My tiniest boy has arrived!

Just a quick entry (really!) to make note in this diary of our big news (links to more detailed diary entries included)!

Nathan arrived a month early! My waters broke on Friday (Jan 11th), and I was induced the same afternoon because I'm GBS positive and needed antibiotics once my waters broke.

Nathan Martin was born at 5.42am on Saturday January 12th. I wrote about that part in this entry. He was born a month before his due date (he was due Feb 10th) at 35 weeks and 6 days gestation. He weighed 5lbs 13oz, and was 19 inches long, which was pretty good for his gestation! I think he would have been my heaviest baby yet, had he gone to term.

He had no breathing problems, no blood sugar problems, and was able to stay with me for the few days we were in hospital. He didn't maintain his body temperature too well in the first 24 hours, but he was fine after that. I had to supplement him with small amounts of formula in the hospital to keep his blood sugar levels steady. My milk came in during the evening on Day 3, after we arrived home from hospital, so he isn't getting formula top ups any more. He is nursing plenty, and Matthew too. I love tandem nursing! Arthur decided my new milky tasted yucky and disgusting (!), and wouldn't nurse any more. He seemed quite unhappy about it, as though he really WANTED to keep nursing but didn't like the taste. He seemed to be the one dealing LEAST well with having a new baby brother. Matthew is eager and excited, and VERY sweet and gentle with Nathan. He calls him "dee-dee" (baby) and strokes his hair sooooo softly, saying, "Deh-doh" (gentle). He wants to see Nathan every single opportunity he gets.

Yesterday evening Arthur asked for milky at bedtime. I asked if he was sure, and he said yes. When it was in full flow, he seemed not-so-happy about being on the breast drinking it, but he continued anyway. After he finished, I asked him how he felt about Mummy's milky tonight. He said it was yummy again and that he wanted to have milky all the time again now :) He has nursed quite a few times today, and as usual at bedtime, with no problems. He declares that it's yummy every time. I think we're back on with the tandem (triandum?!) nursing, and I'm happy about that. I think it will help Arthur to bond with Nathan. Already today, when Matthew was napping, I was nursing Nathan and Arthur together, and Arthur was acting WAY more calm around him (he's been a bit boisterous and aggressive and fidgetty around Nathan thus far) and gently playing with Nathan's fingers while they nursed. So that is good!

I wrote another diary entry from the hospital before we left, and then a big entry with the first photos of Nathan. I will keep updating about my tiniest boy at my pregnancy journal, like I usually do, until he's 6 weeks old. Then I will (sadly, as always!) close things down there till next time (ohhh I hope there will be one!), and continue to update about ALL my boys here! This diary sometimes gets a bit neglected while I'm writing about a new tiny person (and his brothers) at my pregnancy diary, so do check there as I write a lot of stuff there that really ought to belong here, during that time! I have a lot more photos to post there soon, but haven't finished uploading and resizing yet. We are not getting a lot of sleep at the moment. I need to write about that there, too.

But I have THREE sons! I have ALL my boys! I am sooooo blessed! I love each of them so very much, and I can't believe this is my life, and they are MY children! I am just in awe. Thank you Lord, for the safe arrival of another precious baby boy, and for blessing me with each of my children. Please help me to be the best mother I can be to them, and to parent them lovingly and sensitively. Help me to meet each of their needs and learn to juggle caring for three. Keep me from hormonal issues in the next few months, and equip me for everything that will be demanded of me! Help me lean on you above all. I need you more than ever. I love you Lord! I just want to praise you for your faithfulness to me, and your loving kindness. You are all I could ever need. Amen.

It's 2008, wheeee! :)

Yay, it's 5 minutes into 2008!! Fireworks are going off everywhere here, and I'm watching some spectacular ones on the TV while I type this.

