Mr. Difficult-to-get-a-picture-of...

One of the only pictures where he is not a blur! Iwas thinking that we werent getting any pictures of Aidan... I checked I have lots of pictures, they're all blurry because he cant stop moving long enough! So here is one from breakfast time... most of him is still... amazing for a 2.5 yr old!

Princess Halloween

It was Halloween parade for the kindergarten students at school. We had this costume around for a long time since Grandma bought it for Lilly over a year ago (maybe 2?). She can fit into it now! We got little ballet slippers and one of the plastic tiara sets. She was so thrilled to go to school like this. We were also able to use the poncho and muff that Grandma got Lilly as well. we told her she looked like Belle in the poncho. She spent the after noon sitting in her princess dress watching Sleeping Beauty! Awwwww... :)

She still likes trains and trucks so no worries...

Our Littlest Boy

Our little baby is now 3 months old! How quickly time flies when you're so busy like we are! Aaron can now roll over at will and has great head control. He will be just as busy as big brother and sister. I need to get back in shape to keep up with these kids!

Our new addition and a new journey...

On August 1st we welcomed our newest baby boy to our family, Aaron William. I spent most of Friday in contractions and timed them all day. They subsided around lunch so I thought it was the same as what had been happening since I was in the hospital earlier in July. I wasnt getting too excited. We took my sister out to meet a friend for the evening as she had been staying with us for the week to help me out. Drew and I took the kids out for supper, I was having contractions and they were strong like earlier in the day but again I wasnt going to freak out. We got home put the kids to bed, and took a break in our room. Then things started to happen and we started timing again. I went from 13 mins apart to 8 mins apart in 45 mins. My sister called for Drew to pick her up, so he went fast! When they got back I was in pain, then my water broke! We called the midwife at 12:20 am, and arranged to meet at the hospital for 1:00 am. I had a lot of trouble getting downstairs and into the car. We got to emergency and they let me in right away. We reached our room and met Jennie (one of my midwives) there at 1:10 am. She helped me get onto the bed while drew ran back to park the car. I was contracting the whole time and lost a lot of fluid - trashed everything I was wearing from the waist down! Yuck!

Jennie tried to talk me through a few contractions and then I started to spontaneously push and couldn't stop. She was monitoring the baby's heart beat. Drew made it back just in time. Suddenly, the baby's heart rate dropped from the 150s to low 90s (the lowest I remember seeing was 89). Jennie got me to roll over, by this time I was vocalizing a lot. The "birth imminent" alarm was pushed and Jennie took charge and started coaching me to push even if I wasn't in contraction. Drew was coaching as well and did a great job (he has lots of experience now!). The nurses were there too. I was put on my back and things went quickly. I pushed a few times and baby came out!
What a relief! Our second midwife arrived shortly after. Drew told me we had a boy, to which I asked him if he was sure!
Baby was stunned at arriving so quickly and needed oxygen to get going. After that he wailed and wailed! What a wonderful noise! Our new little boy was weighed and was 6 lbs 8.4 ozs. Our biggest baby of the three and full term to boot! Aaron was born at 1:34 am - you do the math on how short my active labour was! Really though I was so relieved to have baby on the outside!
I don't know how things managed to work out as well as they did with the timing, I guess God was watching out for us again.

Aaron was given back to me for skin-to-skin time. He cried for a while and then calmed down. Babies are amazing. He was swaddled and daddy held him while mommy was "repaired."
We decided to stay at the hospital for most of the day so Aaron & I could complete all the necessary outputs and get some rest. I think daddy found it difficult to sleep when the nurses kept coming in to check on us, but he got some rest. I think I was still running on adrenalin or something until around lunch time.
All in all a very exciting weekend, with a happy outcome. Lilly got over her disappointment at not getting a new baby sister. She decided just having a baby at all is the best thing ever. Aidan was happy that he got to see a new baby and that the baby gets to stay in the house.
Thank you Auntie eden for being here to watch kidlets while we were away. You did a fantastic job and we love you.

Full term excitment... achieved!

