She's Here!

Camilla Chaya made her entrance yesterday morning at 5:14am. It was a very long night after we arrived at the hospital at 9:40 pm. I was only 3 cm dilated which astounded me after the amt of contractions I had had before arriving, but my doctor ok'd admitting me, and my contractions stayed strong all night, keeping me up all but about 30 mins. In a nutshell, it was probably my longest birth experience of the four girls, i.e. the longest length of time I felt pain. Kayla's takes the cake for most painful since it was without drugs, but I'm not certain which I'd prefer.

Here I am two days later, still exhausted between little sleep on Sun night and night-time feedings on Monday night, so I think it's been the most tiring of my births as well. Or, one could always chalk it up to getting older.

For those that live around here, we were talking about naming her Rayna Rachelle up until the birth. Somehow after she came, it just didn't seem to fit eventhough it fit all our criteria for names, so we went back to talking about other names. I mentioned Camille, the name of Pres. Kimball's wife (or so I thought), and there was just something that felt right. We corrected it to Camilla since that was actually Pres Kimball's wife. It has Latin roots meaning Pure, or noble, or also unblemished character which we liked. Since we both like Hebrew names, we paired Camilla with Chaya (pronounced Ki-yah), meaning life, keeping our pattern of double letters for our first and middle names. We'll be calling her Cami for short. Now Abri won't be the only one with a nickname in the house.

Emma was very disappointed when we told her Camilla was the new baby's name--she feels its too "unusual and weird" and she doesn't like it. She liked Rayna and thought it was pretty but didn't ever classify it as unusual or weird. Go figure. Abri didn't have any opinion on the matter, and of course, Kayla is barely saying one syllable words to give an opinion.

I'll post pics soon, but to describe her: she has brown hair, less than any of the other girls, chin with prominent cleft/dimple, charcoal eyes (for now), long arms, fingers, and toes, with Todd's nose (we suspect), and my lips and ears. She weighed 7 lbs 1 oz at birth, length 19 3/4 inches, the smallest of all our girls. But, she's healthy and doing well.

Anyone still bothering to check my posts?

It's likely anyone reading my blog before has given up checking it for updates. April and May were simply insane months. . .and nearly drove me to it myself. To summarize: hope that you never, ever get multiple kids with lice in your home, particularly girls. . .while juggling a part-time to 30 hr job per week, dr appts, or eczeyma infections make your child's skin look like "raw meat" in Todd's words--all beyond the normal every day activities. It was not a fun couple of months.

But, here we are just in time for another change any day now. Lice is gone, job is over, Kayla's skin is almost looking normal--and with another girl coming any day now, I don't even have to change my Blog title.

Baby comparisons

Each of my kids is here shown at 4 to 4 1/2 months of age. Thought it'd be fun to post.

Kayla:Getting into the Music

Kayla started in nursery last month. The first Sunday she went in, I put her down on the floor and she got this huge frown on her face and these crocodile tears coming out her eyes, without actually crying. It took her a few minutes after I left til she got distracted by the toys enough to get over her pouting, and she's done fine ever since.

Last Sunday, the Primary chorister, our friend Shauna, went into nursery to do some music time for the first time. She related that her visit to the nursery had a mixed reception--some of the kids could care less and basically went about their business while she tried to sing, while others participated. Happily, she said that Kayla got involved with the singing--swinging her arms like she was conducting along with Shauna, and loved doing the motions for the songs, like springing up on "Sunbeam" for "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam." It's not too surprising since she really enjoys our singing time as a family at bedtime. She'll stop what she's doing and we'll hear her "ba-da-ing" along, the extent of her singing up to now. She just wouldn't be a part of our family if she didn't like music.

On a side note: she isn't talking much yet, still just the basic Mom, Da, tha(t), yea. She communicates well, just not with words.

Soap Opera of a Seven Year Old

If Emma knew I was writing this, she would be soo embarrassed, but I had to take a few minutes to record the drama that she is so tortured by right now--mostly because I'm so surprised that boy drama has already started in our household.

Last year her neighbor Will had a crush on her, as related in a post from Sept I think. Well, Emma is in the throes of unrequited love for him while he's moved on to another girl it seems. Here are some updates of comments Emma has been making over the past few weeks.

Today at recess Will was talking and walking with Faith and he ignored me. Why can't he like me instead?

Mom, it is going to be so long before I can do anything about loving Will. I have to wait til I'm sixteen before I can tell him I love him. Its so hard.

I listen to love songs and think about Will [and looks at the picture she drew of him]. I bet he doesn't do that and think about me.

I need to get a shirt like Faith's, then maybe Will will like me like he likes Faith.

Emma turned 7 last week. We had what seemed like a week-long celebration. That Wed night we had a special family dinner with cake to celebrate, then Fri night she had a sleepover party with some of her church and school friends. Sat after overnight guests left, she got to go outfit shopping with our good friend Yvonne, followed by an evening at Peter Piper Pizza with Grandparents and Aunt Tracy, Uncle Royce, and cousin RJ. Whew--it was busy. But she said "this is the best week of my life!" Thanks to all our family that sent cards in the mail as well.

I posted a few pics from Peter Piper-a fun evening for all three of them, not just Emma. Kayla couldn't get enough of the carousel ride and Abri loved carrying around her own set of tokens and putting them into the rides and games. Emma was disappointed that the prizes that she wanted were all too many tickets. We ended up "saving" a large no of tickets that we could redeem the next time we go (probably for Abri's birthday) and hopefully have enough for one of the bigger prizes then. Definitely a lesson in saving now so you can get what you want later. Sad part is, she was hoping to get a baseball we had seen when we went to PPP at Abri's birthday party last year, only to find out it was no longer a prize. When all is said and done, it's also a lesson that you don't always get what you want when you save because the items aren't always there anymore.

Funny Observations

Abri: [On seeing a stray dog across the street] It's a DOG! . . .but it looks like a cow.

Emma [at Peter Piper's for her Birthday]: I hope they don't sing to me. They don't always sound very good when they sing for birthdays at restaurants.