The Schlup Scoop

Monday, September 21, 2015

Only one more sleep until Mom leaves. Gah! There is a balance between preparing Lucy that Nana has to go home (she isn't big on quick changes) and not making her think about it too soon. She sees planes in the sky and says, "Nana! Airport!", so I think she understands a bit, but I am sure she'll miss her buddy when we have to say goodbye. I am pulling a bit of a Scarlett O'Hara on this one: "I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow." I am sure I'll be saying that tomorrow, too.

In the meantime, we have been lucky to get some really nice weather. Three days in a row! We have been going out to the park as much as we can. It turns out Lucy has a favourite park, which is NOT the one we went to one day! I thought she'd like to go to the park by the ocean, which is beautiful, but she burst into tears when we got there and through her crying said, "Choo Choo Park!" The park at the absolute other end of town. Before kids I would have said there is no way that I would drive all the way across town to appease a nearly two year old, but I can tell you that now I eat my words. A lot. We had a great time at her beloved Choo Choo Park.


Baby Eva chillin' at the park

Up, up and AWAY!

Lucy's new friend

Lucy LOVES to jump. Really loves it. If it were a world she could design it would be made of trampolines with couches and beds made specifically for bouncing. The cold wintery weather makes it a challenge to help her run and bounce off energy while being cooped up inside without ruining the furniture. Luckily for us, our good friends Andrew, Elizabeth and Laura invited us to Inflatable World. A dream come true for Lucy! She ran, jumped, bounced, and rolled until her heart was content. What a happy couple of hours for her! It was great fun watching how much fun she was having. Philip and I tag teamed looking after Lucy. He did great and made balancing on an overly inflated plastic castle while guiding a two year old look easy. Maybe it was. Or should be. I, however, did not make it look easy. Or graceful. On my second inflatable, a dome that you can climb up surrounded by a walk way with netting about ten feet high all around it, I took one step and sunk up to my knees. I am a little sensitive about the baby weight anyway and really cursed the extra cookies have been eating. I took another step and fell over. Luckily I had pushed Lucy up to the walkway and she was fine. While she was crawling around like a champ, I tried to get over to her to "help" her. Some help I was! I finally got up on my feet and took another step towards the walkway. Not only did I fall over, but I fell off the walkway, rolled onto my back and was hanging off of the entire inflatable. The net held me in, but I took the entire wall with me. It must have been a sight with a grown woman laughing her head off with both feet in the air. I couldn't move one inch. Andrew had to haul me out. I could see other parents looking at me and I couldn't tell if they were laughing with me or at me. After falling off it for the second time, I am pretty sure they were laughing at me. Inflatable World might be a thing for Philip and Lucy in the future!

Two nights ago we had a bit of a hard time with little Eva. She has cradle cap on her eyebrows and has had it for a long time, but in the space of two days it got really red and angry looking and the whites of her eyes turned a deep rose colour. She wasn't herself and wasn't sleeping well. Our midwife thought it might be an infection, so we ended up in the after-hours pediatric assessment unit to have her checked out. They were cautious about the infection because they didn't want it to be a system-wide infection and admitted her overnight to administer antibiotics intravenously. I was OK for awhile even though we knew there was an IV coming up. I was brave until we walked into the treatment unit with the bed where I knew I'd have to give my tiny daughter up for the doctor to put her line in. I told the doctor that I'd likely cry all the way through it because we had lost Ella on three years ago. Luckily the nurse that was with us remembered Ella and us well and made it all OK. She talked to Eva and told her how brave her sister was and that she knew Eva was brave like her sister. I was hanging on to a thread and was nearly through it when I looked over and saw the needle in Eva's hand. I lost it. The cracks in my heart that had been shattered and tenuously mended after we lost Ella broke open all over again. At that minute it was as if we were losing Ella all over again. I'm not sure that feeling that we will lose another daughter will ever quite leave us and it took awhile for my heart to understand that Eva wasn't going anywhere and that she'd be OK. We passed an uneventful and fairly sleepless night in the hospital and woke up to a cheery Eva with clear eyes and less painful looking eyebrows. We spent the day in the hospital while the antibiotics kicked in and then went home around dinner time. She is looking even better today and has slept really well. The poor thing had her six week immunisations today, so she got jabbed twice more. She is brave like her big sister though and just cried a little bit. It just amazes me how resilient kids are. They are my little heroes.