Whew! Today we have reached 37 weeks.

The OB appt went well yesterday, although incredibly quickly! Nothing has gotten worse since last week. The ultrasound was fine, BP was fine and I have not gained any weight either. (I find that just weird). My care has now been transferred back to my midwives and since we have reached the "full term" portion of this pregnancy I am feeling pretty good - well mostly.

I spoke with my midwife yesterday to find out what all this transferring and stuff means. I am still on "light duty" but I can try to do a few things now but I am not allowed to be a "hero". So no vacuuming, I can drive a little, I can help with the laundry but I should not be doing all the lifting etc. So I am still in the same boat but going into labour now is not as much of a crisis as it would have been last week. My midwife says she wants me to keep the baby in until 38 weeks - to which I said "What?! This is the longest I've had one of these in!" I have honestly gotten to the point where I dont know what to do with myself.

This is a new experience for me physically. I admit my body really hurts now. Yes, all of my "full term" friends are probably saying "well that's what the rest of us have to do!" So I'll deal with it. LOL! These third babies really do throw us for a loop as I was warned. I have to admit though, over all, this has been the nicest pregnancy so far. I hope it ends well too.

On another upside I have managed to get 3 knitting/crocheting projects done this week that have been waiting and waiting! Yay for small blessings. :) I am now working on my first "soaker" (for those of you who cloth diaper). It is going well.

Thank you to all our friends and family who have stepped in to help us out, manage the kids, do housework, keep me in check, make sure I nap, make us meals and check in on us. We're still going to need you even after this baby comes but thank you for making sure we are taken care of. My sister arrives tomorrow for the next changing of the guard. Thank you everyone!

We'll keep you updated with what is going on here as much as we can.

Preterm excitement... again

What a week...

On Monday I started having contractions in the car on the way to the appointment with the midwife. Well at least I was headed to see the right person! Things got more uncomfortable and we all decided after an internal check that we should all go to the hospital to the childbirth triage. I have been very fortunate to have such great midwives each time I have been pregnant.

We got to triage and started to get monitored. I was seen by an OB and was attached to all the necessary equipment. I admit I was a little nervous at the prospect of going into active labour at this point in the pregnancy again but figured well I've done it twice before so what the heck.

While we were in we had a scare as well. The baby's heart rate suddenly dropped from the 150s to high 70s. All of a sudden I had everyone in my little room contorting me into different positions, I was given an oxygen mask and they brought in the portable ultra sound. Baby came round and everything has been fine since then. No explanation as to why that happened but we are glad that we made it through. This incident sparked talk of emergency c-section and I was given a catheter so I did not have get up any more. The contractions were not stopping and were regular and getting more intense. Drew and I were moved into a labour and delivery room where I was too be monitored for four hours and have my own personal nurse. :) The contractions were still regular. I wasnt allowed to have anything to eat or drink for that whole time which was rough since I had not eaten since 2 pm and it was now 11 pm!

We made it through the 4 hours without incident and with no progression in dilation of the cervix. As a result I was in a lot of pain in my abdomen, back and other areas where things had been “poked and prodded”.

The next day I was told that I would be staying at the hospital for observation for 24 hours. They called this a “forced rest”. I was able to meet with my midwife that morning too. My care had been transferred to the OB the night before and it will stay that way until the birth is over. I had a day of fetal monitoring, resting, served meals (yay!), tests, antibiotics and a visit from family. By night time I was a little bored and very anxious for Drew to come by so I could have someone to talk to. Through all this baby was doing excellent and the OB was very happy with the monitoring.

That night I was able to get a few hours uninterrupted sleep until I had a reaction to the antibiotics. We got that cleared up and I was able to get back to sleep.

After breakfast the OB came to see me to tell me I could go home after a few more tests. She then told me that I was to be on “light duty” at home. Which, when clarified, meant bed rest without the bed. I also was scheduled for an ultrasound that morning. I got some more pictures!

