Here's our sweet little Samuel

Well Samuel has finally arrived!!

I woke up at 5am on Monday morning, the day Samuel was due, as my waters started to go, and they continued to the rest of the day. I had finally bought a gym ball for £5 from Tesco last week, while still attempting to turn Samuel from a very uncomfortable back-to-back position. It was very comfortable to sit on, and on Monday it came into good use while in early labour. Hannah took this picture because I spent a while playing the piano to stay relaxed, and ended up playing "Come, Come Ye Saints" which was a perfect tempo to bounce to! It was quite funny as I bounced my way through the song.



Later on on Monday afternoon, enjoying a cooling ice lolly in between 10 minute contractions with most of the children, soon joined by all of them. I really liked these pictures. Rachel got SO excited at this point to hear the contractions had gone from 30 to 10 minutes apart. Hard to deal with at the time, but fairly relaxed in between - I wasn't totally exhausted from no sleep at this point!




The last picture of "Bump", taken almost exactly 6 hours before he was finally born, just before going out for another walk with Michael to get things moving a bit faster. We'd just been for a longish walk and had to come back as I was soaked by the rest of the waters coming away!



Oh, and having gone to bed as we thought, Sarah was soon up and about and very excited because her first tooth ever finally came out, so we had to have a picture of that too - too exciting to pass up even though it was getting late!



Once I really managed to work with the contractions it got extremely fast and furious. An hour after calling the hospital there was still no sign of a midwife. Too late though, as we were committed. All of the extra learning and preparation I had done this time round though meant I knew what to do even if I happened to be on my own (and gratefully wasn't!) Michael was great. He left helping me to deliver Samuel, and did a great job. It was just a very special experience. By the time the midwife came in I was holding Samuel, wrapped in a towel to dry him off, and she said "Well done!", asked a few questions about how he'd been straight after birth, and got on with helping us have the rest just how we'd like it to be. The midwife on call that night happened to be the senior midwife that had come out to see us a few weeks before about having a homebirth, so she already knew what we wanted to have happen, having already discussed it with her. She was so respectful of our wishes. It was perfect really.

So here is Samuel David Kruger shortly after being born. His face was very red to start with.




Can you see how tired Rachel and Sarah were, and how excited Rebekah is?! Hannah and Rebekah had heard me scream as he was born, so they were already wide awake, and their excitement and enthusiasm could not be contained. Hannah just couldn't stay away!



Michael brought them in about 10 minutes after he was born, which was about 5 minutes after the midwife arrived! So they had a first brief look and came back later after the third stage was over, ready to be amazed by how much he loved to feed from the very beginning.



Hannah was the first lucky sister to get a cuddle.



He was weighed as 8lb 4oz, and then we got him dressed to keep him nice and warm.





Getting to know Daddy the stand-in midwife.




My body experienced a bit of shock, as I recall happening after Rebekah was born too, so I was wrapped up warm, fed some warm food, and went to have a bath once I could stop shaking. Which gave Rachel a chance for a cuddle. He went to sleep being cuddled by her in the end which she loved. :o)


Somewhere in there Rebekah got a very happy cuddle too.


Then after just a few hours sleep for Michael and me (amazingly refreshing though being able to rest a whole lot more other than during the afterpains) Peter was wide awake and ready to meet his new brother. He watched him from on my lap (I have one of those again now!) and just gradually too him in in a happily interested and very definately hands-off kind of a way. He checked my tummy too to make sure there was no baby still inside. :o)Sarah got a more wide awake look at him too - she was so tired in the night she had barely woken up and very quickly gone back to sleep.





More photos coming soon...

What Peter likes to do

Peter found Rebekah's remote control car in a toy box a few weeks ago, and knowing it didn't work, started asking for it to work - he said it needed new batteries. :o) Michael fiddled about with it a bit, and he had a wonderful evening, along with Sarah and Rebekah who were equally as excited, having it chase them around. It was well and truly broken the next day - no hope of fixing it this time, but it hasn't stopped him asking. I think it's something he'd really like for his birthday. We'll have to see...







He loves to eat, make things, stick stickers, play with cars, and trains, eat, be with his sisters, read books, jump, run, shout, sing, play, eat, play with trains, draw with felt pen on things he shouldn't, eat, give me hugs and kisses, give my bump hugs and kisses, draw pictures, paint with water outside, ride on the ride-on toys and scooter outside, play horses, do jobs, ...

A couple of months ago he went and sat on his tricycle, and did the seat belt up (which took a bit of struggling) and then with great determination kept on and on trying until he could ride it himself. He has normally gone for the ride-on toys he can push along with his feet, or done t he same with his tricycle to be able to keep up with his sisters. He was doing it on the bumpy slabs out the back, and on a slant, which didn't make it very easy. So we pulled him to the top of the slant to start with so he wasn't working against gravity while he worked out how to peddle properly. He was very pleased that he managed to do it, and we were all very excited for him too. There's not much opportunity for him to do it round here, as the hills make it impossible, so it won't happen often, but he's getting there.








