Time out for Mum

Wed 15th: Although welcoming the 6th child to our family, it's a very first for one of my babies to be in a hospital basinet.
We arrived at the Rangiora Health Hub in the early hours of this morning. I will spend Wednesday and Thursday night here and head home on Friday.

Beautiful dark eyes.

Sleeping beauty.

The children missed school this morning because they started the day with a visit to Anastasia and I.
It was important to me that they got to see her as soon as possible. So she was just over 12 hours old when they got their first cuddles.

Ruth was heading to town with other kiwi watch kids to have a visit at Willowbank. So after their visit with me he dropped her off in town and then they headed back to get the others to school.
Ruth had a great time learning about how they care for the kiwis there.
Rachel struggled the most with me not giving birth at home and not being home as soon as baby was born. She has been privileged to be at all 3 of the other births and so it was a hard adjustment for her.

Just Asher missing from this photo with my children. She was at preschool today and Rachiel (her Teacher Aid) just kept her there a bit longer till Brendon was back (he was a little later than her proper finish time before 12).

Ruth also wanted to take Anastasia's first selfie. :-)

My midwife, Lindsay, gave me this beautiful blanket for Anastasia.

Thursday 16th:
Her two big sisters made her a couple of "birth day" cakes for her.

Ruth's creation. She wanted to do a washing line with baby clothes, but the fondant was a bit hard to work with, so it ended up being a banner.

Rachel made some booties for the top of the cake she did. She also experimented with a new icing which tasted great and was apparently much easier to work with than normal butter icing.
Rachel's cake was enjoyed with friends who brought a meal around on Thursday afternoon. They brought Ruth's cake to the Rangiora Health Hub and so I got to enjoy some of that and share it with the other mothers and the staff there.
Thanks girls.

Asher spent the morning with Linda so that Rachel could get to work and Brendon could come and spend the morning with me.
What a wonderful blessing for us all.
Asher had a great time there.
(Thanks Linda for these lovely photos.)

Getting her first bath.

She wasn't too pleased with it. It will be much nicer to bath at home with us.

Brendon told Lindsay he felt like he was all fingers working with her. She is so small and it's been over 4 1/2 years since our last one was so little.

Lindsay gave her a good check today. Everything is looking good.

Only after lunch did I realize that Brendon was planning on bringing all the children down for the dancing practices - which are just 15 minutes away from me. So I asked if he could bring them for a visit. Unfortunately Asher had a seizure at 3 (just as he was going to get the children from school) and so he wasn't sure if he was even going to bother with the dance trip. I got really emotional when he mentioned this. Even though it was such a last minute plan, I was really disappointed that it would not happen. With my milk coming in my emotions where really all over the place. I was wondering if there was someone I should call to just chat with, when this lovely lady, Paula from the Champion Centre, popped her head around the door and said hi. Her visit was planned by God for exactly the time that I needed it. It was such a wonderful blessing to have this special lady to chat to and laugh with. We enjoyed some cake together and I was so very grateful for the time we could spend together.

As it meant so much to me, Brendon did end up bringing the girls to dancing. Hezekiah decided to stay and have a play with his friend (whose mother had dropped the food off in the afternoon).
So the girls got an extra cuddle.

And Asher got to meet Anastasia too. Brendon had the Laptop with as well as her church bag of toys. As soon as she walked in the room we got a DVD set up for her and she started with her puzzles. She did really well to come into a totally new place and not want to immediately run out.
So it was interesting, but not surprising, that she was not really interested in her baby sister at all. She really was just coping with this new place. She did see and recognise me (which I was grateful for). I was sure I would be called Rachel after Rachel being her main carer for the last week and a half. Brendon has even been called Rachel this week.
We did get her to come and give Anastasia a "gentle" wipe, but she was not really interested.

Paula had brought this doll as a gift for Asher from the Champion Centre. So she will have her own little baby. We took the photo - but again, she wasn't really interested in anything new.
My two little ones.

Rachel had arrived a bit later after her lesson as she had driven down on her own. That worked out nicely as she could then have a much longer visit with me and I could share some things with her about the birth. It was nice that we could have some un-rushed time to just sit and chat.

The days that I had at the Health Hub were so very good. I could chat to the midwives about things as well as the other mothers. It was so good to have this time of sharing, having gone through something totally new for me (being in a hospital - let alone having an induction). Another blessing I thank the Lord for.