Hi all,
Sorry it’s been almost 4 months since we
wrote a blog post. I’ll try to give some highlights.
Mostly we’ve been doing normal life. Spring
came but sadly we, and most people we knew, still had lots of sickness!
Stephen
has kept working at the university and is plugging along writing papers, doing
lab work and he has been looking after two masters students from Europe,
starting at the beginning of the year. We had them over for dinner which was
lovely for me and the boys to get to meet them. Stephen usually works from home
once a month which is always a treat to get to eat lunch with him! Although we
were gutted Stephen couldn’t go to Antarctica in November, we were thanking God
he could be home- it was such a blessing. During the school year (Feb-Dec) he
goes to bible study once a fortnight and he’s hosting a small men’s group once
morning a week.
I really enjoy being home with the boys. I
met with two ladies from church once a fortnight for encouragement and
accountability last year and hope to start that up again soon. Later in
February the boys and I will start going every Wednesday to ladies bible study
at our church and sometimes go to playgroup on a Monday (although the day may
change this year) with church friends. I had 7.5 months off maternity leave and
just started back in the Emergency Department last week. I am very thankful to
be able to go back on a casual contract which means I can choose when I want to
work. For the moment I am just planning to work one day a week. Friends from
church are watching Aflie and I only pick up while Ralph is at day care
(Kowhai).
Ralph has been growing and maturing in
front of our eyes, which is really fun to see. He’s so chatty and loves to
sing, although he’s still very shy with new people. He enjoys going to Kowhai
(pronounced ko-fye) two days a week and is making friends (and we are too!). He
loved having his cousin Leo here for 10 days over Christmas and still talks
about him multiple times a day! He is still very sweet with his baby brother
and they are actually playing and laughing together now which is soo precious!
We are enjoying getting to know our happy
boy Alfie more and more. We’re very thankful he is in such a steady schedule
right now with two long naps (one that is at the same time as Ralph’s afternoon
nap which is so lovely for me/us to get some down time!) and a cat nap at the
end of the day, sleeping 12 hrs over night, and very cheerful and smiley when
he’s awake! He’s just starting to crawl a little and he started solid foods
about a month ago and is enjoying that! He’ll be 7 months old on the 13th
of Jan.
Some highlights from each month:
September: We had lots of appointments in September and we enjoyed one social
event every weekend. Two birthday parties with our friends the Oliveti’s and
Ennions, a Trivia night at church (I am on the social committee at church so I
helped a little with organising that), and dinner and games with friends from
church.
October: I was finally able to get into see a neurosurgeon here and get an
MRI completed. They were able to mail the disk to Dr Carter, my neurosurgeon in
the US who did my second surgery. I had to wait until November to have an
appointment with him but when I did he said it was all clear- Praise God!
October-December was busy as well because I was watching a friend’s son,
another Alfie, a few days a week while she did orientation at work (she’s also
a nurse at the hospital). To differentiate between our two Alfie’s we call him
“Alfie P”. He was very fun to have. In not so fun news, my Alfie dropped from
the 25th percentile for weight to the 9th. I had been
noticing him being unsettled with feeding and not sleeping for very long in the
day. I had talked to my lactation consultant and she suggested pumping, taking supplements
and adding some extra feeding; but after a few weeks when that wasn’t enough we
started topping Alfie up with expressed breast milk or formula 4-5 times a day.
It was a pretty tiring time with breastfeeding, pumping, and bottle feeding!
November: Thankfully after 6 weeks Alfred was doing better: happy when breastfeeding,
sleeping longer especially for naps and staying in the 9th
percentile for weight. The well child nurse said this was good because normally
when babies start rolling over, which Alfred learned how to do, they lose more
weight. My breastmilk supply increased and by the end of the month I was able
to stop pumping and doing top ups and have continued to exclusively breastfeed.
I am very thankful for the support I got from the well child nurses and
lactation consultant.
On the 26th we were able to host a little thanksgiving at our house
with some different American friends we have. It was nice little group and
delicious food.
December: Was very busy! The first weekend we went away to Motuopa Bay to celebrate Stephen’s 30th birthday. On the Friday he did one of the top rated day hikes in NZ, Tongario Alpine Crossing, with a friend from work. Our friends the Ennions also came up to celebrate with us also and we enjoyed the weekend with them. Stephen broke his nose three days before his hike but thankfully he could do it without too much pain. The next weekend our friends from Melbourne, the Harts, came to visit us. We had a lovely visit with them but our house felt very full with 6 extra adults! A week after they left, we had Stephen’s brother Philip, his wife Alyson, and their son Leo (who is just 2.5 months older than Ralph) come stay with us for 10 days over Christmas! The day before they arrived Stephen had surgery to fix his broken nose. Thankfully it all went well. We had such a lovely lovely time with them! We went to a digger museum one morning that the boys loved, went to our church’s Christmas Carol night, spent two night to Rotorua, celebrated Christmas at our house (for the first time!), spent a morning at the Hamilton Gardens, an afternoon at the beach, played lots of games while the boys napped and just enjoyed lots of good talks, food and laughter. It was such a contrast to the Christmas before where we felt very isolated and lonely. After they left on the 29th we spent 5 days together as a family before Stephen went back to work on the 4th.
January: We started toilet training Ralph early in Jan. It’s a nice time to
do it in summer because he can be outside a lot and there isn’t much on during
the week so we just stayed home for 4 days! Stephen also was ordained and
installed as an elder at our church so that feels very big and a bit daunting.
I’m so proud of him though and the godly man he is! Please pray for us in this
new role! Last weekend we went away with our friends the Ennions to a beach
house at Snells Beach. We were very thankful for the great weather God gave us!
It has been SUCH a rainy spring and summer. The 10 days P&A were here was
lovely, but the majority of the summer it has been LOTS of tropical storms and
flooding, especially in Auckland. Ralph enjoys running and playing outside when
our backyard floods. We’re very excited to finally get to Melbourne in April
and go back to the US in July. Two years is a long time not to see family,
especially when you have little people that grow so quickly!
Well, if you’ve read this long, well done. Enjoy some pictures J Take care friends!
We love seeing your photos and hearing about life. Thanks for updating. We’re glad things are going so well for you all. My how the kids grow!
ReplyDeleteThe Brammers
Always great to read your news. We have now settled in Tasmania so if you’re ever visiting let us know.
ReplyDeleteRobyn and David Stewart. A