Big Family Shortcuts

I have noticed that with so many children around here, I am needing shortcuts when referring to them every now and again.

We already had "the boys" and "the girls" before for easy pairings. We also call Kirsten & Alex, "The Twins" because they really look a lot alike, and are similar in other ways, and are the two in the middle. Well, they were.

Now are getting even more creative.

First there's Mom & Emma, who spend a lot of time together these days. We call them either "Momemma" or "Emmamom". Both are equally fun to say.

Then we have, "The Oldies". These are the three oldest kids, who are not our babies.

Then I came up with a clever way of referring to two kids at a time using former (or current) Buffalo Bills players' numbers. For instance, Ian and Julia are "Frank Reich". This is because Ian is the first born (#1) and Julia is fourth (#4), so together they are 14, which is Frank Reich's number.

The combinations are pretty fun.

Ian and Alex? Jim Kelly. Kirsten & Alex (if we're bored with "The Twins") are Beast Mode (nickname for Marshawn Lynch, #23). Ian and Emma? Todd Collins. (I know! Good one!) :-) Alex & Julia? Terrence McGee.

Pretty good system, I think. :-)

So, life as a big family continues to be very interesting, and tons of fun. More stories to come, I'm certain of it!

Shorties

Since computer (and especially blogging) time is limited... please allow me to share some fun stories/thoughts using another list-style post...

• Julia just turned two, but she is the smartest cookie in the bunch sometimes. This week she has been really helpful with the laundry. I don't always know whose clothes are whose, but she does! Seriously funny. And helpful! Also, she is a great talker (though sometimes hard to understand). Maybe one of the cutest things she says is when she's really excited about something, she says, "Yay-uh". (Pronounced like a souther gospel preacher, which I'm pretty sure she's never heard...) :-) Hilarious!
  
  
• The Sabres won tonight. They keep stringing me along. They sit 5 points out of the final playoff spot with only 12 possible points remaining. Thanks to some good scheduling, the team we are chasing (Boston) is our opponent for two of those games, so we can possibly make up 4 points in those two games. There's still a very outside chance they can make the playoffs, but I'm really not optimistic about any chance of advancing if they do. We shall see...
  
  
• Michigan State has worked their way into the sweet sixteen in the NCAA tournament. (Which is now only the terrific twelve or something after last night's games...) They really have a good team this year. Solid rebounding (as always) from our big guys, Namick & Suton, and a stellar freshman Kalin Lucas, as well as solid scoring threats in Morgan, Allen, & Gray. Ohh yeah... we also have that guy Drew Neitzel... he's pretty good. (If you don't know him, he's a senior, and he was fanastic as a sophomore at least, and has only kept getting better.) :-) They play Friday (and hopefully Sunday). Friday's game is against the #1 seed in the South region, Memphis. 9:57pm tip off on CBS. Well worth watching!
  
  
• Kirstie just oozes nice. It's incredible. If there is ever any "not-niceness" between anyone in the family, Kirstie steps in to the edification of the one not-niced. Every time. She's so great! Such a gentle heart. She's my little lover. She often tells me, "I just love you, Dad!" And then gives me a big hug, and often a big kiss. Well, as you can guess... I just love her, too. :-)
  
  
• Sometimes I really can't believe how old Ian is. He is nine, and definitely becoming his own person. We can see the things he really likes to do. He even talks about it. He's starting to figure it out too. He's very creative. He too is a gentle spirit. (Sometimes too gentle. :-( Easily crushed.) He's an artist. He's such a people person. Loves people. Could be his weakness actually (people pleasing) but it will also be a great strength. I'm honestly a little nervous about this transitional stage. Will I(we) handle it well? Will we be able to encourage Ian as he really begins becoming a unique individual? It's a very interesting stage for all of us. I think we are merely on the cusp, but we're definitely there. All we can do is just love him, train him best we know how, and live out what we say. And overall, make sure he knows that he is completely safe with us any time and always. That may be harder than it sounds - or I may just think too much. :-)
  
  
• Alex is TOO picky! Argh. It's been quite a struggle with people bringing us food (a bunch of new stuff he hasn't really seen before) and getting him to eat. Not to mention the great Easter candy he knows we have... that's quite a distraction as well. :-) It was funny today when we were dealing with all that again for the 17,000th time that I actually thought of "the kids in India" when I was so mad at his pickiness. "You know, the kids in India don't have any food! They just eat rice, if they can find any!!!" (Not sure on the accuracy of that statement... but thought it was funny that I actually thought it, and sorta used it. I am truly a dad, and truly old.) :-)
  
