Introducing Nadia Elise - 5 months later

I've been hesitant to start blogging again, our daily life is rather chaotic these days and time to sit and write and post pictures is hard to come by. And yet I miss this place to jot down thoughts and the happenings of life and I'm going to attempt to start again.  Pick up where I left off and see how it goes.  A lot has happened since my last post, June 27th.  At that time I was pregnant and wondering if God was giving us a boy or a girl.

And now, we have a happy 5 month old daughter.  On July 11, 2013, we welcomed Nadia Elise into our home.  7lbs, 11 oz of joy.  And it was beautiful.  Although it was a scheduled c-section it was my first one that I entered the operating room at peace.  And thankful for doctors and hospitals.  C-sections my friends, are not so pleasant and has taken me years to accept.  I'm in a good place now and Drew and I made the most of it.  I spent a lot of my first weeks simply resting and holding my little girl.   My neighbors had been worried for me, over and over I heard "how are you going to do it, with a c-section and four kids?", and then they witnessed something that to them was rare.  For 8 weeks they saw people coming and going, dropping off meals and picking up kids for playdates.  My Mom was here every day for the first two weeks and after that we had a mothers helper come in two days a week and my Mom continued to pitch in on the off days. Mobility is something you lose after a c-section and its a huge deal when you can finally walk to the park with your children on your own!  Thankfully, our friends have a daughter who's in highschool and she was a huge help, walking kids to the park, chasing after them outside and helping with lifting laundry baskets and so much more.  The older kids pitched in and though it may not have been a summer of beaches and splash pads it was a summer that as a family we had to work together for mom and baby.  And it was beautiful.

And because of all this help I was able to recovery, with no complications.  And blessed to be reminded of what a wonderful family and church community we have, one I so often take for granted. My one neighbor said to me "you just don't see that anymore, that is how it used to be".  

And now here we are, 5 months later.  School is in full swing and we've just entered Christmas break, Kaylin is in to grade 1 and Jacob is off to Kindergarten a few days a week.  Baby number 4 is often plopped down in the middle of the chaos, happy and busy trying to add her own noise to the crowd.

And now I present you with some pictures of newborn Nadia (she is 5 months old at the time I post this! later this week I'll post updated pictures but for now, we enjoy the memories of a newborn caught on camera by my good friend Tamsen at  Creative Clicks Photography.  (Tamsen these pictures are beautiful and I'm so thankful for them!).