Wordless Wednesday

Photo by Sonja

We're Alive

Yes, we are all still alive (although Victoria's life remains in constant danger every moment that Antalya is awake, but thankfully there have been no serious smothering injuries yet). Victoria will be two weeks old tomorrow. Time is flying by - which in our case is not such a good thing. In only five more weeks we are saying goodbye to life as we have know it for the last four years and boarding an airplane for London. I feel like the list of moving preparations is endless. At the top of my worries is the fact that we still have not received a birth certificate for Victoria - we can't apply for her passport or visa until we have the birth certificate, and we can't board that airplane without a passport.

So, on top of trying my best to recover from childbirth, keeping up on laundry, cleaning, and grocery shopping, keeping everyone in the house fed and happy and diapers changed, giving lots of attention to my darling attention-demanding two year old, protecting the baby from the constant loves of her big sister, keeping up with my church responsibilities, and trying to get whatever sleep I can - my mind is filled with the list of all the other things that need to happen in this next month: sell our on-line business, find a home for our german shepherd, yearly appts for Antalya with the peditrician, cardiologist, sleep specialist, dentist, plus appts to have lab work done, neck x-rays performed, and a sedated echocardiogram on her heart, pack up all of belongings, sort through what we want to take and what we want to store, make whatever purchases we are going to need while in England, sell our car, figure out our finances for the next year, and plan a family get together to celebrate Victoria's birth.

I'd like to say I am handling it all well, but to be honest most days my only goal is to survive the day. I know it will get easier, I'm just not sure when. But at least I have the world's best husband, and two of the cutest little faces imaginable to keep me smiling. Here's a kiss from Victoria:

Sisters

IMG_5501, originally uploaded by sunnycardon.

Victoria Roene

Victoria and I came home today. It is so nice to be home and back with Jason and Antalya. I have been really worried about how Antalya would handle this big change, but she is such a good big sister. She is so soft with her and is so concerned about her needs. Everytime Victoria makes a peep, Antalya is so quick to hurry to her side to find out what is wrong. And twice today while I was nursing, Antalya brought over a pillow and a blanket because she thought the baby was going "night-night". I love having my two little girls, and already can't imagine what our family was like before Victoria arrived.

Here's some pictures from Victoria's birthday. I plan on posting more about the birth story, but it is going to have to be another day. But for those of you who know how upset I was about the whole induction thing - there is good news. After I took the medicine to help soften my cervix, I went into labor. The doctors kept insisting I needed to have the pitocin also, but I had the greatest nurse who was my advocate with the doctors and bought us just the time we needed to convince them my body was doing just fine without any help from drugs. The birth was perfect - no IV, no wires attached to anything, and only lasted about 3 hours. I feel like all my prayers were answered with this birth!

Victoria has arrived!

She was welcomed into the world at 10:36 this morning, weighing in at 6 lbs 15 oz and 18.5 inches long. I promise pics and more about the birth are coming tomorrow. For now we are going to try to get some rest.

Full Moon

Still no baby. But there is a full moon tonight! Keeping my fingers crossed that she comes sooner rather than later :)