  
• Emma Caroline couldn't be cuter. :-) Funny story from today... we got a new monitor so Jen can be down here and Emma can sleep upstairs. All of a sudden we heard a screaming baby in the monitor! Yikes! What happened?? That was not normal. (Although, she has had a tendency to "freak out" at times...) So, Jen went to help her - but she was sound asleep. Completely still. Weird. When Jen came back down, Emma started freaking out again! Worse than before! Very, very strange... Jen went back up... Emma was completely still!!!! Finally, we sent Ian up to check while we stayed down to listen... you guessed it.. we were picking up someone else's baby!!!! Ha! Very weird. Kinda funny... very weird.

Much more to tell, but no time, and no energy with which to tell it. Must sleep.

Progress Report

Well, it's been a little over a week now that we have been home from the hospital with our newest family member, and it's even been a couple days since any of us has been sick. (Not sure which one of those bits of news is more welcome at this point...) ;-)

Today was a fun day, actually. There were no scheduled visits, which although greatly appreciated and enjoyed, do not really allow for any sort of a schedule to the day. Not so this day. We got a lot of cleaning done (even finally vacuumed) and finished 4 or 5 loads of laundry (and a few loads of dishes). We read library books in the morning before taking a walk up to the library (all seven of us!) and getting some more books! (We read some of those upon our return home!) We even had time to run some errands (the four older kids and me) which included a stop at our favorite ice cream place - CHILL & GRILL - for an end of the day treat!

It was a really fun day. :-)

We also took a break in the middle of the day (after lots of serious house cleaning) to play a game, just Dad and the three oldest kids. That was fun. I am thoroughly enjoying spending so much time with my kids. I love this part of having a new baby :-)

There have been a few fun kid moments over the past couple days...

Last night, after a looong day of fun on Easter Sunday (which included your normal easter fun as well as a visit from our friends the Chis and two trips to Chill & Grill!) Alex snuck upstairs to get ready for bed and as I was coming up to put the boys in bed, Alex said, "Wait, Dad! I'm almost done!" He was very happy about it, so I let him finish what he was scheming. When I got up there, I saw Alex putting the finishing touches on cleaning the bathroom for Mom & Dad. :-) He said he knew we were tired, and he wanted to do that for us. He cleaned the sink, and even used "just a washcloth and some water" to clean our toilet. :-) :-) :-) Very cute... a little gross... but very cute.

Tonight as I was bathing the girls (which I remembered that I needed to do after I had already gotten the girls in the jammies for the night...) Kirstie was almost done and she said as I was washing her off, "Dad, when you need me to wash you off I'll just do it for you, OK?" :-) Again... very cute.

There have been many cute moments like that this last week or so, and I am so thankful that though it's been super hard work (lack of sleep, lots of extra sickness, lots of extra visits, and just being behind already from the 3 days at the hospital) it's so totally worth it, and there are many fun/amazing moments with my kids that I am definitely blessed to have.

That said... there's not much time to do the stuff I'm wanting to do (or needing to do!) as is evidenced by a blog post at 1:00am :-)

Tomorrow we have a visit from some friends in the morning, and then in the afternoon we'll hopefully be getting our new van seat, which will allow us all to (legally) go somewhere as a family of seven! (Right now, our van only seats six.) :-) Oh, and then another friend will be bringing us dinner. Probably a good day for that!

At least we're not still sick! :-)

Oh, and Jen and Emma are doing great. Jen was feeling pretty bad at the end of last week (which is why I am still not back in my office officially) but feeling lots better now. Things are definitely progressing.

I may have to post some more Emma photos here pretty soon... Still working on the video, too. :-)

Grateful For Washing Machines

It was not a good night in the Campbell house. Perhaps it even goes back most of a week now.

I think I told the story here of coming home with Emma. The night before we came home, our six year old Alex threw up eight times! He was better (mostly) by the time we got home, but we were certainly leery. Ian was next. That night he threw up just once, but it was gross... and it was on the bed I had just put new sheets on for him! :-)

Well, thankfully, we have a washing machine.

This week has seen its share of laundry loads. Normal loads, sick loads, many loads. We do have seven people in this house now. We also did a load or two of clothes for Jen and the new baby to wear, brought out from their cold, dark storage containers.

Well, last night was a doozy.

