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...

Mother's Day

I was brought 6 beautiful cards in bed on Sunday morning, and a big bunch of bright flowers that made two bunches when I put them into vases after church.



In sacrament meeting, when some of our children helped to give out spring flowers to all of the ladies, Rebekah came running like a fairy up to me with the first bunch she had - for me - and a huge bright-eyed smile on her face. I had been feeling too hot etc. since getting to church, but I felt lovely after that. :o) There were lots of the flowers left over so the girls each came home with a bunch too, so we have glasses or vases of flowers all around the house, half of them cheery daffodils with scented foliage, which is what Primary gave out.



Peter took this one, with the help of Michael's steady supportive hand so he could hold the button down for long enough. :o)



Later when we called nanny and Granma to wish them a happy mother's day, Rebekah was very excited to call and speak to each grandmother. Peter came down when Granma was on the phone, and was so enjoying his conversation, his little face shining, that I had to take the picture. He saw the camera come out and didn't look so bright and shiny, but you can still see he is enjoying himself. He misses his grandparents.

The second video

My little bit of time with Peter afterwards. He showed that he clearly understood!

My day

My 32nd birthday on Tuesday was an interesting day. More challenging than a normal day, but only really because of my emotions I think in the end. We had a few upsets, and some great plans going a little upsidedown. Peter added his own bit in by blocking up the toilet with the contents of the bathroom bin (it was him one of the times anyway, and once again tonight!) A normal day I suppose really!

It was sad not having Michael around, as he is in Leeds for 10 weeks, home weekends apart from a few Saturdays. Sarah is adamant he has to be here for her birthday, so I have suggested to her having her birthday on a different day to make that happen - we'll see! He had a friend bring round some flowers later in the day though which was a lovely surprise. It was nice to have a few cards from others that came this week to open - they hadn't been hidden in the treasure hunt we got a bit too stuck on! Lovely thought of Michael anyway though. :o) One of the cards really cheered me up in the morning, and gave Rebekah something a bit more positive to think about.

Rachael and Elijah brought their card and present round in the morning, and stayed and ate lunch with us, which was nice, and seemed to cure some of Rebekah's disappointment at not spending the day with anyone else. Peter was suddenly much more active too with a cousin to run around with in the garden. The girls did a great job of my fruit "cake" - they made a flower. I bought my favourite fruits on Saturday for them to use (nectarines, strawberries and red grapes), and we all enjoyed that mid-afternoon once Peter had woken up from his nap. Peter was great at singing Happy Birthday along with everyone else. He sang the last half of it then, and then he was humming it at bedtime, so we all sang it together again then. He came running from his bedroom to join in when he heard. We started again for him and he sang it all from beginning to end. It was really fun. He just doesn't stop being cute in his own natural little way.

So not so bad I suppose - it just felt it. Here are a few pictures to show you I must be wrong! Hope you enjoy their cake. Oh, the clips in my hair were Rebekah decorating me for my birthday - six of them, four of them dangly ones she had for her birthday recently. :o)






Yesterday we sat and watched some Thomas the tank engine episodes we'd rented from the library. With popcorn of course. That was fun. We have decided we prefer the books though. Last night as I went in the girls room to read them a story before going to sleep, they burst into singing "Happy Birthday to you" again, and gave me a couple of presents. Hannah was also ready to film me on the video camera. Peter had kept running in and out of the room - very excited! They had taught him to say "Hip-Hip-Hooray" as well, which he did after they had done quite a few times. It maybe was a day late, but was a lovely happy surprise. :o)