She was 4cm dilated and contractions were pretty regular.

They did admit her after an hour and by 11am, Jan was happily sucking back on the gas:)

Jan said from the moment she was pregnant that she wanted an epidural and any other drugs but definitely did not want a C-section. Therefore, we wanted to hold off on the epidural for as long as possible. (risk of repeat C-section is higher if epidural is given too early)

The gas worked wonderfully. When she was checked a couple hours later, she was 5cm.

Sometime between 1-2am, she was given an epidural. It took about half an hour to kick in and get comfortable and then we all tried to get a little nap in before she was checked again at 3:30am.

Jan was at 6cm for a couple of hours. You can see below that she was much happier with her epidural! She was still able to move around in the bed so that was good. I decided to go home at 4am as things were moving a little slower than we had anticipated and also, I have two boys, and a baby girl in utero, to take care of.

{I wasn't here for this part but this is the gist of it}

Jan got to 10cm at about 9am. She pushed for an hour but his positioning was not good. The doctor came in and said she would need a C-section and Jan basically said no. She pushed like crazy and the midwife continually manually repositioned the baby and then when the doctor returned closer to 11am, he said that he would be able to vacuum the baby out. After 2 pushes with the vacuum, out he came!

Baby Jack Lucas was born on his due date! He was 8lbs on the dot. He had to be admitted to the NICU because he had a high temperature and high white blood cells. He will be there for a couple of days. Jan and Jack are both on on antibiotics. She is able to go to the NICU to feed him but still, so hard to be separated by a 5 minute walk from your baby. They aren't sure exactly what is going on so hopefully there are some answers tomorrow.

I got to visit him this evening and hold him for a minute or two. He looks like a skinnier baby Koen with a big mix of Doug in there. I'm pretty sure I just slept 2 hours last night. Yikes. I'll be honest that I'm freaking out a bit that I am next. I'm pretty sure I'll have a C-section but if it's a small baby, I will try for a VBA2C...so, we wait.

I'm so, so proud of Jan for not giving up. She was hooked up to so many things (epidural, catheter, IV, breast pumps etc) but continued on giving 100%. Yay!!

Welcome to the world Little Jack! We are happy to add another boy to the mix and oh my goodness, it is so ridiculous that all 5 of us will have kids within 6 months of each other. Crazy.