I'm SO excited about 2008!!!!!!!! Now it's actually here, it's so so so exciting! I'm going to have a baby, and oh how my boys will grow and change, and what a lot I have to look forward to! I know it sounds CRAZY, but maybe I will even be pregnant again by the end of the year? Nathan will be 10 months old, and that's about when I get pregnant again. We know we want a fourth and with a similar gap if we're blessed that way. Weeeird thought right now though, hehe!

It's also JANUARY now, which means I can say that my baby is due NEXT MONTH!!! And near the beginning too. Yikes.

I am perfectly content with my New Year's Eve. Neil was tired out with a headache and went to bed RIGHT after we put the boys to bed and did our chat-and-pray thing - about 8.30pm! He has stayed up pretty late for several nights and will feel sooooooo much better for a long sleep. He's someone who just zonks out the moment his head hits the pillow, never mind if it's like 5 hours before he normally goes to sleep! (yes it does bug me!)

London's fireworks are pretty this year!

I wasn't going to take much notice of the big countdown but I can't resist, if I know it's a few minutes to midnight, just popping the telly on to hear Big Ben's bongs :) So I did that with 30 seconds to go. I have just been trying to catch up on my online forums and stuff tonight, and also watched a couple of funny relaxing things on TV after Neil went to bed. And ate chocolate, of course ;)

Matthew came down with Neil's cold in the night last night, and has been a bit miserable and snotty today. He has been laughing and energetic other times though, so he's not too poorly. He woke about an hour ago wanting a drink - it's SO nice that he can ask us for those now! He says, "Di-di" for drink, for some reason! But it's clear enough and we know what he's asking for. So I gave him a drink and he dozed off on my shoulder again, so I put him back in his cot :) I love that boy bean soooo.

Both of them have been a serious handful today! We went to my grandparents' for lunch and they just ran riot in the very UN-toddler-proofed house. They purposely didn't toddler proof it much because "the boys need to learn". *sigh* Never mind that this makes it SUPER HARD for us to manage them and protect a zillion breakables, etc, and thus get exhausted and not really be able to listen to everything my grandparents are trying to tell us all the time.

Anyway, so a hard day! I got 2 hours and 45 minutes sleep last night because I was up late and then couldn't sleep, and then Matthew was really restless and wakeful with his cold. He's been up from 5.50am three mornings running now, urgh. I work on settling him back to sleep for a bit (never works) and then breastfeed him for 30-40 minutes. This gives Neil extra sleep, and also it's lovely to still have a couple of long breastfeeding sessions with Matthew. I don't want him to stop! He still loves it so that's good. He only nurses before nap and bedtime now though, and on waking in the morning. And occasionally if he sees Arthur breastfeeding in the day (which isn't so common now - Arthur often only nurses ONCE before bed, which is still such an alien concept to me! He was still breastfeeding like 6 times a day when Matthew was 6 or so months old!), or if he gets hurt badly.

Anyway. I can't remember what I was saying! Oh yes, I am really tired. I should have gone to bed early too. After I finish this entry I am going to empty the dishwasher and reload it, and set it off, and then lay out the boys' clothes and go to bed. I'm REALLY happy not to be out partying somewhere! I like my quiet home life :)

Oh I knew there was something else to say! Arthur is mightily difficult to handle at the moment, as I said last entry, but today and yesterday he has said a couple of such sweet things! I wanted to document them here so I don't forget the GOOD stuff while it's a hard patch with him :)

Yesterday we went to church. I had nothing clean that stretches over my huge bump any more, so I was frantically trying things on before we went - all of them too tight on my legs! In the end I found some dark blue denim dungarees and decided to wear a top with them that I have not worn before. It's a floaty shirt that has little flowers allll over, and it's very PINK! I stood for ages in front of the mirror worrying that it was too pink or too floral, or whatnot. Or that it didn't flatter me or look nice enough to wear out.