So here we are with members of our families taking turns being here for a few days to look after the kids and kick my butt if I try to do anything. I didnt actually think this rest thing was going to mean much until I tried to lift a bottle of juice (it was the BIG bottle of cranberry) and went into contractions. I now see that this is serious and have decided to do what I am told.

Thank so much to our family members rearranging their lives to come here and for our supportive friends making time to come over and help all of us out. You guys are a blessing from God and we wont forget that.

I'll try to post when I can but I wont be taking phone calls or answering much email until I start feeling a bit better. Thank you for all the good wishes and prayers.

We have a new gestational record! I am now 36 weeks! Never before achieved... and since this is the last pregnancy not again... yay! :)

something new...

Sooo I have been having a pregnancy experience that I havent really had before and it is causing me some... well... distress? feelings of self conciousness? People are staring at me when I go out. Not me but the belly! I have often wondered what it must be like for a large-chested woman to have that happen in public... it doesnt feel too good when your are a large-bellied pregnant woman. Kinda feel like saying, "hey the boobs are up here". Maybe it is because it is summer time and we arent wearing jackets or anything... but geez people. Oh well...

Our little bud...

Some pics of our little man... awww he's gotten so big. And he speaks almost entirely in complete sentences now. He is still working on pronunciation but hey as long as we understand him great! His newest thing is to tell you when you have taken something of his. "Daddy took my dummy out of my mouth! Daddy hid it! Where did my dummy go?"

Baby's room: before pics

Here is a pic of the wall paper that was under the chair rail! Sorry I'm just not a wall paper kind of person. Luckily the walls were all primed before the wall paper went up so getting it off wasnt too bad. Thanks to my mom for helping us get the rest of the backing off the walls when she was here a few weeks ago!

I cant find the pics of when the wallpaper was still on the walls but here are some just after we took the wall paper off. It was only on the top half of the wall and was a nautical theme. The bottom was painted dark blue and to separate the top and bottom there was a chair rail along the middle. The chair rail caused us a lot of grief getting it off as it damaged the walls. Some of the nails used to put it on were huge!

Baby's Room part 2

We'll be painting out all the trim. This is the painitng "in progress" shot.

The paint is on the walls and done! We chose a nice green for this room. Not too dark and not too light. Nice and clean and gender neutral! We had to wait a bit longer than we thought to get the trim done. Some of it took 4 coats (by choice due to location). The tape is off and we are going to set about vacuuming, cleaning up, hopefully shampooing the carpet, then it will be furniture time. I'd like to put something on the walls but seeing as we dont know the sex of the baby it will have to wait. Drew has put a lot of time into getting this room ready. He put in some really late nights and is very tired. He did a fabulous job. You cant even tell where that damage from the chair rail was it is so smooth!

New baby's room

We have moved the kids into one room to make way for our new arrival. Drew had to do alot of work on this room to repair damage that resulted when we took a chair rail off the wall. We also had to fill all the holes in the walls from almost 30 years of picture hanging and shelves. The room used to have a nautical theme complete with wall paper and borders. That has all been removed now. Thanks to my mom for getting a lot of the backing of the wall paper off the wall when she visited!

I cant find the before pics but if I do I'll try to post them later. Currently the room is primed and the trim is up. Drew should be ready to put colour on the walls soon! I am so lucky to have such a talented mate!

Reading time...

Reading is one of the kids favourite things to do. It is amazing that Lilly will be going to school and starting to read on her own in the next couple years... *sigh*

thank you for wonderful gifts!

At the end of the season the PCRC we attend has a BBQ lunch for all the families that come to the centre. As always it is quite busy as there are a lot of us that use the centre. The kids have a great time, so do the parents and the workers are great to us. This year they went step further and had gifts for all the kids. The kids were allowed to go in and pick a gift to take home. That was such a nice surprise, so not expected!

Lilly went in and contrary to her usual tastes she decided to pick out a baby doll with all the pieces! She wasnt coerced or anything. So she now has a baby who has been getting a lot of attention since it came home ( it is a girl baby). Lilly has been practising taking care of the baby, feeding, nap times, walks in the stroller. She's getting ready for the new "real" baby to come home! So sweet and very compassionate.

