More Pictures of Adelaide's Arrival

We have taken quite a few pictures and wanted to share them.

Addie had Mommy buy books for both of the boys as gifts. She said she knew they liked to read because she had heard Mommy reading to them for 9 months.

Here is Theo opening his book from Addie


And Jack showing off his new airplane book from Adelaide


Picture of Erin and Addie ready to escape from the hospital - watiting for Daddy to come pick them up


A few pictures of Jack and Theo holding Addie for the first time






Aunt Karen (who kindly came from Oxford to help with the boys while Erin was in hospital) holding Adelaide for the first time


After Theo's flat head and the need for a helmet, we thought this position might prevent Addie from the same! :)


Here is just a fun picture of Theo at breakfast


And finally, here is a video with Jack holding Addie

Beautiful

We sang this song tonight and Jack asked if he could sing it for the camera. It is one of our family favourites and feels like a fitting one after the birth of Addie a few days back. We are very grateful to God for her safe arrival and recognize that God is the creator of all things beautiful.

I have included the lyrics since some of them are kind of hard to understand:

You are beautiful beyond description
Too marvelous for words
Too wonderful for comprehension
Like nothing ever seen or heard
Who can grasp your infinite wisdom
Who can fathom the depths (in Jack's version you burp here) of your love
You are beautiful beyond description Majesty enthroned above
And I stand, I stand in awe of you
I stand, I stand in awe of you
Holy God to whom all praise is due I stand in awe of you

Adelaide's First Day Home

With two older brothers, Addie's first day home had quite a few things worth reporting:

* Jack comparing Addie to an airplane in the sky because of how little she is. Although we had to point out that she was little even when she wasn't far away. He is very obsessed with airplanes right now.

* Both boys attacking her with balloons from McDonalds. Literally she had like five balloons being waved in her face at one point with Jack exclaiming 'she likes it!'.

* Theo constantly laughing and pointing every time he saw her. He seems quite taken with her, for at least the time being.

* Theo bringing a balloon on a stick to her periodically throughout the day and then very confused and frustrated on why she wouldn't grasp onto the stick. This is an act of love in Theo's book because balloons are one his most favourite things. Apparently after I went up to rest these acts of kindness on Theo's part continued with him trying to hand her the microphone when she was in the playroom with them listening to Colin Buchanan.

* Theo and Jack both trying to bounce her bouncy chair (we have a cheap one with no vibrator so we often just bounce it softly with our hand or foot). Let me just say that she will always have her strap on when in that seat because the boys bouncing was not always the most gentle.

* Theo pushing her in her bouncy chair around the kitchen. Theo quickly realized that her bouncy chair was the perfect height for him to push (similar to a push cart or trolley) so she has been pushed all around the kitchen - again reason for the strap becomes most apparent.

All three are now in bed and quiet - I consider it a small parenting triumph, but I am not naive enough to think it will last so I am off to rest myself!

Boys Seeing Pictures of Adelaide

We've been sitting on the couch this morning, and I've shown Jack and Theo the pictures and videos from yesterday. It's sweet how they've enjoyed them, especially both videos. The one video is in the previous post, of Addie about 20 minutes after she was born.

But the other video I didn't post, because it was a mess-up. Our friend Rosanne came over at 6:50am yesterday in order to watch the boys and give them breakfast until Michelle could come over, who normally watches Theo, and Jack could go to pre-school. We had Rosanne take a picture of the four of us, which we posted previously. But the first effort wasn't successful, beccause the camera was on movie setting, so Rosanne took what she thought was a picture, but it turned out she had started a movie. Jack finds it really amusing and has asked for it numerous times. So apropos of nothing, I thought I'd post it.



Hopefully another post to follow later today after we all go up to the hospital, and the kids meet each other.

Welcome to the world, Adelaide Kathryn

An eventful and longer day than we were anticipating is the reason that this blog post is so late in coming, relatively speaking. Adelaide Kathryn Anderson was born at 6:18 on Wednesday, weighing 7lbs 8oz., which is impressive since that's what her older brother Theo weighed, when he was born at 39 weeks, while she was born at 38 weeks. Adelaide is named for both of my grandmothers.

Erin and Addie are doing well. The delay in the c-section, and the delay in my coming home, were both because of how busy the labour ward was at Royal Free, our hospital. We arrived at 7:45 in the morning, anticipating that Erin would be the first elective c-section of the day. That was then pushed to second, when someone who had been pushed back from Tuesday understandably was placed first. They then had a series of emergency c-sections, and a shortage of midwives for after-care, that kept delaying us. Erin was a superstar the whole time, despite having to fast.

At about 4:30pm we were anticipating that we would have to go home and come back the next day and do the whole thing over again. But they told us that they still hoped to get us in, and finally, around 5:45 or so, they brought her into the operating theatre (OR for our American readers). We received great, all-star care -- it ended up that the surgeon, the anesthetist, and the midwife were all consultants (the highest level in the NHS hospital system), so they were top-notch. We were grateful for that.

Addie was born without a hitch, and she looks great, as hopefully the pictures can attest. Again, because it was crowded, we had to wait a while in the recovery room for a bed to open up, but at least for tonight, it's actually a private room, so Erin and Addie have a room to themselves. We don't know if that will last, but it's a nice treat while it does.

Thanks so much for your emails and texts, which are a real encouragement, and especially your prayers. Now off to bed for me before Addie's older brothers wake up at 7am.



The Anderson family, right before heading to hospital -- our last time as a family of four



Addie's first picture



Erin and Addie enjoying a cuddle



Adelaide in close-up

And finally, a brief video