I went downstairs to ask Neil if it was too pink, and he was in the kitchen. On my way there, Arthur turned and saw me, and GASPED! He walked over to me open-mouthed, and said in a completely awed tone, "Mummy! You look beautiful! You've got flowers all over!! You look beautiful just like a flower." Bless his sweet little heart! It was just what I needed to hear, even if it didn't change the fact that it might have been TOO PINK to wear! I wore it anyway :)

Today after our challenging day with the boys, I had settled Matthew in his cot, and then I went in and breastfed Arthur in his bed for a bit like normal. I prayed with him like normal, and he reminded me to pray for Daddy's cold as well as Matthew's :) He was still wide awake after our bedtime routine and insisted he was not going to sleep. Sometimes this does not bode well! So I was telling him that I wanted him to lie in bed and wait for sleep to come, etc, and that he must not make a ton of noise or get out of bed now that it's bedtime. He is pretty good with this, actually.

Anyway, he lay there with his eyes exaggeratedly open, and so I did not want to get into a battle with him. I just kissed him, and told him something I sometimes say at bedtime (or randomly in the day!) - "I love you. You're my sweet precious love. You're my favourite Arthur in the whole wide world. I'm so proud of you!" and he stayed looking ahead into the room, but did such a satisfied little smile, and then said simply, "Thank you, Mummy, for saying that!" And then he screwed his eyes tight shut, and didn't even respond when I said goodnight and left the room! He IS such a precious lovey. I love the things he says. Sometimes he's so straightforward and plain in the things he communicates, and I love that about him. He says what he means and means what he says, and that's a GOOD thing to be able to do. And I love that he knows to be thankful for things and voice that. I love that he communicates to me things that make him feel happy, so that I am more aware of it for next time. I don't just have to try and read him, or wonder if a facial expression meant this or that, or just wonder if he even heard me at all! If something means something to him, he lets us know. I love that about my boy.

I just LOVE my boy. I love my boys. I'm going to have another one sooooo soon!! I'm so excited! And so completely petrified about how on earth I can possibly cope with three boys! The comments are starting to come thick and fast - oh how helpful people can be! They watch me struggling hugely and pregnantly after my wildly energetic boys, breathless and unable to keep up, and say slightly smirkingly, "How are you going to manage THREE?" Gee, thanks. I don't think they MEAN it nastily, but it's not exactly a nice thing to say when you think about it (which they obviously don't - think, that is!). It is making me very nervous at the moment. If they weren't so VERY energetic then maybe I'd feel less anxious! Everywhere we go I get comments, even places filled with other kids their age - how nobody's ever seen such energetic kids, etc, and my goodness do they ever stop?! Etcetera. I nod and smile and agree, but underneath I AM getting anxious! Neil won't be home from work for ever, and I'm not managing them remotely even now. In fact, just lately the TWO of us aren't managing them too well between us! It's scary to think of adding a newborn to the mix in our tiny house.

Megan, they grow out of it by the age of FOUR?!! That rather scared me to read, because I'm having a baby NEXT MONTH!!! I don't have time to wait for Arthur to be all normal-3-year-old and grow out of it in 6-9 months time! I can't possibly manage his behaviour with a toddler and a newborn as well. Something has to give. I hope it's not my sanity! I'm a little concerned about PPD as well. I really need to have some kind of handle on things with the kids, to feel like I'm coping.

Anyway, I will now pack those unnerving thoughts away otherwise I will be awake hours again (tsk!), so that I can go to bed. It's 12.40am now - no fireworks at all any more. Matthew woke again a few minutes ago and I went and covered him up. He isn't too congested yet, just feeling yucky and nose running like a tap, etc. Poor baby boy. He is also teething, but still no evidence of any actual teeth, even since the last bad bout. I'm expecting canines any time, but he is STILL missing his 4th incisor at the bottom in the middle! I wonder when it will turn up?!

Going to bed. Happy New Year! I hope 2008 will be exciting and wonderful for everyone! I have a good feeling about it for me, and my sweet little family! :)