Post partum delight

Today marks 8 days since Anna's birth and we are all still alive...yet are we sane?  Anna is thriving.  She is so hungry and drinks a great deal from her mother and from a bottle.  She still has her days and nights mixed up, but that gives us more opportunity to play with Luke.

Speaking of Luke...he is so curious.  I would not yet call him smitten, but we're close.  Anna cries, Luke and Franklin (the dog) come over to investigate.  Anna wiggles, Luke tries to climb on top of her.  Luke has already found Anna's eyes, nose, mouth and bellybutton much to Anna's displeasure.

Grandma and Grampa are here pampering everybody and making 3 meals a day and allowing for momma to nap frequently.

More to come.  Now it's time for supper.

And then there were 4

And then there was 4.  This morning we were told our room was needed and we were happy to oblige.  By noon we were home, after a couple last pieces of paperwork, checks and all the rest.  We are glad to be home.

For local folks we look forward to welcoming you for brief visits in a few days, once we have opportunity to settle in.  We are deeply grateful for all the prayers and help and look forward to introducing Anna to here beloved community.

More soon.

Anna Eirene

Friends, please welcome Anna Eirene Toews Miller (eh-reen phonetically), a lovely dose of grace and peace to us all (that is, what her name means after all).  She came into the world to join us just before 9 this morning.  Her vital statistics are 7 lbs 13 oz (3555 grams for the metrically inclined) and 21.5 inches (54.61 cm), with a full, long head of black hair (she has yet to bathe, so the black part could change).  We are in awe of this little one, and profoundly grateful.  Both Emily and Anna are well and resting after a hard day's work.

We had a good morning with our wonderful nurses at Saint Boniface hospital in downtown Winnipeg.  The operation went well, with some challenges with the actual extraction of Anna due to the recent c-section with Luke.  Anna is recovering from the initial work, being fairly tired, needing a bit of help with finding the way in the new wonderful world.

We are in a nice room, and will stay together here likely through at least Thursday.  We will plan on posting here periodically in these initial days as the spirit and the happenings of the day move us.

A note of her names:  Anna is a name we both liked for meaning and sound of it, as well as honoring some dear friends.  Eirene is a Greek word (Biblical Greek to be precise) meaning peace.  This is the consequence of being born to two pastors.

Thanks to so many in so many places who have been and continue to hold us all in your love and prayers.  We are deeply blessed by the many friends and family in so many places holding us in the light.

Girl

Lovely little girl.  Details and name coming shortly.

Ready set...

8:20

So here we are.  The promised weather has yet to materialize and Emily is in being prepped.  Birth is different when it is a bit more planned than random quasi emergency.  NICU nurse goes out of here way to explain it is normal for them to be here. Have to smile somewhat knowingly.

So here we go.  All is well and we are about to meet our child.

we're back!

Luke in the backpack trying to come along with Daddy on his last trip to Drake in January.

Emily's last post here regarding bring Luke home was just over 13 months ago.  In those 13 months, we changed where home is moving to Winnipeg, took up new work with Bryce as a Pastor at Jubilee Mennonite Church, became home owners and renovators, and a whole bunch of other things.  Life has been full, busy, and quite wonderful

Oh yes.  And we are pregnant again (if you can excuse the royal we here).  So here we go again. At this point Emily has been more with child than ever before for some weeks.  We are anticipating our child's birth no later than Tuesday March 7 (we are leaving gender as an unknown, even to us) . Happily not under the same circumstances, nor under the same pressures, but by then something will happen by a scheduled C section.  We are doing this at 38 weeks (essentially full term) in order to minimize the pressures on Emily, especially with two births so close together.  That said, this has been a massively healthy pregnancy, with solid advice the whole way along, and good results with monitoring of blood pressure and the rest that got us in trouble last time.

We are resurrecting this blog to invite you to follow the twists and turns with us again.  We are thankful for your prayers and support in all the myriad forms it comes in here.  We will likely keep this up for a couple of weeks here as news is ready to be spread, then allow things to go dormant again.

We look forward to telling this story as it unfolds in the days to come.

Good tidings of great...oh boy

Yup.  The big day is tomorrow.  Tomorrow Bryce and I will load up the little gaffer and be on our way to life outside the nicu.

Are we ready? No.  Are we terrified? Yes!  Have we been waiting for this for 9 months?  Yes! 

Our boy will be 38 weeks tomorrow - full term - and he's born from the sterile womb of the nicu at over 5 lbs 5 oz.  That's an acceptable size for a newborn. 

We're so grateful for all the midwives here at RUH.  The everfriendly knowledgeable doctors, the competent and caring nurses.  The dieticians who hug weepy baby blues mom in the lunch line.  The residents who call Luke "an old fart".  And the friends.  Oh the friends with babes in the same boat as Luke who are also leaving shortly.  Thanks be to God for you all.

So, when home, we accept casseroles and desserts, but hugs and cuddles have to wait a few weeks until the boy establishes an immune system.