First, I fell asleep on the couch watching the hockey highlights from the night (seriously... they were almost over...) and was awoken by an angry Jen's voice, "Greg... Greg!... GREG!!" That's not pleasant. Nor is the reason she was calling me. First, she was hurting for some unknown reason, and Emma was not wanting to sleep, which made it worse. But the reason I was summoned? Julia had thrown up. Time for Dad to clean up!

I cleaned her up and was going to deal with the rest in the morning. Went straight to bed and Jen was in and out with Emma, and I noticed that my stomach really did not feel very good. I don't usually throw up, so I wasn't worried about that, but it was sort of difficult to go to sleep.

Within half an hour, Julia was back. She had thrown up again. This all started at 12:30am or so, and continued until I think 3:33am. Probably four or five times I went in, cleaned up the baby, and got new sheets, towels, blankets, sleeping bags... whatever I could find! Meanwhile, at about 2:30, I felt awful and spent some time in the bathroom myself. (Strangely, I did not throw up, but I thought I was going to... and when I "tried"... nothing happened but I felt amazingly better!)

Well after all of this, we have discovered that our tummy troubles are not gone... Julia, Kirsten, and Dad all have... ya know. The other side. Yeah. Not pretty.

I also came to find out that Jen slept downstairs much of the night, trying to get comfortable... didn't really sleep much at all. Still very sore, but also had the chills. :-( What's going on??!?!

Jen just left for the doctor - for the regular one week check up for her and baby. Should be interesting... :-)

I just finished cleaning up all the throw up covered clothing (I am very thankful for washing machines...) and doing the dishes from the night before so we could do the dishes from breakfast after I gave Julia a bath because she had gotten throw up in her hair after I folded the laundry I already had done yesterday to make room for the laundry I needed to do today and now the kids are done with breakfast and waiting for the next event of the day...

Did I mention that I am grateful for washing machines?

(Trying to keep a positive outlook here...) ;-)

Lucky Seven

Being that it's the last few moments of this year's St. Patrick's Day, I figured that was a fitting title. And really, it's very appropriate.

We are now a family of seven, and learning what that means day by day. Of course, our seventh member is not really contributing all that much these days. She has managed to bring quite an influx of visitors through our humble abode - something her dad very much appreciates - but other than that she's almost hard to notice! She's doing everything a 4-day-old person should be doing, and doing it quite well, thank you very much!

Mom is doing fantastically. Never been better following the birth of our babies. Seriously. On Sunday, we went out for a birthday lunch for my dad (since she was feeling up to it) and on the way there, we stopped at the Walmart Super Center for diapers and other things babies need. Well, if you've been to one of these gigantic establishments you know that there is a LOT of walking involved! And Jen walked it all! Pretty quickly!! Amazing! She could have never(in a million years!) done that following any of our other babies.

Superb.

So this morning, in addition to our lucky green shamrock-shaped pancakes, I was feeling quite lucky to be part of this great family that God continues to build and grow together. From my favorite person on the planet (Jen) to my next five favorites (Ian, Alex, Kirsten, Julia, and now Emma) I couldn't be luckier.

And I'm not even Irish. I'm Scottish. And a bit Welsh. Maybe some German. But I digress...

On top of that we have some great friends who helped when the baby was coming, and more who are dropping by to meet the baby and calling to check on us and share in our joy, and more still who will be bringing some meals this week and next.

Ya can't get any luckier. :-)

So on this day associated with luck, I just wanted to count - and publicly proclaim - my many blessings.

I'm one lucky dude.

Emma in Moving Pictures

There's a short movie to come once I load it onto the computer here and edit it (maybe tonight after the kiddos are in bed...) but for now I finally got to upload the slideshow I did yesterday. Enjoy! (Just click on Emma above!) :-)

Which Way Did They Go?

One of the stranger things from our three days here at the hospital has been watching the migration of the Canadian geese. Thousands - definitely tens of thousands - of these cool birds (that resemble Klingon birds of prey as they descend to the water) have been flying past the big windows in the room where Emma was born.

Oddly enough, though in March geese should be flying north, it sure seemed like they were flying south. We figured they knew what they were doing... so we accepted the direction of their giant goose arrows as north, against our better judgment.

Even more oddly...

This morning when we woke up, the geese were all flying back the other direction! Ha! And, that direction was what I originally thought was north. Sweet vindication! :-)

A nurse (who seemed equally fascinated by them) reminded us that the lake is maybe just a mile south of us, and that was their southerly destination.