Recently the children have been playing a lot of games outside, and our friend Kathryn has taught them a few more. They always drag her straight outside as soon as possible and for as long as possible to run around with them. I was trying to catch Peter being in charge of playing Simon Says with them the other week - it was so funny. He did a great job of it. As soon as I had the camera there though he said, "Simon says play stuck in the mud", which immediately changed the game again. So this is the best I could get. :o)



He does love to be outside. He doesn't like anything tiny that flies, but is forever watching ants and things. He loves to do gardening, and loved helping to plant some more bulbs and seeds recently when I finally got organised enough to get back out and get some things started. He loves to water them too, and often himself in the process. He loves spreading sand all around the garden too. That's ever since we went to the beach a month ago. I guess he realised sand doesn't just come in sandpits! Only problem is there won't be any in the sandpit before long!

He is excited by so many things, and is just great at expressing himself, so conversations with him are just really fun. You can see him filling in bits of knowledge when he realises he's missing some or he doesn't quite understand something. He'll always ask - often some really thoughtful questions.

He loves to go places, and especially with his Daddy. I don't know if that's because it's him who often does o places or not! If you're putting on your shoes he always wants to know - where are we going? If it's something he knows is without him, the next question is always, "Yes, but where are we going together?", or "Where am I going with Daddy later?"

He's good at exerting his influence now, so there are often highly tense moments between him and normally Rebekah right now. As a result he's not quite the calm happy boy that he always was before, but it's especially lovely to see it again when all is going well in his world. We love him to bits!

Rebekah's 5th birthday

Rebekah celebrated her 5th birthday on Tuesday. She had really wanted to go ice-skating for her birthday, but in searching again for somewhere to go, we couldn't find anywhere nearer than at least 1 1/2 hours away by motorway!

So she opted for a bit more of a home day doing various bits and pieces, which also allowed Michael to join in a bit more / us to do what she chose on her birthday rather than on another day.

So here is the first captured smile of the day - time for a morning snack.



She opened all of her cards, which she loved, and chose a birthday badge to wear, and then we played pass-the-parcel - her one particular request for party games.




The things in the layers were all about Rebekah and her likes, and at the end a load of glitter glue pens, which were immediately used to make some more birthday decorations - pretty butterflies and flowers. My little crafters were in their element for a while there. Peter couldn't squeeze the glitter glue out on his own, but did the drawing with them while I squeezed, and used felt pens, as well as discovering ways of making 3 different sizes of circle impressions with lids and things - so half of his things were decorated like that. Rachel was well away, loving some easy to make things.






Just before we ate lunch, Michael (just popped back from uni to have lunch with us) changed Peter's nappy, and afterwards he just lay there and promptly fell asleep! He was so sweet - gently snoring like a little lion cub. :o)





We had lunch, and let Peter sleep for an hour or so so that he'd feel alright for the rest of the day. Meanwhile Rebekah opened up a parcel from some special friends, in which she found an ant farm (minus the ants) and bug jar, and there was also a bug catcher for each of the children. They were very excited about them.



By the time we left to the home-ed meeting we were going to for a while in the afternoon (late because of letting Peter sleep), Michael was able to come with us. The camera ran out of battery on the way. They were making things from wood, and Rachel and Hannah set to work on making a wooden box - a pen holder for in their bedroom, Rebekah and Sarah decided on name plaques, but didn't get very far with them really at the time, and we cut out a car shape for Peter. He had been enjoying using a hand drill to make holes in wood (he was amazingly good at it!) after watching another boy do it, and so he made the holes where the wheels are going to go. He was desperate to use the hammer too to bang some nails into his car, but settled with trying that on some other wood at the time. Tools are so much fun! For several days afterwards he was asking to bang nails in his car. This next week he can finish it!

The children played outside for a while when we got back - mostly playing "stuck in the mud" and catching ants to look at in their bug catchers. Then Rebekah's treasure hunt was ready, so she did that - racing excitedly all over the house with Sarah hot on her heels. At the end she had to put all of the clues together to see what picture it showed her on the back so she could find her treasure.








Still smiling, sitting at the head of the table for her birthday tea.



Spot the cheesy grins!



Peter LOVING the corn on the cob that we haven't had for ages - a real treat.



Rebekah with some pretty birthday decorations (now dry), her birthday flowers (real ones), and her butterfly birthday "cake"...







... which was quickly demolished, and very yummy it was too.



Enjoying some silly big sisters.




Then it was time for a pyjama party, watching a DVD they'd not seen before - Frankie and Hazel, which they enjoyed and found highly entertaining at times.



It got very late, and it was an extremely tired little 5 year old (just properly 5 by then as she was born in the evening) that was carried up to bed. :o)

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On Friday we remembered Elizabeth's birthday, partly with singing to her and a birthday cake chosen and made by Rebekah in the evening. It was hard not being in Coventry that day, but felt better having spent some proper time together later in the day thinking about her and her wonderful family, and being grateful for blessings, including for all we learnt from them, and how trials help us to grow stronger.