Oh Baby!

Yes, baby is here! Currently asleep on my lap is Joshua William, born on Friday 22nd of July at 11:53am.
On the Wednesday evening before he was born, Dad got home from work and let us know he had to go back into town for a night shift at the airport where he is working. Mum and I were a bit apprehensive - we didn't want the baby to come when Dad wasn't here! And sure enough, a while after he left Mum started have contractions that slowly worked down to about 15 mins apart. I called Dad to let him know things might be gearing up, and thankfully he was just about finished and ready to come home anyway. :) Dad got home, and we got things ready and waited... and waited. Nothing happened! Contractions never really got much closer and slowed down. Eventually I decided to go to bed and at least try and rest till things picked up more. The next day (Thursday)  Dad told us he had sent a message round to the rest of his work team and told them he was on maternity leave! Haha and of course they said "congratulations" back, assuming that Mum had already had Joshua... oops :)
There weren't really any contractions to speak of until the next evening, when things picked up again. It was another long night of contractions, but not enough to really be called labor until morning, when dad woke me up and said things were finally getting going! Dad and I got the spa bath ready, and Mum got in. It seemed like the labor took a good while longer this time (Micah took about 30 mins!). When the midwife arrived she took one look at mum's tummy during a contraction and told us Joshua was posterior - that explained Mum's sore back and longer labor. She checked his heartbeat after a bit though and he had was good. Finally at 11:53am, Joshua was born. He came out rather limp and a grey/purple color- that spurred our midwife into action with massaging him and and making sure his mouth was clear. She even used some oxygen to get him going with his breathing. It was a bit of a shock to see him like that! He turned a healthy pink with a bit of massaging though, and he was fine after that. Phew!
We guessed the labor was about 4 1/2 hours long - as I said, that's longer than usual for Mum, but it really is quite short when compared to a lot of other women :)
Today Joshua is 2 weeks old (already!) and Mum says he is an "average" baby as far as fussiness goes :) He does not like to sleep by himself, but he usually is happy to drift of when he is snuggled by one of his numerous brothers and sisters. He sure had a good appetite too! He is happy and healthy and gets plenty of cuddles and kisses haha.

So there's your update on Joshua! Thanks for reading :)

~Rachel

Family Update

I realize I haven't updated this blog for a few months, and I'm sorry, but there is not a whole lot to say! Here is a family update anyway.

  Mum is due to have baby in just a few weeks, and I feel like we're on the final stretch now. (Ahaha, pun unintended!) For those who don't know, Mum has been so weak this pregnancy that she has had to be in bed almost constantly. With a lot of adjustments, the family has managed to keep on going without too much trauma involved! Life will be back to normal soon - whatever that is. I suspect it will be another difficult adjustment process - getting used to Mum being in charge again, and having another little one to care for. I'm looking forward to the baby so much though. There is something so sweet and precious about a holding a newborn baby. That first cry, first smile, first word...

 More exciting news - my sister Coralie is engaged to be married in November. This is a first for us, a wedding in the family! We are all looking forward to it very much. Venue, dresses, decorations, invitations... I can't wait for the big day. However, it will be tinged with sadness - Coralie will be moving up north shortly after the wedding - that day is one I dread, and it is only looming closer. Hopefully they won’t stay up there long ;) 

 The little children keep me entertained with the funny things they say. If I ever get enough courage to give a speech at any of their weddings, I'll have a lot of funny stories to tell! The older kids are coming along with their schoolwork. Mum can still teach them from her bed. Leah especially loves to read and is rather proud of her achievements haha. 

 Recently Jonathan, Isaiah, Daniel and I have been going along to Contra dancing lessons. We all enjoy it heaps! I still laugh about the boys loving it, because when they were younger they were horrified at the idea of dancing. They thought it was just "for girls". Any persuasion Coralie and I tried wouldn't work. I don't know who they thought we were dancing with! 

 We've had a few birthdays in the last month; Daniel turned 12, and I turned 19. We didn't do a whole lot for them this year; we had a quiet meal together with family. Mum says she has something up her sleeve for mine, but it will have to wait until she has had the baby and is up and about again to carry out. Hmmm....

 For some reason I am really looking forward to spring this year. I can't wait to get started on our vege garden! There is something lovely about making salads and meals with veges that you've grown yourself.

So there is a short update on "us". I’ll try and update soon after baby is born.

Rachel

Tribute

I've been a bit slack about keeping up the blog, haven't I? Sorry. Life has been very busy lately, and it feels like there is way too much going on to focus on a blog ;)
Anyway, here is a poem I wrote about 9 months ago, when Mum miscarried and a little baby left us all and went to heaven. I was a painful time for us, and it hurt so badly. I did a lot of thinking and crying and praying things through and came up with this poem. It still hurts to think about and to re-read it. Kinda brings all the memories and feelings of that time in our life back.

