More baby and olive harvest

I’m sorry for all the baby pictures but she has so many adorable outfits and expressions :-)

Our sleep buddies ❤️❤️

Both David and Rafael are great helpers with Maria. 

Making pancakes with David. 

The other day the boys notices that some of the olives were starting to go bad so we had to quickly change our plans that day and start picking them. We have so many!! When we picked them last time, two years ago, they were almost all green but this year a lot of them have turned black so it will be interesting to see how they will taste. 

I really enjoy doing things, like harvesting olives, together as a family. It’s been really hard in the heat but also so much fun to work together and see the end result.

Slowly getting into routines

We are still trying to figure out routines with our new family member. The summer break has also come to an end so in addition to baby routines we are also slowly moving in to our school routines, which looks different every year, since the kids grow and have different needs and skills every year.

David still has a cough and sleeps in our bed. It is slowly getting better. Even though it is hard to have to wake up both for nursing Maria and to his coughing I don’t mind the extra snuggles we get with him in bed. :-)

Marlee abbd Noah went to a birthday party at one of the gymnastic places.

Eli gets some baby snuggles when he and Andy, and uncle Cory came to visit.

We have been so spoiled with food being delivered every other day. Every meal has been delicious and surprisingly healthy. It not only such a treat to not have to cook but it is also very nice to get some new dishes that we don’t normally eat. 

Planning school work with my co-worker…

Not sure if I mentioned it by farmor has been here for about three weeks and it has been such a help! Especially since David has had a bad cough and we have had to go back and forth to the hospital. She has helped with kids and cooking and even cleaned out our garage so there is actually a path through it!! 

Up next… olives…

Back home and back at the hospital…

(This post has a lot of digestive info. If you don’t want to read about barf and poop, just skip the text and enjoy the pictures :-)

After two days at the hospital we got to go home. Maria was still throwing up a lot but she had pooped and was in general very content and ate well. 

This little guy is the best big brother. He does anything to help his baby sister. 

After two days at home she was still throwing up a lot and did not poop. We called the hospital and our pediatrician. They both told us to take her to the ER. 

At the ER they took an X-ray of her belly which didn’t show anything odd, and blood work that looked good. She threw up twice while we were in the ER. When they weighted her they realized she had lost too much weight which made them decide to keep us at the hospital. They admitted us and took us to our room at the pediatric department of the hospital. After getting there they gave her IV to gain weight. I was ordered to feed her every other hour. It was a long night but all nurses and doctors were very nice. 

After about 24h in the hospital she had gained enough weight and pooped twice with the help of suppositories. Something we could not keep doing. After being admitted she didn’t throw up ones which was pretty amazing. We got to go home and follow up with our pediatrician in a few days. 

Now we have been home almost a week and she has only thrown up ones and pooped twice without any help. She is still very content and eats well. She has also reached her birthweight again. 

During all this we have had wonderful friends who has delivered us home made meals. We have gotten, lasagna, Greek pasta salad, meat loaf, enchiladas etc. In between these meals farmor has provided us all with food. 

Last week our church offered VBS (vacation Bible school) that Gabriel and Rafael attended. Marlee and Noah helped out. The theme was the ocean. 

A gift for Maria from mormor and Morfar. It was a Fårö dress. 

As David still has his cough he has been sleeping in our bed. I think it has given him a smoother transition from being the “baby” to be the big brother. 

Smiling?

Aunt Cindy and Aunt Jackie came to visit baby Maria.

She is almost always happy…

She is here!!!

Just like the boys she wanted us to wait, and wait… The due date was July 25 and she was born July 31! She was the first baby I had planned to have in an American hospital and because they can be very medical and not very natural when ur comes to childbirth I was more prepared than ever for my natural birth. I had listen to a book about natural birth in a hospital (compared to taking petocin, epidural, C-section etc). I had also written a well prepared birth plan about how I only wanted laughing gas (which is common in Sweden and I used for Marlee and Noah) and nothing else, and that I wanted it all to be as natural as possible. I did not follow my plan at all…

When the contractions started to be more intense I just felt like I could not take the pain and after much back and forth I decided to take an epidural. I had a great nurse who tried to encourage me to not do it but I got really determined. Having the epidural was amazing!! I could not feel anything except some back pain that was surprisingly noticeable despite the epidural. I later learned that the baby was sunny side up (meaning it was facing forward instead of backward and that can cause severe back pain. Now I was even more grateful that I had taken the epidural. However, I know there are many risks with epidurals and I did get pretty nervous after she was born and it was supposed to wear off. They had told me it takes about 2h before I can walk again. When two hours had passed nothing had changed. It took 9h before the epidural was completely gone. After 8h I could walk by myself. It was totally worth it! Our little princess was born at 1:17am, July 31. 8lbs 12oz/3980g and 20 3/4in/52.7cm. Heavier than all her brothers but not the tallest.

Just got the hospital and changed to their charming outfit.

She is born!!! Alex cuts the umbilical cord. :-)

The Celebration meal. We ordered steak and chocolate cake for dessert. It was really good!

Mormor, Morfar and moster Linn celebrated on Fårö :-)

Kathy came with all the boys to visits their baby sister. It was the first time they were able to come visit and all but Noah were excited to hold her.

Before leaving the hospital we managed to agree on her name, Maria Lynn Lilleba :-) and we also had a chance to get professional photographs of baby Maria. Something we don’t have of any of the boys. She is getting more spoiled already!!