Aidan picked out a transport truck that transports cars. He has now figured out how the whole thing works, even how to get at the motor by lifting up the hood - which I cannot do by the way.

The nice thing is that both kids are sharing the toys and taking turns! Lilly gets a "truck fix" for a while and Aidan gets to walk the baby in the stroller for a while!

Things so far...

Talking about this new baby about to arrive...

When we found out back in December or so, I was pretty upset. We had just made the decision to not have any more kiddies and were in the process of finding homes for all our baby paraphernalia. Then SURPRISE! Luckily we found out when we did or we would have had to buy everything all over again!

Then you get over being surprised and start focusing on what you have to do to keep one toddler and one pre-schooler occupied and taken care of while you're battling morning sickness, a growing mid-section and fatigue like you've never had before. I decided early on that the morning sickness medication and my diet had to get ramped up. It worked! I also made sure to exercise regularly as well (until we all came down with a Norwalk bug in the New Year...). Hubby and I also made sure we stuck to the routines of nap and bedtime like glue so that we didnt get lax and get ourselves in to trouble.

Long story short, this pregnancy has turned out to be the best one physically that I have experienced and I've finally learned to cope well! Yay for learning curves!

We have been fortunate to have a very supportive team of midwives again and for the most part I have been realtively healthy. The only exception being 3 rounds of antibiotics to fight a persistent UTI. Other than that things have been very good. We have been blessed with a good doctor and chiropractor who have been working together with us to make sure that things get done and that I am able to function. Thanks!

We are now in the home stretch and waiting to see if this baby will make an appearance as early as its big sister and brother. The funny thing is that I am not sure what I will do with myself if I do go longer than the last two! The heat will surely be very uncomfortable as the summer progresses. Swelling is not pleasant.

Drew has begun to get the baby's room together and we have moved the two oldest into one room. That has been an experience all on its own! But they are having fun "sleeping over" and for the most part are learning to sleep in spite of the other one being in the room.

Both of our moms have been down for a few days each to help us catch up on things like sleep and laundry - THANKS! The kids were so spoiled and they loved it!

I still have not gotten my hospital bag completely packed, I really should get on that. I have the call list done for who will come here when the labour starts to look after the kids. Grandma is waiting in the wings to whisk down and be here while we are at the hospital. So far so good!

At my last appointment the baby's head was down. I go for a final ultra sound to determine cervical length and baby position soon. We'll see if we get any advanced warning. I am not sure we will. All in all baby seems to be doing well and moving a lot, just like its siblings. We did not find out the sex this time although I was wanting to. Drew prefers it to be a surprise so we'll wait and see what happens. Lilly is determined that this baby is a girl and has picked out her name and everything. She said that God told her it was a girl - who are we to argue with that? Aidan says that I have a baby in my tummy and so does he. Kids are the best aren't they?

Making volcanoes!

Recently, volcanoes have become a big topic of interest around our house. Lilly has decided to make the mountain part in the sandbox. Sorry, no vinegar and baking soda in there!

wearing dresses...

She has decided that dresses are nice to wear now! yay! Look at this pretty girl!

After the rainstorm...

Puddles are free and way too much fun!

Sunny days of spring

When we had those few miraculous days of 10 degree or more weather the kids couldnt wait to be outside. Eating outside is such a treat. Yahoo!

Mornings in the bathroom...

I dont really have to explain this one do I? Too funny. The cat joins in too. LOL!

Easter fun!

The egg hunt was a huge success. How can chocolate not be? Cousins Riley and Kyra joined us for the search. Everyone got some terrific treats!

brothers and sisters...

The wonderful thing about
Brothers and sisters
Sisters and brothers
Are a wonderful thing
The thing we like
About brothers and sisters
[Franklin]
Is just about everything.

--Franklin and the Green Knight

Look a likes almost a century apart...

They say everyone has a look-a-like. My boy and the kid from the Rice Krispies box from the early 20th Century.