Little Eva after getting her IV put in

Not feeling so hot

We have found if you don't laugh in hard situations, you cry.

The only place I wanted Eva

Thanks to those of you who have let me know this site works. It is a great way to keep in touch and I love hearing from you, too!

Lots of love from all of us!

PS...

We thought that Eva looked nothing like her sisters when we brought her home until we found this photo of LUCY! They look a lot alike here! Eva was just a wee bit bigger ;)

Saturday, September 5, 2015

And Now We are the Schlup Five!

What a joy to open this blog up and see all the photos of Ella. A joy and a tug at the heart strings. I see my last posting was shortly after she left us and we just reached the third anniversary of Ella getting her wings. It is surreal to know that we have three children, but Lucy and Eva will not meet Ella here in this world. I am comforted to think of the story my Mom tells; Ella met Lucy and Eva in heaven before they came into this world and picked Philip and me for them to be their parents. I love that image. We tell the girls stories of Ella and Lucy at her ripe old age of 22 months says that Ella is in heaven by the moon and the stars. I'll never look at the night sky without feeling Ella all around me. I love that the girls will know Ella in their own ways.

We welcomed Eva Violet on August 11 and have been over the moon in love since. It is amazing how you can fall in love with someone so completely so quickly. Eva was the biggest of our girls (nearly two pounds more than Lucy!) and looks very different from Ella and Lucy, although I can see some of Ella in Eva's eyes. So far she is a good sleeper in the day and goes about three hours between feeds at night. She goes down for naps and bedtime in her own crib, which the other girls turned their noses up in preference for a warm lap to sleep on. It is hard to put Eva down. I would cuddle her all day long if I could! Lucy is a fantastic big sister and has taken to having another little person in the house with good humour. She pats and shushes Eva to help settle her, checks on her, wants to hold Baby Eva, and gives her cuddles and kisses as often as she can. She loves to cuddle with Eva on the floor in the baby jungle gym. So far I have only had to lift Lucy off of Eva in a full body cuddle twice! I am amazed how Lucy has dealt with it all so well so far. Touch wood. I hear the feeding of Cheerios and lifting her up "on her own" will come in time. I am sure my heart will be in my throat! I am so thrilled that they will have each other for sisters. I know my life wouldn't be the same without mine and can't wait to watch them grow up together.

Mom has been with us for six weeks already and has to go home in one week and five days. Unless I cancel her ticket, which I threaten to do every day. It has been a blast to have her here. A blast, a comfort, a huge help, a big laugh, great company, a hug when there are tears (from Lucy, Eva and me!), dancing jam sessions, and a total joy to watch her be Nana. Wow, what an amazing Nana. She has love for my girls that nearly rivals my own and she is just magic with them. It is a joy to share my girls with her and watch her delight in her grandkids. Nana can play, chase, giggle, and comfort the girls with boundless energy. I hope I am half the mom that she is a Nana!

We haven't done a whole lot outside the house since Eva arrived. Partly it is just enjoying baby and Lucy and learning how to juggle the needs of a newborn and toddler and partly because it is winter in Dunedin. And what a winter it has been! We are having another snow day today and we have had several this winter. I am getting cabin fever and am itching to have warm days to get outside and take our new double stroller for a spin and to take the girls to the park. Lucy and I were going at least twice a week all summer and autumn and am hoping we can get back to the swings and running around outside soon. How I will manage without Mom, I have no idea! I figure people all over the world do it and I will, too, but I am not thinking about that for another couple of weeks. Until then, I am so thankful for the extra set of hands to get girls dressed, in the car, out of the car, across the street, get another drink for Lucy, cleaning Lucy up after lunch, holding Eva while I get dinner on...all the things that go on in a day.

I am going to try to post photos of the girls on this blog spot because my wonderful family and friends have asked for photos and this way I can put on all that I want and not overwhelm Facebook. So, until I post again, enjoy!

Lots of love from the Schlup Five (and Nana)!