Birthday fairies

These were the party fairies - Raphaelle.

Morgane

Sophie

Mia

Olivia

Gran and Isobel

We have been treated to a week with Gran this past week. It has been fabulous for me as she has taken the older two to all their music, dance and swimming classes leaving me to focus on Camryn. She is also very good at calming Camryn.

She was particularly helpful in preparing for the fairy party - it may not have been the smartest idea to do this only 2 weeks after a new born and it made for one late night baking cupcakes for the party. Still it was worth it as you can see from the earlier post.

Gran left after the party and tomorrow David is off to work leaving me and the three girls to begin to adjust our schedules around each other. Am I daunted - hell yes!

4th birthday face painting

Here are the painted girls - Alexa the fish bowl (after her birthday lunch!) and Isobel a butterfly.

Alexa's 4th birthday party - Fairies

Alexa had her first birthday party this weekend to celebrate her 4th birthday with her friends from Milford Kindy. They are mostly all here in the top photo - Mia at back being helped into place, then left to right Sophie, Alexa, Olivia, Isobel and Morgane at back. Missing is Raphaelle.

A friend, Tanya, bought along face paint and they all had their faces painted. Alexa was first up and chose the fish bowl, the others butterflies.

They loved this and all looked fabulous. Gran had planned a fairy treasure hunt that went down a treat - their eyes light up at each clue and they loved racing off to find the next one. The final clue had them discovering butterfly rings for each of them in the fairy castle on the deck.

Olivia and Alexa seem to be very close friends - I love this shot of them playing together with one of Alexa's new gifts. They play well together, which is just as well as they live only 2 doors away so there are plenty of opportunities for play dates.

Our girls

The girls are starting to get to know each other.

As I predicted, Alexa is showing a wonderful caring nature and has quickly worked out how to pacify Camryn with a finger in her mouth. This works a treat on drives as Alexa sits in the middle of our car and can keep Camryn quiet and calm her. Camryn is a very 'sucky' baby and often needs quieting with either her hand/finger in her mouth or someone else's. I am resisting the dummy options as I would prefer her to work out how to do it herself.

Isobel is doing well too - not to be left out of course! I think Camryn is getting used to Bell's volume (she only operates at full volume!) and seems to mostly ignore the screeching unless caught up close and unawares.

Camryn is very quickly learning to

focus and track movement so appears much more aware. She sleeps well at night, but has long awake times during the day when we think she is struggling with wind.

Camryn - close ups

Here are some close ups of Camryn for those of you who like to see who she resembles (Henderson vs Chapman-Smith). So far we have had comments that she looks like Bell or Alexa - and she probably has the CS nose. However, she just looks like a baby to me so I'll let you draw your own conclusions from these photos.

She is still a little puffy around the eyes, but her head is not too misshapen from the birth trip.

In comparison with her sisters:

Alexa birth weight 3.24 kg, height 50cm

Isobel birth weight 3.61 kg, height 52 cm

Camryn birth weight 3.85 kg, height 52 cm.

Sisters meet

Here are some early shots of Alexa and Isobel's first encounter with Camryn. They were so excited, jumping around and talking loudly I'm sure the whole floor knew they had arrived.

Camryn Ella Chapman-Smith

After much waiting Camryn Ella Chapman-Smith arrived, 16 days over due on Saturday 13th February at 12:18pm. She weighed 8pds 6oz (3.8kgs) and is a healthy little girl, with a large pair of lungs.

Alexa and Isobel are very excited to finally meet their new sister and are very helpful with nappy changes and advising all when Camryn opens her eyes.

I spent three nights at birthcare trying to get as much sleep as possible, and am now home with rest of the family.

Still no baby

For those of you that use this site for updates no we haven't been distracted by a new born - instead today baby is 12 days overdue! Alexa claims it could be because 'we' are too noisy - which in Isobel's case I can quite understand as she seems to insist on yelling everything, thereby including all neighbours in any discussion she has. There were a couple of key dates I was hoping for - 3.2.10 would have been nice, or 5.2.10 (ie 5x2=10), but now I am really just happy for an arrival!

We had a check up with Lee, our midwife, yesterday and baby is content, there is plenty of fluid, and all is well so as far as she is concerned so there is no need to speed things along. This works for me too as I understand inducing can be less than pleasant and after 2 relatively good births I am loathe to change the pattern! So we wait.

In the meantime Isobel still insists on doing things "mine self" and pestering Alexa - particularly at meal times where they are best separated. However, it is quite amusing to hear Alexa (and not me) having to deal with repeated why questions from Isobel.

Alexa has got the measure of her Daddy. During a recent breakfast where he was teasing me Alexa jumped to my defence arguing back, then interjected with a "Daddy, focus on your breakfast". I wonder where she got that??