baby mooooon

First family photo. Danny was welcomed with so.much.love.

SwooOOoon. I die... :)

Urge to kiss that soft little face!! (again!) In his awesome $8 basket from the equally as awesome Waihi Beach op shop (and yes, the blanket is perhaps a little feminine but this is my last baby and I'm chucking out the baby books and Plunket graphs - Little Treasures magazine was banished years ago! - and this time I'm following the "Whatever the Heck I Like" movement! :) )

And the lavender heart is from Miss BellaBree...*muah*

it's a ...

...BOY!!!!

Wow. God has blessed me with 3 sons!

Danny Arlo Rolston was born after a short labour (for my standards at least!) in water at home at 7:10pm. Birthed completely by his mama (me! :) ) who was very surprised at how fast he chose to enter this world!! The midwife was only here for the last 7 minutes and the kids, who had gone out to have dinner with my mum, missed it entirely!!

Other stats: 9lb 4oz, 41 weeks 2 days gest

JUST DELICIOUS!!!
Pics to follow soon....I'm off to snuggle with my baby some more...mmmmmm~~

41weeks 1 day

We've been Green for Go for awhile now. Our spare room is cleared out and begging for a Baby-Having.

The siblings wait too....(and apparently eat cookies before breakfast while mum has a shower!!)

Here's to patient waiting and Baby-Havings

xx

Silence is goooOOOoolden~

I have had the luxury of being at home and entirely alone all day today. That hasn't happened in at least 2 years! No negotiating, no meals, no talking, no interruptions, no MEALS (did I mention that?!), no parenting.....ahhhh~


First thing I did was sew this sweet lil piece of innocence:



I had intended it to be a brooch?? But just not convinced about brooches...yet. I need to submerge into the craft culture a bit further before I'm comfy at that level I think!

Anyway, I just adore her - she's entirely reversible and made from one of absolute fave pieces of fabric (which is steadily getting smaller and smaller, sob! ) I need to find her a home where I can see her often... i.e. somewhere around the kitchen sink!!

I have approximately 2 hours left before I'm wife/mum/(hopefully) home-birther again :)

Phew!

This afternoon an unknown vehicle drove in and out hopped a woman who introduced herself as "Angela from down the road". The mother of Isabella.
She came to personally thank me for the journal I had made for them to collect their sweetest memories and pictures of their sister and daughter. She was lovely and it didn't seem as traumatically awkward as I was expecting! She said she absolutely loved it (couldn't stop crying apparently) and has booked into scrapbooking classes especially so she can make a good job of it. Yah!!
She had her son (5) and baby girl (7 weeks - just 2 weeks old at the time Isabella passed away!!) with her...beautiful kids. She was saying how she just loved having 3 children...for 2 weeks. *bawl*
She took my number and promised to keep in touch over the holidays. I hope so.
I'm SO pleased she visited. And I'm so relieved the journal was recieved well.

spontaneity

I made an executive decision (which, under current circumstances, is no small accomplishment!) to hiff regular afternoon routines out the window and carpe diem!

yes, my pretties, it was a hot sunny day and the beach is only a mere 25 mins from our pad. while we were there I recieved a text saying a friend was in labour...oh! how extra delicious the sun and beach seemed after hearing what I, myself, could have been very well doing at the same moment!!

I think I'll save my baby-having day til a rainy one (or just stick to my regular night time tradition) :)

on another note....some christmas goodness...

the kids made these super-dahling paper mache bowls a few weeks back. we painted them and now they're sitting on the coffee table all festive like (not quite sure what to put in them?!) in front of our super-SUPER-dahling christmas tree (i'm still swooning over the polaroids. seriously.)

commercial or not, i *do* heart christmas

xx

waiting

anticipating...

and enjoying the blessings we are already overrun with...

40 wk Belleh

My sister took these photos yesterday afternoon (on my Day Off :) ) I love how they came out. Hopefully not long before we meet this little one <3

Day Off

With the aid of 3 very enthusiastic helpers the birth pool was set up this morning. Seems like yesterday Monte was arriving in this pool! He kept patting my puku saying "bubba" then pointing into the pool. It seems he knows more than I realised :)

Feels familiar...

Shhhhhh. At last. It's quiet. So blissfully quiet. And I'm all alone. I can just 'be', without 'being' anyone or anything. Ahhhhhh~
Shhhhhh.
Been longing longing for solitude all day. Been feeling very emotional and I'm also pretty sure baby dropped d..o..w..n.

There's a sense of knowing what is ahead and the mental marathon involved to do it well and a real earnest desire to have some personal space to prep for that!! The preconception of most is that I "just so happen" to birth well. Pffshh! It takes a snot load (and then some) of mental focus to birth well. It's darned hard work, never easy. However, I am concerned I'm too tired and unprepared to have the mental stamina necessary this time. Yah for the Grace of God!

All in all, feeling very birthy and don't think this one will make us all wait til week 42 like the last :)

After this huge emotional tug of war in the morning between longing for solitude and kids giving me the complete opposite I was able to sneak a few moments to myself in the afternoon. I made these and felt much better for it (wool felt "polaroids" for each month of our year). Our tree looks spanking!! :) Idea from here

Taking Time

I took the day off yesterday. It was supposed to be our day of "unpacking Christmas", but I'd already gone ahead and done that on Sunday afternoon.

So yesterday, the 1st of December, was free. And there also *happened* to be some very lust-worthy book/journal binding lessons happening out at my mum's place. With baby coming any day now I seized the opportunity to attend the lessons while I could. So, minus the hubby and the 3 y/o, we took an early drive to the west coast (and with a careful bit of preparation and manouvering, even managed to catch Monte's porridge on it's way back out... lots n lots n lots of corners!).

The tutor was this American lass: http://www.etsy.com/shop/joannagriffiths (view 'sold items' to see examples of her work...very funky)...here's a journal she had with her:

The second (less conventional) method of binding she taught us involved very sharp bamboo skewers!...:

While the cousins played happily:

My sweet niece Cheyenne (newly returned from Australia) was the first to draw in my new book:

Which was, of course, a pink and orange crocodile :)...: