Baby Girl Farnsworth

On June 21st at 6:30am, Sadie Madeleine joined our family as our fourth girl. She was 10 days overdue! Mom did not get the home birth she wanted but in the end, it didn't matter much. It was just a relief to get her here. She was 7 lbs. 12 oz. (our biggest baby but that's what 10 extra days can do).  Mom was induced on June 20th around 12:30 in the afternoon. After a check at around 6pm, she was told that she was dilated to a 2 but that it was enough to break her water at 7pm. However, no one came to break her water until 3:30am due to unexpected emergencies and overcrowding at the hospital. By then Mom was thinking that she would be 93 with a 42 year old baby still in her belly....Around 5am, the midwife broke her water and baby was born within an hour and a half. So quick that the midwife was not ready at all but that wasn't stopping Mom from getting that baby outta there! She had waited much too long to stop now.

Just after Sadie was born, Charles noticed a bump on the back of her hand just below her thumb. We wondered what it was. Upon closer examination, the midwife told us it was a sucking blister. Turns out she was sucking that spot in the womb so hard that it formed a little blister. So funny! It is gone now. She does love to suck. She has already taken to her dummy (pacifier) on day 1 and loves it. It is very helpful in getting her to sleep. Here is a close up of her face just a few hours after she was born. Sorry I will not post any pictures of mom with the baby right after the birth because there are NO pictures of smiling mom....I was still trying to recover from the pain and torture of birth. I was not in any mood to quickly apply make-up and smile for the camera...

Of course, now that little Sadie is here, Mom is very happy. Here is a picture after she just got home, being cozy in Grandma Stuart's blanket.

The big event was getting to meet all of her sisters who were dying to hold her, kiss her and know what her name was. All the girls helped give Sadie her first bath which was sheer chaos - with mom trying to scrub her hair, Sammy pouring cups of water over her, Abby trying to wash her body and Alex playing the kazoo in her face while trying to get hand soap on her. All while Daddy recorded the whole thing. Sadie took it pretty well but started crying at one point. Daddy asked Alex why the baby was crying, Alex responded, "because she has conditioner in her hair still."  

She is the spitting image of Sammy as a newborn with lots of hair and the same facial features. Is it Sammy's twin or mini-me? We'll find out as she grows....

Alex keeps forgetting her name and asks several times a day, "What is her name again?" Or "What is its name again?" And when you ask Alex what the baby's name is, she pauses and thinks and answers, "I forgot" or "Is it Sandy?" Then I overheard Alex talking to the baby and introducing herself but she forgot her own name and introduced herself to the baby as Sammy. Then hitting herself in the head, corrected herself and said, "no, no that's not right, I'm Alex!"

When she is wrapped up the girls all think she looks like a baby burrito. Alex calls her a "baby Dorito." When Alex saw mom's stomach for the first time after having the baby, she asked if there was another baby in there. Yes, this didn't help mom feel very good but hopefully the bump will go away soon , it is smaller... 

Baby Farn #4 - Get OUT!

In case you didn't know, I am expecting girl #4. We same to only make one model here - blonde, blue eyed girls so I am sure she will look like something similar. We are very happy to be having another girl. In fact, we did not want a boy. I figure, if you have gone this long without a boy, why start now? Let's just stick with what we know. Besides, as Abby pointed out, Charles is a "girlie dad" or did she mean a dad for girls? I don't think Charles took that so well but he is just as happy to have another girl as the rest of us. Everyone always assumes that he wanted a boy. Not true! Well, girl #4 should have been here by now. She was due June 11th. Has she made an appearance yet? No. She is finding the comforts of the womb too good and refuses to come out thus driving the whole family crazy, especially mom. The girls have made posters and hung them on mom's door saying "Baby Get Out Now!" in case mom or baby might have forgotten what they are supposed to do. If she doesn't make an appearance soon, she will be induced on June 20th thus ruining mom's plans to have a home birth. But at this point, mom doesn't really care, she just wants this child OUT! We will keep you updated...

A Little of This and That...

Alex's nursery school sends one child each week home with a special teddy to love and take care of for one whole week. In the course of that week, you are supposed to take pictures of the teddy doing whatever you do that week. This is Bella Bear having a tea party with Alex on her second visit to our house. We have also had Barty Bear visit us. I must say, the first time each bear came, it was fun. We took pictures and put them in the little book that comes with the bear. Alex dressed up as Wonder Woman when Bella Bear made her first visit to our house. She pretended to rescue her from the Nazis over and over again all day long. It was very fun.  However, when the bears then get put on Alex's peg to take home a second and a third time each, Mommy starts getting a little bit annoyed!

I didn't mention that each bear comes with a backpack full of little clothes to dress them in as well as the book with pictures of all your classmates and what they did with the bears at their house. Those little clothes and shoes become scattered all over your house. I am always finding them after we give Bella or Barty back. Also, when was the last time these bears were washed? All the children in her class sleeping with the same bears night after night, coughing and throwing up all over them...they probably just serve in passing germs from one house to the next...

Sammy's homework one weekend was to listen to classical music and draw what she imagined while listening. It was such a fun exercise. All the girls ended up doing it. We listened to "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" by Mozart. This made them think of a thief sneaking around a castle.We also listened to "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Grieg.  I can't remember all the songs we listened to but on one of them, I couldn't think of anything it reminded me of but dancers. I was so surprised when Abby said the music made her imagine she was flying up in the mountains and looking at the beauty and then Sammy chimed in, "yes, on a train up in the mountains!" I loved hearing what they were  imagining especially since I was so un-imaginative!  Sammy finally decided on "William Tell Overture" by Rossini since it reminded her of a horse race. They were listening to it full blast riding their stick horses around the dining room and living room. Abby plays it on both the piano and violin very well now too. I told Sammy that horses are really difficult to draw and that perhaps she should pick a different song. Nope. She was determined to draw a horse and that she did! Wow! I was so impressed with her determination, focus and attention to detail. Well done!

So proud of her work!

The following Saturday, Abby and Sammy got to go with friends into London's West End and see "Wicked." They were so excited and absolutely loved the show. They had fantastic seats and were mesmerized by the costumes, singing and stage production. Sammy is now an expert on the witches from the Wizard of Oz and will spend a great deal of time analysing them to anyone who will listen. In the meantime, Alex was home with Charles and I trying to keep herself entertained. She kept busy painting her hand for a while and stamping it on paper. She also wrote her name with her finger. So clever... 



She sure does find getting messy lots of fun.



Next she kept herself busy blowing bubbles in a pan in the kitchen. She got more excited the higher they got. She was also quite pleased to have the entire trampoline to herself as a canvas for her chalk art. She drew pictures of the entire family including the new baby and a treasure map for us to find some pirate treasure. (Unfortunately, I did not get pictures of the trampoline.) This girl is so imaginative.