Tribute


I was happy you were here
And looked forward to your birth
But now you’ve gone ahead
And left me on this earth

I know you’re in heaven
So I guess I should rejoice
But I can’t yet find that in me
Cause I never heard your voice

I never got to meet you
I never saw your face
But though I still miss you
Heaven bound you’ve won the race

I really wish you’d stay
But I know it’s too late,
You’re already on your way
So I’ll join you there someday

I didn’t want it to end this way
But sometimes there’s one thing to say
And that is to praise our God
Who gives and sometimes takes away

One day I know I will understand
Why it didn’t happen like we’d planned
So for now all I’m asking
Is God, that You’d hold my hand

Boy, girl or both, we’re still not sure
But this child is on earth no more
That’s right friends, we need to say
A child to heaven has slipped away
24/07/2010


To a baby whose identity is unknown
From a sister who will one day
See him/her face to face in heaven <3
By Rachel Christine Thompson

Big Families and Birthdays

Our "birthday month" this year has begun! When you have a large family, and a lot of the children are born about 2 years apart, you often get a cluster of birthdays all at once...Hence, Birthday Month!

We started of with a roar - little Jacob had his 4th birthday on the 1st, yesterday. He was spoiled with presents and had a great time. You should have seen his grin! Jacob has such a cute smile, it just lights up his whole face into one huge sunbeam :)

My sister and I also went birthday shopping together yesterday. I was quite impressed with how much we got done. Presents for 7 people in just a few hours! We went home with sore feet and depleted purses, haha! But I had a great time and got to give my sister's baby, my nephew, heaps of cuddles too. He's just the cutest :) I'm trying to be his favourite aunty =D

Anyway, this year, instead of having a party for each child, we thought we would try having a massive Birthday Bash in the middle of the month to celebrate them all together. So, giant party planning has begun!

To give you an idea of how it goes, this month Jacob turns 4, Leah 6, Timothy 8, Isaiah 13, Jonathan 15, my older sister 20, and Mum - well yeah, she turns a year older too :p. Also Dad and Mums wedding anniversary is this month, along with Grandma and Granddads! No, that's not all of us, the rest of us have our birthdays elsewhere in the year :)


In other happenings... tomorrow I'm going on a CEF camp. It's lots of fun, challenging and can put you way out of your comfort zone (especially if you're shy like me!) Pray for me if you have time, cos I need it, and for the girls that will be in my team too :)

Hope y'all have a great week, and I’ll try to tell how camp went in my next post :)



~Rachel

Health, Gardening, and Pride

I know. I haven't posted in about 2 1/2 weeks. I don't think this blog was a good idea now. I can't think of what to write! Oh well. Life updates are always good, right!? :)

We all did gardening work yesterday, and now the front garden looks lovely. The boys did a good job of putting bricked edges around part of the flower garden, and Dad planted some grasses. It looks way better! The littlies got in the way helped out with picking out stones from the garden, etc. I made this bricked area thingy around the fishpond... it's hard to explain :) I'm so sore today, though! Must be so unfit!

On Saturday I'm volunteer working for a couple that do foster caring on their farm (see www.eleazer.org.nz). What they do is so awesome! I'm looking forward tro seeing how they do it all and hopefully pick up some hints :p (see "about me").

What I've been learning... a lot lately actually. We went to a seminar about nutrition (see www.betterbods.co.nz), and it was quite eye opening and yeah, well, Mum and I have been cleaning out the cupboards of bad food (much to Dad's horror!) Hopefully we'll convert the whole family into eating more healthily sometime... some people may take some convincing though ;p The woman who taught it, Rachel Thompkinson (I know, cool name right! :D) has a young daughter who had severe eczema at just a few months old. Rachel did a lot a research, then put her daughter old a rather extreme (by today’s standards anyway!) diet cutting out all foods with MSG etc in them. Its way more complicated actually, but after a wee while of doing that Rachel's daughter got completely well. Anyway, Rachel is way more convincing and explains everything, so I'll just say it was great :)

For more deep and meaningful things...God has been teaching me a lot about pride lately. Pride is a horrid word and we all hate to hear it associated with ourselves. Unfortunately most of us have some sort of pride. On top of that, it's really complicated and it’s hard to learn how to be humble instead. I watched a talk on it by John Regier and it showed me how prideful I really am. Did you know there are two types of pride? There is obvious pride and hidden pride. I have hidden pride, which is not immediately obvious but it shows in the way I think of myself and others. So I’m asking God to help me change. Mr. Regier gave 5 Biblical ways that we can learn to change, and I can’t remember them all but it was something like: thinking of others as more important than you, never draw attention to your own achievements and abilities and a few other things but you get the basic idea. There also lots of verses in the Bible about pride and how bad it is.



So there’s a little bit about what’s up... I’ve also been reading a really good book, but I might tell you about that next time :)