It all makes sense now. And it's still incredibly cool! Just watching SO many animals working in concert toward the same goal, same destination. Watching what God has designed into His creation is just a reminder of how beautifully simple and complex it all is. I won't elaborate now, but there have been many reminders through the whole process of the birth of Emma at how simply mind-blowing God's creation is, and how evident it is that he made it, and holds it all together.

Even the Klingon geese. :-)

Emma Caroline Campbell Is Here!

Meet our newest family member, Emma Caroline Campbell! She was born at 8:29pm on Thursday, March 13th. She weighed in at 7lbs 14 oz, and is an uncertain length. (We still don’t know! The little card on her baby cart has a field for the length... but it’s BLANK!)

Mom and baby are doing great! Jen seems the healthiest, the strongest she’s ever been right after delivering a baby! Everything went perfectly!

Mostly. :-)

It was definitely a very different experience this time. It all began when Jen started feeling pretty normal beginning stage contractions around 5am on Thursday morning. She let me know that there were some regular contractions - about 15 minutes apart, so not that close - around 7 or 8 in the morning. Because of the regularity, and because Jen has never had “false labor”, I got up around 8 and started getting ready to head to the hospital!

But not only were they far apart, they were not very intense. Jen was perplexed, but for some reason, I had a hunch we needed to get to the hospital anyway.

I started calling around to the various folks who had offered to help with our four kids already on the outside once the birthing process began. The funny thing about when these contractions started was that two out of our top three options could not do Thursday morning. :-) But thankfully the third was available.


Meanwhile, Jen’s contractions had really slowed in frequency and intensity. So she was starting to doubt if this was really going to happen, and didn’t want to inconvenience our friends if this was just a fire drill instead of the real thing. I was convinced it was time, though, so I was still preparing to head to the hospital.

We went for a walk to see if we could get things moving along a little faster. It did help a bit, but still, Jen’s contractions were lessening, so she still had big reservations about heading to the hospital. (It didn’t help that I had spoken with a friend earlier today who reminded me the story of their third baby that started out just about as this labor day was for us. Far apart, low intensity contractions, and then BLAMMO! They barely got her into the hospital room to deliver the baby!!)

I thought it would be good to get the doctor in on the conversation - and Jen agreed - so I called up our doctor and she agreed that it would be good to come in and check her out. That was a good in between option for Jen, so I called up our neighbor and she came to watch the kids for either a quick trip to the doctors and back home... OR... on to the hospital!! (I made sure we packed for a hospital stay!) :-)

The doctor confirmed what I was thinking, with the 5th baby, and with some definite movement since the day before, she advised us to get to the hospital within the hour. So we made the appropriate calls and set the final stage of the plan in motion. Grandma & Grandpa were on their way from Buffalo, the second shift of kid watching was in place, and we were going to get some lunch before getting to the hospital!

I was still thinking that we would have a very fast overall process as we were on our fifth baby, and the rumor is the more babies you have had, the faster the delivery goes... BUT... not so!


Jen was still having very slight contractions. In fact, after they hooked her up to the monitor that showed contractions, the machine showed that she had had two contractions, but she didn’t feel any! Pretty funny. The odd part was that Jen had been reading some books about how God designed labor to work and to even be potentially pain free. Lots of testimonies from ladies who had experienced it, and Jen knew anything is possible with God... but... well, it still seemed too good to be true!

And, indeed it probably was. There was not much progress with these “phantom” contractions. But, still, there was. Jen was moving along, and baby was definitely coming. So the doctor helped it along by breaking the water and things progressed from there. Contractions definitely got more intense after that and Jen definitely got more tired! Very long day!

There are many more stories, but suffice it to say, Emma Caroline is here, and she was a surprise! It was the first time Jen guessed wrong on the gender of our babies :-) Our nurse friend Sarah was working that night and so she was in the room helping and she correctly predicted a girl, as did the doctor and her assistant. Surprising!

We’re so glad she’s here!!!


A little about the name. The first name is just a nice name. We just liked the sound of it. Emma. Nice. :-) The middle name is Jen’s Dad’s nickname for her Mom. Her given name is Carolyn, but he often calls her Caroline. We toyed with the idea of working in Mom & Grandma’s spelling in there (Carolyn and Lyn) to be “Carolyne”, but decided on the more common spelling. (Which is what Jen’s Dad uses if he is writing out the nickname.)

Interestingly, we found out later that the name “Emma” means “Complete.” Hmmm... is God telling us something about our family? :-)

Ya never know! Only He does. :-)

So we are all happy, healthy, and doing quite well! We’ll be home tomorrow and look forward to introducing more friends and family to our newest family member, Emma Caroline Campbell!